This is really not a political rant per se, and I’m not going to talk about one side or the other, just an incident…

So, on the Arizona ballot this fall will be a marriage amendment - as in defining marriage as being between a woman and a man. I have my own ideas on that. And I’m sure you have yours. I don’t honestly care what they are. What I do care is that our diocese and our bishop sent out a video to all the parishes in the diocese that basically tells them that their faith requires them to vote yes on the proposition.

I am not here to tell the Catholic church what to believe or what it should or should not endorse. If they want to send me a letter, fine. If they want to put a flyer in the bulletin, fine. If they want to put a video on their website, fine. If they want to buy advertising on local television stations, fine. But how DARE they hijack the Holy Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ for a political ad???? I am so livid I can barely see straight. I have had many reasons to be angry at our bishop, but this one takes the cake. I am absolutely furious.

And furthermore? Don’t you DARE tell me what MY faith says I should do. You have no idea what my faith says. You do not know MY faith. You want to tell me that my church thinks we should vote yes? Fine. You want to tell me that my religion says to vote yes? Fine. But don’t you dare tell me what my faith says or is or does. My faith is mine and mine alone. And only God knows what it is and how it is manifested. As a very wise young woman said, my religion is how I celebrate my faith. It is not my faith.

/end rant. For now.

It’s no secret that we are not fans of the Democratic Party around here. John McCain is not my first choice for president, either, all truth be told, but he’ll get our votes. And I may have to drop my television from a high building before November 5 because I’m already so sick and tired of political ads. I do think, however, that it’s fitting that the night an African-American accepts the presidential nomination for a major political party for the first time is the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Anyway, funny story…every time a Barack Obama ad would come on, LG would say “He said Barack Obama!” And I started saying, “We don’t like Barack Obama. We like John McCain.” So now, every time B.O. comes on television, she says “He said Barack Obama! We don’t like Barack Obama. We like John McCain!”

Cute. But. It’s gonna be a very very very long 2 months.

P.S. For the record, I’d have no problem whatsoever with an African-American president. Just not that one.

Disclaimer: The following post is a bit of a geek-out, so those of you that are non-geeks might want to skip it.

Overall, WordPress 2.5 is fine and I’m glad I upgraded, but there are things about it that just drive me bonkers.

• I really hate that you have to go to a separate page to delete a post. It’s nice that it periodically saves the posts automatically, but because of that, if you decide that you don’t want to publish a post after you’ve started writing it, you can’t just click out of the window and let it disappear into the internet ether. No, you have to go to another page and select it and THEN you can choose to delete it. It seems like way too many steps when there could just be a button on the Write Post page that says “delete this post”. That would be so much easier. So I finally realized there is actually a “delete post” link on the main write post page, but in my defense, it’s in a different place than it used to be and it’s not as obvious as they might think it is. I really looked for it before I wrote this post and never found it until I accidentally hovered my mouse over it and it turned red. Just not the best coding there is all. The other complaints still stand at this point, though.

• I hate that the categories are located where you have to scroll down to see them. When they were on the sidebar, I would see then as I was typing and that reminded me that I needed to choose a category. Now I forget to pick a category half the time because I actually have to think about scrolling down to find them.

• I hate that you have to click “Edit” to change the posting time to future or past. You used to just have to scroll down a little on the sidebar and there it was waiting for you if you needed it. Now there’s an extra step needed and that bugs me.

• I also hate that you have to go to another page to see your drafts and that there is no way of knowing if you even have any drafts waiting unless you go to that other page. They used to have the titles of drafts up at the top of the Write Post page so that you could see them and know they were there. If you’re going to make me go to another page, can’t you at least put a number next to the View Drafts so that I know how many drafts I have? Like “View Drafts (2)” or “View Drafts (0)”? That would be ever so helpful.

There are probably other things, but those are the things that tend to bug me on a regular basis. And who knows? Maybe there are ways to change those things, but if there are, I haven’t been able to find them or figure them out yet.

Edited to add: And even after I talked about the stupid category thing, I still forgot to put one on this post when I first published it. Bugs me!

