Confessions of an Internet Junkie

Great little vacation capped by a bizarre flight home and the next 20 hours or so spent in the Twilight Zone.

The hotel let us extend our check-out time; we paid for it, not like they did it out of the kindness of their corporate hearts, but it was a help. sparky77, puffgirl_two and sffan hung out with us for a few hours until their plane left in the afternoon, so it was like a little dorm party for a while. I love them all, so it was great to spend the time with them.

I have no idea how this is reading. We are travel-dazed like nobody's buisiness. The flight left Tuesday night at 11:35PM Vegas time and pulled in to Toronto this morning at 6:30 local time. We didn't get a lot of sleep since, oh, Monday night. Very weird day. The flight was booked full, and the plane was little. There were loads of babies. I got hit on the head a couple of times (aisle seat), once by a steward who really clocked me. He apologzied, and I wasn't mad because the plane had no spare room at all, but still . . . ow. I also got conked by passing luggage and narrowly missed having a fallen suitcase hit me when it tipped out of the overhead compartment. Nice save by one of the other passengers. Turbulence was fun, too.

Finally pulled into Toronto, and we were the last ones off the plane because I simply could not deal with the jostling for position that takes place with deboarding. Finally off the plane and through customs, then had to wait for at least an hour for transport home. Well, Dar went home; the driver dropped me off at the hospital for my EEG which went quickly and painlessly. Then I had to hang around fo4r 45 minutes until Mark could give me a ride home. Very cold, very tired, very achey and tippy.

Dar was down for the count by the time I got home. Flying does terrible things to her shunt, so her body just shut down until everything stabilized. Which I believe it was starting to as of a little while ago. Made my apologies to the inside cats, went out and fed and played with the outside cats. Took care of the alpacas, who were happy to see me. That always is a relief to me; I'm out there so infreuently now that I worry they'll start treating me like a stranger.

The big news for me was a phone call from a nurse at the rheumatology and osteology department at St. Mary's Hospital in Kitchener. She'd called a couple times during the time I was in Vegas, and after Mark had passed along the message I actually did try to call her from our hotel room, but I got her voicemail. Anyway we connected today, and I think this could be a positive step. she took a history over the phone, and she asked a lot of good questions and even more importantly she gave me some informed and supportive responses. Apparently Dr. Hanna was inspired enough after my last visit to put me on the rolls in that department. I'll have a cookie swallow coming up soon. (It's a test for my difficulty in swallowing, in case that wasn't obvious.) She said that it normally takes months to get one scheduled, but occasionally a doctor will have a patient who needs more serious follow-up, and that's me. Well, whaddy know, Dr. Hanna :) He came through. So I pretty much have to hang by the phone to follow up when the appointment comes through: it could be with one week's notice, it could be with one day's notice.

I have an appointment with a neurologist in just a few hours: 9AM. I should get back to sleep. I've been mostly asleep since about 8PM; I woke up because my gall bladder is getting irksome, so I'm hoping I can tame it enough to get back to sleep again. This is so weird. I haven't done any long distance traveling in many years, and I'd forgotten how easily one loses a sense of being centered in time and place. Everything is kind of floaty still, but I'm hoping that tomorrow will put us all back on track. How cliched is this paragraphy anyway?

Oh, I lost the cord that connects my camera to my laptop for downloading pictures. I'll have to pick up a replacement while I'm out tomorrow. Damn. I think it happened on the plane while I was trying to get my headphones out of a zippered compartment in my luggage. I know I didn't leave them in the hotel room; I'm scrupulous about going over everything. Sigh. It was all so rushed and crowded on board the plane, and I was exhausted, I guess I never noticed it fall out. Damn.

Time to sleep again.

Oh, I had my Swiss Army knife confiscated in Vegas at the airport. When I was getting ready to go through security in Toronto last Saturday it suddenly occurred to me that I might have my little knife on me, so I quickly searched around my purse. Nothing. Went through security without a hassle, so I figured that I must have taken it out at some point back home and just forgotten about it. But going through in Vegas, I get pulled over and told that they're going to go through my purse to track down my "corkscrew." Tuh-duh. So I explained to the young lady what I thought had happened, and she laughed because she couldn't find it, either, even though it showed up on the scan. Finally after just about turning the purse inside out she found it; she said I could mail it to myself, but honestly by that point I was so tired and achey that I just told her to add it to the stash of contraband she had going there at her station. Bye, silly little knife. I had you for close to 30 years, and I lose you as a victim to the War on Terror. Not a bad way to go, little knife. Not a gad way at all.

Gall bladder is not going away. I'm off to see what I can do about killing it. Wish me luck, please

Sneaking onto Dar's computer for a minute just to say hi. Very busy day in a quite cool Las Vegas. I was glad I brought my jacket, and thinking at times that it would have been nice to have had a sweater on under, too. There's quite a wind out there; it followed us all the way from Ontario which made for a few interesting moments on the flight in. Mostly it was a great flight, though. Not very crowded so we all got to stretch out a bit.

