I've been listening to one person with real troubles and missed a voicemail from abroad from a friend with real trouble. These people make me say to everyone else: get a grip.
Really. A cold is nothing to sneeze at (yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist), but it's not a life-threatening illness. Problems with party arrangements? Who gives a flying fuck? Cellulite issues? Pah. Someone doesn't return your calls? Get a grip.
Deathly ill children, bankruptcy filings, parents dying, getting hit by a car (SNV -- I'm looking at you -- you told the moron who hit you -- the pedestrian he hit while running a red light -- that you were fine and DIDN'T even get insurance information because you're such a stoic, and then realized, oops, you felt pretty bad; lucky for you, Ex-Marine Fred loves you buckets or he would have given you injuries the car accident didn't, and no, I'm not promoting domestic violence. You'd hurt him worse, I know, I knowthat you were fine: "No broken bones!" you gladly pronounced.), having a miscarriage, life-threatening illness, impending surgery, getting fired, a suicidal friend: these are real trouble. Everything else? Survivable.
August 26, 2009
August 19, 2009
I've Been Wandering, Early and Late
I love that folk song. As a kid and teenager, I thought that as an adult I would be a wanderer, peripatetic, the sort of person who lived out of my suitcase. Of course, at 48, I am no nomad, and probably never will be. I like knowing where I am, what my schedule is, and fixing my environment to suit me, even if that environment is messy beyond belief.
My second vacation of the summer (I have one more, and I'm actually dreading it) just ended. I'm back from a trip to FoilMormor's with TG, DG, and NIQ in tow. LOS and NSLOS and LOS's dear husband (DH) also showed up. It was a great trip. I have more bug bites than any human being should have (New England summer weather), and a cold I haven't been able to shake for five days, but otherwise, all is well.
NIQ liked (as far as I can tell) New England and really liked FoilMormor. She was intimidated by Andover, Exeter, and St. Paul's, but really, that just shows she has a smidge of common sense. We didn't get to Groton, Choate, or any of the other deep pocket schools (Deerfield, Miss Porter's, Mercersberg Academy, etc.), but at least she got a taste, and if she feels up to applying, well, that's good.
I'm exhausted (sorry, Innana, but I am), recovering from the black death, or the worst cold I've had in a while, and about to collapse. Before I do that, CookieDear, I owe you an email and a phone call or three, and I'm thinking about you. Do call this weekend. Big hug. Don't do anything rash. Really, do feel free to call. Innana and I are both thinking of you.
My second vacation of the summer (I have one more, and I'm actually dreading it) just ended. I'm back from a trip to FoilMormor's with TG, DG, and NIQ in tow. LOS and NSLOS and LOS's dear husband (DH) also showed up. It was a great trip. I have more bug bites than any human being should have (New England summer weather), and a cold I haven't been able to shake for five days, but otherwise, all is well.
NIQ liked (as far as I can tell) New England and really liked FoilMormor. She was intimidated by Andover, Exeter, and St. Paul's, but really, that just shows she has a smidge of common sense. We didn't get to Groton, Choate, or any of the other deep pocket schools (Deerfield, Miss Porter's, Mercersberg Academy, etc.), but at least she got a taste, and if she feels up to applying, well, that's good.
I'm exhausted (sorry, Innana, but I am), recovering from the black death, or the worst cold I've had in a while, and about to collapse. Before I do that, CookieDear, I owe you an email and a phone call or three, and I'm thinking about you. Do call this weekend. Big hug. Don't do anything rash. Really, do feel free to call. Innana and I are both thinking of you.
August 8, 2009
Test Subject Zero
One of my volunteer activities is giving platelets or blood. I also occasionally do volunteer or reimbursed teaching (volunteer: Sunday school Bible as literature class; for $$: knitting), but I never do committee work or fundraising. I end up wanting to maim someone. So I've got a new volunteer tack that allows others to maim me.
