Moloka’i

It’s been a while since I did a book review.  This is for two reasons.

1. I haven’t felt like reading much.
2. I’ve had a book hanging over my head for book club that I Did. Not. Want. To. Read.

Every year when the calendar ticks over on a book club year, I make a solemn vow that I will read every single book.  And every year I fail miserably.  Someone always picks a book about a topic that does not interest me, and this year was no different with 2 books focused on Asia.

Then Melissa joins the book club and due to her attendance record in her early membership and someone else dropping out, I let her pick the September book.  And she chose Moloka’i by Alan Brennert.  She chose this based on the fact that Lesley liked the book so well and blogged about it in 2009.  She seems to like the books that Lesley reads and she spends a lot of time not liking the books that I like to read.  This is hilarious.  Lesley and Melissa are both two of the best friends a girl could ask for, and neither one of them has any taste in literature.  Haha  I say this because I hate everything either one of them loves.  It’s a wonder we’re friends.

So when I found out that Melissa chose it due to Lesley’s glowing review, I immediately knew I was going to hate it.  I went to Lesley’s blog and read her review and thought, “Well, crap.”  And reading a summary of the book induced similar thoughts.  Because, a) I have no interest in the history of Hawai’i and b) sweeping epic novels of any sort of history just turn me off almost immediately.  That’s why I’ve been unsuccessfully attempting to read Gone With the Wind for 3 years now.  Moloka’i spans something like 70+ years. 

Still, I went over to a local bookstore and picked up a copy when a search of my local library proved fruitless and the list on Paperback Swap wasn’t getting any shorter.  I figured I could always swap it for something else.  I read the first several chapters in early August and then put it aside.  There was something about it that was already way too sad and I couldn’t bear the thought of reading about Rachel being torn from her family and forced to live in a colony far away from the people she loved.

Before I get any further ahead of myself, Moloka’i is the story of Rachel Kalama, a 7-year-old living in Hawai’i with her mother, sister, and two brothers.  Her father is a sailor and is away from home for months at a time, but is a devoted family man.  Hansen’s Disease (commonly known as leprosy) has broken out in Hawai’i at the same time the government is being deposed, and young Rachel contracts the disease.  She is found out as being a leper and sent off to the leper colony at Moloka’i, far from her family and home and beloved father.  The book is a testament to Rachel’s strength from the beginning to the end of her life, as I say from age 7 to well into her 70’s.

On Sunday, with book club looming on Monday, I decided to re-visit Moloka’i.  I wanted to at least give it an honest effort.  As I  first began to read, I was totally overwhelmed with sadness.  I literally cried every 2 or 3 pages.  But I was also increasingly captivated by Rachel’s story.  I can’t tell you why exactly.  As I went along, my tears dried up, and in fact, I became almost numb to the death and destruction that was apparently commonplace in a leper colony. Even when my favorite character, Henry, dies later on in the book (I’m really not giving anything away, given the span of time the book covers and the subject matter, you can bet most people will be dead by the time you close the back cover), I felt strangely removed from the grief I felt early on in the book.  I started to think maybe something was wrong with me.

Anyway, I didn’t get the last 70 pages read in time for book club.  We had an amazing meeting, literally laughing and crying together, renaming the club B*tches with Books, and just had one of those magical meetings I will remember for a long time.  As member Lauren put it, “There was definitely something in the air tonight.”  But when I got home, I was more determined than ever to finish Moloka’i.  I picked up in bits and pieces what happened at the end, but in fact, I didn’t feel like the discussion ruined anything for me.  I still felt pretty surprised by what went on.  And when I read the Endnote, the floodgates opened, and I had myself a good cry.

Moloka’i is, God strike me dead, an amazing book that Lesley may have been right about.  Hey, it was bound to happen sooner or later!!!  I did tend to skim the Hawai'ian folk lore sections and the mythology, but I loved reading the character’s reactions to modern inventions like airplanes and movies when they were brought to Moloka’i.  This was a great book and I highly recommend it.  Just have a box of tissues handy at the beginning and the end.  Five Stars on GoodReads.com

Book Challenges:

This book  counts as a “Bad Blogger” book for the Twenty-Ten Challenge and as my Place Name book for the What's In a Name challenge.  I need to read 2 more for WIAN? and 5 more for Twenty-Ten.  Woo hoo!

Ready for a Break

This past two months has been tiring with all the business going on with my arm, but the past several weeks have been a nightmare of activity!!! 

Tonight, I am sitting in the basement coloring in price tags so they’re the correct color for the upcoming consignment sale at which I plan to sell of a bunch of baby clothes that either got dumped here in May or else were Leah’s.  So I spent last night sorting clothes and today Cindy came over and we re-sorted and tagged most of it.  Since she’s left, I’ve gotten all but the 0-3 month clothes tagged and bagged.  Which means as soon as I think I’m done, I’ll find stuff I missed.

This week we had a lot of appointments.  Penny had 2 events at school plus a meeting with her AFS liaison, and I had 3 medical appointments for my arm.  After my last orthopedist appointment on Thursday, I noticed Leah had developed some sort of rash around her mouth and wound up taking her to the doctor.  Fortunately, she is fine and has nothing more than a bad cold.  Unfortunately, she has shared the cold with her big sister, so now both girls are miserable and stuck in bed.  Happily, on my own health front, I have completed physical therapy successfully (and made a new friend in the process!) and have been discharged from the orthopedist.  I am allowed to lift up to 30 pounds and drive again (little did they know!).  The risk of re-dislocating my elbow is slim to none.  It would have to be another gross act of stupidity on my part.  So that’s a huge relief to know, although I am not terribly graceful so it’s possible I could do something else idiotic at any moment!

All this week, The Chief has been taking a class up at Quantico.  He has had to go in early, which means he has had to take the train, which means I’ve had to get up early to drive over there.  I thought today would be the last day, but unfortunately for me, his regular driver will be on a much-deserved vacation until Wednesday, so Tuesday, which is Penny’s first day of school and Leah’s first day of school (I’ve signed her up for Toddlin’ Time, a local music and exercise Mommy N Me program here in town), I also have to squeeze in a ride to and from the train station.

Housekeeping, needless to say, has fallen by the wayside.  I managed to get the rabbit cleaned out this week and I cleaned out the fridge.  Other than that: nothing.  Which means I have a lot of catching up I need to do. 

Recently, a link to The Introvert's Corner appeared on a new friend’s Facebook page.  I read over a lot of it, and really related to the idea that my energy comes from internally, meaning I need time to myself to recharge my batteries and be the best me I can be.  Keeping up with my family has not afforded me much opportunity to do so!  I admit, I am loving every minute of having Penny here, and I do think I’m going to feel a little bit (ok, a lot bit) lost come Tuesday when she boards the big yellow school bus and heads off to school.  But I am looking forward to getting Leah back on a schedule that allows me to have an hour or two each day to myself.  I am exhausted.

It’s funny, but all this has turned my thoughts towards family and expansion.  I have 3 friends right now who are pregnant and expecting early next year.  2 of them already have young children at home, and 2 of their children are not much older than Leah is.  And I’ll be honest, there is nothing in this world that could entice me right now to take on a newborn.  I think, “My God, you must be crazy!”  Leah is at a stage right now where she does not give a damn about toys or TV.  There are 3 things in the world that make her happy:  running through the house in her shoes, playing with buckets of water on the back porch, and taking walks around the neighborhood.  Period.  The idea that I could go back to getting up every 2 hours with a newborn and then have to chase around an extremely active toddler all day appeals to me not one bit.

Not to mention the fact that The Chief has been busily applying for jobs in the DC area and informed me that if he gets one, I’ll have to take him to the train every morning.  Thus did I immediately think of Steve Martin in the movie Parenthood when he utters the phrase, “My whole life is have to”.

My neighbor Lisa and I were walking today with the kids and talking about how everyone is asking about the long weekend and who’s doing what, and how every day and every weekend is the exact same to us, and what would we even dream of doing with a 3 day weekend.  I would check into a hotel on a beach, someplace warm and sunny.  In the morning, I’d get up and have my nice continental breakfast, go change into a swimsuit and shorts, grab a book, sit by the water and pretend to read while I actually slept for about 3 hours, during which time someone else would clean up my living space.  Then I’d get up and have a nice lunch somewhere nearby that I didn’t have to drive to, head back to my newly clean room and fall asleep for another 4 or 5 hours, get up, walk somewhere else for dinner, head down to the beach, call a friend or family member, and then go up and sleep some more.  I would probably feel incredibly guilty the entire time, but I’d do it.

Anyway, I think all this fatigue and chasing and food in my hair and the actual work of parenting, which you don’t really believe in until your baby is here, has helped assuage some of my ongoing feelings of grief over our infertility.  Or at least I no longer think “WHYYYYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!” when I hear someone else is expecting.  I think, “Sucker!” :-D  But I would not trade either my toddler or my teen for all the tea in China.  I love them both dearly.

So now I am going back up to the living room to finish sorting and tagging and then will hit the hay.  Tomorrow is another weigh in and the farmers market and then I might just put The Chief in charge while I take a long nap.  Have I always had this history of biting off more than I can chew, but managing to get it done anyway?  Don’t answer that! :-D

Slow Updates

There hasn’t been much to blog about lately, but I’ve been deleting blogs if they haven’t been updated, so I guess I should update mine…

Let’s see.  Of course the big news is that I am now parenting a teen and a toddler.  I have not had a whole lot of teenager trouble yet.  Every day, we find Penny more and more fun and enjoyable.  She has blossomed in our home and her personality is shining through more and more.

