Mr. In-between

[constance]

There are a lot of things making me unhappy right now. My mother is facing exploratory surgery after unhappy mammogram results (not to mention an unsuccessful Ductogram, which she says to tell everyone I know if told you have to have one, scream loudly and then insist you'd rather have the surgery, so consider yourself told), and I wake up in the morning and I check the ten news sites I have bookmarked and worry and guilt and grief are taking up most of my free time, and when I take breaks I savage my DVD player and rip open my foot and you know, life is just tough, these days, but there are things that give me pleasure, too, and tonight I thought I'd just mention those as well, in tidy list form.

Stolen from reenka, off my friendsfriends page: ten things that are making me happy right now.

1. My friend M? The one I mentioned whose parents were in Pearl River and no one had heard from them? They are alive, they are safe. I heard last night.


2. While I was viewing AP photos, I came across one of a bookstore friend from my days as a retail whore in NO. She was sitting outside a shelter in Hattiesburg, MS, with her dog. She was on her cell phone, calling her family for the first time since before the storm. They looked good.


3. Shelters have finally been set up in town, and so I can donate goods now.


4. The weather is dropping below 90! For a week at least!


5. I get to meet bowdlerized in a few weeks, maybe! We will visit a Sonic together and see a drive-in movie, maybe! I am so excited! So excited!


6. Right now I am lying on my side in bed. My feet are tucked under the dog. There is a cat in the crook of my knees, another lying draped over my hip. I cannot move, and I cannot think of a place I'd rather be than immobilized by three sleeping anchors.


7. I finally found a copy of True Enough, after searching for it over several trips to the bookstore. It was in the store, on sale for $5.98, but I could never find it until I happened to be walking past a sale table tonight and there it was.


8. I have friends and family who love me and/or worry about me. Thank you, friends and family who love me and/or worry about me.


9. I have the next two days off work--two days in a row! I love having two-day weekends, even when I plan to spend most of them cleaning.


10. Terry Gilliam film festival! It cannot be this weekend--at least not if it is to be at my house--because as I said, I have savaged my DVD player. But it is coming up soon, soon.


Goodnight to you all, from underneath my breathing fur blanket. I hope you are having good holiday weekends.

Comments

[dahlia-777.livejournal.com]

That's bad news about your mother. I hope she's doing OK. I don't know what a ductogram is but I will be sure to avoid one if I can.

But that's cool you can think of 10 things that make you happy right now. And you found True Enough - yay! Since I started boycotting Waterstones I've been buying most of my books at Amazon. It's sooo easy, but I miss browsing around among real books, you know?

[tofty.livejournal.com]

After I worked for B&N the first time, years ago, I boycotted them for several years and bought so many books from Amazon that they used to send me yearly presents, travel mugs and such (I gather that they no longer do this). But I fell off the wagon eventually, and of course work for them again anyway. And even though I still order a lot of things from online, I still love seeing what's out at the bookstore, things I would never think to look for online.

:::

A ductogram is when they inject dye in a duct which is secreting bloody discharge in order to determine whether or not the secretions are something to seriously worry about. They inject the dye by enlarging the opening in your nipple with increasingly large needles in succession.

My mother, who has a very high tolerance for pain, was sobbing when they finished. The websites I looked at say pain is mild to intermediate, but the doctor who was performing the ductogram said most doctors won't recommend it for their patients because the pain is so excruciating.

And after all that, the doctor couldn't really tell anything. >:O

[bowdlerized.livejournal.com]

<333333333333 *loves/worries about you*

When I come, we will wear protective footgear and handle all electronics with care!

[tofty.livejournal.com]

YES. If you see me approaching any machinery with a pair of needlenosed pliers, you are authorized to perform an immediate intervention.

[sister-liz.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry to hear about your mother. How is she doing now?

[tofty.livejournal.com]

She is feeling better, but we still haven't got any idea of what's going to happen next because the GODDAMN DOCTORS IN OUR FUCKED-UP HEALTHCARE SYSTEM DON'T SEEM TO FEEL ANY SENSE OF URGENCY WHEN IT COMES TO REPORTING TEST RESULTS WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN BACK DAYS AGO AND WHICH ENTIRE FAMILIES ARE AXIOUSLY AWAITING oops sorry. Yeah. No news yet, that's what I meant to say.

I was going to wait to reply to your comment when I got some actual news to report. But who the fuck knows when that's going to be?