Wednesday, October 03, 2007

A little of everything

  • Katey took Blake (my nephew) to a geneticist this week. Apparently, his cerebral palsy is hereditary-- a 1 in 4 chance. I don't know yet if it's on Nick's side or ours, but if it's OURS it's certainly something to keep in mind. I'll have to decide if I want to have more kids someday--and if I have one already who's "okay," that means my chances of having a CP baby increase with each kid I have. Kind of scary.
  • I saw Former Marine again last night. I went over to his house and we got dinner and a movie. I think I was a little TOO overzealous with my "no funny business" mandate prior to agreeing to go over there, because once I got arrived he had "my" spot picked out (the couch) and "his" spot (down the hall and to the left, LOL). But you know what? He was a total gentleman and I had a blast. In fact, I even initiated a bit of "friendliness" with HIM since he was so good at respecting my boundries.
  • I think he likes me, too, which is amazing considering the DUMB ASS THING I said last night. We were going to a Peruvian restaraunt and he said "You know what that means, right?" and all indignant-like I replied, "Uh, YEAH. It's food from PERUVIA. Duh." He literally fell off the chair from laughing so hard. "What do you teach again?" he asked when he finally regained control. "Sdjjjjdj," I muttered. "What was that?" he asked. "Social studies," I repeated, at which point he went into another episode. But hey--in my defense, there are a LOT of little countries that no one really knows and "Peruvia" SOUNDS like a real place.
  • OOOH, I have another Former Marine story and then I'm done. This is weird, though. He wanted to see me on Monday night but I had an appointment with my drug doctor. So I told him I couldn't, I had an appointment. Sounded nice and generic, right? "Oh yeah?" he asked. "What kind of appointment?"

"Doctor's," I said. "No big deal."

"Oh," he said. "You're bipolar, huh?"

I almost drove off the road. "What makes you say that?" I asked as casually as I could.

"You said you're heading out to Matlacha, right?" he said. "That's where all the bipolar people go, from what I hear. There's a big clinic there."

LOL. Now mind you, he was saying this jokingly--but it WOULD have been a good time to just say, "Actually, yeah, I do have it but it's under control and not really a big deal," but I was just FROZEN.

Then last night, when I was with him, he was telling me a story about his ex-roommate, and somehow we got on the subject of a friend of hers who--you guessed it--was bipolar. LOL. It's ALL AROUND ME with this guy. But she was on disability because of it; hers was very severe.

THEN, later that same night, while we were all cuddled up on the couch and stuff, a commercial came on about having a friend with mental illlness. I actually looked up at the ceiling like, "Is this a SIGN?" But I couldn't tell him. He kind of snorted when the commercial came on...and I get the feeling that it's not so much that he judges them (or "us," I guess I should say), but rather that all of his experiences with people with these types of issues have all been negative AND much more severe cases.

They say on the BP boards that you'll know when and how to tell someone, almost instinctively, and I think that's true. Sometimes it's best to tell them right away--to do it right away, to get it over with, to act like it's no big deal--and to find out if they're gonna run, because it's better to have them do it right away. But sometimes, it IS better to just proceed with things and bring it up later, down the road, once you start building kind of a history and foundation. And honestly, in this case, I truly think it's better to wait for him to really get to know me and care about me (if we ever get that far, even); I think that will help him to accept the news--seeing how "normal" (shut up) I am, and how, generally speaking, this really DOESN'T affect my life.

6 comments:

Renee said...

Holy lots of stuff, Batman!

How do "they" determine whose family the CP is in? I'm imagining just blood tests from Katey and Nick?

I'm LMAO at the spots Former Marine had picked out :-) And I'm laughing even fuckin harder at your PERUVIA comment. LOLOLOLOLOL. Mr. Van Ark would be disappointed in you, "if you know what I'm talkin' about". Hahahahaha! I love you. So what did you get to eat at said Peruvian restaurant?

All the BP stuff is frickin weird, too! And yeah, it does sound like his experiences with it have been fairly negative, so I think holding off is a good idea. LOL.

Jen said...

Well seeing as how Nick isn't "available for testing" at the moment, it's a good question, actually.

Renee said...

LOL. That was my next question :-)

Anonymous said...

Where'd Nick go? Is he in jail now?

This Marine guy sounds quite promising :)
I don't know that his BP views are necessarily bad. I'm encouraged that he seems to know something about it and have some experience with it. I kind of feel like if people can joke about a subject, that at least they're not scared of it and staying away from it. You know what I mean? But I think it's just fine that you're waiting to tell him. It'll all work out how its supposed to work out. Did you say he had a kid?

Anonymous said...

boundaries, not boundries, LA teacher.

Jen said...

Anna: yeah, for a while longer yet. Katey's doing everything on her own (and struggling, might I add, but honestly, she's tougher than I am for SHO').

Former Marine seems to be cool so far. He is, however, very....LOL, Marine-ish. He has his firm opinions and is not shy about sharing them. =-) But, so far, I'm having fun. He already has a pet name for me: Nerd. But not in a mean way, more of an affectionate, teasing way. It's cute. Date #3 tomorrow (would been tonight but I'm a bit virus-y)