I turned 35 yesterday.  I felt like I should sit down and think about what I’d like to accomplish this coming year, but nothing comes to mind.  Either I have no goals or I have no life or I have no vision.  I’m not sure.  Most of my focus these days is on getting through the day I am living. 

Leah is in a very challenging phase.  She wants to be the total center of attention, she is teething (molar number 3 popped through the other day), and she does not yet know how to entertain herself for so much as 2 minutes.  All the structure and order I had pre-elbow is out the window.  We had a nice routine going.  Now, however, chaos reigns.  I’m too tired to fight it.  As soon as we get Penny off to school in 2 weeks, I’ll be back in charge and I will hopefully get back into some sort of routine.  Next Monday there is an open house at a place called Toddlin’ Time here in Old Town, and I am going with my neighbor.  We are both planning to enroll our kids in the once weekly classes, providing it looks like something they will enjoy.  I think Leah will enjoy having an hour of exercise and music and fun time with Mom, and it will get her used to being around other kids in a structured environment.  This time next year, I plan to have her preparing for part time day care/pre-school type of a thing, two days per week.  Everyone will take her once she is 2 1/2, and I think it’s important that she go and socialize and learn, especially in the absence of siblings.  She is pretty easy going, but she is still fairly young, so maybe she’ll be a little more Leah-centric and mean about it in a few months.  I hope not.  All she is right now is fun and funny.  Or at least, that’s my opinion of her as her mother!

I haven’t done much reading lately.  I need to read Molokai and soon, but I can’t really get into it.  It’s already too heart wrenching and I’m only to the part where Rachel’s sores are developing.  The idea of a little girl being ripped from her family is killing me, as is the slow build up of the story.

So that’s about it.  I’ll update more later as I think of things to talk about! :-)  I want to keep it interesting!

The People of Wal-Mart

Yesterday, I ventured out to Wal-Mart for a little bit.  I seem to be spending a lot of time over there because it is close to the house, so I feel safe driving there, it is big, and there are lots of things that Leah likes to look at there (especially the fish).

We were checking out so we could bring home dinner to The General, and I was trying to keep Leah entertained, as she was attempting to stand up in the cart and was squealing.  The lady ahead of me had loaded her stuff onto the belt and her two sons were bagging on the other end.  She was kind of staring at me, but frankly between the brace and the daughter-of-a-different-color, I’ve gotten used to people staring at me and I tend to ignore it.  But this lady decided to talk to me.

“What’s that thing on your arm?” she asked.  Now, I have had a bunch of kids ask me this at the play park, but not too many adults.  So I explained that I had dislocated my elbow and that the brace was to keep my elbow from coming back apart.  She said that she had suffered a serious elbow injury several years ago and she knew what a pain in the butt it was to deal with.  And then she said, “So, we are going to help you out.”

I really didn’t know what she meant exactly, but she started by saying that she would put our goodies up on the belt.  I thanked her profusely.  Once she had everything up on the belt, she asked how I was managing, my prognosis, and how long I’d have to wear the brace.  I told her I was doing better than expected and hoped to have the brace off a month early, but that it was still slow going.

She responded by telling her son to bag our stuff and make sure it got in the cart.  Then she said to me, “Make sure you pay this forward someday when you have two arms.”  So I assured her I would, and then she said, “Ok, my son will make sure you get your car loaded up safely.”

She left with her other son, and the one who was helping did indeed bag and put everything in the cart and get us out to the car. 

I have no idea who the heck this woman was, her name, her son’s name, nothing, but I will never forget her.  It was one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me. 

Cleaning up the Blog Roll

I plan to clean up my blog roll and side bar here in the next couple of days.  If you haven’t blogged in the past month or two, I will delete your blog unless you suggest I shouldn’t! :-)  I feel the need to clean things up everywhere!!!

Book Reviews

I have gotten a LOT of reading done lately.  I think it’s because A) I can’t sleep with this stupid brace on and B) I have happened to pick up some really compelling books as my reading selections. 

I am continuing to chip away at my reading challenges.  This past week, I read 2 young adult novels, both of which count towards different reading challenges, and 2 adult fiction books.

First, I read Laura Wiess’s Leftovers.  I had read Laura’s book Such a Pretty Girl quite some time ago (maybe 2 years?) and loved it, so I was excited to read Leftovers.  I got a copy on PBS and then I got very nervous, since people scrawled some rather uncomplimentary reviews about the ending in the inside front cover.  Still, it was important that I read it since I needed a book for the What’s in a Name challenge that had a food in the title.  This was my selection!

Leftovers tells the tale of Ardith and Blair, two girls trapped in families that seem to have abandoned them for totally different reasons.  Ardith’s parents are aging hippies who never left the drug and alcohol scene and whose son is following in their wasted footsteps.  Ardith copes by being a straight arrow, excelling in school, keeping her nose clean, all in a quest to someday become a podiatrist.  Blair, meanwhile, is being overshadowed by a mother who’s career as an attorney and ambition to become a judge cause her to completely change her family’s life, abandoning home, a beloved dog, and even her marriage in search for a seat on the bench.  Blair’s friendship with Ardith is a lifeline in a sea of change, until her mother attempts to even undermine that.  Ardith and Blair manage to stick together in the face of a number of bad situations and survive their family crises by sticking close.

I loved reading this book.  I loved how it ended and how the girls manage to resolve their family issues to their own satisfaction.  Of course, it was so calculating that I was also glad neither was my daughter, but I genuinely felt for both girls and wanted both of them to succeed.  The book bounces between Ardith and Blair as they both tell their story to a mutual friend.  At the end you find out exactly who that person is and why they do what they did.  It was really a great read, and I had a very difficult time putting it down.  I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

The other YA book I read this month is Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere.  Again, several years ago, I read Zevin’s book Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, which I greatly enjoyed.  I got Elsewhere via PBS some time ago, and just put it aside as one of those things I would get there.  I decided to read it as a selection for the Twenty-Ten challenge as my second Young Adult book choice (the first was Maureen Johnson’s 13 Little Blue Envelopes).

Elsewhere is the story of Lizzie, a fifteen-year-old girl who wakes up to find herself on a cruise ship, dressed in white pajamas.  She discovers that she was in fact the victim of a hit and run accident on earth and has died, and the ship is taking her to “Elsewhere”, where all the dead go.  In Elsewhere, she is met by her grandmother, Betty, a woman she never met, as Betty died before Lizzie was ever born.  In Elsewhere, everyone ages backwards until they are again an infant, and then they are sent back to Earth to live another life.

The story chronicles Lizzie’s struggle to acclimate to life after death, missing her family and friends, coming to grips with what has happened to her, missing out on things like getting her driver’s license, and yet still learning of the opportunities to reach her potential in the afterlife.

This was another book that I had a real hard time putting down.  I only gave it 3 stars on GoodReads, because I didn’t feel it was a great read, but it was definitely a good, solid read.  I related to Lizzie’s struggles and could see myself making similar choices (for instance, spending a lot of time at the Observatory, where you can witness your loved ones back on Earth).  There was so much to love about the characters that Lizzie encountered as well, from Thandi, her cruise ship bunk mate, a tough cookie from DC who had been shot in the head, Owen, the man of her dreams who ages backwards at a near rate that Lizzie does, and Curtis, a rock star who has died of a drug overdose and becomes a kind of guru to Lizzie when she needs guidance and advice.

Eventually, as is no surprise, Lizzie ages backwards far enough to be returned to Earth as an infant, and I shed some tears as her grandmother lovingly lets her granddaughter go.  If Heaven is like Elsewhere, I suppose we could do a lot worse.

Turning to adult fiction, the first book I read was Elizabeth Berg’s Never Change. Elizabeth Berg is an author I absolutely love, but I read her books rather sparingly as I find that they tend to cause me to weep rather hysterically.  I have read Talk Before Sleep exactly once, and I dare not read it again, as it just wiped me out.  I figured Never Change would be similar.  It follows the story of Myra Lipinsky, a visiting nurse who is suddenly assigned to care for Chip Reardon, her high school crush, who has chosen to forgo treatment for a brain tumor.  Myra was a quiet and reserved student and while Chip spoke to her once, she always admired him from afar.  She does not know what to make of their being thrown together, and becomes even more confused as their nurse-patient relationship develops into friendship.

Chip decides to spend much of his time reading.  He wants to learn about things and spends hours in the library, hoping to cram in as much knowledge as he can before he dies, although he recognizes the futility of being able to learn everything there is to know.  He and Myra discuss books and literature often.  I mention this as I am going to count this book towards the BBC challenge. :-)    Back earlier in the month when I had my scare with the blood clot in my arm, I spent my time reading books, and I even had the thought that if I knew it was time for me to go, I supposed I would spend my time reading my favorite books and feeling great comfort in being surrounded by stories and characters that I love.  Consequently, while this book did not touch me in a way that most of Berg’s previous titles did, I cannot deny that it was a book that impacted me on that level.

This book to me felt like Berg was trying to cram in a lot of thoughts about life and death that she felt were profound and would make a good book.  I thought the story of Myra emerging from her emotional cocoon into a world brightened by Chip’s friendship was a great one, and the story of Chip’s choice to end his life on his own terms was also compelling, but I could have done without the pontificating on life and death.  I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads.  It was Ok, but I didn’t totally love it.  This also counts as a Win! Win! on The Twenty Ten Challenge, since I am counting it towards the BBC Challenge as well.

