Doing My Part - Making Fibromyalgia Visible

There's a campaign afoot with the National Fibromyalgia Association to "make fibromyalgia visible". As a chronic invisible illness, it doesn't get the press or funding or attention compared to other more invisible diseases. The NFA notice says, "even though people with FM don’t “look sick”… we are living with a very real and chronic neurological disorder."

Did you know?

1. Fibromyalgia affects an estimated 10 million Americans and millions of others worldwide.
2. The condition is often referred to as an “invisible disease” since the symptoms are not immediately apparent.
3. FM can significantly impair normal activities of daily living.
4. There are more than 4,000 published research papers on FM
5. Studies show people with fibromyalgia have several neurologic signs and symptoms.

See the Fibromyalgia Fact Sheet

Info about the area we live in now

And a third post - in one day!

Here's some interesting info Rod found on the development where we live now. It's called "Indian Ridge" and the reason is that there are ancient artifacts there. There's a real archeological dig managed by the University of Arizona here in Tucson.

http://aa4m.com/common/hohokam_tour.pdf

There are photos of where the dig is - http://aa4m.com/photos/arizona/tawa/tawa800x600.jpg

Anybody want to come and help me dig up the back yard? I fully intend to.

My New Head

Oh, I should mention that I'm wearing a "new head" now. Saturday I got my hair cut short and colored a dark brunette with some slight mahogany highlights (to match my eyes, the stylist said). It's freaking me out every time I see myself. I'm not sure what came over me other than I've always admired how nice a brunette woman with a good short cut looks, and it suddenly settled in my mind that I could do that, too. Rod loves it, says it highlights my skin tones and features - and everybody I work with says it looks great, too. I like it a lot, but am still having that strange moment when I catch my reflection. "Who is that person?"

Long overdue - here's a photo -

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, One and All!

I miss you all so much, and I had a complete melt-down, actually, last evening, thinking about all of the people I won't get to hug and say Merry Christmas to. I've wanted to send elaborate gifts instead, but with the new house and the budget not settling down, I've not been able to do that, either.

But please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers and I love you as much as always.

I've not updated you about the house, but we did get it. Closed on 11/20, I moved on 11/23 and Rod moved on 12/18, but his "POD" has not yet arrived. He and Senji and a car-load of things are here and recovering from the flurry of moving from L.A., though, and it feels great to have "my family" with me now.

The new house address is:

6941 E. Taos Place
Tucson, AZ 85715

Merry Christmas and many hugs!

Becky

Update - We've Got the House!

We're doing great! Closed 11/20, I moved the 23rd, Rod's moving 12/18 with a Pod that he's packing in L.A. and shipping down. We had a great Thanksgiving week - he was there the whole time and supervised the move. There were only a few small annoyances with the move, which is pretty good. The crew were tired from other hard moves - and I think going to a U of A game.

I don't know what happened about the auction of my Ventana condo. I stopped checking on it because the Skyline Properties manager was holding me to the lease. However, with the help of my realtor, we negotiated that I could use the security deposit for the last month's rent, but I still had to pay December. The first mortgage payment is due January 1, so that works out OK.

The house is adorable. We both really like it and find that the retro feel of it is cozy and homey to us. Rod's the one who guided us to the older home - I would have gone newer - but he likes to putter and fix and improve. This house was move-in ready - very pretty paint jobs, mostly a dusty light green, but the back bedroom has two painted red walls, one of them brick. The colors are all "Pottery Barn" palette, I think, from what I gathered from a quick look at the color chips the owners left. They left it in great condition - very clean - but we're still finding things we want to do. Cleaning the sliding glass doors window track, cleaning the overhead fans in the kitchen and baths - stuff like that. The longer I'm there the more I've realized that a lot of the reason the place appealed to me must have been very visceral at first, but it's becoming more conscious. It's a lot like my Nana and Pap's house back in Hinkley, Ohio - crank-out windows, "celery" kitchen cabinets of the old plywood style (but they have all new brushed-aluminum hardware).

We found some neat information about the area online, that there's an active archaeological dig on a 13-acre site that someone willed to the U of A a long time ago for that purpose. Students come there to learn and dig artifacts of the Hohokam Indians that lived there. Here's the link. And some photos.

I'll miss seeing my family this year. I found myself punching the forward button when that song came on in the car, "I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me...".

It bugged me, a lot. I want to be someone my family and friends can count on, and this damned disease has exiled me. That's how I feel, exiled. As wonderful a place as this is, it isn't home, and it's not where the people I love are. Exiled.

The House Work is Moving Along!

It's looking more and more like we're going to get the house! Only a few signatures on a few things for the repair work and loan work, and we expect to close on the 20th of November.

Rod's going to be off the week of Thanksgiving and he'll be down here to supervise my move with the movers while I work Monday and Tuesday, and he'll move later from L.A. - late December or early January. I'll use the same movers - I hope! that I used to unpack me before - they were so excellent, Able Movers.

