Amy’s Gripping Commentary

Wednesday night I developed a sore throat. By Friday morning, my baby sinus infection was much worse, and I got desperate enough to figure out the employee health services since I only had a couple Sudafed left from home and wasn’t sure what I would find at a pharmacy (which all close by six p.m. anyway). My doctor in Indianapolis is very stingy with antibiotics and would wait until I had green stuff coming out of my head before she’d give me anything, so I’ve gotten in the habit of waiting out some of these horrible sinus things with cold medicine and throat spray, because by the time I’ve had that green symptom I’ve already been sick for five days and it seems kind of pointless to bother with it then. (Sometimes this backfires into a three-week illness but other times my immune system catches up in a few more days.) Anyway, the nurse at the health center couldn’t give me much more than “Sinutabs” (which were much appreciated), and acknowledged I needed an antibiotic, but she did give me the name of a clinic in town, which is more information than I had when I went in there. At this point I still had to work the rest of the morning, then get the keys to my house, move in, and accept/unload delivery of my big shipping container. But at least I had the afternoon off, so I called the doctor place, and got an appointment for quarter to five.

Except after successfully wandering around Kinsale making sure I could find the clinic, scoping out the pharmacy (also called a “chemist” here, but the building still says pharmacy), getting a few groceries, and determining if I had enough cash for the doctor and the rest of the weekend – I get paid Monday which will be the first time there is money in my Irish bank account, and the ATM percentage charge off my American bank account is annoying — I arrived at the clinic at 4:20 to find out my appointment had been at 3:45! I guess I just didn’t understand the accent on the phone and while the receptionist seemed annoyed, I asked if I could at least fill out the forms to be a new patient so I could establish a GP somewhere. I guess you need GP blessing to go get any other medical work done anyway. She handed me a slip that consisted of my name, DOB, address, and phone numbers. That was it! I thought I would get the full six-page questions with a nurse later but I never did. It was kind of weird not to detail my history for a new doctor… even my root canal guy at home wants every detail since I was born.

She still seemed annoyed but said she would try to squeeze me in since I said I was really sick, and I went into a waiting room which was a little dumpy like the rest of the place, but I felt too crappy to even read the magazines and listened to a three year old bother everyone else in a cute way. After about fifteen minutes someone called me (I think it was the actual doctor, again no nurse in this setup), and I went in his office and explained how I’d just moved there and that I had a sinus infection and what the symptoms were. He took a VERY brief history right into his computer, which was basically what meds I was already taking and if my immediate family had any major illness history. Not even height and weight, but heck, this was pretty awesome to get right in and have him proclaim I needed an antibiotic. He did check ENT areas and when he listened to my lungs he kept saying “excuse me” as I lifted my sweater jumper, which was also a little funny. I guess this is where the super-politeness comes in; my doctor at home never “apologizes” for each move of the stethoscope. He even apologized that it might not have been my fault for misunderstanding the accent when I apologized for being late to my appointment!

Dr. Tony Somebody also asked how I was doing with the move and being away from home and suggested being on airplanes and the big stress of moving could have contributed, though we also discussed how many of these stupid infections I’d had before. I liked that he listened to me and seemed to respect that I know my particular history with this affliction well, something I don’t always get with my home doctor. By this time I was practically in tears anyway, being so sick and having such a LONG day already (I did successfully move into the house and get my shipment), so I was glad he not only wrote a prescription but that he also was happy to write others for meds I already took if I just brought in my current containers, no third degree to reestablish my various ailments to be deemed worthy of medication. Most of what I’ve taken recently seems to have a different name in Ireland, so we worked out some of those differences and I ended up with name brand Augmentin for under €12. The actual visit cost €50 and they don’t seem to file your insurance for you (while it’s true there is some form of national health insurance, many Irish people buy private insurance too). I would have had to file my own anyway with the new international insurance I’m supposedly on. I can’t seem to get any info on the plan and I don’t know how/where to file a claim yet.

