Sh-h-h-h .. sleeping like the proverbial baby.

Lo-o-o-n-n-g-g day. There has been much lifting, guiding, holding onto and helping into a sitting position, wherever that may be. But now she is sleeping. I will be soon too!

She is more frail than when I saw her last. 2 months at the nursing home where they approved her walker and then took it away when she fell while using it, has not strengthened her body at all. They lost her glasses, and when she felt like it, they let her lay in her bed all day. Better than have her up and about and hurting herself I guess, but bad for what was left of her muscle tone.

We went through all her meds and sorted them out, daytime, nighttime, amounts, etc. Sorted them by days of the week in those old lady pill organizers that *cough* belonged to *cough* me. Ahem. Did a nebulizer when she got here, and another before bed. Filled a 3rd and set it next to her bed so if she wakes in distress she can reach out and pull the thing into her mouth and push the button. Voila. An additional dose sits nearby for morning, along with a granola bar and a bottle of water.

So I can tell you now what she said when she got into the car with my BF and I at the airport. "Wow" to JD, "you're getting a big belly!" MORTIFIED! "Oh no, I had this belly when you saw me last." She reached over and patted his belly while saying "No, it's gotten MUCH bigger than before!" They didn't see me crawling under the seat .. A little while later she randomly said "I need to find a good funeral home around here."

Oy. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
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Tag, I'm it!

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She's on her way.




After one last argument with my brother over reconciling FOUR CENTS with the bank, she got on the plane. It's my turn now! I have been instructed to pick up chocolate on the way to the airport.

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Let the games begin! Or not ..

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Did I mention that my mom is coming? Tomorrow? I was very freaked out at work today. I received a call from a nursing home I had inquired about a while back. The girl I talked to was so nice and so helpful, I almost cried. It's a nonprofit place which from everything I've read, is usually better than a for-profit facility. Trying to learn these things. But today was not the day for it.

Have you ever felt so emotional or so on the verge - that you just don't want anyone to be too nice to you because you know it will push you over the edge of whatever composure you're holding onto? Yeah, like that. And my office mate kept babbling on about things that I had no interest in, not trying to distract me but because she was oblivious. She's one of those people who does not have the ability to see things through anyone else's eyes. If you spell it out to her she will express sympathy and I think it's heartfelt but I also think she doesn't naturally feel empathy. And I wasn't in the mood to fill her in, so everything she did today annoyed me.

Not fair to her I suppose, but - oh well.

It's kind of funny too because I came home from work and immediately started doing things like cleaning the smudges from the front of the fridge and the dishwasher. Like my mom is going to notice that stuff. Cause she won't. She's the one who dropped something on my carpet when she was living here a while back and instead of telling me or trying to clean it up, she rubbed it into the rug with the heel of her foot.

Omg.

I saw her do it out of the corner of my eye and I was astounded. This is the woman who spent half my childhood bent at the waist because she was always picking lint off the carpet. It's hard to see that she's not the same anymore.

I always thought that when people get old they either stay the same personality wise, or they change because of dementia. My mom gets confused sometimes, but she does not have dementia. Still - she is not the same woman. Hard to explain but like I said to the girl on the phone today, her maturity is gone. It's like she wants to stamp her feet and hold her breath like a child when she gets angry or frustrated. She said her mom was the same way when she got older. It's that full circle thing I guess. Some people lose some of their cognitive abilities and the filters people normally have, as they age. Art Linkletter (dating myself BIG here) should have said "kids and old people say the darnedest things" and it would have been absolutely comparable and true.

Okay, so I'm terrified right now. Not sure of what. But you know I'll tell you.

Just some stuff

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Apparently my mom is coming to live with me. On Friday. Not that I've spoken to her about it since she said she was going to look into plane flights. I got an email from my brother in Seattle telling me my mom was coming out on Friday. Hmm. Spoke to my brother in New Jersey - he didn't know anything either - even though he would be the one responsible for helping her pack and getting to the airport.

Interesting. I tried to call her today, no answer, emailed her asking her to call me. Got an email back -

" Will arrive in Chicago around 2pm on Fri., will follow with details later.
Love"

Uh ... okay. So even though I have the day off work today I am sitting here instead of getting her room ready and doing anything else really. That's what happens to me, I get overwhelmed and get paralyzed. It's called denial.

On another note, I'm inordinately worried about Bret Michaels and his brain hemorrhage. Never really been a fan per se, but every time I have seen an interview with him he simply seems like a really good guy. Maybe it's because he's diabetic, has been since he was a kid, which means any other kind of illness can be devastating - much less something like this! Information is only trickling out and I find myself checking for updates more than is natural for someone who has not really listened to his music or watched him on TV, beyond the very first season of Rock of Love. Wasn't interested enough to watch any other seasons or Celebrity Apprentice when I heard he was on.

A bit weird but we'll just call it compassion and leave it at that.

Oh and I saw this - whether you agree with the law that has been passed or not - you have to admit MSNBC has a genius writing their headlines! Lol!



It's almost like using a double negative, isn't it?
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Maxine Monday

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Drip! Drip! Stab!

