Country Cinderella's blog

What is it about a name

Have you ever noticed certain people with the same name being similar in character? I have. I have also notice that how their name is pronounced or spelled  sometimes makes a different, or at least seems to. For example the name Lisa or Liza or Leeza or any and all variations.

I have often wondered if a person's name has helped form their personality. Is it that their name give them a certain sense of self? or do people treat people with certain names a particular way that helps form who they become.

I guess it is just one more facet to the jewel of who we are. No one person is exactly like another. our life experience make us each a different a unique being, with many many facets, one of which is just our name.

My Car

Well I still do not have my car back from the shop. I guess that is one good thing about being unemployed. I do not have to have my car 'right now'. It is still very odd to look out to my driveway and not see my car.

I have to be even more diligent about remembering to ask my roommate to pick things up at the store, on her way home from work. Living the rural life I am already used to planning errands based on when I will be town, or when my roommate will, simply because it is more efficient. It is not like living in town when you can just pop over to the store when ever you realize you are out of something. Living 25 minutes from the nearest store/post office/doctor, you learn to plan ahead. Being unemployed and living 25 minutes away you plan even more because you take advantage of (at least in my case) someone else driving to and from work to cut down on your trips, but you still sometimes make your own trips. Being with out a car, unemployed, and living 25 minutes from town, well then you really have to remember to ask your friends to pick things up for you, because you can not go get it yourself if you forget.

The original estimate on the time frame for my car to be worked on was 5-7 days, after the parts arrived. So my accident happened on a Sat, the part were ordered and work was started on the next Thursday. Well then one of the body shop workers ended up being out sick so that put them behind a day or two. Then while tearing things down so that they could start the rebuild, they discovered additional damage that required more parts. Those parts had to be ordered and they were slow to arrive so that added another couple of days. The part are finally in and it looks like I might get my car back tomorrow (well of course that is if I can find a way to get there to get it).

I know I am luckier than some, but still 3weeks without my car is a long time.

The car is fixable

Yeah I am lucky enough that my car is not going to be totaled. It will take 5-7 days to repair, once they finally have the parts. So hopefully I will get it back by the end of next week. 

When it rains it pours, literally and figuratively

When it rains it pours, literally and figuratively

Literally: we have been getting heavy rain the last few days and it is taking its toll. we had water back up in the gutters and actually go under the eaves into the outside wall of the back room and then it leaked into the room.

Figuratively: today on the way to the vet we had a car accident that probably has totaled my car. as we were starting to use the bridge to go over the highway someone else decided to go ahead and start making a left hand turn directly in our path, headed for the highway on-ramp. I slammed on my brakes but it was pretty much a lost cause, we were already that close. We had our seat belts on so we were not seriously injured or anything, we are bruised from them and my right hand is sore from how it jammed into the steering wheel. Both vehicles were no longer drivable so they towed them away.

I can not afford to replace my car so I can only pray that the other persons insurance will cover fixing it, if they total it I am sunk. even if they actually paid off my loan, which I know they wont because the balance on my loan is more than my car is worth, I still can not get a loan for a replacement car because I am still not working. 

What do I want for my birthday?

My mom called me today and asked me what I want for my birthday. I had no answer. I have been

unemployed since Christmas. Because of my unemployment I have had to reevaluate my expenses

and the value I place on things. There are plenty of things that I would find very useful to get for my

birthday, but asking for things of 'need' rather than 'want' seems so lame, and asking for things that I

'want' when I am unemployed feels so greedy. It does not help matters none that as I get older there

really is not a whole lot that I want to get that is reasonable to put on a gift list. The things I want

now are things that I have to save for. All of this reflective thinking has made me feel pretty glum

right now. 

looking for wigs for a chemo patient, (or not, update)

I have been looking up wigs, for my friend who is losing her hair because of chemo. It has only been a couple days since her second treatment, and she woke up to her hair falling out in clumps. With all the hours she is missing from work because of all the doctor appointments, the surgeries and now the chemo, she really can not afford any expensive wigs. I wish I was working then maybe I could afford to help her buy a really nice one. I went on the American Cancer Society's website and did some looking. They have some wigs that are reasonable. I am going to show them to her tomorrow and see if she wants to try to get anything from there.

