Monthly Archives: August 2008

Not Again…

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I’m speechless with indescribable pain for those on the Gulf Coast who are just getting their lives back together and are now facing yet ANOTHER hurricane that has the potential to destroy the livelihood of people who are struggling to recover.

I feel like this must be what it’s like to live in a 3rd world country where storms decimate villages and people lose what little they had.Â? I know that I’m such a spoiled brat to live in a place where we don’t have many disasters of that magnitude and I’m not looking at losing my house, my possessions, and my life in the next 24-48 hours.

Pray for the people of the Gulf Coast.

Honestly Not Sure What to Think

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I read the Wikipedia article on Sarah Palin and I’m honestly still a bit like “what?????” in terms of McCain choosing her as a running mate.

At first glance, it seems like he deliberately chose her to make the ticket look balanced — I mean… old dude and young woman.Â? It is actually kind of sexist to have picked her if that was the main reason (which I’m sure it’s up there) and I think I’d be a little surprised if I was her.

It’s also a seriously hypocritical move if his homies want to bash Obama for having no experience because she’s been the governor of Alaska for two years… after being mayor of a small town outside of Anchorage.

Looking at her positions, it does look like her selection is pandering to the Right.Â? The only thing she and I share in common is being pro-life/pro-contraception although I’m in favor of abortion in cases of rape or incest.Â? (I waffle on the same-sex marriage issue so we don’t really share that.)Â? Otherwise, she’s in favor of teaching creationism with evolution in schools, a gun rights activist, supports the death penalty, opposes abortion for any reason, in favor of banning same-sex unions, etc.Â? I can see that she’s not blindly any of these things (which pleases me because I like it when politicians have a brain) but… she’s kind of everything the Bush administration would want her to be.

There’s no chance in Hades that I’m voting for McCain/Palin in November but I’m still kind of blown away by her being his running mate.Â? It just doesn’t seem to compute for some reason.

Joining The Pedometer Cult

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Part of the company I work for is sponsoring a “virtual triathlon” for its members and as I need to start doing physical things again, I signed up.Â? We can either run, walk, bike, or swim and I’m sure that mine will be walking as I can’t run due to knees/ankle/asthma, there’s no good pool around here where I can swim year-round, and I don’t have the time to bike.

So… I got myself a pedometer last night and have been wearing it all day.Â? So far, my step total is pretty dismal but I’m sure it will improve once I start walking and being active again.Â? It’s also Saturday which is a quiet day for me… usually.

I get to wear it for the next 12 weeks and keep track of things.Â? It will be interesting to see how many miles I cover.

An Experiment

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I’m trying to get myself comfortable with writing on faith more so I’ve set up a temporary faith blog here.Â? I’m not abandoning ::Meditatio:: — part of setting up there is fulfilling my penance from doing Confession in June and part of it is getting myself comfortable with writing about spirituality again because for some odd reason, I’m having issues in doing it here.

So… come on over and comment there on whatever you find.Â? The URL written out is:

http://thewildgoosechaser.blogspot.com

Again, I’m not abandoning this blog.Â? This is just a place where I work out some of my faith issues.

Done with Doctors

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My annual exam went well this morning — I have an awesome doctor who talks to me while she examines me.Â? She’s also got a new nurse (who is tangentially a parishioner of Jon’s) and said nurse is wonderful.Â? The exam and all was less torturous than it normally is and I was to work by noon.

My bloodwork came out fairly well considering that I’ve had an unhealthy summer.Â? My A1C was 5.6 (which is good) though my cholesterol is still unbalanced.Â? I think I can fix it with some tweaks in my diet and maybe some fish oil capsules.

Otherwise… I’m so done with doctors!!!!

Living with “The Parasite”

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Pisco of ePiscoSours has been talking about his struggle with dysthymia in terms of having “the Parasite” in his head. While this can get a bit humorous (at least on my end reading it), it’s surprisingly accurate.

It honestly does feel like I have a Parasite in my head somedays and that the Parasite is sucking all the energy out of me. There are also the times when the Parasite sets off the fire alarm in my head and causes a panic attack which just makes my day so freaking lovely… especially if I happen to be at church or work. Unlike Pisco’s, my Parasite is a fan of Coca Cola which means that when my blood sugar tanks around 4:00 pm, it screams and hollers at me (not audibly) until it gets some Coke. I know my doctor is going to LOVE this tomorrow when she reads my bloodwork and that I’m probably going to be put on yet more medication to control my glucose intolerance.

The Parasite had a month of free reign over my mind in June aided by the Topamax which was feeding it well. I honestly don’t even want to think about how screwed up the month was with all the depression and crud messing with my mind. I can remember the last full week of June being one of the WORST times of depression in at least 8-9 years — I was so depressed that I would sit at my desk at work and cry silently. There was no way I could really express what was going on to the people around me and I am a bit worried about that.

The Parasite also tends to silence me and make me want to just withdraw into myself.Â? There are days when I don’t want to be social at church or work and people playing “let’s draw Jen out of her shell” REALLY piss me off.Â? Being around people constantly is incredibly draining and having to do it makes me incredibly tired.Â? For example, I came home after an hour of church and slept for 5 hours!Â? I come home from work and just want to collapse on the couch because I’ve been around people and I just want to curl up in a Jen-ball and recharge myself.Â? This means that I eat waaaaay too much fast food on my way home (because I know that I don’t want to have to cook when I get home) and that I don’t do anything active when I get home (i.e. taebo) because I just don’t have the energy to move.

I don’t want to let the Parasite win but sometimes, I just want to curl up and just let the fighting happen for awhile without me…

Update on the Doctor’s Appointments

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The eye appointment went well other than having to have a glaucoma test.Â? I blinked most of the dye out so my eyes looked like a pumpkin had exploded around them for awhile.Â? No big change in prescription and I at least *have* it so I can get sunglasses made this weekend.

The ENT appointment: I drove 3 1/2 hours to have my ENT examine me and stick sharp/pointy objects up my nose for 5 minutes.Â? At least I don’t have to go back unless I’m having problems.

Did my bloodwork this morning for my annual exam on Monday.Â? I’m not looking forward to it because I’m probably in for a lecture and crappy bloodwork results in addition to the normal goings-on with an annual exam.Â? I have forewarned my co-workers that I will likely be crabby when I get to work…