the cape weekend

so the big weekend on the cape was nice.

we got to the detroit airport way early for our 9am flight on friday. there were like 3 people in line so we had a lot of time to kill. it was ok, but seeing as i had gotten like 2 hours or sleep the night before i was pretty wired, esp after my venti latte.

oh, the entire detroit shock team was on our flight too. i remember standing in line for boarding and suddenly being surrounded by 10 foot tall woman. alex leans over and whispers "i think the shock is on our flight, pretty sure that's bill lampeer over there" (or whatever his name is).

it was confirmed for us when alex started recognizing coaches that were taking their seats in first class. that's right. the coached were in first class. the team? in coach with the rest of us. i turn to him and said "you think the pistons sit in coach??" top which he answered "they have their own plane." now tell me, is this fair? the poor girls should at least get first class!

we arrived in boston without incident, early in fact! we had to wait for-eve-er to get our bags. i hate checking bags. but thanks to that no-liquid thing we had to. i also allowed me to indulge in my over packing. always dangerous. at least the shock didn't have to get their own bags. there were a team of 4 or 5 guys loading up. and up. and up. i'm surprised any of our luggage fit on the plane. at least it left no room for the snakes. ahem.

so we went over to hertz to get our car which had been upgraded to a volvo wagon. as long as it had the gps i dont' care what it was! we managed to meet up with jon (yay!) and had lunch then we departed when he had an appointment and then we started the drive to the cape.

it wasn't so bad. everybody told us about ow bad the traffic would be. it took about 3 hours. not too shabby, better than i expected. got to stop for a latte (woo!) and then it was my turn to drive. all was well until the ... bridge. why did i not think that through? i have an irrational fear of bridges. i used to have reoccurring nightmares about them in fact. so when we rounded the corner and i saw it tears sprung to my eyes. no joke. this... this is the bridge in my nightmares. oh god. alex offered pulling over but we couldn't, there was no where.

i made it. barely. it was horrifying.

anyhow. we got the place and checked in and realized how gigantic it was. we found our room, which was like a small apartment what with the kitchen, several rooms, washer and dryer... crazy! unfortunately we were on the bottom floor so it was all tile. that was a little yucky, but i'm not complaining.

the weather was quite chilly and dreary and sort of rainingish Friday. We had a few hours to tell before the reception to we trekked to one of the indoor pools (incidentally where EVERYONE ELSE STAYING THERE WAS OF COURSE) and chilled in the hot tub and whatnot. it was nice.

we got ready for the reception and headed over to the mansion. we had the entire first floor and the patio/balcony area that overlooked the ocean.i saw my boss and got to meet her husband. eventually met the others on my team and basically we all hung together most of the night. my coworkers wife and alex really hit it off and bonded about cars and whatnot. go figure! they are great people. trish and larry finally got there a bit later and the first thign she asked me was about the bridge and how i handled it. god i love her.

anyhow, it was a great night, we all went to the pub downstairs after and it was god to meet more people that i work with! crazy you know?

the next morning we met trish and larry to go have breakfast. where we also met up with my boss and her husband. we all talked about our plans for the day, since we didn't have a company event until 3pm. trish and i took off to get pedicures. the boys immediately went their own ways (boys are funny that way). we all met up for some pool time, it was a gorgeous day. then before we knew it it was time to head to the clambake.

the owner of my company gave a little talk and i realized how lucky i was to be part of a company where the employees are appreciated. it also made me REALLY realize just HOW crappy my last position was. alex and i both commented on that when we was done speaking.

there was food and drink aplenty then on to the beach for a fire and games. they even had a guy out there singing and playing the guitar. a few of us had a running bet on how many jimmy buffet songs he'd actually play.

then we moved to the tent for dancing and dessert. we were all going to head for the pub but there were FOUR weddings on premises that day so it was a bit packed. no matter, most people were leaving early in the morning so we left. by this time it was about 1am and we were starving. (having eaten at 3) so the 4 of us took off to find food. only everything closes in that area at like 9pm. we managed to find some pretty decent chinese food and then called it a night.

