DeeDee's Journal

8:29AM - Advice needed!!!!!

See, I have a new job that I like a lot, and when they first interviewed me back in early October, I told them that I would be getting married this summer and that I would be needing a month off, a week before for preparations, and 3 weeks after for the honeymoon. We had plans to take a cruise down to Venezuela, get off on a gorgeous island, stay there for a week, spend a couple of days with his dad and sisters, let his grandparents throw us a party, then spend a few days camping near the Amazon Basin in the Gran Sabana. We've been planning this for a year, and we've worked out details with his family, because my work said it wouldn't be a problem.... Well, I requested the time off last week, and it was denied. I spoke with one of the women who was in the interview, and she remembers me mentioning a honeymoon, but seems to have mentally blocked the month part of the conversation. I'm certain I mentioned it because I rehearsed it in my head days in advance. I wanted to be sure any employer who would hire me would be prepared for this amount of time off. Now they're saying I can have two weeks, which gives me almost no time to prepare for a wedding that's 150 miles away from my home, and cuts out over half of our plans. We need time on our own for our honeymoon, and we probably won't have time to see is family for more than a couple of days... My boss said the only option was to quit right before the wedding and re-apply after the honeymoon, but they wouldn't be able to guarantee I'd get my job back, because they'd replace me before I left. There are 3 other girls who will be taking maternity leave at that time, so I understand it'll be hard.

So, do I take it and not have the honeymoon time we need, or do I quit and run the risk of having to find another job?

8:44AM - Wow...

It all happened so fast! It seems that just last week, we had no money, we had no real careers, and we were stuck in the "working class poor," and now, we're solidly middle class! Which, somehow, also means we’re moving to Fort Wayne… So the feeling is kind of “YAY!! Oooh……….” I’ve put in my 5.5 weeks notice at my job, and somehow, it still does not feel like enough. We have a little over a month to find an apartment, and get ourselves moved and settled in. We have no furniture to speak of. On one hand, we get to start over! On the other hand, we have to start over… Simón is going to be the Senior Technology Specialist at a private school, and will be making about 4x what he makes now. Between May 1 and June 30, during which time he will be paid for a month and a half, and will be in Venezuela for a month, Simón will earn ½ what he makes in a year… I’ll be able to find a job doing basically what I do now, for about twice what I’m making now. We’re going to be somewhere where we know no one, we don’t know our way around, and I’m absolutely terrified, and on the other hand, I’m really excited about the new opportunities! We’re going to be able to afford to have babies after the wedding! But we’ll be really far away from our families! I’m very confused. Any suggestions, anyone?

10:15AM - Superbowl desparation!

Oh, my, the Superbowl is this Sunday! I am in a bit of a conundrum because i actually want to watch this one, and I don't get any channels on my tv... As of now, my only other options are to go over to my sister's house (children EVERYWHERE and THEY ALL WANT TO PLAY WITH ME!), go over to my parents' house (dad will very kindly explain what's going on during the game, which is great, but he will also explain what's wrong with my life and how to fix it in between plays, which sucks), or to go to a sports bar or something, where i will not be able to find a seat, and the drinks will cost WAY too much... Someone please SAVE ME FROM THIS HORROR! I'll bring beer, i promise! And I will be entertaining company!! HELP!!!

8:24PM - We made it to Puerto La Cruz

After an amazing, freezing 7.5 hour bus ride, we´ve made it to Puerto la Cruz! I´ve finally been able to see Simón´s home town! The apartment was not as big as I assumed it would be, but it´s much bigger than the average apartment around here, so I guess it makes sense.

We arrived at about 6 in the morning, then came here and crashed until about 1. We got up, drank a whole bunch of fresh squeezed orange juice, then we went to the main drag by the beach. The beach itself is not spectacular, but it´s still more amazing than anything around boring old Indiana. There´s a lot of broken glass, but recently there has been much less littering so most of the glass has been worn away by the sea and is quite beautiful. I found perfect gifts for Ma and Pa, a beautiful real (though mishapen) black pearl necklace with a carved butterfly for Mom, and a bunch of fun hand made puzzles for Dad. They´re both made by local people who make their living selling their craft by the beach, so I feel quite good about the money I spent.

