Even with my hospital stay earlier this month, I’ve managed to post a lot this month. Of course it helps when I can’t leave the apartment since the heat makes my symptoms worse.
But if you missed anything I posted this month, here’s a listing for your reading pleasure:
No photos published on Flickr this month - didn’t really take anything new except for some hospital pix of my lumbar puncture healing and such. Not really stuff to share. LOL
It has been a bit difficult writing this month. Whatever is impairing my nervous system and my motor skills also makes me feel like I have a wad of cotton in my head. I also seem to black out randomly while I’m sitting on the couch typing.
Thanks again to everyone who takes the time to read my writings and articles. I really do appreciate the support and feedback!
This is hard to explain, but even though I grew up an only child, I do have three brothers courtesy of my dad. I’m the eldest of all his children, but after I discovered my dad was still alive, I found out he had two sons after me (actually 3 by the time he passed away, but that’s another story).
Anyways, I met the two sons a few times, but then we drifted apart for many years. A few years ago, around the time my dad and I began reconnecting, so did the eldest of the brothers and I.
So I’d like to take this post to wish my brother Scott Jr a very happy birthday today.
I’m sure you’re already celebrating out at some Whitewater bar, but when you do get a chance to see this, I just want you to know that I’m glad we reconnected. I’m very happy you turned your life around and I’m very proud of you and the stuff you’ve accomplished, especially with going back to school and doing so well there. Proof positive you’re never to old to make positive change in your life if you really want it.
Since I can’t be up there to buy you a round, I hope this video will suffice.
Luv ya bro!
PS: It was either this or the e-card with the cute singing mice….
I was finally able to take a proper shower yesterday for the first time since being hospitalized. Don’t get me wrong - I did my best to clean up and all in between, but I couldn’t take a full on shower until my bandages came off and such.
In the hospital, the best I could do was the general wash-up with a cloth in the sink. Even with my hair, they gave me a showercap thingy that had shampoo built-in. You microwave it, put it on your head and massage in for a few minutes. Then you towel dry with no rinsing. As I’m sure you can imagine, it left a lot to be desired in the non-greasy hair department.
So being able to stand under the running water and wash all the oil out of my hair, feeling the water run everywhere and being able to properly wash was… heavenly, to be honest. Almost like sex with hygiene.
Seriously, building up a good shampoo lather and then slathering on the Pantene deep conditioner (bought on sale with a coupon, of course). You could almost hear my hair take a deep breath from the removal of all the grime.
It would have been better if I hadn’t run out of my Tramp shower gel from Lush, though. I ended up having to use some of the hospital shower gel. Rhon uses a lavender smelling gel, and lavender makes me sneeze, so I didn’t have much of a choice. But clean is clean. And at least I could scrub off enough iodine from the spinal tap that I don’t look like a victim of a bad spray-on tan attack anymore.
I’ll just feel even better when I can smell like my lightly patchouli-scented self. When I’m a bit more mobile, I’ll have to trek over to the mall and grab a bottle of the Tramp. Or I suppose I could order it online, but I love getting the free samples at the store when you actually visit. Not to mention shipping charges online are almost as much as the damn bottle of the stuff.
But for now, I’m clean. It’s a simple thing, but it makes me happy.
Speaking of getting wet, the bad thunderstorms are heading in so I’m gonna head offline for a bit. Ciao!
So who watched the Tony’s last night? I had finally gotten out of the hospital and was all settled in to Twitter while watching the show when the modem went down.
* sigh * I spend all those days in the hospital without the computer and I’m not even home a day and I’m foiled again.
Honestly, I’m not too vested in who wins but I love watching all of the musical numbers. I think one of my favorites from last night was the cast of Rock of Ages. Of course, I may be biased, since I’m a fan of hair metal anyways, but I really enjoyed the montage they did. I also loved it when the emcee character picked on Liza Minnelli and she was squirming in her seat. It was funny and she was such a good sport. I hope I get to see the show sometime. It looks like a lot of fun.
