No Pics

Well Christmas dinner came out great! I got rave reviews. I wish I had remembered to take pictures but I forgot; I had a decent menu though. There was the turkey of course; Si cooked that from a recipe he got off of the Oprah show last week. I had my doubts, but it turned out bomb! I usually hate turkey that is not smoked, but this was really really good.

Then I made the family stuffing, a squash dish, mashed potatoes, gravy, brown beans, corn bread, crescent rolls, green beans, shells and cheese, cream corn, and jellied cranberries (from the can). I think I may be forgetting something. For dessert there was chocolate cake, sweet potato pie, and various fruits and chocolate bars. It was kind of small, kind of ghetto, but really good as a whole.

Some were under the impression that this was my first time cooking a holiday dinner, but this is far from true. I have done this several times over the years, too many to count actually, but this was by far my best ever as far as the food goes. I think it is due the old family recipes that I got and used this year. Before now, I had been improvising or using TV recipes and it never was quite right.

The company could have been better this year. Only two people came and I don’t enjoy the company of either person, so I kept my self busy in the kitchen the whole time, which was thankfully short. A good eat n run. I made them take leftovers and later got phone calls about how good it was.

So my day was full of cooking and cleaning. My feet hurt and I’m tired. Si has eaten several times and passed out in a turkey coma around eight. I won’t hear from him again tonight.

The day before Christmas Eve I got an email from my niece that just turned 17. She was put through hell in her childhood but was adopted a few years ago. I had been hoping to hear from her but was caught by surprise when I got her email; I didn’t expect it until next year. So I got an early Christmas present! I think she was the vibe I had been feeling lately. I must have been in tune with her energy. She seems to be doing great, she called her sister who is 19 and has been in contact with me for over a year now; I am so happy to see them talking again. They are so young and full of life; I hope they continue doing well. They found their other grandmother recently too, she’s going to let them move in with her sometime next year. I have always liked their grandmother and I think that this will be good for them since they both yearn for some family to be close.

I’m closing for now because I am so freakin tired and I think I may be sounding a bit like an idiot… Merry Christmas everyone!

A Christmas Good-bye

Hi Everyone!

I finally got the Christmas cards out today. Yay! Nothing fancy, just a card because everyone, including me is too broke to blow money on needless things this year. That means not even a Dollar Tree Christmas will be had this year. I have yet to receive a single card from anyone this year, unless you count my insurance agent. But I did get quite a few Christmas texts; actually it’s the same one that keeps going around: “Money is short, times are hard, I just texted you your Christmas card!” I still have hope though, maybe everyone is late like I was and I’ll get a couple next week.

I don’t even know why I’m concerning myself with cards; I usually hate getting cards, I’d rather get a text or phone call. And I never know what to do after getting the card; do I keep it, if so, for how long? My sister once got offended when she saw me throwing out old birthday and holiday cards, but seriously, am I supposed to keep every card I receive forever? Who has the storage space? I do have a bit of a system; I’ll keep it until I clean out my closet, decide if it is so sentimental, and go from there. I always display the holiday cards though, I guess that’s what I’m missing this year; Christmas décor.

Speaking of things I miss… I am now completely without a car. It will cost more to fix the car than it is actually worth; a total loss.

A toast to the old Red car!
You drove me long, you drove me far.
I did so love your Spirit of Red,
but now you’re junk because you’re dead.
I love you Red! Our time was great,
but from the very beginning we both knew your fate.
May you live on in others’, a jewel beholding spare part delights
of spare doors, mirrors, bumpers, tires, rims, and headlights.

Ciao Bella!

Old ho pic of me and Red back when we first met. We have been so happy together.

:-( (sniffle… sniffle)

Looking into options, I think I may have a working vehicle of some kind after the new year. Till then, I’m looking forward to walking off a few pounds around town.

Since I don’t have a car to go anywhere, I suppose I should devote my entire winter break to getting at least caught up with school. I am terribly behind, so everyone please pray, cross fingers, burn candles, or whatever it is that you do, please do on my behalf that I may regain my scholastic focus.

I’ve been feeling a strange vibe lately so I'll be breaking out the tarot cards on winter break, probably the day after Christmas. I’m hoping that it will help me get my mojo back; some say the cards are good to help one focus in stressful times. We’ll see huh? My sis-in-law thought it might help me to at least get it out of my system and see if it helps me with school. Couldn’t hurt, right? I can’t wait to study the metaphysical arts on a more serious level. Maybe I’ll finally be a pro when I’m fifty. That’s ok though, sometimes it helps the pocketbook to look old and knowledgeable in that profession.

