Mary Grace is on a hunger strike because I wouldn't make her pancakes for breakfast (we're out of mix and making them from scratch on a Monday when I'm on a diet is a little above and beyond the call). I offered Cheerios and raisin toast (it's all about choices, right?) and she demanded pancakes, then went all Ghandi on me... She's sitting "criss cross applesauce*" on the floor, refusing to eat, and muttering in an accent. It's a little creepy.
I really need to find a replacement battery charger (and a spare battery couldn't hurt) for my Canon SD600 Powershot Camera. You wouldn't think that it would be so tough, right? Well, I spent 45 minutes calling Best Buy on Friday without getting an answer. I would call, select 3 to speak to customer service (or 4 to try the Geek Squad, after I got a little desperate) and it would ring and ring and ring and eventually hang up.
So I have to pack the babies in the car today, in the cold, and go to Bed Bath and Beyond to get a friend a shower gift, then to Best Buy to find a replacement battery, but it's so cold outside and it's so cozy in my jammies... I just can't motivate.
I got a couple of cute shots of MG on my cell phone at gymnastics last week, but it's a 74 step process to get them off of my cell phone and onto my computer, and I just don't have the patience today. Maybe I'll look for a card reader, too, while I'm at BB, because it takes Micro SD and it would be nice to just pop it out of the camera and into the computer. I've got pictures on there that are almost a year old that have never seen the light of day because it's a pain in the neck (and I think it costs money on my cell phone bill) to send them to myself.
Is there such a thing as a PCMCIA card reader that takes multiple sizes of SD cards? That would be cool.
So, yeah, shopping today. Shopping, and it probably won't be illustrated. Maybe I'll take the kids to the play area at the mall, so that they can burn off some energy. MG has gymnastics tonight, that'll help, too. I'll take a book and see if I can read a page or two in between trips out of the play area to retrieve Claire, who will be trying to snag free rides on the carousel.
Saturday we met Gramma Susan at Fair Oaks for lunch. If you haven't been there, yet, you really need to go. It's a lot of fun. It was nice to have a chance to catch up. Then when we got home BJ and the kids went to Uncle Brandon's while I caught up on my sleep after a night with Mimi - she and I were up until 4:30 am Friday night!!
(By the way, I left my coat in Grammaland, so if anyone is travelling from there to or through here in the next couple of days and could return it to me, that would be super. It's at Mimi's house.)
Yesterday was kind of a lazy Sunday. We went to the new member class at the Pres. church, then out for lunch, and then BJ's head started to hurt so we came home. I took a nap with MG, and we kind of lazed around, watching Ella Enchanted and watching the kids play. Ella Enchanted was kind of a cute movie. A little over MG's head, but it had pretty dresses and dancing, so she was fine. I didn't even make dinner - the kids had PB&J and BJ had something out of the microwave. We did manage to give the kids a bath and get them to bed at a decent hour. Sometimes after running and running and running, you just need a day like that.
But you don't need two days like that, so I'd better get a move on. How was your weekend?
* That's what they call what we used to call "Indian Style" at school, now. Apparenlty Indian style is no longer PC. I'm still waiting for a verdict from the PC Police on whether or not saying "Dots or feathers?" to clarify whether someone is talking about people from the subcontinent of India or Native Americans is PC.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
People Who Piss Me Off
Does this guy look nuts, or what?He's the meanyhead who kicked me off of SparkPeople. Twice.
If you were my friend on SP, and you're not anymore, it's because SP_Coach_Dean thinks I'm too "disrespectful" to him to be allowed to exist in SparkyLand.
He has a degree in "behavioral psych" supposedly, but I'm pretty sure he graduated from the Dr. Phil School of Pithy Statements and Meaningless Platitudes.
Ok, that was "disrespectful" but seriously, up until this point, I have been a freaking saint. The strongest language I used was "baloney." I know, I spelled it wrong. I did deserve to be deleted for that. It's "bologna." But c'mon - I use stronger language than that at church!
Seriously - look deeply into his eyes and tell me that he's not trying to get you to drink the Koolaid.
I'm not going to use any of the social features on SP anymore, because of Mr. Doing-His-Best-Impression-Of-Charles-Manson up there. I'm still going to count calories in and calories burned, but I'll save my rants for here... I have plenty of people to argue with in real life, I don't need to go looking for more.
Just wanted the 15 people I recruited to know, I didn't delete you... He deleted me. If you still want to be buddies, you can e-mail me anytime (about anything) at prbabies@gmail.com.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Fragile
On Tuesday, my friend thought her daughter (who is less than 6 months old) needed a heart transplant. After yesterday's doctor's appointment, it turns out that she only ("only," ha!) needs open heart surgery to repair a hole in her heart. While open heart surgery is a Very Big Deal, it's much less of a big deal than a heart transplant. (And my friend, the mom, was still at work and functioning on Tuesday, preparing to take the rest of the week off to consult with doctors. I was amazed by her strength and her ability to be calm in the midst of what must have been a personal hell).