met trish and larry again for breakfast before we parted ways. it was sad. i love trish and i've not seen her since she was in my wedding! way way way too long!

we made record time back to boston and then met up with my little brother (since my mother had put the kibosh on it on friday) and ate lunch with him and headed back to logan. now, 2 hours early for detroit was MORE than enough. 2.5 hours for logan? not so much. good thing our plane was late getting in or else we would have missed it.

overall, long days of travel for basically one day at the cape. not complaining though it was a HUGE thing for them to give us and provide. amazing in fact.

it did, however, make us decide not to take a trip for our anniversary. we had wanted to go to seattle or washington or colorado. but it was going to be a 3-day weekend. and to go that far away for 3 days? not so much worth it. especially when we have to pay for things. alot easier when it's all paid for!

so, we'll be laying low. no plans yet, but it's all good. i really can't believe that it's almost been a year!

here's a picture of us getting ready to leave sunday. it was the last one left on the roll of the disposable we've been trying to use up for a year. our brand spanking new fancy camera should be arriving any second via fedex. (working for that big company that alex does has it's perks. :)

what's that smell?

so i'm in the kitchen toasting my mini bagelm cutting my tomato and peeling my orange while my latte heats up. i'm gazing out the kitchen window listening to the children playing in the yard of the house behind us. it's a lovely morning.

then i'm distracted by a smell... hmm... what is that? smoke! what the heck, is someone BBQing at 8am? wait, i can see some smoke, it's outside the window, it's nearby, it's ... WAIT it's coming from MY kitchen, but the toaster is over on the other side...

OMG my latte maker is smoking!

i switch it off and nonchlalantly call out "honey! my latte maker is broken."

"how do you know?" he answers.

"oh from the smoke billowing out of it."

so of course he has to do his manly duty of inspection to make sure it's not something stupid i did apparently. people, this is the simplest contraption on the face of the earth, i did NOT mess it up.

it also happens to make a pretty decent latte for what it is.

so he poked and prodded and turned it back on and explaimed "yeah this has to go."

so i'm a little sad. apparently we're going shopping today now though!

back to normal

haven't written much because frankly there hasn't been much going on.

pretty normal and that's good! i'm finishing up work on the LAST magazine. woo! i'm pretty excited about that. i won't miss this project. i will miss the paychecks, but they just aren't worth it anymore.

we're about to start in on the busy weekends! which is good but also frustrating. people, we NEED to finish the kitchen floor tiling. badly. and before it starts to get cold and since it's michigan that could happen, oh, next week. so that's frustrating me a little bit.

so friday morning we're off to the cape! for a long all-expenses paid weekend sponsored by my new company. this is exciting because well, it's free. it's a trip (to the cape!) and i'll get to meet my co-workers. also, since a very dear frien dof mine is one of my coworkers, it's especially nice. and i have not seenher since she was a bridesmaid in my wedding! also, since we have to fly into boston we get to have lunch with another dear friend who i have not seen since he was one of my MOHs at my wedding! very exciting. i will take photos, i promise. i don't ever take enough photos. i also want to finish a roll that has pictures on in from the trip-from-hell to the place-that-shall-not-be-named, as well as our visit to see my other MOH this summer and pictures from this past weekend when the boys chose to recreate something that alex say on mythbusters. ha. nice.

anyhoo... soon it will also be our anniversary! i can't believe it's almost been a year already. we will be going away for a long weekend that will be a "surprise" for me, altough i've already figure out it will be a sort of scouting mission as well to one of the places we've talked about moving to. so i'm exicited about that as well.

and also, someone's birthday immeditately follows the anniversary and i need to figure out gifts! for both occasions. he is THE hardest person to shop for. ever.

as well, so things are calm and normal and good. i love it!

eek! except for the fact that i thought i was having a good hair day. i think i was wrong!

probable

prob·a·ble adj.

