It’s been a few days, but t fear not; I have pictures to help me remember what the hell I’ve done.

On Saturday (11.15.08) we….

crap

I can’t remember what we did.

I know that I didn’t go to bed until 6 in the morning and consequently slept until 1pm. That was pretty awesome.

Pictures. Right ok. We went to Outback for dinner because earlier in the day I got a package of brownies in the mail.

This looks promising...

Closer to the yum!Mere plastic cannot keep me from the chocolately goodness

Oh yes - they were rich and dark and oh so delicious.

Packaged up for will power enhancing storage in the fridge.

The brownies were not without their purpose of course. Last month, for Luke’s birthday, we went to Outback for dinner. The service was horrid and the waiter was incredibly condescending to Luke.

I complained, as I am wont to do and received two $25 gift certificates. I was pleased and considered the matter closed.

Imagine my surprise when this little package of happiness and good showed up at my door.

Well played Outback Steakhouse. Well played.

So….Saturday night we went to dinner at Outback. I had eaten brownies. I had gift certificates. A nice hunk of meat seemed like it would round out the day nicely.

In my chocolate induced haze; I had forgotten that Saturday night meant that there would be people there. Lots of them. People and their whiny children. Loud talkers. Annoying teenage girls out with the boy that was just a friend but they secretly wished was their boyfriend.

Oh this girl. I wanted to throw something sharp at her throat.

 She didn’t shut up for the entire hour (H-O-U-R) we waited for our table. She rambled incessantly about her challenges as a popular girl, how long it took her to get ready in the morning and how she never had any time to herself because everyone always wanted her to hang out. She made it a point to ensure that her companion was aware that despite being asked out “like….god…ALL the time”; she still wasn’t dating anyone. Her verbal diarrhea was peppered with vulgarity and expletives. The expletives I didn’t mind so much, but she didn’t need to know that. At one point I looked at her and said “Hey! Watch your language. There are children here!” She didn’t even break stride to acknowledge that someone else had spoken much less apologize.

In a rather karmic moment; we were seated before them. She had been complaining about the length of the wait. As we passed by the young man moved his legs so we could easily pass where she left her legs sprawled out so we had to navigate around them.

I couldn’t stop myself any longer.

I stopped dead in front of her and bent over so she had to look at me. She had this half shocked half terrified look on her face and I launched.

“You know what kiddo, sooner or later your looks aren’t going to get you what you want.  You’d be wise to get over yourself and start making the friendships and partnerships you’re so desperately going to need when you’re alone in a sea of pretty girls just like you in the real world.”

That isn’t verbatim; but it is close enough. I didn’t speak loudly or harshly, just concisely and with precision.

I didn’t even wait for a response before turning, stepping her still outstretched legs and walking to the hostess stand (where I might add, Luke stood, impatiently waiting for me).

I never heard a response from her, but I did catch a couple whispers of “omg did you hear that!!” and “holy shit, she got told!” from the people that were in the immediate area.

Anyway…that made me feel good about being me.

Luke all glowly and stuff.

Courtesy of Luke.

French fries with cheese and bacon. Did I mention bacon?

Sweet sweet coffee.

MEAT. GOOD.

 

He said gross things about the dripping A1 sauce that I will not repeat.

 

Tired little boy...

Another young Delcambre masterpiece....

 

Freaking Peanut Butter Pie. OMG. Like eating a creamy Reese's cup. so good.

 Yeah….so after dinner we went popped over to the dollar store for hangers and whatever other dollary goodness I found.

Apparently I did not take any pictures in the dollar store. That is odd because there are so many things there to should be captured for posterity. I think that both Luke and I were stuffed and tired and just wanted to go home.

So home we went. Luke, true to his word, immediately went to bed. I…did not.

It was another all-nighter for me.

Woo.

It’s 1230 already. I’m beat.

Well - there is your 11.15.08 update. Tomorrow I will try to get caught up on the rest of the days.

In the meantime, I leave you with this adorable picture:

Eli being insanely cute.

wait. i can’t start this until i get my stupid latpop to recognize my Zune like it’s done for the past YEAR.

While unpacking, I came across a 6 page unfinished letter that I wrote to Luke when he was about 1 1/2 years old.

I haven’t read it yet so I thought I’d take the time to transcribe it here. I’ve put a couple pics in from when Luke was younger too.

                                                                            ♥

Lucas,

I am writing you this letter to let you know how things are going. Today is May 19th, 1999. You are 19 months and 9 days old. You have become quite the handful at home.

