too many fun things to write about, too little time...

...Yup...this is Ohio, where there's a barn in the backyard, almost in the middle of town...and I love it!

The middle house is on the Underground Railroad street, and the bottom house is just totally eyecatching! When's the last time you saw a house with that many windows in it?

When Tif & I moved to our 2nd apartment, it was the coolest in the world! Cheap enough for me to afford on $3.50 an hour, part-time, 30-some hours a week! Luckily, I learned quickly how to be a cheapskate! lol! Naahhh, Mom & Dad were there for me for anything, especially if it was something Tif wanted/needed! And I got a great babysitter for her a few blocks away. I had to get on that gov't program that paid the babysitter, but I couldn't have asked for a better one! Heck, I even got a Christmas card from her & her family last year! The kitchen in that house was pretty big, and I didn't have a dining room table, so Mom let me have an old wooden table that we'd had at their house forever, and 4 metal chairs, and I took that out in their yard & painted the table white, then "splatter-painted" the table with red, blue, yellow, & green paint, & painted each chair one color. That was the first & only creative thing I've done, & I was quite proud of it...

When I was begging for more hours at work, the manager, who was quite the 'Mr Whipple' looking and acting guy, started letting me close the store a few nights a week. It wasn't that big a deal back then, because I really don't think there were as many 'wanna-be criminals' running around then. Or if there were, I got damn lucky that I didn't run into more! Every night I had to close, there was another cashier working with me, & a stockboy, usually Phil, who was the most fun to work with & looked like a bodyguard, but he was in high school. And he lived at home with his mom & dad in their house...right across the street from my apartment! That worked out really well, cuz we'd always go drop the money off at the night deposit at the bank, and go over & get Tif at her babysitter's, & go back to my apartment. And Phil would go walking across the street to his house, singing as loud as he could "Weee-Ay-Ya-Ya-Woo-Ooo..AH Weembowet...the lion sleeps tonight...". I'm sure all the neighbors knew when it was my nights to close...and, thank God, this was before most stores were 24 hours! We closed at nine!

Once, the cashier & I had all the stuff done up front and were yelling for Phil, cuz we were ready to leave, but he was nowhere to be found! I finally went to the back room to look...he was back there swinging around on the pipes & stuff at the ceiling, doing the monkey sounds & scratching under his arms & all. Yeah...who's gonna yell at a guy like that, even if he did make you late cuz he was screwing around?

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...i got nuthin'...

Keep in mind, all these pictures are within like 8 or 10 blocks of here...this is what a small town is, even though, I guess it's technically a city...now why the hell would I want to live in the country...this is as much "nature" as I can handle! I really don't do bugs or mice or creepy things well out of choice! I'll kill bugs & spiders & crap like that cuz I live alone. And I hardly think it would be very good if I called 911 "HAAYY-ULP!!!! Something's after me!" Then the ambulance gets here, they break through the door, and I'm pointing up at a corner screaming "Right there! Right there! Hurry up, that bastard's fast! And poor little Truman would be cowering behind my legs...

I rode down to the Dollar Store this afternoon, cuz, well, just cuz. It was a great day in the mid-80's, & not a cloud in the sky!

So I get in there, and, well, y'all know what happens to you in a Dollar Store...I went in there at 3:30 & ended up not leaving until 5:30! I only spent like $65, but, remember, this was the dollar store! No, I don't think anything I bought was actually a dollar, but, c'mon! Just, well, everything I went past was something I needed! You know, Meow Mix, Fresh Step kitty litter, kitty toy, scented oil candles, vitamins, and then a leisurely buzz down the middle two aisles, that are filling up fast with Halloween stuff! Jason masks galore! And here I'd thought I was the only person who started thinking about Halloween in July! lol!

When I saw that raggedy snowball bush up there, it yanked a memory out. When I was probably 6 or 7, we were up at my grandma's farm out in the country, like we always were on Sunday afternoons. All my cousins usually were there too. Boo was my best friend out of all my cousins, she's a year younger than me, and she's the one I'm on the phone with a couple times a week now. Anyway...she has a sister that's 2 years older, and she had just gotten a minibike, a teeny one that was her size, actually, now that I think of it, it was purple! Our other cousins were there too, and we ALL wanted to ride it. Can you even imagine the noise the grown-ups were hearing?? Finally, Grandma & everyone came outside and around the garage. Boo's dad finally settled it..."Okay, everybody, PIPE DOWN & BEHAVE! You can each take a turn on it while I watch. Lori, you go first." She flashed everybody a smug, self-satisfied grin, got on, and promptly drove it straight into Grandma's big full beautiful snowball bush. Thus endeth the minibike rides...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Maniac Monday...