So does the new revival of Hair - which won the Tony last night for Best Revival of a Musical (yay!!!). That has long been a favorite of both Rhon and I - it was one of the reasons we first bonded as friends almost twenty years ago. The cast performed the title song on last night’s awards and it was amazing! I’m a bit envious of Anne Hathaway (who seems to be the go-to girl for audience participation at awards shows lately) - those lead guys can crawl on my chair anytime. LOL But seriously, it looks like a fantastic production.
Not many people know this but when I was a kid, I actually wanted to be a Broadway singer. I really did. Some rocking musical like Jesus Christ Superstar or Hair. All through high school I took musical theater classes and acted in any musical the drama dept put on. It’s still one of those not-quite-forgotten dreams, even if I’m just a background singer for one show. Who knows…could still happen someday.
But I digress…I was talking about the Tony’s, right? Overall, I’d give the show a big thumbs up for being entertaining - certainly a 1000% more so than the MTV Movie Awards that was on a few weeks back. I thought Neil Patrick Harris was a fabulous host - probably my second favorite Tony host ever. Only Hugh Jackman a few years back topped NPH, imho.
If you missed it, I did find these recordings on YouTube (the quality of the Rock of Ages clip is a little degraded, but still watchable).
Last Tuesday was probably one of the scariest days of my life. I was sitting at home waiting for Rhon to come home with the car so I could go to work when I suddenly lost all motor skills on the right side of my body. Everything went numb and I dropped the cup I was holding. Rhon came home as feeling was coming back and took me to the emergency room which admitted me to the hospital. I spent the night and then the next morning started the barrage of tests, including a CAT scan. By this time I had about 85% of my mobility back, but my blood pressure was super high and tests had revealed some fluid around my heart, which was also enlarged.
Wanting to rule out a stroke, they then sent me for a MRI, which revealed what my neurologist describes as “lesions on the brain” - WTF? Oh and it appears I have a cyst on the brain that I was born with but it seems to be benign. At this point, I have no idea what is going on. I mean it appears to be getting worse with each test. So my neurologist says the only way to rule out what he thinks it is (which I’d rather not say until I know for sure one way or another) is to do a lumbar puncture - also known as a spinal tap. I agreed because I want to know for sure. I will say it was less fun than the movie of the same name, but the drugs are probably better. I can’t say if the amp went to 11, though.
I ended up having two because the first one couldn’t reach deep enough into my spine to withdraw enough fluid. So I had my first spinal tap in the morning on Friday and the second one a few hours later with a bigger needle down in radiology. It left a nice sized hole in my back that I had Rhon take a cell phone pic of later when she came to visit. Thankfully, for the second one, my back was still numbed from the first one, so with the additional lidocane, I felt almost nothing except some intense pressure and random nerve zaps in my butt, like static shock.
I think I creeped out the doctor doing the second one though because I asked to see my spinal fluid. Well, when else would I get the opportunity to see it? It was like water, with a few bubbles in the vial, but a bit thicker. I kinda wish I could’ve gotten a photo of it.
Anyways, I made a jailbreak this weekend and am home now. The sweetest thing is when I sat down on the couch, Leeshka jumped up, sniffed my face and gave me a big kiss on the nose. She hasn’t left my side since I’ve been home. She even follows me into the bathroom. If I make a noise while sleeping (which I’ve done quite a bit of since I’ve been home), I’ll feel her gently sniff my face or give me kissies and then she’ll go back to sleep pressed right up against me.
I’m still awaiting the results of the taps and all the blood work they’ve done. I’m also on five prescriptions in the meantime. I have a lot of pain in my lower back and have a few problems with walking and random slurring of words. But I would say right now I’m at about 90-95% of normal most of the time.
I think the waiting to hear the results is the worst part right now. But it’s a double-edged sword. If it is what the doctor thinks it is, it’s going to require a major lifestyle change. If it’s not, then I’m back to square one with no idea what really caused the body meltdown - or what those lesions are all about.
But if you’re a spiritual person and can spare some room in your prayers for me, I’d really appreciate it. I just feel really scared and I’m not sure what’s going on.
