success all around!

Well, I accomplished a goal. I finished my CNA course with an A average and now I'm waiting to take the dreaded Pearson Vue test to be officially Wisconsin certified.. here's to asswipes!..literally. ha.

In the meantime of Sept and now, things have been going decently. I was going to input a blog sometime in October following recieving a text simply saying "I'm pregnant, don't tell Mom and Dad!!"

.....

Well, Emily had her tubes tied after she gave birth to Alex. With each pregnancy she had things were increasingly shitty and it was simply the best option. For her to get pregnant is of course nothing to look down on, but at the same time, her disease is progressing, she's struggling health-wise lately and financially of course, (aren't we all?), her current relationship has been up and down and up then back down then up for a bit over and over again like a record, and the change of giving Huntington's to another one of her kids scared the shit out of her and me. I asked her how far along she was and she said that she thought it was only a couple of weeks or so, that she hasn't seen a doctor yet she's only taken one at-home pee-on-a-stick test.

A couple weeks passed and I still didn't really know what to think about the news. I texted her and asked her how she was doing and how the pregnancy was, if she had seen a doctor yet. her response created even more shock.......... "OH! I'm not pregnant, we read the test wrong.. hahah!!!!'''

That turd. For the past 2 weeks before learning that I was secretly worried sick about her, the baby, what my family would think, etc etc etc etc x100.

Geez louise.

I went on a trip and came back to Monroe for a weekend to re-coop after major jet-lag, and of course food from Mom n Dads and to go out to see some friends. (minor insertion of personal life here-- never date someone because they can buy you the world, date someone because they might not have a penny but would be more than willing to do anything to give you the world, case closed.) When I was home I talked to Em and we decided to meet up, a friend of ours who passed away years ago always has his family and friends get together around the time of his birthday somewhere in town, and it was a wedding reception for another friend, lots of things about life to celebrate, and shit, the clocks went back an hour, can we say another hour to drink?? I saw Em out with a few friends and she had a blast. She knows and realizes and accepts now that she's not supposed to be drinking, which is GOOD. All it does it fuel her emotions to be on a rollercoaster even more.

She got into a few fights with teenager, one almost landed a restraining order against him from her and another one made me call his phone number and ask what the fuck he did to her... turns out his dad answered and apparantly I scared the crud out of him to the point where he thought HE did something wrong.... oops :) Don't fuck with my family ppl, I'll tell ya what's up. ha. Anyways, she called me and freaked out and told me how she's concerned about her up and down emotions and I'm sure her boyfriend doesn't like to be dumped every other day. So, I'm VERY very very proud of her for what she told me next, she said that she made a Dr. appt, for herself, to find out more about where she stands with the progression of Huntingtons and if she needs to be put on any new kind of medicine. I told her to make a list now of things she would like to bring up, things she's concerned about, things that are happening that she feels are beyond her control to manage etc. I'm glad that she's being more aware of what's going on in her life with the disease and how she continues to be so strong with dealing with it all, I've never heard her flip out about the disease once, she's only freaked out about her boyfriend etc.

More good news? Both me and her landed jobs on the same day. YAY US! We both start Tuesday next week :o) make that money honey. She texted me and said "help! call me!" of course i did right away and of course she didn't answer as always and I did my game of not answering when she called back, she likes phone tag and thinks it's hilarious, and she has no idea that I do it on purpose, maybe someday I tell her. muhaha. She texted "so i quit the manor two years ago without notice but I want to work there again, what do I say?" hahahhahaha.... dork. Well i gave her awesome sisterly advice and now she will be working part-time back there again! coolness. I'm uneasy about how well this will last or work out, but I give the girl credit for getting back out there and trying. So many people these days don't, so, she kicks ass. That's all :)

sorry blog

I ignored you for the full summer almost.

I'm happy to say that I've taken another step towards my reason of moving home, I'll be a certified nursing assistant by the end of the year. Going back to school was hard after not being in it for over 7 years, but it's a step in the right direction for my goal and what I want to do.

