It's COLD again!!

Oh, I forgot how much it sucked to have to get up when your alarm went off in the morning! (hey, gimme a break, I'm looking at a positive part of having ms...). I had to get up at 9 this morning, to get the bus to my dr appt. She & I talked, I got weighed again (93 lbs today, 90 lbs last week...but it's progress....). So...I turned on the Weather

Channel just in time to catch the local temperature...forty-eight degrees!! Holy mother of God, man! It's almost MAY!! Oh, right...global warming...forgot about that...

Dr S's assistant came in, and we were all talking about where I'm going to get my infusions of tysabri at, because Dr S has no priveleges at Galion's hospital, but they both told me that if I give them 2 weeks/a month, they'll have it fixed so I can just get it here in town, not even have to go to Galion for the first one...I'm okay with that...after all...it's moving!!

So after my appointment, I went outside to have a smoke (I hid behind a post, because the ashtray/trashcan is right under the NO SMOKING ON HOSPITAL GROUNDS sign!) lol! Anyway, a woman came out of the hospital and walked up to me and said "You're Tiffany's mom, right?" I said yes, and was trying really hard to figure out who she was. Then she said she's XXXX's mom! Oh my God!! That was Tif's best friend in like the third grade, and all through school....well, they 'grew apart' in high school, but still! So she showed me pictures of her granddaughter, and told me where XXXX's little brothers are, and I showed her 2 pix of Tif at her wedding, and we gave each other the obligatory compliments (just kidding...they were sincere.). We kinda had a rough patch at the beginning, where she was married to a super uptight guy, and since we didn't go to church, therefore, I wasn't the type of mother she wanted her daughter to hang out at my house...that was ok with me, but don't pull my 9 year old into it! Anyway, she & her husband split up a couple years later, and, voila! She got neater and not so uptight! When I told her that Kev left me a couple years ago, she said, "That's too bad, that he wasn't strong enough to face this with you." OMG! I never really looked at it like that...but, yeah, she has a point! The psychologist said last week, "Just think, you wouldn't be you if he wasn't gone, now." See? That's why I want to be a psychologist! Always knowing what to say will be a valuable thing! (a lot of the time I can do that anyway!)

Lunch today was a slice of turkey & homemade mashed potatoes with gravy over it all...and asparagus...yuk...but I ate it & the peaches. And, yes, I know they were homemade mashed potatoes...cuz they were lumpy! The cold dinner was some kind of kidney bean salad with diced tomatoes & diced green peppers...kinda not my type of thing...but I ate it. I have a question, please tell me...dessert was tapioca....what ARE those little bubble thingys? I used to love tapioca when I was little...till Dad told me those were fish eyes...today's the first time I've eaten it since!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

thinking about old fun stuff...

...since Biogen hasn't called me yet about getting set up on tysabri...but I have an appointment with my ms dr Wednesday, and if I haven't heard anything by then, I'll sic her on 'em!

I'm sitting here watching 'The Amityville Horror'. The Oxygen Channel always has good stuff...ever seen 'Snapped'? Guys...here's a hint, if you're ever in another room and your wife/girlfriend has that show on, and is laughing uproariously...do NOT go to sleep that night!! Sorry, Christine, I just ratted you out. Woops!

Anyway, I was just thinking back to when the Amityville Horror book was out, and I think I was in 7th or 8th grade. I had a group of 5 or 6 girls I hung out with then. One weekend we all got together and stayed over at Kris's house, cuz, of course, her mom & dad were so much cooler than anyone else's! So we were in Kris's room up on the third floor talking about the stuff that really cool 8th graders do, and I was leafing through Kris's copy of that book, and all of a sudden pointed out to everybody that, "Hey you guys! This is the same house as Kris's!!" and it was, only not on the outside, but the floor plan was exactly the same, even down to the basement!! It actually looked scarier on the outside, because it was dark brick! That was also the year that I stayed home from school once with the flu, and Mom brought me home a book. Uh, yeah...'The Stand". That book scared me well!! Mom wasn't a Stephen King fan, she mostly read stuff like James Herriot, tame, happy stuff like that...I must've been a cabbage patch baby!

