Where’s Mommy’s Prozac?

Because I’m feeling waaaayyyy too L.A.Z.Y. and tired to come up with a theme for this week’s Thursday Thirteen, we’re just going to go the random route. So, in no particular order, here are some of my rambling thoughts:

1. I took Little Diva to the doctor yesterday to get a tetnus shot for school. The child was absolutely terrified. I know that nobody likes getting shots, but this kid takes it to the extreme. She is such a drama queen! Case in point: She brought her friend along for moral support, along with a 3′ high yellow Care Bear (Sunshine Bear) and her iPod. She wanted to bring along an ice pack to numb her arm before the shot, but I wouldn’t let her. We got into the exam room and found out that she doesn’t just need one shot, she needs THREE shots. My 15 year old who acts like she’s all grown up sometimes and doesn’t need me anymore, was sobbing in my arms. “I can’t dooooooo it, Mom! I can’t doooooo it!” She was bordering on hysteria. No kidding. The nurse knew how freaked out she was, so she brought in another nurse and they tag-teamed her. One shot on one side, two on the other, all at (relatively) the same time. After the shots, she yelled “Is it done?! Is it over?!” (which, incidentally, is the exact same thing I said when I gave birth to her - LOL) and everything was fine. She admitted later that it didn’t hurt as bad as she thought it was going to. I think the actual stress leading up to the event was worse that the actual shots.
2. They have a lot of new shots out that kids/teens today are supposed to be getting. We knew she needed her tetnus shot, but there is also a chicken pox booster and a menengitis vaccine that they are highly recommending now. They were also pushing the Guardisil (HPV prevention) shot, but I said no to that one. We can talk about that one later…
3. I had to stay up last night to submit an order for Home Interiors for a sale that started at 12:01 a.m. this morning. (That was when they started accepting the orders for their big 70% off sale.) It was SO FRUSTRATING because apparently a thousand other counsultants were at their computers at the stroke of midnight to submit their orders also. The website kept shutting down and taking forever to reload. When I first tried to submit my order, everything I wanted was in stock. By the time I actually got to submit the order (at 2:03 a.m.) some of the stuff was out of stock already. Like I said - so frustrating! I had to send out some emails this morning telling people that the things they wanted were out of stock. No fun. At least I hadn’t collected any money yet, so I didn’t have to deal with refunds or anything.
4. Yesterday was also the day that HI comes out with their Wednesday Specials so I put another order in for that stuff. I have a CRAPLOAD of Home Interiors being delivered to my house - some of it will arrive tomorrow and the rest will arrive next Friday. I like doing this and I love the extra money, but it really is a lot of work sorting through everything when it comes in and delivering the merchandise.
5. Someone was a royal BITCH to me today, but I won’t go into that on here. Why oh why do some people feel the need to be right all the time? Whatthefuckever.
6. As a result of my late night (early morning, actually) computer antics, I am SO. FRIGGIN. TIRED. today. I seriously think I have been tired every day this week.
7. Rebel Girl has been making me crazy with her lack of responsibility about college. She called me the other day about her tuition notice that she got in the mail. I called up to the college to ask them some questions and get some more information and they couldn’t release any information about her classes to me. Why? Because of privacy laws. Nevermind that *I’m* the one paying for college, they can’t even tell me if she is scheduled for daytime or evening classes or how much her books are. RG is pissing me off, too, because she needs to get some things done before school starts that she hasn’t done yet - drug test, physical, TB test, etc. (she is taking medical-related classes and will have clinicals). She hasn’t taken care of any of this. Hell, she doesn’t even know when the first day of school is.
8. LD is at Six Flags again today. She is really getting her money’s worth outta that season pass, letmetellyou. She has been there 10 times since she got her pass and tonight will be her second concert there. Tonight is Natasha Bettingfield and a few weeks ago she saw Gavin Degraw. (FYI - I don’t know if I spelled those names right and I’m too tired to go look them up.)
9. I am taking LD to get her learner’s permit soon and I’m really not looking forward to teaching her how to drive. I have a feeling I’m going to be one of those parents who is slamming their foot into the imaginary brake on the passenger side. *sigh*
10. Here is an actual question from the sample test:

    If you miss your exit from an interstate expressway:
    (a) stop in any lane of the highway
    (b) get off at the next exit and come back to the exit you missed
    (c) roll down your window and ask the driver next to you for help
    (d) back up on the highway

    (The correct answer is (b) obviously. If you got that wrong, please stay off the road when I’m out driving around - LOL.) I can see it now… Ooops! I missed my exit. Darn! Here, let me just throw the car in reverse and back up…

11. On tonight’s agenda: Go home and chill out. I haven’t been to work out at all this week since my side is still hurting a little bit. Hopefully next week I will be feeling better, the pain will be all gone and I won’t be hopelessly tired anymore.
12. I am in the middle of reading “Jesus Land” by Julie Scheeres and I have to finish it tonight because I accidentally posted it on PBS and it’s on somebody’s wishlist and they have now requested the book. My mistake … I only meant to add it to my online bookshelf, not actually post the book - D’OH! If you like memoirs like I do, I would recommend this book to you. This is another book I was kind of hesitant to read at first, thinking that it didn’t sound all that interesting. I picked it up the other night and now I can’t put it down… it is SO GOOD. It’s about a girl growing up in the 80’s (and boy, can I relate to THAT!) and her adopted brother, David, who happens to be black. Their parents are a couple of religious freaks and the kids (who are just doing mostly typical teenage stuff) eventually get sent to a religious reform school in the Dominican Republic. I am going to try to finish this tonight so I can mail it out tomorrow.
13. Celena and her family have been on vacation this week in the Smoky Mountains and DAMN am I bored here at work without her. Normally, we are emailing each other constantly all day long and I miss that. [Celena, if you’re reading this, HURRY UP AND GET YOUR ASS BACK TO WORK!] She did get access to the internet at some point and she emailed me some pictures and it looks like she is having a blast with her family
Tags:

I feel like a person wandering around out of “Night of the Living Dead.” Good grief … this tiredness has *GOT* to go away soon… I have a feeling that it has something to do with the muscle relaxer I’m taking for this stupid pain in my side.

Speaking of which… I have a doctor’s appointment scheduled for tomorrow. Actually I have had it scheduled for awhile now, it just happens to come right after my trip to the ER over the weekend, which is a good thing because they always tell you to follow-up with your doctor. I’m going to ask her if she’ll order an ultrasound because I’m still in pain … granted, it’s not nearly as bad as it was on Saturday, but still. I want to know WTF is going on!

LD has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, too, right after mine (our doctors are in the same medical building). She’s getting a tetnus shot and she is absolutely terrified. I keep telling her and telling her that it’s not that bad and that it doesn’t hurt, but she is so freaked out. She will start crying tomorrow. Guaranteed. Afterwards, I have promised her dinner at Pasta House so hopefully that will lighten the mood a bit.

I’m plugging along with my scrapbooking… I got a bunch of clearance stuff at Archivers over the weekend, but I haven’t had a chance to do anything with it yet. I’m really behind on my reading, though. I’ve gotten into the “reading two or more books at once” habit again and so it seems to take longer to actually finish one of them. Right now I’m reading “Change of Heart” by Jodi Picoult. I usually *LOVE* her books but I’m just not feeling the love with this one. It’s kind of hard to get through because it gets into a lot of religious history and some of those chapters drag on. I’m at the tail-end of the book now (will probably finish it tonight) and it is getting a bit more interesting … Basically, the book is about a guy on Death Row who wants to donate his heart after he is executed to the daughter of the woman whose family he killed 11 years earlier.

“Water for Elephants” finally came up on my PBS wishlist and I finished it last week. OMG. This is one of my favorite all-time books and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. As a matter of fact, I finished the book on my lunch hour and I took it down to a coworker and said “You have *GOT* to read this book!” and she said “OMG! I read it about four months ago. Isn’t it wonderful?!” We then talked about the book and the different characters and we both agreed that it’s an unforgetable story. The story is about a traveling circus and is set in the 1930’s when circuses traveled all over the country by train. I had heard everyone raving about it and when I looked up the description I almost didn’t put it on my wish list because it didn’t sound like it would be something I would enjoy. I am *so* glad I read it, though, because it was a great story. I *highly* recommend it.

