On Death

I know I haven't been posting much lately. That's mostly due to the fact that my aunt died last week and I was busy helping my cousins settle things. I know I usually talk about silly things like television and books in this space but I need to vent.

It's strange that I am both happy and sad that my aunt is gone. I am happy because I know she's not in anymore pain. But it saddens me that things got to this point for a woman who was relatively young; she wasn't even 60 years old. The thing is all of this could have been prevented. There was no need for her to die in this manner. Maybe I should back up a bit. This story is a bit of a doozy but since my family has only known about it for a few weeks well we are still reeling a bit.

Almost four years ago my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. Unlike most women, she chose to not treat her cancer even though she caught it in the earliest of stages. She thought that her prayer and her faith in Jesus would heal her. Sigh. She also chose to not tell a single member of my family about her sickness. Not her kids, not her sisters, not a soul. We all noticed around October that she wasn't looking very healthy and she was clearly not using her left arm but when we directly asked her she denied being ill or sick at all. At Christmas one of my aunts predicted she would die before the next Christmas.

Fast forward to three weeks ago when my aunt was rushed to the hospital because she couldn't breathe. The breast cancer had spread into her lungs, liver, and spinal cord. She was on a respirator for the last three weeks of her life. Her kids rushed into town from Paris, France and Lawrence, KS to be by her side. They had to make terrible, awful decisions while battling almost crippling anger and sadness.

Last Wednesday, my aunt (amazingly enough she was lucid through all of this) chose to take herself off the respirator and a few hours later she died. I've never seen a person die before and I don't relish seeing someone die again. It's strange and humbling and sad.

Amazingly enough some good has come from this horrible experience. I've gotten closer to my cousins than I have been since we were kids. Sad that this is what it took to bring us together. And I now know exactly what my parents desires are should a similar situation befall them. I know where their will is and I know that I am co-executor with my oldest sister. These are things I didn't know three weeks ago. While these aren't the most pleasant conversations to have I urge you all to have these conversations with your parents so you don't end up like my cousins almost having to guess the wishes of a dying parent.

We are all getting older now, my friends. And we don't want to think about these issues at any age but they happen whether we want them to or not. So, my suggestions are this: tell people what you want and ask those who you will have to care for what they want. And for Yahweh's sake; get some damn chemo if you are diagnosed with cancer.

Hillary's got a new boyfriend

Well, it looks like Mann Coulter is putting her weight behind Hillary. One more reason why I hope Obama gets the bid. You know shit is fucked up when MANN COULTER sides with Hillary over McCain.

We're Jammin'

This morning sucked. And when I say sucked; I mean REALLY sucked. On my way to work this morning I got into quite the fender bender (that's #14 for those of you keeping track). Let's just say icy roads + jerky drivers + losing control = Jalehlabad's car is in the body shop. I don't know the extent of the damage or if things are being totalled or what. I can tell you that I (and the other eight cars involved in an accident not of my making) shut down a major artery in the Lou. And I know I made the news because I could hear the traffic helicopters above me.

Here's what happened: I was driving to work when the car in front of me slammed on their brakes to avoid hitting an accident in progress. I pumped my brakes in an effort to avoid the woman in front of my and in the process smashed into the guardrail and spun 180 degrees. I quickly hopped out to look at my car and luckily, there was very little damage done to the car. As I got back in and put my seat belt on another person lost control and smashed into me head on. I was very grateful for the seat belt then. And also, I was amazingly lucky to not be out of my car where he would have mostly likely crushed my legs between my car and the guardrail. Folks, stay in your car when there is an accident. Then the tow truck, driven by someone old enough to be my grandpa, dropped my car as it was being towed away. DROPPED MY CAR! At that point, all I could do was laugh. I mean, it's either that or cry.

I should say that we were all incredibly lucky and no one was hurt during the accident and I am happy for that.

Honestly, though, this just sucks. It's no fun having to deal with insurance people, get a rental car, find out if your car is fixable or whatnot. Anyway, I am not happy that my blue baby is hurt.

Yaweh hates me

This is turning into a really shitty week. Last night I got a speeding ticket on my way home from work. Don't get me started on that; let's just say that this cop did nothing to elevate my negative cop feelings.

Now I check my email to find out that the Buffy Sing-A-Long has been canceled. Apparently, all Fox TV shows are being pulled from theatrical distribution. I am so pissed right now. I have been so excited about this. It's how I have been justifying this crappy week; I kept telling myself that I would be singing with Buff and the Scooby Gang on Saturday. Sigh. I am going to go sign the petition and then hope that STL gets a reschedule once all the legal stuff gets worked out.

Alas, it seems that no one wants me to be happy this week.

Back in Black

This weekend my neighbor had another party. While she was actually much more quiet this weekend than she was last weekend, she and her loud ass friends still woke me up twice on Friday night. Now before you go thinking I am some sort of fuddy-duddy, I did have friends over until almost 1 am. They left and then that is when my neighbor brought home what I can only assume was every single person left in a bar that closed. Because I would have sworn there were around 15 people in her apartment. I was only awakened when someone opened the door to the apartment. Now this weekend, instead of running up and down the stairwells, they were courteous enough to just go ahead and smoke in the shared hallways. That way their cigarette could permeate my walls only ever so slightly. Thanks!

But the best part was when I went outside on Saturday to run some errands. Sitting on my car were three cans of Colt 45. Now, I am pretty lenient about many things. However, I do not appreciate people who I do not know using my car for a frakkin' coaster for their nasty malt beer. So, yeah, not pleased.

