A few days ago pictures of a bunch of my High School friends popped up, of them all at a High School Reunion, for my year, my High School and I wasn't invited.
I probably would have said no even if they invited me. I don't know if it was private or maybe they sent an invite to my last known address or something?
It just hurts that I have all these stupid Facebook friends having parties, not inviting me.
UPDATE: Turns out I *DID* get an invite which my sister-in-law told me about. It was sent to my Oakland address and I guess I just threw it away? :( What was I thinking?
Hey! Gabe, Helix and I are coming to California for three weeks, starting Monday. Gabe has to work the first two weeks, and we are going to a wedding at the end of the last week, March 6th. On Sat, Feb 27th, I'm going to have a little get together at our old house, which is where Gabe's sister lives now. Something in the day so Helix can see people. I want to have a drink night at some point. It depends on Gabe's work schedule.
We hope to see a lot of you. I hope it's warmer there!
That was fast. Before we left, Gabe and I went to the most wonderful dentist in Montreal, only two blocks from our house. So my main reason for staying passed Thanksgiving is to make sure my Mom has food to eat.
Meals on Wheel comes M-F and brings her 2 meals a day. She has high blood pressure and is on a low-sodium diet, which means 1000mg or less of sodium a day. Meals on wheels often serves very salty things so my Mom is eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly, and sometimes just not eating. This worries me.
We searched and searched and found only one frozen TV dinner with 190mg of sodium. Only one kind of one brand - plum chicken something. So I am making my Mom some salt-free TV dinners of chicken, rice, and veggies.
Helix just had his first birthday...pictures to be put up once I get back to Montreal or find a cord for my camera here.
So I finished moving my Mom and now Helix and I have the worst colds ever. Mine started on Sunday and I am just guessing that Helix and I got them at the same time. So now it has been a week and a day that we have been sick, and the worst of it was after I finally finished moving my Mom in and bringing her all the little things on Thursday.
The house I'm staying at has no cable or internet, so I pass the time by watching tapes of my Mom's. A lot of them are of TNT in 2005, with "The Closer" and a bunch of Law and Orders and also some law show on UPN which makes me miss UPN a lot just all together.
I have been in Poughkeepsie, NY, for almost a two weeks now. Gabe and I came down on Columbus Day weekend/Canadian Thanksgiving, which is the first weekend since we got our "new" car, a 1995 Honda Accord.
We split up in Plattsburgh, and I drove my Dad's car and Gabe drove the Honda to my Mom's house in Poughkeepsie. It took us 12 hours, from 3pm-3am. That is not normal. It is really unnerving to go from not driving at all to drive stick shift on a strange highway in the Adirondacks.
Gabe took a train back, and I was planning on staying here a week, and visiting with my Mom in the hospital. Since I have been here, we found out that Medicare will stop paying for the hospital next Thursday, 10/29, and she needs to move into a place with no stairs. So that means not going home to her house, but renting an apartment with no stairs.
So far, I have rented an apartment with no stairs, not even to get into it, bought a bed, visited my Mom a bunch, had meetings with social workers, physical therapists, and told all the other family members what is going on. So I upped the timing of my Mom's move to Monday, because I want to go back to Canada and get Gabe, so we can all spend Halloween together, but she can't seem to change a Dr.'s appointment she made for next Thursday.
I've had an upset stomach for almost two weeks, and a cold that never seemed to take place and now this morning, I've realized that most of my symptoms are explained by allergies. I'm not sure why I get an upset stomach with allergies, but I know that this has happened before, where I keep treating my stomach with every known remedy and it never helps.
Also, my feet are hurting a lot lately, and again, I remember having this problem before too. I am pretty sure that is it because I am walking around a lot more, and my feet just need to get used to walking more and exercising.
I took some Benedryl this morning, so I am hoping to feel better soon. It was only a 12.5mg, because usually I take the 25mg to help me fall asleep. Benedryl is the active ingredient in a lot of sleep aids, it turns out.
These allergies were spurred by the seasons changing from Summer to Fall. Exciting!!!!
conversation last night at Canadian Quickie Mart equivalent:
Cashier, looking me over, "When is the baby due to come out?"
Me: "Uh, he already came out." Laughs nervously.
Cashier: "Oh, no, I mean this one. The one you are carrying now."
Me: "No, I'm not pregnant. There's no baby in there."
