The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => People & Places => Topic started by: side_show on September 12, 2006, 02:41:28 am
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And for TOUAMB's 3000th topic, I bring you: Not Dying!
I noticed everyone's stopped posting to the dying thread... so what's up? How goes the road to wellville? Me? I've gotten really bored of healthful eating and putting any effort what so ever into my diet. All very bad things. Since I've just started back at my Admin job, I'm using the excuse that I'm too busy, too absorbed in getting back into the old routine.
But yeah, I haven't weight my self in a few weeks, but I'm pretty sure that after reaching my goal that I've sort of back-slided.
What's up with the rest of you kids? Sweatin' to the oldies anyone?
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I was hoping this wouldn't come up for a couple of weeks. I did really good for the first week I was on the road, then I discovered the miracle of free breakfast (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmcd9/211965190/) and it's been all downhill since then.
I'll be home soon and a renewed effort will commence.
~Paul
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I've been doing okay - not eating as well as I should when a friend was in town and we ate out a lot. Not exercising as much as I should with first the heat wave and then the rain but this week I'm back to exercising and my heart is hurting again, so hopefully that'll stop after I keep up the exercise for a bit but dang, it's a little scary. My chest still hurts a little from my walk earlier and I still feel this lightness in my chest, like there's a little balloon down there and it's still inflated when I exhale. I'm not sure what that's about.
Anyway, if I survive the night I'm going to continue walking again tomorrow - I'll just take it a lot easier and slower up the big hill.
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Haven't weighed myself recently and I am sure that my eating habits are as atrocious as ever but!
I started fencing again. I've been saying I'll do this for the last three goddamn years and I finally bought the gear and I'm doing it. Feels so f*cking good!
Only once a week at the moment but that combined with the walks I usually take to walk and back a couple of times a week means I'm just a little bit closer to a reasonably healthy adult.
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I got a bag of trail mix with M&M's. Man, it's so good. Hold on, gotta grab diet soda.
Ok, got it. Yeah... haven't been exercising too much, but I should get on track once I get into more of a routine with school.
The goal I set for myself is still Dec 1. It's certainly obtainable, and I still think I have the potential to produce a miracle.
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Even with not exercising (much) and eating pretty badly most days over the past two weeks, I'm still losing a litlte *tiny* bit. I'm down about a pound or so since last week.
I'm on to weighing myself every day now - because in order to measure your water balance you really have to take a moving average rather than your weight at any given time. You could be +/- 2lbs on any given day and it doesn't mean you've put on weight since then, you're just holding onto some fluid.
So now I'm using the Hacker's Diet guide to measuring true weight and it's actually more encouraging. My scale only moved to the right (weight up) once, and I vowed never again. I'm not sure I can hold up that vow, but dang, it feels good to be a gangster. Oh, and it feels good to be always moving the weight down, even if only by a little bit.
I'm at my lowest weight since I've been measuring, and I'm down 47 pounds since the beginning of June.
Granted, I still have a LONG way to go to 180, my goal weight. I'm at 378 right now. That's right - I still need to lose almost 200 pounds.
My next milestone is obviously 350. It'll mean I can use the more accurate scale too, so that'll help. I'm hoping I can drop these 28 pounds by the end of the year. It's about mid-September now, so over the next 14 weeks that means an average of 2lbs a week, which probably means I'm not going to make it.
But whatever. If I'm only at 359 by the end of the year I won't exactly be crying, you know?
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I never posted much to the Dying thread, but with the new school year, growing up and all, I'm making a pretty big effort to improve my health. I'm cycling the miles to school now (buses are terrible anyhow), and whenever I have a spare moment I'll do press-ups and sit-ups until I pass out. Well, slight exaggeration, but I really feel that if I don't get into the habit of keeping my self in shape I never will. It's time to stop coasting on the high metabolism of the teen years, basically.
Besides, the girls aren't going to impress themselves, right? Girls like muscles, right?
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damn you, judy. I need to do those things.
but it is so easy just to eat large amounts of cheeseburgers and quesadillas, and Not Do Exercise. Except the walk to classes every day, which is... maybe a mile? maybe 3/4 of a mile? maybe more? I should measure.
more importantly: the only Green things I have eaten since I got to school were the various sprouts and such in my Pad Thai the other day. this is something I should probably work on.
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Not dying, huh? I'm either generating a new ulcer, or just having random stress based stomach cramps. I'm not sure I even want ot know... Either way I've spent three days suffering crippling stomach pains and have failed to adjust diet or anything to make any kind of difference to it. I've got a couple of different medications but don't aprticularly want to take either as it's obviously all down to stress anyway and I ought to be able to deal with it without chemicals.
It's kind of put a damper on my excercise regime, but then so has the mood I've been in since I got back from abroad. Mostly just means my legs are kind of sore, but that could also be down to my fucked up sleep pattern thanks to rolling around in bed all night, doubled up.
On the upside, today I only feel like shit, not like dying. There's always a silver lining.
*sigh*
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ash-- judy and I both have physiques which will not quickly turn into "veins sticking out of arms" style. I think the goal is more "be able to lift a small girl, or carry a Weight for some time."
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(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/Godzilla_violist/Holywafersjustdonttasteright.jpg)
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Thanks, Ash. I'm hoping to break the magic 50lb barrier by the end of the month, if not sooner. I may push a little this week to drop the 3lbs, but I'm not going to hurt myself for a number. The whole point is getting healthier - the weight is just the easiest indicator of progress.
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This summer has been pretty lame for me, health-wise; a fairly sedentary lifestyle, plus my parents' regrettable tendencies towards convenience food, has resulted in a certain level of weight gain. My clothes still fit, and I haven't been sold to the circus or anything, but it's still something I want to reverse ASAP. Luckily, I've just moved into my grad-school apartment and will start cooking on my own; I endeavor to eat as well, and eat out as little, as possible. We'll see how it goes.
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I absolutely swear, I was just about to make some more or less minor changes to my work schedule so that I could easily start going to the gym. I had paid the dues and everything. And I had also come up with a scheme where I only eat ice cream once a week when I fill the car with gas at the station which is near the really good ice cream store.
But then I got two phone calls about new job possibilities and all my spare time is taken up with being in a tizzy. And I also absolutely swear that I have no idea where this box of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream cones came from. You know, the ones that are like the cones you used to buy from the ice cream truck wrapped in a paper wrapper, but a thousand times better? Yeah, those. I swear I didn't buy them.
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What a relief to know that it's not just me. And good luck to the spouse.
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I have started a couple classes at the community college (not Basket Weaving or Wino Poker (http://achewood.com/index.php?date=08112004), but basically for-real Psych and PoliSci classes) and have also been walking some blocks each day to and from the relevant mass transit stations. Taking classes is not really a health matter so I'm not sure if it belongs in this thread, but it does put me a little closer to Having A Life instead of Spending All Day On The Internet.
(This is partly why I haven't posted much lately.)
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Ben: Which community college?
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Ben: Why not Wino Poker, dammit?
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Jough: Community College of Philadelphia. Is there another, more awesomer CC I should know about?
Wombat: I don't think wino-poker credits are transferable.
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Ben: I went to the Delaware County Community College before going to real college, and it was way more awesome than the CC of Philly.
67% awesomer.
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man, no. the only Acceptable community college is "CPCC"-- Central Piedmont Community College. I have at least 2 friends attending there.
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Okay.
For me, basically there is some seriously bad garbage going on that is out of my controle. My mother's serious mental health issues, the rest of my family's total refusal to address them (they fully acknowledge the problems to me, but deny them to my mother), and my mother's fairly constant intrusion into my life in ways the are not healthy or happy for any of the involved parties is basically the core problem.
What it boils down to is the need for me to have peace in my life: to either become completely estranged from my family, or get some serious conselling to find the tools to let go of the years of abuse and deal with the constant and very disturbing intrusions of her into my life. Or both. I don't really have the courage to do either of these things right now. I'm sort of stalled. Either choice means a lot of pain and tough times. I don't know what to do.
So, when it comes to wellness, this is where I'm at. Basically personal chaos.
When it comes to the physical wellness side of things, as I said earlier, I'm off track right now. I've been too distracted, and too down. I just want to sit on the couch. Jough, I'm so impressed by your progress, and it made me want to get back to the gym and back to eating right. I can't let the "poor me" feeling win, right? Yeah, so I need to set my next goal - I'm shooting for 10 pounds before I go to Indonesia.
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I haven't done fuck-all to improve my health lately. Then again, I flew with the girl to Florida at the end of August...with two ear infections and sinus issues. That took about two weeks and a course of amoxicillin to rectify.
So...I went back to the James for the first time in weeks ( haven't been there enough to call it the gym ) and that went as well as could be expected.
Still, I feel like Sisyphus and that fuck*ng rock. Hence my lack of posting.