At the pharmacy I also found actual Sudafed (hooray!), though they didn’t have a generic, and some sore throat spray, and that stuff is so strong it almost hurts more than the ailment it treats. Much of the OTC stuff is behind the counter so you have to ask them to get it for you. The pharmacist pronounced my name correctly, which makes him the second person since I arrived to do that. I kind of thought Europeans might get the whole German spelling/pronunciation right more often, but not so far. The other guy who got it right was a Polish guy on the IT help line at work. I need to find more Poles and test the theory for other parts of the continent.

I had dinner plans with other Americans from work at one of their homes and sniffled my way through that. Despite being ill, I’m glad I went, not only because they had a dog and a cat but because even this introvert gets tired of eating in a restaurant by herself every night. Some nights I just haven’t eaten because it seemed too much of a hassle and too depressing to walk into town for food I couldn’t store as leftovers anyway, and I was never that hungry after the big lunches at work.

I spent an hour or so unpacking enough things to have pajamas and bedding and slept pretty well that night with all my drugs. The next adventure: driving to Cork to shop for household goods. I survived, but you’ll have to read about that next. Also, I have no phone, TV, or internet yet, and I’m going insane. If you are reading this I must have stolen a wifi connection somewhere.

World’s End is the name of the location or neighborhood or whatever this place is. I’m staying in the Trident Hotel, and that’s their address. A lot of the homes and businesses here don’t seem to have (or at least use) numerical addresses, just names like Old Head and Seaward and Highlanes Gallery. I’m glad I’m not delivering pizza here. Also most streets don’t have signs with the street name, just arrows pointing to various named shops and points of interest. My GPS SatNav goes by street names, and they’re on maps, but not actually posted in public. Very confusing.

I’m moving into my house tomorrow, but the phone and internet connections could take a few to several days, so I may not be around much on here or on the phone. Meanwhile I’m fighting the early parts of a sinus infection, but my insurance is suddenly bizarre and the pharmacies don’t stay open past six, so I’m doing my best with Aleve and Sudafed–glad I brought at least a couple things with me. Apparently rather than having a selection of OTC meds on the shelves at any grocery or drugstore, you have to talk to the pharmacist and explain your symptoms and they might sell you something.

Also: Arliss has a Twitter account now too! She’s advanced past my own level of connectivity. I expect I’ll see her cell phone bill on my credit card next. She has a couple new posts at her blog, too.

Pics I took right before I left.

I was reading an interesting series of short articles on public school food in D.C. The switch from shipping in pre-packaged individual meals to be warmed before serving to the kids to ‘fresh cooked’ meals in a brand new school kitchen actually means shipping in pre-packaged larger quantities of frozen food that are then reheated in a steamer by people who have never cooked in an actual commercial kitchen before, and everything is served with disposable tableware. They don’t even have a stove or a dishwasher in the new kitchen. The worst is the junk the kids are actually served. It sounds awful in taste and is just marginal in nutrition.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about my own cafeteria experiences. First off: Safetypup was on the milk cartons! His cartoon taught us safety tips while using good grammar. Matches are tools, not toys with which to play. Unfortunately I can’t find any pictures of Safetypup in his cartoon form, just scary costumed people dressed as Safetypup.

I used to keep my lunch money coins in the zippers of my Kangaroo shoes. It was really hard to stand on one foot in the lunch line as it moved forward and unzip my shoes to get the money out. Seems bizarre that I swipe a credit card at the work cafeteria now.

Mom would post the weekly school lunch menu from the newspaper on the fridge, and each morning she’d ask if we wanted to buy the menu choice or take a packed lunch. One of the most humiliating experiences of my elementary school lunch career was when the sixth grade girls (the meanest one was Jamie McCarthy!) made fun of my fifth-grade lunch: a hotdog in a Thermos of hot water, which I assembled with the bun at the table. Mom was creative in keeping the food hot, but the teasing stuck with me for, oh, 24 years now.

Our Little Hoosier meetings were held in the cafeteria. We made Indiana-shaped cookies once a year. I also remember thinking how dumb some of my classmates were during these meetings.