That’s it for now chickies. Here’s another pic of Si with the Princess Angel; caught napping together. Awwww…

Back to life, back to realty…

Hey everyone! Life has been happening so much around here I’ve had no real time for blogging. I’ll catch up here with a few pics for good measure.

The last topic I wrote about was the election; I don’t suppose anybody was really surprised at the outcome. Here’s a picture of my local paper the day after the election. I bought six papers because I wanted to keep a couple for any future inheritance I may have to pass on, and I’m supposed to mail a few out. Even Elizabeth on ‘The View’ had high praise the day after.

There was a different vibe in the air, everywhere you went, and you could just feel a pride and optimism that had been lacking for so many years. I wish my vocabulary could give a clearer explanation of the mood that day. All I can say is, if you were lucky enough to be alive and cognizant, you know what I’m talking about. Reporters and television personalities that I’ve watched my whole life, that have held their composure through wars, 9/11, and natural disasters, welled up this day, sobbing, utterly consumed with what the nation had done as a whole, and with pride for their race which had been so long denied this dignity. It was great.

Now that we’ve seen what we can do as a nation, let’s see what he can do as our President. Our nation is a mess and he has a lot on his shoulders; it’s impressive to see him already hard at work, even if he does ruin ‘The View’ everyday with his announcements. As it has already been pointed out, the new first family is a gorgeous family. They are so charming, every member, that they could easily be considered creepy, but somehow, they are far from creepy. Again, my vocabulary fails me in description of their reverence.

Life and politics went back to usual after the election until Thanksgiving. This was a hellacious time. My car broke down a few days before the holiday leaving us at the mercy of our friends and family who really are great. My niece, who is awesome, let us use her car for a whole day which allowed me to pay bills and run errands.

The day before the holiday I spilled soda on Si’s phone, so when his phone died I had to give him mine. Luckily his friend let me borrow an old back-up he had to use himself recently. This is what I was reduced to for two weeks while I waited for a new phone in the mail.

I did look for another more updated back-up phone in the pawn shops around the city but was amazed to see that they wanted $60 bucks for the same kind of phone I sported at least three years ago and got for free through my cell plan. I am still in shock that this city’s selection of used cell phones is so high priced and outdated. In hind sight, I should have hit up Craigslist or something. Where is a time machine when you need one? Oh yeah… I wouldn’t have a car to go get it anyway if I did find one there. lol Oh well…

About school; I bitch and fain hardship over going to school but I am telling you now, I secretly love it. I am learning a lot and am actually maintaining a B average. I wish I could broadcast and brag about my GPA but I am too scared at the moment to log on and look at it. lol Shame, shame… I know it’s a 3.8something because I got my grades in from the classes in my last block. The reason I’m avoiding logging in is because I am a coward that has not done her work. If I log on I’ll have to turn something in and I have nothing to turn in… Christmas break cannot get here fast enough. I have one week to catch up before break; I can do it, then I can get ahead during break because I just know I’ll want to work when I don’t have to (wtf?).

Anyway, back to the car. It did get sort of fixed, but at the cost of whatever cheap Christmas presents our family and friends would have gotten. Since it’s only sort of fixed, I have to search the deep recesses of my bowel for more money to fix it again and hope that this is not just the beginning of more bad to come, or get another car. We’re really hoping that it’s something very minor, like a hose. I’m not totally sure we can afford a new car right now.

I suppose it had to be during the time I didn’t have a car that I got bored and started searching for old friends online. Wait, maybe it was before then? In any case, I found this great social networking site one day devoted to women finding friends.

http://www.girlfriendscafe.com

I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself without friends. Maybe you moved away from home, all your friends may have moved away, or maybe you’ve outgrown or grown distant from your friends; this site is just what you need. I sound like a total commercial, I know. But unless it has happened to you, then you can’t understand how hard it is to make new friends when you reach a certain age, or move to a new city. I met a great girl already, and I just wanted to spread the word a bit on this site for all you displaced BFF’s out there.

I think that’s everything up to date so far. The royal Love-Smith’s are doing well but have not felt like primping for pictures lately, so here’s a festive holiday pic of Si.

