*sheepishly*
I've been "exhorted" by sikolto to post an entry, since I guess it's been...15 weeks?...since I posted last. *blush*
I don't know where to start. I guess with my trip to NY. I left on the 19th of Nov. The trip there was nice. Very few people, I got my choice of window seats, cuz I get claustrophobic otherwise. No loud people, fussy kids, nice. The little girl behind me was about 7. She started singing, quietly, so noone could hear her, and she had an amazing voice.
When I got to JFK, it was on time, but it's in Queens, and Leah and Andrew live 30 miles. And it was crazy. They had like an assembly line of cabs waiting. And a HUGE traffic jam on the freeway (at midnight). It took over an hour, and then when we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, I had to call Leah, and she had to give me step by step directions to her apartments. The cab driver had never heard of her street. When we got there, we weren't even sure if we had the front entrance, cuz there was all kinds of construction and where we were at was a service entrance. If we'd gone a couple yards further, we would have had the actual temporary front door. When Leah came running out, I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. For 27 years, she's been this tiny, small boned little thing (not short, just tiny), and here she comes with this bowling ball bouncing in front of her. I knew she was due, and I'd seen pictures of her pregnant, but I just wasn't prepared for seeing it in person. It was sort of surreal. I felt so bad cuz everytime I looked at her, I'd start laughing again. I finally got used to it.
Here she was 9 months pregnant, and I STILL couldn't keep up with her. She had as much energy as if she wasn't. AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN WADDLE! I've never in my life seen a anyone who didn't waddle. The first time we went in the subway, there was this little band that was playing sort of R&B/jazz. There were pretty good. She took me to Grand Central Station. I took a picture of a couple police inside the station, and
one of them came over and told me that's not aloud, inside, so I had to delete their
picture. One day, we went to the Empire State Building (walking of course, with me dragging behind, huffing and puffing), and wouldn't you know, my batteries died just when we got there. We went all over, up and down Harold Square, trying to find a store that sold my specific type of batteries, and I couldn't believe it. Nobody had them. And all it is is a simple Kodak 5 megapixel. So she had to take the pictures on her camera. By the time we got to the top (it took about 45 minutes with all the lines and separate elevators with only a few in them at a time, and metal detectors, etc...which I suppose isn't THAT bad), it was dark. I stayed at least a foot back from the guardrail. Eventually I got enough nerve to get up to it, but I hung on for dear life. We got a bunch of pictures from every side. From there, she took me to Times Square, still walking, and we stumbled and almost knocked each other down while we were taking videos of each other in the middle of the Square. From there, she took me to Rockefeller Center, and lastly, of course, the Apple Store. By the time we got back home, my back and hips were killing me, and I was moving real slow. She wasn't even winded.
The next night, Andrew took us to this park (I can't remember the name of it) where we could look across the river to NJ. Of course, we had to stop at Starbucks (she can't pass a Starbucks w/o having to get her Low Fat Chai Tea Latte' (or something like that). Seriously, I think it's an OC thing with her. We kept walking till we got to Battery Park. I didn't know that's where we were going, so I didn't take my camera to get the Statue of Liberty. I walked there myself, two nights before I left but it was dark again, and my pictures turned out crappy. Walking back, I tried to take the route through the park, reversing the direction we'd gone the other night, and nothing looked familiar, or rather, every block looked identical, and I just kept walkiing and walking, and starting to freak out. Finally I saw the Starbucks, and I knew I was almost home.
