Tripplicate

"They" say that things always happen in 3's. Who ever "they" are had better be right. Last Thursday as I approached my car after work I noticed a sticky note on the window. It had a name on the top and the words "The person who hit the red car" and under that "Please come in to the salon." Sure enough, there on the front driver's side wheel well was a dent.

And another one on the hood.

I went in to the salon to find out what happened. According to a couple ladies who saw it happen, there were 2 kids riding their bikes down the street. Kid #1 was riding up on one wheel and fell, right on to my car. The two of them then picked up their bikes and ran away. A patron of the salon recognized Kid # 2 and gave his name and his mother's name to the salon to pass on to me. When I got home I looked up Kid # 2 in the phonebook, and I was in luck, there was only one entry with that last name and the first initials matched his mothers.

I called to talk to his parents to get the name and number of Kid #1 so that I could get them to claim the damage on their insurance, not mine. Or they could just pay me for the damage. His mother was not home, so I talked to his father, told him what happened and that I wanted to get the name and contact information for his son's friend. He said "OK, hold on one sec while I get him." Not a 'sorry', or a 'that's terrible', no sense of remorse or responsibility at all from this guy. When his son got on the line, he said that his friends name is Jesse, but he didn't know his last name. Since when did kids stop using last names?? I knew all of my classmates last names. He also gave me a phone number.

I tried the phone number for Jesse, but all I got was "You have reached the voicemail box for 519-555-5555. Please leave a message after the tone. Beep." I left a message for his parents, but still have never heard anything back. Because I was unable to reach the parents, I figure I will likely have to put this damage on my insurance and to do so I needed to file an accident report. The OPP Constable came to look at the damage on Tuesday and as we approached the car he says to me "So, the dent we are looking at, it's the one on the rear passenger side?"

"What dent on the rear passenger side???!!!" hoping he was looking at the wrong car...

"That dent" he says and points at my car.

Sure enough, right there, next to the tail light is this:

It's that wonderful?? Some kid hits the front of my car and some car hits the back of my car! What else can happen?? You laugh now, but the story isn't over...

It's pretty standard for KIA to fill the tires of their new cars with Nitrogen. They claim that it helps the tires last longer and ride more smoothly and a bunch of other crap that I didn't really listen to after they said it was free. Anyway, to distinguish the tires that have Nitrogen from ones that have regular air, they put these nifty caps on the air nozzles for each tire that are chrome looking with a green 'N' on them. As I was filling my car with gas on the way home from work on Wednesday night I looked down and noticed that the cap was missing on the wheel directly under the gas tank. Then I looked at all of the other tires, they are all missing!!! Who steals air nozzle caps from tires???

That's 3. According to "them" I'm done right? Nothing else is going to happen to the car, right? Right??

As if I didn't have enough to deal with while trying to plan a wedding and fighting with our health insurance to cover D's new super expensive drugs! Sheesh!

It's like I try and do everything in one day...

On Saturday my mom, my sister and I met with the caterer at the museum and went through all of the details with him. They have a glass stand that I can use for the cupcakes (yes, we are having cupcakes! yummm!), so I don't have to worry about making one. He also is going to put lights and a swag at the head table at no charge. They are pretty much going to do all of the set up on the day of, we just have to drop everything off the day before or that morning. I also chose appetizers; sweet potato pancakes, bacon and cheese mini quiche, and firecracker shrimp. All 3 will be Crohn's and Colitis friendly so that my sister and D don't have to keep asking "what's in that?"

After that meeting, We met with the Photographers, and showed them around the museum. Then we went up to Georgetown to the Gallery and to the Park where we are having the photos done. After seeing all of the locations in one day, I think people will think that our wedding photos are staged! We have the Park, then on the way to the ceremony we are going to walk from the park to the gallery through downtown and take photo's on the way, then at the gallery, then at the museum... all such different backgrounds!

After meeting with the photographers we went to Waste Wise (a re-use center) and found some wide mouth mason jars that I can clean up and put some ribbon on and use for vases to hold our bouquets, and some picture frames that I am going to hinge together to make A-frame signs to direct people to the museum and gallery.

That night we all sat around going through old pictures for a picture display. 30 years of pictures... it was like I saw my life flash before my eyes!

Busy day. The weekend before last D and I went shopping for bands. His will be titanium, and mine will be white gold to match my ring.