Friday I got a bill from the anesthesiologist who did the anesthesia for my ablation procedure last summer. Yes, a bill from something that happened in July. Stupid. And did I mention the bill was for $608? Yeah. Not happy. I tried to call about it yesterday, but oh yeah, it was a holiday so they were closed. So I called the insurance today and it seems that the anesthesiologist was “out of network”, so I am expected to pay the co-insurance on it. Um, hello? Should they not have figured all of that out before I had my procedure? Am I supposed to interview everyone in the operating room before I go under to make sure they’re all in my network? Wtf? I was in a network hospital being worked on by a network cardiologist. It is ridiculous that I should have to worry about whether or not the anesthesiologist is in the “network” or not. Just another way that insurance companies are ruining the health care system. Ugh.

And then today there was the new of the sudden death of Heath Ledger. I know people die every day. But he’s a dad. And I’ve enjoyed his movies. And he was only 28 years old. So sad.

Since I have nothing but sad and/or grumpy things to talk about, I thought I’d lighten it up a bit with a meme I found at 123Duck!. (Read on …)

My dad came over to visit today - he brought us our Christmas dolls and I gave him his traditional calendar of pictures of LG. Plus I gave him his copies of the pictures we just got done of her.

He told me that his car died on the way home from LG’s birthday party a few weeks ago and he hasn’t gotten it repaired yet. Luckily they have two cars, even though she who shall not be named isn’t really doing much driving these days.

But here’s the kicker. My dad didn’t have a cell phone to call for help. Why doesn’t he have a cell phone you ask? Well, it’s not elderly fear of technology. He has a computer. He used to have a cell phone, but at some point he got rid of it. Why? Because she who shall not be named doesn’t want him to have one because then we would be able to call him without her knowing.

So, in other words, she’d rather him be out and about with no way to call for help if something happens than for us be able to call him without her knowledge. Ugh.

Dear Cars Going Down the Road I Wanted to a Make Left Turn on on Saturday:

Why are you all out running around on Saturday morning? I expect there to be traffic during the week, hence I do not attempt to make a left hand turn onto that street during the week. However, it being Saturday, I thought I could get away with it. But no. Because you were all spread so far apart that every time I thought I could either make the turn or at least get in the center lane, someone decided they needed to get in the center lane to make a left hand turn into the shopping center across the street, thus making it impossible for me to turn out of the parking lot I was in. I waited for over five minutes, which may not seem long in the grand scheme of things, but is very long when trying to just get out of a PARKING LOT when you are the first person in line. So, thanks a lot for making me have to finally turn right and go out of my way to get to where I was going.

Sincerely,
Frustrated Errand Runner

Dear Stupid Man Pulling Out of the Parking Space in Front of the Hallmark:

Sir, when you pull out of a parking space, you pull straight back and then turn your car. You DO NOT, under any circumstances, turn your car into the empty space next to you as you are pulling out. Especially if there is a car (mine) trying to zip into the parking space next to you in the short little break before the car that just turned into the parking lot makes it impossible for me to do so. And then, after you do that stupid thing and almost hit me? You do not just sit there staring at me like I need to move. YOU need to pull back into your parking space and back out STRAIGHT like normal people do and THEN turn. You might also want to put your car in reverse so people have a frigging clue what you are going to do. And one more thing, look around before you pull out and see what the cars around you are doing. Just saying.

Sincerely,
Person Wondering How Anyone Could Possibly Be That Stupid

Dear Construction Workers on the Main Street Nearest My House:

Why do you find it necessary to put a no left turn sign out so that if I wanted to turn onto the street that leads to my street (which, by the way, is the only possible way to get there from that direction unless you either a) go past it and farther down the road where you can make a U-turn or b) go through the church parking lot)? If the church parking lot hadn’t been there for me to drive through, I would have probably rolled down my window and said something rude.

Sincerely,
Driver Warning You Not to Screw with My Way Home

Dear Stupid People on the Freeway Coming Home Last Night:

When the speed limit is reduced to 55, and I’m still going almost 70, why do you find it necessary to tailgate me? We’re going SEVENTY for god’s sake. SLOW THE HELL DOWN AND BACK OFF. Or hey, go around me. I don’t care. Jerks.