Finally, I read the book When Katie Wakes by Connie May Fowler.  This is the true story of Fowler’s life lived under near constant abuse at the hands first of her mother and then of her abusive boyfriend.  Fowler was a young woman living in Florida and working as a bartender at a Bennigan’s after graduating with a degree in English.  She lives in near constant fear after meeting the man at her bar.  He talks her into the idea that only he can help her meet her potential as a writer, and that together they can take over the world and write amazing things together.

In fact, the man physically and mentally abuses Connie for years.  He drains her of her finances, what little self esteem she had, and constantly has her in fear for her life.  What keeps her sane is the love of her dog, Katie, and her emerging career working for a magazine.  She adopts Katie as a wormy and neglected puppy, and brings her home, against the wishes of the man she is with (he is never given a name, although often she writes as if she is speaking to him directly “You don’t come home” etc).  One night when the man gets particularly violent with her, Connie barricades herself in her bedroom with Katie, and they listen in terror while this man rages until he finally falls asleep.  That night, Connie makes the decision to leave him “when Katie wakes” up.

I learned so much from reading this book.  Often those of us who have not been in such a situation ask, “Why doesn’t she just leave him?” but the cycle is so much more complex than that.  I appreciated Fowler’s bravery in sharing her story so that others may find the courage to leave or that they may understand and perhaps help those attempting to leave as well.

I am also going to count this book towards the BBC Challenge, as Connie writes of her love of books and writing and how that helped her through many difficult times with this man.  I was inspired to think of the books that have helped me through challenges in life, and I was able to name quite a few.  I have spent much of my current convalescence deeply enthralled by these books and others.  Reading is great escapism for those of us who occasionally need it!  I am also counting it as a charity book for the TwentyTen Challenge, as I picked this up in a library’s used book store.  And four stars on GoodReads, although I could probably have easily given it 5.

So, if you’re keeping track of my reading challenges, here’s my latest tally on the Twenty-Ten Challenge:

Young Adult:
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnston
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

TBR:
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

New in 2010:
Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

Shiny and New:
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine

Bad Bloggers
(None yet)

Charity
When Katie Wakes by Connie May Fowler

Older Than You:
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susanne

Win! Win!
Secrets from the Vinyl Café by Stuart McLean
Never Change by Elizabeth Berg

“Who Are You Again?”
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Riegler
The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian

Up to You!
Crackhouse by Terry Williams
Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin

14/20 down!

BBC Challenge:

Ruined by Reading (Lynne Sharon Schwartz)
Confessions of a Jane Austin Addict and Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict (both by Laurie Viera Riegler)
Places I Never Meant to Be (Judy Blume, Editor)
When Katie Wakes (Connie May Fowler)
Never Change (Elizabeth Berg)

At six books, I am officially a Lit Lover.  I don’t know if I will make it to Bibliomaniac, but I am still hopeful!

What’s In A Name Challenge

Body of Water:  Your Oasis on Flame Lake (Lorna Landvik)
Food: Leftovers (Laura Wiess)
Music: Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe (Stuart McLean)
Place Name:
Plant:
Title:

Three books to go!!

I am abandoning ship on the British authors challenge, as I haven’t managed a single one yet.  C’est la vie!  Life gets in the way!

I have only managed to read 28 books total this year, and since I read 4 of them in the past 2 weeks, that’s kind of scary!!!  But I’m plugging away and we’ll see what happens.  I’m not exactly sitting on my rear end!

Exchange Student Blogging

AFS has suggested that host families and exchange students both blog about their year together. I've decided to do it. Since I've fallen apart on the weight loss blog (although still going!) and the 80 Plates blog (still dreaming about finishing it!), I think it will be fun and interesting for people to read our experience with our Thai student.

I'm trying to think of a catchy title. I wanted to sneak in the word Thai somehow.

All of I've thought of thus far are:

The Thais that Bind
Family Thai(s)
Thai and Dry

Not ideal. Not in the least. Haha

Anyone out there have any suggestions?

Also, if anyone out there is interested in hosting, AFS is desperately seeking families for 1200 students arriving in less than a month. AFS is an awesome organization with lots of family and student support. There is no fee to host, only that you must be willing to provide the student a bed (they may share a room with a same sex sibling) and meals, and to include them 100% as a member of your family. AFS provides health insurance and the students come with their own spending money for school activities, etc. Go to www.afsusa.org to fill out an interest indicator.

Two Book Reviews

I have read more this week than I’ve read in a good while.  I’m still reading!  It has been a great way to keep my mind off things going on with my health and whatnot.  Consequently, I have completed two more challenge books. 

The first book is for the Twenty Ten Challenge’s New in 2010 category.  I was so excited to find out Janet Evanovich had a new book coming out and when I saw Sizzling Sixteen at Target for 30% off, I had to have it.  I was really excited to see what would happen to Vinnie (as the casting news rolls in from the movie, I keep hoping and praying they get Steve Buscemi to be Vinnie—he’d be PERFECT), and to of course get more of the Ranger/Morelli love triangle. 

While I am of the opinion that the book itself was fine and the story moved along nicely and contained a decent mystery, it lacked something quintessentially Plum for me.  I didn’t laugh out loud.  I am so bummed that Lula and Tank seem to have completely forgotten the other one exists.  Even Mooner’s entrance, which is usually enough to get any of the Plum books going, didn’t do a thing for me.  I read through it in less than 2 days and enjoyed it well enough, but I just didn’t love it.  3 Stars on GoodReads, and here’s hoping #17 delivers.  I am presently working on the new Miss Julia book by Ann Ross, but it seems to have gotten misplaced by someone who has been in or out cleaning the house at some point or other in the past 2 1/2 weeks.  I know where the cover is, and that’s as good as it gets.  I will find it, however.

On the other hand, I was thrilled to receive an email from Paperback Swap (PBS) that a copy of Stuart McLean’s Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe was winging its way towards me.  The Vinyl Cafe books have become beloved favorites of mine, right up there with Philip Gulley’s Harmony.  This edition of stories was no exception.  From the hilarious illustrations on the covers (inside and out), to the fun cartoon strips inside, to the many stories included, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe had me absolutely weeping with the first story about Dave’s mom and laughing out loud  when 11-year-old Sam thinks his mother has become a shoplifter and he is the only one in his family who is walking the straight line.

Dave, the owner of the Vinyl Cafe, is a kind of Everyman who gets himself into trouble for doing the craziest things.  He always has good intentions, but things always go terribly wrong.  I love Dave as a character most of all.

But Dave’s family is not the only one showcased in the book.  Many beloved characters from previous books make an appearance here as well.  Carl of the Breadstarter, Kenny Wong of the Scottish Meatpie restaurant, and more all show up to lend hilarity and gravitas as warranted.  I gave this one 5 Stars for evoking sheer joy and emotion from this reader.  If you haven’t read this one, you surely should.

As for the reading challenges, I am counting this one towards the What's In a Name 3 challenge as a title with a musical term in it.  Vinyl refers to vinyl records, which Dave sells in his Vinyl Cafe.  I’m also counting it in the Twenty-Ten Challenge’s Win Win section for a book I used to complete another challenge!  I’m whipping right along again. :-)  Let’s hope I can keep some momentum going.

The Saga of the Blood Clot

Ok, so this whole blood clot thing has been a nightmare!  Seriously, yesterday, I was mentally composing my will and letters to my loved ones on the off-chance that something horrible was going to happen.  I am very pessimistic about my health in general, so it was quite upsetting to find out what was going on and then not get any answers for 3 days.

I first discovered the clot last weekend.  I was taking the FrankenBrace off and looking at the bruising, which has faded to a lovely yellow, and the swelling, which is significantly decreased from where it was, when I noticed a weird lump in my arm.  At first, I figured it was just from where the two halves of the brace come together—maybe my arm was getting pinched or something—but it was rock hard and extremely painful to the touch.  Then I started thinking that maybe all the muscles I had messed up were all kind of curled up in there like a ball of rubber bands.  This did not especially cheer me since I figured if that was the case, they’d probably all die and I’d lose my arm.  I figured I’d be the first person in history to fall off a chair and require an amputation (see?  Pessimism!)

I had Michael feel it, and we made the joint decision to call the doctor on Monday.  I have still been sleeping A LOT, so when I woke up Monday afternoon, I put in a call to the ortho clinic first thing and they said Joe would call me back in a bit.  Joe didn’t, but the receptionist did and said that he wanted to see me first thing in the morning, was 8:50 OK?  Ok, now I’m all in a fluster about what this could possibly be, and it’s clearly something awful since they want to see me right away. 

We got to the clinic early, and Joe messed with the brace some and asked me how I was managing with it (“The word ‘hate’ comes to mind, Joe.  Never before have I blown $300 on something I have hated as much as this brace".”).  Then I showed him how the spot was right were the two parts of the brace came together and he felt around and said, “That’s a blood clot.  We need an ultrasound.” 

Immediately images flooded my head of death and dismemberment.  All I could think of was of the clot breaking up and going to my heart.  I’ve since learned lungs and stroke are likely victims too, even more fun things to worry about!  So the nurse came in and asked when they could schedule it and I said any damned time they liked, let’s get it done!  I gave her my cell phone number and we left. 