Cashier: "Oh." Laughs nervously. "So how old is the baby?"
Me: "8 months."
Cashier: "Oh. So you have just one?"
Me: (not realizing I have right to end conversations when I want to)"Well we will probably have another."
Cashier: "Oh, how long do you have to wait? A year? Two years?"
Me: "No, just 9 months."
Cashier: "Oh, so you will being having a baby soon?"
Me: "Well, no. That's just when you can start trying. There's no telling how long it will take."
Cashier: "Oh, so you have to take pills to have a baby? Like go to a doctor so you can get pregnant?"
Me: (suddenly thinking he thinks I look old, not just fat, but old and fat, too old and fat to have babies apparently)"No, we just had a baby...." and I realize, I'm not going to explain to him where babies come from.
Cashier:(still talking for some reason)"Oh, no pills? You know, to go to the doctor to get pills so you can have a baby?"
Some other woman walks up with a question. I say bye and leave feeling very defeated. I'm sure I could have handled that better.
So the 1st time we visited Poughkeepsie to see my Mom was kind of quick and urgent. On the way back we were stopped for about 15 minutes at the border and told to get Quebec plates for the next time we drove through the border. The 2nd time, last weekend, we did not have Quebec plates. I looked into it and it was confusing and looked like it would require a lot of money to change the car to meet Quebec standards, so I decided to give the Jeep to my Dad, because the $738 California registration fee was due on July 28th and I knew it would be cheaper for him to own it in New York. Plus, he gave me the Jeep so really I'm just giving it back to him. He lent us his other car, a 4 door Mercury Mystique, which we really liked for all 8 hours we had it.
At the border they would not let us in, saying we were residents now because we had been here for 3 months. It sucked because it was about 10pm at that point and 11pm by the time we got out of there. We looked around for train stations, airports, rental car outlets and finally staid at a very nice Best Western in Plattsbugh, NY. It sucks to be too tired to enjoy a nice hotel.
So we took the greyhound back up, with the idea we could rent a car and go down and get the rest of our stuff out of the car. At the bank that weekend, we found out that Gabe's driver's license expired on his birthday last week, so actually he shouldn't have been driving anyways. Looking around for rental cars proves difficult, as most people have already reserved their weekend rentals here in Montreal. So Gabe will take the bus down tomorrow and back, and move the car to the Plattsburgh airport which offers free parking. I wish we left it there, as it is just such a hassle.
We have appointments to get driver's licenses on September 2nd. One plus of having that, is I am under the impression that the car insurance here just might be socialized. Which, is like, WOW!
We did get to visit my Mom in her rehabilitation center/nursing home. I do not like it. No one in my family really likes it, but I guess there is a bed shortage in these places, and hopefully she won't have to be there too long. She is seeming okay. No pressure allowed on the healing leg still, so physical therapy is all about hopping. We don't know how long until anything. I get news about this usually three days after everyone else knows. So frustrating being so far away. At least it looks like the prognosis is good.
So my Mom's stay in rehabilitation is going to be 120 days. She is canceling the cable, internet and phone, which I realize only affects me because I stay in her house when I come down. No internet will drive me nuts, I will probably end up getting internet and a cell phone.
So the place she is at is okay. It is a final resting home for some, so that is weird. I've never been inside one of those before. It can be downright depressing. Some people can't get out of bed, and no one visits them some days. All they have is a bunch of TV channels and a nurse to ring.
Lots of people in wheelchairs. I'm concerned that my Mom will not start walking again and stay in a wheelchair because that's what everyone else is doing and she'll forget why she's there.
All her clothes coming in need to be labeled, so when they go to the laundry they come back to her. She was hiding some in her room, unlabeled because she didn't want to part with them long enough to get labeled. I took a bunch of them down to get labeled and now she doesn't get them back 'till Wednesday, so I kind of see her point, but better not to have them for a few days then lose them forever in the laundry.
She was really glad we brought Helix. We ran on 4 hours sleep yesterday and that was tough. I slept a good 8 1/2 last night, so I think today will go much smoother. She called later to say what a good time she had and wanted to know if Helix had a good time. He's still sleeping now, so I will call that a success.
