Mom is in the hospital

My mother is bipolar. That is a mental illness and I never remember how much I have blogged about this in the past or what I have disclosed about my thoughts and reactions to it. My mother had her first bipolar episode when I was six years old. I remember I was sitting on the edge of my bed pretending I was a clock (don't laugh...you did stuff like that when you were six years old). I remember she started screaming and it seems like years later she has never stopped. It is funny how the one thing that scares you as a child haunts you the rest of your life. The feeling of powerless and being out of control.

When I returned from Las Vegas my mother looked really sick and was taken to the hospital. She was transported to a mental health facility as she was not coherent. She has been in over a month. At one point the level of lithium in her blood was toxic and they had to let her off her medication to allow the lithium to fade out of her system. She seemed better but then started refusing her medication. Every time I go to visit I don't know if she will recognize me and we can have a conversation or if she will be incoherent and ramble on about anything & everything.

It is odd to see a loved on in a hospital. Especially my mom. She was a brilliant thinker and maybe considered a visionary or revolutionary in her field. She achieved a graduate degree in speech communication and wrote a book. She was working on a second book but considering her recent set back she won't be completing it anytime soon.

Some times it helps to talk about it and I can not share with anyone I work with nor do I have many friends who are super close or understand. I often wondered what it would be like to go to an AA meeting and just talk about being misunderstood and struggling with a huge problem. If I phrase it just right they might think I'm a struggling addict.

If you are reading this and believe in God and pray then say a few prayers for my mom. She could use a few prayers.

My crazy weekend

Take a boy who double books house sitting gigs, each are 20 miles from each other, 40 miles round trip. Take a wedding on the far north side of town, mix in another house sitting gig starting when one ended, mix in a couple trips home to grab clothes & mail, add a fair down town, add a trip to the hospital also 20 miles away, and dinner with a friend who just finished a six month deployment and you have a very tired Duane who drove all over town this weekend with little time to rest.

All in all it was worth it. The crazy part is I wish I got more accomplished and didn't rest so much this weekend.

New cure for hiccups

I discovered if you do not know what you are drinking it can cure the hiccups. I had the hiccups a couple nights a go and a friend of mine said he would give me a mysterious concoction that would cure them. The only condition was I had the drink the entire glass all at once and as quickly as possible. He gave me a glass full of Worchester sauce. It worked...cleared up my hiccups and cleared my sinuses and woke me up.

I am lucky it was a small glass. ;(

Fathers day

Fathers day is under estimated holiday. This fathers day I realized I have not spent much time over the last year reflecting on the good things my father taught me. How he was always there for us, always gentle, always supportive of mom, and how he would always listen. The more I thought of all the great things my father did for my family & all the wonderful character qualities he has exuded I realized it would be difficult to find a way that acknowledges it while honors him. The traditional dinner & a card never seem to express enough gratitude but it was what we had planned.

I was running late to dinner and left the father's day card I bought at the place I was house sitting so I had to pick up the card & deliver it after dinner. My dad and I watched some of the world cup games and talked about sports. I couldn't stay long and as I was leaving I invited him out to dinner this week. I am house sitting close by so it is a good time & opportunity. I mentioned his favorite mexican restaurant and he gladly accepted. When I was leaving I was shaking his hand and saying happy father's day as if I were saluting him. I stopped myself and told him I loved him and looked forward to dinner at the mexican restaurant.

The more I think about that day I did give him the perfect gift. I gave him love & time to spend together. Is there any higher gift for the ones we love?

One more time Laker fans!!!

After the LA Lakers win in game 7 I am a very happy Laker fan!!

I know this post is three days late and I should be blogging about how much my father means to me since it is father's day but I'm a few days off.

I am house sitting for a couple that leaves a few cigars in my room so I have something to smoke while house sitting. THe last couple times I have sat for them I was out of the house quite a bit and not wanting to smoke so I didn't. This time they told me they are upset with me for not smoking all the cigars they left for the last few times I have house sat. This time I knew I had to smoke a few.

I spent Thursday night watching Game 7 on a TV in their out door bar. I was outside as I was watering their yard. So I had a cigar while watering the lawn & watching the last of the finals.

I can say I was celebrating for the Lakers before they won!

