We just watched Vel and Chas get married... it was wonderful, from the lovely weather, to the sounds of the wildlife, to the awesome minister, to the utterly *beautiful* bride and handsome groom.

Vel and Chas both sounded so overwhelmingly happy! We cried like... like friends and family together....

Bless you both.

Aw, heck, I'll say it: Live long and prosper. ♥ ♥ ♥

(Oh my GOSH Vel's married!)

WAHOOOOOO!!!!!

Thank you thank you thank you for the webcast. I haven't been so happy and so excited to be at a wedding since my little sister was married. ♥

Two days ago at work, I found that B.L.'s wife fell and broke her arm. Now B.L. is one of my favorites of the people I support, and his wife is an active gardener and interior decorator. I decided that I wanted to send a get-well card to her. But all the cards in the area just weren't right, so I decided to make my own.

( I think it came out kinda nice.... )

It was worth it! ♥ :) ♥

I realized yesterday that I was late on my giveaway from last year's post. Renda, Brandy, Ice... I have goodies for you. I'll send them out as I get 'em together.

Note to Doctor's receptionist: When you're rescheduling a missed appointment, telling the patient, "He's going to want to go over the results with you" (or any variation thereof) is NOT reassuring. Gah.

(Note to self: Don't be such a pessimist. Different personal communications styles mean that she could have been saying "he wants the HMO money for the visit and he won't get it if you don't come in", for all you know. Eh heh. ^^;;)

This week has been very, very difficult. Last weekend I did the saddest, most difficult, most painful thing I've ever had to do in my entire life, something I never expected or wanted to do. Worse yet, it was the right thing for me. I've been emotionally up and down ever since. I tend to hide from the world, especially from the electronic world, when I'm "off" emotionally, but I think I'm ready to be back.

The reason I think so is almost too silly to post... but what the heck.

We have electronic phones that give a sharp "beep" when you press buttons on them. I stayed up way too late last night ans slept in this morning. At 10:30 or so, I heard "beep beep beep" as mewsrissicat checked phone messages. The sound woke me up. The very first thing my brain thought was this:

I wake up to the sound of beeping/
Mother Nature comes to me/
speaking words of wisdom/
'Let us pee.'

...So I got up and did.

I think my creativity's coming back. O_o;;

I've seen them... I remember Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush....

(Yep, that's a lot.)

...And I've seen and heard presidential speeches, from inspiring to infuriating, fantastic to forgettable.

I've never heard a president speak like our new President of the United States just did.

If he can do a quarter of what he wants to, if he can inspire people to do a tenth of what I wanted to do, listening to him, he will be one of the greatest presidents ever.

I cried, just because of the hope and belief welling up in me. I've never seen anything like it and I pray it will continue -- in me and in Obama and in America.

OH YEAH!

I'm so mad right now I can hardly think. But here's a few comments.

(And now that I've typed them all out I'm not as mad, so I've taken out most of the expletives.)

Your friends are not your paid therapists and they don't owe you a goodbye when you haven't said a real word to them over IM for an hour and a half.

"*nods*" is not a word. It's not a part of a conversation. It doesn't "pass the ball" over to the other person and make them responsible for the next sentence in the IM. Nor does "*hugs*", "*purrs*", or any other action indicator. A conversation is words shared between two people and it takes two to keep it going. If you don't feel like chatting, don't chat. If you feel like having your friends with you on IM, then chat, damn it. (...The phrase I used to hear for this kind of situation is "shit or get off the pot".)

If somebody makes time to be on IM to chat with you and takes time out of their evening to do so and does so on a regular basis then you do have a "reason to sign in to IM". Trying to guilt them and all your other friends is counterproductive. They all have lives, and they all chat with you. They do it because they like you and because they think you're someone worth chatting with.

Nice thought.

I have owned cats since 1985 or '86; ( and I can type about 'em forever.... )

Sweet dreams.... Ja mata, ne?

It's been a long year, and I am ready for 2009... but not before I wish each and every one of my friends a loving and blessed Christmas.

In turn, I hope you feel free to wish your friends a loving and blessed Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Eid, Winter Solstice, Festivus, New Year... whatever you celebrate. Let the blessings and joy of the season be the gift we can give each other, free from the encumbrance of the specific holiday in which it's bound.

I've been remiss in keeping up with friends and family over the past couple of years, and I hope to change that, starting now. I don't know how well I'll do but I will try!*

To all of you, may every sunset bring a heartbeat of peace and may each sunrise be the start of a new day. ♥




*(Yoda may have been right with his "do or do not, there is no try", but the effort expended in trying is, in and of itself, something done. So there, muppet.)

