Spirits Dance Home

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Almost 30 days...

Yikes! It's been almost 30 days since my last post. Oops!

The Laura fund has now raised over $1700, and will be an ongoing endeavor. The donations have slowed almost to a stop, though, so we will see. If I can't raise the funds, I guess the endeavor will end.

Anyway....been dancing and rehearsing a lot, getting ready for next weekend's "showcase." My two chances per year to dance are the studio recitals. I don't like the idea of dancing at the big festival events...too chaotic, crowded, fast paced, and also outside in the weather.

This showcase, I am dancing twice. Once with my class in a group of 10, and once in a trio, FINALLY doing my dream of choreographing "In These Shoes," by Kirstie McColl. It's not Middle Eastern music, but that doesn't matter..it's going to be FUN.

We haven't managed to trap any more cats. Mitzi's kittens have vanished, so she's a candidate again, but since she was trapped once when she was pregnant, and our consciences made us let her go, she refuses to go into the trap again.

She also saw her daddy get trapped, and she sat outside of the cage with him until we took him for his surgery. So she knows.

Unfortunately, interlopers from neighboring colonies will smell her when she goes into heat for her second time this year, and there will be fights, and she will get pregnant again. It's inevitable.

Even if we manage to neuter all of the males in her tribe, there will be others when she comes into season.

In other news, I have a rather large, mis-shapen lump in my right breast. It's been there for a while, and I was trying not to worry about it because I KNOW that I form cysts, and I have seen cysts like this before.

My annual visit to the gyne was scheduled for 7/15, so I just convinced myself to wait, and added the funny, dimply lump to my list of concerns for this visit.

She did her manual exam, and said it was my usual fibrous, cyst-forming tissue. PHEW. That was a big relief. She also counseled me to ALWAYS wear full support bras to keep the weight of my boobs from pulling against the cyst tissue and making my boobs ugly.

Good to know. No one ever mentioned that before, and I typically go without support on the weekends. No more of that for me!

She also is doing a very extensive set of labs. 6 vials of blood were drawn. 6!! I almost passed out, but fortunately, I did not, and Dave was there to take me out for breakfast and drive me home.

I mentioned all of my concerns to the doctor, and she listened and responded, and wrote stuff down....and the labs are the result. She's checking for electrolytes to see if I am off and that's why I get so many foot and leg cramps. She's checking thyroid, to see if these extra 10 pounds that came back even with my clean diet and exercise might be a sign of thyroid slowing down. She's checking vitamin D, and blood fats, and RNA for cancer....lots of stuff.

Can't wait to see the results. A friend of mine was surprised when I was telling her about all of this....she said that she usually doesn't know what she's being tested for, and she never asks to see the results. I always demand a copy of the print out so I can study it.

But that's just me.

Anyway..what else? Oh, Dave's mom had a virus and everything fell apart at their house again (they stop eating, they run out of meds, the clothes don't get washed, etc).

Dave called the family attorney and found out that he does NOT, in fact, have ANY legal right where his parents' care is concerned. For some reason, we thought he had POA, but he does not.

So, I suggested he research visiting care worker programs in the area. He found some info, and then he talked to the folks, and they ignored him.

Just like the past however many times that mom got sick and everything fell apart.

But then he called his brothers.

Like he always does.

The difference is, this time, the eldest brother took some action.

Whatever he said to the folks worked, and they are now open to the possibility of having a visiting care worker come to their house once or twice a week to check meds, cook meals, and clean.

Wow. We mention it and it's a stupid idea, they don't need any help.

Mike mentions it, and BANG, they're ready to do it.

Whatever....The important part is they're ready to do it!

Since we're here, though, they do want us to review the contract before they sign it. I guess they think we do know a little something after all.

Since this was our idea in the first place.

ADDENDUM, Sunday 7/20: When we visited mom and dad yesterday, right after I published this post, mom was doing so poorly that my thought was that she SHOULD probably be in the hospital.

She is now. She called us late last night in distress, and since we had drank a cocktail or two, we were NOT going to get in the car, so we counseled her to call 9-1-1, which she did.

She has pneumonia. They're taking good care of her. We spent a few hours there today, and she's in good hands. Met the doctor, and they will start some physical therapy tomorrow to try to get her up and around. With pneumonia, getting up and around is crucial.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

My friend, Laura

A little while back, I got a text from my bestie from high school, Barb, telling me that our other bestie, Laura (whom I had known since Kindergarten), had lost her dad.

Barb said that Laura's family would be in southern Illinois (where Barb now lives, and where Laura and Barb's moms both grew up...this was how Barb and Laura have known each other since infancy--and how I met Barb when we were in the same school for 7th grade. Got that?)