And waited.  She didn’t call for several hours.  To the point that I said to Sherry that I though I must have given them the wrong phone number and I called the clinic back and gave them my number again (these people are going to hate me!).  The nurse called back and told me that they would see me for the ultrasound at 6pm in Lee’s Hill.  I got Sherry to agree to come back and watch Leah since Victoria had choir practice, and then my neighbor Jack agreed to drive me down to the imaging center.

The ultrasound itself was really no big deal other than to someone who is extremely ticklish like I am, it was torture attempting to keep still.  It took a while, maybe 30 minutes or so, but the tech was very nice and pointed out the veins and crap on the monitor.  Proof that I have them and all :-)  Then I started getting concerned that he hadn’t looked at the clot, so when I sat up, I showed him where it was in case he had forgotten anything.  He politely pushed me out of the room, saying the doctor would send his report over to the clinic and that would be that.

So I waited and waited, praying.  Seriously, I was sure this was the end.  I played with Leah as much as I was able and then plucked out my favorite books and ice cream and read and tried to keep calm. My mother, intercepting my tearful phone calls, can attest to the fact I was largely unsuccessful.  I started planning cleaning some things out so my crap would be easier to get rid of, thinking about how Michael would manage with Leah, being in a deep despair that she would never remember me and what I should leave behind for her (video, letter, etc).  I mean, I was in a full blown panic. 

Finally, I couldn’t take it any more and called over to the clinic to get the word.  No word, since Joe was gone for the day, but the nurse assured me he’d call in the morning.  Another night’s restless sleep full of handwringing, although I found a killer app on my iPod called Chop Sushi.  I think it’s free and it is totally addicting!!!  Also, for 99 cents, you can do worse than Cake Doodler, especially if you like to do cake decorating!  This morning I was downstairs with Leah when Sherry arrived and she kept me good company until about 9:30 when fatigue from being up at 4:00 overtook me.  I went upstairs and about 15 minutes later, Joe called and said the clot was not in my veins, it was in the soft tissue of my arm and I just needed to take anti-inflammatories and ice it.  He asked about my pain, and for some reason, today my arm is KILLING me, so I told him about that and he gave me some advice about that as well.  I mean, we are talking about I was considering taking a Vicodin, even though I haven’t taken one in a week. 

I called my mom and dad and sister and texted everyone and Facebooked the good news.  I felt like Scrooge waking up on Christmas morning, “I will keep the spirit of Christmas in my heart always!”  I was just elated.  It was such a relief, I can’t even describe how happy I am still, just to be alive.  I felt like a ticking time bomb for a while there.

Just as I was settling in, Sherry hollered up to me that Leah was walking, so I hightailed it downstairs and watched her take 3 steps in a row.  I got all teary eyed all over again!  Then I took some video of the knee bounce and then went back upstairs.  I fell asleep around 11:00 and didn’t wake up till 3:15, by which point Victoria was back and taking Leah out to swim in the pool.

I am so appreciative of everyone’s support and well wishes and prayers.  I am so glad that God has decided I have some more living to do!!!  :-)  Life is beautiful…  I’m going to go sit with my hubby now.

How Can I Help?

I have been really touched by the number of people expressing their desire to help us out during my convalescence.  We have been so appreciative!

Right now we are in pretty good shape, truthfully.  My dad is keeping our bellies full and keeping me on the road as needed.  I am in a panic about next week, however!!!  My dad is going home on the 11th or 12th and will not be back till the following Sunday or Monday.

Right now, my list of can’t’s is quite long.  I can’t drive.  I can’t open jars and other containers.  I can’t change diapers.  I can’t lift Leah in and out of her bed or high chair or get her dressed.  I can’t get myself dressed.  Cooking takes forever.  And I’m not even doing serious cooking.  But I attempted to chop up onions tonight and nearly removed my thumb!  Simple tasks either take forever or are impossible.

The other thing is that I am in such pain and so worn out that I am basically sleeping 4-6 hours per day.  It is really the only effective pain relief I get.  We were laughing today, I had to fill out the paperwork for PT and the question was “What positions aggravate your pain?”  I wrote, “Standing, sitting, or laying down.”  That basically covers it.

I am learning more and more how to do things each day.  I have managed to change Leah’s diaper once so far.  I have a few plans in place as far as getting Leah’s bottles ready in advance so that I don’t have to mess with the tops and stuff—Michael will have to help me unscrew and wash them at night.  I am able to grill, so we will have that available.

As I think I mentioned, the young lady out back is available to babysit in the afternoons, but not in the mornings, so if anyone has a morning they can sacrifice even once just to help me get Leah up and changed and downstairs safely, that would be a huge help.

I will go to PT for the first time on Friday and will find out then how often I need to go weekly.  Next week I will need a ride to all my PT sessions.  I will be trying to make them in the afternoon when I have the babysitter so that it is literally me hopping in your car and going to PT, which is less than 2 miles certainly and probably only a mile from my house in the Chatham Square Office Park.  I can’t guarantee they’ll have afternoon availability but I am going to try.  You can either wait or come back for me depending on what’s easiest (there’s a McDonald’s with a playplace right next door).  I am told that PT on a dislocated elbow is especially grueling, so I am very nervous about the process and about coming home to my very active little one afterwards, but it sounds like I might only go twice a week to start. We’ll just have to see what’s in store!

Amanda set up a meal schedule for people to bring us meals.  If you are able to have a pizza or subs or Chinese delivered, even if you can’t bring a home cooked meal yourself, it will be a huge help.  Visit www.takethemameal.com and do a search for “Mike and Susan” in the last name box with a password of 0408.  You can pick a day to bring us dinner or have it delivered to us.  We REALLY appreciate those who have signed up and/or brought us something already. 

Leah has a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday, July 13 at 10AM (I think—I need to confirm that!) over near Mary Washington Hospital.  We need transportation to and from the appointment.  She will be getting shots, so beware :)  We can take my car or yours, depending on what’s easiest.

Finally, we just need someone to call in case of emergencies—we ran out of Leah’s milk, we need to get a prescription, the house is on fire, that kind of thing.  We are going to stock up on groceries and hopefully make it through with whatever we can, plus whatever help we are offered.  We really appreciate it very much!

I hope I don’t sound like I’m begging or demanding.  So many people have asked that I just thought it would be easier to make a central list.  Again, Mike, my dad, and I all appreciate the love and support we’ve already been given, and i don’t know how to say thank you enough!!!  Thanks for reading and thanks in advance if you offer to help with our further needs.

Elbow of Doom…

Ok, so here’s how it all went down…

This past weekend was tremendously busy.  We had tons of people over to help wire up the general’s office, move furniture, put Penny’s furniture together, etc.  I mean, we were hopping!  Trips to Home Depot, running around to find tools, calling neighbors, kids running, it was a scene! 

By Monday, all the furniture was where it needed to be, the computers were back up and running, and I had had quite enough of painting for a while.  So my neighbor called around 9:30 to see if I wanted to take the kids over to the pool and to have a picnic.  I thought that sounded like a great idea.  When we hung up, I decided that it would really make me happy to come home and have all of my part of the chores done, meaning I could just hang up The General’s flag, posters, awards, pictures, etc. and be done with it.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know where the step ladder had gotten to.  It hadn’t been put away, it wasn’t in the office or any of the rooms it had been used in.  I was feeling impatient, though, so I decided to just go ahead and use The General’s office chair.  You know, the one that tilts. And swivels. 

I grabbed my staple gun and the big US flag and climbed up there.  The first staple, no problem.  Leah thought this looked like great fun, so she sat right under the chair to watch.  I started lining up the flag for the second staple, and something went wrong.  The chair tilted and swiveled at the same time, and I just remember thinking, “don’t land on the baby” a split second before I mercifully crashed to the floor and avoided her. 

Pain rocketed through my arm and Leah started screaming.  I sat up and I knew I was in trouble.  I could not see the bottom half of my arm at all.  From my elbow on, it was gone.  I pulled my shoulder around and my arm flopped into sight, hanging loose like a floppy noodle.  I knew I had to get the phone from up on the desk, but i thought I had broken my arm.  Still, I leaned on the arm anyway, and it must have snapped back into place at that point.  I called 911 and they said they would send over paramedics.

Unfortunately I didn’t know The General’s new number at work, so I had to go find my cell phone, and when I dialed it went straight to voice mail.  I left him a tearful message, hung up, and called Melissa and told her I needed help.  She said she’d be right down to get Leah and would meet us at the hospital.  In an attempt to keep calm, I tried to call Lisa back and my mom, but then my cell rang and it was The General.  He told me he had called Lisa and she was coming to get Leah.  He was getting a ride and would meet me at the hospital as well.  I sat down in the living room and pretty soon a fire truck roared up.  I thought, “No way in hell am I riding to the hospital on top of a fire truck.”  Lisa roars in, the ambulance right behind her, and I’m yelling to the firemen to come in while Lisa is screaming to them that the back door is always open and pulling her son, clad only in a diaper, to get Leah.

Somehow, the paramedics had been informed that I had ripped my arm off, which is why they sent the fire truck, apparently.  The first fireman in was a left arm amputee, and that’s when I really started flipping out.  No sooner had Lisa gotten in than they stood me up and walked me out to the stretcher and loaded me into the ambulance.  I was hyperventilating and they kept asking me the same questions over and over and telling me to calm down, which I couldn’t.  Finally they decide to run an IV, which given my fear of needles was not going to go well.  The EMT kept telling me not to hold my breath, why was I so upset, but until she injected the morphine and strapped an oxygen mask to my face, I could not settle down.