Sincerely,
Mommy Who Doesn’t Like to Drive on the Freeway in the Dark with My Kid in the Car All the Way Across Town in the First Place

Dear Amazon.com:

I would say thank you for having that awesome sale the other day where some of your children’s books were only 70¢! But since you apparently ran out and aren’t going to send them to me, I can’t express my gratitude. Especially since you are sending me the non-sale book I ordered and charging me for shipping on it even though my original order qualified for free Super Saver shipping. It’s really not my fault you sold out of your merchandise, so I should not have to pay shipping because of it. So try and practice good customer service for once and take the shipping charge off the order. M’kay? Thanks.

Sincerely,
The Person Who Still Remembers that You Didn’t Get the 6th Harry Potter Book to Me on Time and Took 6 Months to Refund My Money

Edited to add: In response to my email, they did indeed agree to take the shipping charges off the order. ;)

Dear Melody:

It is not really a good idea to take one of my shoes and chew the strap off. It makes Mommy very angry. Be a good puppy and LEAVE MY SHOES ALONE.

Love,
The Person Who Makes Sure You Have Food in Your Bowl

Dear Little Girl:

I am sorry that my yelling at Melody made you so upset that you had a tantrum. But tantrums don’t solve anything. It’s a good lesson to learn now because it might keep me from killing you when you’re 14.

Love,
Mommy

People who do not live in a desert in the Northern Hemisphere might not understand why I hate September. But I do. The only good thing about September is the birthstone and some really cool people that were born in September. Other than that, I would just skip it if I had a choice.

Why? Because it’s hot. Yes, it’s usually hotter during June. And July. And August. But I expect it to be hot during June, July and August. And I honestly rarely complain about the heat during the summer months, because it’s summer. It’s supposed to be hot. But by September? I’m sick of it. And I complain. A lot. Because it’s too darn hot.

I’m sick of the heat. I’m sick of sweating. I’m sick of not being able to go outdoors during the daylight hours without feeling like I’m going to pass out. I’m sooooo over it. Ready to move on! To Fall! Where the weather is nice! And you can hang out outside and enjoy yourself during the DAY.

That is why I love October. Because in October, the temperatures finally start to drop. And also I was born in October.

Anyway, sick of the heat. Ready for it to end. GO AWAY ALREADY.

I was sleeping. Peacefully. And then the phone rang. It was 4:39 a.m. Now normally when the phone rings at 4:39 a.m. (not that it happens very often, but humor me), it’s either bad news or the alarm going off at church (which could be filed under bad news, too, I suppose).

And if you’re anything like me, when the phone rings at 4:39 a.m. jarring you out of a sound sleep, your heartrate shoots up pretty quickly. So, if the phone is going to ring at 4:39 a.m., it better be for a damn good reason.

But it wasn’t a good reason. It was “A Quality” calling and then not answering when I picked up the phone. Nothing. Not a word. And, by the way, I’m on the Do Not Call list. So, why are they calling me at all, much less at 4:39 a.m.?

Good question. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t, so I got my trusty laptop and googled that phone number. It appears I’m not the only one that has this problem as there were many reports (several from last night) of the same thing happening to other people.

So what’s the deal? I am constantly getting phone calls from solicitors even though I’m on the Do Not Call list. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but still. There is a problem in the system somewhere. I did find out, though, that you can file a complaint online with the Do Not Call Registry.

In the meantime, it’s 6:43 a.m. and LG is already up because she got “scared” as she put it. Mike’s up, too, and they’re eating breakfast. As for me? I just want to go back to sleep, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. *sigh*

I was lucky! The laptop is back in business. Whew.

The power cord on my laptop has decided to take a nose dive. Which means it works about 10% of the time - if I’m lucky. So until I get a new one (which could be today, if I’m lucky, and there is one somewhere in this city), I will not be online as much.

Oh please. Let me be lucky.

Oh how I loathe thee, insurance companies of America! For many many MANY reasons, but today’s reason? Is that I have to get a referral for the cardiologist appointment I had yesterday and the one I have Monday. And remember, I made an appointment for Thursday a couple of weeks ago, and yet! No mention of needing a referral until TODAY!

Stupid stupid insurance company.

See, here’s the thing. Since we changed insurance companies about a year and a half ago, I haven’t been sick (or at least sick enough to require me to go to the doctor). The only doctor appointments I’ve had have been check-ups at the cardiologist and the ob/gyn. So, since my old primary care physician doesn’t take the new insurance, I just never got around to finding a new PCP. (Do you see where this is headed?)

