Old Home Week, a la Facebook

So I've been cruising around the Facebook site, typing in the names from my sordid past (that I can remember) and seeing if they're signed up...

It's all very surreal, since I've fallen out of touch with 90% of them...no, make that 99%...

Now that I've sent out dozens of friend requests, I now have to actually interact and answer messages, and remember to sign on more than once a month. As I've said before, I'm really crappy at this sort of "social networking" sort of thing--both in real life and online.

I keep telling myself that now that we have a house, we can start having friends over, but the reality is between the construction and the unpacked (or partially unpacked) boxes everywhere, there's been no space or time for visiting. I'm trying to purge as I unpack, but it's all so time consuming and overwhelming. I keep having the urge to just cram stuff into storage or the pump house and ignore it for a while....but then I need something that is buried in one of the boxes, and things get dragged back in and strewn about. 

What I need is a wife. Or for TTK to be more involved in other aspects of the house besides HIS room, HIS stuff. There's a LOT of OUR stuff to be dealt with, but it seems that I get to do it all myself. GRRRRRR.

But, he is the "breadwinner" of our little family of two--all of his time is spent at the office in San Francisco--so he is doing his share for keeping us solvent. I just wish it included a bit more physical presence and effort, rather than him being gone all the time.

Yes, my new office position is in the corner of the main room, so I get to "survey my domain" and see all the boxes and the cat tumbleweeds and the mess...so of course I am posting about it.

Wheee! [THUD]

Happy Anniversary!!!!

You know how occasionally you have a one-night-stand that doesn't know when to LEAVE the next morning?

On this date 12 years ago, TTK came over to give me a backrub...ended up staying all night...and at some point we had sex, then talked about it and both decided we weren't into casual sex and wanted a relationship.

So basically, he was the one-night-stand that didn't leave. Heh.

Our other version is that I saw him online, decided I liked him, and stalked him for six months...clubbed him in the head and dragged him back to my lair.

Or I stalked him, but got tired so declared celibacy from all relationships...then a week later when I was on ICB I announced I would "kill or die for a backrub." Seconds later a private message came, from TTK, "I'll give you one!"

I panicked, said "how about tomorrow?" 

he came over the next night, and once again never left.

Heh.

I proposed for months, at random moments, and one day (at a random moment!) he said, "Yes, I'll marry you."

The rest I'll tell you later, but I'll leave you with this...

He's been packing his things very randomly. 

Last night we discovered that he packed the condoms.

[THUD]

As our searching got more frantic, realization dawned in TTK that they were in a box we had just taken to the new place...he shamefacedly and slowly told me...and I started cracking up.

talk about a buzzkill!

Ah, to be an inept teenager again...

Let them eat crow...

We just had a weird thing happen...lots of noise in the coop this morning, early, and I came out to find a very dead crow. Neck was broken. It wasn't there last night/dusk, and from the chicken's behavior when they woke up, it was there at that time, so sometime between dusk and dawn (sounds like a bad movie--oh wait, it is!) something killed the crow but then didn't eat it. It wasn't a juvenile, either. The chickens were VERY disturbed by it--there was a large live crow cawing like mad from the tree near the coop, and everyone was in a tizzy. The crows come down and eat the eggs, and kill chicks, so I went out to run it off, and that's when I found its dead buddy.

Kinda sad, because I like crows--had a pet one, when I was a kid: my uncle had found a baby that had fallen out of its nest near his work, and brought it to my mom. We kept it inside and fed it wet dog food every time we walked by, and when he had his first solo flight attempt across the kitchen my uncle got us a HUGE cage from Mexico, and we moved Caw outside...then we started leaving the cage open, and he would hang out in the cage, and then fly around the yard, and then come down and land on you.

It was so cool to bring friends over after school, and when we got to my street I would throw my arm up and yell, "CAW! CAW!" and this huge black bird would come flying down off a tree or telephone pole and land on my arm. So much fun!

Wow, off down memory lane, there...

Anyway, you know my penchant for skulls? I had ttk cut the head off and I gave it to my beetles...who instantly swarmed it and are doing an efficient job of cleaning it for me.
And you thought those things were just gecko food...

Timeline.

I keep trying to remember various things, and I've realized that I mark most of my life as either BT or AT...Before Tumor and After Tumor. TTK and I keep forgetting when we married, so I've decided to write a timeline of events. Not all of them, mind you, just AT...


