25.2.09

You can't understand/How I could just kill a man

So apparently my parents have arbitrarily raised my rent by 50%, and told me that it has, apparently, always been that high instead of the amount I've been paying them this whole time.
Nice to know how unworldly they are, that money doesn't matter.

23.2.09

I believe the sun also rises/Drying our tears, bringing the blue skies of day

Well, my aunt passed on Wednesday night. I was numb about the whole thing; still am, actually. I barely knew her, rarely saw her, so it's strange, more than anything. She'd come to visit every couple of years for a week or so, so that's actually going to be the hardest part--accepting that she's never going to come visit again. My mom is devastated, but she's coping remarkably well.
Remember the coworker I was talking about awhile ago, the one with lung cancer? She passed yesterday. That one hit me a lot harder, because I'd seen her so much and we would get letters and phone calls from her at work sometimes. Several clients close to her are also really sad. I spent a good part of the night at work trying not to cry. Sad example: Awhile ago everyone who worked with her was offered the chance to buy one of those tacky little jelly bracelets with inspiring messages on them (these particular ones were yellow and said, "courage"), and the money was going to go to the sick staff member. The clients closest to her received them, too. Anyway, this morningI was working with one client, let's call her Y., who had an especially close connection with the staff member. After helping her dress, I offered her the bracelet, and she said, "It doesn't matter anymore, because she's dead now."
Work is going to be hard for awhile.

17.2.09

I'm rusted and weathered/Barely holding together

My aunt Jan (aunt isn't capitalised because I've always just called her Jan) is dying of leukemia, and last week she took a very, very sudden turn for the worse. My mom and dad and siblings were planning to leave on Saturday and come back Tuesday (the kids wouldn't be missing school because of the President's Day weekend), but they left on Thursday instead, hoping to make it in time to say goodbye. Well, Jan's a tough old woman, and as far as I know she hasn't died yet, though by Thursday afternoon her kids were thinking it was over for good. Anyway, on Saturday I got a phone call just as I was getting ready to go out with Andrew for Valentine's. It's Dad, saying, "I have some bad news."
My mind jumps to the obvious, that Jan died. I say so, and Dad said no, though that's imminent. So I asked him what it was, and he said, "Mom's in the hospital."
O.O I start to freak out a little bit.
Apparently, she missed two steps on Saturday morning going down some stairs, landed wrong, and broke both ankles. One was a clean, simple break, but the other...she completely shattered her other ankle, so she had to go into surgery to have it fixed, and she was in so much pain and so nauseated from everything that she's been in the hospital since she fell. Which was Saturday, and today's Tuesday, and she's not getting discharged until tomorrow.
And like I said, I don't think Jan has died yet, which I find somehow ironic to the whole situation.
To make this increasingly long story short, this kind of thing does not happen infrequently. Not the falling-and-breaking-both-ankles bit, but the whole nasty accident/illness/etc/etc sort of thing happening to unpleasantly prolong a trip that was not made for pleasant reasons to begin with.
And you thought my bad luck was just me...

14.2.09

I'm starting to trip/I'm losing my grip

My parents and siblings left for N.D. on Thursday to visit a dying relative, leaving me with the dogs and the fish. And I somehow managed to kill off three of the fish. There were only four to begin with, but one has completely disappeared and two more are floating belly up with white eyes. Yes, I've been feeding them. I think it has something to do with the tank being full of snails. But don't quote me on that...

More later about other things.

6.2.09

I'm longing to be lost in you/Won't you take me away from me?

I haven't posted much, and for those of you online, I haven't been active online much either lately, because I've been sleeping a lot. I've been very tired for the past several weeks, and not getting enough sleep this past weekend (read: 5 or 6 hours of sleep instead of the usual 10+) has only compounded the issue. Part of it is, admittedly, my own fault--staying up too late reading; starting my nighttime reading at obscenely late hours; staying out with Andrew until said obscenely late hours; getting up early (relatively) and doing it all over again. Ok, so it's almost entirely my fault. I am, however, getting over a nasty cold that has been hard to sleep with, if you get my drift--coughing and sneezing fits, stuffy nose switching randomly to runny nose, etc. So that has a bit to do with it.
On the bright side, I filed my taxes today, and I'm actually getting most of the money back; the government is keeping a whopping $143. I can live with that. Mostly. *grin* I even know where the money will be going.

Some of it, at least, will be going towards pants. New pants. Nice new pants. My weight has finally stabilised (thank heavens for Phenergan) and I haven't shrunk a pant size since Christmas. Considering I went from a 14 to a 6 (or a four, in the case of Levi Strauss) during the interval of September through December, you'd think I'd have lost another size by now if something was going to change again. *crosses fingers*

Aaaaand...now I'm going back to bed.