The Baby Boom!

It seems that most of my friends have been divided into two camps: the mothers of young ones, and the childless (or, have children that are of High School age).

It hit me yesterday that I am starting to miss the old times.  The times before bedtimes, bath times and family time.  Unfortunately, we can't turn back the clock.  I have to accept that things change.

Now, I'm not anti-child.  If you have children because that's what you want and desire.  Wonderful!  Mazel Tov!  If you are pregnant and that's not where you want to be.. let me know how I can help resolve that situation.  I'm not judging.

I appreciate the invites to the large family gatherings, the birthday parties, the baby showers.  But please don't be offended if I leave early, or politely decline.  Large groups of small children send me into panic attacks.  (Actually, I'm amazed that I'm as composed as I am around my BFF's toddler, considering I had a panic attack before her baby shower).  I really appreciate it when I'm asked if I mind the child be brought along for shopping trips.  I love that it's not assumed.

I'm feeling nostalgic and sad today.  I'll get better.  Maybe I'll see if the girls want to go out for drinks.  So I can get over myself and my over-active imagination.

God vs. Gay?

Last night we attended a lecture by author Jay Michaelson, about his book God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality.

It was fascinating.  It also reinforced some of my own beliefs, mainly that the bible an be interpreted in many, many ways.  The same verses may have different meanings depending on context, historical events, translations or the reader's own agenda and can we please stop beating people over the head with them.

That got me thinking.  What are my views on all of this?

1.) Most of the absolutes that we take for granted in the Bible, like "thou shall not kill," aren't that absolute.  War and justifiable homicide are mentioned right after those commandments are laid out.  We know that the bible contradicts itself all over the place.

2.) The bible is a translation of a translation.  It's also an anthology.  It's historical fact that King James bible wasn't translated to be correct.  "James gave the translators instructions intended to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy."  The translation had an agenda.

3.) I can't accept a God that would want gay people to live without fuffilling committed relationships.  I won't accept it.  I don't want anything to do with a God that's more like a strict school Headmaster than a loving parent.

4.) And Jesus.  You know, Jesus said not one thing about gay people. As Eddie Izzard said: “‘Cause Jesus I do think did exist, and he was, I think, a guy who had interesting ideas in the Gandhi-type area, in the Nelson Mandela-type area, you know, relaxed and groovy..."

Do I consider myself a Christian?  Not really.  I refuse to associate myself with the vocal group.  The ones that get all the press.  I believe in a higher power.  I believe that Jesus had some really good ideas.  I also believe that too few are living up to them.  The two I wish everyone would live up to:

Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

Matthew 7:12 "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."

I know I've said this before.  But I think it bears repeating.

Really? a 30 day waiting period?

I had a consultation with a new doctor about getting my tubes tied.  Yes people, I have decided that I shall have no genetic offspring.  I decided on the surgery option, instead of the Essure option.  (It's not recommended for women that haven't had kids)

I had to sign paperwork, that acknowledges that I will be sterile, and it's not reversible.  The doctor laughed at my "are you serious?" face.  Apparently the state wants me to be REALLY sure that I want this one.  Hell yes I'm really sure!  I've been wanting this for a few years.

So now we're looking at an after commencement scenario.  (I work at a college, you know.  I'll be REALLY busy until commencement)  I'll also be looking for someone to bring me home from the hospital.  My mom's offered to come down for the weekend.

I'm nervous about this, not about the becoming sterile, but about the surgery part.  But I'm ready.

I'm just a girl who can't say no...

This weekend I loaded the last bits of my teaching career into my car to take to my friend's house.  On the way out, my nosy neighbors stopped me to ask what I had.

Somehow in that conversation I agreed to tutor their 11 year old.  I told her that I'd come by today at 6, because honestly today is the only day this week I have free.

What was I thinking??  I can't tutor!  I don't want to!  I want to have my nights free.  I especially don't want to tutor for someone that can't pay.

*sigh*  Tonight I put on my big girl pants and tell them that after consideration, I can't tutor.

I should have said no in the first place.

I'm SO over this being sick thing!!

Seriously!

So, I took myself to the doctor yesterday.  Something inside of me is infected.  They don't know what.  It's not my ears, or throat or sinuses.  We all doubt it's my teeth, since my teeth don't hurt.  But it's the glands in my neck, and under my jaw that are swollen and tender.

Sigh.....

I'm again on a pretty powerful antibiotic.  You know, the kind that kill all the bacteria (good, bad, indifferent).

This all leave me wondering 2 things:

1. What weird illness will April bring?
2. Will we need to hire Dr. House?

All too soon, it was Monday again.

My weekend was fun, busy and way too short. Saturday morning we ventured to Norfolk to go to the zoo. The zoo isn't huge, but it's nice. We went to a party later on that evening.

The interesting part of the weekend happened on Sunday. I woke up just not feeling well. No, I wasn't hung over. I didn't drink the night before. We went grocery shopping and settled into the house for the day.

