I tell you the hits come in bunches. Two weeks ago my dad was in the hospital, luckily it ended up being OK but it was stressful while he was there. Then I got news that a friend’s daughter had died in a car accident. Then a friend of mine did an extremely hurtful thing to another friend — so hurtful that it will have a lasting effect on my friendship with her, if the friendship can even be salvaged. This weekend I just needed to clear my head so I could regroup and refocus after this wild ride I’ve been on the past few weeks.

Today was a great day. I finally started to see some light. My eyes had a slight sparkle once again. I didn’t spend the day in tears. Then, this evening I e-mailed a friend to ask if she could do me a favor when I’m gone. She said yes, because she’s such a great friend. But, then she told me her dad passed away on Saturday from cancer. My friend lives in Wisconsin and all I want to do right now is give her a hug. I just want to share my shoulder so she can cry but I can’t.

Can I get a refund on the ticket price for this ride? I’m really not liking it.

Till later…

I had a great labor day weekend. Went with some friends to Spokane Friday night for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants — PF Changs. Saturday morning these same friends and I headed out to the St Joe river to join our families camping. The weather was perfect all weekend. Saturday a bunch of us girls decided to float the river. Some of my friends know the story of my last float trip — this was 100x’s better than that!!! LOL But, everyone else was miserable (when your last experience was as bad as mine was this was a great one). After walking, err sliding, down the gravel covered rain washout on the side of the cliff we got in the frigid glacier water for our float. Unfortunately the river was so dang low that the floating ended up with quite a bit of walking down the river. But, I still had fun.

Sunday we spent relaxing on the river jumping in and out of the ice that was supposed to pass as a rushing river for quick dips to cool off. A friend suggested swimming up to the deep swim pool which sounded fun. It was, except when I was fighting the current trying to swim upriver to get there. I finally just enjoyed the swimming and would swim upriver then float down to just swim upriver and repeat the fun. Which was all great until I was driving home Sunday evening and couldn’t lift my arms because the muscles hurt so bad. LOL Swimming upriver is HARD work. LOL

Duh.

Anyway, I came home Sunday evening so I could work on Monday. That kind of took a back seat when I got the call Monday morning that my dad was on the way to the ER. Just really ruined my day. I had planned on having lunch with a friend and she ended up locking herself out of her house which we took as a sign that I just needed to refocus and not be at home worrying about my dad.

The ER visit wasn’t so worrisome that I would normally be as nervous as I am. But, with the transplant surgery date looming it’s scary because if he gets sick the surgery could be canceled.

I talked to my mom this evening. It seems this all started because my dad has a toothache. So, tomorrow they have an ambulance transporting him to a dentist office for X-rays then the dentist will come to the hospital to work on him. He also has some fluid build-up on his lungs because he missed one day of dialysis last week because he was so sick. So, they are watching him for that.

He sounds horrible on the phone. I’m worried and keep getting distracted so it’s taking a lot to stay on focus for work. Which is good until someone decides to call me then I get distracted all over again. He’ll be in the hospital until at least Thursday.

I’m just stressed right now. Things were getting stressful anyways then this just tipped the scales for me. I know, I’ll get through it, but it’s still rough.

On a more positive note: the weather is gorgeous, this weekend was awesome, some friends invited me to go out on the lake later this week, I’m going out Friday night, and have plans with friends Saturday night.

Till later…

We didn’t get a call today from the transplant team. So, we’re still waiting. My dad & sister’s contact was on vacation this week. So, we’re hoping the team still reviewed their case and she’ll call on Monday. But, now we’re wondering if we’re another week off. They were supposed to review the case last Friday but the nursing home is pretty disorganized and couldn’t find his TB test results to fax to the team. So, he had to have the test redone which put us out a week. The team got the results this past Monday so hopefully they looked at them and made their decision today and we’ll get our answer Monday.

Otherwise it’ll be another week.

Till later…

I just need to complain, OK. One of the joys of living alone — there’s no one there to vent to. So, I guess you’ll have to listen. PLEASE. I just need someone to listen.

So, first, I need to find a chiropractor here in town. My back has been spasming for over a week now. This sucks. It’s going to be a while until I’m back in CA and can get adjusted. Ice only helps so much.