I have another busy weekend planned this weekend. Hopefully shopping tomorrow with my aunt for the decorating stuff. And on the holiday Monday we are meeting with our bagpipe-playing officiant to go over the ceremony.

Unanswered

Why?

Why her?

Why him?

Why us?

Why now?

These are questions I ask my self daily. I suppose that this is where religion comes in for those who believe in God. Because it's a test, He has a plan for her, for him, for you, because He knows that you can handle it and come out on the other side a better stronger person because of it. It's times like this that I wish I wasn't so skeptical, that I could blindly accept a higher power, and believe that there was some method to this madness. But I can't. So I am left to wonder why, why her, why him, why us, why now?

Since January when my sister was released from hospital, she hasn't been getting any better and just maintaining the status quo. In the last 2 weeks however, she has gotten worse. She has had increased and bloody bathroom visits. Yesterday she saw her specialist, lets call her Dr. Poop. Dr. Poop has been her specialist since 2007 when she first went to McMaster. The last time she was in hospital, she wasn't responding to the prednisone, the salofalk, and now imuran and remicade. They have tried everything and are now out of options. The only thing left is surgery.

The good news is that surgery is the only known cure for Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and as such, we hope that this will be the cure she needs. The bad news is that it is major surgery which will remove her colon, a pretty useful organ. Yes people live without colons, and hopefully this will improve her quality of life, but there are major risk factors and still a lot of unknowns.

When diagnosed with UC, she was told that it was 'most likely' Colitis and not Crohn's Disease (CD). They couldn't be 100% sure because while the inflammation was restricted to her colon, indicative of UC, she also had other symptoms that are indicative of CD. So she was officially diagnosed with Crohn's Colitis. What does this mean? I don't know. I am worried that it means that she is at higher risk of having problems even after the surgery 'cure' like pouchitis, or that it will turn out to be CD and the inflammation will occur somewhere else.

A Colectomy is a two stage surgery. First, they remove the colon, and create a stoma on the abdomen where a colostomy bag will attach. She will have this bag for 3 months while her body adjusts and begins to heal. The second surgery will be to create an internal 'bag' or J-pouch so that she will not have to have the external colostomy bag for the rest of her life. This J-pouch is created out of her healthy small intestine. Pouchitis, as I mention earlier, is similar to UC except that it occurs in people who have had a colectomy, in their J-pouch. There is no cure for pouchitis.

I hope this is it. I hope this is the end.

It will still be a while before she can have the surgery, because she has to have a bunch of tests done and another scopy. Mom said it likely won't happen until after the wedding in September or October, then she will have a bag for 3 months before she can have the second surgery to create the J-pouch. That won't likely happen until the new year so that she is not in hospital or trying to recover from surgery over the holidays. This means that she will miss another 2 semesters of school as she will not be able to return until May of 2010, according to Dr. Poop.

I have no idea what this will do to her wedding plans. They set the date for August 2010 because they assumed that she would be done school at that point, now she won't be done until 2011. Also, if she is out of school, my parents don't know what do to about insurance since she will no longer be a student and therefore covered under my parents. crap. So again I ask...

Why?

Why her?

Why him?

Why us?

Why now?

Birthday-Harry-Potter-Wedding-Shower-Extravaganza!

Awesome Weekend. The best one I have had in a long long time. It started on Friday when I went to the movie theatre straight from work to get in line for Harry Potter. I knew it was going to be a packed theatre and I needed to get perfect seats. My Sister picked J up from the GO station and met me at the theatre after I was seated. In honour of J's birthday last week, I treated both of them to dinner and a movie. Dinner consisted of Hot Dogs and Berttie Botts Every Flavour Beans aka Jelly Belly's.


Harry Potter was an awesome show; the best one, in my opinion, other than the first one. I liked that although it dealt with some very heavy subjects, there was still a lot of humor. I had read some reviews that were knocking it because the audience was expected to know who all of the characters were and that the movie didn't do enough to bring in new fans. But really, if they had, it would have been a 5 hr movie! Be realistic people... with a book that big, things will have to be assumed and parts are going to be cut. There was really only one scene from the book that I really missed in the movie and that was Dumbledore's funeral. The end of this movie could have been a real tear jerker if there was some effort put into it.

