Time to start over...

It's fall. Officially fall. My favorite season of the year. This time always feels a little rejuvenating to me. Possibly because I am a product of the American school system and fall is always the start of a new school year. And while this is entirely irrelevant, I wish I could call it autumn and not sound all uppity, hoity-toity.

This blog....this blog may have to be a fatality to my 2006 start over. I am going on hiatus here for a while. I just feel like I wish I were actually SAYING something here. Which I'm not. I don't know what this means for the future of the blog but I'll be leaving it for at least a month (I'm forcing that...it'll be tempting to come back here and type the usual drivel. I just don't know if I want that anymore. Maybe after a month I will want that, maybe not. Who knows?).

During that time I promise:

1. There will be buttons. I already made about 10 days worth. I'm not sure when I'm starting with posting them. Possibly 10/15/2006.
2. I will probably mess with the design of this blog. Although with no promise of ever coming back. And if I do come back, with no promise as to what the content will actually be.

I hope you all have fun in the meantime...or in the long term...I wish there were some sort of atheist term for god speed...um...shove off and good luck?

This, my dear readers, is my own personal version of hell.



This morning the three of us (Boku on left, Mona on right - click to enlarge if you'd like) went to the vet. Boku seems to be getting in the carrier just a little bit (ok A LOT) easier than Mona these days. Basically she corners herself in the pantry and I shove her in. I chased Mona around for 15 minutes plus. There was angry yelling (on BOTH of our parts) and some angry tears (on my part only). Eventually, they both ended up in their carriers. I ended up out of breath (that is some work out) and with serious muscle pain in the left arm. Stupid me got a tetanus shot yesterday and am experiencing some muscle soreness.

My vet was observing Ramadan so I saw some weird stand-in vet. He had SO MUCH nose hair and what appeared to be crusting bogeys surrounding his right nostril. He was quite passionate about his job. In the process of the appointment I learned:

• Vet tech and vet taught me how to safely clip their nails. I'm going to buy clippers next time I'm at PetSmart and try it out on Mona. (ha! yeah right for Boku)
• Distemper shots might be causing tumors in cats that get them every year. There was a lot of argument at his last convention (all cats get all shots in the same place - so how can it be blamed on distemper?). Much discussion on whether or not indoor cats need this shot once a year. He thought not. Especially in Mona's case (she had all her kitten shots on time). For Boku...we have no idea if she had her shots as a kitten and she therefore needed a shot this year. One next as well(with Mona). And then they'll be every 3 years.
  
• Boku is a bit older than I was originally told. I thought she was a young Mom, they estimated she was 1 when she had Mona. Mona was 2 in June which puts my Boku estimation at 3. Vet says her teeth show that she is at least 4. Possibly 5.
• Both were well behaved (when you compare them to Allie in her younger years, they were both pure angels). Neither tried to bite. Boku didn't even really try to run.
• Vet decided that even though Boku's file said she was the problem one, she had behaved better than Mona (!!!). So now, Mona is classified as my problem kitty. Ah, Boku. You're almost a socialized cat. Any day now.
• Vet also made me out to be a serious hero for taking Boku. He can't believe she was allowed to stay in the foster organization for as long as she did (almost a year) and believed that if she had been in a Chicago shelter she would have been put down. More than once he praised me for saving her. I must say, it was nice to have an bit of ego inflation
• Boku needs to go back in 3 weeks for a booster shot. I don't know if I'm willing to do it. Seriously. Taking them to the vet is an emotional (and today physical) disaster. I can almost handle every 6 months (but am leaning towards once a year if not every 3). But in 3 weeks? We might not have recovered by then.
• Boku is classified as a fat cat. This means I have to brush her intensely all along her back because she can't bend to clean herself and so is prone to mats. Fatty.

Hope you all have a relaxing and fun weekend. For me the rest of the day involves 50c hot dogs, Battleship, homework and possibly Indian food.

My love affair with the TV...