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Get me a propeller hat and a drool cup (for me) - my mom has decided to come. Ah-h-h-h-h-h!!! And she gives me about a week and a half notice. If I had a fork wit hin reach I would plant it firmly in my eye. FRIGHTENING!!!!


So what did I do in order to not think about the gory details? I went shopping for toilet assist products! What else would I do?? The raised seat I bought last time - was tossed as soon as Mom got on the plane. And I decided she needs a toi-toi of her own in her bedroom, just in case.

Her plan is to move here with me, and to look for a nursing home around here. My plan is to set up some appointments with local places and take some tours. Tonight on the phone when I mentioned that the place she is in is pretty nice and high end she said "but it's so boring!!!" So doggone it we're going to find one with face painting and hall musicians and puppies and musical acts in the dining room every evening. Oh, and a disco - complete with mirrored ball and cocaine! Yep! Cause I think my mom believes that exists!



Good thing my expectations of this experience aren't nearly as high as hers or I'd really be in trouble.

Woo freaking hoo! For real!

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Yes I have been away from the interwebs. Did you miss me? Actually I haven't been away, I have been right here in front of my laptop, working on it. Okay, some of the time Dan (Dani's fiance) had it, and some of the time he was sitting here at my house in front of it, and yeah, Dani worked on it some too. It takes a village ...

But it takes something stronger than some nasty self-installing adware and maybe some other malware to take me down! I WIN!!! Okay, I am not running at 100% but I tell you what, I'm getting closer all the time. Thank God for Google and tech forums and message boards where I could look up any wayward message that appeared on my screen.

And a POX on any company that seeks to advertise and steal my info or whatever the heck they were trying to do by hijacking my browsers and throwing wrenches into my applications!! I came THIS CLOSE (see my thumb and index finger almost touching) to having to reinstall my operating system.

I didn't want to.

So I enlisted Dan who was a great help, he put up with my texts and calls and cat hair when he came here. He's allergic. Heh. And I sat in front of this laptop and did endless searches, uninstalled software and reinstalled it, ran scan after scan and basically played detective for days and days and days. But I am nothing if not persistent - especially when it comes to anything technical. Being self taught - some of the knowledge I have is just enough to be dangerous so I could not tell you what I was attempting to do when I clicked on whatever it was to bring this down on my head. Or when, for that matter. It was pretty deeply embedded before I knew what a problem I had.

But if my computer had a fever before - it's down to 98.8 now. Working quite well actually.

And the really sad part? Not a thing of interest happened since my computer has been out of commission for me to write about. Nada.

Aren't you glad I'm back? :)

I missed you!
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Maxine Monday

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Phoning it in

> I have no idea if A this will work and B what it will look like if
> it does.
>
> My laptop is dead in the water right now. The virus we thought
> might be gone, isn't. Tomorrow my future son-in-law will be wiping
> my laptop and reloading the operating system. My files are backing
> up now.
>
> I find it incomprehensible that anyone would get satisfaction from
> doing this to somebody! What kind of kicks are those?
>
> Anyway, I've commented here and there but for the most part it makes
> me cross eyed to read blogs on my phone so I'm not doing much of it.
>
> Not surprised it's gotten to this point really, it's been a bad
> day. Went to work without my tea which I just don't do. But after
> coming home from work I tossed a frozen dinner in the microwave and
> in pulling it out - my hand caught on the micro door and my meal
> went the opposite direction and landed in the cat box. Yup. Nice.
> Sauce on the wall and floor but the bulk of it in the cat box. Gah.
>
> Tomorrow has to be better, right? Wish me luck - hope to be back
> soon.
>
> Sent from my iPhone

Maxine Monday

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Hope I'll be up and running soon!

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WhyMommy's "Kick Cancer's Ass" Science Fair!

WhyMommy is having surgery today, due to a recurrence of her cancer. This science (ahem) is for her. :)
Has anyone asked you to so a science experiment lately? Not me! There were so many I wanted to do but they all involved food coloring which of course, I don't have! So I got out my USB microscope and started looking at the hair on my legs. Uh no. Not a good reveal, that one. I finally decided to show how capillary action works. Enjoy!

The explanation. Or something.

Your paper towel rope (or wick) starts getting wet, after a few minutes you will notice that the empty glass is starting to fill with water, it keeps filling until there is an even amount of water in each glass, how does this happen?


This process is called 'capillary action', the water uses this process to move along the tiny gaps in the fibre of the paper towels. It occurs due to the adhesive force between the water and the paper towel being stronger than the cohesive forces inside the water itself. This process can also be seen in plants where moisture travels from the roots to the rest of the plant.

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Observant much?

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My son opened our front door on Easter Sunday and was greeted by a sunnier version of this -



This is directly in front of the door. He turned and looked at me and asked "when did this start happening?" And the sad part is, he didn't mean when did it start to bloom this year, he meant - EVER. We've lived here over 6 years I think. This tree has bloomed every year. Maybe I should point out to him the tree on the side of the garage that blooms with beautiful pink flowers every spring.

Nah, I think I'll give him another year to see if he notices that one.
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I forgot it's Maxine Monday - Monday

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