sweetheart-mine

Typical Arkansan.

 

I inhale from a bong - a bong filled with hope.

we just discovered a shop full of glass pipes, of all shapes and colors -- i mean about 300 of them. makes me want to inhale again. maybe i have already but forgot . . .

my first experience with drugs was when i had my wisdom teeth out at 12. whooooo doggies. Thanks Mom.

 

I remember being 5 and having to have abcess surgery on a bad case of mumps. (lovely, eh?) I remember them putting the mask over my face and telling me to count to 100. Then I got a big stuffed alligator.

 

A couple minor things surgeries as an adult. I hate trying to struggle awake from the anesthesia. Why can't they just let you sleep/dream it off?

do you mean the mumps themselves abscessed, in your throat? wow, that IS bad! all i remember of mumps is crying in my high chair because i couldn't swallow cheerios.

trying to wake up from anesthesia can be nasty. i needed an oxygen mask because i couldn't get my breath. yah, why can't they just let you sleep it off? maybe a medical person on this board can tell us.

Do you mind telling what you had done?

not at all, though i wasn't "there" for much of anything! it was an L5-S1 disc rupture, pressing with unusual force on the sciatic nerve down the entire hip and leg. the neurosurgeon made about a two-inch incision in my lower back and removed the pressing disc matter using tiny cameras and instruments that showed up on a computer screen, which he followed throughout. i'm told it took a couple of hours. they can't repair the disc itself, but removing the disc matter from the sciatic nerve area took away the pain. there was post-surgical pain at the incision site for a few months, and i had a few months of physical therapy after that, but since then you'd never know anything happened.

i was also told that this problem used to require a much bigger incision and be much riskier than it is arthroscopically. in the future, if pain is minimal i'd wait it out again; but if i ever have that kind of pain again, i won't hesitate to go for the surgery much sooner than last time.

I had my wisdom teeth out a few years back. I remember going into the office and sitting down and getting an IV put in. Then all of sudden I am at home. That night, it was senior slip day at my high school and I was class president, I went to all the parties and got drunk. Man that was fun. No ill affects, not rice caught in the holes.

 

I also had part of my big toe removed in an outpatient procedure. Just had to wear big shoes for about a week.

love big shoes. can't understand tight shoes.

four years ago i fell and ruptured a disc, and spent two months in absolute agony, refusing to see a neurosurgeon even though my long-term and trustworthy doc insisted that (arthroscopic) surgery was probably my only chance. tons of drugs, morphine and oxycontin increased every few days, didn't touch that pain. after two months i let him make the neurosurgery appt but it was too late -- almost immediately my husband had to call ambulance in the middle of the night for week-long pain treatment via some machine in the hospital before the surgery.

during those two months, one poor soul, a depressive young woman, killed herself on the beach near us by taking off her clothes and lying out there in the night until the water and/or exposure (it was february) killed her. that was not funny; but looking back what i find funny is that at the time i envied her like crazy, thought she'd had a good idea, and prayed to whoever or whatever might be out or up there to give me the ability to walk to the beach to do what she did. but i couldn't walk out there. couldn't even walk to the bathroom.

i was lucky and the surgery was successful. what has always bugged me, though, is that one of my few memories of the hospital stay was finally being wheeled into the operating room (i'd never seen one before) and it looked absolutely magical yet there was only a moment to enjoy it. it had a checkered floor; gigantic, beautiful-looking machines; and nice people saying simple things to me. later i felt extremely thrilled to have my life back, yet a little bit cheated, to this day, that i didn't get to study the operating room more, ask questions about it and understand it, absorb what felt like magic or a miracle. cheated!

100% of statistics are only numbers.

I think that's a question for a stat-head. I'm not good at that stuff.

from a non-stat point of view, i don't think papi smiles as often as he did before manny left. they were great buddies and manny was very funny. i've been a little worried about papi's morale.

Possibly.

Hell I was still high off the '04 win last year when they won again.

now that you mention it, the '07 win was a lot more fun for me; '04 was such a shock that i went nearly catatonic. also, papelbon's exuberant craziness at the end of last year was contagious, especially his dancing, which bjorn the mets fan loved too ( ). and "tessie" still gives me chills. well, don't want to make others sick with this nostalgia! maybe it's too late.

It needs to be said: who the hell puts bumber stickers on his/her car?

a lot of religious people do it. hmmm.

And the NRA vote. . .

 

This morning, I overheard some folks being interviewed on NPR about who they will vote for in the election. Most of the responses had to do with McCain being a patriotic American, the issue of religion, and the old "he won't take my guns away" deal.

these priorities are running a painful, circular groove into my brain. makes it hard to think . . .

are people noticing many bumperstickers on cars about this election? in southern maine i see just about none, which is really unusual, and i'm wondering about other regions/states. if not, are people afraid to let their preference be known this time, is nearly everyone out there undecided after all, are people not excited about their preferred candidate if they do have one, or are they worried about wrecking the paint on their vehicles?

What did she say after she said this? I heard about it, but didn't get to see.

i watched it several times, and to be honest i don't quite remember, but hazily i think i remember it was something like "i know more about energy than anyone else in this country."

The thing that baffles me about this election, so far, is the fact that the focus of the race is now Obama vs. Palin. Which makes you wonder why is not McCain vs Obama, as it should?

 

And remember the Constitution only gives one power to the Vice President, to break ties in the Senate. And the only other job is to become president when the president dies or is removed from office. That is it. I have not heard what Biden's role, nor Palin's role will be in their respective administrations, nor do I think anyone has said.

