women with babies

Right now I am reading The Cider House Rules, which I love. It's John Irving--I love him--and it is about obstetricians, or birthing doctors. There is a lot of medical stuff in it, which I don't love but don't mind either.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this is because--if you haven't noticed already, most of my posts are spurred by sudden anger or other emotion--I am mad. There is a women a computer computers down with a very loud crying baby. Why would you bring a newborn to the library? Just have some consideration for other people, please.

cycles of addiction

Unfortunately, I'm in health for the last quarter of the year, so today we learned about inhalants. The only thing that stuck for me was the term "cycle of addiction," which, although it's about something serious, strikes me as funny whenever I say it or think it. For instance: cycle of addiction!!

Doesn't that make you laugh? No? OK.

I have a confession to make: I've been a bad Jew. I've chewed 2 pieces of gum, eaten 2 Tootsie Rolls, stolen 2 chips from my friends' lunches, and had a piece of cake made by my friend Katy that was absolutely to die for (hate the expression but had to use it, sorry).

I feel so naughty.

Also, there's something else I have to rant about--that's what this blog is for, anyway, ranting. I hate it when other people get me into trouble. My friends have gotten me yelled at by my advisor three times in the past two days, and it's definitely not fun. Also, in French class today, the girl behind me kept kicking my chair, so I kept moving up my desk, until the teacher finally singled us out and scolded us because she "had to talk." I'm sorry, but she's lecturing all class; does it kill her to say something else? And it was the other girl's fault. It just was. If you're reading this, Olivia, I am totally going to get you kicked out tomorrow.

Just you wait. All of you...mwahahahaha...

Just kidding.

Hey, guess what? I got a 16.7 on my 100-meter today at the track meet. It was fun. Some people said I was fast. Also my friend lost her tiny stud earring under the bleachers in a moment of brilliance. Yeah, I do hang out with some smart people.

ugh so sick

Hi...

I'm sick once again...no surprise this time, I'm sure, as you all--I guess I should say "y'all" there--are used to hearing me lament about how miserably bad my immune system is.

It could be the 4-hour track meet in the freezing cold wearing nothing but shorts and a t-shirt, which was immeasurably stupid of me. It could be the gross multitude of chocolaty food left over after the post-bat mitzvah brunch. It could be eating salad that tasted like fish--don't think it was supposed to taste like that. But whatever it is, I've been bedridden for four days, and I'm missing several assessments, a piano lesson, a track meet, and a dance. That's great. Just great. And to top it all off, my horoscope has been jabbering on about how great my "love life" is supposed to be this week, especially today. Well, unless I'm going to have a miraculous recovery or they're talking about my recent affair with Jolly Ranchers, chocolate, seltzer, and Gilmore Girls, they're barking up the wrong tree.

Then again, I guess I should have seen this coming. In November maybe, as I'm supposed to look out (doc's orders) for the fall and eating too much candy on Halloween. But the weather's been switched around, warm in fall and cold in spring, plus I ate very little candy on Halloween and there was so much bat mitzvah crap left in my house that I've been compelled to eat a truly horrifying amount. So it was bound to happen.

But I really do believe in my horoscopes, so it does kind of suck that it would sound so good today. If only my lungs didn't hurt when I breathe.

taking advantage

Sorry, but I had to take advantage of the five minutes I have and the fact that I've posted very little this month.

I know I told you I was charmed by White Noise by Don DeLillo, but I've found a new love. It's not just the son's addiction to crystal meth, not just the father's addiction to his son's addiction: Beautiful Boy by David Sheff is an addiction in itself. And I don't say that lightly; I haven't read a book this enchanting in a long time. All the other ones I've read lately have just been forced upon myself.

My mom started reading it before me. She's on page 81. I've got about that many pages left to read. THANK YOU SO MUCH, MOM!! I LOVE THIS BOOK LIKE MY OWN SISTER.

Oh yeah, and I just saw The Nanny Diaries--cute, but the ending's so unrealistic.

tall vs. short

The world's tallest man, as I just learned, is 8 foot 5 and still growing, his physician says. Leonid Stadnik, living in Ukraine, and the various issues that accompany his vast height are described in depth right about here. Now, I find this fascinating, especially things like how his shoes have to be custom-made because of their rough length of 17 inches, or the constant knee pain he suffers from. Guess how much he weighs? His height affects so many different and unexpected aspects of his life. You might think being in the Guinness Book would be fun, but I wouldn't wish this body and all its setbacks on my worst enemy--and that's saying something.

Cool as it is to be tall, shorter stature is also fun. My favorite shortness celebration, tall though I may be, is the song "Short People" by Randy Newman. I don't care if it seems offensive. It's just so funny. If you're a littler person, I apologize, but can't you take a joke?

Thanks and bye for now.

PS: My brother's back to normal.

retail therapy

My brother's been having some health-related issues, but I won't get into that here for a few reasons:

1. I'm sick and tired of explaining it
2. All my friends know about it by now
3. It would sound tacky
4. There isn't a reason to

Instead, I will discuss Target, every suburban girl's dreamland. (I hate to exaggerate, especially in sexist and classist ways like this, but this particular stereotype is so fun to say and I really do need a picker-upper--and it includes me, so honestly I don't think I'm trying to offend anyone here.)

