Update!
I realized that I hadn't posted in a while, so I figured I'd update y'all on happenings here in the Bored House.
My therapist, Monica, has decided to adopt AJ! She's picking him up tomorrow so "Santa" can bring him to her young daughter for Christmas. I'm so happy for him, and her. Meanwhile, Monsieur and Brie will be staying with us for a while longer. It turns out that both the SPCA and Humane Society are ASSHOLES here in Houston. Both places told us that if we gave the kittens to them, we would forfeit all rights to them, not be allowed to check on them to see if they've been adopted, AND they reserved the right to euthanize them if they exhibited behavior they didn't like. I can understand having a policy of putting animals down that come in sick, but with behavior they don't like? That was just too vague for us. There's a group here in Houston that supports families that foster animals - they pay for spaying/neutering and do the finding and screening of the adoptive families. That's what we've decided to do. I will feel a lot better about giving the kittens to someone pre-screened instead of just handing them over to a place that reserves the right to kill them for no real reason.
In extra kitty news, both Bandit and Elise (especially) are getting braver. Elise actually walked out of the bathroom and explored the upstairs landing for a good 10 minutes last night. This is a good sign that she's slowly coming out of her shell and will be okay as a regular house cat in the future. Bandit's still as lovey as ever, and stood her ground when she met Cole last night. (He was upstairs wondering what all the noise was when we let the kitties have a little run while we fed them.)
We've made tentative plans for the next three days. Mom has today, tomorrow, and Christmas off, but has to go back to work on Sunday. So we're going to make the best of the time. Today is shopping (we're returning these horrible vests my aunt bought us - she never buys the right sizes because she refuses to ask us what size we ACTUALLY wear - back to Target and exchanging them for other, more usable gifts), grocery run for the makings of the recipe for Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica YUM, and then we're going to dinner. We have a coupon for Friday's, so we said, "Why not?".
We generally go to the movies on Christmas Day to see a movie that opens on Christmas - last year we saw Sherlock Holmes. However, this year, we've decided to go on Christmas Eve instead in order to beat the crowds. We're seeing Black Swan. Yay for ballet movies! Even if it's going to be a mind-fuck, as all Aronofsky movies are. I was impressed that we all agreed so easily on a movie this year. Even though it's my birthday and I want to pick the movie, I tend to get overruled and forced to see something I'm not completely enthused about. I put my foot down a couple of years ago, however, after we spent Christmas night watching Syriana, and the next year with The Good Shepherd. I said no more movies with torture scenes! I figured that was a reasonable request. We tend to go to the midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, but after the horrible experience last year, we decided that it is probably not worth it. (Sis was getting over her bunion surgery and thus had crutches and a boot on her foot. The snooty bitches behind us in their fur coats actually bitched us out after the service because they tripped on the crutch under the pew. They bitched us out IN CHURCH. ON CHRISTMAS. I thought that was completely ridiculous, and actually pissed Mom off so much that she was about to cry, and I was about to cuss them out. Basically, we were treated like scum because we weren't dressed to the nines with fur coats that are only usable for one day out of the year in Houston. I don't need that kind of crap to start out Christmas and my birthday.)
For Christmas Day, we've decided to just stay in, sleep in, rent movies on Demand, and eat leftovers. That way, Mom's all rested up for work on Sunday. I think it's a nice way to spend the day. Just hanging out and relaxing.