 

This election the Vice Presidency nomination is a political choice to serve as a lighting rod or a distraction to move the debate away from real issues, or to appease ones base. If anyone thinks that Palin was not a choice for those very reasons then you need pull your heads out of the sand. And, those that think that Palin (if McCain is elected) will have any type of power or advisory role in the administration is mistaken as well. Sure she will look good at State Funerals, and meeting the president of Belgium, but policy, does anyone really think she will have a role in making policy?

 

Palin is a story, something packaged up to sell to people, to distract from attention, when the Republicans know their guy is really not up to snuff.

 

and yes Obama is essentially the same thing, but here is the difference. Obama, has been running for president for the last two years, you better believe that he has been studying and working on his policies in order to have he ideas he has. But again the focus has turned to Obama v Pailn.

 

One would hope that after the debates it will go back to Obama v McCain.

thank you, excellent post. a lot of us need that reminder sometimes, including me.

I can't stand Bush, and his reelection pretty much soured me on presidential elections, but for some reason I loved that Schilling stumped for Bush and co at that time. I guess because it was a show of honesty, if nothing else.

schilling had given many shows of honesty, so i wished not to have that one.

um, were you still imbibing due to the championship?

I had to laugh (to keep from cryin', I guess) yesterday when she referred to the "Palin/McCain Administration". Wow.

in three decades of paying attention to campaigns and voting in elections, i'd never heard that slip before. more than a little interesting.

Are you kidding? She's going to get her own talk show and run that bitch Oprah off the air.

she probably is capable of having of her own talk show, though it would have to be oprah lite, unless she can stop talking like a junior-high cheerleader. really, that's what she reminds me of, both in tone and in content. it gives me a start every morning when i'm not totally awake yet and hear something about her on the radio or tv. "oh god, she IS an actual vice presidential candidate. help."

It is interesting - the discussion changed my view that it was the dissing of John Henry that packed Manny's bags for good. It was definitely the veterans' meeting.

i've thought too it was mostly the veterans' meeting, which seemed unprecedented in how seriously the ownership and management took it, according to comments from the players themselves at the time and nesn questioning of several people involved (and also print media coverage, for what it's worth).

in past years manny at times would decide he was unhappy or his wife was unhappy in boston and it seemed to show a bit in his playing (or, especially toward the end of last year, not playing). but when he'd relax the team chemistry with him certainly looked fine from the outside or at the very least more than tolerable. his behavior really seemed to become a problem to the team in a more serious way only this year, and i thought it clearly was affecting the team negatively -- i mean, it was pretty visible when you watch every sox pre-game, game, and post-game, and then read a lot.

of course clubhouse chemistry is a constantly changing thing everywhere, but some players can have a much bigger impact on it than others, and sometimes that impact shows in all kinds of ways, which a lot of us saw this year. those who think two world series mean that problems with manny weren't serious (or serious enough) may be right -- but not this year. that seems obvious from the outcome (the "trade," at a big loss), for starters.

i get a kick out of schilling, and not always the good kind. he does talk too much and can be arrogant, to put it mildly. i do think he has been right in the past on most things he's had a long time to look at or think about, when he isn't just running off at the mouth on the spur of the moment about something that happened two days ago or two minutes ago, and i tend to think his observations of manny and opinion of impact on the team are honest, and probably close to the truth.

nothing to do with manny, but schilling pissed me off bigtime when immediately after the world series was won in 2004 (edited!) he traveled up to new hampshire to stump with george w bush in his campaign for re-election. he took the shine off the euphoria for quite a few people. he could have at least waited a week or two. still annoys me -- obviously. i like NOT knowing the players' politics, no matter what they are.

I got drunk the other night and removed a small growth from the side of my head with a pair of scissors. As Peter Garbriel says, "DIY"

I ran my neighbor over.

deja vu.

This one really scared me

 

 

"I will veto every single beer, um, bill with earmarks." - John McCain at the National Small Business Summit in Washington, D.C.

from a good number of your posts, i can understand why! (thank god he didn't say he'd veto wine.) not many beers have earmarks, so don't worry about it.

"[sarah Palin] knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America. interview with WCSH-6, Portland, OR, Sept. 12, 2008

i heard that with my own ears on the tv this morning and nearly covered the couch with my cereal.

Of course not. Haven't you been paying attention to these threads?

no, i hardly ever read them. maybe i should start.

One of them is a professor at my school, and he's one of those japanese chefs that cooks with all the knives and shit flying. He's probably not a good person to piss off.

could you argue and get in his face nicely?

My neighbors are stuck up pricks.

All that is true, and one should not underplay his charisma and very strong leadership abilities. It's been a long time since a politician has shown the ability to inspire that he does. But if he does not have the toughness to survive the process of getting elected, it's all a moot point. His nomination was the end result of the leftier Dems splitting away from the moderates and resulted in a candidate who may well be too much change too fast for too many people. Though, it could well be Hillary would not be doing any better at this point. The Republicans are just plain ol' better at presidential politics than the Democrats.

very true. although we'll never know how hillary would be doing at this point, it would be interesting to compare. i think she could have been having quite a few problems in ways different from obama, but for sure she is tough -- and obama needs to continue getting tougher. i believe he has a lot of toughness and grit in him but doesn't want to compromise his wish to run a cleaner campaign than we're used to, and that is mucking him up. he can be tough and not put out ridiculously false or irrelevant ads in response to mccain's, both at the same time -- i hope he's realizing that. we'll see. i agree, the republicans are better at presidential politics. too bad it doesn't tend to make them outstanding presidents as well.