What's everyone up to?

Blah. I feel like crap. Woke up with a cold. Plus my voice is trying to leave me.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Hope u feel better Wilda love!

And i've never owned a real pet. Been in that endless battle with my parents- cat vs dog. My mom wants a dog. My dad refuses. He wants a cat. But i told them we can get both and i would care for them. But they just dont believe me.

Thanks Tasha

I had the best cat for 11.5 years. He passed away 2 weeks after my son was born. His name was Fidgit and he looked like a mini black panther minus the tail I've just now gotten to where I want another cat, but the hubby REFUSES. So we're planning on getting a dog but we can't seem to agree on a breed

Peace love n VA wrote:

Hope u feel better Wilda love!

And i've never owned a real pet. Been in that endless battle with my parents- cat vs dog. My mom wants a dog. My dad refuses. He wants a cat. But i told them we can get both and i would care for them. But they just dont believe me.

Tasha, tell your dad to look up toxoplasma gondii. Then ask him if he still wants a cat.

Wilda, there's this nifty little quiz on the Animal Planet website that might help you out:
http://animal.discovery.com/breedselector/dogselector.do

I have a dog and he's the best decision on having a dog ever! Love him to bits (even though he can be very annoying and super daft LOL)...i like cats but they make my eyes itch and swell up

Thanks Ash. It gave me 163 results though lol.

Ela, I'm allergic to cats too, but its just minor. Itchy, watery eyes. And I'll sometimes itch where I get scratched. but it's not constant so I can manage it. Well once I get used to being around a cat again that is.

The reason my hubby doesn't want a cat is b/c they come with the liter box. Even though i keep it scooped, it still bugs him and I refuse to have my cats outside. I've had a couple get hit by a car when I was younger.

toxoplasma gondii is the reason why women aren't supposed to mess with the liter boxes at all while pregnant.

My dad likes cats cause he said if an intruder comes in the cat will scratch the hell outta of em and also he doesn't have to put much effort into caring for them. He said fed a cat, pet it a few times and it's your best friend. But with a dog- it needs alot more attention and training. Specifically the walking. My dad just feels he will get stuck walking the dog and pickin up after it. But i'm arguing now- my dad physically can't walk a dog. He is pretty much home bound. yeah my dad can walk but not much and not far and not for long. He's strength gets him like to the bathroom and back. SO i'm the only one who can walk the dog. But they still dont believe i'll care for the dog. Which makes me mad, i love animals more than i love people. Like i would let an animal suffer. And i mean common- two people's lives are entrusted to me -my dad and my bf- and obviously i'm care taking for them good enough...they're both still alive. lol.

My mom doesn't want cats because our whole house except the kitchen and bathroom is carpet. She said a cat will ruin it, hair will be everyone and we have couches in the living room, she said a cat will ruin and scratch her furniture.

Wilda, I just thought it'd help give you some ideas.

lmao I figured that if he knew about toxoplasma gondii that maybe it'd help him decide he wants a dog instead. Of course, it's not as if all cats have it. But if they do they definitely could infect a human with it. Freaky stuff right there.

I'm also allergic to cats. As are most of my family members. But my mom would never have let us have a cat anyway. We have three dogs now, but only because we started piling them on after we took in my brother's chihuahua. My parents agreed to get my sister a dachshund about five years ago. AND NOW we have this little intruder my brothers like to call Snafu because... well my mom and my sister basically brought him home without telling anyone.

My mum's allergic to cats too, so we've never had a cat. Birds, fish and a dog

OK..this is one weird convo LOL

am in so much pain today!! damn that stupid swimming teacher for making us do 15 press-ups and 4 pull-ups on pool side!! -_-
if he's there next monday, i swear i will kill him!

lmao The Force is strong with this conversation.

Ela, I hope you feel better. I went snowboarding once and could hardly get out of bed the next morning, so I think I have a pretty good idea of the kind of aches you're talking about. Unfortunately I still had to go to school that day.

Thanks Ash ye...i went skiing last year and the next day i couldn't move! i had so many bruises on me lol...it was good fun though

am a little bit better today thanks

I've never been skiing. I would love to go but i wouldn't ski. lol. I just want to go to a ski lodge for the scenery and to play in the snow in the kiddy section. Then read and drink hot chocolate inside while sitting by a window and looking out at the mountains....awe sounds so peaceful.

