Real Life Update ...nothing to do with my fics
Hello My Dear Friends!
I hope that this New Year of 2010 is treating you all well. I am so sorry that I have been MIA for a while and will probably be for a bit longer. But I hope that you will let me explain why.
So far this year hasn’t been off to a great start, well at least for me it hasn’t, I can only hope that it gets better as the year progresses.
Anyway, as most of you already know, I am a single mom with a 12 year old daughter. We have just recently moved, and by recent I mean 2 years ago, from Boston, MA to Indiana to live with my parents, who made the move to Indy a year before we did. “What prompted the move out west,” you ask. Well, that is a very LONG story that is better left for a later date. Anyhoo, we moved in with my parents 2 years ago, which was supposed to be temporary but has somehow become permanent. (Another long story best left for another time.) But what you need to know is that my daughter’s father still lives in Boston and was awarded visitation/parenting time with my daughter so for every major holiday i.e. Christmas, I have to drag my daughter back up to MA so that she can spend the holiday with her father, which by the way neither my daughter or I are thrilled about. This is a very difficult time for me, not only do I not get to spend the holiday with her, but I have to take my daughter back to stay with her father, a man that I dislike immensely. Needless to say, the holidays have taken a very depressing turn for me. But I also spend the holidays with my best friend and her family and I write. I write and I write and I write.
So on December 22, 2009, my daughter and I were scheduled to fly out of Indianapolis Airport and due to arrive in Boston at 11pm that night where we would stay for a week and depart on December 29th. Everything was going better than any other trip we’ve taken back to MA. Both my daughter and I were completely packed and ready to go a WHOLE day before we were leaving. I had made arrangements to get us to the airport on time and we were all set to take a shuttle from Logan airport when we arrived. I was happy that everything was going according to plan. It was about 10:30pm the night before we were going to leave. I looked around my house to make sure that everything was set for the next day, you know that one last look around trying to figure out what you are forgetting to pack look. But when I came up with nothing else to do, I sighed in relief. Now it was my time to relax and get to read my Chlollie! Yay for me! I sent my daughter up to bed and I had a nice hot cup of chocolate. The house was quiet…and for my house that’s something. I took my laptop out of the bag and plugged it into the wall, my battery is dying and I can only run my laptop while it’s plugged in. (I had every intention of getting a new battery after I pay off my holiday bills.) Anyway, I placed my hot chocolate on the table beside the recliner, reclined my legs and got comfy, put my laptop onto my lap and was getting ready to read those Chlollie Role Plays that I am soo addicted to when my daughter called to me from upstairs. So, being the awesome mom that I am, I put my Chlollie Role Plays on hold, put my un sipped hot chocolate back onto the side table, un reclined my legs, and trudged my wary bones upstairs to my daughter’s room just to get her a glass of water and to listen to her complain about having to go back to MA and to spend the holiday with her father. After about an hour of listening to her complain about the trip, rubbing her back, and desperately wanting to get back to reading my Chlollie Role Plays, she finally fell asleep. So down the stairs I went, grabbed my now cold chocolate and went out to the kitchen and zapped it in the microwave to reheat it, and back to the living room that was only lit up by the lights from our Christmas tree. The stillness of the room was a blessing. I once again returned my hot chocolate to the side table, sat down in my recliner and reclined my legs, grabbed my laptop and placed it once again onto my lap and began to read that Chlollie goodness that I’ve been dying to read all day.
As I waited for Live Journal to load on my screen, I reached for my hot chocolate to finally take that sip that I had been craving when my dogs began to bark and the back door opened to reveal my dad. He had been over at my Uncle’s house watching a football game. I sighed, there went my peace and quiet, and I lowered my still unsipped hot chocolate and placed it on the table so that I could make small talk with my dad before he went to bed. I love my dad, but he loves to talk. He can spend an hour talking about the weather and all I wanted to do was read my Chlollie RP and drink my now luke warm chocolate. I chatted with my dad for about an hour before he headed into his room to read. When I looked back at my laptop the screen was black. I had assumed that it was in sleep mode because I had taken so long, so I ran my finger across the finger pad fully expecting for my laptop to blink back to life…but it didn’t. I thought that was strange. It never took more than me running my finger over the finger pad to wake it back up so I hit the Enter button and nothing happened. At this point the fact that my screen is still back is not really bothering me, I just figured that for some reason my computer shut itself down, no big deal right? Yeah, wrong. I pressed the power button and the fans turned on, the light on the power button lit up, and the screen started to lit up and then…BAM nothing. Everything shut off again. No light on the power button, no fans cooling the computer, nothing on the screen. S.H.I.T! What did that mean? So what did I do, what any normal person would do…I kept pressing the power button and swearing every time that my laptop wouldn’t power up. This prompted my dad to come out of his room.
He found me pacing in front of my laptop, swearing like a sailor, threatening my laptop as if it were alive and could understand me… that if it didn’t turn on that it was in mortal peril. To say that I was quite upset was a beyond ridiculous. I was almost hysterical with panic. My stories, my photos…all were backed up on disks except the ones that I had just finished for Lilmoochie’s Christmas fic Challenge. I was going to post them on Christmas Eve and the only copies of those stories were on the hard drive that now wouldn’t power on. Really it wouldn’t have been such a big deal if I hadn’t been traveling the next day. I would have just taken my laptop to my computer tech guy and he would have fixed the problem and I still would have been able to post my fics on time…my only problem was, I was leaving on a plane the next day and wouldn’t be able to see my tech guy until after the New Year. That would mean that my fics would be stuck on my laptop until then. Shit. Shit. Shit. I just wanted to sit down on the floor and cry. My heart was racing, tears were welling, and my breathing became ragged. I sat down on the floor in front of my lap top…which was resting comfortably in my recliner, next to my once again cold chocolate. “What is wrong with this stupid thing!?” I asked to myself, not even aware that my father was watching me.
“What’s going on?” He asked me. I jumped up off the floor and turned to him. Angrily I pointed at my computer and with barely contained tears in my eyes like a 3 year old before a tantrum I yelled my answer at him.
“That DAMN computer won’t turn on! I have NO IDEA WHY! My stories are on that thing and I can’t get them. THEY’RE GONE! I HATE THAT THING! I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I HATE IT!” Each “I hate it!” was punctuated by a foot stomp.
My dad, seeing how serious a situation it was didn’t help it any by laughing at my behavior. Nope, that just darkened my mood and gave me a live target for my anger. I growled and if I were Superman my dad and my laptop would both have been fried. But alas, I am just human. I narrowed my eyes and lowered my voice before I spoke to him.
“You think this is funny?” I asked him shocked that he could be so amused by my distress, “I leave for Boston in the morning and when I come back it is New Years. My tech guy is going to be closed so I will have no one to check out my computer until AFTER the holidays. That means that I have to go without my laptop for 2 weeks. That’s NOT going to be possible. I will never survive that. And you find humor in this. You’re my dad. You are supposed to sympathize with me and fix this, not laugh at me. Thanks.” I said to him which caused him to laugh harder. My dad’s favorite past time is to tease me and to find humor in my frustration. But his laughing was contagious and I started to laugh at the situation too. Only to me would this happen. That is my luck. But my dad took pity on my plight and stopped laughing.
