Can You Hear Me Now?

I do realize I am LONG overdue for an update. And I will get to one… I’m just so far behind that every time I think about updating I feel too overwhelmed to actually write it. So I’ll get around to a bulleted version of an update soon. But for now, I have decided that the following is important and worthy of the time it takes me to put one of these together.

In 1982, I was 14 years old. And 14 year old girls get crushes on cute, famous boys. For me, it was Christopher Atkins. I loved him with every ounce of my being. I was only 12 when Blue Lagoon came out, which my friend’s mom snuck us into the theatre to see, but it wasn’t until I was a little older that I saw The Pirate Movie (many times) and realized what LOVE was and how this beautiful boy was my one and only. I mean, check it out, can you blame me??

Seriously. I was 14. He had it all.

Flash forward, 27 years. I’m a 41 year old woman who just happens to like hanging out on Twitter. And, Christopher Atkins is a 48 year old man, who just happens to have a Twitter account. And the Tweeting goes a little something like this:

Christopher Atkins: Pet peeve - No parking spots - I turn around and go home.

Me: Haha you need to go out with me, I use a wheelchair and get ALL the good spots!

Christopher Atkins: lol! Yes I should!

And there you have it. Dreams do come true, girls. It may have taken 27 years, but Christopher Atkins asked me out on a date.

Sorta.

Never lose hope.

(I seriously teenage-girlie-screamed when I got a response from him… *sigh*)

So, I got me a MacBook. It is just lovely. BUT it is going to take awhile to get used to. The keys are really big and far apart, which for a one-handed typist like me is very difficult. I got pretty damn fast at my left-handed typing on my desktop; now my speed has slowed by about 350%. And this no-mouse thing? ARGH!! I know I can get a mouse, but there really isn’t anywhere to use it. This is truly a LAPtop. I’ll get used to it, and get better, but right now, I’m not so interested in writing.

So my girl Jillian went home on the Bachelor last night. That’s pretty much what I figured, and when they were making out all hot n’ heavy in the hot tub, I was thinking “his fiance (Melissa, probably) is watching this right now and is LIVID.” Hehe I think Jill is on Ellen tomorrow. Maybe she will be the next Bachelorette! I’m looking forward to the finale because apparently “what happened here was so emotional, we kept it as intimate as possible…” or whatever it is Chris said last night. This is what I think happened, and if I’m right, then I am officially psychic. I think the intimacy was needed because Jason flew in Melissa’s parents and because they don’t like the public aspect of the show, (which is why Jason never met them on the home visits) they kept it very intimate and Jason proposed with her parents there. That is my story and I’m sticking to it. Until 2 weeks from now if I’m wrong.

I just had a horrible experience tonight. I won’t go into it because it’s gross. I’ll just say this only happens to you if you’re a baby or a very old person living in a home, or you have a disease like MS. My home care worker is going to love me tomorrow.

I have to practice some copy/paste stuff. So I’m going to copy my “25 Things” note from Facebook that everyone is doing,

1. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996 at the age of 28. It has been… erm… challenging, to say the least.

2. I went to New Zealand in 2001 and it is my most favourite place on earth (I have no other exotic or European places to compare it to, so…) It is my biggest dream to own a home like this one in Russell, Bay of Islands one day and be able to go to Rotorua regularly for mud baths.

3. I can’t remember the last time I was able to sleep for more than 2 hours in a row. I also don’t remember a time before I used sleeping pills to get that 2 hours. (And yes, I have tried or am trying whatever it is you are about to suggest, thanks anyway…) I’m finally going to see a sleep specialist but it’s going to take about a year to get in…

4. I had a rough time in high school, I hated it. I quit Scarlett half way through grade 11, then went to Wise Wood for a month or so before I quit, then went back to finish Grade 11, then I started Grade 12 and quit and moved to Toronto on my own for a few years. So I apologize if I don’t remember you from high school, I mostly remember the people I also went to elementary/junior high with.