I'm trying not to obsess over the news I got last week about my brain. "Well, there was an anomaly on your MRI," is not what you want to hear a week before Christmas/your birthday. However, in an effort to give the doctor more information, I have been focusing more on my headaches - how they hurt, when they hurt, etc. - and focusing more on the deficits I'm experiencing. We've noticed that I am having problems remembering things. This scares me quite a bit, actually. I've asked Mom and Sis to make sure I'm paying attention when they tell me something, especially if I'm tired or have just woken up. That seems to be the time that I'm least likely to remember something later. We had a big fight Friday night after Mom said she had told me something and I swore she hadn't. Sis was the one to explain and mediate because she understands what it's like to be told you've done something but have no recollection of it. (She had DID - or Multiple Personality Disorder - for a long time, but is now what they call fully integrated, meaning her Self is back in control and she doesn't slip into alter personalities anymore. It's quite interesting hearing her say, "Well, that must have been Marian/Stella/etc. because I don't remember it.") Mom, thankfully, has the day I'm to have my new MRI off, so she's going to take me. She's also decided to take me to see the neurologist for my next appointment, because she's slightly worried, too. That makes me feel rather good, since she usually lets me handle these things on my own. I like knowing that she is stepping into a more "Mommy"-type role for a little while, since she's generally not that person anymore.
Oh! I've gotten some great presents this year from Mom. She's been extraordinarily generous. I decided that I was less about waiting for my birthday this year, and more about being able to thank her and put the gifts to use immediately. My most awesome one so far: a brand new TV!! YAY!! *happy dance* I have been needing one, well, since the mid-90's really. My little Emerson 13" from 1990 (pre-closed captioning) had an incredibly dark screen which made viewing anything rather difficult. Now I have a pretty 15" LCD HDTV!! I think it's funny... Craig Ferguson always complains about the bad/minimal lighting for his show. When I watched on my old TV, I totally agreed with him, because I couldn't see his black shoes on the black floor of the studio. Now? I can see the scuff marks on the black floor. So, to me, the lighting is a lot better than what he says. Mom laughed when I told her that. I've also received hints that I might be getting an e-reader. This would be super-awesome, IMO. I'd love to be able to carry around a book that didn't weigh 5 lbs, like the copy of Under the Dome I'm currently reading. (BTW,scowling_hermit , if you don't have a copy of the book yet, I'd be happy to send mine to you when I'm done.) I'll just have to wait and see... I'm excited.
Lastly, I wanted to share this picture. I love space stuff, as y'all know, and this is a picture of Discovery back in the Vehicle Assembly Building. They rolled her back there from the launch pad in order to work on her gas leak issue and to protect her before her new launch date in February.
My therapist, Monica, has decided to adopt AJ! She's picking him up tomorrow so "Santa" can bring him to her young daughter for Christmas. I'm so happy for him, and her. Meanwhile, Monsieur and Brie will be staying with us for a while longer. It turns out that both the SPCA and Humane Society are ASSHOLES here in Houston. Both places told us that if we gave the kittens to them, we would forfeit all rights to them, not be allowed to check on them to see if they've been adopted, AND they reserved the right to euthanize them if they exhibited behavior they didn't like. I can understand having a policy of putting animals down that come in sick, but with behavior they don't like? That was just too vague for us. There's a group here in Houston that supports families that foster animals - they pay for spaying/neutering and do the finding and screening of the adoptive families. That's what we've decided to do. I will feel a lot better about giving the kittens to someone pre-screened instead of just handing them over to a place that reserves the right to kill them for no real reason.
In extra kitty news, both Bandit and Elise (especially) are getting braver. Elise actually walked out of the bathroom and explored the upstairs landing for a good 10 minutes last night. This is a good sign that she's slowly coming out of her shell and will be okay as a regular house cat in the future. Bandit's still as lovey as ever, and stood her ground when she met Cole last night. (He was upstairs wondering what all the noise was when we let the kitties have a little run while we fed them.)
We've made tentative plans for the next three days. Mom has today, tomorrow, and Christmas off, but has to go back to work on Sunday. So we're going to make the best of the time. Today is shopping (we're returning these horrible vests my aunt bought us - she never buys the right sizes because she refuses to ask us what size we ACTUALLY wear - back to Target and exchanging them for other, more usable gifts), grocery run for the makings of the recipe for Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica YUM, and then we're going to dinner. We have a coupon for Friday's, so we said, "Why not?".