The next morning J and I went for a walk with the dog down to a local hippie coffee shop, and then to the park to sip our cappuccino and eat muffins. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and it wasn't too hot or too cold. The dog was behaving, even catching the Frisbee a few times AND BRINGING IT BACK occasionally. We made our way back to the house past the beautiful gardens and huge houses that surround our little townhouse complex, and I was reminded of how much I love our neighbourhood.

Soon we had to get going to my Aunts house for my final (finally) bridal shower. On our way I had to stop quickly at the mall to find a sweater to wear over my dress because I am always cold. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to find a white cardigan sweater in July?? We had to go to 4 stores and were 'fashionably' late to the shower. Oh well, the party doesn't really start until the bride gets there anyway right?

I have been looking forward to this shower most of all. The others were wonderful, but there is just something about sitting in a room surrounded by people who have known you your entire life. These people all remember 'little girl' me and are now getting to be a part of 'grown up' me. There was even a surprise guest; J's Nanny was able to come down! I have only seen her at funerals lately, and other than that and J's practice wedding, I haven't seen her since I was about 8. She still remembers me as the little girl who got chased by their golden retriever. That was so nice, I'm happy that she came.

I was also happy that my own grandmother was able to make it down. When I had talked to her last she wasn't sure she was going to make it. She doesn't like to sleep at either my mom's or my aunts house, so she was planning to drive down and back to her house, that's 2 hrs there and 2 hrs back. We were all impressed with how well she behaved. My Grandma likes to be the center of attention. I'm not sure if it's a form of dementia or the start of Alzheimer's or something, or if she has always been like this and I'm just becoming more aware of it as I grow up, but when the focus of conversation is not on her, or on a topic that she choose, she can't stand it. At one point near the end she did go and sit outside.

After the party, one of my other aunts went over to my moms house and us girls, my mom, my aunt, my sister and I, sat around and chatted for hours. We ordered Swiss Chalet for dinner and I didn't get home until 11pm. So tired.

Amazing day. Amazing weekend. Thank you.

Better than Christmas!

Today marks the start of an incredible 3 day wonderful, fantastic time! First today. As I write this, someone is cleaning my house! Since D has got so sick it has been incredibly hard to keep up with the housekeeping. Whenever I tried to clean, he would get upset that I was doing all of the work. He would try and help only to have to stop after an hour of cleaning. He would want me to take a break with him so that he wouldn't feel guilty. So since our entire house takes more than an hour to clean, only parts of it were getting looked after. So my mom came to the rescue! She has sent us her cleaning lady for the summer to help us out. For which, I am eternally grateful. As if my mom doesn't do enough for everyone, just one more thing to add to the list of why my mom is the best in the world.

Then tomorrow! Harry Potter Day!!! My bestest friend, J, and my bestest sister, H, and by bestest fiancee, D, are all going to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have had this day mapped out for weeks. How J is getting our house, who is standing in line, I even bought the tickets last week. Tonight I am going out to buy special themed movie snacks, that's how excited I am for this movie. I am very happy that this has been something that has brought my sister and I closer together. HP is something we have bonded over. We have gone to see every movie together within the opening week, it has been great.

And After Harry Potter? How can it get any better?? Why another shower of course! This time it is with my family. I will know everyone, there will be some people there that I haven't seen in a long time. There will even be people there that I have seen recently, but only in unfortunate circumstances, it will be so nice to have a happy occasion to share with them. It is going to be so much fun, I can't wait!

At a loss for words

My first job in my field came with a really amazing boss, Mr. Ken. We used to fly paper airplanes between our offices and giggle like school girls when the documents we were reading said erection when refering to erecting a tower. Since I quit, we have tried keeping in touch, emailing back and forth a few times a year to see how everyone's doing. The other day he found me on facebook and the first thing he says is Hey Ms. Erin, how is life treating you?


How exactly do I answer that? On one hand life is great. I am in love with an amazing guy, we bought a townhouse and are getting married in less than two monts. On the other hand, life sucks. The amazing guy I am in love with is incredibly sick and may be required to have surgery.


So when I answer, do I leave out the bad? Do people really want an honest answer then they ask how you are, or are they happier to hear that everyone is well? Lately I have answered honestly where ever possible. At my last shower, I made a point of telling people that the wedding plans were going so-so because D's health was touch and go. I wonder if they felt I was bringing the spirit of the occasion down. I feel bad for doing that, but also feel bad for denying my feelings if I pretend that everything is peachy keen.