Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth' : NPR

Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth' : NPR

Great....

So now she's written a new book and I HAVE to get it....(*smirks*)

Books Beneath The Reading Radar : NPR

Books Beneath The Reading Radar : NPR

Because reading is fundamental! Because I believe in the 'Road Less Traveled' when it comes to just about anything (literature, movies, life...)

As for the rest of you - here is NPR's suggestions for the 'Best books of '08' - in all genres

Candy Canes Fight Germs, Settle Stomachs : Discovery News

Candy Canes Fight Germs, Settle Stomachs : Discovery News

I have always known this about peppermint...

As a matter of fact, I used to practice employing herbal remedies back in the day - actually since I was about 17...I've gotten away from it - 'tis a pity...time to go back to those wiccan/pagan ways I suppose (old mountain medicine/medicine woman stuff)....

Grrrrrrrr to the 100thpower

As stated in my last post - I am sick - really sick...

I just got my health insurance at work - however I did not get a new 'medical' card yet proving my insurance coverage(mind you I have my Rx card and the card saying I have Vision coverage). According to the HR people tho, that was 'OK' and I was to not avoid going to the doctor because I was to insist that the doctor's office put the bill through anyway. (Which I should have realised was not a good idea but hey...).

So today I managed to get myself an appointment at the doctor's office - when I called, I explained the situation to the girl on the phone and she set up the appt.
I show up at the desk and I get harassed for not having my medical card - I begin to get nasty with the girl at the desk and she informs me it's not her - it's the 'Clinic's policy' - I asked her what Dr. Toby Cosgrove does when indigent people need medical care - or for that matter people who are unconscious - what the fuck is up with health care in this country? At any rate this woman did her best to help - she tried calling up my insurance provider (closed of course). They let me get seen anyhow. (How very kind and compassionate of them).

I get take back to the room by a male nursed - he asks me why I am there - I tell him I am dying - he laughs and I go onto to complain that because people seem to think it is OK to 'cook' meth from the ingredients in cold remedies that the current OTC fare doesn't do a damn thing. He laughs at this as well - good thing I did not offend him - I am so miserable...

So the doctor comes in and I plead my case and she prescribes good old-fashioned antibiotics because I KNOW I am getting a sinus infection at this point.

So now, Rx in hand I go to the pharmacy armed with my new card. I give the Rx to the lady behind the counter and after wandering the store for a couple of minutes, I get called back to be told that when she punched the numbers in for my Rx card (which again I JUST FUCKING GOT IN THE MAIL), that they system was telling her it was expired - so she too offers to call the company about the situation - I cut her off and ask how much it will cost me out of pocket because now I am so fuming I can barely see straight....$20 she said - SOLD I say....

You know, it's bullshit - absolutely bullshit that I had to go through this and not just because I am sick. I don't want to go into work and raise a stink on Monday but I have to - it's not just me depending on my medical coverage, it's my family too. What I see here is such a mess in all aspects of the nightmare that passes for health care in this country. No wonder people are so angry. How do we fix it? Well I think we need socialised medicine here - but that is not the entire answer. We need for the people in the health industry to get their acts together, we need for the left hand to talk to the right hand. We need to remember why we care for the sick in the first place. We need to step up to the plate and embrace alternative and complimentary practices and preventative medicine. We need to become more compassionate about the things that truly matter....

But hey - what the hell do I know? I need to go lie down now and make my head stop feeling like it is going to explode from cotton balls and rubber cement being wedged up inside of it...I need Erin to come home and hold me (for a little while at least).

Love to you all....may the coming New Year be very, very healthy for you or at least well covered insurance-wise.

Merry Christmas

...despite dying...Christmas was nice.

This year, Erin and I had a special 'stocking' evening where we gave each other some risque gifts and spent some much needed romantic time. The gifts Erin got for me this year were very romantic and filled with the depth of his love for me and the commitment to our relationship.

I hope I was able to do as good a job in the gift-giving department for him....

Yesterday we woke up - sat together in the living room and opened presents with the children - it was lovely - but then I ended up spending most of the rest of the day in bed - later in the day, discovering the wonder that is Hulu and basically being really, really sick with a cold. I have not been this sick in a while...but still it was wonderful being with Erin and the kids.

The 6 Phases of Work

The 6 Phases of Work » Snuzzy

(This was sent to me a while back - not sure if I posted it or not (see brain-deadness and boredom - the duo death knell....LOL))

^-^

The light of wisdom...

Sometimes it takes someone else to show you the right path...

If it were not for a dear old friend I think this 'rut' I have been in would have taken root...

His simple words and wisdom have shown me another way of looking at things...

My dearest jaan - I love you - thank you for reminding me that there is a different way...thank you for your help and wisdom.

Inshallah may everything you hope for be granted unto you.

Blessings upon you and your loved ones.