“Calm down,” he said to me. “Let me take a look at it. Bring it out to the kitchen table,” which was always his makeshift work station, to me my dad is like MacGyver, he could fix anything, “and I’ll see what I can do.” I instantly calmed down, walked over to the Evil machine that was holding my stories hostage, unplugged it from the wall, and ricocheted backwards as I began to walk it out to the kitchen. That was when I noticed that the power cord was stuck in my recliner.
“Holy Shit!” I exclaimed. My dad turned around quickly and I handed him my laptop to hold while I got the cord out of the recliner. Somehow my power cord had gotten stuck in the metal elbow ‘thingy’ that holds the legs and feet up. Once I released the power cord from the metal I pulled it out quickly and noticed that it was crimped really badly. “SHIT!” Now I knew why my computer wouldn’t power up. There was no power going to it. The outer casing of the cord had been cut through but the inner part of the cord looked fine. I straightened the cord to the best of my ability and my dad went to get some electrical tape. I just needed my laptop to work through the holidays. Then once I got back I would buy a new power cord and battery and I’d be ok again. I just needed to back up my Christmas fics and then if my computer crashed I wouldn’t have to worry. So, for about 15 minutes I smoothed the cord out. My dad wrapped the electrical tape around it and I plugged it back into the wall. I waited one second, held my breath, looked at my dad, and pressed the power button. The power light lit up, the fans turned on, the Windows logo popped onto the screen and I released my breath. My laptop was working again! Now, the smart thing to have done was to back up my Christmas fics as soon as the computer finished booting up. Yeah, I never said that I was smart. By the time I got my laptop working again, it was really late. I thanked my dad profusely for helping me and forgave him for laughing at my misfortune and sat down to read my Role Plays. I only got to read through one before I was soo exhausted that I ended up shutting my computer down. I wrapped the power cord up and packed my laptop into my laptop travel backpack. In my mind my laptop was ok. It was fixed enough to last me until I got back from my trip.
The next day was chaotic, you wouldn’t think so because I was all organized the night before but of course we forgot to pack things and blah…blah…blah, all that last minute stuff. I forgot to mention that it is a 2 hour drive to the airport from my house and my cousin wanted to leave a little early because he wasn’t sure about the directions to the airport…we ended up at the airport almost 3 hours before our flight. My daughter and I had a long wait ahead of us, but I was prepared, I packed her hand held video games, her laptop which doubles as a DVD player and DVDs. I had my laptop and notebooks, pens, and a romance novel. I was good for a while. But when we arrived and checked in we were told that our gate number had changed. No big deal, it was right next to the gate that we were at. So we picked up our bags and moved. About a half hour later, it was announced that our gate had been changed again…back to the original gate that we were at. Again, no big deal we picked up our bags and moved again. We did the gate change dance about three more times. My daughter was getting hungry so I went and got dinner…McDonald’s…I thought was going to be cheap but Holy Crap! It cost me $20 just for 2 meals. That was a rip off and the food sucked. But when I got back with the food and we started to eat we heard over the loud speaker that our flight was going to be delayed an hour. WTF! Now, I was getting aggravated. And I was chatting with some of the other passengers who were going to be flying with me to Boston…all who were US Army soldiers who had been surprised with holiday leave for 2 weeks. I have to tell you that I just felt 10 times safer knowing that the whole squad was flying with me. But just as I started to relax and have fun with the ‘Army guys’ as we started to call them, another announcement was made…the connecting flight in Washington DC that we were all supposed to fly on broke down and that flight was cancelled. Again, WTF came to mind. But this time it wasn’t for me. It was for the ‘Army guys’. They had a limited amount of time to travel and get home to spend the holidays with their families. My daughter and I could always just change our flight and go the next day. I just felt so bad for them. So I left my daughter sitting with the ‘Army guys’ and headed for the counter in full on pissed off momma bear don’t you mess with my cub mode. I was going to get those boys to their families. Well, I have to tell you that the guy that I spoke to at the counter was just the NICEST guy ever. He was already searching for flights to get the ‘Army guys’ onto when I got to the counter. And he succeeded; he also succeeded in squeezing my daughter and me onto the same flight. We would end up laid over in Philadelphia instead of DC but no big deal to me. The only problem I had was that the shuttle that I was scheduled to take from the airport to the place where my friend was going to pick us up at stopped running an hour before we landed…which meant that my friend…who has a phobia about driving in Boston, was going to have to drive into downtown Boston and pick us up at the airport after 12 am. That went over like a lead balloon. She was hysterical by the time we departed the plane in Boston. I thought that she was going to hyperventilate. We didn’t get my daughter to her father’s house which is almost an hour north of Boston until 2 am. Yes, I forgot to mention that during my friend’s hysteria she forgot where she parked in the parking garage and we wandered around the cold dark garage looking for her car for almost an hour. Yeah, great way to start the holiday but wait it has only just begun. Be thankful that you aren’t me.
So, now it is early morning on December 23rd my friend and I get back to her house and chat. By the time we get to bed it’s almost 4am. She took the day off of work to spend with me so we got up late and went to breakfast and just had a grand ole time of just hanging out without any kids. She has a 17yr old and a 7 yr old…they were both at school. Anyway, we had a blast just hanging out, but we were busy and I hadn’t pulled out my laptop to post the fics. Later that night long after everyone had gone to bed I pull out my laptop and plug it in. I do take notice that the indicator light is on telling me that the battery is ‘charging’ but at least I know that the power cord is working. I go to sleep.
December 24th, Christmas Eve day.
I babysat my ‘niece’ Melissa, my friend’s 7 yr old who I consider my niece, while my friend is at work. We have an awesome time together; I really have missed spending time with her. She was soo excited about Christmas it made me both happy and sad…happy to spend the holiday with her but sad that I was missing the holiday with my own daughter. The whole day Mel had mapped out for us. It was too cold outside to go outside and play in the snow so we hung out inside and played board games and card games. We drew pictures and wrapped Christmas presents. But way too soon our fun came to an end and she too had to leave and go with her father for the evening. It was ok because she was coming back but that left the adults. Missy, her boyfriend, and me…Colleen was on the computer…and I thought I was addicted to the internet. She was on the computer all day, leaving it only to go to the bathroom and get something to eat, and then bam back on.
So, Michael, Missy’s boyfriend left to go over to his sister’s house for his annual family Christmas Eve party where he learned his niece had just been rushed to the hospital for something. No one was telling him anything. I learned that my Uncle Danny was rushed to the hospital the day I flew into Boston, the only thing that the doctors knew was that his liver wasn’t working properly and that he was jaundice. My cousin’s husband had also been rushed to the hospital on that same day because he had fallen and lacerated his spleen…which eventually had to be removed. My Uncle Danny had decided that he didn’t care how sick he was that he wasn’t going to spend Christmas in the hospital so he signed himself out and went home on Christmas Eve. So, this Christmas combined we had three loved ones in and out of the hospital, but at least all were recovering. Mel finally came home around 6:30 and was in a complete tizzy about Santa coming. It was so adorable! I pulled out my laptop and went onto the NORAD site and tracked Santa. She flew upstairs when she saw that he was flying towards the US, there was no way that Santa was going to catch her awake and take the presents back.
