Monday, July 17, 2017 @ 7:10AMGood morning. We’re a little bit of a draw this morning. Like I’m sure some of us are thinking, but the jury is still out … Oh my … Rich is ON TIME! OK. We got that part. Hehe. He just came out to fix breakfast! He doesn’t do that over the weekend, so it feels like on a Monday morning, we hit the jack pot!7:40AM OK, we’re back! Had a very nice time “missing.” Omelets, and some soft pop and singing Rich love songs and petting our puppy face. He LOVES to share breakfast with me, and then Dakota curls up next to me and is just adorable. Oh, yes, and Rich too hehe. “Forever can never be long enough for me … that the weight has lifted, love has surely shifted my way – Marry Me!” Ok, maybe we’re not getting that far. But, he still makes a nice omelet! HeheBetter be moving on … we TOLD you we were on the drifty-side already, right? I think we’re in a good mood. This morning, we woke up and we were just below our “hard” weight … yup-yup 266 – FINALY, hit a number under 267. We’re trying … Hard part now will be to continue. We’ve set another goal – this time 257. Not unreasonable … so now we’re thinking it would be ideal if we could hit that by August 15th. Hmm, what’s happening then? Not much - other than it’s a Dr. Marvin day. There is a three-day break tentative with Rich in MN at that time, and then to stop in and see his brother, we’ll have to see. Quilting time with the girls will be the 12th. That’s pretty close to that time … so let’s make that the goal … maybe cross into the 50’s by August 12th. That’s 26 days I think – so we have 7 pounds to lose in 26 – so, well let’s just say a pound to lose, or hold every three days to four days, just to be sure. It’s doable … don’t know how stubborn this next set of numbers are going to be … it’s been over 15 --- closer to 18 years? Twenty years was the bad time we lost everything – BUT, we were still at 140 at that time. Ok, let’s not read too much into these numbers, K? Just we should keep working on it. That’s the truth! Trouble? Trouble? Trouble been calling me… OH AND STOP SINGING!*Giggle* Well? Do you know it is our birthday tomorrow? We should get over that too. We already got our birthday present, and it doesn’t work. I want it, but have been too grumbly to take whatever the next step. We already sent back the first one, and we’re having the same problem with the second one. I’m thinking it’s our Internet being slow. We’re talking about having got the Amazon Echo Look. BUT, then right next to it the other Echo – Alexa is working. JUST FRUSTRATED. Maybe for our birthday, Rich can go through it with me. He does that kind of thing in a pinch, though he will say all the while, that I’m better at that kind of thing. Maybe Henry is, but he’s reclusive. Grrr. Ok, to be fair, he gave it a good shot.Getting the Look was something so that we could watch and document our weight loss. It really was a good idea. MAYBE still is, just got to get past the frustration. I think this is a hard thing that makes it over to Dr. Marvin time. Just don’t want to give it that kind of time. OK … let’s let out another Grrr and then move on, k?Do you know that Grr isn’t in the dictionary? Just thought we’d look because it was open. *sigh*I guess, we don’t have a sparkly mood anymore. Hmm, Dakota just came over for a pet. Do you think he noticed? Oh, sparkly mood person?!! Come back?!!“But, I see you true colors and that’s why I love you so don’t be afraid to let them show, your true colors, true colors are beautiful like a rainbow. …Don’t be unhappy…”Smiling, ok if that wasn’t a TRUE interplay, I don’t know what was. Can’t be sad after that hehe Maybe it is OK to be sung to.Better, be moving on. Hey women? What’s up?! What’s the GOOD stuff?Let me think … hmm, we had a nice night with Rich … that is worth remarking on! We planned (dressed-wise) to go outside with him yesterday. We didn’t have a bug problem, and he poured us a couple of Margarita’s over ice. That turned out to be good. Most of the time, we were a little on the frozen-side though … not temperature, but we were having problems moving our body. It was curled a little to the left. No, I KNOW we didn’t have a stroke, or anything. Just felt a little dumbfounded by our experience. We watched stuff though and talked to Rich and were enjoying ourselves in a slow-cautious way. Dakota is always fun to have out too, because we can watch “read” his interests. Or, even disinterests … like the dog has simply no interest in lighting bugs. Go figure! He was a good boy. Rich and us are like a couple old people, we talked about things like Joe’s tree dying (the neighbor), and the farmer letting the weeds grow on the side of the road between us and the soybeans, and how crisp the weather seemed – and that we could hear things a long way off. You know. Exciting stuff hehe. It was a nice night out. AND THEN!?? We came in and we followed Rich into the bedroom … and …NO! NOTHING LIKE THAT! BUT, he did get a FEW minutes massage before, we fell asleep hehe.Hey! We were TIRED!Ok, that’s enough of that … moving on!@9:05AM Well, we’re back again. We SLOWLY agreed to follow Rich into his office, but it WAS with COMPLAINT! When he says, “Dear …” Our mind races, SHOOT! What did we do wrong this time!??”OH, and we ALSO remembered, we hadn’t taken our medicine. THAT wasn’t helping our sudden emotional drop! But, we had to go over a few business things which was like pulling teeth. Hadn’t we just written that not all of us remember how to do the same sort of stuff? Basically, we’d sent him (thinking we’d get by) a note from register.com saying that his domain was coming due. We’d tried to take care of it ourselves – we would have been the originator, but we seemed to think that we had gotten so frustrated with it LAST time, that we had him take it over, and we KNEW he would have skipped saving the password. So, we were like SOOO frustrated. Of course, that’s about when we realized we’d forgotten the medicine.So, we took that while he was on hold. We told him just play ignorant – it wasn’t a big stretch. Long story short … passwords were reset AND as it turned out – his domain was ok, but it was MY domain that needed update, so we snuck in a two-year update AND it’s on RICH’S Credit Card WOOHOO! Bonus. We thought we’d slid that past thoroughly, but ten minutes after the call was over, he brought that sneaky business back to the front. BUT, he knew for sure that we’d been sneaky. While the guy was on the line, it was like SURE! Update that. SURE! Two years? FINE! Ok, figure we’ll let him off. We’ll count that as ANOTHER birthday present, and won’t push for any more. I know we’ve gotten by, AND there’s probably more.We snuck a $200 upgrade for our WordPress account. It wasn’t ALL goofy, there were reasons involved, AND I think truly, it is a good deal for him. WHAT we figured, is that, we like WordPress a LOT more than Adobe. This is just for the time being, AND it includes – OK, I’m the one that capitalizes a LOT! But, anyway, I figured that I had to learn both WordPress AND Adobe, and WordPress was, theoretically easier. There is more canned, PLUS there are a lot of widgets and plug-ins. The bottom line is that Rich wants his website updated, and while that we could keep it up at Adobe, we needed their $50 a month program to make changes. There’s Sooo much you get with Adobe, but we can get it later, because right now, we’re just WAY too busy to learn it. AND, we figured, that there was perfectly no good reason, we couldn’t use Rich’s domain name over on WordPress, and just create a new site there. It would be just a click away, and it was PART of paying the extra $200, and the $200 was for the ENTIRE year, no matter how many accounts we had. We hadn’t talked that all through with Rich, but this morning we brought it up … he’s marked it as something probable, but both of us were too foggy to go over the details. He has also another domain name and he considered others, but the ones he wanted were still taken. We could check that out at register.com, but they also got him – with their parent company onto a goofy web service that he’s paying a whopping $150 a month for and it hasn’t even got him online yet. When I click on it – it states that you need a password to get in, so, they are STILL in the process of “getting” it online. Rich just walked by, and he had time now, but basically, we have Amie here soon, hopefully (half hour), so we said, he could just go ahead and cancel that part. We never had anything to do with that. It had been a service he’d gotten involved with when we told him it was too complicated to do his website. Turns out that my help was BETTER than the help he was getting and we’re a lot less costly. SO, because we’re able to do seriously a SIMPLE web design, we’re going to take it up again at WordPress. WordPress DOES have