As of July 23, 2024, I have been free of cancer. That’s when they completed the 2nd leg of my hysterectomy and removed my final ovary along with the 16cm mass that it was tucked inside, along with part of my bowel.

I haven’t said too much about this online, except for a handful of people here and there, because it didn’t seem real. However, the CT scan I had 2 weeks ago confirms that nothing has grown back, and I couldn’t be happier. All I have to do is take a hormone blocker and hope and pray that doesn’t mess anything up due to side effects to keep the cancer at bay and get regular scans for the next several years.

Current:

NONE

Past:

Arx - Lou, Quenia

Spirit Lake - Maureen
Ithir - Alexandria, Darinel

Games of Way, Way Past - Too Many Characters To Remember:

LegendMUD
Dimensions MUD
Tales of Ta’veren
AngealMOO II
Cuendillar
Tartarus
Firan

---

I’ve currently taken a break from gaming because in November I was told that I have stage 1A cancer, so I’ve been focusing on RL and myself for the time being. I tried out one game, very, very briefly, and didn’t feel I could give it any time or energy with the medical stuff going on. HOWEVER, I finished my last chemo treatment today so that’s some good news. I still have about 3-4 months to go with surgery and another surgery recovery, and who knows after that. Maybe I’m done with chemo, maybe they want another round.

The important part is I’m hanging in there and around, and once I have the energy to do something other than be a couch potato I’ll join the gaming and GMing world again.

I survived an appendectomy, and Cyrto Reduction Surgery with the HIPEC maneuver to help get rid of stage 1A ovarian cancer. Still sore, but home and surrounded by many purring felines. There’s not a lot a person can ask for in recovery but the purring faces of 5 cats.

Stalker Update - I installed a camera Friday morning off the railing of my deck. At 10:45 that night, on a lark, I decided to look at the live feed. I saw lights coming across the property and knew that guy came back again because he started flashing his light at the house again. He the moved to hide behind the tree. Then came back to flash lights at the house again.

My closest neighbors have been on the warpath since I told them what happened. One of them runs a daycare and has grandchildren living in her house, so they can’t have that crap around here. I called them after a few minutes of watching this guy and they came charging out and chased him back to the RV sitting on the property of where I observed the “creeper neighbor” being creepy.

The daycare neighbor had been researching the owners to see if she could find anything and came up with a picture of a not so great guy on the FB page of one of the listed owners pages. It turns out it was /that/ guy. They called the cops on my behalf. He had an outstanding warrant against him for failure to show to court. They arrested him that night but he got released later that morning.

I stayed with my sister last night. Time get the trail cams up now, which will have a pristine, clear picture. I didn’t get to see his face, so I can’t positively identify him, but the neighbors saw him. I filed for a peace order yesterday, which is our local version of a restraining order. So, if he comes onto my property now, he’s going to be arrested and held. I’m also filing criminal charges for what happened on Wednesday.

The cat who won’t leave my shoulder alone…

Asking a character if they would be willing to do an event IC, only to get an @mail telling you that they have this OTHER event they want to do instead of the one you ICly asked them to do because they are sure more players would be more interested in that event.

A couple of months later, schedule a similar event you asked about previously without going through them after they already indicated they were not interested in scheduling those types of events because you want to kick off some plots you also scheduled, only to get an @mail about stepping on their IC job.

. . . .

Kittahs… a video from 2 years ago and a picture from this morning:

https://imgur.com/gallery/wR1cWjm

I’ve been struggling financially for a long time now to the point where I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pay all of my bills plus gas to get to and from work or buy groceries this week. This is all due to vet bills and car troubles that have piled up over the last year or two. I was informed today that I’m getting a 10% raise and it goes into the next pay check, which is hugely helpful.

My Jeep has been in and out of the shop at least 8 times this year for cylinders misfiring. It’s been to 2 different shops that can’t figure out the issue. It’s gone at a 3rd shop and that shop owner knows my dad, so has just expressed he’s willing to help me out to get the Jeep fixed both in parts and labor and also getting it paid. This is a huge relief.

Current:

Arx - Lou, Quenia

Past:

Spirit Lake - Maureen
Ithir - Alexandria, Darinel

Games of Way, Way Past - Too Many Characters To Remember:

LegendMUD
Dimensions MUD
Tales of Ta’veren
AngealMOO II
Cuendillar
Tartarus
Firan

I want to RP so badly but there are no Fantasy based MU’s out there.

To counter my RP Peeve… a RL Happy.

The day before Christmas, during the cold snap, my HVAC was having issues. It wouldn’t go above 59 and nothing I did brought it up. I also got Covid this weekend. I called the installation company that also does the service for help after making sure the Covid issue wasn’t going to be an issue on their website (it was) and if they could come out. I didn’t have an active service plan in place but I had been working on it prior to the issue cropping up. We just hadn’t finalized the details. They refused to come out. I bought a space heater and fretted out the week that they were closed because they were out for the entirety of Christmas week. I fretted all week long, thinking I’d have to sacrifice the rest of my bonus and an arm and a leg to the HVAC gods to get it fixed.