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SS: You are too Rad to give up on yourself, freaking ever. I am a total coward so my reaction would probably be estrangement (I kind of like being estranged anyway) but I guess this is not a viable long term option. Then again, your first responsibility is always to yourself to make sure you are well and happy before you try to make your family happy too so maybe it wouldn't be terrible to just remove yourself from the stuff that is troubling you so you can get yourself together.
Limmo: The Ja... oooooh well done sir.
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I'm late on this one, I guess...but good luck to you, Smells, on dealing with your family. I've not been in that situation but I wish you the best.
Good luck to everyone else on your quests not to die any sooner than necessary. For my part, I lost all the Baby Weight in June, then put 5 lbs. back on during two back-to-back vacations in July/August. So I want to get rid of that before Thanksgiving so I can put it back on over Chirstmas. ::)
I've also gone back to my yoga studio this past week after a summer-long hiatus. It's really good for me, body and soul, and helps with some of the stresses of motherhood and grad school and everything else. I felt significantly better about P's diagnosis when I walked out of class Thursday night, although I couldn't really say why.
Man, I wish I could hang around here more. But I've got to finish my homework for class tomorrow. (sigh.) One more semester...and then I'm seriously considering taking classes to become a yoga instructor. If I'm not burned out on school, that is...
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One more semester...and then I'm seriously considering taking classes to become a yoga instructor.
I vote yes.
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If by "a yoga instructor" you mean you'll shoot videos so you can sell DVDs of you doing yoga, then sign me up as a customer. ;)
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Ha, ha.
But seriously, I'm totally in love with yoga, and I think it would be a fun part-time thing to teach a class or two a week. (I taught ballroom dancing part-time in college, so I know something about this type of work, and I know there are parts of it that suck.) I'd particularly like to teach kids & teens classes, I think. It's just a weird thing to want to do with my life when I've worked this hard to go to grad school.
It's not the first time I've had these kinds of thoughts -- when I was fresh out of college the first time 'round I seriously considered getting a cosmetology license, but the training was too expensive for something I wasn't sure about. I always thought I'd be good with hair, though.
This might be on a different track from the original purpose of this thread, but I've been thinking a lot this week about mental health as well as physical. I have to admit I'm somewhat inspired by Wombat's decision several years back to go full-time at the National Zoo -- in short, to pursue her hobby as a career. I feel like I need to do some kind of education that's not strictly Mental Gymnastics for the Excessively Pampered -- which is basically what a liberal arts degree is all about -- and something that blends the physical and the spiritual seems the perfect counterweight. It's about balance. I wouldn't want to teach yoga forever, I don't think, but since teaching is sort of under my skin to begin with I would like to give it a try.
But I've got to finish my thesis first. And I guess that's where this post ties into the topic of Not Dying. I'm trying to keep my "terminal master's" from becoming, literally, terminal.
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Mental Gymnastics for the Excessively Pampered
Oh man, this is totally what I used to do.
Wombat is pleased to be inspiring, although feels compelled to point out that she is still bopping around temporary jobs and so the jury is still out on the success of the career change. However, my last job was really excellent and I am right now on the edge of my seat waiting to hear about three different job possibilities. None of them are perfect and I probably won't get offered all three, but surely this means I am getting somewhere.
Hang in there with the thesis, it feels so good when it is over, like you have stopped poking yourself in the eye with a sharp stick. And after that, a combination hair salon and yoga studio?
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It's not the first time I've had these kinds of thoughts -- when I was fresh out of college the first time 'round I seriously considered getting a cosmetology license, but the training was too expensive for something I wasn't sure about. I always thought I'd be good with hair, though.
My 4th grade teacher (who is also a family friend) also had a cosmetology license. Between being able to cut the hair of her husband and 3 sons herself and being able to buy products in bulk on the cheap from beauty supply stores she figured it paid for itself.
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my favorite high-school teacher (or, one of the two) has a wide variety of stories about family members/friends who work in a career with little/no relation to what they studied. my favorites are the stories of her two brothers-- he went to business school, worked in various Corporations for a number of years, and then quit. to sail sailboats. after a few years of that, he decided to become a sailing instructor; he is now the world's foremost expert on teaching physically handicapped people to sail. he has written books and stuff. (he was inspired by personal experience-- he had to quit sailing at one point in his youth due to an injury. he did not want the Young Kids to miss out on sailing, which is apparently awesome.)
the other one was in the middle of graduate school for Chemistry, with a bright future ahead of him, offers already being made by big Petro-type companies, when he decided that what he really wanted to do was make Wine. He moved to Napa, got a small plot of land through use of his savings/family loans/bank loans, and is now the owner of a moderately successful small winery. apparently he has won awards and such? I forget the name of the winery.
basically... teach Yoga and the good lord will provide.
I, meanwhile, will learn how to write sentences. I seem to have lost this subtle art.
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I'm fortunate enough to have a brilliant and hardworking spouse who supports me so that I can do big important things like...read books...wash his underwear...change diapers...and occasionally talk to you guys. So I'm not worried about the pay (or lack thereof) involved in teaching yoga. It's more like, is this something I actually want to do, or do I just want to be able to tell people that it's my job to make people put their ankles behind their heads?
I don't think I'm *that* shallow or vapid or whatever, really. It's more of a question of, is there going to be room for this in my life, e.g. am I going to have to compromise my son's health and welfare (not getting important therapies) if I decide to pursue this?
But then, it can't be worse than academia.
Can it?
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Those are good stories, Inev, don't worry about the sentences.
I don't think teaching yoga could possibly be worse than academia. Well, here's the thing: I know a lot of people who were made miserable by their experiences in academia. Can we find a lot of people who were made miserable by teaching yoga? It is an interesting question.
To be serious, my feeling was always that once there was a golden age of academia when it really was a great thing to do, where you could live the life of the mind and all those good things. But it seems to have ended with the generation who were my teachers. It's much more of a rat race now, with universities run more like businesses. The expectations now border on unreasonable, it seems to me - I was always frustrated to see junior faculty positions advertised where they expected the candidate to be able to do several things brilliantly, and sitting in judgement on the hiring are old faculty who are lucky they can do one thing well. That always seemed emblematic of how things have changed.
This doesn't mean there aren't young people who are happy and fulfilled in academic jobs. It works out for some. But I would be careful about what anyone over a certain age tells you about what your future in academia will look like.
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I usually leave yoga classes feeling like I've reconnected with my spirit and the world at large.
When's the last time any other kind of class made you feel like that?
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as a child, every day of school felt like that on some level.
...damn.
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Wait, wait, let me see if I've got this straight.
Pedro is married to J.L., who is hot, funny, smart, a good mom AND flexible enough to be a yoga instructor?
Dang dude! You must either have:
a) enormous genitalia, or
b) entered into some sort of Faustian pact with the debbil.
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Wait, wait, let me see if I've got this straight.
Pedro is married to J.L., who is hot, funny, smart, a good mom AND flexible enough to be a yoga instructor?
Dang dude! You must either have:
a) enormous genitalia, or
b) entered into some sort of Faustian pact with the debbil.
Well, the "flexible enough" part remains to be seen. I have pretty loose joints (my prenatal yoga instructor lived in constant fear I was going to hyperextend something) but my hamstrings are stubbornly tight. (From wearing high heels a lot, I think.) So, I get in and out of pigeon (http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/863_1.cfm)pose (my favorite) without breaking a sweat but at present I can barely touch my toes while sitting. However, I know this will improve with time.
But my big problem is balance. Ever since I had Pearce I've had major balance issues, maybe because of all the weight fluctuation? That's something I need to spend the next year working on before I even consider teaching.
As to Pedro's outrageous good fortune, let's just say he has some...valuable...talents. ;)
Also, you forgot "bisexual."
August gets ninety five sweet points. What a doll.
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JL, I assure you that we did not forget bisexual.
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The thread seems to have taken a turn, but I'm still trying to tell myself that this academia thing will be okay, that I'm not sentencing myself to five years in Hell to qualify for jobs in a more different hell, that grad school is going to be a good fit and healthy and fun and I'm not going to die I'm not...
Deep breaths. In... out...
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You'll be fine, V. Just remember that there is life outside of school -- it's not an easy thing, but if you don't ever do anything outside of school and work you're going to burn out eventually.
But I don't think this is a problem for you...I've read your blog. ;D
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You'll be fine, V. Just remember that there is life outside of school -- it's not an easy thing, but if you don't ever do anything outside of school and work you're going to burn out eventually.
But I don't think this is a problem for you...I've read your blog. ;D
OH SHIT, MY SECRET SHAME
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V has a blog? Where?
Edit: Of course! In the user profile!
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Woh V between the narbonic avatar and 'confectioner/antipaladin' I think I might love you.