some glitchy stuff, but it’s a process of learning for us too.He also wrote down on his list of stuff to do was to cancel a marketing program, he had also gotten involved with that wasn’t working out. He also has a paid Linked-in which I don’t think is working out, but I believe it has other benefits to him that are working. It was supposed to have been for marketing too. I agreed with a between things conversation we had the other day, with as much time as everything took – he was better off just getting names from a resource book at the library and making copies. Most of his business is word of mouth, and MOST of the time he has little time for marketing. Our point also is to press, he’s only going to officially be in business 5-6 years, we figure, and at SOME point, he should get to retire. Right?!So, we’ve left it at, he could be saving about $4-500 a month, I could be doing a better job on web development for him for FREE! Well, except by paying the $200 per year for WordPress, we get to use the service for “free.” Well, not all free, we still must set-up his site, but he won’t want something difficult. Most likely we can repeat some of the stuff we have over on Adobe, just bring-it up to date. I am feeling that this last 4-5 months, we’ve been MUCH more able to do things. So, that’s working out to be a win-win! PLUS, tomorrow is our BIRTHDAY! YAY!Our big deal for the day, is that Austin is coming tomorrow through Thursday! He called, over the weekend to set-up the times. We will go in to Chicago tomorrow WITH Rich, and he’ll do whatever, we’ll stop at the bank, and then We’ll get Austin AFTER Dr. Marvin’s appointment. The appointment will end at 2PM, so we’ll be at Austin’s between 3-3:30PM. AND, THEN! We’re going out to dinner! We’re not sure where yet. We don’t have anything really in mind. AHA! It’s all planned. THAT was EASY! We couldn’t remember the name, so we looked at Google and searched out the top ten in Yorkville, and behind a burger place, it was ranked #2 of 46. YAY! It's called Lakeview Grille Restaurant. I’m looking at the picture now, and it seems we went there not too long ago, ALSO for a special occasion. I’d have to read a lot of Blog posts to recall when and for what that was. BUT, we checked with Rich AND Lakeview it is! They also have some outdoor seats over a nice view of the water, but never sure what the weather is going to be like, or what Austin’s moods are. I think he’s been to a LOT of different restaurants and we know him to be a gentleman 😊 We’re all good.I should think about my two sons. I don’t want to “help” put them in a bad place with me. We’re to the point of thinking it would just be nice for them to call, BUT it’s been a long time since we’ve visited. I don’t even KNOW my other Grandchildren. I guess, we could check to see if they were available Friday or Saturday. I’m pretty sure Maury is still working on Sundays. That was sort of funny … Maury’s line didn’t connect and I KNOW he’s working, so we were going to write him and Joe a text, but when we got to the text area, we discovered that Joe had texted us yesterday afternoon, just we hadn’t seen it yet. BUT, he was suggesting Tuesday brunch or lunch. We gave him the scoop on what was or could happen, and then we asked him to give us a call. SO, hopefully that won’t be in too long. I don’t know what his schedules are like. Sometimes, he’s with Alex and with Cari, others, at his dojo, and other times substitute teaching. We’ll see, but things are in the air. There, AND we got a separate text out to Maury. He’s working hard at ONE job! YAY! Could see our sons AND maybe their families for our birthday week. Good with me, and we checked with Rich and he’s pretty good. Just wanted to make sure our plans with Austin didn’t get ruffled. OK, that all puts us in a happy mood, but we should put it on the side now … like Austin … nothing is happening for the moment. AND, we did get a call from Amie, and she’ll be here at about 10:30AM. So, that works out.Hmm, we got some “business” out of the way. Good for us! Next?There is a little confusion left in our head about Facebook. We haven’t been too much online, and certainly, we haven’t spent much time visiting others, but I DON’T think we’re going to get many messages tomorrow. AND, we should be facing that disappointment soon. Usually, we receive about 100 messages, and that carries me through most the day in excitement and in feeling special and remembered. It wouldn’t matter though … twenty-forty – two people? Giggling! It’s our birthday that’s wondering too. Just hope not EVERYONE forgot who we are. Right?Ok, let’s not get too wrapped in that, but it HAS been a regular part of my special birthday day. It’s not the number, right? I’m not connected to too many people anymore. I don’t get a special call from my Mother – she’s passed, BUT … there is ONE more special thing that happens. In just under a month, we’ll be getting together with our sewing sisters. AND THAT! My dears, is a WHOLE HECK of a lot of fun! We’re so excited about the gift that we already got the twins. I can’t say it yet, but I LOVE it! They’re birthday is in September and we split the difference – and hit August, and I become part of a TRIPLET! It really is one of the nicest things that could happen to me. OHHH AND one MORE thing! We GET TO SEE Dr. Marvin on our birthday. He seems kind of shy, but the thing is that he simply says, “Happy Birthday!” And, then we just glow!I think the other stuff is a bit of old news, as to worry about whether we are going to have a happy birthday. I think, because it’s a special day and then we know it’s a marker for the rest of our lives. You remember when? You know. Every year, you want it to be the BEST birthday ever! Many of our birthdays growing up were good, though there were problems in some … I remember one day about seven years old where we wished ourselves a happy birthday, then we found out, our mother said that she was canceling and party plans – often went to an ice cream parlor - unless we cleaned up our bedroom. AND, that seemed hard to impossible and a HORRIBLE way to spend our birthday. We used to get into it AFTER we started, but usually put in that kind of dilemma – to START cleaning our room was about the worst thing ever. Just, after we got rid of some mess and started putting things in place – often a new arrangement of the room, well then things were much brighter. OK, I see we’re still worrying over worrisome thoughts. There’s not too much to clean up in the house. I DO have to remake Austin’s bed, the linen has been cleaned, AND the bathrooms must, of course, be done. We’re comfortable with our standard level of picked-upedness. Hehe – we KNEW that wasn’t going through the spell-checker! Most likely Rich we’ll do the bathrooms. BUT, we did the dishes and picked-up already! Well, maybe not the bedroom. YAY! Now, the bedroom is done too. It only takes a few moments. I wish it weren’t such a big deal, but that’s the way she is today. Oh. Someone is reminding me about the exercising. We’re looking at the clock now, and thinking the girls at the gym are probably wondering where we are right at this moment. They are just starting class. I’ve felt a LOT of pressure thinking that it would be up to us if they canceled the class or not, to the point, in the back of our head that said, we’re not going to worry about it. We’d go when we were ready, and not before. AND, it’s not our responsibility, AND that THEY shouldn’t be putting that kind of pressure on us. It’s a service, and it should be offered WITHOUT repeating over and over, is it going to get canceled. I just can’t deal with all that.The bottom-line reason though is that I still have the problem with the ulcer on my foot. This other thing though keeps me from wanting to go in and at least work from the chair. I’m afraid that this too is another Dr. Marvin thing to talk about. ☹ I’m not wanting to talk about all the hard stuff on my birthday though! Maybe we can just tell him briefly and deal with it more on Thursday. I don’t know if we’re going to be bringing Austin back WITH going to Dr. Marvin’s, or if Rich will bring him later, and on his own, and that it will be a phone call on Thursday. We can talk to Austin about it tomorrow. I’m good with staying here because I KNOW, we’re going in tomorrow.It’s about time for Amie to be here. We would really like it if she were here, PRETTY MUCH on time. We didn’t finish coloring our picture, but at least, we’d gotten it started. Hopefully, that will be OK. I think we’ll write about Multiplework more when she has been here and left – clearing the rest of the day for ourselves. But, perhaps some teasers? What is coming up?I think the ONE thing is, and again … this is ANOTHER Dr. Marvin thing, but we cheated and read part of the last chapter by the author/(ed.) of our Multiple