anagram of brat

Yesterday was at times awesome, sad, uncomfortable, exciting and amusing. Overall, it was busy. Lots of running around to be done.

Anyway, gyn appointment was uneventful, and hopefully will remain so after the vaginapocalypse of 2010. (Okay it wasn't that bad. But colposcopies are a bitch and I do not want another one.) Other than the fact that he has to do uncomfortable things to my ladybits every so often I really like Dr. Patton. Also man, I tell you. You mention that your marital status has changed recently and you get entire offices of people in scrubs fawning all over your ass, if yesterday's and the day before's shenanigans were any indication. Wellp.

Aside though - I wonder what inspires a man to become a ladybits doctor this day and age? I'm not trying to be sexist here, though I'm aware there's a bit of bias coming through. I suppose there are lady urologists who get the same question. Really anyone, honestly - I just sorta want to walk up to folks and be all like "so, what was the moment you decided YES I WANT MY LIFE TO BE LOOKING AT PEOPLE'S JUNK ALL DAY EVERY DAY?"

For the record, I could never be a urologist. Don't get me wrong, I love your outdoor plumbing and what it does for me gentlemen (and a few ladies) but on the grand scale of all the beauty in the natural world, the male genitalia is maybe a notch or two above the duck billed platypus.

Also picked up my meds on my way home for the first time in... wow, almost a year now? Oh, medical insurance, you are wonderful. Hurray for being back in the land of $15 for a scrip instead of ten times that, and that's for a generic. We won't talk about my brand name gut pills.

Since I was super excited about getting my test beads yesterday I found a little change purse to slip the vials, needles and thread into and actually started/made a surprising amoount of progress on my test pattern while jumping various buses to and from the doctor. Between snatching beading time on the while, a bit during the opening acts at the concert (more on that later) and a little bit before bed, I got about four rows done.



I've gotten one more done since this morning and so far seeing the colors "in action" so to speak, I'm super in-love and excited.This is going to be an amazing project. It's also going to be a mind blowingly LONG project. At the rate I'm going, the fastest I can get a bead in is 50 seconds. Even if I get my pace up, once I get up to the full sized patterns, that's going to be 2.5 hours-ish per row. Yikes. Here's hoping my usual problems with attention don't kick in once I get started on the big project.

I haven't forgotten The Witch either. Been making myself work on casting her off this week during TV/movie watching tiem. It's slow, but it's happening. There will be pictures once I get one side off.

In supply news, I heard from Northampton Beadery yesterday. The Beadery prices are about in the neighborhood I'd expect after last week's online comparison shopping. A little on the high side, even, but you have to factor in a) no shipping b) local indie business. And I like them, so I'm okay with tossing them the occasional bead order instead of popping online to do it. (I'll keep delibeads bookmarked for emergencies - I was very impressed with their order turnaround.) However I apparently won't need to be placing any bulk orders for a bit because harinezumi went to the fucking Miyuki FACTORY yesterday. O_o Yeah, you know what, I have awesome friends.

Midway through the day I got a text from my sister, apparently sent to all of us, reminding us all to celebrate and cherish Mom's memory. She passed away eight years ago yesterday. I had a rough few moments, but mostly of the "wow... it really has been that long" variety and not of the "I miss my Mommy" sort. I mostly shook it off and went on with my day, but it did drop my sails a little bit.

After bells, I went down to Northampton with cell23 to see Electric Six at the Iron Horse with omgwtfaninja and his Manzypants. I like Electric Six well enough - not enough to call myself a super fan or anything, but I've got ten or so of their songs on semi-heavy rotation on my iPod and most of the other stuff I've heard of theirs I like. Well. While the boys say it wasn't their best live show, I enjoyed them immensely and after experiencing Dick Valentine shenanigans in person, I can kinda see what is is on which omgwtfaninja and cell23 base their "stage personas." (Example, lol.) I was kind of expecting to not recognize most of their set seeing as I don't think I've heard any of their more recent stuff, but they decided they were going to play straight through their first album and meader around in Greatest Hits territory, so it turns out that they did seven out of ten of the songs I have of theirs and all of the ones I really like. Win. Bonus to getting to watch cell23 and omgwtfaninja (who really do have the most adorable bromance I've ever seen) rock out for the entire set (cell23 has been complaining on twitter about how he isn't 20 anymore and Dick Valentine broke him) and getting to hang with the adorable Manzypants for a while. (oh, head58, not that you read LJ anymore, but Neal says hi.) And as always I left the Iron Horse with the self-admonition that I really need to get out and see more concerts. Not only do I love that particular venue, but they have a knack for booking people I actually like. Alas, I never manage to go, for whatever reason - $$ and lazy mostly. Need to fix that. Not now, obv, but down the line. Kinda like I'm always saying I need to go to the movies more too.