Okay, I have to be honest here...none of these pictures have a damn thing to do with this post. I was just looking through my old pix I have on here, and, well, I had a mental derailment...

The bottom one is Truman looking at the stray kitten I picked up when I saw her out front (Tinkerbell), and I thought we could maybe adopt her...obviously, if you see the look on Truman's face, you see why she was only a one night houseguest...

The next one is a Halloween picture from a few years ago when I was still married.

The next one is my Mom's closet door from the house I grew up in, was there from 1965 till April 8, 1983. Then I called the guy who owned it in Apr, 2003, & went over & went back through it & took some pictures! & the top one is the window at the top of the landing in that house.

Our next apartment was a great cheap one on one of the main streets in town...I mean cheap as in $160.00 a month rent for a 2 bedroom! It was upstairs and the stairs were outside, but...so what?? It was great! I loved that place, lived there from 1985 till Kev & I got married in 1990.

I was a cashier at that store for a couple years & loved it! I became really good friends with everyone. Still am with some! (even married the meat manager[Kev])

Back in '85, one of the cashiers was only 17, but we hung around a lot, and I took her to a bar about 30 miles away to go dancing & drinking...shhhh...I remember she came running out of the bathroom while we were there yelling "Eeeewwwww!! Libby, some girl's in there chucking all over herself!" Keep in mind, she was still 17, while I was 18, old enough at that time to drink! Another time, a girl we didn't know came walking out of the bathroom, acting all sexy and everything, tossing her hair around and all. Then she walked past us, toward the guy who was a true Tom Selleck lookalike, and all of us girls who had been starting to get jealous noticed that she had a length of toilet paper about a foot long hanging out of the top of the back of her jeans!! Do you even think for a second that any one of us would've told her?? No, 'course not...it was just too damn funny to watch her sashaying her way towards him!! God...I still am laughing about it! How pathetic...

Okay, I hafta go, my favorite show's on...'Lie To Me'

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

stuff that happened looooooooong ago...

All these pictures are on the street that the Underground Railroad houses are. The bottom picture is the house that my best friend, Kim lived in when we first started hanging out in 8th grade. The next one up was a bed and breakfast for awhile. And the top two are a museum (a 'you-see-um', as I used to call them when I was little) that has a lot of stuff from Marion a long time ago.

I was thinking about how much fun it was to be a single mom with Tif, when she was little. I know it sounds like a lot of work & struggle and all that. Well, it was...but c'mon!! Honestly, I had already left Tif's biological dad, & divorced him, so, since I didn't want to move back home with Mom & Dad (that would be like admitting they'd been right all along, since I'd started dating him when I was 16...and he was 27...perv...). They did everything they could to stop this shit, I'll never say they didn't! But, the best thing in the world was Tif!! She was worth every bit of everything!

Anyway, I'd never had a job, so I had to go find one...Mom & Dad both told me to go work in the hospital...hmph, probly should've! But I got a cashier's job at the local grocery store, around the corner from Mom & Dad's. Incidentally, that was the store Mom always took me to when I was little, we always walked everywhere together (well, she walked...I trotted...I was only about 3!!). But once when I was older, about 8, she drove in her car (a blue Ford Fairlane...I remember the fins!). I went through the back part of the checkout lane, and I stole a pack of bubblegum, and when we got out to the car, Mom made me take it back in & give it to the manager, & apologize. Didn't everyone have to do that once?

Wow, what a digression! So when my childhood friend told me to go there and apply, I did. She was the girl I was friends with first, she & her mom & dad lived around the block from me...and she was the youngest of 8 kids! A great family, My older brothers were friends with her older brothers too! When I applied, the manager said he wanted to hire me, I just needed to go up to their main office in Findlay, and take the test they give people at first. An honesty test & math test. I was afraid they'd know me from the time I stole the pack of gum! But, no, I got the job! While I was in Findlay, I walked downtown past a drugstore, and there was a baby Snoopy in the window that had a baby blue hat & feet...it's so unbelievably cute!! I can say that, because it's here! I re-inherited it when Tif moved out! I might, maybe let her baby have it...but we'll see. ;-)

Once I had a job, I got an apartment about a block south of Mom & Dad''s, in a real haunted-feeling part of town. It was a nice apartment, it was in a huge house that was split into 4 apts, each one had an upstairs & downstairs...and an attic, which mine was horribly scary. There was a padlock on the door~! I tried my house key in it, and it worked, so my friends & I went up to check it out. And on one wall was a hand with the fingertips on fire and the number 13 on the palm! So, yeah, we all came thundering down the uncarpeted stairs, and relocked it with the padlock, and never went up there again!! So, that was mine & Tif's first apartment.