I do actually understand the necessity for getting a referral to go see a new specialist that you’ve never been to before. I totally get that. But, I’m not going to the cardiologist on a whim. It’s not like I just up and decided one day that hey! I think I’ll go to the cardiologist and see if my heart is working okay! That sounds like fun! Because I love stripping to the waist and getting hooked up to the EKG machine! There is no better way to spend my time!

No, it wasn’t like that. I’ve been under a cardiologist’s care for years. YEARS! So WHY the ^&$^% do I need a stinking referral every time I go see him? ESPECIALLY when the original appointment was a check-up and the appointment on Monday is because SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY HEART. That would seem to be a reasonable excuse to see the cardiologist whose patient I have been for YEARS.

But NO! NO NO NO! The office called me today (and by the way, she was rather shocked to learn I was in there yesterday…whatever) because I needed a referral from my PCP. Which I do not have.

So, lady on the phone, what do you propose I do since I don’t have a PCP? She said she’d try and get them to put it through on continuity of care, but if they refused then I’d be responsible for the fees. *sigh*

But wait! I had a brainstorm! Could my ob/gyn put a referral in for me? Why yes! Yes they could! And so I called them! And they did! Because they are nice that way.

But either way, I still loathe thee insurance companies of America. You stupid idiots.

And now, back to my self-imposed hibernation. Until the next time.

I think maybe I should just cut my heart out and put it in a chest like Davy Jones did in Pirates of the Caribbean so that it doesn’t cause me any more grief. No? Well, it was a thought.

So, the EKG says: tachycardia and atrial flutter.

I’m not exactly sure how I feel at the moment about all of that. Mostly right now I just want to wallow in self-pity for awhile. You know why it really sucks? Because after almost 2 years of my heart behaving perfectly, and me actually believing that I was going to be done with this once and for all, I’m right back where I started. So there’s a lot of questioning of God going on right now. Oh, not “finger pointing and screaming angry” questioning, just “I don’t get it Lord - can you please help me to understand why it’s happened after almost two years” questioning.

Anyway, I will be seeing the other cardiologist on Monday - the one who does the ablations. And I don’t really feel like looking for those old posts about when I had the ablation last time, but if you’re really interested, check the archives around August 2005 and there should be many posts about it. So yeah, looks like I’ll probably have to have another ablation. Yay. I most definitely did not enjoy it the first time and I was really hoping I wouldn’t have another date with Dr. S ever again. Not that I don’t love him. I do. He is an awesome doctor, but you know…

In the meantime, I’m on my nemesis Toprol to slow down my heart rate. Blood pressure medication and I do NOT get along well. My blood pressure has always been pretty close to perfect, and therefore slowing it down just makes me feel like crap.

I think I will be away from ye olde blog for a few days so I can just kind of wrap my brain around all of this. But no worries - I will let you know what’s going on and if LG does anything too adorable not to share, you can bet I’ll post. In the meantime, I just need to regroup. And cry a little bit.

I’ve been thinking a lot today about Virginia Tech. Thinking about the whys and the whats and the hows and the what can we do to keep this from happening again?

I don’t know that it’s possible to ever stop people from killing other people. That has been going on since the dawn of our existence. But I certainly think there are ways to try to prevent these things from happening.

Information about the killer is slowly trickling out and one of the things that was reported was that he wrote very dark and macabre things as an English major, so dark that he was sent to a counselor. If that’s not a red flag, I don’t know what is. It seems that every time something like this happens, it is later reported that they wrote violent and dark words leading up to the killings. Perhaps the “counselors” need to take those signals a little more seriously.

I also think one of the problems is that we live in a society that accepts violence as a form of entertainment - in video games, in rap music, on television shows, in movies. I am not against free speech by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that many parents are too liberal in what they let their children watch when they are young. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve seen parents bring small children to violent, disturbing movies or that I’ve heard my students talk about the things their parents let them view on television. And I think these parents are doing their children a disservice by allowing these precious minds to view violence and ugliness at a young age.

I certainly think there is an age when kids can handle darker subject matter with supervision, but I think every child is different and parents really need to be aware of what their children are viewing and experiencing.