Yes, I volunteer for the occasional medical experiment. I only pick issues that interest me (depression, ADHD, vaccines, insomnia) and where my personal frailties such as they are will add to the study (although I'm being a health test subject in my current study). This is all made easier by living quite close to a teaching hospital that has a more than adequate reimbursement policy (about $50 to $100/hr).
Most of my fellow volunteers are a good bit younger than I am, and I get the feeling I'll be able to do good and make money (if they're paying me, why do they call me a volunteer?) because when they need an over-40 demographic, it's much harder to find a non-excluded test subject (most people are taking medicines or have conditions or bad habits that exclude them). I like the idea that people are learning even as I get medical treatment I would otherwise need (I had a physical that was not only free of charge, I got paid $100).
I'm afraid I'm going to skew the test results, though. I don't have negative reactions to ANY medications, and it takes a fairly high dose of anything to get my attention. I was talking to the treating nurse about my complete lack of reactions to a vaccine, and she told me I'm just not hypervigilant about my health, which is apparently a good thing. Lots of volunteers notice every little everything ("I sneezed at 4:43 p.m. At 6:05 I noticed a slight rash on the vaccine area, 2mm in circumference."). I inferred that most volunteers are the kind of people who have lists of which laundry detergents are too strong for their sensitive skin. So they need me, they really need me. I have the hide of a rhinoceros. The only thing I've ever had a bad reaction to was poison ivy.
Now, I do draw the line: no spinal taps, no student exams, nothing more than an injection or blood draw. Also, if they can't see me before 8:00 a.m., I'm not in the study. I'm not taking leave from work for this stuff. It's volunteer; it's extracurricular.
But if five years from now all these vaccines are labelled as not producing all the side effects you normally see described, just blame me. I'm fine with it.
Yes, I volunteer for the occasional medical experiment. I only pick issues that interest me (depression, ADHD, vaccines, insomnia) and where my personal frailties such as they are will add to the study (although I'm being a health test subject in my current study). This is all made easier by living quite close to a teaching hospital that has a more than adequate reimbursement policy (about $50 to $100/hr).
Most of my fellow volunteers are a good bit younger than I am, and I get the feeling I'll be able to do good and make money (if they're paying me, why do they call me a volunteer?) because when they need an over-40 demographic, it's much harder to find a non-excluded test subject (most people are taking medicines or have conditions or bad habits that exclude them). I like the idea that people are learning even as I get medical treatment I would otherwise need (I had a physical that was not only free of charge, I got paid $100).
I'm afraid I'm going to skew the test results, though. I don't have negative reactions to ANY medications, and it takes a fairly high dose of anything to get my attention. I was talking to the treating nurse about my complete lack of reactions to a vaccine, and she told me I'm just not hypervigilant about my health, which is apparently a good thing. Lots of volunteers notice every little everything ("I sneezed at 4:43 p.m. At 6:05 I noticed a slight rash on the vaccine area, 2mm in circumference."). I inferred that most volunteers are the kind of people who have lists of which laundry detergents are too strong for their sensitive skin. So they need me, they really need me. I have the hide of a rhinoceros. The only thing I've ever had a bad reaction to was poison ivy.
Now, I do draw the line: no spinal taps, no student exams, nothing more than an injection or blood draw. Also, if they can't see me before 8:00 a.m., I'm not in the study. I'm not taking leave from work for this stuff. It's volunteer; it's extracurricular.
But if five years from now all these vaccines are labelled as not producing all the side effects you normally see described, just blame me. I'm fine with it.
August 7, 2009
Huh? Or More Pool Eavesdropping
I'm really beginning to wonder about the PYTs at my pool. Or, to be more precise, I worry and wonder about young women accepting that their worth is all about how they physically present themselves.
One woman was having a crisis about stained underwear. I just don't get this. No-one sees the darn stuff, and anyone who does see it, just wants it off, one would devoutly hope. No-one cares that you dropped some of your oil-based foundation (ugh, but that's another post) on your bra or panties. Really. You can still wear either. Underwear is by its very nature clothing that can get beat up, torn (as long as the seams hold), snagged, stained, and otherwise messed up without limiting its functionality.
