Seven randoms from Kimmy's blog...again...

Now, this is winter!! And, I guess there's an inch or two of ice under this, but, since I don't drive...


Well, Tom was here the day before this hit, and was taking me out to the bank, so I could get cash for the pizza deliveries I knew I'd want for the weekend, and to Certified to get choc milk & orange juice...(& cigarettes! you know, the necessities!)...anyway, I was in my manual wheelchair on the deck

while he came back inside to get something I'd forgotten, and I'm sure all he heard was the loud "Wahh-HOOOO!! as I rolled myself over to the start of the first downhill slant of the ramp, and then let go, and went sliding down the first 'hill', into the big pile of snow at the turn to go down the second 'hill'!

That was almost as much fun as a rollercoaster!!

Today Tif & her husband came over to pick up a pair of her old snow pants, cuz they were going over to the Mad River place, he was going to teach her how to "snow board"! That's gonna be fun! She just called & said the Columbus news station was there with their cameras filming everybody, so I'll be seeing Tif in her neon green & black jacket on the news tonight!! Neat!

Okay...after all that...I'm taking Kimmy's next quiz on her blog (she's the BEST!). You have to tell 7 random things about yourself. Well, I think I'm going to do the same thing she did, I'll just say 7 random things from my childhood.

1. When it was this snowy outside, those were the Sundays I loved to go to Grandma's! Because there was a HUGE hill in the back of Grandma's house, and we all knew how much fun it was to roll down that in the summer, but, in the winter, OMG!! If you couldn't find a 'sled' anywhere, you used whatever you could find to slide down on, whether it was a broken-down car hood from behind the barn (this is a farm way out in the country), or a big ol' tractor tire that we scrunched up in the middle of, and everybody tried to ROLL you down the hill! That's why the snow was necessary...soft landing, you know?

2. And if you "sledded" too far, and went too slow, you'd end up in the 'crick' down at the bottom of the hill, and if it wasn't frozen solid, you ended up wet & cold & crying, & stormed your little 'haughty' butt in the house, to sit against a radiator, and get warm, & fussed over by all the grown-ups inside & eat Grandma's homemade cookies (I liked the macaroon ones best!)

3. When I was in 8th grade is when I started getting some self-confidence & all my smartass-ness started then...and that's when Kim & I became 'BFF' (well, it had a good 30 year run, anyway...). She didn't exactly cause it, but she sure as hell didn't discourage it, either! It was what started me being a total smartass...when you see your friend pee her pants laughing because of what you said, how could you NOT go with that??

4. There was one guy that picked on us so bad in middle school (I think he started the whole feud!), that we had to make it our personal mission to 'get him back' every day. People loved to be in a class that we were all in (art & history!)...oh, did I forget to mention, he was very fat. Very fat. In today's language, I'm sure he'dve been obese. Like Fat Albert-type, if he stood near you and lifted his stomach up, and you were unfortunate enough to be under it, I'm sure you'dve ended up looking like a pancake (or a slinky!). He always was pissed at the world, and now that I have a brain, I understnd why, but at the time, we just thought he was a crab! He always called Kim "watermouth". When a teacher asked him why he called her that, he said "'Cause her mouth is always running!" lol!

5. So once in art class, we were ironing something on shirts, and we were unfortunate enough to be sitting at one of the big long tables on stools across from him. All the irons were plugged into outlets above the tables. And Randy got up to go get something, and Kim looked around 'furtively', and unplugged Randy's iron. He came back and sat down and was sittin' there, ironing away. Everybody else in the class was holding their shirts up and showing off their handiwork, and still Randy's sitting there ironing furiously, as if his life depended on it! Until he got really mad, and threw the iron on the floor...and that's kinda when he realized that his iron had been unplugged. And that's when the fight started...

6. My house was the one everybody wanted to come to after school, especially in grade school! Cuz my mom was the quintessential 'room mother', she was always the room mother for every class I was in, and she was just damn good at it! This was in the early 1970's, and a lot of other people's mom's were just starting to go get jobs and stuff, but my mom was what she always wanted to be; a good mom, good wife, stay at home, make dinner every night, play with her kids, I even remember seeing my mom darn socks!! How many people have EVER seen that done??

7. I was so spoiled that I went to the YMCA 3 times a week for a couple of years to take swimming lessons (which was something I ended up getting really good at!). I remember one of the first times I was there to swim, there was a 'viewing room' where all the moms sat in & watched down at the pool while their kid was swimming, and mom told me once that a little boy asked his mom "why didn't that one little boy's color come off in the water?" Remember, this was late 60's/early 70's, and this is a pretty small town, and black people weren't around very much. Still, even I wasn't that stupid at age 6! C'mon!

And I'm turning it over to all of you to maybe tag yourselves!!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

my mind is STILL all over the place!

This is one of Truman's 'kitty-porn' pictures (yes, there really is a website called that, and yes, many cats 'pose' for it!)...problem is...there's no money in it! Yes, I would 'prostitute' Truman out, okay?


And this is Tif, years ago, when she was getting ready to go out 'clubbing' with her friends!









The three self-evident truths in life that I've been misguided enough to forget over the last 5 years...





1. Never date an insecure man. They are the ones who will cheat because
boosting their little deflated ego is more important than really hurting someone.

2. Abuse of trust is more a violation than physical abuse.

3.When someone doesn't see if from your perspective - it's because they are not interested in seeing it from your perspective.


Yeah...these are really important things to remember...always!



I've been thinking about EVERYTHING lately! There's just a ton of stuff going on in my life...and in the politics realm, which I usually don't blog about here, but I'm breaking my own rule for a couple of things...


First of all...who could EVER not have an opinion about Blagojevich?? What a fuckin' idiot this guy is!! To me, it's no wonder that his approval rating in Illinois, where he IS the elected governor, and he'll NEVER let you forget it, is at 7%!! My God, George W Bush was really low, but it never got even close to that!! In my opinion, that's why Blago is skipping his own impeachment hearings, and is in Manhattan, hitting all the national shows he can, because obviously nobody in Illinois likes him, but "hey...maybe if I get my message out to the country, people will like me SOMEWHERE and maybe they'll call their senators, and..." holy crap, how humiliating this whole thing must be for President Obama, and the whole state of Illinois!! If it keeps up, it'll be the whole United States!