I´ve met both Simón´s half-siblings, Manolo and Nilsi, and both non-sisters, Ninel and Paola; all with the same mother, but the non-sisters have a different father. They´re all wonderful. Ninel came to the beach with us today, and we´ve been trying really really hard to communicate in spite of the fact that we do not speak the same language. Their mother is quite black, so I´m told, so it amazes me that Manolo is the only truely dark one. I still would not call him black, but he´s a much darker version of what we consider to be Latin American skin. They´re all amazingly beautiful, phisicly, especilly Paola. I really like that most Venesualen women are not sticks. They have large breasts and butts, long strong legs, and graceful arms that don´t resemble twigs in the least. Paola is a perfect example.

So far, every one seems to like me. When I told Ninel how wonderful Simón is, she responded with ¨Then you must be wonderful as well, to have caught him!¨ They all call me their family, and say I´m already his wife. I am positively blessed to be so welcomed into such a wonderful family!

More later with pictures! There´s more rum to drink and more Spanish to learn!

5:38PM - Greetings from Venesuala

We made it! I´m in an entirely different country! Even the keyboards are different (and the space bar doesn´t always work...) It´s all very overwhelming so far, but good at the same time. We´ve been in Maracay visiting Simón´s family for 3 days so far, and taking little day trips to the nearby towns. We went to Valencia yesterday, but the aquarium we wanted to see was closed. We went to a war memorial instead, and we got to drive around a lot. I´m constantly being amazed at my own bias as we drive around. I´m programed to view people like Simón´s grandparents as poor, when really, they´re quite well off. They have enough to eat, their house is beautiful, and they´re really, really nice!



Perhaps my biggest shock so far is the roads. All the roads are full of holes, and there are almost no laws regarding the drivability of cars or the way in which they are driven. Lanes mean nothing, and half of the cars have no lights, and many are missing doors and windows. We were stopped behind a station wagon with no rear door, and about 15 people came up and piled into the back. I was amazed that they could all fit, but aparently this is a common thing around here.



There are also a lot of shanty towns. Extremely poor people put up a shack of tin and steel, then someone else does, and so on, until you have a whole town with thousands of people. One of the nice things for these people is if they squat on a piece of land, it can become theirs, so after sometime they own the land and start to build with brick and mortar and they begin to move up in the world. Unfortunately, this policy is also really bad for the economy. People don´t want to own land anymore, so business don´t grow, so there aren´t that many new jobs. It´s sort of a catch 22.



I would write more, but there´s much to do, many things to see!çI´ll write again soon!

3:03PM - How I made a fool out of myself when he proposed...

Yes, indeed, we now have photographic proof that I'm truly the goofiest person on the face of the earth... Just take a look! It's Simon's flickr account... It goes from 1 to 5, even though they show up in the wrong order. Feel free to laugh at my expence, but keep in mind, I'm the happiest girl in the whole world!

3:31PM - YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA

HE PROPOSED!!! Big shiny thing on my left ring finger! It's huge and gorgeous and we're really gonna get married!!! more details later...

11:24AM - CDC Warning! New Disease!

The Centers for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of Sexually Transmitted Disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior. The spokesman for the CDC said that it has been decided to name of this new STD as Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him.").


Many victims contracted it in 2004, after having reporting being screwed for the past 4 years, and this in spite of having taken measures to protect themselves from this especially troublesome disease.



Cognitive sequelae of individuals infected with Gonorrhea Lectim include, but are not limited to:



* anti-social personality disorder traits;
* delusions of grandeur with a distinct messianic flavor;
* a unique form of expressive aphasia, specifically a mangling of
the English language;
* extreme cognitive dissonance;
* inability to incorporate new information;
* pronounced xenophobia;
* inability to accept responsibility for actions;
* marked cowardice masked by acts of misplaced bravado;
* uncontrolled facial smirking;
* ignorance of geography and history;
* tendencies toward creating evangelical theocracies; and
* a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing behavior.



The disease has spread rapidly from the Washington, D.C. area. Naturalists and epidemiologists believe this amazing, baffling and malignant disease originated only a few years ago from exposure to a Texas shrub.

