After undergoing many medical tests, my sister-in-law was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Like mental illness, fibromyalgia is invisible and can be just as debilitating.

May 12 has been designated National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. Please take time to click on the banner above to learn more about this syndrome that affects millions of people between the ages of 20 – 50. Both my sister-in-law and I very much appreciate it. Thank you!

Mom is an avid quilter and made me this quillow — a combination quilt and pillow. In this picture, it’s in pillow form. You can click on each photo to see larger versions. And when you do, you should be able to see the detail on the fabric, which consists of hockey pucks, shoulder pads, skates, jerseys, sticks, and helmets — even goalie sticks and goalie helmets. Hmm…. This quillow can be opened up and…voilà — it’s a quilt!

I absolutely love it! But part of me wonders if this is Mom’s way of encouraging me to play hockey again. Perhaps, but mainly she knows how much I love the game.

…and by that, I don’t mean Blagojevich! The title of my blog is a play on the word “blog,” obviously, but also on Blagojevich’s name because the guy, as many of you know, lived down the street when I started this blog. We’ve since moved but he still lives down the street — just a different one. And I live in Chicago (well, duh). Hence, “bloggo chicago.”

I would like to make it clear to the public that I did not pay anyone for use of the title.

This blog is not corrupt unless some fucking hackers have managed to infiltrate the server or whatever, because I occasionally get spam comments on old posts, on which commenting has been closed. I’ve also been getting spam users registering; apparently they just love my blog. Fuckers. They’re so obvious.

*cough* Anyways, I’ve had two relapses since August but my condition is improving, which also means I’ve been busy trying to get better, trying to spend less time online. But I miss the blog and I’m trying to find a way to manage reading your blogs again. Admittedly, Twitter is so much easier than blogging. And there’s still Crackbook. I’ve suddenly had an influx of friends and it’s hard to catch up with everyone. Etc., etc.

So here’s an overview of what’s been going on in the past month, and I may expand on them later: Brian’s paternal grandma suddenly passed away in the beginning of November; one cat was diagnosed with heart disease; another cat ate a frickin’ lily and had to be rushed to the animal ER — all of which happened in the span of a week: election week, during which I had the stomach flu! Early voting is a wonderful thing.

As for the blog itself, I’ve decided to shamelessly use Amazon Associates links for past and future book, DVD, etc. reviews. Don’t like it? Don’t read it. Still working on cutting down categories but using tags. Maybe I’ll go ahead and add the tag widget soon, even if it isn’t complete. What the hell.

Here’s a shout-out to one of my oldest blog friends, who lit the fire under my ass to get this thing going again. Hi, April!

That sounds kind of dirty to me.

So, hard as it is to believe (for me, anyway), Brian and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this past Saturday. I mean, five whole years! That seems like such a long time.

As some of you know, we didn’t have a traditional wedding and not by choice (see Civil Ceremony). No planning, no guests, no *gasp* dress. We didn’t even get wedding rings until last year, though we haven’t worn them in a while because we’ve lost weight since then , but we wore them the night we celebrated! (I’ve put on weight since this recent depressive episode began, so mine fits as long as I don’t use soap or lotion; Brian rigged a rubber band to take up the slack on his. )

Dinner was at a businesspeople’s lunch place downtown, and was decent. Its advantage is that it’s across from the Lyric Opera, which is absolutely gorgeous both on the outside and even more inside. We had seats on the main floor at about the 14th row! (Last time I was there I had student tickets way up in the uppermost balcony! I could barely even read the subtitles on the screen.)

We saw Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, in subtitles. (You know: Bugs Bunny, “Figaro!” ) Though I’ve never seen it performed, it was absolutely excellent, particularly the way Nathan Gunn portrays Figaro the barber — totally cheeky. The opera takes place in the 18th century and is a romantic comedy in which the couple marries at the end, with only two witnesses and a notary, almost exactly like our wedding. In a way, it has put me on the road to acceptance of our non-traditional wedding.

Today I made some progress: I ordered delivery for dinner, which meant actually talking to someone on the phone and having to interact with the delivery guy. I took a shower for the first time since…I don’t know when; a few days at least. So why do I still feel so depressed?

Maybe I feel some guilt for not going to this banquet my mom wanted us to go to tonight (that’s another story in itself)? More likely because I’m not playing in tonight’s game, which starts in about 15 minutes.

Early tomorrow morning Hopper has her second senior check-up of the year and Hee Seop has his weight check. This time, unlike earlier this week when Basil had his ultrasound, I am planning to go with Brian. I’ll blog about everyone’s results then.