Matter of fact, my biggest report/presentation is due this coming Monday morning at 8am, and we had to choose from a list of diseases provided by our teacher. Guess what was at the top of the list and was what i decided to sign up for? It's bittersweet but it's forced me to again look into and remind myself of what the future holds.

Today right now I'm sitting at a laptop-only desk in the public library in downtown Madison watching videos of people with Huntington's Disease, trying to decide how far I want to go with this report.

I haven't started it yet.

I don't know if i can or if I want to include anything about Emily or not. I emailed my teacher for permission to use personal experience but I'm undecided if it's something that I want to let my class know. Half of them irritate the living shit out of me and I'd want to slap them if they didn't pay attention. Therefore, I'm undecided. Plus, this shit is personal. I've never been good with expressing myself in an honest true way. I tried the whole band thing and the ego of the other singer took over and now that short goal was killed. Word of advice? Never join a band. Well, if you play an instrument, go for it, but don't be a chick singer in a group of has-been nobodys.

Anyways, emily is doing ok. She hasn't shaved her head since the last time I saw her thankfully. To my knowledge no mullet is present either. I get to see her and the kids this weekend, it's Cheese Days in Monroe. Laugh it up. It's cool. Cheese rocks. I havent seen her at all this summer except for in the beginning when I went to the zoo with her Rusty and the kids. I kinda miss that weird chick. She was going to come up for Taste of Madison but her boyfriends brakes needed work on his car so she didn't make it which was ok because I randomly went to go see my boyfriend in CA for the weekend. Yeah, wish me luck on this one I dont have good luck in that category do i? Ugh. This weekend should be quite stellar. My parents are having a party saturday during the day and somewhat of a Bystry family reunion. There shall be polish sausage for all! ....and beer. :)

Time to stop putting off my report. I'll post it on here after it's all done, maybe. Happy Cheese Days weekend to you all and to all a good night.

"Call me back, bye!"

BAHAHAHAH.......

So I just tried to call the bald one.. yes the bald one. Oh, you don't know? She pulled a damn Britney Spears and shaved her hair off, it's probably boy short by now since this was back around Mothers Day.. damn I haven't updated in awhile. Moving on, what the hell is so funny? Emily called me a few days ago around, oh, say 3 or 4am, it was a night off of mine so I was sleeping during the night, and when I wake up I have a voicemail of her absolutly bawling her head off. She said she did something stupid to Zach (aka teenager) and that she needed to call me back. Well, you guessed it, she was shitfaced when she called, the gal can't hold an ounce of alcohol anymore I swear.

Long story short: I get her voicemail and she says fast in one sentence, "HiThisIsEmilyI'mNotHereSoCallMeBackBye"
...... don't most people say they will call YOU back?
She's one of a kind.

Mothers day was pretty awesome, for the first time in a long long time we had my entire immediate family and thier million kids down in Monroe at my parents place. A simple cook-out was all it was, but it was nice. Lots of pictures taken and more food eaten. Unfortunatly I had to work that night so my dad haaaaaaadddddd to take my home. He actually likes to escape from all the women, can't blame the guy. We of course took all backroads up listening to Johnny Cash stopping by Culvers to get shakes. Good stuff.

Emily has randomly texted me since the crying fit, sounds like things are better. Her little Alex turned 4 yesterday :o) That kid is a smart one, I hope he had a kickass birthday. Kohna had a dance recital this past weekend that I couldn't make it to due to lack of car. ha. Pictures are coming in the mail soon so therefore I am stoked.

As far as the disease goes, she's seeming to be out of it more, and the moods are getting even more extreme. She still calls me with her ups and downs and still doesn't listen to a damn word I say for advice. Gotta love it.

happy birthday!

Today marks one year of me randomly blogging and spelling shit wrong and probably many other errors. Time sure does fly. A year ago today I was on Guam after just coming back there from vacation HERE where I'm now living, and about to buy a plane ticket to move home after finding out about Emily. It's amazing how much can happen in 365 days.

