MEME!!!

Alkelda tagged me on "8 Facts/Habits About Myself," and I finally gave it enough thought. I'm sure once I publish this I'll think of 8 more, but Brad the Gorilla also tagged me, so I suppose that gives me free license for another meme. It's all about me, right?

Here are the rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Anyway, I'd like to preface this meme by saying I'm being completely honest; please don't judge me! Exit, stage LEFT!!!

1. I'm terrified of the dark, unless there's someone else there, and even then I'm pretty damn uneasy. Yes, I have a "night-light." I'm such a pussy. (Don't START with me, Limpy!)

2. I have a good number of "phobias." I'm claustrophobic if in a confined space for any length of time. I MUST stand right in front of the doors on an elevator. I'm working on that.

I'm mildly agoraphobic ...it takes everything I have to be in a huge crowd without feeling anxious. I don't HATE people, and I'm not afraid to step out, it just makes me nervous to have someone all up in my "personal space." Could be part of being raped at gunpoint when I was 19. Shrug...don't know, but I'm over that. Just don't EVEN ask me to go to the mall around Christmastime.

Acrophobia is another, except on roller coasters and really cool amusement park rides. Looking over the edge of somewhere REALLY high makes me squinch up my butt cheeks, whether the space is enclosed or not. That scene in "Ferris Beuller's Day Off" where they're leaning on the glass of that really tall building freaks me out. It could also be a fear of falling (don't know the name of that phobia), because just being up high doesn't bother me so much as the fall. I DO want to skydive to prove to myself that I can be fearless. One good shove with a tandom diver ought to do it. Or scare me into a sanitarium, one of the two.

Each one of those "phob's" probably deserved its own number but this is MY meme, right? LOL

3. My major pet-peeve is spelling and grammar. I'm guilty of fucking up from time to time. "Dictionary.com" is one of my bookmarks. I used to have a really bad habit of correcting people. "Deaf/death" is HUGE with me. If you can't hear, you're NOT "death." Christ on a trapeze. What, are you, DEAF? (No offense to anyone who's really deaf!)

4. I LOVE PINK FLOYD! (This one probably should have been first.) I can't get enough of them. I especially like listening to them through the headphones, when I have what I like to call, "down-time." While I'm being honest, Karen Carpenter was the reason I became a singer, and I like Neil Diamond and Cat Stevens. A LOT.

5. I had a GREAT childhood. Most, but not ALL, the memories are the best, but I think I turned out alright, and I'm best friends with my parents, who are still together and still in love, and THEY are still best friends. That's just RARE in this world.

6. Flying over water scares the fuck out of me. Hell, see #2, and that's only 1/2 of it! I've never been "across the ocean," but once, on a trip back to Cleveland, we flew a little bit over Lake Erie so the pilot could turn around and land on his designated strip. I nearly soiled myself.

7. I have a really bad habit of tuning people out when they're talking to me about something I have absolutely no interest in. Especially politics. The receptionist at work drives me BATSHIT with her rhetoric, goading one of the IT guys into some sort of debate (can you say, attention whore???). Sometimes I just want to scream, "Shut the fuck up, work is NO PLACE to voice your fucking political (and/or religious) opinion!!!" (Okay, I guess I had to vent a little there...)

8. I secretly like being tickled until my ribs hurt.

This sure has been fun. I, for one, learned some things about meme.

I hereby tag the following people in this Lady's kingdom (yeah, okay, there're 12...so sue me):

Big Pissy
Birdy
bostick
Brad
Callie (if it's done fucking pouring)
Cap'n Cork
Jerry
Jerry's Mad Penis
Jenjur
Junebugg
Limpy
Mattie

Happy Friday, and everyone have a safe, happy, healthy weekend!!!

Going Crazy

The front desk dispatcher had an appointment this morning, so I'm stuck answering phones and doing dispatch.

I abhore doing this. Seriously. I hate feeling like I'm chained to my desk. It's bad enough I had dreams about work last night, and now this.

I'll write more this afternoon or tonight when I get home.

Have a great HNT.

Good News

WOO HOO!!!! Got a call from the liver doc's office, and he says my liver enzymes have greatly improved. They're still not back down to normal, but they're WAY down from what they were two weeks ago.

Hey kids, can you say, "NO liver biopsy?" Thank God for small miracles. I sure wasn't looking forward to being shanked by a hollow needle and having a piece of my liver yanked out. Talk about a major buzzkill!

So now I just need to keep doing what I'm doing, wait for the test results for the hemochromatosis (the lab says that test takes at least 14 days), and THEN maybe we can reschedule the yankitallouttame...again. Y'all keep your fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, one of the techs at work recommended this little bit of nuttiness. I LOVE a good laugh. Enjoy, and happy HUMP DAY!

FEARLESS

You say the hill's too steep to climb;

Climbing.

You say you'd like to see me try~~

Climbing.

You pick the place and I'll choose the time

And I' ll climb

The hill in my own way.

Just wait a while for the right day.

And as I rise above the tree-line and the clouds

I look down, hearing the sound of the things you've said today.

...

Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, , ,

Smiling.

Merciless the magistrate turns round

Frowning.

And who's the fool who wears the crown?

No doubt,

In your own way,

And every day is the right day

And as you rise above the fear-lines in his brow,

You look down, hear the sound of the faces in the crowd.

