Happy Post

Another Christmas gone by. I spent Christmas Eve with Ben all day, and we went to my sister's house for dinner. There were plenty of presents for the kids, and we agreed that for the adults there would be no presents but instead we would do a white elephant gift exchange. Ben seemed to have a good time, although he didn't open all of his packages. He spent much of the time off in the family room watching a video of Snow White, but would come into the living room whenever i called him to open a present. He seemed to enjoy opening the presents that he did, but there was just too much happening in the room and he would immediately run back out to his refuge. My sister's kids had a great time, the dinner was wonderful, and it was just generally a very nice drama-free evening.

Taking Ben home to Sara's, I wound up staying for a few hours to help her get things packed up for her drive up to her family's house. Ben was thrilled to be going on a road trip (even if the drive is only an hour), and sara was very much in the Christmas mood. Once again a very pleasant and drama-free evening.

After that I swung by my place to pick up a change of clothes and then headed over to my mom's place to spend the night. In the morning we had breakfast with Vanessa, Vanya and Alexander. Then my mom took this final opportunity to show me how to make the rice stuffing and to prepare the turkey. Once that was safely in the oven and cooking we headed on down to the Cinerama to see The Two Towers. Truly an amazing film. Kris joined us for the movie, which was very nice. I still am not sure what in the hell I am doing with her. I've known her for years now, and we have gone out in the past. She shares my taste in movies (which is a rare and valuable thing) and is just generally a great person. Now here I am with one foot out of the state and spending much of my time preparing for a move to Florida, so why on earth do I pick now to start dating someone more seriously? Part of me says that this is all going to end in tears, but my other half tells me that I should enjoy the time I have with her regardless of where it may lead. We are both keenly aware that this is doomed, but it's just so nice right now. I think the best I can do is live for the moment with honesty, and just see where it goes. Who knows, maybe she'll get sick of me in a few months anyway...

So after the movie it was back to mom's place for dinner. Vanessa spent the afternoon preparing side dishes as well as a Tofurky for her family. We all ate together (although mom was wiped out from the movie and just went to bed). It was a very nice dinner.

From there I headed over to Riff and Treeby's place, and was fortunate enough to be there once six arrived and they had their gift exchange. I gotta tell ya, those three are something special. You have never seen such genuine love and affection until you see the three of them interact. Not the typical surface lovey-dovey crap, but genuine caring. I consider myself fortunate to be in thier circle of friends.

So now I am home and headed for bed. All in all a very nice Christmas.

Sad Post

I didn't want to cloud my Christmas post with this stuf, and yet I still feel the need to write it down.

Ben had a rough day starting Monday night and most of the day on Tuesday. He threw up in the evening on Monday and had dark circles under his eyes. Took a bit of a nap, but had no appetite and wouldn't even drink his juice. Tuesday morning he woke up at about 7am and asked for juice. He drained an entire 8oz cup, and then went back to sleep. At about 8:30 he woke up again and asked for more juice. Four more ounces downed, and then back to sleep. Finally a little before 10am he woke up and drank another four ounces. He was definitely much cooler than he had been during the night, but was still not his usual bouncy self. He spent most of the day just kinda laying on the couch watching movies. Around 2 in the afternoon he crawled up into my lap, tucked his feet underneath himself and laid his head down on my chest. He slept there for about 45 minutes. That seemed to work out the last of whatever was ailing him. When he woke up he had his full appetite, and we headed off to do Christmas Eve at my sister's place. Kind of a rough day for him, but at least it ended well.

I also had a pretty good scare from my mom on Monday. She started getting chest pains and a radiating pain in her right arm. After calling her doctor she was told in no uncertain terms to call 911 and get an aid car there immediately. The ambulance arrived in short order and she was taken down to the hospital. She was checked out, and everything was fine. The best guess is that since her PT level had been low the past few days she probably formed some small blood clots, which were shaken loose when her PT level shot back up to 4.5. The clots weren't large enough to actually do any damage, but were big enough to cause the symptoms. Scary as hell, but all is well now.

Sleeping on my mom's couch last night I had the worst nightmare in recent memory. I dreamt I was Ben. I understood perfectly everything that was going on around me and everything that people were saying to me, but I couldn't make my mouth form words or make my body move the way I wanted it to. I was trapped inside a shell where most of the control wires had been cut and the best I could do was nudge it in the general directions I wanted it to go. It was terrifying as I lay there in a sleep paralysis trying to speak and nothing would come out. I woke up in a cold sweat and with tears in my eyes. Eventually I fell back asleep, and the rest of the night was either dreamless or at least not vivid enough to carry through to waking hours.