The other political thing I'm pissed off is that Timothy Geithner was confirmed as the US Treasury Secretary today...if this economy needed one more kick in the ass to get it rolling downhill, they picked the right guy. After all, who better to put in charge of the treasury than a guy who didn't pay taxes for 4 years!! Where are our US senators' heads?? Or, as Mary, my friend from Chicago likes to say is my favorite quote..."Off with their heads!!" Seriously...how could anybody feel that he is the best person for the job?



Okay...I'm done with my political rant (for now, anyway...LOL).


My "good and great" friend, KimmyK , sent me questions to answer...actually, I volunteered for them, knowing that I might hate myself in the morning (hasn't EVERYBODY done something like that at some point in their life?). So, here goes...

1. Where did the "BoUnCeS!! Libby!" come from?

Well, I guess it come from the fact that I'm a huge, huge tigger fan, always have been, always will be! Anyone who still plays 'Pooh sticks' in the hundred acre woods NOW, and has the hardcover book "The Tao Of Pooh" and "The Te Of Piglet" proudly in their books, well, there's obviously no hope for me to be a mature person...but, damn, I'll be a fun grandma someday!


2. Have you ever owned a dog? If so, what was his name?

I've had a number of dogs, starting with the dalmatian puppy Kevin's brother gave us for Christmas one year when Tif was about 7 or 8...he was okay for awhile, til he got big (75 lbs big! and was as tall as me, could put his front paws on my shoulders!) & fierce, and started biting anyone that did anything he didn't like! When he bit Tif, he was out...but we couldn't find anyone to take him, even for free! (well, they'd take him, but they'd always call the next day asking us to pick him up, he bit someone or growled at someone or was hiding under the car out in the backyard, and they couldn't get him out, even with a food bribe!). And, we were nice, always picked him back up, even when we gave up & took him to the animal shelter, we told them to call us if it ever got to the point they'd have to put him to sleep, we did NOT want that to happen! They called a few days later, & said he was too fierce to be put up for adoption by them, he was still trying to bite everybody there! So...we always picked him back up (but he was never allowed around my beautiful baby girl again!).......anyway, we finally found a couple in Columbus that wanted him...and that was it for Amadeus here!! (yeah, that was his name). Talk about a long road to nowhere, huh? Our last dog was a ourebred beagle, Buffy, who was a great dog, but...we just weren't 'dog people', so when she was a few years old, I put an ad in the paper "free to the RIGHT home!", and people had to come here & meet her, and I/we got to see how Buffy felt about them before we sent her home with them...kinda like an open adoption?

3. What's the biggest misconception about MS that you deal with?

Wow...nobody's ever asked me that! I guess it'd be that the disease is just a disease that always is on the way downhill...and nothing could be further from the truth. Yeah, there's bad days...sometimes so bad that you just feel like it'd just be better for you & everyone if you'd never woke up that day. But a lot of times there's days that are better than anyone could imagine, not usually physically, but mentally. You have absolutely no idea how great it feels to wake up in the morning and KNOW how blessed you are to still be able to stand up and walk (even if it's with a walker with wheels!) to the kitchen, and the bathroom, and even go outside on your scooter if it's not too COLD and too snowy! Plus, if I don't go anywhere, there's always good books to read (or reread!), or Fox news channel, or stuff to learn about on here, or all the friends I've met all over the world that I wouldn't know if I didn't have ms!! You have no idea how much good comes out in people who get this disease in the beginning of their adult life! Shit, there's just too much to say about this question!

4. We all know that Stephen King is your favorite author, which book is your favorite?

Damn, Kimmy! I still have to go back to the first one I read, The Stand. My mom bought that for me to read when I was in the 8th grade, and stayed home from school with the flu. Does everybody get the irony here??

5. The root of all evil is.....?

...wow...damn...just...wow...still thinkin'...yeah, I guess I have to go with an appropriate response here...GREED!
Yeah, that doesn't go with the woman who just linked to capitalistpig.com, but I'm not really talking money here, just people in general who see something that somebody else has & decides they can just take it...or somebody else is doing what they think they should be doing, and they just go and do it, without even thinking about the tears & broken hearts & devastated lives they leave behind. I think more people pray for karma to bite the people in the ass because of greed than anything.
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions. (please make sure I have your email cause that helps when trying to actually email someone)3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. Be sure you link back to the original post.4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.Didja get all that?

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

..lots of stuff to think about,,,& my gorgeous baby girl i had 25 + years ago.....

Okay...I'm comparing my old pictures of me with Tif's at approximately the same age and she did look a lot like me! Except I couldn't afford a lot of the expensive stuff for Tif to wear that I used to get. However, when Tif was a baby, Mom & Dad bought a lot of good clothes for her...Tif & I still think that she was 'the favorite granddaughter', even

though she was the second of four granddaughters (simply cuz Bro just would NOT stop having kids! lol!).

And the envelope from a letter to Santa was in with the stuff that Bro & his son brought over the other day!

Speaking of people who have lots of kids...

I hooked up with a friend from 8th grade on Facebook...she and her husband got married right after college, and they have eleven kids!! Wow!! They have ten daughters and one son somewhere in the middle!! Can you imagine the hell that poor boy is going through all his life??? hahahaha! Two of the girls are in college already, and the third will go in a few months...wow, again. The bills for their education will be astronomical, not to mention their weddings!! I always have remembered her as a "kind" friend, because she was, well, rich, and went out of her way to be nice to people like me, who weren't in her

"social class". I was kinda a "hood" & a troublemaker & a smartass. I know...what a shocker, huh? But, hey, I always got A's...that was just how it was...