5. One of the jobs I loved the most in my life was working on the production of a TV special for YTV in 1988 or 89 (about missing children). Alan Thicke was the host and I had to keep going to get him from his dressing room where he was watching his beloved LA Kings in the playoffs. I told him, “yeah, the Kings may win this round, but then they’ll be up against the Flames, and the Flames will beat them 4 games in a row, and then go on to win the cup…” and that is EXACTLY what happened.

6. I was once the “Answer” to a Q&A in TV Guide magazine. (I can’t remember the question, but I believe the answer was something like “we spoke with the Viewer Relations Coordinator at YTV and she told us…”).

7. The Polyjesters are the best band in the world, in my humble opinion.

8. I have so many friends who are amazing musicians and go out of their way to make sure I get their latest CDs and get to their shows. I’m really blessed that way!

9. I recently had to get rid of one of my home care workers because my cat HATED her. I’d never seen anything like it.

10. I have two cats, Pita and Pepper, and I loooooove them so much it hurts. They will be 3 years old in March.

11. I own every self-help, self-hypnosis, meditation, Louise Hay/Wayne Dyer/Law of Attraction book, CD and DVD around yet I still worry all the time and believe negative thoughts. I don’t know how to STOP and my friggin’ health can’t exactly improve if I don’t.

12. I smoked cigarettes, at least a pack a day, for 10 years and quit cold turkey on January 1, 1996. I haven’t had a single drag since then and I won’t, or I will start again for sure.

13. My favourite “Six degrees of separation”: When I lived in Toronto, I had a buddy named Nick McKinney. Nick’s brother is Mark McKinney from “The Kids in the Hall”. David Foley is a member of The Kids in the Hall. Dave once judged an episode of the improv comedy show “Thank God You’re Here!”. Angela Kinsey appeared on “Thank God You’re Here!” And Angela Kinsey is on THE OFFICE.

14. The Office is my favourite TV show.

15. I have loved Jim Carrey since I was 14 years old and he was about 19 or 20, through the good and the bad and even the very, very bad. I’ve never met him but somewhere around here I have a “Spank you very much” autographed photo.

16. I own stacks of books and CDs I’ve never even read or listened to and I will keep adding to it.

17. it doesn’t matter how many people are around, I am the one everyone asks for the time and “is this the train to…?”

18. I delete 99% of the email forwards sent to me without even looking at them. I used to look at them all in the early days of having an email address, 10+ years ago, but I still get a lot of the same ones. I can’t keep up and life is too short. So if I’m on your list and you don’t “get this back”, it does NOT mean you are no longer my friend or that I don’t care. I just… seriously… too many.

19. My biggest pet peeve is the sound of someone chewing. It grosses me out beyond belief. I have to mute TV commercials where people are chewing (Cheerios comes to mind) and GOOD LORD MAKE THE PEDIGREE DOG FOOD COMMERCIALS STOP. (I cant even find the ones I mean on You Tube so if you’re outside Alberta you may not know what I’m talking about). If I’m eating with you, it’s okay, because I hear my own chewing in my ears. But if you are chewing in front of me, I’m squirming inside and secretly want to stick a knife in your ear. LOVE YOU THOUGH!

20. I’m trying to figure out a way to make money that somehow involves my natural talents but doesn’t involve leaving my home or any physical activity that I can’t do. I once had a very small time business writing personalized poetry (by that I mean, I had a website and sold a few). I can’t sit here for long periods of time and my vision is wonky so accounting is getting harder. I just don’t know… AISH can’t support me and I’d really like to live outside the limits of the government’s fixed income.

21. These days, my days revolve around Home Care, self care, medical appointments, and just trying to make it through another day without needing an ambulance. I appreciate my friends and family getting me out and about more than I can say.

22. When my speech starts to slur I get freaked out because one of my natural talents is talking, and there is always the hope that one day my health will improve and I will be a public speaker who inspires others with her story. Or I’ll make a living talking, one way or another. If I lose the ability to speak I’m screwed.

