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Something new and differentBut maybe not so good?
Have you heard of freebirthing? I'd never heard of it. At least, not in cases where the baby doesn't end up in a dumpster or trashcan at the high school prom. This article says that its getting more popular in developed countries. This totally puzzles me. So much can go wrong! And not just for the baby. I understand wanting to do things naturally, and using a midwife instead of a doctor. But to not have anyone there at all? And the argument that women have been having babies for thousands of years and it isn't that difficult else we wouldn't be here is just completely ignorant to me. Midwives have been around as long as women have been having babies for a reason.
Yeah ok I was kind of on the fence about it when I finished the article. But I've talked myself over it and firmly on to the side of this being a stupid and terrible idea. It ranks right up there with the stupid twits who deliberately take up smoking while they're pregnant so that they have a small baby and think that this will make for an easier labor.
Where? Where are thefreaking lifeguards when you need one? I need something to read, desperately.I sprained my ankle last week. And yeah I know that this is completely dumb, but it actually kept me out of work for a day. I did it at night and when I got up in the morning - couldn't work the clutch. Completely stupid, I know. My mother in law drove me to the ER so that I could get it xrayed because it was really hard to put any weight on it. Just sprained. So I drove a big huge boat of a car last week and yesterday, too. I have mine back today and it kind of feels like a clown car. This morning was a little painful getting to work but I'm convinced that the stretching is good for it.
And you're not going to believe this, but I'm tired of wearing flip-flops. They make my pants drag on the ground. And while I really like my toe socks, and wear them everyday, the flip-flops are kind of ruining it for me. Yesterday I gave up and wore my sneakers. My grubby, stretched out, gardening sneakers. To work. With my work clothes. By the end of the day I had convinced myself that I needed to stop at Target and get some flats. By the time I got to my car, I had talked myself out of that and today? I'm wearing the flip flops. With toe socks.
Two weekends ago I bought a super cute pair of shoes. High heels and ankle straps and peep toes. I think. Its been so long since I've looked at them. Still in the box. Top of my closet.
Anyway, on my unexpected day off, after calling my bosses and begging them for something to do from home so I didn't have to run out my sick time, I finished my book. I started another and finished it, too. Now, I have about 6 books on my nightstand that I am in various stages of 'reading' (you can interpret that as having put down possibly for good). These are the ones that I believe I may actually go back and finish one day. And yeah, I had to sort through the stack and weed out the ones that I know I will not finish. They went back on my bookshelf. So now, I need something to read and I'm at a loss. I want something good, and preferably ancient so that maybe our library will have a chance of having it on the shelf.
Suggestions? Sweet Jeebus I wanna be a telecommuter!Our gas just went up to $3.09 for the cheap crap. Oi. That works out to oh about $200 A WEEK for Chris and I to get to and from work. Over $800 a month for gas. I am going to start begging my boss to be able to work from home. Maybe stand outside her office for hours at time, shaking my paper clip jar and saying, 'Gas Money? Anyone spare some change? Hey lady, can I borrow some change? I need gas money to get home to see my family. I promise it aint for drugs or nuthin.'
So Chris, his brother, and I all took Friday off and spent the day in DC. So much fun! We actually made it there in time to get to two of the museums. The last time we tried to take my dad and nephew, we got there with about 30 minutes to spare before the place closed. Stupid museums, don't they know that people want to come see them after 5? What the hell is up with that? Then we went to see Clutch at the 9:30 club. So what if we got there an hour and half before the doors opened? So what if we were the only people in line for like a half an hour! All that matters is that we got to sit through the whole thing. I had a pretty good view of the floor and it actually looked like even more fun down there. A big group of us went and only one person went down there and he ended up taking an elbow to the eye. The band was soo good though. And their openers were...interesting. Spent Saturday hanging out with friends in Frederick. Yay for girl time! And for once, I didn't win the game. You two know what I'm talking about, too. In fact, I'm proud to say that I think I came in last place. :o)
not really a big surpriseI took an OCD test that Chris sent to me and was mildly surprised to learn that I possibly have OCD and that the test recommends that I seek counselling/treatment.
