Coming Over to the Dark Side

Pick up the nearest book to you.
Turn to page 45.
The first sentence describes your sex life in 2012.


"Did I leave them open? Sorry."



Hmmmmm.... Interesting...

I haven't had much trouble on my own journals actually, mostly because I'm very boring and nothing's all fancy. I just went and switched to having custom comments, which I don't really like on long threads, but I rarely have really long threads in my own journals - mostly just in the RP communities.

Still, what a nasty thing they've done.

In any case, I do have a Dreamwidth account - got it some time ago, but don't really use it. I'm not looking to leave LJ at the moment, still, with all the nonsense and people possibly migrating, I am trying to add friends from here to there. (And I snagged journals for all my RP characters just in case).

I'm Maisfeeka there, just like here, so please feel free to add me or leave your DW name here so I can add you. Thanks!

So my cat went blind again tonight. You can actually see the blood behind her right eye if the light catches it right. I bumped up her blood pressure meds to what the animal hospital had her on initially and will talk to my vet in the AM. Poor confused little thing. Any good thoughts/prayers would be appreciated.

It's been a stressful twenty-four hours. I came home last night to my one-month-from-seventeen years old cat happily leaping up onto furniture and half an hour later she just... went blind and started walking into things. So, I googled sudden blindness in cats and decided the best thing to do was to take her to the emergency animal hospital. We were there for ages and they found her blood pressure was up around 250 (the vet said he'd like to see it no higher than 150, yikes) and that was the cause for the blindness. It's probably caused by an underlying problem like kidney, thyroid, or heart problems. The kidney and heart seem fairly okay, testing for thyroid tomorrow.

I couldn't get her to my vet today for the necessary blood pressure check (they put her on meds and need to see how it's working and be able to tweak it) because they could only get me in at 11:20. I teach in a small non-profit school for kids with serious behavioral issues - 3 classrooms with 3 teachers, 2 aides, a principal, a counselor, and our behavioral supervisor. We're shorter staffed than usual because we're down in numbers and today my aide and the behavioral supervisor were going to be out and everyone else was straight out. There was no way I could leave for several hours in the middle of the day (and just the transport getting her and going to the vet's and then reversing would be an hour or so), so...

I ended up going back to the e.r. for the check and while she was only down to 230, her pupils were somewhat responsive to light which they were not at all yesterday. There is the slimmest of chances that she could regain some sight, so at least that's hopeful.

She's managing well, can find her water dish, the litter box, make the big jump up onto the bed to sleep and/or snuggle (though she looks a bit like a deranged kangaroo with the crazy leap she makes). She's not walking around and around brailling the rooms constantly and she's not running into the walls quite as much. The only big issue was that she hadn't eaten since sometime before 7:30 last night and she's now a teeny tiny cat (only about 5 pounds - down from the 13 before she got sick last spring), so that was a big worry.

But a short time ago she wandered into the living room licking her lips and I got up and dashed into the bedroom to discover that she'd begun to eat. She's had even a bit more since then, so while she's still a bit behind calorie-wise I feel much better. I'll definitely sleep better tonight.

Three days left before vacation and oh, do I need it!

Finally went to immediate care on Sunday afternoon and was told I have a 'typical pneumonia presentation' and got some antibiotics (and cough medicine that doesn't work nearly as well as the one I'd been using). Of course, for some reason he listed my diagnosis as 'cough', not nearly as useful if I'd tried to take any time off.

Still, wouldn't be able to anyway. Students are finishing up projects and such for our big presentation on Thursday afternoon and this is our last week with our Adopt-A-Pilot from Southwest, so I'm straight out.

In other news...

My seven and a half year old and absolutely adorable niece #4 (from California) taught me how to crochet scarfs and I've made three so far - two of which I gave away to most appreciative people. (And I do sooo miss my sweet little #4 niece!)

I've also bought way too much yarn (Okay, 6 whole skeins - two of which I've already used) to support my new scarf habit.

My 17 year old cat has decided she's a kitten again and is jumping up onto and getting into things she hasn't been interested in/able to get into for the past ten years. And she's become very demanding about being petted exactly when she wants - even if it's at 3 AM. She's developed this technique of putting her claws out in my hair just enough that it's like she's combing my hair. Very funny, but not at 3AM. Though, honestly, I'm just so grateful to still have her with me that I can't ccomplain.

My wiggliness in bed when sick (and my sprawling in the bed almost the entire weekend) annoyed her enough that she'd yowl at me till I got up to feed/pet/see what was wrong and then she'd lead me into the living room. And once I'd plopped on the couch there, she'd tear back into the bedroom and curl up on her spot on the bed with a sigh of relief.

Let's see... got talked into auditioning for a play I didn't want to be in and blessedly did NOT get cast. (The Drama has already started there, and I'm soooooo glad I don't have to deal with it!)

And did I mention only 3 more days to vacation?

MY COMMENT NOTIFICATIONS ARE BACK!!! (Sorry, just needed to yell that.)

At least, well, for the moment they are.

It is amazingly wonderful to do a test comment somewhere and immediately hear the notification arrive in my box. *happy sigh*

Wherever you are, elanurel, and whatever you're doing... be happy and well, keep kicking ass and taking names, and poke your head in to check on us once in a while.

