Goodbye 2008, Welcome 2009

2009 is here. I didn't bother heralding the new year in, I watched a movie on TV then headed to bed early. My fault entirely - I ate some dark chocolate truffles. They gave me a headache. I needn't have gone to bed early - the headache kept me awake, and also next door was having a party and was playing the music loud. Obviously very loud. I couldn't hear anything, but my bed was shaking with it, even though all the windows were shut. I guess in a few years those neighbours will be on the waiting list for a cochlear implant!

In the last few days, the sound from my Implant has got worse. This must mean that the last 6 electrodes in my ear must be moving out. As I lay in bed last night, I couldn't help but think that this time last year, I was hoping for a new implant, and now exactly one year later, I'm hoping for the same thing. In the past 18 months, I've only heard 'semi-well' for about two months. I'm now avoiding people completely as I hate sitting in a room full of people, and not being able to talk to them. I smile my plasticy smile while inside all I want to do is go home. At least at home, I have my computer where I can catch up with people online, and that helps me not feel deaf. But out in the real world, that feeling of deafness is in my face all the time.

Even online though, I still get bombarded with ignorance. A friend messaged me on MSN the other day and asked me to help with sound through speakers as they weren't getting any. I had to point out several times that I was not the one to ask as I couldn't hear anything! Sigh!

I've decided my life is bi-polar. Not me, my life. It goes something like this..

January 2008 - sad - can't hear anything
February 2008 - I won a trip to the USA (whoo hoo)
March 2008 - New implant (whoo hoo)
April 2008 - in hospital with vertigo after the op :(
Aril 2008 - Switch on can hear 94% without lipreading (whoohoo)
July - Off to America (whoohoo)
August - Losing hearing :(
September - Implant failing
November - Blenheim trip for a week (whoohoo)
December - New Car given to me for Christmas (whoohoo)
December - still awaiting ACC funding - no news still deaf :(

See - Up down, up down, from one extreme to another, nothing is ever smooth.

The best thing I did in 2008 was I dyed my hair brunette. This meant I only had two blonde moments in 2008, compared to hundreds in 2007 as you can read here in the Bottled Blonde Moments of 2007

My two blonde moments were...

I met my friend Linda for a coffee in the new cafe on Takapuna Beach. I parked my car on the ramp. Had coffee. Chatted. It was lovely. Went back to the car and realised my keys weren't anywhere but still in the ignition of the locked car. Linda called Mike, who called Roadside Rescue and we went back to the cafe. On leaving the cafe as we met the Roadside Rescue guy I left my sunglasses on the table. Fortunately the waiter came after me, and I told him I was just testing him!!!

My second blonde moment was tripping over the dog in Blenheim and ending up in hospital with a groin strain injury getting crutches because I couldn't walk. Personally, I don't think that is a blonde moment, because the dog had 'got in behind' and I didn't know. Really when I think about it, it was the dog having a blonde moment. Apparently the dog is still in therapy!!

That's it - just two blonde moments, one from me, one from the dog. Dyeing my hair was obviously the best thing I ever did. Anne tells me I've done lots more but am just too old to remember them all. She'll keep!

My cat had a blonde moment the other day. I was walking past the piano, and at the time i was walking past, she decided to jump onto the piano stool. She jumped, and went straight into my knee, knocking my knees together and making me walk funny, then she fell and collapsed on the floor in a heap. It was hilarious, and I laughed so hard that she got all upset and miffed with me. I had to give her lots of cuddles after that, but it looked like something out of a comic or cartoon.

So goodbye 2008. there were lots of highs, and lots of mind numbing lows. Fortunately the highs were so good, I'll try and remeember those when the lows try and take over.

For 2009, I'm hoping to get my hearing back, win lotto, go to the SWC convention in Portland Oregon and visit Vancouver and Seattle, manage to get to Vietnam and visit my friend Jeffrey while he is still there, get fit, sell my house, build a new one somewhere etc.. A time of change.

Without the Lotto win though, it'll just be the hearingf and the getting fit!!!

My new year's resolution is to NEVER TO EAT DARK CHOCOLATE AGAIN. I still have the headache from the dark chocolate truffles.