I was doing some maintenance behind the scenes on this blog today when I checked my trackbacks to see who was linking to me recently. I happened upon a blog using me to illustrate people who use their blogs to review things or promote companies without being clear they were doing so. Huh?
“The Journal also spotlighted an “Internet entrepreneur [who] is building a business around selling blog posts for money.” In one of them, he paid bloggers $11 to tout an apparel sale at Sears. Check out zengrrl’s blog. Oi.”
And he linked back to my contest/freebies category where last year I linked to several blogs that Sears was using to run contests because the rules required the links as part of the terms of entering the contests.
Wow, talk about misinformed. So, of course I had to clear the air on his blog, but since the comment is awaiting moderation, I’ll repeat it verbatim here (typos and all):
A few things about you including me in this post’s commentary, if I may.
First, the blog you linked to is my PERSONAL blog, not any of my professional ones. There is a difference. Therefore if I link to a contest in my personal blog because if it is part of the rules of entry, that is my choice to make. And I fail to see how linking to a contest makes me a “pay to pitch person”. Sears never paid me so much as a penny to link to all those contest pages.
I do not get paid for anything I write in my own blog. Well, other than a few piddly cents for a the adsense and Amazon links. But if I ever chose to do so, I would be upfront up about it.
And while I do get paid for blogging for other blogs, because that is my job, I get paid by the owners of said blogs, not by any companies I may happen to reference or review.
Perhaps next time you might want to verify your facts before you vilify me incorrectly as a “pay to pitch” person. I am a spokesperson on zengrrl dot com for nobody but myself, and I have never made any money off anything I’ve ever written on my personal blog.
I fail to see the connection between me linking to a blog as a contest stipulation and me being paid to pitch the company (which FYI, I never directly linked to Sears, nor was I paid anything by them for the mention…cheap bastards LOL). But I do feel if one is going to reference a blog post as an example of being paid to pitch, then the reference should be accurate, which in this case, it was not.
And for the record, anytime anyone chooses to be pay to post on their personal blog, as long as they are upfront about it, I don’t have a problem with it. I just choose not to on this site. And that is my choice to make.
Also, anything I write about on this blog is my own personal opinion and not that of any blog I get paid to write for. I would think that would be self-explanatory, but I guess some people seem to be unclear that this is my personal blog owned solely by myself.
Even though I am a paid writer for others, I am still entitled to my own thoughts on my own blog.
If you want to read my writings and opinions that I get paid for, there’s a whole list of blogs to the right. If you have any questions on my review policies, just ask. But at least take the time to get the facts straight before using me as an example of anything, especially accuracy and disclosure in blogging. Sheesh!
Writes about Travel, Orlando, Las Vegas, Entertainment, Tech/Web Design/Social Media and whatever else strikes her fancy. Scroll down for all the links.
In 2008, I was twice named one of the "Top 50 Travel Writers on Twitter" - which I think is basically a nice way of saying I may talk too much but I do occasionally have something relevant to say. Thanks y'all! I will happily accept the kudos.
Truly believes age ain't nuthin' but a number; loves 70's disco & funk, 80's hard rock & new
wave, 90's alt-rock & pop, LOTR, Star Wars, RHPS,
Joss Whedon, Laurell K. Hamilton; deeply passionate; loves animals - hates insects;
gourmet chef's worst nightmare; gets easily annoyed by fat prejudice and
sexist men; never gives third chances; refuses to live in the past.
I'm on a first name basis with my inner child, and I believe we were put on
this earth as unique individuals for a reason but that reason isn't to bomb
the hell out of each other...though I will concede there are some people out there who deserve a really good spanking.
You have won the respect of all of your fellow travelers, whether they share your travel style or not. You can spot a travel bargain from a thousand miles away, but you are more likely to tell everyone about it than take advantage of it yourself.
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Michelle Snow. Journalist. Photographer. Web Designer. Graphic Designer. Traveler. Couchsurfer. Geekgirl. Browncoat. Musicologist.