I asked Barb to please pass along my deepest sympathies, and my desire to reconnect with Laura.

Laura and I had lost touch with one another a long time ago, due in part to Laura's extreme religious views. She was in a process of isolation, quitting her job, breaking with friends, and home schooling her kids because the world outside of her extreme beliefs was too much of a threat.

ANYWAY....this past Wednesday night, Barb emailed me. The funeral had been the previous weekend, down in Benton, IL, and Barb had news.

Seems Laura was abandoned by her husband about 10 years ago. Then, about 5 years ago, Laura, who had not worked outside the home since her children came along, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The cancer metastasized into the bones before it could be caught. Even a double mastectomy did not stop it, and now it has also spread to her lymph nodes.

Because she was a stay at home mom, and didn't work outside the home for over 20 years, she did not qualify for disability.

Because she got sick, she has lost everything, including her home.

Her church, which helped her when the husband left, has turned its back on her, as well, claiming that they already helped her once. They won't do it again.

Laura and her 2 adult children are currently living on her SSI, food stamps, and the little bit of money her daughter makes. Her son doesn't have his high school diploma yet, so he can't work at his age without that piece of paper.

She and her kids (25 and 20), who both have special needs and emotional problems, live in a camp ground, in a borrowed RV.

They at least have that, though, and at least the camp ground has a toilet and shower house..... and they are waiting for section 8.

But section 8 takes time, and Laura doesn't have very much of that left.

They have bills, and doctor appointments (thank Goodness she qualifies for medicaid for her doctor and cancer treatment visits), one car for the 3 of them that needs gas, and also needs repairs.

They have other bills, too, of course....like the cell phone and the camp ground fees.... the daughter completed cosmetology school, and has student loans. And they have to pay for the electric service at the camper.

They need food because the food assistance does not supply enough for 3 people, and was recently reduced.

They need money to go to the laundromat, and for deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.

They need money for clothes and shoes when what they have wears out or gets ruined from too much slogging through the mud to get to the campground bathroom (it's been raining a lot in the Chicago area this spring).

So.

Thanks to modern technology, and to Barb, Laura and I are back in touch, and she has opened back up to the world, and is a lot more tolerant of religious views that differ from hers.

She is dying, and her kids know it, and every day is a bit of a struggle. There are joys, too, she says, and she is really fighting to focus on that.
She is also fighting to try to provide for her kids in some way after she dies, but it's hard when there is nothing to provide.

I've put her in touch with friends of mine in her area who have offered to help, either with information and advice about working the aid systems, or with offers to drive her to appointments, or clean her trailer.

I have set up a crowd fund to try to ease their burden, at least temporarily, by providing cash they don't have to help pay for all of these day to day needs.

In 3 days, I have collected over $700.00 from my circle of friends, ironically, a very large portion of whom are not Christian. *smile*

The link is all the way at the bottom of this post. Simply click on it, and your browser will take you to the website.

If you remember Laura Palmer (her name is different now), or even if you don't, but want to help, please consider making a donation at the website below. Even $5 will help.... $5 will by a bag of pasta, a can of tomatoes, and a bottle of lemonade!!

The money comes to me, and as I collect it, I will get Visa credit card type gift cards made that I can send to her. THat way, she doesn't have to claim our gifts as income.

The web site charges me a fee, though, so keep that in mind when you are considering your donation. Please be as generous as you can.

Anything will help. Remember that generosity does not have to mean money..... Share this link with your friends. You can post it on Facebook, too!

Or contact me directly with your ideas and offers to help in other ways.

And thank you.

http://www.gofundme.com/Love-for-Laura

Saturday, June 14, 2014

TWO!!

Our feral cat management plan worked REALLY WELL this morning!

We trapped TWO females... Star (the eldest daughter of Chinacat...our matriarch, who we trapped by hand back in the winter) and Star's identical daughter, Stella.
(will try to get a pic later when we pick them up)

Star was the one who knows how NOT to trip the trigger.

Our best guess is that she was in the trap, eating, when her daughter, Stella, decided to join her -- and tripped the trigger!!

While I am still very angry about the ex friend who went all psycho and stalker-like on me on Facebook about this, messaging my friends behind my back to try to convince them of my inadequacy as a human being..... today's triumph tells me that WE ARE WINNING.

We are doing this for the right reasons.

Star and Luke

EDIT/ADDENDUM.... Stella was a BOY! HAH!! He's now Luke, as in Luke Skywalker. TOO FUNNY! He really has grown in the past 3 months, so that when he loves on his mommy, rubbing up against her and snuggling her, he is now bigger than she is. This also explains why he has a divot out of one of his ears. He's starting to fight.