I try my best to make sure that LG is only exposed to “harmless” shows, which is why 1) we watch very little television when LG is awake and 2) I spend so much time watching shows like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. She enjoys the music and the movement and the shows themselves are pretty G-rated.

What makes me angry is when I am trying my best to shield her from the darker subject matter of movies and television shows and the networks find it necessary and apparently acceptable to advertise violent or scary movies and television programs during these shows that children are most likely viewing. It makes me angry because it’s very hard to flip the channel fast enough to keep her from seeing those commercials and they have no business being aired during those shows in the first place, in my humble opinion.

I’m not saying that those advertisements shouldn’t be aired at all, but I’m much more likely to expect something like that during CSI than I am during American Idol, and it really pisses me off that the networks don’t seem to care enough about the age of their viewers to consider the audience that is watching and save those ads for shows that I wouldn’t let my child watch anyway. And yes, I could just watch these shows on the DVR and fast forward through the commercials, but the bottom line is that I shouldn’t have to.

And so, I’ve decided. Every time I see what I consider an inappropriate ad during a show that I find harmless enough for LG to watch, I’m going to complain. To the local station. To the network. AND to the advertiser. And I think you should, too, if you agree with me. Maybe if enough people complain, they’ll think twice about when they program certain advertising. I’m not even going to begin to try to get the advertising taken off the television completely, but I’m sure going to try to make certain programs violence-free zones. It’s one small thing, I know. And it might not make a real difference in the big picture, but it’s something I can do and feel like I’m at least trying to change things. Are you with me?

Edited to add: In response to Barbara’s comment, I will work on getting a page up with the networks’ contact information in the next couple of days.

Scroll down for Friday’s Feast…

It is 4:45 a.m. and I’m wide awake. Why you ask? Because the phone rang at 3:15. It was the security company telling us that the alarm was going off at church* and Mike is number one on the list because he is staff and we live a few blocks away. Then I had to wake Mike up (which is not easy to do because I swear he could sleep through an earthquake) and he promptly managed to hang up on them, because unlike me, he doesn’t wake up that easily**. They called him back on his cell, and he took off for church to check everything out. I, of course, could not go back to sleep until he got back and by that time, I was wide awake and still am.

What stinks the most about this was that I was actually sleeping really well, and that happens so rarely, that I can’t help but be sort of angry that my sleep was interrupted. *sigh* I’ve tried all my usual sleep tricks and none have worked so far, so I’m on the laptop hoping it will make me sleepy again.

*Everything was fine. It’s been really windy and one of the storage shed doors was apparently not locked and the door was open. So Mike did what he could to secure it and they can deal with it tomorrow.

**Is this true in your family? The mom wakes up at the slightest sniffle, but the dad would sleep through pretty much anything? Is this genetic?

Every year for Easter, my tradition has always been, since I was a child, to get a new Easter dress. And since LG has been around, I try to get a dress that’s in the same general color family as hers. This year, her dress is lavender gingham, so I wanted to get something in the purple family. But guess what? Apparently, everyone is going goth this Easter, because the only dresses I can find are black, red or brown or some combination thereof. If someone would like to explain to me how black, red or brown are spring colors, I’d really appreciate it, because those colors don’t really scream “new life” and “flowers” and “Easter” to me. More like “death” and “dead flowers” and “Halloween”. Or at least Fall. But definitely not Spring.

So, no luck finding a dress. Well, maybe if I’d started looking earlier so I could have gone to a few more places, but in the end I had to settle for a lavender print skirt and an aqua blue top that matches part of the print. I’d have gotten a lavender top, but they didn’t have the top that was supposed to go with it in my size, and I couldn’t find any other lavenders that actually matched the lavenders in my skirt. So aqua it is.

But next year, I’m starting earlier. And they better have spring dresses. I’m just saying.

It’s warm enough now that I want to turn the ceiling fan on in my bedroom to cool it down before I fall asleep, but I can’t. Why, you ask? Because our ceiling fan has a remote control, which is awesome. Except the battery is dead. And I can’t replace it. Because some nitwit thought it would be smart to put a non-standard battery in a remote control. And even if I could reach the chain (which I can’t) it wouldn’t work because it’s already in the on position so the remote control works. So yeah, some idiot designer at Hunter Fans is on my bad list tonight. Grr.