Christmas Wish List 2009 - updated 12/03

Updated 7 December 2009; 18:00

Since every year there is confusion with the Amazon List and there are many things I want that may have nothing to do with Amazon, I am posting my wish list. You should all work out together who is getting what to ensure that there will be less confusion. Anyone viewing this who doesn't exchange gifts with me should ignore this as it is not my usual casual reading posting.

THIS WILL BE UPDATED CONSTANTLY EACH DAY... OR MAYBE ONCE A WEEK...
(I can't think of everything at once...)

1. Gift Certificate or card for massages (any amount - it will help)

2. e-bay gift cards (I don't know if they exist but I bet they do somewhere)

3. Crystal spheres (two e-bay dealers are the ones I buy from regularly: Amy Zhang's Crystal Art World and Heather's Crystal Quarry. If you contact them through e-bay, they will give you the different items I'm watching that are in your price range)

4. Car hook up for the iPod (direct)

5. DVDs:
Watership Down
Princess Diaries 2 (I have the first one)
Bones Seasons 3
CSI Season 9
Drop Dead Dive Season 1 (may not be available yet)
From the Earth to the Moon - Signature Edition


6. Natural wireless keyboard and mouse (for Windows 7/new computer)

7. National Geogrphic Magazine:

Info: Key: 9H4H295; 888.225.5647; http://www.shopng.org/

a. Silver and Garnet Mandala Earrings (72059 - $35.00) and Necklace (1072689 - $75.00) - Set - $95.00
b. Santiago Travel Boots (1072595) $229.00 (size 39 (European size for US 8)

c. Scottish Walking Wool Sweater (1074882 - BU burgundy) $159.00

d. Stellarscope star finder (1073535) $49.00

e. Rainbowmaker (73648) $39.95 (two, please)

8. Franklin Covey

Info: Customer #11005020; promo code: 79148; 800.654.1776; franklinplanner.com

a. Burgundy Storage Cases (3) - Classic size (#19079) $9.95 each

b. Burgundy Storage Sleeve (10) - Classic size (#25131) $8.95 each

9. Levenger catalogue

Info: Cus #AC0055396378; Promo 9NCB07A; 800.544.0880; levenger.com

a. Multicoloured Annotated ruled pads (Junior - $14.00/3; Letter - $20/3) #N9-ADS3595

b. Nantucket Laptop Lifter $68.00 #N9AD6040

10. Crate & Barrel

Info: Cus #0031858056; Key #3Z069; 800.323.5461; crateandbarrel.com

a. Elodie Hurricane glass (RW149) $39.95

b. London Hurricanes (1 of each) - 6" diameter (RW219) $24.95

8" diameter (RW218) $39.95

11. Yankee Candle Company

Yankeecandle.com; 800.243.1776

Autumn Leaves Reed Diffuser (1166315) $19.99

Large Jar Candle - Fireside $24.99

Large Jar Candle - Christmas Tree $24.99

12. Board games/Games

a. Triominoes

b. Quadominoes

c. 3-D Monopoly

13. Taylor's of Harrogate Teas

http://www.englishteastore.com/taofhate.html

Flavours (bags or loose):

Naturally Decaffeinated Breakfast Tea

Pure Ceylon Tea

Earl Grey Tea

Scottish Breakfast Tea

Lapsang Souchong Tea

Harrisons & Crosfields Royal Imperial Tea

Cardless Electric Kettle by Toastmaster

Note: (I don't like green or herbal teas)

14. The Puzzle Warehouse

http://www.puzzlewarehouse.com/

The Dog Show (3,000 pieces)

On Thin Ice (3,000 pieces)

Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn (4,000 pieces)

Top Pick: Celestial Map (1,500 pieces)

15. Signals

Link: www.signals.com

800.669.9696

1. OM carved wood medallion #HG9242 $44.95

2. Crystal prism Hurrican lamp #HD4862 $29.95

3. Sterling-dipped four-leaf clover necklace #HG9972 $49.95

4. Exclusive Language Watch (Gaelic) #HE9383 $39.95

Finally Enjoying the Ride!