What should really come as no surprise to anyone is that Chris scored in the'Definitely has OCD and probably requires treatment' range.
My weekend was good. Watched FTM's dog and cats. Her dog loves me. I know this because she tried to hump my leg all weekend. Went to a birthday party down at the river on saturday. Had a pretty good time even though I was the driver. Its kind of fun playing asshole when you're just drinking water. Makes other people feel stupid when they tell you to drink.
Yeah. And thats pretty much it. Woohoo. FunnyCheck this out. I don't quite get it myself but I think its pretty funny. And a little on the nasty side. I promise she didn't get it from me!Puff had an all day stay at the vet on Friday. She's been having issues with lots of gunk in her one eye. The morning I dropped her off, her other eye had started to do the same thing, just not nearly as bad. So the vet, Dr. Brown - a very bizarre but really nice and funny woman - sedated her and flushed out both of her lachrymal ducts. I'm really glad I didn't have to watch this. I took her last Monday to get looked at and they numbed her eye, and then jammed a q-tip in there and started swabbing under her eyelids. Trust me, I was not her most favorite person when I got her home. Anyway, Friday's diagnosis?
Herpes and Chlamydia. Oh no no, you didn't read that wrong. It says exactly what you think it says.
No, these aren't STDs. And the vet says that we can't get either one of them. But from what I've been reading online, thats not true. Apparently there have been cases where people have picked up the chlamydia bacteria from their cats. Didn't give them an STD but it did cause mild conjunctivitis and/or pneumonia. Great. Even better? The virus is shed in the eye gunk. And me with my tendency to pick at things that are out of place have my fingers in her nasty eye at least 5 times a day. More during the weekend I'm sure. And yeah, I scrub up with antibacterial soap afterward with hot water but still. Its just nasty.
So now we are giving her Gentocin drops twice a day, a lysine nutritional supplement twice a day and Zithromax. OOO and the zithromax? Its cherry flavored.
Blech. The Rights of the ElderlyThis is not usually a topic that I care much about. I'm pretty sure that this will be the case until I hit that lifetime milestone - 65. However, if you plan on participating in 'Take your elderly mother to work' Day, then please at least let her get out of the car. She shouldn't have to sit there, windows all rolled up, waiting for you to finish up with your work day. She could totally overheat in this charmingly drizzly, not-quite-60 -degree weather. And really, it puts passersby off and makes them not a little uncomfortable to watch your mother pant and press her face against the window. If you think that the elderly don't belong in the workplace then I think it would be extremely considerate if you could at least take the time out of your day to go back to the car and walk her. Show some respect people! Whats that? No such day? Oh then maybe she just snuck into the car and you didn't notice her sitting in the passenger seat on the way to work. I suppose they can be sneaky and use their ninja like abilities to blend into the upholstery and fool you into thinking that their various creaking, aching joints and strange stomach burblings are standard car noises. If thats the case, then never mind. She deserves to be locked in the car. Maybe next time she'll shuffle a little faster and get herself out before you hit the autolock.
On a completely unrelated topic, I would like to issue a public apology and retraction for all previous statements of support and admiration that were made by me, in regards to one Mr. Michael Vick, aka Mr. Ron Mexico, aka Asshat (really its a pet name). I overlooked the stupendous, yet undeserved, ego. The embarrassing social disease. The pathetic and laughable (and yes, also embarrassing) free-clinic alias. But today I feel the need to draw the line. Really, a pseudo-fan can only take so much. P.S. Puff might have the 'herpis in her eye.' P.P.S When we went home to visit my parents this past weekend, I saw a license plate that said 'T Baggin' and I couldn't explain to my mom why I thought it was funny. coming to termsso yesterday I stopped to talk to one of the admins around the corner from where I work and we were just chatting and she asked me if I was pregnant. And you know what? It didn't really bother me. In fact, I thought it was pretty funny because she looked appalled when I told her that no, I wasn't and she was thinking of someone else.
