Catching Up: July 29, 2022 Edition

TGIF…

[+] This week, I discovered Steel Magnificat, the blog of Mary Pezzulo. I had seen friends link up stories from her blog before, but I wish I had taken the time to read her blog before now. She is an amazing writer and an even more incredible person.

[+] We’re having a church picnic at a member’s farm on the 7th, and I spent this week arranging to *NOT* have to figure out how to put worship online that Sunday. I’ve been out there before and the part of the farm we’ll be at is kinda primitive. I would probably have to record worship and upload it later… and I don’t have the space on my phone to record a 90-minute service. Broadcasting it off of my laptop would require really dedicated Internet access, and I really don’t think they have it in that part of the property. Also… I haven’t had a service off from running things and doing Zoom (we’re talking Sundays, Holy Week, and funerals) since April 25, 2021. I think I (and everyone else on the committee who switches around from Sunday to Sunday) can use a Sunday off.

[+] Daniel had an ADHD appointment scheduled for Wednesday morning at 8. My alarm didn’t go off and Daniel woke me up at 8:22. I called them apologetically and rescheduled it. They were cold to me on the phone, and I don’t blame them one bit because I know how much of a headache it is from working in a clinic when people are no-shows.

[+] One of my new guilty pleasures is Code Blue Cam. It is videos from police body cams, and it’s interesting to see the job from that perspective. I am not an ACAB person by any stretch (as I have relatives in law enforcement), and I am absolutely in favor of police having body cams that are not allowed to be turned off. (A lot of jurisdictions have civil and criminal penalties for officers who do so.) The department that seems to have the majority of videos right now is the La Crosse Police Department, and one fo the things that surprised me is that they have to put their guns in a lockbox when they head into the station.

Catching Up: July 23, 2022 Edition

Oh mercy…

[+] I’ve been asked how people can pray for me job-wise, and the best way currently is to pray for clarity because there is still a lot of vagueness about what will happen.

[+] I’ve heard ALLLLLLL about “beaver nuggets” from my Texan friends and Emily of Snake Discovery is obsessed with Buc-ee’s, so I found a site where you can order food from them and ordered myself some of their gummy bears and some beaver nuggets. The gummy bears were forgettable, but the beaver nuggets are brown sugar covered pieces of puffed cornmeal that are ADDICTIVE. However, the owners of Buc-ee’s are huge supporters of Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz, so I won’t be ordering any more of their food… at least, I won’t order any more of it without making a donation to Beto.

[+] My schedule for the summer is still in flux, and I got four new students this week. I’m doing LOTS of Interpersonal Communication classes, Business Math, Business Computers, an Ethnic Studies class, and a Sociology class.

Catching Up: June 24, 2022 Edition

Let’s jump in.

Oh yes… comments are turned off because nothing I’m saying is up for debate or discussion. Disagree with me on your own blogs and Facebook walls.

[+] Things I should not have to say. A 7 year old girl choked in her sleep and died a week ago, and a local website put up a Facebook post to garner support for the family. Most people are responding and showing support, but some f-ing idiots have taken the opportunity to hijack it and start speculating about how it was due to the COVID vaccine.

WHAT THE F*** IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!?!? YOU DON’T POST THAT S*** ON A POST THAT THIS GIRL’S GRIEVING FAMILY IS TAGGED IN AND CAN SEE!!!! YOU IDIOTS ARE NOT ENTITLED TO AN AUTOPSY REPORT OF WHAT HAPPENED!!! SHUT YOUR F****** MOUTHS AND GO THE F*** AWAY!!!!

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #1. Election Day is November 8, 2022. Show up if you want to vote out the idiots who confirmed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. If you think the current Supreme Court is acceptable, feel free to skip this election.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #2. Susan Collins is butthurt because Brett Kavanaugh allegedly misled her and had given her his word that he wouldn’t vote to overturn abortion. Honey, we told you he was a lying jerk and you didn’t listen. Instead, you voted to confirm him and screwed over the nation. And you’re surprised that he did what he told you he wouldn’t do?