Now i'm home, enjoying time with old friends, family, watching seasons change and eating the best cheese on earth ;) But I've got to say, winter sucked. There were days that it was TOO cold to open the spa on time... too cold, seriously. I'm talking wind chills of more than -20. Insanity if i do say so myself.

Luckily Emilys progression over this past year has been minimal. She's still her dorky self. There is more random twitching and extreme moods, but I really think the guy she's with is helping her out a ton, even though I was leery at first, he's a good egg afterall.

Here's to many more years ahead.. :)

Joke time!

Tonight randomly sprung another texting session. Emily texts me, what do you call a dog in the summer?

Does she think I'm an idiot? Well, it wouldn't be a cold dog.

Next, and I'm currently waiting on the dumb humor answer, she asks, "What lake tastes good with french fries?" To which I replied.. "no idea." But I'm guessing a Great Lake, I'll keep you informed on the answer as it comes.

So last weekend was Easter, holidays seem so mundane as I get older. Celebration of choice was meeting up with my sister Liz and her husband Matt and thier little one Kyle to eat at a buffet-style place in Freeport. Jen had to work and Emily was going to thier kids' dads place.

As we were driving up we passed two speeding blaring ambulances and cops on every road almost. Apparantly a crazy guy barged into his ex-wife's house, shot him and her current boyfriend, then went back to his house and tried, yes, tried, to shoot himself in the head. Poor guy was still alive when he was finally found.. suicide fail.
Ok that was mean. But, he tried to kill two people, who are luckily hanging on. So, he's a waste of life.

Anyways I didn't know this and didn't know details until we were eating our wonderful 5.99 all you can eat brunch. When you live in a small town, people know shit as it happens. My sister, who lives in a town of 100's, had the scanner on and kept us updated.

I guess I like living in a place where not many people know me. I keep to myself a lot and I don't know shit about many, and not many know shit about me, and I like it that way. Emily is the same. Although she lives in Monroe which is aka gossip-central, she doesn't have cable, she doesn't have a computer, she only has a cell phone, which she obviously isn't talented at answering or using properly. She likes to do ACTUAL things and play with the kids outside, play music inside, etc. Kudos to the blue haired one.

By the way the answer was the Great Salt Lake, lame.

Blue

hair color of choice for the next few weeks, this will change guaranteed. Pic was taken at the zoo, I was picked up at the bus stop from an awesome group of people, including Em, Rusty (Rage and Kohnas dad), and Rage and Kohna, for a monday funday since the kids are on spring break. :)

GRIM3 TIL I DI3

What the hell does THAT mean? How does one 'grime'. Grime to me means filth, I wouldn't want to be filthy till I die, I like bubble baths wayyy too much. So Emily texts me... here I'll just list this current ongoing text conversation..





Emily: Hey hw.ru?when ru coming down again? Lisa wants her hair cut! Kohna needs 1 also!


GRIM3 TIL I DI3





Me: Emily, what is on the bottom of your text..





Emily: Ah Jaron did it!


GRIM3 TIL I DI3





Me: Dude, change it.





Emily: Keeping it 4 a month! Promised Jaron! Hw.hv.u been?when ru coming down again?


GRIM3 TIL I DI3





Me: I'll come down when it doesn't say grime til i die. And I'll be fantastic when it doesn't say grime til i die, how are you?



Emily: Mostly good thx!

GRIM3 TIL I DI3



Me: You're ignoring my request. You don't want to see me?



-there is a delay where Emily is obviously ignoring me. Once again, I dont do hair, and I dont really know how. I don't see how I'm being labeled as this 'stylist' that isn't. I sent her a text during this time saying "Switch it to, 'Ever do it in the butt??' just to see what people say"
:)
muhahaa.

One more thing-

I google-imaged the guy, Xavier judd looks like a rat. You know how some people look like animals? He looks like some sort of dirty rat. That is all.

Rock music love crushes.