Didn't sleep all that late. Had an amazing omelet in one of the hotel restaurants. Amazing omelet. Really. The hotel is lovely, our room is fantastic, Dar has already sworn that we're buying a couple of these beds because . . . most comfortable sleep ever. We checked in very late, after midnight. Tonight we discover that the big Treasure Island pirate production number takes place underneath our window. Well 36 floors down, but still underneath. Loud, flashy, and there are fireworks. Yay! Seriously, it's the only downside to the experience so far. We have two more shows to get through and the the rest of the night is ours.

Met up with the shindiggers early in the afternoon and headed over to the Las Vegas Hilton to do The Star Trek Experience. Ate at Quark's Place and came face-to-face with a killer drink known as a Warp Breach. There will be pictures, I swear. Also were visited by a Ferengi, and Dar got into a tussle with a female Klingon. It ended in a draw. (Lucky for the Klingon.) Some went on to do the "ride" while the rest of us explored the casino. I lost continually, but one of our crew won over $100!

We made it to Bellagio in time to see the dancing fountain show which was lovely but chilly. Dar and I walked back to our place after that while the young'uns continued their carousing ways. We'll meet up again tomorrow to do some shopping.

And the pirate show is gearing up again. Time to put my earphones back on and chill to some Etta James for the next 20 minutes or so. Tomorrow shopping, and Dar and I try our hand at some gambling. Oy.

I've had 2 1/2 hours sleep in the last 36 hours. I'm sending out the request for a rubber mallet. Thank you.

Remember all the angst and whinging when I discovered that I'd lost my favorite denim jacket at a supermarket last month? Well, we ended up back at that supermarket yesterday, so I figured what the hell, I'll just see if it's still there in the Lost & Found. And it was! There was much rejoicing.

I'm still madly in love with Pushing Daisies. It's the only show on the air that makes me laugh out loud. Loudly out loud at that. And when I'm not laughing I'm wearing this big stupid grin because I'm so entranced by the dark whimsy and by how very beautiful it is. Please watch it. We actually get it in Canada a day ahead of you Yanks, so you can add it onto your schedule for tomorrow's viewing.

Considering I was running on pure instinct today, I actually got a lot done. More than I needed to since I tracked down and printed out some immigration forms that Dar had already printed out. She told me; I forgot; I suck. I should get that embroidered on a pillow.

I found out that we cannot bring the kittens and the mommy cat into a shelter pretty much anywhere right now. The woman I talked with started out being very dismissive but warmed up when she realized that I wasn't trying to dump a cat that I'd grown bored with but was in fact trying to find a home for a family that we'd rescued and cared for. She said there's no room anywhere, even in the shelters that euthanize. As if I'd ever send an animal there. So dumbphilomel, tell your friend they're still available. I did put an ad in at LiveDeal which is a sort of cross between ebay and Craig's List. Wouldn't you take those kitties? I'm really starting to get a bit anxious about this.

We still haven't decided on a hotel in Vegas. Hopefully we'll get that settled tomorrow. We were talking seriously about staying at Treasure Island, but Dar said she'd found some discount coupons or something, so we may end up somewhere else. We really didn't connect that well today because we were both rather out of it.

Ooh, just checked the TI web page and besides the nightly free pirate battle in the hotel lagoon (I'm completely serious) there is also an on-site Starbucks and an on-site Ben & Jerry's! I was just telling Dar today that when I hit Vegas I was going to track down a B&J's because I have been jonesing for three long freaking years for their low-fat S'mores frozen yogurt. And it's on site. We are so staying there. Besides, what better place for all of the Naughty Space Pirates to congregate? (And it has free parking, guys.)

I'm actually looking forward to this. I mean I was happy to be getting away anywhere - Vegas, Detroit, Upper Sandusky, it really didn't matter all that much at that point - but now I'm getting excited about the actual destination. I told Dar that she has my permission, in fact my wish, to smack me if I start getting all grouchy about the obscene waste of resources in Vegas, which has got to be the least Green expanse of property in the galaxy. I'm there to just wallow in the tacky. I'll feel guilty about it later when I get home :)

Let's see. I made rather yummy chicken and baked potatoes tonight. I really only ate the potato because I can't swallow that well anymore. Very strange. But hey, that just gives me even more impetus to drink lattes and slurp ice cream. It all works.

Chloe is right at home. She's a scamp, no two ways about it: all energy and into everything. Still, she doesn't have the dominant Bad Kitty gene that Pixel had. Has. And there is cat playing between Chloe and Pix and even Chloe and Mao. Plus grooming for all parties. Yay! The only one who's still stand offish is Little Cat, but that's her nature so no big surprise there. I love our kitties :)

I took all of my meds an hour ago, fully expecting them to just drop me like slaughtered ox, but no. I go now in search of something else to do the job. Insomnia is not an option. ::cue the victorious music::