23. I think I have about the best sense of humour around. I’m not saying I’m funny (although I think I can be), but I know what IS funny, that’s for damn sure. (Leave Jim Carrey out of this, okay?)

24. I think my worst habit is gossiping, or talking about other people. I mean no harm, I just “discuss”, but I wish I didn’t. I don’t, however, tell SECRETS and am very careful when you have said “don’t tell anyone, but…” I like to think I can be trusted. I’ve just got a LOT of opinions and am trying to get better at “live and let live, it’s their life” in my old age.

25. I wear Crocs. Deal with it.

You guys already know a lot of that stuff. Anyway, some of my comments touched on the idea that I should be a writer. In fact, two girls I went to Junior High school with thought I would be well on my way with that by now. I’ve always thought about it, so to be honest, that is what prompted me to get this laptop and get to work on a book or two. I have a couple ideas…

I don’t have any cat pics to upload on here yet. But I DID have a bit of fun earlier with Photo Booth. I was having a bad hair day anyway.

HEY! I have a blog! Maybe I should write in it sometime.

Frequent updater or not, I was given an award recently, from Weeble Girl.

The rules of the award are that I am then supposed to pass it on to at least 10 other bloggers that show great attitude or gratitude. Well, that ain’t gonna happen, because I don’t read as many blogs as I used to, and the ones I do don’t exactly fit that description most of the time! I will definitely pass it on to three people:

Maggie

Sylvie

and Sandee.

Those three ladies show amazing courage and gratitude when faced with difficult obstacles, and their positive attitudes are inspiring.

I, on the other hand, am not so sure I deserve such an award at the moment! My attitude has sucked as of late, which is one reason why I haven’t updated. I hate whining in here.

The past month has been a difficult one. I have been quite sick, alternating between diarrhea and constipation and nausea and gas pains and all that stuff. My digestive system is quite upset with me. I started feeling sick on Tuesday, Nov. 4 and by Thursday night the diarrhea hit so bad I had to go to the hospital after 6 hours of making a mess and not being able to control it! I stayed there for about 8 days until I could no longer take it there. Plus test results showed nothing major. So I was home sick for another week, getting sick within hours of putting anything in my mouth. Back in to the hospital the following Saturday, where they just gave me IV fluids and Gravol before sending me home. The conclusion was that I had some sort of “bug” that was taking it’s time leaving. Finally my Chiropractor/Naturopath came home from his holidays and I was able to talk to him. He told me doctors will say it’s some sort of “bug” or virus when they don’t know what else it is. The fact is, my GI tract is not happy with how I’ve been treating it over the years, so it’s fighting back. I’m on homeopathic drops and a strict diet for now (no wheat, dairy, raw veggies, nuts, soy, peas, beans) at least until this improves and my future will need to consist of no (or VERY little) wheat and dairy. I’ve always known that, right? I just never stuck to it for long. I always learn the hard way.

I missed several of my musician friends who passed through town while I was out of commission. Rob Szabo was here on November 7. He was able to come visit me in the hospital on Nov. 12 when he was passing through to go to a house concert (at my friend Kim’s) near Red Deer. Him and Revival Dear came into my room, closed the door (I was in a private room!) and played a couple of songs for me Soooo sweet. Then, Royal Wood was here on the 14th, whom I have never met, but I LOVE him and own all his CDs and was really hoping to see him. Plus, my friend Adam Warner was on tour with him. So, missing them sucked!! Then, Peter Katz was here the weekend I made my second hospital visit. I was home resting on the Sunday, so he popped over before his show for a quick visit, which was super sweet.

Luckily, Rob and Peter tour regularly so hopefully it won’t be long before they are here again.