I watch too much TV - I'm sure you know this about me. You should all be proud because it looks like this year, at nearly 25 years old, I am finally watching almost all "grown-up" shows. As in I think I only have one WB show anymore and that one almost isn't a teen drama anymore. I thought I'd run through the season premieres that I was looking forward to (or still am) and tell you what I thought of them:

House: This show is one I like a lot because it feels just a little smarter than most shows I was watching last season (think Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, OC etc). I think the premiere was good, but I am a little disappointed already (I think we're three episodes in) because I was hoping that there would be some kind of love story-line this season (possibly triangle? House-Cuddy-Cameron?). So I'll file this one in neutral.

The Class: Thought it looked good. I like Jason Ritter. I like that girl that used to be on Related (which I liked as a show A LOT. Damn you CW). The show itself felt sort of stale. Some of the lines/jokes felt like they were not delivered well/ were cardboardy. I can only hope it will get better.

How I Met Your Mother: I wasn't able to watch this show last year for some reason. Wrong day I assume. But I really like it. It is always funny. And I love Freaks and Geeks boy as well as Doogie Howser.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: Think this one has promise. I enjoyed it. I can imagine it fitting in among my favorites. I think I need more time to get attached to characters. But you can't go wrong with Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry - who work really well together. I think maybe Matthew Perry is the "Friend" who makes it after Friends.

America's Next Top Model: Already I think it will be better than last season. Even the twins are interesting to me. Hopefully the photo shoot "themes" aren't too lame, because that can make or break the show. Can't wait for the makeovers!

Grey's Anatomy: SO GOOD. I was afraid, indeed very afraid, that the premiere would not live up to what it could be. But I really enjoyed it and am hopeful for the rest of the season. Possibly my favorite show on television right now.

The Office: Enjoyed it. Would have liked Jim and what's-her-name Jenna Fischer to be together. I didn't watch last season. Or the season before. But I have recently discovered that I do find the show funny. And I heart Jim.

My Name is Earl: I don't know why I have a season pass for this one (oh look at my Tivo speak). I know my sister and her sig-fig love this one. I don't really find the show funny. But eh, I'll keep taping it I guess. I just tried to figure out if sig-fig is actually slang for significant other and didn't find much (I didn't look for long, maybe 10 seconds?). But I did find that my thinking of significant others in this kind of shorthand makes me a sciency geek. Per this blog: "Can I just say that whenever I think "significant other" my mind first thinks "sig fig" as in "significant figures" a la way too many science classes".

ER: Meh. I still watch the show because I love Neela and want her to be with Ray. Some of the stuff sort of bores me. But it was a fairly OK season premiere. Hopefully the whole Sam craziness is done now because that bores me.

Still looking forward to:
Ugly Betty (it's on on Thursdays, but it also shows on Friday evenings on some ABC channel - ABC family I think - so I'll see it next Friday).
Brothers and Sisters - hope this one doesn't disappoint.
Gilmore Girls - Can't wait! My sister told me that the writers for Everwood are now Gilmore's writers, which is very exciting since Everwood was an amazing show. Sad. Will miss it!
Lost - Hopefully no disappointment here either.

Sort of looking forward to: Crossing Jordan, Las Vegas.

Would love to hear any other TV lovers' opinions/disagreements/agreements with my opinions.

P.S. - Guess who's starting to mess with her blog's CSS? That would be me! How do you like my fun with colors? Baby steps....

And in this dream tell us are you satisfied with...

Lately my dreams have been crazy. I don't mean just weird, I mean crazy. Last night Dave Matthews died in my dream. I can remember being distraught and talking with my sister about it (I believe we were both crying). Thinking how I'd never see the band live again and being so upset about it. But then, the sister laid a bombshell on me.

Dave had died in scandalous circumstances. He was shooting some kind of dirty movie and was dressed up like a woman at the time of his death. At this point, the dream morphed into some kind of reality show, involving a very complicated group obstacle course/maze.

Lately I've been thinking about music a lot. I used to live for seeing DMB live. And I can remember (which is shocking) many great shows. After high school the crowds got worse and worse until it has been virtually impossible for me to go to a show and sit on the lawn. Even in the seats inevitably there will be a girl behind you peeing or drunk obnoxious businessmen next to you wooing in the lead up to Warehouse. I HATE those woos.