Always,
Colette

Bleh...humbug...

I am miserable....

Part of me hates this time of year...part of me loves it...

I have a headcold and all I want to do is sleep. Things are stressful and all I want to do is pack my bags and go away from them....

There are some bright spots here and there...Erin and I went to see Eileen Ivers perform her 'An Nollig' (An Irish Christmas) show with The Cleveland Orchestra on Friday evening and actually got to hang out with C2 and Wendy which was extremely fun and wonderful and I miss C2 an awful lot...

But where there's stress, there's fire and there's lots of upsetedness and I feel so bad...like I am suppose to be little miss suzie sunshine and I just can't manage it...like I am letting people down...I am struggling to maintain and keep things in check and it's just not seeming to work out and I so don't want to visit this on the people I love the most. But I am hurting...

I want to pour my heart out on a page somewhere and leave the bloody imprint and purge my soul of all of it's darkness but I haven't a clue how to do that...

I try over and over to get away from these things but like some fucking monster under the bed it pursues me and there's no antidote, no comfort, no respite...

I want to stop feeling so lost, so overwhelmed, so sad at times in that 'non-use-of-drugs-to-numb-myself' kind of way but sometimes I think that's all there is...

I think about my past - the people stuck there frozen in time - those relationships that never quite go away, the 'hauntings', and the ones that 'never quite were' and I want to take a brick and smash the mirror that reflects them so that they too will disappear from the landscape of my psyche..

It's like I want to join a fucking witness protection program or something...*laughs* or the carnival...

Bah!

I just want someone to tell me that everything will be OK. To hold me and comfort me and let me be totally selfish and childish and somehow take all this from me - sort of like a Gethsemane moment - Father I don't want to drink from this cup anymore - just pass it onto the next schmuck....

Geez...am I really this selfish?

Yeah it figures I go to write and all I manage to pour out is misery...when all I wanted to say was Blessed Solstice...

But perhaps that's the point - perhaps sometimes we are suppose to be immersed in darkness so we can more appreciate the lightness when it strikes or some such psycho-babble shit...

Who knows..

Blessed Solstice to you all - may your winter be dark but filled with warmth to stave off the cold.

Selling The Bawdy Side Of Christmas : NPR

Selling The Bawdy Side Of Christmas : NPR

Intersting article (including the 'Pagan' origins of this holiday...).

I have mixed feelings - but I am kind of erring on the side of not being 'bawdy' - nothing wrong with being 'naughty' for the right reasons I suppose - but part of me feels more and more things are becoming 'tainted'.

Fla. police close books on '81 Walsh killing - Yahoo! News

Fla. police close books on '81 Walsh killing - Yahoo! News

WOW! Just wow....

I remember this case. That poor family - well may they finally have some peace now - as much as one can as a parent of a murdered child. Adam -- I hope you are resting in peace as well.

A partridge in a pear tree.....

....well kinda sorta...



I 'bought' a flock of chicks through Heifer International to help a family in a 3rd world country to feed themselves.

I just needed to do something like that this year...I really need to do more...

FiFi (a.k.a. Fabrette) & PePe

*Meow...purrrrs* (unfortunatley I can not find a picture of Fabrette)

EDIT: Thanks to the wonderful Liam here is a picture of the two of them:


(for you my Love *giggles*)

Quotes...

"Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking."
- Dave Barry

"The prime purpose of eloquence is to keep other people from talking."
- Louis Vermeil

"CNN is one of the participants in the war. I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected president but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power."
- Arthur C. Clarke

Life...in general...

So much to tell - so little time...

Erin and I have just passed the 6-month anniversary of our wedding day.

The weekend began when we took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky Friday night for an over-night stay. Despite me being quite a bit under the weather, it was a great time....the kids loved it. I love them. It is so nice to see them play and have fun.

That same evening, we got to celebrate with 130 people - how nice! The 'scoop' is that we went to a function at our church - a pot-luck dinner - and we decided to bring along some wine left over from our wedding. Well, we told a couple of our closer friends there what we had done because they were wondering why we brought a 1/2 case of wine - and when the program began it was 'announced' that we were celebrating our 6-month 'anniversary'. Everyone in the room sang 'Happy Anniversary' to us...

I was once again a blushing bride and throughout the evening people gave us their warmest wishes.

The next day - the day of our actual anniversary - we got up, taught our PSR class - which is a blast and always interesting for me at least...went afterwards to mass and then went home where we got to decorate the tree with the kids. Things like this hold a special place in my heart. My only sadness is that my own kids are not with me to do these things...I miss them so much sometimes....

This weekend...I get to spend some much needed alone and 'down time' (*wink*, *wink*, *nudge*, *nudge*) with my love...I am so very much in love...

I owe some more writing - actual writing here....perhaps some other time....

Love and Peace to you all.

Colette