And I still love that picture of me & Tif when she was about 10 months old, & I was 19 or 20, and had just taken Tif & left my first husband!

Oh, geez, I forgot to say! Tif was here the other day, and was telling me about the Christmas party in Columbus she and her husband won tickets to. They met Katie Perry (I Kissed A Girl) and Nick LaShea (Jessica Simpson's ex). I don't know what the party was for. I do know Nick's from, like, Cincinnati or Dayton or something. Well, so was Jerry Springer, too...ergghh...

I was calling around to a bunch of banks today, just to find oout what cd's are paying right now and I got a whole 'myriad' of interest rates, anywhere from .25% to 1.75%! Holy crap! How could they change that much?? But I AM starting to understand this stuff though, the difference between an I bond & a T bond, and a cd...So..one of these days, I'll work on Wall Street.....(smirk!). Naw, this is just stuff I should have learned in high school!

Did anyone watch the new tv show "Lie To Me" on Fox last week? That's going to be a good show! I like a lot of shows lately, like that one, House, The Mentalist, Fringe, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, Cold Case, damn, there's just tons of good stuff! Actually, thinking about it, I'm not into all the action stuff, but, give me anything that makes me think, and I'm happy!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Who is this adorable little angel??

...aaaawwwwwww...a future movie star... (lol!)

Bro & his son showed up the other day with some special stuff from Mom & Dad's for me! #1 thing was the church pew! It was a real church pew from the church in her little "village" up by Tiffin that she was a member at all her life, I went there with her sometimes and when the church got down to just a few members (less then 10), they were

emptying it out, so Bro was helping them, and got Mom a pew from there. That church is also where I had Tif baptized! And #2 & 3 things were a 'formal' type picture from when I was 3...I even remember the studio downtown where it was taken! I remember walking down there with Mom, and I totally remember that ball I was holding in the picture! I remember it, because I was SO disappointed that I didn't get to take it home with me! And the dress...well, Bro brought that over too!! I cannot believe she still had that dress!! How special is that?? So, can everybody see where I get my love of antiques from? And why I love hanging out with Tom at the antique store downtown (which is actually two doors away from the building this studio was in when it was there!). And why his house feels so 'homey' to me, because it's all furnished with antiques?

I've been thinking a lot about psychology stuff lately, because I'd really love to go to college and get a degree in that. I've been told by a lot of people here that I'm actually the type of person that grants for the disabled are meant for, so I'm looking into all that! My next step is to call out to OSUM here, I'm doing that this week. Because I SO don't want to be dependant on social security disability only for the rest of my life!

I'm in the middle of a good book I got last week, it's called "The Power Of Body Language" by Tonya Reiman. I got into this because she's on Bill O'Reilly's show all the time, and she is REALLy good at this stuff! Like, she was saying that it's a physiological fact that when you're lying, your face itches, because the pores in your face open a little...interesting, for a personal reason, I have SEEN this happen! I think if your face itches all night when you're asleep, maybe it means you're living a lie!

And I also would like any opinions on this psychological question, if you would? There are two different types of women or men who have sex with married people. One is just doing it for "fun", which is also wrong, but, there are also those who set their sights on having this one married person for themselves, and the one who is left, well, too bad for them...I think the devil reserves a special corner in hell for these people...just my opinion...yeah, I'm jaded.

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

global warming? bite me~!!

Yeah...this is "my man"...and, yes, he is truly irresistable!! I DARE you to say no to him! Especially when it's like this outside, and all Truman wants is to cuddle under the blankets in your bed with you!

...life's good, this weekend...Actually, I just woke up again (it's 2:08 am! Sunday) and The Truman Show is on! This is an awesome movie, and if you've never seen it, I highly recommend it! I think that's actually where Tif came up with Truman's name! It's a movie from 1998, but since we never went to the movies, just saw them on videos that we rented, that must have been when we saw it, in 2000, we adopted Tru in May 2000! We loved that movie!

Global warming? Maybe somewhere...but certainly not HERE! This is the coldest weather central Ohio has had in five years! To me, that says it's colder here now...but, I dunno, I'm not a scientist.

Actually, it's now tolerable...ever since Thursday night, it's been getting colder & colder...we had a 'wind chill warning' Friday morning...not just a wind chill advisory, which we get a lot in the winter, but a wind chill warning! My furnace has been running nonstop since then! I'd be screwed if my electric went out! Because, not only has my heat been set at 74 (as usual!), but I've had my disc heater on sitting on my walker about 4 feet away from my bed! I've been in my bed under the covers almost 100% of the time since Friday, with trips to the bathroom & kitchen thrown in! So I've done nothing all weekend but sleep & eat & watch tv! And think, which can be a dangerous thing...

Like, what's 44? Just a fuckin' number...except to some people, it's more than that...sometimes it's, like an email address, or an age, or geez, how many people you may have sex with this year...actually, I've found that what makes you look "old" is the fact that you try to hang out with people a lot younger!

Like, I thought Barack Obama was wanting "change". But here all of a sudden, we're paying God-knows-how-many-billions for his inauguration! WTF?? Yeah, I suspended my partisanship to give our new president a new try...but, now, he's slapped me in the face with it! In my not-so-humble opinion, he's taking horrible advantage of the taxpayers for this! We're in the worst financial & jobs crisis of our lifetimes! As taxpayers, we're already paying more tax dollars than I can count for "bailouts". Yes, it is a historic election...but Barack ought to remember that it's also a historically bad time in our financial life and no jobs, etc!! I'd think much more of him (Democrat or Republican) if he took his oath of office privately, without all the pomp & circumstance!

Yeah...that "tweaks me" just a tad...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

"your brain MUST be left at the door if you take this job"

...I got an, ummm, 'interesting' phone call this afternoon. Answered it, and the guy on the other end was trying to sell me a lawn service!! It was Tru-Green Chemlawn, and I came so close to laughing in his ear!!! I'm sitting here with about 3 or 4 inches of snow on my yard (I have a yard, not a lawn...old people have lawns...I have a child-friendly yard, you shouldn't be scared to walk on grass!)! I had to ask Tom to come over and shovel off my ramp and a path out to the street (over the grass, mind you!), so I could get the bus to my appointment this afternoon! Now....see why I laughed my ass off at that phone call???

