Radio Silence Explained

Well, there is certainly no shortage of goings on in our lives these days, but the problem is that what's going on it entirely too overwhelming to process quickly, much less be able to turn around and talk about it here.

The biggest news is that Rod and I are taking in our niece. Her life has not been an easy one, and lately her situation has been unfortunate at best. I don't want to get into specifics because it involves some very personal and sensitive information about family members, but be assured, she is unharmed physically, so it's nothing as scary as that. Part of this is a pre-emptive measure, part of it is about another chance for everyone involved to work out some issues that have brought us all to this point.

This development is a week or so old, and she is not here yet, but she will be quite soon. It's a lot to process, because it means we need to consider moving to a two bedroom sooner than we anticipated, and adjustments are necessary for Rod, the girl, and me to make this work. We don't know how long this will be, but with all our hearts, we hope things can be sorted by the end of the summer, and she can be reunited with family members.

Sadly, this is not the first time this year we've had to intervene for a kid; in January, at the same time as Harry's passing, we found ourselves in a similar situation with Niece's Brother. It's heartbreaking, frustrating, maddening...but we are getting through it as a (dysfunctional) family, and we know that everyone is in it to protect the kids.

So if I've blown you off in the past week, I'm very sorry, and I know you understand.

In other news...

-The Wedding planning is heating up again, with moves to get the wedding party dressed and ready.
-My last day at the less-than-stellar temp job is tomorrow (very excited) and I can look forward to the next assignment.
-My laser surgery is mere hours away...in 48 hours time, I will be free of visual aids for the first time in about 18 years...the anxiety and excitement mounts.
-It's time to get my ass moving on applying for late scholarships! Yes folks, even school weighs on my mind in this time of chaos.
-Detroit AND Colorado have advanced to the second round, making me very happy...now I just need Calgary to do the same to increase the odds of my two teams making it to round 3. I'm not cheering for Calgary necessarily, it's just that if they advance, 2 things happen: 1) San Jose is out, and that's good cause they are a viable threat to take the Stanley Cup this year, and 2) if Calgary advances, they play Detroit, but if they don't, Detroit and Colorado face each other, and that means one of my teams is out...hopefully not Detroit. Remind me to explain to you just how my hiearchy of Hockey goes sometime.

Fuck, you know, this is a good time to reflect on the theme of this blog (Now What?) but to be brutally honest, I'm scared to death to ask...I just don't know that I can take anything else. Is it 2009 yet?

Eye for an I

Well, it's been a busy past month or so! Of course the wedding plans have started to take some precedence now that we are just a squidge over 5 months away from the big day. And speaking of the big day, it is now definite that yours very truly will be enjoying the day without the aid of perscription visual aids!!

That's right folks, in just over two weeks, I'm quitting the temp job I'm at right now, and headed in for some corrective eye surgery! I (eye) have been screened as a candidate, I've paid my deposit, and I've booked my appointment :) I'm excited about this, as I've wanted it done ever since my dad had his done in 1996, and came back raving about it. Anxiety about having things done to my eyes kept me away for so long, but I have to admit that in the last couple of years, I've really changed, and it's like fear of silly things has melted away to reveal a bolder new Fancy.

I'm a candidate for the PRK procedure, which is older, but still quite effective. PRK means my eyes won't be cut at all, so no flaps to worry about as in the case of LASIK. The issue is that my corneas aren't thick enough for LASIK (Indeed, I'm having to pay an extra $200 for tissue sparing because my eyes are thin), and I apparently suffered from chronic dryness on both eyes, which would be aggrevated by LASIK. I honestly could care less what they chose to do, because it means for the first time in 18 years, I will be able to open my eyes first thing in the morning and see clearly the sooky little face of my cat Max poking at me, without reaching for glasses or needing to get up and put in contacts. It's almost enough to make me cry/smile just thinking about it...

...I wonder what crying would do to the plugs in my tear drains? Yes, there is something I don't think I've ever heard before..."My eyes are plugged!" Plugged, you inquire? Plugged, says I! Apparently my tear duct drains are...large, and drain quite quickly, before my eyes ar properly lubricated, which contributed to the chronic dry patches. To remedy this enough to make my eyes fit for surgery, the clinic put these nearly-microscopic plugs into the drains, and I have to use eye drops, an eye gel, and worst of all, an eye jelly at night. Think eye drops are a pain in the ass? Try having to stick the equivalent of Vasoline in your eyes every night, causing blurred, jelly-vision and a lovely slimy-jelly feeling around your eyes when you wake up. Ew. The things we do to escape the prison-like attachment to visual aids.