They were wrong!

Dad does not have cancer!! After his surgery on Tuesday, the surgeon told us he thought it might not be cancer but a polyp with atypia. Yesterday, the tests came back clean. I've been reading about cancer, polyps, etc., and that kind of polyp could become cancerous, so it's good it's out. The surgery took longer than we had expected, but the surgeon said Dad's colon is somewhat short, and while they were there, they took out adhesions from an appendectomy performed when he was 6 years old, and his gall bladder surgery about 7 years ago. He'll be in the hospital a few more days, but no chemotherapy or real cancer worries! It's hard to believe that the doctor said it was definitely cancer. One of mom's friends really does not like the doctor, and that adds to her ammunition. He took out Mom's, Dad's and my gall bladders, though, and we all did pretty well. Dad had more problems than I did, but he was about 35 years older than I when I had mine out. He may have had more infection in the first place. We'd rather have had them tell us it was cancer and then find out it wasn't than the other way around, anyway. Although if Dad had had a bad heart, it might have been bad.

Ironically, I've worked every day this week. I was actually on the air live Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and worked one of my freelance jobs Wednesday and Thursday. Most of the time I'm hanging around the house, and when my father's in the hospital, I'm busy. That's life, I guess. At least I didn't have time to twiddle my thumbs and drive myself crazy worrying.

Other good news--my sister and her husband are trying to work things out. I hope they can. I don't know that I could if I were in her shoes. My mom thinks my sister has changed some throughout all this, not suprising, I suppose.

Does It Ever End?
 
Today my dad went in for a routine colonoscopy.  They found cancer. He has had yearly physicals for years, and has a pretty clean bill of health.  He's taken medication for high blood pressure for years and it's been under control.  He decided to have the colonoscopy because a few months ago one of his best friends had one and they found cancer.  Luckily, it was found early and he's had a very good recovery so far.  Dad hadn't really had any symptoms (weight loss, pain) and they think maybe that's a good sign.  Oh God, I hope so.  I hope so much that he does as well as his friend has done.  Dad is such a wonderful person, such a good example for anyone to follow.  Please pray for him.

I normally am not annoyed when people around me are getting pregnant.  It makes sense, we're in our 30s, most people have kids, it's something in the water...whatever.  It's always more the "me too, please", instead of "this just sucks".  One of the women I sing with is pregnant.  It sucks.  2 of the other 3 have both been pregnant twice since I've known them and the other is about 10 years older than I am and has 2 grown daughters.  It's not that I don't think she deserves to be pregnant.  I do.  She and her husband, odd as he may be, will be great, loving parents.  They're in their late 20s and seem to have a good marriage.  He's still got about a year of school left.  It's just that I remember her saying about a year ago that he wanted to start a family, and she was trying to convince him they weren't ready, moneywise, careerwise, etc.    Their baby is due in January.   So I'm guessing, they probably said, OK, let's do it, and bam---it happened.  I don't know why this one is getting to me.  It's probably that we've hit that 5 year mark.  It was 5 years ago this month that G had his vasectomy reversal.  We've done what we can do, financially, and it didn't happen.  And odds are, it won't.  And I get to watch another person grow week by week.  I'm sure she'll be bringing the sonogram pictures to rehearsals.  One of the other women, who's had her perfect little girl and boy brought out the bin of maternity clothes to pass along a few weeks ago.  To her credit, she knows what we've been through and wrote me a lovely note after our 2nd failed IVF last year.  She had some struggles with infertility herself and had a miscarriage prior to the births of each of her kids.  She didn't make a big deal out bringing out the clothes, but still, it might've been nice if she'd just invited the other girl over to pick them up.  It sucks.

Oh, wow, nice changes from Blogger, formatting-wise.  I'm feeling a bit better that I'm lazy and have never moved my blog.
 
More job-hunting adventures!  Last week one of my weekly job emails (I receive several) included a job that sounded like it would be great for me.  On Tuesday night, while I was composing my cover letter, a storm was heading our way, and before I could finish, bam, no electricity.  And it didn't come back until the next day.  I hope it's not some kind of sign.  I'm not complaining, we hardly ever lose our power for more than a half hour or so and some people in town didn't get theirs restored until yesterday!  I got back to my cover letter Wednesday evening, and tried to follow directions about applying, but I was supposed to access it through another web site, and it wasn't there.  Alternatively, I could mail or fax it to the state Dept. for Employment Services, so I faxed it.  Friday afternoon, I got a letter from DES saying that the proper way to apply was to go through the web site where the job doesn't exist.  I did find out what company has supposedly listed the phantom job, however.  I went to their web site, and it doesn't exist there, either.  It is a company I'd like to work for, however, because I'd feel like I was actually serving people somehow.  The company is involved with a victim notification service, which lets victims of crimes know when the perpetrators are being released from custody.  It was started as a result of a young woman being murdered by her rapist/ex-boyfriend whom she didn't know had been released.  I'm still not sure the job I'm interested in exists, but I wrote the company.  We'll see.
 
