They FINALLY extubated my father's wife on Wednesday and completely un-sedated her. This has been scheduled, half-done, and cancelled several times. I called her phone yesterday (since my dad has been using it) and she picked it up herself. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Saturday dad and I were pretty sure she was on the verge of death and now she's chattering away like nothing happened.

To her, nothing did. She has no memory since leaving San Francisco over a week ago. I saw her last night and the whole thing is a little surreal. I promised her the new grandson she was coming to meet didn't lose any cuteness in the 10 days she was out of comission.

She's not out of the woods by any means. It feels like she's all better, but she's still in the CICU. The heart rhythm fluctuations that (probably) caused this are still not understood or controlled. It could all start all over again. We can be grateful that she's alive and there is no brain damage, but she's got a long way to go.

Thank you for all your kind thoughts and messages. It's been hard but it has not been lonely.

OK, so I’m homeless now. The upstairs unit (the landlord’s) of the two-decker I’m in caught on fire early yesterday morning. I got woken up to a heavy smoke smell by some folks who saw the smoke banging on my door and yelling to get the fuck out. I ran out into the street in a bathrobe and a pair of (mismatched) shoes and watched in horror as flames started shooting out of one of the upstairs windows.

I was relatively lucky in that the fire never spread to my unit, so I’m only looking at water damage from what got in from upstairs, and the smell smoke in everything I own. And luckily the fire department threw tarps over a ton of my stuff that was in the line of where the water was going to come in. Currently the Red Cross has put me up in a hotel for three nights, and then I’m going to stay with friends who have a good-size house for the duration, but I still have to find a place to live. I do have on definite option that’s looking more and more likely from a friend who moved to PA and is in the process of selling his condo. He’s willing to lease for a year with an option to buy.

My land lord wasn’t so lucky. He didn’t make it out.

I’m OK. I think I have a handle on what I have to get done on a day by day basis which is better than I felt yesterday when I felt I was staring into the abyss. I must say I’ve been really impressed by the Salem Fire Dept and the Red Cross. They’ve been great. This month is turning into my complete definition of hell, though. I hate moving under good circumstance with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns, but this is a non-negotiable. I have to move so I have SOME place to go home to.

Thank God this happened on a Saturday night when people were still up and about on a Saturday night, because otherwise it might not have been noticed until it was full ablaze. I might not have made it out.

ETA - needless to say, I'm not sure how much I'm going to be around here for a bit (not that I've been around so much anyway lately).

I am happy to say I have a job! I'll be working at a cool digital post-production facility. Not only will I be making 10% more than my last job, it's at an awesome building on Wilshire right near LACMA and other museums. I will also be traveling regularly to the other offices in Chicago and possibly INDIA!!!

Hiya! So, those of you who are friends with me on fb have seen me (and Nora and Daisy Jane) posting frequently about a benefit for a friend with stage IV melanoma. It's for the person I refer to on this board as KM (to distinguish from her sister KR, another good friend). What you may not have quite put together is that not only is she a very good friend to me and to Nora, and literally one of the reasons I live in this neighborhood, but she is Daisy Jane's cousin (which is how we met her in the first place!). Here's an excellent article that captures some of why she is so beloved - [link] She is also a Trekkie, and keeps pestering me to lend her my Doctor Who DVDs. So, kind of one of us.

She does have insurance, but is still incurring large out of pocket costs and missing lots of work. If you'd like to make a donation, this link [link] should take you to her paypal address.

Thanks!

My dang cousin is too modest to post this here, but I am Team Sox, and moving it over from GWW, and if she doesn't like it, she knows how to tell my mother on me:

Sox - May 8, 2013 5:40:08 pm PDT #5638 of 5646

Agent offered and I accepted. I can't say more just yet, but I am very excited.

Have been dark the past few days. Muscle/skel problems prevented me from typing or going on the interbunny at all. Feeling a bit better but not ready for long term typing yet. So will continue to be dark gray.

OK, so things have gotten slightly more complicated than I would like them to be. The place I had hoped to be moving into for a year is only going to be available to me until Sept. 1 (long story related to an inheritance trust), so I'm putting the bulk of my stuff into storage. On the plus side, I may be able to find something much closer to Boston than Amesbury would have been; on the minus side - big time - is I have to do two rounds of moving.

Sigh

News for the non-Facebook crowd, and an update for the Facebook crowd.

Our big orange boy-cat Seamus is ill and has lost weight suddenly. We know he has an ear infection and needs dental work. Tests so far have been inconclusive, so we're having more tests done. But the vets think he has cancer, probably in his spleen. On the other hand, it could be irritable bowel disease (IBD). Or, long-shot possibility, it could be just the ear infection and dental problem. We're hoping for nothing else but would also be thrilled if it turns out to be IBD because we know how to treat that with medication. (We've been treating Marie for IBD for over two years, and Teddy also had it.)

Even if it isn't anything else, Seamus has had a rough few days. He's a nervous type even at the best of times, and he was strapped to a table for an ultrasound and biopsy. Plus we have to put ointment in his ears twice a day.

So far, Seamus is acting pretty normal. He still has a good appetite. And we've found out he loves shrimp.

In other sad, big orange boy cat news, we're having to put our old guy Uncle Bud to sleep this morning. He's in kidney failure and the vet says there isn't much chance that treating him will turn around the situation. He's almost 18 and has had a pretty sweet life, I think, but it's still hard as so many of you know. The vet is coming by in about an hour so we'd appreciate some good thoughts sent our way.

I had to have my dear, sweet kitty put to sleep this evening. Poor Jeeves went downhill fast in the past couple of days, and it was time. I'm glad things went as quickly as they did, but I'm still sad and heartbroken.