Blame Canada

We are moving to Canada. Wacky, huh?!

Obama might start out right

This from CNN. I think this is a great use of the executive order power.

Long Time No Write

It's been an interesting few weeks. David went to South Africa, I spilled a drink on my computer, and I found out I completely ripped up my left shoulder.

I'll be having surgery on my shoulder on November 4th, election day. I'll be voting early (tomorrow, as a matter of fact) so as not to lose my chance to vote out the Republicans.

Anyway, my stance on Sarah Palin hasn't changed. I think she's an idiot who doesn't know what she's doing. I think it's crap that she accepted $150,000 worth of clothes for herself and her family from the RNC. Geez, out of touch with "real" America much?? I strongly urge you to take a very close look at the McCain/Palin ticket and make an informed decision. I think if you give it some thought and if you do some research you'll realize for yourself how harmful McCain & Palin will be to America. Please think about it.

I, of course, am voting for Obama. I'm proud to say that. I'm still a bit disappointed that Clinton didn't the nomination, but that's mostly because she's a woman rather than her political beliefs. I must admit that Obama's beliefs and practices are the most closely alligned with mine and he deserves my vote. I hope he deserves yours as well.

Update

I haven't been blogging lately because my arthritis is acting up and it's been hard to type.

I've lost 2 jeans sizes and I still hate Sarah Palin.

Yep, that's about all.

Oh how I loathe her

Palin said, "You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick." She is evil and if McCain is elected and he becomes incapacitated, she's in charge. That literally strikes fear into my heart. And any attempt to try to convince me that Obama was literally taking a "swipe" at her will make me vomit. I'm so tired of politics. And I'm tired of people like Palin who claim to be "feminists" but are actually fundamentalist Christians who believe that men are our overlords. Don't understand what I'm talking about? Look up her opinions on abortion and her past with the Pentacostal church. I'm really familiar with that church and they are about as fundamentalist as you can get. Ugh.

Ugh

Can somebody please explain to me how a person is supposed to go through life without using their effing elbows??

Having Kids

My son is 12 and at this point in our lives, my advice would be that you not have kids. Kids are great but pre-teens are horrific. Today has been living hell, what with getting all of his stuff together to start school on Monday. He's totally freaking out because he's going to middle school for the first time. Makes me feel like I'm going to middle school for the first time too!

Insomnia

I've got to find a way to fall asleep at a decent hour without completely drugging myself out. Almost all day I'm so groggy I can't get anything done. On Saturday I didn't wake up until 4pm and today I'm just now getting up. This has got to stop.

Tips?

Birthday Wishes are Due

Happity happy 50th birthday Stevety Steve!

Biological Enough

Today when Jack and I went to the comic book store he saw a sign at a nearby business that advertised "civilized divorce." So he started asking me about my divorce and if was civilized, etc. During the conversation we got to talking about Jack's biological father and I said I know it must be weird for him to not know him. His response? "I have a biological enough father."

It melted my heart.

Joss Whedon has a new book!

Barnes & Noble has it for sale. Click here.

Greenies Warning

This is from my friend OhioDave's blog:

Just got this from my cousin Vicki, who is a professional pet sitter and house sitter:

I recently had a pet sitting client call to tell me that her dog just had surgery for a bowel obstruction, which her veterinarian believed was caused by the Greenies brand Original Smart Treat.

Apparently, these treats had been pulled from the market some time ago and reformulated due to serious health problems in pets, and in some cases, caused death to the pet.

I have no formal information about this product at this point.

Please take note of this concern and pass along to anyone you know of that has dogs or cats, or buys these Greenies treats. This brand carries treats for dogs and cats.

Regards,


Vicki Gruner
Pet Nanny & Personal Assistant
website: www.homesandpets.com
email: service@homesandpets.com
513-235-7787 (Cell)

Snopes says it's "undetermined" but it's from 2005 and that story is apparently before the "reformulation" mentioned above.

Sweet

Just got accepted into the Citizen's Prosecutor Academy with the Collin County District Attorney's Office. It's an internship that UTD offers for three credit hours. So, YAY me! I'll get to participate in a mock trial at the end so that'll be cool. And I've never worked in a prosecutorial job before so that'll also be cool. Anyway, apparently there will be much coolness and I'm actually kind of having mixed emotions because it'll be a lot of work but I think it will be good for me. I figured the other applicants would have higher GPAs than me but apparently I don't suck at college as much as I thought I did. So again I say, YAY me!

Cuil.com

Pronounced "cool". Cuil.com is launching today in an effort to rival Google. Should be interesting to see what happens. I love internet competition!