In boarding school we shared a cafeteria with college students. The most famous dishes were Limelight chicken, or Chernobyl chicken as suggested by the strange glowing color, and Tater Tot Hot Dish, or TTHD. The lady who ran the checkout was kind of socially awkward (I guess she fit in with us) and had some classic lines which made it to the Masochistic Board, a piece of MDF we propped in the lounge on our dorm floor, which we decorated with things that drove us nuts and then beat on it with a cat o’ nine tails-like device my mom had at home for distressing wooden frames. It had chains attached to a wooden handle and made a hell of a racket! It was so bad that the girls on the floor downstairs started crying because they thought someone was being beaten and we had to stop attacking our Masochistic Board. I’m not quite sure how it got that name, except maybe because we were punishing ourselves by going to a really hard school, but I do remember the director of student life taking a couple swings at it before it was retired.

Pissed? Bitter? Test your beating skills on the f***ing Masochistic Board! (One of the girls on our floor had a bad emu experience)

Our work cafeterias are decent, but some days are better than others when it comes to veggie options. Still better than school food! I hated Hamette on Bun, which was a common Friday lunch.

There’s a program to fund veg options in school lunches!

I was going to end with a little rant about the pro-HFCS commercials, but instead I recommend a viewing of King Corn instead, which streams free from Netflix.

This post made me hungry.

Some random thoughts to prove I’m still alive.

I did indeed have cadaver bone put in during my osteomyelitis treatment! It was irradiated, powdered, and mixed with what is basically plaster of Paris, but it still sounds exotic. Unfortunately I’ve had some additional dental pain recently. You’d think I traumatized my teeth or something.

Arliss had her fourth surgery a week ago (vet and I agreed she didn’t need a CT scan after all) and she’s doing great! She even gained weight in the last two weeks.

Loving the Indy Winter Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. The place is PACKED and I love seeing cyclists with panniers riding in the snow! Note: the local chickens went on strike when it got super cold the last couple of weeks, so eggs were harder to come by. I like being able to get a half dozen a month since we don’t use more than that, and then I can take the carton back to the farmer to use again.

I discovered recently-reopened El Sol de Tala. This town has more Mexican (I use that as a geographic/ethnic term loosely) restaurants than you can imagine, but this one place stands out. They even have a veggie menu. It’s not the same old enchiladas anymore, people!

Following a craving, I had French toast at Denny’s, and even if they hadn’t ruined it with cinnamon and powdered sugar, it still was nowhere as good as Dad’s. He also blows away every pancake on earth.

I’ve finally heard from some of the relocation folks and the target start date in Ireland is March 1. There’s so much to do that it’s hard not just to plop on the couch with 81 SVU reruns on Tivo and ignore the obvious (that’s how many were scheduled in this two week period). One of my current focuses (okay, foci) is pantry raid: use up all the groceries that line our cupboards and freezer. In the past week we had breakfasty stuff to use up biscuits and fake sausages and last night I made chik’n and rice casserole. My freezer has several fake meat products that I’ve always kept as backup, but usually have been creative enough not to need for most cooking. I see a lot of chili in our future for the ground ‘beef’ crumbles…

Arliss, who had her incisors removed less than two weeks ago, had another surgery Monday when an abscess popped up at her one-week checkup. Now there’s a hole in her face (‘marsupialized’) that we are flushing daily to get the gunk out and hope it heals from the inside out. Meanwhile she won’t eat so I’m syringing food and pain meds. I tend to panic when bunnies don’t eat (it warrants panic, actually). We are having lots of cuddle time even if she’s pissed about it, and it’s gratifying when she laps up the liquid food from the syringe. Poor thing is hungry but it hurts her to eat.

MEANWHILE, foster Jolene came down with one heck of a URI this weekend so she’s on antibiotics, but she’s SO congested she’s not eating either! At least I think that’s why she’s not eating. I had her in the bathroom tonight after David’s shower. He thought I was nuts, but I’m hoping to steam her nose open. She sounds terrible. Acts hungry when I syringe her food too, but it’s a slow process because she panics when she stops to breathe around the snot. I think the nebulizer is next.

Vegas has been on antibiotics for her snotty nose for weeks and is not sounding particularly better, but at least she’s acting great and eating on her own.

Of course Casper’s on quite the regimen now too, but she’s eating and holds still for fluids, plus I finally learned to stuff pills down her throat, so she’s relatively easy. Feeding her four times a day is hard on the work schedule, though.

