Orien Rose waving from her bed

I’ll put it below the fold, because it’s rough; it’s a kid who’s kind of puffy and covered with hospital garnishing. To those of us who know and love her, it’s a beautiful sight. The family is happy to have this posted, and express, again, their gratitude.

Addendum… okay, except for how she’s not waving, she’s signing I love you. Her father is an interpreter.

Orien Rose is awesome.

Her surgery could not have gone better.

I quote my sister, ’cause I’m still at work and don’t have time to think:

Okay, I don’t have all the details yet, but everything went really, really well. She has a skull. The surgical team says they’re DONE inside her head. Like, done. There was very little bleeding, so healing should be fast. I’ll get this out to my mailing list later.

What she said.

That, and thank you. Which she said too, but this one’s from me.

Blogging for Orien Rose

My friend Orien Rose is a miracle. She is a nine year old girl who, just over a year ago, was in a horrific boating accident. There was skull, facial, and brain injury. Really bad stuff. Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, June 24th, she is having surgery, and we are looking for as many people on this earth as possible to simply think of her, and send positive energy.

Have a look at this article from the other day. Orien is an exuberant and hilarious kid; the interviewer doesn’t even mention how she burped the entire alphabet for him.

If she were doing only half as well as she is, the doctors would still be baffled by the speed and thoroughness of her recovery.

She is alive, well, and burping today due to teams of skilled and dedicated paramedics, doctors, nurses, and therapists, the fierce dedication of her parents, and the power of community. Circles have been cast for her healing from the first night of the accident. Blessings have been sent at some amazing gatherings at the likes of COSM, Starwood, FSG, and I’m sure countless others. Orien Rose has been prayed for by Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Santeros, she’s received energy from witches, Reiki masters, and anyone willing to simply hold a positive image in their minds for a moment.

Tuesday morning she faces the final hurdle: Replacement of the missing portion of her skull; a coordinated effort by neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, and infection control specialists. AND by the people who’ve been sending her positive energy of myriad forms for this past year.

Orien, her father, asks that people put a reminder on their alarm clock. A reminder to just think about Orien Rose when you wake up. They check into Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I. at 6:30 AM (eastern time) and the procedure begins an hour or so later, and it will go on awhile, so whatever time you get up will be fine.

You can read Christine’s blog to find out about Orien Rose’s progress, and their progress as a family.

Feel free to repost this on your blog, or link here, or write your own version in your own words (or all three).

Oh! And now that I think of it, if you do go to Christine’s blog, leave her a comment. I’d like to see her blog crashed by the spike in activity.

Thank you for being part of this very real miracle.

Friday nephblogging for what ails me

I had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy today. Not fun. The prep was horrific and caused a migraine, which I’m still experiencing.

I’m fine, everything looked fine, no ulcers, no anything. And no pain; I am just depleted.

So please enjoy some cell phone-quality photos of my nephew Benjamin. His goo-goo really adores him. (That would be me.)

Living alone.

I was on my way to bed when I remembered something from earlier.

Let me backtrack to say that on the bus coming home from work, I sat next to a guy who lives in my complex. A lovely young guy who has a brand new baby daughter; just a few weeks old. We yakked the whole ride… very nice. And one theme that came up for me was living alone. It’s one of the things I hate about being single. And I’m not talking about all the alone time; that’s fine and, in fact, would be a weird adjustment for me to make. I’m talking about the vulnerability of it. This is what my neighbor and I spoke about. Sometimes you want a man around to protect you.

I can’t believe I just allowed those words to escape.

Earlier this evening I had the weirdest, most sudden and shocking moment of dizziness. Hard to describe beyond that. It was intense, seemingly unprovoked, and terrificly short-lived.

And I didn’t know what to make of it. I checked my pulse; it was not racing. Or too slow.

I looked at my phone and thought, anything else happens, you reach over and call 911. Even if you’re going down and can’t speak, you at least dial those numbers.

I was fine by this point. I was fine probably six seconds after it started. But what if something was next?

I walked to the front door of my apartment and unlocked both locks on my door. I figured if anyone had to rush in to get me out, they could probably get let into the building, but why break down a door?

I just remembered all those thoughts as I was shutting down for the night, locking up my front door.

Tune me in to the wild side of life

It’s been my typical pinballing between really fun times and some lethargy. But my lethargy has been somewhat productive. So maybe, more sedentary than lethargic.

I’ve been working on the Mad Men blog; catching up on writing and actual cataloging. The show is heading towards its second season and we want to finish up all the business of Season One before that happens… we’ve (okay mostly Deb) finished the S1 episode guide, and now we’ve got other things to tidy up, like the show bible and timelines and such. Plus there’s Mad Men all over the news, and we need to stay on top of that.

This blog has become low priority, though I love it so. It is really just for me. I’m happy that there are people who read it, but I don’t exactly have a big following much beyond some friends, and I’ve sort of lost a sense of form to this. Deborah actually described it nicely as a little birthday tribute to me:

If you don’t read Roberta’s Voice, you should try it. My sister’s blog is primarily a personal journal, talking about her love life, her back aches, her commute, that sort of thing. But how she gets perfect strangers to read that is that the blog is really about consciousness. She’s bringing self-awareness to all her little moments, and asking herself about the nature of her interactions with herself, others, and the world. It can be compelling reading.

And well, yeah. So I’m down to zero men, not even floaters, nor lurkers, nor even occasional kissers or possible back-pockets. And that always bums me out. But also the men, the love life, is what inspires me to write the most. So then yes it becomes a blog about how badly my back hurts (and it does) and, y’know, I don’t always just want to come on here and whine.