Since I didn't take my camera out today, I'm stuck (so are you) looking at my old(er) pix on here! The top is me & Kim, in 9th grade...the next is Truman, my spoiled cat, with his toybox (yes, I bought him a real toybox at a pet store the first Christmas I had him!)! And the last one is me and Tif in 1984 or 5!

Finally, finally, we're getting real snow!! There's about 3 or 4 inches on the ground right now, and it's probably going to be snowing all night, and the temp is only going to be highs in, well, right now it's 13F, tomorrow's high will be 17F, Thursday's high will be -1F!! I love this weather...as long as I can be inside my 74 degree house, watching it out the window!! I just got off the phone with Tom. Was telling him I feel awful for the cat I had him kick out of the basement last week. Now it's gonna freeze, and it will be MY fault! And that truly sucks! No matter what anyone else might think, I'm kind-hearted (& I love cats!)! He said, "What was all that saying you wanted it out, & please make sure it can't get back in & all that??" Are you sure you're not bipolar, too?" Hahh...it was that "too" at the end that got me!! I got huffy and threatened to take my scooter out & look for it...he said to make sure I take my cell phone too, in case I need to call the police to get me out of a drift! (he does live about 10 miles out of town...). But still...and no, I'm not leaving...it's cold outside, fakkrissakes!! Besides, if something happened to me, Truman would be on his own!

I watched the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" Sunday, and somebody in the movie said that "sarcasm is the last refuge of losers..". Hmm...guess I and most of my friends are fucked, huh?

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

discovering an unknown lurker in my basement!!

Yeah, here I go again...but, damn, it was the perfect day, and quite memorable!









...and this is the "2-holed outhouse"...but one of the kids wouldn't sit on the second seat in there..."Dad! It's embarrassing!! hahahahaha!!

Yup...a child's dream backyard...the wood thing in the background is a pirate ship they built together a few years ago.

Well, I'm really disappointed that we didn't get the snow we were supposed to get this weekend! Tom called me today around noon...I stayed home this weekend on purpose because we were supposed to get 5 or 6 inches of snow!! Did we? Hell, no! Just a little snow, then freezing drizzle, then tonight, it's going to freeze it all again, so it's just all ice!! When Tom called, all I did was bitch & whine & piss & moan about how I'm sick of guys lying to me about how many inches I'll get...and, yes, he had a good comeback, but I won't take myself down to his level to repeat it here (that kinda tells you it was pretty good, doesn't it?).

Oh, I hafta tell everybody about my basement lurker, who scared the crap out of me a few days ago when I opened the basement door to look down there after I heard something.

I was smelling cat pee for the whole day before, and I had cleaned Truman's box that night, but that wasn't exactly what it was...if you're a cat person, you probably already know where this is goin'. Truman's been extra-clingy the last couple days, I think he knew what was going on! Well, that day, I was wondering if there was a problem with the drains down there, since there was back in October. I can't go down the basement steps or anything (I fell down them once years ago, luckily Kev still lived here then, & we were still in love, so he carried me up...)...anyway I opened the door in the kitchen to take a look (or a smell), and as soon as I pushed the door open, I saw a great big dark shape at the top of the steps! Then it went down a couple steps and I was able to see it...it was a big dark cat! My first thought was that Truman had gotten down there somehow, so I said loudly & sternly, "Truman"! Then I remembered that, as I had walked into the kitchen, he was beside me and had swung off to the right to go hit his personal poop palace out in the laundry room. Holy shit...that's when I screamed and slammed the door again! And locked it too. Is that overdoing it? I called Tom to ask him to stop over after work before he went home, so he could look down there and make sure it was gone and couldn't get back in. He stopped by, and there was a window down there that had been partly busted out a long time ago. Tom made sure the cat was gone, then fixed the window up, and said what I smelled was the fact that this was a male cat & he'd been coming here and spraying inside the basement, right by the kitchen door!! So he took some bleach & some Pine-Sol down, and now my life is calm again! But it still isn't snowing.
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Wednesday...

Wow...this is so fun, I'm sidetracked from making my playlists on here...look at why! Here and here and here, and, oh, and how 'bout this?? Holy crap...I forgot how much in love with Lou Gramm I was!! For God's sake, his was the very first picture I put up on the wall of the back room in the very first produce department I was the manager of!! Of course, it was right after my first divorce...back when Tif was only a year old, and I was the ripe old age of 20...this was his picture from Playgirl magazine. And I only put up the tasteful top half of him!! I guess that's where my love of long hair & guitars came from! Well, I was a big fan of this song too, but, obviously, there's no long hair or hot guy involved here.

I forgot to say anything about my New Year's Eve! We didn't party or anything, Tom & jr & I drove down to the First Night Columbus celebration. It's a bunch of places in downtown Columbus that are open & have something going on, like COSI (center of science & industry...fascinating place!), and a few of the places downtown had bands, jazz bands & stuff. We had a pancake & sausage dinner at one of the hotels downtown that was doing this, and then we went back outside cuz we wanted to see what was going on, but not much was. Because, of course, it was so bitterly cold out!! Really, it was below 10 degrees, and windy as hell! Wind chill was way below zero! We walked around for a few minutes, then going back to a bridge over the Scioto River, we met a new year's eve parade of about 1 or 2 hundred people walking through town, escorted by the police! So...us being us...I was on my scooter, they were walking, we went out and joined the parade of people that were walking, clapping, yelling "Happy New Year!", just acting like complete happy fools, ya know? And then we got back to the center of Columbus in time to watch the lighted ball on the thing that's like Times Square's drop, get/give New Year's kisses & hugs, & turn and hurry the hell back to the car and get in it so we didn't freeze to death!!