Aparrantly Em's is called Xavier Rudd. Never heard of the dude, so I did what any normal average person would do... google time!
This afternoon I got an always random text message from my sister (after I had already talked to her today on the phone), instructing me to call and listen to her voicemail. I knew something was up.
My sister isn't tech advanced enough to know how to upload mp3's on her cell, well, shit, she doesn't even own a computer, so, nevermind.
What does she do? She sticks her damn cell like RIGHT by the speaker and blasts a song, thinking the closer she holds her phone to the speaker, the highest quality of sound will be there. Oh, and she doesn't decide to just do the chorus or the more common part of the song.... it was the whole fricken thing. All I heard was this muffled decently pretty song. He's pretty cool, kinda folk/blues/rock, which is all that's pretty much out there right now.
That was the random Emily thing of the day, except for her not realizing what day it was. She told me that on Sunday she's going to bring up the kids to the zoo and would love to have me be the suprise guest, (HELL YEAH!). Then she said that Rage and Kohna have different spring breaks... I found that odd since they are both in the same school district area. Anywho, I point out how today in fact is March 19th, and she argued with me for a good minute before actually looking to see that it was, loser.
My reply to her saying she sucks at recording his greatness? "He sounds like a girl." Seriously this guy can blast a better falsetto, prettier too, than my lungs can pipe. neener neener my sister has a crush on a guy who sounds like a GIIIIIIIIRL. Ha. This is going down in history, folks.

Help!

So this past weekend I decided to try to kill my liver by joining the annual Celtic Pub Crawl with a good friend down in Monroe. Needless to say I was passed out by 630pm on my parents couch in my weird but appropriate attire of the day. Classy.

Friday night a friend and I were out for fish (duh) and a random text from Em comes in saying she needs help drinking some Jager.

Ahem, I did what any loving sister would do.

Jagerbombs for dessert!

Forget the fact that I had to be up to drink AGAIN in the morning, ay yi yi. So on we go to Emily's place. I got to see Rage, which was awesome, and I was able to talk to Kohna and Alex on the phone the day before, but didn't get to see them since they were at thier dads place. On a side note Rage switched schools and is doing fabulous up in New Glarus, kinda rhymes, heh.

Anywho, we get there and Em proclaims "hey i want you to cut my hair!"

Again, I'm not a hair stylist, I'm not licensed in shit. Lol... I'm a damn massage therapist, but she still believes I'm this great hair cutter. So, what style did we go with? PIXIE, hahhahaha.. see pic. I used kitchen scissors and an old brush.. the ladies at cameo would flip if they were reading this right now, ha.

I don't think I did a bad job! But, not so sure I did a good one, she can't see the back of her head and I secretly prefer it that way.

One year.

So it's been about a year since she was diagnosed, and she's still kicking ass.. and taking names- just not at bartime, she's happy with the dude still, yay! The progression has been slow, it can stay that way, really, I don't mind.
I called her up the other day to once again get her voicemail that her friend made for her trying to sound like her. She really needs to change that, it's lame. When she called me back there was The Doors blasting in the background with my little neice Kohna singing along at the top of her lungs. Rock on little one!
A year, damn, time flies. At this time last year I was home visiting, learning about what would be my ultimate decision to move home. She still has no idea that it's really why. Before I had learned about my ovarian cyst and needed surgery I found out about her, and I had actually had a ticket lined up for me to move home in May of last year. Then along came my health shit, then it got pushed back to June. Such is life.
Moving back home and being around the people I love and love me back was probably the best decision I've ever made in my life, of course, it's close to moving away to an island when I was 21, breaking up with someone that I needed to break up with and ending up moving BACK to the island a couple years later, solo, for some self-discovery. Wouldn't change a damn thing for the world.
Back to the matter at hand, damn, one year. There will be plenty more. 11:11, make that wish..

we gon' sip Bacardi like it's yo' birthday

Tomorrow she is the big 29. I was hoping to be able to see her since her and Rage are going to be up around here, but apparantly they have a lot of shit to do, such is life. I'm thinking of sending her a male stripper but I don't think Monroe has those. If they did? It would be a classy guy I'm sure, maybe with all his teeth.. if she's lucky.