I have “The Kite Runner” at home on “Mount To-Be-Read” and that’s another book that didn’t sound very appealing to me, but I ordered it because everyone was raving about it. I can’t seem to get myself to actually sit down and read it, though…

I’m also going to do something I rarely do … I’m going to reread a book - “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” I loved it the first time around but it’s one of those books where you could read it more than once and still be entertained.

So many books, so little time…

I had a pretty good weekend considering I spent four+ hours in the ER on Saturday night. The pain started earlier in the day when I was at the mall and it hit me like a ton of bricks… it was in lower right side. Not a good place to be having any kind of pain considering your appendix is in that region. The drive home from the mall was excruciating … no kidding … like 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. Just sitting hurt and I thought I was going to die ever time I had to take my foot off the gas and put it on the brake.

I came home and laid down for awhile, which was painful, too. I couldn’t find a comfortable position and even just resting my hand on that part of my stomach hurt. I told Hubby at one point that if I don’t feel better in an hour, we’re going to the ER. An hour passed without relief so off to the ER we went. Unbelievably the waiting room wasn’t packed, which was a miracle considering that it was Saturday night. I got right in to a room and a nurse saw me right away. The usual tests were run - urine, bloodwork and then I had to drink this orange crap and get a CT scan to rule out appendicitis. That WASN’T it, thank goodness, but probably an ovarian cyst that had burst. It figures… I only have one of my female reproductive parts left - my right ovary. Gah. I got some morphine in my IV for the pain and after a few hours I was sent home with an anti-inflammatory and Vicodin.

So, yeah… not the Saturday night we had planned. We were supposed to go see Dark Knight with SS and his girlfriend. Obviously, that didn’t happen.

Since I’ve turned 40 my back has gone out and my remaining ovary is going crazy. I’m falling part, I tell you!

Yesterday I was feeling better so I was able to go to a family get-together at my sister’s house. My nephew and his wife were in town from Pennsylvania, along with their two kids - a girl, 6 and a boy, 7 months. Oh how I love me some babies. This little guy was absolutely adorable… the hair that he has (there ain’t much of it) is bright red and it sticks straight up. He also has this little chubby cheeks and bright blue eyes. OMG. So freaking adorable. I couldn’t stop kissing those chubby cheekers and that little sweet baby head. By the time I left he was probably thinking “Get this crazy lady away from me!” LOL.

Let’s face it, if I don’t watch myself, I can have a mouth like a sailor. I used to be pretty good, but I’ve gotten worse as my kids have gotten older. I guess I figure that they’ve heard it all before. I sometimes drop the “F-Bomb” myself, but in general I don’t like anybody saying it in my house. Not that my not liking to hear it keeps it from happening, but whatever. So here are some words I use (especially at work) as alternatives to curse words:

1. Son-of-a-biscuit (I also say son-of-a-biscuit-eater, too.)
2. Crikey
3. For the love of biscuits and gravy! (Hmmm… I seem to have an obsession with biscuits, don’t I?)
4. For the love of mashed potatoes
5. God Bless America
6. Dag-Gummit
7. Effin’
8. Freakin’
9. Flippin’
10. Friggin’
11. Crap-On-A-Stick
12. Hells Bells
13. Oh Fudgecicles!
Tags:

• It’s lunchtime and I have Healthy Choice chicken tortilla soup-YUM. I’m also craving a low fat muffin from the coffee shop. Hmmmmm… #
• I got a sh*tload of scrapbooking done over the weekend. I love looking through my albums at my completed pages & feeling accomplishment #
• @Mommy4Cocktails - Minty fresh carpet? #
• @JSpaghetti - Not a morning person…? Me either!!! If I had my way, I’d get to sleep until at least 10:30 am every day. #
• @mattpetty - have fun today at the beach. I {heart} the beach, but unfortunately I live in the Midwest where beaches are hard to come by. #
• On my to do list: Pick up the 142 pictures I printed yesterday at Walgreens! #
• @RexDixon - Cool! You got an iPhone #

I have gotten absolutely pathetic about updating my blog. Too much going on in my real life, I guess…

I hurt my back a few days after I got home from Alabama and have been laid up in bed a lot. I shouldn’t have waited so long to go to the chiropractor… something that could have gone away in a couple of days lasted over a week and a half because I put off calling the chiro for an appointment until I was in agony. Seriously, when I got to her office last Wednesday morning I had been awake all night in horrible pain and I could hardly get out of the car and into her office. After my therapy there, I felt a *little* better. I then went back the next day and felt ok until I heard a pop in my hip when I got out of the car at home. The next day at work, I procured some narcotics from a helpful coworker who has back trouble herself.

