The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

07:36 May 30 2010
Times Read: 692

Ratings have become completely mindless. You never get real comments anymore, just numbers/stamps. I'm so sick of "Please feel free to add me or stalk me." I know people love their stamps, but I'm just so tired of them. Nothing beats a real comment. Stamps are the lazy equivalent of voice mail when I'd just like to hear a real person's voice.



I'm not debating your right to stamp me and everyone all you want, but have you ever walked into a place that has signs up everywhere? After a while, you just don't read them anymore. All stamps look the same to me because I get hundreds of them one after another. I don't even see them anymore because my eyes glaze over.



A few words, though... I will always stop to read those. Of course, even those often smell like form letters.



Kinda sad.

When I went to college, my dad gave me a copy of "The Prophet" bookmarked to this page. Now, I long to be the stable bow.
05:17 May 13 2010
Times Read: 721


On Children

Kahlil Gibran



Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.



You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.



You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

05:08 May 13 2010
Times Read: 722

Thanks for the good wishes, everyone. We had a setback tonight with Ashton. He began bleeding more than the wound vac could handle and it was pretty scary for a while. They've removed it and put a pressure bandage on it until tomorrow when they'll see if they can put it back in.



He was vomiting, so they got him on some Fenergan (sp?). With nothing on his stomach, he's been sleeping now for about two hours. It's a pleasure to be in the room with him sleeping so well and the new shift of nurses have been wonderful, checking in on him a lot.

21:30 May 12 2010
Times Read: 753

I admire those of you who write so frankly about difficult and personal things. I really struggle with that. These are the things I have been worrying over since the weekend:



My son has been in the hospital for 4 days now with a serious infection. I took him in on Mother's Day and got in a few faces. He's gone to the ER 3 times in the last 6 weeks and they give him antibiotics and send him home. I wasn't leaving until they explained to me why he has an infection and what they planned to do about it. I'll spare you the details of how nasty this infection is.



The ER doctor listened to everything I said and agreed to admit him. With that golden ticket, 3 doctors had to see/treat him: Internal Medicine, Infectious disease, and Orthopedics (the doctor who did his previous surgeries.) Some of you may remember his motorcycle accident 3 years ago.



He had surgery this morning and is out of Recovery and in his room. I'm home now, exhausted but relieved. He has a wound vac and will have a picc line for his antibiotics. They cleaned the leg and the infection was deeper and worse than the surgeon had thought. Why didn't they listen to us each time we had gone before? He's lucky that he didn't die, because that's what we're talking about here when doctors ignore infection that long.



For 4 days, the highest his heartrate has gotten is 40. This morning before surgery, it was 34. Because of that, we had to have a cardiologist in surgery, too. I firmly believe that if I hadn't gotten insistent, they would once again have just sent him home. Last time, a nurse all but said that he just wanted pain medicine. I heard another actually tell him that he might be uncomfortable, but that it was "bearable."



*breathe. breathe.*



He has a real chance now to get well.



..........................................................................



I know some of you remember last year when my mom and dad were diagnosed with cancer at the same time when they went for check ups to go traveling. Both had surgery and chemo...dad had radiation, too.



They've been doing so well. They even started traveling again. They did a Mexican cruise last month. On Friday evening after volunteering at the Center, they got the results of dad's latest PET scan and it's not good news. We have new sites. I'm not going to write much about it because it's so hard and because they flew out this morning to Boston to get a second opinion, this time with a specialist who only deals with dad's kind of cancer...some kind of pulmonary oncologist. His appointment is tomorrow morning, so we're calling back and forth to share about dad and my son.



Our little family has taken a beating the last few days. On top of everything, I have my son's puppy from hell at my house and so far he's pooped everywhere, peed everywhere, chewed my carpet, leapt onto a concrete planter and crushed Stabb's bell pepper plant, eaten through the starter pull cord on my lawn mower, and assorted other mischief. Poor Meatball keeps trying to find a little space of his own where the puppy isn't trying to climb inside him.

04:02 May 03 2010
Times Read: 787

I hate the money you could be saving at Geico. HATE!



Conversely, I would have a beer with the Cockney gecko. He's cool. I'd dine with the cavemen and suffer through their pretentious wine selections, but that f*%#$@ money wad should be fed through my office shredder and his google eyes reserved for Sock Puppet's bed fellow.