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Manic Monday...

An elephant asked a camel, “Why are your breasts on your back?
“Well”, says the camel, “I think that’s a very inappropriate question from somebody whose dick is on his face.”

Sometimes it's unbelievable, the amount of stupid-ass jokes that are out there, and there's always one more!! And, of ccourse, I'm always ready for something to make me laugh!

What do you get when you mix PMS & GPS?
A crazy bitch who WILL find you.

I haven't really improved much still...but I had an appointment with Dr S (neurologist) today, and it was a really good appointment...you know, one where you remembered to ask her for all the prescrips & tests...she & I sat & talked about what exercises I want to do...she's prescribing 6 more weeks of phys therapy, a bone density scan, another mri...I love this...she wants to know about all the results as much as I do. This'll be good...I had an mri for her last September, and I've had 3 other ones over the last 15 years, so this will be the first one on Tysabri. And Dr S said she understands why I'm so impatient for the good results!! She's "Oh, I know, this has been a dream for over a year...but have patience!" I looked her name up on the internet last week, and it turns out that she's the only doctor in 25 miles that can prescribe Tysabri.
Man, oh shit, I really want a smoke right now...but then again, I'm really glad I don't have any here, cuz I know if I did, I'd be smoking them two at a time!!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Just a lot of randomness...

This is what I got at Certified this week instead of cigarettes...I have gone through about two packs in a week, but as of today, I smoked the last one I have and that's it. If I keep smoking 5 a day & keep buying them, I'll never quit...and that's shit. I'm stronger than this crap.

I found a lot of neat quotes in the last couple days...

"It is no measure of health to be sane in an insane society."
-- Krishnamurti

how true is that?

"For those who believe, no proof is neccessary...for those who don't, no proof is possible."

that says more than anything...

and this is just a smartass bit for those of us who'd miss it if it wasn't here...

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world because they'd never expect it."

Bro called tonight, he & his wife are out at their condo in Scottsdale, their youngest is starting at college soon...man, they've got so much going on now...they're gonna be there for a couple weeks, then here, then he & his son will be riding their motorcycles out in the northwest, then his son & gf will be at the condo, then Vegas....crap!! Oh well, I'll stay busy here...holding down the hometown...if I must...;-) Somebody has to!!

I'm hoping that I start feeling better soon, this August 4th iv has really not done shit, except beat me down and make me feel all weak & everything. But hopefully, this weekend I can make it turn around. At least it's better tonight after I ate ...pizza with green olives again! Well, it is a vegetable!

I called the drug co just to get reassured that it'll get better. Their tysabri reps are GOOD and no matter how freaked out I am, they calm me down & let me know that it WILL get better. The last guy I talked to was really nice and calming & reassurring, said that my first results in a month were kinda a freak thing, they don't usually expect results until week 12 to 16....so..wow!

Truman was down by the desk tonight, and something was on the floor in front of him. My eyes are not all that great, and it was something about the size of my pinky finger, looked like it was dark brown or something...I hate to say this, but, I thought it was a Trumie-turd or something. But I KNOW he wouldn't do anything like that! He does have manners! So I bent way over to look at it closer...all of a sudden it flew up toward my face! It was just like a moth (Mom called them millers), but, holy hell! Anyway...it bounced off my nose I think and fell down on the carpet, so I grabbed one of my tennis shoes and whacked it, but I guess just stunned it cuz the carpet's thick. As it was down there all fluttering & flapping, I reached down & grabbed the bottle of windex beside the desk....voila! No more fluttering, so I crunched it up in a paper towel. And looked around to give Truman a high-five, but he'd already lost interest...

Okay, I'm going to bed...I'm reading 'The Nanny Diaries', and it is GOOD!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

......

August 6, 2009!

Okay, I'm in a good mood today, and all I feel like doing is laughing at stupid shit! Seriously (or not?), not only am I sitting here laughing my ass off at Two & A Half Men, I'm also finding quite a bit of humor in the commercials that are on. Like the Geico one where the branch falls on a windshield and asks "What? You waiting for an apology? Well, toss another coin in the

wishin' well, pal!" Hahaha! That's even better than their caveman commercials!