We (that is, myself, mewsrissicat and mewschangeling) went to the Equal Rights rally today. Our rally was in a suburb of our great City of Yinzers, where all the colleges are. There were lots and lots of people milling around, and it took awhile for things to get started. An LGBT & friends "Renaissance choir" sang a stirring song, and then some one told the crowd that we'd be walking soon and if anyone wanted to say something they were welcome.

Well, I thought, yinz asked for it....

So I walked over with Rissi's hand in mine and stood up in the cleared area and said: "Twenty-seven years is a long time for an engagement. When can we get married?" ... and a few other remarks that I just can't remember. There was some nice applause. Apparently there were cameras, too.

The local news station, WTAE, might have us on the 7 pm news today.

Our VCR just stopped working as we were trying to set it up to record the news! D'oht!

It was a fun afternoon anyway. About 450 marchers, lots of beeping and support and no detractors. Pittsburgh's a great city. ♥

Edit: ....WE were on the news! It was only a few-second shot, but it showed Rissie cuddling up to me after I had spoken to the crowd. (And I WISH I HAD THAT SHOT she looks SO cute!)

If WTAE.com puts up the video to that segment I'll link to it in another edit here. If they don't... I may cry. ;____;

Well. I never would have expected to find myself in such a situation again. In 1997, we went south, flying to Orlando, and we actually had... A Vacation. You know, where you go away from your job and your house and pretend you're the lazy person you really are somewhere inside (or at least who you'd be if you won the lottery)?

Oddly enough, once again I find myself... On Vacation. Due to the generosity of my lovely partner's coworker, who had one more vacation ticket than she could use, we find ourselves at a sweet little resort in the Pocono mountains.

Now this place is strangely familiar. It's slightly run-down feeling in a backwoods-country-your grandma's house kind of way. It's got a check-in counter and a nice parlor, then stairs up to a room. Our room only has three beds, that should be noted. I keep expecting to walk out the front door of the inn and see a water tower in the middle of the town square.

Did I mention that we're just north of Promised Land State Park? Or that the local band playing nearby -- whose music has themes of love, loss, and redemption -- is named "Cloud Cult"?

...If anyone with long silver hair walks by, I'm gonna start carrying a bucket of water with me. ^^;;

...with a Vicodin ES, two cans of Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee Raviolis, a whole bucket of Kozy Shack Tapioca pudding and a cup of tea.

And that includes a half-finished root canal that I waited a whole week to get because at first I thought it might heal, and then when I finally called, the dentist was away at a wedding.

Of course, now I can't really remember anything else I was going to blog. But at least there is this.

...Oh yeah! One thing I didn't know: Unlike an infected cut or an infected ingrown toenail or whatever, infected teeth don't heal. Once the pulp is infected, it's doomed to die. So if and/or when you get that pain that makes you put your hand along your jaw and it radiates into your ear or your sinus, don't wait! Call the dentist and get it taken care of as soon as you can. You'll be much happier and there will be a lot fewer complications.

And then you won't have to eat all that pudding. ♥

Thanks for the meme, adelheid_p! ♥

The first three people who reply to this post, and who re-post this challenge: YOU WIN!!!

For your prize, I will send you a gift.

It might be something I've made, or something cool from my hidden stash of Final Fantasy fabulousity. (And good gods, have I got a stash of it. My Beloved Partner will be delighted that I dredge the house lighten the load some....) It might be a mix CD, or a rubber duck, or a book I think you might enjoy. A love letter, a useful object, or something else that is awesome or maybe just taking up room in my house. (I guarantee you will get a full refund if you don't think it's cool.)

Whatever it is, I promise I will get it to you in 365 days of your posted comment or less, and I will need your snail mail. PM your snail mail to me if you aren't comfortable posting it in a comment.

The only thing you need to do to receive your gift is PARTICIPATE.

Be one of the first three journalers to reply to this, and post this very same thing (minus the strikethroughs and parenthetical comments!) in your journal, and YOU are the lucky giftee.

The Lunychu is a mysterious Pokemon whose powers have never quite been ascertained. While it is relatively easy to capture this Pokemon with a simple trail of art, chocolate, and writing leading to a good, home-cooked meal, the Lunychu has a tendency to wander off on its own. This Pokemon resents being used for other's battles, but will willingly come to the fore if its friend (never owner) is in difficulty. Some of its devastating attacks are: the Snide Commentary (running in the background, these attacks give a -5 to act for all opponents and a +3 to Morale for all team members) and the Zing (immobilizes opponent for 1 round, -7 per attack for the next two rounds; has a 25% chance of immobilizing team members due to high amusement). The Lunychu has several important support abilities including Responsibility, Cheer, and Gather Friends.

I choose you, Lunychu! ♥ ♥ ♥

(Happy Birthday, eramundo!)