We generally go to the movies on Christmas Day to see a movie that opens on Christmas - last year we saw Sherlock Holmes. However, this year, we've decided to go on Christmas Eve instead in order to beat the crowds. We're seeing Black Swan. Yay for ballet movies! Even if it's going to be a mind-fuck, as all Aronofsky movies are. I was impressed that we all agreed so easily on a movie this year. Even though it's my birthday and I want to pick the movie, I tend to get overruled and forced to see something I'm not completely enthused about. I put my foot down a couple of years ago, however, after we spent Christmas night watching Syriana, and the next year with The Good Shepherd. I said no more movies with torture scenes! I figured that was a reasonable request. We tend to go to the midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, but after the horrible experience last year, we decided that it is probably not worth it. (Sis was getting over her bunion surgery and thus had crutches and a boot on her foot. The snooty bitches behind us in their fur coats actually bitched us out after the service because they tripped on the crutch under the pew. They bitched us out IN CHURCH. ON CHRISTMAS. I thought that was completely ridiculous, and actually pissed Mom off so much that she was about to cry, and I was about to cuss them out. Basically, we were treated like scum because we weren't dressed to the nines with fur coats that are only usable for one day out of the year in Houston. I don't need that kind of crap to start out Christmas and my birthday.)
For Christmas Day, we've decided to just stay in, sleep in, rent movies on Demand, and eat leftovers. That way, Mom's all rested up for work on Sunday. I think it's a nice way to spend the day. Just hanging out and relaxing.
I'm trying not to obsess over the news I got last week about my brain. "Well, there was an anomaly on your MRI," is not what you want to hear a week before Christmas/your birthday. However, in an effort to give the doctor more information, I have been focusing more on my headaches - how they hurt, when they hurt, etc. - and focusing more on the deficits I'm experiencing. We've noticed that I am having problems remembering things. This scares me quite a bit, actually. I've asked Mom and Sis to make sure I'm paying attention when they tell me something, especially if I'm tired or have just woken up. That seems to be the time that I'm least likely to remember something later. We had a big fight Friday night after Mom said she had told me something and I swore she hadn't. Sis was the one to explain and mediate because she understands what it's like to be told you've done something but have no recollection of it. (She had DID - or Multiple Personality Disorder - for a long time, but is now what they call fully integrated, meaning her Self is back in control and she doesn't slip into alter personalities anymore. It's quite interesting hearing her say, "Well, that must have been Marian/Stella/etc. because I don't remember it.") Mom, thankfully, has the day I'm to have my new MRI off, so she's going to take me. She's also decided to take me to see the neurologist for my next appointment, because she's slightly worried, too. That makes me feel rather good, since she usually lets me handle these things on my own. I like knowing that she is stepping into a more "Mommy"-type role for a little while, since she's generally not that person anymore.
Oh! I've gotten some great presents this year from Mom. She's been extraordinarily generous. I decided that I was less about waiting for my birthday this year, and more about being able to thank her and put the gifts to use immediately. My most awesome one so far: a brand new TV!! YAY!! *happy dance* I have been needing one, well, since the mid-90's really. My little Emerson 13" from 1990 (pre-closed captioning) had an incredibly dark screen which made viewing anything rather difficult. Now I have a pretty 15" LCD HDTV!! I think it's funny... Craig Ferguson always complains about the bad/minimal lighting for his show. When I watched on my old TV, I totally agreed with him, because I couldn't see his black shoes on the black floor of the studio. Now? I can see the scuff marks on the black floor. So, to me, the lighting is a lot better than what he says. Mom laughed when I told her that. I've also received hints that I might be getting an e-reader. This would be super-awesome, IMO. I'd love to be able to carry around a book that didn't weigh 5 lbs, like the copy of Under the Dome I'm currently reading. (BTW,scowling_hermit , if you don't have a copy of the book yet, I'd be happy to send mine to you when I'm done.) I'll just have to wait and see... I'm excited.
Lastly, I wanted to share this picture. I love space stuff, as y'all know, and this is a picture of Discovery back in the Vehicle Assembly Building. They rolled her back there from the launch pad in order to work on her gas leak issue and to protect her before her new launch date in February.