Well, I guess that’s not true. I just want to briefly review what happened this year.

SCHOOL: I survived all my nursing courses and made good grades. I found a nursing mentor, Kathy, who was my clinical instructor. She is recommending me to the dean, so I will be first on the list for a scholarship to a new program in specialization in geriatrics. After she saw the work I did with the residents at tacoma lutheran, she really wanted to help me. I love school but the drive is killing me. Next semester will be better though, because I only have to be on campus 3 days a week versus the 5 days last semester.

HOME: Matt finished the roof, painted the whole living room, landscaped the backyard beautifully, and made other repairs to our 1940s home. We’ve lived here 5 years now, and I love my house more than ever!

PETS: We lost 3 pets last year due to old age: William, our rex rabbit, who I had to put to sleep because of a severe bacterial infection in his face. After getting an operation to remove the offending bacteria and infected tissue, the infection came back even stronger, and I just couldn’t stand to see him suffer.Then, we lost Diggens, who was Matt’s cat for almost 14 years. She was diabetic in the end and died while I was home doing homework. That cat hated me with a passion, but I took care of her in her last days like devoted mother. 1 month later, Matt’s 15 year old cat, Junior, also died. Unfortunately, nobody was home when he passed away, and I found him on the easy chair, dead, when I returned from grocery shopping. All 3 are buried in the backyard, and William has a plant on his grave. In the middle of the year, we adopted 2 miniature pinschers, which are glorified rat terriers. We drove all the way to Spokane, WA. to adopt them.We also acquired a new cat to keep our other cat, Henry, company. His name is Mr. Taco, and he’s a badass. We now have 2 bunnies that live outside in a hutch that Matt built. I guess you could say that we have a little farm around here. In 2009, I want to get some chickens so we can have fresh eggs.

FAMILY: My biological family drama was something I could have done without. My dad and I are still not speaking, and my mother is trying to re-establish a relationship with me through letters. I did call my mom this year and had a pleasant conversation with her, so that’s good. Matt and I’s relationship continues to flourish, and we have now been together for 12 (!) years. Theo turns 15 and we have a very close relationship despite him being a typical teenager that wants to spend every waking moment lamenting how life is unfair. He’s a great guy and I feel privileged to be his mom.

TRAVEL: I did a lot of that this year. In June, I traveled to Thailand with a couple friends and stayed two weeks. We traveled between cities via plane and train, toured a Thai nursing school and leprosy treatment center, and experienced things that I’ve only read about. Thailand is a wonderful place and I cannot wait to go back there someday. In late summer, Matt and I traveled to Denmark to visit friends and made a side trip for a week to Amsterdam. We had a fabulous time. My only complaint is that Holland and Denmark were hard on my wallet, and the rich food was a bit much for me. On the home front, we didn’t get to go camping ONCE, which was disappointing and odd. I think I just had too much homework and the weather didn’t quite cooperate. In 2009, I hope that Matt and I can go camping together, as well as make a couple trips to the woods alone. I bought a one person tent that I haven’t gotten to use yet, and I know that Matt is itching to get out to woods alone sooner than later.

HEALTH: Only a couple of complaints there. I was severely anemic for more than half the year and almost needed a blood transfusion. The body is generally slow to absorb iron, so it’s been a long, long wait to feel better despite taking supplements every day. I got a referral for minor surgery on my uterus to have endometrial ablation done sometime early in 2009, which should solve the anemia and blood loss problems. My lower back is better; I started stabilization exercises in 2008 and I only had one episode of being incapacitated, which lasted a week. I don’t see the spondylolithesis getting better; however, I don’t think I’ll need surgery as long as it stays at a Stage 2. I had some  MAJOR dental work done this year, too: I had 3 root canals and 2 crowns put in, which ended years of suffering. It took us years to save up for this very expensive work, which cost us about $3,000. I wish I had nice strong teeth like others do.

Well, I guess that about covers it. I hope that 2009 was as great as 2008 was!

Found on a bulletin board in an upscale Starbucks in West Hollywood.

So, I didn’t see my brother on this trip to California. He decided to pull a guilt trip on me when I told him ahead of time that although I could make dinner on a certain night, I would be leaving after a couple hours to go see some friends…in particular a friend that I hadn’t seen in almost 16 years. After seeing friends, I was going to go back to my brother’s place, spend the night, and spend the entire next day with him. Well, he didn’t take kindly to me dividing up my time in this manner and proceeded to bitch me out over the phone: ‘Oh, well, THAT’S great, Kris. You’re in town for a week and I get to see you for 2 hours. Just perfect. I can’t believe this! Real good…etc etc.” I didn’t tell him this-because I knew he would freak, but he sounded EXACTLY like my father when he goes on one of his classic tirade/guilt trips. After the bitch out, he said “well, see you at dinner later.” To that, I said no, you won’t and proceeded to end the phone call. I ended up staying the night with those friends and had a lovely evening.