Melissa got to the hospital no more than 10 minutes after I did and sat with me before and after the x-rays.  It got to the point that she could answer the questions as well as I could.  The answers were basically:

1.  No, I cannot possibly be pregnant.
2.  My birthday is 8.23.xx
3.  I fell off a chair.

The General arrived and then Dr. S came in.  He offered me some more pain meds, so I just asked for Tylenol.  Of course, just like with my leg, the meds never came until the bitter end.  Finally Dr. S came back and told me the x-rays were clear and I had probably just sprained it.  Here’s 20 Vicodin, you’ll be better in a week.

Now I knew damned good and well I hadn’t just sprained it, so I told Melissa to get me an appointment with Sunshine.  She got on her iPhone and found OSC but her phone wouldn’t dial out, so she used The General’s phone and made the call.  They weren’t able to see me till Wednesday, but we got an appointment with Joe Gowaty, who had helped me with my knee a couple of years ago, so I was happy with that.

I told Melissa I wanted some chicken mcnuggets, so we went through discharge, she dropped me home, and she and Mike headed out to get the Vicodin and the mcnuggets.  Lisa was upstairs with the little ones, so i went up there and let her know I was home.  She helped me into bed, and Leah snuggled right up to me and wouldn’t leave my side.  Daniel kept running around entertaining us and Melissa arrived with my nuggets.  I fed the fries to the babies and then Melissa and Mike got back with the meds, so Lisa felt free to go home.  I popped a couple pills and Melissa offered to take Leah home with her for the night, so I agreed.  I talked to both my parents, and my dad said he’d be down the next day, so Melissa said she’d keep Leah till Dad got here.  I passed out cold.

I remember very little about the next couple of days.  I remember Melissa coming back and my dad arriving and all of us eating Chinese food.  Wednesday morning, we dropped Leah off with Lisa and went to see Joe.  He had reviewed the x-rays and agreed that I hadn’t broken anything but listened while I explained exactly what happened and said it sounded like a dislocation, but that he’d need an MRI to be sure.  He also didn’t like the sling from the ER and prescribed a hinged elbow brace.  OSC made the appointment for the MRI that afternoon, and Dad and I went and got Leah and did the grocery shopping.  Melissa came down again to watch Leah so we could do the tests and we headed to the hospital.

Apart from the pain of getting my arm up over my head, the MRI wasn’t bad.  It was very noisy, but not bad.  When I got out, we decided to go see about the brace.  The pharmacy at the hospital directed us to Homecare America, which directed us to an orthotics fitter in Old Town (Mobility Prosthetics and Orthotics on Caroline Street).  We went and met with a guy named Donnie, who gave me the bad news that our insurance had a $300 deductible on the brace that I’d have to pay up front.  I told him I would rather meet with Joe again to discuss the MRI results.

Friday I went back to Joe for a final assessment.  It was bad news:  every last tendon, etc. holding my elbow and thus two halves of my arm together is torn.  Consequently, my elbow can dislocate itself again at any time.  This is the real reason, Joe told me, that I need the hinged brace.  It will hold my arm in place, giving everything a chance to heal itself.  I asked if I was allowed to drive, and I am not for at least a month.  If I were a professional athlete, I’d be a surgery candidate, but I am not.  As such, the don’t expect I will ever gain full extension of my elbow again, but I hope to prove them wrong on that account!  In about 3 months, I should be able to lose the brace. 

So we went back to see Donnie, I ponied up my $300 and got my brace fitted.  It is a monster of a thing, and when we went to the store afterwards, people were falling all over themselves to get out of my way!

I have done a good job keeping things in perspective.  For one thing, for weeks, I have been complaining of exhaustion.  I figure this is God’s way of making me take a break.  We have had to cancel our planned trip to RI and I cannot even think about NYC at this point. 

Secondly, my dad is here.  Considering that we spent half of this year not speaking, this time together now is an extraordinary gift and chance to mend our relationship. 

Third, it’s not my leg or something even more serious.  Yes, the fact is that I am in constant pain.  But unlike last time, I can independently get up and walk around.  I can (mostly) shower without help.  The things I can’t do are tough, I’m not going to lie.  I would love to be able to wrap my arms around my daughter and pick her up.  I’d like to put on a bra by myself!  I’d like to be able to put toothpaste on my toothbrush and chop up a tomato and take the lid off the Tylenol unassisted.  But in 5 days’ time, I regained the movement in my fingers.  I remember I got real depressed when I broke my leg four years ago, and my buddy Joe was visiting.  I was complaining to him about everything I couldn’t do and finally I said, “Why the hell did it have to be a leg?  Why couldn’t it have been something else?”  He replied, “Like what, your neck?”  I gained perspective in an instant.  I am mindful of the fact that i fell flat on my back from 6 feet in the air and all I did was dislocate my elbow.  That’s pretty damned lucky.

Finally, my main concern away from Leah beimg Ok and my own health was being able to sing with my choir on Saturday night.  I was devastated by the possibility that I might not get to perform.  I deliberately took fewer pain medications and slept during the day to conserve energy, but I got to sing with that choir, and I sang with all my heart and a huge lump in my throat.  I was so proud of myself, and I am so grateful to Dad, Mike, Melissa, Andy, Paul, and Kris for coming to share in that moment with me.  Honestly, it was one of the proudest moments of my life, thank you for coming and recognizing how important it was to me.  I was honored to sing for you.

So that’s where things stand.  Tomorrow I will post some answers to the question I am asked most often:  How can I help?  I know that we will need the most help July 12-19 when my dad is up in NY.  I just need to get over to the PT office first before I send up a cry for assistance.  Thanks to all who have asked!!!  I will have answers soon. :-)

Wow...

I got this message in my email from a total stranger today:

You cannot be the person you were meant to be in this world as long as you are operating at a deficit by expending so much of your energy on a destructive person.

The idea of risking my own potential for some else is scary. I've never thought of it like that before.

A Trip Home

So this past weekend we spent in Northern New York for my dad’s retirement bash.  We decided to go up Wednesday night instead of Thursday night, since it is a long drive (550 miles to be exact) to only go for one day.  I picked Michael up at Quantico and we got as far as Winchester before deciding to stop so that Leah could get the screeches out.  We stopped in at SuperWalmart and had dinner at the McDonald’s in there, and picked up a few things we needed for the trip before getting back on the road.  It turned out to be a wise decision since by the time we got back in the car, got gas, and hit I81, it was 7pm, which is Leah’s bed time. She was soon snoring softly in the back seat and we had a pretty good drive.

A voice in my head kept on telling me that I would be able to drive all the way home but I really didn’t want to entirely.  Around midnight, we were in Cortland NY and I was feeling tired, so we decided to stop at a Day’s Inn.  I went in and agreed to pay the rate (despite the fact they tacked on a $5 surcharge for a handicapped accessible room, which is ILLEGAL as hell).  I gathered up my little family and we went into the hotel.  Red flags immediately went up.  There were a bunch of half-naked people loitering in the hallways and the smell of pot was hanging heavy around us.  I tried the swipe card and nothing.  I tried the other swipe card, and we still couldn’t get in.  Leah was soaked and groggy, I was tired and pissed off, and Mike had to pee.  (haha!)  So I went back to the desk and asked to please have the keys reprogrammed.  Went back to the room, and we still couldn’t get in. 

I am ordinarily a calm person, but at 12:30, I was kinda not in the mood, you know?  The potheads were milling about, the TV’s were blaring, the people in the room next door to us had posted a sign on their door that said, “This is not the hang out room tonight” which appeared to have had exactly zero effect on anyone, so I grabbed Mike, we went out to the desk, I put the keys down and said, “There is no way we are staying here.”  The clerk look stunned.  She asked what was wrong and I said between the noise and the drugs, we were not subjecting our infant to that nonsense.  Two of the homies came ambling through at that point and she called out to them, “Hey, are you guys smoking weed in the hallway?”  They replied, “Not in the hallway” and started laughing like Beavis and Butthead. 

The clerk says she doesn’t know how to process our refund, so we need to call the manager in the morning (I’ve called the hotel several times now, no one seems to know anything about it, but Days Inn Corporate is about to get an earful, I can promise you).  We get in the car, I clean up Leah and her seat, and we get driving again.  I said to Mike that we were only about 30 miles from Syracuse, so it was no big deal to get up there and then we could try finding somewhere else to stay over.  By now it was nearly 1AM.  So we drive to Syracuse, and I was thinking about the money we had already paid to the hotel we didn’t stay in and the room we didn’t even get to see and I said to Mike, “Well, it’s only 2 hours home.”  He starts telling me I’m crazy, but I really couldn’t see stopping at that point.  It was all landmarks I knew, which was going to make the trip a lot quicker.  So we just drove home.  We roared in at 3AM, and I had a moment of panic in that I wasn’t sure if my dad would have left the house open or not, but lady luck smiled on me and I was able to get in.  I put Leah on the guest bed for about 30 seconds while I set up her portable crib and the minute she was in that, she was stretched out and snoring.  Mike and I crawled into the big guest bed and passed out.  I don’t think we even said goodnight to each other.  It was 3:30AM.

What seemed like seconds after I fell asleep, all hell broke loose with banging and clanging and crashing coming from the front of the house.  I sit bolt upright in bed.  Michael and Leah slept on undisturbed.  It was 6:30AM.  I knew it was my dad, who is not known for being gentle.  I use the bathroom and then I decide to open the hallway door.  As I do, I hear his chair fly back as he leaps to his feet and I peek around the corner to find him standing behind the dining room table, his fist locked and loaded, ready to lay me flat.  It took him a second to realize who it was and then he just couldn’t believe it.  It was kind of hilarious.