Yippety skippety!!! Yeah!!!

Catching Up

Hi, folks. Long time, no post. I've been very busy. I don't know how I manage it, but I seem to keep myself crazily busy. Rod calls me his "busy bee". I'm going to try to catch up on some news, here, this weekend, now that Drew's wedding is over and I can think a little more. I'll get back to the wedding.

Here's the latest news.

I had a very nice birthday. I was home for the wedding, which turned out great and was a lot of fun. So glad to see him - and her - so very happy. Rod gave me perfume - Vera Wang's "Princess". He's been wanting me to have a scent to linger when we're apart, but he knows how I feel about perfume. Ick! But this is not bad. Doesn't make me sick! :)

And my sister made me a beautiful necklace with black pearls and deep red crystals, very unique. I should remember to post a photo.

And we had a nice visit home and a birthday party and brunch at my parents place the morning after the wedding, very relaxing. And, best of all, we bought a house on the way out of town! Rod decided to retire and move to Tucson and I'm thrilled about it! We've been looking at a lot of properties, debating about old/new, smaller/larger, further out/in town, old character vs. spanking spiffy new. We settled on something that's just barely out of the foothills, very close to work, and old and charming.

We stayed very conservative, planning to be able to afford it on one income if we ever need to. Housing is a good bit more expensive in Tucson than in Columbus. We offered and they accepted but we're finding a lot of issues in the home inspection, so it may not work out. It's in an older neighborhood, soon to be designated a historic area, and we really like its cabin/cottage feel. Its' close to town and work, just barely out of the foothills, which is a good area. Beautiful, near the mountains, but not so near that our doggie will get eaten by a mountain lion. :) However, problems with termites, roof, AC, electrical, etc. They need to fix it or we can't buy. Even if we wanted to, we wouldn't be able to get a loan on it in the condition its in. So, a lot of "lipstick on the dog", which I was afraid of.

Our new home?? 6941 E. Taos Place, Tucson, AZ 85715

I think it would compare to Clintonville in Columbus, but it's not yet ridiculously expensive because of its "cuteness".

There's always still drama with the condo in Columbus. It's on a lease-to-own setup, but I'm skeptical that it will ever sell, that the woman will get her divorce settlement and financing. In fact, she had 60 days to produce loan papers and she hasn't. Now, I got a letter from the condo association with an official complaint about her large dog that they're not cleaning up after - and they're keeping a bed frame and box springs on the back porch - pond side!! I didn't even know she had a dog, no deposit, etc, so have to deal with that.

And I have drama about the condo I'm in here. It's being sold at auction on November 20th because the man who owns it has not been paying his mortgage. Supposedly they can't "displace" me until my lease is up, or for at least 90 days. We're hoping to be in the new house the week of Thanksgiving, so I'd break the lease on the condo.

My health is good, though. I've only missed 2 work days since moving out here, and had only a few weekend down-times. I've had no further belly symptoms after being so sick when home in the spring. I have to have another gall bladder ultrasound in a month or so to see if the sludge has completely cleared, but that's all.

I've been able to be more active, but honestly, the heat of the summer set me back. It was just too hard in the evenings to get exercise when it's still 99 degrees at 7 PM. I finally learned that it had to be AM or nothing, so started getting up in the mornings early enough to take a walk before work.

I did start to get a little creeped out by the critters around here. Saw a mountain lion on my walking path this spring, have seen javalena in the complex several times, and a bobcat. And one morning about 4 AM a hootin' hollerin' yelpin' crazed pack of coyotes came through the complex raising holy hell. So...when I walk now I take pepper spray and my big flashlight with me. Besides it's getting quite dark in the evenings now, and we don't have daylight savings time here - we just stay the same time all year long, AZ time they call it.

Work is good. My boss and I have reached an understanding and come to appreciate each others' strengths. My co-workers are very good men, but sometimes annoy the daylights out of me, as always happens when people work closely together. We're learning a lot from each other though, growing more proficient every day, and the company is supporting us with needed hardware and software and storage - LOTS of storage. Although I want 300 gig all to myself. I don't know if they'll grant me that or not. The only real problem is that we face very aggressive deadlines that seem completely arbitrary. I don't have any idea what's driving them other than our vendor and our management. If we had time to do things well and right and at a sane pace, it would be a perfect job. The biggest problem right now is that there is so much to do in so little time. Life in 2009, I know. Glad I have a job that's interesting and challenging with such great people.

I miss my friends in Columbus, though, a lot. So many evenings I wish I could just call one up and chat, chat, chat. But the 3-hour time difference is the killer. When I get out of work a lot of people are settling down to bed in Ohio. And I can't seem to get on an earlier work schedule. I try, but my body just wants to do 9-6. The boss doesn't like that, so I'm having to kick it into an 8 AM arrival lately.

Miss you all. Call me, write me, and let me know when it's OK to call you!

Love,

Beck