Inside the Hedge...

XXVIII–To S. C.

Blithe dreams arise to greet us,
And life feels clean and new,
For the old love comes to meet us
In the dawning and the dew.
O’erblown with sunny shadows,
O’ersped with winds at play,
The woodlands and the meadows
Are keeping holiday.
Wild foals are scampering, neighing,
Brave merles their hautboys blow:
Come! let us go a-maying
As in the Long-Ago.

Here we but peak and dwindle:
The clank of chain and crane,
The whir of crank and spindle
Bewilder heart and brain;
The ends of our endeavour
Are merely wealth and fame,
Yet in the still Forever
We’re one and all the same;
Delaying, still delaying,
We watch the fading west:
Come! let us go a-maying,
Nor fear to take the best.

Yet beautiful and spacious
The wise, old world appears.
Yet frank and fair and gracious
Outlaugh the jocund years.
Our arguments disputing,
The universal Pan
Still wanders fluting–fluting -
Fluting to maid and man.
Our weary well-a-waying
His music cannot still:
Come! let us go a-maying,
And pipe with him our fill.

When wanton winds are flowing
Among the gladdening glass;
Where hawthorn brakes are blowing,
And meadow perfumes pass;
Where morning’s grace is greenest,
And fullest noon’s of pride;
Where sunset spreads serenest,
And sacred night’s most wide;
Where nests are swaying, swaying,
And spring’s fresh voices call,
Come! let us go a-maying,
And bless the God of all!

–W.E. HENLEY

I’m not dead guys, I promise.  I am deeply sorry for a lack of updates recently.  My writing has been suffering due to medication issues.  As I mentioned in my last entry, I had yet another allergic reation, this time to Lamictal, that had me down and out for damn near two weeks.  Thankfully, I have fully recovered from it and moved on to start a new cocktail of HIV medications.

Last Friday I started a Selzentry/Reyataz/Norvir combination that so far is going well!  No signs of allergic reaction thus far and aside from a great deal of fatigue and a bit of nausea I am feeling pretty good on them.  Sure, it’s only been a couple of days, but as of now things are looking good!  Thank goodness because I sure cannot handle another reaction and I really need this combination to work due to my dwindling medication options.

Selzentry is a whole new type of medication that I’ve never taken before in my life.  I won’t get into boring technical jargon here, but basically it works to block a different T-Cell receptor from the virus than previous medications have done.  It is mostly prescribed to patients like me who’ve been on HIV treatment for extended periods of time and are no longer responding to treatment.  The goal is that since this drug works entirely different than anything I’ve ever taken it will get my viral load to read undetectable.  I’ve only been undetectable once in my life, so if it happens it will be beyond fantastic.  Even so, if it just starts to lower the amount of virus in my blood it will be doing it’s job.

Thankfully it’s only 4 pills a day (1 Selzentry in the AM and 1 Selzentry, Reyataz and Norvir at night) and all of the pills are of relatively small size.  Those are always giant pluses in the medication world!  =D

It’s still early on in the regimen, but keep your fingers crossed for me that this works.  I need it to more than I can even express to you guys.

Some great things have happened to me as well lately!

First of all, through the miracle of Facebook I have gotten in touch with my long lost half brother!  We were estranged (through no choice of our own) for our entire lives, so it was completely surreal and wonderful to find each other.  Turns out, we lived 20 minutes away from each other all this time.  I am so thankful to see that he has a beautiful family and is loved and happy.  We have yet to meet face to face because of the medical things going on in my life, but hopefully one day really soon we will.  I am absolutely thrilled to have him in my life and I hope to nurture a real, lasting relationship.  Hopefully we can give each other pieces of our mother that we’ve both been missing our whole lives.

Secondly, and of far less importance, I finally got a Kindle!  Now, if you know me, you know I am a reading machine.  I read on average about 3 hours a day and finish at least 30 books a year.  Imagine how quickly that piles books on my shelves!  With this great little device I can hold over a thousand books right at the palm of my hand and get pretty much any book I want within seconds.  This is a bookworm’s DREAM! No more whining from JD that I’m taking up all our space with books. Ha!

I also got a really cute Audrey Kawasaki skin from Gelaskins and a soft case that is both beautiful and of the utmost craftsmanship from Borsa Bella.  I’m absolutely spoiled I know, but man oh man, how I’ve wanted this gadget for ages!  I swear, this thing is going to have to be surgically removed from my hands. 

Of course, I have created a Kindle Wishlist (and am always adding new things to it), so I might as well put a link to it here, just for shits and giggles.  Anything book/Kindle related is a constant source of joy in my world! 

Finally, I want to say CONGRATULATIONS TO MY COUSIN SHAE ON HER ENGAGEMENT!  I am so incredibly happy for you two!  Here’s to a lifetime of love and memories together.  I love you!

I guess that’s really all that’s new in my world right now.  I hope to get my writing back on track soon and have something original to post here aside from these boring “day in my life” entries.  I hope all of you are happy and healthy!