Happy Holidays World!

Rock the Vote 2008

Tomorrow is the big day!! It looks like everyone is as excited as I am about this election. I voted early today and took tons of pictures because I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

As I drove up to the building, there was a line of cars stretched back several blocks just to get into the parking lot! I was surprised to see it move fairly quickly though.

After fighting parking lot traffic I went over to wait in the huge line of people. That line wasn’t too bad either; I expected time to pass slowly since I was there alone, but it was just so exciting that the time really flew by. I still don’t know how long I was really in line.
After I voted, I went to run a few errands and found this scene on 23rd and Classen.

Traffic was insane and I spent about 20 minutes driving around the corner to get all these pictures.

Jim Roth, who is running for Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner, was campaigning on the corner at 23rd and Classen, too. He’s such a cutie! I took this picture and hoped it would turn out well since it was a drive-by pic. It did! Look, isn’t he adorable? I wish I would have parked and taken a picture with him.

I wish that everyone came out like this for every election that is held. I wonder how we would shape the country if every election was taken this seriously, even the simple elections on issues, not just political offices. Maybe we would already have a national healthcare system, weed would be legal, everyone would have the right to marry, every child would grow up to be educated adults, and the war would have never been.

I try to vote at every election held. Sometimes it’s hard to know when to vote, and what is being voted on because not all elections are covered by the media; not every issue is a hot-button or controversial issue. There should be regular announcements, on the local news at least, that tells people when there is an election.

As I climb off of my soap box, I’ll just say thanks to everyone that voted this year and keep rocking your vote!! If you didn’t get enough pictures here, there are more on my page at Myspace.

http://www.myspace.com/bastet74

Thanks again!

Crazy Insane

This election season is getting insane! That’s my new word these days, too; insane. A couple weeks ago my campaign signs were stolen from my yard; so I just went out and got a surplus of signs in case it happened to be a reoccurring thing.

There have been local news reports of signs missing or being stolen by children, but today I think things may be getting out of hand. When I walked outside to leave today, my neighbor asked me if I had been up and seen anything strange last night. I said “No.”, so then she pointed to her truck in the driveway, all tires on flat, and said “Look, someone slashed all of my tires and tore up my campaign sign.”

That’s just awful. Who would do such a thing over a person’s political views? It’s not like my neighbor has any kind of power, other than her yard sign and people are rarely swayed by those ads. I mean, seriously, it’s not like someone will drive by her sign on their way to the polls and say to themselves, “That’s it! I’m voting for So-n-so.”

My neighbor and I have different political views and candidates. This does not mean we are at war with each other. They have the right to vote the way they want. Slashing tires and tearing up signs won’t stop that person from casting a vote. It definitely won’t sway a person’s decision toward the vandal’s view, it will in fact have the opposite effect, reinforcing their original opinions.

When I turned on the news today, people said they were feeling intimidated and unwanted at the local election board, where people are voting early, because others were campaigning at the parking lot entrance and started heckling them for the bumper stickers on their cars.

Come on people! WTF? What happened to peaceful gatherings? What’s with all the aggression? I do understand the weight of the issues at hand this election season, but violence and aggression are not needed. Our political and social leaders, past and present, would never advocate this kind of behavior.

I know that passions run high, especially when people’s lives and finances are involved, it seems like everyone’s life hinges on this election. I even find myself waiting to make certain decisions until I know who is going to be in office the next four years. Crazy, insane. But not so insane that I am vandalizing property and threatening strangers on the street.

I just wanted to write a bit about how insane things have gotten over this election. It is a very exciting time, and I am so glad to be alive to see all of it go down. I can’t wait till Tuesday!

OBAMA 2008!!!

Procrastination

Hi everybody. I’m procrastinating on an already late assignment and thought I’d waste a little more time blogging here. I’m having the hardest time concentrating these days; I won’t get into it right now, though.

Everyone is getting use from our new laptop.

Sasha likes to help mommy with her homework. She is so smart!

And here’s Tiger. He likes to play games and chat with friends.

I’ve been using it for homework, of course, trying to keep up with the coursework and maintain my 3.84 GPA. Watch, I won’t be bragging if it goes down. Lol Anyway, this has been a quick diversion from more important things. See ya on the flip side, peeps! LOL

Official Night Crawler

Hey Everyone!