I love skiing. I didn't go last year though, the snow was pretty bad...there's not point going to the ski slopes and skiing on the same 10 meters of snow as the other hundred people who turned up that day, it just gets crap (slight over exaggeration, the slope size is probably a bit bigger, but there's probably more people, so you get the point.) Maybe this year will be better *fingers crossed*

It's my last day of holidays before I start the Book Editing and Publishing course. I'm nervous and excited...haven't quite decided which emotion is winning out at the moment. I think I'll probably be nervous and excited until tomorrow afternoon when I know what to expect. I think the hardest part will be working out where the college is. I pretty much know the exact spot it's supposed to be in, thanks not only to a drive-by, but Google Maps! But as far as I remember there wasn't a sign over the door, so I hope on foot it's more clearly marked. At least I'll have a friend with me, so we can get lost together...she's not exactly confident in the city, but a friendly face is ALWAYS better when potentially getting lost

I'm to lazy to read all those messages right now and I haven't even started on my homework yet so i feel really lazy too

Kim I hope you have a fantastic first day of your class! I'm excited enough for the both of us so you can be a little nervous is you want! lol I think I may have to invest in a class like that someday.

I have never been skiing, but would love to go. Well maybe not skiing, but possibly snowboarding-although a funny yet not so funny picture of me falling and rolling down the slope just popped into my head so...maybe not.

Ela, I hope you feel better soon!

Ash, I was a bit overwhelmed with all those breeds they threw at me. 163, thats a lot to sift through lol

Rhia, I know the lazy feeling but homework is pretty important. Lazy or not it's due whenever your teacher said no matter what

Wilda85 wrote:

I have never been skiing, but would love to go. Well maybe not skiing, but possibly snowboarding-although a funny yet not so funny picture of me falling and rolling down the slope just popped into my head so...maybe not.

Somehow I flipped onto my back when I went snowboarding. I think it took me over an hour to get down. And this was on the bunny slope. Yeah, snowboarding... not the thing I'm best at. I haven't been since (and will never) again.

Kim- that sounds like an awesome class! I hope you have a great first day

I'm an emotional wreck today. I've been emailing my friend/shrink....lol and we just vent to each. And stuff came up, emotions and thoughts i didnt even know i had. I just let it alllll out in the email and so my emotions have been raw from them . Then i went to the doctors with my dad. While he's results from testings was good, we also got no so good news. The PET scan he took last week showed NO cancer cells anywhere in his body. But his colon cancer, it spread outside of his colon meaning if it went untreated it would of spread EVERYWHERE. The doc said it was an aggressive cancerous tumor. They removed it all when my dad had surgery. But since it was aggressive and it was cancerous he needs chemo. The doc said the type of chemo my dad would get would be for a few hours through IV once a week for 6 weeks and then 2 weeks off. This cycle for 6 months. But of course there is side effects. So i asked the doc if my dad is physically strong enough to withstand treatment. The honest truth is my dad just isn't strong enough right now. He's been home bound the past few weeks walking only to the kitchen to get something or to the bathroom. He is just weak without strength. But the doc said its been a month since his surgery and he has recovered from that so if he isn't strong enough now he probably never will be. It's just the way my dad will be now after everything he's been through but the trauma of surgery is over. So we go back in 3 weeks to tell the doc our decision. Right now my dad doesn't want to do chemo at all. My mother is just mad as hell saying she wants a second opinion. But, i like this doctor. He's being honest and looking out for my dad. He's in a network with ALL my dads doctors. He' seen my dad everyday in the hospital. It's not like a doctor reading a chart and treating him like a number. He's a good guy. But it's a lot to take in. We also have to consider money... we have a 50 dollar co-payment then plus transportation money... its just alot to pay weekly for 6 months .. .money we dont have. I can't work and care-take for two people. My dad and bf can't work. ANd even if the bf could work...he cant cause then medicaid wont pay the hospital bills.

