TW and the quirky meme thing

TW tagged me, popped up on my IM out of the clear blue sky and said "You've been tagged." In my incredible eloquence I managed to reply "Huh?"

Ah crap, so here are 5 Quirky Things.

1) When driving, I need the music loud. When in the passenger seat, I must have the music quiet. This baffles the man. Hell, I can't say it makes much sense to me either.

2) I have to be completely dressed before I can make coffee in the morning. Not necessarily with shoes, but clothes on, hair brushed, no pyjamas. This applies only when I am actually making the coffee. I can consume coffee that I do not prepare whilst in my pyjamas.

3) I have a thing about driving on bridges in reduced visibility situations. In the rain, in fog, on a rainy foggy night... I see my car hurtling over the edge, falling quickly toward the shallow water below... As long as I am not driving I'm ok. But if I'm driving, I almost work myself into a full-blown anxiety attack.

4) I am 36 but I'm still not quite convinced that I'm aging. I go to concerts and dance like I'm 16, when I'm not passing out -- a new experience. I listen to (and like) my kids' music. I know all the words to "Happy Holidays, You Bastards" and I find them remarkably funny, not offensive.

5) I work in the fertility and infertility field. I tell women how to get pregnant, how to maximize their chances, supporting them when they feel bad or less female because of these difficulties... and my only personal fertility issue was trying to prevent pregnancy.

I tag....... Leona and Shelly.

Live, Wednesday night!

Brenda, my cast, and I went to see Sugarland and Brad Paisley last night. What an awesome show!

Sugarland opened and put on an energetic show. They opened up with a cover of U2's "Still Havent Found What I'm Looking For." I really like Sugarland and was so pleased with their performance (I could listen to "Hello" every day from now on) that I thought that Brad would be a let-down.

No way. He opened with "The World" and just kept going. From "Mud on the Tires" and "Alcohol" to a pretty good cover of Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" and a very funny song about "Put the Toilet Seat Down." Haha.

Something I noticed was how very much Brad Paisley resembles Jeff Gordon. I'm not a Gordon fan, so it was a touch unnerving.

It was irritating when he sat down to play acoustic guitar and the stupid drunks around me kept calling for ALCOHOL. It made it hard to hear "When I Get Where I'm Going" which is truly one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard and a song of personal meaning.

But all in all, great show. In Brenda's words "It was WONDERFUL!"

The View from the Pier

Enjoy. I might run away. Maybe move here and make jewelry, open a little shop...

I could do that.

Splinted!

They were not kidding when they said "splint for 10 days." I have a plaster half-cast from fingertips almost to my elbow. It's wrapped in cottony stuff, and an Ace bandage. And I'm typing one-handed, s.l.o.w.l.y.

I have not had any percocet since last night. I'm not hurting anymore. This is good. Because I can't drink while taking narcotics, and I am about to leave on a trip that I think will require some/heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages, due to events of the last few days.

It's lousy timing to be splinted. But that may be my masochistic side talking. Why wouls I choose nastiness over a surgery that wll help my pain level in the long run? Maybe I don't feel like I'm taking my share of heat? Or that I've left a good friend in the lurch?

I'm sorry I was not there for you, friend. I'm sorry I may not be there for you in the future. I hope karma takes over soon.

Things That Are Irritating

1) Ganglion cysts - mine are coming out tomorrow and I hope the pain will be gone after the surgery. I hope I hope.

2) MP3 Player earbuds - Why do they tangle so badly, so easily? It's crazy!

3) Ex-husbands, husbands, male teenaged children - no explanation is necessary

4) Email - it just plain sucks and you know it

5) Homeowner Associations - I like my plants. They grew this way. I don't like yours. You trimmed them in an unnatural shape. Why does that mean I have to change mine? Plants are NOT meant to be square!

6) Blogger - error messages that aren't really happening are annoying

7) Tea stains on new pants - I hope Kohl's has another pair. Nothing I tried got the stain out and they were my favorite new pants.

8) People who speed down my street on Halloween - The Bird Lady threw Reese's Peanut Butter Cups at speeders on her street last night. That was satisfying.

9) Poor-quality MP3s from Napster - If you're going to put a track up there, clean it up!

10) No Venti cups at Starbucks this morning - Two grandes just isn't the same.

I have learned Victoria's Secret

Her secret is, if you have big boobs you can't buy a bra there.

Sure, if you have small boobs, you can buy a bra that makes you look like you have big boobs, but if you actually grew (or bought and paid for) those puppies, you are out of luck.

My favorite bra broke. Bali doesn't make that style anymore. So, God help me, I was watching TV and the ad for IPEX bras came on. They look really similar to my favorite bra that no longer adjusts for Lefty, so I says to myself, "Self, let's try VS and maybe get a couple matching sets, because you like that sort of thing."

So Self and I get to VS and check sizes, lo and behold they DO make a 38D! Self and I are happy! Then we try the thing on. There is no way in hell this bra is a 38D. I've got the right band size, but that cup is claiming to be a Venti, but it's midway between a Tall and a Grande.

How do you buy bras there? Pick your band size and the cup size you would LIKE to be?

And what on earth is with all the pink crap? Sigh, I'll try Macy's next.

Flintstones, Meet the Flintstones...

The kids are calling this the Flintstones hurricane. I'm calling it a pain in the ass.

Work has been demanding this week and I have not gone to Costco for groceries and supplies. Now I get to go tomorrow like the rest of the state. and wait in line with the rest of the state.

