Allow Me to Be Sappy For Once

Maybe it's the narcotics they're giving me, or the fact that I'm going to be alone for the next couple of hours of the day, or maybe I'm just having one of those days, but I feel the need to say this:

Since I've been in the hospital for the past week, I've come to learn a lot. I've learned a lot about patience (and I always thought I had enough of it-- I'm learning that still isn't true), about hope, and also about love.

I'm grateful that my mother is in town, by my bedside nearly all day, entertaining me, talking to me, rocking me when I get so frustrated or can't deal with the pain. I'm grateful that I have a man in my life who always tries to make me laugh when I feel depressed as I lie in bed, who massages my feet so they don't atrophy, who thinks that I'm beautiful despite the voluminous hospital gown, messy hair, and feeding tube up my nose; who is patient with me when I take my frustration and cabin fever out on him, who walks me through the hallways at a too-slow pace like a 95-year-old woman, and who cries a little from frustration when there's nothing he can do to help me (don't tell him I said that last part).

I'm grateful to my siblings who come to visit me almost every day, for the good friends that I have that come to visit and talk about food so I don't forget that all there is in the world is gross broth and a chemical mixture they shove through your nose; and who come and talk and laugh with me about normal things so I don't feel like an invalid in a hospital.

I'm grateful to the countless nurses I've met over the past week who get to know me, who seem concerned for my welfare, who see me still here a few days later and are sad that I haven't been able to go home yet, who are vying for me to be able to go home so I can do all the exciting things in my life I have coming up.

I'm grateful that this is only a case of acute chronic pancreatitis, and not anything more like the other poor souls in this ward who have cancer and deal with much greater pain than I do now.

Thank you to all of you who are praying for me, who come see me-- to all of you, I love you, and I'm so glad to have you in my life at this time.

Have a good Saturday :)

Un Mistero

This is not what I normally write about. Forgive me.

Ok, here's something a little random. This is a picture of me in May of 2006, right before my 17th birthday. The part that I want you to notice-- not my strange pose or the glowing eyes of my cat-- is my belt. Yes, I know it's very difficult to see...but just know that it was an awesome belt. I stole it from my Dad's closet (now you know where I get my skinniness from), as he hadn't worn it in decades. It was one of those ones with the leather buckle-y part, and the rest was cloth-- it had blue, green, and yellow stripes. It was a sweet belt. I literally wore it until it fell apart.

Anyway, as much as I love the belt I use regularly now (which has awesome dogs and birds):

I'm ready to diversify. And I have found myself thinking back to that old belt I wore religiously in high school (with terribly light pants...). I want one like that again-- something subtly colorful, but still normal enough to be able to wear every day if I want to. Something like this maybe:

Minus the weird flag shirt. And the light pants again. And the phone necklace.

Keep your eyes peeled for me?

Rah

Allow me one brief post to complain.

1. Yesterday I rear-ended some dude stopped in the middle of the road. He didn't have his brakelights on. It was wet. I couldn't stop in time. There was no damage to either of our cars. He is telling my insurance company anyway so he can get a new paint job. My insurance is going up, even if it ends up costing $5 to "repair" that little smudge that was already on his bumper. Awesome.

2. If you are a company that sells expensive items, and you originally charge me double and make it so I can't buy food for a week and have $2 total in my bank account for that long while you poke along attempting to void the transaction, and THEN have the guts to tell me I can't have a refund on my $500 thing when I say I don't feel good about buying it anymore (after the first thing got straightened out), without telling me in the first place it was final sale, then you are an idiot. End of story.

3. My pizza burned. And stuck to the pan. Lame lame lame.

Then I saw this, and I'm trying to make it make me feel better, but I don't if it's working. It is funny though...

Face the Music and Dance

I was doing some exploring this evening on songs, and dancing, and dancing to songs, and I inevitably wound up looking at dozens of clips of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I have my mom to thank for a great appreciation of old movies.

Here's Fred Astaire doing "We Saw the Sea" from Follow the Fleet. I sing this all the time, but people just give me looks askance. Pshaw. It's funny.

And Fred and Ginger doing "Never Gonna Dance" from Top Hat.

Embedding disabled, but still, watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXT0e6HWndQ

Fred Astaire singing "Let's Face the Music and Dance." I love this song. And to think they originally said of FA "Can't act, can't sing, can dance a little." It's just the song, no video to speak of:

...And Ginger Rogers singing "Let Yourself Go," another one I often sing. It starts about 54 seconds in (the beginning is instrumental). Video is a slideshow of pictures from the dance of the same title, but really you're better off just watching them dance. Unfortunately there's no singing though in that version.

Some days I wish I had tv solely so I could watch Turner Classic Movies. I miss that.

Roundup

Sometimes you find nice things on the intranetz.

For example, this is cool. I may have exclaimed out loud.

This is funny and cute.

And this may be my new favorite website. Too bad there are only four pages of goodness as of yet.