I haven't been able to listen to Coldplay for at least 6 months. I don't know why. I just CAN'T listen to it. I can't figure out why and I have tried to force myself but to no avail. I feel this way about half of my music right now. Coldplay is probably the worst, I can listen to maybe two of their songs. Dashboard is right behind them, followed by DMB. I am not even really enjoying Death Cab. It all makes listening to the IPod really difficult. Hopefully my distaste for all my music will fade...

Make it stop...

For the past week (at least) I've been feeling seriously crappy for a few hours and then miraculously cured for a few and back again. Last night I went to bed feeling chipper and breathing through two nostrils quite happily and woke up with a clog in one nostril and wetness in the other. I'm sure this is what you want to read about - my bogeys.

But yeah, with my health all over the place so is my mood. Some minutes I'm cranky as a tired toddler and others I couldn't be happier.

This is one of those posts that has absolutely no purpose, but I'm going to put it out there anyway. Cause if you were sick, I'd read about it on your blog.

What I really wanted to say is that I wish I weren't sick so that I could enjoy the weather. I walked out of work this evening and it was chilly and it felt like (and smelled a little like) fall. And I love it!

Health update...

Obviously no news on the pap - that takes a week+.

But instant gratification on my cholesterol. It has quite improved. But someone (I'm going to go ahead and blame George W. Bush) has lowered the acceptable LDL limit (if you don't know what this means, go here). Which means that in terms of what they were comparing my LDL cholesterol to last year (needs to be below 130) I am golden. In terms of this year (needs to be below 100) I am not meeting this limit. I am only really slightly above this limit. So George W. - I blame you for my still sort of slightly high cholesterol. Because before? Before I would have had low cholesterol.

As for my HDL? Looking awesome. You're in a good position healthwise if it's above 40. Anything greater than 65 is a negative predictor for heart disease. Mine is just a tidge greater than 65. Way to go HDL!

And how will my health insurance handle this? We'll have to wait and see (until March...don't hold your breath).

Me + stirrups + a speculum =....

It's that time of year. AGAIN.

I need you all to cross your fingers (or legs - that seems more appropriate) that my womb has behaved. That it has grown like any normal womb (which I picture to be fluffy, velvety layers). That it is no longer wacky.

How about a chant. Nor-mal pap, nor-mal pap, nor-mal pap!

In any case, the goal here is:

1. Be allowed to have a pap smear only every 6 months? Or better yet, only once a year like the rest of you?
2. To have a normal womb so that my health insurance can take the rider off of my policy - no payment for cervical dysplasia. That way, if my womb does eventually go all dysplasic I am covered.
3. To never, ever have a colposcopy again.

And as a side note, let's hope for a normal cholesterol level. Then the cost of my individually purchased health care policy will go down.

Let's have a party...

A pity party.

Do you ever have one of those days where all you want is someone to email you? Right now I feel like I'd be happy if I got an email from one of the many online stores that emails me. But no one is emailing me. Partially my own fault...I mean, it's not like I have a lot (or any?) of emails out there awaiting response.

In the end it all boils down to 2 things:

1. I am bored stiff here at work. I feel like I might not live to see 5:00 because every minute is taking an hour.
2. I am not feeling well. So I am really mopey. Having a grand time pitying myself over here.

And of course, there is the impending doom/boredom of my Thursday night class. I think this class is going to be the one that is so hard to go to. My body will resist every Thursday. The content is similar in boredom to my Monday night class...but my Monday class has something Thursday doesn't: a very cute deaf man. Why does this matter? Because the class is translated for him by two signers (that's not a real term/word is it? sign-speakers? That doesn't make sense either). And, I don't know if everyone has this reaction, but watching sign is mesmerizing.

So yeah, try to ignore me here. I just needed to pity myself a little, get it over with...and now I'm moving on.

Crafting frustration...