It is official, I am a vampire. Last week my doctor told me that I am allergic to the sun. I have to wear SPF 1000, or something, if I want to be outside more than five minutes and if I don’t, I’ll break out into hives and burn. All I can think is, “makes sense”. My eyes have always been so sensitive that I have to wear sunglasses whenever I’m out, even on some cloudy days. I’ve been a night crawler since the age of seven, and now I’m allergic to the whole sun. This isn’t good for a person that likes office work.




And speaking of work and the future and all, school has been taking up more of my time than I had expected. I am really glad to have something to do though. I got my first grades and am proud to say that I currently have a 3.84 GPA. I’m paying for that GPA by neglecting my friends, cats, and housework.




I changed my major, once again, to financial services. I’m already sweating that decision, as I do all major decisions. I just keep wondering what it is that I can do with that degree. I think I’d like to work at a bank when I’m done, but I am a vampire after all, so the day shift wouldn’t work out to well for me. I’m at a loss.




On a happier note, I did get a brand new laptop pc! It’s so great that I can’t seem to get my face out of it.

Flowbee and Update

Hello Everybody!
Yeah it’s been a while since I posted anything. I can’t say that it’s because I’m bored though, I actually have good news. I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure that it was going to work out, but I want to announce that I am once again attending college courses. Yay!

This is how it happened, its going to sound like a bad commercial, but it’s entirely true. An old friend that I hadn’t seen in a while came by for a visit about a month ago and said that he was attending classes at a local University of Phoenix. I was like, “What? I though that was an online school.” And he said “It is, but they also have classes here that I go to physically.”

I don’t like doing things strictly online, ya know. I have to have a physical place to go to for things like school business and financial aid stuff. I have to see everything I guess. So I was real excited to hear that they have a local campus and questioned him thoroughly.

He said he was taking a computer course and went to physical class regularly, but then later he would start the online portion and couldn’t tell me much about that part of it. So I decided to go down there and ask questions myself. I was enrolled at the end of that visit.

I didn’t really want to tell too many people since I wasn’t sure if it would even work out. They were getting me in very last minute for financial aid stuff and I would have to just take a wait-n-see attitude for a couple weeks, while going to classes online. So I been sweatin for a while waiting on financial aid.

Luckily today I found out that the money came in and I can continue with classes. Yay again! Let me say that I am loving this online school. It’s just perfect for me because I’m such a hermit and I have strange hours. I can go to class and do homework at the online library (which is very extensive) at anytime I want! That means that I’m usually in class around 3 am each night. Which is great!

Another thing I love about it is that I don’t have to dress to see anyone or get out to go to class everyday. I don’t think that I’m antisocial or anything, I think I’m just very shy, so I think people think that I’m strange in real life. Whatever the case, I’m defiantly in my element now. I’m already making a perfect A and I hope that it just gets better from here. Is there an online deans list? I have to check that out, and if they do have one, that’s my next immediate goal.

Besides doing great in school and feeling generally optimistic, I have fun news too. See, I’d been finding it hard these days (as is the rest of the country) to afford basic things like haircuts. I don’t know about you, but it costs, on average here, about $40 bucks for a decent cut. And that’s just the cut because they charge to use the damn blow dryer now days.

So what’s a girl to do when her hair is growing wild and untamable? Well, I had been the pony-tail and bun queen for a while but then remembered a gadget I hadn’t seen in about 20 years. A flowbee. Yes a flowbee would solve this problem if only they still existed. So I got online and found out that they do still exist and are still being sold here: http://www.flowbee.com/.

Eureka! Right? Well, almost. If I don’t have the money for a haircut, I sure as hell don’t have double the money to get this hair cutting system I want. So then I thought that there must be people out there that don’t like using it. People like my aunt that always buys the latest “as seen on tv” thing and then discards it when they’re bored or whatever. So I put an ad on Craigslist, “Flowbee Wanted”, and waited to see what came in.

I got lots of emails like this making fun of me, “OMG! I hope you’re not a stylist, I don’t want to visit your shop.” Or “Damn your hair must be ugly.” I have to say that who ever those people were, they definitely have money to throw away, and are apparently ignorant as well. If I were a stylist I wouldn’t need a flowbee. And who ever spend their time typing to people that they’ve never seen saying “you must be ugly”, is only showing their own insecurities and probably wish they had one.