It was then that I discovered why I wasn't feeling all that hot. The lymph node and other assorted things on the right side of my neck (just under my jaw) were all swollen and painful. Why? I have no idea. I know things like that generally swell when your body is fighting something.. so I'm taking it easy. Need to help my body do what it needs to do.

Today I'm going to work from home (don't want to spread whatever I have), and rest. And pray that it helps. I don't want to go to the doctor again!

I'm not ready for summer yet.

The temperature today is supposed to be 84.  Seriously!  84!!

We had yet another department breakfast that left me scrambling and running around.  It's very hard to dress to impress when you're melting from the humidity.  And all before 10am.

Yesterday was my Weight Watchers meeting.  I lost a little over a pound, which is my weekly goal.  But it made me a little sad.

My total weight loss, according to the WW people is 9.4 pounds.  That's not too shabby, but considering that I was up to 16 pounds before I had the asthma attack from hell, and was put on Prednisone.. it makes me a little sad.

But it's ok.  I know that the weight gain wasn't due to me hugely falling off the wagon.  It's mainly the drugs fault.  So I carry on.  I walk where I can (especially on campus).  I keep trying to portion my food, and eat smartly.  I know that people love me just the way I am... but my doctors will love me more when I'm healthier.

Smash Review: Chemistry

Right off the bat, let me tell you that Ivy's reaction to the Prednisone isn't an exaggeration.  The insomnia, the paranoia, the weight gain.  Super fun, let me tell you.  It works like a dream, but you go through hell to get there.

Karen is awfully lucky.  We all know it.  We also know she's sweet and innocent.  I wonder how long before the bloom is off that rose....

What does Ellis have planned????  Seriously, the guy is slimy!

And Julia... Put your pants back on, tell Michael to put his on, and both of you just stop!!

Next week is the Workshop... I'm dying to see what happens!

Spring Cleaning: Day 2

At the end of yesterday, the only thing that I had left to do was laundry. Now, we have a lot of laundry. Most of it is sheets. I have a bad habit of leaving the sheets and towels for last.

But seriously, I'm damn proud of myself. I should have the living room company worthy by Sunday. I hate housework, so this is an accomplishment!!

Unfortunately the computer room will take another day, and help. I'll take a day off next month and get that done.

Onward and upward. I'm going to reorganize the linen closet, do some work shopping then to conquer Mt. Washmore.

Spring Cleaning!!

I took the day off of work today so I could get some things done.  And man, did I.

It's not even 1pm and I've already:

• Hand washed the dishes I've been putting off hand washing
• Cleaned the grimy dish drying rack.
• Scrubbed out the tub (yay for the sewer backing up into the tub yesterday.... ick...)
• cleaned my grill pan
• picked up some groceries (including Dawn Power Dissolver.. which is bringing you today's cleaning frenzy)

I'm going to rest for a bit and get back to work.  I still have to sort and put away the clean laundry.  The washing of the other laundry might wait until tomorrow.

I also need to prep dinner.  I'm trying something new!  A Greek inspired turkey burger and grilled potatoes.  If it turns out well, I'll post the recipe!

The First Amendment

I've been doing a lot of thinking on this, the beginning of the Bill of Rights.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

It’s the first two parts of the amendment that have been getting the most press recently.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

People have forgotten the background of this.  Before this country was a country, England had one religion.  The Church of England.  Remember the Pilgrims?  They left the country because the state said they had to join the state church.  (Once they had their own colony, they then threw out people who didn’t believe as they did, like Anne Hutchinson.)

On a recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg, we visited the Colonial Capitol.  The piece of business that was being “debated” while we were there was the Virginia Declaration of Rights.  There too was the topic of freedom of religion discussed.  Before independence, only landowners that belonged to the Church of England could vote.  Catholics and other non-protestant types weren’t even allowed to live there.

Between the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and eventually the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, our right to freely practice religion has been stated.   But lately people are trying to twist historical fact to their own ends.  This was never a “Christian” country.  Religion had very little to do with it, except for the fact that most of the people were Christian.

Now we have people like Rick Santorium that wants to make the country more Christian by passing laws based on Christian beliefs.  Well, that’s all well and good, except for the very first line in the Bill of Rights, which was interperated to mean:

“In the Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v.Grumet, 512 U.S. 687 (1994), Justice David Souter, writing for the majority, concluded that "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion."

Since the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of law, the country is forced to follow those rules.  That means, Mr. Santorum, that if we pass Christian Laws, we also must pass those darn Muslim Shira Laws, and Judaic Laws.  You can’t have it both ways.

“…or abridging the freedom of speech…”

This Is best expressed, these days, by Rush Limbaugh.  What he’s said recently is awful.  It’s vulgar (on par with Howard Stern, another guy who grates on Freedom of Speech).  But it’s legal.  He’s allowed to say that crap.  We’re also allowed to say that we think he’s full of shit.  His sponsors are also free to decide that they think he’s gone too far and leave.

