Eddie, a memorial

I've been meaning to make a small memorial to Eddie Gabriel. So I found the picture of Brian and I with Eddie the last time we were in New Orleans together. This was in 2004. We loved Pat O'Brien's and we loved seeing Eddie play there. When Katrina hit, Brian and I wondered what happened to him. We later found out that this good man was lost in the flood of Katrina.
Below is something written from those that worked with Eddie. They had a memorial in New Orleans this past week in his honor. I recently saw Eddie in May 2005 when my friends and I went to New Orleans for my bacholerette party. Eddie died at the age of 95. And I saw him still looking so young just a few months before he died. My husband and I love New Orleans and have been there often. We will return there too, soon!

Eldridge Gabriel was born March 23, 1910. He began his career at Pat O'Brien's Bar in New Orleans in 1938, just five years after the bar opened. Strangely, he just walked in and started waiting on tables. No one had officially hired him, but they knew he was special. Shortly, he was up on stage tapping his aluminum tray with coins on top to the beat of the piano players. That was the beginning of his long 67 year musical career in the Piano Lounge at Pat O'Brien's, where people flocked to hear him play. He used a tray with coins, thimbles and magical fingers to bring joy to millions of people. He loved to hear the infamous "EDDIE, EDDIE, EDDIE" chant from the audience and truly loved what he did. He never missed a day of work.
"He was rooted and grounded and could not be moved, not even by Hurricane Katrina" a family member said. Sadly, he fell victim to flood waters, but his memory will live on forever in those who knew him and those who have seen him on stage.

It's spring again! Great news!

Today is such a beautiful day outside!! And since it is, I got inspired. Well, I was inspired about a week ago. I'm reading the autobiography of Johnny Cash. In his book, he describes these beautiful gardens he has on his estate. One in which his wife and he planted themselves. Then Brian bought me flowers for our 6 month anniversary of being married., which are super beautiful. ( Isn't he the sweetest guy ever!) I felt then need to go to Wal-Mart and look through their flowers. I wanted tulips, but I couldn't find any bulbs. I know that Brian likes tulips, so I was really hoping for them. But I did find bulbs for calla lilies. I love calla lilies. Especially ones that are red/orange. I had them in my bridal bouquet and my bridesmaids bouquet. I feel that I had the most beautiful wedding flowers thanks to a woman in California I found on the internet. She made my bouquets and they were just amazing in their color. Anyway, I got a pot. (that way if there is a frost, I could move the pot into the garage to protect them. It is Ohio. It could still snow at the end of May. ) I got some soil and planted the bulbs. They don't really give you that great of instrustions on how to plant these. Just 4 inches deep. PLace the bulp with the pointed side up. They are bulbs. I have no idea which was the pointed side. But I think I may have figured it out. Then cover and water throughly. The instructions say to put them 12 inches apart, so I might have screwed that up. But the pics of the flowers look so much closer together, so I'm taking the chance due to the pic on the front of the bulb package. And when I asked a woman at Wal-mart what would be a good size pot. She handed me this small one. I thought it would be bigger than that. I got a huge one and put all the bulbs in it. Then I found them! TULIPS!! They have their bulbs planted already. They have little sprouts. All i had to do was remove them from the generic pot into the ground. So I did. And then I surrounded the area and filled it in with the pot soil I had left over. I thought that would help it more than the crappy soil we have hear. I"m a little excited to see if I have a green thumb. If I am successful. I might get a few pots and get some peppers or something. It would be cheaper then paying $2.50 for 1 red pepper. And I love peppers. Red, green. With onions and hot sauce.. MMMMM. cajun chicken pasta.

Brian and I went to the fertility doctors today. We got good news all around. He thinks that I"m just not ovulating enough. So he is going to start me on clomid for my next cycle. Except he will reduce my dose. Last time on my left ovary, I had about 10 follicles. And on my right I had 1. He is going to reduce it because of my stomach discomfort and cysts I have right now. Also, he is worried about multiple pregnancies. He alright with twins. But the more babies, the more chance for problems. After the 12th day we will get an ultrasound after my cycle ends to check on my follicle development. On day 13 of my cycle, I will get a shot of the hormone that is produced when you are pregnant called HCG. This will stimulate and pretty much predict that I will ovulate 36 hours from the time I give myself the shot. Since I'm a nurse, giving the shot to myself won't be a big deal. I should make Brian do it. Just for fun! Guys aren't willing to do those things. I wonder how he would react. I guess it is pretty scary giving someone a shot. Especially if it is your first time. Anyway, after the shot, we are to do our "homework" This is our doctors humorous term for sex. We have 36 hours and the egg will release. We have other opitions. I could just take the clomid and not do any of the other things. The choice we decided on was to do the clomid and the HCG test and ultrasound. Only because we want more control than just taking the pills. If for some reason the option we pick doesn't work after a few cycles, our next option is to get Intrauterine insemination. Which they will take Brian's strongest sperm and place it inside of me at the very right time, to ensure that they meet and make a baby. We decided to wait for that and try the easiest but controlled way. It is cheaper too! The doc was happy with my glucose tolerance test. I told him that I was taking metformin, which he did know. But I told him I took it the night before the test. No one told me not to. Which I think he was a little upset with. I did ask the nurse about it, but she didn't know. She I continued to do what I was doing. He felt then this was good though. The metformin would very much change the test, but it seems to be working for me and keeping my blood sugar in a good range. So I could stay on it. Things are moving a long. Except this cyst hasn't gone away yet. And my stomach is still icky! But if I get a baby, who cares!
Well, Happy Spring everyone!