This weekend I was mostly pain-free for the first time in a week-and-a-half.

I spent a lot of time this weekend SCRAPBOOKING. LD and I even went to Archivers on Saturday and then stopped by Hobby Lobby where I had a 40% off coupon. I scored lots of stuff, especially in the clearance section of Archivers. Gotta love clearance sections!

There is a HUGE heated debate on a message board that I frequent regarding whether obese people who take up more than one seat on an airplane, thus encroaching on the person’s seat next to them, should have to buy a second seat.

There are many points of view:

(1) Those who think that yes, they should have to purchase an extra seat because they are technically taking up more than one seat and why should someone else have to share their seat with them? After all, the person whose seat is being 1/2 taken up by someone in the seat next to them paid for their seat and the exclusive right to that seat without having to share it with somebody else.

(2) Those who think that making an overweight person who can’t fit into one seat purchase an extra seat at the airport would be embarasssing to said overweight person and is therefore cruel. Besides, what if the plane was full and the overweight person was kicked off the flight because there wasn’t an extra seat available for purchase? Also, how would you determine whether the person needed to purchase an extra seat? Someone said they should have a seat available at the counter (sort of like the carry on thing) and if you can’t fit in that seat with the armrests down, then you need to purchase another seat.

(3) Those who think that ANY person who encroaches into someone else’s space should be required to purchase another seat (i.e., tall people who have to sit with their legs sideways into another person’s seat space, those with big upper body bulk (weightlifters, etc.) who encroach on your shoulder room. Where do you draw the line?

(4) Those who think that airfares should be based on how much you weigh. A certain weight maximum (set by the airline) would be considered a standard ticket. A surcharge would be added to those passengers weighing more than said maximum weight.

(5) Lastly, there are those with the “why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along” mentality. In other words, these people think that if someone is encroaching on the seat that you paid for then you should just suck it up and get over it already and have more compassion for your fellow man.

Currently, Southwest is the only airline who is enforcing the rule, but other airlines are talking about it. Southwest will make you buy two seats if you cannot fit into one seat comfortable with the armrests in the down position. If the flight is not full, they will then refund you the money for the second seat.

I am of the position that if someone is too big to fit into an airline seat without spilling over onto someone else’s seat thereby making that person physically uncomfortable, that they should have to buy a second seat. Period. (One of my previous bosses was morbidly obese (450 lbs.+) and when she traveled, she would always book two seats.) Then if the plane isn’t full, the person who had to purchase two seats would be refunded the money for one of the seats. (Southwest is doing it right, I think.)

As far as embarassment, I think most of the time, the overweight person probably has a pretty good idea BEFORE they get on the airplane if they can sit in their seat (and only their seat) with the armrest down. If there is any question, they should purchase a second seat during the booking process. They could also purchase a seat in first class where the seats are bigger and there is more room. The key is to do this BEFORE they get to the airport to avoid any potential embarassment.

As for the “if-you-can’t-fit-into-this-sample-seat-then-you-need-to-purchase-a-second-one” thing at the airport counter - yes, I think that would be insensitive and cruel. It would also be embarassing to have a flight attendant approach you on the airplane and request that you book a second seat. This could be avoided, though, by purchasing a second seat ahead of time when booking your flight.

It has been interesting to read other people’s points of view on this matter. What do you think?

