On my way to California...

I'm in Denver right now. Have a 3 hour layover on my way to CA to help out the Twin and her girls for a few days while the Twin gets back on her feet. Admittedly, last night, she sounded a good amount better than she had earlier in the day. So that was encouraging. The thing is, overnight seems to be her enemy lately. So I'm giving her a little longer, and then I'll call her to check and see what's going on. She was still waiting to get her blood tests back as of last night...takes a while to do the kind they're doing, apparently.

It's maddening.

Anyway, my flight to Denver was, um...entertaining. When I bought my ticket yesterday, I chose a seat in a row of 3 that were still open, and so the middle seat would conceivably be open between me and the guy in the aisle...

...UNLESS, someone bought that ticket between 4 p.m. yesterday and 7 a.m. this morning, that is.

So we sat there, fingers crossed, and had a pretty good go of it until this burly young dude got on, and sat down between us.

He was 25. His name was Bill.

And he was still drunk from last night's shenanegans, apparently. Hahahahahaumyeah.

He was actually really articulate for a dude who apparently blacked out at about 2 a.m., according to his recollection. He had been at a bachelor party for his sister's future husband. And he's on his way to LA today in a sudden manner, because his boss called him out to Las Vegas to work on his sport book. (Had to go to LA to meet with his boss first, before they both fly to Vegas on Monday, I guess.) Or something. I don't know what he did for a living, really. He said he works for a guy that's pretty rich (worth $70M), and his specific job is to bet on sports for him, basically. I dunno. The guy sitting on the other side of him said he sounded like a male prostitute to him. Hahahahaha! Yeah, I can see that.

But I didn't mind chatting with him. He was a little loud after a while. And he smelled like alcohol (when he first sat down and got settled, he leaned over and asked me, "Hey, do I smell like alcohol?" And I said, "Um, YES." But it wasn't gross. He immediately explained about the bachelor party thing, and I understood. And then we took off, and I was looking out the window (like I do), and he poked me and I looked over to see him making a KISSY FACE at me!

I couldn't help it, I laughed. And then I said, "Dude, you are weird!" And he agreed. And said he was kidding.

I guess it was a good thing we chatted the whole way, because HGTV was all reruns anyway. (Frontier Airlines = live TV on the plane!!!) And it was a distraction from all the crazy going on right now.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Twin, and helping her out now. Thanks to everyone for their prayers, good vibes, and responses to my "what do I doooooo?" questions this week. This kind of shit just scares me, is all. Having people giving me their feedback is grounding, somehow. :)

Ok, what would you do if you were me?

So the Twin thought she might get better, and then she didn't, and now today, she's getting worse.

She keeps telling me not to worry, but I don't know if that's a fried brain talking, or what.

Her oldest is pretty concerned, and was crying when they saw the doctor today, which made the doctor tell her that she shouldn't worry...everything will be fine!

But WHEN will it be fine? And should I fly out there? I'm pretty fucking pissed at myself for not flying out there today. I should've done that, dammit. I can fly out tomorrow, no problem. I told the Twin to let me know. She's waiting on her new prescription, and then they did a blood test that will apparently let them know if she has a blood infection, definitively (WHY DIDN'T THEY DO THAT 2 DAYS AGO???), and she'll let me know if I should come out after that.

I'm thinking I'll just cancel my hair appointment I have for tomorrow, and head out there without waiting to hear back from her. What do you guys think?

So, the Twin might have Sepsis

The Twin is showing signs of a pretty bad infection right now. (She had a breast reduction a couple of weeks ago. The signs of infection kicked in over the weekend.)

I'm worried about her, because I'm thousands of miles away, and can't do much from here except to worry. Her oldest daughter is worried, too. So the Twin and I looked up symptoms of Sepsis today while we were on the phone together, and she thinks she's ok while I'm pretty sure she's got it.

She has a fever.
She has chills, and was shaking pretty uncontrollably under a blanket this morning before taking the kids to school.
She had a rash on her legs yesterday, although she says it's gone today. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.
Her heartrate was elevated earlier today. She says she feels fine right now.

Other symptoms are dizziness and confusion, which she hasn't experienced so far. I told her to make sure her kids know what to watch for, and if anything like that happens, they need to call 911. She tried to tell me she'd just have her oldest drive her to the hospital, but I nixed that. Firstly, the oldest will be FREAKING OUT if her mom gets any sicker. Secondly, she needs to get immediate care if the confusion thing sets in. So 911, please, Twin. Don't be a fucking hero. I will pay the ambulance bill, if your insurance doesn't cover it, dammit!

For those that are unaware, the Twin has type 1 diabetes. And we're 38 years old. She's had 2 kids. So when shit like this pops up, I get a little bothered. She's healthy as hell, though. She walks a lot. She just had her blood panel done right before the reduction surgery, and her cholesterol numbers would make you jealous. (I was jealous!) She has been very good about seeing her endocrinologist for the last several years, keeping up with her blood testing levels and making sure she's on the right track with her insulin and blood sugars and all that.

But having diabetes just makes her more susceptible to this kind of stuff. So let's all encourage her to take care of her damned self in this case, shall we? Think good thoughts. Send healthy vibes. Do whatever voodoo you need to do. I told her that I will fly out there just to kick her ass, so I did my job already. Now it's my readers' turn. Give it all you got, guys!

Ok, but before you go away for the weekend...

...how about a small disaster in your yard?

A tree...no, wait...a LARGE tree fell over in our yard into our pool today. Took out our patio table, too. 