We had some bagels and talked for a while, then Leah got up and then Michael got up.  We were all up by about 8:30.  My dad still wanted to go out to Watertown to do some shopping, but I didn’t feel like getting back in the car, so we let him go.  The three of us spent the morning puttering around the house, napping, and then we drove up around the lake to see what was new in town.  I’m glad I do this every time I go home, since you never know what is going to change.  Right now the hospital is under construction and the way it is now is not the way it looked for all the years I knew it.

We had lunch at the Hillside Diner, where Leah held court and I felt depressed that I didn’t know anyone in town any more, and then we went home and waited for my dad’s call to meet him up in Natural Bridge for ice cream. 

We had a pretty low key day after that—Dad made us his famous meatloaf and mac n cheese for dinner and then he and Michael watched the Mets and the Celtics games while I took a spin through Oswegatchie and went to bed early.  Friday we hung out outside most of the day.  The weather up there was beautiful and I told Dad I was moving up there for a month next summer.  It was so freeing to be outdoors and relaxed.  We had leftovers for lunch out on the back porch and then I got some chicken marinating since I offered to make dinner (grilled chicken). 

After dinner, Judy and her family showed up.  I don’t recall a whole lot else of what happened other than Leah and Dottie got each other wound up and then Leah proceeded to sleep like a champ.  In fact, she has slept through the night since we were up there.  She’s doing an amazing job at sleeping all of a sudden!

Saturday, I was still trying to catch up on sleep.  My dad’s friend Fred came over, but I missed him while I was napping.  Then his friend Bob came to the door and yelled, “Where the hell is George?!”  Dad and I both flew from our respective rooms like we’d been shot.  (No one is too concerned about sleeping babies!)  Dad grilled up some burgers and dogs for lunch and then we enjoyed our afternoon together before Dad headed to mass while we all got ready for the party.

The party itself was a lot of fun.  There were a ton of my old teachers there, some of whom I hadn't seen in years.  Dad gave a nice speech and a few people got up and said some really nice words about him and Bob, who is also retiring.  My dear friend Amy showed up, and I hadn’t seen her in 2 years, so it was cool to catch up.  My godfather, who I don’t recall seeing since I was in high school, was there.  Mrs. Collins, the school librarian, who greatly influenced my love of reading and libraries was there.  It was the greatest feeling.

All of a sudden, the heavens opened.  We got a massive thunderstorm.  There are no thunderstorms like thunderstorms in the Adirondacks.  The volume and fury, just amazing.  I loved it.  Fortunately it also cooled it off since it was a little bit humid up there.  Afterwards, Bob and his family and Amy came by the house for nachos and more celebrating.  I finally went to bed at 10:30ish.

Leah started making noises around 4:30, almost as if she knew we were leaving.  She really started squealing at 5:00, so we decided to get up and pack.  My dad heard us and got up and by 6:05, we were back on the road, heading south.  We were much earlier than planned, we didn’t plan to leave until around 7AM, but we were ready, so we pulled out.  I got kinda misty-eyed leaving, but I found a few treasures to bring back with me, including a book of nursery rhymes that my favorite uncle gave me on my first Christmas.  It is now safely tucked in Leah’s upper book shelves so I may share it with her, which thrills me to no end.

We decided to stop at the Wegman’s in Wilkes-Barre for lunch.  We got there at 10:30.  They were not serving lunch until 11:00, but Leah was a little car weary, so we decided to wait it out.  We got pizza right when it came out of the oven and the girl working the pizza counter could not have been more friendly.  She carried our food to the tables, got us a high chair, and even offered to get our drinks.  So on the way out, we left a comment at the management desk about her superior service.  I hope she gets a nice bonus or something for it.  She was amazing.

We got back in the car around 11:30, got gas and Leah did just great until we hit I66 in Virginia.  Then she started freaking.  I pulled over on the side of the road and fixed her a bottle, but that didn’t work.  She was just over it.  I kept promising her we were almost home and giving her a running count of the miles.  She settled down after we broke into silly songs and making faces at her.  She only freaked for about 20 minutes, so we were good.  We rolled into our driveway at 4:30pm.  I had just enough time to unload, change Leah, fix an extra bottle for her, and hopped back in the car to go on up to choir practice.

My heart was not in it, I must confess.  I swore I would leave early.  I swore I would not sing.  But once I got there, got through the warm ups, and started the rehearsal, I was in my element, exhausted though I was.  8:00 came very quickly, and then I hopped back in the car and roared off to the grocery store to pick up only what I needed to fix Michael’s lunch for Monday.  He called and asked me to grab him some dinner since he hadn’t eaten since 11:00 that morning, so I went through McD’s and got home.

And then the wind went out of my sails.  I had such a bad headache that even though I took extra strength Excedrin, it did nothing to touch it. I had gotten 3 letters from Penny and her mother, so I wanted to email them both back, which I did, but then I just went straight to bed.  I felt sick I was so tired.

Leah slept through the night, thank God, and she didn’t get up till about 7 this morning.  She was back in bed around 9:30 for a nap and I followed shortly thereafter at 10:00 this morning.  I laid there for about 5 minutes thinking, “I’m never going to fall asleep” but lo and behold I did and slept till 12:30.  Finally I felt human again.  We did some grocery shopping and spent some time out in the baby pool before Michael got home and we were able to have dinner and put Leah to bed.  We started reading a book together and now I am going back to bed!  It was an amazing weekend, but we had to be pretty crazy to do that much driving for only a couple of days.  I’m serious about staying up there for a while next summer.  It’ll be nice to have some downtime after Penny leaves and to enjoy some good weather.  Plus I’ll be able to actually visit with people for a while instead of 15 minutes here and there.  We’ll see how next summer shapes up.  If it’s anything like this summer, I haven’t got a prayer!

Barfin’ Arfin

My second selection for the Twenty-Ten Book Challenge’s Up To You section was Lesley Arfin’s Dear Diary.  Last year and the year before, I stumbled upon David Nadelberg’s Mortified books, which were diary entries that he had collected from random people who agreed to have them published.  The Mortified series is a delicious bit of voyeurism, and I fully expected the same from Dear Diary.  Lesley Arfin decided to publish bits and pieces of her diaries from when she was a pre-teen until in her early twenties.  The premise was that she would try to find the people she wrote about and follow up with them after the fact to see what had gone wrong or right in their relationships.  Lesley’s life was one of a self-described “Long Island JAP” (Jewish American Princess) turned heroin addict. 

I was so excited to read this book and so disappointed in what it turned out to be.  A few weeks ago, while browsing in Joseph Beth’s humor section, I came up on the book Look At This F*cking Hipster by Joe Mande.  In the introduction, he writes that his parents would often visit him in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and his father would see people walking down the street and ask his son, “Is that a hipster?”  I read the book and laughed like hell, I had no idea there was a term for the sorts of people that hipsters turn out to be (if you want to know what a hipster looks like, visit Joe’s site at http://www.latfh.com/).

While I was reading Dear Diary, I kept thinking, “Is she a hipster?”  I must have sounded just like Joe’s dad.  And lo and behold, I drew my own conclusions that yes, Lesley Arfin must be a hipster.  Someone who is so desperate to be cool that they revel in their ironic uncoolness until people worship them.

I could say more, but I found a review on Goodreads.com that sums up pretty much everything I could possibly want to say about it.  Credit where it is due, this comes from someone named Mary Maddox, who gave it one star. (I’m excerpting the review down to the most basic points that say everything I hated about the book.)

1.Because Dear Diary is the worst kind of lazy, tin-eared, hackneyed, narcissistic memoir: imagine Dave Eggers's solipsistic obsession for self-chronicling but without the interesting life or the literary chops that make his confessions compelling and readable. Instead, imagine pages from the diary of an entirely unremarkable Long Island teenager/heroin addict followed by "updates" from the entirely unremarkable near-thirty-year-old hipster hanger-on she grew up to be. Now imagine this charade dragging on for a horribly self-indulgent 232 pages. Now try not to gouge out your own eyes.

2.Because peppered lovingly throughout all 232 of these pages— along with many forced allusions to countercultural touchstones, wretchedly written paeans about Arfin’s “passion for writing,” and constant assertions of her apparently sincere belief that this “book” will “change lives”—is the casual ironic racism, sexism, and heterosexism that is a huge part of Vice culture. What’s funny about calling someone a “fag” or a “dyke” for Vice folks, as far as I can gather, is that this shocks well-intentioned, let’s-all-just-get-along type liberals, for whom they have nothing but the most virulent scorn. What Arfin fails to understand is that the average 15-year-old girl in Minnesota, or even one in Long Island, will not grasp the transgressive irony of her incessant gay-bashing and will see it only (and this is perhaps closer to Arfin’s own true motivation) as a way to be cool.

3.Because, by some miracle of astonishing arrogance, Arfin sees herself as a role model and encourages her readers to follow her life path. At the end of her “book,” Arfin opines, “I hope everyone who reads it makes as many mistakes as I did. Just remember that mistakes are only worth it if they get written down in a diary. If you’re lost at sea in your late 20s and you don’t know what to do with your life, maybe you’ll be able to convince someone to publish it.”

