Update

Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?
I've been to London to visit the Queen.
Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there?
I frightened a little mouse under it's chair.

I haven't blogged for a week so I thought I might get you caught up on all the fabulousity of Heather's Life.

*crickets*

So, there you have it. My fabulous week.

I'm kidding.

There were some good things.

Saturday morning my brother Michael and his wife Mechelle and my nephews Cory and Matthew stopped by on their way to Disney World. It was their first trip to Disney so I was very excited for the boys. They are 15 and 13. We don't see them often and I love them dearly so it was a real treat to visit with them.

Saturday night we went out to eat - something I rarely do because frankly, it hurts to sit long enough for a dinner out. Yes, it hurts to sit for just an hour. It's not as bad at work because there is a more cushy chair and I get up and down frequently but restaurants, especially ones with stiff seats, hurt like the dickens. This is the part of my life that stinks. However, we were going to O'Charley's (which I enjoy) and we were going to have dinner with Mom, Pop, Cody, Marquee and my Aunt Ginger and Uncle Carl to celebrate Valentines Day/Singles Awareness Day. The company was great. The food was good. The pain was unreal. I reach a point where I am no longer capable of polite social interaction because all I can think about is the pain. When the pain is bad I can't make things work right to go potty and I really had to go so I sat in the restaurant bathroom for too long and had everyone concerned back at the table. They were drawing straws to determine who would check on me. I was ok. Just frustrated.

I got my first zulily.com order in the mail. Love, love, love the prices and products on zulily.com! Hate, hate, hate walking through stores. If you order from zulily.com, I get a $20 credit so if you see something there that you like, let me send you an email invite. Don't buy there just for that reason but if you see something that you like that you think is a good price and want to get, I'd love $20 of fun money.

Sunday I didn't do anything. Nothing I can remember, anyways.

I can't remember if I mentioned my aggravation last week with my back dr who said I had to come in to get a prescription of the stronger pain medicine after they have told me for the past three months that I didn't have to come in every month and every month I've ended up having to go in.

I agreed to a Tuesday appointment which was a big old hairy inconvenience because it meant that I had to drive up Monday after work (to avoid driving in the rain roundtrip on Tuesday) and spend the night at the mountain house.

It turned out to be a good thing, however, because mom and Oscar went with me and we had a nice peaceful quiet night with a nice fire and watched movies and slept great and got to see Austin and then we got up Tuesday morning and had a thin layer of ice everywhere... and when that thawed a tiny bit we ran a few errands in town and on our way in to Helen there was SNOW! Not a lot of snow but enough snow to be fun to look at.

The doctors appointment was ok. There was a misunderstanding with the other doctor that I saw last time who isn't my normal doctor and he should have given me more pills or a separate prescription and he didn't which was a big hairy inconvenience for me, of course, but they gave me about $500 worth of samples of meds so that made it better.

Driving home after the appointment in semi-bad afternoon traffic that was messed up with a multiple car accident was not fun.

But we had a good time, me and mama. Moving here has been the best thing that happened to our relationship in forty years and I love spending time with her. What I love best is that we can co-exist and do our own thing but we know that we are not alone. We both, due to the whole chronic pain thing, have spent a lot of time alone over the past few years.

Anyways... I was worried that the road trip in the middle of a work week was going to make me feel really bad for the back half of the work week. I consoled myself yesterday with the new Vanilla Spice Latte that Starbucks has and a morning bun. Work was not bad at all yesterday, in that I didn't immediately burst into tears when I got in the car, which I do some days, because of the pain. I love my job. I love the people I work with. It's a beautifully supportive, non-toxic work place and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work there.

I say that every week but it's truer and truer every week. Going over the schedule for the next two months yesterday, which is a huge task but is done pleasantly by our office manager with consideration for the needs of every single employee, which shows me how much they value their employees and their quality of life. And even with that, there is the understanding that there are days that even though I very much want to be there, my body won't cooperate. Knowing that it's understood takes a huge burden off of me.

And now it's Thursday and I'm about to get a shower and glam and head into work again today and the pain is a bit stronger today with the weather front coming our way. My hands hurt so bad and my feet ache with every step and there's a nerve that's being pressed from the spinal arthritis because my toes are numb on my left foot but...

I've got a sweet puppy on my right... a sweet kitty on my left... a good cup of coffee beside me and I'm excited about going to work.

I just really love my life.

Pain and all, I love my life.

Happy Thursday folks.