I'm still alive - just losing myself in life a bit. It isn't that I don't want to post, but I need to get over that hurdle where I sit at the computer and stare at the blank update screen and think that nothing I do is exciting enough for posting. But we just had a holiday things, so I can post about that!
Yule This was nice enough - went to a party at the Grove - but ultimately not what I wanted for this particular holiday. I think that I need to re-think how I do my personal celebration for it. I think the party and group vigil was just more chaos and confusion that I wanted for what (to me) is such a quiet and peace-filled time.
Giftmas I got a spinning wheel! *bounces* I'm having to learn how to handle the fiber all over again, but it is fun. I can't wait to be good enough with it to spin the pretty stuff I have stashed in my spinning bag. :D My sister got me one of those pie making machines, for the wee little pies. Aside from being a bit difficult to remove said pie, I'm loving this gift. I can have pie whenever I want! Savory or sweet! I fear I'm going to have to start stuffing them full of nothing but veg, however, to counteract all the dough. :))
New Year's A lovely time was had for New Year's. Went down to wordvagabond's and did First Night activities on Saturday, lazed around most of Sunday until it was time for Sherlock, and spent the evening playing games and having some really wonderful catch-up time with Ally. <3
Sherlock This gets it's own heading, because OMG SO GOOD, YOU GUYS!! Much like everyone else I am busy having ALL THE FEELINGS about this episode, about the show in general, and I can't wait to go home so I can watch it again (and again, and again...)! Sherlock! John! Theirloveissoepicandcanon! :D :D :D
The downer So, my car is pretty fucked right now. It keeps stalling out for no reason whatsoever, to the point where we had to hire a tow truck to get it to the mechanic last night. >< The computer isn't showing any error codes, so they don't know specifically what is wrong with it. This means they're basically going to take everything apart, clean it, repair what looks broken, and hope for the best. I'm hoping that it runs and is happy once they're done with it all, otherwise it looks like I'll be stuck using dad's truck until it too decides to die. :(
Right then. In the middle of writing all this I got pulled into a Sooper Sekrit Project at work, had a meeting, and subsequently had to sit down and try to find an extra $75k in our FY13 budget. I'm still working on that last one, so I'm off to beat numbers into submission. Whee.
Had a call from Children's Hospital just a moment ago, thanking me for the donation to their children's cancer ward. And so I'm posting here, thanking all of you in turn for your generosity. &hearts
Here's the email copy for the donation. If anyone who donated has questions, please let me know!
from: President, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Foundation <[email protected]> reply-to: [email protected] to: REDACTED date: Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 11:54 AM subject: Thank you for giving online to Cincinnati Children’s! mailed-by: mailer.helpchangetheoutcome.cchmc.org
Thank You for Your Gift!
Dear REAL NAME:
Because you care enough to support the work of Cincinnati Children’s, patients with conditions ranging from broken arms to brain tumors have access to world-class care. And their families get the support they need to be partners in their child’s care.
Thank you for your gift of $500.00 to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center on 8/18/2009.
Your support helps children with injuries, illness and life-threatening diseases have hope for a cure and a healthy future. I hope you know the valuable role you play in bringing innovative research and treatments to these children.
Thank you for your support. Together, we will continue to change the outcome for kids from our community and around the world.
Sincerely,
Kenneth G. Massey President Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Foundation
P.S. If you have any questions about your gift, please contact Liz Curnett at 513-636-4484.
If you chose to designate your gift for a specific area of the medical center, your support will be allocated to that program area as per your wishes. If you indicated that you would like your gift to be used where it is needed most, it will be included as part of our Change the Outcome Campaign which is dedicated to a number of diverse and inspirational strategic initiatives. These priority initiatives have the greatest potential to transform quality of life outcomes for the children and families we serve. Please let us know if this designation is not consistent with your expectations for the use of your gift and we will be happy to redirect your support to another area within our mission.
To comply with the IRS requirements regarding charitable donations, we affirm that no goods or services have been provided to you, in whole or in part, in consideration of your contribution. This letter will serve as confirmation of your donation for income tax purposes.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 9002, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039 | 513-636-4561 privacy policy
You guys are amazing! Seriously, seriously amazing. You have raised $415 for Children's Hospital! Thank you everyone, for being so generous! &hearts &hearts &hearts I have a few avenues to pursue locally to bring the donation up to $500 even, so the official donation amount will be $500. Yay!!
I'm using the donation page for Children's Hospital of Cincinnati to make the donation, and because it is designed for credit cards I'll use my personal card to make the donation and then move the money in PayPal to reimburse my account*. I am going to fill in the comments box under "additional information" to say this gift is from the friends of Ely (though her real name, obviously), and mark it as a tribute in memory of Ely. If anyone thinks I should write anything different, please let me know! I had a moment of utter fail this morning and forgot my wallet at home, so this won't happen until tomorrow - there's still time! :)
I just want to say thank you again to everyone who took the time to comment, call, email, donate, and silently sent good wishes to those of us who have been struck so deeply by Ely's passing. I know it has meant a great deal to me personally, so I imagine others have felt the same. Nothing is going to make the loss of our friend better, but having others around to help share the grief has helped. &hearts
In order to make this as transparent as possible re: potential fraud, I'll happily provide copies of transaction forms/pages to those who donated who wish to see them.