Needless to say, I am extremely sensitive to my family and their attitudes about what I do or don’t do. My brother and I have discussed many times how we hate the guilt trips our parents lay on us; yet, he does it himself. He hasn’t learned what not to do, obviously.I have set bounderies for myself in the past couple years about the shit I’m not willing to take from my family. As I wrote in the letter to my dad recently, my non-biological extended family never talks that way to me or each other and I refuse to listen to it or be around it if my biological family does it. period. For my own mental health, I need to stay away from that toxic behavior. Even if my own brother does it.

Another thing that really gets to me is this: my biological parents and brother are always complaining how they never see me. Well, I gotta say that I have been the one to travel to CA. more times than I can count on both hands. My dad has come to Seattle once in 16 years. My brother has come to Seattle twice in 16 years. The minute I show up in OC, all of a sudden I’m supposed to devote all my time to them? No, I don’t think so. They don’t pay for my plane tickets- I do. They don’t pay for my lodging- I do. They don’t pay for my car rental- I do. I have dear, dear friends that I love to see when I’m down in OC, and I see them on every trip down. These friends mean the absolute world to me, and have been like family more so than my own biological family. It just seems to me that my parents and brother have NO right to monopolize my time when I’m there for a week when they couldn’t give a damn the rest of the year and beyond. And you know what? I really don’t care if they don’t want to see me. Toxic, remember? It just irritates me that my brother and my dad get all bent if I change my plans or call them out on their bullshit. I’m not going to spend the second half of my life dealing with family drama bullshit when I finally have a healthy family here in Seattle that I love and adore. I just won’t do it.

So, not seeing my brother on this trip was an “oh well” moment. I’m not sorry that I made that decision. I’m just sorry that my brother, father,a nd mother continue to act in the manner that they do.

It’s time I updated this thing about my trip to California. I have been back in jet city for about a week, recovering from an extremely *stupid* thing I did: I let a very important medication run out when I was in CA., was unable to get it filled because they don’t have that particular drug store there, and wasn’t able to take it for almost 6 days. Not good. Since it is an SSRI medication, my body started to go into withdrawl. The withdrawl turned into a hell for me pretty quick, complete with extreme fatigue (matt could hardly rouse me, and one day I slept for almost 22 hours), disorientation, problems walking, and other assorted stupidity. All is well now; I have been back on the meds for 4 whole days and Iam back to my *normal* (haha) self.

So, my trip to California. It was lovely. I spent 2 days in Orange County and 4 days in Hollywood. The OC is always annoying, mostly due to having to see plastic people that dress like prostitutes. No, I’m not exaggerating. I should have gotten some photos of what I am talking about but was too lazy. Los Angeles is always fun. Love the old buildings, the dirt, the streets, the neon, the lore,everything. My hotel was right on Sunset strip, and my room had a great view on said street. I liked sitting there at night, watching the activity out the screen less window and listening to the sirens go by for what seemed like every 15 minutes. I went out to dinner with my friend Steve and his girl Esther (lovely, by the way. We had Thai food and margaritas made with Sake.); Had dinner with Monica, her fiancee, and her extended family (had Afghan food-yum!); saw my friend Amy, who I hadn’t seen since grade school (ummm…I am old. That was in 1982) and had a wonderful time catching up; back in OC I spent some time with ex Christopher, his wife, and their kids. That was also lovely-I held a baby for the first time since Theo was a baby. I think Matt was worried that I was having baby urges. I reassured him that I enjoy other peoples babies and just to leave it at that. Especially if they are as cute as Hannah was.

It was still snowing in Seattle when I got on the plane in OC but managed to get home just fine. I also got to enjoy the snow here for a couple more days after my return, much to the chagrin of the rest of the city. Seattle has had enough of the snow, apparently. I am glad that it isn’t 20 degrees here anymore, though.

So. How about some photos of the trip?

That is the famous Bradbury building, on Broadway in downtown LA. I say famous because the movie Bladerunner was filned here.The interior is amazing…and eerily quiet.

 Decrepit green building I fell in love with, located in the historic Theatre district of LA.Dinner with Monica.Me and Amy at Mel’s .Me and the extremely cute Joan. (love that name)