Now, if only my neighbor would come home so I could have a little chatty mcchatterson with her about RUDENESS. I know I am going to come off as the bitchy neighbor but seriously, what else can I do?

In happy news, Selena and I are going to see Lily Allen in June. Woohoo!

In other happy news, B-Mart will be delighted to know that I watched The Robinsons. I do love me some Martin Freeman. He's just so adorable. Anyway, The Robinsons is a Brticom about the Robinson Family. Ed, played by Martin Freeman, is the main character. He's just been dumped by his wife and he lives in his aunt's flat. Then he loses his job after the girl he's beeb shagging at work gets his promotion. Hilarity ensues with his man-picky sister, time consumed brother, and parents who seem to want a divorce more than they want a drink. Hee. Anyway, I liked it a lot. Thank goodness for Netflix.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Since B-Mart is taking the time to rant over on her blog, I thought I might do the same here on Jalehlabad. My rant has to do with neighbors. Specifically my neighbors.

I used to have one of the best neighbors ever. His name is Mark. He was NEVER home; seriously, he maybe spent two nights a week in his apartment, maybe. In fact, I didn't actually meet him until about two weeks before he moved out. I loved that he was never home. I think he had a girlfriend and that they stayed at her place a lot because occasionally he would come in with a girl but they never stayed all that long. Anyway, a few weeks ago Mark moved out because he bought a house. Way to go, Mark.

However, now, I have a new neighbor. Technically, I haven't met this person yet. I know it's a woman but I haven't actually spoken to her. It's probably best that I don't speak to her until I am more calm because this chick is really starting to grate.

Issue #1: She leaves the back stairwell light on 24/7. My back door has a window in it that has a screen. However, it still lets in light all night long like some super large night light. And it's frakkin' with my sleep.

Issue #2: While we are on the back stairwell, she lets people come in and out of the back stairwell all the time. Here's my problem with this. One, the back door has an automatic lock on it, meaning if you ain't got a key and the door closes you are s.o.l. I like this feature because it keeps out the people who walk around in my back alley. Second, I am not used to people using the back stairwell and when her two friends were standing back there the other day, well, they scared the shit out of me. I don't like to be startled.

Issue #3: This mother frakker is loud. I mean really loud. I can hear her freaking snoring. It kept me up last night. I don't feel like I should have to hear a person snore if a) I am not related to said person; b) if I am not actually sleeping with said person; or c) if I have no relationship at all with said person.

Issue #4: The partying. Last weekend this bitch had so many people over. I am sure she kept up everyone in my building. Luckily for her I was having an ulcer attack and couldn't really sleep anyway or else I would have called the frakkin' police. These assholes were running up and down the front and back stairwells until 4am. Yes, you read that correctly. Not only that but they decided to yell to each other from the balcony into the yard.

It's just rude. Look, I am sure I am loud sometimes. I am sure the people below me think, bitch lose some weight and stop tromping around your apartment. I am sure they hear me laugh and they hear my tv. I know I hear them. But I am not rude about it; in fact, I've even apologized for being loud on several occasions. And, I don't act like a jackass until 4am.

But, if this shit happens again this weekend. I am going to go introduce myself and maybe the police. People don't tend to like you when you bring the police along to bust up their party but that's chance I am willing to take. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Take my voice away

Well, this past weekend left the taste of Aleve cold and sinus in my mouth. It started out brilliantly with me getting a speeding ticket about 15 miles from home on my way up to Chicago. (I don't want to hear it, Hanover Crew.) This was just a harbinger of things to come. Some of you may have read over at B-Mart and GYMH's blogs that we failed to pass the VH1 test and therefore will not be dominating the WSoPC. I still am calling bullshit on that one. Le sigh. I would like to post on our activities after our failure but I really think that it would be hard to top Andrew and so I will leave it to him. However, see picture above. And know that I was laughing very hard. Pictured above two persons who can only be a FauxXander and someone channeling Vlad the Impaler. I am still mourning our inability to capture a picture of the douche guy and the girl who looked like she popped out of a really bad Eightie's video.

My body rebelled the next morning by virtually depriving me of all vocal abilities. Therefore, I was not able to adequately yell about the IU loss to Iowa. However, I was able to silently squee at the afternoon trip to Ikea and gasp at the retardedness of the nightly viewing of one of the worst movies of all time, Beerfest. Wow, that was a bad movie. Although, now I am glad that I can delete that crapfest from my netflix queue.

On Sunday, I saw a tie for the worst film of the weekend, Because I Said So. I don't know that I have ever wanted to actually murder Diane Keaton before (even when she chooses to dress like Annie Hall on crack) but I did after wasting those two precious hours of my life. I will never get them back. The only redeeming qualities about this film were Lauren Graham, Mandy Moore, the very cute Gabriel Macht, and a cameo by Tony Hale (aka Buster Bluth). But even all of that does not make up for the utter shit fest that was this movie. The script was crap and again, no one likes a shrill Diane Keaton. NO. ONE. I can say that as a lover of chick flicks that even this one will not go on my secretly watch on Saturday afternoons but tell people I am watching PBS list, like say Bring It On. I think this really illustrates the level of badness, especially when you couple that with my love for Lauren Graham (it knows no bounds, my friends).

I have to say that overall, it was a pretty fun weekend. Many good times were had and I "laughed" as best I could (it really sounded more like wheezing) about all the funny things that happened. Plus, who doesn't like to see friends that they haven't seen in over a year and some friends they saw at X-Mas (Hi, Ang!)? Although, you know you spent the weekend somewhere cold when you come home to the StL and the weather is 11 degrees and you think, "man, it's warm out here."