I have been feeling so good since getting back from Philly and getting into a more normal rhythm of living. I still feel good. I e-mailed my doctor to set up an appointment so I can follow up with the sleep testing and ask if they know any particular opthamalogist in the CIGNA plan. I wanna get this ball rolling!

And I love the medication for my muscles! Almost no side effects, doesn't make me tired or loopy on a full stomach, does make me tired on an empty stomach and works well in tandem with Ambien, so I have cut back on that.

I eating less, getting back into exercising, getting into the holidays and taking pictures again... it's awesome! And work - I always love work but it had gotten so uncomfortable with the back spasms and neck tightness. Now I am focussing on work and not being in pain!

I don't think of it often, or I should say, I try not to think that this may just be a momentary thing. I don't want this to be a couple weeks of feeling great and then going back to the mess I was. That does scare me... but I am working on making sure that this won't happen!

The Luck of a Quiet Thanksgiving!

It really is usually far nuttier on Thanksgiving, but the gods smiled upon us this year.

One call, at 1820, for a syncope patient. That's it. And the patient was a perfectly wonderful person, having a good chuckle over this. We liked our patient, and our patient liked us. That is usually not the case with holiday calls.

Even 65 had an easy night. They were called out when we were enroute to the hospital for a 19-year-old choking (worry not, I believed all turned out well) and then around 2100 for someone at Greystone - better them than us. I've been to Greystone far too often this year... that is not my side of town and let's face it, no one wants to go to the scary old mental patient facility. Granted the facility we usually go to is modern and well-kept, but it is still freaky. A little bit.

After that, silence reigned - except 69 (the Hevy Rescue guys) had a board up to go to.

Happy Thanksgiving indeed!

Processing the Philadelphia Trip

As you., my few readers know, I went to Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon, had my doctor appointment at 0800 and left shortly after to return home.

We drove down Route 287 for a while until the navigator, harboring its own thought-processes on how to get there, took us off the highway and put us on Route 206 South, which was, in short, a nightmare. We passed through small towns; many, many traffic lights, all of which turned red just for us; cows; farms; open fields... it was boring, long and complete with schoolbusses, the root of all evil where road travel of any kind is done. I wanted off of those backroad, backwoods lanes NOW!

Eventually we made it to Route 95S (the other Route 95S - don't ask!) and there I happily took my chances with the local constabulary doing 80 - 85 the remaining distance until we reached Route 30 in Philly. Then the wretched traffic confined my speeding to low but steady numbers. That, and sheer stress - I hate driving in cities. Any city, really, but especially tower metropolises, like Manhattan, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and (the number one, absolutely highest criminally wrong place to drive, Boston! The "engineers" who came up with that nightmare should be shot.

We found the hotel with relative ease. I am terribly ignorant of cities outside of Manhattan and so really hadn't realised that the hotels close to University of Pennsylvania Medical Center are not really the better places to stay - or that this is the most savory area of the city. Philadelphia has tons of history, good restaurants, fun places and things to do.... and the less well-lit sides with the violence, the drugs, the usual inner-city issues. I wasn't in the heart of South Philly, but I was not in the better parts of town, either.

The first hint was the local in general, which did not look... great. When we got in and checked in, it was less great. This was a one-night stay over, so I picked the hotel that was very close to the hospital - 4.5 miles away. The Best Western. For one night, who cares?

I cared when I requested two pillows and after the third request, the Front Desk told me they would send Security up with the pillows. Say what?! Sure enough, a huge burly friendly looking guy came up wearing a gun and a radio popped by with two pillows. I said, "You're my hero." and took the pillows gratefully and could not close and triple lock the door fast enough.