I also found out that the date for my 10 year reunion has been set. I'm going to go. A friend of my sister is helping to plan it and she sent me the link to the reunion myspace page so that I could see sort of whats going on. She also said that she'll email details out as they get finalized. I got sucked in to looking at the pages for the people that I graduated with last night. For some reason, it surprised me that the people who talked to each other in high school are still talking to each other. I think that this confuses me because I didn't keep any friends from high school. I made all new and truer friends in college which is how I think it should be.
Course, now I can't get rid of yall.
Good-bye Mr. Vonnegut,
Thanks for your pictures of assholes and aliens.
last weekchris had surgery on wednesday to repair a deviated septum. they are hoping that this will help with his ears and sinuses draining and that he won't get sick quite so often. an ear and/or sinus infection every two weeks is a bit much. afterewards, he had all this packing jammed up his nose and these strings hanging out that were taped to his face. and a gauze pad thing that was also taped to his face. i kept brushing at the strings and really wanted to pull them out because it just looked like the gauze pad was starting to fray. on thursday, he's still bleeding pretty freely, and getting a little nervous. originally, the doctor said minimal bleeding and pain so it was kind of worrying that he was still bleeding. the office called to check up on him and thats when they told him that they had to take out some bone too and that would account for the bleeding. good to know. probably would have been better to know before we left the hospital. friday the packing got removed and i have to say it ranked right up there on the list of grossest things i've ever seen. it looked like whole tampons had been jammed up either side of his nose! nasty. and not very pleasant as the doctor just kind of yanked those suckers out. this has not been the most pleasant of experiences for chris and i have to keep reminding him that he decided to go through with it and that it should help in the long run. one thing i've noticed is that people really don't like to hear about things that happen in their nose. it kind of geeks them out. i have also discovered that its a really good thing that i didn't go into the medical field as i would end up being a nurse/doctor with the worst bedside manner ever. no patience and apparently very little sympathy.
oo, the other thing from last week? my brother came to visit! he called and said that he and his gf were going to be up visiting her youngest son and wanted to know if they could come by. i was floored. i have no idea how many times hes been up to see that kid and never asked to see me. her son is only like an hour away from where i live. they were coming on saturday and for a while i was getting really upset because i hadn't heard from him and couldn't get through on his cell phone, just kept leaving messages. really upsetting and i was on the verge of calling and leaving a nasty message. i mean, i would expect to be stood up by my sister but not him. anyway, they were just running late and he had his phone off for a while because it just roams when hes up here. they got in around 10 or so and we went to dinner and then sat around and drank a bit and just talked forever. he had recently discovered the joys of jager bombs so thats what we drank. other than my parents, hes my only family to come see our house. i don't really count my mom though. she was there when we closed but hasn't seen anything that we've done to it. i didn't realize before how very much he dislikes our sister. can't stand her and thinks that some of the stuff going on with her, she totally deserves. i tend to agree, but i at least feel bad about her. not him though. in fact, i think hes kind of enjoying seeing her get hers. anyway, i had a really good time. i love his gf! shes so cool. her kids are great, and shes really good for my niece, too.
why is itthat when the soup is called hearty country vegetable, the only vegetable it has in abundance are carrots? why can't it have more lima beans? hell, why not throw some okra in there to take up space! i like okra! no. it has carrots. and not just little slivers of carrots. this is a hearty soup remember? it has to have monstrous gag inducing stomach heaving choking mushy pale orange chunks of carrots. i can't think of a more worthless vegetable.
 apparently my super secret super hero identity is russell crowe in a leather miniskirt
spring has sprung people!cliched I know but I couldn't think of anything better (except some part of a line from 'baby got back' (?) about getting sprung and I thought that that might not be as appropriate).
anyway - let me say it - I have daffodils!
was this not the surprise you were waiting for? well whatever, you have no idea then.
and not just the scraggly green stalks of daffodils either. but blooms. big yellow ones.
thats it then. thats enough for me. winter is over. spring is here. i can get rid of sweaters and layers and big clunky shoes. ha, scratch that i only wear big clunky shoes. but you should be getting the drift by now. i can pull out light shirts and the one skirt that i own and the cute wrap thing that i bought and only wore once. i can pretend that i will take part in spring cleaning. not really, but i will watch chris do it. :o)
we planted our seeds the other night and no lie the next day we had sprouts. even better, it was sprouts sprouting.
