Sunday, March 27, 2011

The Family That Medicates Together Stays Together

Soooooo......secrets revealed!! BWHAHAHAHAHAH...Actually many of you KNOW already, but since I've invited all my Facebook friends to read this, this may be news!!

I began taking prozac about 3 yrs ago for some major PMS stuff I had goin' on. Hmmmmm. I realized quickly that the Prozac helped out in alot of areas in my life. HMMMMMMM....again!! Jump forward to November and some things happened (that I won't discuss.....yet) and it was suggested I begin some therapy to try to figure myself out. Why I'm impulsive....why I have a "I want it when I want it" attitude, and maybe some low self esteem mixed in? Maybe some issues in living in D.E.N.I.A.L.? Hey, as I've discovered, Denial is a TOTALLY COOL place to live! You don't have to face the UGLY in your life while living in Denial! I LOVE Denial! He and I are like THIS (see my crossed fingers??).

Well, recently, Denial and I have broken up. I still long for him, and still retreat to him when I'm all wigged out, but for the most part he and I are FINITO!! Done. Mr. Perfectly couldn't be happier. Denial was getting in the way of our lives! Mr. P. didn't like Denial nearly as much as I did, (and sometimes still do). Anyway, during this time, I had a mini-meltdown over nothing really........just my life, and the Doctor put me on some additional medication to help 'boost' the Prozac. HOLY STEMWARE, Batman!! Does it work!!! I practically JUMP out of bed, I DO STUFF other than watch TV....I started making jewelery! I cleaned my kitchen this week without complaining too much to the men in my life how much I HATED doing it and that they should help. I haven't put all of my piled laundry away, but BABY STEPS, folks......baby steps. I'm workin' on it!

Oh, and the stemware I talked about in my last blog? And mentioned so fondly here? Stemware and vintage jewelry may have taken Denial's place in my life. Sadly. Denial doesn't cost money, however, jewelry and stemware does! Shit. Backslide again.

Anyway, I have this weird obsession for stemware (and other dishes). I never knew it until we moved. When I packed up cabinets in the old house, I found all this STEMWARE. I divided it and wrapped it in boxes labeled for the boys. I figured if they ever have a house or apartment, stemware would be appropriate once they reach 21.....and their wives or girlfriends will appreciate my efforts, RIGHT? So, I kept the stuff I wanted, and boxed up the stuff I didn't and made a little 'bar' area in my new kitchen. The top cabinets house my stemware and the bottom cabinets house the BOOZE. It's all very cute and tucked away. That is until my cookbooks, french onion soup crocks and the George Foreman sucked the Booze space.....sheesh. Selfish of them, don't you think?

So, two weeks ago, we went to an auction. You'll never believe what I did? Denial and I joined hands and he THREW UP my bidding card at some stemware. 54 pieces of stemware to be exact. Denial is such a Bitch. He bid and bid and bid. He got a set of 3 blue anchor/hocking mixing bowls (my kitchen is blue, BTW, so Denial has good taste). I got a set of 8 Blue stemmed water (or wine) tumblers, and a set of 46 matching glasses. There are 12 wine, 12 water, 12 dessert and 10 juice glasses that all match. That all have STEMS....that are all SOOOO cute. Oh, and Denial ALSO bought me a juice pitcher set with 4 juice glasses. Only he wants to use it for Mai Tai's. Damn Denial!! I think he's gay. He KNOWS how I love the gays and want an entourage of gay BFF's!!

So, I ended up packing up all the stemware that I originally kept and will divvy that up between kids and friends, and I washed and put up all the NEW stemware in the cabinet. I also made Mai Tai's in the pitcher. I made Mr. P use the little juice glasses to drink my Mai Tai's as well. He thinks Denial may be gay, too.

After we moved and after dad was sick and we were never home, our Kitty Joe decided that he wouldn't pee in his litter box anymore. He much preferred towels on the floor. Or blankets. Or dog beds. We took to locking him up in the room WITH his box every day, and he peed on the floor. Still does. Right in front of the door so inevitably someone STEPS in it as we come in or out.

Mr. P. is unofficially in charge of Kitty duty. He's fed up beyond belief that Kitty Joe is peeing in the house and not in the box. He Poopies in his box, so why not make the Pee Pee there, too?

We decided to have him checked for a urinary tract infection, and GUESS WHAT? It was negative. His failure to use the box is BEHAVIORAL, and not bacterial. Great. How does one teach an OLD cat to use his box again? The vet says it's not likely to happen. I really don't want to put him to sleep. It seems like such a LAME reason to lose a pet. A really COOL pet. I am a huge pet lover/advocate so you all must be asking WHY would we even ENTERTAIN the idea of putting him down? Because, we now live in this bigger, lovelier home. It's got CARPET in nearly half of it. We can't afford to mess up another house. We really put the screws to our old house and this one deserves some love....and no cat pee! Besides, my dad owns it, and dad and cat pee aren't' seeing eye to eye.