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dudes get bicycles. get COOL bicycles. the internets will help you find good looking ones.
then, ride. have fun. you'll make your legs feel like noodles but eventually your body form will morph into a shape not unlike that of a powerful t-rex.
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I was thinking of getting a bike, but winter is coming and riding a bike in the winter doesn't sound like fun.
So maybe once it gets warmer. My apartment has a bike room and I can get my own "parking space" for a bike, so I'll probably do that. It'll make getting around the city more fun than the El or Bus. I only live like 2 1/2 miles from work, too, so it would be like ten minutes by bike. Of course, I'd have to find a place to park it downtown...
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man, maybe get a stationary bike on craigslistor something to use over the winter. It is basically a great way to move your body even if you just pedal really slow at first while you enjoy something on TV. Set it up right and I bet you could use the internet, but a stationary unicycle-computer chair might work better for that.
shit I need to patent that idea.
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man, maybe get a stationary bike on craigslistor something to use over the winter. It is basically a great way to move your body even if you just pedal really slow at first while you enjoy something on TV. Set it up right and I bet you could use the internet, but a stationary unicycle-computer chair might work better for that.
shit I need to patent that idea.
Just get rollers for your bike. Then you can set the tension, ride all winter and watch the TV at the same time.
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As to Pedro's outrageous good fortune, let's just say he has some...valuable...talents. ;)
Also, you forgot "bisexual."
This is what happens when a person leaves - dammit!
Also, I am making every effort to string together 100 days without more than one consecutive day of not working out. So far I am at 23 days in a row - and feeling good! Also, I am buying diet mixers, which helps with the general slimming effort.
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wow, people. the past half-hour or so has taught me why people hate working out. jesus! it sucks!
Basically, rather than feeling all "wow, I did such a good thing for my body, now this "mini-beer-belly" style thing I have going on will go away, plus I will gain muscle so as to be less scrawny!"
its more like "wow, this is hard. and this weight-lift-machine thing my parents bought, despite seeming to work really well for them, is really confusing."
Basically the feelings I was getting in various joints and tendons were not ones that I have felt before, which I feel I should not feel again. I am going to have to overcome my foolish pride and ask my mom to show me how to do this stuff. Also, the weights are not labeled with numbers which have any relation to the weight they contain. Also, the little illustrations explaining how to use it was essentially worthless.
I will also have to, bizarrely, tell her that she is not allowed to encourage me in any way. For some reason, approval from my parents when I am doing something good for myself (working out, trying to eat more healthily, etc) makes me want to stop doing this thing. This has led to a lot of problems. It's weird, because normally approval from my parents has an embarrassingly large effect on me.
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I too felt annoyance at the nonsense numbering of the weight stacks. The truth is that even if they put some mass figure on them (1 plate = 40lbs, 2 plates = 80lbs) or whatnot, it still wouldn't measure the same thing as if your were lifting a free weight of the same size. Sometimes its harder, sometimes its easier. You just have to get a feel for it yourself and not worry about what happens when someone asks "How much you bench?". Where it gets really annoying is, say you're at a Motel 6 or whatever and they've got a fitness room with a weight machine. Unless you're insanely lucky, they won't have your exact machine in there, and the correspondence of your machine's 5 plates to their machine's 5 plates will not be 1:1. Lots of pin shuffling and trial runs ensue.
Its still better than lying on your motel bed, ruminating about the size of your belly.
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the worst thing is, I'm basically a really skinny guy. The issue is that I've gained like 10 lbs, and (almost?) all of it is fat, and all of it is on my stomach.
But yeah, I am going to make sure to learn how to do the machine thing properly.
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With nearly all weight machines, it's important to figure out (for each exercise) when you are working the muscle, vs when you are releasing it. A steady well paced movement through the flex (rather than a quick jerk) is way more effective and less likely to cause injury. Working with slightly lighter weight, and putting the real work into the flex (doing just as many reps as you can handle with full extension, it is a way more valuable workout (in my books) than violently jerking around heavier weights. I see so many people flopping around on machines at the Y, and I'm always confused... why waste your time doing things wrong (never mind potentially injuring yourself)? And really, if you don't want to ask your mom, couldn't you look up the machine you have on... the internet?
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no, I'll just ask her.
The way I was taught in gym class was to do a weight at which you can do 10 reps-- then move up to the next weight after a few days. Actually what he said was go up one pound each day, but this machine is not that precise.
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I have not smoked since Friday morning.
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I ate fried chicken yesterday. The kind that's hardened thick crispy coating on the outside and juicy on the inside. That shit is vile. It tastes good in my mouth, but it is not meant to be digested. My belly was so angry at me. It warned me for hours that it was going to errupt, so I thought a CUNT and yoghurt smoothie would calm things down. Wrong! Wrong.
With the whole squatter situation I've been eating horrible things as a reaction to stress. I've begun to get back on track though. The fridge is full of healthy delights.
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On Monday night I ate cheese almost non-stop for forty-five minutes.
I could've coped with that if I hadn't also popped a block of butter into my mouth in a dreadful case of mistaken identity.
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I have not smoked since Friday morning.
Rock on dude!
I haven't had a drink since Sunday.
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With nearly all weight machines, it's important to figure out (for each exercise) when you are working the muscle, vs when you are releasing it. A steady well paced movement through the flex (rather than a quick jerk) is way more effective and less likely to cause injury. Working with slightly lighter weight, and putting the real work into the flex (doing just as many reps as you can handle with full extension, it is a way more valuable workout (in my books) than violently jerking around heavier weights. I see so many people flopping around on machines at the Y, and I'm always confused... why waste your time doing things wrong (never mind potentially injuring yourself)? And really, if you don't want to ask your mom, couldn't you look up the machine you have on... the internet?
Wow Smells, is there anything you don't know? You rock.
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I'm trying to lose weight (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmcd9/576633853/)
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Realize that building muscle is basically tearing apart your old muscle and causing it to grow back (heal) stronger and better.
OMG, this is possibly the least encouraging thing anyone has said about exercise ever.
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I'm trying to lose weight (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmcd9/576633853/)
Best of luck, Paul. My special lady is in the same boat, and she's working hard. You've already had some spectacular results coming down from your starting weight though. How tall are you?
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How tall are you?
I'm 5'10"
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I've been sleeping with the nicotine patch on. Oh man, IS SO NOT GOOD.
The box says "May cause vivid dreams." The first couple times, the dreams are quaint, sometimes funny. "Oh man, I am in heaven, drinking Marlboro brand vodka!" or "Man this bag pipe I'm playing sounds messed up!" Both real dreams. The bagpipe dream woke me up. It turns out the sound of the bag pipe was me snoring. The bagpipe was the pillow I usually sleep with my arms around. It had a plaid pillow case.
After the first couple days, and this was my experience last time, the box should read "May haunt your non-waking moments, and cause you to wake up scared about the world."
3 times today the damn thing woke me up, and this was my experience last time. I tend not to remember many dreams, but when I'm wearing the patch, after a few days the dreams all become cold-sweat, sit bolt upright, and yell "GAH!" inducing night terrors.
When I woke up for the third time, I ripped the patch off. Eat it in the #####, patch dreams.
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I had a dream last night that I was caught in a horrible historic massacre. I was in an auditorium, and I knew that it was going to be a massacre, due to having learnt about it in History class. This also led me to know that I didn't die in the shooting. Incredibly vivid and upsetting sounds of crowds of people being shot at. Confusion. I survived the shooting (at one point I shamed myself by hiding behind a large man), but eventually the shooters singled me out as someone they didn't want to kill. lots of scary yelling and pointing. then I died/collapsed due to an odorless, colorless gas-- I went down thinking "at least it's over... at least I didn't get shot." Then I woke up.
what the fuck.
also: I meant to go on a bike-ride today, but I was all kinds of weird due to washing dishes for 4 hours, and I realized that it was too dark out. I didn't feel like putting on light clothes.
OK basically I was lazy, but my plan was to work out every other day, so, I guess I am doing OK. This is "in the works."
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I've been sleeping with the nicotine patch on. Oh man, IS SO NOT GOOD.
The box says "May cause vivid dreams." The first couple times, the dreams are quaint, sometimes funny. "Oh man, I am in heaven, drinking Marlboro brand vodka!" or "Man this bag pipe I'm playing sounds messed up!" Both real dreams. The bagpipe dream woke me up. It turns out the sound of the bag pipe was me snoring. The bagpipe was the pillow I usually sleep with my arms around. It had a plaid pillow case.
After the first couple days, and this was my experience last time, the box should read "May haunt your non-waking moments, and cause you to wake up scared about the world."
3 times today the damn thing woke me up, and this was my experience last time. I tend not to remember many dreams, but when I'm wearing the patch, after a few days the dreams all become cold-sweat, sit bolt upright, and yell "GAH!" inducing night terrors.
When I woke up for the third time, I ripped the patch off. Eat it in the ******, patch dreams.
