Thursday, September 21, 2006

Soma-ch for the Afterglow

Where to start? Well. I suppose the beginning, no? Life has been really great lately. I was having great times reconnecting with old friends and nurturing my current close friendships. I was planning my wedding--you know, getting down to the nitty gritty details--and finally checking off to-do's on my planning lists. My novels are progressing rather well and I'm still talking to literary agents. So yeah, life, in general, was great.

Until last week, when all hell broke loose. Too much drama to get into in detail so let's suffice to say that I am having some MAJOR dental issues. Try taking a crowbar to the face sometime and then maybe you'll understand. My jaw was locked for a days, then I had this intense railroad-spike-through-the-jaw pain along with some incredible swelling and nausea. Did I mention that I no longer have dental insurance? Yeah. Try scoring an appointment without insurance. Not an easy feat...

I've been mixing up my own pain cocktails with some success--and yes, I know that it's dangerous, but when you're in pain, safety goes right out the window. Extra Strength Tylenol with a glass of wine, then Extra Strength Tylonel with Aleve (double doses at a time,) then Extra Strength Tylenol (1000mg) with 500 mg of Naproxen, then 500 mg of Naproxen with some--ahem...borrowed--Soma. I finally nabbed a dentist appointment on Tuesday afternoon where my dentist announced that I would have to have five teeth surgically removed next Tuesday. It doesn't help that I have a mitral valve prolaspe or a heart murmur b/c that limits some of my pain medication choices and increases my risk of serious complications. Oh, joy! So now I'm on some kind of steroid thing (methylprednisolone or medrol) chased with extra strength Tylenol and I am finally receiving some relief! I actually slept last night--my first night of sleep in over two weeks.

I had a mini-breakdown yesterday, too. Normally, I refuse to cry b/c crying is--quite frankly--a sign of weakness. So I like to keep things bottled in because I'm not comfortable asking for help. That's strange and horribly ironic since I'm always the first to volunteer to help someone else, but that's one of my biggest quirks, I guess. At any rate, the pain was at it's most intense yesterday and my dentist hadn't returned my phone calls for pain meds and Dave finally managed to get through and went to CVS to pick up the Medrol and he came back and the prescription warning was about five pages long and I just couldn't take it any more and I started bawling like a little girl. I mean, full on five year old with a skinned knee ugly sobs. Yikes.

Dave came through, though, and did that whole jump off the couch, wrap his arms around my shoulders, soothing promises, stroke my hair, it's-gonna-be-ok-we'll-fix-this-bit. Gotta love having a strong man in your corner, right? If this year has done anything, it's proven that we have what it takes to get through these small crises (Dave's hospitalization, my fucked-up jaw, etc...)

So anywho...I'm going to try to stay optimistic b/c that's prolly the best thing to do right now. All of my invitation stationery has arrived, and it's simply beautiful. I have some great ideas for the ending of my latest chic lit novel and for a paranormal romance I might pen...maybe. Oh, and of course, Halloween is right around the corner and we all know how much I LOVE Halloween!!!!!!

Alright. I'm gonna go take some Tylenol. Laters.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Take Luck!

Short post today. It's a little after 0530, and unfortunately, I am wide awake. I'm in one of those four hour cycles again. Awake 24 plus hours, sleep four hours, awake 20 hours, sleep four hours..... AARRGGHH!! So annoying.

Dave and I are FINALLY going to have some together time this weekend! He's been working tons of extra hours so we can hit our wedding savings goal quickly and move onto our next goal: a house. With stagnant housing prices and surplus inventory, we should be able to negotiate a good deal when we buy next July/August/September. We're also going to be first time homebuyers so we're going to apply for all of those nifty FHA/HUD programs. I mean, why shouldn't we? Right? It's like free money--except for the fact that our taxes fund those programs, lol.

So anywho. We're going to Houston this afternoon to watch Brian Regan this evening. We're staying at The Magnolia, a super posh downtown hotel. We don't often go on vacations, and since this is technically a mini-vacay, Dave decided to splurge a little. I was expecting to stay at La Quinta or something, but when he busted out the reservation receipt, I was ecstatic. I LOVE staying at upscale places. You get dress up and act like you're "somebody." It's so much fun!!!

Yes. Sigh. I know I sound like I'm twelve, but who cares? Why shouldn't I enjoy myself? Hmm?

So let's see. What else? Well--I'm a little worried about one of my soldier buddies stationed in Iraq. His name is Chad and even though he hasn't told me exactly where he's stationed, I've used the powers of deduction and think that he must be somewhere in the Al Anbar province. I mean, his mail goes through Jordan so that would be the most likely scenario. At any rate, I haven't heard from him in a few weeks, and well, it's just tearing me up inside. It's those Mama Hen genes of mine, I guess. If I don't know that all of my chicks are safe and accounted for, I go into panic mode. Hopefully, I'll hear from him soon. I'll keep you posted.

Oh yeah! Sara turned 22 on Thursday! Yay! Happy Birthday to Sara! And she has a new man in her life! From everything I've heard, he's perfect. Literally. Intelligent (biochemistry grad student like Sara,) handsome, kind, generous, chivalrous... Perfect! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her! And hey--even if if doesn't work out long-term, it's still a wonderful experience. Always gotta look for that silver lining.