I did get about 3 serious replies and only one of those three had all the pieces. She didn’t give a price and so I thought that I’d start the bidding low at $20. “Ok, that sounds good”, she said. Wow, I didn’t have to haggle at all, I wonder if I should have started lower.

Needless to say I ran right on over and picked it up. When I got it home it didn’t work. I was pissed, right. But then Si picked it up and started tinkering with it, like all good men do. Low and behold, all it needed was a little oil and it works great! See the crappy cell phone video below.



Now my hair looks great! This has to be one of the best cuts I've ever had. Since my hair was too long to color with one box, I ran to put on the color that has been waiting months to cover my grays. So now that I’m feeling and looking better, I’ll be posting pics everywhere soon.

Thanks for reading my crap everyone!

Good to be Back

Once again let me say, i am so happy to be knitting again! I've been a knitting fool, made a few projects from the start, and finished a couple from a long time ago. it feels good to have my creative outlet back. i wish i could paint or sculpt, i think that would at least make some money now and then. but god gave me needle crafts and needle crafts I'll do. you can see all my latest on ravelry.com.

i should keep track of all my creations and publish a book same day. yeah.. that would make some money. then i could go on knitty, common threads, and be in magazines! lol what i dreamer i am. how do you get that done anyway? hmmmm

the royal family has been feeling a bit neglected since i started knitting again. here's a pic of a guilty me and the prince tiger snuggling. he's such a baby.

Knit Along

about a week ago, after much thought, i decided to pick up my knitting needles again. i am sooo happy to report that my hand didn't go numb once! i have been knitting ever since. i even crocheted for hours and it didn't bother me. i am back on the crafty horse. YAY!

i was talking with my bff, Sinn the other day and she suggested a kal. whats that? why that's knit code for knit along which means you pick a project and work on it at the same time. i never did one before because i get intimidated by the skill of others. i know I'm not as fast or skilled as other people. a kal with my bff oughta be a good start. she's a great knitter and i could learn a lot from her.

so anyway, she suggested the pattern and as i looked in my stash i found the yarn and the amount the pattern called for! that never happens to me! I never have much money so i end up buying one or two skeins which is not enough to make anything really. but i lucked out this time. she had actually sent me this yarn like last year and i had been saving it for something special. so yoohoo i have the yarn, enough of it, the pattern and now a special kal.

i followed the pattern this time (mostly) and I'm almost done, just gotta do a bit of finishing work, then I'll post it on ravelry.com with picks. I'm not sure if i like it or not, but it does give me ideas.

so glad to be knitting again!

Independence Day 2008

Hello and Happy Independence Day America!!!! Happy 232nd birthday!!! What a nation we have become! I hope that in November i can finally say that we have our first African American president! I pray that he will be not only that, but also a great leader. I'm sure that he will be better than the ass in office now.

Anyway, i started the day with a bit of TV and laundry, then went to the in-laws for dinner. My sis-in-law is an excellent cook. then it was downtown OKC for some good old fashioned fireworks with the masses.

we were among the first handful of people to arrive at our location along the Oklahoma River side. It had been years since i ventured into that part of the city and the last time i saw the area it was still overgrown and sort of yuck, ya know. but let me say i am soooo happy with what the city has done! it was absolutely beautiful and freshly trimmed. The skyline was awesome, i You can see a few OKC buildings. cant wait to go back on a random day for a photo shoot. If i were a professional i would have a good location for my clients.

here's a pic of my Si at the place we staked out.

You're probably wondering where this place is along the river. I'll never tell!!! Lol But seriously, for anyone reading my crap, anywhere along the river is a great place to exercise, hang out, or take pictures. I'm not much of an outdoors kind of person, but I'm sure there are wonderful animal and outdoorsy things there too.

We got there kinda early and watched everyone arrive. some people were lighting fireworks while we all waited, so then that brought the cops. I'm trying to keep a low profile since there's bud dry in my big gulp cup. lol Fortunately they weren't interested in what i may be drinking, they wanted to ticket the people lighting the illegal fireworks! I'm kinda glad they came along when they did though, some one's firecracker fell over on it's side and started going into the river. what if it had gone in the opposite direction? someone or some one's baby could have been seriously hurt.

