at least it's friday.... ?

it's been an interesting week.

i'm still off my rheumatoid disease meds - no methotrexate (chemo), no enbrel.  of course, it was time to switch from enbrel to humira anyway.  this last week the pain and fatigue have REALLY caught up with me.  very upsetting.

last friday night was the billy joel concert - so much fun!  awesome husband @_antgas and i had a great time.  billy played some old songs that don't get played that much.  taking a cue from @_antgas, i used my iPhone to note the set list so i'll always remember what i've heard live.  this was my ninth time seeing him though (i think.  it sounds about right) sooooooo there's a lot missing from what i've seen played live.

i took a few photos too.  our seats were right behind the stage in the 300 section, which is this weird bridge thing.  we were in the front row and it was great - no one in front of me.  i was able to sit the entire show and still see, and the sound was still great.

our view of the stage before the concert

yay! billy!

billy's piano spins.

on the train to the city, there were two couples pregaming the billy joel concert on the train (yes, this is long island).  we were going through the valley stream station and one of the girls goes, 'this is where i used to live, valley stream.... suffolk is so white trash'.  if you're from long island, you'll see why this was HYSTERICAL coming from a woman pregaming billy joel on the train drinking miller lite out of a can.... hysterical.

we missed the train on the way home.  damn it.  we caught the first train from penn station into babylon, where we had to transfer, but we missed the transfer by a couple of minutes.  stupid.  so we had an hour to kill at 12:30 in the morning, which meant listening to what i suspect was a homeless woman cough like she was dying while smoking cigarettes and watching drunk people (some of whom were wearing really high heels) run up and down the escalators, since of course they weren't working.

when we got on the train home, a group of kids (probably mid-twenties.  that's how you know you're old, when you refer to 20-somethings as 'kids') stumbled up with the conductor right on their heels yelling at them about delaying the train.  apparently one of the kids leaned out the door to light and smoke a cigarette while we were stopped at a station.... um, really?  once the conductor walked away, the guys were SUCH DOUCHECANOES.  so bad.

i slept late on saturday and we took it pretty easy all weekend.  but i was still tired on monday - fell back asleep and took a nap in the afternoon.  same on wednesday - tuesday and thursday i interned and did alright.  but today i turned off my alarm and fell back asleep - for two hours!  i had to rush to get ready to go to my therapist appointment.  which was emotional enough itself, of course.

piglet's maintaing.  sort of.  it's been about 6 weeks since we noticed piglet's tooth injury.  we knew it would probably have to come out; the vet said it would probably die so i was watching for that.  in early march, her tooth started to look a little worse, so i called the vet to have it extracted.  that's when they found out her kidneys were failing - pre-surgery blood work.  i've been going back and forth and trying to talk through what's happening and what our options are.  that was three weeks ago today, and on wednesday i realized her tooth was looking really bad - it's like it's completely covered by the gums (it's a canine tooth).  shit.  so i called the vet and told them and was like, i can't wait any longer.  we need more bloodwork to see if she's improved at all with her modified diet.  that tooth needs to come out, and we can't do that unless her kidneys improve.  she's been on antibiotics this entire time and her tooth has only gotten worse.  but the vet thought maybe her numbers were so bad because she had a kidney infection - if that was the case, her numbers should have improved... right?  ugh.

oh, and i never did get my tattoo touch up.  i still felt too poorly on my appointment day to go in and get it done.  i'm planning on starting my chemo again tonight or tomorrow and the humira is being delivered tomorrow.  i have to decide when i'm starting that.  hopefully soon because everything hurts.

after the vet tomorrow, we have a pretty relaxing weekend lined up.  hanging out with friends tomorrow night and just cleaning and laundry the rest of the time.  i hope that my meds will start doing their shit soon enough and then i'll feel GREAT!  right? ;)

me and piglet <3 i="">

william m. joel, you're under arrest

i've completely given up on my john c. mayering of william m. joel.  seriously.  the comments i've been making on other people's john c. mayer posts with links to this here blog are driving searches for william m. joel to THEIR websites, but not here.  so obviously, william m. joel is completely un-johnc.mayerable.  which is sad.  but it's my fault.  maybe i should have picked someone better.  i have another idea for a john c. mayering.  i'm going to actually, you know, BLOG a bit before i try another john c. mayering, though.