Being sick and weak with no energy, unable to sleep and a shitty attitude has lead to another major depression for me. I cry at the drop of a hat over everything and nothing. I never go out. I can barely walk, and certainly not up the hall and out the door, so I’ve been home bound, since I can’t set up and operate my wheelchair by myself. And depressed, did I mention that? Both my Home Care Nurse and my doctor have talked to me about going on a type of medication that is part anti-depressant/part sedative, to take at bedtime to help me sleep as well as help the depression. I always fought it off and said “no, I’m not depressed I’m just going through a rough time”. That was months ago. I think I AM depressed now, and still not sleeping well, so when I saw my doctor on Wednesday I asked him about that medication. He wrote a script for one month and then told me to come back and see him to let him know how it’s going before he gave me more. My dad and brother were with me that day and we filled the script that night.

So, right before bed, I take ONE pill. Within half an hour, my left side started jerking uncontrollably, and my right side became COMPLETELY PARALYZED. I mean, completely! I was freaking out. In denial that I could actually be totally paralyzed, I tried to get out of bed. As soon as I tried to stand up, I hit the floor. Did you know that when you are paralyzed, you cannot weight bear? I learned that the hard way. I couldn’t even put weight on my right arm to try and roll myself over. Just… FLOP. I managed to sit up on the floor, and actually tried to get myself up, but obviously that did not work. I guess I was making more noise than I thought (perhaps swearing and HELP! and stuff) because I heard a neighbour outside my door calling to me. I have no idea who it was, but I called out that I had fallen and am disabled and unable to get up. Because I was on the floor near my bed, I could hit the speaker button on my phone and I called my dad. “I fell down!” and he said he’d be right over. All my family has keys to my apartment now, for such exciting occasions.

I guess my neighbour called 911, because suddenly the Police were knocking at my door. I called out that I could not let them in, because I was on the floor, paralyzed and unable to get up. And that my dad was on his way. They asked me if there was someone else they could call with a key that might be faster, and I yelled out the rental office phone number and that there is a manager who lives in the building they may be able to contact. So they did that, as EMS also arrived. So outside my door there were 2 police officers and 4 paramedics. Unreal. I am a BIG DEAL, people.

The resident manager finally unlocked my door, moments before my dad and brother arrived. The 4 paramedics came in and started doing the usual blood pressure/oxygen/temperature/blood sugar etc. as I swore up and down I was fine, it was simply a bad side effect from a new medication and I was sure it would wear off by morning. I did not want to go to the hospital, I just needed help to get up and back in bed. So they did that, and I signed a waiver confirming I didn’t want to go to the hospital. My dad and brother, bless their souls, offered to stay the night just in case the medication didn’t wear off by morning and I needed help.

So, I won’t be taking THAT medication again. The next morning my leg and arm were okay, pretty much back to how they were before, so my dad and brother left to go about their lives. My home care came as usual and an old high school friend came by for coffee. I faxed my doctor a letter teling him what happened, and he faxed me back another prescription for a similar medication at a much lower dose. I filled that later and took one that night. It had absolutely no effect on me, and since I can'’t mix these meds with anything else, I couldn’t even take something else to help me sleep, and literally laid awake all night.

By morning, I had just about had it. I have already lost so much of my abilities over this past year, and then the diarrhea and stuff started, taking every last bit of my strength, energy and Will left in me, and on top of that, I can’t sleep. I’m just a little bit pissed off. I don’t want to go on anti-depressants again, even if this one isn’t an SSRI and apparently not addictive. I just want to sleep and use my chi machine and drink lots of water and eat fairly healthy and get out more/socialize and listen to my Louise Hay CDs and GET BETTER. I think all of that will help more than another anti-depressant, and I do have people in my life offering to help. Two old friends from high school are actually taking me out for shopping and lunch on Friday, and another couple friends are going to arrange times to help me get to the pool and stuff. My friend Andrea even wants to take me out to the Saskatoon Farm for lunch soon! So, decision made. No more new drugs. Back to what I was doing before I got sick a month ago and enough with the shitty attitude. And I’m going to read this book. That doctor was on PBS today and had a lot of great things to say, that pertain to me.

**********************************************

And finally, another Meme-type thing from Maggie.