Hanging with a Paul Walker look alike

A friend of mine looks like Paul Walker. He is the son of the couple whose condo I am renting. When I want to impress people I show them his picture and tell them Paul Walker once lived here.

It is interesting to grow up and see how people turn out. Andrew, my Paul Walker look alike friend was a film major and specialized in TV production & directing. He was crazy inventive and fun. I was in one of his directing projects where they filmed a music video in an airport museum. I was a dancer and amazed as the final project looked like something I had seen on MTV.

I have not hung out with him in over six years so I was glad he a few friends came for a visit. He is a brand new uncle so he was in town to visit family and see his nephew. I am not surprised Andrew has a decent job & a girl friend a cool people to hang out with. I am surprised he did not do anything in the film industry as he is extremely creative & fun. He seems to have lost some of the life he had and exuded when he was younger. He looks tired and a little uneasy. I look at him and wonder if maybe it is better to let creative types do their thing instead of moving to the non-creative work force to make a living. Some times I wonder how I have changed and if I met a younger version of myself if he would have more a sparkle of life in his eyes and seem more alive then the thirty five year old Duane who works for a university and hasn't pursued acting or improv or writing.

Maybe the world will never know!

My busing adventures

I have been taking the bus to work lately. I like being able to start my day without having to stress about where to park, cathing green lights, getting around the slow traffic & switching lanes. I like to start my day in quiet, reading a book and having a walk down the 16th street mall before starting my work day. It is a very peaceful & calm way to start the day.

It has been great and I have not had a bad experience until now. While I am house sitting in Aurora I took the bus to work one day. Because it isn't my neighbor hood I am not familiar with all the bus routes coming this way and there aren't any express buses which take I prefer because they take the highway & get one to one's destination quicker.

Anyhow after work when I return to the bus station my bus which came every 15 minutes didn't show up for 30 minutes. I took a mall bus to the other side of down town to another bus station to see if there were any buses headed to my stop in Auror and there weren't any. So I return to the bus station and it has been an hour with no bus. This is a huge problem as I have animals to get home and feed. At this point it is already beyond their normal dinner time & they would have to wait another hour for me to get home. I locate rack with all the scheduales and am able to find another route home. I head over to the customer service window to find out where to go to catch this new bus route and the clerk was acting really weird. She was almost shocked I was asking her questions and didn't know one the routes had not been in for over an hour. Right as I was leaving her window I saw the late bus come in and I took it.

I finally have my first hand experience that some times public transportation is not 100% reliable.

My date with a fryer

This last weekend I spent working concessions at the Peoples Fair in down town denver. If you have never been the Peoples fair is a huge fair for food & craft vendors held every summer. I heard attendance was down & my booth wasn't terribly busy but I was running all over the booth this weekend.

Working part time for a position that requires standing all day is odd for me. My current full time job requires me to sitting down infront of a computer all day so I'm not use to standing for prolonged periods of time. I noticed when I got off work Saturday night & Sunday night my feet hurt until after I went to bed. At some point in the middle of the night I woke and was so relieved that my feet were not in pain I found it difficult to go back to sleep. I just wanted to lay there knowing what it was like to have pain free feet.

The cool thing about manual labor is knowing you have worked so hard that at the end of the day one is physically spent. The bad part is dealing with the exhaustion when one is not use to it.

After returning to my full time job where my rear is cushioned all day, I noticed I appreciated it a little more.

Midget wrestlers!!!

The show is Half Pint Brawlers airing on spike! You know you want to watch it!!!

www.halfpintbrawlers.com

Don't lie, YOU WANT TO WATCH IT!!!

Fairs

A friend of mine runs a concession business. He travels around to fairs all over Colorado selling funnel cakes. Over the years I have worked for him at various fairs or out door events over the summer. We are in a booth or under a tent pouring funnel cake batter into a fryer, flipping the cakes, putting toppings on them before they are consumed by fair goers. There is almost always a long line which means we are always busy, rushing around the tent juggling cakes, product, napkins, change...and cleaning supplies as it gets messy.

I spent Memorial day weekend in Colorado Springs selling funnel cakes at the Frontier Days festival. I worked 11 hour days Saturday, Sunday, & Monday. Every night after work we would go to a local restuarant before turning into to our motel.

Most people are with family or friends or enjoying their time off. Technically, I was enjoying my extended weekend...I just found a way to make some money while enjoying my weekend.