Goodbye 2010

What will the new year bring us?  Last year was pretty busy.    In no particular order, I

1.  Bought a new car.  Good times.

2.  Lost my job.  Bad times.

3.  Moved to a new city, Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

 

 

 

4.  Started a small (yet modestly successful) business designing and making jewelry.

5.  Reconnected with a great friend from high school.  Hi Maria!

6.  Traveled to North Carolina for a family birthday celebration along the Laurel River.   Sublime!

 

 

 

7.  Traveled to Wisconsin and celebrated Halloween with my son and daughter-in-law.  We also went to a rock shop, and visited the Audubon Society nature preserve where he works.

8.  Read 8 books.

9.  Accomplished a lot of virtual farming in FarmVille.  Belted cows are a very good thing.

10. Lost 38 pounds.

11.  Took a class in wire wrapping.  Used one of the rocks I bought in Wisconsin.

 

 

 

 

12.  Nursed a very sick cat back to health.  Charlie used one of his 9 lives.

13.  Made 15 trips to the hospital for immunoglobulin infusions.  Yeah St. Louis University Hospital!

14.  Photographed orchids, children, trees, animals, jewelry, and heaven knows what else.

 

 

 

15.  Applied for social security disability and was approved on the first try.

16.  Successfully avoided unhealthy exposure to the sun and UV light.

17.  Witnessed first hand the damage and devastation of a F3 tornado.  This one was on New Year’s Eve.  A 50 ft. white pine tree uprooted and crashed through my ex’s home.  Nobody was injured.

 

 

 

18.    Adjusted to life out of the fast lane of full-time employment.  That was a challenge.

19.  Celebrated my sister’s retirement.  Actually, we’re still celebrating.

20. Learned not to feel guilty about getting 8-10 hours of sleep every night.

All in all, after a rocky start and a scary ending with a tornado, 2010 wasn’t too bad.  This year I’m looking forward to a less stressful life, managing my health and living with lupus in the slow lane.    Despite everything I remain optimistic and determined to live in the present.  Stay tuned.

The Farmville Life

I’ve been busy building a plantation in Farmville.  It’s a Facebook application that I told myself I wouldn’t get involved with because I’m a very, very busy person who has absolutely no time for such nonsense.  That was two weeks ago.

I am now the owner of  TWO houses, a collection of animals, trees, crops, a barn, farming equipment, a lake, flowers, a groundhog, a dairy, a golden troll, various topiaries, and heaven only knows what else.  And I’m just a BEGINNER.  The object of this game (at least I think there’s an object here somewhere) is to grow crops, fertilize your neighbor’s farms, give them presents, and earn money to grow more crops, buy buildings and animals, and expand your farm.  You can win ribbons and magic eggs!  It’s a never-ending cycle.

In order to play Farmville, you  need neighbors.  Lots of neighbors.  I have friends who were already playing this game, so I started off with a few.  But if you want to get anywhere, you find more Farmville friends.  So you go hunting for neighbors.  It’s like a dating referral service … sort of.  Now I have neighbors from all over the world.  But I can always use more.

Honestly, I don’t know how I was swept up into this virtual universe, but here I am.  Checking to see when I can harvest my tomatoes or pumpkins.  Collecting  eggs in the chicken coop.

Before you go dissing this insipid pastime, think about this.  Over the weekend, my sister was snowed in with 10 inches of the white stuff.  Her city was hit hard and nobody was plowing, shoveling or digging.  My sister’s kids, neighbors, and friends were not available to shovel her driveway, clean off her car, etc.  She was stuck.  And she had plans to go out of town to celebrate our brother’s 50th birthday.  Obviously, she couldn’t go anywhere.  HOWEVER …. I have a friend on Farmville, who is also a real-life friend and lives a couple miles from my sister.  We were chatting on-line about our farms Saturday morning when she mentioned that her driveway just got plowed.  I told her about my sister’s unfortunate situation and the next thing I know, My FARMVILLE NEIGHBOR sends her snowplow guys over to my sister’s house!  See how wonderful Farmville is?  Sort of?

If nothing else, it’s an eternity away from dealing with lupus and medication.  For me, that’s a good thing.

So far, I’m keeping up with household chores, paying bills, and running errands.  I haven’t totally lost my mind in Farmville … yet.

And if you want to be my neighbor, let me know.