Best Weekend EVER.

It really does not take much to please me. I swear. In effort to make up for spending my 32nd birthday in the hospital hooked to IV drugs, I moved it on down to this weekend. What did I want to do? Have breakfast at IHOP. Yep, that's pretty much it. A few crepes and those nice shredded and browned hashbrowns and I'm a happy camper. I didn't even mind so much the trio of small boys thumping their feet on the base boards directly behind me. And after this blissful meal I returned an article of clothing to Khols' without them giving me a hard time or waiting too long, I wandered around IKEA where this conversion shelf/coffee table/window seat thing I've wanted for literally YEARS was acually ON SALE in the color I wanted and IN STOCK and then I even got to go to the super Marshalls and try stuff on. Ok, they didn't have anything I wanted there (aside from a really big mirror for $50) but some days go like that there. It was a good day! Then it got even better!

Oh joy!

My brother and sister-in-law dropped off cupcakes for my belated birthday and helped me put together my new Ikea project. Then Sunday I went wine tasting with another friend and her lovely neighbors I want to steal. Even my grumpy spouse had a good time and made new friends which is in itself a feat of happiness. How can one NOT have a good time stuffed into a limo with 9 people and dozens of bottles of wine, really? And I brought the cupcakes along and they brought cheese and bread and triscuits and hummus. All was good. We had a cook out after the wine tasting at the neighbors and I had my first hamburg in like 6 months and it was also bliss. I tried watching some of the oscars last night, but I was too tired. It was a full weekend and everyone had FUN. I can not express my satisfaction. Like a giant fat cat after a huge meal of fish and creme sitting in the sunshine on a fluffy carpet looking outside at the dog who is outside in the cold wind with a giant smile.

Satisfied.

Adventures in a New Disease Continues...

I have had another recent bout of hospital. That makes twice inside 3 months, I think that's a little extreme. Hind sight is always wonderful, but I can't say it could have been avoided completely. For someone who really has not ever really had any kind of 'health issues', this is all pretty new to me. I can't say I'm McLovin it though, as much as I do strive to be different. This is not what I had in mind.

Obviously the cocktail of drugs I was on before wasn't enough to keep my insides from revolting against food (really what IS that?) so we're moving on to step 2: intravenise drugs plus cocktail. So far I am feeling much better stomach pain-wise, but a little on the loopy side, again. I'm doing my best to quelch urges to make carpet angels at work or give bear hugs to strangers, but I'm not sure what about this mixture makes me want to talk to EVERYONE. I'm not usually like that, but maybe it's just a procrastination ploy. Seeing as I am both wired and tired at the same time, all the time, I can't seem to harness whatever spazmatic energy is being induced to anything slightly useful.

The insurance company called and asked a lot of questions. As suspicsious and untrusting as I always am that made me wonder about their motives for sure. Are they trying to gauge how much i'm going to cost them in the long run? Most likely. I probably should have kept my mouth shut but I couldn't. REally, I couldn't. I think the fact they called is unethical, I mean, really they have full access to all my medical records, what good does it to ask me -the drugged wonder- about what the hell just happened? I hate insurance. I wish I'd kept my mouth shut. Hind sight.

Have you seen those butt talking commercials? Hi-larious. Tim hates them.

So, hopefully the evil insurance company doesn't take their new found information of my new found illness and kick me to the curb. I mean the did have plenty of years of ripping me off where i never went in for anything so they can just get over it this year. I'm sure they just stuck a giant red tab on my case folder and moved me to a new file cabinet, but what-eva. Is this what 'getting old' is like? Parts fall off, things don't work, you are forced to buy the biggest pill box they sell at the dollar store and then realize you need a portable one for 'day trips' and suddenly you are really so far from being a kid anymore your mother tells you that you are "too old to HAVE children" (thanks mom).

I'm not sure what the rest of my life is going to pan out like. If it will change dramatically, or not. If I will have anymore kids, or not. I am a firm believer that you don't get dealt more than you can handle. Which is a good attitude I think b/c then you can just mentally tell yourself you are capable of handling fill-in-the-blank. So, I used to freak out at strep tests b/c I hate the gagging on the q-tip. Then it was anytime blood was required I'd break out in a sweat (do still, a little). But now since I'll be seeing needles on a fairly regular basis I better get used to downing more water. Nothing is ever as scary the second time around, I have found.

As much as I claim to want to go out more and do more things in DC, it's often hard to commit my very limited hours of off time at home to going and actually doing anything at all.

This weekend I convinced myself to pull it together and accompany the spouse off to the car show at the convention center. Thought about metro-ing but that would have cost as much as parking...or so i thought. $20 for event parking in the lot off H street which I"m pretty sure is a solid $5 on weekends normally. How is that not gauging? Can we do something about that Obama? (yes we want you to fix EVERYTHING and while you're at it I have a leaky faucet that could get some attention from you..)

I've also noticed I get ticked off fairly quickly lately. So after swinging around a few blocks I'm trying hard not to freak out, but no one likes looking for parking downtown. Thank goodness for Sunday church parking. Thanks episcapalians!

Other randomness I discovered on my big outting:

1.) I have zero toleration for anyone elses' children. It's not endearing, it's not cute, it's noise and they're a menace. Get them the frik out of the drivers' seat of that Escalade, it ain't NEVER going to happen for them, or me, but at least I have a liscense.

2.) Some people must not own mirrors. I saw this woman with a white shirt practically spray painted over her rolls of hippo-like figure and had to wonder, what must she be thinking? Just because you're in it, doesn't mean it "fits".

3.) There is a secret portal between the Subway and Matchbox. A trio of asian peeps wearing 5 layers of clothing on a 60 degree day go into subway, and magicallly appear walking out of Matchbox a few mintues later. Astounding. What's with the puffy jackets though? Have I ever even seen an asian sweat? Maybe they have historically low blood pressure.

4.) Socks are not a replacement for shoes. A large woman wearing her church garb and stockings walked past us with white socks over her stockings...at first I thought they were slippers (like that's a step up on the sidewalk of china town) but alas, they were socks. I get pain. I am sporting blisters on both pinky toes but I wasn't about to wander around the sidewalks of DC in socks because of it. Ok ONE time I took off my shoes to wander, albeit stumble, back from some bar but I get LOST when I drink fairly easily and those heels really were going to kill me.

5.) I will never understand church in general. I guess you have to be raised with it to get it. I'm not sure why people dress up either, just to mock the pretty much naked jesus hanging on the cross with your earthly goods? Respectful, ok you're trying to look nice for .... whomever. As I was taking full advantage of Sunday church parking a woman passes me in full dress up garb. Wedding worthy in the way grandma, or great-grandma as the case may be, dusts off her hat from the 40's- the one with huge fake flowers and some sort of net attached- and perches it on her head to compliment her matching pastel suit. Since the old peeps always seem to have such a specific dated garb to go back to, it makes me wonder what the heck I have that I could ever refer back to in 30-40 or 50 years in my closet that I would deem appropriate. Certainly not the most recent $26 sale dress from the GAP. They just don't make things like they used to. How much longer is that phrase going to be around?