Category Archives: Memes and Link-Ups

7 Quick Takes: Let’s Get Jen Posting Again

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Let’s do an old-fashioned 7 Quick Takes post to see if I can pull together the ability to post again.

Uno

Don’t take medical advice from a disgraced attorney and a conman. I was going to dedicate a post to the idiocy that was the announcement of the alleged link between autism and Tylenol by Donald Trump and RFK Jr. The problem: I don’t have the spoons to go into why those two losers are the last people who should be giving medical advice. I mean… Donald Trump can’t even pronounce “acetaminophen”.

You can find videos from people with credentials on the subject here, here, here, here, and here. Studies are here and here.

Dos

Cancel culture and my local health system. The day after Dumb and Dumber held their autism press conference, I was at my local Urgent Care getting my right hand examined because I had irritated it while crocheting. (I stress-crochet.) There isn’t a good way to brace it with commercially-available braces, so the doctor had the nurse MacGuyver something for me with an ACE bandage. I also got a lab slip for them to run a bunch of rheumatology tests in case this has a connection there. (They did x-ray it, and my hand is not broken.)

While I was waiting for someone to take my blood, I heard one of the lab techs talking loudly about the Charlie Kirk memorial, the autism press conference, and a bunch of fallacies about how “it *MUST* be Tylenol because we didn’t have autism in the 60’s and 70’s until we got Tylenol.” (Yeah, no. Autism has been a known condition since 1911, Aspberger was doing experiments on autistic kids in the 1930’s, and Tylenol wasn’t marketed to the public until the 50’s.) I corrected her when I got in the room, told her how damaging her spread of misinformation was for autistic people like me and Daniel, and told her sternly to get her politics out of her job. She glared at me, and I reported her to Patient Safety because there is the risk of a patient hearing her and doing something ill-advised like taking ibuprofen during pregnancy. My health system doesn’t screw around, and I received word that she was repremanded. Still, she shouldn’t be even giving patients medical advice.

Seriously...

Tres

Charlie Kirk. Let me be be abundantly clear on this…

NOBODY. DESERVES. TO. BE. KILLED. FOR. THEIR. POLITICAL. BELIEFS. NO. MATTER, HOW. ABHORENT. THEY. ARE.

Kirk was a horrible human being on many levels, and his words did lots of damage to this country. That does not excuse his assassination.

Quatro

This is incredibly inappropriate. This raid on a Chicago apartment building is over-the-top in terms of how egregious it was. They dragged children out, some without clothing, and shoved them into U-Haul trucks, they poured out people’s food and medication (which could cost thousands to replace), and they detained people indiscriminately. This was a black neighborhood, and it was absolutely meant to trigger fear.

I cannot even understand how people are justifying this behavior. Seriously. This is Nazi Germany level atrocity

Cinco

Funeral with a pr0n troll. No, I am not making this up. The patriarch of a local farm family died, and he was a member of my parish. We had a full sanctuary with extra seats in the back, and there were an extra 100 chairs in the parish hall with a rented big-screen TV. I was trying to troubleshoot a sound issue in the parish hall when a video of someone performing a sex act popped up on Zoom. Everyone watching from home on Zoom saw it, and it appeared on the big-screen TV. Cue me and my partner on the sound board doing everything imaginable to kick them out. Another funeral guest finally came upstairs, and helped us adjust some settings to keep them out. I was already fighting severe depression and hadn’t slept the night before, so this hit me and my perfectionism really hard. The priest doing the funeral brought me pie the next day as an apology, and my partner got prayed over on Sunday, which I missed because I was home with a puking kid. I needed that laying on of hands badly, so they did it for me the following Sunday. I also got to spend 8 hours going through Zoom’s knowledge base with a fine-toothed comb to lock down the public Zoom meetings we use for worship and Bible study.

Seis

Purple Revolution. There’s apparently a bunch of MAGA folks who are feeling the consequences of voting for Donald Trump, and they’re trying to call for everyone to come together in a “purple revolution” to fix this. They are hitting a wall when it comes to Democrats because WE. FREAKING. TOLD. YOU. ALL. OF. THIS. WOULD. HAPPEN. AND. YOU. VOTED. FOR. THE. JERK. ANYWAY. Apparently, we’re supposed to trust them now? You idiots laughed about “owning the libs” and you’re complaining about your families refusing to talk to you, losing your health care, and tariffs screwing you over? Not our problem.

Siete

Prayers needed. Please pray for Lane Claudia, the oldest daughter of Jen Fulwiler, the creator of the 7 Quick Takes. Lane just had serious brain surgery on Monday, is facing a long recovery, and they’re still waiting for pathology reports on the lime-sized tumor they removed. Jen is asking for the intercession of Our Lady of Champion as well as any Blesseds that need some work to do.