Jeeez...those sound like the kind of dreams that I've been having thanks to Seroquel for the past 4 years. I have intense problems with insomnia and so my doc prescribed it so that I can get more than 3 hours a night (compare this to my father, who never sleeps more than 3 to 4 hours a night and is crazier than a shithouse rat. Yeah, I'll take the Seroquel). I have to be careful taking it because it knocks me the hell out. Obviously I can't take it on the nights when I'm on call. The dreams are INSANE. I worry about my neighbors because a few times a month I wake up screaming, except that I'm so heavily sedated that it just sounds like a very loud, "WHUUUUUUUUUUUNH". Not good times.
I was asleep in bed with my boyfriend once and I had a horrible dream that he had been slain next to me by some intruder and that the attacker was climbing on top of me. My frantic drugged-screaming and flailing in an attempt to push him off spurred my fella to yell my name and shake me until I woke up. "Jesus, Somebody nice, you were trying like hell to fight somebody off, are you okay?"
Also, theinev... there is a fantastic book by Sherman Alexie called "Flight" that you should REALLY read. My younger sister got me into Alexie and he's amazing. His character goes through some pretty intense alternate realities. It's great.
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He's from the same area that I am. Kinda neat in that it meant in the early 90's he came to our school a couple times and gave talks and read poetry.
I totally should read his books. I know the ladyfriend has a bunch of them.
I'm certainly done with drug dreams though. I was kind of trying to stick them out, so that I could have the magic feather of "round the clock nicotine". At this point though I don't even want to smoke. I get the occasional "Raaaa NOW" but I don't think I'll have them while asleep.
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I heard on the radio yesterday that dog owners are healthier than cat owners, and it boiled down to this: dog owners have to take their pets for walks. I heard this while driving to get a dog (http://www.loveofanimals.org/animals/detail?AnimalID=216885).
So I guess I'll be healthier now.
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I heard on the radio yesterday that dog owners are healthier than cat owners, and it boiled down to this: dog owners have to take their pets for walks. I heard this while driving to get a dog (http://www.loveofanimals.org/animals/detail?AnimalID=216885).
So I guess I'll be healthier now.
If I got a dog, I'd become dehydrated from all the puking that I would do. I am dying to get a dog, but no way in hell can I deal with their poo.
When I was taking care of my dad and stepmom's Chow chow dog, Bear (or Beaw-beaw as I like to call him)...I let him out over the course of two days and hoped that he was shitting out there. Most of his day is spent in my dad's blissfully air-conditioned house, since Bear has a full on thick Chow coat that they keep clipped in the summertime. Still, the little dude gets overheated fast, and thankfully he did not have any accidents inside since I was there to constantly let him in and out as needed. The day that I had to leave soon arrived. I went outside in the blistering, 92 degree (Fahrenheit) Colorado sunshine and... there were a ton of flies out there in the small fenced yard. It was horrible. I had to get it cleaned up before the petsitter arrived.
Sometimes I gag a little when I'm cleaning my cats' litter pan. I tried...oh, how I tried to be brave. I full on puked - TWICE - while trying to clean up after the doggity-dogg. The added "material" that my body was involuntarily providing made my cleanup job just that much harder. My face was streaming with tears, I was puking and gagging, and I could not tell you how much I longed for some Vick's vapo-rub beneath my nose and an N-95 mask or SCBA like we use when we have a lot of patient bodily fluids to deal with. I love the Beaw and all that...but fuck that noise, seriously. I cleaned it up and then hosed the shit out of everything, hosed it down again, then scrubbed my hands and bleached them. JEEEEEZUS.
I'm gonna stick with the felines, thank you very much.
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I love dogs. I don't want to have to convince my pet to like me, basically. Cleaning up shit is unpleasant, but my dog is small, so no problems there.
Also: I think part of the reason the exercises felt "wrong" is that certain muscles in my arms are wayyyy too weak. So, for instance, when doing a shoulder exercise, my arms would have problems-- apparently my shoulders are stronger than the rest of me, and so while my shoulders could deal with the weight I was lifting, my arms would be all sorts of freaking out about holding that weight. Especially because you're not supposed to lock your arms.
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Good luck with Sophie, man. Kids and dogs will either kill you or make you live forever.
Cats just shoot for maiming, of course.
Well, the kid hasn't killed me yet, and so far Sophie's been a pure joy. I just had her chipped and rabies-shot down in Lomita.
No cats.
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I see that Sophie is listed as "Good for Inexperienced Caregivers: No." Is there a story there?
It makes me feel really tough that I can deal with dog poo when brave volunteer rescue person linnea cannot. Thank you, because it is not every day - in fact, it is hardly any day - that I get to feel that way. Hey, I am so tough that I can take the dogs out in the backyard with my breakfast in one hand and pick up their poop with the other hand.
See, I've cleaned up monkey poop - it's hard to impress me. Although I did turn down a temporary job with great apes recently. Somehow after all this time working with nice clean little frogs, I was not enthralled by the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn so gorillas could throw feces at me.
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I used to walk my dog in the car.
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I see that Sophie is listed as "Good for Inexperienced Caregivers: No." Is there a story there?
It makes me feel really tough that I can deal with dog poo when brave volunteer rescue person linnea cannot. Thank you, because it is not every day - in fact, it is hardly any day - that I get to feel that way. Hey, I am so tough that I can take the dogs out in the backyard with my breakfast in one hand and pick up their poop with the other hand.
See, I've cleaned up monkey poop - it's hard to impress me. Although I did turn down a temporary job with great apes recently. Somehow after all this time working with nice clean little frogs, I was not enthralled by the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn so gorillas could throw feces at me.
omba is my hero. It would be so cool to work as a zoologist. The medic stuff isn't so bad, you just have to be mentally prepared and have a full arsenal of PPE (personal protective equipment) at your disposal.
I think that I just haven't been exposed to very many patients who involved feces outside their body, so even the thought of it just skeeves me out. Childbirth, miscarriages, blood, open fractures, motor vehicle accident that involved a 45 minute extrication to get the pt out, only to have him be all blue and floppy and dead from traumatic asphyxia/cardiac tamponade... suctioning blood and teeth from the airway of a semi-conscious dude who'd had his face halfway beaten in... drunk patients who'd been on a three-day bender vomiting nearly-pure-alcohol (ETOH is our abbreviation), taquitos remnants, and bile... i can hang because i had PPE for all those calls. none of those could hold a candle to having to clean up 6 piles of steamy sunbaked dog poo in a 92 degree Colorado day armed only with 2 garbage bags and a garden trowel. *hhuuurrrrghhh*
One of my friends who runs Fire here in rural Colorado had a story for me that made my toenails retch. **If the above stuff made you queasy, then stop reading right here, dude.**
The fire department got called out to a trailer on a really hot summer day one August. Outside there is a terrible stench. The neighbors are holding their noses and point, "He's in THERE." They attempt to enter, but the smell is so bad that their paramedic vomits and they have to retreat to get SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus). The entire trailer is a shithole, littered with dog feces, thousands of beer cans, rotting food, cigarette butts, newspapers, and all other types of detritus. There are ants and flies around the whole place, but they notice a huge trail of ants leading to the bathroom. Uh oh.
Outside, they suit up and return to the trailer with full PPE and SCBA. In the bathtub there is a man who is covered in swarming black ants and flies. He is covered in his own shit and vomit and is either dead or unconscious. The medic pukes again inside his mask and has to go out to rinse and put on a different mask, and he is tailed by another firefighter to pull a preconnect hose from the rig. My friend is standing there, PRAYING that this is going to be a dead call so they can hightail it out of there and let the coroner's office deal with the whole mess. He triple gloves and reaches in to find a carotid (neck) pulse. FUCK, THE DUDE HAS A PULSE. They have to do an emergent move (move the patient out of imminent danger as quickly as possible), so they hose the patient off and remove him to out-of-doors, where they hose him off again before they can start patient interventions. Thank baby Jesus that I wasn't on that call.
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I'm sorry your patient wasn't dead.
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I see that Sophie is listed as "Good for Inexperienced Caregivers: No." Is there a story there?
The story is that a lady found Sophie wandering the orange groves around Porterville without a collar, very clearly lost and in rough shape. Fox terriers can be a handful, and the woman who runs the rescue service wanted to be sure that potential new owners knew their shit and were the right people for Sophie. She had turned down three potential owners before I called; one was a couple in their early twenties who lived in an apartment and had never owned a dog before, either of them. I had a Welsh terrier back in the day, so I wasn't worried about it.
We had to drive three hours (each way) to Visalia so the woman could meet me and Audrey and see how we all interacted. For a moment, I thought the woman would turn us down, because we weren't jumping up and down with excitement that we had found our perfect dog, and I was thinking look, I'm not Tyra Banks, okay? There will be no tears of joy shed here. But she took my check and we drove away with Sophie.