I received an e-mail from a family friend, this morning, saying that her brother's kidney transplant has been scheduled for this month. With all of the insurance problems they're having, they didn't expect to have anything happen before the end of the year. The family friend who sent the email is the donor, and I have so much respect for her selflessness. Of course, I'd give my brother (or sister) a kidney, too, but she has been so graceful about the whole thing - never doubting for a minute that that's what she would do, celebrating when she was a match, not expressing any concern for herself at all, even though the operation is more dangerous for her than it is for him.
The wait for a kidney from a cadaver is 5 - 7 years in the Chicago area.
That's 5 - 7 years of dialysis - which involves going to a clinic 2 - 4 times a week and sitting, hooked to machines, for around 4 hours while your blood is cleaned of toxins that will kill you if they're not removed. It's wonderful that such technology exists, but spending 8 - 16 hours a week doing that does NOT sound like fun, and isn't really compatible with high quality of life. It's also extremely expensive.
In light of all of this, I ask you to become an organ donor. My dad had a bumper sticker a long time ago that said something like, "Don't take your organs to heaven with you, heaven knows we need them here."
***
My problems seem very small by comparison, but I went to the doc yesterday and I'm back on the Z. 25 mg for two weeks, then if I feel like I need to, I can up to 50 mg for two weeks, then we're going to see what's up. Thanks for all the concern and support.
Here's a question for the ages, why would the insurance cover the 100 mg pills but not the 50?? Stupid insurance... They're getting a strongly worded phone call today.
Speaking of phones, my battery ran out, so if you've tried to call me in the last 18 hours or so and haven't been able to reach me, that's why... Hopefully it'll survive the field trip today.
13 pounds. :)
I received an e-mail from a family friend, this morning, saying that her brother's kidney transplant has been scheduled for this month. With all of the insurance problems they're having, they didn't expect to have anything happen before the end of the year. The family friend who sent the email is the donor, and I have so much respect for her selflessness. Of course, I'd give my brother (or sister) a kidney, too, but she has been so graceful about the whole thing - never doubting for a minute that that's what she would do, celebrating when she was a match, not expressing any concern for herself at all, even though the operation is more dangerous for her than it is for him.
The wait for a kidney from a cadaver is 5 - 7 years in the Chicago area.
That's 5 - 7 years of dialysis - which involves going to a clinic 2 - 4 times a week and sitting, hooked to machines, for around 4 hours while your blood is cleaned of toxins that will kill you if they're not removed. It's wonderful that such technology exists, but spending 8 - 16 hours a week doing that does NOT sound like fun, and isn't really compatible with high quality of life. It's also extremely expensive.
In light of all of this, I ask you to become an organ donor. My dad had a bumper sticker a long time ago that said something like, "Don't take your organs to heaven with you, heaven knows we need them here."
***
My problems seem very small by comparison, but I went to the doc yesterday and I'm back on the Z. 25 mg for two weeks, then if I feel like I need to, I can up to 50 mg for two weeks, then we're going to see what's up. Thanks for all the concern and support.
Here's a question for the ages, why would the insurance cover the 100 mg pills but not the 50?? Stupid insurance... They're getting a strongly worded phone call today.
Speaking of phones, my battery ran out, so if you've tried to call me in the last 18 hours or so and haven't been able to reach me, that's why... Hopefully it'll survive the field trip today.
13 pounds. :)
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
I Want To Be Beige
I wish I could be beige. I wish I didn't have opinions. Opinions just get me in trouble, most of the time. Nobody listens. Nobody wants to hear what anyone else has to say. People talk and talk and talk - on blogs, on message boards, on TV, on talk radio, but all of them only want to hear two words in return... and those two words are "You're right."
I admit, I'm guilty of it too. Being right feels good. But I really do try, at least, when I talk to people or read what they've written, to set aside my own thoughts and really HEAR what they have to say. I try to find the truth in even the most ignorant statement - if nothing else because that's generally the best place to start arguing with them from. I try to quiet my mind and listen to what someone's saying, instead of planning my next attack and hoping they'll shut up before I forget what I'm about to say. God knows, I generally don't succeed at this for long, but I try.
But having opinions - no, having convictions, which I apparently have more than my fair share of - is a real liability. Because people just don't want to hear them, unless they agree with me to begin with, and then what's the point of talking to each other about it? It just pisses people off when I won't back down. Then it gets ugly. Then it starts to hurt.