And I had my top-down root canal on Monday, courtesy of friends Halcion and Valium, so I don’t remember a darn thing after they let me snooze with a blankie and neck pillow with the lights off, and I never did find out if they put a cadaver graft in there. Guess I’ll find out next week at the recheck. The Darvocet made me sick so I’m limping by on OTC stuff. And I broke some of my Frankengum stitches already. In an odd twist, I am flushing my surgery site with Chlorhexidine, the same stuff we’re using on Arliss’ abscess.

I’ve been so confused by all the pet medicating I keep forgetting to take my own antibiotics.

If the bunnies would just start eating on their own I would seriously cry with relief.

I thought all my dental woes were behind me now that I’ve had my restoration done for about two years. Well, a couple months ago something started feeling ‘funny,’ so I went to my regular dentist to see if there was anything of concern. Several radiographs later, she saw nothing there, but did observe that one or more crowns had gaps at the margins and she wanted to replace them. She’s doing this at her cost, since she feels they were never seated completely in the first place (and when you do 20 crowns at once I can see where something might not fit ideally), so for me it’s just more hours in the chair and some deja vu.

Of course my dentist has moved to a new practice in Westfield, which takes forever and a day to drive to, but after all the work she did, I figure I better follow her. She’s the expert in this stuff. By getting a new practice, she now has digital x-ray, and that’s why she was able to see this glitch in my crowns that we didn’t see on the old school film x-rays at the dental school practice.

So I spent three hours Saturday morning having two crowns sawed off and then had my tissues under them lasered for a nice long time. This was slightly more pleasant than the old-school equivalent electrodentistry (and smelled less like stir fry, too). The tissue-retracting astringent was still nasty tasting but was able to be applied by syringe this time so it wasn’t as bad as the cord method. In a couple weeks I get to go back for the new crowns.

Meanwhile, she referred me to the endodontist who did the root canal on the tooth that was bothering me, who says I need another root canal on it! This one will go through the gums and come in from the root end, an apioectomy. Greaaat, another chance at gum surgery! He has already agreed to give me happy drugs for my anxiety.

I asked what could cause that, since I already had a root canal and crown on that tooth. He said, “trauma from extensive dental work.” Geez. I hope I don’t need this on all the rest of my teeth… and he already sees a dark area on a nearby molar.

EDIT: Hey look, I found the blog post from when the first root canal happened. And this cool one with a picture that talks about trying to avoid the apioectomy on a different tooth!

EDIT 2: Forgot to mention that they suggested I might need a bone graft – from a cadaver!

I’m anxious about a dentist appointment today, since I have a tooth root area that feels way funny and I don’t think I have the psychological stamina (nor the excellent insurance) to go through any more fancy dental work. Plus I think I had a root canal on this one anyway so I’m not sure what the problem could be that isn’t really bad! I remembered one of my favorite Sesame Street clips, though, which makes me feel better:

I just called an automated prescription refill line for my mail-in pharmacy benefit. I’ve called this line for refills many times, and while the voice actuated ordering is really annoying, usually it’s quick and, oh, automatic. So I went through the whole automated refill process, including confirming my address (which it knew) and my credit card, confirmed I didn’t want any other refills, and then it said it was connecting my call and I was on hold for ten minutes. What?? Usually they confirm immediately and ship without me talking to a CSR. This must be the cost savings from the mail-in pharmacy selling their operations to someone else. Awesome! When the CSR answered, she asked me all the same questions again, and I asked, “Why am I talking to you?”

Yesterday we held a family party for my grandparents’ 60th anniversary! It was nice to rehash the old stories. Grandma wrote Grandpa a letter which recounted how he’s not often outwardly affectionate, and gave an example of her tough day home with the kids when he came home and didn’t reassure her as much as she would have liked. She asked if he loved her, and he said, “I come home every night, don’t I?” Somehow this seemed very sweet given my gentle grandfather’s nature.

When I was young, we’d go visit my great great aunt and uncle’s farm on the west side of town. Uncle Walt and Aunt Dorothy had 80 acres, and at various times, cows, chickens, corn, a pond, an inground pool (this was the most exciting part for my brother and me at the time), dogs, woods, strawberries, you name it. They had a long dirt lane and when you drove on it, the resident dog (jobs included guard and groundhog killer) would come running to meet you.

