Re: Things you didn't know about me!
 

she's here! jadyn marie was born yesterday evening at 6:30. she is 8 lb 4 oz and 21 in. everybody is doing great! she is a beautiful little girl with blue eyes and a HEADFULL of jet black hair. i gotta wait for my husband to get home to download the pictures on the computer but for those on facebook i can send those from my phone and there are a bunch on there already.

Re: Things you didn't know about me!
 

I happened upon this thread while searching for information and recalled that it was a good one and fun. Thought I'd resurrect it with these little known facts:

Warren Zevon once gave me the mic to sing into at a concert. Some chick behind me was jealous and set my hair on fire!

I very nearly drown at age four, but was rescued from the bottom of the lake by my teenage cousin who saw me go down for the last time.

I love to drink in Chownings Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg.

My all time favorite film is "Harvey" with Jimmy Stewart. My second favorite is "The Deer Hunter" with Robert DeNiro.

I used to party with some of the guys from Anthrax. They are all challenged in the height department....

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Hey, Laurel -

I almost drowned, but was rescued, as well. Age 2 I slipped down the bank of an irrigation ditch behind our house (after clambering over a wire fence).

A neighbor lady saw me (heard me) and leaped to my rescue. I got a rocking horse as an incentive to stay in the house after that!

I was at a small party with the Ramones in Vancouver, B.C. in 1977 or 78.

Re: Things you didn't know about me!
 

Steph,

I love the Ramones! You lucky girl, you! I saw them in Hammerheads on Long Island in the eighties. Was it Joey who recently died of cancer?

Ok, gotta add another tid bit. My first love was a wonderful French Canadian boy named Andre'. My family would travel to this little town named Senneterre in Quebec. From there we would travel by train or on a dirt logging road back to the Fishing Camp Andre's family ran. He became a bush pilot and died in a tragic plane crash at the age of 21. It was so sad because he was one of those guys who was so full of life.

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A coincidence you just mentioned about first love...

One of my Junior High school buddies (I was a tomboy, so all of them were 'guys') went to the military academy after graduation. I had corresponded with him through high school, but decided I was going to enjoy my college years - thinking that if he really cared, he would take actions. And if it were meant to be, a separation of 4 years would not change anything [I had read too many 'traditional' Chinese romances that emphasize on the 'eternal' relationship - usually a 'platonic' one.]

He did pay me a surprise visit at the open house of my college with a couple of other 'buddies' - which wasn't easy as he was in the Naval Academy at the time. So I played basketball, sang in the choirs, did my volunteer work...Then boom, right before his appointment, we were told that he's going to get married - to a female officer he had met in a joint Forces exercise. Bunch of us Junior High classmates went to the wedding and the old 'Gang of four' actually stayed overnight at his new apartment (a traditional Chinses prank - friends/relatives staying overnight to hold the groom/bride 'hostage'. [Usually just the groom, so the exhausted bride can get a good night sleep]) I did my usual thing - reading Chinese Readers Digest while others playing Mahjong.

He and another 'gang' called me earlier this year after chatting online for a while that night. I was a little bit surprised but was happy to catch up with them. He sent a picture of his family via the Internet. By summer I had received several pictures from another buddy who had also attended the class reunion in spring. 7 of my classmates made posters to wish me well and 'he' was one of them in the 'formation'.

I was so shocked to learn last night that he had been divorced from his wife of more than 28 years not long after our conversation and is now dating a widowed classmate he had met at the Reunion. Knowing both of them well enough to realize how painful it must have been for him to have had a divorce and how difficult it must have been for her to have become a widow at 50, I just felt so sad about what each of them had been through while at the same time so happy for them to have found each other.

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I reconnected with my High School sweetheart with whom I spent 11 years after 17 years apart. Now we speak regularly. We marvel at how we have become old farts!

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I would be "skinny" if I were 6' tall, but unfortunately, I am only 5'3". I once helped my neighbor burn a wooden ladder that had floated to his pier (while we were enjoying a few beers), only to discover later that it was the ladder from MY PIER! LOL!
Every year, right after Thanksgiving, I watch "How The Grinch Stole Christmas (old and new versions), "Christmas Vacation", "A Christmas Story", and "It's A Wonderful Life", while decorating my fresh cut tree....I can't wait!

Re: Things you didn't know about me!
 