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #3. If you are disappointed with the decision today, you live in a red state, and/or your senator is one that voted to confirm Gorsuch/Kavanaugh/Barrett, show up at their office and make your opinion known to them. Better yet, bring a few friends and peacefully assemble when they’re in town and not in DC ruining the country. Make sure they see you with their beady little eyes and hear *EXACTLY* what you have to say. Use interpretive dance and hand puppets if necessary.

Is your senator not running again and is the Republican candidate campaigning near you? Show up at the campaign stop and make your wishes known with a beautifully-designed sign. Make sure you spell all the words correctly because we need our movement to be understood and not used as an example of what not to say on a sign.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #4. In 2006, I was on the drive from southern California to Montana when I started bleeding badly. This was weird because my period wasn’t supposed to be coming. It was serious enough that I was googling urgent care locations and emergency rooms in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City in case I needed to be seen, but I was terrified enough of the medical bill that would probably result, so I hemorrhaged blood and tissue for three days until I could get to the clinic in Montana. The chief of medicine was an a****** and told my nurse practitioner that I was a “hysterical pregnant woman having a miscarriage”, and all they offered me after an ultrasound (which showed nothing left in me) and three pregnancy tests was some progesterone. My next period showed up at the wrong time, and I opted to just bleed until my cycle normalized.

Ten years later, I was telling all of this to the resident seeing me here in Mount Vernon, and she informed me that I had very likely had a miscarriage and that they should have gone in and done a D&C to make sure that everything was indeed out. What was not done due to laziness on the part of the chief of medicine (who was eventually fired for abusive treatment of nurses) could now be illegal because Montana is one of those states with “trigger laws”.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #5. For those who are saying that doctors aren’t going to refuse to perform D&C’s on miscarriages because of these laws, it’s already happening in Alabama. I’m scared that doctors will refuse to operate on women who are having ectopic pregnancies because they’re afraid of being charged under some of the more draconian abortion laws.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #6. I have always said that I wouldn’t wish my pregnancy experience on my worst enemy.. but I’m rethinking that. I think that the senators who confirmed Gorsuch/Kavanaugh/Barrett would have a very different take on things if their threshold for calling in sick was throwing up three times on their way to work, they could only keep the glucose solution down for 30 seconds before violently throwing it up, they had to have an emergency c-section by themselves in the middle of the night after a 90-minute ambulance ride to the nearest hospital with an ICU, they had scar tissue adhesions so severe they couldn’t bend over for 7 months without almost passing out from the pain, they developed several autoimmune diseases as a result of their traumatic birth, and the scar tissue from their c-section was so bad that their surgeon discovered their reproductive organs twisted when they were opened up for a hysterectomy. I think they need to experience the terror of their period being late and the possibility of 9 months of bedrest, the threat of almost dying in childbirth AGAIN, the threat of gestational diabetes, the threat of financial ruin due to being unable to work, and the knowledge that their insurance company won’t pay for a hysterectomy because “it’s not an emergency” even though they’re done having kids.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #7. Washington has reproductive freedom codified in law, and our governor Jay Inslee is working to get a constitutional amendment in the state protecting it. California and Oregon are joining Washington in making sure that women have a place to go if they need it.

Catching Up: June 10, 2022 Edition

Last week, I was a little too scattered to post, so I guess we’ll resume tonight.

[+] I’m done with one-on-one tutoring until the summer unless one of my students needs to reschedule with me. I have two drop-in shifts next week, and then I will be done until July. As much as I love my students, I’m pretty burned out. I’ve been sick almost all quarter, and I’ve had some harder students.

[+] I’m really loving the Discworld series by Sir Terry Pratchett. I’m on Wyrd Sisters (the 6th one), and it is a Macbeth paraphrase. Reading them reminds me of a dear friend from college.