As it turns out, if Sophie were any more mellow she'd go into a coma. I think she's enjoying having a new place to hang where she's loved and doesn't have to worry about anything. We left her alone in the backyard for a few hours last night when we went to see The Gordon Sumner Experience in Anaheim, and when we got home at midnight she jumped with joy for a few minutes and then just went to sleep in the living room like us leaving was no big thing.
I'll post some pictures on the TOUAMB flickr at some point. Maybe.
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The story is that a lady found Sophie wandering the orange groves around Porterville without a collar, very clearly lost and in rough shape. Fox terriers can be a handful, and the woman who runs the rescue service wanted to be sure that potential new owners knew their shit and were the right people for Sophie. She had turned down three potential owners before I called; one was a couple in their early twenties who lived in an apartment and had never owned a dog before, either of them. I had a Welsh terrier back in the day, so I wasn't worried about it.
We had to drive three hours (each way) to Visalia so the woman could meet me and Audrey and see how we all interacted. For a moment, I thought the woman would turn us down, because we weren't jumping up and down with excitement that we had found our perfect dog, and I was thinking look, I'm not Tyra Banks, okay? There will be no tears of joy shed here. But she took my check and we drove away with Sophie.
As it turns out, if Sophie were any more mellow she'd go into a coma. I think she's enjoying having a new place to hang where she's loved and doesn't have to worry about anything. We left her alone in the backyard for a few hours last night when we went to see The Gordon Sumner Experience in Anaheim, and when we got home at midnight she jumped with joy for a few minutes and then just went to sleep in the living room like us leaving was no big thing.
I'll post some pictures on the TOUAMB flickr at some point. Maybe.
That is such a great story! I hope that humans and canine are doing awesomely. I am also very glad that the shelter lady was on the ball.
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Alright, I joined Flickr and the TOUAMB group, so you should be able to see three pictures if you click on me there. Or something. I'm still new to this whole internet thing. Just this morning I was talking into my penis like Scotty.
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We left her alone in the backyard for a few hours last night when we went to see The Gordon Sumner Experience in Anaheim, and when we got home at midnight she jumped with joy for a few minutes and then just went to sleep in the living room like us leaving was no big thing.
Is it actually called that, or is that your name for the Police reunion tour (which I know about through visiting a Starbucks last week).
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It is not actually called that, but thank you for picking up the reference. No, it was the Police at the Pond ( or the Honda Center or whatever they're calling it this week ), doing their best to replicate the old magic and for the most part succeeding. A lot of cougars and a lot of fat older white guys like me, reliving the early Reagan era at great expense.
Some of the songs were drastically rearranged (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6gZKvrx6XA), because it was just the three of them with no other musicians, so that sometimes we didn't know what they were playing until Sting started vocalizing ( especially "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" ); other times they would launch into jams and Andy Summers would just start going off in a way I've never heard him do before. They showed their age at times ( especially on the last song, "Next To You (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ilNil9C-0)" ) but overall I was very happy with the whole thing.
Oh, and there was a sign posted at all the entrances: "By entering the premises, you consent to be filmed for a motion picture." So next year you'll get to see what I saw. Yay.
On-topic: I'm not dying, and I have a dog. Go see for yourself.
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Working at work really killed my ability to eat right and lose weight, but I'm kinda back on that hoss now that it's summer and I'm going to sweat no matter what I do, so I may as well get some exercise.
I want to get a bike to just ride up and down the lake trail - it's some absurd amount of continuous trail by Lake Michigan - someone said 38 miles but that sounds impossible.
Anyway, it's a lot.
I have to say, joining a Flickr meetup group and getting a new camera gets me out of the house and active more than anything. Going to take pictures of shit is a good excuse to get out and DO things.
Still, there's free food at work, and all of it is deadly. I walk past 30 candy dishes on the way to my desk every day.
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I haven't been sleeping, due to the patches. This has been making the night shift a horrible ordeal, since I'm not prone to sleeping during the day anyhow.
I decided that even though I'm over a week into being cigarette free, I would end the cessation, and start up again for the duration of the nightshifts. I figured, it would emotionally be better to mentally make the choice to start up again, instead of having some kind of freak out and starting up again.
I got to work tonight, took off the patch, and lit the cigarette. I was then confronted with what cigarettes actually taste like. They kill off taste buds or something, so they eventually taste fine. People put this stuff in their mouth? Due to the fact that no one was around to tell me that I look cool, mature, or sexy, I have decided to take sleepless days and nights over that horrid flavor.
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I haven't been sleeping, due to the patches. This has been making the night shift a horrible ordeal, since I'm not prone to sleeping during the day anyhow.
I decided that even though I'm over a week into being cigarette free, I would end the cessation, and start up again for the duration of the nightshifts. I figured, it would emotionally be better to mentally make the choice to start up again, instead of having some kind of freak out and starting up again.
I got to work tonight, took off the patch, and lit the cigarette. I was then confronted with what cigarettes actually taste like. They kill off taste buds or something, so they eventually taste fine. People put this stuff in their mouth? Due to the fact that no one was around to tell me that I look cool, mature, or sexy, I have decided to take sleepless days and nights over that horrid flavor.
Damn, smick. You get a tiny can for getting back on that hoss and sticking with the patch.
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I want to get a bike to just ride up and down the lake trail - it's some absurd amount of continuous trail by Lake Michigan - someone said 38 miles but that sounds impossible.
Anyway, it's a lot.
8 blocks to a mile - just the portion south of Downtown is probably 9 miles, and it extends north into the Forest Preserve in the suburbs. Let's see, since Chicago is on a grid with State and Monroe as the axes so we can do this. Howard is 7600N so to downtown that's about 7.5 miles. The South end extends to about 83rd, 10.4 miles. The city has also expanded the marked bike lanes and I would imagine looking at the map I just found there's way more than 38 miles of cycling to be done. I just found something called the Major Taylor Bike Trail that was opened since we left. That looks like a good one too. Also, Jough, the LATE RIDE should be happening right around now - it's awesome - Lake Shore Drive is closed at Buckingham Fountain and about 10,000 cyclists set out at Midnight on the drive, through many neighborhoods, and on the trail going North. It's a loop and it returns to a park near Downtown where they give you breakfast. It's a lot of fun to do with a group and the CTA relaxes the whole '2 bikes to a car' thing on the train although you could probably just pedal home in about 10 minutes.
It is a lot and it's awesome. I spent a whole day once riding my bike from Evanston all the way down to the 63rd St Beach and back. There are bike trails all through the Forest Preserve in the northern suburbs that more-or-less connect with short street rides to the South Side of Chicago. It goes on past 63rd St a little further, I think, but of course the neighborhoods get a little more dicey. There and back was a nice ride (with some sightseeing stops, beach stops, Navy Pier for lunch and a nap Uptown near Wilson st) that I probably invested 5-6 hours on and totally worth it.
For those who haven't experienced Chicago, when the City was planned, it was decided very early to leave the shoreline the fuck alone for the enjoyment of the people. That's why those wise developers put the steel mills and the other industrial crap in Gary.
http://www.great-trails.com/lakefront.shtml
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I don't have diabetes!
This was a concern recently due to some questionable symptoms and my overweight, but my bloodwork's back and I'm about as healthy as an obese dude who never exercises can be expected to be. Glucose healthy, cholesterol low, blood pressure only a tich on the high side.
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I don't have diabetes!
Capital news!
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On Monday night I ate cheese almost non-stop for forty-five minutes.
I could've coped with that if I hadn't also popped a block of butter into my mouth in a dreadful case of mistaken identity.
Really? You guys just let this post go?
Because I thought it was frikkin hilarious.
Then again, I've been posting on Babycenter for the last 3 weeks, where women sharing stories of how annoying it is when people want to touch their pregnant bellies is considered Highbrow.
It's good to be back. I'm definitely not dying, and in fact am gestating as I type. I'm 12.5 weeks along, total babygain = +5 lbs. AFAIK, I also do not have diabetes. We'll see in 12 more weeks.
Also, re: not smoking -- keep it up. I quit a few months before Little P was conceived so I had an incredible impetus to stay quit. Take it one day at a time. I still dream about cigarettes sometimes, but I don't miss it. You can do it. Find a hobby that keeps your hands busy, especially at home. The hardest thing for me was not having a cig while I was driving -- I started taking a soda instead, to sip at stoplights &c. Find substitute habits first and deal with the nicotine withdrawal later. You'll do it, and you'll feel great. Just my $0.02.
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and in fact am gestating as I type.
That is, like, negative dying. Cool.
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Really? You guys just let this post go?
Because I thought it was frikkin hilarious.
Then again, I've been posting on Babycenter for the last 3 weeks, where women sharing stories of how annoying it is when people want to touch their pregnant bellies is considered Highbrow.