Your Daddy is in Moron, Spain right now. He has been gone since February 19th. Today is exactly 90 days. Hopefull he will be back in one month. There are rumors going around that he might not be back until August 19th. That means three more months instead of one.

Luke pondering something...

I really miss him and you do too. You haven’t been behaving very well. For some reason you don’t want to listen to me. You also like to throw all your food on the floor. You refuse to stay in your bed.

On the other hand, you are absolutely adorable. You got your first haircut a few weeks ago adn you look so handsome. You are very smart for your age. You are always doing something new. You have a great vocabulary and you learn new words everyday. Tou have started to learn body parts. You know your noes, eyes, mouth, belly and feet. You can undress yourself almost all the way now.

Right now you are playing with your friend Tawni. She live across the street from us. Right now we are in Washington state at Fairchild Air Force Base. It is about 15 miles from Spokane, Wa. You and Tawni play together all the time. She is about six months older than you but you usually get along well. I bought you a whole bunch of care the other day and taught you how to make a vroom vroom sound when you push them.

Luke and Tawni

Well, Tawni’s Mom just got here. I’ll write more later.
 

Right now I am talking to Amy Brown. She has a son who is about a month younger than you. You like to play with Mason. Sometimes you just like to play alone. You can be very solitary when you want to be. We put a gate up across the door of your room. You know how to open it but you are not strong enough to yet.

Luke, enjoying some tasty fingers.

You have learned how to do quite a few things that are not so good. You have learned how to climb on your changing table and pull everything off the wall. You als like to pull everything out of your closet. I bought some door knob covers so you can’t open the doors. They would work very well if I would remember to actually close the closet door when I am changing your diaper.

I keep your diapers in the closet because you were forever pulling them off your table. I am trying really hard to keep you in line. You are not an easy child to parent. You are already showing signs of being very independent and at times rather defiant. You are a challenge to me. Fortunately, I thrive on challenges.

Luke at the computer

I have been taking you to daycare everyday because I need some time to myself. Also, you need to interact with other kids. With your Dad away, things have gotten really rough. I got out of the military on April 14th of 1999. I actually took a vacation starting on March 4th so I have been home for 2 1/2 months now. I hate being at home all the time. I love spending time with you, but I don’t like being at home all the time. I need to work somewhere. I am just not cut out for the housewife deal. I hope that when you are married you will not have a problem with your  wife working if she wants to!

Of course, if she doesn’t want to, I hope that you have a good job when you get to that point in your life. I hope you do well, I really do. You are going to be an amazing person when you grow up. I hope that you realize that.

Life is not easy. Sometimes I know you must feel like nothing you do is right. I feel like that sometimes. Then I look at you and your Dad and realize that you are the most important things in my life. I love you both so much. I hope that you end up as happy as I am. Well, now that I got that off my chest let’s move on.

Luke is posing for the magazine covers!

You are taking a bath right now. I got you some foam rubber letters and numbers but all you will say is “i”. Oh well, it will come with time. You speak very well and are really polite. You almost always say please and thank-you. You talk all the time; although I still can’t understand what you say most of the time. The words you do say are very clear though.

You really are a good kid. I love you more than you could ever know. I want you to know that even though you may not like me very much sometimes because of the way I punish you or don’t let you do things, I really do know what is best for you. I want you to know that you can come to me with anything. I promise not to jedge you harshly. If you have questions about sex, drugs, alcohol, life, school…anything. I mean it. Whatever problems you might have are my problems too. I just want you to know that.

I just put you in bed a few minutes ago. Of course, you promptly got right out of bed. It has been a real struggle to get you to stay in your bed. My only consolation is that you will have the same problem with your child. That may sound cruel, but you will understand one day. Well that is all for today. I love you.

I loved this little swimsuit.

Well, I talked to your Dad tonight. I looks like he will be gone until August. He originally was supposed to only be gone for a week or so. That turned into a month and that turned into 4 months. Now that turned into 6 months. They also are not paying him as much anymore. He was getting 11 dollars a day. They bumped it up to 35.50 a day and now the want to drop it back to 11 dollars again. Also, they won’t keep him for 180 days, only 170 because if they kept him for 180 it would be a short your and they would have to let him go to any base he wants to.