Second, I have decided, and you can hold me to this, I will NOT ever buy a condo. EVER. If/when I move from this apartment I want space. I do NOT want to be able to hear my neighbors annoying dog bark. I do NOT want to hear my neighbor’s music. I do NOT want to have to think about whether it’s too late to run my dishwasher or washing machine. I do NOT want to think that my neighbor are listening to me take a shower. And, I want to be able to hose off my front porch not have to sweep it.

Yes, I said I’m living here until I die or can hire someone to move me. I’m leaning towards hiring someone to move me. I’m also leaning towards acreage somewhere where my neighbors can’t bug me. Am I really that anti-social? No. I just want to be able to work without having to listen to a dog that’s not mine bark. I want to be able to watch a movie and listen to it not the movie my neighbor is listening to. I want to be able to sit on my porch or have my windows open and not have to smell someone else’s cigarette smoke. I want to be able to run to the mailbox in my pajamas. I want to be able to go to the grocery store and not worry about how much I’m buying and whether I’ll be able to carry it all up the freaking stairs in one trip.

I love where I live, don’t get me wrong. But, dang it, I’m not an apartment person. All I can say is at least I figured this out BEFORE buying something!

Till later…

(I really do feel better now !)

When I moved I got a new phone number, pretty normal, right? The first week I had the phone I got a ton of calls. Unfortunately, none of them were for me. Most annoying, they were all collection calls and the people on the other end very rudely did not believe me when I told them they had the wrong number.

For the past seven weeks the calls for this other person have continued. Mostly from one creditor and luckily I think I’ve finally convinced them that this person doesn’t live here. But, this week the calls have gotten weird. Now I’m getting calls from stores that her “order’s in” and calls from some college. But, last night took the cake.

At 2:30AM, yes AM, my phone rang. I answered it and a voice sounding very much like my brothers starts saying “mom”, “mom”. I asked who it was and he replied “Brian” (uh, my brother’s name) like I was the idiot for not knowing who he was. At this point I’m planning the harm I’m going to do to my brother because if he’s calling me at 2:30 in the morning some bad has happened and I’m furious that he would call me to deliver bad news. Dude, if something bad has happened to Mom or Dad get your butt in your car and drive over here to tell me in person. Don’t CALL me and give me the news over the phone where I’ll be left to deal with it alone.

So, as all this is going through my head “Brian” responds with “Is this Janelle Bakers house?” I inform him no and he apologizes and lets me know he’s probably forgot to dial the correct area code. At which point I kindly informed him that his mom had changed her phone number and I’d been getting lots of calls for her.

Afterwards, as I was laying in bed thinking about the whole phone call and pondering the fact that it came in at 2:30 in the morning I realized this kid was probably either in jail or drunk at a bar calling his mom for help. (Of course, I didn’t think about the fact that he obviously hasn’t talked to his mom for a while since he didn’t know she hasn’t had this number for a while.) As I’m laying on bed, I can’t fall back to sleep at this point, I got curious so I got up to check where the call came from — a personal cell phone — at least I know he wasn’t in jail. Hopefully he had another way to get in touch with his mom, and hopefully, if he needed a ride home from some bar he found one.

I wish I would have asked him to ask his mom to pay her bills and to give her creditors her new phone number so they’d leave me alone.

Hope I don’t get any more wake-up calls.

Till later…

My dad will be getting a new kidney and my sister is giving it to him.

He got the call from the doctors today. They have reviewed all his tests and everything looks good. They have to get the results of the TB test he had last October when he was in the nursing home (which was fine) then they’ll schedule the date. They will call next Friday and they said it takes about four weeks to get on the schedule. My sister has a wedding she wants to go to on September 16 so they are hoping for the week of the 17th.

I have a lot to do before then. It’s going to be a very busy month.

On another note. I’m a Big Brother fan. I’ll admit it. So, can I just share two quotes from tonights show (might not be exact quotes but they gist is there and accurate). Don’t worry — if you haven’t watched it yet it won’t ruin the episode for you. In fact, you’ll just laugh harder (or roll your eyes more) if you read these then hear them in context.

I think he should go because then maybe I won’t cry as much.

I would like her to stay because she does a good job with the dishes and always makes sure they get put away.

Now for my commentary: on the first — huh? It’s HIS fault you cry all the time? Give me a flippin break. On the second — I just wish she could hear you say that — maybe it will give her some perspective.

Thank goodness for my DVR. Otherwise I’d be going crazy watching the clock on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

Only three days until the next episode — thank goodness because they really left you with a hanger. LOL OMG, if you’ve watched it you’ll get a giggle out of that. LOL

Till later…