During the waiting time for the pillows, the room "behind" us became someone's love shack or "office" (take your pick), when the moaning and bed-banging sounds began. I couldn't believe it. I said t0 Luis, "We won't be returning here - this place must rent by the hour." Well... she certainly made the most of the hour. I don't know if this was one woman pleasuring herself, one woman with one silent guy, or one woman with three different silent guy but there would be 19 minutes of moaning and yelling and sex sounds, three or four golden minutes of silence and then another round. Three times.

The telly could not be loud enough.

We did survive the night, obviously, but we got up around 0600, got washed and dressed and outta there after a very continental breakfast. Time for the appointment.

The drive to UPenn was indeed short, but we passed some really posh hotels and that is where we are going next time. The money will be well spent. With room service and comfy beds and a view that would make Ben Franklin smile!

Luis dropped me off at the front of the building and went off to find parking. I went in and had no trouble finding the neurology center. I was all signed in and ready to go. In fact, they kept excellent records and had everything set up... but they did not ask for my new insurance card and so I owe them $5 (it is nice that since my last visit to UPenn, 18 months ago, the copay has only increased that much). The office was empty, just a couple of employees and one or two other patients, so I will remember to set up my annual visit for first thing in the morning.

I went and had my vitals checked, which true to form were fine and then returned to the waiting room. Luis came in and sat with me and around 0830, Dr. Lauren Elman came out with another doctor, introduced herself and the student, and we went into the room.

She ran me throught the usual tests, push on that, pull on these, don't let me push this, don't pull that, grip my fingers, tight, really tight, now let go fast! I have no neck strength, can't get out of a deep knee bend, have trouble with my balance, can't always let go of things right away, and can't lift much (including myself). But I have a good, strong, healthy heart, and I have other positives. She did ask if I snore and I looked at Luis - I'm asleep, so I have no way of knowing if I snore. Luis was nodding away, so I guess I do! The doctor recommended I have a sleep test for sleep apnia and I am sending an e-mail to my doctor's office to do that. I can't wait to jump into that - I would love to sleep well again.

She also suggested that I see an opthamalogist - I have to check what it is that I need to go for (I either missed the reason or the conversational ball was moving so fast that I did not get that far. Luis has an opthamalogist that never processes his insurance correctly, so we are going to seek out a new one together. And finally, Dr. Elman gave me a new script for a muscle relaxant that can be used as needed, so I won't be on something all the time.

And I asked the big questions: can I keep working (both jobs) and will I need to be in a wheelchair one day. She was very positive and encouraging in the work area - there are new things coming out all the time and we will meet once a year and I can call her ANYtime with questions or issues - and (Drum roll, please!) while there is some chance that I could some time down the road need a walker or something like that, she would bet her career that I will not end up in a wheelchair. She said I have had this all of my life, and she is sure that when I come and see her next year, that I will not have gotten worse than I am now.

That is HUGE!

I feel so much better - it hasn't fixed me and I will undoubtedly have work to do to keep on a better path but to hear that was so reassuring, so great! An enormous weight has been lifted!

And it is back to the gym and yoga for me! I need to get back to doing that.

Thanksgiving - Just Another Day Off

Every Thanksgiving is the same, whether we go somewhere or not. When I was little, Thanksgiving was a Grandparents' holiday. I was exchanged at Checkpoint Charlie (The then-lone Howard Jonsons restaurant on Route 80 right at the Delaware Water Gap on the Pennsylvania side) from my mother to my paternal grandparents, Grandma and Pop-pop (usually both grands have funny nicknames, but I wonder if my grandmother would have considered that beneath her dignity. I don't know, and it is unlikely I will ever know, but that sort of fits her.

That lasted into my 11th or 12th year, maybe into my midteens. Once my grandmother allowed herself to show anger that I was getting my menstrual cycle, Thanksgiving became the Platt Family sideshow.

Just a freaky little behaviour from my grandmother that no one could have predicted. All families have their idiosyncrasies and homegrown weirdnessess, but this was so pervasive that I elected to stay home for every holiday. They'd send gifts, but the real heart of the relationship had been broken because I had the temerity to grow up.