So, once Melissa was safely tucked into bed Missy pulled out the Christmas presents that needed to be wrapped and we flew through wrapping them. We make a great team, Missy and I do. Anyway, once the presents were wrapped I jumped onto my computer and pulled up the Christmas fics. I was so proud of how they came out, but one still needed to be proofed and the other I couldn’t come up with a title for. I was really stuck. So, I handed over my computer to Missy and she read the fic. She was trying to help me come up with a title when all of a sudden a warning came up on my screen saying that I had 7 minutes of battery life left that I needed to save whatever I was working on blah…blah…blah. Well, panic mode set in. WTF! Why was this happening again? I fixed that damn cord didn’t I? Well, obviously I hadn’t because the warning started flashing quicker and quicker and I hadn’t backed up my fic yet. OH CRAP! Now how was I going to post my fics? So, as quickly as I could, I got a disk out and I saved my fics to that disk. But my computer died as I was saving them so I wasn’t sure if they got saved or not. Then another problem arose…my back up disk was stuck inside my laptop. How was I going to get it out? It literally took me 2 days to get the damn disk out of my laptop. Anyway, I was once again in barely contained tears. My poor friend didn’t know what to do for me…there wasn’t a thing that she could have done to help me out. What had happened to my computer was my own damned fault…but at least I knew how to temporarily fix it, right? I just needed a bit of electrical tape, which unfortunately for me, she didn’t have any so I was either going to have to wait until the 26th and brave the stores or try to salvage the electrical tape from my cord and reuse it. I chose to reuse the electrical tape.
Very carefully (or so I thought), I peeled the tape from the cord. What I didn’t realize was that no matter how carefully I peeled the tape the exposed wire underneath it was going to stick to the adhesive and come out of the wire. Yup, the wire was completely unusable by the time I was through peeling the electrical tape off. CRRAAPP!!! So, I did the best I could and rewrapped the cord and I accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to post my fics until I got back to Indy and got a new power cord. It was ok. I could sneak on to Missy’s computer once Colleen went to bed and do what I had to do. But I needed to get my disk out of my laptop which I did after 2 days of trying to get enough power from the battery just to open the DVD door. In the mean time, I had snuck onto Missy’s computer and found a cord on Amazon that matched my laptop for cheap money and bought it. YAY! I just had to wait until I got back to Indy to get. I had it mailed to my home instead of to my friend’s because I was afraid it would have taken forever. So I was once again happy. And my friends kept me pretty busy; Missy’s boyfriend Michael got her the Wii and the Wii Fitness board. OMG, that Wii Fitness is sooooooooo freaking fun. I am so getting it for myself. So, Melissa leaves in the afternoon to spend the night with her father and for the rest of Christmas Day Michael and Missy and I competed on the Wii fitness.
So, even though my cord was damaged beyond repair for the moment, everything was still ok. I would post the fics once I could and even though they may be posted after Christmas everyone would understand once I told them what happened. Well, I did managed to get the disk out of my laptop and on December 26th, I was able to post one of my fics…however, the 2nd fic that I had been desperate to save…didn’t save to the disk and was still stuck on my laptop. No problem at least it was on the laptop and I could get to it after I got the cord. So, I stopped worrying and for almost a whole week I wasn’t on the internet. That in itself is something. LOL.
December 26th
Though I managed to get my disk from my laptop and post one of my Christmas fics, I received horrible news from my family. My Uncle Danny was once again in the hospital his liver and now his kidneys were failing. The doctors had him ICU. I also heard that my cousin’s husband was rushed into surgery that same day…in the same hospital as my Uncle. They had tried to save his spleen but it ruptured and the doctors had to remove it. It was a pretty hairy situation and my cousin was beside herself. She has two little girls both were sick with the flu at the time too. Michael’s niece was recovering at least but was still in the hospital as well, and from what the doctors told her parents, she was going to be in the hospital for a while. But at least she was going to recover and be ok. My Uncle was declining in health and the doctors had no idea why.
December 27th.
I had set up a command location for information for my family back in Indy to find out how my Uncle and my Cousin’s husband were doing. It was getting tense for my Uncle but my cousin’s husband was recovering nicely.
December 28th
I was babysitting my niece again while Missy was at work. And we were supposed to get snow storm that day which turned into just a few flurries. But it was once again too cold to go outside and play in the snow so Mel and I stayed in. This time she wasn’t too happy about staying in but we played on the Wii most of the day. I was getting excited because my daughter and I were flying home the next day. I was worried about my Uncle but he was young so I just figured that he’d be fixed in a couple of days and he would be fine. I never did get over to see him while I was in MA, but I was in constant contact with my cousins, his son and daughter, and I was also in contact with his wife. I was getting hourly updates and one hour he was doing better and then a few hours later he was not doing well again. It was a constant roller coaster. But I made arrangements with my ex for a ride to the airport the next day. He and his fiancé were going to drive my daughter and me into the airport.
December 29th
My daughter and I are returning to Indiana and I can’t wait. The only downside to the day is that my ex and his fiancé were driving us to the airport and I had never met his fiancé before. I wasn’t looking forward to the meeting. But when they pulled up to my friend’s house everything went smoothly. My ex and I were actually civil to each other and I was just so happy to be with my daughter again, I really didn’t care that I was meeting his fiancé. I got into the car and there sitting in the front seat was the other woman, she looked so nervous. I couldn’t believe that she was nervous about meeting me. What in the world did he tell her about me to make her look so scared? I am a really nice person; at least I hope I am. I, in no way, wanted to be the reason for her discomfort, so I put on a smile and shook her hand and wished her a Merry Christmas and tried to be as friendly as one could be with meeting the person who was your replacement. In a way it was very awkward to be meeting his fiancé but she turned out to be super nice and I cannot for the life of me understand what she sees in him, but that’s her problem not mine anymore. At least my daughter likes her and she seems like a nice person to me so that’s all that matters to me. Anyway, the drive to the airport wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I made small talk with my ex and his fiancé and before I knew it we were at the airport saying goodbye to them and on our way back home. There were no flight delays this time around, however, security did go through my bag because it was so heavy…well, duh, I was taking back Christmas presents with me. Anyway, we made it through security without problems and we waited for our plane. By the time we got to Indianapolis it was 11pm and we were exhausted. My Uncle Walter, my Dad, and my cousin Phil picked us up and we headed home. We got in about 2 in the morning again. I just couldn’t wait to sleep in my own bed.
December 30th
I woke up and wondered downstairs, had coffee in my favorite superman mug, and sat in the recliner that had chopped my cord in half when I saw the mail man walk up the steps and in his hand was a large brown package. I met him at the door and he gave me the mail. The package turned out to be my new cord. Quickly I ripped open the package and pulled out the cord. I rushed over to my back pack and pulled out my laptop. I plugged the cord into the laptop and it fit perfectly, so far so good. I plugged the cord into the wall, held my breath, pressed the power button and heard the wonderful buzz of fans kick on and the Windows logo popped up on the screen. My breath whooshed out of my lungs in relief. Now I could post my other fic. So, I sat in my recliner with my laptop on my lap and went to go post my fic when all of a sudden my computer crashes and the blue screen of death pops up on my screen…oh dear God, now what!? I just closed my laptop cover and put it to the side, sat for a minute and then put on Sponge Bob Square Pants and drank my coffee. I knew what that blue screen meant…it meant that somehow my computer had caught a virus and I was going to have to wipe my hard drive clean and restore it to factor default. WTF! Just my luck, you know, all I wanted to do was post my fic and once again I had to put it off. So, my daughter and my father got up and we made breakfast and I let my laptop slip from my mind. We got a phone call about my Uncle Danny, his health was declining quickly. The doctors thought that he may have contacted one of the viral hepatitis strains. They were going to do a biopsy of his liver and would get the results in a few days. So, my dad, who is my Uncle Danny’s older brother worried about his little brother and I prayed for my Uncle’s speedy recovery. He was going to be fine in my mind. He was too young, he was only 55 years old, so he was young and strong and nothing could hurt one of my Uncles. My dad comes from a family of 15…12 boys and 3 girls. Out of the 15 my dad is number 14; my Uncle Danny was number 15. But my Uncles were like gods to me as a kid and in my mind they are all still young viral men, but that isn’t the case. We’ve already lost a handful of them. So most of the day we spent wondering how my Uncle Danny was doing and my laptop was pushed aside until later that night.
