Kitt

Thank you Mike. I found when I was going for the treatments that people who haven't actually been thru it just didn't quite get it, no matter how hard they tried to understand. Hopefully I can be there for someone the way Dave has for me! I would like nothing more than for you to join the party my daughter is planning for that day! Even if it is just on skype!

I have met a lot of wonderful people here on GA over the last couple months. Most of you have welcomed me with open arms and hearts. Time for me to open up a bit more for you guys and answer the unasked questions about some of the things i have said. I am pretty open about most things in my life, and I think its pretty important to be very open about this one. If it helps even one person to get through a tough time it is more than worth it! Last summer i went for my annual boob smushing ( what my circle of friends call our annual mammograms). The results were not my usual smile from the doc and a "see you next year". That visit started what has been the most difficult year of my life. The short version? Biopsy, then surgery, then a period of hell called waiting for the pathology results, chemo, radiation, and finally a maintenance program of an estrogen inhibitor medication which will probably be for the rest of my life. I think the worst was the waiting on results at each step. My mother died almost a decade ago from complications of breast cancer, so I was intimately familiar with every set of possibilities having taken her to every appointment from finding the lump thru the day she passed. Believe me, knowing did NOT make it any easier. Chemo .....well thank the powers that be that most of you will never experience it . Basically its pumping the human body full of poison in hopes it kills off the cancer before it gets you. Radiation- not a whole lot better. No sick to your stomach etc but the burning on the surface can get.....difficult to deal with. The most common misconception is that its biggest side effect beyond the fatigue it causes is the equivalent of sun poisioning. I have on one or two occasions been stupid enough to stay out in the sun long enough to blister- it is NOT the same! Not everyone burns as badly as I did but it is a possibility. If these sorts of burns were to have been caused buy getting clumsy with a pot of boiling water most emergency rooms would send the person to a burn unit. A few thoughts for people out there with loved ones facing this and other forms of cancer.......... Women - don't I repeat DON"T get 'too busy' to have your annual! Mine found the problem at stage 1, the best shot at a cure. The tumor was still so small the surgeon could not feel it and a special ultrasound guided biopsy was needed. Yes they are uncomfortable but soooooo worth the head start they can give you in this fight. Men and friends - BE PATIENT with the lady going thru it. Our bodies are being messed with, chemistry being totally thrown out of whack, hormones going wacky, not to mention the twisting in our heads. Hold us - hug us - and don't go telling us we are being ridiculous even if we are! Actually that can pretty much go for any cancer patient. Please note, I said patient, NOT victim. I have no intention of being a victim in all of this. Each step of the way various health care professionals told me once I hit the five year mark with no relapses I can call myself cured. No one seemed to agree on when you start counting tho. The surgeon called the day he removed the tumor day one since theoretically the cancer was gone at that point. Each doctors office along the way had similar viewpoints. So I chose Feb 1 as my "New Years Day" this year. I had my last radiation treatment on Jan 31, and started counting my 5 years the next morning. 143 days down, 1682 to go. Anyone who wants a little extra support through something similar feel free to pm me. I know I'm really just a stranger, typed words on a screen, but sometimes its easier to talk to someone you don't have to face every day and who had been through similar hardships. I wouldn't have made it without losing my mind if it hadn't been for a very good friend I had met in a chat room years ago. The fact that I have never seen him does not change the fact that he was there for me every step and I love him for it!

Where else can we enjoy all these calorie laden foods and still stick to a diet??? I'll just munch on my radish chips now .........

You mean there are actually such things as natural meteorological cycles and the cave men didn't cause global warming when they discovered how to make fire thereby melting the ice age and killing off the dinosaurs???

Not ALL addictions are unhealthy. Whats wrong with being addicted to good stories written by good people?

Bad as having a wolf for a snuggle partner huh?

Ahhhh - another potential addict! Welcome Damaged94

Supposedly will be impressive tonight as well. Anyone know where i can look up the time of the moon-rise? I waited till after dark last night to find the moon well off the horizon and looking pretty normal last night.

Come on in and settle back, Ken. It's only a matter of time before you are as addicted to this place as the rest of us! Always room for new friends.

Woo hooo! I smell the beginnings of another addictive story!

Two words - and I know they don't carry as much weight as the others since i am severely biased here - Love it!

Cele did say it was for our amusement.

Wow. How can a set of parents be sooooo far off base? I know it happens all the time but honestly, where are their brains? Day one Bay is their son, granted a bit fixated on running, and not really looking towards his future, but lots of teens put off thinking about university till they absolutely have to do it. Day two Zach outs him, and his social world goes to hell in a handbasket, then on day 3 Mommy and Daddy, the people who should know him best in the world suddenly decide he should change every thing about himself cause they have this warped picture of what being gay means? Think I am now beginning to understand why so many of my daughters friends, especially the gay ones, keep trying to adopt me!