1995
January: Insurance kicks in: Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.
April 10: Diagnosed with Acoustic Neuroma (now called Unilateral Schwanoma)
April 2?: Surgery
May 20: My birthday, and back into the hospital for Steroid Psychosis
July: Record heat wave in Chicago--500 people die, and I almost joined them.
October: Moved to Santa Cruz with Evil E.

1996
January-ish; Broke up with E. Moved out.
July-ish: Moved into McMillan House.

(somewhere in here I met TTK online, then in person, and got interested in him...)
August: Flew to Chicago for a visit.
September 5: Declared celibacy.
September 12: TTK offered via /m a back massage. I postponed until the next day.
September 13: We start our relationship. Monogamous.
October: TTK moves into McMillan House.
December-ish: After months of proposing to him, he finally said yes! Heh.

1997

We plan for wedding in November. November cruises by.

1998
May: I announce, frustrated with trying to plan a wedding, that we were getting married in June, damn it.
June 27: We marry. Me, him, Sara Homan as our Officiant, my sister as my maid of honor and his best friend as his man of honor. Party of five, in the middle of a field. :-)

1999
Moved to Seattle (Burien). I hate it.

2000
October: Moved to Cotati.

2002
March 1: moved to Sebastopol (Hessel area.)

2004
December: Doctor took me off celexa, put me on Wellbutrin which sent me loony.

2005
January: Partial Hospitalization Program for insane me.
February: Flareup started (and is still going.)
May: Finally decide to see the UC specialist. Made it down for my nephew's 2nd birthday.
August: Got to witness the birth of my neice. Wow is all I can say.

2006
Somewhere in here TTK decided to contact his parents, so I got to meet my MIL and FIL (and SIL) for the first time (after 7 years of marriage.)
May: Said new in-laws gift us with some stock (none of your business how much). Woo hoo! And eeeee!
I head to L.A. for neph's b-day party, and I take frogs to show (party is frog themed!).
August: I start school.
September: Ginsu appeared on our doorstep.
December: Dr. M declares me "in remission" but says I have residual irritable bowel. (HA!!)
December 25th: We fly to Texas to meet TTK's grandmas. Weird but fun trip.

2007
January:
Cramping and blood get worse despite being "in remission." I decide to get a second opinion. Which meant another colonoscopy, whee.
March:
Almost completely homebound now. Had to drop all of my classes. Weight loss is getting noticeable. I get a blood test check and my iron levels are 34 (normal is 35). No biggie, right? Keep reading...
April:
I go on steroid enemas. These are evil and painful.
May:
I go on oral steroids (Budosenide). Evil stuff. I start having extreme dizziness when I stand, that I attribute to the steroids (but, oh, was I wrong!)
June:
1st: momma has a stroke. (okay, TIA, but it's still serious).
Dizzy and sort of breath all of the time now. Hands are shaky.
July:
More of the same. Down to 155 pounds. (was 190 at the start of the year.) Somewhere in here I decided to take up crochet hook again.
August:
8th: Needles died.
16: Woke this morning by TTK...he found Atlantis dead in the cage. Was expecting it, since he was so depressed about Fizzbinn, but it was still a shock.
16: Down to 151 pounds. Finally approved for Remicade! Decided to taper myself off of the evil steroids, since none of my doctors wanted to, and they were making me insane.
22: First Remicade transfusion. Whee.

September:
5th: Second infusion. Feeling better every day.
13 11 year anniversary today.
28 Tasha died. :-(

October
Finally off the steroids.
3: Infusion of Remicade. Up to 155 pounds. Still incredibly dizzy and shaky, though.

I make an app with my regular dr, and ask for a blood test (last one was in March!)
Hemo score is at 23, when normal is 35. Dr is freaked, puts me on megadoses (3X daily) of iron so we won't have to transfuse me. THIS explains the dizziness, weakness, short of breath-ness, and shakiness! ARRRRGH!

November 28: My 3rd infusion of Remicade. I've gained 10 pounds (now at 160), and dizziness is gone. I think we can safely say I am in remission for real.

I need another blood test, but it's kinda fallen back in my schedule of TO DO's, since there's so much other stuff I need to get caught up on.



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Okay, so the later years are not filled out much, but that's because it's always hard to separate the significant events when you're still close to them. I'm sure I'll be adding more.

Childhood Memories...

When I was at camp, we sang this song:

now we are marching,
down to the gallows
Step by step
we now approach our doom.

Somewhere tomorrow,
we will be lying
bodies stacked up
bloody cold and dead.

The sunlight is fading,
the gallows are waiting
Oh, oh, oh, oh
the gallows overhead!

(scream)