Catching Up: It’s June???? Edition

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I can’t believe it’s June…

Links might be Amazon affiliate ones.

[+] Decent pajama bottoms. These are completely rock my world. They’re short enough for me (5’1″ish with a freakishly low inseam), and they make me feel cute. I’d live in them if I could.

[+] Yarn goodness. My evening wind down activity has been crocheting things for different people and causes. I get yarn from Herrschners.Com or I check Amazon for some. I’ve put together a baby blanket and several prayer shawls with a few shawls waiting to be edged and two baby blankets in process.

[+] End of an Era. My priest had his last Sunday on the 8th. He was with us starting in January 2019, which means he got to go through the pandemic with us. His last service was a bilingual one with one of the diocesan staff present, his kids there (who all live far away, Aztec dancers doing the prelude and postlude, and a massive potluck with tamales, mole, a bunch of Oaxacan cuisine I can’t remember, and the standard white American potluck foods.

Catching Up: My Party’s Convention Was Cooler than Your Party’s Convention Edition

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I said what I said. :p

[+] But seriously… The RNC’s roll call was orderly and parliamentary. The DNC had a dance party for theirs complete with a DJ and turntable. 🙂 The whole thing is below, but you can skip around the video if you want to see how they pulled it off.

[+] Best speeches. Not gonna lie… Michelle was better than Barack… and that takes some doing!

[+] Republicans at the DNC. I’m sharing this video not to gloat, but because they have good things to say.

[+] Geeking out over Pete Buttegieg. If you watched Pete Buttegieg’s speech, you know that he joked about how some people might know him from FOX News, and that’s because he goes on there somewhat frequently to bring his message to a group of people who might normally not hear it. People act like he’s stupid, but he very calmly explains why the commentators are incorrect and does so in such a way that said commentators don’t realize that he is calling them “stupid” until the end. Dude is a Harvard grad, a Rhodes scholar, a polyglot, and a veteran. He can talk policy like nobody’s business, and I’m really hoping he has a prominent place in Kamala’s administration.

[+] J.D. Vance. Dude cannot talk to regular people. Like seriously, his donut shop video (which is below) is embarrassing. He was nice to the woman who didn’t want to be on camera, but it’s apparent that he doesn’t talk to working class people regularly. I mean, how about GOOGLING the place where you’re going to be visiting? I’m pretty sure his staff could have done that!

Then, there’s the gaffe at Pat’s Steaks where he tried to mock John Kerry (and just sounded awkward)

He has also attacked the head of the American Federation of Teachers for not having kids and claims she is trying to brainwash kids. Like, seriously? When asked about the remarks, Vance tried to deflect and made a stupid remark alleging that she is trying to put pr0n in school libraries. Dude, my kiddo has been in public school all of his life, and I can tell you that mask mandates are there to protect kids, the “woke stuff” is teachers teaching a history that hasn’t been whitewashed, and there isn’t any pr0n in school libraries.

He, like the person at the top of the ticket, insults people, and doesn’t talk about policy at all. He comes off as an incredibly unpleasant person, and I am biting my thumb at the Ohioans who put this troglodyte in the Senate.

[+] The feel of both campaigns. As I said before, Trump insults people, does not talk policy at all, which is not good because we need to be able to vote based on policy decisions, not personalities. Ditto with Vance. Kamala’s campaign is best described by something Michelle Obama said in her DNC speech: “The contagious power of hope”. She is running a fairly positive campaign, and there is this air of hope and joy. Her choice of Tim Walz as a running mate was excellent because he can actually talk to people and he has actually accomplished things in Minnesota to which he can point when people start asking about his fitness to be vice-president. I actually *LIKE* listening to him talking, and he gives off the air of caring about people’s needs rather than the Trump/Vance power grab.

OK… back to working on my prayer shawl.

Catching Up: April 11, 2024 Edition

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So…

[+] I’ve been struggling with severe depression and COVID-related fatigue for the last 2 1/2 months. I didn’t know what was going on with the depression until I was supposed to have coffee with my former workwife Kim, and I was lying in bed trying to drag myself out. I didn’t know how seriously I needed that coffee date until she hugged me and I realized how much I missed seeing her and working with her. She and I get each other, and we bonded over our kids six years ago. I’m grateful that she had the time off from work and grad school for coffee.

[+] I just finished a prayer shawl on March 30th of which I’m really proud.

The whole shawl.

Segment 1.

Segment 2.

Segment 3.

I made it for Jay Bowen, a local artist and elder with the Upper Skagit Tribe, with whom my church has a relationship. He happened to be there the next morning on Easter when we blessed it, and I had the privilege of draping it across his shoulders. The idea was that each panel was an individual piece of stained glass.