book. We MUST say, that it was a very big disappointment, although, we are willing to give it a second chance. We were hurrying through and might not have read it correctly. We don’t have a real clear view of it, except thinking that the Dell concluded that DID is on the “sick-side” of the dissociate equation. I think he was getting to the point, of saying there was a natural thing about it, but basically, DID was part of the ABNORMALTY of it. That, fell in-line with what we’d sneak- read as well – just jumping through things, so we could test a writing procedure, but the part we snuck in too? It was mostly test results, and we were skimming those because the numbers didn’t thrill us, but the author, was stated as saying … wait, we wrote this down so we wouldn’t forget it. @ 12:39PM We’re back. Amie was just here, and then after, we ate lunch, and then we made some Jell-O for later after dinner. I think we’re still eating yogurt, but only if we’re hungry to take the edge off, and at that – just once a day instead of two. I think we changed over to Jell-O instead of yogurt as being more satisfying (filled-up), but then too, I don’t think we’ve had much Jell-O since about the time we started the WordPress web site/blog, seriously. It seems that when it has come up the opinion within has been – it’s too hard. I had thought we got over it, but there was some work involved. BUT, seriously we’re talking about boiling water in a microwave. What we figured is that we should keep busy during that time. So, we put something on the counter away, and then we brought some new bathroom cups to the master bath for Rich, and then we emptied the bathroom garbage, and then we did the kitty litter, and then took out the garbage, and THEN we had like 45 seconds left. Good Ann’sBUT, we noticed that the floors looked bad, so I think responsibly, we’re going to need doing something there, whether Austin was here, or even if he wasn’t! So, maybe we should figure out another set of rules … not forever … that would take a committee, but maybe just for the rest of the afternoon. There’s not a lot of happiness there at all, and we’re just checking the top of whoever might be hanging around. We haven’t even go to the BIG complainers!I think we must get out some more thoughts here first. We’re still dizzy from just moving around a bit. I think we ground ourselves through the writing. Is this a big surprise? It seems familiar, but strange all at the same time. Let’s start at the point … nothing is an emergency, right? Ok, calm down. Hmm, there is a repeat news story that is hyper in the background. We turned news on for lunch, though we took only 40 minutes. There was no nap. Much too hyper for that.I think we need to turn on some music. BUT, then we should decide which kind. Rich was saying this morning that our 2017’s music was too much … probably, because it included some fuck this and fuck that stuff. Ok, that part we don’t like either. We are going to look at our choices, and maybe something will stand out.Ahh, that should help. We chose Corrine Bailey Rae. Wow! That’s much softer. Now, we should calm down. We took our medicine late, but did get it by about noon, almost an hour ago. We should be slowing down soon. Sorry, about all the internal excitement. You don’t see it from where you are reading, but believe me … we’re going through anxiety. And, I’m not sure why. I think nothing happened this morning that should have excited us.We had left off having texted Maury and Joe. Maury called back and we only had a moment because Amie was pulling-up. Tentatively, we figured that we might go his direction after dropping Austin off on Thursday. Hopefully, then Rich will be there too. It is a lot of driving for an air-head like me. I know someone responsible drive … they would have to, just I feel the anxiety in the mix. Just it gets us excited to be driving with Austin. AND, it’s not locations we’re familiar with. I know that we’ve been going back and forth to Villa Park for what … at least twenty years. Our ex used to live there. But, it all seems strange to us. Because things are busier there. Maury is going to call back. Shoot, shoot. I just called Rich. He can adapt, but it would be hard for him. He said he has … oh yes, here it is … he has tentative seeing Jay his old athletic partner (officiating), and then he was going to a fishy meeting tomorrow night. Sounds like then, if it were going to happen, and probably should happen to get Austin back, that I might have to drive. We’re going to start now conditioning ourselves for this. Driving is hard. Shhh, it’s ok … we’ll see. Let’s give that one some time. K? We do have Rich on Tuesday. That’s good. I believe we’ve already listed out that part. Still calming down. We got ourselves some ice water. We are still eating oatmeal for lunch. OK, I’m not going to try explaining that. SOMEONE agreed that would-be lunch a while back. Just know with the food choices it is a safe food. I think someone inside was talking about if we were careful with foods being eaten, we could take a break from recording, though that hasn’t gone through Dr. Marvin yet. He’ll say if we should try harder to be doing that.Hey, we got a birthday coming up! It’s on the calendar. Hearing in a complainy voice that someone went through all that. Ugh. Maybe I have something to say too? Ok, let me think … we’ll check it out. What are my first thoughts? We’ll be with Austin and Rich – going out for dinner. Maybe I was already a part of the discuss birthday conversation. Just thinking that we should plan what happens in our free time? Something about maybe brunch with Joe? Rich went to the bank today, so maybe we could skip breakfast and do that? We’ll have to wait. Maybe Joe has texted?Hmm, Joe texted. He is suggesting a “slupper” after we pick-up Austin. He said he can get a substitute for his first class. Meaning he’s was teaching karate that night. I still haven’t heard another message from Maury, but got confirmation he’s working right now. Sometimes, we talk on the phone between times. Maybe we could get Maury to come towards Villa Park when we drop off Austin. That way, I wouldn’t have to drive out of the way – I don’t really want to be on his expressway at that time of the day, if we can prevent it. Maury used to live in the area, so he’ll have an idea of restaurants. He doesn’t have the kids, so maybe we’ll get a nice long talk from it. Maury loves to talk, and we’re interested in what’s going on with him. GOOD Gift! It’s almost better at this point that Rich isn’t there. We just must find a place we can hang out without being rushed after we eat – whatever meal, we’re up to. I’m not sure if Maury has other plans after me though. Maybe he’ll have to get moving. Feel comfortable with him finding a place 😊We also should consider if Austin would like to drive us both to his house. That might be ok. It would just depend on his confidence level. We won’t push him, AND I know we can find parts to drive 😊OK good … that’s showing some confidence! AND, look at the rewards! Some good times this week!Hmm, just thought of that. We need to keep the back-up plan that Rich can drive Austin home, if that’s what he wants to push. I guess there’s a far-flung option where Rich drives me and Austin to Villa Park, lands me at a restaurant, and then Maury meets me and drives me home. Ok, that is very far-flung, but on the table too hehe … Lots of options, AND the big thing? We’ll see Rich, Dr. Marvin, Austin, Joe, Maury AND Dakota this week for my birthday week~! PLUS, maybe some more of Joe’s family. I’m feeling special again.There was some messaging back and forth with Debbie too. She’s someone who also got taken with our first kitchen contractor. One other guy he messed up only got $500 back after putting in $1500 for legal, but he made Rich take the lien off his house, so I guess that was worth it. Rich (the bad contractor) must pay his debt, and we hear that maybe his house is in foreclosure. This Debbie, I believe would like to see him pay more … she hasn’t been paid back and she put in a LOT. I think that other guy paid out a lot too. Debbie has a case sent to the state’s attorney, and we gave her our details too, and will help with that if asked, but we just explained, we don’t want any more – to pay for a lawyer. It’s kind of a wash. I know she sent our stuff (pictures/complaints) to the state’s attorney already. We’ll see.That’s my flurry of activity. Surprisingly, we’re calmer than we had been. I give a lot of credit to the music, AND having had taken medicine. I think we’re talked out as to the texts and calls. We still must allow some time for Maury to call, and we put out a return call to RJ, Jon’s friend. He’s offered to give us some suggestions on our web site. We’re up for that. I hope it goes ok. We haven’t had this kind of relationship