Thursday, May 29, 2008

The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.
~ James Yorke


Well...I wouldn't call me successful.
Just good at accepting Plan B's.
Because really, what other choice does one usually have.

Sorry it's taken so long.

Flight was horrible.
Supposed to leave Midwest at 5:30pm on the 14th.
Flight was late, didn't end up leaving until 8:30pm.
Hence my flight arrived 10 minutes after my connecting flight departed.
Was told United in Washington, where my layover was, would put me up in a free hotel for the night since the next flight overseas wasn't until 10:50pm on the 15th.
Of course, what they didn't know, was that the Annual National Police Memorial week was taking place, hence there were no available hotel rooms. Anywhere.
And seeing as how Murphy is my brudda from anudda mudda...
My cell phone was packed in my checked luggage and I couldn't call Marikay, who was there and had a nice, cozy hotel room dagnabit.
So myself, and another guy that was on all the same flights, along with other various travelers got to spend 24 hours at the airport.
Yippie-ki-ay.
A janitor had pity on us at some odd hour and told us that the chairs in the Chapel had no arm rests.
Yep. Me. In a chapel.
And lighting didn't strike.
Slept miserably on and off...but it was better than chairs with armrests.
And thankfully...my traveling friend, Ibraham, who was a 20 year old party animal...was the perfect gentleman.
He totally took good care of me.
Carried around my two 40lb carry-ons. Pushed my wheelchair. Went and got our food and drinks and refused to let me pay.
And finally...the next day around noon...when a hotel room finally opened, but United refused to pay for at that point, he wouldn't let me pay for that either...but willingly gave me the bed and took the couch so that we could catch some decent sleep before having to get back to the airport for our next flight.
We then had a layover in Qatar, his hometown, where I got to meet all of his family (whom I'd spoken on the phone with several times and whom I told had every reason to be very proud of their son!)...and then I almost missed my next connecting flight thanks to their hospitality...
Almost.
So...the jist of it is, a 16 hour flight...took 3 days.
Oy.
So, I'm here...and other things have been going on, and I'm exhausted and have a good day or two, but busy, busy with the other things (which I'll get into next post) and then I'm down for a day or two.
Still having HUGE trouble adjusting my sleep schedule, so that's not helping.
Thanking my lucky stars that Moby is here with me.
Again, sorry it took so long.
Back to bed.
Hope everyone is well;)

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
~Lao Tzu


This guy...















The one and only, RolyPolyMoby...probably begs to differ right about now.

He missed his connecting flight and spent the night in Jordan...
But he's there...and he's alive and well and probably very happy to be out of his kennel!
And TheRammerHammer is going to spoil him rotten until I arrive tomorrow night.

I think I've said something about Murphy's Law before, but just in case I haven't...
He and I must be twins, separated at birth.
I'll save the story for next time, but whatever could possibly go wrong while trying to get Moby overseas...went wrong.
I would have been lost, and crushed and mad as hell...without Marikay.
She saved the day several times that day!
Thank you so very, very much Marikay! Hope you are having a blast in DC...except during the sad parts of course!

Now...I must go through the house and just trash stuff without even looking at it.
I leave for the airport at 2pm. The house is quite empty. It echo's something fierce.
Very weird.
Too many thoughts to put into words right now.
I look forward to sitting on the plane for 16+ hours and doing nothing!
Thank you for all the good thoughts and well wishes!

