TBT

I really have nothing people so I'm just going to vent, whine and bitch. Okay?

As you all know so very well Rick got Lyme Disease. And as I mentioned just before vacation his blood work all came back normal. Also I told you that this can just be remission or it's really gone. Only time will tell.
They believe just remission though. But the good news of all this is that he no longer has to take high blood pressure medication.

Rick has been on this medication since he was quite young and thin. They never understood why when all of his other blood work and tests showed to be perfect or even low (like cholesterol was 178 or at times lower) So this was a mystery. Because he is adopted he doesn't know family history so they just kept telling him it was 'run of the mill" high blood pressure. But it seems the Lyme Disease cured it.

He did lose some weight but as I said he never was heavy when he was in his 20's and 30's and it was high then. The doctor told him that they find this happens a great deal after contacting Lyme Disease and they have no idea why. We, of course want to believe this is all a good thing.  Weird as it is we are just taking this as a good thing that came out of a shitty thing. He is now medication free and feeling great. He just completed more tests and we just heard the results.  The cardiologists said everything was text book perfect. They were in shock.  Interesting though isn't it? 

This is my Throw Back Thursday photo of the week.
This is me with the brown hair and my sister Pam the blonde.
This is also my Grandmother who is evil. Evil Thomasina. I don't think the word evil was on her birth certificate but should have been.

I would venture to guess that my Grandmother here is my age or younger. I think the reason she looks so damn old is because she was as mean as a snake.  
Did you ever watch the Soprano's?  Do you remember Tony's mother?  
She tried to kill her son and all kinds of other mean horrific things. 
That is this woman to a T.  I mean she was exactly evil like her.  
So much so that when I first saw the mom on Tony Soprano it gave me chills. I immediately called my sister while the show was still on and said, "Are you watching the Sopranos?" and before I could go on my sister yelled into the phone, "OMG is that Grandma D or what?" 

I hated her. She was always incredibly mean to me especially. 
She would walk by me and smack me upside the head. When I would ask, "What is that for?"
She would tell me it was because I looked like my father. Of course she never did this around my parents. Only when my sister and I were alone with her. Oh how I disliked her. But most of all she scared me to death.

When my mom was sick with cancer she was just as mean. I remember my mom calling her and asking her to come to the house for some help. When my mother was struggling with things around the house I'd hear dad say, "Call your mom to help out."
She had never helped before or offered and my mom never wanted to call her. 
I also knew it took helluva lot for my mother to make that call to even ask. 
My mom asked if she could come to our house and give her a hand with a few things.
She told my mom, "I can't I'm going shopping with your sister Eleanor today, you'll be fine"

I remember so vividly my mom slumping down on the chair that was under the phone on the wall and crying.  I asked her if Grandma was coming and she stood up and composed herself and told me,  no she was going shopping and that maybe I could help her. I only know what was really said because I heard her tell my father.  And of course while she told him she was crying again. My mom knew she was dying. I didn't at this point but I knew she was weak, tired and sick. I resented this woman so very much  for hurting my mom. But I didn't like her before this either. What she did to other family members was awful and far worse than the alienating she did to her children. Trust me it is just like the Soprano's mother.

She never did come to help- ever. Not even to help us out after mom died.
Other aunts and friends did. Mostly my fathers side of the family helped us out. 
This woman was so cold it was hard to wrap your head around. 
Even as a child I knew she was not nice. 

When my mom died she made a such a scene at the funeral, throwing herself across the casket wailing loudly. I was only 13 and I remember leaning over to my dad and saying, "She should have been an actress"  My father put his fingers to his lips and Shh'd me and said that wasn't nice"  But I didn't get what my sister and I called his "look" So while I knew it was wrong what I just said, I also knew he wasn't as mad as he was acting.

As adult I now know he felt the same way but of course he couldn't tell a 13 year old that he too thought my Grandmother was an awful human being. 
Apparently she was a shit head to him as well and he knew she was to everyone unless for some reason she liked you. She was according to my father mean to her siblings, her husband and I know for a fact certain children other than my mom. Who does that shit?

In this photo it is the only time I've seen her smile. 
She loved my sister Pam, the blonde in the picture.
Pam could do no wrong. If Pam wanted it Pam got it. So a lot of times when we stayed over night there or were visiting and she's ask what we wanted for breakfast and lunch Pam got whatever she wanted. I did not. One time Pam said, "I don't know" when asked what she wanted for breakfast. I wanted oatmeal, I loved her oatmeal for some reason. I told Pam to ask for that. Pam did, because she may have only been 7 but she knew that Grandma did everything for her and nothing for me.....except slap me regularly for no good reason.
If Pam wanted pastina for lunch she got it and I got some if it was left over and no one else wanted it. I loved pastina but if I asked I wouldn't get it. Once Pam said she wanted seconds so I could get a full bowl. When she wasn't looking Pam put it in my bowl. 
I got the scraps. I was scared of her so I  said nothing. 

When she was old and in a nursing home she had dementia. She didn't know anyone.
Sure didn't make her any nicer though. 
I went once with my sister Pam. She was screaming at a nurse. The nurse got fed up and walked out of the room. I looked at my sister and said, "She has not grown any nicer I see"
I never went back again.  My father and one aunt kept telling me that I should visit her out of respect. I refused. I told my father, but I don't respect her so I will not go.

I know I should have been the bigger person but I just couldn't. I felt like the reason she lived so long is because no one wanted her, God nor the devil, she was too awful of a human being. She lived a very very long and sad life to me. But she created it by alienating all of her family. Her own sister wouldn't visit her. 
I think she was 93 when she died. Thankfully I was living out of state and I did not go home for her funeral. I sent flowers for the family, not her. I just didn't care.

I worry that Karma will get me on that one. But I'll pay the price. She made everyone around me, except Pam miserable. She lived with my Aunt until she went into a home. My Aunt took all her shit. She'd say she was her mother and she means well. No, she never means well that is the problem. But I understood why my aunt took her in. I am glad it wasn't up to me to do it. I would have told her to call Eleanor, she'll be fine.  Just like she told my mom when she mustered the courage to ask her for help.

Gee wasn't that a bitchy story? :-)