I'm sure I'm missing something, but to the PYT with an underwear crises: any partner, same sex or opposite, who gets to see you in your underwear and has any focus on anything other than your body ain't someone you should be getting intimate with. So the make-up stain will serve as a kick-him-or-her-out-of-bed test. Any comment on the splotch, and the soon-to-be partner becomes a never-to-be partner. See? It's not a crisis. It's an advantage in screening out complete and utter superficial nitwits with low sex drives.
One woman was having a crisis about stained underwear. I just don't get this. No-one sees the darn stuff, and anyone who does see it, just wants it off, one would devoutly hope. No-one cares that you dropped some of your oil-based foundation (ugh, but that's another post) on your bra or panties. Really. You can still wear either. Underwear is by its very nature clothing that can get beat up, torn (as long as the seams hold), snagged, stained, and otherwise messed up without limiting its functionality.
I'm sure I'm missing something, but to the PYT with an underwear crises: any partner, same sex or opposite, who gets to see you in your underwear and has any focus on anything other than your body ain't someone you should be getting intimate with. So the make-up stain will serve as a kick-him-or-her-out-of-bed test. Any comment on the splotch, and the soon-to-be partner becomes a never-to-be partner. See? It's not a crisis. It's an advantage in screening out complete and utter superficial nitwits with low sex drives.
August 5, 2009
Bizarro World Foilverse
Both Guy and PiousMan were religious, both in fairly strict religions. I'm not religious, even if I belong to a church. I've just finished agreeing to go on a first date with a man who seems fairly rational and agnostic or even possibly atheistic (scientist, engineer) who consults at my place of employment. I want to take bets: will DateMan2009 (hereinafter "Plan Nine from Outer Space" or P9OS) turn out to be: (1) Amish, (2) Orthodox Jew, (3) Wahhabi Muslim, (4) Pentocostal, (5) Seventh Day Adventist, (6) Mormon, (7) Not just Catholic, but Opus Dei, (8) Scientologist or Moonie, (9) some extremist sect I haven't thought of, or, heaven forfend, (10) agnostic, atheist, Society of Friends, Unitarian Universalist, or Washington Ethical Society?
I'm betting on anything but (9), which is preferable. I've spoken to this man on numerous occasions and he seems rational -- religion didn't come up, but then, he was just someone who came to my workplace for some courses. Now, he's asking me out on a date (okay, I'm flattered, and thus biased toward him) and I wonder how one gets the questions in about religion, political beliefs, etc. It's not realistic to assume that others have the same beliefs as we have.
Guy and Nguyen were both engineer/scientific types, but that's also a conlict -- I'm rational, but I'm a literary/artistic type. Someone who doesn't read books other than training manuals is a person whose values or interests conflict with me. We'll see if P9OS is from the rational world or from orbit beyond Jupiter (if he turns out to be a creationist, well, I'll just slap his face). That's all.
I'm betting on anything but (9), which is preferable. I've spoken to this man on numerous occasions and he seems rational -- religion didn't come up, but then, he was just someone who came to my workplace for some courses. Now, he's asking me out on a date (okay, I'm flattered, and thus biased toward him) and I wonder how one gets the questions in about religion, political beliefs, etc. It's not realistic to assume that others have the same beliefs as we have.
Guy and Nguyen were both engineer/scientific types, but that's also a conlict -- I'm rational, but I'm a literary/artistic type. Someone who doesn't read books other than training manuals is a person whose values or interests conflict with me. We'll see if P9OS is from the rational world or from orbit beyond Jupiter (if he turns out to be a creationist, well, I'll just slap his face). That's all.
August 1, 2009
Not Exactly a Peeping Tom, But
Today, I spent a fair amount of time at the pool trying to reach that delightful state of exhaustion in my offspring that means bedtime will be toil free. It was.