I'm now going to see if I can post a random photo, as there is a button for that. 
 
OK, it took awhile and I still had to post the pic to the web, but here's a rare photo of my cats together without Marble, the calico, screaming at Minnie, the black & white kitty. 

What level of hell is sitting in the unemployment office for 2 and a half hours? Instead of a check yesterday, I got a green sheet, which did not bode well. Even though I've been collecting for over 6 months, I've only received about half of my benefit money because of my freelance/PT work. I'd gone to donate blood yesterday, because of a promised Kings Island ticket. Lo and behold, they were out of the tickets by the time I arrived, but I gave anyway. I would donate more often, but my veins are small and hard to find, making the whole process pretty difficult sometimes. It went OK yesterday, and I'm supposed to get a ticket for Frightfest at Kings Island in October, so that was all right, but the green sheet in the mail was not. I fretted and worried all night. At the unemp. office this morning I was assigned number 723. They were on 714. Many, many people came and went while I waited. Admittedly, I'm often one of the people who gets to come in and leave quickly. Not today. Hoo boy. And I didn't bring a book. I jotted notes to myself of things to do in the next couple of days. I looked at a TV screen silently playing "The Shadow" starring Alec Baldwin. Mostly I thought, "why me? Why can't I get a job? What are we going to do if they've cut me off? I can't make the car payment. Do I wait tables? Work retail? What? I apply for job after job. I'm either overqualified or underqualified. Or maybe they've hired their sister-in-law." And on and on like that, for 2 hours. I looked at beautiful babies and toddlers. A gorgeous little girl of 3 or 4 with dark chocolate eyes and 2-foot-long eyelashes. A darling baby with wispy blonde hair and whose mother I wanted to shake a little bit for having pierced the baby's ears. I thought some more "why me"'s. "If I had a job and we had a little money we could start on the adoption process. Or if I had a job with good insurance coverage, I could torture myself through another IVF. Why me?" I finally got called back. The counselor said I had a disqualifying answer, but when she printed out my last claim call, she couldn't find anything wrong. Neither could another person she showed it to. They OK'd my payment and I should get it Saturday or Monday. It helps. It's not enough. Why me?

Kewl!!!

I just heard myself at my new radio job and they have a listen live option! It's only on weekend nights but if you're interested, email me(link on the right)and I'll point you to the station where I'm working.

I need some help! Someone reading this must be a Sopranos fan! And someone must have taped all the episodes from Season 5! I'm not trying to rip off HBO or anything, but I have no job and I can't afford it. My dad, who has HBO On Demand, taped episodes 1-9 for me. Unfortunately, one of the cheap tapes I bought was crappy, so episode 7 was severely messed up. We have episodes 8 & 9. Unfortunately, by the time I got another tape to Dad so he could re-tape episode 7 and episodes 10-13, HBO had run them for the last time (I discovered via the internet that June 20 was the last day they ran them). It might be months before they're on DVD, and I'm sure I'll have had everything ruined for me by then. I already know one spoiler, although it was something I knew had to happen. Anyway, here's what I need: Season 5, episode 7 (I guess this would be #59?) and episodes 10-13 (62-65). If you happen to have taped them, I would so appreciate your loaning them to me. I will pay postage and baby your tapes appropriately. Let me know, please!

My new favorite movie (for the last few months) is Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It's not a family pic (not for most families, anyway) and not for the easily offended or faint of heart, but it just fascinates me. I love the music, especially "Wicked Little Town". If you like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, check it out. It's not a horror movie, but the Eastern European transsexual thing is a definite connection. I got Garland to watch it with me tonight, as he is a "Rocky Horror" fan. I think he enjoyed "Hedwig", too.

Laughing, laughing, laughing at Infertile Myrtle comics!! Helps stop the crying coming from collection agency notice from RE's office. I guess I'll bite the bullet and write checks from home equity line and credit card to cover that and bill from evil hospital. Sigh.

Last night I dreamed of chocolate. And yes, I did start my period today, why do you ask?

I may be completely insane. I'm starting another part-time position, with the company where I had my last radio job. Am I backtracking? I don't know. The managers who were the ones responsible for sacking me are all gone. It'll probably actually be fun. No pressure, just voice tracking classic rock on the weekends. And classic rock will be much more fun than the "soft rock favorites" we played at my last station. No Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion or Whitney Houston, thank you very much! It's not lots of money, but it takes a little more pressure off me getting a new job that pays lots more than my last one. Although I do still want that.