[+] I’m kind of seriously addicted to Snake Discovery videos on YouTube. I think my favorite video of theirs is when they fed rodents named after people’s exes to their reptiles.

Catching Up: May 26, 2022 Edition

Yee hah!

[+] I randomly came upon this YouTube channel, and it looks like one that might be something for me to watch when I can’t sleep.

[+] We had the Veteran’s Club doing their Memorial Day barbecue on campus on Thursday, and those serving had never seen so many people on campus before. I had to explain that this was the first Memorial Day one in 3 years, and many of us had REALLY missed it the last two years. I mean, there was a Veteran’s Day one in 2019, but the Memorial Day one usually happens in the sunshine and it’s a lot more fun because people hang out and eat in the plaza. It was like we got a piece of “normal” back yesterday.

[+] I will have a massive dump of pictures from this week tomorrow, but here are a few important ones.

A fund to help those affected by the shooting.

(I verified it here.)

Well, duh!

Catching Up: May 20, 2022 Edition

Let’s go!

[+] For those who want to know about life in Russia these days, Youtuber Eli from Russia has posted a bit. YouTube will give you other suggestions based on her.

[+] I finished Legends & Lattes on Monday and the book ended up growing on me. I started Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and I finished the first book as well on Monday. It should be interesting to see how the series shapes up.

[+] WIth the USA hitting the milestone of 1 million COVID deaths, the New York Times asked for people to submit last texts from their loved ones who died. The results are here.

[+] The formula shortage is unnerving to those of us who couldn’t breastfeed. I was simply too sick. They were concerned about the toll the PTSD and PPD took on my recovery from the HELLP Syndrome, and the lack of sleep from having to wake up to pump was messing with me pretty badly. My kid survived on Neosure for 9 months and then Similac Advance. He went into failure to thrive when an idiot WIC nutritionist made me take him off of formula. He ended up on medical grade Pediasure when we moved up to northern California.

The other issue? Women that couldn’t breastfeed are catching fire from people who don’t quite get that there are legitimate reasons not to and that our bodies don’t just spontaneously start lactating on demand.

[+] My 42nd birthday was yesterday. My twin brother was up for some hangout time (and also 24 hours free of parenting and potty-training), so that was cool. The coughing spasm that night that caused me to lose my entire dinner on my bed was NOT cool. Thankfully, I do have spare sheets, so I got my bed remade after showering. (It took a few tries to get the smell of the puke out of my sheets today though)

Catching Up: May 13, 2022 Edition

I’m usually triskaidekaphobic, but we’ll try this tonight…

[+] I met with DDA this week by Microsoft Teams. I hate this meeting every year because it’s incredibly draining, but it’s important so that Daniel can get services. All I have left is the home visit.

[+] I had to make the decision to sit out the rest of the spring from choir because of my asthma and my drippy throat. It’s not COVID (I have tested myself and I’m consistently negative), but my breathing is screwy. It’s a pain because I miss choir and singing, but I don’t want to have coughing fits the whole time.

[+] I had to give up on my bullet journal as life got away from me in March. I ordered another one, and I’m going to probably make it a June to December one as I will have enough pages to do it. I ordered a blank journal off of Amazon tonight, and I’ll be starting to put it together when I get it and trying to get all of the month’s pages done early so that I don’t have to worry about drawing/numbering a new page daily.

[+] I had to give up on Learning to Pray by James Martin, S.J. because my heart and brain just weren’t in it. I love Fr. Jim’s books, but I’m needing something lighter these days. I just started Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, and it’s not amazing but is keeping my attention. (I think it was a free Kindle book?)

[+] For those who enjoy Wordle and are map nerds, check out Globle.

[+] So, this happened on Monday morning. Thankfully, campus is still pretty quiet because many classes are still online and enrollment is down overall, but it was not fun having my phone explode with emergency notifications.