Also, I was remembering back when I worked an hour north of here, in the mid-80's, at the Peyton Place of grocery stores...naaahhh...I'll talk about that more later...it was a whole helluva lot of fun up there, though...I had the highest highs & the lowest lows up there! I remember some of the customers we had were, well, different...little did we realize that they would be us in a few years! I DO remember my supervisor stopping in from the main office about 15 miles away, and I was telling him about an "older man" that had been in asking about a produce thing...he said, "An elderly man?" And, I stupidly said yes, since I was about 21. He said how old? I said, wow, maybe 30?...He just looked at the store manager, & all of a sudden I got it! "You're not 30, are you, Craig?" I'm lucky I still had a job after that...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...four seasons in one day...

Yes, it's a true "earth day" celebration by nature, I guess. Hail around 1 pm today, with thunder & lightning. And now, at 6 pm, it's sunny & 48. And tomorrow it'll be 62, and the rest of the week, 75 and sunny! Goofy....
I have so much good stuff going on right now, I can't believe it! I went to the dr's office yesterday and her assistant and I sat down with all the papers they got from Biogen about this

tysabri, and we went over it all together, and I signed all the stuff I had to sign, and I made sure I told them I haven't taken any injectable ms meds since the beginning of 2009, and I haven't had any steroids (iv or prednisone!) since last October, before Tif got married. So, I got done, and Kim said all she needed

to do was to get all that stuff faxed to them and they'd call me in a week or so to set up my treatments! She said that when they went to lunch, they got a lot of info, and Dr S is excited about this, because I've tried 2 of the other 3 injectables for ms, and neither one was agreeing with me lately, and since this isn't another interferon, it's an antibody, and that's exciting to me, just because it's something different! And in my life, at this point, different is good! Jeez...do I win the competition for the most awkward run-on sentence? :-) The only other problem I was going to have was that the closest center that was able to give me this iv was in a town 25 miles away, but I already had that figured out, there are so many good people out there to help get me there...anyway, the doctor got it set up so they'll do it here in town at our hospital! I can take the city bus to it, that's, like a 5 minute drive!! And if it's nice out, I'll just ride my scooter. Now all I have to wait for is for Biogen to call. I've already looked up the medicine on my link to the insurance on here, and, well, thank God I still am on Kev's insurance. If I wasn't, the cost would be $7,000.00 for three months of iv's. As it is, I only have to pay $150.00 for 3 months. Yeah, I know the prices for meds are ridiculous, but a lot of the money they make is put into developing new drugs...scientists don't work for free, remember...

And one more really neat thing happened to me this week! I won the drawing at JavaJune's blog, where she's giving a Bohemian blend gift thingie of bath salts, etc...no, Ric, no alcohol! :-D She just got back from an awesome week away on a beach...in some undisclosed location...heehee...I WILL buy a lottery ticket this week...everything else is coming out perfect!

I am becoming SO hooked on some of the new shows on tv lately...there's Lie To Me (my favorite!), Fringe, The Mentalist, Eleventh Hour, House (of course) & Bones...good thing I have a windows tv thing that I can set to record everything!

Geez, I watched the news today for the first time since this weekend, and I really can't believe what kind of shit is going on now, what with Obama saying one day that he's not going after anyone for interrogation techniques in the past, the past is the past, let's go forward...blah, blah, blah. Two days later, it's a complete 180, and he can't rule anything out, we have to wait and see what Eric Holder has to say. Hmph....I trust Eric Holder as much as I trust Tim Geithner...and you all know how much I respect (kaff, kaff) him. You know what? We've not had an attack here since 9/11, but, for some reason, the Democrats refuse to believe it was because of anything George W did! I guess it just must have been that the terrorist fucktards had a sudden change of heart after that attack, and decided to rest on their laurels. As much as I'd love to believe that, I'm sorry...they're sitting in their groups in Afghanistan/Pakistan, doing all kinds of heavy-duty planning for the next one, which will be 'bigger & better', likely to involve a mini-nuke or bio-weapon. And we won't be able to find out anything about it in advance, because all of our CIA people will be scared as shit to press on anyone to get anything out of them, because of what happened to the people after 9/11! Am I the only one that's worried about this?? They say that nothing's happened since then...do they think that's just because they didn't feel like doing anything?? Where's the logic in that thinking? That just proves to me that Democrats see the world as they wish it was, Republicans see the world as it really is, warts and all, not just flowers, rainbows, sunshine. And, anyone who still believes that their taxes won't go up because the God-like Obama promised them they won't...they're still living in fairyland too. Just look at how much higher stuff like cigarette taxes are...those ARE taxes, ya know? Just because it's not taken out of your paycheck every week doesn't mean it's not a tax. Man, I need to make a different entry for this...or maybe resurrect my other blog...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