With school on, I rarely get as much time as usual to craft. Past crafts include color books and cards. The current craft is a seriously large knitting project (I don't want to tell what it is because there is a small, very slim chance that the recipient of said craft reads this blog). There have been many varied frustrations with the knitting project. At one point I had to unknit about 500 stitches to make a yarn switch look better. I dropped half a stitch at one point and couldn't figure it out. Basically Mary over at the Knitting Workshop has been an invaluable resource.

But tonight, tonight I have a frustration that is not of my making. I am about 20 stitches into a row when all of the sudden my skein produces a knotted piece of yarn. I assume I made a loopy knot (easy to correct). No. Not so. The skein has a knot in it, connecting two cut pieces of string. That is bad business! The skein can't be doing this to me! I'm in shock. I called Mary and left a message...and I'm going to see her on Friday. So frustrating! I'm going to have to waste half a skein with a yarn switch that isn't necessary. And, I can only imagine that Mary or the yarn producers are going to think I cut the yarn accidentally and made the knot myself. Which is annoying.

One of the worst parts is that I can't work on the project anymore tonight - my one night off a week when I have time. I feel like it is NEVER going to be done!

Keeping the doctor away...

Honey crisp apples are in season. My favorite time of year! I have a half-peck of them at home in the fridge. I'm wondering how quickly I have to eat them before they start to go bad...

Around this time of year my apple consumption increases by 100%. I don't eat normal apples. Only Honey Crisp. I was curious what all these apples were doing for my autumnal health. A lot actually. Turns out if I eat 2 apples a day, my cholesterol can go down by as much as 10%. Sad that I didn't know this earlier (my cholesterol test is on Friday). Looks like I'll be chowing two a day for the next 3 days. It can help with digestion - if you feel constipated, go eat an apple. At the same time, it can help with diarrhea (have a bad case? Mix apples with yogurt). And finally, besides all the nutrients and cancer fighting goodness, it can help with a diet. Because of the fiber involved (20% of your daily recommended in one medium apple!) and because it's a filling, 0 calorie (ish) snack. Look at that, you learned something from my blog today! I'd post links to all the places I picked up these facts, but I've already closed out the browsers and I'm too lazy to go find them again.

Go eat an apple. Fresh apples (like mine from Kuipers Family Farm) are better due to no wax. Many (possibly all?) major apple producers wax the apples to make them shine - to entice you, you sucker of a consumer, to buy them. The problem? You're eating wax (which isn't so bad) BUT the wax, in turn, is sealing all those bad pesticides in. So, even if you rinse your apple before eating - still getting a mouthful of pesticide. Or you could be safe and boring and just drink 100% apple juice.

Book Quest ...

Update time. I finished A Passage to India. I definitely didn't hate it. But I really feel lukewarm about it. It took me a long time to even build up slight interest in it. The first third of the book I slogged through slowly. It was a nice story. Enjoyable. But as a whole, it didn't thrill me.

Next up: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Bonus book: My sister just brought me the His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman (which is actually 3 separate books that only count as one) and it turns out I have read them before! I just didn't remember. It was a long time ago (probably when I was in college) but I do remember enjoying them (there is no way I would have read all 3 books if I didn't enjoy them somewhat. At the time I wasn't trying to finish huge lists of supposedly great fiction).

Brings my count to 37 books read, 85 to go.

Those flashing lights come from everywhere...

On the way home from suburbia (long, fulfilling day spent with some old school friends, the dad and the mom), I was hating the driving and loving the view. I hate driving at night because tail-lights do something weird to my eyes. I've heard tale that people with astigmatism have a sort of blurred halo thing that happens with car lights at night, but I only have slight astigmatism. And only in one eye. But I digress. I was listening to a new Justin song, just able to see the city when Justin sang:

She looks like a model, except she's got a little more ass.

A bit lame, yes? But my first thought was: how Chicago does look like a model and I bet if you measured all the asses in Chicago, the average ass of Chicago would be big. Yes, I thought that.