It's good to be back. I'm definitely not dying, and in fact am gestating as I type. I'm 12.5 weeks along, total babygain = +5 lbs. AFAIK, I also do not have diabetes. We'll see in 12 more weeks.
Also, re: not smoking -- keep it up. I quit a few months before Little P was conceived so I had an incredible impetus to stay quit. Take it one day at a time. I still dream about cigarettes sometimes, but I don't miss it. You can do it. Find a hobby that keeps your hands busy, especially at home. The hardest thing for me was not having a cig while I was driving -- I started taking a soda instead, to sip at stoplights &c. Find substitute habits first and deal with the nicotine withdrawal later. You'll do it, and you'll feel great. Just my $0.02.
Ugh. I hate even thinking about being pregnant and imagining some asshole pawing my body. I'll have to strengthen my bitch-slapping hand to smack the hell out of anyone who thinks that my body is public property.
My best friend just conceived recently and she's about 8 or 9 weeks along. I'm really happy for her. She's kind of nervous about the stupid shit that people will say. I don't think I could politely handle people telling me gruesome pregnancy/labor/delivery stories if I were pregnant. She is, of course, a much nicer person than I am, so she is worried about how to handle them politely. Then again, I also don't want to be a huge ball of rage if and when I ever become pregnant. I'd rather just figure out a way to deal with it gracefully rather than coming unglued.
When I was in Alaska I saw a gorgeous lady who was visibly pregnant and had a scarf wrapped around her neck. I complimented her on the scarf, said that I was a knitter, and asked if she made it herself. She said no, and then vented a little bit - she was really upset because some Filipina lady had leapt at her, actually grabbed the scarf, and said, "NOO! The baby's cord will be wrapped around his neck if you wear that scarf!" I couldn't believe it. I told her that I was sorry, that the lady's actions were bullshit, and basically sympathized. >_< Way to go, superstitious asshole. I felt really bad for her.
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In my neck of the woods, it's raising one's arms above one's head during pregnancy that causes a tangled cord. I won't even begin to tell you about the lunch meat hysteria on the babycenter boards. It's amazing how many people take the word of strangers on the internet more seriously than the advice of their own doctors.
As for people rubbing my belly in Target, it didn't occur often enough for me to be upset about. I was so excited to be pregnant that I didn't take much offense. There was a creepy guy at the video game store that kept his hands on my belly waaaaay too long, but honestly I should have been a little more direct with him.
The labor/delivery horror stories I had an answer to. My brother's wife had the worst L&D story I've heard to date. I won't go into details, but all I had to do was whip that puppy out and anything anyone else had to say paled in comparison. If your friend wants the story let me know. Or she can make one up. Just tell her to incorporate the phrases "failed induction," "thirty eight hours," and "two hundred stitches." Should do the trick.
I had the easiest labor ever. Three hours, no drugs, one stitch. I'm actually looking forward to it this time. Are you kidding? I can take *anything* for three hours. It beats the shit out of being nine months pregnant.
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Whenever you give a lei to a pregnant (Hapai) woman, you cut it so that it hangs open at the bottom. Pregnant women never ever wear circle lei. For the identical reason as the scarf thing.
It's not superstition to people whose culture values these beliefs, so let's not be terribly hard on someone from somewhere else who acted principally our of concern - didn't harm anything, right?
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Well, I think I would freak if someone jumped at me and grabbed a scarf that was around my neck. Maybe I read too much crime fiction, but I think it is good advice for people of all cultures to try not to express concern in a way that seems like a prelude to a strangling.
But what I really want to know is, what's wrong with lunch meat???
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Well, I think I would freak if someone jumped at me and grabbed a scarf that was around my neck. Maybe I read too much crime fiction, but I think it is good advice for people of all cultures to try not to express concern in a way that seems like a prelude to a strangling.
But what I really want to know is, what's wrong with lunch meat???
Maybe they think that it will Poison Their Baby? I have no clue.
Some foods are obviously off limits, like raw/unpasteurized cheese or milk, sushi, beef tartare, etc. I went to lunch once with Crap Dude and some of his coworkers. One of the women was pregnant and was even more annoying than a vegan. I was like, "Why the fuck did you pick a SUSHI restaurant if you're pregnant?"
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But what I really want to know is, what's wrong with lunch meat???
Deli Meat: Deli meats have been known to be contaminated with Listeria, which can cause miscarriage. Listeria has the ability to cross the placenta and may infect the baby leading to infection or blood poisoning, which may be life-threatening. If you are pregnant and you are considering eating deli meats, make certain that you reheat the meat until it is steaming.
source (http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/foodstoavoid.html)
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It's amazing how many people take the word of strangers on the internet more seriously than the advice of their own doctors.
Ha ha! That's the beautiful thing about the world - no matter how insane a belief is, you can find someone who will swallow it hook, line and sinker. And then they'll force it upon you. And then when you push back, you'll be told to suck it up in the name of honoring diversity.
Nope - your crackleheaded belief system is your own. Don't force it upon me.
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Aren't pregnant ladies already subject to nausea? And people actually tell them that they have to eat steaming lunch meat?
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Oh man, almost all my female friends have had babies in the past 2 years, with the exception of one who has been trying for almost a year. As a result I have witnessed the most rude and interjecting opinions being foisted upon them. What is it with pregnancy these days? Has it become more pollitical or is it just me? I swear, 10 years ago I would have never witnesses two ladys who barely know each other get into a yelling argument over whether or not using a soother is okay. Or one pregnant lady publically shaming another who she doesn't know for having a single small cup of coffee. WTF? Thankfully, in the buddy-pic of life, I am the sarcastic friend, and I can find humour in anything.
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Aren't pregnant ladies already subject to nausea? And people actually tell them that they have to eat steaming lunch meat?
Gah, my BFF Jennifer is having the WORST morning sickness ever. Of course, it goes on all day and night. Plus she has this thing called pregnancy-related rhinitis, so she feels like she's got a cold AND the flu all the time. Not only that, but in the summer between seminary classes, she has difficulty finding work, so she is currently herding two-year-olds at a daycare facility. I don't envy her one bit. There's no way I could ever do that. Crazy.
Isn't it ironic that my best friend is a seminarian and will soon be a pastor? heh. She's so awesome. We've been friends since we were 12.
Oh man, almost all my female friends have had babies in the past 2 years, with the exception of one who has been trying for almost a year. As a result I have witnessed the most rude and interjecting opinions being foisted upon them. What is it with pregnancy these days? Has it become more pollitical or is it just me? I swear, 10 years ago I would have never witnesses two ladys who barely know each other get into a yelling argument over whether or not using a soother is okay. Or one pregnant lady publically shaming another who she doesn't know for having a single small cup of coffee. WTF? Thankfully, in the buddy-pic of life, I am the sarcastic friend, and I can find humour in anything.
Jesus H. Christ, where on earth do those folks get off thinking they have the right to say shit like that? I mean...mind your own business. Sheesh. It's not like she was downing shots, she was just having a cup of coffee, for crying out loud. For all Ms. Busybody Proselytizer Bitch could have known, it was decaf!!
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OK, it would be tragic to waste this opportunity:
Well you know MY mother smoked and drank beer and coffee when she was pregnant and there's not a thing wrong with me, IS THERE.
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OK, it would be tragic to waste this opportunity:
Well you know MY mother smoked and drank beer and coffee when she was pregnant and there's not a thing wrong with me, IS THERE.
My mother didn't drink beer.
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My mother smoked and I'm sure she drank a little too.
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My mom smoked, drank coffee, and I'm sure she drank a little too. She got twin girls who were born 2 months premature and weighed 3 pounds each.
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Anecdotal evidence, Somebody nice.
My mom shot up on a daily basis and I'm just fine.
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Hey, she got two for one - not a bad deal!
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My mom took Thalidomide when she was pregnant with my sister and she turned out fine. I bet all those others were just faking it for sympathy.
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my mom, I think, stopped having fun when she got pregnant with me.
although at one point there was a big thing about how she was supposed to be in bed, because there were Problems, and my dad came home to find her outside, in 90-100 degree heat in LA, watering the plants.
then I almost died, so, now my mom always slaps women who mention watering plants when they're pregnant.
(I am kidding... the almost-dying had nothing to do with plant watering.)
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My mom took Thalidomide when she was pregnant with my sister and she turned out fine. I bet all those others were just faking it for sympathy.
I think that with Thalidomide there were 2 types... both marketed as the same drug. From what I remember reading, the molecules were like, "right hand" and "left hand". There were slight variations in the medicine and the women who took the right-hand type were fine, but the women with the left-hand type had children with horrible birth defects. I should just Google this instead of trying to recall stuff from dusty, cobweb-ridden corners of my brain.
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My mom did not smoke drink or drink coffee when she was pregnant with me. She never really did any of those things when I lived with her, either. Since I left the house she has an occasional beer.