Hope everyone is well;)

Friday, May 9, 2008

"Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction."
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Have I mentioned lately, how much I love TheRammerHammer???
Yeah.
Damn I love this man.
I have never felt so loved.
I've never had anyone go to so much trouble to and for me.
I still can't help but feel like I'm going to wake up any minute now.
It still hasn't really, really, really hit me that by this time next week, this house will be empty and I won't see Daisy on a daily basis and I will be living half-way around the world.
Blows my freakin' mind.
I'm excited and scared and happy and sad and it's all exhausting.
I do believe I will sleep almost 18 hours straight again on the flight.
Yesterday, I went to say goodbye to my Vet and all the staff there.
Wasn't easy. I have trusted them without fail, for many years now. It won't be easy to find that again, I know. Even if I was only moving elsewhere in the states...
Most vets are out for money, not for the health of animals.
I also went to pick up my last prescription from my Primary doctor.
That wasn't easy either.
Once I was done with chemo, and the cancer center wasn't making $3000-$4000 a pop off of me anymore and they moved on to the next person...my Primary was the one that returned all my calls, got me in and didn't make me wait a week or more for an appointment when I was bad and answered any/all questions I had. I loved my Primary. She was my age, young at heart but knowledgeable about all things medical (of course!). She took into consideration what I used to d for a living once and trusted my knowledge when I wanted to experiment with new drugs or try something different. She became more than my doctor and became my friend.
I cried like a little girl when I got back to the car.
But we'll keep in touch via email...and hopefully she will come visit someday!

Now...back to TheRammerHammer...
He gets things done. And I'm definitely not used to that!
So...hopefully...if all goes well...and at this point, it looks as if things are going to go smoothly...Moby will fly out this Monday.
He and I will be flying to Chicago in the morning.
Then we will have a Mini-Knottie-Lunch-Meeting with Marikay.
Then I will put him on his International flight and he'll be on his way.
The Arab Airline only has to abide by what the temperature will be at lift off here in the states.
Which won't be over 85 degrees.
The reason they aren't concerned with the temperature over sea's...is because they expect the owner of the animal to be there to pick the animal up when the plane arrives. Hence, no need to worry about the animal being anywhere 'hot' for too long.
He'll still be arriving at night and TheRammerHammer will be there to welcome him.
Granted.
This is like anything else in life...I know there is a chance that he won't survive this trip.
He could get so stressed, that he doesn't make it.
I spoke with TheRammerHammer about this the other day and what I would like to take place if this scenario should happen.
I think I'm typing it now, because I need to see it in writing, to kind of prepare or something.
Not that I will be prepared.
I dunno.
What I do know is that our bond is a solid bond and if I were to leave Moby behind, odds are that he would stop eating, drop weight too quickly and go into kidney failure.
So whether he goes or stays, is a risk to his health and well-being.
I would much rather risk him going (and going quickly) and not making it, then to go without him and hear of him suffering and having to be put down.
It sucks either way.
But I'm banking on and hoping that he will sleep, and make the trip just fine.
I am going to slightly sedate him...just enough to take the edge of anxiety off hopefully.
And that's it. That's the last I'm going to speak of such negativity and not give any more thought or energy to it.
Although, I admit that I probably won't sleep until I know he's there safely.
Oy.

Next on the agenda:
This is what I spent 9 hours doing yesterday:




















Used to roughly take me 3-4 hours to make one but my hands are so bad, it took 9 freakin' hours.
The rescue is having a ten year Birthday Celebration a couple of days after I leave. D, one of my closest friends and who is also in the resuce, knows that I always make photo albums for weddings/baby showers and asked if I could make a guest book for people to sign the day of the celebration. We're expecting well over 500 people, having sent out over 1000 invitations to anyone/everyone that has ever adopted an animal from us. There are plenty of volunteers that will also be there, as well as local radio stations and news stations. We've got a huge BBQ planned, a Bouncy Room for kids, kid games, raffles with lot's of prizes, and several area businesses that will be there to donate for the sake of getting in on the free publicity.
C, the gal that started the rescue is currently going through a rough time with some family health issues and I figured I could make a guest book/photo album combo and once the event is over with, the rescue can put pictures from it behind the guestbook pages and present it to C.
It was 9 looooonnnngggg hours... but it was totally worth it.
It will be the last thing I officially get to do for the rescue here.
Sob.
And that I got to do it for C, was the icing on the cake.
C is an incredible, incredible woman.
I've often said that when I grow up, I wanna be just like her.
Plus...it forced me to sit down for 9 hours and not run around here, like a chicken with my head cut off.
No packing, no planning, no worrying.
It was a nice break.

