Friday Fill-ins

I was looking forward to this weekend until I got bad news today. My aunt (my mom's older sister) isn't doing well. My cousin doesn't expect her to live much longer. Thus I dread the coming days.

She suffers from Alzheimers and so this hasn't been easy on many of my family members.

Now for some lighthearted stuff. Friday Fill-ins.

1. Why are you making fish again? We've had it three times already this week.

2. I want you to take a look at my book releasing Monday March 8th, "Welcome To Paradise".

3. I want to understand and come to grips with my child's decision, then it will be on my terms.

4. I want to submit my upcoming books to Smart Bitches and Mrs. Giggles and see what happens.

5. I could use a month's vacation at home (Cincinnati) with my family.

6. "V" and then "Flash Forward". I look forward to them returning to TV later this month.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting a salad from Tijuana Flats and take a swim at the gym, tomorrow my plans include taking my cat to the vet for a check up after his surgery and then maybe see a movie, and Sunday, I want to write all day!

Recent posts you might like to read:

Rejection: Where Do You Go Next?

Procrastination

Cliche or Coincidence?

What Prompts Me To "Follow" A Blog

Make Sure Pretentious Words Don't Turn Off Your Readers

Dedicating Books

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Can you really go home???

I'm happy to be in Cincinnati with Dad and my loved ones here, and yet I'm sad. Sad that my time here is almost at an end. And sad at some of the changes and differences between here and where I live now. I went to Borders at 9:15 pm the other night (in Cincinnati) and it was closed! I just had to have a certain book. MY borders in Florida is open every night until 11 pm except for Sunday. And then Barnes & Nobles is open every night until 11 pm. This is definitely the dark ages. Yet, Skyline Chili in Cincinnati stays open till the wee hours. Skyline Chili in Cincinnati closes at 9 pm and 8 pm on Sundays. How awful! (Florida's, I mean. For shame!) Walmart in Cincinnati is never crowded. At least not the one on Colerain Avenue near Struble Road. It's practically dead. At least the 3 or 4 times I've visited. In Florida, I wait in line for an hour to check out. Towns like Finneytown and parts of Fairfield and Norwood where I visited this trip didn't look too good. They're going downhill. I'm not too thrilled with Colerain Avenue, either. And yet, I'd love to be here to be near family and friends. That's what really makes or breaks a place. Our loved ones. I haven't had nearly enough time with them, and yet, I've been away from my loved ones in Florida a long time. When I walked into Walmart this afternoon, and the greeter greeted me, "Welcome to Walmart. Have a good day." it reminded me of "Idiocracy" where the greeter tells Luke Wilson, "Welcome to Costco. I love you." At work we used to have to say something similar on the switchboard. I think the operator still does. I had a very vivid dream a couple nights ago, fueled by my visit here, and I'm almost done with an erotic short story I'm going to submit to Harlequin Spice Briefs. Wish me luck. I'm really going to do it. I have so much writing and submitting to do when I get home. I know I'll be chafing at the day job, wanting to get to my night job. I'm already chomping at the bit. So much to do, so little time. I've also been trying to get more into my My Space. Will you be my friend if you're there? http://www.myspace.com/ashleyladdromancewriter

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Things I like about being on vacation

Thirteen Things I like about being on vacation 1.... I can sleep late. 2.... I get to relax. 3.... I don't have to listen to screaming kids (or coworkers). 4.... I can do what I want, when I want. 5.... I get to visit with family and old friends. 6.... I get to see new places. 7.... I get to do new things. 8.... I don't have to dress up. 9.... I get to eat what I want. 10... I can play on the computer at different times of the day. 11... I don't have to do housework (much). 12... I don't have to fight rush hour traffic. 13... I get a feel for what my life used to be like. HOWEVER, I really miss my kids, my pets, and my other friends back home. Sue me. :) Why can't everyone I love be in the same place altogether???