The rulz:

1. Go to your pictures file.
2. Go to the 4th file.
3. Go to the 4th picture.
4. Post it and tell the story.
5. Tag 4 more people

I know Maggie was hoping for a cute kitty pic, but my cat pictures file is called “Pita and Pepper” and is way further down than 4th. The 4th file is “Donna’s Stuff” and the 4th picture is:

I tore that page out of the Air New Zealand magazine when I was on my way to Auckland in November, 2001. I’ve always enjoyed a bellini, and was quite excited to find out The Hilton in Auckland has an actual bar called The Bellini, where they apparently make the best ones in the world. Well, The Hilton on Prince’s Wharf in Auckland, NZ sells a bellini for $28 (a mini muffin is $8 and I think fries were $15) and it wasn’t even that GOOD! I much prefer the cheaper restaurants here. But the experience was worth it, and we made sure to visit the gorgeous washrooms on the way out and steal a couple of lovely Hilton white face clothes.

As for tagging? If you read this and have a blog, consider yourself tagged

*Sung to the tune of “I’m Sorry” by Brenda Lee.

I have sooooo much to talk about since my last entry. Like, 5 entries worth! But of course I have no time. It’s my 40th birthday and I’ve got lots of plans the next few days!

So, for the time being, here are some cat pictures to tide you over.

Pita caught at the end of a yawn.

Snugglemuffin.

Invisible Teddy Bear

Please vote (5 cheezburgers!) for Pepper’s LOL pic at I Can Has Cheezburger to get her on the main page!! Thanks!!

Mandatory daily stretching exercises

I got myself some hot pink streaks for my birthday. I am 40, after all! Heh

Jason and Sheldon just left. I asked them to try and interpret things for Dietgirl’s Scavenger Hunt, 3rd Installment by me, just because it’s fun. They didn’t think they could do a wedding dress or Greek Yogurt, but here are the others. Videos are short because I started laughing too hard. Photos are blurry from shaking with laughter. Just the usual, when these guys are around…

BICYCLE

BALD MAN

Jason portrays a bald man.

ELVIS

Jason portrays Elvis, alive.

Sheldon portrays Elvis, dead. “Wait! His pants were down!” I am DYING FROM LAUGHTER here…

THE LETTER “D”

THE LETTER “G”

Sigh… I love those guys.

Today, because my vision has not improved (still seeing double - doctors are so helpful when it comes to shit like this, you know? “Well, you have MS” *shoulder shrug* In other words, learn to live with it) and I’ve been feeling rather down about the whole thing, I decided to spend today doing ONLY things that make me happy. That means drinking lattes, reading a good book (with one eye closed… I do need to be grateful that my left eye is normal), listening to music, going to the mall… and you know, making a decision to be happy today brought happiness back to me TENFOLD! When I opened my mailbox, inside was an envelope from “Cooking For You“. I thought… it looks like a Christmas card… I’ve been to their website a few times (drooling and dreaming) but I’m positive I never left any personal information… hmmmm. I open it, and it is… drumroll please… a $350 gift certificate!!! A combined gift from 7 amazing woman, including my good friends Kim and Carolyn, as well as a few woman I haven’t even seen since HIGH SCHOOL, and a couple that I just met up with for coffee recently after not having seen them since HIGH SCHOOL. I guess you could say it was the work of Facebook Elves. Un-fricking-believable. Nancy masterminded the plan, and what a genius plan it was, because that is about the best gift I could ever receive (besides a live-in personal chef… so keep that in mind for next year). Thank you Nancy, Carolyn, Michelle, Stephanie, Lise, Paula and Kim… y’all ROCK.

Earlier, before all the excitement in my mailbox, I went out to the mall. I wanted a) a latte I didn’t have to make myself, and b) to take pictures. I enjoyed putting together my last entry for Dietgirl’s Scavenger Hunt, but I didn’t take any of those pictures myself. Today I thought I’d hit the mall and see if I could fill the requirements of the hunt over there! Here are the results:

BICYCLE

BALD MAN

Everybody’s favourite bald guy, Mr. Clean

ELVIS

2008 Calendars are everywhere!

GREEK YOGURT

I have never seen Greek Yogurt in stores here. So, I took a picture of the yogurt section, and the Greek fast food place in the Food Court!