The people watching aspect of it all was the most fun part. But the fireworks display sucked balls! Horrible. it started, it stopped, it started again, seconds between bursts, then just as you think its about to start gettin good, it stops. all this within 20 minutes. I was left with a 'What the hell?' feeling as we left the park. sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked, serious balls.

But i still had fun because I'm drunk! Happy 4th America! SMOOCHES!!!!!!!!

Sinn's Visit and OKC Gay Pride 2008

Today was a sad day, my beautiful best friend went back home to Pennsylvania.

She was here with her wife and daughter for a whole week and i loved every second of it! we talked, we laughed, we ate, we drank, we walked, we watched TV, she knitted, we shopped, we sat in comfortable silences. i have to say they were a complete joy to have around.

this is her with her wife on the left, and beautiful daughter on the right .

Prince Tiger has a new girlfriend and mommy couldn't be happier! The royal family was very pleased, being very social and cuddly.

The Oklahoma City Gay Pride Celebration on June 20th was fun. Here are a few pics from the parade.

Gay bikers and... gay cops? lol

lots of banners, floats and beads.

I know you cant really see what the sign says, this guy is representing gay teachers!

Here's Mary with Miss Gay Oklahoma. I still cant believe she ran up to the car like that!

gay dogs to the right!

and more gay cops! lolAfter we watched the parade we drove up the street to the real celebration. I was in awe when i saw the crowd. There was a sea of people and this picture doesn't do it any justice. Trust me when i say to multiply the people in this pic by 1000. If i had a better camera and weren't facing the sun i would have gotten a great shot of the mass party.

I have been on a happy high all week and I am so sad that they had to go back home. I couldn't ask for better house guests. There was always something to do and a lot of things i didn't get to do. there never seems to be enough time. I will miss them. I hope they had fun because i did, and cant wait till the next time.

And because i couldn't post them all here, there are even more pics of the OKC pride parade on my flickr page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/bastet74/ . I have to say that i am very impressed with the number of pictures my phone was taking and holding. Pic after pic and never a full warning! when i got home to download it all i had 345 pics! It was handling things! lol

Thanks everyone for reading and as my niece said, "Keep being gay".

Sangin n Dancin

Hi people! Well, me and my hands are feeling much better these days. i had to blog today because I'm feeling particularly well. its like I've almost got my mojo back! but then there's the problem of what to do with it when it does come back. i wont worry about that now, though. I've got a swing in my step and a song in my heart. "Ooh Celie! I feels like sangin!" lol and let me add to that dancin!!

i cant wait till my bff arrives next week! yes, yes it is time for our once a year visit! I want to do so many things this year. a photo shoot with her family, the gay pride celebration on the 20th, a tour of the city! our city has been under remodel since the 90's but things are really cookin now. i gotta show her all the upgrades around town that we cant afford to use! lol what else?? knitting shops and stitch and bitches, oh we're gonna talk and have fun.

i wish i could move up where she lives. seems like everyone here has legal and/or drug problems. I'm starting to stereotype the people in the place I've lived all my life. i grew up with a good part of the population so it pains me to feel this way. i think i need a change of scenery to separate myself, unfortunately that will have to wait. i know, i am the one that needs to change and adapt. i am working on it as always. things really are looking up for me these days. i wont go into it though.

I'll close for now with a photo of the Prince Tiger caught in his mommy's shoes! Prince Tiger has a shoe fetish!

Carpal Tunnel Surgery (a patient's pov)

Well i had the surgery as planned and i think it went well. I'm still in the process of healing but I no longer have that pain that used to wake me up at night. Well, in the right hand, anyway. The left hand still keeps me screaming now and then.


Since I'm naturally nocturnal, I made sure to go to bed early the night before because as with most surgeries there is no eating or drinking after midnight. I felt well rested that morning as they were putting in the iv's. they gave me 2, one on each arm. one was to give me medicines like Zantac for my acid reflux and a sedative. the other went into the right arm for the local anesthesia. I layed down on a special table that made both arms spread out like a T. I was supposed to be awake for the whole thing, but i was out as soon as the anesthesiologist pushed the sedative. lol next thing i know they're waking me up and putting me in a wheelchair.


I still felt loopy when the nurse was giving me my home-care instructions. She was showing me a few basic hand exercises to do and she said to do them 10 times each per hour. Now that sounds like a lot but seriously, only takes a few seconds. They are letters from the American Sign Language alphabet; b, e, a, and s. Easy for me since i already know a bit of ASL, long story on how.