Also...I saw my ms doctor again Monday, and talked about how sick as hell I am of getting shots, and Tom was trying to get me off all my medicine, which is NEVER going to happen! Once I started having grand mal seizures, I'm never going to not take my one Lamictal anti-seizure med again! Even though I only have had a seizure when I've had some kind of infection (bladder, kidney, or sinus!), it doesn't matter. I live alone, and, luckily, someone's been here every time to call 911, cuz I'm totally unconscious when that happens! Besides getting that gone over, I got weighed again, and, guess what!! I'm back up to 100 lbs!! Yippee!! And, yes, she got me talked into getting back on the Rebif shots 3 times a week. That really sucks, but, I guess I should, since I've taken interferon by a shot at least once a week for 14 years, and I'm still able to walk with my walker. I still don't know for sure if that's because of the interferon or not, but...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Sunday, January 4, 2009!

Christmas at Bro's again...this dog is Bro & wife's, I think her name is Abbie




And this dog is my oldest niece's...her name is Winnie (the dog, not my niece!)...I guess she's just like me, always cold, that's why she's wearing a shirt!!

And this is a shot that hasn't been taken in years, me & my 2 big brothers!!

That was so cool! Bro & I actually look so much alike that when I had my last produce management job here in town, I was out on the floor doing an order or something, and a woman across the aisle (a big aisle, like 30 feet across it!), said loudly to another woman "I think that's Libby, D's little sister!". I turned & looked, and she looked vaguely familiar, & I said yeah I am! Turned out that she was one of Bro's friends from high school that used to hang out with all of his friends at our house when I was little! (remember, he was 11 when I was born!). That's why I like this town, I guess, it's "mine"...
So...I've been watching the shows about The Seven Deadly Sins on the History Channel. It's really neat! I think I have one; sloth. But, they've found that a surgical stimulation of "area 25" in the brain lifts depression & gets rid of laziness, in people that antidepressants like Prozac don't work. Hmmmm....nahhhhh...Cymbalta is fine for me, I'd rather not have anybody poking around in my brain with a wire, thankyouverymuch. Besides, I'm not "slothful" unless it's winter! I guess I'd qualify for the seasonal affective disorder, if anything. And I really could do with just a touch of "gluttony", since I'm still around 90 lbs! But that's my New Year's Resolution, to GAIN weight! I am going to get my 20 lbs back in the next few months! So, how backward is this? How many other people are making the resolution to gain weight this year? lol. Well, I don't have greed, or envy...anger, now, yeah, that one comes and goes, depending on who I'm thinking about! Actually, wouldn't "lust" fit into that category too? Geez...maybe this is something to contemplate another day...
I was awake last night sitting here watching what used to be the channel that had crimes & stuff, ya know. Anyway, at 4 am an infomercial came on for a Time/Life collection of songs from the late 70's & 80's, and I had to stay up & watch that! I'd almost buy it, but I already have most of those songs on the computer, I just need to get off my lazy "slothful" ass, and make playlists!! But does everybody remember "Babe" by Styx?? And all the REO Speedwagon songs?? "I can't fight this feelin' anymore, I've forgotten what I started fightin for..." etc. They are the songs of my life! Late 70's, early 80's...every song they had on reminded me of what guy I was with at the time, even Meatloaf's songs! And Billy Squier, and even The Who, Rush...auuuggghhhhh! I remember when REO was here & played at the Popcorn Festival. We used to have good groups like that play, and it's a free concert on a stage at a main corner downtown. One of the last was Gloria Estefan. Now they just don't seem to be that good of groups anymore. I'm still thinking about the playlist I'm gonna make for this...Heart...Bob Seger...Boston...Cat Stevens...Yes...Fine Young Cannibals...Journey...Murray Head...Rod Stewart...Foreigner...alright, enough!
Anyway, that's a start...

Saturday after Christmas...

Hey...is anybody back yet?? Hallloooo! hehehe!

I hope everybody had a magical Christmas, too, or whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year!! Obviously, I started with my birthday...and, also as obviously, Luke was the Christmas dog at Tom's! We had a great Christmas, it's just been a long one!!

The pic of me & Tif is at Bro's house. There were probably 25 people there, and that was mostly his wife's family! Bro does Christmas dinner right, though...prime rib! And everything else! This was the Christmas for pictures as presents, though! And nobody knew about anybody else's! Bro's 4 kids, ages 17 up to 30-ish, got together and had a photographer come out to their house in the woods and take pictures of them together all over, and they had the best one printed on canvas & mounted on the stone wall over the fireplace! And they had the rest in a book! That was about the best present they could've gotten for them! Bro & his wife had no idea they were doing this, cuz they were in Arizona when they got the pix taken!! And Bro's wife did scrapbooks for 2 of the girls, and the one for the oldest girl had pictures in it of me & Kim with her when she was little! And my oldest brother (Psycho!) made up a scrapbook from one Mom had in her's & Dad's basement...he said it was already in a book, but the cover was getting black mold on it, so he took all the pages apart, and put them in chronological order, and everything! That was really a neat thing for him to do! The book starts back in 1948, before Mom & Dad got married in 1950 (there's even the write-up of their wedding from the local paper up there!), and goes forward til after I was born in 1964! There were all kinds of cool things in there! Like, ummm, hotel receipts from the hotel they stayed at for their honeymoon in Niagara Falls, receipts for $9.50 a night!! And there were all kinds of mushy cards to each other (an awwww moment for all!), and pictures of Mom at a beach, and she looked SO good! She looked exactly like one of the models from the 50's! Oh, and Dad's draft cards from the 40's were in there too! Wow!! G did a LOT of work to put that together!! I gave Tif & R 2 8X10's from their first dance that I took & had them framed & matted; and a gift card for Sears that I know they'll use! I got 2 8X10's of me & Tom framed & matted, & a couple things for jr.

weekend before Christmas!!

...Rogues Hollow and Smithville again. Between the two of us, and the kids, we had hundreds of pictures from that day!!