I had to pick up my meds on the 23rd, so I called my good old insurance company to find out what pharmacy I could get them. I assumed that since my pharmacy here is CVS, and they're nationwide, and there's one just 2 blocks from Leah's house, they'd let me go there. Of course, they had to make it difficult. They asked me what the zip code was, and I told them, and the only one they did buisiness with in that zip code was this place that the lady on the phone called Everson-Madison or something like that. We googled it and couldn't find it anywhere. Finally we took a chance and called this one number that was listed at the address the lady had given me. It had a totally different name, not even close to Everson-madison. I don't know where that lady got that from. The person who answered was a young girl with a thick accent. The one I was supposed to talk to wouldn't be in for 1/2 hour. She called me when she got in, and also had an accent. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite pin it down. She told me she'd put in the order, but she only had a few to get me through the weekend for the time being. I said that was fine. She asked me how long I'd be and I said about an hour and a half. I was just guessing cuz I didn't know how far it was. She said they were closing in ten minutes (4 pm...on a Friday night!). But she said she would have her worker stay till we could get there, and let me in. I said, no, she didn't have to do that, I'd just pick it up Saturday, cuz I didn't want her worker to have to stay after closing time, just to wait for us. She said they're CLOSED Saturday and Sunday. I had to have them, so I agreed, but I felt really bad. It wasn't that far, so we got there just 20 minutes after closing time. It was this tiny, tiny little corner store, with barely enough room to turn around in. A very young, very pretty girl saw us at the door, and unlocked it without questioning whether it was really us. They're VERY trusting. A little too trusting in my opinion, for a tiny drug store in NYC. She was super, super nice. She called her boss, who turned out to be her mother, to make sure everything was right. She wasn't speaking English cuz I guess she didn't want us to know what she was saying. But Leah told me exactly what she was saying cuz they turned out to be Russian, and Andrew's Russian. I think it's a very pretty language and the accent is too. Anyway, she came back and gave me the meds, with handprinted labels, with only the name and dosage of the meds. I just sort of had to laugh. They were so unprofessional, but so nice.
That night, Andrew's best friend and his girlfriend showed up a week early than they had said, so it was a surprise. But it wasn't a problem. Leah woke me up at 5am Saturday morning and told me she had been in labor since 1 am. I freaked out and started rushing around, but they were just piddling around taking their time. Her contractions were pretty painful and 3 1/2 minutes apart. I wanted to get her to the hospital right then, but the doctor told her to wait till she felt like she was almost ready to have it. I got mad at her doctor. But they listened to him instead of me. And then, she insisted on walking! The hospital was only a few blocks away, but still-I thought she was crazy. We had to stop literally every 25 feet or so, when she'd have a contraction. I thought for sure she was gonna have it right there on the street. I was so relieved when we got there. It turned out her contractions started getting irregular. He kept checking her, and she was dilating really slow. She was going to try and do it naturally, but she finally broke down and took the doctor's suggestion to at least have a small amount of morphine, just to take the edge off, since she was determined to not get an epidural. She passed out within 30 seconds, but it really messed up her contractions, and actually prolonged her labor. So when it wore off, she finally gave in and asked for an epidural. It started going faster then. Around 7 that night, she was ready to push. It was so awesome, cuz there was only one nurse, the doctor, and me and Andrew. So we got to help her push and count. She only had to push for 20 minutes, and she did so good. I was the first person Eve got to see, but I don't think she was too impressed. It's probably a pretty easy guess that's who my userpic is...Eve all cleaned up, 5 minutes old. 7 lbs., 5 oz., 19 inches long, November 24th. Andrew's mouth, but definitely Leah's nose. I'm sorry Chelse, but even Leah says that.
They came home Monday evening. Leah was wearing a t-shirt that was Naomi's when Naomi was 7 years old (that makes it 28 years old), barely looking like she'd had a baby.
I went in the next day (Tuesday) to pick up my meds. The pharmacy lady had told my insurance company, when she ordered them, that I would be picking them up on Monday. They weren't going to approve it, cuz I was a day late. I can't believe them. She told them that I was probably not able to come in before then because my daughter just had a baby. She had to argue with them for 15 minutes before they finally approved it.
