-Did I say my sister (now 18) would move out “within a year?” I should have said “within a week.” It happened way, way more quickly than I expected, and with a lot less hoopla. I guess it was just time. She had wanted to leave for quite a while, and was clearly unhappy here, so she was hard to get along with. Things are a lot quieter and more relaxed now, at least on my end. As for her, she now has a younger roommate who borrows her stuff without asking and messes up her room. My little sister has finally discovered what it’s like to have an annoying little sister.

-This is the summer where we replace all our old, worn-out crap. We had our rotten old front and back decks torn down and new ones built. We had our old, cheap, disintegrating mattresses thrown out and bought nice new ones. We removed our washing machine that leaks all over the floor, our dryer that screams like a banshee, and our 1960’s freezer, and bought shiny new ones.

-If all goes as planned, I’ll transfer to a local university in the fall, majoring in Graphic Design with a minor in Writing. This could be one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life, or one of the dumbest. I considered majoring in English because I think my main strong point is writing and communication. Most people tried to steer me away from an English major or anything else related to liberal arts. I still wanted to study English and improve my writing skills, hence the Writing minor. My second main interest/strong point seems to be art and design, and I’m more interested in computer graphics and commercial art than I am in being a “fine artist.” (Graphic design and advertising work also seems to run in our family.)

-On July 8th my mom woke me up and said she was confused and needed help. She kept looking around in a disoriented way and asking the same questions repeatedly. I soon realized she had no memory of a bunch of recent and not-so-recent events, even though she was walking, talking and breathing normally. I dialed 911 because I was afraid she was having a mild stroke.

The emergency guys did some tests and found that her blood pressure/blood sugar was normal, and she could speak fine and follow a moving finger with her eyes. But when they asked her who the current president was, she couldn’t answer. They asked her the last one she remembered, and she said “Bush.” When they asked what year it was, she paused and guessed “2009 or 2010.”

They figured she was suffering from either a mild stroke or head trauma, and we rode away in the ambulance. She kept asking for clarification that I had called 911, and for what reason. The guy tending to her asked, “Do you realize I’ve been with you 15 minutes and you’ve asked that question 10 times?”

A few hours in the hospital and she was normal again, except for having no memory of the morning’s events. After running a bunch of tests, they diagnosed her with Transient Global Amnesia (TGA). This is a type of temporary amnesia experienced by middle aged and older people. It doesn’t cause any lasting damage and generally doesn’t ever return. It just causes confusion and short-term memory loss for one day or less. The Wikipedia article describes it pretty well.
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