The leaders of this country need to keep their damn hands away from my reproductive organs

This literally makes my heart hurt. Medical care is medical care. Decisions regarding reproductive issues are private and should not be dealt with on a federal or even state level. I should have the right, just like every other person should have the right, to decide what is best for me. When will people learn to just leave other people alone and let them live in peace, trusting that they'll make the best decisions they can?

VOTE OBAMA. Seriously. Whether you're for or against birth control or abortion you should always be for letting people make their own decisions. Just because you choose to live one doesn't mean everyone does.

Thanks to blurbomat for the link.

STEVETY STEVE

My friend STEVE STEVE STEVETY STEVE of ACE TATTOO in San Diego gave me this tattoo on my right ankle in about 1997. Soon you will be able to check out some of his other work here. This isn't the best picture in the world but I'll try to get a new one up soon.

Took 'em long enough

This from CNN.com.

The Aftermath of Wizard Rock

Fibromyalgia: Part II

I'm looking into acupuncture and massage and trying to do what my body tells me. I feel like a loser though because I haven't worked or finished my 9 hours of school in over 7 months. I know that's par for the course with this disease but it still pisses me off.

Another problem I have is that when the pain gets really severe I have to take too much medication to make it stop or else take sleeping pills so that I sleep through it. When I take those drugs the pain sort of goes away but I can still feel it plus I always get a splitting headache and feel all high and weird. Any advice about tolerating the medications? (Lyrica, Relafin, Darvocet, & Skelaxin. Trazadone or Xanax to sleep.)

Fibromyalgia: Not just for crazy people anymore

I remember when I first heard about fibromyalgia and the going theory amongst those "in the know" was that it was a made-up disease that doctors diagnosed in people they thought were crazy and just complaining of pain because they had too much time on their hands.

"HA!" says she who was semi-recently diagnosed with the disease. Trust me, this pain ain't in my head. Yesterday, on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the worst) the pain was about a 7. Today it's about a 3. That's what's so crazy about this condition: the pain fluctuates from day to day. You never know when you're going to have a "bad" day or a "good" day. It's impossible to make plans because you might wake up the day of your event (say a murder mystery party or a recent game day) and feel like crap but there's nothing you can do about it because you're about to have a house full of people looking for a good time.

Anyway, I've been trying to come up with different coping mechanisms so that I don't fall into a deep depression like I did when I first found out I had this. That was awful and I even contemplated suicide (not that I had a plan in place or anything and I don't think I'd ever actually leave my boys on purpose.) But I've been examined by three separate doctors now who all say I've got it and then they say, "Boy does it suck to be you," only in much better doctor-speak. But I digress.

One of my ways of coping with this disease is to sleep a lot and to refuse to feel guilty about it. I'm really not just being lazy (okay, maybe sometimes I'm just being lazy) but I'm really just very exhausted. Yesterday I took a "nap" from 4pm to 10pm and then went to bed at 1am, getting up at 10:30am today. That is not normal behavior for anyone but an infant. (Guess that explains my juvenile sense of humor...) So what if the house isn't perfectly clean? So what if the laundry doesn't get folded in a timely manner? So what, so what, so what? I also have OCD and I've realized that it's time to get over that as much as possible because seriously, the world is not going to explode if I don't finish the dishes.

Another way is to try to be more real with myself, my friends, and (occasionally) my family (their brains would implode if they ever knew the "real" me.) So I've started talking more about things that matter. My feelings, my fears, my insecurities, my failures, etc. I'm not very good about talking about that stuff but I've found that it helps tremendously to just get it out there in an effort to relieve stress. It's amazing how awesome my friends are to listen and to offer advice. Some of my friends have even started telling me about flaws I didn't even know I had (like making fun of midgets or teenagers, for instance.)

I know I'm rambling but I also know I can't be the only person out there who has fibromyalgia. We've got to stick together because people that don't have this disease don't seem to get fully comprehend all those goes with it. It affects every part of a person - mood, level of exhaustion and stress, ability to function, memory - everything. And sometimes when we're being bitchy or unreasonable it's because we're unreasonable bitches but other times it's because we're just so freaking tired and stressed from the pain that we seriously can't control ourselves.

So be patient and love us even when we're jerks. I swear we'll feel really bad about it later, but only if you tell us about it. Later. Don't do it when we're pissed. Trust me. I'm not a good person to talk to when I'm pissed. (And that has nothing to do with fibromyalgia, just the fact that I'm immature and can't be reasoned with until I settle down.)