I just got mine yesterday and it was so not $600. $363 to be precise. I was very sad. I found this calculator online for estimating what you will get back. It was dead on for me.

I just got back from a long weekend in New York and a quick night in Charlottesville and it was THE BEST, THE BEST, THE BEST! Sometimes I love leaving home more than anything in the world.

In two days I will be on my way to Portland to visit a huge group of people that I have been missing hard and I am so full of love and hugs and kisses right now that I may explode before I get there.

The only thing that could make my week any shinier is if by some chance my Other Jared learns how to pause time on the boat and come play with me in Portland and then make it back to the boat before anyone realizes what’s happened. Yeah, that would be awesome.

Every weekend in May is filled with amazing. Besides all the faces in Portland, I will see 3 DeVotchKa shows, tattoo double date, Chris Van Tassel sleep-over party, more New York, JAMES AND KEVIN!!!!!!!, Crystal, Graham Cracker, Albee, calzones & hefeweizen, Ocho de Mayo party, (sometimes) secret rendezvous, bon voyages, slices and spumoni, possibly AEB’s engagement party, and all the awesomeness in between.

I think I’ll go ahead and melt into that puddle right now.

{ uploaded by iso.bot }

Mom and Cameron’s cat Barney had to be put to sleep yesterday. I was watching him while they were away, and I didn’t notice he was sick because all he does is lay around. I feel rotten. Apparently he’s been throwing up for weeks, so it was definitely coming, but I just wish I had cuddled with him a bit more while I was there.

Rain, rain, go away. I am so over these April showers. I need a sunshine re-charge.

1. Ladytron - Black Cat
2. Basia Bulat - Untitled (Daytrotter Session)
3. Lykke Li - Let It Fall
4. She & Him - You Really Gotta Hold On Me
5. Buddy Holly - Dearest
6. Björk - Unravel
7. Alaska in Winter - Horsey Horse (Extended Remix - Quiet)
8. Kid Loco - Cocaine Diana
9. Wax Tailor - There is Danger
10. Santogold - Shove It
11. Man Man - A Song for Liza Minnelli
12. Yeasayer - Wait For The Summer

Listen Here

I’m totally loving how the gears are coming along, and as always can’t wait for next month and the next step.

All went well with the surgeon yesterday. He said it is healing fine and there is no need to cut out any more tissue. He gave me an antibiotic ointment to keep on it so it doesn’t get re-infected, and I am to visit him again next week for a checkup.

I am feeling much better about the whole thing now. It doesn’t hurt at all anymore. It’s just gross and ugly and I’ll be bandaged for the next 6 weeks or so.

(i realize some people don’t like to look at gross stuff like i do, so i’ve done a little kitty censoring, but if you’re curious, give ‘em a click)

I was a complete mess yesterday morning. I had the hardest time dragging myself out of bed because I knew I had to go back to the doctor and get my gauze changed. By the time I got there I was on the verge of a panic attack. I was shaking so hard and could barely breathe.

I felt slightly better when my new doctor walked in. She was young and pretty and seemed much more caring and gentle. She tried to be as careful as possible doing the change, and while it still hurt like hell, it wasn’t nearly as bad as when the sadist did it.

She was very concerned with the infection and wanted to get me to a surgeon right away for consultation. The only one she could find to take me couldn’t do it until this morning, so she sent me to the emergency room instead.

Everyone there was so nice. It is assumed that the abscess is the result of a brown recluse bite, but there is no way to know for sure. No one has tested me for MRSA, which I still don’t understand. The two ER doctors that I saw said it appears to be healing normal and I don’t need to keep it gauze packed. I literally let out a squeal of joy at that news.

They told me to keep it bandaged. I can take the bandage off to shower and let water rinse it out, then keep a gauze patch on it the rest of the day. I’m not to put any medication on it and just let nature run it’s course. They said to expect 6-8 weeks of this before it fully heals. And by then I will have earned an awesome scar.

So I left the hospital yesterday completely elated. I hadn’t felt so good and positive in days.

This morning I woke up stress free. I took a shower, showed my hole off to Victoria and Amanda (slumber party night), bandaged it up and was ready to go. No problems.

Then the doctor called…

She wanted to know what happened in E.R. yesterday. She was still very concerned and wasn’t 100% comfortable with their diagnosis. She set up an appointment with a surgeon for me on Monday. So now my happy mood is waning its way back to nervous and scared and stressed.

So this is what I’ve been dealing with for the past ten days. Jared and I woke up last Monday with strangeness. I had what seemed like a bug bite, and he had huge bruises on his knee and torso.

By Wednesday my leg was really swollen and painful, so I dragged myself to a doctor. He said it was most likely an infected bug bite, and blamed fleas since we have cats (although no fleas). He prescribed antibiotics and told me to use hot compresses to get it to come to a head.

By the next Monday, my leg looked like the photo on the right. It was so sore and hard to walk on and it just would not come out. I knew I needed to go back to the doctor and have it cut open, but being of the non-insurance-having variety, I wasn’t looking forward to it.

I went in Tuesday morning and they numbed my leg with seven shots of lidocaine (OUCH!) and then cut a hole in it. The doctor couldn’t get “it” all out, so they stuffed the hole with medicated gauze.

I had to go in yesterday to get that gauze changed, and it was the most excruciating thing ever. I was a sobbing, weeping mess all yesterday morning. And the best part is that I get to do it everyday for the next two weeks or so. And he’s talking surgery if it doesn’t clear up.

I currently have a hole the size of a bullet in my leg. You could stick a pinkie finger in there. Although, I would punch you because it would hurt like hell.

I’m so miserable and upset at this point that I just can’t even get on. I’m to be in Portland in two weeks, and I will need a leg, so this either needs to clear up or they need to get me my robot leg ASAP.