Cleveland rocks (like a subzero snowstorm)

God, it's already been almost a week since I posted! It's been kind of crazy. This is what's happened since I last posted:

*Bubba got some kind of a rash over most of his body early last week. It didn't seem to be bothering him, but then on Thursday we got the report that he'd thrown up at daycare not more than 15 minutes after J. dropped him off. We took him home and got him an appointment at the doctor, who diagnosed him with a virus. He seemed pretty fine for the rest of the day but then mysteriously puked again right before supper. The next morning J. comes into the bedroom and says "Depressionista, I think I've figured out what the problem was with Bubba. The milk we got day before yesterday is sour already." We then realized that both times he threw up it was within a half an hour of drinking the offending milk. So...a day off work for J., a doctor's appointment for Bubba...all because of sour milk. Oh well!

*Got my period for the first time in three months on Friday. Cramps were bad enough that I had a good excuse to take one of the Dilaudids I hoarded from my last medical adventure.

*LilCherie's birthday bash on Saturday/Sunday. Click here for details. It was great!

*Bubba got his second set of tubes put in his ears on Monday. All in all, not a bad experience. Thanks to Pioneer Girl, we had a portable DVD player on hand so we took Shrek with us and watched it in the hospital room while we were waiting for his surgery. It was over within 15 minutes and Bubba only cried for about two minutes when he was coming out of the anesthesia. The doctor said he had lots of thick, "silly-putty-like" stuff in his ears. It's actually a condition called "glue ear." I'm so glad we did it. Bubba is already repeating more sounds and words than he did before.

*Due to an unwisely long nap with Bubba on Bubba's surgery day, I was then awake until 5 a.m. Tuesday morning. After three hours of sleep, I slogged through work then came home and packed for our trip to Cleveland to visit Tingle and her husband. After that I was wired, so we watched "Flight 93," which I found intense and moving and not nearly as sappy as I thought they'd try to make it. So, I got to bed at midnight only to awaken at 4 a.m. to one of Bubba's middle of the night freak-outs and an incredible headache. When I got up again at 7:30 a.m., my head hurt so bad I was half afraid I was having some kind of an aneurysm or something, even though I knew from living with migraine sufferers all of my life that I was suffering from your classic migraine. It was all on the left side of my head, it came on when I was overtired and when I had my period, and there was a major nausea component to it. I threw up once in the morning and it got better for awhile, which is exactly what happens to my mom and sister. So I called the doctor for some pain relief and called in to work for the millionth time in the last few months...and slept ALL DAY.

*That night (which was last night, actually), with nausea medication on board, we set out for Cleveland. My post-migraine fog plus the meds combined to allow me to sleep almost the entire way, and luckily Bubba did too. Poor J., he had to drive for what ended up being about a 10 hour trip because it snowed for about 2/3 of it. He also got a speeding ticket in the middle of Illinois (79 in a 65). The trooper asked J. if he had a good reason for speeding. Of course we didn't, but is there such a thing? I mean, is there an answer that would really get you out of a ticket? J. suggested "explosive diarrhea" as a possibility. I think it might be worth a shot next time.

So we arrived in Cleveland at about 4 a.m. their time, and now we are here visiting Tingle and her hubby--just in time for the city's coldest day of the year! Before I had a friend who lived here, I didn't give Cleveland much thought, but since I've been here several times, I've come to realize that this place has really awful weather. Truly.

We've spent most of the day recovering from the drive and trying to get Bubba reestablished on some kind of schedule. Bedtime tonight took an hour of laying with him in the bedroom, along with another two minutes of him screaming behind the door he couldn't open, before he finally gave up. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier. We are planning to go to the Museum of Natural History so that Bubba and Tingle's nephew can see some dinosaur bones. Bubba LOVES his books with "dy-so-bows!" as he calls them, so I hope he has a good time.

I really enjoy our visits to Cleveland. Oftentimes, when telling someone we are going to Cleveland, people will say something like, "Why?" with a horrified look on their face, or even go so far as to express sympathy (this, coming from people who live in Iowa). I think Cleveland is a really interesting city. It has cool tourist stuff like museums and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, zoos, botanical gardens, the Westside Market, etc. Besides that, though, there is a real old-fashioned feel to the place. I always feel like I am stepping back in time to the 1940s or something. There are tons of mom and pop businesses, great little local places to eat, and an interesting mix of ethnicities. They've got the hood and the ritzy sections and everything in between.

Mostly, though, I enjoy getting to know a place from the perspective of people who live here. It's like having a second home in a place would never imagined I would learn so much about. Three years ago (almost to the day), I probably couldn't have picked Cleveland out on a map, I was that ignorant (I always got it mixed up with Detroit). But then I met Tingle and now I have this wealth of knowledge about an entirely new place. It's just another side benefit of our friendship.

I don't know if I ever explained how I met Tingle, and if not it deserves its own entry, but just as background for this entry I'll explain briefly--she and I met on an internet support group site for women who had experienced pregnancy or infant loss, run by a group called SHARE. We responded to each other's posts, then started emailing, then talking on the phone and the rest is history. The first time we spoke on the phone was when I found out I was pregnant. I still admire her for continuing to allow our friendship to grow even when she was in such fresh grief from losing her son and I was newly pregnant. It is a testament to her generous nature, one of the things I really love about her. Now she welcomes me, J. and Bubba into her home as family. We always feel--and always will feel, I guess--that our first children brought us together. I'm so glad to be here visiting my friend in person! It is worth the snowy drive, the speeding ticket, and everything else to be able to give her a real hug and watch her laugh at my freaky jokes.

So...that's the update! I am contemplating a post about LilCherie's sister...LilCherie, if you read this, let me know if I'm crossing the line, but I really feel like I want to post a little synopsis of my experience with her last Sunday. It's like it's just simmering in there wanting to come out in some way because it's just so damn weird! Let me know if it's okay. Also, I have another chapter of Sex and the Silos all ready to go. I just have to find my flash drive and have Tingle help me post it with her computer. Until then, my lovelies...