rakin' in the big bucks now

Last year I made $436.93 in earned income. That's a $436.93 increase over the previous year. Pretty exciting.

'Course, it took me six weeks to make that, and I used to make that every 2.2 days. But a decimation of income (not to mention respect) are things you expect when you enter the teaching field.

So, here's to moving back into the ranks of breadwinners! Cheers!

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Update on Loopy's nephew

Nothing much to say. Some things seem better, some things seem worse, some things seem the same. He's still asleep.

We hold his hand, we do jigsaw puzzles, we hold his hand, we read, we hold his hand, we go home to sleep and get up and do it again. And every morning when it's the alarm clock and not the phone that wakes us up, we are grateful.

I call Loopy with updates and she cries bitterly because she wants to be here with us. I wish she were.

If we haven't used up more than our share of your goodwill, prayers, support and encouragement, we could sure use some more...

At left, Ricky as a kid; apparently he was as sweet and sunny as he looks. His mom says, "he was my sunshine baby."

and may 2007 suck less than 2006

breaking news

on a random newswire that came up in a random search:

• 9:05 p.m.: Millions make New Year's resolutions
  
• 10:16 p.m.: Revelers ring in new year
  
• 10:29 p.m.: U.S. deaths in Iraq hit 3,000

and in other news...

here i am in hershey, pennsylvania (at least I am eating chocolate, my only nod to a new year's celebration), in a hotel across from the hospital, keeping daily vigil at the bedside of Loopy's nephew, who had a stroke just before Christmas and then, just as it seemed he was recovering from the stroke, came down with necrotizing fasciitis (also known as flesh-eating disease), a fast-spreading infection that can devour the whole body in a matter of hours.

fortunately they caught it quickly and he is young and mostly healthy, so the odds are somewhat in his favor, and, with the aid of massive antibiotics, he seems to be holding his own; yesterday we were feeling optimistic, but today there was a setback and a nurse explained to us that our optimism was premature; it could still go either way. this was all the more crushing because we were feeling hopeful yesterday. i don't know if it's better to know the truth or not.

i haven't blogged about it because i can't think of a way to talk about it that doesn't seem to sensationalize what has been happening, just because what's happening is so grotesque.

he used to read our blogs...he told Loopy how to reboot someone else's router when stealing wireless internet service.....o Ricky, I hope that sometime in 2007 you will be reading this and laughing at the scare you gave us.

gentle readers, i hope you have celebrated the new year in a happier way.

serious backlog

Lots to report on........way behind.

Let's see.

my birthday

(...which was what, almost six weeks ago now...(rolling my eyes)...)

...was wonderful.

I took the bus down to Chicago and Loopy had a surprise for me... dinner at a hipster sushi place... fun & yummy...if a little too hip, or did I mention that.

Then we returned to the apartment where I found... a kitchen table full of presents! Yay! Lots of lovely smelly things from LUSH and all sorts of other items I had wanted, only better than I had imagined. Perfect.

Then the next day, my actual birthday, we went to the DuSable Museum of African American History—we had wanted to go for some time & my bday seemed a good occasion.

There was a decent section on Africa, where I learned quite a bit; the rest was full of all kinds of interesting things, but somewhat inconsistently labeled and curated (looks like it lacks money, surprise surprise).

The most thorough and clearly-labeled section was a good-sized room devoted to Ms. Annie Turnbo Malone (1869-1957), an early-twentieth-century entrepreneur who created a multi-million-dollar corporate empire selling beauty products. That was interesting (I especially enjoyed the 1920's advertisements, with their engraved illustrations of "Famous Black Beauties of History," including the Queen of Sheba and Casseopaeia), and it certainly epitomized its time period beautifully.

And yet...I couldn't help wishing that there had been as much attention given to the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam, for example—there was only about five feet of wall space for both of them together, and they were tucked way back in a corner.

It was kind of a disappointment, because Chicago is so important in Black history—it should have a really top-drawer museum thereof.

Well, it looks like they're working on it all the time, so maybe it will get there. All in all it was a fun expotition (nother nod to Pooh) and I am glad to have seen it... I picked up a couple of posters and a CD—happy birthday to me, and contribution (a small one!) to the museum.

After lunch we went to the aquarium, which I'm going to talk about more under Amy's visit so I won't now.

And for dinner, to Salpicón! where we thoroughly enjoyed the chef's seven-course tasting menu (still can't get over the price—absolutely fantastic, delicious, fashionable cuisine—yet, seven courses for sixty dollars! Toto, I don't think we're in New York City anymore!) and some lovely wine as well. It was a perfect evening.

Patty & Fred visit

The next day we met up with Rebekah's sister and brother-in-law to wander around a massive RV Show (where Fred had to go on business). That was really a hoot.

We went into all these different RV's—who knew there was such a variety of options and prices? Everything from the tiny little pop-up trailer....to the luxurious cruiser with a roof deck with built-in grill & mini-bar. Un-&#$%ing-believable. And some of them even got decent gas mileage! (Not the one with the roof deck, though). I always love all the little space-saving things that pop out of the wall and so on.

Finished it up with a massive dinner (which in turn was finished up with a slice of carrot cake bigger than my head!) and back to their hotel room to watch a pay-per-view movie...

I accidentally ordered a movie while trying to see a preview, so we watched Yours, Mine & Ours, which, lucky for us, was actually quite enjoyable. ("That's your best screw-up this year," Patty told me after it was over... uh... yeah... thanks sis).

The next day we went to the Water Tower Mall in the morning, where Patty bought me two blouses from J.Jill (yay! thanks Patty!); then we hit my favorite Italian place, Papa Milano's, for lunch. Patty & I split the lasagna-the-size-of-a-cinderblock, which, turns out, was just perfect.

Then I hitched a ride with E, Loopy's roommate, back to Madison for a meeting I had to attend on Sunday...

...and thus endethed the best birthday week ever. Seriously. The absolute best. Heartfelt gratitude to Loopy (and the outlaws) for making it so.

*sigh* I was gonna post about Amy's visit, and about how we met my little cousin-once-removed and his mom for the first time... but Amy's visit has a buncha pictures to go with it, and it's already ten pm so I should really go to bed.

BUT...

some good news

Sunday night I finished all the major work for my most important and most incomplete class—when it ended in Dec. 2004, I had done NONE of the work. And now I've done it all except for this piddly little 1-page report thing. Yay for me!

That felt like the biggest obstacle, although more remain. It is a huge load off my, uh, load. Whew.

It was painful (literally, because I tied myself in knots with anxiety) and I had to talk to my therapist three times in the final 24 hours. (Hopefully that will not continue, both because it's totally insane and because who wants to pay for it? Yeesh.)

But. Yeah. A little bit of progress, a little bit of sunshine, a little crack in the cloudy gloom.

A little.

I was supposed to work more today and I didn't. And now I'm depressed, because when I'm supposed to work and I don't, I get depressed. I'll try to just go to sleep and get up and work tomorrow. Yeah. That's the ticket.

Oh and another little piece of happy: Saturday I had a blast taking a wonderful photography class from my (our) dear friend Miri. If you so desire you can read all about it and see the strange photos on my Flickr site...

Th-th-th-th-that's not all, folks, but it's all I have energy for tonight.