If You Disagree With Me, You're WRONG

Lack of sleep can do strange things to a body...

Insomnia has been a part of me for so long that I've become pretty used to all of the weird side effects that go along with it.  Every now and then, though, something happens that makes me feel like I don't understand myself at all.

I've actually gotten a decent amount of sleep over the past week or so.  Only Saturday night was I up particularly late, but that was because we'd gone out -- and I made sure to sleep in.  Sunday night I got to sleep around Midnight, so a good day for me.  But this morning, I could NOT get out of bed.  Couldn't even think properly.  Didn't really wake up at all until early afternoon.

Given that my sleep hasn't been horrible lately, my guess is that my body just finally needed to catch up on everything, so took advantage of the sleep it was getting.  Luckily the husband was home to take care of the kids.  The kids are so funny -- they respect that I need to sleep, they WANT me to feel well, but they can't help but be active and exuberant.  What's amazing is that I slept through so much of it.

Ah well.  Soon school will be over and I can sleep in for most days.  That will be nice.

Because killing him once just wasn't enough...

She killed her 3 year old son.  Changed her mind and resuscitated him.  Changed her mind again so she killed him again:

Mom kills kid twice

What gets me (there's always something, isn't there?) is that 2 people kicked her out of their houses (her mom and her friend) because of the way that she treated her son.  Yet none of them called child services???  I wish these people would be charged with manslaughter or something, because it is JUST AS MUCH their fault as it is the murderous mother's.

Listen people:  If you see a child being abused, DO SOMETHING.  Don't just sit back and let it happen!  You don't have to raise the children yourself -- fuck the "takes a village" concept.  You just have to get children away from people that abuse them.

Shame on this mom, yeah, but shame EVEN MORE SO on the two people who knew what was happening (one to her own grandson!) and yet did nothing to protect him.  Why???  Why would they let it happen?  If only we could beat them for their stupidity.

Nail Polish will turn you GAY!!!!

Did you know that if you let your son paint his nails, he will TURN GAY???  I didn't either!  But apparently (I'm sure a scientist has proven this somewhere, right?) gayness is leached through nail polish.  Only for boys, though.  It must somehow interact with the y chromosome.

Other things that will turn your child gay:

Letting your son dress up in girls' clothes when playing.

Letting your daughter play softball or golf (there's no help for them at all then, I'm afraid).

Letting your son play with a "baby" (or a doll of any sort).

Letting your daughter have a pocket knife (those are only for MEN.  Not even boys.)

Letting your son listen to musicals. ('nuff said)

Letting your daughter play with bugs (only a lesbian would want to anyway.  Because lesbians are ALL about the bugs).

If you have done any of the above, it is probably too late for your children.  What a terrible parent you are.

If you have not done any of the above, consider yourself lucky so far, and do all you can to prevent the "gayness" from taking over.

What do you call someone who graduates from medical school last in their class?

Doctor.

Unfortunately, I seem to wind up with doctors that barely made it through.  Tonight I had an appointment, and this was the worst I've had to deal with in a long time.  The doctor clearly confused me with someone else.  She was wrong about what medications I take (I had to call my husband to confirm the dosage of one that SHE prescribed!), she forgot the purpose of the appointment, she forgot WHICH medications SHE had prescribed, and she also thought I'd called her office "many" times (I have called precisely 3 times; once to make the initial appointment, once to reschedule an appointment, and once today to confirm what time to arrive, since that's what the doctor TOLD me to do).

I literally was disgusted with this woman, and now I have to report her.  I don't LOOK for trouble, I really don't.  I make every effort to be an accommodating patient -- I just don't accept what they say without asking questions.  That is what set her off.  She wanted to prescribe ANOTHER med, since I'm still not sleeping, but I really didn't want that.  Which is when I found out that she hadn't even WRITTEN DOWN what medications she had prescribed for me.  This is someone that I'm supposed to trust with my health?

It is SO important to be an informed patient, to make sure that doctors don't make mistakes.  Can you imagine what might have happened if she HAD prescribed a medication, without remembering what she'd already done and what I was already taking?  Those are the kind of mistakes that kill people!  Because I was willing to fight her about my care, and question her about her choices, I averted what very well could have been a disaster.

Of course, the problem is that I'm not a heartless person.  I really don't LIKE having to argue with people.  I just don't always have an option.  Sometimes I do enjoy tweaking morons, but I cannot stand having the decision taken away from me.

To top it all off, I really had been having a decent day, despite the stupid idiot tick woman doing more idiotic shit.  So instead of having a decent day, I have to have assholes try to ruin it for me.

