Thursday, January 28, 2010

I love TV

I don't even feel guilty about it.  For me, it's one of the great pleasures of life.  My favorite shows this season are (in order of favoritism) 1.  Men of a Certain Age---Ray Romano is really talented!  I thought "Everybody Loves Raymond" was just an extension of his life and personality, but in this other show, he shows his range.  Wonderful show.  I hate when that hour comes to an end.   2.  Modern Family--laugh out loud funny in so many ways.   I think my favorite character is the ditzy dad.  He's kind of me.  3.  The Good Wife---I didn't care for Juliana Marguiles in "ER" but I love her in this show.

I've gotten hooked on "I Survived" and the stories of how people survive being attacked or in wrecks in gullies for days.

And now, American Idol's come around again!  I love Ellen DeGeneres and I'm looking forward to watching the show with her as a judge.  I will miss Simon Cowell, diva that he is, because he has the guts to tell it like it is and some of those people need to hear it like it is.  I'd be harder, sometimes.

And I'm immensely grateful to Direct TV for my DVR because with my schedule, I'd miss all these great shows.  Woo-hoo for TV!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Power of the Priesthood

Got a blessing last night.  Feel better.  I'm a believer. 

Monday, January 25, 2010

Family Medical Leave Act

Thank God for it.  And thank God for God, because I'm sure he inspired me to apply last month for intermittent FMLA.  I'd had to go home a couple of times with vertigo attacks, which cost me points.  Now.  We don't get sick leave.  If we are sick and miss work, we have to go to a dr. and get a note and bring that to avoid points.
o, you miss work, you are out the $80 for that day; AND you have to pay a dr. $50 (+ or -) so you aren't docked "points" which can lead to firing.  You re allowed 11 points before they fire you.  It's really unfair. 

You could throw up on your computer, pass out and have to be carried out in a stretcher, be life-flighted to a major city and still be docked points if you don't have a doctor's note.

Anyway, I was inspired to file for the FMLA deal.  I filed under three illnesses--the vertigo, diverticulitis, AND chronic fatigue/epstein barr/fibromyalgia.  My dr. seemed to be embarrassed for me on the third thing, the epstein barr.  I said, "Doc, I know for many people (including that insult to humanity, Dean Edell)this is equivalent to saying I was abducted by aliens, but there is clinical documentation for this and we both know it.").

It was approved!  All of it.  And, Murphy's Law being what it is, I got sick immediately.  I missed a week of work.  I couldn't think straight, I had terrible vertigo and pain, I was so weak in my hands I kept dropping things.  I'm wondering now if I have MS, which I've long known I was at risk for, because another of my symptoms is my feet have gone to sleep. 


That is all beside the point.  I didn't have to go to a dr. for permission to be sick!  (Although I did, of course, and have an appt with a neurologist next month--I hate neurologists, urologists, and orthopedic surgeons---oh and psychiatrists, too.  they think their butts are made out of gold and I haven't met a one that was a decent human being.  But necessity will force me to go to this woman for whom a smile is unprofessional.  I actually wrote her a letter years ago about this, but I've heard she didn't take it to heart and is still cold as hell).    No points for me!  No questions asked. 

And that is from God, because this can't be coincidental.  Family. Medical. Leave. Act.  Remember those words.  It's the law. 

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Grateful because.....


I had a bit of energy today and....I've colored my eyebrows!  woo-hoo!  This has been a problematic issue for me because I only do it when I get my hair colored, which I can only afford every other month and my eyebrows are growing in white and the color doesn't last that long.  Now, I can do it myself.  I will look like 50 instead of 70.  I might even try coloring my regrowth myself.  But I'm pretty sure my BFF hairdresser Amy would kill me if I botched it.  She's barely speaking to me after I cut chunks that were sticking out last time because I delayed the haircut.

Also, the dog is bouncing off the walls.  I saved that dog's life.  The vitamin K made him throw up and we were tempting him with chamomille tea, chicken noodle soup, soft scrambled eggs, he got spoiled, actually.  But he counldn't keep it down.  I had the thought it was the vitamin and we took it off him, and off food for most of day, then began giving him soda crackers, which he nibbled gingerly.  And kept down. 

Life is good.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Counting Blessings

I'm making an effort, not a resolution, to be more positive this year.  Since I'm apparently not dying, I must find a way to choose life.   This is a small step.

We had a lovely Christmas and the tree's put away, thank heaven.  The living room looks so much larger!

1.  I applied for, and received an approval of, FMLA at my job.  Which will permit me to take time off when I'm sich without penalty.  The fact that it was approved on the basis of chronic fatigue, among other illnesses, is a small miracle in itself. 

2.  I love my job!  And as of this minute, I'm still employed.  Although still not the best at it, technically, I would bet most of my customers would say I'm the best agent they dealt with.

3.  My husband is looking better and better to me all the time.  Perhaps I'm coming out of my midlife crisis, menopause, empty nest meltdown.  A bit.  We are both working on giving to each other and finding those times when it's just us at home a peaceful joy.  We're bending.  He doesn't nag as much about my ever-present clutter; I allow him to fuss.  He brings me the paper every morning; I acknowledge and provide for, to the best of my ability, his need for meat and potatoes, every single meal!

4.  My dog is alive.  After he ate a whole box of D Con, which was kept under the sink, behind the garbage can, surrounded by a large fire extinguisher and gallon jugs of distilled water, which had a child-proof lock!  D Con must smell really really good.  I was home sick from work or he'd be dead.  And I got up at just the moment he finished the box.  He looked so guilty because he knows he's not supposed to get in the garbage.  I now know what it's like to be a vet, on a limited basis, because I, at the vet's orders, poured hydrogen peroxide down that dog's throat with a syringe and made him throw up the poison into the bathtub.  I was throwing up myself.  Sitting there in my nightgown, Bill gone to a scout meeting, making my Jack Russell puppy throw up.   He's traumatized (he's the only quiet, frail, sensitive Jack Russell on the planet) and sickly and looks at me with those huge sad brown eyes, but he's alive.  That was a grace of God thing.

Bill so loves that sweet little dog, it would have broken his heart---and mine---if he'd died.  So now we're leaving soda pop and dried potatoes on the counter for the mice, per searching the internet for alternatives.   How the hell he got that D Con just blows our minds. 


And that's the good news for today.