December 31st 2009
Last day of this god forsaken year…last day to this decade, thank God for that, 2009 totally sucked and I am happy to see it gone! So, I get up and start the day with my coffee and I am excited for this year to be over. My mother, my daughter, my father, and I planned to stay in and celebrate the New Year this year with a movie marathon. We were going to watch Star Trek 2009, The Last Star Fighter, and Star Gate…the theme was something with Star in the title. Then the phone call happened. My cousin Darlene called, my other uncle, my Uncle Norman was in the hospital. The doctors thought he had a mini stroke but it turned out to be a small seizure…not sure which one is better but again WTF comes to mind. It’s almost like the powers that be have it out for my family. I soooo didn’t want to have to be the one to tell my dad that another one of his brothers was in the hospital. As soon as I got off the phone with my cousin Darlene my Uncle Danny’s wife Mary call and ended up having a nerves breakdown on the phone with me. It was one of the saddest things I have ever had to experience in my life. She just loved my Uncle so much and my heart broke for her and my cousins. They still had no idea what was causing him to be as sick as he was. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. My uncle shouldn’t have been this sick. My dad was beside himself with worry for not one, but two brothers now. My Uncle Norman is my one of my dad’s older brothers. But it was Uncle Danny that we were all really worried about. We were hoping that he would get better soon, but in my heart…that dreaded fear crept in…I felt that Uncle Danny wasn’t going to get better and regret for not getting to see him while I was up there seized my heart.
Happy New Year!!! January 1, 2010
I woke up this morning to a new day, a new year, but same old problems. The only good thing that happened this day was that my brother Aron called from Afghanistan. He had heard about my uncle being sick and called to get an update on him. It was really good to hear his voice even though it was bad news we were giving him. It’s hard knowing that he’s half way cross the world in harm’s way.
Anyway, what I hadn’t mentioned before was that just before Thanksgiving ‘09 my mother had bought a restaurant...a small diner to be precise, that I had been railroaded into being the waitress in. Oh boy, joy, joy. I was not happy about that at all. I felt as though I were taking a step back in my life rather than a step forward, but my mother really needed me to help her out and so, yes, I’ve gone from substitute teacher to waitress. I still think it should be the other way around, but who am I to argue. LOL Anyway, we took possession of the restaurant as of the 1st and she was egar to get to it and clean it out. (Which it totally needed to be done, IMO) So, the first day of the New Year for me was busting my ass cleaning a restaurant that I honestly wanted nothing to do with. Oh did I mention that it was also 2 degrees outside in the sun and I was the lucky one who drew the short straw to scrape the painted name of the previous restaurant from the extremely large pane windows…yeah, that was soooo not amusing. We had 3 days to get that restaurant into shape before we opened our doors. Linda’s Country Kitchen…or just The Kitchen as we were referring to it needed a lot of matience before it was going to be ready to open on the 4th.
January 2, 2010
Got a phone call from my uncle’s wife Mary. They know what’s wrong with him. The results of the biopsy came back it wasn’t good. He had cancer in his liver. He had an infection in his kidneys and they were shutting down. His health was in a serious tail spin and the doctors didn’t know if they were going to be able to pull him out of it.
Had to spend the day cleaning the restaurant after we got the news. It was a very somber atmosphere.
January 3,2010
Finished getting the restaurant ready for its Grand Opening.
January 4, 2010
Had to be in work by 5am. Got up at 4am to get ready. Spent 8 hours plus on my feet. I was exhausted. Fell asleep as soon as I finished helping my daughter with her homework. That was 7pm.
January 5, 2010
Well, I’ve survived yet another year. Everyone tells me that I am 35 years old. I keep telling everyone that I started aging backwards on my 31st birthday but no one will believe me. When I supposedly turned 31 in my reality I turned 29. When I supposedly turned 32 in my reality I turned 28. So now that I am supposed to be 35 in my reality I am 25. I figure I can start aging forward again once I hit 20…then when I am supposedly 41I can be 21 all over again. Sounds like a GREAT plan to me; I have no idea why on Earth no one seems to like it but me. Oh no…my daughter told EVERYONE that I was 35. And to top it off…I am soooooo sick. I have a fever, chills, sneezing, blocked ears…and my mom won’t let me call in…even though it’s her fault I am sick to begin with. Yeah, if I hadn’t had to scrape the windows of ‘her’ restaurant in 2 degree weather then I probably wouldn’t be so ill on my 25th birthday. But nooo I have to go to work because my mom needs my help. Fine. Happy birthday to me. And thanks to all of you out there for the birthday wishes. I can’t tell you how awesome it was to see that you all sent b-day greetings to me. *HUGS* to all of you! :D
January 6, 2010
My daughter Sarah had an orthodontics appointment today 2:15pm. I ended up letting her stay home from school today because she had a 2 hour delay because of the weather… and my dad was going to have to take her to the restaurant so that I could take her to the ortho appointment. My dad was fine with taking her to the restaurant because he had some last minute things to do at the restaurant before he left for Boston. My uncle had not taken the news of having cancer all that well. His health was declining and he had to be put onto life support machines. It turned out that the cancer had not started in my uncle’s liver but had spread throughout his entire body. The doctors were just trying to make him as comfortable as possible in his final days. He was pretty much comatose at this point. And my dad was beside himself with worry.
January 7th
After being at work from 5am until 4:30pm I had to rush home, grab my daughter’s workout clothes, and rush to the school because we had cheer practice. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I had agreed to be the assistant cheer coach of my daughter’s cheer team. I also should mention that I am soooooo not qualified to be the cheer coach. I can’t stand cheerleaders or their drama. But yet again, I am doing something that I don’t want to do for my daughter. I can’t cheer. I can’t dance. The saying, ‘two left feet’ more than applies to me. I am a klutz. I can’t dance a beat. Anyway, cheer practice went ok once we got the girls to stop talking.
January 8th
Elvis’s birthday. Work, work, work. Nothing exciting today.
January 9th
My dad left for Boston today for two weeks to visit my uncle who is doing horrible. He reached Boston just in time. My Uncle’s doctors want to take him off his life support machines but are waiting for my dad to get to say good bye. My heart is breaking for so many today. God Sped Uncle Danny may the angels make your journey to heaven painless.
January 10th
It’s a sad, sad day for the King family.
This is going to be the last entry. I can’t do this anymore. My uncle died today… 1/10/10 @ 1:10am. How’s that for Karma. Bye Uncle Danny I love you.
So there’s my life for the last few weeks, I hope that you all can understand why I have been MIA. I still have a few unrelenting weeks ahead of me so please be patient. I will be back probably by the end of February or the beginning of March. I miss you all and I really miss my Chlollie but RL really, really sucks for me right now.