Well, I got the medicine my doctor said will make me hungry, and you know what it is?? Anabolic steroids!! This is definitely NOT like the prednisone I've taken before, these are heavy-duty illegal steroids, like the kind that professional athletes are always getting busted with!!! Tom brought them over from Rite- Aid tonight, and was reading off the side effects to me, and, I swear, he was practically rolling off the chair, he was laughing so hard! "You're going to have more hair on your face than I will!!" I just growled & said "Yeah..or maybe a bigger dick than you, and then you'll be jealous!!" lol...I guess...

I just hope I gain some appetite & weight back!

So, the weekend before Christmas...is everybody ready for it? I am, pretty much, I guess. I still have one more thing to get for Tif & R, and Truman's catnip stuff, & something for Tom's boy, but pretty much, I'm done!

Oh, and guess what! The plaque I got for my birthday was NOT from Jill! It was from an 8th grade friend's mom, who I haven't seen for about 5 or 6 years! And I haven't seen that friend since like 1983 or so!!

I had a pizza delivered from Donato's tonight, and the delivery guy was the one who's here so often that he walks in and yells out "Hi Truman!" Yeah..I never suggested I've ever been little miss Susie Homemaker. However, my uncle sent a recipe to Tom in my Christmas card that he liked at Thanksgiving, does that count for anything? ;-D Tom's a good cook, especially if it's stuff out of his garden! He makes awesome chili, spaghetti sauce, all that stuff.

We're gonna be at Bro's house in the mid-afternoon for Christmas, and we'll be at Tom's dad's sometime that day...just gonna be all kinds of stuff to do...heck, even the lady that runs the antique store said we should stop over there too! Huhh...I'm surprised, cuz I still have the book "Heidi" that I borrowed from the store forever ago! I've been done with it for months, but I never know when we're gonna stop in there, and every time I mention it, & apologize for not having returned it yet, she always says don't worry about it!

Oh hell, I almost forgot! I got a birthday cake that evening! Tom & jr stopped back over on their way home from school & work, and brought a cake from a store that said Happy Birthday Libby on it...and someone had written 26th in there! I guess I asked for this, seeing as how I told jr back in August that I was 25...ergo...my birthday=another year!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...birthday stuff...

well...now I'm officially in my "mid-40's"!...funny...I don't feel old! Kev's dad came over this morning & brought me a present from him & Kev's mom, & said they still love me, and any time I need anything, call them! I still love them too, they are the BEST! And I've gotten happy birthday messages from a lot of facebook friends, too, & Kev im'd me a happy birthday this morning too, and Tom was just here! Oh, and Joe emailed me a happy birthday in Italian! Wow...I could really get used to this....hmmm...
Also, I just left Bro a message on his cell phone, telling him & his wife happy anniversary...they got married on my 12th birthday...32nd anniversary...wow! That's great!!...it's something I had hoped would happen for me & Kev too, but...
Tom was just here, too! Damn, "so many men, so little time..."? lolol! Truly, I AM too old for that! 20 years ago though...
Nahhh...Tom is plenty! We're gonna 'celebrate' my birthday this weekend, at his house in the country!
Okay..now I really know it's my birthday...Bro just called back to say happy birthday...and UPS just dropped off an awesome wall plaque! Thanks, Jill!!
It's either my birthday, or I'm gonna die soon, and everybody but me knows it!...
Anyway...my neuro's office called in an rx for something to make me hungry, so, I'll get that tomorrow and, hopefully that will help!!
I have a half gallon of peppermint stick ice cream in the freezer, it's calling me today! I remember, because that's not available all year, when I worked at grocery stores, and wrote orders for the frozen food dept too, I always ordered a few gallons extra of that, and hid it in the freezer, in the back room, so I had it all year! yeah, I was sneaky...but I always bought it in the summer, so Tif and I always had it!! I guess that was a "perk", right??
Chester, my friend from the Fostoria store, emailed me yesterday too. And I think I have friends all around the world...she puts me to shame...she has friends in England that she's gone over to play golf with!! 'Course, she played golf all the time with an ex-boyfriend of mine up there, too! He was really cute when we went out, had the dark hair, hairy chest, fast motorcycle, and all that...but he was all about "marriage & kids", the last thing I wanted to hear when I was 23!! I'm glad I got out right then! And now he's fat, too! (is that what marriage & kids did to you, Kevin? (yeah...Kevin #3!)) Chester still plays golf with him, that's neat!
Well, I'm gonna go take my 3pm nap!!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

throwing stones...

Tnis top picture is the awesome inside of the Rogues Hollow Historical Society...really, this isn't a museum or anything, the police chief from 25 years ago lives here! (or maybe he was the sheriff from then...). He's retired now, and lives here as the caretaker of the hollow!

...more funstuff on Crybaby Bridge...

And this is the outside of the building....the caretaker lives in the top floor...

I heard a story this week about an old king in a small area in Africa. He and his wife, who is, of course, the queen, lived in a hut in the middle of the jungle. He was quite the collector of old royal artifacts, old crowns, scepters, anything a king should have. One day, it started to storm, and the wind was whipping around and everything. His wife got scared and ran outside to see if there was anybody that could help, cuz the hut was collapsing! All of a sudden there was a tremendous CRASH, and she turned around to see the king crawling out from under a pile of "kingly" furniture and the grass they had made their hut from. After shaking his head, and dusting himself off, he noticed a villager walking up to them. The king said he wasn't sure what had happened to cause that mess. The villager just shrugged his shoulders, and said...

"Just goes to show you...people who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones..."

sj, that was for you!

Christmas shopping's DONE!! (almost...still hafta get Truman something,,,)

Important friends in my life currently...except for the kitten, Tinkerbell, I found another home for her, because, as you can see, Truman looked at her with disdain every time she found something to have fun with!! Like (humph! how stupid kids can be!).

And Tom (my 'gentleman friend'...although gentleman may be a stretch!) & I and his boy's friend on Crybaby Bridge back in October! I was gonna put pix of Tif on here too, but I had so many of her wedding on lately, I didn't...but she's obviously very important (she's my girl! for God's sake!!)