[+] Daniel just turned 15 this past Sunday. Here’s a picture taken on Easter Sunday.

Daniel and me on Easter Sunday.

Why yes, he is quite a bit taller than I am. He passed me height-wise more than two years ago.

[+] I watch a lot of court cases on YouTube while I crochet, and a particularly maddening one was that of Rita Pangalangan who was convicted of murder along with her boyfriend of murder in the death of her daughter Cristina. Her boyfriend put Cristina in a hot car, where she sat for more than hours while he and Rita got high on meth. As the mom of a disabled child, I kinda want to slap her face repeatedly. I mean, how could she do something so selfish and stupid?!?!?!? I have a severely disabled kid, and my rear passenger doors have the child locks engaged so that Daniel can’t open them in traffic (which he hasn’t tried to do for years, but I have no trust). You better darn well believe that I know where Daniel is at all times, and I don’t leave him in the car, especially in the summer. Getting high on meth just adds a layer of horror to the situation. I can’t fathom putting myself knowingly in a position like that where I would lose the ability to care for myself, let alone my child, without another competent adult taking care of Daniel. As a single mom with sole custody, everything relating to Daniel falls on me.

Catching Up: New Year’s Eve 2023

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I’m tired, y’all.

[+] I’ve been super flattened since getting over COVID. All the respiratory crud is gone, and I was able to chop off 6 inches of hair at the beginning of November. I finally got my flu and COVID vaccines in mid-November, so I’m currently double-protected for COVID thanks to having both the vaccine AND leftover antibodies from having the virus three months ago. Said antibodies will probably be gone in the next few weeks, so getting vaxxed was important.

[+] I’ve been doing lots of crocheting on prayer shawls as several people in my life have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Two of them had surgery this fall, and the cancer was caught early. Please get your mammograms, ladies. Two of them were in their late 30’s/early 40’s.

[+] My nephew was entranced by the snowflakes my mom was giving to put on our Christmas tree, so I made him his own set. This stretched into making them for Daniel’s staff and for my A/V people at church. Good thing they crochet up fast!

[+] Daniel got a weird virus at the beginning of December. It was rhinovirus, but he was puking. We had to go to the ER for fluids, and there was nobody in the waiting room when we got there! We had a room within 20 minutes, a doctor 5 minutes later (who did what I told him to do… after examining Daniel and realizing that I knew what I was talking about), and a nurse placing an IV within another 10 minutes! What could have been a 6-hour ER visit was probably around 3. We had lots of trips to Stanwood for meds (which included albuterol for a nebulizer… which is massively backordered elsewhere), and that meant me eating a lot of Mediterranean food from the restaurant across from the pharmacy. 🙂

So, onto all the New Year’s stuff:

[+] Saint of the Year: St. Anthony the Abbot, who is the patron of amputees, animals, butchers, domestic animals, epileptics, graveyards, hermits, monks, and against skin diseases. (Given by the Saint Name Generator created by Jen Fulwiler.)

[+] Word of the Year: I got the word create from the Word of the Year generator created by Jen Fulwiler. My word last year was steadfast.

I’ll probably post resolutions in the next few days…

Catching Up: November 2, 2023 Edition

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So…

[+] COVID was hateful. I had two weeks of sinus infection/bronchitis symptoms and the fatigue has been insane. Last week, the asthma exacerbation kicked in. I got a chest x-ray at Urgent Care to rule out anything scary, and my lungs were clear. Cue a steroid inhaler. I’m not up to singing with the choir yet, but I’m reading the names of the deceased during Communion on Sunday.

[+] Daniel continues to adjust to high school. We found out at conferences that he prefers the male staff members to the females. He is getting really cranky toward the end of the school day, and we’re not sure why. Non-verbal kids are hard because of this. The hitting is also increasing, which is not making me happy.

[+] The job hunting has resumed. I had to suspend it during COVID, and I’m honestly kind of happy for the break. My tutoring job burned me out for the last two years, and it was nice to have the space to actually be sick and not have to be made to feel guilty for not being able to work through a migraine or have to turn off my phone to avoid students with no sense of boundaries.

Catching Up: August 19, 2022 Edition

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It’s been hard to have something to write about because I’m literally working, watching YouTube, and sleeping.

[+] Kiddo had an ADHD appointment last week. He is now 5’3″ and has doubled his weight since his g-tube surgery 4 years ago. Unfortunately, he is really constipated, so life is full of suppositories and Miralax.

[+] Next week is finals week, and I’m actually looking forward to it. It’s been a bit of an intense summer, and I’m kind of burned out. Interpersonal Communication is a tiring class to tutor, and I’ve got three sections of it on my tutoring roster. None of the instructors teach it the same way either. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m having to answer every question with the words “I don’t know. Email your instructor.”