1. The stuff we call “sweet tea” up here is NOTHING like REAL sweet tea in the South. If I wasn’t traveling by airplane, I would have taken some jugs home with me!
2. The Alabama version of White Castle is Krystal and the Alabama version of Waffle House is Huddle House.
3. Having never been to Alabama before I didn’t really know what to expect. It is a beautiful state, with lots of hills and trees and lakes. Not many “cookie cutter” flat subdivisions like you see up here. All of the subdivisions I saw were nestled into trees.
4. The airport in Birmingham has more comfortable seats than the airport in St. Louis. The airport workers are also more friendly and don’t just grunt at you when you ask them a question.
5. Having a six hour layover in Louisville sucks. Thank God for Starbucks and their comfy chairs. The upside is that I got a lot of reading done.
6. Scrapbooking supplies really CAN be organized. Celena proved it to me by showing me her plastic bin drawers with everything separated and organized.
7. Tattoos really DO hurt. I don’t know how some people sit there for hours and get huge pieces on their backs or their arms. I’m too much of a wimp for that.
8. Time goes by really fast. I can’t believe her three oldest daughters are almost all grown up and her “baby” is 7 years old. I also can’t believe that I hadn’t seen her husband in 13 years and her dad in almost 20 years and neither one of them have changed a bit.
9. They have a saying in St. Louis - “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change.” The same holds true for Alabama. On Saturday and Sunday, we had pouring rain one minute and sunshine the next.
10. It’s funny at first to hear people speak with a Southern accent.
11. There are actually “dry counties” down there, where you can’t buy any alcohol at all and there are no bars or taverns. We had to get rum for some mixed drinks in a town 40 miles away from Celena’s house. It’s the weirdest darn thing when you come from a place where there’s a bar on almost every corner.
12. I didn’t see very many chain-type gas stations (i.e., 7-11, QT). They were all of these little mom and pop places that sold everything from soda to fishin’ bait. We went into a little place where they were raising crickets - I have honestly never seen so many crickets in one place in my life. Do you know they eat potatoes?
13. Weekends with good friends go by entirely too fast!

*Sorry for the delay in posting and making you wait. Several people even emailed me and told me to please hurry up and post pictures - LOL!

It was an awesome weekend and Celena & I finally got our tattoos. After three years of joking around and talking about it, the deed is finally done!

I got down to Birmingham around 7:00 on Friday night and Celena and her daughter “Tootie” (the cutest kid EVER) picked me up at the airport. The trip back to her house was really neat. I had absolutely no idea how what a pretty state Alabama is… on our way home, Celena took a turn on a back road and we drove over an old covered bridge. I had never actually seen one of those before, let alone drive over one. It was really neat!

The next day we headed to the tattoo shop and I kept thinking “Oh shit! We’re really doing this!” I wasn’t nervous at all until we started driving to the shop. We got there and it came down to “who’s gonna go first” and I decided that I should do it because if I heard her screaming I was totally going to chicken out - LOL. Now, I knew going in that it was going to hurt, but I had no idea what exactly it was going to feel like and how bad it was going to hurt until it actually started. O.M.G. Celena got my reaction the second the needle hit my skin and I think my face shows it all. Holy. Shit. The only way I can describe it is that it felt like a cat with really, really, really SHARP claws scratching my skin over and over and over.

I couldn’t look at my ankle at all while I was actually getting the tattoo… I focused on a picture on the wall - kinda like childbirth - LOL. I told Celena that it wasn’t that bad and that she was gonna be fine. (She found out about 10 minutes later that I was LYING my ass off!) I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her how bad it hurt. It’s just one of those things that is kind of indescribable and I had to let her find out by herself.

I have lots more to say about my trip and my adventures with Celena and her family in Alabama, but I’ll save them for tomorrow when I do my Thursday Thirteen. In the meantime, pictures of my experience and tattoo are posted below. Celena has a slideshow on her blog, too, showing her experience and her tattoo. Click here to check out her slideshow.

In honor of getting my first tattoo this coming weekend, I dedicate this Thursday Thirteen to 13 Tattoos that I will NOT be getting! (Tune in Tuesday morning to see my new ink!)

1. Monkey Butt.
   
2. This one would come in handy for sleeping during those boring early-morning meetings:
   
3. Uhh… this one is just GROSS!
   




4. A tattoo on your eyeball - OUCH!
   




5. Two things that should never be combined - Hello Kitty and tattoos:
   
6. This one is just plain freaky.
   
7. Fried Eggs - (this one wouldn’t work because I’m not bald - hehe)
   
8. Only guys would think this is funny.
   
9. No explaination needed for this one!
   
10. The tattoo artist didn’t do a very good job on this portrait tattoo. YIKES!
    
11. Redneck tattoo
    
12. Redneck Mama:
    
13. I had to look at this one for a minute to figure it out: