caramel-covered cleavage

Is it better to have peanut butter, caramel, or fudge down your cleavage?

I am dressed as an evil pixie for Halloween today. There was left-over candy from our party, including some of the eyeball candies (guess what three flavors they come in). I put one in the usual spot, expecting to extract it at some point as part of a gag ("Aw, you look sad. Eyeball? Sorry, they get a little chewy after they've been removed . . . "). Only I guess the eyeballs weren't constructed to deal with that level of heat, and the next thing I knew, I was cleaning chocolate and caramel out of my cleavage.

My co-worker missed the show. He was in the next office over, discussing football.

My Life, Rated

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.4
Mind:	6.8
Body:	6.6
Spirit:	8.3
Friends/Family:	6.5
Love:	7.7
Finance:	7.7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

I notice that while I don't have a single very high score, like the journals of my friends who posted this, I have higher scores across the board.

June weddings

Many of my friends at the Halloween party last night. It's the first time they've had serious interaction time with Pete. And Amy told me I can't have a June wedding--she doesn't want to come to Tucson in June. (I am also not allowed to dress her in pink).

I told her I have a June family reunion, and may have to attend a wedding in May, at Rites of Spring. Though I have long felt that I will be handfasted at Rites. And I've told Kenilyn she's doing my handfasting, at such time and with such person as it seems feasible. So she would have to come to Rites, too.

So, Wyldwoods, when are you getting married? I think I've gone from "you can't get married within a month of the family reunion" to "you have to get married at Rites or I won't have an excuse to go." ;)

I've only known Pete since April. It's way too soon to make assumptions of this nature, and all my friends have. All the friends who have a responsibility to tell me if I'm dating a goober and just can't see it, so I guess I'm obliged to trust their judgement. I'm freaking out a little. But in a good way.

Quote of the Week

When single shines the triple sun,
What was sundered and undone
Shall be whole--the two made one--
By gelfling hand, or else by none.

--from The Dark Crystal

If you put 12 pagans in the same room, you come out with 13 different traditions!

On Friday, I was dressed up as an exceedingly purple witch, running around humming bits of Jesus Christ Superstar. Gives all new meaning to "ecclectic witch," doesn't it?

Things that are making my life easier.

A mondo knee brace that's preventing lateral motion in the knee long enough for some actual healing to occur.
Ewido
smitRem.exe
a Bissell Spot Lifter
naproxen
Midol
A boy who's sweet on me.
A Halloween party to look forward to.
An excuse to wear three different costumes this year.
The number of births, couples, and prospective marriages I'm hearing about.

Things that are makaing my life hard.

New.net Domains (Seems to work fine until one day it breaks, and then it behaves like a broken application-level software proxy).
Smitfraud.D/PSGuard/Trojan.Desktophijack.C
A 2.5MB newsletter sent to something on the order of 150 dial-up sites.
A wait on a friend's MRI results.
A slow-healing knee problem that one doctor complains can't possibly be related to the only injury I've had in the past two months.
Qwest/Time Warner/the telecommunications structure in our office park (whichever combination of the three is actually to blame for our networking difficulties).
The number of deaths I've heard about this year. (Did you hear that Rosa Parks died Monday?)

Quote of the Week

"How are you going to run the universe if you can’t even answer a few unsolveable problems?"

--Kevin Flynn, in Tron

The many flavors of stress . . .

We all know that stress can have physical effects on the human body. And stressors can be either positive or negative. Getting bitten by a dog is, of course, a stressor. So is meeting your boyfriend's parents, however delightful they may turn out to be.

During a particularly bad roommate situation in college, I acquired one of the more annoying manifestations of stress: TMJ. Once you have an experience with stress-related TMJ, it never really "goes away" again. Not that you deal with it all the time. No, it just becomes one more thing that is likely to happen every time you reach a particular stress level. I find it interesting because my TMJ will actually often kick in before I reach a point where I feel terribly stressed. It's one of my early warning signs.

I just had my afternoon snack--vitamins cleverly disguised as a candy bar. And when I began to chew, I heard clicking/crunching sounds from the left side of my jaw. I think that the background stress of long hours and the good stress of dating just combined with today's go-round with HR/workman's comp/the doctor to put me in a bad way.

I foresee a hot tub in my very near future . . .

Funny

From the livejournal of a friend of a friend. It made me laugh, so I thought I'd share.

Pete's Family

The visit went great. Pete's family are delightful. I think there's more to say, but I'm tired enough it's not coming to mind right now. Maybe later.

Quote of the Week

"Never belive your teachers, preachers, or parents. Not necessarily in that order."

--Dr. D. G. Campbell

War of the Worlds

Pete and I saw War of the Worlds this weekend. I was very impressed.

I've never understood, before, how some of my friends can see horror flicks and go, "Wow, that was a great movie--I'm gonna have to sleep with the lights on for a week!" But I have to admit, there were times during this movie where it was hard to breathe and I felt sick to my stomach. And in this case, it means they were doing something really right.

I think some of it touched those places in my subconscious where I remember things that haven't happened to me. It had that feel. I confess I had a momentary flash on myself in the crowd, shouting, "Caldwell encampment? I'm looking for the Caldwell encampment!" Which I am probably misspelling, and which will only make sense if you're on the inside of that particular joke. :)

My mother points out that you can see the influence from 9/11.

