70 posts tagged “elvis”

I'm already thinking it's 2010. Aack. That means I'm speeding up time and getting to 40 faster (2011 will be here soon!).

I'm already having freak outs. Mostly though, I'm feeling really unbalanced lately. The most rational explanation is that I'm still getting used to not having my best buddy around. Elvis' passing has left a massive hole in my life and while each day gets a teensy bit easier, I still have meltdowns, feeling wracked with guilt, sadness, loneliness, etc. 

I try to step back and remind myself that my life is great and I really have no complaints. But that doesn't help me when I'm feeling down in the dumps. Then I start wondering if I inherited some of DadH's depression and maybe I need to go to counseling or start taking happy pills. I'm hoping this is just a phase.

Even though my schedule is packed as per normal, I don't feel like hanging out with people. Then I go home to be by myself and then I kick myself for not spending more time at home when Elvis was around. Rewind and repeat.

Enough of my navel-gazing belly aching. Here's as much of a list as I think is do-able.

1. Ignore whatever I had on the last list I did, whenever that was, and start over.
2. Bust my ass at work
3. Get to bed early
4. Work out (all that county fair food has settled into the buddha belly. Ugh.)
5. Get all the newspapers off the kitchen table
6. Take care of the bills and paperwork (I have been uninspired to do anything around the house. I'm turning into a pathetic slob. Yikes.)
7. Iron clothes (I'm running out of wardrobe options)
8. Be nice to myself

That should about do it. Have a great week!

I picked up Elvis' remains on Tuesday morning. It was really good to have that to look forward to. While I still miss seeing him in all the usual places, there is comfort in seeing his little white plastic box in the house. At some point I will come across a jar worthy of such a wonderful friend.

Fabulous Co-Worker Justin asked me on Tuesday what you actually get when you get the remains back. I reached for my briefcase to get the box and he said, "He's here? You have him here? Oh, I always wanted to meet Elvis! Of course, it would have been more fun to meet his alive self, but this works." I laughed and introduced them to each other. I love levity.

I'm going to see "Wicked" tonight at ASU - I bought the tickets and a gift certificate to one of my favorite Tempe restaurants at a silent auction. I love silent auctions.

Then tomorrow I'm going to Flagstaff to help carry on the birthday tradition of our friend Nate, who was the one who died a few months ago under curious circumstances. I'm not sure if any of that has been resolved. So we'll ride bikes around to all the bars in Flagstaff and have a grand ol' time in his memory. For me it has the added benefit of not being in my empty house and also to get into the cool country for the weekend. I think it's supposed to rain. Yay!

I've passed the same light blue Volvo with the U of Arizona license plate every morning this week on my commute. Not sure why I've noticed that car, but now I look for it. It's a 15-mile freeway commute, in one of the largest cities in the US, I haven't been on an exact schedule, but I've found her every morning so far. Stuff like that makes me smile for some reason.

I'm molting. My Sunburn Grande is starting to peel. Ew. The sunburned parts of my bum and upper thighs are still a nice reddish pink, or pinkish red, but nothing hurts. Hmm.

Here are a few more Costa Rica pics. The theme today is: My Feet

Here I am standing on one of the hanging bridges through the rain forest in the Arenal region. I have much better pictures of the hike, which I will get around to posting eventually. Promise. 

One day I took a stroll to a black sand beach near our beach (Playa Grande). Yes, my mad photo taking skillz includes my camera strap in the first shot.

On that same stroll, I found someone else's shoes. Ten more minutes into my hike I came across the feet they belonged to, but thought it would be weird to take a picture of someone else's feet.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone for your support, kind words, good thoughts, mojo, juju and love.

He was in really bad shape last night and I couldn't let this go on any longer. Anything I did to keep him going would be for me, not for him. I love him too much to put him through any more distress.

This morning we had some good moments before Miss K came over to take us to the vet. He was loving on my shoes, getting brushed and getting that spot right in front of the ears rubbed. Ahhh.

He put up a good fight against the carrier. Way to hide under the bed one last time! I was proud.

It was the most unreal moment of my life. I was with him, held him and told him I was so sorry and I loved him so very much. He turned to look at me and then he was gone.

I called home and left a quick message. DadH called me as soon as he got in the house. I told him I was getting Elvis cremated and wanted to bring him home to the farm and bury him by the pond.

"The pond is getting to be a sad place. Every loved animal that dies goes down there."

We then told stories and laughed about how Elvis got a little too curious with Barney the Parakeet and was pecked right on the nose. We decided the best place for Elvis would be the flower bed in front of the house, under the birdhouse. He sure did love to watch birds.

