It’s been a rough week, personally and professionally. My head just wasn’t in the game today at work, and my boss had the day off. At noon, I decided it was time to take a few hours of personal time. First, I went to get my hair cut and beard trimmed. I’m now sporting a thin little urban beard. It probably won’t last long because he trimmed it too short. But it’s kind of cool. After that, I didn’t really do anything other than go home, let Reggie out for a bit, and then jump back into my car. I went to the beach to take some airplane pictures. Instead, I found some guys doing what I believe is called parasurfing.

I have a bunch more pictures to post, but I’ll have to sift through them over the weekend. I was able to snap off a few plane pictures, but most of them are crap because the planes were going the opposite direction I needed them to be. As I was wrapping up, I missed out on my money shot. There was a Lufthansa A340 taking off, and that would have been some amazing photography. Unfortunately, I was already in the car by the time it took off.

Afterwards, I grabbed Reggie, and we headed up to spend the evening with Beth, Paul, and the boys. Beth made her Tequila Lime Chicken again. It gets better every time she makes it.  I had some fun pitting and scooping the avocados. I almost hurt myself in the process, but it was fun watching her knife go right through the pit of the avacado. You’ve got to love a good knife.

It was a nice evening, even though I was wiped out. Like I said, it’s been a really rough week for me, and I’m glad it’s over. I can’t think of a better way to wrap it up.

The upstairs neighbor’s daughter was yelling “Mom!” She’s loud. Without thinking I yelled ‘Stop yelling!’ You could cut the silence with a knife. It was beautiful.

I think they finally got the hint, though.

I’m feeling a little better, but I must have eaten something bad this morning. I wasn’t feeling too well around 10:00 and I went home and got some sleep. That did wonders for me.

I came back to work for our ESOP meeting. The biggest news I heard out of that was that we have no intentions of going public. That’s a big deal.

I finally talked to my neurologist. She says we’re doing everything right with the prednisone and that the utter exhaustion is fairly common. She says to get as much rest as I can to let my body recover. I need to call her office tomorrow to schedule a followup appointment.

My boss is awesome. I told him about the talk with the neurologist, and he told me to relax. He said that the last thing I should stress over right now is my job. Heck, he even offered to help me move. Then we talked about some work-related stuff, and he gave me the okay to buy a new desktop computer. Right now, I have a really sweet 19” flat panel monitor, and I’m getting an additional one. My new computer will have a ton of hard drive space and a boatload of memory, in addition to the dual video.

Yeah, things are getting better.

I’ve been down this road before, and I don’t like it. It’s bumpy. Every time. And it doesn’t seem to get easier.

When I have a relapse, I get nervous—I get anxious—I get depressed. How long until this passes? How long until it happens again? Will it be worse next time? These are all questions that run through my head. I don’t like it when I get like this.  I try to make my logical, rational thinking take over. This is relapsing-remitting MS. That means the symptoms come and go. They’ve come. Now I just have to wait for them to go.

I keep reminding myself that we caught this really early and that I’m really not in bad shape. Once this passes, I’ll be okay. It just bothers me that three weeks ago, I was working out in the gym four days a week and now, I feel like I need a nap by noon.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m just waiting for it to get brighter.

I keep looking at my MS Walk Pledge Page, and I’m humbled every time I do. The amount of money that has come in has been impressive. My friends and coworkers have really reached into their pockets, and I’m incredibly grateful. My dad’s family, however, has been a bit of a disappointment.  Still, if I don’t collect another single penny, I’m well over $1300 for this year. I call that an accomplishment.

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Reggie is at PetSmart being groomed and the house is totally quiet. It’s really kind of creepy. But it’s time for a good nap.

My neurologist’s office called me back today, finally. It usually takes them two days to call me back. Her assistant says that she’ll be available tomorrow in the lab and that I should call her then. I guess that will have to do.

What is it with me and landlords?

My landlord in Pittsburgh was new, but she had ethics and tried to be good.
My landlord in Providence didn’t know how to be a landlord.
My landlord now in Boston doesn’t want to be a landlord.

Lets hope the next one is better. He owns more properties and has been nothing but professional to date.

This is good… we had an executive assistant to a senior VP have her laptop stolen. On her laptop was her boss’ e-mail archive. It’s not like we can send her hard drive out for recovery because it’s just plain gone.  Her boss is not going to be a happy camper. 

I got some good news today. My upstairs neighbor knocked on my door and asked about my washer and dryer. I knew that was coming. What I wasn’t prepared for was her offering to buy them from me. They were a gift from my parents a little over two years ago, and they paid $500 for the pair. I’m selling them for $250. That’s a little more money I’ll have to help move. This makes me happy. It also saves me the hassle of selling them on craigslist.

My boss kicked me out of the office at 4:00. Well, he made me come home to get some rest. I must look terrible. My only goal for tonight is to call my current landlord and tell him that I’m moving out. If I feel a big spurt of energy, I’ll do a load of laundry. Yeah, that’s a big deal right now. I just want sleep…

I hope Reggie will let me sleep a little. He’ll get his cuddle time, so I’m sure he’ll be fine.

I feel like I’ve taken a full miligram of Xanax and am trying to fight the exhaustion. I’m utterly wiped right now. It’s MS, I’m sure. But there isn’t a whole lot I can do about it. I do have a call into my neurologist’s office, hoping she’ll have some brilliant insight to offer. In the meantime, I just want to rest. I think I’m going to bail out of the office shortly. Reggie really needs a bath, but that’s not going to happen today.