4 months ago today....I had something to say.

I'm sorry for that ^. I've been away for 4 months and I need to get back into the swing of coming up with a half-creative blog title.

But wow...has it been 4 months? Exactly 4 months, actually. That's totally coincidental...I was bored here this afternoon and just thought of my tv.com account and how many cobwebs were probably covering it.

Anyway, how is everyone? Anything cool happen since mid-May? I did a couple of things over the summer, went to Vermont for a half a week with like all 30-something members of my family and had a great time in this huge house out in the middle of a bunch of farmland. We're thinking about maybe going down South somewhere next summer since we have some family that lives in Virginia and North Carolina and it would be easier for them since they always have to come up to NY/Long Island to see anyone. Add that to three different high school graduation parties that we'll be having next summer, and it should be some good times in June/July/August. Really looking forward to it.

It wasn't all good since I was gone though. About two-and-a-half weeks ago, my little 11-year-old cousin went to the hospital with symptoms of meningitis. I didn't really know too much about the disease before this, so I did what every American does and went to WebMD to edjumacate myself. Needless to say, I was a bit distraught. I got the text from my brother at around 3:30 pm on a Thursday, and I was getting ready to go to a 4:00 class. I never left my room for the rest of the day. Not for class, for dinner, for anything. If you knew my cousin, you'd probably understand my emotions. She's this spunky little thing with a big heart and a lovable personality. She's cute to the point where everyone still feels like she's 5. I even get caught up in some of the "kiddy" things she does sometimes and she's always fun to be around. So of course everyone is beside themselves when they hear about this. Add to all of this that she's had trouble staying healthy all her life because she's pretty skinny, and everyone in my family of atheists is praying for her to make it through this. I won't lie, I was crying for a little while. I couldn't deal with not ever seeing her again, with her being just a memory and never being able to grow older and live a long, healthy life. I know a few of you on here have dealt with some unbearable loss in your lives--let me just say that I might have, just maybe, got a glimpse of what that may feel like, and I admire you all for being able to make it through something like that.

It was in the days before Labor Day Weekend, so I went home and everyone but my brother up in Plattsburgh went down to LI to see her and be with everybody. My poor aunt, who's dealt with so much loss in her life already (four miscarriages and a close friend who committed suicide to name a few), was breaking down. No one in that damn hospital seemed to know what was wrong with her for days, and the spinal tap that you do to determine whether or not the patient has meninigitis, well...the resident did it wrong the first time, and those things put you in a tremendous amount of pain. And to hear her crying (while coughing that sickly-sounding cough) because she can't even drink water and "they're taking everything away from me"....it was bad. Like you-feel-guilty-just-for-breathing bad. My mom's pretty strong and I don't see her cry too much, but she couldn't handle it. My cousin was throwing up violently when she first got to the hospital and had a severe headache, so this child went through way too much for an 11-year-old girl. And the doctors, as I said, seemed clueless for the first almost-week. First, they said meninigitis was likely, then they said it was a severe sinus infcetion, then it was a staph infection. Finally, they settled on a combination of the latter two. They gave her some strong antibiotics, and she's out of the hospital now. But she apparently made a comment upon returning home, something along the lines of wondering if this would be the last time she would come from the hospital. I guess she's seeing a child psychologist about it. But it makes me numb to hear about something like that. Why can't she just be able to live a normal life like her friends of the same age? Why has she had to deal with all this crap? She's the least deserving person that I know to have to endure as much as she has. I just hope that she's still the same kid that makes all of us smile so much.

I'll try (seriously) to be on here more. With the start of fall, I have the NFL to talk about again, so that's always fun, right? ;) And I'm back in college of course, so there will be stuff to talk about I'm sure. Until then though, I bid thee adieu. Whatever that means.