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!

nothing in particular today, either...

Now THIS would be funny!! Truman's gotten under the sinks in both the bathroom & the kitchen, but, luckily, I was always watching!














And, I think this looks just like a guy who tried to pick me up at a bar in Toledo. He also used that oh-so-tactful line "I'd drink your bathwater"...oh pleease...I wouldn't even drink my bathwater. And that should make me want to get my mouth anywhere close to HIS?

...and I'm taking this as a horrible warning from Truman's astral twin!

...also, one more phrase..."It gave me pause"...That just makes me think of a person standing in front of you, and their hands turning into cat paws or something...
X-Dell was at his parents' house in Cincy this week, and was going to come on up here, but he ended up having to fly home today, so we'll catch up another time this summer...at least I talked to him and heard him on the phone, so now I know he's a real person! Not just "X-Dell:The Man, The Myth, The Legend!" (or the legume?).
I'm sitting here watching "Dirty Jobs" on Discovery Channel, I love this show! He's riding around with the guy from 'The Tydee-Whitee Company', that picks up bags of dirty diapers weekly at people's houses, and delivers clean ones, then they showed them taking the dirty ones back to the company, and they were washing them & drying them...and folding them...oh Lord! I'm sure there are worse jobs...but...I can't think of many right now...
I got a Facebook message last night, and it was from my friend, Chester! That was neat...I'm the second Libby on her friends list...she has a sister Libby, too. One of the women that works at Haley's hair salon told me "My niece is named Libby, too!"...and I expressed my sympathies to her...but she said she likes it! Obviously, these people didn't grow up at the height of the "Libby, Libby, Libby on the label" commercials! Sheesh! When my Mom told her sister what she was going to name me, my aunt said, "What are you going to name the next one? Stokely Van Camp?" lolololol! I love my aunt! But it really is a family name...it was my mom's grandma, who, I guess was a really neat lady, and my mom loved her very much.
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

randomness...

This is the new mailbox Bro put up for me! The other one was all the way to the left of this picture...not there anymore, but it was okay when I was still "mobile".

It's kinda cold out today, and drizzly, and my butt is staying inside where it's warm! And I just checked the weather for the rest of the week, and it's gonna be cloudy and rainy til Monday! Sucks, sucks, sucks!!

Well, I have a new favorite afternoon tv show..Glenn Beck...he's not a conservative or liberal, he's a libertarian...he makes a lot of sense...he's like me, didn't like Bush, doesn't like what he sees now...equal opportunity hater...

I was up late last night (surprise, surprise...) and watching an old 'The Jefferson's'. I loved that show too, especially the maid, Florence! She said the shit that nobody dared to! Anyway, George was getting on a bowling league, and that just brought back total memories for me! Yeah, I bowled a lot starting when I got on a Saturday moning league when I was 12. And I had a lot of fun with it! Mom & G were in one on Friday nights forever. I remember Mom wanted to join, and Dad didn't, so G was right there, of course. And, since he never had a date or anything...well....'nuff said! After a few years, I remember, they needed someone else on their team, or their league, or something, and I wanted to join, so I remember, I had to sign something saying I wasn't going to be in high school sports anymore. I guess it was something to do with the fact that I'd get money back at the end of the year or something...I didn't care, cuz I was junior in high school anyway, and wasn't on anything in school (just drugs...lol). I remember my average starting on it was 131, but by the time I had Tif and quit, it was 168! Yeah, I was good. I bowled a 269 once (just once!). I had Tif on a Sunday, and still bowled the next Friday night. But, I didn't keep up with it...too bad. My friend in Findlay (Chester) went bowling with me once on a Saturday night when we had nothing to do! She was good too, and she was a lot bigger than me...(intimidating?).

I'm just thinking about random words & phrases I've heard in the last couple days. Like "occasional table"...is that a table that's there most of the time, but 'occasionally', when you're not watching it closely, it sneaks off?

Or when someone says "I want to play with reckless abandon." Well...do I know him? Does he do drugs or anything? Where does he live? Do I know his family?

The right to bear arms...don't you just get a picture in your head of a person with great big grizzly bear arms?

Or maybe I'm just a goof...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

spite & malice...

This has got to be one of the funniest pictures I ever saw! And, no, I wasn't applauding behind her while she did this!

