Monday... is Sweater Weather!

Administration
Hello to new readers bellebruise, dreamsongs, farrell, mert_mt_bc, moocowrich, ona_tangent, satyrninus, servermonkey, stealingbabies, tsarinanic, utopian, volta, xaeon, and zoethe!

I credit theferrett with a big chunk of those - but where'd the rest of you come from? Drop me a comment to let me know. :) Also, be warned that I post a LOT.

I'm not currently doing automatic add-backs due to a glitch in LJ's system that doesn't allow more than 500 people who updated more than twice a month to appear on my friends list. Per LJ Support, I'm currently within about 5 people of that limit, and I don't want to push it. The developers are supposedly working on this - I'll poke them about it again. Just have patience with me while I have patience with them, and I'll add you back as soon as I can be assured of actually seeing your posts when I do.

AIDS Walk Atlanta
No one sponsored me while I was away! That's okay, you can make up for it by sponsoring me now. My goal is $1,000. At $1,000 I get, not just the satisfaction of having raised $1,000 to fight AIDS, but a massage and breakfast and other Star Walker goodies. I'm currently at $275.

What I did on my LJ vacation
The intent was to keep me from wearing myself out being Nexus Lass. Viewed that way, yes, this worked as intended; unfortunately, I had other stressors that were wholly unanticipated, so it wasn't as relaxing as I might have hoped.

Plus I was really bored at work. But I had plenty enough to do at home....

Elayna Update
Elayna's made new friends! lupaloo's kids and albumlady's daughter. And I met albumlady and ijk, who are both nifty.

Mail Call!
I got an AIDS Walk Atlanta sponsor-check from eyewrist and maple sugar candy from gmcaddicted! And a voicemail message from olliesmama wherein she played "Build Me Up, Buttercup". Thanks, guys!

Shearing the mane
Well, I didn't get sheared like photognome got sheared. But I got a good 3 inches or so lopped off; my hair now only reaches my bra strap, not the small of my back. (Curly hair and all.) yendi and Elayna also got haircuts, and we all look great - we got them from lupaloo, and if you live in Atlanta, so should you!

Sweater Weather
It dipped to 46 degrees last night. Whoa. So I'm wearing a comfy squishy black chenille sweater, yay! October is coming!

And that is about it for this post. *nods*

NaNoWriMo!

Whee! I'm all geared up for National Novel Writing Month. For the unaware, this is a thoroughly masochistic event during which one writes a 50,000-or-more-word novel in 30 day, the month of November. I tried last year, but my house was broken into on November 2 and it kinda derailed me.

So! I have a character. I have a plot - sort of a closure-and-redefinition-of-identity thing. I have two titles that could maybe work. And the main character has a blog, so I've grabbed a username for her - but I can't decide which title and which username sound better. Opinions?

[Poll #185643]

The other big thing.....

This is the surprise stressor of the past week.

I posted to a very limited number of people last week that I had been having... episodes. Where I became essentially nonfunctional in the brain for a brief and scary period. Note: This is what really happened on September 9th, that caused me to delete my journal. And it happened again the evening of the 19th.

So I posted about it - and was told in no uncertain terms to get my ass to a neurologist. That it sounded like petit mal seizure activity.

I went to the doctor on Wednesday, and she agreed that it sounded like that. She also scolded me for not seeing a neurologist regarding my migraines, as I have very nonstandard halo effects, like speech-center problems. I also have speech problems during my episodes. And the symptoms of a few things seem to match my optic nerve problem, the thing that looks like glaucoma without vision loss. So she scheduled me for an MRI on Friday, October 3. And I'll be seeing a neurologist on the 7th.

I've only had two episodes that I'm *sure* of. I had some difficulty in the weeks prior to September 9th, but time past blurs recollection. So at least we're catching it early, whatever it is. And I will, of course, update as I learn stuff.

I am affectionately calling it my brain tumor, because one has to have a sense of humor about this sort of thing; rest assured that there's no more evidence that this is a brain tumor than there is of stroke or epilepsy or anything else. I just tend toward hyperbole, and want to be able to quote Heathers incessantly ("Did you eat a brain tumor for breakfast?")