My sincere thanks to every one of you who have donated so far. We've collected almost $300 as of this morning! For the somewhat dire financial times we're living in this is wonderful.
Just as a reminder to everyone, money for donations to Children's Hospital in honor of sisterpandora / musicforcylons need to be sent to me by 11:59pm EST on Friday, August 14. My PayPal address is evil.erato AT gmail DOT com.
I hope you all are taking care of yourselves, giving yourself time to grieve and heal. I miss Ely every day and it is difficult even now to believe that she's gone from this life. It has been said multiple times by multiple people, but she was an amazing woman and life just isn't the same without her around.
Please feel free to pass this information on to anyone you think would like to contribute to the cause, as it were. And if anyone has questions, concerns or just wants to talk, please PM or email me! Blessings to all of you. &hearts &hearts &hearts
Oh, and because I didn't think to mention it earlier: anyone who wants to make a donation has until Friday, August 14th to get money to me via PayPal. Once I've received all funds I'll do the donation to Children's Hospital and post any receipt/recognition from them that I receive.
evil.erato AT gmail DOT com is the PayPal address.
Funeral details are set. Viewing hours tomorrow from 4 - 7pm, funeral service at 7pm. Graveside burial on Friday at 1pm. I'm going to post under a lock the full details - please let me know if you need the info.
Her family is accepting contributions to the Luxottica Gift of Sight Program at onesight.org in lieu of floral arrangements.
Knowing Ely, I'm going to go ahead and use the money raised here to make a donation to Children's Hospital. I think she would approve.
My heartfelt thanks and lots of virtual hugs to all of you for your love and support the last few days. To those who are also grieving, even more hugs to you. A wonderful, caring, wickedly funny woman has gone from our lives, and the world is a lot more dim because of her passing.
No new info as of this morning. I'm going to be away from phone/computer most of the day due to work commitments but if we hear anything I'll post as soon as I can.
Regarding the donation money, unless I hear any strong objections from people I'm going to plan on sending a small plant to Ely's family on behalf of everyone who contributes, and then make a donation to Children's Hospital in Ely's name with the rest. Those of you who were particularly close to her know why.
Again, if you wish to make a donation you can PayPal funds to evil.erato AT gmail DOT com. Please put your LJ name and name you'd like to be recognized to the family by in the notes section.
I've set up a PayPal account for those who wish to contribute towards some sort of gift/token of our love for sisterpandora / musicforcylons. There are several ideas being floated about: sending the traditional flowers, making a donation in her name to a charity, etc. If anyone has any thoughts/ideas on what specifically we should do, please let me know!
I've set up a PayPal account specifically for this, so if you wish to contribute you can email payments to evil.erato AT gmail DOT com. Please put in the notes your LJ name and what name you'd like to go by when we let her family know what we're doing.
Obviously, if you'd prefer to wait to donate until after there is some sort of consensus reached on what the money will go toward, I understand completely. I just wanted to get this set up so that those who want to contribute can.
Please let me know if you have any questions, and I'll keep everyone updated as we hear more from her family.
ETA: We'll be using the funds collected to send a small plant to Ely's family with a card, and then make a donation to Children's Hospital in Ely's name with the remaining money.
Son of ETA: Donations will be taken until Friday, August 14th. Considering the request by the family for donations in lieu of flowers, we'll be sending the entirety of the money collected to Children's Hospital.
I don't have much more information at this time. Her mom thinks it was a blood clot, but they will be doing an autopsy to be sure. More information forthcoming as I receive it.
Please, those of you who know her, pass the word. Her mom is in a bit of a state and is trying to call all the contacts listed in her phone, but as half of them don't have RL names attached she isn't sure who she is calling.
I'm going to open this post to everyone, so if people want to be contacted with more information have them ping here or over at jlh's LJ.
I haven't said it in a while, but I love you all.
ETA: Please see here for contributions for flowers, etc.
ETA 2: Please see here for general funeral info. If you need full details/addresses, please let me know and I'll add you to the flocked post with those details.
Name: If you know all about it, you'll enjoy it more
"You like so much to be alone?"
"Yes, so long as my friends keep me from being lonely." ___________________________
"Verily, verily, if thou commit an injustice against an INFJ, thou piss on a third rail you knew not of, and the INFJ and her tribe shall wax wroth, and pump volts and amperage unto said third rail, and thine urine shalt boil in thine bladder, and great shall be the smoking thereof."
cold
sad
crazy
pleased
touched
determined
blank