~ Pink Floyd

Holy Bulging Veins, Batman!!!

Yep, two more vials of my finest are off to the lab. THIS time, they kept calling me up to the front counter. Apparently, my "liver guy" ordered a test for hemochromatosis.

Uh...okay? (Read: I'm thinking, "What the fuck is THAT?")

Apparently it's some weird blood dis-order where you store too much iron in your system, and all your organs soak it up...particularly the liver. Okay, I get it...so I got on WebMD to look it up.

BAD idea! When will I ever LEARN? Talk about curiosity killing the cat.

I really need to stay away from reading up on this shit and just be a patient patient and wait for the doc to explain shit to me. HE'S the one who suffered through years of med school and a residency for crying out loud.

My phlebotomist was a MALE this time, and my arm isn't NEARLY as bruised as the last vampire. He even took TWO vials, and it hardly hurt at all. Turns out, he's a grad from med school and is just waiting to start his residency in, of all places, ALABAMA. (No offense, BP!) Unfortunately he said he wants to specialize in plastic surgery. BOO-HISS. Sellout! He DID say he may change his mind. He had a great bedside manner; I'd hate to see that go to waste on some rich, old plantation debutante wannabe.

Friday I'm going to throw myself into work to keep my mind off the fact that a liver biopsy just MAY be in my future. I've talked to a couple people who "knew people" who've had them, and they said it's not as un-invasive as my doc claims it to be. Then again, medicine has come a long way in a very short time, but the thought of someone driving a hollow needle into my abdomen and ripping off a piece of my liver just sounds wrong and painful, simply because they won't knock me out to do it. No, thank you. Limpy, I'm admittedly being a pussy about THAT shit. Seriously. Think about a NAD biopsy, using the same method. Long needle all up into one or both of your nuts? Or better yet...up somewhere else to your prostate? Uh-huh. See? LOL ;-)

AAAANNNDDDD....on a lighter note, I've taken some pretty cool pics of the flowering bushes around the complex:

At the moment, the temp is a "cool" 95 degrees. I've gotten my mosquito problem under control (they like to hide on the bathroom mirror, so I go in from time to time to whack them worse than a Soprano's enemy), and gooberdog is lying right next to me, snoring her fool head off. I get to spend a buncha time with my family over this holiday weekend, bbq'ing and playinig in the pool and shooting the shit. Life is good, no matter what.

Hope ALL of you readers have a great, SAFE, fun, happy Memorial Day weekend. Pud, if you're out there, I'm thinking of you and your peeps. I salute you all and pray for your safe return.

Forgive me, nonny, for I have caved...

I'm assuming the reason you disappeared is because YOU caved, as well.

YES, I caved, dammit, and watched the finale of American Idol. If not for brotherman and a VERY drunken mutual friend coming over here, telling me to "TURN ON IDOL!!!" I would have been deprived of seeing some great performances by some REALLY great artists. They could have spared me the "outtakes" from the first contestants, but that's what got me hooked me on the stupid show to begin with.

Brotherman could NOT stop apologizing, as they were at the bar, seeing a friend off who's being deported to Iraq tomorrow. Shots all around. Duh, that's what you do with Army bitches, right? Brotherman was smart to limit his drinking (go figure) and drove drunken friend HERE, then home.

Good Christ on a bike.

Brotherman made it home fine, but I got hooked on the Idol.

DAMMIT.

Then again...seeing TONY BENNETT???? (WOWWED me, at his age!) HOLY crap! I was shocked. I really was amazed at the lineup on the show tonite. I'm sure there'll be a CD or DVD somewhere down the line.

Kelly Underwood's voice gives me goosebumps.

That's all I'm saying. I'm under enough shame pressure for watching as it is...

I might as well be nekkid when I get my blood drawn. Fuck.

Man On Fire

HOLY SHIT!!! This movie was on cable tonight and I couldn't have been more on the edge of my seat.

There I was, lying on the couch after a day of work, still feeling so-so, having some solid food (finally), and flipping channels. NOTHING ON, so I figured, "what the hell, I'll watch this movie." Who can go wrong with Denzel and Dakota?

It started out really slow and I was just about start flipping again and then...WOW ~ WOW! I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie. I think I might just go out and BUY it.

I realllllllly HATE subtitles, but decided, living down here, I should learn a little Spanish. Don't ask me to repeat anything except "uno houre`." I'm a visual girl. This movie, however, really hit me in the heart without kevlar.

That's all I'm saying about that. I'm still feeling "ick," and the Ambien isn't doing anything but giving me REALLY vivid, weird dreams, and I HAVE to get my ass to work in the morning.

I'm thinking about taking the "Lunesta Challenge." Seriously, I'm not looking for drugs, I just want to save my liver enzymes so they can cut my ass open and take out the bad shit.

Thursday morning I have my next blood test. I've been drinking water and green tea like crazy, but tonight I had a cocktail. Probably just screwed myself, but MAN after NOT drinkin' for awhile, I'm gonna sleep like a BABY.

Meanwhile, I'm still LATE (i KNOW, limpy, I lied about being on the pill. LMAO)

I took TWO tests. NEGATIVE. This could be the beginning of the big change. Whatever. I'm down with it, as long as they do SOMETHING to rid me of the PAIN I'VE BEEN IN FOR THE PAST FUCKING YEAR.

Happy hump day, kiddos!