Wowser! What A Wonderful Weekend!

I can honestly say, after the weekend I had, I ended up proving the saying, 'When it rains; it pours.'  I just can't believe how many things happened...and most of them were good for a change.  As most of you know, I pretty much have no life.  Since moving to a new city a little over a year ago and losing a leg shortly after relocating; I've had a quiet, uneventful existence hanging around my apartment for the most part...alone.  Despite that, I must say I'm quite happy I survived the ordeal I went through.  It's all good, though, as I'm back on my feet and getting into the swing of things again.  It may be a bit boring, but considering the alternative; I'll take sitting around inactive over eternal rest any day.  I get out and about on a daily basis, taking a walk somewhere, anywhere, for 169 days in a row now on top of the 150 days I went walking when I was still on crutches.  That, and watching what I eat, has improved my health dramatically...to the point where I've been able to totally eliminate my short-term medication and some days; don't even have to take my long-acting injection.  I have to admit, life is as good as can be expected.  It could be better in some regards, but I'll take what I have for the time being.

Late Friday afternoon, I was paid a visit by my best friend, Scott, and his 'Pooper Dog'.  He had to come up to my neighborhood to pick up some pictures he had printed up to give as Valentine's Day presents. He asked 'Aunt Rob' to pooper-sit while he ran across the street here to get them.  I'm only too happy to watch his puppy, though my cat isn't to thrilled with having her 'cousin' Dakota come to visit.  He wants to play.  She wants no part of it and perches atop the kitchen table out of his reach.  If he comes too close, no claws, but she'll give him a swat.  Not even that deters the dumb dog...he's just that friendly.  When Scott returned to pick him up, he gave me my Valentine's Day surprise, including a $20 gift certificate to the restaurant I call 'Pizza Slut'...for a night I don't feel like cooking.  I'm trying to figure out how to stretch that gift to cover every night...for the rest of my life.  I'm never in the mood to cook.  He also handed me a card; a nice addition to his present, but the wrong thing to give a sap like me. It included the hand-written line, 'To the 'bestest' best friend ever...you!  Love, Scott'  Stand back!  We're about to experience a flood.  Turn on the water works...tears welled up in my eyes and started flowing down my face. Sap...sap...sappy...SAP!  That made my Valentine's Day.  Even though I'm single with no romantic interest in my life; who needs a partner when I have a best friend as wonderful as Scott...even though I'm still cleaning up glitter that fell from the card.  All I have to do is scratch my nose and my face is covered in sparkles now.

Saturday began as another quiet day just doing my normal routine of nothing.  My neighborhood was extremely busy with people coming to the various cafes and eateries to dine with their loved ones.  There was a non-stop flow of people in and out of the candy shop on the corner that features their own home made confections.  I was out on my balcony a lot just watching everyone come and go.  While outside on one occasion, I heard a commotion up the street and the honking of car horns going by. As it grew closer, I saw a 'parade' coming down the sidewalk. In honor of it being Valentine's Day, there was a group of about 100 activists marching with signs and balloons in support of equality and gay marriage. They spent part of the afternoon strolling up and down 'The Strip' chanting, 'Hey hey...Ho ho...Inequality has got to go.'  They were greeted with much support during their march.  As open-minded as the residents and visitors of my neighborhood are; they had picked the right place to spread their message.  Homophobes and 'gay-haters' are not welcome around here.  We run them out.  Hit the road, bigots!

Though my publication notifications from Gather aren't working properly after the most recent 'Keats' upgrade (Others are experiencing this same glitch, among others still.), I've been trying to Gather as best as I can.  I apologize if I don't at least give my connections a page view, but it's been very difficult for me to find and keep up with posts since Wednesday, but I'm trying.  I know others are having this problem, as well, as one of my articles last week received only 7 comments.  What?  I've never had such low results in the past; not even on my very first story shared here.  If members can't find what I've published due to glitches; they can't read them and leave feedback.  That's how I know we have a serious problem with our latest round of glitches.

Mid-afternoon, I received a message from Gather itself.  They were either either going to explain the progress of trying to correct the notification issue that's being experienced...or they were going to chew me out and tell me to take a chill on grumbling and griping about the problem.  I was wrong on both counts.  It was a personal message from one to the Gather staff members; a very touching letter.

