2009...

Wow - can you believe it's already the 4th of January, 2009?? Looks like this year is going to fly by just like 2008. New Year's Eve was an absolute blast! Spent with very good friends, lots of food, and so much laughter my sides still hurt. We have a couple of traditions at the annual eve gatherings....

The first is watching a dvd of pictures of all the events, gatherings, and fun had by all of us throughout the year. It's a lot of "oohs" and "cuuuuute" and "HAHAHAHAHA"s as the 300 pictures go by to usually a very upbeat song about good life and good friends. We had pics from the camping trip, Cozumel, birthday dinners, KS dance, and random dinners and lunches. JP always does a great job of putting it together and we all are a bit teary eyed at the end just remembering all the good times. Luckily, this year, nobody on the viewing was lost... we'd had 2 years running where we had a picture of a lost loved one (a good friend's sister and friend both to breast cancer for those 2 years - I didn't really know either of them really well but anything that tugs at my friends' hearts tugs at mine!) We all gets copies of the DVD as well as the cd of the pictures used. JP mentioned that she's going to have to use the next biggest slide show that will allow 450 pictures for the next year because she said she still had a lot more to put in....

The second one is only in it's 2nd year of new year's eve tradition - but we're going to keep it around for a while. We did a white elephant panty exchange! Let me tell you how hard my sides were hurting at all the laughing we did! Apparently last year there was the biggest pair of granny panties ever seen by anyone - this year it was the "sexy" stuff that had us rolling! I think I did pretty well with the pair I submitted to the party - it was a pair of underwear for 2... It had 4 leg holes!!! OMFG!!! I'm starting to choke from laughing hard at just the memory of T & B putting them on!!! I forgot my camera but I know there are TONS of pics of that moment... although the first couple ones were blurry because the ones taking the pics were laughing their arses off!! I won't mention what I came home with but it was very good! I didn't get the yummy ones because those were present!!!! And it always the quiet ones that you have to watch out for - the quiet one walked away from the exchange after stealing a very very very VERY teeny tiny Raquel Welch type thong..... we asked for pics but I doubt we get them!!! LOL

I had so much fun bringing in 2009. Much better than bringing in 2008 - that was spent in St. Luke's Hospital where my other half woke me up a few minutes before midnight to celebrate and to tell me I could have more pain meds if I wanted them. They never did figure out what the hell was wrong with me - the final discharge papers said "viral intestinal infection". I guess that's what they put when you spend a week in the hospital unable to keep anything down running a temp over 101 for 4 days..... Course, that's also when my body introduced me to spasticity. Hadn't had any dealings with it before that - my neuro said the fever probably awoke that giant. Needless to say...glad I was able to bring in this year differently.

I really don't have a lot of "resolutions" for this year. We all want to be better people - in our jobs, our relationships, and in life. That's a given. I really just want a year free of a hospital stay and a surgery - they don't always go hand in hand together... Remember that horrible spinal tap? I count that as a surgery - especially since I had to go get "plugged up" 4 days later when they hadn't fully plugged me up after the original tap. That wasn't a hospital "surgery" or "stay" but that much time in the freakin' ER qualifies!!! Seriously, though - I accept that this disease means way too many doctor's visits but I'd rather sit in my neuro's waiting room the whole day to avoid a hospital stay and/or procedure. I've got that wonderful optomotrist's visit at the end of this month with the vision field test ... I'll bore y'all with that later this month when I get to britch about the after-effect headache and dizziness. I just want to go this year without having a hospital visit/procedure claim on my supplemental insurance - is that really too much to ask?? AHAHHAHA

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!