It's difficult for me to understand a lot of what motivated my grandmother. When I was little, I adored her. I had more realsitic feelings about Pop-pop - I loved him and a lot but he was not perfect and attempting to be that way. And it was easy to see at a young age, that he lived solely to be a Yes Man to my very controlling grandmother. But while those things were there and known I really did not see what a truly bizarre person she could be.

Frances Lydia Anderson - that is about as WASPy as any name could be. And she was very much that. I know plenty of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants and could not care less, but she was one-of-a-kind, because her whole essence to be and the core of everything she did revolved around one unutterable mantra: what would the neighbours think?

This is not an issue I will ever have. I don't even know my neighbours for the most part and am perfectly happy that way.

(I'm sitting in Luis' office typing this. For the time being he has quit the room and I have it for one reason: this awesome back massaging thing he has gotten. $200 buys you a heating, vibrating, rolling or shiatsu (or both) thing that you drape over the chair of your choice and give a message that will turn you into a wet noodle. Sign me up!)

Anyway, I have a vague memory of the early Thanksgiving - not unsurprising, with my long-term mnemonic skills. After I stopped going to Pennsy I would go with my parents to the Long Island Platchek Thanksiving show. My maternal grandmother was still alive, Ida, for whom I had no nickname. You can see the closeness my mother fomented between us. This was your smells-funny grandmother, who looked and smelled kinda weird, or old, I guess, despite being potentially younger than Grandma. I can't remember who was what age. I do know Ida died when I was 17, and she was 77, and that had to be in 1985. (The advantage of being born in late January is that there is little math involved in figuring out what year something happened if I know my age. I only have 25 days into any new year before my birthday.) Ma told me a story that Ida had put down a false birthyear on her birth certificate - she made herself two years younger. I find that laughable - so what? Two years. Shit, make it twelve and be done with it.

My other grandmother was not into aging, but not enough to fudge her records. She would always refer to herself as "39 and holding". I remember thinking that I was onto that act. I never understand people and getting bent over something that is a natural part of life. I wouldn't want to be Dorian Gray, either. I'll just take my normal aging lumps, thank you!

Um, where was I? Oh, yes, Thanksgiving. Well, for years we did the Long Island trek to either Douglaston or Queens to do the familial Thaksgiving (everyone's so into turkey, except me). That lasted until the Great Schism, when it was discovered that my mother was siding with the enemy, my uncle John. He and my aunt had split, and it was an ugly, ugly scene, so there were very strong feelings about this. Anyway, my parents made the decision to stay in touch with John and his new (then) girlfriend so when my aunt and cousin found out, they really had conniptions over it.

So after that we went to the Christmas Eve celebrations only, where we were semi-pariahs (which really did not affect us much as a whole), and began having Thanksgivings in Wayne, with my parents, Luis and me and John and Safia. And then ten years ago, it was my parents, Luis and me and John, Safia and Julia, their daughter. After that, we made our Thanksgiving visits shorter (being related to the child hardly makes a difference to me - kids are kids and I don't like kids), but still went.

After last year, however, there was no point in holding Thanksgiving any longer, so now it is just another day off with bad telly and no shopping. At least I don't have to eat turkey any more!

Tomorrow I will amuse myself by working on the Thanksgiving holiday hours for the time system so that this will be complete before I come in to work on Monday to run the payroll. That way it won't take me all bloody day to do it. Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas stuff - those are all the big ones. Christmas Day is the only easy one - EVERYONE gets it since it is the one day of the year - the whole year - that we are closed! All the others have to be calculated by hours worked.

So I have ALL day to blog, read, maybe do some online shopping for Christmas, install Windows 7 on first my office computer, then my laptop, do stuff around the house (cleaning off my desk would be an excellent start), bond with the kitties, hang with Luis... whatever. So many choices!

Blogging first!