The next night is when I went to Battery Park, by myself, cuz it was kinda crazy for them with a brand new baby. Two days before I left, it snowed for the first time this winter, in NYC. The temperature was in the 30's but the wind chill was in the teens. I hadn't been in that kind of weather since Montana, 13 years ago. It was a little chilly. It didn't take me long at all to adjust to it, though. They took me to Central Park, with Eve in a snuggly, and then we went to Katz's "When Harry Met Sally" Deli. That was one of the most amazing corned beef sandwiches I've ever had. And the matzo ball soup was yummy. I'd never had it before. Originally, I had wanted a ham and cheese sandwich, but Andrew came back and goes, "Ummm, this is a Jewish deli." Duhh. The next night, we went to a Japanese restaurant in Soho that we didn't find out until we sat down...DIDN'T HAVE SUSHI! I never heard of a Japanese restaurant that doesn't have sushi. The prices were horrendous, too. We ended up just ordering noodles and some other thing, I can't remember what it was. I had a little shot glass of Sake, just cuz I never tasted it before. Even just that was outrageous. We ended up going to a little place that Andrew remembered from when he lived there before they got married. They're prices were very reasonable, and the sushi was awesome.
I had to leave the next day, the 3rd. It was really cold and windy. The cab driver said he had to take a detour cuz 6th Ave. was blocked off, cuz apparently a window in a skyscraper had blown out and crashed to the ground cuz of the wind. Thankfully noone was hurt. He was from India, and I could barely understand him. He talked literally all the way to the airport, for 45 minutes, about all the people that had ripped him off from not paying their fares. But he was very nice.
I got to the airport with not very long to spare. There was nobody in line at security, so I thought I was just gonna breeze through. Except I forgot to take off my jewelry, my jacket, my sweater, my pillow, and my boots. I was trying to hurry, but it took forever to get my boots off and I was getting more and more nervous, cuz a line was piling up behind me, and I was running out of time. I ended up using four separate buckets for my stuff. The security guy looked at me suspiciously, and said, "You're shaking. Why are you so nervous young lady?" I could barely even talk by then. I was having a full blown anxiety attack. When I finally got through and got all my stuff, I couldn't find my ticket and my passport. I REALLY freaked out then. I didn't know if I lost them or the guy at the checkpoint kept them or what. I yelled out at them that I couldn't find my things, and by then, the guy just looked at me disgustedly, and said they couldn't do anything about it, and told the guys to hurry up and get the people through. I started tearing through all the piled up empty buckets, throwing them all over very noisily. I was on the verge of tears when I finally found them. The security people were watching me then, even when I got to my gate. Hey, I've got anxiety issues, ok?
It wasn't the most pleasant trip back, but it wasn't too bad. It was nice to get home.
When I went to Magellan (I still want to call it Value Options...I liked them much better) to get my bus pass, I was on my way out the door when my case manager told me Dr. Franzetti was gone. I go, "WHAT?!" and she goes, "I shouldn't have told you that, huh?" I said, "No, crap, crap, crap, crap!" all the way out the door. I was supposed to have and appointment with him on Dec. 20, but now I didn't have an appointment with ANYbody, cuz they didn't have anyone to replace him yet. I was wanting to go up a little on one of my antidepressants, cuz I was starting feel a kind of funky. Antoinette told me she'd call me with an appointment as soon as she could. This was the 4th of December. I waited and called her twice, and she kept saying, "Didn't I tell you I'dI let you know? Don't worry. You'll still be able to get your meds." That wasn't what I was concerned about. I waited some more, and called her again on Thursday, Jan. 10. She said, "Well, let me see what we can do?" She hadn't even gotten around to doing it yet. Then she goes, "Uh oh? Can you make it at 8 tomorrow morning?" I said "Uh, no." She said "yes you can." I said, "Don't tell me...that's when my appointment is?" She said, "Yeah, they made it a week ago. I didn't even know." She was good at first, but she's slipping. I may need to get a new CM if she keeps this kind of stuff up. I didn't like the doctor they had filling in. He listened to me, but he was kind of cold and aloof. I did get my dosage on Celexa up to 40 from 20, though. And it's helping.
Well, that's pretty much in a nutshell (a very big nutshell) what's been going on with me. That and I forgot to pay my January storage and had to pay a late fee. Oh yeah, and I'll try and get up some pictures of my trip.