WEDDING DRESS

Wedding magazines = wedding dresses

THE LETTER “D”

D is for Downy

THE LETTER “G”

G is for Gain. How appropriate for a Dietgirl, huh? Hee

I’m actually expecting my friends Jason and Sheldon to drop by for a bit this afternoon. I may make them pose for Scavenger Hunt photos and create another set, because it’s fun. Jason does a GREAT Elvis impersonation. And this day is all about making me happy! So they must do as I say.

One of my favourite people and bloggers, Shauna a.k.a. Dietgirl, is having a contest (I could win her book! Wahoo! And if when I do, I’m still keeping the one I pre-ordered as my reading/page-folding/highlighting copy) and all we have to do is take some/upload pictures. So, this entry is for Shauna and anyone else interested!

BICYCLE

This is how my old friend Paul does it!

BALD MAN

ELVIS

My friend Janet is Marilyn, and sometimes she hangs out with these guys.

GREEK YOGURT

Changing of the Guards at the Greek Parliament Buildings… and Yogurt.

A WEDDING DRESS

Okay, so, it’s me in a Flower Girl’s dress… but I’m in white, lace, at a wedding AND going down the aisle, and it may be the only time that ever happens.

THE LETTER “D”

THE LETTER “G”

(Please see previous entries for Pay It Forward updates! )

I’ve seen so many of these “day in the life” entries with pictures and I always wanted to do one too, when I got myself a digital camera. So it could be “today” and not “a couple weeks ago, I hope I can remember…”.

So here it goes. LOTS of photos and videos to follow!!

I woke up just before 9:00 a.m. to my phone ringing.

Imagine that phone ringing.

It was AH. “Were you asleep?” “Yes. What’s up?” “Oh… I’m trying to paint my car (he got a little scratch on it the other day). I can’t remember the paint ratio. I thought there might be something on the internet…”

Okay, here’s the thing. AH and I have a balanced relationship in that he helps me out by driving me places, taking me to the bank, dropping movies off for me to watch, and stuff like that, and I help him out with anything that has to do with being good at English. I even make the odd phone call on his behalf, because “you always know what to say”.

I told him to give me a minute and hung up. To be honest, my alarm was set to go off in two minutes anyway because I needed to get up and give myself plenty of time to get ready for a baby shower I was going to. So his wake-up call wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.

I then spent the next 20 minutes on the internet and on the phone with him trying to find the information he wanted.

Help me Google , help help me Google!

I didn’t have much luck, but hopefully he’ll have a flashback and remember that he painted his entire car himself in the first place and should know. “The shop isn’t open today so I can’t ask them.” Yes, I know. Not EVERYONE works 7 days a week.

After that I crawled back into bed for a few minutes, because my body was resisting the rush to “get up and go” I had just forced upon it. So I went back to bed to do the slooowly getting up and stretching routine I usually do. (Yes, I will go back to bed just to get up again properly. Do not judge). While in bed, my kitties joined me to hang out as usual, and I was lucky enough to catch this:

This is the sort of cuteness you can capture when your camera never leaves your hand! (please ignore me and my bedhead in the mirror).

I finally got up and made my way to the kitchen to make a latte.

And I don’t know what went wrong! I had opened a new container of Rice Dream, maybe that was the problem. Bad batch or something? Because I got NO FOAM and the first container I had been using this past week foamed up like mad, it was beautiful. Anyway, I ended up with this:

Which tasted fine, but… you know. Foam. When I was trying to foam the milk, my machine sounded like a cow dying. Maybe I have already broken the machine?

So I had to try again. Cleaned everything, and started over.

Much better.

I sipped my latte while surfing the net and catching up on a few blogs

This is how I know everything that needs to be known by mankind. Who needs “How Stuff Works” or Google News when you’ve got Perez to dish out the real important stuff?

