Shelby Cass’s Weblog

Last week was a very sad week for me.  My leopard gecko, Dude, developed some pretty nasty abscesses that needed surgery.  Courtland and I looked up the lifespan of leopard geckos and what we found was that they live “into their teens” typically.  Well, I had had Dude for 11 years and before that he had belonged to my friend David T. from whom I had purchased Dude (then named Bibo) when his son got a dog and the gecko wasn’t getting much love.  It wasn’t until after all this that I asked David how old he thought Dude/Bibo was.  We actually think the number is somewhere around 14.  Anyhow, even with the estimated 13 years of age I gave the vet, he thought surgery was the best option.  I had actually gone in thinking that Dude was looking so bad he would be put to sleep, but that option was not even offered to me, so I went ahead with the *gulp* $500 procedure.  ON A LIZARD.

But this was Dude.  He was the coolest gecko ever.  He would look outside his terrarium and watch us (cats included).  Sometimes he’d wiggle up the side of his cage and show us his belly.  He got an eye infection once a few years ago and the vet told us he was a she…Dudette?  So the past few years we’ve been trying to say “she” but still called her Dude…and then found out this last week that SHE was, indeed a HE as first presumed.  If you were holding Dude and ran your finger under his chin, he would stick out his tongue.  Every time.  So rad.

On Thursday evening I picked Dude up from the vet.  He was looking much better without the huge abscess on the side of his head/jaw, but he was not moving much and I can only imagine he was in a world of pain.  I didn’t like how the vet assisstant picked him up and flipped him over to show me his stitches.  I didn’t need to see them, and I really didn’t think Dude needed to be flipped over and handled after having 4 incisions made on his little gecko body.  I honestly think that’s when he turned for the worse.  I got him home, put him in his little sauna, and monitored the heat in his cage all night.  At one point he moved his head and backed up a little.  I had a horrible feeling he was trying to turn over (the way lizards turn over when they die) but lacked the strength.  He never moved again.

In the morning I called the vet and told them he hadn’t made it.  I’m actually really unhappy with how everything was handled.  I felt like such a monster for even considering not doing the surgery and putting him to rest, and they were not supportive of that option…and now they have my $500 and I don’t have a gecko.  I’m bummed.

Bye bye Dude!  I’ll miss you, little guy!

Geemaneeze!

Boy killed on chair

The world, it ain’t safe.

I’m ready to conquer February!  How’s that?  I was in LA talking to my friend Cindy who told me about this project called Thing-A-Day.  You make something every day of February and post it to their blog.  I finished my first project just before midnight on the 1st and spent a little too much time trying to photograph it…but here it is:
My Day 1

I’m pretty excited about it, so I hope you don’t mind…I just might post here too with whatever I decide to create.

For now though…off to sleep…starting Feb off with bad sleep hygeine is probably wrong.

night night

I just got home from a week in LA…which all happened because the Southern California Animation Guild flew me down to talk at their membership meeting.  What did I talk about you ask?  Ergonomics of course.  Kevin, the head of the guild, had read a couple columns I had written for AnimationMentor.com, had contacted me over a year ago to come give a talk, but I had to cancel my trip last year due to the slightly urgent tonsillectomy and soft palate reconstruction.  I just read the meeting notes and I thought they were pretty good, so I am posting them to you.

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/no-pain-no-pain.html

Ringing in 2009 at a big fat whopping 158 pounds, I am far from my goal of 135, but definitely working on it.  I start with this line because it’s a lot of what I think about.  Since the last surgery I have been doing wonderfully, except recently I have been sleeping over 12 hours a night and dark circles are making a comeback under my eyes.  It’s worrysome, and today on our way home from Novato (where we had lunch with my old friend Brad – Hi Brad!) I started nodding behind the wheel.  After 12 hours of sleep, a taco salad and 2 cups of coffee, that shouldn’t happen…so I am scared and sad…And have been on a 1200 calorie low carb diet since December 15 with only 4 pounds off to show for it (I know you’re supposed to lose it slow to keep it off, but I would still like to wake up with curves in the right places…overnight weight loss would be fine by me!).  Grr.  Depresso entry.  Sorry.  We also picked up badminton again after my sprained ankle, and as soon as my freaking hammer squished finger heals, I will get back into yoga and light weights.