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Vacation

As you know, I'm home. Home as in where I grew up. Home with my dad, aunts, and uncle. Today, Dad and I went to lunch with my aunt and uncle. This was a lot more amazing than it sounds. This was my mom's older brother and his wife. Ever since my parents divorced there's been war between my dad and my mom's family. Finally, finally, after thirty years, long after mom is gone, they're making peace. I don't know that they'll ever be best friends, but they seemed to get along fine. Thank God. This evening, I visited with Dad's neighbors, people I grew up with. I've known them all my life so they're family, too. The oldest son, who is two years younger than me, still lives next door. I swear, he gets more handsome every time I see him. He's 46 and man is he ever hot. Nice, too. And single. Unfortunately, I'm not single. Bummer. I could go for him in a big way. Isn't there a joke about the boy next door. I'm not joking. He is so cute. Tomorrow, Dad plays golf in the morning so I haven't decided whether I'll sleep in or get up and get a pedicure and manicure. Do I really need them? I like them. However, the manicures only last a couple days before they chip. If I get one tomorrow, it'd probably be ruined before Friday when I attend Lori Foster's event. My toes look bad though so I have to do something, even if I do it myself. I don't have a steady hand and so I usually end up painting my skin as well. Maybe I'll pay someone else to do it after all. I'd told Amarinda that maybe I was wrong about Cincinnati being heaven on earth. Okay, I was wrong to say I was wrong. Why do I love it so much? First, it is home and I have wonderful memories. Secondly, I still have people here I love very much. Third, I love the country and suburb areas around Cincinnati. I love the farms and the hills and the profusion of tall trees. It's got a wildness, a freshness, South Florida's lost. South Florida is so overpopulated there are hardly any empty fields left. It's all buildings. It's all city. It's totally flat. Believe it or not, palm trees get boring after awhile. Maybe I'm a country girl at heart. Dad's place is perfect for me. It's on the outskirts of the suburbs where the farms are just beginning. Thus it's not city but it's not so far out in the country that it takes forever to get a gallon of milk or go out to a movie or a restaurant. The air is so fresh here. Dad's yard has a lot of beautiful tall trees and a forest behind his yard. There's not much traffic so there's no much exhaust. The yards and houses around his are all well-kept. They're not cookie cutter houses like so many in South Florida, and yet, they don't clash. My first night in town, Dad asked me where I wanted to go and I chose this little old country restaurant where we went when I was a kid: Les Flick's. Well, we drove down to River Road, well into the country which was beautiful. Then we reach an old run down country farm house. It looked really run down from the outside in a country sort of way. We went in anyway to check it out and it was pretty cute and charming inside so we stayed and had dinner. It seemed much smaller than when I was a kid, but at first, everything did. Later in the week, I'm going to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. My cousin who lives in Zanesville is coming up and we'll get together. Next week, my aunt wants me to come up again and spend two nights and one of them is a camping trip. I want to go with them and yet, I want to spend a lot of time with Dad, too. And of course, my aunt asked if I'm going to call and see my other aunt and my neighbor asked if I'm going to call and see my old friend/neighbor on the other side of her. I want to see everybody and yet there's only so much time. I'm going to try, and yet my number one priority is my dad. By the way, Dad seems to be in pretty good shape. If he hadn't told me about his two bouts with the heart, I would never know except maybe for the fact that he's slowing down a tiny bit. He's not power walking daily around the mall and tomorrow is his only day of golf. Usually he plays golf at least 3 times a week. But I'm still trying not to wear him out. Maybe because if that I should go more to my aunt and uncle's. We'll see. I'll probably spend some time at the campout but maybe not two days. How I long to live back home again, full time. Barring that, I wish I had more time and funds to come home more often. Even once a year isn't nearly enough and it's been four years since I was last here. It didn't help that DH was out of work for a year. But now that he's back at work, I'll have to make sure I get here a lot more.

Home Sweet Home

I'm back! First, I want to congratulate Amarinda Jones, winner of my Fantasies Contest and the $20.00 Amazon gift certificate. Amarinda, please email me with your email address so I can have it sent to you. We had a great time watching my cousin get married, visiting with family we haven't seen in years, meeting new friends, and just getting away. I've not been away in forever. Sometimes I think the rest of the world's fallen into space and only Florida is left. I don't get out of Florida for years at a time. We're at the bottom of the state and thus we can't just hop over state lines for a quick Sunday drive. This was my first time to visit Port Orange or Daytona Beach, Florida. I liked Port Orange better than Daytona, to tell the truth. We were fascinated, however, by the Drive-In church in Daytona. The computer's not cooperating and letting me upload my pics, so I'll post them soon. My daughters were gorgeous all dressed up and my younger daughter was glowing since she met a really cute guy her age that she danced with all night.