So, last night, we went out to the store that does this kind of 'crafty' stuff in town, and I sent them wandering around the store (for an hour and a half!! they were SO patient!) while I worked with the lady in charge of framing & matting pictures, she's really good! And we picked out frames & matting for all 8 pictures I had....they'll be done tomorrow, and they're gonna be some awesome surprising Christmas presents!! Cuz I've never done anything like this for Christmas before, usually it's a present or gift card! But, you know what? Not only is this about 10 times cheaper for me, it's going to be WAY more meaningful to everybody...including me!! The only problem is that Truman really doesn't give a rat's ass about them, so, I need to find him some catnip toys! Well...he is by all rights a 9 year old boy, so...

Other than that, I'm not doing much of anything, except still trying to gain my weight back. I WANT to gain my 20 lbs back, that I lost a year and a half ago! Some people eat more when their life falls apart at the seams...I, unfortunately, lost my appetite, and it won't come back...not a good thing when you only weighed 108 lbs, like I did from age 19 on! I'm gonna ask my neuro for an rx for marinol, the drug like marijuana, without thc...to increase my appetite. My mom took that pill when she was at the nursing home, so I hope my dr will let me try it...since the steroids didn't do SHIT for my appetite this time...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Sorry..important addendum>>>>>>

TLP just sent me the most AWESOME website! (can you see, I'm a child of the 80's?)>>>>>>>> http://www.theradio.com/ <<<<<<

I'm listening to Judas Priest "Retribution" now...first I had 80's radio gold...too tame...went to the search, and put in Lita Ford (was my idol way back then!), clicked on "Kiss Me Deadly"...and it's heavenly!! It's total 80's hair bands! From Lita to Poison (I USED to love them till I found out that a slut that was probly in diapers when they were hot went to their concert this year with someone old enough to be her dad!) to Jackyl!!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Sunday night again...

How I love the feeling of power and control I get when I hijack a train in a deserted country area...






...luckily, a little whippersnapper showed up to help me, not the terrified passengers!

I just finished watching a great history channel show. It's the 70's, has everything, from Nixon's resignation, to women's starting to work outside the home...until the mid to late 70's, most women didn't have jobs outside the home (my mom never did after she married my dad in 1950!). And then it went on to talk about how it was actually illegal to be gay, and about Studio 54, and the bathhouses in NYC...the cocaine & LSD...Jimmy Hoffa...disco...and all the debauchery...huh...ya ever feel like you just were invited to a party at the last minute, but that, luckily, the next party was just starting, and it was even better? That's my analogy of the 70's/80's...
I got a forward from my friend Chester today, and it's a REALLY neat website!! http://www.joshhosler.biz/
This guy just must've had way too much time on his hands! My song is "Come See About Me" by the Supremes.
Well, I got the biggest part of the Christmas presents I'm giving in the mail yesterday...I'm way too broke to buy presents this year, so I got some of the pictures I've taken developed as 8X10's by ofoto online, and I'm getting them framed & matted for people. I like the pictures. And, at least I don't have to worry about running out of ink in my printer in the middle, or the prints accidentally getting printed out crooked or anything!
My Christmas tree is up now, and has all the lights on it (all blue, of course!), I still need to finish hanging the decorations...most of them are the ones Tif made in elementary school!! I love the wood angel cutout with her kindergarten picture pasted on as its face!!! I let Tiffany's friend have our old fake Christmas tree that we had for the beginning of the 90's, because she has a little girl, they don't have a tree yet, and the little girl was all scared that Santa wouldn't come if they didn't have a tree...how sad is that?
Just as an aside...I was really glad to see OJ get convicted of the robbery & kidnapping in Las Vegas! Too little, too late...but the judge did well, and told him and everybody else that this sentence had nothing to do with his past problems!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Sunday after Thanksgiving!

...believe it or not...this is me & my best friend when he, his brother, and I went to Myrtle Beach on vacation for a week in, I think, 1987?? Goddamn, we looked good! He just emailed this to me today! Wow...He titled it "Remember this?"

Okay...enough of that! I had my "weekend in the country", or I refer to it as the sanitorium...snark!!

Naw, it was a lot of fun, even though we did less than nothing! Well, we talked about investing & mutual funds, & T bills, and all that shit...he's "extremely smart".....(Tom, not me, for heaven's sake!)...He & jr went to Bro's with me for Thanksgiving, and it was a BLAST!! First funny thing was...I knew his house was way out in BFE, and I knew we were on the right road...but I haven't been there for about 2 years! And we pulled in the long driveway of a house, and Tom parked, and as he was unloading my scooter, I said...."I think this is it...". Oh, holy shit!! He just put the scooter down, says "Get on! I don't give a shit if it's the wrong one! We'll just go eat with 'em, anyway!!" lololol! Luckily, it was the right one...Bro came out and picked one of my legs up, Tom carried the other side, cuz the whole front and sides of Bro's house are all stairs! Anyway, we were there from 1 til 6-ish...there were so many of my relatives there, I couldn't believe it! Had to be at least 30 people there! And, yes, they all liked Tom & jr. They got a tour of the house, garage (where Bro's motorcycles are), and the rest of the woods around the house! And when we were leaving, Bro yelled, "See ya at Christmas!!"...now I'm super looking forward to that!...uhhh, yeah, forgot to tell Bro that yes, I was 'jailbait' when Tom & I first started dating...I was 15 and he was 21...bigger difference then than now, huh?

Pittsburgh is wiping the floor with New England!! Couldn't happen to a more deserving coach, huh?

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Day B4 Thanksgiving...