Take care and Hugs to you all.
Christine
I hope that this New Year of 2010 is treating you all well. I am so sorry that I have been MIA for a while and will probably be for a bit longer. But I hope that you will let me explain why.
So far this year hasn’t been off to a great start, well at least for me it hasn’t, I can only hope that it gets better as the year progresses.
Anyway, as most of you already know, I am a single mom with a 12 year old daughter. We have just recently moved, and by recent I mean 2 years ago, from Boston, MA to Indiana to live with my parents, who made the move to Indy a year before we did. “What prompted the move out west,” you ask. Well, that is a very LONG story that is better left for a later date. Anyhoo, we moved in with my parents 2 years ago, which was supposed to be temporary but has somehow become permanent. (Another long story best left for another time.) But what you need to know is that my daughter’s father still lives in Boston and was awarded visitation/parenting time with my daughter so for every major holiday i.e. Christmas, I have to drag my daughter back up to MA so that she can spend the holiday with her father, which by the way neither my daughter or I are thrilled about. This is a very difficult time for me, not only do I not get to spend the holiday with her, but I have to take my daughter back to stay with her father, a man that I dislike immensely. Needless to say, the holidays have taken a very depressing turn for me. But I also spend the holidays with my best friend and her family and I write. I write and I write and I write.
So on December 22, 2009, my daughter and I were scheduled to fly out of Indianapolis Airport and due to arrive in Boston at 11pm that night where we would stay for a week and depart on December 29th. Everything was going better than any other trip we’ve taken back to MA. Both my daughter and I were completely packed and ready to go a WHOLE day before we were leaving. I had made arrangements to get us to the airport on time and we were all set to take a shuttle from Logan airport when we arrived. I was happy that everything was going according to plan. It was about 10:30pm the night before we were going to leave. I looked around my house to make sure that everything was set for the next day, you know that one last look around trying to figure out what you are forgetting to pack look. But when I came up with nothing else to do, I sighed in relief. Now it was my time to relax and get to read my Chlollie! Yay for me! I sent my daughter up to bed and I had a nice hot cup of chocolate. The house was quiet…and for my house that’s something. I took my laptop out of the bag and plugged it into the wall, my battery is dying and I can only run my laptop while it’s plugged in. (I had every intention of getting a new battery after I pay off my holiday bills.) Anyway, I placed my hot chocolate on the table beside the recliner, reclined my legs and got comfy, put my laptop onto my lap and was getting ready to read those Chlollie Role Plays that I am soo addicted to when my daughter called to me from upstairs. So, being the awesome mom that I am, I put my Chlollie Role Plays on hold, put my un sipped hot chocolate back onto the side table, un reclined my legs, and trudged my wary bones upstairs to my daughter’s room just to get her a glass of water and to listen to her complain about having to go back to MA and to spend the holiday with her father. After about an hour of listening to her complain about the trip, rubbing her back, and desperately wanting to get back to reading my Chlollie Role Plays, she finally fell asleep. So down the stairs I went, grabbed my now cold chocolate and went out to the kitchen and zapped it in the microwave to reheat it, and back to the living room that was only lit up by the lights from our Christmas tree. The stillness of the room was a blessing. I once again returned my hot chocolate to the side table, sat down in my recliner and reclined my legs, grabbed my laptop and placed it once again onto my lap and began to read that Chlollie goodness that I’ve been dying to read all day.
As I waited for Live Journal to load on my screen, I reached for my hot chocolate to finally take that sip that I had been craving when my dogs began to bark and the back door opened to reveal my dad. He had been over at my Uncle’s house watching a football game. I sighed, there went my peace and quiet, and I lowered my still unsipped hot chocolate and placed it on the table so that I could make small talk with my dad before he went to bed. I love my dad, but he loves to talk. He can spend an hour talking about the weather and all I wanted to do was read my Chlollie RP and drink my now luke warm chocolate. I chatted with my dad for about an hour before he headed into his room to read. When I looked back at my laptop the screen was black. I had assumed that it was in sleep mode because I had taken so long, so I ran my finger across the finger pad fully expecting for my laptop to blink back to life…but it didn’t. I thought that was strange. It never took more than me running my finger over the finger pad to wake it back up so I hit the Enter button and nothing happened. At this point the fact that my screen is still back is not really bothering me, I just figured that for some reason my computer shut itself down, no big deal right? Yeah, wrong. I pressed the power button and the fans turned on, the light on the power button lit up, and the screen started to lit up and then…BAM nothing. Everything shut off again. No light on the power button, no fans cooling the computer, nothing on the screen. S.H.I.T! What did that mean? So what did I do, what any normal person would do…I kept pressing the power button and swearing every time that my laptop wouldn’t power up. This prompted my dad to come out of his room.
He found me pacing in front of my laptop, swearing like a sailor, threatening my laptop as if it were alive and could understand me… that if it didn’t turn on that it was in mortal peril. To say that I was quite upset was a beyond ridiculous. I was almost hysterical with panic. My stories, my photos…all were backed up on disks except the ones that I had just finished for Lilmoochie’s Christmas fic Challenge. I was going to post them on Christmas Eve and the only copies of those stories were on the hard drive that now wouldn’t power on. Really it wouldn’t have been such a big deal if I hadn’t been traveling the next day. I would have just taken my laptop to my computer tech guy and he would have fixed the problem and I still would have been able to post my fics on time…my only problem was, I was leaving on a plane the next day and wouldn’t be able to see my tech guy until after the New Year. That would mean that my fics would be stuck on my laptop until then. Shit. Shit. Shit. I just wanted to sit down on the floor and cry. My heart was racing, tears were welling, and my breathing became ragged. I sat down on the floor in front of my lap top…which was resting comfortably in my recliner, next to my once again cold chocolate. “What is wrong with this stupid thing!?” I asked to myself, not even aware that my father was watching me.
“What’s going on?” He asked me. I jumped up off the floor and turned to him. Angrily I pointed at my computer and with barely contained tears in my eyes like a 3 year old before a tantrum I yelled my answer at him.
“That DAMN computer won’t turn on! I have NO IDEA WHY! My stories are on that thing and I can’t get them. THEY’RE GONE! I HATE THAT THING! I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I HATE IT!” Each “I hate it!” was punctuated by a foot stomp.
My dad, seeing how serious a situation it was didn’t help it any by laughing at my behavior. Nope, that just darkened my mood and gave me a live target for my anger. I growled and if I were Superman my dad and my laptop would both have been fried. But alas, I am just human. I narrowed my eyes and lowered my voice before I spoke to him.
“You think this is funny?” I asked him shocked that he could be so amused by my distress, “I leave for Boston in the morning and when I come back it is New Years. My tech guy is going to be closed so I will have no one to check out my computer until AFTER the holidays. That means that I have to go without my laptop for 2 weeks. That’s NOT going to be possible. I will never survive that. And you find humor in this. You’re my dad. You are supposed to sympathize with me and fix this, not laugh at me. Thanks.” I said to him which caused him to laugh harder. My dad’s favorite past time is to tease me and to find humor in my frustration. But his laughing was contagious and I started to laugh at the situation too. Only to me would this happen. That is my luck. But my dad took pity on my plight and stopped laughing.