sunny again!!

I can hardly wait til there's leaves on all these trees!! But at least there's a blue sky and sun!! And that's good enough for me in April!!

Well, things are finally starting to move with the tysabri! I called my neuro's assistant this morning to ask how it was going, and if they'd had a chance to talk to Biogen about the drug, and side effects, etc. And, holy crap, they've been running with it! A Biogen rep is coming to take the dr and her assistant to lunch Tuesday to go over all of this with them because I'm this doctor's first patient on this drug...a veritable guinea pig, if you will! Lol!! So I have to go to her office that afternoon and fill out the papers and stuff, and after that, I'm not sure...but at least it's getting started! How in the world do timid people deal with health problems? I mean, I'm not mean or demanding, but I follow up on things that I need them to do. And on stuff I want to try! Because if I hadn't done all the research on this, I'd have no choice but to get a shot every day! Seriously, you just have no choice but to be pro-active about this kind of stuff...but, the big thing you also have to do is always be nice! Because I know every time I talked to a customer that called in to GTE to make billing arrangements, well, if they treated me nice, they were usually surprised at how helpful I was! (and the reverse is also true...).

I was thinking back about the Easter times I was a produce manager...this was always a fun time of year in my department! Big fresh asparagus displays, huge sweet potato & yam displays...the year in Fostoria when I was about 21, and I was a big flirt (yes, yes, I was...). There was a really cute guy that was in a lot, & I was stocking the potato display...as soon as his cart got within a few feet of me, I tossed a sweet potato in it. He jumped kinda and said "Hey! What was that for?" I just smiled and told him that was a 'yambush'...and be careful when you get back toward the meat department, I'm hearing they're planning a 'hambush'...;-D

Then there was the year at a different store where I got to be the Easter bunny! Now THAT was fun! They had a big bunny costume that I got to wear and kids came in & sat on my lap & told me what they wanted in their Easter baskets (besides grass & eggs), and I gave each kid a chocolate bunny & the cashier would take a Kodak picture for them! And the best part of that day was when Mom & Dad had brought Tif up to the store to see the Easter bunny...and she had NO IDEA it was me! She was in the fifth grade, so she was kinda old for that & didn't 'believe in' the EB anymore, but Mom made her sit on my lap anyway, cuz "Just one more year, Tiffany, just do it for Grandma?" That did turn out to be a great picture! And luckily, there wasn't one kid that peed on me!! Tif found out it was me when she went running back to my department to find me, and when she stuck her head in my back room, just saw the black stockboy back there doing my job.

Later that year, I had ordered bedding plants to sell. I built a big display outside to put them on, out of skids & milk crates...very complicated :-) . But anyway, I had about 300 flats out there, and they looked awesome. About an hour before I was gonna leave, I connected the hose outside to water them...I was in the middle of watering them when the store manager (jerkhead!) came flying out the door and said "Libby, you're spraying water all over the windows!" Oh my God! I just looked at him and said, "Jeff...it's just..water...not sure if you've ever noticed, but, the windows get rained on sometimes, too...they've never melted or anything..." A couple months after that, we got a different manager because all of us department heads had gotten together & gone to the head office in Lima and threatened a 'mutiny' if they didn't replace Jeff!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Yeah, it's rainy and cold...but you don't have to shovel rain!

These are the 2 baskets I made for my 2 grand-dogs...










And these are mine & Truman's baskets (his is the one with the mouse...)