Can I beat something up???  Ugh.  I should just get laid.

Tweaking morons for fun and profit... well, for fun...

So remember the person who was all paranoid about swine flu??  Now (as she's been for the last 3 years) she's stuck on the subject of ticks.  Of course.  We get weekly updates on whether a tick has been found on her child, what kind of tick it is, and (most importantly, over and over and over) WHAT CAN THE SCHOOL DO TO STOP THE TICKS???  Of course, as we discover each and every time, there isn't ANYTHING that the school can do.  She knows this.  She is either deliberately being the most annoying person on the planet, or she is a moron.  Either way, she drives me up a fucking wall.

After her latest whiny, annoying email I couldn't stop myself.  I sent out a pretty obnoxious email, saying that she should STOP TALKING ABOUT THE DAMNED TICKS.  I'm prepared for some pretty nasty emails, but so far I've gotten one that's quite nice and supportive, and one response that was neither good or bad.

You know, I'm sure I've ticked her off, but I just plain don't care.  The woman is ALWAYS rude to me, and she has the whiniest voice in existence, so when she complains about EVERYTHING it's even worse than it would otherwise be.

Why are there so damned many pretzels in Chex Mix?

That's all.  I just wonder why.  I don't like pretzels.

I don't understand Star Trek...

See, my husband knows I don't like Star Trek, but he apparently hates me.  So I was FORCED (with the promise of sexual pleasure -- and then he FELL ASLEEP!) to watch the new movie.  Which he, apparently, thinks is the greatest thing since ice-cream.

But... well... I don't understand it!  He says that I wasn't paying enough attention (true), but there's a HUGE plot point which makes no sense to me.  I've asked him to explain it, but he can't adequately do so.  IF the plot point of that movie remains the way it is, then every series (except Enterprise, which is a prequel) is incorrect.  How can they leave it that way?  The only way that it is possible is if they intend to "fix" it in another movie.  Which, of course, is just irritating.

See, I really don't like time-travel story-lines, because there's no way to make them make sense.  Let's assume it IS an alternate reality -- okay, but how can you then KEEP it in a reality that isn't the same as what's always been?  Does this then make the rest of the shows and movies "alternate realities" which then means that they're going to start over????  ARRRRGGH!!!!!! NO!!!! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

It wouldn't be so damned bad if I'd at least gotten the sex.

When boys can no longer be boys...

So I've got a bit of a weakness for cheesy daily court-shows, like People's Court and Judge Mathis, etc.  I was watching PC today, and there was a case about an "out of control" 7 year old boy.  Who had, get this!, been allowed to have pocket knives.  Now, I'm not going into the merits of the case, or whether the boy really was behaving badly (some of it's up to debate, some of it I just wanted to smack the mother about).  But the "big deal" of the case was this:  A 7 year old boy was given pocket knives by his grandfather!!  Oh the horror!

What happened to little boys playing outside and making tree houses, etc., while using their trusty pocket knives?  The debate wasn't that THAT little boy had a knife, but that a 7 year old in general might have one. But that age is when little boys start joining Boy Scouts?  And that after some direction they get to have pocket knives!  The "some direction" is the key, of course, but that's where these generalizations become troublesome.  It is NOT unreasonable to allow a mature and capable 7 year old boy (or GIRL!) to have a pocket knife.  Pocket knives aren't weapons, people!  And 7 is not too young to be responsible for a knife that's little more than a portable steak knife.

We need to allow children to be children.  We need to stop attributing adult motives and behaviors to them.  We need to stop forcing children to live a life of staid and placid behavior.  If you can't act like a kid when you're 7, when CAN you be a kid?

I had knives when I was little, my brothers had knives, and you know what?  MY kids may not HAVE one yet, but both of my children know how to handle knives and know how to treat them with respect.  Teach your children well, and a pocket knife is no longer a danger.

Bowel Regulation has become the new Douche, or "do you ever feel not so regular?"

Remember those commercials for douches where a young woman would ask her mom "do you ever feel not so fresh?"  At which point the mother would explain about douching -- at least with the euphemisms acceptable for TV.

Those commercials are no longer common.  But now the latest "society health focus" is on "regularity".  If you can't poop right, take metemucel (better because it's clear!) or eat yogurt (with bifidus regularis!), or listen to Emeril show us foods for a healthy digestive system.  Because being able to poop will make your life better, get you that much closer to perfect!  Woo hoo!

