Izzo/White Holiday Season Fund Drive!

This is a brief history or explanation of why I am asking for $10 donations to help purchase a plane ticket for my Mother to come & be here for Christmas 2011.

The simple fact is the last several times we have spent time with my Mom it has been during high stress emergency situations. About 3 months after I moved to Edinburgh almost 3 1/2 years ago my family went into what I would describe as a total crisis with the diagnosis of my Aunt Diane's malignant brain tumour. This was especially difficult to digest as Diane's husband Marco had just had a kidney transplant & the couple were already struggling to deal with that situation.
Diane & Marco lived in New Mexico & with some help from the rest of family Ricky & I were able to facilitate my Mom getting & staying out there for a few months to help out. Here is a link which might give you some more info on Diane.

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2008/11/a-big-brain-ben.html

Less than 1 year later we got the call that my Grandfather was very ill & we needed to get to the States asap. My Mom got up to Chicago & kicked into care taking mode & we searched for tickets,cash & time off work. It was then that the credit card came into the picture & with some help from Ricky's family here we were both able to go to Chicago. This 2 week period was spent helping out my Mom & Uncle Anthony manage Grandpa's care & trying to spend as much time with him as possible. I had not seen him for more than a couple hours in about 5 years.Here is a link to some of the work my Grampa did as a film editor.

www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=ytH1G0hzi-U

It was during this trip that I found out my Grandfather on my Dad's side of the family was also ill & didn't have long. We got up to Wisconsin to see them, it had been about 15 years since I had seen them, it was magical.
Shortly after our return to Edinburgh Grampa Tony passed away, We were so grateful of the time spent in Chicago helping out. Ricky made eggs for Grampa every day & it was so important that Ricky got to know him & vice versa. My Grandpa Don passed away later in the year also.

The next year was spent trying to keep tabs on Diane & Marco's health, my Mom's well being/her own health issues & her return to Bloomington after the trauma of losing her father. It was a lot harder to settle here than I expected & combined with all this & the pressure & expense of gaining residency we were pretty much frazzled out. After finally getting our passports back from the home office at the end of last summer it became very clear to me that Diane was not doing well & I needed to see her. Our original plan was to try & visit my Mom for her 50th birthday in Bloomington but I knew deep down that I needed to get to New Mexico that Fall or it might be too late to see Diane. I am so glad I followed my instinct. I was able to secure my plane ticket through my previous job as both of our Christmas bonuses & off I went. The time I got to spend with Diane was priceless to me. It was really hard to see them going through so much (Marco back on Dialysis & Diane in extreme chronic pain) & know that I couldn't stay & help, I tried as much as I could while I was out there but I had to get home, back to work as the festive season was approaching.
I miraculously got home & was able to get my Mom a ticket here for her 50th birthday (thank you tax return) in February.
2 days after my Mom got to Scotland her little sister, my aunt Diane went in for her 2nd surgery to remove a growth on her brain. Although we were able to briefly speak to her afterwards, she did not recover. The cancer had spread & it was only a matter of time, we were totally unable to get back to the States. My Mom & Ricky & I spent both of their birthdays here in Edinburgh through Diane's last days. During this time we were virtually totally unable to take time off of work & the whole thing was extremely stressful & sad.

The next occasion for us seeing my Mom was to get to the States in May for the Diane Izzo Memorial Event which we needed to attend apart from obvious reasons, to hopefully get some closure,we also needed to get Boo ( my grandmother ) up to Chicago since she was alone in Bloomington when Diane passed.
This entire trip was funded through credit & although we did not know this at the time, unforeseen circumstances back here made it impossible for us to continue or full time employment when we returned to Edinburgh leaving us in a pretty bad financial situation this past summer.
This pretty much sums up what I/ we have been going through since I moved here, although I totally understand why it might seem cheeky for me to be asking for your money to help my Mom come here for a (fingers crossed) genuine holiday I really feel that this is becoming a valid way to achieve goals- look at Kickstarter.com. Lets face it, how hard is it right now to save? We are perpetually in the negative & my Mom is on a fixed disability income. Boo has contributed a good amount towards this fund but we still need to raise around $300- today about £190. I am currently working on a plan to create a "Vacation funder" but in the mean time, please kick in $10 or whatever you can to help us out. I know most of you would be happy to buy us a beer if we saw you on a night out so why not do this instead-its far more meaningful to us. I am more than happy to give you the $10 back when you go on Holiday or buy YOU a beer when I see you, I just can't do it all at once!

The paypal for this is mizzowhite@gmail.com & if you don't have a paypal set up I will send you the bank account details-- Just email me! If you live locally in Bloomington or in the States & you would like to send a cheque or money order please contact lizizzo@yahoo.com for the address. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Michelle, Ricky & Elizabeth. . . .

Pissed off Puppy!

Try as I might I cannot get this blog up to anything positive.. Its so lame! Im not really a totally unhappy person who hates the place she lives in but I think it must appear that way- sorry folks! My food blog is way more positive! The thing that reminded me of this fact was that Im currently pissed off & thought of blogging? Why!!?

I decided to try & search for an image which describes my mood- I tried "pissed off puppies" & came up with this-although I don't think if myself as a puppy, this one is making a fitting face and for some reason its got a photo of Jack Black attached to it. I used to be in love with Jack Black until I met my husband, well it fizzled out a bit before that but still, I thought I might have a chance. In spite of him being already involved with someone & me living a drunken delusional life in the Czech Republic I still thought I had a chance. . . . . .
Jack Black is really funny, someday when Im really bored I will scan some of my Jack Black artwork in & show you. The D got me through some pretty dark times, in Bloomington & in Prague. . . .Good times too x x x Thank you Jack Black, I feel a lot better now!

I feel like shit.

I have been feeling really down the last 2 days & there is no real reason for it- its not that time off month or anything like that. I feel so very uninspired by Edinburgh- how is this possible? I literally feel as if I am missing something that other people see. I think its beautiful here and all that but try as I might, most days I cant see past the gray buildings, the shoppers & the general suit vibe. I don't mean to or want to sound like a total ingrate ( even though I do) as I am very lucky in a lot of ways, I just feel like Im missing something.

I stopped looking for "something" here awhile ago & things have improved a lot but I still get the odd day where I get really pissed off or sad etc. Is it just that I have failed to really become friends with any one group of people or is it that they stopped asking forever ago as we were perpetually "working" & "broke" at the same time?

I come from a really different place from most people I know here & I am starting to wonder if that is the problem? When I lived in Prague we all had that fact in common so I suppose it was much easier to make friends. Everyone was from someplace else & everyone thought Prague was really great so we all liked to do the same type of things. Like drink Czech beer. Maybe Prague ruined Edinburgh for me?

Or maybe Im just getting old? Or maybe for once all the "older" people I try to hang out with are actually acting old and responsible as opposed to acting really irresponsible.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!