so.  news.  well, i've also contributed a blog over at band back together, which is a great site that aunt motherfucking becky helped get started.  it's nowhere near as lighthearted as this here blog.  it's lots of survivors and people grieving and people recovering.  but it's good for all of us.  if you want to take a break from this and go read some serious shit, head over there.  it's a very welcoming community, and i'm already happy to be sharing there.

we finally started going to disney again.  it's still fucking hot and disgusting, but it's nice to go back.  i've missed it these hot summer months.  i got to go on toy story midway mania finally.  and we did the backlot tour and saw the beauty and the beast stage show - we had never done those before!  and of course, we had to do tower of terror.  because, obviously.  that's like the best.  and mom laughs the entire time.  it's pretty funny.  and the guy next to my accidentally groped me on the first drop.

so we did disney early yesterday morning, then came home and napped during the yankees game.  and then watched the jets/giants games.  and noticed three sheriff's cars by this house down the block.  (long story short on this house - they have like seven kids of varying races, three adults of varying races, cars stopping at all hours of the day and night, and a tiny dog that terrorizes the neighborhood when they let it loose.  we hate this house.  the kids have come up to my patio before and barked at my cat.  and brought that evil dog on it's leash RIGHT UP TO THE SCREEN on my patio and let him bark his head off at my cat.  poor taylor cat :c no wonder he shouts all the time.)  so there are like five teens in the driveway, and one younger kid (the one we really don't like).  one teen is in a red tee shirt and keeps talking to the deputies.  and then fatherish guy comes out.  and then a minivan screeches to a halt in front of the house, and two of the female adults get out, and one starts talking to the deputies too.  back and forth.  for like four hours - no lie. 

finally we notice the cars are gone, except for one - like they're watching the house.  and then early this morning, 6:30ish, i saw two unmarked cars there - on the lawn at strange angles.  like they pulled up in a hurry.  and then they were gone by 9am.  AND THEN this afternoon i noticed the two unmarked cars were back and i could see two sheriff's cars, i counted three deputies in uniform and two in those fancy bullet proof vests that say SHERIFF on the back.  they were talking to fatherish guy.  then the deputies were talking amongst themselves.  then they took a teen in a red shirt (same as last night? i don't know) and cuffed him in front of the door!  and then they started talking to fatherish guy and one of the adult females in front of the door.  then they walked towards one of the sheriff's car with fatherish guy.  AND CUFFED HIM.  so i got to watch them arrest two of the people from this house.

awesome husband missed it.  but i took photos for him, so it's okay.

but it makes me wonder - why would two adults be arrested from the same house?  if it was some kind of fight or domestic thing, wouldn't someone have been taken away last night?  obviously that's when it started.  and why were they back this morning?  what could have happened??  awesome husband thinks it may be a foster home.  to be blunt, there are many children of widely varying ages and races living there.  like from 18-21 all the way down to 4.  and three adults well over 35.  and we saw one of the kids trying to kiss another - and you wouldn't try to kiss your sister when you're like 12.  i did see a couple carrying a baby on the side of the house that i really can't see.  i don't know if they were involved, like taking the baby away, or if it was like neighbors or something just on their way out.

intriguing.  well, really, i'm just nosy.  i blame my mother for it.  i really want to know what happened though. 

and finally, i've completed week two of college: mark II.  i am running 100% in english 101 and 98% in my general studies thing (which is where we learn about... well, learning online) because someone is a stickler for word counts.  i lost points for being at 303 when she asked for 200-300.  hmph. 