Ah, yes, children. She’s right. The surest route to personal fulfillment is to get addicted to heroin, compulsively record your boring, belligerently ignorant observations, and befriend some super-rich douchebags who’ll publish your tripe! But you’d also better be sure that your parents are rich enough to pay for your expensive liberal arts college, send you to rehab twice, and subsidize your kitschily decorated apartment on the lower east side!

I was far too bored to really ponder the half-assed, "J.K.—kind of!" sarcasm with which Arfin qualifies this and other more grandiose claims. I would guess that it functions to absolve her of culpability should some unfortunate teen take her seriously and end up dead in an alley. "J.K., dead dude! Didn't you get that I was being, like, totally ironic?"

Ok, fine, I didn’t excerpt a whole lot of it.  But you can see the discontent this book causes.  Ugh.  My “Up to You!” category was substance abuse, and this is my second entry.  Afrin does devote a lot of her book to describing drugs’ effects on her and her stints in rehab, so good enough.  Anyway, I gave the book 2 stars, only because it was pretty readable—I wanted to see what the heck she was going to say next.  However, I quickly listed the book for swap on PBS, which is where I got it from, and can’t wait to ship it off to its new home.

Thus endeth another review for the TwentyTen Book Challenge.  I am sorely tempted to count this as a BBC selection as technically a diary is a book so it’s a book about a book, but I don’t want to waste a selection on this book! 

Yard Sailing…

Yesterday was our big yard sale.  I’ve been watching a lot of “clean up your house” shows on TV since I’ve been home, and it has really inspired me to clean out the clutter myself.  I had so much junk that I was able to hold a yard sale and invited several others to participate with me.  Yesterday was the big day.

I always feel a bit sad when I put things out for sale, and yesterday was no exception, really.  Looking at Leah’s baby things out there got me all misty-eyed and wistful.  I usually feel quite confident that I’ve put the right things out, but there is always one or two things that I think, “Well, maybe I shouldn’t have done that.”  Nothing has struck me yet, but I’m sure it will.

I took a chance and asked one lady who came over about her hair.  She was African-American and had the most beautiful head of hair, I just loved it.  Leah’s hair continues to be a mystery to me.  It turns out, the woman I spoke to was an adoption social worker at Fairfax County Department of Family Services.  We had the most amazing chat about adoption and hair and it was really life affirming…  She gave me her card and asked me to keep in touch.  I certainly shall!

After we took most of the valuable stuff back in the house, I posted our left overs on Craig’s List and Freecycle and waited for people to come grab it.  However, after all the heat yesterday, there was a terrible thunderstorm in the late afternoon.  Fortunately, our neighbor’s son came over and helped me get everything up on the porch just as quick as you please, and a gentleman who stopped over to pick up a few things also helped us work to get things under cover.  I grabbed some blankets and trash bags and got most everything covered before the rains came. 

Last night, 6 Freecyclers rolled and took probably 60% of what was out there.  The main things I have left to deal with are some furniture (dining room chairs, coffee table), books, VHS tapes, and odds and ends.  I’ve reposted to Freecycle this morning and we’ll see what happens.  By noon, everything is going.  To the dump, to Goodwill, to wherever, I’m loading it up and taking it out of here.

It feels good.  I like knowing that I have made my home a lot nicer, that I’ve helped people who need it, that I’ve cleared out the clutter in more ways than one.  Today, I have a metric ton of cleaning to do, getting clothes boxed up so I can consign them this fall, picking up the toys and stuff that got strewn around while a pile of babies and toddlers were running through the house while their parents were losing probably 8 pounds each in sweat alone outside, our normal dump run, and getting ready for the week ahead.  It will be busy, but short, as I’m heading up to my dad’s for his retirement party this coming weekend.

But I’m proud of what I accomplished, grateful to my friends who stood by me and helped out (Thanks mucho Cindy and Jason and Manda!) and ready to tackle our next project: preparing the house for a teenager!  *Cue scary music*

Just Feel Like Blogging

Not a whole lot to report, but I will probably wind up making this a longer post than I expect…  It has been both busy and not so busy around here lately.  Leah is keeping me on my toes.  She seems to be going through some kind of a growth spurt, and she is extremely crabby one second and then laughing till she pukes the next second.  Can babies have manic depression?  I don’t know.  But if they can, she’s got it.

This past weekend was nice.  My sister and her family came over on Saturday and used the baby pools and brought stuff down for the yard sale.  Our back room is getting filled to capacity.  I will be so glad to get rid of all this stuff, you have no idea.  My friend Cindy asked me if I was getting rid of the baby stuff, and I answered yes.  Of course, the question arises, what if you adopt again?

This is a question I’ve been struggling with, particularly in light of the fact that so many of the SAHM’s I hang around with seem obsessed with the question of whether or not to have another baby.  It is a discussion I attempt to avoid by leaving their company if it comes up, as it still evokes a lot of painful emotions for me.

The fact of the matter is, if we were to adopt again in the future, and I’m not ruling it out, there is so much to think about.  First off is timing.  Michael and I both agree that we are in no rush.  Leah is literally a full time job, and I feel I owe it to her 150% to be involved in her growing up.  I do not feel the need to add a sibling to her life any time soon.  I don’t know if there are any studies about how much time between siblings is beneficial, but I know from watching other children around me that if I were to have a baby enter the picture in a year or two, my patience would be at its breaking point.  If I were in my 20’s again, that would be one thing, but I am not.  Let’s face facts.  I’m going to be 35 this year (GULP!).  I don’t have the energy of a young mom, and I don’t have the patience either.  So it seems to me that it would better to wait until Leah is in school even part time before deciding to bring another newborn home.  By that time, I will be pushing 40.  Does it make sense to have another small infant when I’m 40 years old?  I really don’t know.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, if someone were to walk up to me on the street and say, “I’m giving my baby up for adoption and you are the one person on the planet I know I must give this baby to”, I would not turn them down, not even close.  But it certainly gives me pause.

We have considered doing foster care and also adopting an older child.  Part of our reasoning behind attempting this exchange student business is that we will gain some experience in parenting a teen.  I don’t know that I would necessarily want to adopt a teenager, but to see how I can relate to a child who is not biologically mine and is not a sweet, cuddly little infant is going to be interesting.  Again, we have time to think about it, but it’s good to try things out and see what we think about various things.

We have been looking into a day care situation for Leah to enter just one day per week already.  This is for several reasons.  I do feel she needs to socialize with other children on a regular basis, hopefully and particularly other non-white children.  She is a good little girl, but she is a little rough with other babies and I think it’s because we spend a couple hours here and there with other children and then we go home and she’s able to pretty much do whatever the heck she wants.  She is also extremely attached to me.  Owing to the fact that this week I was at choir practice Sunday night and book club Monday night, tonight when Michael walked in the door, Leah had a death grip around my neck and threw a tantrum when I put her down.  Finally I put her up to bed.  I could not cook dinner and deal with not being able to put her down.  We both feel that maybe a day off for me and a day with other people on a regular basis would be a good idea.  However, I don’t want to send her off any more than one day a week.  Unfortunately, we haven’t found any place that will take an infant for just a day.  Most places don’t start that until the infants are 2 1/2.  So for now, we are soldiering through and I am enjoying my time with her very much.

Another consideration is the cost.  I don’t know that it is necessarily fair to spend all that money on getting another child when I could put that same amount of money away towards Leah’s first year of college.  It really sucks to have to start that far behind the eight ball.  Leah is worth it, another child would be worth it, but at the same time, financial aid offices at universities don’t see “paid +$30K in adoption fees to get this kid” and then decide to give you a full scholarship.

So, we’ll see what happens down the road.  For now, though, we are going to get rid of a lot of stuff, as even if we were to have another baby enter our lives, it’s not worth storing everything.  And since there’s no guarantee that it’ll happen, I’m not holding onto anything “just in case”.

I finished clearing out the house and closets.  All I have to clear out now is the shed.  We have rented a Uhaul to transport some furniture to my sister’s and to bring her stuff down here.  I am going to call the Hospice thrift shop tomorrow and schedule for them to pick up anything that is left over.  Nothing is going back in the house.  Period.  Then finally, I’ll be able to clear out the downstairs room, paint it up, and we will be able to have everyone over to do the wiring and move the radio gear and antennas.  Then Mike and I will be able to take out what’s left of the fence.  Yahoo!

Being back on WW hasn’t been too bad.  I lost 4.4 pounds my first week, which was great.  It has been a lot easier to have Mike on board.  He is having a really hard time eating all his points.  We have had to even make a post-dinner McDonald’s run to get him food to round out the points.  I made a string of paper clips to represent the 100 pounds I want to lose and I’ve now taken 4 off.  It’s a long chain, but I’m looking forward to watching it get shorter and shorter as we go on.

We have been sending lots of emails back and forth to Penny’s mom, but Penny is a bit shy at the moment, so we haven’t heard from her much.  I sent her the package that I had been working on and it should get there next week.  I hope she likes everything.  We made her a CD of current popular American music, and sent her a personalized license plate from Myrtle Beach.  She has a very nice family indeed.  I am enjoying getting my morning emails from Linda and reading about the family and what they have been doing.  Penny does not feel comfortable calling us Mom and Dad, so she has decided to call us Chief and Cookies.  One guess as to where that idea came from.