And because you always asked me to say it for you, I'll do it one last time.

No matter what, I still believe that 'All will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will be well.'

So be well. You are missed and loved.

*smishes*

So, tonight is the big New Hampshire Theatre Awards - kind of our version of the Tonys. A great number of my friends and a few plays I've been in are up for major awards, I've had my ticket for months, and yet... perhaps someone has noticed I'm here posting on my lj? And no, I don't have the type of phone that would let me post from the show.

So why am I here?

Well, I have a really nasty allergy to theatre fog and haze. Like, it sends a nice message to my autonomic nervous system that says breathing is not necessary. At all. I can make myself breathe if I want and work at it - but I don't, and get rather grumpily unpleasant about refusing if people prompt me to (as I'm waiting for transport to clinic or hospital for assistance).

Now, mind you, fog has been banned in equity theatres due to health risks, but community theatres don't have to follow those restrictions. It's always used on occasion and usually I can avoid it. However, lately it's become a problem.

I've been unable to go to a number of shows because they were using huge amounts of the stuff. I've had to flee from other shows because they've denied they were going to use any when I bought my ticket and as I'm sitting there suddenly the fog comes on. I've had to explain to multiple people that no, I'm not going to just go try and see if I'm still allergic to it and/or if this newer/different version will still affect me. Not unless they're willing to have an ambulance standing by and be willing to pick up all my medical bills, sorry. This isn't a nasty rash and a little wheezing that my inhaler and a benadryl will take care of. I. Stop. Breathing.

My friends have been very good about calling and emailing to warn me of fog in shows and today when I arrived at the pre-show dinner one of them pulled me aside and said they'd been at the theatre earlier and it had been filled with fog. So, I called and sure enough they told me yes, they'd be using haze throughout the show.

Which means, no show for me. I'm out $30, which is a lot for a poor teacher, I don't get to see the friends I generally only see at the awards, and if *fingers crossed* my friends or one of my shows wins an award I won't be there. I am an Unhappy Mai.

And, just to add insult to injury, when I got out to my parked car to head the 30 minutes back home instead of walking over to the theatre, I found that someone had hit my parked car and knocked the driver's side mirror all but off. So I had to drive around in the dark to find the police station, file a report (which necessitated a trip back across a busy and slippery street to find my car's VIN number), and then drive home on a busy highway while craning around to try and see something out of my crazily hanging off driver's side mirror.

Thank heaven there was Supernatural and Merlin tonight!

Well, another crisis weathered with my poor 16 year old cat. Threw up from Saturday afternoon/evening till late Monday night when it got really ugly. And then, just when I'd decided I had to bring her to the vets it stopped. She didn't eat anything till Thursday morning, but seems mostly back to normal now. (*knock on wood!*)

My youngest sister's cat, who's 17, didn't manage so well. YS lives in Boston and after several tough months made the decision today that she had to put the poor little one to sleep. After a whole bunch of crazy finagling, #2 sister arranged rides home for her kids from her youngest daughter's basketball game so she could head directly to Boston to be with YS. I came to her house to meet the kids and stay with them till the sisters can get back here. (We're weren't about to leave YS in Boston alone and luckily #2 sister was able to convince her to come here. I'm not quite ready to leave my cat alone all night, just in case.)

And a friend of mine died Wednesday night. He'd taken his wife to work so she didn't have to drive in the storm and later went to help shovel out her parents' driveway. His wife called to say she was ready to go home and her dad went out to get him and found him dead. Apparently he had a massive heart attack. The M.E. said he was dead before he even hit the ground and never even knew what happened. He was 43, just a little younger than me. He had diabetes, but never had any signs of heart disease. The M.E. thinks that symptoms from the diabetes masked it and in fact, his heart shows that he seems to have had at least one mild heart attack in the past few months that he never even was aware of. Scary.

I'm not as close to him as I am to his best friend who is utterly devastated. I spent a good chunk of time on the phone with him tonight before going to meet the nieces, but it's just all so sad. And his poor wife had decided she was never going to let anyone get close enough to her that she'd be devastated if she lost them. And then she met Shawn and they just fell in love and now... yeah. Sucks.

Anyway... consider taking a moment to tell the important people in your life how much you care about them. You just never know.

Anyway, anyway, it's a long weekend and I'm very grateful for that.

Love you all. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Happy New Year to all my lovely friends here. I hope that 2011 is the best year any of us have had yet!

I feel quite accomplished at the moment. Laundry is done (well, all the important laundry), bills are paid and ready to go in the mail, trash is done, rooms are straightened, papers organized, fresh sheets are on the bed... I'm all set for the new year.

My cat on the other hand has been quite distraught and following me around everywhere trying to figure out what's going on. Now that I've settled back down on to the couch, she's curled up next to me hoping that I'm done with all the madness.

I would have liked to vaccuum, but I have a roommate sleeping downstairs with what sounds like a nasty cold, so that can wait.

Anyway, I'm ready and happy and watching Criminal Minds, so all is right with my world.

*hugs to you all*