Anything Goes

[gingerbird]

Gosh, Cindy, what an incredible and well-written post at No. 72. Thanks for taking the time to write it, it really gives me insight into many things. What you wrote about not choosing your family and not even wanting them as friends ... well, you beat me to the punch on that. It's so true. I know many people who have horrid families, which results in them complaining about "having" to spend time with them at Christmas! Even on this thread! Heh. You have indeed gotten to the root of my question about hating the holidays. Brilliant! Thanks. *hugs*

It's my experience that most people today are all about themselves, and hang out with you so they can talk about themselves and what they've been doing. I've lately distanced myself from people who I thought were MY friends after it dawned on me that I can spend days with them, go on day-long car trips or even weekend overnights, and the convo is about nothing but them. If I try to say something about me, the topic will always get changed back to the subject of them. I find it odd that someone can talk for 12 hours solid about themselves with not one question to their companion, not even a simple one like "How are you?" I guess I was just raised differently, to maybe have compassion/interest in and for others? (Good on my mum for that!)

I appreciate that you were upfront about your brother-in-law. Good on you for that, and for ditching that part of your family. It must have been hard at the time, but it's honest, and I really appreciate that. I dislike people who "suffer" fools in silence, then complain all about it later (to friends who are there to listen to their "me" stories)! Heh.

I absolutely love your Christmas Eve time with your mom. Now THAT'S something you will always remember, and sounds so, so fun. I wish I could go with you. I'd ride in the back seat and help you pick the best homes to go into for chocolate and cookies. Heh.

What's this about your mom and a tumour, though? I don't like the sound of that. If you don't want to go into it, it's okay. But it's concerning and worries me to read that.

I grew up with animals everywhere; my mom had cats, dogs, fish, parakeets, hamsters, gerbils, whatever, maybe not all at the same time, but all of those over my growing-up and at-home days. Having pets in the house is second-nature to me. So I'm wondering what your "family" has against Buddy, Cindy. I see having only one cat as being animal deprived! Heh.

I also like what you said about having good online friends. I'm with you there, my best friend is in an entirely different country. Gosh, sort of like you are, Cindy. LOL! Seems we have many things in common, my friend!

[Cindy]

Yes, my Mom had a tumor almost 3 yrs ago now. Time flies. They thought it was just behind her ear so they went in and she lost hearing in that ear only to find out that it wasn't exactly where they thought it was. It was 3 cm and wrapped around a lot of stuff. Turns out, they say "Ear, nose, throat" doctors for a reason. It's all connected. They damaged a vocal cord getting it out, so now, she has an implant to make the cord work since they paralysed it. She had to have the implant done twice, the first one was too big and she still has nightmares since she had to stay awake for it. But the second time was the charm so the voice is stronger now. She also has swallowing issues (thankfully also improving a lot in the last yr) when she first woke up, she couldn't swallow at all and was panicking. She still coughs a lot and takes a long time to eat a plate but what can you do? It wasn't cancerous but did alot of damage considering they just thought it was this small thing behind her ear.

I'll say this though, she's kinder for it and it taught her patience and understanding so in the long run, made our relationship better. You count your blessings after that. That's why if I don't like someone, I won't waste time on them. Life is too short.

LOL I did used to have 2 kitties but my sweet little Kasey died 3 yrs ago. Still miss her everyday and Buddy doesn't seem ready for another. After she died, he got really possessive of me and he likes the quiet. Kasey LOVED to attack him to get my attention--it was her fav sport:-) I always ask him if he wants a new kitten and I swear he scowls and turns away:P

[gingerbird]

Gosh, Cindy, your mom really went through an ordeal. What were her symptoms to even suspect a tumor? I hear so often about surgeries that create more problems than they solve; a friend right now is dealing with all sorts of complications from a "simple" laproscopic surgery and has been in and out of hospital. She should have been back to normal within two weeks. Instead, she's spent these last few months trying not to die.

But at least there was a silver lining for you, a better relationship with your mom. I also subscribe to your "life is too short" theory. It really eliminates a lot of unnecessary stress!

I wouldn't think Buddy, at his age, would welcome sharing you with anyone else. And, at his age, he deserves to have you all to himself. It will be so hard to find "someone" to fill the void after he is gone, though. Young animals are so "all about themselves," just like young humans. I like my older animals who want to snuggle under a blanket on the couch instead of running like wild indians around the house, burning off their youthful enthusiasm.

Jendill, it struck me that you are but 27, yet you have grey hair? How crazy is that? You should let it grow out so it will match your new snowman turtleneck. LOL!

Question for anyone with grey hair: Is it hereditary? Jendill, do your parents have grey hair? And if so, at what age did it start?

[gingerbird]

p.s. I see on the TWoP ep thread, posters got spanked by the mod for talking about being unsatisfied with MiSa. Geesh. It's okay for them to discuss weekly thoughts about Mahone, Self, Linc, whoever, what they would like to see happen, what they wish had happened, but mention MiSa and it's a problem. I really hate that.

[Cindy]

I hate that they've had that warning at the top of the misa thread for MONTHS the "offending" stuff was over weeks ago.

