Category Archives: Huh?

Wanted: Christmas spirit (sorely lacking)

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WTF. This is what happens when I start blogging again – I cook along at a good pace, and then a month (or more!) goes by and I don’t update, then I feel guilty. Well at least it feeds my neuroses.

I’ve been hella busy. I got put on a new project at work for a few months, plus I’ve been trying to finish all the Christmas crochet and shopping. I finally shipped off presents to my side of the family this week. Gave the present I made for my manager to her. Almost finished with what I’m making for my bestie. Once that’s done, I just need to wrap the stuff for Hubby and Bean.

I made an executive decision this year not to send any Christmas cards. I think it’s a tradition that’s just about run its course. I kept at it for soooo long but I think I’ve finally tired of it. So sue me!

We haven’t put up the Christmas tree or any decorations at all and I just can’t seem to muster any enthusiasm for it. Maybe we’ll put the tree up this weekend. Bean has informed me that she “knows the truth” about Santa Claus, which is kind of a relief. But I promised her we’d still surprise her on Christmas morning. She’s growing up so fast it makes me feel older than old.

Speaking of feeling old, the plans to have my spleen removed are off. Instead I’m going to see an interventional radiologist, I just don’t know when or exactly what they’re going to do. But anything is better than surgery and giving up my spleen I suppose.

Full post about completed projects coming soon – I have a ton of them! Until then, happy holidays!

fillion-disapproval

Categories of Strange Dreams

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Do you dream? I dream often and vividly. In fact, I sometimes scream, yell, laugh and cry in my sleep. I have never gotten up and walked around, though…at least not yet.

Frequent Dream Categories

Back to School:

– I sign up for a (college) course, forget to attend, and then it’s the day of the final.
– I go back to school to get another master’s or a PhD, and as I’m moving my stuff into my apartment in Bowling Green (for some reason I always go back to BGSU), I start to remember that I have a job, and a kid, and a bunch of other stuff.
– I am going to high school and I can’t find my locker (never happened IRL).
– I am going to high school and can’t get my locker open (happened frequently IRL).
– I’m back in college and can’t find my dorm room/my mailbox/the showers/whatever.

Bathroom Blues:

– I need to pee and can’t find a bathroom, or all the bathrooms I find have filthy and/or non-functioning toilets.
– I need to take a shower and can’t find the showers (seems like a dorm type setting, or possibly a health club).
– I go to the restroom and the dividers are all so low that you can see everyone from the neck up when they’re sitting on the toilet.
– I’m visiting someone’s home and inadvertently break or somehow screw up their toilet, shower, plumbing, etc.
– I’m back in my childhood home trying to use the bathroom, but the lights won’t come on, or the lights are very dim.

Personal Trauma:

– Some or all of my teeth fall out.
– Someone stabs me.
– Something is wrong with my legs and I can’t stand up straight/can’t walk/can’t run/etc.

Weird Nostalgia:

– I’m back in my grandparents’ home on the East Side of Cleveland (I haven’t been in this house in more than 20 years, but it’s still very vivid in my memory).
– I’m back in elementary school.
– I’m back in my childhood home.

Strange Discoveries:

– I move into a new house and find that it’s falling apart inside.
– I go into the basement of my childhood home and find an entrance to a series of tunnels that lead to some deep, cavernous lost city (very Lovecraftian).
– I’m living in a house I used to rent in Columbus, and I find a secret passage (this almost sort of happened IRL).
What do YOU dream about?

Really? REALLY?

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I had to un-friend someone on Facebook today. Then I had to block him. I don’t like having to do stuff like that, but there’s no room for ignorance and hatred in my life, and it all started because this person became a born-again Christian.

I have nothing against Christians, born-again or otherwise. If it makes you happy, brings you comfort, or helps you make sense of the world, then bully for you. Just don’t try to force your religion on me or anyone else (obviously), and we’ll get along fine. So when this friend started posting frequent updates mentioning “Praise Jesus” or whatever, I kind of smiled and didn’t think about them too much. I usually look at religiosity like that as a sort of hobby – some people are into things like knitting, and post lots of updates about their knitting projects, and some people are into their church, and that’s what their updates are usually about. Fine, whatever.

Then today, this dude posts this long diatribe about the “two evils” that are currently vying to “destroy our society.” Can you guess what the two big, scary evils were? I bet you can. They were: Islam, and “the homosexual agenda.” I don’t like to think about it in detail, because it just makes me want to pour some bleach in my ear to wash my brain, but basically the premise was: “Islam is not just a religion, it’s a movement to destroy the world, and also, gays = gross and why are they everywhere in our faces with their icky gayness?”

News flash, religious and non-religious people alike: it’s not OK to hate on a whole group of people because their religion is different from yours, or their sexuality is different from yours, any more than it’s OK to hate on a group of people because their skin color/race/sex/job/hobbies/political affiliation/whatever is different than yours. Why is this so hard for you to understand?

By the way, it is very hard for me to write about this in a calm manner, without using profanity, and that’s why I un-friended and blocked that former friend on Facebook. I have enough stress in my life without dealing with that sort of ignorant, obnoxious hate-mongering. It’s useless to try to argue with a person like that, because he’s made up his mind, and isn’t thinking rationally anyway. I guess that’s the negative side of religion – when it makes people become irrational. I’m not religious now, but I was raised Catholic, and I read plenty of the New Testament growing up. I’m pretty sure Jesus’s whole thing was “love one another,” and he was the guy who was always respecting the folks who didn’t get any respect (prostitutes, lepers, beggars). Why can’t some of these people who claim to love Jesus so much practice what he preached?

Merry Christmas and All That!

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No, I haven’t updated in a long time. As usual, plenty of things to write about, but no time or motivation to write about them. In fact, I’m thinking about giving up the blogging thing all together. But perhaps I’ll feel differently after the holidays are over.

In any case – Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year to the two or three of you who actually read this. The Dude abides!

And then, I *EXPLODED*!

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No, not really. But listen — some weird, unexpected stuff happened to me recently. I went to urgent care with chest pains and shortness of breath, and ended up admitted to the hospital for three days with bilateral pulmonary embolism. That’s fancy medical-speak for “several blood clots in both my lungs.”

How the hell did that happen? WHY did that happen? We’re not sure, but the doctors I’ve spoken with all suspect two things:

1. They think I have a genetic clotting disorder which will require some additional testing in the future to determine

2. I was on the birth control pill, which causes more women than I imagined to get blood clots

So I’m off the Pill for good, and taking blood thinners for the next six months, while I recover.

Being in the hospital was awful — boring, uncomfortable, impossible to get a good night’s sleep, and I missed the Bean like crazy. On the plus side, the hospital didn’t care if you used your cell phone and they had free wi-fi everywhere. So, armed with my iPhone and my iPad, I was pretty well able to amuse and entertain myself.

Happy to be home, though.

Follow-up on previous matters: congratulations to Lori, the only person to leave a comment on my Shutterfly giveaway post. She won the codes for free photo cards. I already got my cards back from Shutterfly and they look GREAT. I’m really happy I decided to do it this year – the hassle of working with a petulant model (see below) was totally worth it.