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By this point in the day, I was flying so high; I was soaring.  It can't get any better than this...or can it?  It sure can!  I've been told by many, since I'm single with no romantic partner in my life, it's going to happen when I least expect it.  Well, I sure wasn't expecting it when I received a private message on one of my chat services during the early evening hours.  It was a guy expressing interest in me.  Huh?  Me?  Are you sure you didn't hit the wrong button?  He insisted he knew what he was doing.  We talked for a couple of hours finding things out about each other.  Being an honest and upfront kind of guy, I told him all about what I've gone through over the past year...the condense version.  I don't like to pull surprises on others in regards to me missing a leg.  Some aren't interested in a 'disabled' person and it would freak them out and send them running if I just sprung something like that on them after spending time getting to know one another.  It didn't matter to Nick at all.  He likes to get to know a person for what's on the inside...and he liked what he saw on the outside, as well.

He described himself as a 'cuddle monster'...liking physical contact as much as I do.  He speaks French as well as English.  I've mastered both languages, too.  He enjoys theater and the arts, dining out and cooking.  I never move too fast and let time take its course, but I immediately had to think...if things work out, I'll have a chef to prepare meals for me and never have to worry about my laziness in the kitchen again.  We'd compliment each other well, as I'm an excellent baker; something I don't mind doing...and he loves cookies.  Cookies!!!  It's a match made in heaven!  He's also musically inclined and is one of three finalists in the YouTube symphony competition with the winner awarded a featured performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City.  He's currently a student studying piccolo and flute at the prestigious Eastman School of Music here in Rochester...and lives just a dozen blocks from me.

I don't know if it was the excitement of the past 24 hours or if my metabolism had brought my blood sugar levels too low, but I ended up feeling poorly late in the evening Saturday to the point I skipped eating and ended up sleeping ten hours; twice as long as I normally do.  Whatever was the cause, I snapped out of it by mid-day Sunday...in time to enjoy the Daytona 500 NASCAR race. Go Jeff Gordon!  I did notice something odd in the early going of the race that just confirmed suspicions I already had.  My kitty, The Shim, thinks she's a dog.  She 'heels' when I walk through the apartment, staying at my side and matching my stride, and she 'fetches', too.  When I toss one of her toys, she retrieves it and carries it back to me to throw for her again...and again...and again.  Shimmer even sits up on her hind haunches with front paws in the air begging for treats. While I was checking out coverage of the race, I noticed she was sitting on the floor in front of the television watching...and she didn't take her eyes off the TV.  I've got another auto racing fan in the house. She paid attention right up until the rain-shortened race was over with Matt Kenseth being declared the winner.  Jeffie and his #24 ended up 13th, but I can say, 'Nyah, nyah' to the Junior and Jimmie fans.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ended 27th and Jimmie Johnson came in 31st after both were involved in crashes earlier in the race.  Better luck next time, kids.

My weekend came to a close later Sunday evening when dinner time rolled around...and I had pizza!  I didn't use the gift certificate Scott had given me.  I made my own.  (Shanny would have been at least semi-proud of me!)  I cheated a little, though.  I had purchased a bag of pizza dough at the supermarket earlier in the week and formed my own crust and went to work creating a 'Rob Pie'.  I have to admit the finished product turned out excellent. I spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the crust and added shredded mozzarella cheese.Then, I added sausage and topped it with pizza sauce and slices of more mozzarella cut from a brick; topping that with a generous amount of oregano.  On that went the mushrooms, pepperoni, onions, red and green peppers, black olives and a little more oregano.  I finished it off with grated parmesan cheese. By the time I was ready to pop it into the oven, that sucker was a good inch thick.  I like my pizza a little well done, so I bake it until the cheese is a bit on the brown side.  It tasted sooooo good and was so thick; I could only eat half.  This is going to be a leftover I don't mind eating two nights in a row. I won't even mention the chocolate covered marshmallow Easter eggs I had for dessert in addition to my sugar-free orange Jell-O.  I'm going to have to do this more often...unless I can trick Nick into making it for me.