I’ve actually had a bit more energy. I think the iron tablets might be having an affect. I thought I wrote about my tiredness, my specific, at-night tiredness, but I’m not sure. I get tired at night. It’s like, fact. If I’m not out being stimulated I am home ready to crash. I didn’t realize how peculiar this was until twice in the last few months people commented. My brother, as I was glazed over on his couch before 10pm, and my sister, as I was asleep sitting up (also around 10pm) on her couch while we were watching the Apartment.

I live alone. So I don’t get much feedback on this kind of thing. And these are some people, siblings are, who know me pretty well. So it was those two events, and the commentary, that made me realize that I’ve turned into like a weird, falling asleep early girl.

Anyway, literally one week ago today, last Sunday night, after a very long day with a bit of running around and not a ton of sleep the night before, I noticed my awakeness in the evening. Hmm. Noted.

And I watched it all week and it was the same each night. Not so sleepy.

Monday night I went over to the Notch to the open band jam and played a set. And it was absolutely wonderful. It has been awhile and again, the confidence level continues to build, and make me a stronger and more relaxed and poised performer. And I have more fun, and I get more attention as a result., which comes back to more fun. I am so glad I went.

New songs are up!

Actually, old songs, new recordings. And they are rough cuts. But I’m utterly proud of them, so please check them out.

Suspended in my Masquerade

I never finished my story about last weekend. And now it’s a whole week and weekend later. I’m finally noticing that I’m a little depressed. It’s fine, it comes down to that sometimes. When the good things stop keeping me stimulated, it does fall to that. And it’s been several weeks of stress, and many more of physical pain, exhaustion, disappointment in myself, and (how country song does this sound), loneliness.

It’s not as bad as all that comes across, all of those elements are spread out across a normal life that has lots of lovely compenents. I just need to see them all lined up that way once I’ve acknowledged that oops, I’m feeling like ass and I slept for a day and a half.

Last week I babysat for Benjamin, which was like, so cool. He is just this excellent little friend now; he speaks really well (and tries with every communication to improve upon it). Thursday I only worked half a day for some doctor’s visits (ugh, now maybe I have an ulcer. this may be part of the depressed). I was off work on Friday, so Thursday night I got to go over to the Notch and I had me an absolute blast. Fine fine music, and my friends Michael and Cindy showed up, and I just had a great time.

Last night (Saturday) I came up to Orien’s for some drumming. The drumming was light, but I was here for the company and the vibe. I have not seen O’s face (or the face of Orien Rose, for that matter) since back in November. It’s Sunday morning and I’m still here. It was definitely what the doctor ordered. Although… next week is Free Spirit and everyone is going and I am not. I just didn’t pull it together financially, and I didn’t make it a priority because I wasn’t sure I wanted to be there. But now that the weather feels like summer (and holy CRAP does the weather suddenly feel like summer) and EVERYONE is going and I’m sitting by a fire listening to drumming, I am totally sad I’m not going. Joe will be there and I want so much to go and be with him which is part of my motivation for not going. Because of how, you know, if I go it won’t be with him. But I miss him so much and have been dreaming of him and mostly just hugs in the dreams. I miss his hugs a lot, and how good he smells. But uh… I miss it all.

Okay, so tomorrow back at work. And work has now become this less-than-comforting situation. We’ll see, on that one.

Proceed to the story of last weekend’s voiceover workshop.

I want I want I want!!!

This!

Work stress and the workshop.

Part One; work stress.

I am in a weird foggy state. I am struggling physically, and that colors everything.

Last week I had a second super-stressful week at work, but of a totally different nature than the week before. This was just one horrific project that we knew would be a beast, because of timing issues. (The week before was a different kind of pressure.) But this week was long hours… 9pm on Tuesday, 10pm on Wednesday. And my upper back was burning for hours each night. Between my shoulders. Burning. Making everything else that should have been quite bearable, quite un.

Thursday night my boss Darrin stayed for me. And at that point the project took a weird turn. Long story, even for me.

Friday I packed for the weekend, because I was staying in the city (at my brother’s, where Benjamin lives, only they were out of town) for the voiceover workshop I was taking.

Only Friday night is where the whole work thing got twisted. It was suddenly turning into another weirdly late night, and my shoulders were burning (I saw the chiropractor on Thursday, ftr) and then my head got involved and there was ache, and somehow it was 9:00 and we hadn’t ordered dinner, and it was at that point that my boss and his/our boss chose to sit me down and tell me that the entire company was being restructured and Darrin wasn’t going to be my boss anymore and a whole shit-ton of things were about to change. But don’t worry, it’ll be better for me.

Okay. We’ll see.

Darrin has been one of my top three bosses ever and tears sprang to my eyes when I heard that part, but it was the rest of it that makes me nervous. But what can I do but wait and see and offer up what I’ve got to offer up, which is pretty good.

Anyway, all that kept me from ordering dinner for another hour, and my head was getting to be on fire. The stress was just building, physically, like a stress lego set.

We got dinnner before 11. Jesus.

At midnight I left. The woman I was working with wasn’t done, and was disappointed I left when I did, because there was one other part she wanted help with. It was a very hard, bad situation for me. I felt like I was dying. And I was afraid I was just ruining myself for this workshop.

I am posting, now, just like this. Because, of course, I’m too TIRED to write the rest! I’ll talk about the workshop tomorrow.