This was the episode that Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) was on & that reminds me...he's 61, & performed at the Sturgis Harley Motorcycle Show this year...and fell off the stage!! I called my cousin Boo yesterday and asked if her dad (my uncle, of course) went to it this year, and she said not this year, he was having a knee replaced. He does usually go every year, though. Yup, this is Mom's 'baby' brother! And he's a Harley ridin' farmer! ;-) Could've been worse though...a couple years ago, Elton John played there!

I was at the doctor's office today for a test, and it was so quick I couldn't believe it! I was out & at the front desk asking them to call the bus early for me, and the woman said "That was wham- bam, thank you ma'am, wasn't it?" I looked at the guy sitting there beside her, winked, & said "Just the way I like it!"

So when the bus came to take me home, I had them take me to Certified (for donuts, not smokes!), then I HAD to stop at the Jer-Zee for a chocolate/mint milkshake! Mmmmmmmm...one of these days I'll hafta try choc/marshmallow! They have a gajillion flavors of milkshakes there, and you can mix any of them. They even have lime milkshakes!! Not just lime slush...lime milkshake! Kinda Eeeeeeeeewwww!

Bro called today, & we were talking about health and all that shit. And I told him that I'm glad I'm not a guy! I'd have a baby every week rather than a prostate exam! He says "You'd rather have a baby than have a doctor stick his finger up your butt?" I laughed & said, well...I've heard that there are guys that like that...(in our young, uncaring days we called them 'pillowbiters').

Bro & his wife are going out with their youngest daughter to Arizona in a few weeks for her to go to college at ASU. That's really cool! I know she's gotta be super-excited! So this is the youngest of four kids, She's the only one going to college outside Ohio. I think she's taking photojournalism. How neat!

Okay...I need food...again...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you really want to laugh, go here!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rabbit, rabbit!!

These are some more of the pictures I took a month ago when I rode northwest in town...I'm gonna go out and do this again this weekend.


I just love all the different kinds of houses everywhere in town. These are so much more interesting to me than the cookie-cutter type houses in some parts of town where they're all 'uppity' snobs & such, you know?

And, holy cow, I'm actually kinda glad I can't walk anymore, because if I could, this house is so intriguing, I'd probably go knock on the door, and ask for a tour! (what? me? no, I have no shame...why do you ask?)

I had an appointment with my basic dr today, the one that's been my doctor since before I got ms, he was our dr back in, like '92...he's still my dr, I don't know for sure if he's still anybody else's. I do know that when he came in the room today, he asked how's Tom? I giggled, said he's good we're friends, we talk on the phone a cpl times a week, but, I don't have a boyfriend, don't want a boyfriend...good Lord...I have Truman, and he takes up all the spare time I've got.

I'm just going to put down what results I'm getting so far after my first iv of tysabri 7/6/09 here, just because I'm finally starting to feel like it's having an effect. I'm feeling stronger, but I've been doing physical therapy exercise twice a week with home health care, and I do all the exercises every day on my own too. And, well, I've smoked again, but about 5 cigarettes a day...and I'm okay with that, but I'll probably get some patches this weekend & see what that does. I know damn well not to ever smoke with one on...one of the women I worked with at GTE was outside on a smoke break with all of us once, and she showed us the patch she was wearing, said "It's not working" as she lit a smoke...then had to go lay down & go home because she was sick! And my appetite is really super good...heck, today before I left for my appt, I had 6 mini powdered donuts for breakfast, lunch was pork roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed veg, pineapple...then I went to my appt! I am eating instead of smoking, and that's great! I got weighed today, and I'm 90 lbs, which is not great, but, it's 2 lbs up from last week, and that's a good sign! And tonight I've had pizza, potato chips & dip, and 6 regular size glazed donuts...*muffled oink*

Other than those good physical signs, I'm walking a lot better with my walker, and I can stand alone without having to hold onto anything, or lean on anything; last week once when I brushed my teeth, I used my right hand...understand, I was so excited because I've been brushing my teeth with my left hand for the last 12 years! And when I saw the dr today, I touched my nose with my right finger! Yeah, I know, woopee, but...yeah, dammit, WHOOPEE! Dr told me over & over today how great I looked & when I left he was recording his report of the visit & I heard him saying how much better my ataxia was. Oh, & I told him Tif's gonna have a baby...he said 'You're not old enough to be a grandma!' I said I know, I tried to tell her... :-)

All right...that's it for the health report...my next iv is August 4th, and now I know I'll be pretty wiped out for a few days, but if this is how I end up, well, it's more than worth it.

Awright, Glen Beck's on...I missed the first half earlier today, cuz I was nappin', so...TTFN!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!