I knew my friend was going to loose her hair because of the chemo but I did not realize it was going to be so soon. I worry that she is going to get severely depressed. She seemed okay, when she came over for me to trim her hair into a tidier bob, but she could be putting on a brave face.

update: just had brunch with my friend and she is in much better spirits than I thought she would be, since her hair fell out. I think it helps that she is one of those ladies that was already losing her hair due to age, so she is taking it in stride. She also told me that she is not really sure she even wants to go the wig route. I guess the other thing that helps is the fact that since her cancer was caught so early she will not have to be on chemo for very long and then her hair should grow back after that. My friend is getting a lot of support from some of her co-workers too. One lady in particular is being very helpful because she learned a lot when her mother had cancer.

troubles with firefox?

Hi everyone, is anyone else having problems opening Vox in FireFox? I can open Vox in both FireFox and IE but the last day or so when I open it up in FF I am having problems with teh pictures and the back grounds. The text all seems to be fine but the graphics seem to be a problem.

getting lost in books

I just read all 4 books of the 'Twilight' stories, almost one a day (mind you I am still unemployed and have allll day to read). They were very entertaining. There were sometimes that the story seemed to drag out in a direction that was disappointing, and yet it ended up winding around to have importance. There were also a few editing errors that made it stumble, but not so bad that you did not know what was actually intended. After I finished the books I noticed that I felt like I was watching friends leave.

That is what this is really about. One of the things I enjoy the most about reading is when I get so absorbed in the story(ies) that when I am finished I feel like when good friends are moving away. I am happy they are happy, I am going to miss them, and I wonder what their future will bring. I sometimes even feel a little lost, like as if I was in a different place and the end of the book drops me back in my own world. That is when I like a book, it does not have to be a great literary work, but it has to keep my attention so much that I get lost in it. That is what I like the most about books, the ability to experience other places, even if they are fictional.

A brief note on memories of 9-11-01

I remember that on 9/11/2001 I was at home from work on a sick day. My roommate called home to tell me to turn on the news, that something awful was going on. I spent then next several hours listening as each new broadcast brought more and more sickening, terrifying news. The images were being played over and over until they were still visible even with eyes closed.I was confused by the unbelievability of it all. I cried for all the people that were being killed. I prayed for all the ones that were not yet known about. I was sickened and saddened by the realization that fellow human being were responsible for such devastating events. I eventually had to turn all the tvs and radios off because I could not take it anymore. I could not even imagine how it was for the people actually involved or with relatives or friends involved, trying to imagine just made me sadder and sadder.

That day will be forever remembered with sadness as well as pride, sadness at the tragic events and pride of the strength and support shared by all those that lived to see the 12th.

My BFF has breast cancer

One of my best friends was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. It is amazing how fast things went from 'no symptoms' to surgery, scheduling radiation, and discussing chemotherapy.

About two months ago my bff went and had a mammogram as part of routine age related preventative health care. There was a problem with the image so she had to go back and have the test done again. When the results finally came back they had found 2 small lumps that had been undetected during breast exams. They took a biopsy of the lumps and found out they were cancerous. Surgery was scheduled and the lumps removed as well as a few lymph glands. Testing was done on the lymph glands and the next week she found out that cancer was found in at least 2 of them. Surgery was scheduled to remove a few more lymph glands for testing. She got the results from the tests and the second set of glands did not have any cancer in them so that is a good sign. This also helps them decide what course of actions to take in her future treatment. She has appointments with the radiologist and the oncologist to discuss her radiation treatment and other treatments.

It is amazing how quickly things change. My friend went from not having a clue there was any problems, to being scared out of her mind because they found cancer. She is reassured some by the knowledge that the cancer is in the early stages, it is stage 2A. There was some increased fear when they found that the cancer was also in some of the lymph glands, but finding out that it was only in a couple of them has eased some of that fear. Now she is planning for her radiation treatment and chemotherapy. She may even be getting hormone therapy, because some of the test result were about whether or not the cancer was affected by estrogen or progesterone. The tests results came back that the cancer is only affected by estrogen, but not by progesterone, so it is possible they may want to do the hormone therapy too.