11:52PM - this is rediculously uncanny....

best_nightmare took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Considers the existing circumstances disagreeable ..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

how could they know all that?

9:09AM - i wonder

1. Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.

2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.

3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.

4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me. (This possibly will not apply to all).

5. I'll tell you my first memory of you.

6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.

7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.

8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal

4:55PM - huh.....

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. </td> Cultural Creative 75% Idealist 69% Postmodernist 63% Materialist 56% Existentialist 50% Romanticist 50% Modernist 19% Fundamentalist 13% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

it's kinda freaky how right that is...

11:19AM

1. Go into your LJ’s archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag 5 people on your friend list.


"it was better than sex!"

*insert random lj friend tag here*

5:41PM

ok, so they come home tonight... let's make sure we have everything... 1. Food (wet and dry), organic, human quality yum! 2. Kitty Condo (simón's making it right now out of a big box and a bunch of cardboard for the floors of the levels. 3. Litter Box, covered with baking soda litter 4. Toys! Cat Dancer, homemade catnip mousies, dangly fun things, boxes, paper bags 5. Scratching post, complete with catnip, all set up 6. Cute little kitty food bowls, with little fish on them! 7. Big water bowl, with good cold clean water in it 8. Kitty bed, made out of a laundry basket with big fluffy towels in it, plus fuzzy places to snuggle all over 9. Kitty brush, for short hair kitties, all soft and feel good! 10. Vet's appointment for vaccines (next week... i hope they don't get mad) 11. Kitty carrier with big fluffy blankets inside They're both fixed already (at 9 wks no less!) so we don't have to worry about that one... they get their own room, so bach doesn't eat them, and that room has no electric chords, cables, wires, or anything scary like that. they have high and low places to hang out, lots of space to chase each other, and lots of snuggly spots. collars and names and id tags are on their way, as are home made (by me) kitty hammoks, and rope ladders, and other such fun things. i need more stuffing for more sock mousies, but other than that, i think we have everything... oh, i'm nervous... i hope they like everything!!!

8:13PM

so, if you were, say, watching a roommate's dog for the weekend, and he didn't come back in time for you to get to work, what would you do?  would you go to work, leaving him outside for eight hours to be found by a neighbor and taken to the shelter, or would you go look for him, put an alert in at the shelter in case he shows up, and THEN go to work?

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!!!  i can't get him back till monday!  and it costs a lot of money!  and he doesn't have any medicine and he's surrounded by fleas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12:11PM - ok, ok, i know, they're awful, but at least it's short...

1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. When and how did we meet?
4. Do you have a crush on me?
5. Would you kiss me?
6. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
7. Describe me in one word.
8. What was your first impression?
9. Do you still think that way about me now?
10. What reminds you of me?
11. If you could give me anything what would it be?
12. How well do you know me?
13. When's the last time you saw me?
14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
15. Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you?