I don’t have anything much more to say on this today.  I’m going to have the fictional President Andrew Shepard say it for me:

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free"

Making Choices

As an elementary school teacher, I asked children all the time if they "made a good choice, or a bad choice" when doing something they shouldn't.  Well, we all make choices every day.  Today, I chose to take my lunch to work.

Lately I'm absolutely ravenous by the time noon rolls around.  This means that next week I have to be proactive in my lunch choices.  I know this.  I'll make sure to have a vegetable side or some fruit to bring for lunch.

I even made a wonderful choice forgoing chocolate and chips for apple slices and yogurt.

Every choice adds up.  Even the choice to lose weight.

I had some well-meaning friends tell me that I was perfect just they was I am.  And while most people and Bruno Mars agree, I tend to disagree.  I'm simply not healthy.

• I have high blood pressure (heavily influenced by family history)
• I have high cholesterol (as does my mom)
• Most of my dad's side of the family are diabetic.

Those are three wonderful reasons to drop twenty pounds.  Actually, fourth is my goal.

I also have this KILLER size 8 skirt I want to fit in again...

I'm choosing to get healthy.  

Back to Weight Watchers

I attended my first meeting last night.  The first since July, when my vouchers ran out.  Surprisingly, I only gained a pound since then, even with all the medical crap going on.

This week's Weight Watchers topic is portion control.  I don't exercise much of this myself, and I need to.  In my mind, one of the easiest things to do is to use smaller plates.  I say, make them fancy!  I have a set of 4 coffee themed dessert plates at home.  But I want more!  And I found them at Target.com!

These plates are cute, but out of stock!

These are cute and wine themed!

More coffee themed plates.

Cheese themed plates to go with the wine.

Wine AND Cheese themed!

And even Paris themed ones!

I'm spring cleaning this week, and one of the things I want to do is to put my smaller plates closer to the big ones.  So I use them more.

Wish me luck!

Recap: Switched at Birth: "Game On."

I caught this one last night.  I couldn't sleep.  And honestly the episode didn't help either.

• It's the big game.  Daphne and the Deaf school are playing Buckner and Simone the bitch for the championship.  I can totally understand how Daphne is a role model, but man, she's 16.  That's a lot of pressure.
• Poor Bay was put in the middle a few times.  She loves Emmett, and seeing him in that place worries her so.  But Melody asking for her to testify?  Crossing the line.  then she saw the mountain of pot.  Seriously, how was this a surprise?  There was a bong in the living room!  But I think she did the right thing by going to Emmett's dad.  And Emmett's dad getting over himself and doing the right thing?  Bravo.  Now if we can only convince Emmett that it's the right thing.
• Speaking of Emmett, and his HUGE mistake with Simone, the manipulative bitch.  Wow... Bay is going to explode when she finds out.

But all in all, I was pleased!

Smash ReCap: Let's Be Bad

The more I see of Ivy, the more I'm convinced that her bitchiness is a defense against the insecurity.  I also fear that she's going a little too method and actually turning into Marylin...

Karen, on the other hand, was just starting to fit in.  She was keeping her head down.  Then Derek asks her to step into the spotlight.  Yeah, I would have balked too.

Julia... oh Julia... you screwed up BIG time.  Seriously.

Next week seems to be pretty interesting!

it's Monday... and it's snowing

Today started off in typical fashion.  I managed not to spill coffee on myself or to burn oatmeal to the pan (it happens more than you'd think).

But the weather report gave me pause.  Snow.  I shit you not, snow in March.  In Virginia.  I had to hunt up a sweater this morning and everything.  Thankfully I did, because Facilities Management have the AC on.  It's 40 outside.  A trip for a warm beverage might be in my future.

But that being said, it was an incredibly long weekend, and I'm very tired.  Ihe weather isn't helping either.  It's a curl up on the sofa sort of day.

This week is going to be busy.  I have my first Weight Watchers meeting, a birthday party, choir practice and my house desperately needs cleaning.

But now, I need to survive Monday.

I need a vacation from my weekend

Sometimes, thanks to too little sleep, a crappy diet, and high energy, emotional human interactions, conferences can become stressful.

So after a day and a half, I'm completely broken. Of course, that meant I broke down into tears. This is not surprising. I cry when I'm happy, sad, angry, frustrated or upset. Seriously, at times I wonder when WON'T I cry?

But anyways, I'm home for the night. Pizza, wine and time with my other boyfriends, Ben and Jerry, are in order.

A new month, and a new determination

It's March 1st.  Payday has come and gone.  Test results have come in.

So I signed back up for Weight Watchers.  It helped me before, hopefully it'll help me again.  Between that and actually having the energy to exercise, it'll help.

I also checked off a big cleaning project from my to do list.  I need to sit down with my calendar and set due dates for the other big cleaning projects.  It's stuff that needs to get done that I keep putting off. (Scrubbing the tub, taking clothes to GoodWill, sorting through the closet and getting more clothes for donation)

Unfortunately none of that is happening this weekend.  I'm busy ALL weekend.