This weekend was a trip to JD's for the usual fare after a LONg day of traveling back from CA. Yesterday I drove the car! This is the first time I've driven anything more than a go kart in 10 years! But, I did it. I drove the car! Today I made it over a wobbly tree branch to the other side of the creek, which is the first act in a long time I've been able to accomplish since I started getting sick. A year ago I would've just stayed on the bank and watched, but today I sucked it up and went for it. yes, I almost fell in the creek, but I did it anyway. I WILL not let this sickness defeat me any longer! Lastly, the next step in my weapons training. Knife throwing. I'm getting pretty good at it, again despite being weak and shaky. Small victories, I know, but huge steps for me. It's been a while since I felt like I'm advancing in anything. It feels good to grow.

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After Ostara we had a lot happen. First we had Ryan's Great-Grandmother's funeral. That weekend we went out to JD's welcome home party. It was GREAT to see him again! I missed him a lot. Tuesday we headed out to Nashville to hang out with some friends. It's always good to see people I haven't seen in years. Wednesday we went on a tour of the Jack Daniels distillery, which was gorgeous. Thursday we were SUPPOSED to be coming home, but as I was standing in line at the ticket counter to get our security documents they started herding people into the tornado shelter...aka the restrooms. We high tailed it back to the hotel to watch the storm and play board games. We finally got on a flight Friday morning, but all the flights into Philly were severely delayed, so I got home 15 minutes after my start time, freaked out, and was told to calm down and go home, that my manager would look over my records and see if there was anything he could do to save my job. This weekend we were back out at JD's, which was a little more relaxed than last weeks "haven't seen each other in a year" visit. Today I had a doctor appointment, then we went to see Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. It was fantastic! Tonight I got wonderful news that not only is my job secure but my points have gone from 29.5 points to 1.5! Whew! What a week!

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About a year ago Ryan and I were legally married for several reasons, most of which are our business. It happened on a sunny day on the lawn at ITT in King of Prussia by a wonderful man and a mentor of Ryan's. We didn't tell our families, also for many of our own reasons, one of them being our wish not to hurt them by not including them. A little later I was directed to the blog of an ex of mine. One of our particular issues as a couple was that he was a self-righteous, pompous, self-proclaimed expert who barely knew how to handle his own business but had decided he knew best how to fix the world's problems. This ex had taken to habitually sitting with his wife reading my blog, and they had nothing better to do than sit and judge and make fun of my life. How pathertic is it that THAT is your source of entertainment? Man, get a life. In any case, upon reading of my legal union, this ex decided to take bets on our eventual divorce, calling my marriage a mockery of the intitution. We'd had the spiritual part, the important part in my opinion, months before, so it wasn't a huge jump at that point. The prize? A bottle of alcohol of the winner's choice. I ran through the bets, and none of them went past 6months.

I don't know if he still reads this blog or not. Not long after he commented here (in an anonymous comment that was clearly from Mr Lydon...because, come on, who else talks the way he does) about MY lack of work ethic for taking medical leave on a broken tailbone and my terrible decision to get married in an "obvious" attempt to fix my problems by adding someone else's to them, I hear he lost his job and started milking unemployment for as long as it can sustain his own marriage. I do know people who read my journal who know him, though...and put in bets of their own...

I'm not saying it's been a smooth ride, but no marriage that lasts ever is...We're still standing strong, and we could use a new bottle of Jameson....

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I received a friend request today on Facebook...from my grandmother. After several years of managing to keep myself under the radar when it came to family, they've finally caught up with me. I am at that point faced with a dilemma. I can either deny the add and pretend I never got it, I can censor my page to be "grandma friendly, or I can accept the add sure of the inevitability that we'll have the "Jennifer is an adult and will live her life as she sees fit" conversation. I chose option 3 with only change being that I moved my marital status from "married" to "engaged". Our families don't yet know we're married, so for now it's the safest bet for everyone involved. Eventually this will, I have no doubt, lead to questions about my status updates, comments my friends make, my spiritual path (that side of my family is devout Catholic), and the way I choose to run my household ("Jennifer, it can't be sanitary. Just use Clorox and Windex like the rest of us!"). In the days when I first started using Livejournal, I made a separate account as a decoy for family. It worked for a short time before I let it go fallow. I was more insecure in my identity then, and less sure that what I was doing was the right choice for me. I now have no regrets and no hesitation. I am no longer ashamed of who I am. If my family chooses to enter a forum of my life that's not their living rooms...they will get the truth. Don't ask questions to which you might not want the answers...and don't get a Facebook if you don't want to really get to know someone. Hi, my name is Jennifer, and I refuse to censor myself for the sake of family ignorance.

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it's been a while since i posted...was int he hospital for a few days...been working...
real update soon!

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Quite a bit has gone down this week...
We've been playing a lot of Texas Hold Em with a group that meets every night at various bars in the area. It's free, and you play for points. I've done pretty well. The other night I finished 5th out of over 50 people. We're going again tonight, so we'll see how I do. I didn't make it out to Tara's party on Friday, which made me sad. I really wanted to get out early, but they messed up the LWOP (leave without pay) order, so I didn't make the cut. Saturday I didn't get out as early as I'd have liked, but I trudged home in the light snow carrying the heart shaped bamboo I'd found for Ryan for Valentine's Day. When I got home he handed me a plushy tiger and lead me into the bedroom where he promptly turned out the lights. He'd gotten a bunch of glow-in-the-dark hearts and spelled "I <3 U" in a giant heart on the ceiling. The rest were arrayed arounf the bedroom. There will be pictures once I get a good one. Saturday night we went to The Pleasure Garden's Valentine's Day party. I got to test drive a sybian! If you don't know what that is..Google. We mostly kept to ourselves and did some dancing, but we left exhausted and adrenaline drunk. Sunday I had to work, but still managed to get home at a reasonable hour. Yesterday I was sick as a dog, took some shit for it at work, but they still let me come home early.

Today I had an echocardiogram...let me state now how much I detest the jelly they use for sonograms and the like...euwww! It's STILL all over me!
That's been about it...Riverchasers tonight, MDW tomorrow...we'll see what else...

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