He was talking about getting out early once I get settled in my job. I really miss your Dad. i am so lucky to have you here. You remind me of him. You are just as stubborn as he is. When you are stubborn though it is mostly cute. You know, sometimes I am really scared that i am going to do xomething wrong and screw your life up. I really hope that when you are old enough to understand this letter you don’t think I was a bad mother.

Luke and Daddy

I really hope you had a good childhood and you don’t have any bad memories. I just want you to konw that I did the best I could. I was young when you were born. You were a suprise for us, but don’t think for one minutes that you weren’t wanted. We loved you from the moment we found out that we were going to have you. We didn’t know if you were a boy or a girl. We wanted a boy and we got one! Were we ever happy!

Well, your Daddy just called so I have to go….

                                                                            ♥

How did we get from that little kid to this….

Growing up...

I am tired. This is all you get.

the boy was annoyingly slapping his shoes on the floor like he was goosestepping through walmart. i warned him that if he did it again i would make him take them off.

he did it again.

Oh yes. I follow through.

He was so embarassed.

i put some paint swatches on the wall to see what the colors looked like. I did take some pictures with my point and shoot camera but I don’t know where my card reader thing is and I don’t want to look for it.

Dark Brown for the kitchen...

Light Green for the bathrooms

I did a swatch of grey in Luke’s room too and it looks pretty good. I just didn’t take a picture of it because it is upstairs and I am not.

oh. saw a limo at walmart. was so hoping it was BritBrit, but some stereotypical jogging suit with gold chain wearing mobster wannabe got out instead. I wasn’t fast enough to get a pic of him but you can see him to the right there.

It was an older limo…but still…a limo at walmart is funneh.

Don’t talk to me about how awful walmart is. I know how awful walmart is. I know that my dollars condone their actions and that my patronage allows them to operate in the manner they do.

I don’t care right now. I care about me and my own right now and walmart is cheap. If I didn’t have to worry about prices growing and packages shrinking maybe it would be different.

This animation is old but oh god we laughed sooooo hard.

He tried to go over the fence and caught his shirt…

this made me happy. yes i have a long way to go but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that number

slowly but surely

this is where I worked from all week, when I was able to be at work

The comfy chair and my makeshift desk.

worky worky. you can’t see the heating pad bursting into flames behind me

the shirt says “meat is murder. tasty tasty murder”

I am still hurting a lot and as of right now i am still running a low grade fever. I’m not concerned about the fever unless it consistently hits 101 or higher. it hasn’t gone above 100 so ok for now.

I have a love/hate relationship with hydrocodone. i am grateful for the modicum of relief it provides me but I am frustrated with how it affects my sleep. i’m frustrated that I even had to take it at all.

someday...these will be out of my life.

I should’t have to. i shouldn’t have to be in pain or worry about if i’m going to be able to do the things i need to.

if you don’t have chronic back pain you do not understand. this is not a “weekend warrior strained my back” kind of pain or a “over did it at the gym” pain. this is a constant overbearing pain. it is a pain that won’t go away with a couple tylenol and some stretching. i can’t look to next week and know that my pain will be gone.

it is both physically and emotionally painful and it is all. the. time.

it does not stop. ever.

it gets better sometimes but it never goes away.

so don’t look at me like that when I say that my back hurts. don’t patronize me when i tell you that i can’t do whatever it is that i want/need to do.

meh.

To end. 2 Cats, 1 Cup.

If you need to ask why this is funny beyond the cuteness of 2 kitties trying to get in the same cup; don't. I don't want to explain it to you.

Oh what a night….late December back in ‘63; what a very special time for me….

I was not so ok when I woke up this morning. In addition to still being very much in pain in the back area I had a vicious migraine.

I woke up at 6:30 and then apparently hit the snooze button until it was 7:40 or so. Luke has to be at school at 8 or he is considered tardy. I raced (hah!) upstairs and shouted him out of bed. 

I went downstairs to put on my shoes and take some Imitrex. He got dressed and ready in record time and we bolted out the door, all while I was tripping all over myself apologizing to him for oversleeping.

We managed to make it on time and I drove home, head throbbing intent on showering and going to work.

As I shuffled into my bedroom, Eli was curled up on the bed. This was where I made my fatal mistake and laid down on the bed “just for a minute”.

2 hours later I awoke, headache free but guilt laden. I got ready to head to Walgreens to pick up some perscriptions.

On my way out I looked at this:

I wanted to go back here.

or here....

I resisted the urge to crawl onto one of those deliciously comfy things I can sleep on and went to Walgreens.