1. Likely to happen or to be true.


2. Likely but uncertain; plausible.

let's go with the second definition, shall we? yes i think we shall.

well that's the verdict people, i have "probable" ms.

we met with the neurologist yesterday. i love that doctor truly. i am so lucky i got in with him. i'm still not sure how we pulled that off, but i'm ever so thankful.

so after entering his office and sitting at the desk with him he took a deep breath and told me my MRI was completely unchanged.

we even got to look at it on his computer instead of the usual films which i can never really understand. this was like 3d. and it was my brain. so that was a little weird. but still fun. sort of.

he pointed out what was normal and what wasn't. it was great. i thought, whew. we're in the clear.

he examined me (i kicked some serious butt in the exam i'll tell you. (thanks yoga! i missed you and i'm so glad we're friends again)

then he started talking about meds. and if we wanted to start them and went over the whole "there is no cure, only prevention" deal. yes, yes i know.

but, wait. why are we talking meds? i thought i was all set? what's going on. alex grabs my hand. doesn't make me feel very reassured. so i ask him, "do you consider me diagnosed?" suddenly that was really unclear.

he goes on to explain what my friend google had already told me. that there are many levels to diagnosis. there is no definite one, only "clinically-positive" and to be clinically-positive i needed to have a minimum of 5 lesions (which i, in fact, do). and have had at least 2 separate attacks on different areas. that's where it's fuzzy. the optic neuritis was pretty definite but nothing else has been enough to be called an attack so he cannot deem me clinically-diagnosed.

i was, however, diagnosed with "probable ms" and i could start meds if i wanted to.

well, no, thankyouverymuch, i'm not really interested. we had discussed this at length several times and had also discussed it with him several times and we all agree. until i NEED it, we're going to wait. there's a possibility i won't ever need it. there's a possibility i will and we're playing with fire i know.

it also effects other decisions as far as our new little family goes. and if/when we're going to try to do anything about expanding it.

it's always interesting isn't it?

today's pic? proof that my husband is super sweet.

sobering

we spent the weekend in kentucky visiting alex's brother greg.

this is probably the 4th time in the 3 years that we've been together that we've made the trip. it's not too far, about 4 hours-ish each way. greg is the second oldest of the 7, making him 47 years old, 16 years older than alex. he's a pretty cool guy.

he's also been living with MS for a little over 10 years.

now, i don't know all the details of everyting but i do know that he let the disease progress for awhile before going to the doctor. it had gotten to the point that most people thought he was a raging alcoholic since he'd fall all the time, black out sometimes and just generally was losing it.

it took greg a long time to face it himself. he was also pretty far along by the time ha was diagnosed. when we see him now everyone is very impressed with how he's doing and are quick to remind me i never saw him at his low.

i was, truthfully, very impressed with greg and how he lives on his own (i guess his wife left him after his diagnosis) and manages to get around using the bus system and really, it's quite impressive.

that is, until the time we visited him right after i had my LP. seeing greg then took on a whole new meaning to me. seeing how the MS has effected him. how he repeats things a lot. how eating is very difficult. how he has a hard time walking even with his braces. how one eye doesn't look straight ahead anymore and he can't read things unless they are up close. how he's kind of hard to understand until you get used to the slurry was he talks.

yes, that was a much different visit for me. knowing that could be my future.

then i was diagnosed. then un-diagnosed i guess.

then i had my latest MRI last week. i see the neurologist tomorrow morning. and for some reason i'm not feeling good about it.

seeing greg this weekend was... hard.

it's hard for me not to look at him and see all that he doesn't have now instead of focusing on all his HUGE accomplishments and to be amazed at how far he's come. i know that's not the right attitude, but i just can't shake it.

to hear him talk about his frustrations and what he "used to have" ...

he's one of a kind

our cat, griff, is priceless. we rescued him as an abandoned cat that a friend of alex's had found. he's so sweet. he's deaf and has TWO extra toes on each front paw and one on each back paw. he's also huge. and not fat, just a really BIG cat. he's all muscle.

we had to bring him to the vet yesterday for shots and nail trimming. i got the cat bag out to get ready. as we were getting ready to go we couldn't find him. now it's been a long time since he's "gone for a ride" so we didn't think he'd be avoiding the bag the way isaac was.

after a few minutes we found him.

guess he was ready to go!