It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than a month since my last entry. I’ve been doing really well, and because of that, I’ve been spending more time going out, meeting up with friends, and doing stuff off of the computer.

Today, my amazing, creative friend Sara said that she was interested in featuring my blog on her blog, so I figured it’s only right to jump in here and update.

Like Night & Day

The biggest difference in my life lately has been that I haven’t been having nearly as many seizures as I had during the months of March and April, while I was experiencing an MS relapse. Here and there, there have even been days where I’ve been entirely seizure-free! Still haven’t made it a full week seizure-free yet, but I’m not complaining! During the relapse, I had gotten back to having seizures all the time – like at least 30 a day, so having 1 or 2 in a day seems minuscule in comparison.

And you wouldn’t believe it…the strangest thing happens when you suddenly stop having incapacitating seizures — you start to think you ought to be doing more! In that vein of thought, I’ve been working really hard to have more of a life outside the house.

Holy cow, my online friends actually exist off Facebook!

On Facebook, there’s a community of local folks who also have MS that I’ve been keeping up with for a while. Just recently, I decided that I really wanted to meet more of them offline. To that end, I’ve become more brave about riding the bus. 3 times in the last month, I’ve taken the bus to meet up with friends, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Not only did it mean socialization, but a few times, it also meant “cheesecake.” 🙂

In all seriousness, there’s something about knowing that I have people whose company I enjoy, who live within a short commute, that makes me feel a lot better about living in the Chicagoland area. It was really hard trying to feel like my own woman when all of my friends were Adam’s friends first — some for 20+ years. Finally, my honey knows that he’ll be able to have a guy’s night out, and I can happily hang with my girls. That sort of equality and emotional independence is incredibly important to have for a happy marriage.

The Great House Hunt of 2014

The biggest thing that’s been taking up my time has been hunting for a house. Over the last month or so, we’ve checked out a dozen or so houses. We’ve figured out the area that we’d prefer to live in, and it’s been hilarious seeing that we can purchase a place for ~$175,000 out in the Chicago suburbs that folks on HGTV show in California for ~$1 million. It kind of gives you perspective, insomuch as we all are looking for the same basic creature comforts, regardless of social class.

The only downside to watching so much HGTV is that I start getting these crazy notions about buying a fixer-upper. Don’t worry! That’s not going to happen. We definitely don’t need the added frustration. That being said, if we were independently wealthy and could afford contractors to do all the work for us while we luxuriated in a hotel suite, it would be totally fun. I know this, because I both love hanging out in hotels and have spent a ridiculous amount of time building and decorating fabulous houses in Sims 3. 🙂

We still don’t think we’ve found the right place for us yet. For whatever reasons, architects in this area seem to think that you don’t need a master suite and having 3-4 bedrooms means you only need 1.5 bathrooms… oh, and that a raised ranch floorplan is a great idea. With my physical challenges, I personally am not a fan of entering a house and already being on a staircase landing. Stairs are sometimes frightening to me because when I’m post-ictal (after seizure) I have a very hard time with balance.

I really wish we could find a nice 4 bed, 3 bath ranch (not raised ranch, just regular ranch) or bungalow in walking distance to a grocery store or at least a bus line that goes to one… but so far that hasn’t been in the cards. We did, however, find a nice 4 bedroom tri-level with 1.75 bathrooms that we’re seriously considering. If we were to get that place, I’d want to renovate the lower level and turn it into a master suite with a double-sink vanity, soaking tub, and separate shower. It would just take a couple of years before we could save up enough cash to do the work.

Of course, Adam and I are both looking forward to having a yard for Brisco. We’re fine with taking him on walks, but we see how happy he is when he gets to hang out at the parents’ place and run around the yard with Seuss.

On the topic of fuzzy things — we’ve also had some foster kittens recently. Anna, Elsa, and Freya, 3 sisters – all little cutiepies. Freya and Elsa got adopted last week, so we’ve got to bring them to PetCo tomorrow to go to their forever home. Anna has a couple of applications out for her. Hopefully, she’ll be going home soon. Here’s a pic! I wish I had a better one, but these babies move so quick that it’s hard to catch them in a picture!

Another benefit to moving to the ‘burbs is we’ll be closer to the Romeoville Humane Society, which will make fostering easier. Driving 45 minutes to and from picking up kitties is kind of a pain in the butt. My only quibble with the suburbs is that the public transportation situation is much less awesome than it is here in Chicago proper. At least they have a shuttle program set up for those of us who are disabled. I may have to plan things a week in advance, but at least I know that I’ll be able to get places I need to go.

Other than that, there’s not terribly much to report. I hope you’re all doing well!