2008: A Review

In 2008 I:

1. Got a bad-ass scar from my first major surgery.
2. Went to 3 beautiful weddings.
3. Traveled 94 days between March - December, mostly for work.
4. Found hope in politics again.
5. Hosted my first Thanksgiving with my awesome husband.
6. Flew quietly over the Flatirons.
7. Went to Vegas for the first time.
8. Hung out on the roof of the Denver Aquarium with my brother.
9. Had some really good times with new and old friends.
10. Got to laugh every day with the greatest guy ever.

A Rose is a Rose

I've been a Henderson now for 14 months, and I can't really say that I'm super used to the name.  I haven't figured out the spacing for the extra letters (all 4 of them) that make the name longer than my maiden name.  I've also listened as someone has called out for "Anne Henderson" only to take a moment or two before realizing that is me now.  The funny thing is, I never felt particularly attached to "Dirks" as a name until it was gone.

Having said that, I love the letter H.  I love writing it.  I love the way Anne Henderson flows - lots of n sounds to roll around.  

I'm still going through and getting my name changed on my membership forms.  I tackled 3 name changes today - one hotel membership, one airline frequent flyer membership (for Sucky Frontier, no less) and one credit card.  

For the hotel and the airline, I have to send in a formal request with a copy of the marriage certificate.  For the credit card, I had to rattle off all of the numbers associated with my life (SSN, former addresses, current address, favorite lucky number, etc.) - and that's it.  They changed my name and are sending me the new stuff immediately.  Doesn't it seem odd that the airline & hotel, which in all reality don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, are making me jump through hoops, while the credit card/military membership couldn't have been more accommodating?

Our Unintended Staycation

How depressing is the term, "staycation"? It means that you don't have the money to go somewhere for vacation - or, in our case, it means Frontier sucks and you can't get to where you want to go until 3 days later!

Will and I are supposed to be visiting his family in Gig Harbor for the holidays. We were supposed to leave last night. But while at a holiday party at my parents' house, Will's dad called to tell us that our flight had been cancelled.

Now, I'm a reasonable person. Seattle is socked with snow that they can't handle so they shut the airport down. That's a perfectly acceptable thing to do. And I can be patient with a weather delay. But we were supposed to be in Gig Harbor on Sunday night, and now Frontier is telling us that they can't rebook our flights until Wednesday - arriving in Seattle at 8 pm. Yep, that's right. We get in late on Christmas Eve - at best we'll be at the house around 9:30 pm.

Here's the kicker - we're supposed to come home on Friday night. Our week long vacation to the Northwest is now going to be 48 hours and 30 minutes. And Frontier is being a complete jerk about helping us extend our time out there.

Sucky Frontier: "Sure, we can book you on a later flight coming home - when would you like to come back?"

Me: "Umm, Monday?"

Sucky Frontier: "No flights available that day."

Me: "Umm, Sunday?"

Sucky Frontier: "Sure, let me look. No flights available that day either."

Me: "Saturday?"

Sucky Frontier: "Sure, let me look. No flights on Saturday."

(Side note - if we wanted to BUY a ticket for any of these days, we could for an outrageous price. So Sucky Frontier is cramming even more folks onto already oversold flights for a premium price.)

Me: "So, our week long vacation is now reduced to 48 hours and you can't do anything to help?"

Sucky Frontier (now with an attitude): "You know, you're really lucky to get out there before Christmas - we have lots of passengers that aren't getting out to Seattle until the 27th."

That may be true, but it doesn't make the situation suck any less or make me feel any warmer or fuzzier towards your airline.

I estimate that I've spent about $15k on airline tickets in 2008 between work & personal travel. And while I really hope I don't have to travel that much in 2009, I can guarantee that Frontier is not getting any of that business next year, unless they start making this better ASAP.

Okay, now it is time for an attitude adjustment... Any thoughts on what we should do with our 3 extra days of time in Boulder?

I'll Order Some Sleep with a Side of Snooze

Right before I had surgery in January, I read someone's blog post that had a "Top 10 Reasons You Know You Have Crohn's" list.  Most of the list was the usual, but one of the spots said something about only being able to sleep on your side with your right leg bent under - or some such strangeness.  And I totally was sleeping like that at the time - I just had no idea that it was related to Crohn's.  I felt like I belonged to a secret club.

But for a tummy issue that would probably benefit from some really good sleep, Crohn's has a way of making it hard times to sleep.  After I had surgery, I could only sleep on my right side or my back - sleeping on my left side made it feel like my stitches were being pulled out.  With other flare ups, I've only been able to sleep on my left side because it hurt to sleep on my right.

I'm a total side sleeper.  It makes me happy to snuggle with Will while falling asleep with the cat at the foot of the bed- one big warm happy pile of Hendersons.  With this latest flare-up, I can't sleep on either side without waking up in pain which usually leads to throwing up.  So I have to fall asleep either on my back or on my stomach.  And sleeping on your back or stomach doesn't make you a very good snuggler.

Falling asleep on my stomach is possible, but I usually wake up in the middle of the night with two arms prickling because they've fallen asleep.  Trying to roll over or push myself up with fast asleep limbs has resulted in a few not so cool rollover moves.  One night I even contemplated waking Will up so he could help shove me over because I couldn't feel my arms at all!

Sleeping on my back is okay, but I've been waking up with horrible back and neck aches.  My very awesome mom and I went to the Woodhouse Spa in Denver on Thursday to get massages and I had the guy crank on my neck and back.  Which I think helped - I'll let you know as soon as I'm not so sore from the massage.

So last night I couldn't fall asleep on my back or my stomach.  I thought, screw it, I'm sleeping on my side and I fell fast asleep.  Then I woke up in pain at 5 am and have been throwing up ever since.  It wasn't worth it.  And now I just keep adding food to the list of things I never want to see again.  Goodbye beef tostadas - never want to see you again.

Dear Insurance Company

You suck big time. Thanks for waiting for 3 weeks to not approve the medicine I need. That gives me 3 weeks of staying on my old, ineffective medicine. And now, a few more while we figure out what is next. That's 3+ weeks that the inflammation wins.

I hope I don't have to have surgery again because I'm sure you'd be pissed at having that bill to pay just because you wouldn't fork over money for a prescription in the short term.  Actually, other than the surgery part, that sounds kinda good to me right now.

I hope Obama kicks your ass and takes your names.  And then gives me a chance to throw in a sucker punch or two.

Love,

Anne

Where is Anne?

A few months ago I was in the Portland office and walked into my friend, Aleta's, office. She was holding her cell phone out extended away from her and smiling like a Cheshire cat at it. Once she noticed me standing there, Aleta sheepishly admited that she took photos of herself doing random stuff at random times and sent them to her husband as a little way of saying, "hi."

And I thought that was freaking AWESOME!

I'm often in different locations because I travel so much for work. And I'm often by myself. But there's usually something fun going on, or at least something fun going on in my head, and I don't have anyone to instantly share my fun with. So I started taking random photos and sending them to Will to say "hi dere" because I love him and I think about him a lot.

In that spirit, I took this photo today - the first person to correctly guess where I am will win fabulous prizes. The prizes get more fabulous the more accurate and specific you are. Start guessing!