OUCH

So for the last 2 days here my abdominal area has been distended. For people who don't know what that means, it basically means that the area is swollen. It is painful, like a pressure pain. I decided that I would go to the emergency room. I figured that I might have a cyst of some kind. It actually hurts to go to the bathroom. Either way. It hurts to move, to cough, to breath too deep, too walk . They said that I have a cyst. But the other thing I was worried about before I left is maybe that the clomid had something to do with it. So I looked up the side effects again. It says it causes ovarian enlargement. It also says it causes abdominal discomfort, bloating. And there is something called "ovarian hyperstimulation. " The docs think I may have this. I"m going to try and make an appointment tomorrow with my doctor to see what he thinks. I did get one side effect from clomid prior to all this which was hot flashes. I'm not looking forward to menopause. Those suck. I'd be talking to people and all of the sudden I felt like I was on fire. I would need to fan myself. Take off any blankets on me. The one thing that I did find out, at this moment in time I"m not pregnant. But I think it may be too early to really tell from a urine dip test. I have almost another 2 weeks before my period. So maybe in the next 10 days I will be able to find out if this is all true. I'm going to stay home today from work. My abdmonial area is very painful. I'm just really uncomfortable. The doctors gave me some Tylenol #3. I took some, but I don't think they help much. Just help me feel more sick to my stomach than I already had been feeling from all the pressure in my abdomen.
I hope all of this is worth this stuff and it works! And again, if we have kids and they start acting up, I can just point them to my jounral I"m keeping and say, " HEY look what I went through to get to have you! I went through a lot even before I was pregnant with you! "

COLDPLAY

Brian and I went to see Coldplay last night. They are one of my favorite bands ever! Next to Dave Matthews Band and 311! They were amazing. 2 of my favorite songs to hear played live are "Clocks" by Coldplay and "2 step" by Dave Matthews band. They are just amazing songs musically with the way you can jam on them! I love Chris Martin and Dave Matthews!

I am so grateful for great music like that! It was a great night just sitting there. I actually would've like to have been standing and dancing. But once again I found myself sitting in the lamest section of "the Q" . Last time I had people yell at me for standing at dancing at a PRINCE concert. Come on people it's PRINCE for Christ Sake! He is one of the people that MADE dance music and you expect me to sit during his concert so your lame ass could see!!! Crazy! After awhile I was like f- it! I'm standing! Espeically when Clocks was played!
I know I've seen Coldplay, Dave and 311 before. But just listening to them live is a great moment in time! And I will do it every chance I get!

St. Patrick's Day 2006- Cleveland

What a great time with GREAT friends! It was just what I needed after working so much and not getting out much! Thanks everyone for a great day! For breakfast! For picking me up when I fell! For lending me money when I lost my bank card. And thanks for helping me look for it too!!!! Thanks for joining me on my first RTA bus ride. Thanks for the laughs, the drinks, the dancing. It was fun!!! See you next year! (well, sooner than that, but same thing next year at this time!:)

Testing today

Today was another day of test at the doctors office. Brian came with me because he had to get some blood drawn. And I was getting a test done that, as I was told, painful. It is called HSG or a hysterosalpingogram.
I'll stick with the HSG. What this test does is takes x-rays of my uterus after they inject dye into my uterus. They do this to see if my uterus is miss shaped and if my tubes are blocked! This by no means was comfortable at all. What they do is they have you lie on the table with your legs in the same position they would be if you were getting a pap smear done. They clean you with betadine and then slip in a speculum. (For any guys reading this, those don't feel good to begin with.) Then he got this long device. I'm not sure what it was called, but it was maybe 20 inches long or so. (could be a little less, but it was long) It was silver and one end had a hole to place a syringe in, the other end had kind of like a hook. And my doctor told me to cough just before he placed it and when he did, holy shit, did it hurt! It was cramping! (that's what they call it! I call it, "It feels like my cervix is being ripped out!) Brian said he saw the doctor let it go and it was basically hanging there from the hook. He said that was a little disturbing to him when he realized that instrament was hooked into my cervix somehow. Well, then they move you under the x-ray machine and inject the dye. ANd that made it feel like my uterus and everything else was going to come out! Brian said he could see my face and it looked like I was in pain. I think I'm pretty tolerable of pain. I've had pain in my abdominal area from cysts and stuff for years. But this was quite different and it hurt really bad! But I was able to tolerate it! On the screen above you could see the dye go into my uterus. It is really cool to be able to see what is going on inside you on a tv screen. The doctors are very willing to share our information with us. They probably realize how curious us patients are. Well, anyway, then the dye was going through the tubes and out into my tummy area around my ovaries. Which means, it is all good!! I don't have blocked tubes! And he said it was a perfect shaped and sized uterus and good tubes. (that sounds weird to be excited about I know!) I was so relieved. It was good news for us today, so far. I have a few more tests to do. Quite a few more blood tests and an ultrasound is going to be done. Then we meet with our doctor to discuss the results. I'm taking clomid right now as part of a test. I told Brian that maybe we should take advantange and see if we can get pregnant this month hoping it would happen and result in twins because of the medication. (The medication induces ovulation) :) hahaha! That would be cool!! 2 babies!