Still a mindfuck to me being introduced to people as cell23's wife. An enjoyable one, no mistake (public recognition, y'all know I love that shit), but I do wonder when and if that "Wait, what?? OH YEAH" reaction goes away.

Bah, why is it almost 1pm already? I HAVE THINGS TO DO and I haven't started any of them. >_< BAH. Oh, well, I don't need to sleep, right? :/

on my way out of New York and back to demanding kitty, adoring Manbeast, and most importantly my own squooshy way too comfortable bed. I honestly don't know when the last time I've been this dog tired was.

Despite the complete and utter exhaustion (I kinda forgot what an ordeal getting back on the regular crohn's pills is and in light of that should probably have waited until next week to start back up) this trip was overwhelmingly a more positive one than the last, probably entirely because of the amount of progress Dad has made since the pneumonia scare and return to Mt. Sinai on my last visit. On the contrary, after a meeting with his rehab team yesterday he's been given a release date of next thursday which is awesome news. Two months of hospitals and rehab is entirely Too Much. Considering how he was when I first went to see him in the hospital in January and where he is now, which in some ways is in better shape than before the stroke, I'm astounded by his progress. The rehab center has a small coffee shop in the basement for its residents, and yesterday we went down together for a late afternoon snack. Dad was up, walking (and not slowly either) with a little help from a walker for his balance, and once downstairs he was being his usual charming pain in the butt self at the lady running the place as well as trading jokes with the nuns on staff. He still loses words on occasion and while he always mixed up the names of his kids/grandkids (and had been known to go through at least five or six names before getting to the right one) that tendancy's gotten a bit worse. Still, for someone who had a stroke seven weeks ago, he ain't looking too bad.

Still I think all of us will be glad when he's out. Well, Ruth'll be more frazzled while he's staying with her, but he'll be if not home, close to it, back in Brooklyn, and I for one will be happy if I never have to take the IRT up the upper east side ever again. Between Mom at NY Presbyterian years ago and Dad ending up in Mt sinai for various and sundry over the years, I've almost never had to be up there for a good reason, and over the past couple of months I've come to utterly loathe having to take the sardine tin that is the Lexington Ave line anywhere and personally can't wait for them to hurry up and open the 2nd Ave line, because goddamn them IRT train cars are NARROW as HELL.

Sorry, veered into subway nerdage for a minute there.

Anyway, I didn't get everything I had to do done this time around (there is just not enough hours/spoons in the day for all the shit that needs taking care of) I do come home with a grim sense of accomplishment with what I did manage to get done. There was something about finally finding, buying and delivering the four silk ascots after two days of chasing them all over Manhattan that was deeply satisfying. I often need to be reminded that I can be deeply resourceful in a weird as hell pinch. I did manage to keep up with my actual job this week as well as pick up a little extra scratch from the fam, so this week will be somewhat profitable, and I just got a notice that my moderately whopping federal refund was accepted and should be hitting my account early next week. Just in time for PAXEast, not like I'm going to let myself spend much out there, seeing as most of my money's kinda spoken for for at least the next few months. Still... kinda nice to know things are looking up on several fronts for a change.... y'all don't know how thirsty I've been for some sunshine thrown my way. But for now I'm looking eagerly forward to boy and bed tonight. Or vice versa. I don't care, it'll just be good to get home.

Gonna catch a nap now.

Can I come home yet? lol.

I kid. But I've been in the city for a day and I'm ragged. Mostly because the major house cleanout is in full swing and even though I helped Nuke with it this morning and most of the afternoon, it felt very much like a drop in the bucket. There is just so. Much. Stuff. It's everywhere, tucked into all the closets, back corners and drawers of all the furniture. Clearing out 40+ years of two people's packrattitude nigh unto severe hoarding problems is not an easy thing, y'all.

It's funny how dredging through all this stuff also dredges up associated memories and emotions as well... in a lot of ways, we are only just now getting to the cleanout that probably should have happened right after Mom died six years ago, so in a way, going through all these bins and drawers and closets with the realization that the last person that touched any of this stuff was probably Mom herself was... rough. It's like there's a pocket of mourning that was neglected and after all this time, here it is. At the same time, a lot of stuff was found that made me smile - a random hat I wore all the time when I was 12, boxes upon boxes of dollhouse furniture, a genuine American Girl outfit I wore like twice (back when AG did actual outfits for girls from the historical lines), Roy Jr's baby bib with the airplane on it, a couple crates of LEGOs, several photo albums of the siblings when they were wee and adorable, and in one instance a porcelain figure of a girl on a carousel horse Mom gave me a long ass time ago, carefully packed away in a padded envelope and marked "For Andee" in Mom's extremely loopy handwriting.

All of this also kicked up a cubic fuckton of dust and I've been a walking cough and sneeze since about 12 o'clock.