One good thing, UM (useless man) is not in town this weekend. But he is calling me every 3 hours with "I want you to head north right away if you gt scared" acting all concerned. I am NOT scared. Apprehensive, yes. But I'm not afraid this thing is coming here to rip off my roof. We went through three last year, and lost a handful of shingles and two fence panels. What I'm apprehensive about is the shortages of food, and gas that we experienced last year, and my family being without power for two weeks again.

Here's hoping Wilma pretends to be a Mayan ruin and dies on the Yucatan.

For My Darling Sneadwoman

For you, love. Mwah.

I thought I'd scan these and post so you could see. Great! Right?

Well.

Dammitalltohell, I get it scanned and uploaded and go to get the tix off the scanner and the damned lid sucks one off and shoots it down the back!

This wouldn't be a problem, but... (and you knew there was a but) MY SCANNER SITS ON TOP OF A BIG ASS FULL BOOKSHELF AND IT WENT BEHIND THERE!

And it's not like my office is the pinnacle of neatness either, mind you.

So shit. I have to pull it out and find the damn ticket. Now you know how much I love you. Anything else would be considered lost.

Vanity

I will admit it. I am vain. I take pleasure in my physical appearance now that I've lost weight. I take greater pleasure in other things and it's not all what I'm about so don't email me about how wicked I am.

I had a successful pair of surgical procedures a few weeks ago. One doesn't relate to vanity. But the excisional biopsy does now. Three weeks ago I was worried that the little marble and its pea-sized companion were possibly cancerous. I'm pleased to sy they were not, nor were the other assorted and removed stuff-growing-where-it-should-not. "No evidence of malignancy" is quite possibly the most beautiful phrase in the English language.

A week after the surgery, the steri-strips got to come off Lefty. Either I left them on too long or not enough because they stuck on one spot. OW. And then I looked. I'd been joking about Frankenbooob but didn't expect to see it. And I saw it. It was a very angry red puffy raised ridged scar. With a raw sore spot. Frankenbooob. Damn.

So now it's 3 weeks later. The raw spot is gone, the red and anger and puffy are gone now. Dr B said the ridge should dissipate within 3 months. but the tissue is healing now and I'm getting a hard mass under the hard ridged scar.

Here's where vanity comes in. I like my boobs. I really do like them. Somehow in a week I went from worrying about BrCa to the thickness of this ridge on my scar. It's amazing how perspectives change. But now there is a scar on Lefty, and if I raise my arm, it pulls funny. I've lost some sensation, and I have an ugly scar that feels funny. I'd like to get naked with somebody again, at some point. What then? I don't think it's bad enough to get the Ewww! face and a "thanks I'll call you" but it's still something in the back of my head.

Maybe I just need to get over it. Maybe I should take a picture and send it to boobiethon for 2006.

It's Been Such a Long Time...

Reading my buddy Sneadwoman's blog, I felt scolded into catching up here. It's been a long few months, healthwise, familywise, and workwise. Who wants to read about my day-to-day crap? Nobody. Do I want to write about it? Not while it's overwhelming me. So there you have it.

I have surgery tomorrow for the matter previously mentioned in this blog. At the same time (yeah, a two-fer) Dr Boob* will be doing an excisional biopsy on the mystery lump I've had for over a year. It doesn't show up on any imaging devices, but the damn thing is there, so for piece of mind Lefty will be losing a little bit of bulkage. I have it to spare, no no big.

I had an MRI a few weeks ago for my wrist. At age 36, I find out I have arthritis. What in the world is up with that?!? I type all day, my hobby is jewelrymaking, I can't have arthritis. Jeez. Well, it isn't bad yet. The MRI was to asses a nasty ganglion that has been drained, injected, ruptured several times and keeps coming back, hurting worse every damn time. It's shaped like a barbell, one head outside and one head inside my wrist. No wonder it hurts like it does! Removal scheduled for November 2. Three days off work, then vacation for a week with a good friend, meeting up with other good friends, and going to Savannah, where we not-so-young but incredibly fun-loving women will terrorize the taverns, pubs, and fine dining establishments. The wrist splint will not impair my drinking abilities, I assure you!

On the family front, my husband thinks I should purchase for him a new Jeep. This probably is due to my purchase of a Durango earlier this year, after many years of driving a beat up foreign four-banger 5-speed with no a/c. This is while he drove the relatively new minivan, failed to maintain it, and turned it into a toilet. Now I have a super-clean 4WD SUV that I keep neat clean, tidy, and running right while he continues to trash his vehicle. Maybe I'm cheap but why have a car payment when you have a perfectly serviceable vehicle with plenty of miles left on it that is PAID FOR. I guess it's just not cool enough, and he IS approaching 40 real quick.

Work, good lord... What used to be a passion is feeling like indentured servitude. I stay for the benefits. I don't like being thrown under the bus, and it's happened a lot lately. But I have surgeries coming up and it would not be prudent to give notice and have to pay a million dollars a week to COBRA. Although... with some of the crap I've gone through in the appointments and tests thus far, I think I could have negotiated a lower price than my copays plus premiums. I pay extra for the fabulous and wonderful (cough) PPO plan on my BC/BS and for the first time in my life I got a bill for a copay to the lab that processed my pap smear! WTH is that all about? I've been getting at least one a year for the last, oh, 20 years or so... never have I gotten a separate lab bill. What happened to diagnostic testing being covered at 100%? That's what I thought I got this damn buy-up for! Trust me, I will look VERY carefully next year at the options. I think the plan a step down from the super-duper mucho-spendy PPO plan would have cost less over the long run, plus it has an out of pocket maximum to cap my spending, something the PPO doesn't have.

Crap, blog-break over, back to the salt mines. Since I quoted Boston in the title, I'll sign off it too... I think I should be going.