I finally get it. After 32 years of beating my head against every. available. wall. I get it.
I am going to practice beigitude. I am going to smile and be vapid and say things like, "Do you really think so?" and "Gosh, that's interesting!" and "Have another cookie!" instead of trying to show people (often with their own "truths") that they're wrong. I am going to say, "What do you think?" and I am going to say, "I can see both sides," when asked for my opinion (which happens rarely). When asked directly, I'll breathe, "Gee, I don't know, what do you think?" bat my eyes and flash my cleavage.
And when no one is looking, I'm going to do my own thing anyway, because after all the talk talk talk and bullshit lies and bullshit, everyone's just waiting for me to screw up so that they can give me a big fat I TOLD YOU SO anyway... At least if that's going to happen, I'll have screwed up based on my own truths, rather than having accepted and acted upon someone else's.
I got kicked off of Sparkpeople today after getting into a political discussion on a political message board within the group where I was trying to explain the difference between calling a person ignorant and calling the person's beliefs ignorant (the belief in question being that Obama is the antichrist). I tried to explain that going around proclaiming that sort of thing makes all Christians, myself included, look bad.
Screw them. Screw message boards. Screw opinions, my own included. What difference does it make, any of it? It's all 1s and 0s, as they used to say at AFCA. In the end, after all of them have worn their fingers down to tiny nubs typing vitriol and ignorant bullshit at each other - what have we solved - NOTHING.
I wonder if there would have been more people out in the streets protesting the atrocious things that have happened in this country over the past few years if we weren't all chained to our computers, operating under the illusion that any of this makes any damn difference to anyone. Perhaps the internet is the ultimate tool for crowd control.
It's all 1s and 0s.
It's not even real.
I am going on break (from PB, e-mail, reading blogs, all of it).
I'll be back in a few days.
I am not in a good place.
I need to unplug, unwind, and uncolor myself.
I feel like I've been fighting for years.
I can't fight anymore.
I need to get beige.
I admit, I'm guilty of it too. Being right feels good. But I really do try, at least, when I talk to people or read what they've written, to set aside my own thoughts and really HEAR what they have to say. I try to find the truth in even the most ignorant statement - if nothing else because that's generally the best place to start arguing with them from. I try to quiet my mind and listen to what someone's saying, instead of planning my next attack and hoping they'll shut up before I forget what I'm about to say. God knows, I generally don't succeed at this for long, but I try.
But having opinions - no, having convictions, which I apparently have more than my fair share of - is a real liability. Because people just don't want to hear them, unless they agree with me to begin with, and then what's the point of talking to each other about it? It just pisses people off when I won't back down. Then it gets ugly. Then it starts to hurt.
I finally get it. After 32 years of beating my head against every. available. wall. I get it.
I am going to practice beigitude. I am going to smile and be vapid and say things like, "Do you really think so?" and "Gosh, that's interesting!" and "Have another cookie!" instead of trying to show people (often with their own "truths") that they're wrong. I am going to say, "What do you think?" and I am going to say, "I can see both sides," when asked for my opinion (which happens rarely). When asked directly, I'll breathe, "Gee, I don't know, what do you think?" bat my eyes and flash my cleavage.
And when no one is looking, I'm going to do my own thing anyway, because after all the talk talk talk and bullshit lies and bullshit, everyone's just waiting for me to screw up so that they can give me a big fat I TOLD YOU SO anyway... At least if that's going to happen, I'll have screwed up based on my own truths, rather than having accepted and acted upon someone else's.
I got kicked off of Sparkpeople today after getting into a political discussion on a political message board within the group where I was trying to explain the difference between calling a person ignorant and calling the person's beliefs ignorant (the belief in question being that Obama is the antichrist). I tried to explain that going around proclaiming that sort of thing makes all Christians, myself included, look bad.
Screw them. Screw message boards. Screw opinions, my own included. What difference does it make, any of it? It's all 1s and 0s, as they used to say at AFCA. In the end, after all of them have worn their fingers down to tiny nubs typing vitriol and ignorant bullshit at each other - what have we solved - NOTHING.
I wonder if there would have been more people out in the streets protesting the atrocious things that have happened in this country over the past few years if we weren't all chained to our computers, operating under the illusion that any of this makes any damn difference to anyone. Perhaps the internet is the ultimate tool for crowd control.
It's all 1s and 0s.
It's not even real.
I am going on break (from PB, e-mail, reading blogs, all of it).
I'll be back in a few days.
I am not in a good place.
I need to unplug, unwind, and uncolor myself.
I feel like I've been fighting for years.
I can't fight anymore.
I need to get beige.
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