Prompt 239 ”Would you just give me a minute, please?!?!” Robs mind was racing. How was it he kept finding himself in these impossible situations? There was the time the ladder had fallen when he was attempting to prune the apple tree. Of course there was no within earshot to help. And the time he was trying to fish his keys out of the gap between the copier and the shredder. Damn shredder had eaten his favorite tie and tried to strangle him besides. And the day the awning poles fell over in the workshop and blocked him into the lavatory. He had been stuck in there for hours. But nothing like this had ever happened before. Not to Robbie, king of the improbable situations. How the hell was he supposed to fix this one? His mind was racing. The little girl kept crying and shouting for him to do something. Her mom was trying to stay cool about things, but it was obvious that she was getting more and more wound up. And the twit with the camera certainly wasn't helping! At least the horse wasn't panicking. Since he was the one at risk this time that’s a good thing Rob thought to himself. SOMEONE had to keep a cool head! He walked once around the trailer, looking in from each door and window, studying things from every possible angle. He was trying to get a handle on just how to get this silly pony out of the impossible position he had put himself into. Everything had gone so smoothly with this pick up until now. The horse had been sweet and cooperative, had walked right onto the trailer for Rob. Moving horses you are not familiar with can be a challenge. Some of them don’t like strangers handling them, some don’t like trailers, and others can just be smart-asses that want to test your patience. Then the twit with the camera came running out wanting one last picture before we left to bring him to his new home, her pack of unruly dogs running out of the house ahead of her raising holy hell at the sight of a stranger with a trailer in “their” farmyard. The horse had freaked at all the noise, and was just small enough that he was able to rear in the warm blood trailer, both his front hooves coming down in front of the belly bar. Now he was standing quietly thank god, but with both front legs hanging in midair and a “help me human” look on his face. Rob shook himself and then dropped down to one knee to talk to the little girl. “Okay Suzie, I need your help here. Can you help me?” The ten year old sniffled a time or two and nodded her head. “Good girl. Now your new pony here had gone and gotten himself into a tight spot and it’s up to us to get him out of it. Can you run to the tack room and get me a handful of sweet feed in a little bucket and a carrot?” The little girl turned on her heal and raced off, Rob sighed in relief. No more screaming could only help the situation and maybe now he could think. He approached the escape door slowly. Last thing he needed was to spook the horse again. Talking quietly he moved into the doorway, all the time watching those sharp front hooves hanging at what was from the ground his head level. “Okay little man; let’s see how we are going to get you down from there. That’s a good boy, stay nice and quiet. We don’t want you getting hurt now do we?” Rob stroked the horse’s neck gently, trying to build trust in one hell of a hurry. He tugged experimentally on the belly bar latch, but with 1200 pounds of horse leaning on it there was no way to just open it and let him down that way. Rob continued to run his hands over the frightened animal, trying to determine if he had any injuries that might complicate things. When he reached the hooves it was a toss-up who was more shocked. As Rob ran his hands over the pastern the horse pulled his hoof back and up, almost like Rob had tickled him. The next thing Rob knew the pony had reared up slowly and just pulled himself back over the belly bar and was now standing quietly looking very proud of himself. He turned his head out of the trailer door and nuzzled Rob, just as the little girl was running back with the treats for her new pony.

Like everything else in the world - can have beneficial effects, but more isn't always better and too much of even a good thing can be detrimental.

I don't think so - the moon has a wicked effect on tides and currents, even in lakes and rivers.

I love the make-up scene in the cooler. Dathi does have a point tho. What happened to suddenly get Issac to give Bay a chance? And there are still so many holes in Issac's past! " I just.......lost my temper." Ya think? There has to be some history somewhere for Issac to have lost it so bad as to walk out claiming to never want to see Bay again. I can see it keying an huge argument, but that sort of reaction is out of proportion. Wonderful love! I enjoyed every word!

I sort of liked the homespun words. Sometimes Websters collegiate just doesn't have a word to fit. The bad first - you DO need an editor. While the little mistakes in no way detract from your story, being gramatically correct would go a long way if you ever look to publish your work in a real life paper book. And as Conner said, a bit more detail in the rescue battle is in order. Now the good - it was a sweet love story, ( my favorites ) with enough action to catch even the most die hard sci-fi fan reading. Even my husband would read this one ( skipping the love scenes. He isn't quite as open minded as I ) Looking forward to this one moving back to the front burner again.

No Tag, Red Rover, British Bulldogs, no dodge ball, no kick the can,( the flying can might hit someone) baseball and stick ball on the playground are out too at some schools ( they are afraid of misuse of the sticks and bats) and then they wonder why kids are overweight. For goodness sake, lets NOT LET them actually run around and maybe burn off some of those calories!

Blame it on that Murphy fella. The one that says what can go wrong will. Welcome to la vida loca .

Does look a bit........medieval torture chamber-ish doesn't it?

Like I said elsewhere, I'm a sucker for a good romance! Even more so when it's a true ( or close to it ) story. May you and yours be happy till the end of time.

That looks like something served after dinner on Halloween.

. Why can people not see each other for who they are? Where do they get off expecting others to conform to their preconceptions??? Being gay doesn't automatically give you the "shopping gene". I know that's the whole point of the story, but I just have a hard time conceiving the bullheaded idiocy that still exists. Guess my momma did a good job in raising me to see people for who they are- not how well they fit into a predetermined nitch. I say we turn Zupan loose to explain to Zach just how much of a shit he was to out Bay that way. All in favor????

OK, now you have me hooked.