...didn't get a switch to the back, but mewed a mighty mew:

Happy Birthday from Mew
Happy birthday from Mew,
Happy Birthday dear Deborah,
Happy Birthday from Mew!

...Okay, maybe it was a merely adequate Mew. Hope your birthday is/was worth a thousand of them!

*purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!*

I survived my operation of October just fine, but man did I crash and burn over any form of Nano whatsoever.

I'll try and get back to posting on a semi-regular basis. As soon as I find a regular semi. But did you ever try to get those big tractor-trailers to eat fiber? It's impossible, I tell you.

Wow, stream of semi-consciousness FTW.

...In other news, I meme at you.

You Were A Jaguar

A shapeshifter that understands the patterns of chaos. You are powerful and move without fear in dark places. Unless, of course, your chaos includes leaving your stuff all over the floor at night and stubbing your toes on it when you try to go to the bathroom without turning on the light, in which case you'd damned well better be afraid.

Coming home from the trip today, I had a little lesson about how small cars that sit up tall are less stable than small cars that sit down low, or big old Chevy Impalas from the 70's (like the one I learned to drive on) that were made of lead and gold and had enough gravitational pull to make VW Beetles orbit them.

Kinda like Hummers... but I digress.

I own an Echo, which is a non-hybrid car that gets over 40 mpg highway and 50 with a stiff breeze at its back. Unfortunately, the small car part means it is often overlooked by big vehicles. Like the van that tried to merge into us from the passenger side. Rissi cat saw this first, and she gasped and said "It's merging into us!" and touched my arm while doing so.

Well, if you call out, I'll beep the horn; if you touch me, I will move. In this case, it meant seeing that the van was 6 inches from us and getting closer, and pulling the little car hard to the left (knowing there was another van approaching from behind). Little cars don't LIKE being pulled hard in either direction. The Echo bucked like a Mexican jumping bean on meth. I was absolutely certain that I had lost control of the car and we were going to roll, and I started to shout that I had lost control, and suddenly I hadn't and the car was fine and stable and I was much more awake than any java could do.

Nothing like Mortal Danger to bring every bit of your systems online. And I wasn't even tired when this happened, but by gosh, after it did, I could see every pebble on the roadway.

Even so... I'll take a second cup of coffee next time, 'kay?

Since we're on a roadtrip for the weekend, I am posting in thehouseofmews.

Take a look! ♥

...Yep, stay off the sidewalk!!!

I got my clean bill o' health today! Today's MRI looked even better than the post-surgical one. As soon as I get a copy of it, I'll post "before" and "after" pictures. *grin*

My veins didn't want to cooperate. The poor MRI technician couldn't inject the contrast dye. She had to call a nurse, who looked at the available veins and then put a temporary IV into the back of my hand, which has been far too abused already.

HOWEVER, since everything looked so good and my visual field check came out A-OK, I do not have to return in three months for a follow up MRI; I can wait 'till six months has gone by! Huzzah!

AND I can drive. Mwa ha ha.

...I forgot to ask if I could drink now. Daaang.

...But not the usual kind. I've decided to post some of the last lines of the shaggy-dog (clean and dirty) jokes that I have loved for years, just for the heck of it. Then I'll ask anyone who reads this to add any that I'm haven't put here.

"...Let your pages do the walking through the yellow fingers."
"...'I wouldn't leave a knight out on a dog like this.'"
"...'AH ha ha haaa! I told ya! I told ya you boinked a penguin!'"
"...'You'd cry too, if you were driving two obese Pattys, Chesser Ross, Lester cheatin' picking bunions all on a Sesame Street bus.'"
"...'and then I showed him.'"
"...People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones."

And my all-time favorite:
"...'Awright, where's that fat chick with the bad tooth?!?'"

...I should know more than that. A LOT more than that. Somebody help me here?

It seems that all that is Hallow is leftover candy. You could have put a kindergarten class on a full sugar buzz with the stuff that landed in the kitchen at work.

Yep. At work. I'm back already, after only a month recuperating at home. Heck, I still think I took too long, considering they booted me out of the hospital after only 2 days! I spent a week merging with the couch, then moved to the front of the computer and watched the world go by as if the monitor was a window. Weeeeiiird. After a couple more weeks, I was bored enough to start finding out *when* I could go back to work -- which happened to be Monday. Woo.

As you might guess, the tumor was removed successfully. It's really weird -- the image on the day-after MRI shows almost no trace of the darn thing ever having been there! My brain just squished right back into shape. Whee.

My personal challenge for the month of November is to post every single day. It may not necessarily be *here*, but I'll try to hit this journal every day, too.

Wish me luck -- and all of you who are Nano-ing, good luck to you too!