annoyed by a license platei know its petty but it really kind of bothered me. usually the stuff you see on personalized plates are people announcing that they love jesus, are number one, like to go fast, or that they have a hummer (as if you couldn't tell when you get stuck behind them. personally i like to think that this is less of a bragging thing than an apology for a) trying to run you over on their way to the gas station, or b) taking the next 30 miles to get up to the speed limit). but this one? it just said H5N1.
am i wrong to be bothered by this? i wasn't sure how to take it. are they paying tribute to the fact that they were able to afford their very (VERY) nice car by making money from a potential disaster? are they announcing their anticipation of this pandemic? am i being too sensitive about this? it just seems wrong to me to take something that is being looked at as potentially being able to wipe out upwards of 100 million people and put it on a license plate. for sure i wouldn't put AIDS on my plates. or DIABTS or HRTDZ or ILVCNCR.
does this bother anyone else? Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona dár gcairde agus teaghlachThats about as near as I could come to finding out what Happy St. Patrick's Day is in Irish Gaelic. Apparently not too many people speak it these days. I was thinking that this was why the Irish have been stereotyped as being drunkards, its not the jameson or the guinness, its the language.
And then I think about the "irish" people I know, and think, huh...maybe not.
Went to Shamrock Fest last Saturday and had the best time. Didn't listen to any of the bands except for Flogging Molly and a little bit of Carbonleaf. Proudly wore 'my' Flogging Molly t-shirt. No idea what they sing. Not sure I'd ever heard them before that day. But really does that matter? :o) I have to say it was a predominantly white person celebration but I was still surprised by the number of black, hispanic, and indian people there. You haven't lived until you see a guy who would look more fitting in a turban wearing a leprechaun hat and green feather boa. I didn't bother asking if HE knew who flogging molly was. Of course he did, he had the t-shirt on didn't he?
My interesting factoid about this holiday? Its not celebrated in Scotland. I tend to lump Scotland, Ireland and England all together (a sentiment which would probably get me stoned in either of those first two) so I was kind of surprised to hear this.
Today is also Chris' birthday. Which is good because if it weren't affiliated with some kind of holiday or something, I probably wouldn't remember it. We don't really have anything planned. Were going to go see his brother's band play but he's been sick and its probably not a good idea to go sit in a smoky bar all night. Although, I could stand to do some drinking. And let's face it, its practically expected on St. Patty's.
My dad drove all the way up to charlottesville this weekend to hang out with my uncles and didn't make any plans with me. I have no idea where this is in relation to where I am, but still, its closer than normal. Ain't that some shit? Whatever, I see now that the globetrotters are more important than me. Thats who he came up to see. They're having a guys weekend and went to see them last night. Maybe thats why we didn't make plans, I don't have a penis so I can't come for dinner.
We got 6 inches of snow yesterday. Can you believe it? It was 70 something degrees earlier this week. It also took me about 3.5 hours to get home last night. Some people *cough*FTM*cough* don't believe that you may need to slow down when the weather is bad. This in turn, slows things down for everyone else while their careless asses are having to be hauled out of ditches, put up on tow trucks, or turned round the right way. Not to mention occassionally having to be cut out of their cars and stuffed into ambulances. I'm not bitter though. Not at all. I left work two hours earlier than normal and still got home at the same time.
I think that we are going to put my little greenhouse cart together today and start our seeds. Sure there's a half foot of snow on the ground but its mid-March its time to get things going. I may also need to buy some tulips sometime as they may not make it up this year. They had started to pop up, those and the daffodils, but the new shoots have been frozen a couple of times now.