before with RJ, or ANY one on Rich’s side of the family. I’m looking forward to it. I hope we learn something! OK, so just checked text messages, listening to calming music … bottomed-out of the good person’s group. We’re eating some coleslaw. I hope it wasn’t for Rich’s dinner, or that we are going to get in trouble for calories. I suppose, we should only take a few bites, and then put it back :( Did that … BUT, claimed the last plum! It’s mine! Back-off! GrrrI THOUGHT things were calmer?! Bathroom, sure. Better. I checked Joe’s mailbox … he sends something out almost EVERY day. Maybe he has a pen pal? Anyway, his flag is still up. Means that mail isn’t here yet. I expected that. I guess that the mailman comes around 3PM, or at least that’s when we start looking for the mail. I’ve been hoping, hoping that I will have my new license plate SOON! I now want it for a birthday present! You know all about all that, right? Just checked, no surprises at the front door. I think we have a few books out too.Shoot, out on that one too. It says on one arriving next week and the other is the week OR More. Final date of arrival is August 16tha month away! Who got involved with that! What did we order?Next week’s is “Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development,” by Shore. And, the second is “Psychology of Self-Regulation: Cognitive, Affective, and Motivational Processes.” By Forgas. Now, I should think about that a couple of seconds. I just typed the words, but didn’t think it through. Let me see if I can understand.OK, choking a bit on the plumb, but I get them! Both are on self-regulation, but one includes thinking, feeling and motivation processes and the second is only emotional – and it goes into more of the brain neuro-biology. I guess those are fair choices. I could see why we might want them. We are getting seriously into self-regulation hehe. I think there was some problems though yesterday. For some reason or another, I think we were testing something, we went into the Multiplicity side. I think to balance out what we were getting (so much) on the self-regulation side. I think we wanted to figure something out, so we went into a couple of the late chapters. Oh yeah! Someone was going to type a quote or too. Did that ever happen? Let me read-up. BRBHey! Good thing, we read-up. Turns out that we gone on and on since getting back from the nursing, but we’d dropped just at that point. First, Maury came, and then Rich said Amie was here. My capture book is on the table, hold on.Someone’s been coloring!Ok, here it is Dell and Lawson (2011) – shoot the EDITOR of the book, the guy I was hoping was great! What he wrote was talking about people with DID. He said, “The other items in this factor describe peculiar alterations of the person’s experience that entail a profound and disorientating loss of groundedness in self and world. Dissociative persons are chronically and deeply confused about themselves.” And, then he was talking about DID angry intrusions, and then he says, “Angry intrusions typically involve (1) sudden unexpected surges of anger into ones’ conscious mind and/or (2) partially dissociated seizures of executive control wherein the person has conscious awareness of being invaded and/or taken over by an autonomous other. Needless to say, these are bizarre, ego-alien experiences.”Maybe … it’s just his choice of words … but, we’re very sure that’s a slam against those of us who are Multiples. Later … sorry, hadn’t even realized that this author was Dell, the most important guy in the book, but reading later – the end of the book, where we KNOW Dell is writing – though obviously we don’t know Dell well. Let me see if I can find the section. Generally, he concludes that people with DID are very ill.We “as other selves” are called “Intrusions from Dissociated structures” and “pathological dissociators.”“According to the continuum model, dissociative phenomena are restricted to a small subset of persons (i.e., pathological dissociators) …” “There is a discrete group of people – whom we label “pathological dissociators – who are profoundly different from the rest of the population. (Putnam, 1997. p. 66)”@ 8:34PM We’re back. I guess last time we talked was way back probably about noon or 1PM around Amie leaving or having lunch. I did skim over things. There were some updates. I talked to both Maury and Joe. Maury MIGHT come out for a sleepover on Thursday night. We couldn’t bring Austin home, because Rich had a fishy group at 7PM Thursday, and he was going straight from his running around to the meeting (closer than coming all the way home first), BUT, he would be able to bring Austin home around noon, so that worked out. Just, we won’t be going into town. I think I will cancel Dr. Marvin too, because if he’s going home at noon, and Dr. Marvin’s appointment is at 11AM, that wouldn’t work, because that last hour Austin is here, is Important for us. I think Dr. Marvin is tight for schedules at the end of the week, though sometimes, he can squeak a half an hour in somewhere. We’ll have to see. But, this week Austin is priority 😊 He’s our Grandson! If Maury were to come here, we’d just have to throw the sheets in the was Thursday afternoon after Austin left, and before Maury got here. That is doable. And, MAN! What a luxury – to talk to Maury for a VERY long time! Hehe – AND, Rich will be home late – this is working out well!The other call was Joe. We had had time to talk to Rich, and both of us were on the phones looking for the ideal place in our own way. AND … drumroll … GIORDANI’S! Wins out! Maybe you have to be from the Chicago area, though I know they have some places nationally, but it is a special place, especially for their Chicago Deep dish pizza. We haven’t had pizza for over four months – since the diet. It’s a family restaurant – minutes from Joe’s dojo and Austin’s place (both in Villa Park). The restaurant is in Oak Brook. BUT, Joe can come! He’s going to the classes late, so after we pick-up Austin, he is going to meet us – we already texted the address. He’s going to text back later to see if Cari and Alex will be joining. I love to see Joe on his own, but we love to see Cari and Alex too. Austin and Joe love running into each other. What a great birthday week this is turning out to be such a nice birthday weekend. I’m going to text Maury later, and tell him how excited we would be to include his dogs! I think that’s a done deal without talking about it if he’s staying over. I LOVE IT! AND! Dakota would get something out of it. He’s just crazy about his cousin’s Max and Lady. It’s been a LONG while since they’ve been out. What a BUSY weekend. Rich helped with the bathrooms earlier and vacuumed, so that’s all good too.The only thing that would REALLY put us overboard is if Thom called, BUT I think it was fairly short since he called last time. Maybe a month? I’d have to find a reference point. That is the Trifecta – to hear from ALL three sons. It doesn’t have to be at the same time, but Pswhoo! Hard to believe I have THREE WHOLE SONS! OMG! Hey, hey hey … hold back … you knew that right?I know, it’s just that we have to put them to the back of our minds because it’s a month or two in-between seeing or hearing from them. They are VERY independent. And THEN! When we see or talk to them it’s like sparklers. I’m so fortunate for having Austin out and would like to see the other three kids, but they aren’t as motivated as Austin in trying to meet with us. Or, Maury isn’t? I’m not sure. BUT, that’s the biggest deficit now is seeing Grandchildren. Ok, girls let’s get through this? Better move on.I think the last part was that we’d been talking about Dell and Multiplicity. The only progress there is that we talked to Rich about it while massaging him. I know, he gets a LOT of that. It was the short version, but he was comforting. You know “fighting through stuff,” and all. It’s Dr. Marvin who will have the full conversation. I think that’s going to be a big one. Multiplicity work is a big deal for us. But, for now, I think we’re going to wind-it-up. It’s already past 10PM. Rich is watching TV long enough to hear just the opening dialog of Stephen Colbert. It’s good, but we’re usually sleeping. We did have a nap earlier, but we’ll be able to fall asleep soon. I would like to post before we go to bed.Oh MAN! Nobody could bother to post a picture? We’re at 15 pages 6653 words.I know … I know! We can post something on it being our birthday! Just a general birthday picture. We’ve been leading with that story throughout the blog. Maybe little pretentious, but the happier-go-lucky parts are sending out the vibes like Christmas Eve … Come on! Let’s go to bed, then when we wake up … it WILL be our birthday! YAY!Oh yeah … one more thing? TRIPLE LAYER CHOCOLATE CAKE! Yup, can you believe it – at a PIZZA Place hehe!