Dad's cat is, for lack of a better word, obese. I mean, Moonbeam's always been a chubby cat but two months of free feeding hir Meow Mix has rendered this poor cat positively rotund. Gonna see what I can do regarding getting hir some kind of diet indoor kitty food instead that doesn't have as much corn filler, cause wow, fuzzy pillow with legs is bad. Course all cats look so much bigger/fatter now compared to Lily, who is like, dwarfkitty in comparison. Also kind of annoyed that the only place to find Nature's Miracle in NY is at the Petco in Union Square, but there you go.

Oh SPEAKING OF HARD TO FIND THINGS. I was apparently unaware that there was a shortage of o.b. tampons happening until now. I finally ran out my little cotton vag bullets this cycle and I swear I walked into four or five drugstores between 72nd and York and 68th and Lex, and these things were nowhere to be found. I came home with a very O_o opinion of the period habits of the Upper East Side woman until someone let me know that o.b.s have been rare commodities since at least November (which was about when I bought some last). Grr. It always has to be my damn brand that gets interrupted/discontinued. Though I am amused that a tampon black market has sprung up in o.b.'s hopefully temporary absence. Crazy ass world we live in.

I spent the rest of the evening visiting with Dad, who was tranferred back to Mary Manning Walsh a couple weeks ago. He's doing far better than the last few times I've seen him - he's apparently up and running around the building unassisted these days and there are barely detectable pauses in his speech now. He is VERY MUCH rearing to go home. I can't say I blame him.

Wow. I tell ya, though, I am NOT used to New York anymore. After a day of running around and walking everywhere and running up and down subway stairs, I am positively nonfunctional from the thighs down - in fact I'm about to go hunt down some ibuprofen so I can sleep. Ow. The sore. It burns.

And to think, two and a half more days of this. *whine*

soooo today went kinda pear shaped while en route to NY. I got an email from Vicki saying Dad was headed from rehab back to Mt. Sinai's ER.

Aaaaagh.

Anyway to make a long story and a wibble filled drive short, Dad's back in the hospital proper. Fluid in his lungs, probably pneumonia. *sigh* getting off Peter Pan and heading up to 100th and Madison is starting to become eerily routine. Anyway they've admitted him for observation and pumping him full of diuretics and antibiotics, hopefully that'll do the trick. :/

I'm sure I've said this before, but I am truly not allowed to complain about CDH's ER. Mount Sinai's is like the Major Deegan during rush hour.

So yeah... I don't even know how to feel about any of this. I'm just kinda sitting in the 7th floor day room with Vicki, we're both worn ragged, and I'm just too tired to feel much at all other than slightly tweaked by the vital sign monitor noises per usual. I'll sort it out after I get some food and sleep into my system, I suppose. If then.

Meantime have some pretty pictures of Times Square and Rockefeller Center I took tonight.



Kinda perversely dreading tonight's dailytwit roundup. I may have tweetshat right and left today. Anxiety's fun. :P

Dear 2011,

Just so you know it is EXTREMELY bad form to start off with death and severe medical emergencies affecting people in almost every single one of my social circles. I seriously hope this is a misguided attempt at frontloading the suck so that when we all recover we can enjoy the fairy farts and roses the rest of the year will obviously be made of, right? Right?

Shape up or GTFO.

Love, me

That over with, i'm on my way home, both pleased and exasperated that Dad is feeling better enough to fuss and be demanding to the point of very nearly making me miss the bus. I plan to return in a couple of weeks, probably in time to see him discharged from rehab.

But for now? Just wanna get home kthx. I'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

Today was long and tiring and emotionally draining and oftentimes crazy and loooong.

I'd say pithy things but I'm wiped out and rather eager to spend my first night since Sunday on something other than a chair. But it's been a very jangly head noisy sort of day for all sorts of reasons. Not least of which being an unexpected but good (if the usual level of uncomfortable) conversation with Stan, and just general dealing with family overall, present, departed, and ill.

But yeah. I may need to force myself to pick up a blinking cursor again when I get home. We'll see how that goes. And I'm sure the rest of it will manifest itself in a crazy post sooner or later.

Oh, breaking news? My sisters in their weather paranoia may pack my ass on a bus tomorrow night ahead of the latest storm. Not my planned departure time but they did raise a couple of points 1. Weather 2. Burnout 3. Stuff at home that needs taking care of. Stay tuned. But now to bed.

So they're moving Dad out of the stroke unit and into the rehab one today, which is awesome news.

I'm meeting jaicat for lunch later on.

Maybe today won't be as much of a gloomfest as I was fearing.

K nerds, I have a request.

I've hit the 2 day mark here. Which means that from here out it's probably going to be rough going in the brainmeat department. Trying to stave this off by taking care of myself when I can. I also was just reminded what day it is a couple minutes ago. Insult to injury regarding already differential weather in my head, so now I'm cranky and self-loathing on top of everything.

I need silly stuff today. Links, YouTube, gifs, whatever you've got. The occasional reassurance that i'm not a terrible human being and that I'll get through today/this week/this year/all of it okay wouldn't hurt either.