...and, this is kinda what I think about when I think of the Wall Street brainiacs lately...
Tom & I were just talking about all the financial shit going on right now...and I told him I was watching Fox News today, and when they were talking about AIG, they showed just a random shot of regular people going in & out the doors to work there, and all I could think of was how horrible it would be to just be, like, a regular person that works there now...not a bigwig, or an executive, just an office assistant, or working in the mailroom, or something! You really need your job, but, at what price, ya know? Then we talked about the enormous bonuses and all, and the government is trying to push through something that taxes the bonuses at 90%. Hmmm...You know, I don't like that idea either. I agree wholeheartedly that they should NOT get the bonus money, but somebody was asleep at the switch and let this go through, now it's a contract, and 'for better or worse', you can't break this! But, taxing it at that rate would suck and be wrong too. And two wrongs don't make a right, definitely not in this situation! Because, when I worked at the phone company and dealt with billing questions all the time, I learned a lot about taxes...you know, if you look at your landline phone bill, there's so many little taxes stuck in here and there, you wouldn't believe it! And a lot of them were put on back in World War II, and everybody was told, "These are temporary taxes, because of the war, etc, they're for our own good, they'll be off soon."...they're still there. Once they get a tax on, it will NEVER be taken off. No, I don't have any idea how to get this money back, but taxing it just is not the right thing to do. What happens, then, if someone wins millions in the lottery, or inherits millions? What would stop them from taxing that at that rate? It's just a bad situation, with no obvious answers. Well, yeah, I guess there's an obvious answer, but murder is also against the law...this kind of shit wouldn't happen if people still had any honor or integrity...hell, even shame! I guess I'm sick of the whole Dem/Repub thing...I like the libertarian idea better every day. Bob Barr, Ron Paul...looking back, I wish...
I did get out today for a couple hours, rode down to the Dollar Store, cuz I had to get a birthday card for someone, and kitty litter, and stuff like that. I took my camera and got some cool pictures of the sky, really neat clouds! And there's a great place in that plaza, it's called Blue Fusion, it's like a huge game room, has pool tables, a bowling alley, bars...it's really neat! I wish there would've been something like that here when I was a kid!! So, I was sitting there smoking a cigarette before I headed home, and a family with 3 kids walked by, and it really hit me that, no, I don't ever want to be a mommy again, I had that early, it was great, but Tif's the only one I'm a Mom to...and, you know, it'd be different if it was an older kid, like a teenager, but I guess I'm now at that awkward 'in-between' age, where I'm too old to be a mommy, too young to be a grandma! I know there are plenty of people that have kids in their late 30's, and that's okay, if that's what you want. I'm just not wanting to ever start all over again.
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...new week,,,new attitude!

All right, all right...no, I haven't taken any more pictures after my haircut pictures...so, for now, I'll stick with all the stupid kitty pictures! But they are funny!
I've been out a few places on my scooter in the last couple days, seeing people again, I had an appointment with a person at a church today. I got off the bus up there at the back door, and there were a bunch

of guys hanging around the picnic table with an ashtray. So as soon as I told the driver thanks, I scooted over to the group, saying, "This must be where all the kewl kids hang out, huh?" and got my cigarettes out...lol! A couple hours later I came out, and everybody was gone, except there were a couple guys volunteering, they were scraping the windowsills for painting, and we just talked about how gorgeous a day it was outside! And I really wish I would've had my camera with me today, cuz the sky was SO blue, and had little puffy clouds! Plus, I was downtown, and those buildings down there are just, well, they're solid-looking!! They need my camera!

I've just been a little introspective for the last week or so. It was two years ago this week I was officially dumped, & I know, this is taking a long friggin time to get over. But, I was a happily married woman with jobs & a life for 15-17 years before that...it's gonna take some time to get over! But I'll do it, no worry!

I got out of the shower Wednesday, and came out here to open the front door to let some sun in, and looked down at the porch in front of my door, and my mailbox was laying in front of the door, and I had a new mailbox next to my front door! That was just another awesome thing Bro did for me! I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was wanting to get a new mailbox beside the door, because the one I've always had was on the porch wall out toward the steps, and I was getting to the point that I can't walk to the mailbox anymore. So, he got me a new one, and put it up while I was in the shower, and it's right outside the door I just open the door & stick my hand out around the corner of it!! Holy crap!! I came back over to the desk and called him, and said, "Oh, XXXX, thank you!!" He just said, "Libby, it's just a mailbox." That started me laughing & crying at the same time! Sometimes the littlest things that you do for someone, might seem little to you, but it's the world to them...

One of my friends that I worked at GTE with came over for a few hours the other day. That was just neat! She's about 15 or 20 years older than me, and she's very religious, Wesleyan. And we sat next to each other at work, it was an office with about 1000 people working there then, 3 floors, and we never would've met if we hadn't ended up being "cube-mates" lol! Seriously, I don't think anyone would've ever guessed that we would be this good of friends, you know...I smoke, she doesn't, I watch tv, she doesn't, she wears dresses and keeps her hair in a bun, I don't...but we just get along great. I guess it's because we both have tolerance and don't try to push our lifestyles on each other. Her husband is the part-time pastor at their church, and he's really nice too. They're just good people, and have 4 good sons, one of whom is a missionary with his wife in, I think, Kosovo! They just have neat stories to tell! Her life is like a book! I wouldn't want to live it, but, she wouldn't want mine either. And that's okay with us...so why is there so much trouble between religions? (people in the religions) I guess that'd all go back to the whole tolerance thing...tolerance seems to be in such short supply these days. sheesh...I'd think everybody would have more immediate things in their lives to fight about, wouldn't you?

Tom and I still are on the phone or seeing each other a lot, I just am taking advantage of the better weather and going everywhere in town that I can on my scooter. We just want two totally opposite lifestyles...if you think about it, we're kinda like the couple in 'Green Acres' tv show! hahaha!
And, did anyone hear on Nancy Grace the other night that they tested Lee's (Casey's brother) DNA, because the FBI wanted to know if he was Caylee's dad too? Well, I guess he's not...but, damn, I wasn't the only person in the world to suspect it!
Well, I'm gonna go read one of the books I got off ebay, an Ann Rule one. I'd never heard of her before, but, Cindy said I'd like her books, and she's right!! Good thing I still have a lot of my ebay gift certificate from Christmas from Bro left!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

almost st patrick's day! (green beer, anyone?)

Okay, I did it...no more bitching about my hair! Now I'll be able to go to sleep at night without having to try to push my hair off my face all the time! And, best of all, this cut with my hair doean't need blow-dried or anything...all it'll need is some hair gel and brushed, & go! Tif highlighted it last week & I thought about having her cut it...we talked
about it, but I said no...then I realized I just had too f*n' much hair to deal with so...
The girl that gave me this cut was my best friend in 3rd grade! We were inseparable in grade school. She was even allowed to go to Florida with me & Mom & Dad for 2 wks in the summer after 3rd grade (or the year before, not sure!). We talked about my

house growing up, because she always loved it! And she said that she already told her husband that if that house was ever for sale, they were buying it! And we talked about our favorite tv shows when we were kids...and she remembered that I was a HUGE Arnold Horshack fan! Not like 'had a crush on', or anything....he just had my sense of humor! No, I was like every girl in my grade...John Travolta was THE crush!!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

tarot reading for friday the 13th...

The emotional climate today is anything but cheerful, libby... The cards of Death and Temperance indicate a rupture or a loss that will cause you great pain.

my political ramblings...may be offensive

...and keep in mind. My views are probably different than yours, but don't hate me for that (I'm sure if you really get to know me, you'll find better reasons!).
I feel like Obama's taken his eye off the ball here, as far as this country's problems. In my opinion, and the rest of the 8.1% of unemployed Americans, our economy should be the focus here! Not reforming health care, getting the card check passed for unions, gun control is right around the corner, not pushing through a stimulus and budget for 2010 that is so full of pork it oinks! Raising taxes, education reform...Holy shit, yes, all of this needs done. Well, not all of it, but whatever. Rome's burning here, so put the fiddle down, Nero, and FOCUS!!

Okay...that's pretty much it for my political rant.

I really haven't been doing too much else lately. Well, I was at the dr's office the other day, and ran into the lady that I haven't seen for years, that sent me a plaque with a religious saying on it for Christmas! I was friends with her daughter in 8th grade!



And early last week I was at a different dr appt, and had the city bus drop me off at Certified, and I got a carton of cigarrettes for the week, and a few candy bars for the week, and a bag of cat food, & rode my scooter home, and, damn, that felt good! No, it's far from warm, but, THERE'S NO SNOW!!
Anyway...I've been really bad with any of my medicine. I was on avonex for the first 13 years I had ms, which was one im shot a week. Then I started getting totally stiff legs & everything, so I figured maybe I should try something else, so I tried Rebif. That's 3 shots a week, but they're only the under-the-skin shots, like diabetics have to get. They do hurt less than the intra-muscular shots, but it's not that big of a difference! So, anyway, I did those for probably the last couple months of last year, then I just gave up on everything! When I saw her a couple weeks ago, she asked if I want to try copaxone. And I said no, just put me back on avonex, because, I think a lot of the problems started when my weight got down to 88 lbs, + everything else that I had goin' on in the last 2 years.(you know, my life as I knew it was tossed aside like a used Kleenex, and all). But she agreed with me that all that shit probably had everything to do with it, so I'm going to start avonex again next month. Copaxone sounds good, but...it's a shot every day!...uhhhhh...no thanks!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...March..& daylight saving time starts tonight! WooHoo!

Yay!! It's March and not raining (yet...it will be tomorrow...)

Tom called last night and we started talking about our regular subject...death, & cremation & all that stuff...(joking! really!) He still thinks the crematorium/pizza shop would be good. And I told him about the woman in New England a couple years ago that hung herself in a tree in her yard around Halloween, and people drove past a lot & thought she was a decoration, for days! Brilliant! I said that when I was still driving, I used to want to go up to Macinaw Island and drive off the bridge...then he asked what car I had planned to do this in...I said my Geo Metro. And he laughed his ASS off! Said he could just see me now...the car didn't have the weight to sink...I'd just be floating down the lake, and all, & the people that stopped would all be laughing & waving and such. Grrrrrr!!~ I guess I'd just pull out my trusty book I always had under my front seat, and a cigarrette, &...well, nothing! That would be just my luck, though...to decide to off myself, and then I'd do that wrong too! Don't even worry about it, though. There's too many people that it would just be a relief for if I did that, so THAT ain't gonna happen...

Has anybody else been following the Caylee Anthony murder trial as close as I am? Probably not. Anyway...Caylee's mom, Casey, is charged with her murder...Caylee was 2 yrs old. And Casey just says the father is dead, he died in a car accident when she was pregnant. I beg to differ...nobody's even mentioned it, but, honestly, I think her brother, Lee, is probably Caylee's father. Just from the way he acts about Casey & everything, he just looks like that's what's up...I don't know, it's just my theory...

Anyway, I'm outta here!!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Rabbit, rabbit!!

Happy March!! Thank God, the snow went a lot further south and east than here! Sorry for all who got it, though!

The top picture on here, the open door is my room when I was a teenager, the one to the left goes up to the attic, the one on the right is the linen closet.

Then this one here is our front door with the mail slot beside it...is that cool as hell, or what?

I've been watching a cool show on TVLand...it's called High School Reunion, and it has a class from 1988 having a 2-week reunion at a big house with a pool & everything in hawaii. I'm looking forward to their new serial starting April 15 (at 10 pm, in case you were wondering!) called "The Cougar"! Of course, it's like the bachelorette, only the woman is about 40, & all the guys are in their 20's! Ricardo, you really oughtta try to find out how to get on it!! That would be a good acting debut for you! 'course, I don't know how much 'acting' you'd do...

OMG!! The movie "Desperation" is on the Scifi channel right now, I saw it a long time ago, but I have the book, & it's really good too. And, yes, I watch tv a lot when the weather is this shitty out!! But I always am reading during commercials...I just finished the book about body language last night. That was really good! Learned a whole lot!

I stayed up last night listening to another infomercial for 'rock ballads'. Like "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"...says a lot. Poison had deep songs for such shallow minds, didn't they?

Mouse called the other day. Nothin' much is going on up there...her boyfriend got laid off last week, that totally sucks. She still has her job, but it's only part-time, at a nursing home. I haven't heard of too many full-time jobs around anywhere, anyway!

Joe called tonight, he's got a job teaching at a charter school, & that seems to be going good! I'm glad, and I'm happy that he likes it! And no wonder I can never get ahold of him...the job is an hour and a half drive south, so he goes to bed at like 7:30 or 8 at night, and doesn't get home til about 6!

In other words...this economy sucks a big girl's butt!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...being a kid...

This is my family at the front door, before we left.









And, believe it or not, this "party" sign was still hanging on the wall of the room up in the attic that was "my" room to party in when I was a teenager!! Kim & I painted that ourselves! (I never had the guts to actually have a party up there, but, be that as it may...

And, this is the kind of workmanship you'll just never find anywhere now...I don't know, but I really doubt that any homebuilders build intricate cabinets & drawers in any house they build. The door to this room is neat, it's like the back door of a house or something, and the whole top half of the door is glass!

What were some of the most favorite games & stuff you played when you were little? I always loved Monopoly...cuz I was good at it (maybe cuz I was always the banker...you think?). This was just a perfect house for playing board games with your friends...the rooms downstairs were big, and if you got tired of playing, it didn't matter if you all got up and did something else, as long as it wasn't in the middle of the room. I liked most board games, like, Life, PayDay, stuff like that. But my first favorite was 'Trouble'. You know, had the thing in the middle that you popped to roll the dice. I still think that was just about the most ingenious thing ever invented...something that rolls the dice, but the dice aren't free to lose (as little kids are wont to do...). Mom and I played card games too. She was always picking up fun things like that! One fun one was 'Rack'O. Another one was called 'Authors'...it had authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, etc...the point was to match all the books with their authors. That's what made me 'precocious', I guess! lol! Mom had taught me how to read & write when I was about 3, and that was the coolest thing in the world! I remember there was an algebra textbook in our library at home, and Dad teaching me that in 4th grade, but, no matter how it was tried to teach, math just sucked! And reading and writing was just fun! Art was, ummmm, well, Mom tried to get me into drawing and stuff, but...she failed on that. Sorry, Mom! But I still do think there is nothing better than a book! My homeroom teacher when I was in the 6th grade always ended each homeroom period by telling everyone on the way out of the room "Read For Pleasure!" He was a neat old man. I had a ninth grade teacher that said every day when we were leaving "Walk with Light!" That's just neat stuff to remember, most people have at least one or two teachers that were cool like that!
Oh, I talked to my cousin Boo the other day, and we were on the phone for a long time...but before we hung up, I had to call her the "quadro-mom" (well, she does have 4 kids!).
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Citigroup credit...

Well, these are all pictures of the front stairs. And the half-bath down here. These were the best stairs in the world for playing on! (shhhhh). No, seriously, this is where I learned the true meaning of the Slinky! (you know, subliminal, and Zen, and all that...).
That globe in the left front of one of the pictures, I'm pretty sure Mom & Dad left that when they sold this house. I used to look at that all the time when I was little...sometimes, in the evenings, when we were sitting around watching tv (you know, 70's shows; All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, Good Times,

Sanford & Son, Little House On The Prairie, Welcome Back Kotter. These shows are always on TVLand overnight, which is why I'm always up watching tv all night! And a good reason to have cable tv!
Anyway, the wallpaper is the same, the carpet is different, our old chandeliers are still hanging there...they left a lot of things the same, but they made some changes...IMO, they changed what needed to be changed, and left a lot of good stuff alone! I don't live there, but I still think of it as 'my' house!
Actually, Pat, one of my good 'blogging buddies' was down for the day last week, and we went past that house and it had a paper on the door, & that might've been a foreclosure thingy, we didn't walk up & see it close up. I know that the man that bought it from Mom & Dad died after we went over & took pictures & met the man and his "ladyfriend" that lived there. Believe it or not, they bought this house from Mom & Dad for $60,000! That was in the early to mid-80's, when the economy sucked just as bad as it does now. Mom & Dad didn't have to move, they just wanted to, and had their next house picked out (a one-story!). It's a nice house, just...different, ya know? But I think he left the house to his daughter, and I know nothing about her, nor do I want to. I'm just very glad that I thought about that house so much back in 2003, I looked his name up and called to ask if I could come over & see the house again...we set it up, and it did just happen to coincide with 20 years from the day I moved out!
I was just thinking today (pondering, I guess some would call it...)...as a child, when you were growing up, did you EVER need a friggin commercial on tv to tell you to go out & play??? If you were like me & my friends, your mom had to call you to come in & eat, or "It's time to come in, the streetlights just came on!" And you'd say "But I want to catch lightning bugs! Pleeeezzz??" Stop & think about it. Could this possibly have anything to do with the fact that there are so many overweight kids? Hmmm. Ridiculous.
I wanted to mention my Sears credit card. I had called them 2 months ago, trying to get my interest rate lowered, cuz I've never had late payments, or anything, that card is here for emergencies (you know, if my refrigerator dies or something [snark]) only, but their interest rate is like 28%. So I called and talked to people all the way up to the lady that said she was the highest I could get. All of them refused to do anything because "You're not behind in your payments". WTF??? So now, it's a BAD thing to think ahead and be proactive when you see a problem up ahead? Who makes these rules? I must be one of many, because when I got my Sears bill this month, there was a big reduction in the %, and the payment was $200 less than what it had been, and a bunch of explanatory pages about that Citibank South Dakota had (just out of the kindness of their little black hearts, I'm sure) lowered the interest rates. It's really a good thing, because I had decided that I just wasn't going to pay my bill, if that's what it'd take...I'd just pay it to my savings account instead, so there! One black heart meets another...but, since they did that, I paid it last night.
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!