I think i should list some cons of this surgery in case someone is curious about what to expect. If my doctor is an example of the average he will give you no information on what to expect other than it'll hurt for a while. First of all, I had to keep the bandages on for 8 days after the surgery. I said 8, eight long itchy days! I couldn't get it wet so i had to cover half my arm in plastic before getting into the shower. and everything is done with one hand because, as u can imagine, the other is very weak. if you are planning this surgery please have someone around that can care for you, you will need them. everything like brushing my hair and teeth, opening jars or bottles was difficult, I'm right handed so pretty much everything was done with my left hand. eating and drinking was also an adventure in ambidexterity. and not to be vulgar, but i had to learn to wipe my kitty with my left hand after going to potty. its harder than you think. lol i completely understand the reason he didn't do both hands at once. a person would be completely disabled for a while, to the point of needing serious bathroom help.

it has been a few weeks now and it itches less. the only things that have bothered me so far would be the weakness and itching. i have a high tolerance for pain and the meds help of course. when i went to my follow up he asked if i was ready to do the other hand yet; i had to decline. I've just regained the ability to use the right hand pretty close to normal now but i want to wait another month or two until i get full strength back. so i guess we'll see in a couple months.

P.S. i am not a nurse, only a patient. but if you have any questions about my experience or what else to expect, please email me.

"Eh, what's up doc?"

Yeah, it's been a couple months, but i hadn't felt much like writing. I am feeling much better these days as long as i don't think about all the problems with my new shack. That's a whole other issue.....

The reason I'm feeling better starts about 6 or 7 weeks ago when i started having the most unbearable back and chest pain. i went to the emergency room in case i was dying; i am a 30something smoker so i know the deal. After a few hours of sticking, poking and prodding they concluded that i was suffering from HEARTBURN!!! oh my gosh. how embarrassing, right.

After a bit of a chuckle with the e.r. doc i started to talk about some of my other problems hoping he'd refer me to some specialists since my primary doc refuses. Since he was in a hurry, as all e.r. docs are, he told me that i did not need a referral. apparently i can see any doctor that takes my insurance. what a revelation! like DUH! why didn't i think of that before? since then, I've taken his advice and made several appointments with a few doctors.

I've already uncovered one serious misdiagnoses not to mention general neglect of my overall health. One of my new doctors is an orthopedic surgeon that will soon change my life. As all my good stalkers know, i have suffered with carpal tunnel syndrome for years and have had to give up my passion for yarn and fabrics. well folks, i am happy to say that i am having carpal tunnel surgery Tuesday! this is the first of two because this surgeon wouldn't do both hands at once for some reason. but who cares?! right?! i am finally going to have some relief and maybe even pick up my needles again!!!

I just watched the whole surgery on ORlive and i am a bit weirded out, but i just had to see what he was gonna be doing. here's the link to the surgery in case anyone's curious. http://www.or-live.com/hartfordhospital/1618/. And fyi, ORlive (http://www.or-live.com/) is a website that shows actual surgeries, so its not for the squeamish. i find it helpful to look at surgeries that friends and relatives might be having and even myself now. so anyway, its a cool site i have on favs next to webMD.

Thank god for the heartburn that sent me to the emergency room that gave me the doc that told me that i needed no one's permission to see a specialist! so now that that problem is being taken care of I'm going to pursue legal advice on that misdiagnoses and neglect. needless to say i wont be seeing my old doctor anymore. how do you fire a physician? I've done it in the hospital before for relatives but all those were in the face "you're fired" literally. i want that same satisfaction in this case. i suppose i could write a formal complaint against him to the medical board. i think I'll talk to a lawyer before i start writing angry letters tho.

It seems now that medial woes could turn into legal woes. and as long as I'm gonna be talking to lawyers i think I'll look into suing my landlord and housing authority. Below is a picture of the foliage that grows in my kitchen window, or rather through my window. apparently the housing authority thinks this is ok.

Besides the in-house atrium, the whole house leans to the south like its about to fall over, there is an ant and termite infestation, and i have painted particle board edged with ridged metal flooring for kitchen counter tops. the landlord's response to the insects was "oh i have ants real bad this year too." and then she hands me a styrofoam coffee cup of boric acid (no lid). what the hell am i supposed to do with that? "BITCH YOU HAVE TERMITES IN YOUR HOUSE!!!!!" is exactly what i wanted to scream at her. but i doubt angry shouts would work either, so I'm just gonna get some legal advice at this point.