Listen people, if pooping regularly were an indicator of happiness, I've got to be one of the most extremely happy people in general. I wonder how many people have actually bought a dish that is "scientifically proven" to make you poop.  Would people WANT to admit to that?  I dunno, but if this what people who DON'T crap all time must strive for, it seems a little... well, a bit of a "grass is always greener" mindset going on there. I can't poop. Must take mass doses of over the counter "regulators".  If you can't poop?  Well, sucks to you!

Is there such a thing as an hypochondriac by proxy?

Ever heard of Munchausen By Proxy? Munchausen By Proxy Info  Basically, it's when someone (typically a mother) causes injury to someone else (typically their own child) in order to garner sympathy for themselves.

Well, I have an acquaintance that I suspect has some derivation of that, which I call "hypochondria by proxy".  Before this woman had a child, she had many "health problems" that necessitated numerous (and I mean MANY) trips to doctors and hospitals and specialists, though rarely was anything shown to genuinely be wrong.  All of her "illnesses" were symptom based, not provable.  Coming from someone like me, who has so many damned things wrong with her, and doctors who are stumped, I can say with honesty that *I* didn't believe what she said was wrong with her.

So now she has a child.  And now HER problems have almost "magically" disappeared (she still has SOME, of course, but they don't seem to require hospitalizations or doctors visits, or even medications any more!).  However, her child, who ISN'T EVEN BIOLOGICALLY RELATED TO HER, has similar (even, in some cases, the exact same) problems, as well as others of her own.  She's constantly being dragged to doctors and specialists.  She's frequently in the hospital, despite there never being any evidence of the illnesses that the mother claims, and the issues are NEVER reproducible.  Because of the mother's disclosures this poor child is on so many medications and is severely limited in her everyday activities based on these supposed illnesses.  I've watched this child for YEARS, and I have personally seen NO evidence of what this mother claims, even when the mom says it is happening RIGHT THEN.

God, this has made me so sick!  I am not friends with this woman any longer, I can't bring myself to even talk to her, because I know that I am going to lose it if I do.  I'm unsure whether it's serious enough to call Child Services.  I don't believe the mother is CAUSING a problem with her child (I don't think, for example, that she's poisoning her to make her ill).  Quite frankly, I don't think anything's wrong with the child AT ALL.  *Maybe* asthma, since a mutual friend has said she's seen wheezing.  But anything else?  I don't think any of the rest of it is true.  But I do think that making this child take so many medications, that making her go to so many doctors and spend so much time in the hospital, is abusive.  I am disgusted by these doctors that base their decisions solely on what the mother discloses.  How can they not question it when they look at this child's medical records?

I know, based on what the mother claims, that she frequently changes doctors and goes to specialist after specialist until one is willing to give the diagnosis that she wants.  What prompted this most recent anger on my part?  Now, OF COURSE, she believes her daughter has "Swine Flu".  Knowing her, what will happen is that she will go to doctor after doctor after doctor until she gets to one (weeks from now) who is willing to say that MAYBE she had it (because at that point, it will be past any visible symptoms and the doctor will have to rely on what is being said).  THEN the mother will be satisfied, and maybe the poor child will be cut a break.

Maybe you think that, as an outsider, I just don't know what is really going on, especially since I don't really interact with her anymore.  Well, this is a child that supposedly needed to eat every 2 hours because she would start behaving badly; needed to take like 6 different meds from the time she was 3 because of "ADHD"; needed to have inhaler treatments several times a day because of her "asthma".  She started kindergarten this year.  Despite all of these issues, she doesn't have ANY of these problems at school!  None of the teachers have seen evidence of ADHD (despite the mother's claim that the meds aren't working).  She eats, along with the rest of the class, at lunch and snack and is very well behaved the rest of the time.  She has never had an asthma attack at school.  Don't you think that if she were in the least bit disruptive, that the teachers would jump on the chance to "fix" it with the resources the mother has made available to them?  Instead, while she's at school during the day there are NO problems; only when she comes home.  I can't imagine what the mother will do next now that she has nothing else to focus on all day.  She doesn't work, she doesn't cook, she doesn't really clean -- I have no idea how she spends those hours.

So at what point do I say that I can't watch this happen any more?  At what point do I say that this has crossed over into abuse and that the kid needs help?  For those of us who have genuine health problems (even ones that we don't know the cause of), it's completely insulting and horrifying.  For those whose children have real health/behavioral problems, it must feel even worse.  I am completely conflicted, as I have been for years, about how to deal with this woman.  I wish I felt more confident that it was a clear case of abuse.  I don't know how much more I can stand to see/hear without reporting her.  It sickens me to see what's going on.