Of course I remember.  I had Turkey Day running through my head with visions of all the reasons I need to quit kidding myself and just get ready to glut!

But then all sorts of not-so-good things came up.

My contract with iBusmedia was terminated, my work-from-home job ended.  I have mixed feelings about it but they are best left unexpressed. PokerWorks and I have parted ways.

I had eye lid surgery (Blepharoplasty) scheduled for the 7th of December.  After going through a nightmare of appointment rescheduling that should have found my initial assessment done five months earlier, I was set for a Monday of eye lid slitting in Las Vegas.

On the night of the 6th, my boy Dan told me he was having chest pains.  After refusing, almost, to talk to me for a couple of hours where he repeatedly said he just needed to relax, it could be indigestion, and who knows what all, he said, “We’d better go to emergency.”

He’d spent that time on the Internet searching heart attack symptoms.  We were on our way within 5 minutes.  When we hit the door, he went right to registration and told them he thought he was having a heart attack…immediately he was taken into the back and had a nurse with him starting to hook up monitors.

Dan hates doctors/doctoring so it was quite a scream out getting him to be admitted when they told him he would have to be there for 16 hours for tests.  He had a fit, told the nurse to go tell the dr. he wasn’t staying and I got right in his face.  He finally said OK with a grim-lipped look and I left immediately, not wanting him to try and change his mind.

The blood test they ran on him that night showed heart damage and he was airlifted into Southern Hills Hospital in Vegas the next morning.  A number of tests and one dr. thought he should have open heart surgery, but a cardiac specialist said stints.  Then he was waiting for a bed at Sunrise Hospital where the surgery would take place.

Me?  I went ahead with the eye lid surgery.  My sis took me in, and Dr. Eva Liang took excellent care of me. She’s funny and fun.  On my initial visit with her, it was October 30th, she had her werewolf contact lenses in and I had Riot with me.  I asked if she would mind taking a picture with him.   

After my initial tests were done, when she came in to talk to me, (yeah, with the werewolf eyes) she asked me if I was “tripping over my eyelids” and later told me I brought my “own awning.”  In essence, she was right.  I had the surgery done so I could see again, although cosmetically, it didn’t hurt a thing.

Since the surgery had been scheduled for a month when Dan had the heart attack, my sitting with him at the hospital would’ve made him crazy and me too.

During the surgery Dr. Liang also did a brow repair for me.  I looked horrible for about 10 days after but now that’s it’s been a month, I look like me – no bruises – with my eyes wide open.  I did do a daily picto-log but not sure I ever want to show it.

Dan?  He was taken to Sunrise on Wednesday, the 9th, and by late afternoon on the 10th, he had 3 stints and angioplasty done and later that evening Darian and Riot brought him home from Vegas.  I can’t even begin to express how happy I am that I ‘out-stubborned’ him and made him stay in the emergency room that night.

He went back to work a week later, he’s walked or jogged at least a half hour every day since he got home (doctor’s orders for exercise), he has to take a version of plavix every day for a year so the stints won’t move, and he’s on cholesterol medication.  His cardiac doc told him his body is a plaque making factory.  Poor guy!  He’s got heredity going against him.  His dad had a heart attack when he was around 45, I have high cholesterol, but we are both working on exercise and a diet with reduced fat.

He looks better, no more dark circles under his eyes and his skin has a healthy glow.  He says he feels great.  That makes me very happy.

The job?  I don’t have one.  I’ve put in some applications online, I may end up at Walmart but I don’t really care at this point.  It’s been great having time off and not having to stress about work.

The dogs?  They get along great now.  Share the same water bowl, one steals the rug/blankets the other one was on and they swap out.  Scout growls a warning when we are in the yard and he’s too frisky running and jumping at her but it’s like they were raised together.  Very nice!  They go out in the early AM for walks with me and Dan.  Lately we’ve walked the road because we had 3 days worth of rain and the desert is a mud bog.

I am still having a lot of stress dreams about dealing poker.  And I always seem to be back at Bellagio.  I guess I should call them nightmares.  Recently I had one that found me going in to deal a shift with Suzie Lederer as the shift manager – she knew I was taking a spot in the line-up that night – and as I approached her and Carmen Bates, Carmen had a surprised look on her face when I said, “Yeah, I’m back!”

She hugged me and started crying…sad for me.

But the dealing was ridiculous.  We were in small alcoves and everyone sat on the floor.  I stood over them and shot the cards to their hands as I spun in a slow circle.  The chips were uncountable, it was semi-dark, and they slid off of each other so they couldn’t be stacked up.  For reals…how ridiculous can I get in a dream?

Laters…