Keep in mind, this is the smallest wall of clocks! Good thing he's like a specialist in fixing clocks, huh?
This is honestly the toughest time of year for me, personally. A couple of years ago, I sat here crying, while my husband walked out the door at 3:30 AM the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping
with his 'friend' from work. Now, well...he's with her...I'm with Tom...Tif & R are married...the only fucking constants in my life are Truman and ms...how sad is that? No, honestly, it was a decision that should have been made years ago...and I & all others are (as far as I know) are happy with where they landed. I still get a 'twinge'

the day after Thanksgiving, though. After 17 years, if I didn't, I'd be just one cold-hearted bitch, wouldn't I? And I leave that title to others. I'm finding out that the way to get past something hard isn't "get over it", but "get around it", you inch carefully, trying not to upset it or anything, and after a few years, you'll laugh again. Finally this summer I got back to that, and I will NEVER lose it again! Hold me to that shit, too! I'm depending on you guys!

Tom and I were out at Meijer tonite shopping, and ran into a guy that used to work at the radio station when he and I met when I was 15! Now, how weird was that? I even remember him walking in on us kissing in one of the production rooms! Now he introduced me, and Ray says "I remember you." Junior points at me and Tom and whispered loudly "girlfriend!" lolololol!!

When we got home, we were talking about stupid stuff (yes us!), and I said I think one of the biggest downfalls of society today is...oh, I remember...I was telling him about how my friend up north had an Old Spice gel thing in her car, and I was totally obsessed with that smell! I told Tom I love that cologne, and that guys now just don't seem to want to smell like a guy! All the popular colognes smell fruity (??), or flowery, or something, and that's just wrong!! If I wanted to be a lesbian, I would've done that! Gaaahhhhh! Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not for me!

So, what's the deal with that? Women want guys to smell like they're wearing perfume, and to not have any hair on their body, just...eeeewww...I want a guy who knows he's a guy, and doesn't try to hide it, or act effeminate! All right, everyone, have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

much better...

Well, I got my first day of iv steroids yesterday, and I feel like living to fight this shit again! Well, maybe it's the fact that I'm on 60 mgs of Cymbalta and 10 mgs Ritalin a day too...whichever....when I feel good, I really don't care why!!

So a nurse will be here today & tomorrow afternoon to do this too. This doctor wouldn't give me prednisone to taper off this stuff, so when I finish these 1000 mgs a day of 'liquid prednisone', I'm done. Never did it without the taper afterward, but, who knows, maybe it'll be even better *fingers crossed*. At least I have the energy to get up and do laundry...I'd hate to have to ask for one of you to volunteer...Tom would take it home and do it, but he'd probably keep my underwear or something...

The top picture up there is Bro & family's table...you can see he's related to me, cuz of the beer bottles...second one is kinda self-explanatory, the photographer was posing them for some pictures, the third is one I swore I wouldn't put on, cuz my hair was straight, but I did...I should charge for that..oh, man, I'm playing some obscure music I have on here, and does anybody remember the band "Autograph"? I'm playing the song 'Turn Up The Radio'! Okay, enough of that...now it's Billy Squier's turn!

I've been on youtube finding more good videos...like this one...that's Scott Stapp, the lead singer of Creed. He left that band a while ago to form a Christian rock group, but I don't know if he's still doing that...and where were guys that looked like this when I was that age??

All right, I'll quit...but I can dream, can't I?

I got an instant message last week from a woman in Gibralter/Spain that I've been writing with for about 6 or 7 years...we also had not been in touch for awhile, but, omg, it was really cool to catch up with her! When we first started writing, she was married and living in London, with her husband, who is from Iraq. They split up, and we still wrote, she moved back home to Gibralter, & swore she'd never give up her country for a man again! We wrote for a long time (she has ms too, and was trying to get herself into dating again). But last week was the first time we'd been in contact for over a year (I'm amazed that she still had my im address!). Now she's married to a psychiatrist, and they've been to New York City, she was at the big Virgin Records store at midnight for the release of the latest Metallica disc!! How cool is that?? She absolutely loves America (at least NYC!) and said she'd move here in a heartbeat if they could!! Now that's different!! Most people overseas pretty much seem to hate us!

I've been on lots of health sites to find out more about tysabri, and I haven't been able to find anybody that's tried it and not loved it. A lot of people in chat rooms say it's giving them their lives back! Now, I don't even hope for that anymore (that horse left the barn long ago!), but just stop the progression is all I hope for. I'm just feeling a lot pissed off lately cuz I feel like I wasted the last healthy years of my life with someone that didn't deserve them.

Okay, I'm outta here...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

health shit again...i'm SO sick of this!

Oh, to be at this point again...just starting out...

I've got all kinds of shit going on with the ms (I refuse to call it my ms!). My new neurologist is going to let me get the iv steroids again, so they're ordered, hopefully be on them this week. But when I was at her office this morning, she suggested something I'd considered a couple years ago, but before I tried it, it was taken off the market, because a few people got PML from it. The medicine is called tysabri, and you get it intravenously every 6 months. It's back on the market again now. It's kinda like chemo or something for ms. So, if I decide to try it, it'd have to be way after I'm off the steroids, cuz your immune system can't be compromised when you're on it, that's what leads to pml. I haven't had this big a decision to make in forever, if ever. It wouldn't be that big of a decision, if pml wasn't possible, but since it is, I kinda have to decide if I'd be better off taking this chance, or do I want to continue living like this, going downhill every fuckin' day? Basically, is quality of life better than quantity? I mean, it's not like there's a certain chance of death if I do it...and, who knows, I may have a seizure and fall down and bash my head open on the desk or bathtub any time....who knows? This is really tough to try to decide. I guess I'm writing all this down because, hopefully, I can straighten it out in my head...and, any feedback will be appreciated, too. The chance of getting pml is really small, I think only a couple people got it & died from it from this over the last few years, I know they always have to tell you all the possible side effects to cover tne drug maker's ass (not to mention the doctor's!)...and I know it's probably not going to come down to a life or death decision, it's just, well, how would you feel if there's a drug that may help you feel better, or it may kill you (ok, maybe that's a little overdramatic, but...)? What would anybody do? I guess when it gets to the point I have to make a decision, I'll probably do it, desperation is a great motivator...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!