OH! I got a new phone. Its super sweet. Slim, takes pictures, makes cute noises and its red. Oh yeah and I can make phone calls on it too. Go figure. :o)
Sooo....La Faily Patrick Suna der juh-care-dee agus tuh-a-latch...yeah and i'm totally sure that's how you say that.  long time no seework has been completely nuts. and i can hardly be expected to blog on my own time now can i?
i go to LA next week so i'm only in for one day so i should be trying to tie up loose ends and make sure that everything will be ok without me. that sounds really conceited. like i'm invaluable. not true, but i don't know how else to phrase it. i feel like i've tied up enough ends today. some of them should be saved for tomorrow right?
we have a pest inspector somebody coming to look at our house tomorrow morning. i don't think we have pests but its part of the insurance thing that we have. pay them an amount for the year and they look around and then if we get pests (variety unspecified) later they will take care of them for cheap. er.
my sister just found out that she has carpenter ants in her soffetts (sp?). the people fixing her house up after the fire don't want to fix that part because of the ants so i'm not sure what they are going to do. i always thought carpenter ants were the ones in the rainforests but i didn't do so hot in the bug portions of biology. although i will forever be able to tell a hemiptera from a hymenoptera and both of them from a lepidoptera. as well as having a ridiculous cringing gagging reaction every time i see a pra(e)ying mantis. ick.
other family news? my nephew, hes 12, has paraded quite grandly over the threshold of teenagerdom. he announced his turn to the darkside by smacking my sister (his mom) in the face. my dad told me this the other day. my reply was 'well, i'll miss him. where do i send the flowers?' and nearly keeled over when he told me that she didn't kill him off. (i should probably add a big YET here). i also took the time to point out that I was not a little asshole when i was that age. my mom said, 'no you weren't. but your sister certainly was.' i think they really do enjoy that she has kids just like her. stupid boring snow dayfor having been up since about 7 this morning, i have gotten surprisingly little done. i think its because my will to do the chores i had set out was sapped by my thwarted attempt to get my cat fixed today.
i was supposed to have her at the shelter by 8.30. i left at 7.30. an hour should be enough time to get to the place right? its not that far away but i was allowing time for bad roads and getting lost. i got there at 9. they wouldn't take her. told me that i could leave her with them overnight or drop her off again tomorrow moring. before 8.30. i even offered to drive her to their vet's myself but she said no. the woman at their vet likes to have all the animals there by 9. stupid gunch. so now i have to go about 30 minutes out of my way to drop her off on my way to work tomorrow. reee-goddam-diculous if you ask me.
went to the oral surgeon today too. i'm having my teeth out on friday.
eep.
i didn't think they would have appointments available so soon. and just my luck, some of them (3 out of 4) are, to varying degrees, stuck in my jaw bone instead of just being in the gum. so they have to drill in to my jaw, break the tooth and take it out in pieces.
oh well. at keast i'm getting the good drugs right? right?
 thats the whole of my day so far. pretty sure its not going to get any more interesting.
all work makes for a dull girlmy new years resolution was to not be such a slacker at my job. to stop procrastinating. and i think i've been doing a damn fine job these last two weeks. its about time i start backsliding i think.
actually, i'm not backsliding but my office has reached that perfect state of entropy in which i can't get anything done. i have crap lying around everywhere and papers stacked up at least a foot in three different places. i have files that are begging me to file them. to put them to the use for which god and 3M intended. my rubber band ball has grown eponentially since the new year. i have 5 cans of soda and an empty water bottle on my desk. literally unable to function in this kind of environment. which is pretty ironic since i created it. i am my own office pollution.
so i gave up on my task list (i lost it in a pile. kind of scared that maybe i tossed it accidentally). and started to file. i divided one of my foot tall stacks into multiple little stacks all over the place. this did not make things better. i got more files (they're orange and i love them. so much so, that i don't use them) and created a little stack of empty orange files in addition to the now 8 or more piles of papers.
i shifted my pens around.
i created a very impressive sculpture from the tangle of binder clips. i now have a thing the size of a child's arm perching on my PC.
i put my two bottles of lotion away.
i took one back out.
i moved my pens again. (desperately needed to make room for the highlighter)
i used my supremely cool jedi mind tricks to rustle my paper stacks (my fan is on but it made me laugh out loud to wave my hand and say 'this is not the report you're looking for')
i stared mindlessly at my computer screen looking for icons to delete.