So we talked on the phone, she's still with "teenager". And I told her the story of cowboy-gone-wrong. Summed up? Never date someone who's banged one step-sister and now wants to do the other one. I'm waiting for the country song on that one. I've respectfully removed myself from all interaction with that clan.

Moving on, I guess they went up north the other weekend, and she loved it! It's always nice to get away, I think I gotta do that soon. She's met the parents, and everyone seems to get along, so I'm pretty damn happy for my sis :) Despite all the crud that's going on, hearing that everything is going good and she's happy is pretty much all I need.

Get laid

Not laid off.
DAMNIT.... seriously? Emily got laid off from her job yesterday. She called me and left me a voicemail while I was at work crying and saying she was scared it was going to happen and it did.
Emily worked with mentally disabled adults, this is a place that's NEEDED, and they are now being forced to cut back thier employees. Fuck this shit, why the hell are we sending millions and millions of dollars to a country that is not owned by the states when people living in THIS one need it. I'm a little annoyed.
She needed that job, she had been looking for a job forever, and i convinced her to get it. She worked there years prior, and really enjoyed her job. What she did was great. She had the mentality of living off of her tax return and state aide for the rest of her life but I convinced her to get back into the real world and make some money to support her kids better. Now she is going to be once again in the situation of either living off of state aide help and unemployment or not getting any help for food/heat etc and busting her ass working a job that will literally give her less money.
I wanna be president, damnit. Not happy today. This is actually making me contemplate moving back to Monroe. Right now I live in Madison, and I bust my chops working and barely being able to afford my own little one room studio. God damnit. Is it really getting to the point where places that are so beneficial and GOOD for just the humane decency of things are getting cut of help? Ridiculous.

Another hope.

I randomly look online, well, a lot.. to see if there is any new news articles about Huntingtons disease. Today I found this, it's taken from www.cnnmoney.com and it basically states that there is going to be a lot of money put into drug research for the disease over the course of the next three years. Even if it would be too late to help my sister, which I don't want to even think about, I hope that it will benefit other families someday who are dealing with the same thing. It's pure hell.

The link to the article is.. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/globenewswire/181915.htm