Next weekend, we are heading north to NY to celebrate my dad’s retirement.  I feel crappy about being able to go when I was not able to go for my mom’s surgery last month, but the timing for everything just turned out how it did.  I don’t expect that I will get back to NY again this summer, and I will only be up there 48 hours or so, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.  Mom and I have been busy talking about her 60th birthday party.  I am looking forward to getting down there for it.  We are planning on renting a party barge van and all of us (my sister and her family and us) will drive down together.  After the party, I plan to take Penny to Disney World while Leah stays home with her father.  That will be my Florida trip for the year.  So all we have to do is figure out when to get to Rhode Island and we’re in business.  I printed out next year’s school calendar. It’s going to seem weird to be back on a schedule like that again.  Although it really doesn’t make a whole lot of difference in the end.

My dad’s cousin sent me a link to a bunch of old photographs.  I was going through one and found one marked with my grandfather’s name.  It is a picture of him when he was in Hawaii with the Navy.  Can I just say that I burst into tears and cried on and off for two days?  When we sang “Anchors Aweigh!” in choir practice, I totally lost it.  It is nice to see him looking so young and healthy.  I wonder if there are other pictures of him out there that I don’t know about.

That’s about all from here.  There’s really not anything else going on.  I guess that’s probably enough! :-) 

House Projects Done! (For a While)

Woo hoo!  The house projects are mainly done now.  We have had workmen in here pretty steadily for a year.  Some of the work was unintentional, but a lot of what we did was what we wanted!

This time last year, our central air went on the blink.  We called for repair and the old unit was leaking Freon.  They refilled it, but cautioned us that if we continued to have problems, we’d need to replace the unit.  Lo and behold, we came back from New Jersey and Janet Evanovich and I felt like the a/c was just not doing its job.  They came back out and said we needed a new unit, or we’d be paying $300 every two weeks for new Freon.  (Is that supposed to be capitalized?  Microsoft says it should be!)

So the day I left to go and tend to my dad and his heart attack, we signed a contract on a new central air unit.  Because of the adoption, we wound up financing the majority of the cost of it, and so we paid it off all year until this spring when we finished paying it off with our tax return.  In addition to the good cool air we are getting and the slightly cheaper utility bills (only slightly), we did get to use it for our energy tax credit, which was nice.

Over the winter, I decided I couldn’t live with the lighting situation as it was any more.  I was good sick and tired of constantly having to lean over the dining room table to turn the light on.  I was tired of not having any lighting in our living room, save one stupid floor lamp.  I was tired of the kitchen light blowing bulbs every 2 weeks.  You will recall that during the blizzard in December, we had gone around to visit our neighbors and bring cookies to everyone.  Well, we spent a good amount of time, probably an hour or more, with our neighbors Manfred and Bobbie.  It turns out that Manfred has an electrical business with his son, Wyatt.  http://accurateelectricbiz.com/ *Ding ding ding*  We have a winner!!!  Time to call Manfred and ask him to help us out. We set up a time for them to come in January and they came an installed 4 pot lights in the living room ceiling, correctly wired the dining room light, and replaced the kitchen ceiling fan.  They did an amazing job—they even vacuumed!  All for about $450, plus the cost of the fan.  I am so happy to be able to flip a switch and the light comes on over the table.  I haven’t changed a light bulb in the kitchen yet.  And the living room light, what can I say?  AMAZING!  We can sit in there any time now.  I love it.

Well, lo and behold, we got to thinking and the General decided Leah needed a new ceiling fan.  When we also got to talking about moving the office downstairs, he really wanted to have a ceiling fan in that room as well before putting all the equipment in there.  So we went ahead and hired Manfred and Wyatt to come back and put up two more ceiling fans. 

Then we started on ServiceMagic.com to find out where we could get the house painted, the landscaping cleaned up, the new doors installed, and the shutters replaced.  Of all those projects, the only thing I demanded be done was to have the doors replaced.  We finally found companies to work with that we really liked—the only bad thing was that there were 2 people we had to turn down, both of whom I really liked.  The door estimates dragged on forever.  It seems doors are big business.  Eventually, we cancelled 3 appointments for even more estimates.  My head was swimming from sales calls and pitches, and we finally hired Window World to do the doors, which I frankly suspected we would do all along.  http://www.windowworldfredericksburg.com/ They did our windows 4 years ago and did an amazing job, and they did our gutters, soffits, and downspouts 2 years ago and I loved the old guy they sent out here to work on the house.  I liked their salesman too, so I was disappointed when he didn’t show up this time, but I guess he had decided it was time to retire. 

We hired World of Color (http://www.worldofcolorinc.com/) to do the paint and they kicked in a 10% discount if we let them do the shutters too, and their shutter price was mid-range of what the other estimates were.  We had one estimate of $400 and one of $1000, and they were at $700, but gave us a nice discount on the paint and shutters if we bundled them, which allowed us to do both projects.  I was ever so happy to get rid of that crappy green paint, you have no idea!   I really liked the owner of the place too, he was so friendly and we had a lot of nice chats about babies and infertility and all that stuff of all things to discuss with your house painter!

For our landscaping we hired Kinetic Resources LLC.  Mainly because he was the only guy that we requested an estimate for who showed up and gave us the estimate!   http://www.servicemagic.com/rated.DHLandscaping.6676090.html  But I really liked Brett, the guy who came out and who did all the work, and they gave us an awesome price to really clean up the yard.

There are still so many things I’d like to do to the house, but for now, I am going to bask in the doneness of these projects.  All we have left to do is have our yard sale to get rid of a bunch of stuff (June 12, by the way, and 4 families are participating, so come and buy some goodies!) and then move the bedroom and office.  This should all be completed by the end of June.

For the outside, I would like to put in a nice patio out back, do some actual landscaping, and replace the driveway and front walk.

Inside, haha, where to start?  I’d like to gut the kitchen and replace it with a much nicer set up, bump out the back of the house and add an actual dining room, replace all the flooring throughout the house, have all the ceilings painted, gut and replace the bathrooms, possibly add a master suite up in the crawlspace over the kitchen/living room level.

There’s time.  God willing, we won’t be leaving this house any time soon.  It’s a good place to call home, and getting better one TLC project at a time.

Life’s Little Moments

There hasn’t been anything major really worth blogging about.  I mean, there has, but stupid Facebook and microblogging has taken over, despite my vow that I would be fiercely dedicated to blogging.  Ugh.

Anyway, the two major things that happened are that my mom had surgery to repair her knee from her fall back at Christmas and that my dad and I are speaking again.  Mom had her stitches out today and the doctor was pleased with her progress.  She starts PT for 3 weeks next week and then should be good to go.

I got real sad and lonely for my dad right before we left for Myrtle Beach, so I called him.  He is happily single again and living the good life at home.  Hopefully we will get up there this summer.

We are busy nearly every day.  I take Leah to the play park at the mall (I don’t do heat, the summer SUCKS) and try to keep her entertained more and more.  As she gets bigger and bigger and steadier and steadier, she wants to be on the go.  I set up a couple of pools in our backyard and she totally loves them.  We also got her birth certificate in the mail this past week, so we are nearly ready to make her a Kosior.  Just have to go to Social Security to finalize the whole thing, which of course is a bit sticky since He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named works there.  I’m sure we can be adults if we run into each other.

My Bosom Buddies DVD’s arrived and I have enjoyed the hell out of season 1.  It is so nice to see Tom Hanks doing comedy.  He and the show are still laugh out loud funny.

Today I was driving up 95 and saw an SUV with a bumper sticker that said “I miss W.”  I had to restrain myself from running that person off the road.

I am more pissed than I can say about this oil spill, so I am refraining from saying anything.

The National Book Festival author list is out.  There’s no one I’m interested in seeing.  If I finish The Corrections by then and enjoy it, then I might go see Jonathan Franzen, but if I don’t get to it, no big deal.

Our interview form still hasn’t been turned into the head office for AFS, so we STILL cannot contact Penny.  It’s extremely frustrating that it’s been nearly 2 weeks that one stupid form has been held up.  Everything else is done.  We’ll send out another request in the morning and hopefully we will be able to contact her this weekend.  It sucks hard.

Getting back into WW in a low key kind of way, trying not to make a huge deal of it so I don’t set myself up for failure.  Have been doing it almost a week now and it’s been fine.  I’ll update on that from time to time.

Emily was down last weekend and we went to the berry patch.  We had a good time, especially when I backed down the driveway, directly into her car.  Ugh.  how the hell is my memory span so short that I can’t remember there’s a car in the driveway as I’m driving backwards?  Fortunately no damage to her car, but I was extremely upset with myself.  There is a big scratch in our bumper, but no dents or anything, so that’s good.  I will have to have it taken care of before winter brings salt and sand with it.

The dentist wants me to have a third crown done, surprise surprise.  I don’t much feel like it, and it’s so much money out of our pockets that I don’t know that I will do it right now.  The previous dentist I saw told me not to worry about it as long as the filling held.  My main complaint with this dental practice is that it seems I rarely see the same dentist twice, so consequently, it feels like I’m getting new diagnoses each time.  I’m going to just have to request to only see Dr. Johnson from now on.  Since it’s his practice, I know he’ll stick around for a while.  Even the hygienists didn’t know which dentists were around.  Frustrating, particularly when I love going to the dentist so much in the first place. (*cough cough*)  I’ve been through 3 dentists there now and just went on the website and confirmed that all 3 are gone.  I saw a 4th on Tuesday, and while he was a nice guy, I don’t know if I want him doing the crown.  I just feel cranky about the whole damned thing.  So there.

So see?  Lots of little crap going on, but nothing worth blogging about in little bits and pieces.  I’ll be back with another news round up when the spirit moves me! :-D