...and these are Tif's & Mr Tif's! Yeah...I had fun doing this...

So did everybody have a great Easter/Passover? I hope you all did! Bro sent 2 of his daughters over to pick me up Sun afternoon for dinner, & we had fun there, Mrs Bro's mom was there too, and an aunt...yeah, Bro's house is where everybody hangs out...

then when Bro brought me home, I called Tif & asked her & Mr Tif to come over, and Tif & I sat here & looked through the great big box of old pictures that Doug brought over for me to look through from Mom & Dad's from way back, like when I was little & before I was born, for 2 or 3 hours! Lotsa fun!

Joe was here tonight...we haven't had much time to just sit around and catch up on stuff at all...his divorce was just final last week...after 3 years...wow. We were just talking about where our lives are going from here...I just said, "Well, Joe...I don't know what I want...but I DO know what I don't want...does that make any sense?" So, did we come up with any answers? Naahhh...but we had fun anyway. Joe said that's the longest he's gotten to talk to an adult in forever...he teaches 6th, 7th, & 8th grade science.

So, is anybody getting to go to a 'tax day tea party' tomorrow? Man, if I had any clue of anybody around here going, I'd beg to go! I love it that it's not a bash Obama thing, because Obama isn't doing this on his own, he's got plenty of help in Congress.

And, yeah, finally Casey Anthony is up for the death penalty! Naahh...I could never be a defense lawyer...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Oh, yeah...don't forget, tomorrow night at 10 pm on TV Land the Cougar will be on!!

Thursday before Good Friday

Yes, everyone, I go around with my head in the clouds 24/7...should anybody be surprised at that????? Lol!

And, keep in mind, these two pictures were taken on the same day, within maybe a quarter-mile between the places, and maybe 20 minutes!

And I just like the rocks at the corner!!

I'm gonna have to be brutally honest here (like I never am????)
I've had to break down and admit that, no, I really can't do it all myself. Ironic that that's one of the first phrases I learned as a baby..."NO!! Do it MYSELF!!" That's in my baby book, along with when I told G when he was babysitting me once, "You're not the boss of ME!!" lol...since G was probably 16, & I was 3, he did the tactful big brother thing, nodded & smiled, and found me something else to do! Yeah...did I mention that I was the youngest & the only girl? :-D
So, with major encouragement from a health pro (ok, ok, a psychologist that I've seen for the last couple years!), I called and now I get the Mobile Meals 4 days a week, so I actually eat real food, vegetables & fruit, and their volunteers make everything homemade, do ya believe that? And I'm actually gaining weight, and feeling better & happier...'course, it's sunny & warmer too...
And when I saw her today, I was telling her about the tysabri, and having to go to Galion hospital (when it gets set up), she said if I need rides there ever, call Love, INC here in town (which is love in the name of Christ!), and they have volunteers that take people to doctors' appts, etc, even if they're down in Columbus! I am just blown away by all the people that volunteer quietly, and you never knew it before. I'm kicking myself for not doing any of it when I could. It's one thing to give an automatic payroll donation to United Way, which I did when I worked at GTE, but quite a bigger thing to give of yourself.
I even admitted to myself that I needed to get someone here to clean the house downstairs, and to take all my Christmas stuff upstairs again, scrub the bathtub, all that.She's not coming regularly or anything, but I know who she is, at least.
The day she was here, the volunteer that delivered the lunch & dinner for that day, came to the door and looked in, and said "Libby!"...it was the first librarian at our old library downtown, and she and Mom and I were always big "book fans"...she and I met when I was 4 years old! This has just been a magical time for me...I'm not sure why, but I love it that there are so many good people out there! And, of course, I'm including all of you who've been here for me listening to me when I've been at my lowest low!
So, since it was relatively warm out today (60-ish) and sunny, I left here at 12:30, and got the bus to my appt, then came home, and went right back out to the Dollar Store, and got stuff to make Easter baskets for Tif & her husband...and their two dogs. And for me & Truman too. And, as cheap as the stuff is there, the Easter stuff was already 50% off!! So I had to buy a cute yellow bunny for my basket, and a blue one for Tif, & a yellow duck for Mr Tif!
Then, carrying that load on my scooter, I also stopped at the bank & Certified...cuz it's gonna rain tomorrow & be chillier Saturday, so this was THE day to do everything! And I had a blast! Didn't get back here til 6! So, speaking of that, I'm tired, and I want to crawl in bed with a big fat book! Goodnight!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Sunday & we're forecast for rain & snow showers this week......more global warming, no doubt...

