Working on it, Nora. He did ask me "When are we going to New Orleans again?"

Wallybee's parents are heading back to China in about a week and a half. On Saturday we're having Ryan's first birthday party. We're giving them one of those photo frames with a central photo, and a ring of twelve spaces surrounding it for monthly photos. Here are the photos we've selected, Ryan's first year:

When we first met: [link]
May: [link]
June: [link]
July: [link]
August: [link]
September: [link]
October: [link]
November: [link]
December: [link]
January: [link]
February: [link]
March: [link]

We don't yet have his 1-year old photo. This is what we have holding its place: [link]

Ryan has become cuter every month despite being impossibly cute to start with!

Ryan has become cuter every month despite being impossibly cute to start with!

It feels simultaneously astonishing and inevitable.

The worst I've seen have all worked at hospitals.

The nurses at my doctor's office will confirm this. (When I showed the phlebotomist there my bruises from the shitty IV placements, she just shook her head and muttered something about "those hospital nurses." Which is a group that includes my mother, so I supposed I should take offense at the generalization, but seriously, my ENTIRE ARM was black and blue.)

I'm concerned that my brother may be losing it or something. He's convinced that his dog is sick and I don't think there is anything wrong with her besides that she is thirteen. But when he met her she was ten so it isn't even that much of a Sunrise, Sunset thing. He's lost his shit with this whole recession thing(which I understand) but compared to many he is actually lucky but he's not coping well at all. I'd like to help, but he won't listen to me, and honestly? He's so gloomy and dire 24-7 that I am beginning to dread the sight of him.

But when I've gone to actual blood drives, it's been great. Maybe the mobile Red Cross people are better than the ones in the building.

I feel so well taken care of, that my friend found a drive so close to my house...and NOT in a medical environment. The 'hospital smell' alone can be a problem.

Thanks for the encouragement Beth. Blood is, indeed, life. Focusing on the giving aspect...rather than what is being taken from me...is really helping.

Seska, sponsorship is a great idea! If I make it through this in such a way that I can do it again, I'll definitely do it.

Working on it, Nora. He did ask me "When are we going to New Orleans again?"

keep me posted.

Ok - I'm irritated. I do not take stalking lightly; It's scary, it's harmful, and people who do it don't get punished nearly harshly enough.

So my co-worker has been freaking out lately about an ex that she used to have a PPO on and has been telling everyone in the office about how he's threatened to kill her and kidnap her son etc etc etc. She had me block him from Face Book, she passed out his picture for everyone to see what he looked like so we could keep him out of the office.

So dude was just up here. And what does she do after I chase him away which she asked us to do? She goes after him, brings him back into the office to talk to him, berate him for lying to me - asks him to apologize to me (I told her no thanks - I don't want to be involved anymore than I already am), tells him she's blocked him from FaceBook, yadda yadda yadda, and THEN!!! Takes he roses he brought her and says to me, "I'm not throwing them away because I like roses and these are pretty. That doesn't mean I'm accepting them from him."

Uh, yeah it does. I mean, she told us that this dude threatened to kidnap her son from his school and that she had to move last year because he kept coming to her house and he has been doing this once a year for the past 10 years etc etc etc and she doesn't start another PPO and asks him back into this office to yell at him and tries to get me to interact with him?? Eff that sweetheart.

Oh Loward. Drama Queen to the max. That is just crazytown.