“Calm down,” he said to me. “Let me take a look at it. Bring it out to the kitchen table,” which was always his makeshift work station, to me my dad is like MacGyver, he could fix anything, “and I’ll see what I can do.” I instantly calmed down, walked over to the Evil machine that was holding my stories hostage, unplugged it from the wall, and ricocheted backwards as I began to walk it out to the kitchen. That was when I noticed that the power cord was stuck in my recliner.
“Holy Shit!” I exclaimed. My dad turned around quickly and I handed him my laptop to hold while I got the cord out of the recliner. Somehow my power cord had gotten stuck in the metal elbow ‘thingy’ that holds the legs and feet up. Once I released the power cord from the metal I pulled it out quickly and noticed that it was crimped really badly. “SHIT!” Now I knew why my computer wouldn’t power up. There was no power going to it. The outer casing of the cord had been cut through but the inner part of the cord looked fine. I straightened the cord to the best of my ability and my dad went to get some electrical tape. I just needed my laptop to work through the holidays. Then once I got back I would buy a new power cord and battery and I’d be ok again. I just needed to back up my Christmas fics and then if my computer crashed I wouldn’t have to worry. So, for about 15 minutes I smoothed the cord out. My dad wrapped the electrical tape around it and I plugged it back into the wall. I waited one second, held my breath, looked at my dad, and pressed the power button. The power light lit up, the fans turned on, the Windows logo popped onto the screen and I released my breath. My laptop was working again! Now, the smart thing to have done was to back up my Christmas fics as soon as the computer finished booting up. Yeah, I never said that I was smart. By the time I got my laptop working again, it was really late. I thanked my dad profusely for helping me and forgave him for laughing at my misfortune and sat down to read my Role Plays. I only got to read through one before I was soo exhausted that I ended up shutting my computer down. I wrapped the power cord up and packed my laptop into my laptop travel backpack. In my mind my laptop was ok. It was fixed enough to last me until I got back from my trip.
The next day was chaotic, you wouldn’t think so because I was all organized the night before but of course we forgot to pack things and blah…blah…blah, all that last minute stuff. I forgot to mention that it is a 2 hour drive to the airport from my house and my cousin wanted to leave a little early because he wasn’t sure about the directions to the airport…we ended up at the airport almost 3 hours before our flight. My daughter and I had a long wait ahead of us, but I was prepared, I packed her hand held video games, her laptop which doubles as a DVD player and DVDs. I had my laptop and notebooks, pens, and a romance novel. I was good for a while. But when we arrived and checked in we were told that our gate number had changed. No big deal, it was right next to the gate that we were at. So we picked up our bags and moved. About a half hour later, it was announced that our gate had been changed again…back to the original gate that we were at. Again, no big deal we picked up our bags and moved again. We did the gate change dance about three more times. My daughter was getting hungry so I went and got dinner…McDonald’s…I thought was going to be cheap but Holy Crap! It cost me $20 just for 2 meals. That was a rip off and the food sucked. But when I got back with the food and we started to eat we heard over the loud speaker that our flight was going to be delayed an hour. WTF! Now, I was getting aggravated. And I was chatting with some of the other passengers who were going to be flying with me to Boston…all who were US Army soldiers who had been surprised with holiday leave for 2 weeks. I have to tell you that I just felt 10 times safer knowing that the whole squad was flying with me. But just as I started to relax and have fun with the ‘Army guys’ as we started to call them, another announcement was made…the connecting flight in Washington DC that we were all supposed to fly on broke down and that flight was cancelled. Again, WTF came to mind. But this time it wasn’t for me. It was for the ‘Army guys’. They had a limited amount of time to travel and get home to spend the holidays with their families. My daughter and I could always just change our flight and go the next day. I just felt so bad for them. So I left my daughter sitting with the ‘Army guys’ and headed for the counter in full on pissed off momma bear don’t you mess with my cub mode. I was going to get those boys to their families. Well, I have to tell you that the guy that I spoke to at the counter was just the NICEST guy ever. He was already searching for flights to get the ‘Army guys’ onto when I got to the counter. And he succeeded; he also succeeded in squeezing my daughter and me onto the same flight. We would end up laid over in Philadelphia instead of DC but no big deal to me. The only problem I had was that the shuttle that I was scheduled to take from the airport to the place where my friend was going to pick us up at stopped running an hour before we landed…which meant that my friend…who has a phobia about driving in Boston, was going to have to drive into downtown Boston and pick us up at the airport after 12 am. That went over like a lead balloon. She was hysterical by the time we departed the plane in Boston. I thought that she was going to hyperventilate. We didn’t get my daughter to her father’s house which is almost an hour north of Boston until 2 am. Yes, I forgot to mention that during my friend’s hysteria she forgot where she parked in the parking garage and we wandered around the cold dark garage looking for her car for almost an hour. Yeah, great way to start the holiday but wait it has only just begun. Be thankful that you aren’t me.
So, now it is early morning on December 23rd my friend and I get back to her house and chat. By the time we get to bed it’s almost 4am. She took the day off of work to spend with me so we got up late and went to breakfast and just had a grand ole time of just hanging out without any kids. She has a 17yr old and a 7 yr old…they were both at school. Anyway, we had a blast just hanging out, but we were busy and I hadn’t pulled out my laptop to post the fics. Later that night long after everyone had gone to bed I pull out my laptop and plug it in. I do take notice that the indicator light is on telling me that the battery is ‘charging’ but at least I know that the power cord is working. I go to sleep.
December 24th, Christmas Eve day.
I babysat my ‘niece’ Melissa, my friend’s 7 yr old who I consider my niece, while my friend is at work. We have an awesome time together; I really have missed spending time with her. She was soo excited about Christmas it made me both happy and sad…happy to spend the holiday with her but sad that I was missing the holiday with my own daughter. The whole day Mel had mapped out for us. It was too cold outside to go outside and play in the snow so we hung out inside and played board games and card games. We drew pictures and wrapped Christmas presents. But way too soon our fun came to an end and she too had to leave and go with her father for the evening. It was ok because she was coming back but that left the adults. Missy, her boyfriend, and me…Colleen was on the computer…and I thought I was addicted to the internet. She was on the computer all day, leaving it only to go to the bathroom and get something to eat, and then bam back on.
So, Michael, Missy’s boyfriend left to go over to his sister’s house for his annual family Christmas Eve party where he learned his niece had just been rushed to the hospital for something. No one was telling him anything. I learned that my Uncle Danny was rushed to the hospital the day I flew into Boston, the only thing that the doctors knew was that his liver wasn’t working properly and that he was jaundice. My cousin’s husband had also been rushed to the hospital on that same day because he had fallen and lacerated his spleen…which eventually had to be removed. My Uncle Danny had decided that he didn’t care how sick he was that he wasn’t going to spend Christmas in the hospital so he signed himself out and went home on Christmas Eve. So, this Christmas combined we had three loved ones in and out of the hospital, but at least all were recovering. Mel finally came home around 6:30 and was in a complete tizzy about Santa coming. It was so adorable! I pulled out my laptop and went onto the NORAD site and tracked Santa. She flew upstairs when she saw that he was flying towards the US, there was no way that Santa was going to catch her awake and take the presents back.