"When you come home make sure you bring him with you." My family is the best.

I still can't believe he's gone. A big piece of me is gone as well.

We went through a lot together, we had some really great years. I'm so grateful that I had the time with him that I did. He was my little buddy.

Rest in peace, my little sweetie pie kitty. Mr. WuvWuv. Buber Dubers.

You were the best cat ever. I couldn't have loved you any more than I did.

Elvis had a bit of a moment last night, lasted about five minutes. Made me really wonder if I needed to make a call before I left for 10 days. It's killing me to know I'll be gone and he's not feeling well. This morning he was back to holding steady, eating, drinking and being happy. I talked with the other vet (our regular one is on vacation). He said to bring him in and he'll give him a steroid to help him breathe while I'm gone.

I can't help but wonder if it's the best to wait or if it's best to let him go. I hate that I have until tomorrow to decide. I can't imagine not being here if he takes a turn for the worst. Or maybe the catsitter can take him in for another steroid if things take a dive.

Gah.

Okay. In order to counterbalance those grave thoughts, here's something that made me laugh. Thanks to Fabulous Co-Worker Justin for sending it to me to verify its veracity.

I say YES! It's true!

Just a quick thank you, which doesn't feel like an adequate expression for how much I appreciate your kind words and thoughts.

Elvis had a good night and is looking good this morning. There have been times this week that the end felt right around the corner and times like this morning when I wonder if all the bad news is really true.

We'll just take every day as it comes and enjoy what we have.

(((massive hugs to everyone)))

Vet called, Valley Fever test came back negative.

Elvis for sure has lung cancer. She said pain won't be involved, so I need to monitor quality of life. As of this morning, he's still eating and drinking. And he's getting kitty treats - because he can!

I'm still giving him his diabetes shots, trying to keep everything as normal as possible.

He had a hard time breathing last night. I'm not going to wait until he's flat out gasping for air. I couldn't bear to watch him suffer.

Not sure how much time we have left. It's all happening so fast, but I can already see things taking a dive.

Thanks so much for all of your support, love and good thoughts. I've had a few friends come forward, including my boss, who said they would be with me when the time comes. Somehow their offers make this more real than when it's just me thinking about it.

I can't remember what I had before, but I'm sure I have one holdover of my last list. I'm too lazy to open a new window, find it and cut and paste. No one is keeping score anyway, right? I'd hate to fail my own life. Ha.

Other stuff first - it's a cloudy day, I'm hoping we get some rain. Maybe Cranky can send me some of hers.

Elvis woke me up in the night with heavy breathing. He was straining like he was on Sunday night. My poor kitty. The vet is supposed to call today and let me know if he might have Valley Fever instead of lung cancer. This morning he was okay, still not great.

I'm hoping he can stay well enough that I won't worry about him before I go to Costa Rica. On the other hand, if he gets worse, I'd rather make those decisions before I leave. I talked to my friend who will be catsitting him so she knows the situation. I trust her implicitly, but I don't want to put any major responsibilities on her like that.

Okay, onto non-sad things.

My Baseball Guy is in town because his team (Rangers) is playing the Dbacks. He set me up with some sweet tickets - but they were in the Rangers friends & family section. When Catsitter Friend and I cheered on a particularly good play by our hometown boys, a little girl in front of us about 7 years old whipped around and gave us the stinkeye. It was hilarious. Then I'm all, "BRING IT, LITTLE GIRL! BRING IT!"

BG and I went out for a cocktail after the game and to chat at his hotel bar, where there bartender TOTALLY came onto me. In a discreet yet obvious way. It was bizarre.

Enough stuff. Here's my low-achiever list for the weekend:
1. Finace report. Time is running out for me on this. Blargh
2. Upload Chicago Peep Meet Pics!
3. Vacuum
4. Spend as much time with Mr. WuvWuv as possible

Thanks again to everyone for all the love, hugs, good wishes and jujus. :-)

She's going to call me tomorrow and let me know what she thinks is going on for sure. While we were there, it was obvious he wasn't getting much oxygen. His nose and gums were more purple than pink, but after I gave him some cuddles he calmed down and some good color started to come back. So off he went to get chest x-rays. My poor little old fast-breathing guy.

I'm not going to put anything in writing that I will hopefully have to retract later (*fingers crossed*), so I'll just say that with a lack of sleep, two airplane rides from hell (okay, one from hell the other from a minor level of heck) and putting off eating until, oh, 2:15 - I've been in better shape.
 