I went shopping there earlier this week with my mom and brother to do some "retail therapy." I got one hoodie, two swimsuits, and two pairs of shorts, in addition to various bat mitzvah shenanigans that I didn't even consider, like centerpieces, which I realize only now is kind of vital.

Well, I'm getting tired. So that's all for now, thanks and come again.

australian man gunned down in driveway by killer robot

Does this sound like a scary, technology-gone-mad sort of article? Well, it's not--it's a scary, the-internet's-horizons-are-too-broad sort of article. I won't tell you more because I want you to read the piece, but would you guess that one can find how to build a robot who can fire a gun?

Please read it, creepy stuff!

(PS: I've labeled this post with the "illness" tag because I think this article has a mental illness component.)

sick but excited

Well, this was set up to be one of the most boring days ever...until, that is, my mom brought home the Utne Reader's article Feminism 2.0. This piece is concerned with the booming portion of the blogosphere now devoted to feminism. Apparently, there are some major sites and then a menagerie of more minor ones. Some bloggers write about pop culture, some about abortion, some about equal rights for both sexes. Some of these journals are for GLBT communities. But throughout all of them, there is a string of feminist vibe. Check out the article--it's a fast, absorbing, fascinating read, and it's got me hooked on this whole idea.

-oh yeah it's the smart one

sick on break

Hello literate beings of the world:

I'm sick and miserable, with my stomach killing me, as well as my throat and ears. I have a relentless cough, and even when I clear my throat, the congestion comes back immediately.

Anyway though...I truly do apologize for not posting for a week; this time it wasn't of my own accord. I had a punishment that stated I wasn't allowed on the computer because I've been so mean to my brother lately. I'll try to be more consistent.

Is anyone else on spring break? Tell me about it--unless you're one of those people who are actually going somewhere on vacation, like everyone else I know.

By the way, it's been a great week for my mom. She got a promotion and a brand-new, bright red, shiny set of laundry machine and dryer! (YES)

hepatitis c scare

I was watching the news last night with my mom, brother, and sister--my dad is away on a business trip--and as we were trying to find a channel that had something about the elections on, not just weather or health food, we found CBS News and their shocking broadcast about the Hepatitis C scare at a Las Vegas medical center. (The article can be found here.) Apparently, the clinic has been using previously-used syringes. Six patients have already been found to have Hepatitis C, and 40,000 more have been informed that they could have it, or even HIV.

And it doesn't stop there: as these conditions can be transmitted sexually, there is widespread danger already about the high numbers of other people, people who weren't even patients at the clinic, who could have HIV or Hepatitis C.

I find this unbelievable. I mean, of course I do, but really it just makes me mad. What are we as a country if we can't monitor the actions and procedures of our medical treatment centers and make sure our doctors aren't breaking the Hippocrates Oath? After all, this is violation of the first rule, do not hurt a patient [knowingly].

Please, please respond, I am so eager to hear your opinions on this incredibly horrible story.

make-up work

ARGHHH!

Sorry for the desperate, inhuman cry, but I have so much make-up work to do before resurfacing at school tomorrow...

And apparently, there are a million things I've missed. There's a French quiz today, French test tomorrow, Algebra midterm today, English test today, and possibly some sort of Science assessment on Friday. We drop Science tomorrow for Shakespeare, too, which means I am not going to have Science class all week until Friday, as I left right before Science on Monday because that was when I started to get sick. I looked at the online resource, and it looks like my class has started a DNA and genetics unit, which is going to take more than a little work to catch up on, especially as there appears to be some in-class project going on--with partners.

More than anything else, I hate partner and group work. It KILLS me to have to work with other people because I'm so neurotic that I have to have power and control over every itty-bitty little thing, and when I don't, I freak. No one understands this.

Wow, what a week to be absent.

Respond please...

try this one out for suckiness

You may think your life sucks. But oh, my friend, you haven't even begun to know the meaning of the word "suck" until you've heard the story of my day.

I started off the day with a finger-sized sesame seed bar for breakfast, and an hour or so later, I was sitting through a French class the likes of which no one has ever seen. The mispronunciation was profound. I found myself wincing at my classmates the whole time...and the funniest/worst parts of it are that they are the ones everyone thinks are so great, and the teacher refused to call on me. Then came recess, at which point my entire torso began to hurt. My ribs, sides, back, head, back of neck, and especially stomach. The stomach is pretty much the worst.

All throughout English, social studies, music, and lunch, I was completely consumed by the dagger-like dynamic of the whole thing. Finally, at lunch recess, I couldn't take it anymore and went to the nurse, who only amplified it by practically crushing my arms, taking my blood pressure more than four times. At last my mom came to take me home. I'm missing help homeroom and science...not such a loss, really, but I was going to get a couple of grades back in science, so that's sort of annoying.

But when we got home, we were locked out because my little sister (who walks around the corner to her public school) had the key. So I had to wait in the freezing cold, overtaken by pain, for twenty minutes, waiting for my mom to retrieve the key from my sister. My sister was probably in class and deeply embarrassed by this, which happened also with my dad earlier this week. Twice in the past few days, she's had a parent come sheepishly into her classroom, asking for the house key.

Still it doesn't let up, after a hearty dose of Tylenol and Tums, upon whom I have, until now, completely relied on to cure me of any pain I may be experiencing.

AHH