This is insane. It's almost 6 in the morning.
I don't know where to start. I guess with my trip to NY. I left on the 19th of Nov. The trip there was nice. Very few people, I got my choice of window seats, cuz I get claustrophobic otherwise. No loud people, fussy kids, nice. The little girl behind me was about 7. She started singing, quietly, so noone could hear her, and she had an amazing voice.
When I got to JFK, it was on time, but it's in Queens, and Leah and Andrew live 30 miles. And it was crazy. They had like an assembly line of cabs waiting. And a HUGE traffic jam on the freeway (at midnight). It took over an hour, and then when we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, I had to call Leah, and she had to give me step by step directions to her apartments. The cab driver had never heard of her street. When we got there, we weren't even sure if we had the front entrance, cuz there was all kinds of construction and where we were at was a service entrance. If we'd gone a couple yards further, we would have had the actual temporary front door. When Leah came running out, I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. For 27 years, she's been this tiny, small boned little thing (not short, just tiny), and here she comes with this bowling ball bouncing in front of her. I knew she was due, and I'd seen pictures of her pregnant, but I just wasn't prepared for seeing it in person. It was sort of surreal. I felt so bad cuz everytime I looked at her, I'd start laughing again. I finally got used to it.
Here she was 9 months pregnant, and I STILL couldn't keep up with her. She had as much energy as if she wasn't. AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN WADDLE! I've never in my life seen a anyone who didn't waddle. The first time we went in the subway, there was this little band that was playing sort of R&B/jazz. There were pretty good. She took me to Grand Central Station. I took a picture of a couple police inside the station, and
one of them came over and told me that's not aloud, inside, so I had to delete their
picture. One day, we went to the Empire State Building (walking of course, with me dragging behind, huffing and puffing), and wouldn't you know, my batteries died just when we got there. We went all over, up and down Harold Square, trying to find a store that sold my specific type of batteries, and I couldn't believe it. Nobody had them. And all it is is a simple Kodak 5 megapixel. So she had to take the pictures on her camera. By the time we got to the top (it took about 45 minutes with all the lines and separate elevators with only a few in them at a time, and metal detectors, etc...which I suppose isn't THAT bad), it was dark. I stayed at least a foot back from the guardrail. Eventually I got enough nerve to get up to it, but I hung on for dear life. We got a bunch of pictures from every side. From there, she took me to Times Square, still walking, and we stumbled and almost knocked each other down while we were taking videos of each other in the middle of the Square. From there, she took me to Rockefeller Center, and lastly, of course, the Apple Store. By the time we got back home, my back and hips were killing me, and I was moving real slow. She wasn't even winded.
The next night, Andrew took us to this park (I can't remember the name of it) where we could look across the river to NJ. Of course, we had to stop at Starbucks (she can't pass a Starbucks w/o having to get her Low Fat Chai Tea Latte' (or something like that). Seriously, I think it's an OC thing with her. We kept walking till we got to Battery Park. I didn't know that's where we were going, so I didn't take my camera to get the Statue of Liberty. I walked there myself, two nights before I left but it was dark again, and my pictures turned out crappy. Walking back, I tried to take the route through the park, reversing the direction we'd gone the other night, and nothing looked familiar, or rather, every block looked identical, and I just kept walkiing and walking, and starting to freak out. Finally I saw the Starbucks, and I knew I was almost home.
