Distracted By Something Shiny

I have not even posted about it yet, but in April, just a few weeks ago, I got to go to Disney’s annual blowout Star Wars Celebration convention. It was pretty expensive for any autographs & photo ops, so aside from the group photo w my girls & Greg Grunberg, I selected just one person to meet. And it was Peter Mayhew, the original Chewbacca himself. And I am so glad I did. Because Peter Mayhew has passed away.

He had had a stroke or something, before, it seemed like. But he seemed so pleased to be there, goofing it up for the cameras, intently listening to his fans tell him what he & Chewbacca mean to them, messing around with the Chewie replica head they set out on his table. I hope he was glad to have gotten to participate in one last celebration of an icon. *I* am sure glad he was able to be there. It fulfilled a lifetime dream of mine, to meet him.

Star Wars was the beginning of a world of imagination & possibilities for me. It showed me the stars. It taught me loyalty & friendship & courage & hope. And at the center of that, drawing me in, was my first love, Chewbacca. I was gonna marry him, you know. I was five - I thought marriage would be holding his furry hand while we walked, laying on him like a warm fuzzy mattress & blankie all in one, and having him carry me around when my knees hurt. In hindsight, I think I had a pretty good grasp on what marriage should be. And to meet the man behind my Chewie? Well, that was truly amazing. It’s a bittersweet thing I’m feeling.




The stars will shine a little brighter tonight, now that Peter has joined Carrie in lighting up the galaxy. The one here and the one far, far away.

We are getting a new dog! We started looking about a month ago - 6 months after Winston passed. The first dog we liked was a beagle, which I’ve always wanted. But he has seizures and while we were willing to take on a special needs dog, he would have needed an injection right during his seizures, something I am physically unable to do while Sis is at work. So that was Monty & after much discussion with his foster mom, Monty was decided against. Then we looked at another beagle named Phoebe, but she was spoken for. Then we looked at a pug/terrier I believe it was, but she was 8yrs old and a dog of that size would likely only live to 12, putting her at an age where she’d be passing in another 4yrs or so, around the same time we expect Pippin & Kirk to go :(. (They are 10 yrs old now, can you believe it!). All of our previous cats lived to be 13-15yrs old and we didn’t relish the thought of losing 2 cats *and* a dog within a few years of each other. So Charlie was out.

And then we met Hitch. And we actually *met* Hitch, his foster mom brought him for a visit. This is him. We knew right away we wanted him. Pippin & Ripley were both stoked to see a dog again. Kirk, as always, was indifferent. Hiccup was pissed - he is the baby, after all! We decided that day to get him and just had to wait for the new fence to get finished out back. We only had to wait two weeks but it seems like forever.



And now we get him on Saturday! He's a 3yr old rescue, 20lbs, slight limp, possible bulldog/chihuahua/dachshundmaybe/something, came to a MI rescue from TX. Hitch is his current name, he's had it for 6 months, but I not 100% on it, nor a 100% on making him learn a new name. They have no info about his life before the TX rescue, including a name. So the rescue gave him the name Hitch for his injured back leg. But the leg is mostly healed now and I’m just not keen on Hitch bc it always makes me think of that Kevin James/Will Smith movie. Ofc I’ve also been calling him Hitch for 2 weeks now, so idk maybe that’s his name. Here are some name choices, whaddya think?

Xander
Tripp
Diggle
Hitch

Weigh in!

A week ago today I was on spring break with Sis & our friend hiyacynth, + her son Munchy P (8), & The Niece (6) & Nephew (nearly 13)...at Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, OH. I give GWL double thumbs up on both accessiblity & entertainment.

Once you are there, no reason to ever leave the resort the whole stay. The indoor water park has a pool, hot tubs for adults & kids, lily pad obstacle, clubhouse, gadget sprays that come on with pullies & levers, plus multiple water slides. Kept the kids entertained all day. The Niece insisted I “follow her!” so The Nephew pushed my wheelchair behind her while she pulled every lever to spray us! Also I definitely did the 700 gallon bucket dump. And I definitely screamed my whole way through it. And then I definitely got into the hot tub after that.

( Under the cut for spaceage. )

So all in all, a great spring break with some of my fav peeps.

‪Brothers from another mother & reverse twinsies, Ripley & Hiccup.‬
‪Brothers from same mother & biological twinsies, Kirk & Pippin.‬
‪Happy National Pet Day! Kiss your fur bbs from me!

I keep trying not to interject (Self) Published Author when I say it, bc fuck it, I worked my ass off, I don’t need no qualifiers! Ya’ll my book is out in paperback! MY BOOK, MINE! I did it, I’m an author. Omg. I’m stuck alternating between running around screaming excitedly at top of my lungs and flopping down boneless & relieved of all cares in the world. And bonus, now I can focus on other things for a change, like disability blogging more, art projects, answering journal comments lol, and idk, writing my next book. Anyways, here’s the write up for those of you *not* following my professional FB - why aren’t you? It’s Westword Books on FB, go Follow! - ...

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And...it’s RELEASE DAY! As I type this, Terrific Tails: Stories From A Pet Guardian has officially been out in paperback for nearly 8 hours! At last! 3 years & 2 months for this project, which not only included the book itself, but also the beginning of this fun, family charity project, Westword Books! What a ride! And it’s just the beginning.

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Terrific Tails: Stories From A Pet Guardian on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Terrific-Tails-Stories-Pet-Guardian/dp/173093112X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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Thank you to all my DW/LJ/Fandom peeps for all of your support over the years with my writing. You helped guide & nuture me and I will *always* be grateful for that. Now...GO BUY MY BOOK!

Hey, gang! Just want to take a moment to promote my book, "Terrific Tails: Stories From A Pet Guardian", a project I’ve been working on for over 3 years. It is currently out in ebook format and will be out before the end of this month in paperback. And it’s not just this book either! There will be another book after this and one after that. Hopefully I can make a whole life long thing out of this! So, please, go to my professional Facebook page, “Westword Books”, and see what we – it’s become a family affair! – have to offer. All profits will go to various charities, so it’s for good causes too.

The first book is all about my family pets & there are adorable pictures included! Support a first-time author, good charities and a fun family project done all in my Grandma Ava’s memory - and at her insistence too, which is a whole story you can read about in the book! We also have a Twitter account, so follow us wherever you like. Three years worth of hard work is finally paying off – come see what we’ve got to show you!

Westword Books Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/westword.books

Westword Books Twitter - https://twitter.com/Westword_Books

You can also find me as “Adie Weston” @ Amazon.com

Finally watched Dumplin on Netflix and...damn.. Whole last quarter ending of the movie was a roller coaster of my emotions. Even so, like 10 minutes before the end, I thought, “Well this has been a great movie, but idk why everyone on the internet was crying.” Not 2 minutes later the *thing* happened & I was bawling my eyes out. I can’t even, bc my emotions, okay? 10/10 would recommend. Also, daaamn, Harold Perrineau!

Unfortunately I can’t post the pictures that go with this story here - I did post them on Facebook because the niblings parents allow that, but I don’t post their pics here because they don’t know any of you & my brother is understandably cautious. My rule has always been no pics of anyone without their - or their parents’ - permission. But I wanted to share the story, because I am so proud of The Nephew (12 now) & Niece (almost 6).

This weekend we had special family fun time at the arcade! Our local bowling alley has a new arcade, about 30 games or so, pretty cool. We had the kids for a few days over Christmas break, so we took them and we all had fun! Here’s the best story though...

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I’m exhausted after 3 straight days of kids up in here, followed by a D&D gaming session over Skype with The Canadians, but it was a great week. Tomorrow I have a string of dr appointments, but Tuesday I finally will get to rest, lol.

Just popping in to say I hope your holiday season thus far has been jolly & that your new year to come is amazing! Have some holiday photos:



Pippin loves his pretty tree. “It’s pretty like Pippin,” I tell him.



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Happy Holidays, Lovelies!

...here’s what’s been going on with me. I had surgery the day before Thanksgiving. Let’s rewind to the beginning of summer, when my left leg started bothering me, my hip constantly feeling like it needed to be uncramped. I remember how rough on my leg the trip to the zoo with the Canadians was in July, spending the whole day in the wheelchair. By the end of August I realized I needed to see my dr. If it was the hip joint, better to find out sooner than later. If it was the tendon that often tightens on that side, then I needed a PT script to work it out. I was guessing tendon. I was wrong.

Wait...let’s go back to 1997, when I was 19. I had both my hips replaced because the cartilage in my hips had completely eroded due to years of arthritis. (Side note: all the cartilage is now gone from my knee joints, hence why they’re completely locked up & most from my shoulders, which my PT is helping me keep from locking up). They told me at the time that 15-20 years is good for a false hip joint to last before it needs replacing. But they expected that I would get 20-25, because I’m so tiny, young & not putting excess strain on the new joint by say, taking up karate.

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Next time on Dodger’s Journal...Recovery!