Monday, July 17, 2017 @ 7:10AMGood morning. We’re a little bit of a draw this morning. Like I’m sure some of us are thinking, but the jury is still out … Oh my … Rich is ON TIME! OK. We got that part. Hehe. He just came out to fix breakfast! He doesn’t do that over the weekend, so it feels like on a Monday morning, we hit the jack pot!7:40AM OK, we’re back! Had a very nice time “missing.” Omelets, and some soft pop and singing Rich love songs and petting our puppy face. He LOVES to share breakfast with me, and then Dakota curls up next to me and is just adorable. Oh, yes, and Rich too hehe. “Forever can never be long enough for me … that the weight has lifted, love has surely shifted my way – Marry Me!” Ok, maybe we’re not getting that far. But, he still makes a nice omelet! HeheBetter be moving on … we TOLD you we were on the drifty-side already, right? I think we’re in a good mood. This morning, we woke up and we were just below our “hard” weight … yup-yup 266 – FINALY, hit a number under 267. We’re trying … Hard part now will be to continue. We’ve set another goal – this time 257. Not unreasonable … so now we’re thinking it would be ideal if we could hit that by August 15th. Hmm, what’s happening then? Not much - other than it’s a Dr. Marvin day. There is a three-day break tentative with Rich in MN at that time, and then to stop in and see his brother, we’ll have to see. Quilting time with the girls will be the 12th. That’s pretty close to that time … so let’s make that the goal … maybe cross into the 50’s by August 12th. That’s 26 days I think – so we have 7 pounds to lose in 26 – so, well let’s just say a pound to lose, or hold every three days to four days, just to be sure. It’s doable … don’t know how stubborn this next set of numbers are going to be … it’s been over 15 --- closer to 18 years? Twenty years was the bad time we lost everything – BUT, we were still at 140 at that time. Ok, let’s not read too much into these numbers, K? Just we should keep working on it. That’s the truth! Trouble? Trouble? Trouble been calling me… OH AND STOP SINGING!*Giggle* Well? Do you know it is our birthday tomorrow? We should get over that too. We already got our birthday present, and it doesn’t work. I want it, but have been too grumbly to take whatever the next step. We already sent back the first one, and we’re having the same problem with the second one. I’m thinking it’s our Internet being slow. We’re talking about having got the Amazon Echo Look. BUT, then right next to it the other Echo – Alexa is working. JUST FRUSTRATED. Maybe for our birthday, Rich can go through it with me. He does that kind of thing in a pinch, though he will say all the while, that I’m better at that kind of thing. Maybe Henry is, but he’s reclusive. Grrr. Ok, to be fair, he gave it a good shot.Getting the Look was something so that we could watch and document our weight loss. It really was a good idea. MAYBE still is, just got to get past the frustration. I think this is a hard thing that makes it over to Dr. Marvin time. Just don’t want to give it that kind of time. OK … let’s let out another Grrr and then move on, k?Do you know that Grr isn’t in the dictionary? Just thought we’d look because it was open. *sigh*I guess, we don’t have a sparkly mood anymore. Hmm, Dakota just came over for a pet. Do you think he noticed? Oh, sparkly mood person?!! Come back?!!“But, I see you true colors and that’s why I love you so don’t be afraid to let them show, your true colors, true colors are beautiful like a rainbow. …Don’t be unhappy…”Smiling, ok if that wasn’t a TRUE interplay, I don’t know what was. Can’t be sad after that hehe Maybe it is OK to be sung to.Better, be moving on. Hey women? What’s up?! What’s the GOOD stuff?Let me think … hmm, we had a nice night with Rich … that is worth remarking on! We planned (dressed-wise) to go outside with him yesterday. We didn’t have a bug problem, and he poured us a couple of Margarita’s over ice. That turned out to be good. Most of the time, we were a little on the frozen-side though … not temperature, but we were having problems moving our body. It was curled a little to the left. No, I KNOW we didn’t have a stroke, or anything. Just felt a little dumbfounded by our experience. We watched stuff though and talked to Rich and were enjoying ourselves in a slow-cautious way. Dakota is always fun to have out too, because we can watch “read” his interests. Or, even disinterests … like the dog has simply no interest in lighting bugs. Go figure! He was a good boy. Rich and us are like a couple old people, we talked about things like Joe’s tree dying (the neighbor), and the farmer letting the weeds grow on the side of the road between us and the soybeans, and how crisp the weather seemed – and that we could hear things a long way off. You know. Exciting stuff hehe. It was a nice night out. AND THEN!?? We came in and we followed Rich into the bedroom … and …NO! NOTHING LIKE THAT! BUT, he did get a FEW minutes massage before, we fell asleep hehe.Hey! We were TIRED!Ok, that’s enough of that … moving on!@9:05AM Well, we’re back again. We SLOWLY agreed to follow Rich into his office, but it WAS with COMPLAINT! When he says, “Dear …” Our mind races, SHOOT! What did we do wrong this time!??”OH, and we ALSO remembered, we hadn’t taken our medicine. THAT wasn’t helping our sudden emotional drop! But, we had to go over a few business things which was like pulling teeth. Hadn’t we just written that not all of us remember how to do the same sort of stuff? Basically, we’d sent him (thinking we’d get by) a note from register.com saying that his domain was coming due. We’d tried to take care of it ourselves – we would have been the originator, but we seemed to think that we had gotten so frustrated with it LAST time, that we had him take it over, and we KNEW he would have skipped saving the password. So, we were like SOOO frustrated. Of course, that’s about when we realized we’d forgotten the medicine.So, we took that while he was on hold. We told him just play ignorant – it wasn’t a big stretch. Long story short … passwords were reset AND as it turned out – his domain was ok, but it was MY domain that needed update, so we snuck in a two-year update AND it’s on RICH’S Credit Card WOOHOO! Bonus. We thought we’d slid that past thoroughly, but ten minutes after the call was over, he brought that sneaky business back to the front. BUT, he knew for sure that we’d been sneaky. While the guy was on the line, it was like SURE! Update that. SURE! Two years? FINE! Ok, figure we’ll let him off. We’ll count that as ANOTHER birthday present, and won’t push for any more. I know we’ve gotten by, AND there’s probably more.We snuck a $200 upgrade for our WordPress account. It wasn’t ALL goofy, there were reasons involved, AND I think truly, it is a good deal for him. WHAT we figured, is that, we like WordPress a LOT more than Adobe. This is just for the time being, AND it includes – OK, I’m the one that capitalizes a LOT! But, anyway, I figured that I had to learn both WordPress AND Adobe, and WordPress was, theoretically easier. There is more canned, PLUS there are a lot of widgets and plug-ins. The bottom line is that Rich wants his website updated, and while that we could keep it up at Adobe, we needed their $50 a month program to make changes. There’s Sooo much you get with Adobe, but we can get it later, because right now, we’re just WAY too busy to learn it. AND, we figured, that there was perfectly no good reason, we couldn’t use Rich’s domain name over on WordPress, and just create a new site there. It would be just a click away, and it was PART of paying the extra $200, and the $200 was for the ENTIRE year, no matter how many accounts we had. We hadn’t talked that all through with Rich, but this morning we brought it up … he’s marked it as something probable, but both of us were too foggy to go over the details. He has also another domain name and he considered others, but the ones he wanted were still taken. We could check that out at register.com, but they also got him – with their parent company onto a goofy web service that he’s paying a whopping $150 a month for and it hasn’t even got him online yet. When I click on it – it states that you need a password to get in, so, they are STILL in the process of “getting” it online. Rich just walked by, and he had time now, but basically, we have Amie here soon, hopefully (half hour), so we said, he could just go ahead and cancel that part. We never had anything to do with that. It had been a service he’d gotten involved with when we told him it was too complicated to do his website. Turns out that my help was BETTER than the help he was getting and we’re a lot less costly. SO, because we’re able to do seriously a SIMPLE web design, we’re going to take it up again at WordPress. WordPress DOES have some glitchy stuff, but it’s a process of learning for us too.He also wrote down on his list of stuff to do was to cancel a marketing program, he had also gotten involved with that wasn’t working out. He also has a paid Linked-in which I don’t think is working out, but I believe it has other benefits to him that are working. It was supposed to have been for marketing too. I agreed with a between things conversation we had the other day, with as much time as everything took – he was better off just getting names from a resource book at the library and making copies. Most of his business is word of mouth, and MOST of the time he has little time for marketing. Our point also is to press, he’s only going to officially be in business 5-6 years, we figure, and at SOME point, he should get to retire. Right?!So, we’ve left it at, he could be saving about $4-500 a month, I could be doing a better job on web development for him for FREE! Well, except by paying the $200 per year for WordPress, we get to use the service for “free.” Well, not all free, we still must set-up his site, but he won’t want something difficult. Most likely we can repeat some of the stuff we have over on Adobe, just bring-it up to date. I am feeling that this last 4-5 months, we’ve been MUCH more able to do things. So, that’s working out to be a win-win! PLUS, tomorrow is our BIRTHDAY! YAY!Our big deal for the day, is that Austin is coming tomorrow through Thursday! He called, over the weekend to set-up the times. We will go in to Chicago tomorrow WITH Rich, and he’ll do whatever, we’ll stop at the bank, and then We’ll get Austin AFTER Dr. Marvin’s appointment. The appointment will end at 2PM, so we’ll be at Austin’s between 3-3:30PM. AND, THEN! We’re going out to dinner! We’re not sure where yet. We don’t have anything really in mind. AHA! It’s all planned. THAT was EASY! We couldn’t remember the name, so we looked at Google and searched out the top ten in Yorkville, and behind a burger place, it was ranked #2 of 46. YAY! It's called Lakeview Grille Restaurant. I’m looking at the picture now, and it seems we went there not too long ago, ALSO for a special occasion. I’d have to read a lot of Blog posts to recall when and for what that was. BUT, we checked with Rich AND Lakeview it is! They also have some outdoor seats over a nice view of the water, but never sure what the weather is going to be like, or what Austin’s moods are. I think he’s been to a LOT of different restaurants and we know him to be a gentleman 😊 We’re all good.I should think about my two sons. I don’t want to “help” put them in a bad place with me. We’re to the point of thinking it would just be nice for them to call, BUT it’s been a long time since we’ve visited. I don’t even KNOW my other Grandchildren. I guess, we could check to see if they were available Friday or Saturday. I’m pretty sure Maury is still working on Sundays. That was sort of funny … Maury’s line didn’t connect and I KNOW he’s working, so we were going to write him and Joe a text, but when we got to the text area, we discovered that Joe had texted us yesterday afternoon, just we hadn’t seen it yet. BUT, he was suggesting Tuesday brunch or lunch. We gave him the scoop on what was or could happen, and then we asked him to give us a call. SO, hopefully that won’t be in too long. I don’t know what his schedules are like. Sometimes, he’s with Alex and with Cari, others, at his dojo, and other times substitute teaching. We’ll see, but things are in the air. There, AND we got a separate text out to Maury. He’s working hard at ONE job! YAY! Could see our sons AND maybe their families for our birthday week. Good with me, and we checked with Rich and he’s pretty good. Just wanted to make sure our plans with Austin didn’t get ruffled. OK, that all puts us in a happy mood, but we should put it on the side now … like Austin … nothing is happening for the moment. AND, we did get a call from Amie, and she’ll be here at about 10:30AM. So, that works out.Hmm, we got some “business” out of the way. Good for us! Next?There is a little confusion left in our head about Facebook. We haven’t been too much online, and certainly, we haven’t spent much time visiting others, but I DON’T think we’re going to get many messages tomorrow. AND, we should be facing that disappointment soon. Usually, we receive about 100 messages, and that carries me through most the day in excitement and in feeling special and remembered. It wouldn’t matter though … twenty-forty – two people? Giggling! It’s our birthday that’s wondering too. Just hope not EVERYONE forgot who we are. Right?Ok, let’s not get too wrapped in that, but it HAS been a regular part of my special birthday day. It’s not the number, right? I’m not connected to too many people anymore. I don’t get a special call from my Mother – she’s passed, BUT … there is ONE more special thing that happens. In just under a month, we’ll be getting together with our sewing sisters. AND THAT! My dears, is a WHOLE HECK of a lot of fun! We’re so excited about the gift that we already got the twins. I can’t say it yet, but I LOVE it! They’re birthday is in September and we split the difference – and hit August, and I become part of a TRIPLET! It really is one of the nicest things that could happen to me. OHHH AND one MORE thing! We GET TO SEE Dr. Marvin on our birthday. He seems kind of shy, but the thing is that he simply says, “Happy Birthday!” And, then we just glow!I think the other stuff is a bit of old news, as to worry about whether we are going to have a happy birthday. I think, because it’s a special day and then we know it’s a marker for the rest of our lives. You remember when? You know. Every year, you want it to be the BEST birthday ever! Many of our birthdays growing up were good, though there were problems in some … I remember one day about seven years old where we wished ourselves a happy birthday, then we found out, our mother said that she was canceling and party plans – often went to an ice cream parlor - unless we cleaned up our bedroom. AND, that seemed hard to impossible and a HORRIBLE way to spend our birthday. We used to get into it AFTER we started, but usually put in that kind of dilemma – to START cleaning our room was about the worst thing ever. Just, after we got rid of some mess and started putting things in place – often a new arrangement of the room, well then things were much brighter. OK, I see we’re still worrying over worrisome thoughts. There’s not too much to clean up in the house. I DO have to remake Austin’s bed, the linen has been cleaned, AND the bathrooms must, of course, be done. We’re comfortable with our standard level of picked-upedness. Hehe – we KNEW that wasn’t going through the spell-checker! Most likely Rich we’ll do the bathrooms. BUT, we did the dishes and picked-up already! Well, maybe not the bedroom. YAY! Now, the bedroom is done too. It only takes a few moments. I wish it weren’t such a big deal, but that’s the way she is today. Oh. Someone is reminding me about the exercising. We’re looking at the clock now, and thinking the girls at the gym are probably wondering where we are right at this moment. They are just starting class. I’ve felt a LOT of pressure thinking that it would be up to us if they canceled the class or not, to the point, in the back of our head that said, we’re not going to worry about it. We’d go when we were ready, and not before. AND, it’s not our responsibility, AND that THEY shouldn’t be putting that kind of pressure on us. It’s a service, and it should be offered WITHOUT repeating over and over, is it going to get canceled. I just can’t deal with all that.The bottom-line reason though is that I still have the problem with the ulcer on my foot. This other thing though keeps me from wanting to go in and at least work from the chair. I’m afraid that this too is another Dr. Marvin thing to talk about. ☹ I’m not wanting to talk about all the hard stuff on my birthday though! Maybe we can just tell him briefly and deal with it more on Thursday. I don’t know if we’re going to be bringing Austin back WITH going to Dr. Marvin’s, or if Rich will bring him later, and on his own, and that it will be a phone call on Thursday. We can talk to Austin about it tomorrow. I’m good with staying here because I KNOW, we’re going in tomorrow.It’s about time for Amie to be here. We would really like it if she were here, PRETTY MUCH on time. We didn’t finish coloring our picture, but at least, we’d gotten it started. Hopefully, that will be OK. I think we’ll write about Multiplework more when she has been here and left – clearing the rest of the day for ourselves. But, perhaps some teasers? What is coming up?I think the ONE thing is, and again … this is ANOTHER Dr. Marvin thing, but we cheated and read part of the last chapter by the author/(ed.) of our Multiple book. We MUST say, that it was a very big disappointment, although, we are willing to give it a second chance. We were hurrying through and might not have read it correctly. We don’t have a real clear view of it, except thinking that the Dell concluded that DID is on the “sick-side” of the dissociate equation. I think he was getting to the point, of saying there was a natural thing about it, but basically, DID was part of the ABNORMALTY of it. That, fell in-line with what we’d sneak- read as well – just jumping through things, so we could test a writing procedure, but the part we snuck in too? It was mostly test results, and we were skimming those because the numbers didn’t thrill us, but the author, was stated as saying … wait, we wrote this down so we wouldn’t forget it. @ 12:39PM We’re back. Amie was just here, and then after, we ate lunch, and then we made some Jell-O for later after dinner. I think we’re still eating yogurt, but only if we’re hungry to take the edge off, and at that – just once a day instead of two. I think we changed over to Jell-O instead of yogurt as being more satisfying (filled-up), but then too, I don’t think we’ve had much Jell-O since about the time we started the WordPress web site/blog, seriously. It seems that when it has come up the opinion within has been – it’s too hard. I had thought we got over it, but there was some work involved. BUT, seriously we’re talking about boiling water in a microwave. What we figured is that we should keep busy during that time. So, we put something on the counter away, and then we brought some new bathroom cups to the master bath for Rich, and then we emptied the bathroom garbage, and then we did the kitty litter, and then took out the garbage, and THEN we had like 45 seconds left. Good Ann’sBUT, we noticed that the floors looked bad, so I think responsibly, we’re going to need doing something there, whether Austin was here, or even if he wasn’t! So, maybe we should figure out another set of rules … not forever … that would take a committee, but maybe just for the rest of the afternoon. There’s not a lot of happiness there at all, and we’re just checking the top of whoever might be hanging around. We haven’t even go to the BIG complainers!I think we must get out some more thoughts here first. We’re still dizzy from just moving around a bit. I think we ground ourselves through the writing. Is this a big surprise? It seems familiar, but strange all at the same time. Let’s start at the point … nothing is an emergency, right? Ok, calm down. Hmm, there is a repeat news story that is hyper in the background. We turned news on for lunch, though we took only 40 minutes. There was no nap. Much too hyper for that.I think we need to turn on some music. BUT, then we should decide which kind. Rich was saying this morning that our 2017’s music was too much … probably, because it included some fuck this and fuck that stuff. Ok, that part we don’t like either. We are going to look at our choices, and maybe something will stand out.Ahh, that should help. We chose Corrine Bailey Rae. Wow! That’s much softer. Now, we should calm down. We took our medicine late, but did get it by about noon, almost an hour ago. We should be slowing down soon. Sorry, about all the internal excitement. You don’t see it from where you are reading, but believe me … we’re going through anxiety. And, I’m not sure why. I think nothing happened this morning that should have excited us.We had left off having texted Maury and Joe. Maury called back and we only had a moment because Amie was pulling-up. Tentatively, we figured that we might go his direction after dropping Austin off on Thursday. Hopefully, then Rich will be there too. It is a lot of driving for an air-head like me. I know someone responsible drive … they would have to, just I feel the anxiety in the mix. Just it gets us excited to be driving with Austin. AND, it’s not locations we’re familiar with. I know that we’ve been going back and forth to Villa Park for what … at least twenty years. Our ex used to live there. But, it all seems strange to us. Because things are busier there. Maury is going to call back. Shoot, shoot. I just called Rich. He can adapt, but it would be hard for him. He said he has … oh yes, here it is … he has tentative seeing Jay his old athletic partner (officiating), and then he was going to a fishy meeting tomorrow night. Sounds like then, if it were going to happen, and probably should happen to get Austin back, that I might have to drive. We’re going to start now conditioning ourselves for this. Driving is hard. Shhh, it’s ok … we’ll see. Let’s give that one some time. K? We do have Rich on Tuesday. That’s good. I believe we’ve already listed out that part. Still calming down. We got ourselves some ice water. We are still eating oatmeal for lunch. OK, I’m not going to try explaining that. SOMEONE agreed that would-be lunch a while back. Just know with the food choices it is a safe food. I think someone inside was talking about if we were careful with foods being eaten, we could take a break from recording, though that hasn’t gone through Dr. Marvin yet. He’ll say if we should try harder to be doing that.Hey, we got a birthday coming up! It’s on the calendar. Hearing in a complainy voice that someone went through all that. Ugh. Maybe I have something to say too? Ok, let me think … we’ll check it out. What are my first thoughts? We’ll be with Austin and Rich – going out for dinner. Maybe I was already a part of the discuss birthday conversation. Just thinking that we should plan what happens in our free time? Something about maybe brunch with Joe? Rich went to the bank today, so maybe we could skip breakfast and do that? We’ll have to wait. Maybe Joe has texted?Hmm, Joe texted. He is suggesting a “slupper” after we pick-up Austin. He said he can get a substitute for his first class. Meaning he’s was teaching karate that night. I still haven’t heard another message from Maury, but got confirmation he’s working right now. Sometimes, we talk on the phone between times. Maybe we could get Maury to come towards Villa Park when we drop off Austin. That way, I wouldn’t have to drive out of the way – I don’t really want to be on his expressway at that time of the day, if we can prevent it. Maury used to live in the area, so he’ll have an idea of restaurants. He doesn’t have the kids, so maybe we’ll get a nice long talk from it. Maury loves to talk, and we’re interested in what’s going on with him. GOOD Gift! It’s almost better at this point that Rich isn’t there. We just must find a place we can hang out without being rushed after we eat – whatever meal, we’re up to. I’m not sure if Maury has other plans after me though. Maybe he’ll have to get moving. Feel comfortable with him finding a place 😊We also should consider if Austin would like to drive us both to his house. That might be ok. It would just depend on his confidence level. We won’t push him, AND I know we can find parts to drive 😊OK good … that’s showing some confidence! AND, look at the rewards! Some good times this week!Hmm, just thought of that. We need to keep the back-up plan that Rich can drive Austin home, if that’s what he wants to push. I guess there’s a far-flung option where Rich drives me and Austin to Villa Park, lands me at a restaurant, and then Maury meets me and drives me home. Ok, that is very far-flung, but on the table too hehe … Lots of options, AND the big thing? We’ll see Rich, Dr. Marvin, Austin, Joe, Maury AND Dakota this week for my birthday week~! PLUS, maybe some more of Joe’s family. I’m feeling special again.There was some messaging back and forth with Debbie too. She’s someone who also got taken with our first kitchen contractor. One other guy he messed up only got $500 back after putting in $1500 for legal, but he made Rich take the lien off his house, so I guess that was worth it. Rich (the bad contractor) must pay his debt, and we hear that maybe his house is in foreclosure. This Debbie, I believe would like to see him pay more … she hasn’t been paid back and she put in a LOT. I think that other guy paid out a lot too. Debbie has a case sent to the state’s attorney, and we gave her our details too, and will help with that if asked, but we just explained, we don’t want any more – to pay for a lawyer. It’s kind of a wash. I know she sent our stuff (pictures/complaints) to the state’s attorney already. We’ll see.That’s my flurry of activity. Surprisingly, we’re calmer than we had been. I give a lot of credit to the music, AND having had taken medicine. I think we’re talked out as to the texts and calls. We still must allow some time for Maury to call, and we put out a return call to RJ, Jon’s friend. He’s offered to give us some suggestions on our web site. We’re up for that. I hope it goes ok. We haven’t had this kind of relationship