I'm going to wait and see what she says tomorrow and then we'll go from there. Miss K was watching him this weekend and said he seemed to be fine, other than purring so hard he gave himself the hiccups. When I came home and started brushing him, he was so super excited he started breathing through his mouth, but not in a stressed out panting kind of way. Then at one point, he looked right at me with big eyes and kind of sunk down into a laying position, where he stayed for a while until he could breathe just through his nose again.

I'm at work now to get some stuff done. My boss told me to go home. I may bust out early. Tonight is reserved for my kitty and my kitty alone!

Whew! What a weekend. First I never thought I was going to even get there. It took 12 hours to get to Chicago because of the storms.

Here's as short and non-embellished version as I can do. Our 7:15 a.m. flight didn't load until 8:30, then we pushed away from the gate and sat on the tarmac for a while. Then we went back to the gate and sat for a while longer. Then we were released back into the terminal to forage for food.

I had a great seatmate who suggested we go for a beer and wait it out. He was married, so no airplane boyfriend action. Drat.

We finally took off at some point. I stopped worrying about the time and was trying to make the best of it, as was everyone else. The only person with his panties in a bunch was a guy behind me who kept trying to rebook onto another flight. Um, if the airport is CLOSED because of WEATHER, do you really think you are going to find a seat on some alternative reality airline that can get magically get you to O'Hare?

The pilot said we needed to take it slow in and arrive a half hour later than the usual flight time. A few hours later, he said he was told to make it an hour later. Since we were at max capacity, we didn't have fuel for a full hour. So that's when we found ourselves in lovely Des Moines, Iowa, for refuelling.

An attendant came on and said, "If you want off, you can get off but you'll be on your own. There is NASCAR and a triathlon this weekend so there are no rental cars and no hotel rooms."

There's my personal version of hell. Being stranded in Iowa and going to NASCAR.

Some people did get off, probably because this was where they were connecting to anyway.

A little before midnight, I made it to the hotel to meet up with everyone. I was exhausted but in good spirits.

Unfortunately, all my patience was spent and on Saturday I feel like I was being extra pissy at every little thing. So to everyone, I want to offer my deepest apologies for any evidence of my short fuse and major frustrations. I'm usually a happy person all the time and I was way off my game. :-(

Despite all my personal travails, I had a wonderful time and only wish I had more time with everyone. Major thanks to Arbed for getting us all together! Thanks to Michelle for being our local host! Hip, hip, hooray!

On the way back, our plane had a mechanical issue. I could only laugh when the announcement came over that they are looking for another plane for us. Crazy! They did find us another plane and we were up in the air 1.5 hours later.

I was looking forward to a good night's sleep, but something isn't right with Elvis. His breathing has been getting quicker and more shallow for a while, so I had planned on taking him to the vet when I got back. But last night he was so excited about me being home that he was actually breathing out of his mouth. I was up constantly checking on him. His blood tests are all fine so I have my own guess on what is wrong. We're going in this morning to get him a lookover. I don't want to drag him in for every little thing because sometimes it's caused by him just being old. He's not in distress, but something isn't right, either. Sigh.

So there's the quick and dirty. More stories to share later!

I'm whooped. I've had something going on every night this week, including tonight. Diamondbacks v Astros!

I'm so excited about going to bed tonight and not having a time I need to get up tomorrow morning. You have no idea HOW excited I am about sleeping.

I still haven't made it to the AT&T store to figure out how to get work email and my contacts into my Blackberry. I was going to go last night but then a friend asked me to join him for an FBS (Food, Booze & Schmooze) at the Wrigley Mansion. That sounded way more fun than hanging out with tech geeks.

So I still can't get work email, instant message, import my contacts, etc. But I did take a picture of Elvis and added applications for Facebook and Twitter. I haven't figured out how to upload anything to Vox yet. That might be my quest for next week.

I have a couple of parties to go to tomorrow and then NOTHING on Sunday. Oh, joy! I'll probably go to Target and try on swimsuits for Costa Rica. I wonder if I can lose four inches off the Buddha by Sunday. Probably not, may as well have a beer at the baseball game tonight since it's not going to make a difference at this point.

Wings are winning the Stanley Cup tonight. Good thing I have a smart phone - now I can check the scores when I can't watch the game.

Hmm. This post is fairly rambly and not well thought out. Did I mention I'm really tired?

OMG - Elvis was THE most adorable kitty ever this morning. I wuv him so much.

Our high temps have been in the 90s this week. Glorious! I hope it stays that way for the rest of the summer!

Gotta run. I think I should get some coffee, too.