And now, after 3 long years i finally have a new cell phone! The samsung beat, it has everything i wanted on it, pics, mpegs, mp3 player and it came with a memory card! i love it! yes things are looking up these days. and add to that my best friend is coming to visit for our local gay pride celebration in June. I cant wait to see her and her family!

The Move and Pencil Revisited

I'm finally getting things settled into the new place. There are things that you just never know about a place until you move in. None of my stuff seemed to be fitting where i wanted to put it, and that's because this house is crooked and run down like the place i just left. i swear i have the worst landlord in the city. they are the most half-ass, ghetto rigging, do the least to get by people I've ever had the misfortune of renting from. And there seems to be no obvious reason for their misery, i assume that they make a very nice profit since they own many rental properties and constantly flip other houses throughout the city. if i had first and last money for another place i would have gotten away from these slumlords i have now.

this is the slowest unpacking process ever! I've been here for about 3 weeks now and still have several boxes to empty, no idea where to put things like bathroom towels, and absolutely no pictures hung. i need to get back into shape, it's never taken me more than 2 weeks to settle into a new place before. the carpal tunnel thing keeps me from doing a lot too, though.

the royal family has settled in with almost no problems. Prince Cracker was very upset the first few days, here he is hiding from paparazzi cameras in the left photo. he has since relaxed and reports that he actually loves having more space to run and play. Here he is napping on his favorite rug.

Seen here, napping together, the rest of the royal family are equally pleased..

Since the move i haven't been able to knit because my hands just wont take it, but i did get to finish an old project the other day. Do you remember the pencil scarf? Well I've finally tweaked it into a

pillow! its was really easy and can be used for so many different things. it made a pretty good draft blocker in this pic.

That's all for now, I'll close with a photo of the Prince Tiger on one of his several thrones. Isn't he handsome?!

On The Move

Well everybody, i finally dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's for this move and I've been packing for a couple weeks.

I was planning to write about it last night but I had run into a couple of snags and was on the verge of changing all my plans. I have serious disagreements with the way the landlord cares for their own property, but I realized that I'm stuck for now and there is nothing I can do. This move is my last move into a rental property anyway, I have plans to buy a house in the next 2-3 years. And since there's a whole new set of issues with home ownership, I'm going to become very educated on the subject in the mean time. This house seems better, but you never really know until you live there a while. I hope it's not as drafty as the one I live in now.

I'll be out by Saturday night and that means I'll be offline until Tuesday. I was supposed to be hooked up on Monday, but the cable company called me today to offer a deal i could not refuse. Apparently they had over-booked their installations for Monday and since i don't mind waiting a day, they are upgrading me to digital basic and i get free installation of both! This is the best experience I've ever had with this company or any other lately. But, since I've been duped before by companies like this, i recorded everything on my machine just in case. I hope that everything goes smoothly, i do miss the wonderful DVR. So far, so good and even better with the free cable install!

My kitties are loving all the boxes! I couldn't resist taking pics of them enjoying themselves.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

The reclusive Princess Angel, seen here in this rare stock photo, was unavailable for comment on why she missed this royal family photo session. Sources say she was too upset to attend over the recent loss of her favorite and only cat tree.

Sin is the Best!

Look what my best friend, Sinnomen, sent to me! It arrived at my door yesterday by way of our united states postal service. I am truly lucky to have a friend as thoughtful and generous as she is. Even though we have been separated by more than 1100 miles for years, she remains my closest friend. I hope to have enough money to move where she lives someday soon. (If anybody reading would like to contribute to my moving fund please email me at the address provided on my profile page.) ; D

Anyway, the ever so thoughtful package contained several items:

a knitting magazine that has some nice patterns,

a wonderful new project bag that i can't wait to use,

a pretty gold blouse to wear when i get the chance to have a night out someday,

and a lovely handmade, cotton, lavender hat to wear on cold winter days like today.

So thank you Sin! You made my day, you're the best bff!

V-Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

YYYYYY

I just wanted to show off my brand new, ultra comfy, cotton, winter nightie. A V-day present from my sweetheart. Its soooo soft and warm, I love it!

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY