Still very sick, but not quite as bad as before. Had another high fever yesterday, and woke up this morning with a 100 degree fever, but nothing since. Very tired. Very hard to focus my eyes on the screen.

Got to the concert Friday night despite fever and sore throat.

Spent Saturday wishing I would die, between fever, sore throat, and vomiting. Missed the concert.

Dragged myself home yesterday, went to the Urgent Care, got a bag of fluid (my pulse was 120 despite the fact I had been laying down for the last 15 minutes), a diagnoses of strep throat, and doctor's orders to stay home.

Going back to bed.

At 4:55pm yesterday, my doctor finally decides to call me back. I left the message about 10:30am. :-p

I am feeling a little better after the first dose, although I'm sure people will tell me it's the placebo affect. I haven't felt like I needed cup after cup of coffee to keep going. In fact, I've only had my one early morning cup.

Mom and Becca left for New York before 7am this morning. I left a message on Mom's cell phone, just to let her know I'm thinking of them.

'Scuse me, that's her. :-)

ADDENDUM: They're doing fine, they're just over the border in Virginia getting lunch. Mom thinks they might make it to Terrytown tonight. Um... it took 6 hours just to get that far, it's at least another 8 or 9 to go. I hope she doesn't push Becca too hard.

So I leave work yesterday at 4pm, thinking that if Becca and Mom are going to take my car to New York, I'd go ahead and get the oil changed and tired rotated. As I drive in, I see that the place I'm going to is also doing a free brake inspection.

Brakes are fine. Tired are toast. They had 56,500 miles on them and no tread left. So I spend $300 to get new tires.

Go to Mom's, hang out with the new kitten Tripod (named because she has three grey tabby legs and one golden tabby leg) that she's fostering. Go home, start cleaning out my car.

Mom calls. She had just gotten off the phone with Becca, who decided (or badgered JR into doing it for her) to borrow her in-law's Taurus instead.

Today, I'm calling the doctor. I'm not coping. I need help.

OK. Way back in March or April, my brother-in-law Paul (husband of Heather, my half-sister) goes into the hospital to have a small cancerous thing removed from his bile duct. He spends a month or more in the hosptial (until mid-May, if I'm remembering right), partly because they had to remove part of his pancreas, partly to recover from an infection.

I see him last week when I'm in Terrytown, he's lost 30 pounds and half his hair, and has a drain in for the infection that was lingering.

Today he was going to go in just to get that infection scraped out. Instead, they take out more of his pancreas, more bile duct, and something happens with his aorta that makes him lose 7 pints of blood. Tomorrow they'll take part of his femoral artery to fix whatever's wrong with his aorta.

So, Becca and Mom will drive up to New York in my car (the only dependable one), I'll take Dad's VW Bug to Atlanta, and Dad will cram himself in Mom's Oldsmobile Achieva.

You know you're doing bad when you'd rather stare at a hard drive formatting itself than write something... *sigh*

Sorry, but for whatever reason I am very worn out and tired most of the time.

The fact that vertigo struck on the way home from New York didn't help. Neither does the thinly-veiled hostilty from my co-worker.

One bright spot (to me, anyways) has been playing .hack part 2. This game is as addictive as crack, and three times as much fun. ;-) Can't wait to get home and play some more.

*frantically waving Arlene away*

SHOO! Don't be messing up my flight home Sunday!

Be careful shipping overnight with UPS. Your box may end up looking like this:





There was a laptop in there. Fortunately, it still works.

I guess what gets me the most worried about everyone else going to lunch without me over and over again is that the new VP is now part of that, excluding me from plans and not even asking if I'd be interested. If he thinks that little of me, how secure is my job?

Let's see, what have I accomplished today...

1) Watched Deep Impact Awesome, excellent, incredible movie. I'm sobbing like a baby at the end. I love the ones that focus on the people.

2) Went to Mom and Dad's to help them out. While we didn't get a chance to wash Mom's red Persian cat Johnny, I did help get her laundry done and ate a most excellent dinner prepared by my completely stressed out Dad. She's doing better, less pain unless she does something silly (like try to bend over and grab Harley *sigh*), but Dad needs about a week of uninterrupted sleep.

3) Got the grocery shopping done, and for less than $40.

4) Watched Return to Oz What a trippy movie... That gets me all caught up on my NetFlix stuff.

So now I can spend the next few hours drinking whiskey and playing Aardwolf until my friends start begging, "Ref, nice to see you, but WILL YOU TAKE YOUR DRUNK ASS TO BED ALREADY?!?!?!?" Tomorrow I can split my time between house cleaning and starting .hack part 1

*phew* After about 45 minutes of looking, finally booked a decent and decent-priced hotel for my Nobuo Uematsu concert at the end of June. Travelocity just seemed to deal with the $100+ a night rooms, Expedia got me in at something a bit more reasonable.

Now I'm in a good mood. Off to go eat out.

You Are The Wayfarer Guide
"I'll show you the way."
Your deep insight and quick wisdom never ceases to amaze those around you. You are the guiding light for many of those you know and are not afraid to help anyone else who asks. Not very many acknowledge your tremendous help and effort, but you do not mind that so much. You've seen what is in store for them, and will be there should they need your help. You enjoy people in general, but are very selective of who you let see the real you. Others see you as an enigma of sorts, a mystery that is seemingly ever changing.

Which Classic Story Role Do You Play?
brought to you by Quizilla


And that's how I write myself most of the time, too.

I realize this may not be a popular opinion, but John Williams' music is rather boring.

Don't get me wrong, I still get chills when I hear "Imperial Death March", and "Duel of the Fates" was very good, but if you've heard one of his soundtracks, you've basically heard them all. If you have to own just one, get "Empire Strikes Back".

Got this from Janice, and it sums up my feelings on about 75% of the people who call themselves Christian.

An honest man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy
boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him.

He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have
beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as
she missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was still in
mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a
very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with
her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched,
finger printed, photographed and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the
door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer
was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your
car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you,
and cussing a blue streak at him. "I noticed the 'Choose Life' license
plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to
Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem
on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."

Since no-one's here and there's nothing to do, figured I'd write a little something. This may or may not ever get into what I'm working on now, but it is part of it. Enjoy!

PS: Dave, Vince McMahon couldn't afford me, and his daughter would fire me 3 seconds after I turned the first script in. ;-)

*****

The light was hazy, bright, and starkly white. Yuna couldn't tell exactly where she was, other than it was vaguely and disturbingly familiar. There was shouting coming from somewhere in front of her. Hearing familiar voices, she ran towards it. The featureless corridor emptied into a huge room filled with smoke. There was a battle going on, but she couldn't see the participants. She plunged into the greyness to find her answers.

Someone fell to the ground nearby. Turning towards the sound, she edged forward slowly but still somehow stumbled over the body on the floor. She turned back to see the prematurely grey hair and permanently empty eyes of Paine. Yuna screamed.

Somewhere nearby someone else screamed back. She knew that high-pitched voice, but she couldn't make her mouth form any words. She ran forward to see Rikku fall across the twisted form of her brother. Yuna screamed again.

The smoke cleared, and the room was revealed to be a huge Chamber of the Fayth, but one with an altar on top of the Fayth scar. Collapsing over the altar was the fading dragon-form of Bahamut. Spread out on the altar was the fading form of Tidus. All around her horrifyingly familiar laughter echoed off the walls...

"NO!"

Yuna say up in bed, gasping and shivering. Had she screamed? She felt the beloved form in the bed next to her, still sleeping, one arm in her lap. "A dream," she whispered.

Tidus murmured her name and sleepily wrapped his hand around her waist. She fell back into his embrace, frantically holding him and thinking, THIS is real, THIS is real...

Just got off the phone with Mom and Dad, who just walked in the door from the hospital. They gave her IV muscle relaxants and morphine, and she's got prescriptions for the same. I'll swing by there to help do Dad's laundry (he got no sleep, having spent the night scrunching his 6 foot 3, 300 pound frame into a chair 2 sizes too small) and check up on things.

Mom's been having excruciating sciatic nerve pain since Mother's Day. Her doctor's been mealy-mouthing along, pissing me the hell off. Thursday she started feeling a good bit better, and today she tried to go to Raven's ballet recital.

That lasted until she tried to get out of the car, twisted a little, and stopped dead unable to move from pain. I told Dad to take her to the hospital. Thankfully, he listened to me and not Mom (who has been uncharacteristically passive about the whole thing).

I should get exactly no sleep tonight...

Last round of pictures... everyone's going to Project Pet to be spayed/nuetered and adopted.

Jenn-i-purr, back in her sleek form
Purrfect, her clone *grin*
Lion, just laying around
Lamb, stretched out on a chair
Daffodil, who never stops moving

Stop paranoia
From ruining your work day.
Does it still matter?

It does not matter.
This, too, shall pass and you will
Be the one standing.