I know, I know, this all sounds bad so far… The space heater got the house through the cold snap and the heater worked when the temps warmed up. I got the service agreement in place and a service scheduled for last Friday. As it turns out, the issue with the heater wasn’t anything mechanical. When they changed out the thermostat a year and a half ago, they had wired it wrong. So, not only did I get my HVAC serviced, but the fix to the heater issue was free of charge since, while it was out of warranty, it was their fault to begin with since they were the ones to wire it up.

So, what might have been a financial disaster for me, ended up being a nice start to 2023 instead. And, behind that, I got news that one of my close friends with Stage 4 cancer has exceptionally good numbers leading into her debulking surgery and she might actually be looking at a long, long life if all goes well with that and the chemo following it.

More of that please.

This last year has been one medical disaster after another. It started back in April with having issues with dehydration, then in August I was diagnosed with 15 cm cyst on my left ovary concerning for cancer. In October I had a hysterectomy to remove those cysts and get anything concerning out and was told I was cancer free. But at the end November, I was told that I have stage 1A Fallopian Tube Cancer - which they found after they biopsied that part some time after my surgery since that’s not the area they were looking in - and I’m starting chemo next week.

I was already struggling financially with all the medical bills from the emergency room visits and surgery that were piling up; the chemo is going to compound that. To top it off, I’m starting chemo right before Christmas so I’m going to be very immunocompromised and won’t get to see family, again, this year after having COVID at Christmas last year.

I am so, so, so, very tired of year after year of ALL THE BAD THINGS happening.

I am very happy to be GMing again. It’s good to stretch those creative muscles and help other people have fun; and also distract myself from other things.

I found a game to play, sure I wouldn’t be impeding on anyone’s fun while I dealt with medical issues, went out for cancer surgery, and it had closed. Just sad and disappointed that happened.

My husband died three years ago. This weekend I attended my nephew’s wedding; the first wedding since my husband died. I had been looking forward to it all month long because these last two years has been nothing but funeral after funeral as family members and friends passed; I’ve lost count how many.

I got through ceremony just fine. It was short, sweet, and only 15 minutes long. This mostly had to do with the fact that the church they had it in had no air conditioning so the priest decided to get to the point early on.

I made it to the reception. I was doing ok. All was good. Then they started announcing the arrivals. I lost it, right there. It was the silent hide my face cry because I didn’t want 60 strangers staring at me. Somehow I managed to wipe all the tears off without running to the restroom, get through the first dances, and eat. But the longer I stayed the more I needed to just leave.

So about 45 minutes into the reception, I fled. I left a family member rather confused at my departure, who texted me to find out what was going on when I fled. I had to tell her that I needed to leave because I really didn’t want to ugly cry in front of 60 strangers, nor did I want to bring the reception down because I was ugly crying in front of 60 strangers. The event needed to be about the bride and groom; not my grief over how the wedding was set up very much like mine was when I got married.

I got home and threw myself into setting up the soaker hose for my garden, which I’d failed to untangle and get together that morning. It’s not pretty, and I’m sure I could have done better, but now I have a timed water management system that seems to be working.

@Testament said in RL Peeves:

The price of weddings are dumb.

Yes. The price goes up exponentially when you mention stuff is for a wedding. I started saying it was a family reunion in some spots when I got married.

@GF Having been on the receiving end of this behavior multiple times, I think it’s very important to draw your line in the sand from the beginning. Trust your gut about your red flags and decide where you want that line to be and be honest. That’s the best thing you can do, for both yourself and this other person. It’s good to set boundaries and let other people know them, especially if you only have so many spoons in a day to spend on things.

Wednesday night at midnight, as I was taking the dogs out, there was a man standing at the end of my driveway. I think he was my creeper neighbor who sometimes watches me as I walk the dogs during the daytime, but I can’t be sure. He’s definitely got stalkery behavior.

Startled, I went back into the house and shut off all the lights so he could not see where I was and hid between some windows. I then saw lights flashing outside and peeking through the window he was standing there with a light shining on his body, masturbating.

I called the police and they came, but of course he was already gone by the time they got here. Response time was 15 minutes. A kind officer stayed on the phone with me until a trooper arrived and checked out the property.

I have never felt so scared as I did that night. I went to my sister’s house after the trooper stopped by.

I’ve since bought blackout curtains, multiple kinds of cameras, and several floodlights. Spent all day shopping to get everything. Now I just need to get it all installed.

With much of the cancer stuff behind me, except for one lingering surgery that I still need to have, I want to help tell stories. . . but I am not playing anywhere to help tell stories because I haven’t had the energy to play games for the last 6 months. Blargh.

I miss GMing.

I think that claiming a perpetual license on other people’s work to do whatever they want to with it, even if it is derivative, without giving royalties or credit back to the creators is absurd and is a dangerous path to go down that stomps all over the smaller creators who do things for the love of the game. It alienates their core groups of players who’ve been game designing and promoting the game over these last few decades; without them, D&D would not be so popular.