Alright. I need to finish this chapter before I start packing. Laters!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Saltines On A Putting Green

It's not quite 0600 and I've been up all night mapping out the plot of my newest novel. I have to say this one was a lot of fun, and I think I might be able to finish the rough draft by the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

I've been really overwhelmed with writing/agents latetly, but feel as if I'm hitting a stride. I know one thing for sure, though. I have to clean my house. I love clutter, but there comes a point when you have to say: ENOUGH! I reached that point around 0317 when I was trying to find a certain book and dropped a hammer on my foot. Yes. Sigh. A hammer. No, I don't know what a hammer was doing between my Arabic manuals and a Sophie Kinsella book. Yes. Yes. I know. Hammers belong in a tool box. OK. OK. I get it!

It's not just the housekeeping that's suffered, though. I haven't even dealt with the wedding in weeks. Not good, I know. I forced myself to order Save the Dates yesterday. I still have to make time to do a mock-up of our invitations and start fiddling with the wording. I'm sure that will spark some kind of backlash from all parties involved, too. Crap. Plus, I had my first bridezilla moment a few days ago. I was handing out Dave's groom to-do list--which I have to point out is unbelievably shorter than mine. I mean, I have 162 items on my wedding planning to do list. He has, like, five. Pick groomsmen, choose tux, give me guest list, deal with transportation, and arrange honeymoon. Can you say gender bias? I mean, seriously, WTF?!?!

Anyways, I was having a really rough day and I was super stressed (and yes, I know that isn't an excuse, but...still.) Dave asked some asinine question about the honeymoon, and I unleashed my inner Mao Zedong. I think my exact quote was something along the lines of, "Mess up my honeymoon and I will crush you like a Democratic Revolt in Communist China. Seriously. Our living room will become Tiananmen Square and I will be the tank barrelling down on your ass."

Needless to say, I apologized shortly thereafter. Actually, I'm kinda relieved that I'm not the only one who feels this way, though. Ash is experiencing the same thing as she plans her wedding. Good to know this is entirely normal albeit inexusable behavior.

Speaking of reprehensible behavior, I watched a rerun of the Daily Show last night that dealt with recent racist remarks by congressmen and Tony Snow, WH Press Secretary. I can't believe that in the 21st century people are still throwing around terms like "tar baby," "macaca," and using racial stereotypes. Then again, it probably shouldn't surprise me. Dave experiences racism all the time where he works b/c the farther east one travels in Texas, the more intolerance one encounters. Plus, it wasn't that long ago that I responded to a call on campus at TAMU and was told by the ignorant, male patient to "...get [my] filthy spic hands off of [him.]" Sad isn't it? It's really sad that someone like that was accepted to this university instead of someone else who probably wasn't a racist.

I guess I've never been the victim of malicious racism. I've definitely been subjected to other forms of it, though. I can remember being six years old, sitting in a classroom, waiting to take some kind of standardized test, and being completely confused by the "pick your race" question. White? Hispanic? Aren't they really the same thing? I mean, Hispanic isn't a race. It's not even really an ethnicity. I mean, no one is born in "Hispana." It's just some label that demographers created. When I asked my teacher which bubble to color in, she shrugged, and asked our elementary principle who said, and I quote, "Tell her to bubble Hispanic. These Mexican kids need all the help they can get."

Ouch.

Can you say defining moment?

Anyways...Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore, Sr. Black Correspondent, did a segment on racism--especially lazy racism--in the US with their trademark smart ass-ness and satire. This brings me back to the title of today's post. Let me leave you with a little gem from the Daily Show on 22.08.06.

{On Republican Senator George Allen's use of the word "macaca" and Tony Snow's use of the term "tar baby"}

Larry: How am I supposed to be pissed off about ‘macaca?’ That’s weak.

Jon: But you don’t think there’s something though to the idea that phrases like “tar baby” evoke a more dangerous time?

Larry: Yeah but he wasn’t calling anyone “tar baby.” He was using it figuratively. It would be like if someone spills saltines on a putting green, and I say, "Hey! Look at all those goddamned crackers on the golf course!" It sounds bad, but it doesn’t mean anything...

If you have a few minutes, check out the Youtube link below for the full segment. And yes, there is some coarse language, but in this case, I think it's warranted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkwnzHm2duM

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Panic! But NOT At The Disco

Just a quick note for today. I know I haven't updated in a weekish, but I've been swamped. Gimme a few days. I'll catch up.

So I had a chance to watch the new Al Qaeda tape not long ago, and well--I'm slightly worried and upset. The reason is really, really simple. In the Qur'an (Koran,) it states that before one attacks or kills another, you must warn them and offer a chance to convert to Islam. (Obviously that's my elementary paraphrasing; I'm no theologian.) Still, you get the point. That's one of the reasons that Bin Laden lost some support after the WTC attacks. He didn't warn or offer Americans a chance to "see the light" so to speak, a direct breech of etiquette.

Now, Adam Gadahn (aka Azzam the American by his Al Qaeda brethren) warns Americans to repent and convert during his rambling speech. The only conclusion I can draw is that--well--they're considering or planning or giving the go-ahead for another attack. I mean, it doesn't take a CIA analyst to put together the info presented to us.

I'm not saying that we should panic or anything. I'm just throwing my pennies into the pool. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, then we're lucky. Lucky b/c I don't trust this government to protect us. Anybody remember the 9/11 Commission and that massive report with all of those recommendations that were supposed to be implemented??? Yeah. I'm not even a tiny bit surprised that "our" government only implemented a handful. You know, heaven forbid we actually approach governing this country in an efficient, responsible manner. I suppose that's because employing reasonable intelligence now equals liberalism and--holy hannah--no one wants to be labeled a liberal in this neo-con circus.

Alright. Enough ranting for now. I've got better things to do than depress myself with the idiocy of our current administration. Hurry up and get here 2008! Mama needs to clean house!