This guy was ticking me off. He was a loud cellphone talker and pretentious to boot. He gave off that “I think I am very important” vibe that only people who are not important give off.

Obnoxious yellow shirt man.

Father and son...

It was clear that the father didn’t speak much English and initially I thought the son was helping him get his perscriptions sorted out. The son carried a plastic bag filled with prescription bottles and was serving as a translator between his father and the pharmacist.

As they carried out their business I learned that they were actually there for the mother/wife and not for the father. This may not seem super unusual, but it was the manner in which they interacted that brought a lump to my throat.

Since it was the mother and not the father that needed assistance; it would have been easier for the son to come on his own. For some reason, it was so touching to see that not only did the father who had the hurdle of not speaking English still wanted to be the one to help his wife. In addition to that; the son, who could have done this much more quickly on his own, patiently translated for both his father and the pharmacist all so his father could help his mother himself.

He did it without impatience and with a a very clear “because I want to, not because I have to” compassion.

It was very endearing.

After about 20 minutes, I was able to get my prescriptions and I toddled off to work.

At work, there was a heating pad waiting for me courtesy of Charles. I sat in my comfy chair again, heating pad on high and settled into my day.

I had a soda on the table and I wanted it a bit closer and well….the mirror that was also on the table decided it no longer wanted to be on the table. It didn’t break, but it did make Charles come into my office to see what I had done to myself.

The mirror. Also, that is the teddy bear that Amy gave me when her contract ended.

The day itself was fairly innocuous, save for having to talk to one customer who had been calling incessantly. I don’t think he’ll be calling anymore.

I am grateful for the assistance of folks at work:

Charles is fixing my console for me.

While I haven't quite burned a hole through my body, I do have quite the nice collection of discolored skin on my back. By discolored, I mean burned.

There was an event at Luke’s school tonight that I wanted to attend but he didn’t want to. Given the status of my back we decided not to go.

He had done his homework and was fully engaged in this:

Luke playing Halo

I had a mad craving for Subway so I shuffled to the car and went to Subway. I got out of the car and the deafening sound of 16.8 billion birds the trees of the parking lot.

There were about 10-15 trees spread out in the parking lot and they were all full of birds. All the birds were screaming at the top of their lungs.

Odin snuggling with meMore snugglyand more...More snugglyMore snuggly

More Snugglies

and more...

I love this little snuggly boy so much. He just plops down and sleeps on me. He is so soft and cuddly.

Part of the gameroom

This is where the fridge will go. It

This is a lot of DVDs. They are not mine though; they just reside in my house courtesy of Eric.

(Yes, I do plan on replacing those curtains.)

The one thing that irritates me about the gameroom is this fan:

I actually really like the fan itself...

It is the remote that goes with the fan that is a thorn in my side. The battery cover is missing; and so was the battery. I wasn’t to upset about that because eh, who really cares about the cover. I picked up a new battery and when I went to put it in I noticed that there was a really small relay board that connects to what I’m assuming is a really small connection on the battery cover.

The remote.

I went to the website thinking that I could just order a new remote, but I could not find one anywhere. I send them an email w/ the part number so I hope that it will be just a simple fix.

I think it’s about time to try to get some sleep. I am looking forward to the weekend and not having to get up or not feeling guilty about not getting up.

Goodnight world.

Since creating a new post seemed to fix the formatting issues that existed in the post from 11/11; I’m going to create a real one. It will be short because OMGTHEPAIN but I do have a couple seriousbusiness things to talk about.

I was awake until about 3:30 this morning courtesy of Mr. Hydrocodone. Ever since I was a child (my mother can and will attest to this) medication that is supposed to make you sleepy makes me wired and vice versa. Occasionally, the “knock your ass out medication” will actually knock my ass out. NyQuil on the otherhand will always knock my ass out.

I went to bed and slept well until 7am. I woke Luke up and he got ready for school while I slowly got myself ready for work. We ended up leaving at about 7:30 after I poked around looking for my sunglasses (which I didn’t need because it was gloomy but what would i do if it all of a sudden got sunny because thisistexas!).

I got to work at about 8:20 or so and things were ok until a little before 9 when my back started to hurt a little. Given my experience from previous facet blocks, I knew that I would have some pain today so I took a hydrocodone and started preparing for the Wednesday staff meeting. About half way though the meeting, despite the 10mg of hydrocodone pumping through my veins I began to get sharp pains in my mid back.

As the meeting wore on, I became more and more uncomfortable. By uncomfortable I mean crippling pain that would not subside regardless of what position I shifted to.

By the end of the meeting I was in so much pain that I could barely stand to walk back to my office. It took me a good 5 minutes to walk back to my office from the conference room. I took another hydrocodone and whined a bit.

Eventually I moved to the comfy chair in my office an propped my feet up on the ottoman.

My comfy chair with pillows and all!

I kicked my shoes off in frustration:

My shoe.

I had my phone with me of course, but my laptop….I had left my laptop on it’s docking station at my desk:

My laptop is allllll the way across my office.

I was in my chair, being all hurty and stuff:

ow :(

I had doctor’s appointment scheduleled for 1:00 so I toughed it out till then, packed up my stuff and limped to the doc’s office.

After that I went home and put my laptop bag down and layed down in my bed for a little bit or 3 hours or so. Luke came home at some point around 3. I have no idea if he came into the room or not. I woke up at about 5 or 5:30 when the door bell rang (yay hangers!). I took another hydrocodone. I can’t remember the last time I took more than two in one day.

Then there was working with the email and the ims and such.

I’m still in an incredible amount of pain. I don’t want to take more pain meds. I don’t think I can sleep although I’m exhausted.

I don’t know….

The formatting here is driving me crazy. I can’t seem to get things to actually fit in the space allotted. for it.

Grr.

Maybe a new post will help.

Here’s a picture:

Kitties make the world go 'round

Thank you to those who came before me, those who live beside me and those who will

follow me. I salute you.

Here’s one of them:

My new furniture was delivered this morning by a very kind gentleman name Jose. He had another man with him who did not speak English. He did however have one of those dazzling smiles that you can’t help but smile back it. As bitter and cynical as I have a tendency to be, it brightened my day.

Overall I walked out with a 30% discount, free next day delivery and furniture I really liked. I was pretty happy.

Here, of course, are the pictures:

First couch delivered! Thanks Jose and smiley guy!

I like this arrangement. I may change it as we clean up and unpack the rest of the room.

The new furniture has been kitty approved.

The new console table. It has four shelves inside and very simple matte silver knobs on the doors.

Right - right hand side

Thoracic - Group of twelve vertebrae located in the thorax and articulates with the twelve ribs

Facet - facet joints are paired joints in the back that have opposing surfaces of cartilage (cushioning tissue between the bones) and a surrounding capsule. Every vertabrae has 2 exterior faces and two interior faces.

Injection - BIG FUCKING NEEDLE

I don’t know if that is the full medical defition, but it’s my take on it.

Ok ok…

In reality, a facet block is an injection that has two main benefits. First, it helps the doctor (usually at a pain management clinic) localize and help diagnose pain. If the pain goes away after the injection, it’s pretty reasonable to assume that that facet is the source of the pain. Second, the combination of steriods and lidocaine provides pain relief.

Facet Injection

Right before they gave me the happy juice.

 

After my chemically induced nap!

My oxygen saturation monitor! Fancy eh?

I was much happier with this BP. The first monitor they did had me at 143/90 and I was freaked out!

 

Rice Krispie Treat! The other place always gave me cheese crackers. I like this place better!

 

They even gave me a juice box! I love juice boxes.

 

Aftermath. Under this bandage are the holes where the BIG FUCKING NEEDLE went. Please also note that my right shoulder is approximately 18 feet higher than my left shoulder.

In related news, the clinic I went to today was called Select Pain Management. That is all well and good however the people who labeled the parking spaces may want to be a bit more descriptive. The parking spaces for the clinic were labeled “Select Pain”. I don’t want to select pain. Pain is bad. I had a picture of this parking space of course, but in the process of organizing iPictures, I accidently deleted it.

Two more photos before I wrap it up. They are of the boy. He’s being weird as he tends to do.

He put on two sweatshirts. One normally and one…not normally. It was later determined that this was to reduce the amount of friction and enable easier sliding.

Further down the stairs. He must have done this 10 to 15 times before he got bored with it.

 

That is all for today. More pics forthcoming; I may create some more posts with some pictures that I’ve taken (mostly all cellphone pics) over the past few weeks.

I believe that with the popularity of camera phones, we have a new ability to show our friends and family a glimpse of the daily life we lead. We miss out on being able to share the litle details of our lives when we live far from family and friends; photos, even cellphone photos, bring us just  a little closer together.