So, once Melissa was safely tucked into bed Missy pulled out the Christmas presents that needed to be wrapped and we flew through wrapping them. We make a great team, Missy and I do. Anyway, once the presents were wrapped I jumped onto my computer and pulled up the Christmas fics. I was so proud of how they came out, but one still needed to be proofed and the other I couldn’t come up with a title for. I was really stuck. So, I handed over my computer to Missy and she read the fic. She was trying to help me come up with a title when all of a sudden a warning came up on my screen saying that I had 7 minutes of battery life left that I needed to save whatever I was working on blah…blah…blah. Well, panic mode set in. WTF! Why was this happening again? I fixed that damn cord didn’t I? Well, obviously I hadn’t because the warning started flashing quicker and quicker and I hadn’t backed up my fic yet. OH CRAP! Now how was I going to post my fics? So, as quickly as I could, I got a disk out and I saved my fics to that disk. But my computer died as I was saving them so I wasn’t sure if they got saved or not. Then another problem arose…my back up disk was stuck inside my laptop. How was I going to get it out? It literally took me 2 days to get the damn disk out of my laptop. Anyway, I was once again in barely contained tears. My poor friend didn’t know what to do for me…there wasn’t a thing that she could have done to help me out. What had happened to my computer was my own damned fault…but at least I knew how to temporarily fix it, right? I just needed a bit of electrical tape, which unfortunately for me, she didn’t have any so I was either going to have to wait until the 26th and brave the stores or try to salvage the electrical tape from my cord and reuse it. I chose to reuse the electrical tape.
Very carefully (or so I thought), I peeled the tape from the cord. What I didn’t realize was that no matter how carefully I peeled the tape the exposed wire underneath it was going to stick to the adhesive and come out of the wire. Yup, the wire was completely unusable by the time I was through peeling the electrical tape off. CRRAAPP!!! So, I did the best I could and rewrapped the cord and I accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to post my fics until I got back to Indy and got a new power cord. It was ok. I could sneak on to Missy’s computer once Colleen went to bed and do what I had to do. But I needed to get my disk out of my laptop which I did after 2 days of trying to get enough power from the battery just to open the DVD door. In the mean time, I had snuck onto Missy’s computer and found a cord on Amazon that matched my laptop for cheap money and bought it. YAY! I just had to wait until I got back to Indy to get. I had it mailed to my home instead of to my friend’s because I was afraid it would have taken forever. So I was once again happy. And my friends kept me pretty busy; Missy’s boyfriend Michael got her the Wii and the Wii Fitness board. OMG, that Wii Fitness is sooooooooo freaking fun. I am so getting it for myself. So, Melissa leaves in the afternoon to spend the night with her father and for the rest of Christmas Day Michael and Missy and I competed on the Wii fitness.
So, even though my cord was damaged beyond repair for the moment, everything was still ok. I would post the fics once I could and even though they may be posted after Christmas everyone would understand once I told them what happened. Well, I did managed to get the disk out of my laptop and on December 26th, I was able to post one of my fics…however, the 2nd fic that I had been desperate to save…didn’t save to the disk and was still stuck on my laptop. No problem at least it was on the laptop and I could get to it after I got the cord. So, I stopped worrying and for almost a whole week I wasn’t on the internet. That in itself is something. LOL.
December 26th
Though I managed to get my disk from my laptop and post one of my Christmas fics, I received horrible news from my family. My Uncle Danny was once again in the hospital his liver and now his kidneys were failing. The doctors had him ICU. I also heard that my cousin’s husband was rushed into surgery that same day…in the same hospital as my Uncle. They had tried to save his spleen but it ruptured and the doctors had to remove it. It was a pretty hairy situation and my cousin was beside herself. She has two little girls both were sick with the flu at the time too. Michael’s niece was recovering at least but was still in the hospital as well, and from what the doctors told her parents, she was going to be in the hospital for a while. But at least she was going to recover and be ok. My Uncle was declining in health and the doctors had no idea why.
December 27th.
I had set up a command location for information for my family back in Indy to find out how my Uncle and my Cousin’s husband were doing. It was getting tense for my Uncle but my cousin’s husband was recovering nicely.
December 28th
I was babysitting my niece again while Missy was at work. And we were supposed to get snow storm that day which turned into just a few flurries. But it was once again too cold to go outside and play in the snow so Mel and I stayed in. This time she wasn’t too happy about staying in but we played on the Wii most of the day. I was getting excited because my daughter and I were flying home the next day. I was worried about my Uncle but he was young so I just figured that he’d be fixed in a couple of days and he would be fine. I never did get over to see him while I was in MA, but I was in constant contact with my cousins, his son and daughter, and I was also in contact with his wife. I was getting hourly updates and one hour he was doing better and then a few hours later he was not doing well again. It was a constant roller coaster. But I made arrangements with my ex for a ride to the airport the next day. He and his fiancé were going to drive my daughter and me into the airport.
December 29th
My daughter and I are returning to Indiana and I can’t wait. The only downside to the day is that my ex and his fiancé were driving us to the airport and I had never met his fiancé before. I wasn’t looking forward to the meeting. But when they pulled up to my friend’s house everything went smoothly. My ex and I were actually civil to each other and I was just so happy to be with my daughter again, I really didn’t care that I was meeting his fiancé. I got into the car and there sitting in the front seat was the other woman, she looked so nervous. I couldn’t believe that she was nervous about meeting me. What in the world did he tell her about me to make her look so scared? I am a really nice person; at least I hope I am. I, in no way, wanted to be the reason for her discomfort, so I put on a smile and shook her hand and wished her a Merry Christmas and tried to be as friendly as one could be with meeting the person who was your replacement. In a way it was very awkward to be meeting his fiancé but she turned out to be super nice and I cannot for the life of me understand what she sees in him, but that’s her problem not mine anymore. At least my daughter likes her and she seems like a nice person to me so that’s all that matters to me. Anyway, the drive to the airport wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I made small talk with my ex and his fiancé and before I knew it we were at the airport saying goodbye to them and on our way back home. There were no flight delays this time around, however, security did go through my bag because it was so heavy…well, duh, I was taking back Christmas presents with me. Anyway, we made it through security without problems and we waited for our plane. By the time we got to Indianapolis it was 11pm and we were exhausted. My Uncle Walter, my Dad, and my cousin Phil picked us up and we headed home. We got in about 2 in the morning again. I just couldn’t wait to sleep in my own bed.
December 30th
I woke up and wondered downstairs, had coffee in my favorite superman mug, and sat in the recliner that had chopped my cord in half when I saw the mail man walk up the steps and in his hand was a large brown package. I met him at the door and he gave me the mail. The package turned out to be my new cord. Quickly I ripped open the package and pulled out the cord. I rushed over to my back pack and pulled out my laptop. I plugged the cord into the laptop and it fit perfectly, so far so good. I plugged the cord into the wall, held my breath, pressed the power button and heard the wonderful buzz of fans kick on and the Windows logo popped up on the screen. My breath whooshed out of my lungs in relief. Now I could post my other fic. So, I sat in my recliner with my laptop on my lap and went to go post my fic when all of a sudden my computer crashes and the blue screen of death pops up on my screen…oh dear God, now what!? I just closed my laptop cover and put it to the side, sat for a minute and then put on Sponge Bob Square Pants and drank my coffee. I knew what that blue screen meant…it meant that somehow my computer had caught a virus and I was going to have to wipe my hard drive clean and restore it to factor default. WTF! Just my luck, you know, all I wanted to do was post my fic and once again I had to put it off. So, my daughter and my father got up and we made breakfast and I let my laptop slip from my mind. We got a phone call about my Uncle Danny, his health was declining quickly. The doctors thought that he may have contacted one of the viral hepatitis strains. They were going to do a biopsy of his liver and would get the results in a few days. So, my dad, who is my Uncle Danny’s older brother worried about his little brother and I prayed for my Uncle’s speedy recovery. He was going to be fine in my mind. He was too young, he was only 55 years old, so he was young and strong and nothing could hurt one of my Uncles. My dad comes from a family of 15…12 boys and 3 girls. Out of the 15 my dad is number 14; my Uncle Danny was number 15. But my Uncles were like gods to me as a kid and in my mind they are all still young viral men, but that isn’t the case. We’ve already lost a handful of them. So most of the day we spent wondering how my Uncle Danny was doing and my laptop was pushed aside until later that night.
