Friday, March 23, 2007

Adding a few things

Okay, I'm adding an In-between and a Down.

In-between: I just found out that when the gentleman at Sleepy's swiped my card for the last payment, it didn't go through. I'm calling this an In-between, not a down, because I can still pay the delivery guys tomorrow. *sigh* I just really wanted it all paid off, you know.

Down: There's a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center...on August 3rd, the last day of our cruise. I'm going to be so close to a real launch and still miss the blasted thing! Pun intended, of course.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

A week of ups, downs and in-betweens

Up: Mom and I put a down-payment on our cruise at the end of July to the Caribbean. Also, we'll go a day early and see Kennedy Space Center before we cruise.

Down: Grandma had a sugar-spike episode in the middle of Old Country Buffet on Tuesday.

Up: I paid off my mattress and it's being delivered this Saturday between noon and 4pm.

Down: I have to finish reorganizing my room in two days so the guys can actually deliver the blamed thing. (So why are you on the computer, idiot?)

Up: Reorganizing my room will give me more space to work with (if I can move the dresser) and let me sort through my books; get rid of those I don't want on PaperbackSwap (Shameless plug - check out the link on the list on the right) and actually catalog the rest on LibraryThing.

In-Between: I have decided to go on a diet to lose two sizes (at least) before the cruise. Blech! It's a good thing I actually like salads and rice cakes.

Down: My brother was just here pirating our wireless for his job hunt and received a call from my oldest cousin, asking him if he wanted to go out for drinks. She has never asked me and I feel a little (a lot!) depressed at always being the odd cousin out. Oh, and when she was told where my brother was, she didn't bother asking how Grandma was doing or ask to talk to her.

Up: My brother and I had a normal conversation while he was here and he didn't, for once, try to tell me how to live my life. He was actually pretty nice for the most part and kept his snide remarks to a minimum.

Up: I sorta told off (gently) the co-worker who torments me the most after she kept taking the supplies I needed to do my job so she could do hers instead of getting them for herself. I felt good about that.

Up: I'm already pretty far on my nephew's birthday present after less than a week of stitching. I think I'll finish it in a matter of weeks, not months like I'd hoped. The Temple will take longer, but I expected it to take a while.

In-between: Kwan Yin is sort of on hold until I find out if I'll be able to get her to her recipient, as the girl quit where we work and I have no address for her at the moment. I have to email her and make sure she keeps me updated on it.


Wow! There are more ups than downs. I like that.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Oh, the Drama! And a serious note at the end.

She's home from the hospital. Actually, she came home on Thursday. She's back to her good moments and bad moments, so everything's normal. She has promised to eat vegetables, though and for the past few days, she has. Let's just see how this goes, eh? Of course, the week had to have more drama than just Grandma in the hospital, right?

Here goes, on Wednesday, yours truly decided to cut herself with a box cutter at work and is now typing (and attempting to cross-stitch at times) with two stitches in her left index finger. I had to go to Moses Taylor, where the nurse who stitched me up was so understanding and good about my needle phobia I left her a Reese's cup as a reward for dealing with me. Although, I kind of wish she had just knocked me put with a hammer when she gave me the drug to numb my finger for the stitches. Why is a cure always worse then the injury?

I found out after I got back to work, even though Moses Taylor had called Medcor about it from the hospotal, that I needed a drug test. So after work Mom took me to pee in a cup. Thursday, before Grandma was let out, I went to the company doctor to be told how much could work. Um, I had pretty much done everything I usually do right after getting the stitches and during the day on Thursday, so I've been officially told I can work full-duty. Go figure. The funny thing is that one of the stitches is cutting its way to the actual cut every time I fully extend the finger, so now I just have to make sure I keep it slightly bent.

We found out on Tuesday that a cousin died while on a cruise in the Carribean. The body was still held up and no-one was sure when the funeral was. The worst part is that his aunt has pretty much cut off ties to the family and no-one in New York knew how to get hold of her. We knew where her daughter worked, so Mom was going to go there and leave a message for her. Well, TAFH, who was really close to the deceased cousin, decided to take care of it herself and not let Mom know about it. She called my cousin, who had the daughter's phone number and apparently called her, never telling Mom, who then proceeded to waste part of her morning off going to the place the daughter worked and trying to get hold of her, finally leaving a message for her. Mom + TAFH's arrogance and ignorance = a not-very-happy Mommy.

When TAFH left the funeral last night she called us (Mom did not call her on the carpet) and told us that my deceased cousin actually saved a woman while he himself was drowning. Those of you who have been reading this blog know I try not to call attention to my identity because I'm not always the nicest person to my relatives, but I feel that my cousin, Eric Reistetter, deserves recognition for his selfless act of heroism. He could have been rescued before another person caught in the undertow but he had the rescuers go to her, a panicking woman, before himself. He left behind a wife, two young sons, a father, mother, various siblings and a lot of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends who cared about him. He was a popular man in his community who participated in children's sports and helped people when he could as much as he could. He was a genuinely good man and his loss will be felt deeply.

Drowning victim remembered as hero, friend
BY JULIET CHUNGNewsday Staff WriterMarch 3, 2007, 8:53 PM EST
In his eulogy of Eric Reistetter Saturday, a childhood friend recalled how the pair would often play street hockey while growing up.
Once, when he blew out his knee during a game, Reistetter carried him five blocks to his home, said Greg Martino.
"This was the kind of friend Eric was to me," Martino said before more than 100 mourners gathered at Pinelawn Memorial Center for a burial service.
When he was recuperating from knee surgery years later, Reistetter prescribed him an old-fashioned pain remedy, Martino, of Hauppauge, recalled. He then produced a 23-year-old bottle of Southern Comfort.
"One shot to be taken every four to six minutes until you experience no pain," he read off the homemade label as the crowd chuckled.
"Although my heart is broken for the loss of my friend," Martino said, "the memories I have of Eric will last forever."
The funeral, held under sunshine and clear blue skies, capped days of grieving for Reistetter, 43, a Hauppauge father and baseball coach who drowned off the coast of Anguilla on Feb. 22 after directing rescuers to attend first to another swimmer in distress.
He and his family were on a cruise; Reistetter was swimming when he got caught in an undertow, witnesses said.
Robin Reistetter described her husband's last actions as typical. "I really wanted to be mad at him for what he did, but I can't, because that's who he is."
A shipping manager, Reistetter's real passion lay with his family -- Robin, 41, and sons, Matthew, 14, and Michael, 11 -- and with the boys he coached or refereed as an umpire, family members and friends said.
They were among the nearly 300 mourners who attended the morning funeral Mass at St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church in Hauppauge. A smaller procession continued to the cemetery, making detours to drive past Reistetter's childhood and family homes and past the ballfield where he coached.
At Pinelawn, mourners showered roses onto Reistetter's coffin, which held a baseball signed by the Long Island Baymen, a baseball team he coached that included his son Michael.
Relatives described Reistetter as the glue that held the family together. Reistetter's fellow coaches and young charges praised him for teaching with a smile.
Brandon DeRamo, 11, said Reistetter made his players laugh, even when they played poorly. He added Reistetter had improved his game."I would never line up my knuckles when I hit and he got me to do that," he said.
Teammate Nick Martin, 11, called Reistetter unforgettable.
"I thought he was a hero."
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.