Next up I showered and dressed and got ready to go out for a few hours. The only part of that you get to see is my skin care routine:

Pretty simple stuff.

I can’t forget the gifts:

The bottle of wine is for the Hostess, not the mom-to-be!

Or the food:

At 12:30 I had my coat and shoes on and started waiting for my Access ride. I kept an eye out for the car at my patio windows,

This snow is why Access is so late these days

While Pita kept an eye out for him through my bedroom window:

At 12:49ish I was on my way. The Access driver wouldn’t let me take a picture of him or his van, the party pooper. So I took some out my window.

Wow, a clear road… from traffic wearing it down, or a snow plough? You decide.

Welcome to Alberta!

We stopped to pick up a woman from Church first, then I was dropped off.

How many baby showers have you been to at a bar? Hehe.

Christine (who owns the Pub with her hubby) was going to host it at her house, but decided at the last minute to switch it to the Pub because it’s bigger. And closed on Sundays, so it would be private. Dez, a long-time waitress at the Pub, is the one having the baby.

NOT your typical Mother.

I had to get a picture of Dez’s boots. Again, not your typical Mother.

How many baby showers have you been to with live music? The Pub’s main bartender, Jen, on the right, sings some tunes. I don’t know the guys she was playing with.

Christine signs the card on my behalf, after I attempted my left-handed signature.

Present opening time!

The main gift that we all pitched in for was a bassinet. No picture because she was too close to me to get a good one.

The shower went until 4:00, and of course my ride was late picking me up, but by 4:30 I was on my way home. I was in the back seat this time.

Friday’s paper was still in the back. If I was Anna Nicole, I’d be mighty upset to see my name anywhere near a picture of Karla Homolka.

When I got home, I adjusted my camera back to a normal setting after having it on a non-conspicuous “available light” setting in the cab. As I passed the “self-portrait” setting, I wondered, how does this work?

Then I grabbed a bottle of water from my stash

I prefer room temperature water these days

and headed into my office to check messages and emails. I wish I could play you the message that was in my voice mail, but since it involves full names and a phone number I cannot. Anyway, it was that Brenda lady, calling me because “my phone has been cut off, my utilities, everything… I’m just using this phone I have use of on the weekends… I need the phone number for AISH, I can’t find it anywhere. When you get home can you call me with it? This number is 543… no, 435-6759*… no, 435-6597… no, wait a minute… oh, it’s 543-6597… no, wait, 9767? Oh wait, hang on… okay, it’s 543-6759. Yes, 453-uh, 543-6749. 59. 543-6759. Thanks”.

*All numbers have been changed!

I am a mean and horrible person, because I didn’t call her back right away. I decided to work on transferring pictures and uploading video and writing this entry for awhile. It’s not like she can call AISH on a Sunday, anyway. Then I forgot, because I received a phone call from a woman who has a mobile pet grooming business, and yakked with her forever. I helped this woman with her business plan 7 years ago. She’s doing great, but she doesn’t do anything with cats. I need someone to come over and help me clip their claws… I just can’t do it on my own with only one strong hand, and I’m getting a little tired of this:

Leave them at home alone as kittens for 9 weeks while you are in the hospital, and any chance of training them NOT to do this is shot. And no, I will not get them de-clawed, never ever ever ever.

She said she’d call around and see if she can find someone who works with cats, and she also might hire me to do her bookkeeping from now on.

I also want to get soft paws, but I’ll need help putting those on as well. So having someone I can call that is good with the whole pet-grooming thing would be good.

I worked on this here entry until almost 7:00. Then I decided I needed to eat something. It was going to be pretty simple, because that’s how I roll most of the time. Lucky for me, mom came by yesterday and left this in my fridge:

Beef, vegetables and mashed potatoes… yum!

I heated up my Shepherd’s pie and watched Love Monkey. I love that show. When that was over, I came back in here and finished this up.

Which is where I am at now. This took me forever!! At 10:00 I’ll be watching Desperate Housewives, and then I’ll be heading here:

Thanks for hanging out with me today. Good night!