December 31st 2009
Last day of this god forsaken year…last day to this decade, thank God for that, 2009 totally sucked and I am happy to see it gone! So, I get up and start the day with my coffee and I am excited for this year to be over. My mother, my daughter, my father, and I planned to stay in and celebrate the New Year this year with a movie marathon. We were going to watch Star Trek 2009, The Last Star Fighter, and Star Gate…the theme was something with Star in the title. Then the phone call happened. My cousin Darlene called, my other uncle, my Uncle Norman was in the hospital. The doctors thought he had a mini stroke but it turned out to be a small seizure…not sure which one is better but again WTF comes to mind. It’s almost like the powers that be have it out for my family. I soooo didn’t want to have to be the one to tell my dad that another one of his brothers was in the hospital. As soon as I got off the phone with my cousin Darlene my Uncle Danny’s wife Mary call and ended up having a nerves breakdown on the phone with me. It was one of the saddest things I have ever had to experience in my life. She just loved my Uncle so much and my heart broke for her and my cousins. They still had no idea what was causing him to be as sick as he was. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. My uncle shouldn’t have been this sick. My dad was beside himself with worry for not one, but two brothers now. My Uncle Norman is my one of my dad’s older brothers. But it was Uncle Danny that we were all really worried about. We were hoping that he would get better soon, but in my heart…that dreaded fear crept in…I felt that Uncle Danny wasn’t going to get better and regret for not getting to see him while I was up there seized my heart.
Happy New Year!!! January 1, 2010
I woke up this morning to a new day, a new year, but same old problems. The only good thing that happened this day was that my brother Aron called from Afghanistan. He had heard about my uncle being sick and called to get an update on him. It was really good to hear his voice even though it was bad news we were giving him. It’s hard knowing that he’s half way cross the world in harm’s way.
Anyway, what I hadn’t mentioned before was that just before Thanksgiving ‘09 my mother had bought a restaurant...a small diner to be precise, that I had been railroaded into being the waitress in. Oh boy, joy, joy. I was not happy about that at all. I felt as though I were taking a step back in my life rather than a step forward, but my mother really needed me to help her out and so, yes, I’ve gone from substitute teacher to waitress. I still think it should be the other way around, but who am I to argue. LOL Anyway, we took possession of the restaurant as of the 1st and she was egar to get to it and clean it out. (Which it totally needed to be done, IMO) So, the first day of the New Year for me was busting my ass cleaning a restaurant that I honestly wanted nothing to do with. Oh did I mention that it was also 2 degrees outside in the sun and I was the lucky one who drew the short straw to scrape the painted name of the previous restaurant from the extremely large pane windows…yeah, that was soooo not amusing. We had 3 days to get that restaurant into shape before we opened our doors. Linda’s Country Kitchen…or just The Kitchen as we were referring to it needed a lot of matience before it was going to be ready to open on the 4th.
January 2, 2010
Got a phone call from my uncle’s wife Mary. They know what’s wrong with him. The results of the biopsy came back it wasn’t good. He had cancer in his liver. He had an infection in his kidneys and they were shutting down. His health was in a serious tail spin and the doctors didn’t know if they were going to be able to pull him out of it.
Had to spend the day cleaning the restaurant after we got the news. It was a very somber atmosphere.
January 3,2010
Finished getting the restaurant ready for its Grand Opening.
January 4, 2010
Had to be in work by 5am. Got up at 4am to get ready. Spent 8 hours plus on my feet. I was exhausted. Fell asleep as soon as I finished helping my daughter with her homework. That was 7pm.
January 5, 2010
Well, I’ve survived yet another year. Everyone tells me that I am 35 years old. I keep telling everyone that I started aging backwards on my 31st birthday but no one will believe me. When I supposedly turned 31 in my reality I turned 29. When I supposedly turned 32 in my reality I turned 28. So now that I am supposed to be 35 in my reality I am 25. I figure I can start aging forward again once I hit 20…then when I am supposedly 41I can be 21 all over again. Sounds like a GREAT plan to me; I have no idea why on Earth no one seems to like it but me. Oh no…my daughter told EVERYONE that I was 35. And to top it off…I am soooooo sick. I have a fever, chills, sneezing, blocked ears…and my mom won’t let me call in…even though it’s her fault I am sick to begin with. Yeah, if I hadn’t had to scrape the windows of ‘her’ restaurant in 2 degree weather then I probably wouldn’t be so ill on my 25th birthday. But nooo I have to go to work because my mom needs my help. Fine. Happy birthday to me. And thanks to all of you out there for the birthday wishes. I can’t tell you how awesome it was to see that you all sent b-day greetings to me. *HUGS* to all of you! :D
January 6, 2010
My daughter Sarah had an orthodontics appointment today 2:15pm. I ended up letting her stay home from school today because she had a 2 hour delay because of the weather… and my dad was going to have to take her to the restaurant so that I could take her to the ortho appointment. My dad was fine with taking her to the restaurant because he had some last minute things to do at the restaurant before he left for Boston. My uncle had not taken the news of having cancer all that well. His health was declining and he had to be put onto life support machines. It turned out that the cancer had not started in my uncle’s liver but had spread throughout his entire body. The doctors were just trying to make him as comfortable as possible in his final days. He was pretty much comatose at this point. And my dad was beside himself with worry.
January 7th
After being at work from 5am until 4:30pm I had to rush home, grab my daughter’s workout clothes, and rush to the school because we had cheer practice. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I had agreed to be the assistant cheer coach of my daughter’s cheer team. I also should mention that I am soooooo not qualified to be the cheer coach. I can’t stand cheerleaders or their drama. But yet again, I am doing something that I don’t want to do for my daughter. I can’t cheer. I can’t dance. The saying, ‘two left feet’ more than applies to me. I am a klutz. I can’t dance a beat. Anyway, cheer practice went ok once we got the girls to stop talking.
January 8th
Elvis’s birthday. Work, work, work. Nothing exciting today.
January 9th
My dad left for Boston today for two weeks to visit my uncle who is doing horrible. He reached Boston just in time. My Uncle’s doctors want to take him off his life support machines but are waiting for my dad to get to say good bye. My heart is breaking for so many today. God Sped Uncle Danny may the angels make your journey to heaven painless.
January 10th
It’s a sad, sad day for the King family.
This is going to be the last entry. I can’t do this anymore. My uncle died today… 1/10/10 @ 1:10am. How’s that for Karma. Bye Uncle Danny I love you.
So there’s my life for the last few weeks, I hope that you all can understand why I have been MIA. I still have a few unrelenting weeks ahead of me so please be patient. I will be back probably by the end of February or the beginning of March. I miss you all and I really miss my Chlollie but RL really, really sucks for me right now.
Take care and Hugs to you all.
Christine