Everything that happened at the docs today with my dad...It makes me nervous though about my bf... because his surgeon was insistent on the fact his brain tumor wasn't benign but it wasn't malignant either. Since it's inconclusive what the tumor actually was, I'm afraid they will want the bf to go down the chemo path too. But we just don't have the money for it. He's medicaid is pending but the medicaid representative said he'll most likely just get the hospital and physicians bills paid- not full coverage after the fact. It's just scary. So much right after each other.

Oh Tasha, I am SO SORRY! HUGS! My sister went through that with her dad. Still is. I wish I can just snap my fingers and make everyone well and all the problems go away. You guys don't deserve this. hell, no one does. Life truely sucks sometimes. I Pray that whatever happens, that both your dad and hubby get better and pull through everything. With you by their side, they have a better chance. Try to stay strong hun but come here and vent and let loose as much as you need to! We're all here for you and support you. Sending lots of love and hugs!

Tasha, I hope things start looking up for you and your family really soon. *hugs* Stay positive and try and let the money issues work themselves out for now. Just focus on being there for your dad and bf as they heal and don't sweat the little stuff.

Has anyone heard from L. Dragomir (can't remember her name)? I know she lives in NZ and I haven't seen her post on here since the Earthquake. I hope she is okay. I just scanned through some pictures. It's devastating. My heart breaks for all in NZ.

Thanks Wilda and Ash. I feel bad venting sometimes because these past few months I've had nothing but sad news and stuff and always posting about all these medical stuff on. Who knows maybe somewhere is going through stuff or similar situations or worse and it saddens em to read in detail about it? I dont know. But i just can't help it. SB is therapeutic to me. I heart you all!

You know Wilda i seen that on the news paper the other day and it was ringing bells in my head but like always i ignored it and went about my day.I knew NZ sounded familiar for some reason but i just didn't remember why. I hope everyone we know from NZ is okay. And i think L.Dragomir's name is Libby.. though i may be mistaken. Someone else might want to verify that....

Tasha, don't feel bad about venting, it's what we're here for.

Wilda & Tasha: Yeah, L. Dragomir (Libby) does live in NZ, but she's in Auckland, (north island). I got worried abot her in September last year when NZ had that other big earthquake...but both quakes have been in CHristchurch (South Island) so she'll be ok. I feel the same way Wilda, it's devastating. We've pretty much had consant news cooverage over here, especially now that over a hundred aussie emergency crew have been sent over to help with the search stuff. It's horrible seeing the damage. My family and I were in Christchurch 2 years ago. It kills me to think of that beautiful city ruined, not to mention all the loss of life. It's so sad.



On a different note. I had my frist day of the Book Editing and Publishing course, and I LOVED it. We had 2 hours of editing in the morning, and 2 hours of publishing in the afternoon...pretty much introductory stuff for the moment, settling in, defining what editors and publishers do etc. But it was really fun. there's only 16 people in the class too, so it's nice and small. Our homework is to go to a bookstore and look at a couple of books we usually wouldn't pick up (aka, something out of our favourite genres)...I think it'll be a difficult homework assignment

Hey guys
I'm good. Thanks for thinking of me.
It was weird how I found out there was another earthquake. I read a message on Richelle's wall. The news box on google didn't really catch my eye because since the first one in Sept there's been a couple of pretty big ones but none as huge and devastating as the one on Tuesday.

Had a busy week. I've been working at my usual job and helping out at orientation for freshmen at my uni. Spent rest of the time watching the news and usual tv.
There's been constant earthquake coverage and its pretty gripping tv.


Kim - your course sounds really fun, assignment doesn't seem hard.
Can you do non fiction? Read the back cover of this book called "no logo" yesterday that seemed interesting about pop culture.

Libby: That's so strange that you didn't really find out about the earthquake until Richelle's messages. I've got a friend from Primary school who lives in Auckland, and she was over here the day of the earthquake, she kept telling us there'd been hundreds of "aftershocks" from the Sept. one...we had this massive discussion about what consitutes an aftershock when they've been going on for months and are about the size of what others would consider normal earthquakes.

Yeah, We can do non fiction. In fact, that'd probably be better for me, because there isn't a lot of fiction that I avoid. Sure, I have areas of fiction that I'd prefer to read over others, but for the homework, it'd probably be better looking at some books I would never have considered picking up.