My mom and her mom both spent lots of time at the farm when they were young. I am SO glad we got to go visit too, but I wonder what it would have been like to live there for whole summers. There are stories of using dynamite to blow up field rocks and my mom getting lost as a toddler and the dog finding her.

They lived in a creepy-cool 1850s(?) farmhouse and the upstairs, a place we rarely visited, wasn’t even vented for heat. The dirt cellar had amazing jarred veggies on old shelves. The big wraparound porch had rocking chairs and bees would visit the flowers while you sat around and talked.

The old barns were really amazing to me. I was not very adventurous and didn’t explore as much as I should have, but the falling-down old chicken coop and slatted corn sheds fascinated me. My memories don’t include the animals that lived there, since Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Walt were older by then and rented their cornfields to other farmers, but the old buildings were right there by the house as a reminder. There’s a picture somewhere, one I clearly remember, of kids bottle-feeding a calf. I remember the wooden ramp with rails where the grown cattle apparently climbed on the truck to go to slaughter. My mom said Uncle Walt would cry when they left.

Whatever happened to that world? It must have been amazing to be an American farmer through the bulk of the last century; the changes in fertilizers and yields, the move to families shopping in big grocery stores, the selling of this beautiful property in the country to be another fancy subdivision after the old farmers went off to assisted living facilities. Uncle Walt suffered from illnesses related to his life’s work, but I just remember him sitting in a recliner and telling deadpan jokes. (When asked why his dog was so spoiled, he responded with the title of this post.) Aunt Dorothy climbed on top of the shed in her 70s to paint; I remember her still liking to eat Long John Silver’s food, of all things, in her 90s, long after moving away from the farm and going deaf.

I was thinking of the farm after watching Food, Inc. last weekend with friends. Please go see it–it’s amazing what we don’t know about the food we eat and where it’s sourced. I visited a farmers’ market just before the movie, and went to another one this past weekend, but yet that’s not where the bulk of my food starts. I’m trying to take advantage of more markets this year while we are in growing season, plus we are growing more vegetables ourselves. When I stop to think about this basic thing, food, it amazes me what an industry it’s become. Now there are even concerns about ‘food security,’ whether from national perspectives or right here in my city.

Maybe it’s not helpful to idolize the old family farm in this day of WalMarts and a bigger population, but I know none of Uncle Walt’s cows stood knee deep in their own manure their whole lives, nor did his chickens live in cages the size of a sheet of paper. The unchecked growth of factory farming and seed law signals to me the dirty politics and the greedy side of capitalism that tosses aside any reasonable treatment of worker, animal, or planet.

The power of consumer dollars: a vote every time you eat.

I’m very excited about the upcoming opening of our first non-profit community grocery in a rehabbed building in an underserved part of the city: Pogue’s Run Grocer!

A few weeks ago friends and supporters gathered at Race for the Cure here in Indy to support Linda’s breast cancer fight (I think she is just finishing her radiation therapy!) and provide resources to underserved people in our community affected by the disease.

As it goes with many things lately, I promptly put the pictures on Facebook and didn’t get around to it here. Maybe I could automate everything to feed here somehow.

Anyway, time to start the catch up. And thanks to Mymsie and Songbird who donated to our fundraising for Team Linda. Thirty eight friends and family joined Linda’s team!

This is toward the end of the 5K walk. I always find this view of downtown interesting.

The Ghostbusters walked too!

Lots and lots of people on New York Street

The course went past the zoo, where this elephant with pink ribbons on his ears was doing tricks for the crowds.

Team Linda beat the goal and raised over $2600!

I gave blood tonight in my hand-me-down Speed Racer shirt (funny how last year’s entry also focused on the outfit), the third time being the charm after failing the iron requirement twice in the last few weeks. I’m at 39% hematocrit now, baby! A couple of vitamins and a couple extra weeks must be the ticket for me. It really was Speed Bleeding because I think I set a personal record with my six-minute pint time. This is much better than the time they kicked me out after half an hour having not produced enough blood in the bag.

Want to save three lives and maybe win a gift card or a resort stay in Florida? You can enter Manic Mommy’s contest too! Just give blood by the 28th and get your picture doing it.