and so i decided to blog instead. save all this crap for monday.
i hope everyone is having as productive a day as i am.
its almost four. its time to play hangman on my dry erase board. brimful of holiday cheeryay holidays! we went to my parents house and it was so nice to see everybody and hang out. not that much hanging out got done. mostly we ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.
my dad called me tuesday? wednesday? before christmas and told me that my sister's new house caught on fire. it didn't burn down and there isn't even any structural damage except maybe to the roof where the firemen went picking across it. she let my nephew have a candle in his room that night and either he didn't put it out and it got knocked over or it miraculously relit itself and got knocked over. nobody was hurt too badly (older nephew has second degree burn on his foot) and by the time the fire truck got there (20 minute response time!) my sister, nephew, and the man next door that my nephew ran and woke up had put most of it out. just a little bit was starting up again and the firemen took care of that by ripping out the carpet and taking it outside. apparently scotchguard is very flammable. none of them woke up to the fire alarm. my sister woke up when nephew started screaming but her other two kids only woke up when she called them. my parents drove out and picked them and brought them back to their house for the night. the firemen gave her two younger kids stuffed animals to make them feel better.
so my parents spent the rest of that week helping to clean up and take care of stuff at her house. chris and i spent a big part of saturday christmas shopping for my parents so that they would have gifts for people. they just hadn't had time to do it. needless to say, a lot of gift certificates where handed out! we also went shopping for my mom for gifts from my dad. which made it pretty hysterical for me when we're opening presents and she would open one from him and he would be like 'oh thats nice. whos that from? what is it?'
i met all of my brother's girlfriend's kids. actually, not all of them. i met her 3 sons and i keep forgetting she has a daughter as well. a daughter who's in the marines oh by the way. her sons are a riot. the youngest is 8, then 13 or so and the oldest is 17. D herself is probably not quite 5 feet tall. her 17-year old son is 6'5, ~320 lbs. cracked me up because the 8-year old kept saying to the oldest, 'what is your problem, woman?' the oldest is on crutches (long and kind of sad story) and i swear the crutches were as tall as i am. my oldest nephew, hes 20, kept trying to use them but hes barely taller than me so he was on his tippy-toes walking down the hall with his elbows over the top of the crutches. the kids all seem to get along really well which makes things easier. i did miss her, but thankfully, my brother's wife did not come for christmas eve.
funny things: my youngest nephew (5 i think) told my 90-year old grandmother that she was pretty cute when shes old. he also told my mom that she looked pretty cute in her sunglasses. and got mad at my dad for threatening to tell Fred on him for sucking his thumb. Fred, oh by the way, is my dad's riding lawn mower.
sad thing: youngest nephew has been diagnosed with CP. hes had casts on his one leg for a while now. just got taken off 12/26 and next week he'll be fitted for braces.
so, i didn't get christmas cards out but, merry christmas everybody (late, as usual). and happy new year!  i heart leftover chinesei'm going to the dentist today. and i'm actually kind of excited for it because i get to go in late to work. i fully plan on stopping hagerstown and going to michaels on my way in. i need yarn!
did i tell you i have a breast implant sitting on the bookshelf in my office? its pretty squishy!
ok. i'm going to go and pretend now that the next 5 minutes of brushing and rinsing will totally fool the dentist into believing i floss! i got nothinbut all of my bosses are gone and i don't feel like working. the woman who is supposed to be 'in-charge', so designated because she has been here longer and has a higher degree, keeps coming in here and asking me questions that she should already know the answer to. whatever. its friday and it snowed yesterday and i'm taking a mini vacation tomorrow. so there.
anyway, because i have nothing else to really talk about or do...
6 weird things about ME:
yeah. i know its pretty lame but there it is. the best that i could come up with right this second. My dad sent me this joke and I thought it was funny so I'll share: A professor was giving a lecture on "Involuntary Muscular Contractions" to his first year medical students. Realizing that this was not the most riveting subject, the Professor decided to lighten the mood slightly... |
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