However, I learned something else at my pool that made me think a bit. Apparently there's a guy in my complex who has an apartment within sight of the pool who uses his binoculars a bit to frequently. I've never noticed him (probably because he's not watching me) but several of the younger, fitter, more scantily clad (I wear a maternal type one piece with a fair amount of support and structure, you know?) women (women wearing bathing suits that look pretty good on them, in other words) were discussing BinocularDude today.
I was watching TG and DG cavort, but I was eavesdropping as is my wont. The younger women in my complex select the lounge chairs at the pool based on which ones arent' within BinocularDude's line of vision. If you sit in one of the chairs he can spot, according to my neighbors, BD will then binocularize you for as long as you sit there. Since his favorite gazing spot turns out to be the lounge chair closest to the shallow end (i.e., my favorite lounge chair, with ease of access to the pool and good sightlines to swimming sprogs), either I'm oblivious or just not babelicious. I'll see you oblivious and raise you comatose, but being unbabelicious to this guy seems like a plus.
The young, attractive women were discussing whether they should write him a note and tell him that there are plenty of pictures of women on the Internet.
Ironically, I'm always scoping out the opposite sex at the pool. That's what pools are partly all about. Scoping out the same sex, too, if that's the 10% to which you belong. But BD clearly doesn't get that casual looking is supposed to be just that: casual. The minute you bring binoculars, telescopes, telephoto lenses, hidden cameras, or just an unwillingness to limit yourself to a casual glance, you've crossed a line.
So BD doesn't creep me out, since I am fortunately not his type (yay middle age!) I do sympathize and empathize with my fellow pool users and wonder if this guy is just off or is he truly wrong. One more key fact about BD: he never uses the pool; he just stands in his window with his creepy binoculars staring for hours at a time.
Actually, the more I think about this, the more I am creeped out. Within 2-3 years, my ten-year old will probably be one of his targets. He'll move before then, or I will. I'm going to study up on totally obnoxious things one can do to a human being within the confines of the law to encourage said human being to take his creeptastic self elsewhere. Any suggestions?
However, I learned something else at my pool that made me think a bit. Apparently there's a guy in my complex who has an apartment within sight of the pool who uses his binoculars a bit to frequently. I've never noticed him (probably because he's not watching me) but several of the younger, fitter, more scantily clad (I wear a maternal type one piece with a fair amount of support and structure, you know?) women (women wearing bathing suits that look pretty good on them, in other words) were discussing BinocularDude today.
I was watching TG and DG cavort, but I was eavesdropping as is my wont. The younger women in my complex select the lounge chairs at the pool based on which ones arent' within BinocularDude's line of vision. If you sit in one of the chairs he can spot, according to my neighbors, BD will then binocularize you for as long as you sit there. Since his favorite gazing spot turns out to be the lounge chair closest to the shallow end (i.e., my favorite lounge chair, with ease of access to the pool and good sightlines to swimming sprogs), either I'm oblivious or just not babelicious. I'll see you oblivious and raise you comatose, but being unbabelicious to this guy seems like a plus.
The young, attractive women were discussing whether they should write him a note and tell him that there are plenty of pictures of women on the Internet.
Ironically, I'm always scoping out the opposite sex at the pool. That's what pools are partly all about. Scoping out the same sex, too, if that's the 10% to which you belong. But BD clearly doesn't get that casual looking is supposed to be just that: casual. The minute you bring binoculars, telescopes, telephoto lenses, hidden cameras, or just an unwillingness to limit yourself to a casual glance, you've crossed a line.
So BD doesn't creep me out, since I am fortunately not his type (yay middle age!) I do sympathize and empathize with my fellow pool users and wonder if this guy is just off or is he truly wrong. One more key fact about BD: he never uses the pool; he just stands in his window with his creepy binoculars staring for hours at a time.
Actually, the more I think about this, the more I am creeped out. Within 2-3 years, my ten-year old will probably be one of his targets. He'll move before then, or I will. I'm going to study up on totally obnoxious things one can do to a human being within the confines of the law to encourage said human being to take his creeptastic self elsewhere. Any suggestions?
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