It was the largest tree that was up against the fence we share with our neighbor, Ed. In the fall, we had some drainage systems added to our whole yard because we had a problem with rotting wood and windows and stuff around the house. So french drain system went in, and apparently, all kinds of roots were cut.

This is the view from Ed's yard. The tree that fell was probably about 25 feet tall, I'd guess.

This is incredibly depressing to me, not only because of the mess it's made, and the loss of privacy between the two yards, but also because it was a healthy, happy, wonderful tree. And now it's just gone.

We're pretty sure that it was the installment of the french drain alongside the tree that caused it to become so weak. Not only did it have less ground to hold on to on wet days like today, but it's fucking ROOTS WERE HACKED. Now, I was unaware of that. I had no idea that a drain was even over there. I leave all the outdoor shit to Leo to handle because as soon as he starts talking about it, my brain wanders off and thinks about those awesome clothes I ordered from that British company I love and whether they'll show up anytime soon, and then whether or not I've exceeded my Weight Watchers points for the day/week, and which Friends rerun will be on tonight, etc, etc...

So I guess that was my mistake? Or lesson learned for Leo? I dunno.

But dammit. Now I REALLY need a good weekend away. Hope you're ready for me, Chicago!

Happy Memorial Day, all. And to any veterans, or families of vets that might be reading this, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. THANK YOU, for all you did, all you do, and all you continue to do in support of our great country.

Fine. I've joined Facebook.

As some of you might have already noticed, I finally broke down and joined Facebook.

It's not going to be a major visiting spot for me, so keep that in mind should you message me there, or whatever.

Also, if you know my real identity, please don't disclose it over there. I'm Faith Smith. Only Faith Smith. I will not be friending my mother in law, and I will not be friending aunts and uncles and such. Just my brother and sisters and brothers and sister in law, as far as family goes.

I'm still trying to feel my way around the site. Give me a little time to work it all out in my fucked up head. :)

This is mostly for XO. But other people might like it, too.

The dude who created/writes The Oatmeal has created a new website called Bearfood. Bearfood is a pretty simple concept, and kind of an awesome thing for people like me who need entertainment in various forms throughout the day, but doesn't always know where to look for it. Basically, there are a shit ton of links offered by random folks, and they're kept in a big "queue" for people to go look at them on, and then vote whether they like them. Or don't like them...I have a couple that I need to give the thumbs down on, now that I think about it.

Anyway, I just found a link through that queue that I thought might be interesting to at least one of my friends, if not more. So here ya go: How big is the sun?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronomer. And then I realized how much math and science would be involved, and I gave up that dream right quick, but it didn't change the fact that I fucking LOVE the universe and all the things that are in it. (Except people. Sometimes people piss me off, and I wish they would just stop it.) Seeing the display on that website of the planets/stars and their relative sizes? Absolutely fascinating to me.

Now, excuse me while I go spend hours upon hours of visiting different links and voting on them. It's Thursday. A traditionally quiet day in the office. So no worries...I got the time.

No longer designated to the back of a drawer in the closet...

Apparently, this Fifty Shades of Grey phenom has everyone and their mom (and grandma? And daughters. Etc, etc, etceteraaaaa...) looking into OTHER books that offer even better sex scenes and nasty bits. Better plots. Better writing. Better everything all around.

Brittany has a list of suggestions over in her Amuse Bouche section today that might prove useful to anyone looking for a new...eh em, high now that they've finished reading the Grey Trilogy.

Jen over at People I Want to Punch in the Throat was talking about suggestions people gave her to move on from the Grey Trilogy to the Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by Anne Rice in her weekly wrap up on Sunday. That one sounded interesting to me, and I might check it out later today. We'll see...

I swear I've run across other suggestions for follow-up reading after finishing with the Grey books, but I think they were in my Glamour magazine, and I don't have links to that stuff. Anyway...

I find this shift in literary interest fascinating, personally. Smutty books have been around for as long as people have been writing shit down on paper, obviously. But they were books that were considered a somewhat guilty pleasure for a lot of us. I haven't read one since I was living in Boston, and my entertainment during my lunch break was this book that someone had left behind in the breakroom at the Ann Taylor I worked at. I picked it up and read a few pages as a silly joke to myself one day, and eventually got to the point where I was taking it home with me to keep reading, so I could find out what happened next. It wasn't fabulously written, but it wasn't bad. And it kept me in suspense. And had a fair amount of smut involved, to boot. Still, I wasn't embarrassed to take it down to the food court to read while I ate my lunch there instead of in the breakroom.

My parents kept books like that hidden in their closet. (Not very well, as I know I remember finding their hiding place without issue. Not that I was looking for smutty books, of course! I was looking for dad's hidden Playboys, DUH.)

And I know that there's still a big interest in non-smutty works, for sure. I'm in the middle of a YA novel Spoiled by the girls over at Go Fug Yourself right now, actually, and have 3 of the Harry Potter books to read still, dammit. And I'm reading Jenny's (a.k.a. The Bloggess) book Let's Pretend This Never Happened right now, too.

But I'm thinking it might be time for a break from all that awesomeness. And time to hop on this fun, suddenly-acceptable to all smut train that seems to be rolling across the world. It IS summertime, after all. Why not embrace my inner vixen? Everyone else is doing it, right? :D

It's a good sign, is how I see it.

I like that whenever Leo accidentally butt-dials me, I never hear any kind of discussion/yelling/venting about how much of a cow and pain in the ass his wife is.

That always makes me feel good.