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I think that with Thalidomide there were 2 types... both marketed as the same drug. From what I remember reading, the molecules were like, "right hand" and "left hand". There were slight variations in the medicine and the women who took the right-hand type were fine, but the women with the left-hand type had children with horrible birth defects. I should just Google this instead of trying to recall stuff from dusty, cobweb-ridden corners of my brain.
This is roughly accurate, if I remember my organic chemistry correctly. Thalidomide has two enantiomers (the "right-handed" and "left-handed" molecules), which were sold in an equal mixture of "right" and "left"; the right was effective, but the left was teratogenic. However, the wrinkle comes in in that (as a quick Wikipedia check reveals to me), these enantiomers can interconvert in vivo -- in other words, even if someone is administered only the safe, effective enantiomer, it may convert to the teratogenic one spontaneously and thus still present teratogenic problems. It's looking like this is another one of those drugs pregnant women should just avoid...
On this subject, I believe I've mentioned that I worked extensively with finasteride (the active ingredient in Propecia, which you may recall being marketed with those giant "Pregnant Women Should Not Come Within Fifty Feet Of This Medication, We're Serious" warnings) during my undergraduate work, and I'm fine. Of course, I probably won't be pregnant for some time...
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My understanding of thalidomide is not just that it can interconvert in vivo but that the manufacturing process wasn't selective for the correct enantiomer. This is just something I vaguely remember in a lecture from a few years ago though so don't tkae my word on it. Also I think they're remarketing it as something for cancer patients now, to help them cope with sickness related to chemo etc.
Also my mother quit smoking before she became pregnant with me and I was a month premature.
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My mom smoked with me and one of my brothers. She had quit by the time my youngest brother was born. The first two ended up 5'7, the youngest is 6'2. Not saying its cause and effect, but I found the coincidence interesting.
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My understanding of thalidomide is not just that it can interconvert in vivo but that the manufacturing process wasn't selective for the correct enantiomer. This is just something I vaguely remember in a lecture from a few years ago though so don't tkae my word on it. Also I think they're remarketing it as something for cancer patients now, to help them cope with sickness related to chemo etc.
Yeah, this is also true. The manufacturing process initially was non-selective and thus produced a racemic mixture, which is Teratogen City. The interconverting is more a potential issue with future uses of the drug than an explanation of what happened during the initial thalidomide incident.
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This is roughly accurate, if I remember my organic chemistry correctly. Thalidomide has two enantiomers (the "right-handed" and "left-handed" molecules), which were sold in an equal mixture of "right" and "left"; the right was effective, but the left was teratogenic. However, the wrinkle comes in in that (as a quick Wikipedia check reveals to me), these enantiomers can interconvert in vivo -- in other words, even if someone is administered only the safe, effective enantiomer, it may convert to the teratogenic one spontaneously and thus still present teratogenic problems. It's looking like this is another one of those drugs pregnant women should just avoid...
On this subject, I believe I've mentioned that I worked extensively with finasteride (the active ingredient in Propecia, which you may recall being marketed with those giant "Pregnant Women Should Not Come Within Fifty Feet Of This Medication, We're Serious" warnings) during my undergraduate work, and I'm fine. Of course, I probably won't be pregnant for some time...
Yeah, this is also true. The manufacturing process initially was non-selective and thus produced a racemic mixture, which is Teratogen City. The interconverting is more a potential issue with future uses of the drug than an explanation of what happened during the initial thalidomide incident.
Education. V, you rock so hard. Tiny can.
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I'm pleased to help, as always. And pleased to type "teratogen," which is such a nice word for such a terrible thing.
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My mom smoked with me and one of my brothers. She had quit by the time my youngest brother was born. The first two ended up 5'7, the youngest is 6'2. Not saying its cause and effect, but I found the coincidence interesting.
I have often wondered that myself. The women on my dad's side of the family are all 5'9" and taller. I'm 5'5". My cousin Johanna is six feet tall! It would be awesome to be that tall.
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Hell, it would be awesome to be 5'5".
Me, a tiny gnome? You must surely be kidding.
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ladies who are tall have hell of issues. it is a sad thing.
my gorgeous friend rachel is my height, or maybe slightly shorter... she is always all awkward about being so "huge."
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ladies who are tall have hell of issues. it is a sad thing.
my gorgeous friend rachel is my height, or maybe slightly shorter... she is always all awkward about being so "huge."
You know, after however many years in the business, I've come to the conclusion that everyone has hell of issues.
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Hell, it would be awesome to be 5'5".
Me, a tiny gnome? You must surely be kidding.
My friend Ann is 4'11". She mentioned that when she was a kid, she hated her Flintstones vitamins so she would hide them under her dresser. When her mom decided to rearrange some stuff, she found this HUGE STASH of vitamins under there! Just like when I move the fridge or stove to clean beneath it, and I find a huge stash of kittytoys. Heh! I thought the story was cute. Is that why she's so tiny? V, did you spurn the vitamins when you were young? ;) I'm gently teasing, so I hope that nobody takes offense.
You know, after however many years in the business, I've come to the conclusion that everyone has hell of issues.
It's true. My cousin Johanna, who is six feet tall, spent most of her adolescence hunched over and ashamed of her height. Just like the ladies that theinev knows.
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My friend Ann is 4'11". She mentioned that when she was a kid, she hated her Flintstones vitamins so she would hide them under her dresser. When her mom decided to rearrange some stuff, she found this HUGE STASH of vitamins under there! Just like when I move the fridge or stove to clean beneath it, and I find a huge stash of kittytoys. Heh! I thought the story was cute. Is that why she's so tiny? V, did you spurn the vitamins when you were young? ;) I'm gently teasing, so I hope that nobody takes offense.
Nah, in my case, it's just simple genetics; I'm actually just about the same height as my mother, or perhaps a hair taller. I'm 5'3", which I realize is not catastrophically short, but it's always felt that way to me for some reason. My best bet for why is that, while I'm my mother's height, I inherited my father's heavy, stocky build: wide shoulders, short wide hands and feet, plus a sufficiently large head that I'm only about six heads tall. It results in my feeling like, given a chainmail hauberk and an axe, I could start posing for Dungeons & Dragons dwarf illustrations.
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I could start posing for Dungeons & Dragons dwarf illustrations.
Totally hot
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I'm 5'3"
Hell, it would be awesome to be 5'3". I might even be able to buy a pair of ##### that didn't need hemming.
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Everbody's got something to (be horribly ashamed of), 'cept for me and my monkey.
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My friend Ann is 4'11".
Heh, I thought I felt my ears itching. To this day I can't pass by the shelf of Flintstones vitamins @ the store without thinking "What if?"
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my grandmother, to this day, tells my mom that if only she'd eaten her cereal back in the day, she'd be taller.
Between my 5'4" mother and 6'4" father, I am 6', roughly. My 15 year old brother is 6'3" or so.... my sister is probably going to be pretty tall, too.
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My Mom crammed every variety of healthy rabbit chow down our throats, plus lots of pork, lamb and chicken. We had little dixie-cup type thingys next to our cereal bowls with capsules of B-complex (that made your pee fluorescent yellow), E, A, pantothenic acid, and a chewable, hoss-sized vitamin C that probably contributed to my unquenchable desire for sour candies. Then, on our way out the door was the pièce de résistance: a generous tablespoon of cod-liver oil. The flavor of which would linger until lunchtime.
I dunno, maybe Scott and I would have been 5'4 but for all the vitamins. Given my Mom's excellent cooking and access to a wide variety of fresh veggies (and our willingness to eat same), I think we just had really pricey urine.
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I am 5'7" which is just tall enough to avoid "dwarf" jokes but just short enough to avoid "I'm so gawky" issues. So I'm a big fan of my height but had other "awkward phase" issues. (glasses, braces, acne, flat chest, complete social ineptness, etc.)
However, my thing is that I have always liked short guys. As in, shorter than me when I'm not wearing shoes kinds of guys. Antonio Banderas, I hear, is only 5'4". *swoon*
At our wedding, I wore 4" heels so that I would be slightly above eye level with Pedro, who is 5'10" but claims to be 5'11. Generally I like to make myself even taller, but I do have to admit that platforms that increase my height to 6" or more make me feel like a little bit of a drag queen.
Re: maternal habits and birthweight, my parents are teetotalers and neither has ever smoked. Mom never drank coffee, either. My brother was born 6 weeks premature and weighed barely over six pounds. My grandmother also neither smoked nor drank. Her fourth child was three months premature and weighed four pounds. My point here is, no matter how careful you are, bad things can still happen. Not that you should just do whatever when you're pregnant, but IMHO the best thing to do is make informed decisions about calculated risks and realize that there are no guarantees in life.