Here is the copy/paste of it..
* Strategic alliance with CHDI aimed at accelerating efforts to develop drugs against Huntington's disease * Entails research revenue of up to US$ 37.5 million over the next three years * One of the largest strategic drug discovery alliances within Evotec
HAMBURG, Germany and ABINGDON, UK, Jan. 14, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evotec AG (Frankfurt:EVT) (TecDAX) today announced the extension of its collaboration with CHDI Foundation, Inc. (CHDI) through to the end of 2012. The collaboration, which is aimed at finding new treatments for Huntington's disease and represents one of the largest joint innovation drug discovery CNS alliances within Evotec, will provide Evotec with up to US$ 37.5 million in research funding over the next three years. Evotec has been providing research and innovation support to CHDI since 2006.
"As a proven leader in the field of drug discovery, Evotec continues to be an important strategic partner in our search for effective treatments for Huntington's disease. Their integrated drug discovery capabilities are helping us advance numerous drug candidates towards the clinic and we look forward to continuing to work with Evotec over the coming years," said Dr. Robert Pacifici, Chief Scientific Officer of CHDI.
The extension of this collaboration is a further validation of Evotec's broad expertise in CNS drug discovery and development. Evotec will provide a full range of neurological research activities and expertise to CHDI, including integrated biology and chemistry supported by compound and library management, target validation, screening, computational chemistry, in vitro and in vivo PK and protein crystallography. Evotec has made a significant investment to put together an integrated platform to provide drug discovery solutions, especially within the area of neuroscience.
Dr. Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, commented: "We are delighted that CHDI has chosen to further extend our strategic alliance. We view this as an important step in our work with CHDI to develop novel therapies for Huntington's disease and meet this urgent medical need. At the same time it will allow Evotec to gain further experience in defining the underlying mechanisms of other neurodegenerative diseases."
About Huntington's Disease
Huntington's disease is a familial disease caused by a mutation in the huntingtin gene. Each child of a parent with the mutation in the huntingtin gene has a 50-50 chance of inheriting the mutation. As a result of carrying the mutation, an individual's brain cells fail and die leading to cognitive and physical impairments that, over the course of the disease, significantly impair the individual's quality of life and ultimately cause death. Symptoms of Huntington's disease, which generally develop in midlife and become progressively more debilitating as time passes, can also develop in infancy or old age. Once overt symptoms start, patients live for about 15 to 20 years. One person in 10,000 is believed to carry a mutation in the huntingtin gene. There is currently no way to delay the onset of symptoms or slow the progression of Huntington's disease.
About Evotec AG
Evotec is a leader in the discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs. The Company has built substantial drug discovery expertise and an industrialized platform that can drive new innovative small molecule compounds into the clinic. In addition, Evotec has built a deep internal knowledge base in the treatment of diseases related to neuroscience, pain, and inflammation. Leveraging these skills and expertise the Company intends to develop best-in-class differentiated therapeutics and deliver superior science-driven discovery alliances with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Evotec has long-term discovery alliances with partners including Boehringer Ingelheim, CHDI, Novartis, Ono Pharmaceutical and Roche. Evotec has product candidates in clinical development and a series of preclinical compounds and development partnerships, including for example a strategic alliance with Roche for the EVT 100 compound family, subtype selective NMDA receptor antagonists for use in treatment-resistant depression. For additional information please go to www.evotec.com.
About CHDI Foundation, Inc.
CHDI is a non-profit organization with a mission to rapidly discover and develop drugs that delay or slow the progression of Huntington's disease. CHDI supports an international network of research laboratories from academia and industry pursuing novel therapies for the treatment of Huntington's disease. As a collaborative enabler, CHDI seeks to bring the right partners together to identify and address critical scientific issues and move drug candidates to clinical evaluation as quickly as possible. More information about CHDI can be found at www.chdifoundation.org.
Forward-looking statements
Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our expectations and assumptions concerning our strategic collaborations, our regulatory, clinical and business strategies, the progress of our clinical development programmes and management's plans, objectives and strategies. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the risks and uncertainties include, among other things: risks that product candidates may fail in the clinic or may not be successfully marketed or manufactured; the risk that we will not achieve the anticipated benefits of our collaborations, partnerships and acquisitions in the timeframes expected, or at all; risks relating to our ability to advance the development of product candidates currently in the pipeline or in clinical trials; our inability to further identify, develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; the risk that competing products may be more successful; our inability to interest potential partners in our technologies and products; our inability to achieve commercial success for our products and technologies; our inability to protect our intellectual property and the cost of enforcing or defending our intellectual property rights; our failure to comply with regulations relating to our products and product candidates, including FDA requirements; the risk that the FDA may interpret the results of our studies differently than we have; the risk that clinical trials may not result in marketable products; the risk that we may be unable to successfully secure regulatory approval of and market our drug candidates; and risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the U.S. and internationally

90210

Looking at the title of this post can you take a wild guess what book Em got me for my Christmas present? Yeah. Weirdo.

Christmas with the family rocked, for the first time in years I was able to see my neices and nephews eyes go nuts with every present they ripped open, priceless. Things were a bit different this year with both Grandparents now gone, but the traditional Bystry polish sausage, ham, potatoes and fruit cake that is always ignored were all things I looked forward to.

Since I was in town, Em wanted me to be make-over do-er once again, but suprisingly she didn't need me this time. Before I got back she asked me to lighten her hair more, and I asked her when she wanted me to do it and she said she already did.. it's yellow. It's not blond, it's fricken yellow. Apparantly she likes it, so we just left it at that.

I haven't heard from her for a bit, I have tried to call randomly but she's probably been at work. As far as I know she is still dating 'teenager' (who is now 20 I guess, but the name is going to be there forever.) She's looking forward to meeting "cowboy" too. Yes I've got myself a boyfriend, this shit hasn't happened in years, literally. He's a keeper :)

Hopefully this year brings a bit more joy than the last. Trials and tribulations can make leather skin, but silk is wayyyyyyyyyyy softer.

Here's to a new year.
:)