The view of Chicago tonight from 290 (the Eisenhower, right?) was amazing. Breathtaking. All I could think is that I love this city. I always slow down a bit closer to the city because I just drink in the view. I've talked about it before, how it makes my heart swell up. How I love the sight of the city at night. Tonight the sky was grey but wonderfully clear. And as I got closer and the city got bigger and more heart-filling, a certain part of that Justin song came on, minute 4:40. And it was perfect. And eventually the words were:

Those flashing lights go from everywhere
The way they hit it I just stop and stare
She's got me lovestoned
I think I'm lovestoned
She's got me lovestoned
I think that she knows, I think that she knows...

And silly me, I had a moment with this song. Thinking about how Chicago has me lovestoned.

Go here (possibly eventual relocation of this blog? No idea yet) to hear the song.

Today...

Professor explaining features of an editor: "It's like, come to daddy! Come play with it!"

And yes, he says everything with an exclamation point; no, English is NOT his first language; yes, he did realize he had said something sort of dirty. Next: "I didn't mean to sound like that! (giggle, giggle)."

He may be my new favorite professor (as if I even had one before) because he is silly, he seems really enthusiastic and made time go quickly and most importantly he let us out early. Which means I am currently watching Project Runway ALMOST in real time (slight delay). Sad though that there are no more Project Runway nights with the sister.

From Amazon at 8:00 am this morning: Your order has been delayed. Shipment expected between Sept 13 - 22. (was supposed to be shipped today).

Me, this morning sometime: Um, why is my shipment delayed? Please break it into smaller shipments if you can.

Amazon at 1:45 this afternoon: Your order has been shipped!

Note: they shipped all 6 items today...so what the hell was the original delay?? What the hell? They were just seeing if they could get away with delaying it for shits and giggles?

School...

I'm gearing up to start back to school tomorrow. I know I wasn't really on a summer vacation because I did take a class, but fall is different. Fall always feels like a new start.

For some reason the 3 quarters that I have been in grad school I have felt weirdly excited to start my classes. I always think, Yeah! This class sounds great! I never remember feeling this way in college. Sadly, the past 2 quarters were a disappointment - the classes were informative but boring. But this one...I think there might be an exciting class here. For real this time! Because strangely, I find this site really, really interesting (look at the right side-bar, the examples pages. Really good stuff) - and according to my professor, this is just a lead-in. Our first class is going over this stuff and then we're into ASP.net. So yes, for this 3rd quarter I am once again, excited. But I have high hopes that it is true this time!

Either way, even if the class is boring that site our professor provided already made the class worth it. A great resource!

Seriously?

I don't know where people find this blog or what kind of person you have to be to comment on someone's blog and say the following:

where to begin. manmeat? you are trying so hard NOT to be a lesbian it hurts. screech.

my favorite is you not remembering if you listened to screech's cd 2 OR 3 times. who confuses 2 and 3??? I know - idiots on "Cops" that can't remember whether they had two or three DUIs.

But I do know that this is MY blog - and so these comments will be deleted. And, what is truly hilarious is that this anonymous commenter who so clearly hated my blog the first time they came, came back again. If you hated it, why'd you come back?

Let's address this comment: You are right, I'm a lesbian because I find Justin Timberlake sexy - and somehow my use of the term man-meat shows this also? I also must be like an idiot on cops because I didn't keep track of how many times I listened to the CD at work. Since listening to Justin Timberlake's CD is just as memorable as being arrested for drunk driving. Very obvious assumptions you're making here (read: sarcasm).

I'm now going to moderate my comments. So, sure you can still tell me you hate me anonymous, but at least other people won't have to read it. And I just HATE that people can be this rude. I truly do not know how this person can feel good about leaving these comments - it's so petty and small to "attack" someone you don't know. It boggles.

My sister was pretty horrified by the first comment, but I said, well, everyone doesn't have to like this blog, that's fine, I'll leave it, it's sort of funny. But now it's clear this commenter is a bully, that's the best term I can think of, and is going to continue commenting in a negative fashion. So commenter, you hate this blog - you're not welcome here, GO AWAY.

It's stuff like this that makes me question this blogging thing.