Mad Blogger

Yikes! This would probably be me and one of my cats.

I hope you had a very happy Easter. We did.

Since I've not heard back from the insurance company or the doctor's office, I have to go tot he day job tomorrow. I was really hoping to have vacation this week. It's unsettling not knowing what's going on about the surgery or vacation yet.

However, if I can get the surgery and vacation next week, I can sleep in as the kids will be on Spring Break and they'll be sleeping in. Of course, then I'd also have to put up with the kids arguing all day long...

We're watching a sci-fi movie about the moon breaking up and perhaps Armageddon. Um...this theme sounds very familiar. Of course, are there no original plots. The hubby turned this on and I thought I was the one that liked end of the world movies. This one's pretty boring so far. Or
maybe I'm more into blogging and not paying close enough attention.























I'm not prejudiced and I believe in live and let die and all that, but this is just weird.

As The Stomach Turns - the soap opera continues

The stomach turns, or is that churns? I want to scream and shout, but not in a good way. I want to strangle people I've never met. I want to tell the world about my crazy insurance company. This saga gets worse and worse. It just drags on. Here it is almost Friday, but as tomorrow's Good Friday and we're off work, today was the last day of our work week. I'm scheduled to take vacation starting Monday the 24th. I'm still scheduled for the BAHA implant surgery Wednesday the 26th. As of now, the insurance company, my doctor's office, and my insurance agent are still haggling whether or not my insurance will cover the surgery. Unfortunately, I can't afford the surgery without insurance. I can't tell my boss whether or not I'm taking vacation next week, starting Monday, starting Tuesday or Wednesday, or at all. I haven't a clue which is super frustrating. Other than the surgery, I didn't have exotic, expensive plans for this vacation. I was going to relax at home, do some heavy cleaning and some heavy writing (and probably more blog hopping). But I really needed a break of more than 3 days. It's been many moons since I've had a rest and I'm exhausted. I was looking forward to this time off. I imagine that at least my insurance agent if not also my doctor's staff and the insurance company, are also off tomorrow for the holiday. I can't blame them. But that means I'll have no answer about the surgery so I'll have to blindly go into work Monday. So much for having one long stretch of time for a vacation (two weekends tacked on both sides and even a holiday). The insurance company is giving us the run around. They tell us different things. They told my doctor's office that they don't cover hearing aids. They told my insurance agent that the doctor didn't prove the surgery is "medically necessary", but didn't mention the hearing aid part to him. They also didn't mention the "medically necessary" phrase to my doctor's office. They told me that hearing aids and implants are "excluded from my plan". They also mailed a letter to my doctor's office dated March 13th that my first appeal had been denied but then they verbally told my doctor's office on March 18th that no decision had been made yet about the first appeal. Huh??? Methinks the insurance company has their head up their asses. Either they're playing dumb or they really are. Either way, I have lost faith and respect for them. Unfortunately, it's not like I can afford to dump the insurance policy my company pays for me and pay for my own. My doctor's office doesn't want me to reschedule surgery yet. I tried that. My boss is being his usual great self and will allow me to reschedule vacation last minute and keep him guessing. The doctor's office is still hoping to push this through for me. They're trying very hard and I give them kudos, too. BTW, my doctor's office said they mailed and faxed all the documentation to prove the surgery is medically necessary for me. I can't hear out of one ear at all and I have the phone up full volume for the other ear and I still have trouble hearing the donors on the other end. I have trouble hearing my coworkers when they're standing right next to me. Soon, I fear I won't be able to hold down my job as my ENT tells me the hearing in my "good" ear is deteriorating and will continue to do so. My job deals with a lot of telephone work - customer service. I hate the phone so I wish it didn't, but it pays the bills, and supposedly I'm good at it - when I can hear - so I put up with that part. Stay tuned for the next episode of "As The Stomach Turns" - probably not till Monday the 24th. Meanwhile, regularly scheduled programming will resume.