What's up, Boston?

You have way more interest in this blog than I do.

Much love,
H

Yeah, I don't post here very often

Someecards.com is one of my twitter friends. I enjoy their daily assiness. :)


I am so wrapped up with the election that I have a hard time socializing with people. I don't want to talk about politics all the time because a) I don't want to be that person, and b) I get worked up. But this election is just waaay too important to let people choose a candidate based on misleading commercials or internet rumors, and I keep hearing people expressing their political views based on misinformation. It drives me crazy.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T ELECT JOHN McCAIN.

I mean it. He's not good for the troops or vets (our troops have donated 6xs more to Obama than to McCain). Sarah Palin isn't good for women (as mayor, she made sexual assault victims pay for their own rape kits). Because I know that the only three people who read this are already aware of this fact, I'll refrain from rambling on more about it. But seriously, America, get your shit together on this one.

I love this picture. Jay's not down with it, but I still want to hang it up somewhere. It'll probably get banished to the ovarium.

Maybe I'll get a print of this too:
Usually I think flowers are for old ladies and pussies, but I took this and I love the colors.

I clearly have nothing to say and updating this on the events of the last 2 1/2 months is just too much of an undertaking, so I'm going to go make myself a gin and tonic now.

This has already been a long week, and it’s only Wednesday.

edited to say I've tried to correct the formatting errors about 10xs, but blogger is being a total dick. Viva Wordpress.

Bad things that have happened:

• I called my dad on Father’s Day to find out my step-mom’s kidneys are failing from the cancer, and it sounds like she doesn’t want to fight it anymore. They’re sending her home with morphine and hospice. She’s not in pain, but in her less than lucid moments, she is hallucinating donkeys, kittens, and monkeys.

Here they are two months ago:

• Tony Danza, who’s lost 4 or 5 lbs in the last 2 months, had to have an emergency x-ray Monday because Dr Frank felt something in his intestines that felt like a bread tie. Nothing showed up on the x-rays though so they were going to go in and do exploratory surgery, but then the blood work showed that he had hepatic lipidosis. Basically something causes cats (predominantly chubby cats) to become anorexic and their liver starts been metabolizing itself, which can be fatal even if treated. He’s had a total of 4 vets working on him, and now has a feeding tube in his neck and is on an IV. He seems to be improving today, so hopefully he can come home tomorrow. He’ll have to keep the feeding tube in for a week or so though. We’ve been going to visit him and give him love every chance we get outside of work, and I took Friday off so I can be home with him. The idea that he's sick and has no way of understanding what's going on breaks my heart. This is the first time in 5 years he's been away from home.
  

Jay sent me this picture of him loving on Tony this morning:


So yeah, between those two things I’ve been an exhausted mess.

Good things that happened:

• After putting in 16 applications this month and going on countless interviews, Jay has received a job offer in his field. He’ll be getting a nearly 50% pay raise, which will be nice since he’s had a pretty tight budget lately.

• I’m totally famous. Suzy noticed a painting of me for sale downtown this week, done by an artist I don’t think I’ve ever met. My friend Christy used some cross-processed photos (not digital/photoshopped) of me on postcards to advertise her gallery showing a few years ago, and it was done from one of those. I thought it was amusing enough that a total stranger bought one of the prints and has it hanging in their home, but now there’s a painting for sale too. And a few months ago I found the same image used in a store downtown. See? Famous!

Original pics:























Painting:

Frenchiez 4 life

Did I ever tell you how fucking much I want a french bulldog?

Because I love them as hard as I can. It makes my insides hurt just to look at them.

Every breed matching test I've ever taken says frenchies are best for my lifestyle (tied with Boston Terriers and English bulldogs, of course). However, aside from the fact that our life/home is not set up for a dog of any sort right now, I have issues with paying ridiculous money for a "designer dog" when there are so many pooches at shelters that need good homes. I'm thinking that when the day comes (and I have a house with a yard and have worn Jay down), I might be able to rectify these feelings by adopting through a French Bulldog rescue organization. Or by finding a mixed breed at the shelter.