Here’s something awesome: When I was in ballet, oh so many years ago, I had a best friend at SFB.  Her name was Britta.  I called her Brit-Brit.  She called me Shelb-Shelb.  She lived in Daly City, so her family let me stay with them whenever I could (mostly summers and Nutcracker season, but many Fridays as well since we always had class on Saturday).  Britta and I lost touch when I left the school to go to high school (the ballet school told me I had to consider “home schooling” going into the next level which I thought meant I was going to be dumb and not go to college so I chose school), but her mom always remembered me and tracked me down right before Britta got married about 5 years ago.  I was invited to be a surprise guest…I was SO EXCITED.  So excited that even though the day of her wedding was the same day I was released from the hospital with kidney stones still partying in my urinary tract, I wanted to go.  David and Courtland had to very sternly tell me I was INSANE and sat with me while I tearfully called the hotel and left a message for Britta’s mom that I would not be attending.

Fast forward 5 years and I still had not seen Britta.  She and her husband lived in the Caribbean and until two years ago we hadn’t even spoken on the phone.  When we finally spoke on the phone, they had just moved back to Daly City and I was just about to have my MMA.  We again lost touch until December 7 when Britta was going through her mom’s address book looking for people to invite to her mom’s surprise birthday party and found my number.  I was invited to the party and 3 days later got to see the whole family again.  It was awesome.  Amazing.  Britta looked the same and we just picked up where we left off…it was just NICE.  So comfortable and nice.  AND Britta has a goal.  She wants to lose some weight and take a ballet class.  It’s funny how people can travel through life, taking different paths here and there, changing little bits about themselves, yet still be, for lack of a better vocabulary, the same.  You know what I mean.  Not the same person…a richer person who knows more and has been through lilfe-shaping things…but a person who even today, if we met brand new, might still end up being a good friend.  Those ones are hard to find.  And you can bet your bottom that she and I will reach our goals and start taking a ballet class from Zoltan (another story) together.  (By the way, Britta has a cat she named Shelby – teehee *big grin*)

So this year has been great.  I know lots of stuff has happened, but everything has had a positive outcome…as in, I believe I am better off today than I was one year ago…and I aim to keep that trend going.  Tonight Nicholas is coming over and we will very mellow-ly watch tons of Psych and if we’re up at 12 we will all three pour bubbly stuff into glasses, clink them together and wish each other a very Happy New Year.  Which it will be.  I have creed.

Happy New Year to you ALL!

xoxo

Shelby

Holy cow and a half!  Okay it’s been a while.  Since I last wrote I have gained weight (ankle fail), hired a professional organizer (consequently got a horrible upper respiratory cold due to *cough* dust *cough* – but kept on breathing), took a mini vacay to Half Moon Bay with step mom Anne, was spontaneously invited and spontaneously accepted trip to Hawaii for a week before Thanksgiving, had two Thanksgiving dinners (=more weight most likely), skipped out on the NECE in Vegas going on right now (National Ergonomics Conference and Exposition), and put Mochi kitty on a diet.  I’m sure there are more things that happened, but those are the highlights…now let us look at the breathing part of those highlights.  Did you notice?  If ANYTHING was going to test the efficacy of the last roto-rootering of my throat, it was that cold.  Dr. Li for the win!  Party on Wayne!

Oh.  I also had a birthday.  12th Annual 24th.  I had my party at Caprino’s down the street.  There were over 40 people in attendance and I had an absolute ball.  I even hooked up with a cake gal and got myself (in addition to a wonderful raved-about opera cake) a special Shelby cake.

I have now spent about an hour trying to upload photos.  Mood = bad.  Need heat (thought I turned it on–evidently not enough) and food.  TBC.  Sorry!

Mochi baby is cute.