Therefore, we are trying an alternative to euthinazation. KITTY PROZAC! Studies have shown that 75% of cats that stop using the litter box go back to using it while taking the kitty Prozac. Now, Stacey, the Vet, says in her clinical experience, 75% is way too high, but she has seen about a 25% improvement in cats. Well, since we moved to a farm, and since we left him alone all those weeks when Dad was sick, maybe this will work! He already has a Gay BFF (Buster, the dog) so he doesn't need Denial! So, I'm hoping the Kitty Prozac will work. We are tiptoeing around the house today, because it's 4 pm and so far there's no sign of any cat pee around.

Wish us luck, Internet!! We need it and the Pharmaceutical companies are Banking on all of this working for Kitty Joe and Me.

Toodles for now!!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Last month, when I went to THE MISSION to meet up with some classmates, I was quiet, and sat in a seat and 'people watched'. There was another planned get together last night, and this time, Mr. P went with me so I had a driver.

I don't know how many cosmos I drank.....either 5 or 6. Mr. P thinks 6, I think 5, but regardless, at this point, does ONE difference really matter? I do drink alcohol, but not generally to excess. So, this was quite in excess!! But HOW FUN was it?

First of all, I'd like to thank Casey, Wendell and Teenie for buying me drinks and Gary for offering. You guys BOYS were buying me drinks (except Teenie....she's not a boy)!! Now, I'm thinking Mr. P wasn't so thrilled, but it was polite, not like a 'pick up'. They were generous and thoughtful and I found it charming. Here I go a bit with my convoluted memories of my youth compared to now:

As a teenager, I was very tiny and 'cute'. Not stunning, not beautiful, but 'cute'. I always wanted to be the Homecoming queen and a cheerleader, but I didn't fit the popularity bill OR the athleticism that cheerleaders needed. I desperately wished I was popular. As if that would 'make' me or something.

Now, I'm a grown up. Still cute (LOL), however not so tiny. I'm the one in the class that gained the weight and feels self conscious. I'm the one who worries that people judge---even though I have NO reason to feel this way.

I'm also so ashamed of me as a young person and I'm sure OTHERS as young people. We were abhorrent to one another in High School. You had to fit in with certain 'cliques' to be recognized, or to be thought highly of. We JUDGED one another based on looks, not personality or if we 'clicked' with anyone. I look at my teen (and 20's) kids and know that they, too, will realize that friends are made way differently in LIFE than in High School.

The group of people that tend to come most of the time are awesome. And we've had many people that drop in that we haven't seen in years! The beautiful thing about it is that FINALLY we treat each other as people and not as high school pigeonholed stereotypes. Well, there are SOME that still gravitate towards the same 'types' of people that one may think is 'supposed' to be, but even those individuals are happy, and seemingly interested in everyone. EVERYONE....not just the 'popular' kids or the 'rich' kids or the whatever label we had back then.

Teenie came with Mr. P and me, and PeePee came for a while, which totally THRILLED me because she's so beautiful, and so many people there know her dad....my brother...who is 3 full years younger than me, so it always funny to me to see the reaction to my YOUNGER brother having a 25 yr old daughter. Sorry, Jeff....but it is entertaining to see people's eyes when I tell them.

My dear friend Bill knew PeePee right away without being introduced. Bill( (who is a female) and I have been friends for 25 years, and she knew my family well. She knows Jeff and that he was a teenage father. She stopped next to PeePee last night and said how BEAUTIFUL she is and that she's a perfect mix of her mother and father....which is very true. She certainly inherited the good stuff.......I was impressed with Bills ability to know EXACTLY who my beautiful niece was, because of resemblance!! lol.

Anyway, despite the fact we 45 year olds were playing out a teen 'coming of age' movie, it was so fun. Oh, except for when I got choked and spat my mouthful of COSMO onto Teenie. God, that was mortifying. I mean I guess I'm glad it was her, but still.......despite the fact I was pretty tipsy, I had my bearings enough to know how AWFUL that was! I just coughed at the wrong time and looked like a fool. Sorry, Teenie. I know you probably had to shower off the sticky residue of my cosmopolitan.

So, here's a shout out to the class of 1984....and the classes surrounding that have people that stop in.....it's a blast and THANK GOODNESS we behave far differently now than we did then. For me, it's appreciated and noted that just because we may not have been close years ago, doesn't mean we can't become friends now. And thanks for Mr. P for sitting there looking smokin'hot. I got a good one, girls!! He says he didn't like the boys buying me drinks, but he had his share of girls trying to talk to people at our table and um, MAN handling him and pressing all over him to get close to hear people, so I think we're even. He now knows one girl far better than I ever will!! lol! He hates the social scene, so I hope he goes with me again. My core group of friends tried to help and make sure he was comfortable, but still.....he's leery of this type of thing. It's awesome that he cares enough to come with me and be my driver so I can act a fool now and then!!

Toodles for now. I'm going to try to convince Mr. Perfectly to take me to an auction. More on that later.