Or by having some internet admirer send me one as a gift. You know, whatever.

Sleepy Update

^That's my way of unapologetically leaving you with a bunch of typos and semicoherent run-on sentences. You're welcome.

First of all:

Cutest thing ever. That's Mr. Liam (of Gralin fame) wishing me a happy birthday all the way from KS. :) My birthday was nice. Jay took me out for an obscene amount of sushi, followed up by some season 6 of The Sopranos. The main gift he got me won't arrive until the 22nd, and I still don't know what it is. He wanted to make sure I had something to unwrap from him though, so he bought me this TOTALLY AWESOME tote bag (no, really) with Stephen Colbert's face on it (see? I told you). I also got some super tasty homemade cookies from a friend at work, and a $100 gift certificate to a local day spa from Jay's folks. Oh, and $100 straight cash from my family to spend on ex-lax or elastic-waist Lee jeans or whatever it is people my age buy. (I'm ooooold.) ;)

Unfortunately I misread an email and thought the VP of the company was coming to visit our department on my birthday, so I dressed up super snazzy. When I realized I was wrong, I tried to play it off like I knew it was the next day, which left me looking like I just dressed up for my birthday. I felt like the little nerdy grade schooler, showing up to work in a sweater vest and a bow tie with a plate full of cupcakes. I never understood why we had to bring our own treats on our birthday in grade school. Is this a common practice, or did I just go to Super Crazy No Way School?

Okay, so now for the test results.

I had my follow-up appointment yesterday (and yes, I complained about the phone call and she apologized before I could even finish my sentence). My EEG was abnormal and indicative of seizure activity (as the assclown had told me on Saturday). My MRI also showed some scarring on my hippocampus, so they diagnosed me with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. They feel quite certain that it will get worse if untreated, and that I will eventually have a full blown, fishing-out-on-the-ground seizure. That would result in me losing my driver's license for a minimum of 6 months (along with a new predisposition to having grand mal seizures and the possibility of memory loss). The "episodes" I've been having are actually simple partial seizures. SO to prevent them from getting more serious I'm taking Carbatrol. Twice a day. The side effects aren't nearly as scary as the douche made them sound. Nothing in the medication itself causes birth defects, it causes a folic acid deficiency and that can cause birth defects. Just in case I accidentally get knocked up, I'm supposed to take 1000mcg of folic acid each day. When I decide I do want to get pregnant, they said they'll probably switch me to another medication that's tolerated a little better by pregnant women. They don't want to take me off of anticonvulsants completely because the risk to the baby is 4-5xs greater if I have a seizure than anything the medication would do, because it would cut off blood flow to the womb. Not news I'm thrilled about, but it's something I can work with. Liver damage is extremely rare and (I think) happens when you first start taking it. Like it'll show up immediately or not at all. They're going to test my blood every so often to check liver enzymes, sodium levels, and my white cell count to make sure I'm tolerating everything okay.

My doctor (who is tiny, Indian, and amazingly adorable...so much so that I couldn't get over how cute she was the entire time she's talking to me about this) was really, really sweet and understanding about everything. I actually cried in her office, not because I was particularly upset, but because she was so nice that everything just came out. I cry when people are nice to me, I'm weird like that. She kept saying things like "Don't change your life because of this!" and "You have seizures, the seizures don't have you!" She said it's understandable to feel overwhelmed when you have someone the same age as you giving you this kind of news and telling you that you have to take a medication for the rest of your life, and not to hesitate to call her, my family, or a counselor if I'm feeling depressed about all of this, because that's totally normal.


So yeah, right now I keep wavering between "It's no big deal, I just have to take a pill twice a day" and "Oh my god, I have to take these pills FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE" or "Holy crap, something is wrong with my BRAIN."

Okay, I'm super sleepy now so I'm going to fall asleep watching The Daily Show.