In other scintillating news (would you believe we get to use a variant of that word a lot at work), Casper came home all dopey from the groomer with a bandanna AND a bow.

And, showing off my new haircut and the cool sweater my mom made me (twice), we have this not particularly flattering picture of my apparently thick midsection (I swear it’s not).

It’s the return of Manic Mommy’s Virtual Blog Blood Drive! Click here for details. The basics: donate blood from Jan 1 to Feb 28, 2009, get your picture taken while donating, and send the pic to Manic Mommy to enter the contest! It doesn’t matter where you live, just go to your local blood bank or blood drive and get your picture taken. First prize is a week at a Florida resort, and there are gift cards and stuff too. I won last year though it wasn’t a big enough contest at that point to give away a vacation!

A couple notes for those of you who have been rejected for low iron: I learned that ‘normal’ hematocrit is 35-45% but (at least around here) the blood bank requires at least 38% to be eligible to donate. They test this by a simple finger prick. Your iron level can fluctuate a lot so if you just supplement/focus your diet a bit before you go, or do that if you get rejected and then you can even go back the next day to try again, you may just be eligible after all! I also learned that 75% of people are able to get back to this iron level in the eight weeks required between donations and it’s harder for women than men, so you might need to focus your diet/wait just a bit longer if you have recently donated. Just because you’ve been rejected before does not mean you will be if you try again!

In central Indiana, you can even schedule appointments online, get points and prizes, and track your donations and cholesterol over time. I just signed up last week and the system knew my last 1.5 gallons and cholesterol readings from the last few years. Of course you can do walk-in donations too! Check out DonorPoint.org.

Some other upcoming events I’m considering: Komen Race for the Cure for my friend Dawn’s mom, April 18 (run, walk, or donate), and cycling around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Tour de Cure for diabetes, June 13. Who’s in?

I’ve had my mouth guard for a little over a year. I’m supposed to sleep in it every night and probably only remember/bother about ten percent of the time. Well, I ate through it already. Check out the cracks all along the molars. I had to get a new set of impressions today to have another one made. The last one was $400…

Told you I needed new teeth for a reason. Plus now I risk cracking the porcelain on all my expensive fake teeth, hence the pricey guard with softer plastic on the inside and hard on the outside. Not hard enough, apparently.

Meanwhile the assistant at the dentist’s office today seemed pretty new. She commented how awful it is to have impressions made. Are you kidding me? Do you know what I’ve had done to my teeth so far? At this point I think root canals are a piece of cake, and impressions are way easier and more comfortable than a routine cleaning. She had to do the upper and lower twice because she messed them up, which I predicted when I felt the trays in the wrong place. Can’t say much with a mouthful of goop though. I’m not sure the end result was correct but we’ll see after the lab tries to make the guard.

Before my appointment I traveled several miles out of my way to go to the post office that serves my old house. I had a postage due note for a mystery letter from Carmel. After driving to BFE, I discovered it was from a realtor trying to woo me away as my home listing had expired. I refused it and you can bet I’ll let them know how I feel about being inconvenienced and asked to PAY for their solicitation.

Walt gets close in the office chair again.

Welcome to the new year and a snotty nose. I have been sick for nearly a week. Fortunately I didn’t have to go to work during this time, but it’s not like I got to enjoy many of the days off–plus work kept calling and paging me anyway. I did see a lot of crappy TV when I wasn’t knocked out with Nyquil (who knew Tori Spelling had a reality show, or that there was a lobster-catching show as well as the crab-catching show?), and today my aches had declined sufficiently to leave the house for a veggie burger at Denny’s. I thought I was on the mend a couple of days ago and met Nicole at the gym and then for a nice dinner, but whoops, I wasn’t so well. Even David got part of the sickness.

My exciting purchase this week is a new office chair, which I’m not sitting in because we’ve been too ill to carry it downstairs. I’m excited about it because it met all my ergonomic requirements (I don’t take that stuff for granted anymore… I guess I’m old) AND it’s 60% recycled AND it’s not leather! Awesome. AND I had an awesome coupon! I even paid eight bucks to have them assemble it for me because I just didn’t feel like doing it. I must have arrived at wealthy status, because the old Amy would never have paid someone to do what she can do herself. Now if it were twenty bucks that would have been different.