11:38AM

oh, what a sordid life we lead.  ok, not really sordid, but strange.  about a week ago, my boss went to auction to get me some more snaffles and girths, and he came home, not with snaffles and girths, so i'm still short, but with a motherless 3-day-old baby pigmy goat.  of course, hs'e the sweetest thing anyone's ever seen, and all the kid's campers love to help bottle feed him, so it's not that much of a problem.  so now, when we open his cage door (we can't put him out with the other goats, they wanna kill him) he comes bounding out, litterally, and follows me around like i'm his mother.  he even tries to nurse at my knees, so i've gotten into the habit of holding the bottle between them...  he seems to like it better.  so, after about a week with the little goat, i have my girls (kid's campers) out in the large arena, working on cavaletti, when i hear a scream and several thuds.  the scream came from one of the kelsys, and the thuds were here horse striking at something he thought was a snake in the grass.  i get him to back off and calm down, then i go investigate what he was trying to kill.  in the tall grass at the edge, is a very small, very young, very very scared little kitten.  fortunately, marshmallow (the horse) only clipped her tall a little...  thank god for bad aim.  so i cought her up, had someone else watch my girls, and took her to the barn to see if she's hungry.  it turns out she is, but she's not really sure how to chew, or to lap up the water i tried to give her.  she picks up the dry cat food, fiddles around with it, then spits it out.  i soaked some in milk, and she did a little better with that, but she still wasn't eating enough.  i had to teach her to lap by dipping my finger in the water and putting it on her nose, over and over and over for a half an hour, before she would drink...  the poor thing was so dehydrated, she drank about half her body weight.  so i put her in with the goat, they made buddies, and i went off to be with my girls.  this went on for a few days, with her not eating enough, then my boss threatened to take her to the shelter (overpopulated, usually euthanize 90% as soon as they get them)  so now she's here, in my house, playing with the cords of the computer, moving my mouse, knocking over the speakers, and mewing very loudly.  she's absolutely adorable, and a total attention hog.  i have here on KMR, replacement kitten formula, and she's starting to get a rather cute belly, even though i can sill feel all her little bumps on her spine.  she also seems to have a cold, because she keeps sniffling and sneezing (tiny little sneezes, they're so cute) dcxdddddd (that was her).  she needs a good home, one i can't provide for long, because my dog really wants to eat her.  so, bloomingtonites, if you can find it in your heart, she needs you!  she promises to love you for ever if you just give her some attention and some food and a comfy place to sleep!  i have spare earmite drops, and she's ready to graduate to canned food in about 3 days.  she'll be easy to litter train, because she only poops in one corner of her cage.  please, she needs you!

5:29PM

ok, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  no more bumming rides for everything, no more being a burden to simón, no more being stuck at home, yay!!!  sarrah has a car!!!  admittedly, not the prettiest car, but it gets 37 miles to the gallon, and it's a manual (finally), and it was only $600!  plus it's a honda, and they last for ever...  so woo hoo!!!!  stevie and misty, look out, i may just stop by!!!

1:14PM - Stolen from Rocky Bizatch

EXOTIC FOREIGNER ALIAS = Favorite Spice + Last Foreign Vacation Spot
Cloves Izeburg

SOCIALITE ALIAS = Silliest Childhood Nickname + Town Where You First Partied
Scabby Martinsville

"FLY GIRL" ALIAS = First Initial + First Two or Three Letters of your Last Name
S Bau

DIVA ALIAS = Something Sweet Within Sight + Any Liquid in Kitchen
Pepsi Olive Oil

GIRL DETECTIVE ALIAS = Favorite Baby Animal + Where You Went to High School
Foal North

BARFLY ALIAS = Last Snack Food You Ate + Your Favorite Drink
Cereal Rose

SOAP OPERA ALIAS = Middle Name + Street Where You First Lived
Elizabeth St. John

PORN STAR ALIAS = First Pet's Name + Street You Grew Up On
Pussy St. John

ROCK STAR ALIAS = Any Liquid on the Bar + Last Name of Bad-Ass Celebrity
Jager Graham

6:51PM - even more crushing blows...

i found out a few days ago that one of my girls, lydia, is going to have to have surgery again. she was born with spinavifida (sp), and now, at 5 years old, has undergone literally HUNDREDS of surgeries, starting with a new pre-natal surgury to repair the hole over her spine at 8 months. but, while learning the details this evening from my mother, this one is by far the most invasive and dangerous. she has shunts in the back of her head that help drain spinal fluid out of her skull. these shunts get clogged and have to be periodically replaced. on top of that, now she has a band of tissue going around her lower lobes, causing pressure on her brain stem and spinal collumn. in order to fix this problem, they are going to have to remove about half of her skull, remove and replace several of the shunts, drain her brain stem area, and de-pressurize the band around her lobes. there is a VERY good chance she will die due to bleeding during the operation, but if she doesn't undergo the operation, she will slowly loose all upper body strength till she can no longer support herself with the aid of her walker or crutches. in short, she will never walk again. there is also a chance of brain damage leading to even more learning difficulties to stunt the possibility of a full life for her. i am going to go see her and her sister two times this week, and then take her older sister, abbigail, on the day of the surgery, if not longer. this is going to tak perhaps all of the strength i have, and, to be honest, i don't know if i can deal with this.

8:53PM

goodbye johnny cash...