STICK A FORK IN ME - I'M DONE

Man, I've been so remiss with the blogging lately. I feel out of sorts when I cannot post or read up on my friends' blogs.

For starters, my dad took over our office. He could not get comfortable in the bed we had in the guest room, so he set up a mattress in our office and my parents slept in two separate rooms. No biggie, except it meant I had about five minutes MAX per day to spend on the computer. I am a loser and have not yet invested in a laptop, so if my dad is asleep in the office I have no connection to the internet whatsoever. Side note: I am supposed to be getting a laptop from work this week. I hope so, I have been waiting for this laptop for two months.

Secondly, I have occasionally blogged from work, on a slow day. Ha! I wish I could remember what a slow day at work was like. I am drowning, utterly drowning in work projects these days, half because it is very busy right now and half because I just don't give a shit. My job, which occupies so much of my personal time and fills me with so much stress, is number 9,999 on my top ten list of high priority life issues these days. So the work piles up, and I sit there helplessly watching it, seeing it spiral out of control and not caring one bit. Well, caring a little, but wishing to hell I didn't have to care right now. Point is, no time to blog during the work day these days, either.

So I have managed to do a couple of random drive-by posts, but it hasn't been the same. I have missed my therapy. And man, have I needed it.

Seeing that it has been a long, tough week, this is also going to be a relatively short post. But I just wanted to give some quick updates on my life:

As of tonight, I have been doing the Lupron injections for 8 nights.

As of today, I got my period, so tomorrow morning I go for my first bloodwork and ultrasound of the IVF cycle. Can I tell you, I have never been so excited to get my period! I am just so ready to get on with the IVF - I want to start growing follicles, I want to get to egg retrieval and embryo transfer - I am SO ready to get moving. I was told to expect my period after 7 days on the Lupron, and BAM! just like clockwork there it was today! That is SO unlike my period, but it was a very welcome sight.

Last night, I tried something new - acupuncture - to help with the IVF. I plan to blog on this topic in greater detail another time, but suffice it to say I enjoyed it SO MUCH that I have another apointment in the morning!

My parents moved out today after living with us for three weeks. But what is more important is that they moved into their beautiful new house today, and it is gorgeous! Walking through their house this evening, peeking out the window down the street at the construction site that is our future home (God willing), I got so excited to think that in two and a half months Anthony and I could be moving into a brand new home as well. We are so hell-bent on not letting our recent "problem" throw us off course with the house. (I plan to disclose the "problem" soon since there is no need for secrecy any longer - again, it is a topic worthy of its own separate post.)

Gosh, it seems like so much stuff has been going on with me lately, but to write it all down it doesn't look so bad. Huh. Interesting. I must say, it was good for me to have my parents living here, watching me do my Lupron injections every night. I often feel like they just don't "get it" - and with another daughter who is growing more and more pregnant every day, I think their attention goes to her happiness over my sadness most of the time. I don't blame them - it is always easier to focus on the happy versus the sad. I think it was eye opening for them to actually have to witness me giving myself a shot. It made it that much more real for them, and I think that our infertility problem may have gained some respect this past week, as it became a real issue that they could see in front of their eyes.

And to any "Apprentice" fans out there - can you believe Bradford?????? Man, what a fantastic show. Gotta have my mindless reality tv - now, more than ever.

So, I know I have not been commenting on many blogs recently - don't worry, I still love you all but I just have lots of catch up reading to do!

Goodnight all.

SADNESS

I've been hard pressed to find any free time to blog lately; and I have been wanting to type up something funny and lighthearted.

But I can't.

There is too much sadness around these days.

A girl I work with, who is almost ten years younger than me, was just diagnosed with Cervical cancer. Immediately, I cannot help but think about the impact this will have on her when she decides she wants to have children. Will she even have that option now?

A girl was walking to school last Friday, her third day of High School in the town that I work in. A teacher for another school was late for work and was speeding down the street, and plowed into this young freshman girl and killed her. I drive by the makeshift memorial of letters, photos, flowers and friends every day, to and from work, and it is overwhelmingly sad.

A girl who my youngest sister has been friends with for the past couple of years died on Monday from a rare form of brain cancer. She had just been told she had about two months left, and quickly fell into a coma and passed away.

I feel like everywhere I turn, there is nothing but sadness. Nothing but death.

I'm feeling very depressed, and it isn't even the Lupron.

TOO MUCH

Okay, I have admitted that I am a reality-tv junkie, but this is too much even for me!

July 23, 2004


Posted on 07/25/2004 5:34:06 AM PDT by NYer


Reality Show to Feature 1000 Men Competing to Impregnate Woman without Sex

LONDON, July 23, 2004 (LifeSitenews.com) - A proposed television reality show has pushed the boundaries of offence by offering a program in which a thousand men compete for the chance to impregnate a woman by IVF. It is unlikely that the production company, Brighter Pictures, will find a market in the UK; a spokesman for the BBC has already said, "It is absolutely not for the BBC." In its coverage of the intended program, called Make Me A Mum, The Daily Mail has called the idea "sick" and "depraved." The idea has been greeted with public expressions of revulsion from different quarters. At least one British Tory MP has condemned it as "unacceptable."

Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, (CORE), said, "I am disgusted. I have never heard of anything that has descended down the scale of bad taste quite like this. CORE is a public interest group focusing on ethical dilemmas surrounding human reproduction, particularly the new technologies of assisted conception. Quintavalle said, "My first thoughts go to the child who will be created - what is he or she going to be told about how they were conceived? And how can any woman want to have a child in this way?"

The program will start with 1000 volunteers who will be selected by the woman on the basis of sex appeal, wealth, fitness and personality. The woman, who is not named, will take fertility drugs to stimulate the production of ova. One will be selected and fertilized by the winning man's sperm by IVF clinicians live on television. The likelihood is that the idea will not pan out for practical reasons. The best IVF clinics in the world can boast, at most, a 15-25% success rate. The producers have approached German television broadcasters who they thing will be more receptive to the idea.

Natalie Hudson, executive Director of Toronto Right to Life commented, "The culture's adolescent fascination with sex has taken a step so low that even the apathetic media is reacting. The Roman Catholic Church warned some thirty years ago that in vitro procedures would turn the human person into a commodity. But even the Church never imagined that the conception of new life would be treated as a media spectacle. What's next, or dare we ask?"

Sounds like a good show for FOX, huh?

COME ON IN, IT'S OPEN - PART II

Our second open house was today, and is now behind us.

The weather today, unlike at our last open house, is PERFECT. The house felt cool, comfortable, and inviting. We could even light candles for aromatic purposes, which it was too hot to do last time. We had double the traffic of the first open house, and many people commented on how "beautiful" our house was.

I'm crossing my fingers.