Right after I spent too much on a chair, our microwave died. I no longer find the microwave to be super essential (meaning buy it the same day it dies) but it’s still pretty essential (within a couple of weeks). David has hated my microwave from the start, he being a person who probably wouldn’t have one if I hadn’t brought it with me, but we agree it’s nice to have. The discussions now are where it will go–in the wall? Over the stove? We have to know these things so we know what microwave to buy. But I’m just pissed that my microwave died after only two 3.5 years (yes, I looked it up…time sure flies). I thought I bought a fancy 1200-Watt unit so it would last (maybe not as long as the twenty years the previous one lasted, but still), and here we are having to decide about an appliance together. Are we ready for this kind of commitment, people!?

Guess who’s 30 today?

My baby brother!

A meme that’s been making the rounds, including at Chubby Mummy and Must Be Motherhood. I changed the one about things I like about autumn to my list of crap to do because while I like autumn, I really need the accountability more. And I combined the things on the wish list with the things needed/wanted because really, those seem the same, and I just don’t want that much stuff.

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch: (I don’t really love watching TV… but I like it on in the background while I do other stuff or fall asleep on the couch. Consequently I miss the end of at least 25% of what I watch. Thank goodness for TiVo.)
=> Suze Orman Show
=> Daily Show
=> The Office
=> King of the Hill
=> Breaking Bad
=> Battlestar Galactica
=> Living With Ed (has that been canceled?)
=> 30 Days (canceled?)

8 Favorite Places to Eat:
=> Shalimar (Indian)
=> Donatos carryout, especially with the $5-off-a-large online coupon!
=> Mediterrano Cafe (Middle Eastern)
=> The cafeterias at work where the chefs hook me up with hummus, vegetarian soups, tofu on the pasta bar, beans for the burritos, and other good stuff every day
=> Broad Ripple Brewpub, because at least half their stuff is vegetarian
=> Machu Picchu (Peruvian)
=> Yats (Cajun/Creole, always good veggie options)
=> Red Robin or Denny’s for great veggie burgers!

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
=> Flexed off some work hours to vote and get other stuff done
=> Bought 11 bottles of wine (I love the new boxed options, both for price and environmental/resource concerns)
=> Had Yats for dinner
=> President OBAMA!!
=> Drank too much wine and fell asleep during the acceptance speech
=> Cleaned the guinea pig cage
=> Put the soil back in my pot of mums that some creature dug out
=> Went to two meetings and didn’t get much of anything accomplished in either of them except scheduling more meetings! (Today: SAME THING)

8 Things I Look Forward To:
=> Wearing fall and winter clothes
=> Selling my house
=> Just-planted bulbs blooming in the spring
=> Marking a bunch of items off my to-do list
=> Travel
=> Visiting family
=> Bonded bunnies
=> Peace

8 Things on my To Do List:
=> Replace Jetta glow plug to get the engine light off
=> Repair Jeep flat tire
=> Take bike in for tune-up
=> Organize recipes
=> Rehome all the crap I don’t want anymore
=> Work with investment guy, make a plan
=> Administer fluids to my friends’ cat
=> Finish digging out roots and planting shrubs/bulbs

8 Things on my Wish List/Needs/Wants:
=> New office chair (ideally meeting ergonomic, non-leather, recycled, space demands!)
=> A clean house
=> Yakima racks on the car (purchased, just not yet installed)
=> Co-op membership
=> New pants for work
=> New cell battery
=> Better time mgmt/less procrastination (or just learning to deal with that aspect of myself)
=> More sleep

8 Things I’m Passionate About:
=> Animal welfare
=> Hunger/homelessness
=> GLBT rights
=> Peace
=> Grammar/spelling!
=> Lessening my environmental impact; sustainability
=> Adopting, not breeding, pets
=> Leading by example

8 Words or Phrases I Use Often:
=> What the heck
=> Nice driving, *sshole
=> Are you huuuuuungry?
=> Casper, shut up.
=> Did you just fart?
=> That can be recycled.
=> You can’t do that!
=> Your mom

