Updates

Been having a pretty good week here at Casa De Inexplicably. We went back to the optometrist a few days ago and she was pretty positive about the prognosis. She said that her colleague had told her that the problem was that I had three eye problems all at once, making it difficult to diagnose me properly. So he had decided to try to fix one at a time...sounds reasonable. She said that the drops I had been taking appeared to be successfully minimizing my eye allergies and now that they are diminished, she can see the infection that is there and give me drops for that. In a week I go back and she feels that the infection will be gone then and then I can stop taking those drops. As for the allergies and the FES, I may have to put drops in my eyes for the rest of my days, but that is not a big deal if I can be eye pain free and wear my contacts (although the wearing contacts is still up the air). More updates in a few days when I go back yet again. Paul is being a champ about this by the way. He despises Walmart with a passion that I cannot possibly grasp...but he still drives me there and sits and waits patiently for me without complaint. Although, to be fair, that may have to do with the fact that my regular optometrist is one of the most beautiful real women that I have ever seen. She's from Canada too, so we have a little bond since there are so few Canadians down here.

While we waited for my prescription we moseyed into the movie section, which is Paul's big downfall. But, since they didn't charge us for my appointment again I couldn't begrudge him getting 3 movies for under $20. He insisted that we get 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', which was pretty cute actually. Then I picked 'The Edge' cause I have been told that it is great, and Paul also picked "Moulin Rouge". Have you seen "Moulin Rouge"?! Holy smokes. It was...very very strange and great and sad and extraordinarily weird. It begins in the Moulin Rouge which is sort of like a dance hall. I believe they say that the year is 1899. It is in Paris. And they sing a sort of round song that includes Cancan, Smells Like Teen Spirit, The Sound Of Music and Lady Marmalade. I was kind of bowled over by the weirdness. You must watch it if you have not. And if you have, why haven't you told me how good it was? Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are, well, not the greatest singers, but it all works. Fantastic movie. Really, utterly unique.

After that we went out to dinner at our usual spot (So Cheap, So Good!) and had a loverly time. They now have cannoli for dessert and Paul and I seem incapable of speech while we eat them. We just moan softly and fight over each piece.

My family comes to visit in one week and I imagine that we will have to spend a fair amount of money while they were here. After that though, we are going to buckle down and start trying to pay off those debts. We most certainly do not spend frivolously now, in fact we spend less on entertainment than anyone I know, but we are going to redouble our efforts. I've talked to numerous credit counsellors etc. and what they basically said was that we don't make enough now to start regular payments, we just couldn't do it. However, they said that it is not just the amount that you owe (etc.) that looks bad, but also the number of outstanding debts that you have. For example $1000 debt that is owed to two separate companies looks a lot better than $1000 total debt owed to 5 companies. So the basic game plan at this point, as suggested by Care One Credit (who were really nice) is to order our debts from smallest to largest and begin paying them off that way. That way you get a real feeling of accomplishment too. I suggested to Paul that since we don't really have any disposable income we should take any unexpected funds that come our way and plop them straight into debts. It will be hard, but we have to start a plan. Wish us luck :)

Um...I know that there are several other things that I wanted to say, but my 'blog topics' notebook is all the way over on the coffee table. Plus, I just got sidetracked for like an hour looking up the real Moulin Rouge and Toulouse-Lautrec (played by John Leguizamo in the movie). What an absolutely fascinating character! (Andrea, didn't Colum Mackenzie have Toulouse-Lautrec sydrome?). Okay, I'm blathering now, and possibly trying to avoid having to clean the bathroom. Bah!