So. Anyone here had an MRI before? What's that like?

followup

I told my parents about my "brain tumor" on Thursday night. My mother surprised me by showing actual concern, but followed that up by saying that it's probably due to me overeating; she's never recovered from my advance past Size Zero (I'm a 6-petite nowadays). She then called Friday morning to make sure I hadn't had another seizure overnight ("No, Mom - I told you that yendi has your number and will call you if anything happens.") and to theorize that the "brain tumor" (which she has decided now is "a pituitary thing maybe") was why I had emotional problems as an adolescent.

Because the abuse issues had nothing to do with that, I'm sure. Because of course the "brain tumor" works retroactively (15-20 years!) to explain why I was not a Stepford child.

Because if it's something physiological, she doesn't have to feel guilty for first neglecting me, than shipping me off to mental hospitals and group homes and wilderness survival programs and drugging me with Thorazine and Haldol, you see.

It's not that easy, Mom.

MRI stuff: Thanks for all the info! Fortunately, I'm not claustrophobic, nor do I have any tattoos. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll be allowed to listen to headphones, since they'll be scanning my brain, and I have no one to sit with me or drive me home should I get the reportedly-disorienting contrast. And they said is should take an hour to an hour and a half. And now that I know, I shall wear clothing without metal.

Something cheerier

yendi and Elayna and I went to JavaMonkey yesterday to meet ijk, albumlady, and albumlady's daughter, who's around Elayna's age and who decided she needed to go to the restroom. Elayna asked if she could escort her - she's drunk on the power of solo bathroom privileges, having just been granted to go to restaurant bathrooms by herself sometimes. I said no - JavaMonkey just has too many entrances/exits. The place where she's allowed to go by herself, no one can grab her between the table and the restroom, but JavaMonkey.... so albumlady graciously accompanied the two girls.

The bathrooms in JavaMonkey are unisex. There are two of them, in a nook off the main area. Not a door-and-there's-bathrooms-inside affair, just open the door and there's a toilet. Savvy? So Elayna went first. When she came out, albumlady's daughter went in. Well, albumlady had to go, too, so she positioned Elayna in the nook and told her she'd be quick and not to go anywhere.

Elayna's response: "Oh, don't worry about me. I have a blue belt in karate. If anyone tries to kidnap me, I'll kick 'em! I'm serious!"

Oh, yeah.....

Not only was I a betatester for theferrett's LJ Obsession Test - I was the basis for the community category. So I ought to post it, oughtn't I? ( Okay. )

You should all be reading theferrett's LJ, by the way. He is both nifty and keen.

oh, goodness me.

*buries head in hands*

Dealing with liars

When I went to pick Elayna up from school today, I found her in tears, being consoled by the facility manager. It was explained that another girl had claimed that Elayna had hit her, and two other girls backed that girl up on it; Elayna was crying because she didn't do it and was horribly upset at being accused.

Now, I'm not one of those moms who has blinders on when it comes to her kids. Elayna's a great kid - who does have a few flaws. But violence is not one of them. Moreover, the facility manager knows that, too. The girl's accusation just didn't hold water. What the manager was trying to do when I walked in was try to coach Elayna to not get so emotional about the accusation - she knew it wasn't true, everyone who mattered knew it wasn't true, so why get so upset over it?

I am the worst person to help on this one. I continually have problems with les pathetiques posting slanderous bullshit about me, even "anonymously e-mailing anti-shadesong propaganda".

I know they're lying. Everyone who matters knows they're lying. But I've still gotten upset. It's not because they think these things among themselves; they're irrelevant. It's not because I worry about them "converting" my friends - no sane person who knows me would believe them. It's because they're poisoning the minds of people who don't yet know me, people who don't know enough about me to judge for themselves - just that their friend has these things to say about Shadesong, therefore Shadesong must be evil.

I met someone recently who kind of helped me with that, without knowing it. She's a friend of one of les pathetiques and had heard the propaganda - but then she met me and saw that it just wasn't true. And she was able to set aside the things she'd heard and judge from her own experience.

I need to have faith in people's ability to do that.

Just like Elayna needs to realize that people who know her know that she would never raise a hand to strike another person. And if they don't know her... they'll learn.

Bullies will be bullies. And we're better than them, and need to just go about our lives being the best people we can be and not giving a fig who they do or say.

We're going to work on that, Elayna and I.