Yes, it was (and is) an ordeal. That's sad about your friend. You think you're going to get relief, then it's 10 times worse.

Mom's doctor completely missed the tumour--he thought it was aging hearing loss (ridiculous at 52) it was only after she had other systoms that my sister and I pushed her to see another doctor. He moved fast thank goodness. Even still, by the time the surgery rolled around there were MANY symptoms and I figured it might be really bad. I started doing research and guessed that she would miss a yr of work. Everyone laughed at me and said "6 weeks." She ended up being off for a yr and a half. I do my research:-)

ITA, I love older animals. The only down side is the vet bills since they develop a lot of problems. I actually wouldn't mind a starting point of 2-3 yrs. We'll see, you're right, Bud deserves me to himself right now and he is a very cuddly boy.

So what animals do you have right now?

Hep/neira : Busy at work eh?

Blossom: jump out of lurkdom....lol

[nelra]

Cindy-Yep busy at work and with all the holidays.

Ginger-My name is not too exciting, it is my middle name, Arleen, backwards and minus an E. It was the name I thought of back inthe day and have stuck with it. My seek name on TWoP is an inside joke from a different board.

Re-Gray hair. My dad has had a full head of gray hair since his early 30's, I barely remember him with brown hair and I was born when he was 31. So now I am 29 and the gray hair is creeping in. I wish I had my mom's hair, she is almost 60 and doesnt really show too much gray hair.

So things happening in my life. I bumped my bumper on my new car, Javier(yes I name everything) on a friend's driveway and I went to the auto body shop and they just popped it in for free, which was good news, I thought it would be very expensive.

My family holiday get-togethers were fine. We dont hang out with my dad's side of the family really at all, my mom and aunt really dont get along. But we did see my my mom's side of the family a lot along with all of my brothers and SIL's and kids.

I took my 2 older nephews out for the day, they are 12 and 14, so it was fun. I had to laugh, I had my ipod with me, so I let my 12 yr old nephew pick out a song to play in the car. The 1st song he picked? "Sweet child of mine, by Guns n Roses. These kids are growing up.

I also finished my invisalign, which is nice. I had wanted to be done by the end of the year and it looked like I wouldnt be, but I ended up being done on New Year's Eve. I did manage to lose my retainer the first day I had them, which was funny, at least once I had found it. It was stuck in between to dvds I had put into a giftbag for a friend.

Speaking of laptops. I got one for Christmas. I did not ask for one, or even expect it. A guy friend of mine got me one, which lead to a bunch of confusion, like does it mean something or what. Like the gift was not cheap and we never spend that type of money on each other. Long story short, he just thought I needed one and he has the money to spend. And he likes me, but the gift is not about that. The complication is that I dont like him for more than a friend. So that should be fun the next time we hang out.

Ok, so that is what has been happening with me.

[Cindy]

Oh man, neira. Nice gesture but ITA, lil awkward now. Wow. LOL at the song pick--one of my favs but I had to LOL when one of my cousins called it "classic rock" ummm hello? 80's music iNOT classic. I refuse to be that old.

Ewww at finding your retainer in the gift bag. At least you figured it out before it got thrown out. Speaking of "throwing out" is it wrong that I threw my old dvd player down my aptment garbage chute?? It was heavy and I didn't want to carry it downstairs/outside to bins. I know, I know, not environment friendly, shame on me...on the up side....new one seems to play all my burned stuff..lol

Funny, I figured gray hair had more to do with having kids, guess not:-) None so far at 36 for me and my sister at 40 is def getting it.

Glad you had fun over the holidays...care to chime in with any weird gifts or does your laptop qualify?

[jendill]

Hey guys. Hope your weekend was better than mine.
Saturday was good.. but Sunday my car broke... basically I was driving and it sounded and felt like I hit a pothole, and then there was a horrible grinding noise. I stopped, luckily I was at the mall and going rather slowly at the time and not on the highway. Anyway it had to be towed and Jay had to come pick me up. My relaxing Mommy time turned into about 15 minutes it took me to get to the mall. Then later we had our parents over to watch the eagles game... we reheated the dinner from New Years day and i burned my finger on the container of gravy. Then I went to reheat Maddie's mac n cheese and I made it too hot and basically ruined it... then Maddie didn't want to eat... it was just one frustrating thing after another. I was going to dye my hair last nite but I figured w/ my luck it'd end up blue or green. Oh yeah and I was going to make a cake but it called for 3 eggs and I only had 2.
Speaking of the grey... it's not a lot... but enough to bother me. It's mostly streaks about temple height and goes back about half way back my head. A lil box of Loreal fixes it nicely.
nelra.. that's strange that your friend would give you a laptop... I can't wait to hear what it's like when you hang out next time!
Cindy- Sorry to hear about your mom, but glad that it brought you guys closer together.
Re: the older pets and younger ones. It's funny, since Maddie had joined us, Socks is more loving. She will go and sleep in Maddie's room and if Maddie is crying she will come and gets us. And once Maddie goes to bed at night she joins Jay on the couch for quality daddy time. And we were afraid she was going to be upset at the addition to the family.

