Life Update

I heard Anise crying in my dream right now. I run to the door she's behind, open it up, and there she is, my darling cat that I had known since I was a baby. She's been gone for 7 years now come this April, and hearing her cry brought back such an emotional rush.

Wow it's been a long time since I blogged here. Here's the Cliff's Notes version:

I won about $23,000 on Wheel of Fortune, including cash and a trip to Costa Rica. I was never gonna get the final puzzle. It would've won me $50,000. I had a big party at Schrier's Sports Grill and it felt great to have so many supportive people around me. It was the last event my aunt went to.

Dora went into the hospital the week after my episode of Wheel aired. She had gotten an infection in her leg and she was no longer able to fight it because of her compromised immune system from the medications she had been on to try and help her and her liver. Those two weeks at the hospital were hell. I was supposed to proctor a final exam on the day she passed away. I found subs. I miss my aunt tremendously.

My hands started twitching on their own. My first fear was diabetes, but a blood test shut that idea down. However, I was diagnosed with mold biotoxicity. Basically my body reacts to mold differently and doesn't know how to trash the bad stuff. We suspect there was mold in the Hermosa house but never found any.  I have seen a specialist who wants me to get an MRI and more blood work that I just don't wanna do. I had grown more lethargic and not wanting to play Just Dance anymore.

We all had to move. My mom had to move to a smaller apartment since Dora was no longer with us. Tony and little Will and I decided not to renew our contract at the house on Hermosa. Tony is still in the process of moving in with his friend on the south side of town, but it's a lot more preparation work than he expected. I moved in to the same apartment complex as my mom because I felt like I need to be close to her.

Back to Anise. Now at my new apartment I am finally having dreams on a regular basis. At Hermosa I rarely remembered any dreams I had. If dreams are your body's way of system dumping information, then it's been backed up. My mom was talking about death and her friend Andy. Tony's friend Andy may have Thyroid cancer. Tony's older brother was named Andrew. That name finds its way into our family a lot. But she talked about relationships (or lack thereof), and how she doesn't want to get too close to any of her old friends because she's afraid of losing them.

I put Dora's urn next to my nana's in my mom's bedroom. Tony has said he intends to spread her ashes over water on a cruise or something because she always wanted to go on a cruise. When I stared at Dora's and Nana's urns together, I swear I saw not two, but three. With all the meds she's on, I know it's only a matter of time before I lose my mom too. Our family doesn't seem to live very long, but we try and make the most of it. I want to take my mom back to San Francisco while she can still walk. I want to take her to a Pittsburgh Steelers football game. I'm not sure how many chances we'll get.