It's so nice she is only 30 minutes drive away. I can't wait to go see her again today. I have to go through her bills first though, so we can get stuff paid or maybe cancel more things. 4 months is a while, I suggested if she wanted her house painted or some major construction done, now would be the time. I think she needs more railings on all her stairs. Maybe I need to get some contractor in who knows about these things and give me an estimate...then again, I don't trust that. I need to research more, how to make a house one-bad-leg friendly.
Me and Helix wear lots of bugspray everyday and no tick bites yet. :D
My Mom is done with being in the hospital and being transferred to a rehabilitation center. Gabe and I are going down to NY this weekend and I am going to be sure to protect us against those nasty ticks this time. Only Dave, Helix and I were bitten, so we must have done something different than the rest of the party. I am guessing it was the leaves behind the car, where we parked last time. No more parking near leaves.
My Mom's rehab is going to be only 20 minutes away from the house, so visiting her should be much easier this time, as opposed to going all the way down to NYC.
Helix's teeth are sure coming in quick. He is having a lot of trouble sleeping through the night and in a lot of pain because of them. So far the bottom two came in about 3 months ago, and then a third one on the bottom. Finally the fourth bottom one is coming through, and then also the two top front ones. I was putting some brandy on them this afternoon, and I felt two more front teeth on top, AND a molar in the back. Okay, I just lost count, but I read somewhere that they only get 20 for the 1st set. That would be nice.
OMG, he's getting all his teeth so early!!! He's a week shy of 8 months old.
My Mom is recovering okay. It's unclear when she will get out the hospital and how walking will be for her after her leg heals. I am honestly not even sure if it was the top part of her leg that broke, or the bottom part, but I do know that her leg broke first, and then she fell. I hate that I am so far away and can't visit her, but Helix and I call everyday, and thank goodness we have a landline phone plan that includes all of "North America" - in Canada, North America does not include Mexico according to phone companies. I asked, just to be clear.
So I guess I will be going back down to NY, but I'm not sure when. Information from anyone on anything a doctor said is not readily available and also I think it depends on how her initial recovery goes. Of course, maybe there is a doctor easily available in New York, and I am just not there. It's very frustrating.
So Helix and I went to the Dr's yesterday for our tick bites, and we got antibiotics but the Dr wanted me to "follow up" with a specialist. This morning me, Helix, Gabe's Mom and Dad (still visiting from Montreal this whole time) went to the specialist at 8:30am this morning and I find out I don't need any further treatment, and why was I even referred to them? It was annoying because I brought my baby into a hospital because the Dr at the clinic told me that they might take care of him there, but they don't treat children at all. The resident told me that the Children's Hospital will probably say the same thing, "Why were you referred? He has his medicine and his bite is getting better."
So I am glad we are treated and it looks like we don't have Lyme disease or have anything to worry about.
In other news, my mother's surgery on her leg ended late last night, at the hospital in NYC, and they are encouraging her to walk today, so I am marking that a success. Turns out, they are now saying the reason her leg just broke spontaneously, was because she was taking this "bone strengthening" medicine called Fosamax. I don't know how, but apparently in some people it causes the opposite affect and weakens bones.
She will be transferred to a rehabilitation center soon to work on walking and stuff.
Both Me and Helix have had tick bites while here in NY. My Mom is okay, awaiting surgery down in NYC. She was transferred to a specialist NYU hospital near Union Square. Other than being in pain and frustrated with the wait, she is okay. I mean,as okay as you can be while in the hospital awaiting surgery.
We head back to Montreal tomorrow so Gabe can go back to work on Monday.
My Mom's leg broke last night and she is going to have special surgery tomorrow. Gabe, Helix, and Gabe's parents who happen to be visiting right now are on our way to Poughkeepsie. They say my Mom might never walk again.
OMG! First off, I think I did mention that there is no mail on Saturday at all. But really, you would think something mailed on Monday, June 1st from Montreal to another place in Montreal would be here by Friday, June 5th. What is up with the postal service?
Also, a bank statement, dated May 19th, mailed from the US, was received here Friday, May 26th. One week from California...longer from inside Montreal.
Another slow thing- banking. It takes 15 BUSINESS days for a US bank check to clear in our Canadian bank. I deposited a check on May 11th, and it cleared June 2nd. That is more than 15 business days, but seriously, that's a lot of business days for them to clear a check.
I just got off the phone with the Canadian government and they assure me that our health cards are mailed, but we must wait until we get them to even make a doctors appointment to have it covered unless it is an emergency. I guess I will just keep checking the mail.