I had to pick up my meds on the 23rd, so I called my good old insurance company to find out what pharmacy I could get them. I assumed that since my pharmacy here is CVS, and they're nationwide, and there's one just 2 blocks from Leah's house, they'd let me go there. Of course, they had to make it difficult. They asked me what the zip code was, and I told them, and the only one they did buisiness with in that zip code was this place that the lady on the phone called Everson-Madison or something like that. We googled it and couldn't find it anywhere. Finally we took a chance and called this one number that was listed at the address the lady had given me. It had a totally different name, not even close to Everson-madison. I don't know where that lady got that from. The person who answered was a young girl with a thick accent. The one I was supposed to talk to wouldn't be in for 1/2 hour. She called me when she got in, and also had an accent. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite pin it down. She told me she'd put in the order, but she only had a few to get me through the weekend for the time being. I said that was fine. She asked me how long I'd be and I said about an hour and a half. I was just guessing cuz I didn't know how far it was. She said they were closing in ten minutes (4 pm...on a Friday night!). But she said she would have her worker stay till we could get there, and let me in. I said, no, she didn't have to do that, I'd just pick it up Saturday, cuz I didn't want her worker to have to stay after closing time, just to wait for us. She said they're CLOSED Saturday and Sunday. I had to have them, so I agreed, but I felt really bad. It wasn't that far, so we got there just 20 minutes after closing time. It was this tiny, tiny little corner store, with barely enough room to turn around in. A very young, very pretty girl saw us at the door, and unlocked it without questioning whether it was really us. They're VERY trusting. A little too trusting in my opinion, for a tiny drug store in NYC. She was super, super nice. She called her boss, who turned out to be her mother, to make sure everything was right. She wasn't speaking English cuz I guess she didn't want us to know what she was saying. But Leah told me exactly what she was saying cuz they turned out to be Russian, and Andrew's Russian. I think it's a very pretty language and the accent is too. Anyway, she came back and gave me the meds, with handprinted labels, with only the name and dosage of the meds. I just sort of had to laugh. They were so unprofessional, but so nice.
That night, Andrew's best friend and his girlfriend showed up a week early than they had said, so it was a surprise. But it wasn't a problem. Leah woke me up at 5am Saturday morning and told me she had been in labor since 1 am. I freaked out and started rushing around, but they were just piddling around taking their time. Her contractions were pretty painful and 3 1/2 minutes apart. I wanted to get her to the hospital right then, but the doctor told her to wait till she felt like she was almost ready to have it. I got mad at her doctor. But they listened to him instead of me. And then, she insisted on walking! The hospital was only a few blocks away, but still-I thought she was crazy. We had to stop literally every 25 feet or so, when she'd have a contraction. I thought for sure she was gonna have it right there on the street. I was so relieved when we got there. It turned out her contractions started getting irregular. He kept checking her, and she was dilating really slow. She was going to try and do it naturally, but she finally broke down and took the doctor's suggestion to at least have a small amount of morphine, just to take the edge off, since she was determined to not get an epidural. She passed out within 30 seconds, but it really messed up her contractions, and actually prolonged her labor. So when it wore off, she finally gave in and asked for an epidural. It started going faster then. Around 7 that night, she was ready to push. It was so awesome, cuz there was only one nurse, the doctor, and me and Andrew. So we got to help her push and count. She only had to push for 20 minutes, and she did so good. I was the first person Eve got to see, but I don't think she was too impressed. It's probably a pretty easy guess that's who my userpic is...Eve all cleaned up, 5 minutes old. 7 lbs., 5 oz., 19 inches long, November 24th. Andrew's mouth, but definitely Leah's nose. I'm sorry Chelse, but even Leah says that.
They came home Monday evening. Leah was wearing a t-shirt that was Naomi's when Naomi was 7 years old (that makes it 28 years old), barely looking like she'd had a baby.
I went in the next day (Tuesday) to pick up my meds. The pharmacy lady had told my insurance company, when she ordered them, that I would be picking them up on Monday. They weren't going to approve it, cuz I was a day late. I can't believe them. She told them that I was probably not able to come in before then because my daughter just had a baby. She had to argue with them for 15 minutes before they finally approved it.