This is my wonderful ramp that Bro had his company guys build! Yeah. I know it's not exciting to anyone but me, but to me, when Bro got this built & bought me a 4-wheeled scooter, it says nothing but FREEDOM! And you can't put a price on that!! I miss driving SO MUCH, but, this scooter & ramp is the best I can do now, and after 13 years, I'm okay with that.

And this is a tree next door that just looks like spring!

I went down a different street today, and this just says "Spring's coming!"

So, what's everybody else been doing? This is pretty much it for me. Well...I did finally get my indoor wheelchair (battery-powered) fixed. It turned out that it needed new batteries (it takes 2 HUGE ones...that need replaced every year!). I usually don't use that unless I really feel like shit, Mostly I use my walker as much as possible. But it's nice to have it available if I need it! And I've talked to my doctor, and she agreed that I can start taking tysabri! Whee!! I know it's not a 'miracle cure' or anything, but, dammit...I was starting to feel like a pincushion, with all the shots! First it was once a week...then it was 3 times a week...the next option was once a DAY!! Nope...I'm not going there...well, all I can say is "Not now, anyway!". But tysabri is given once a month intravenously, at a hospital's infusion center. And, yup, this is the drug that I talked about before, where some people got PML and died from it. But I've researched it and been talking to lots of good people on it, and it seems that as long as you don't take another injection with it, and don't have steroids with it, it looks relatively safe. Actually, the death rate when it was experimental was only 3 in 3,000. And now it's become a pretty common treatment...it inhibits white blood cells from getting into your brain...I'm sure there's more to it, but, that's kinda it in a nutshell...it's also been used for cancer, and it's used for Crohn's disease too...so I won't be alone! Right now the closest Tysabri center is a hospital about 25 miles away, but I do have good people who have told me to call them any time I need anything, so I might have to (that feels crappy!), but, you do what you have to, right? I'm good friends with the head of nursing at one of the hospitals here in town, and hopefully, this hospital will get certified in this treatment, that way I could just take the city bus out...

So, yeah, I'm pretty excited...it's a new beginning anyway...and Easter is the time for that...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

April Fool's Day!

Christine, I KNOW you'll think this one is good!

And, I really don't need to say anything else here...

I was remembering today some stuff Mom had told me about when I was little. She said that when I was a baby, and we still lived in Massillon, we were getting ready to sell the house there so we could move to Marion, and Dad was at work, Bro & G were in school, & Mom was home with me...their realtor called and asked if she could bring a couple over to see the house. Mom said that'd be fine, so she was doing last minute "picking up", turned around & went to the other room, leaving me standing in my playpen in the middle of the living room...and all of a sudden she heard me laughing like a "loon", and she turned back around to see that I had pulled the top off of my Playtex bottle, and dumped the whole thing all over the living room carpet! Such a lovable, happy little baby I was! (or what a little shit I was...luckily Mom didn't believe in spanking!).

Aw, holy shit...I was just dinking around with Facebook, and I had messages...one told me that every day I don't play dragon wars, God kills a kitten. That's just sick & wrong! Gaaahhhh...

I actually like my new saying...a good person does the right thing even when nobody's watching.

Chester & I still have to figure out when she can get down here. We could probably find trouble to get into here, just as easily as we did in Fostoria...but she's older than me, does that mean she's the bad influence here?? Woohoo! She'll be the first person I'll ever be able to say that about..usually I'M the 'bad influence'!

Mom actually used to say I had 'indomitable spirit', she even has that written down in her "Grandma's Diary" that she left for Tif! I'm assuming & hoping that was meant in a good way...lol?? Actually, I'm sure it was meant in a good way...the only other person I ever heard described that way was Shirley Temple...and everybody loved her, didn't they?

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!