That is some GOOD STUFF!

Well, my travelog continues... My mom had an "incident" a month or so ago. A piece of plaque broke loose from her carotid artery and entered her eye (not her brain, thank God) and caused some temporary vision loss. No permanent damage though, for which we are very thankful. She had carotid artery surgery last week to clean out the worst of the plaque, although the other side will require a vacuuming in a few months. I flew to Florida to be with her at the hospital then take care of her (sort of) for the next week. The trip was exhausting, but the flights were more relaxing because of my little buddy clonazepam. That is some REALLY good stuff! I was able to relax on the flight, despite the fact that my return flight was delayed due to severe thunderstorms with lightning and high winds. I'm afraid my prescription drug-induced friendliness caused me to overshare a bit with airport strangers, but I guess there are bound to be some side-effects! I could probably afford to be a little more friendly anyway I guess...

The Friendly Skies

So it feels like I've been traveling a lot lately.... I just took a trip to Sacramento to see my California family. It was a bunch of fun and it was nice to see everyone. The only problem was....I had to fly. Oh, FYI: I HATE to fly. I know it is much safer than driving (see Jeep vs Semi post), but I just have a really hard time convincing myself that I don't really need to panic. Or help the pilot. I can't tell you how sore I am after a flight from all the window seat driving. You know what I mean...pushing the break and gas (floor) and shifting my weight from side to side as if I am actually contributing. Giving people the evil eye for weaving up and down the aisle on the way to the bathroom during turbulence (most of the ride it seems) when CLEARLY they should not be changing the mass distribution on the delicately weight balanced aircraft. Seriously. I have a problem. It's funny now, but not at 30,000 feet! I tried relaxing with alcohol...which resulted in my own turbulence accompanied rush to the potty. This was followed by Xanax which (mixed with Dramamine) made me sleepy without decreasing my anxiety. How can you be both, you ask? I managed! (I should mention that the vodka and xanax where on different days before someone yells at me for mixing meds). Oh well, I feel so silly. It's a stupid fear, but unfortunately I can't reason my way out of it. I even tried watching Lost on my DVD player to distract me. In retrospect, maybe a series about plane crash survivors wasn't a good entertainment choice... I will be on my way to Florida in a week or two to be with my mom who is having surgery....Here's hoping my doctor can come up with something that will help! :-) Miss you all!

I'm So Lame...

OK, so all of you are my friends so you know I have adult ADD. It has been a really long time since I posted, so I thought I'd write a paragraph or two. I started playing World of Warcraft (oohhh...butterfly....) and have done pretty much nothing else online since. Level 59! w00t! Lame. Anyway, the weather has finally broken and we have had temperatures in the 60s the last week or so. But this weekend Wisconsin says SIKE! They are forecasting snow showers this weekend. WTF???? It's almost May! I feel like my mornings should start out: "consider this..." (twilight zone reference, FYI). Not much new going on in my (lack of) life, but I really miss all of you...

Semi VS Jeep

Well, it has been a few weeks since I posted last, but I think I have a good excuse this time! Cleo and I decided (rather last minute) to go see my family for Christmas. We thought it might be good to visit when we weren't attending a funeral at least once this year. My mistake. I had to drive it (1300 + miles) because there was no place I was comfortable leaving Cleo that had space over the holidays. We left at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday to beat a big winter storm that was fore-casted for Christmas weekend. It was crazy foggy, so the first few hours were kinda stressful, and by the time the fog had lifted we were somewhere in Illinois. We were on the road all day and dropped in (unannounced - because that's how I roll) on my sister near Atlanta for the evening. After a nice overnight visit, we made the seven hour drive to Lakeland and relaxed.

Christmas was really (new laptop - thanks mom!) nice. My brother and I made dinner and it turned out pretty well, even if the ham booby trapped! Why they have to put a stealth net on that SOB that you can't even see until it's on fire I'll never know... Could they mention removing the invisible incendary device before cooking ... is that too much to ask? Anyway, it was edible - but I don't think we are in charge of cooking next year (score!). The visit was lovely and I wished I could stay longer, but alas - I needed to return to work.

We left early Saturday morning and while traveling through Georgia we hit a snag... or shall I say the "snag" (read Semi truck) hit me! Someone several cars ahead of me suddenly decided they needed to be stopped RIGHT NOW with no warning and the rest of us were left smoking tires to keep from causing a crash. The semi behind me didn't make it. He tried to avoid me (running a sedan off the road in the process), but he still hit me pretty hard. It was very scary to see pieces of my bumper and tail lights go flying past my front windshield. Luckily, Cleo and I were OK, but sadly the Jeep (my baby!) wasn't! My jeep limped across the road on a shredded tire and bent rear axle to become mired in about six inches of Georgia devil clay. The tow truck almost tipped us over trying to winch us out of that mess. The sedan had to be hauled out as well because they were in clay to the top of their wheel wells! I called my sister, who drove 2 1/2 hours to pick me up in front of the jail (the only place I could sit with Cleo). My brother and his girlfriend kindly drove 6 hours (each way) to bring me back to Lakeland where I waited several days to find out if the jeep was totaled or not...

Luckily it was not, although the damage was about $6000. Insurance is taking care of the repairs, but it won't be ready for another week. In the meantime, I flew to Wisconsin - so I'm back at work. Looking forward to the long drive back (ha ha), but it will be nice to see Cleo again (she had to stay in Florida for a few weeks). Well, that's all for now.... miss everyone!