That's it for now...back to the packing, planning and worrying. lol.
Hope everyone is well;)

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

"The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort."
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes


They didn't let Moby fly yesterday.
After being passed from person to person to person, again and again and again...as in I seriously have a notebook paper with 37 different Delta phone numbers on it...I told the last woman I spoke with last week that although my issue was getting passed on so much, everyone I had spoken with thus far was being wonderful and kind. Everyone felt badly that they couldn't answer my question or help and had to give me yet another number.

Yeah. I'll be calling Delta back today because of the unprofessional, snarky, snotty bitch that I dealt with yesterday, whom, incidentally, I hope gets the worse case of butt-rash in the history of butt-rashes EVER.
E.V.E.R.

Needless to say, once we got back home and I asked my friends to leave...I was a blubbering mess.
Sometimes I think I must ask for far too much in life to have things like this happen.
I know I shouldn't complain...and really, in my head, I'm not complaining.
It's more like confusion, talking out loud.
One dog.
That's it.
One dog.
That's all I wanted to bring with me right now.
Daisy isn't coming, so I just wanted to bring one of my dang dogs over with me, to love on.
I'm baffled that this is and has become so difficult.
And very, very sad.

Monday, May 5, 2008

"Anxiety is the space between the "now" and the "then."
~ Richard Abell
"Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds."
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


(The purpose of two quotes today, will be explained below.)

The only in-between thing I like in life right now, is Fluffer-nutter sandwiches.
Had a big garage sale this weekend. Man, you just don't realize how much crap you've collected over the years until you have to lug it all in and out each freakin' day.
Not to mention, I'm used to going to garage sales and haggling...not having one.
It's not near as much fun. At all.
Especially when you sell your beloved 19-whoknowswhat Pee-Wee Herman Schwinn.
I've done the Beach Cruisers in Florida and the Mountain Bikes up here.
But nothing... nothing compared to my Schwinn.
I loved my Schwinn.
I bought it for $2 at a garage sale years ago.
It had it's original paint job.
It also had it's original seat. Which wasn't comfortable, by any stretch of the imagination.
But I loved my Schwinn.















I will miss my Schwinn dearly.
But it went to a good home. Someone that will appreciate it...and that makes me happy.
I heart people that heart Schwinn's.
Plus, I profited from my $2 original investment.

Didn't do too bad, sale wise. Made enough so Daisy can get her School Yearbook and a little extra.

I'm a sucker though...I can't let little kids come to my garage sale and walk away empty handed, and I don't want to put the parents, whose current financial status I do not know, in an uncomfortable position, so any wee-one that comes to a garage sale of mine, gets to pick any free toy they want. Children never cease to amaze me. Most of them picked a stuffed animal, and not at the coaxing of their parent either, over the video games and board games and other such toys.





Plus...I had a very young couple come the first day, with their 10 month old baby and the Mom proudly announced how happy she was with the assortment of stuff I had out, because they had just gotten their very first house to rent and all they had was a bed, a crib and a can of paint.


Hence, my Good Deed For Little Warrior! (See below!)


They took home whatever they wanted, at no cost.
And they were good people. They could have hogged and taken much more than they needed...hell they could have taken lot's of stuff and then had their own sale...but they didn't.
They took my dinette, some dishes, pots and pans, some paintings and toys for the baby.
Right before they left, she asked me why I had done it and I told her the story of Little Warrior and asked that pay it forward. She said she would...and I believed her.
I couldn't help but be excited for them. I remember that young-and-just-starting-out-feeling!