8 Places I Would Love to Go or See or Visit:
=> Iceland
=> Thailand
=> Vancouver
=> Montreal (or was it Toronto?)
=> The Grand Canyon
=> Farm Sanctuary
=> Best Friends
=> Tropical beach

8 Things I Have Learned From My Past:
=> Don’t mouth off to people in charge
=> Don’t date anyone at work
=> People are generally good
=> Everyone is equal and deserving of respect
=> Eat dinner as a family (and cook it at home)
=> Go to college. It’s worth it for the experience, the pride/sense of accomplishment, and the extra income! Then push yourself to learn more
=> Work really hard. It impresses people and gives you a leg to stand on when you do need a break
=> Listen to your dentist

I guess I know I’m even busier than my usual busy when I can’t come up with the time to post here. The last few days I’ve been getting home late and falling asleep on the couch. I’m only checking email or using my home computer a couple of minutes in the morning… Once again, I either get enough sleep or I get everything done. Sleep wins this week!

I’ve ridden my new bike to work twice this week. It’s very light, agile, and fast (weighs at least 10 lbs less than my old bike) and I’m enjoying my time on it. Well, the way home still isn’t that much fun after a long day, but coming to work is zippy so far. It’s been fast enough that I am having to learn to pay more attention to obstacles, pedestrians, and traffic (like the school bus that nearly ran me down today) because I’m coming upon them more quickly and have less time to react.

My first ride on the new Bianchi was with people from work when we did a 20+ mile route around town, and while it wasn’t as fast as many road cyclists like to go, I felt able to keep up on my new contraption even while I was learning a totally new system of brakes, shifting, and steering. Even coming down the left lane of Meridian Street! One big benefit (and one of the reasons I chose this bike instead of another flat handlebar bike, which I thought I wanted) is that the rotated hand position above the forward-most set of front brakes makes my ergonomic injury (basically tennis elbow) feel MUCH better, instead of aggravating it like the traditional positions of using a mouse, rowing, and riding a flat bar bike do. I think I’m actually stretching the muscles in a way that combats my computer use!

I have a few brightly-colored wicking shirts and tanks which I wear to hopefully avoid getting smushed by inattentive drivers. A 10-year-old girl yelled from her porch the other day, “I like your shirt!” This is great because David HATES that pink shirt (like most pink things) and I trust a little girl’s fashion sense more. I yelled my thanks.

In other news, I recently had the chance to attend a benefit dinner for Lambda Legal through a ticket I won at work. I don’t discuss this topic much here, but GLBT rights are something I feel strongly about. I decided to go despite my discomfort with more formal, social occasions, primarily because I knew it was a good development opportunity. Even introverts should be able to interact and network with executives from their company. Finding a suit that still fit was a humorous affair, but fortunately I had one in my closet that worked. It was a lovely dinner–my eating preferences were even accommodated without too much hassle–and I met several vice presidents from my company. Bart Peterson, Indy’s former mayor, received an award for his work to make our city a more just place to live. Would you believe it’s only been in the last couple of years that it’s no longer legal to fire or evict someone in Indianapolis because he’s gay? Lambda Legal represents cases like these, or when HIV-positive people are denied government employment based on their health status, or lesbians who are denied fertility treatments because their doctors decide it’s morally wrong to let them raise children. What century is this??

The next night I met friends for Meatout, which was held at City Market this year instead of a church basement.

The venue was much more pleasant but the event seemed rather sparsely attended. I don’t think it’s advertised all that well. Some of the food was kind of blah, but I really enjoy going because I can eat ANYTHING there and it’s great to hang out with like-minded folks. Amanda and I staffed a table for IHRS and I carpooled with Nicole and Ainsley, who didn’t fall through the upstairs railing! I even won a Whole Foods Market raffle prize, which included a book I’d been wanting to read by a cattle rancher who went vegan, plus a cookbook, spatula, and a couple of snacks in a reusable shopping bag.

The rest of life has been bunny stuff lately, and a bit of experimental cooking. I tried a new recipe this week with spaghetti squash, spinach, chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and of course garlic and onion. A little salt and some cheese and that’s it! It was weird but pretty good.