ASK THE CHEERLEADER!

Great webpage about the cheerleader I wrote about in previous post! It is sooo funny! Check it out!

http://journals.aol.com/thefeedblog/AOLNewsTheFeed/entries/1347

If you want to see the actually video click here

http://www.break.com/index/cheercheer.html

The BIGGEST freak in the country!

I was watching the news this morning and there I saw it... A group of cheerleaders, then you see the girl on top fall. First I want to know how they missed catching her at all. It looks like the dude was there to catch her but just decided not to. I have a feeling I may know why which I will get to in a moment.
So the girl is being taken off the court in a stretcher and she actually has a chip in her neck bones. And this dumb girl, who doesn't know what is really wrong with her yet, continues to cheer and do all the moves for her schools fight song on the stretcher!! All I (and my co-workers) could think of is that, THIS GIRL IS A FREAK!!! You see in one clip a person next to the stretcher trying to hold her hand down to keep it from moving. But this girl fights him because it is sooooo important to cheer! I'm sorry, the state of my back and neck are important and I'm sure that the emergency crew told her not to move. If she did have a break, any real big movements could've probably paralyzed her. But she just won't stop! She looked like she was border line crazy to be honest with you. And my co-workers I know feel the same way. Then this girl gets about 10 mins. on the today show for what she did! This upset me! The freak was just moving her arms trying to continue to cheer even though she broke her neck. She even went on the today show with her cheerleading uniform on. (again weird!) But they actually give her 10 mins of tv time thinking what she did is so amazing. I told my co-workers that I can't believe they are showing this freak on tv and praising her for her strength!!! I said, "None of us get TV time and we do amazing things every day! Our patients fight amazing battles every day! And that freak is getting airtime because she kept trying to cheer as she left the floor! "
Then I thought to myself, there is a reason that her "cheermates" didn't break her fall! They all think she is crazy too! She is probably a fanatic crazy cheerleader. One that probably wears her uniform all the time! And I bet after men saw what a freak she was that she will never get laid ever again! It is one thing to let people know you are o.k., but she seemed to be taking it overboard! Almost an obsessive freak! She is the girl you fear most your daughter will become! I fear my daughter will become this! Not over my dead body! Real sports is what she will be into! As you watch the video further on, you see shots of her "cheermates" . They are just the cheesiest group of gals and guys ever! Clapping with their pom-poms and waving them in the air with fake tears streaming down their faces.
For some reason I preceive this girl as someone who 's whole life is cheerleading and without it, she would be nothing. I can see her being bulemic and just being a head case. You don't see any football players being carried off the field still trying to strike a pose after a play ended. COME ON!!!! They know how it is important if they are injured to remain still. They know that nothing is worth making a possible bad situation worse! This girl just irritated me. What about truly great people! People who are fighitng cancer.. not just the doctors and nurses taking care of the patients, but the patients themselves. I would like to see a story about their fight. Or even about the new show "Miracle Workers" that is on. They are trying to take people and give them a medical chance at a normal life! They helped a blind man to see and a woman who couldn't walk without pain in her back, walk again! I want to see more things like that. Not some dumb girl who gets on the news because she kept trying to lead a cheer as she was being taken by a stretcher off the floor due to a possible broken neck! What about people who are doing Ironmans or running marathons after maybe getting through a hard time. I saw a video about a man with ALS (Lou Gerhigs Disease) run and Ironman. If you know anything about the disease, you would think it is a truly great feet! But this stupid bitch didn't do anything special! She couldn't even do the cheer right in the first place! Alright, I'm done venting!

Walk the Line

I just saw "Walk The Line". Finally after forever. I wanted to see it in theaters, but I never got the chance to get there. I think it was a really good movie. Juaquin Phoenix is just an amazing actor. I loved his brother when I was younger, River. But Juaquin is just totally amazing. One of my favorite actors. Whatever movie he is in, I will see and or own! I also like Reese Witherspoon. She is an amazing actress. LOVE HER! They better both win Oscars. If not they will both be cheater! Juaquin I feel was cheated years ago when he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor because of his portayal of Commodus in Gladiator. He was incredible then! Especially the pain you can see, the jealousy. I also loved when he screamed, " AM I NOT MERCIFUL?!" He was just great! I can't wait to see what his career holds in the future!