The next night is when I went to Battery Park, by myself, cuz it was kinda crazy for them with a brand new baby. Two days before I left, it snowed for the first time this winter, in NYC. The temperature was in the 30's but the wind chill was in the teens. I hadn't been in that kind of weather since Montana, 13 years ago. It was a little chilly. It didn't take me long at all to adjust to it, though. They took me to Central Park, with Eve in a snuggly, and then we went to Katz's "When Harry Met Sally" Deli. That was one of the most amazing corned beef sandwiches I've ever had. And the matzo ball soup was yummy. I'd never had it before. Originally, I had wanted a ham and cheese sandwich, but Andrew came back and goes, "Ummm, this is a Jewish deli." Duhh. The next night, we went to a Japanese restaurant in Soho that we didn't find out until we sat down...DIDN'T HAVE SUSHI! I never heard of a Japanese restaurant that doesn't have sushi. The prices were horrendous, too. We ended up just ordering noodles and some other thing, I can't remember what it was. I had a little shot glass of Sake, just cuz I never tasted it before. Even just that was outrageous. We ended up going to a little place that Andrew remembered from when he lived there before they got married. They're prices were very reasonable, and the sushi was awesome.
I had to leave the next day, the 3rd. It was really cold and windy. The cab driver said he had to take a detour cuz 6th Ave. was blocked off, cuz apparently a window in a skyscraper had blown out and crashed to the ground cuz of the wind. Thankfully noone was hurt. He was from India, and I could barely understand him. He talked literally all the way to the airport, for 45 minutes, about all the people that had ripped him off from not paying their fares. But he was very nice.
I got to the airport with not very long to spare. There was nobody in line at security, so I thought I was just gonna breeze through. Except I forgot to take off my jewelry, my jacket, my sweater, my pillow, and my boots. I was trying to hurry, but it took forever to get my boots off and I was getting more and more nervous, cuz a line was piling up behind me, and I was running out of time. I ended up using four separate buckets for my stuff. The security guy looked at me suspiciously, and said, "You're shaking. Why are you so nervous young lady?" I could barely even talk by then. I was having a full blown anxiety attack. When I finally got through and got all my stuff, I couldn't find my ticket and my passport. I REALLY freaked out then. I didn't know if I lost them or the guy at the checkpoint kept them or what. I yelled out at them that I couldn't find my things, and by then, the guy just looked at me disgustedly, and said they couldn't do anything about it, and told the guys to hurry up and get the people through. I started tearing through all the piled up empty buckets, throwing them all over very noisily. I was on the verge of tears when I finally found them. The security people were watching me then, even when I got to my gate. Hey, I've got anxiety issues, ok?
It wasn't the most pleasant trip back, but it wasn't too bad. It was nice to get home.
When I went to Magellan (I still want to call it Value Options...I liked them much better) to get my bus pass, I was on my way out the door when my case manager told me Dr. Franzetti was gone. I go, "WHAT?!" and she goes, "I shouldn't have told you that, huh?" I said, "No, crap, crap, crap, crap!" all the way out the door. I was supposed to have and appointment with him on Dec. 20, but now I didn't have an appointment with ANYbody, cuz they didn't have anyone to replace him yet. I was wanting to go up a little on one of my antidepressants, cuz I was starting feel a kind of funky. Antoinette told me she'd call me with an appointment as soon as she could. This was the 4th of December. I waited and called her twice, and she kept saying, "Didn't I tell you I'dI let you know? Don't worry. You'll still be able to get your meds." That wasn't what I was concerned about. I waited some more, and called her again on Thursday, Jan. 10. She said, "Well, let me see what we can do?" She hadn't even gotten around to doing it yet. Then she goes, "Uh oh? Can you make it at 8 tomorrow morning?" I said "Uh, no." She said "yes you can." I said, "Don't tell me...that's when my appointment is?" She said, "Yeah, they made it a week ago. I didn't even know." She was good at first, but she's slipping. I may need to get a new CM if she keeps this kind of stuff up. I didn't like the doctor they had filling in. He listened to me, but he was kind of cold and aloof. I did get my dosage on Celexa up to 40 from 20, though. And it's helping.
Well, that's pretty much in a nutshell (a very big nutshell) what's been going on with me. That and I forgot to pay my January storage and had to pay a late fee. Oh yeah, and I'll try and get up some pictures of my trip.
This is insane. It's almost 6 in the morning.