john c. mayering william m. joel

so far, i haven't cracked the first ten pages of a google search for "william m. joel".  what makes me sad, really, is that many of the listings aren't even for william m. joel, but for joel m. something, or william m. something, or for joel and william something else. 
many other people have had much success.  you can check here with aunt motherfucking becky to see who's doing what: mommy wants vodka.  she has a blogroll up with all of the posts.


and if you aren't sure what i'm talking about william m. joel for, you can click here to see what the fuck is going on with william m. joel.


if you're interested in learning more about william m. joel, you can check his wikipedia page.  william m. joel has led a super interesting life, and is a native new yorker.  william m. joel was born on long island, just like me.  william m. joel is actually my absolute favorite artist of all time.


william m. joel has penned and performed some great songs, including 'piano man'.  his album 'the stranger' was a huge hit in the 1970's, and william m. joel has continued touring into this year.  william m. joel has gone on tour a few times with elton john.  i've seen william m. joel with elton one time, and like six or seven times solo.  william m. joel puts on a great live show.  at the end of every show, william m. joel reminds his audience 'don't take any shit from anybody'.  i think this is really great advice from william m. joel.


william m. joel has released 13 albums of original material, plus numerous live and compilation albums.  you can see william m. joel's official discography here. 


if you'd like to check out some of william m. joel's BEST songs, you can click:


just the way you are, william m. joel


scenes from an italian restaurant, william m. joel

she's always a woman, william m. joel

piano man, william m. joel

if you're not familiar with the works of william m. joel, you may want to check some of his songs out.  william m. joel had many top 40 and pop rock hits, but in my opinion, some of his best stuff is 'b' side stuff - singles that were not released on radio. 

anyway, hopefully a second post about "william m. joel" will assist me in john c. mayering him.  i would hate to fail my aunt motherfucking becky.

william m. joel likes hydrogen

so we have something interesting going on today.  first if you check over here with my aunt motherfucking becky, you'll see that she's asked her pranksters (like me!) to try an internet prank.  read her blog to get the gist of it, and you may see the pertinence of the blog being named 'william m. joel likes hydrogen'.


or not.  the hydrogen part is all for annah, whom i may or may not have a blog crush on.


who is william m. joel, you may ask?  well, the 'm' in william m. joel stands for martin.  and william m. joel's more common name is billy joel.  but billy joel is more commonly searched.  and i wanted to use a middle initial.


hmm.. i'm not sure william m. joel really has the kind of far reaching impact as aunt motherfucking becky's choice does.  but i guess i can search for william m. joel and see if my blog comes up.  and you can search for william m. joel and see if it comes up.


gosh.  did i just single-handedly ruin this prankster's internet prank by choosing william m. joel?  i sure hope not.


it's just that, really, william m. joel is my favorite singer/songwriter ever.  i have every album william m. joel has ever released, and have seen him in concert like nine times.  and william m. joel doesn't like constantly tour.  i'm only 30.  william m. joel has been touring and making music since before i was born.  heck, before my parents were even together.  he's released many great songs, like 'piano man', 'we didn't start he fire', 'lullaby', and 'pressure'.  just to name a few.  william m. joel's album 'the stranger' was ridiculously popular, reaching number 2 on the charts and spawning four top 25 hits.


also, my parents knew of him when he was just william m. joel.  he grew up in the bethpage/hicksville/levittown area of long island, just like my parents.  william m. joel was once in a band called the hassles.  supposedly a friend of my mom's dated william m. joel in high school or some shit like that.  you can read some of william m. joel's history here, at his wikipedia page.


so william m. joel is kind of a hometown hero to many long islanders. and of course, i'm from long island, new york.  just like william m. joel.


go to google.  or yahoo, or whatever.  and search for william m. joel.  and tell me if this fucking prankster's internet prank shit worked.


also, i may have to name my next pet william m. joel.  i remember mom and awesome husband telling me i could have hermit crabs.  this weekend sounds like a good time to pick one up and name it william m. joel.