I talked to Carmen yesterday, and she said that she had taken Carrie to the hospital because she had the flu. She was dehydrated and weak. She has also lost a pound, which is a lot considering she weighs only about 10 pounds anyway. I joked that my cats each weigh more than her. Carrie spent two nights in the hospital for the flu. She said that Carrie had regressed a little and wasn’t holding her head up. She’s home today and eating. That hopefully means improvement. I’m not sure how much Carmen is dramatizing, but she said there is a small chance that Carrie may develop Rett Syndrome because Stewart had scarlet fever as a child. I need to research Rett Syndrome. My biggest fear is that Carmen has Munchausen by Proxy. She is starved for attention, and she knows that we all pay attention to Carrie. UGH!

Anyway, the next time I talked to Carmen she said that Carrie had a form of cerebral palsy called Spastic Diplasia.

Disappointments

Carmen called me to say that her grandmother died and that the funeral would be Friday. She wasn’t going to be able to come to my birthday gathering because all her grandmother’s family would be coming to stay at her house. Carmen lives with her “Dad” in his mother’s house. I’m assuming that since the family members were going to stay in her house that it was her “Dad’s” mother that died. When we were up there on Feb. 1 she had been talking about her grandmother being in the nursing home.

I put “dad” in quotations because the man, Dave Kxxxx isn’t Carmen’s biological father. He married her mother when she was about 3 years old. She says that he adopted her soon after. But when her mother divorced him, he wasn’t allowed to have anything to do with her. Eventually, her mother was declared unfit, and she went into the foster care system. She says a couple with the last name Hxxx adopted her when she was only months from her 18th birthday. She was going by Carmen Hxxx when she married Stewart.

Carrie was baptized today at St. John’s Catholic Church in Middletown, OH. Mom and Drew went up with me. I am her godfather and took part in the baptism ceremony. She is so beautiful. We took a few pictures.

Carmen said something to me on the phone later in the day that was not quite right. In fact, it was just plain fiction. She told me that she had a private conversation with the monsignor before the ceremony. He asked her if I was gay. She asked him why he was asking such a question. He said that he observed that I have earrings in each ear. He figured a man must be gay if he has both ears pierced. Mom took some pictures. The picture of me below only shows my left side. Notice the absence of an earring. I wasn't wearing any in either ear.

I’m planning on having a family gathering on February 22 for my birthday. I invited Carmen and Carrie to come down. I told them that they could stay with me.