All the left-overs, got donated to the people that lost everything in the recent tornado's here.
Speaking of which, we're fine H! Came damn near too close for comfort though!
The town on one side of us, got it pretty bad...then it hopped back up over us and came back down, stronger, to the other side of us.
The Arby's up the street is completely demolished.
Woe is me.
I loved Arby's french fries. They were spiced up a bit and I could actually taste them.
Ahhhh...well...what can ya do?!?


Once the siren's started blaring, I could help but sit in the hallway with Daisy and the animals that are still here and think..."Okay, we've lived here, in this house, for 7 years now...with no basement...nowhere to run and take serious cover during tornado's...and we've been lucky. Very lucky. They always seem to diminish right before our town, or move just north or south of us and pass right on by. In less than 13 days, I will be gone and Daisy will be safely living in a finished basement...hence a freakin'-frackin tornado hitting my neighborhood/house...well...that would have just pissed me right off!"


Anyhoo...so yeah...it's been a crazy, emotional week/weekend.
Finally done sifting through everything.
Seeing all my neighbors come and go at the sale got me to thinking about saying goodbye to everyone next week and what I want to say to people.
I know I won't be saying goodbye forever, but still.
I realized that some of the people, I'm gonna have to chicken-peck a little letter too, because if I start to speak, I'll just cry and won't be able to get out what I wanna say.
So yeah, I've been a blubbering mess.
Especially today.
Moby is supposed to leave today. So that has me really on edge.
Nothing has really been resolved as far as his traveling is concerned.
We have to drive him all the way out to the airport this afternoon and they will decide then and there, as to whether or not they will allow him to travel.
Bastards.
Don't they know I HATE THE IN-BETWEEN TIME??
I'm a planner. I have to know things dagnabit!



Next up: I lost something very, very, very, very, very important and precious to me last July, that belonged to my Nana and it's seriously weighed on my mind every, single day since then. I actually didn't know if I'd lost it completely, or if I'd tucked it away somewhere safe and then couldn't remember where that place was...or if I dreamed that I'd tucked it away somewhere safe, etc. Freakin' medicines.


Every single day, since the day we realized it was time to move on from this place, I have woken up and whispered to my Nana's soul, "Please Nana, don't let me leave this house for good without finding it. Please." I know. I'm crazy that way...comes with the brand.
Good news is...I found it!
And I'm relieved and thrilled and happy and a little more at peace now.



Lastly, I'm going to provide another link (The Journey: What You Can Do) to Lizard Eater's blog and copy/paste a post of hers below, (for all two of you! LOL), just in case the link doesn't work for someone else along the way.
It's a brilliant, brilliant idea.
Just think of the goodness YOU can spread if you make this a daily practice, instead of just a one-time-thing!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday, May 03, 2008

What You Can Do
Thank you for all of the prayers and the requests to help. Please don't think I've been avoiding the latter, or blowing off the offers of beads, cookies, anything. I am humbled by your offers and have been giving some serious thought to what we need.
You know what I need?
A way to explain to LW when she's older that even though I empathically do NOT believe this happened for a reason ... short of finding the cure for all cancer, there could not be a reason that would justify this happening to her ... even though this didn't happen for a reason, good still sprang from it. As good can spring from heartbreaking situations.
At the risk of sounding like a lifetime movie or a book by Mitch Albom ... I want to give her a book of good deeds done in her name.
So, my friends ... you asked, here's my answer.
Do a good deed, one you wouldn't ordinarily do. Give a banana to the homeless guy, take a Starbucks gift card to a nurse and ask her to give it to a Mom or Dad who really needs it. Mow someone's lawn.
And then tell me about it.
You can post it here, or post it on your blog and send me the link. Or email it to lizardeater at gmail dot com.
I'll compile all those and get a book printed.
And when she's old enough to ask, "Why?" I'll explain that there is no why. But that good things can still result. And that there were a whole bunch of people sending her love, and the way they showed that love was through action.
Posted by Lizard Eater at 9:41am



Hope everyone is well:)