before with RJ, or ANY one on Rich’s side of the family. I’m looking forward to it. I hope we learn something! OK, so just checked text messages, listening to calming music … bottomed-out of the good person’s group. We’re eating some coleslaw. I hope it wasn’t for Rich’s dinner, or that we are going to get in trouble for calories. I suppose, we should only take a few bites, and then put it back :( Did that … BUT, claimed the last plum! It’s mine! Back-off! GrrrI THOUGHT things were calmer?! Bathroom, sure. Better. I checked Joe’s mailbox … he sends something out almost EVERY day. Maybe he has a pen pal? Anyway, his flag is still up. Means that mail isn’t here yet. I expected that. I guess that the mailman comes around 3PM, or at least that’s when we start looking for the mail. I’ve been hoping, hoping that I will have my new license plate SOON! I now want it for a birthday present! You know all about all that, right? Just checked, no surprises at the front door. I think we have a few books out too.Shoot, out on that one too. It says on one arriving next week and the other is the week OR More. Final date of arrival is August 16tha month away! Who got involved with that! What did we order?Next week’s is “Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development,” by Shore. And, the second is “Psychology of Self-Regulation: Cognitive, Affective, and Motivational Processes.” By Forgas. Now, I should think about that a couple of seconds. I just typed the words, but didn’t think it through. Let me see if I can understand.OK, choking a bit on the plumb, but I get them! Both are on self-regulation, but one includes thinking, feeling and motivation processes and the second is only emotional – and it goes into more of the brain neuro-biology. I guess those are fair choices. I could see why we might want them. We are getting seriously into self-regulation hehe. I think there was some problems though yesterday. For some reason or another, I think we were testing something, we went into the Multiplicity side. I think to balance out what we were getting (so much) on the self-regulation side. I think we wanted to figure something out, so we went into a couple of the late chapters. Oh yeah! Someone was going to type a quote or too. Did that ever happen? Let me read-up. BRBHey! Good thing, we read-up. Turns out that we gone on and on since getting back from the nursing, but we’d dropped just at that point. First, Maury came, and then Rich said Amie was here. My capture book is on the table, hold on.Someone’s been coloring!Ok, here it is Dell and Lawson (2011) – shoot the EDITOR of the book, the guy I was hoping was great! What he wrote was talking about people with DID. He said, “The other items in this factor describe peculiar alterations of the person’s experience that entail a profound and disorientating loss of groundedness in self and world. Dissociative persons are chronically and deeply confused about themselves.” And, then he was talking about DID angry intrusions, and then he says, “Angry intrusions typically involve (1) sudden unexpected surges of anger into ones’ conscious mind and/or (2) partially dissociated seizures of executive control wherein the person has conscious awareness of being invaded and/or taken over by an autonomous other. Needless to say, these are bizarre, ego-alien experiences.”Maybe … it’s just his choice of words … but, we’re very sure that’s a slam against those of us who are Multiples. Later … sorry, hadn’t even realized that this author was Dell, the most important guy in the book, but reading later – the end of the book, where we KNOW Dell is writing – though obviously we don’t know Dell well. Let me see if I can find the section. Generally, he concludes that people with DID are very ill.We “as other selves” are called “Intrusions from Dissociated structures” and “pathological dissociators.”“According to the continuum model, dissociative phenomena are restricted to a small subset of persons (i.e., pathological dissociators) …” “There is a discrete group of people – whom we label “pathological dissociators – who are profoundly different from the rest of the population. (Putnam, 1997. p. 66)”@ 8:34PM We’re back. I guess last time we talked was way back probably about noon or 1PM around Amie leaving or having lunch. I did skim over things. There were some updates. I talked to both Maury and Joe. Maury MIGHT come out for a sleepover on Thursday night. We couldn’t bring Austin home, because Rich had a fishy group at 7PM Thursday, and he was going straight from his running around to the meeting (closer than coming all the way home first), BUT, he would be able to bring Austin home around noon, so that worked out. Just, we won’t be going into town. I think I will cancel Dr. Marvin too, because if he’s going home at noon, and Dr. Marvin’s appointment is at 11AM, that wouldn’t work, because that last hour Austin is here, is Important for us. I think Dr. Marvin is tight for schedules at the end of the week, though sometimes, he can squeak a half an hour in somewhere. We’ll have to see. But, this week Austin is priority 😊 He’s our Grandson! If Maury were to come here, we’d just have to throw the sheets in the was Thursday afternoon after Austin left, and before Maury got here. That is doable. And, MAN! What a luxury – to talk to Maury for a VERY long time! Hehe – AND, Rich will be home late – this is working out well!The other call was Joe. We had had time to talk to Rich, and both of us were on the phones looking for the ideal place in our own way. AND … drumroll … GIORDANI’S! Wins out! Maybe you have to be from the Chicago area, though I know they have some places nationally, but it is a special place, especially for their Chicago Deep dish pizza. We haven’t had pizza for over four months – since the diet. It’s a family restaurant – minutes from Joe’s dojo and Austin’s place (both in Villa Park). The restaurant is in Oak Brook. BUT, Joe can come! He’s going to the classes late, so after we pick-up Austin, he is going to meet us – we already texted the address. He’s going to text back later to see if Cari and Alex will be joining. I love to see Joe on his own, but we love to see Cari and Alex too. Austin and Joe love running into each other. What a great birthday week this is turning out to be such a nice birthday weekend. I’m going to text Maury later, and tell him how excited we would be to include his dogs! I think that’s a done deal without talking about it if he’s staying over. I LOVE IT! AND! Dakota would get something out of it. He’s just crazy about his cousin’s Max and Lady. It’s been a LONG while since they’ve been out. What a BUSY weekend. Rich helped with the bathrooms earlier and vacuumed, so that’s all good too.The only thing that would REALLY put us overboard is if Thom called, BUT I think it was fairly short since he called last time. Maybe a month? I’d have to find a reference point. That is the Trifecta – to hear from ALL three sons. It doesn’t have to be at the same time, but Pswhoo! Hard to believe I have THREE WHOLE SONS! OMG! Hey, hey hey … hold back … you knew that right?I know, it’s just that we have to put them to the back of our minds because it’s a month or two in-between seeing or hearing from them. They are VERY independent. And THEN! When we see or talk to them it’s like sparklers. I’m so fortunate for having Austin out and would like to see the other three kids, but they aren’t as motivated as Austin in trying to meet with us. Or, Maury isn’t? I’m not sure. BUT, that’s the biggest deficit now is seeing Grandchildren. Ok, girls let’s get through this? Better move on.I think the last part was that we’d been talking about Dell and Multiplicity. The only progress there is that we talked to Rich about it while massaging him. I know, he gets a LOT of that. It was the short version, but he was comforting. You know “fighting through stuff,” and all. It’s Dr. Marvin who will have the full conversation. I think that’s going to be a big one. Multiplicity work is a big deal for us. But, for now, I think we’re going to wind-it-up. It’s already past 10PM. Rich is watching TV long enough to hear just the opening dialog of Stephen Colbert. It’s good, but we’re usually sleeping. We did have a nap earlier, but we’ll be able to fall asleep soon. I would like to post before we go to bed.Oh MAN! Nobody could bother to post a picture? We’re at 15 pages 6653 words.I know … I know! We can post something on it being our birthday! Just a general birthday picture. We’ve been leading with that story throughout the blog. Maybe little pretentious, but the happier-go-lucky parts are sending out the vibes like Christmas Eve … Come on! Let’s go to bed, then when we wake up … it WILL be our birthday! YAY!Oh yeah … one more thing? TRIPLE LAYER CHOCOLATE CAKE! Yup, can you believe it – at a PIZZA Place hehe!