I haven't posted for a while because I have been suffering from an extremely rare disease called vitamin B-12 polyneuropathy. It is so rare that the cheap-bunned HMO flew in specialist from San Diego and Seattle. It turns out I am very allergic to vitamin B-12 and if I don't get it, the nerves in my body start dying. It is official, I am now allergic to the whole planet, everything on the planet, and myself as well. So I have been taking immuno-suppresants and then getting vitamin injections directly into my liver. And I used to think taking Flinstone Chewables was bad.

And the worst part of it all is that all the people with real diseases that have cool names think they can kick my butt because is there anything that sounds more sissy than vitamin B-12 polyneuropathy? No, I didn't think so. At least it isn't cancer. I need to thank God for that tender mercy.

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Wow! That IS rare, but hang in there!

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Sheesh, Lee, that sounds pretty doggone awful to me! At least you aren't allergic to Colleen! I am just a bit ditsy tonight. Are you allergic to B12, but yet require it desperately for your nerve's survival? The question is then how do you take the B12, by the direct injection into your liver? That sounds pretty grizzly to me! Will this be a lifelong necessity?

You can be "one rare bird, too."

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Ouch! ['...injection directively into your liver'?] Below is the link from Merck:

http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec06/ch095/ch095h.html

Looks like it is a complex disease only an intellegent person can acquire and understand... [not sure if a smiley is appropriate, so I am not going to put it here.] Hope you get better soon.

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I was a member of a medicinal plant expedition in Nepal in 2001. My team catalogued plants that were used for medicine by healers (not many left there) and then presented our report to the King of Nepal in Kathmandu. He declared many of the plants endangered or gave them special status as the poor in Nepal can't afford things such as antibiotics, so they would have to rely on medicinal plants for health. A few days after our visit, he was shot dead by his son, the Crown Prince.

Re: Things you didn't know about me!
 

Laurel:

You are correct. My immune system is attacking vitamin B-12 in my blood serum and if I don't get vitamin B-12 I will lose all feeling and lose all muscle control because nerves will start dying. I am taking IVIG which is immuno-globulin taken from tens of thousands of people which shuts off the immune system long enough to absorb some vitamin B-12. IVIG costs about $3,500 a dose I am taking it every week. Hopefully the good doctors can find something else that works because it feels like I am losing this battle very slowly. Oh well, if they can at least slow thing down until they come up with a better way, then that will help. One doctor wants to try really small doses of vitamin B-12 in the hopes of sneaking under the immune systems radar. At this point, I am willing to try most anything.

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Man, none of that sounds good at all! I will be praying in earnest for a new easier and more effective method to slide that B12 beneath your immune system. Is the nerve damage mostly in your hands and feet at present or is it more involved?

Thank you, Jackie, for the Merck link. It was very helpful in enlightening me on the polyneuropathy.

DiDi70 very cool story about your expedition to Nepal. Wow! To have been Kathmandu!

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Lee, I'm really sorry to hear about your condition. I admire your courage, though. I can see that in spite of everything, you haven't lost your sense of humour. Hang in there, my friend.

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Re: Things you didn't know about me!
 

I fell out of a tall tree the day before my First Communion so I had a big black eye and 3 big black stitches sticking out from under my white veil....

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I fell out of a tree after sneaking a few swigs of my friend's dad's moonshine, when I was 13.....I had a hard time explaining that to my parents!

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Well LEE!
Was it REALLY necessary to try to outdo Colleen's cancer treatments with some cockeyed rare disease of your own??

(Tapping my foot ...)

Seriously, if you have not just made all that up, I have a pot full of pity for you. Keep us posted.

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A tree limb broke while my 3rd Brother was swinging on it . He scraped his knees and cut one of his ears. He's got one big earlobe (a good sign according to the Chinese Fortunetellers) since he was 8 because of the stitches.

I fell to the ground off a small ladder when I was only 4 or 5 while playing in a neighbor's yard. The lowest rung of the wooden ladder leaning on the wall was 'rotten' and broke instantly when I stepped on it. I was taken to our Army village clinic and my Mother had to put the antiseptic powder on the outer corner of my left eye sevral times a day for several days.

When I wrote about the exprience for my composition class several years later, my teacher (5th grade?) asked to see the tiny scar by my eye to validate my story.

Another time I got drunk by drinking a couple of shots of the sweet rice wine in the house (did my Father make it? usually it's purchased from a travelling vendor for making the sweet rice wine soup.) I fell asleep ('passed out'?) for several hours - I must be only about 8 or 9 years old at the time.