[nelra]

Jen-yes talk about awkward. I ended up talking to my best friend about the whole thing, since we are all friends. Long story short, it was just a gift, nothing really more, though he is always open to dating me, the only problem is I dont like him for anything more than a friend.

Cindy-here is a weird gift for you. My best friend thought me and the laptop giver(LG) should go out and more so she gave me chocolate syrup, LG got some whip cream and we got a giftcard to a restaurant to share. So that was fairly awkward to say the least. The night ended with LG walking me to my car, asking me to dinner and me giving a very lame excuse about not knowing when I work. So now he is mad. He meant it as a friend thing, but when we do hang out just the 2 of us, I get annoyed by him.

BTW-I am using the laptop now. I am comfy and warm in bed. I didnt even know I had wireless internet at the house.

[jendill]

nelra-... that sure is weird... why not give one of you a fork and the other a sthingy? chocolate and whipped cream doesn't say 'friends' lol
Merry Christmas Eve everyone... orthodox that is... it's one of my favorite nights of the year... we go to Jay's grandmothers and have home made pierogies for dinner... lets hope they're better than last year... cuz they sucked last year.
It's been 5 years (tomorrow) since my Nana died.. I can't believe it's been that long already.
In happier news, Maddie slept 10 hours... WITHOUT MAKING A PEEP! I actually woke up and asked Jay if she was alive... and if she was really in her room. I only slept about 7 hours but it was amazing still!

[Cindy]

LOL Jen. "It's my fav night of the yr but the perogies sucked!" Toronto Market has awesome progies..I have a dozen in the freezer, if yours suck again, maybe I can send mine ;D

Maybe Maddie was trying to sleep through progie dinner

Congrats on the sleep though, that must have been a nice treat.

Yeah, I'm with Jen on the chocolate syrup. Get real. Not nice to put people on the spot like that.

Lucky you on the wireless net...I should steal it from you for not knowing it's in the house,:-)

[jendill]

The pierogie's were pretty good this year. And Maddie's been up since about noon today so after about 10 hours of being up I'm hoping that she sleeps good tonite.
When we moved out of our apartment our neighbors asked if we canceled our internet and when we said yes they said oh well at least we know where the internet was coming from then.

[eagleoftruth]

Wow, I'm away for a week and a half and the board goes nuts;) Anyway, I agree that you have to distance yourself from toxic energy . . . even at the holidays and even if it's your own family. Myself, I had a good break, but was supposed to fly back into my village from Anchorage on Saturday (1/3), but it was too freaking cold for the planes to fly (LITERALLY, it was -40f) and I couldn't get another flight back until Tuesday. So, the good news is that I got a couple of extra days of vacation and the bad news is that I now have more work to get caught up on;) I'll leave it there.
And, ginger, I agree with you about MiSa. Just because someone MENTIONS a PB ship doesn't mean it's wrong. Overkill, big time.

[Cindy]

My bad luck I don't have any wireless neighbours

Jen, I meant to comment on this cat comment in my earlier post but forgot

Re: the older pets and younger ones. It's funny, since Maddie had joined us, Socks is more loving. She will go and sleep in Maddie's room and if Maddie is crying she will come and gets us. And once Maddie goes to bed at night she joins Jay on the couch for quality daddy time. And we were afraid she was going to be upset at the addition to the family

When Kasey died, I really thought Bud would take it hard and he did--for a week. Then he seemed to figure out that he was the "man of the house" (read king) and he LOVED it. He started to purr all the time when I pet him (He had NEVER purred--that was Kasey's thing.) He started sleeping in bed with me (normally he would just jump up on the morning and we's cuddle for a few minutes) I always knew him to be very smart but even my vet has commented that she's amazed at how connected we are now. (We read each other's emotions like a book) It's been amazing. I don't know if that's the 16 yrs together or just all the stuff we've been through together.

In short, I'm not surprised that Socks loves Maddie, she recognizes you in her. That's the gift of sticking with an animal through 16 years of thick and thin, she protects what's yours:-)

Eagle, welcome back! What??!! No details on the friend?? lol okay, you get a pass this time, if you change your mind though, we're here! :-)

-40 okay, you win. I was going to complain about the snow/ice here and the freezing rain to come, but -40 wins. Get out the long jammies...care to share any odd presents since neira and I have a little theme going? Toothbrushes, chocolate syrup AND... Jen walked in with her snowman turtleneck on...oh this could almost be an "add on" game

P.S. Jen, what happened with your car?

[jendill]

My car is fine... the ball joints were covered by the warranty. Whew. I paid for a wheel alignment and to switch the tire on the rim. No big deal.
I'm surprised no details on your 'friend' Eagle.. but like Cindy said, we'll let it slide.
-40?! Reason #1 not to move to Alaska... my friend and I were havin a convo last nite about how it was 80 in some parts of Florida and I told her that my brother has called on Xmas from the pool... that's my goal, one year to spend Xmas down in FL w/ my brother.