Halloween/horror movie season is starting soon :D! I'll be interested to see if they add new movies to the usual Halloween/Nightmare on Elm St/Friday the 13th rotation since quite a few new ones have come out over the past couple of years and I've seen the 80s ones a million times. Those are good to have on in the background when I'm working, but don't really hold my active interest any more.

My aunt is in a rehab to get stronger before she returns home since, as she's finding out, recovery at 85 is not a simple task. Not that she's reconciled with that fact, and apparently she offended the one remaining cousin near her age who's still alive and close by, so unfortunately when she returns home she'll really be on her own. 

My lease renewal arrived about a week ago, and even though the last thing I want would be to try and live with and take care of her (not because I don't love her, but because she defines intractably difficult patient), I offered to give up my apartment and move in with her. My parents said no and I know they're right; I have enough going on with my health and staying sober that the added stress would be a huge burden, but I had to at least offer.

And my sister, who has relied on my parents' and aunt's generosity in free housing for over a decade now, suddenly decided she's buying a co-op alcove studio in Evanston, IL. The location makes some sense because she went undergrad to Northwestern University so she knows/knew the area, and god knows it's cheaper than NJ (it's about $110,000 there, here it would be about $350,000-$400,000). The timing, however, is highly suspect.

Not that I'm shocked. I called this years ago, that when the time came to return the care given to her she would run as fast and far as she could, and so far she's following the expected pattern. In terms of people to rely on when things get tough, she is one who would be quite far down on my list and she's proving why yet again. I can't do much around working full time so it will fall to my parents, and whoever/however they can get some form of home care since my aunt's insurance doesn't cover a full time caregiver, and of course she won't sell her house and relocate to assisted living. At some point it will be forced on her due to declining health, or she may just pass away. I hope she doesn't use her gun(s), but that also is a possibility, and there's little we can do about that.

In other news, I suspect my hot flashes/chills/fatigue crashes are caused by peri-menopause/menopause, so I'll see what my gynecologist has to say about it on Friday.  I think there's a blood test they can do to figure out if my body has started the process, and if it has I may be a few years in already, but I'm not opposed to HRT as an option. So it's off to another doctor, then another liver specialist, a colonoscopy, mammogram, and MAYBE I'll be done for the year. *sigh* This is my horror movie, unending medical problems and doctor visits to manage them along with family complications. Oh well, hopefully no real-life jump scares or murders :).