I did read on the babycenter boards, however, that more than one expectant mother has been advised by "experienced" moms to smoke throughout pregnancy in order to "keep her figure." If you're having trouble quitting, that's one thing -- but being told to take up smoking for vanity reasons at the expense of your child's health is just...wrong.
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advised by "experienced" moms to smoke throughout pregnancy in order to "keep her figure."
Ooooooohhhhhhh SHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!
That is so psychotically wrong.
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A hilarious because it's pathetic moment:
Last time we were over at this other couples' house, the other lady and I discussed two things: my sister's pregnancy and our shared enjoyment of watching the horrible Dr. Phil. The boys made fun of us for talking about Dr. Phil after a few minutes.
The next time we went over, as I came in the lady asked about my sister, and I was talking about my still-pregnant sister's giant baby that she desperately wanting out of her body, and how she had both ignored her doctors warnings of her gestational diabetes and was also continuing to smoke while pregnant. This is when her partner and my guy came in and her guy said "Oh, you're already talking about Dr. Phil again!"
"No. No. I was talking about my family... "(rough chuckles all round)
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Nothing more humbling than having your family mistaken for a daytime talk show.
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I did read on the babycenter boards, however, that more than one expectant mother has been advised by "experienced" moms to smoke throughout pregnancy in order to "keep her figure."
**boggles**
My experiences with such boards (albeit, circa 2001/2002) was that behavior like that would result in major ostracism/banning. Folks had deep, passionate, and garrulous posts about the near-tantric lifestyles they advocated for themselves and others when expecting.
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I said some shit earlier about my mom and the way she prepared for my pregnancy, and I should set the record straight. She actually spent the whole pregnancy submerged in a tank of salt-water the precise salinity of blood. When I was due I just slid out and the OB-GYN giraffeed me out wearing rubber gloves.
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rubber gloves.
My mum's OB-GYN was going to use gloves but she insisted on a soft net because she did not want to cause me trauma through sudden human contact.
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My mom had me delivered by cesarean psychic surgery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_surgery).
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My experiences with such boards (albeit, circa 2001/2002) was that behavior like that would result in major ostracism/banning. Folks had deep, passionate, and garrulous posts about the near-tantric lifestyles they advocated for themselves and others when expecting.
Hells yes. Go on a pregnancy board and post that you're 7 months pregnant, and you had a single glass of red wine with dinner last night. Watch the shitstorm that erups.
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I should clarify that these were preggies relating what they had heard on the street, not actively advising one another to smoke. The general idea behind the whole thread was , "OMG can you believe what my auntie Mildred/hairdresser/random stranger on the street said to me yesterday?"
Still, there were multiple stories in which the posters were advised of the benefits of cigarettes for the unborn. Apparently there's a whole coven of smoking mothers out there proselytizing on the streets.
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Still, there were multiple stories in which the posters were advised of the benefits of cigarettes for the unborn. Apparently there's a whole coven congregation of smoking mothers out there proselytizing on the streets.
PCed that for you.
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My mother just squatted by the wolves den and came back 6 years later with a piece of raw lamb to lure me into the Suburban.
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The old ways are the best ways.
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This thread is NOT DYING!
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I've taken a lot of action on the "not dying" route this past year. I'm thinking that I want to start hitting the gym on my way home, rather than after dinner when the SO can join me. While I really wanted to work out together, the SO works at a very physical job, and is rightfully not up for going to the gym after having manually moved up to a ton of weights at work. My bus home transfers right in front of the gym, so why not stop in and get my fit on?
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I'm back in yoga after being out of commission since I hurt my back in June. It is wonderful. I feel so incredibly much better.
The other ladies in my class are sort of freaked out by my being able to do Sitting Pigeon while eight months pregnant, but what can I say -- ten years of yoga + natural flexibility is gonna do that to you.
We'll see if I can still do it when I'm sixty. We had a substitute yoga teacher three weeks ago who is almost seventy and she could do stuff I couldn't do at twenty-five. Amazing.
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The other ladies in my class are sort of freaked out by my being able to do Sitting Pigeon while eight months pregnant, but what can I say -- ten years of yoga + natural flexibility is gonna do that to you.
I am consistently amazed by what people in my yoga class can do. I mean, I'm making progress and it's very rewarding and enjoyable, but I can't even conceive of being able to fully get into some of these poses. It would help if I lost my big ol' gut, but some stuff just ain't happening.
Also, pigeon pose makes my dang knee hurt.
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It would help if I lost my big ol' gut, but some stuff just ain't happening.
Yeah, I can name that tune in one note.
The pooch makes it impossible for me to even breathe in Halasana, so for now I'm sticking to the exercise machines.
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Also, pigeon pose makes my dang knee hurt.
Which knee?
If it's the front knee, you can work your way up to full pigeon by letting your leg unbend enough so you're not sitting on your ankle. This will probably require having your front leg parallel to your body, as in half-lotus. Don't push that foot around and under your body until it's ready. If this is where you are already, and the pain is in the sides of your knee (rather than under the kneecap), you can alleviate it by putting a yoga brick or a rolled blanket under your pelvis to lift your body off the floor a few inches.
I'm taking a "gentle yoga" class right now and my teacher is big on using props and giving modifications to suit the challenges of individual bodies (and their internal inconsistencies). I, for one, can do reclined goddess all day and night, but my hamstrings are so tight I have to use bricks under my hands to do a standard forward bend.
And don't even talk to me about lunges.
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I'm taking a "gentle yoga" class right now and my teacher is big on using props and giving modifications to suit the challenges of individual bodies (and their internal inconsistencies). I, for one, can do reclined goddess all day and night, but my hamstrings are so tight I have to use bricks under my hands to do a standard forward bend.
And don't even talk to me about lunges.
Word, my hamstrings are incredibly tight and painful to stretch. I chalk it up to having underdeveloped Achilles tendons due to being premature.
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My Mom crammed every variety of healthy rabbit chow down our throats, plus lots of pork, lamb and chicken. We had little dixie-cup type thingys next to our cereal bowls with capsules of B-complex (that made your pee fluorescent yellow), ...
I just realized that's what's been happening off and on over the past several months. it's not random, i just don't have neon pee when i forget to take the B12!
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Are you going to get your vo2 max as well? Because that would be awesome.
Yeah, seriously Beatrice, we should be the first people in your mind when things like this come up. wtf?
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Treadmills are tough for peaking on if your heart likes running. Its hard for them to get a sonogram if you're running stadium stairs though. These days, I'd have them stand by while I'm deadlifting. I can get my heart rate up to 170+ with that.
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I am doing a lot of exercise, walking climbing and hiking etc.
I am healthy but eat too much
I hope you're all well and good and stay healthy
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I am healthy but eat drink too much
FTFY.
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FTFY.
I don't understand that. Maybe I drink too much.
But is that unhealthy?
Unhealthy?
I don't know.
Sorry Carlosdelvaca
I will try not to pester you in future.
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I keed! I keed!
I kid because I love.
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FTFY = Fixed That For You
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Why isn't thicker heart walls a good thing? I know huge, flappy, thin-walled hearts are on the path to congestive heart failure - I thought stout, sturdy ones pumped more efficiently (if more slowly).
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I think...
I think there's a happy medium.
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If your heart is bigger than your head you've got a problem, whatever the sentimental films might tell you.
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According to the kids on the grade-school playground, if your hand is bigger than your face, you've got cancer.
I suspect that was just a ruse, though.
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Is there a filter that replaces heart with c*ck? Can there be?
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According to the kids on the grade-school playground, if your hand is bigger than your face, you've got cancer.
Amoronsayswhat?
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huh?
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According to the kids on MY grade-school playground, if you touched your own two elbows together, you'd switch genders.
As an adult, I baffle at where that sort of a premise would bloom.
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Yeah, I always thought the hand to face ratio was how you determined whether or not you were gay.
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According to the kids on MY grade-school playground, if you touched your own two elbows together, you'd switch genders.
As an adult, I baffle at where that sort of a premise would bloom.
I used to be able to do that behind my back. It doesn't actually look that weird, so anybody who saw me do it would try themselves. Which generally involved leaning way forward. I saw so much cleavage in high school.
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The length between the tips of your extended thumb and pinky finger is the size of your cock.
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If only that were true.
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If you put your thumb flush against your index finger and then place the extruding part of your index finger against your nose your thumb will touch the end of your nose and your index finger will touch your forehead. This works almost perfectly in my experience, if you've got a reasonably straight nose.
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*tries it*
Hey, whaddayaknow!
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My short nose doesn't reach my thumb.
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8 1/4" That would be something to brag about. As it is, according to the Football Scouting Handbook (http://www.scribd.com/doc/8429169/Football-Scouting-Course-Book)that puts me just barely above "small" for hand size.
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Good luck with the heart stuff. You kinda need that part.
I've lost over 100 pounds, quit drinking, and have cut way back on my meat consumption.
Clean livin'!