And I must admit, it was nice to see Tom Cruise in the role of the deadbeat dad. I've always thought he was a more verstile actor than his usual romantic lead shows.

Doesn't that just sum it up?

I'm exhausted and packing it in early, but I thought I'd leave you with the thought for the day:

http://www.wapsisquare.com/d/20051011.html

Quote of the Week

" . . . some things are more horrible than defeat, more final than death."

--from A Flame in Hali, by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross

Meme

If there is at least one person in your life whom you consider a close friend, and whom you would not have met without the internet, post this sentence in your journal.

You know who you are.

Color Quiz

Journey took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Seeks success, stimulation, and a life full of exp..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

On medical professionals:

doctor: The ligaments are inflamed. I don't know why. Stay off your feet 80% of the time.

physical therapist: Stop limping and keep the knee moving to avoid loss of muscle mass. Your range of motion is fine, you're just favoring it because it hurts.

chiropractor: Does it hurt here? How about here? *crack* Walk around and see how it feels.

me: I'm going to hurt like hell, but my weight's coming down in the right place again.


(So much for the doctor's complaint that nothing in a knee can be adjusted).

Good for a laugh . . .

http://alienlovespredator.com/index.php?id=143

Doctor What?

I've noticed that there seem to be two kinds of doctors practicing in the US today. The first kind sees the body as a fascinating organism that provides a variety of input for troubleshooting problems, understands that the patient is the best provider of this input, and is open to new thereapies. The second believes that the body is a fascinating machine which can be observed and repaired, and you will listen to them, by God, even if you are the patient.

As my boss observed, the second type is slowly dying or retiring. It's a very definite change in attitude that's come about as a result of how doctors are taught. Myself, I'm a big believer that your body talks to you. And from comments other people have made, I've come to understand that I'm better at listening than most people. This means I get along fabulously with Type 1 doctors and bang heads, inevitably, with Type 2 doctors.

When the dog bit me, I saw a Type 1 doctor. Unfortunately, it turns out she wasn't permanat staff, she was just covering for a Type 2 doctor who was at a conference.

On Friday, I noticed my knee felt "loose": like it just wasn't certain forward and backward was the direction it should be going. By Saturday, I knew something was wrong. By Sunday, i definitely felt that my weight was coming down too far to the inside of the knee, and by Monday morning I was concerned enough that I might do permanant damage that I broke down and went in to the doctor early, rather than wait to see the chiropractor on Tuesday afternoon.

The doctor promptly asked me what I'd done. The answer is nothing. Well, did I fall or re-injure myself in some way? No--I put heat on it, the way she told me to. I stood up, sat down, spun around in a swivel chair, slept . . . She didn't like that answer. She quickly determined that all the ligaments in my knee have flared up, but she doesn't know why. I told her I could live with pain, I was mostly concerned about the alignment of the knee, the feeling that the weight is coming down too far to the inside, and the possibility of doing damage. And I mentioned the chiropractor re-aligning the knee when I saw him last Tuesday.

Oh, she didn't like that at all. According to the doctor, there is nothing in a knee to be aligned. Evidentally it's not really a joint and I just never knew it. She said your kneecap is either in the right place or it's not, and if it's not, you know it. Just one catch: I have had surgery on my other knee as a result of the fact that I did once put the kneecap out slightly, did not know it, and crunched cartilidge. I was left staring at the woman, dumbfounded, thinking, "Lady, you have no idea where my pain threshold is."

So I did what I always have to do with Type 2 doctors: grab the horns and try to steer. As a result, we are agreed that all the ligaments have flared up and are concerned by the fact that we don't know why. I am wearing a compression bandage to provide some extra support and help combat that "loose" feeling. And I will have a physical therapy evaluation tomorrow. The doctor feels that the physical therapist, having more time to spend with me as an individual patient, can do a full range of motion and manipulation evaluation, and may see if something else is going on.

What a horribly frustrating experience. And yes, I am still seeing the chiropractor tomorrow. And no, I won't tell him he can't touch my knee. Because from the chiropractor, I get a sense that he knows what he's doing.

Taking over the world!

http://www.ptcruiserclub.org/galleries/she10993/gallery5.htm

Custom PT

Heehee. Maybe not quite my dream car, but the configurator was a neat little toy, and this kind of demi-custom wouldn't hurt my feelings any. ;) You can play with the toy here.

Me and my PT

I love my car. Of all the practical cars in the world, my PT Cruiser is my dream car. For one thing, it's just funky-looking. I like funky things. For another, it comes in purple.

Aside from these important considerations . . . It's a station wagon that doesn't look like a station wagon. If I take the back seats out, I've got as much cargo room as a small truck. I've brought such varied things as a chest of drawers and a 27" TV home in my car. The front passenger seat folds down to completely horizontal, so I can carry items over 6' long. I tested this with a 6' tall scratching post. I had room to spare.

And while a friend of mine complained that in essence, I'm still driving a Dodge Neon, it's a Neon with a much better engine and great body integrity. As my mother said, "You close the door and it sounds like you're in a Mercedes."

I love my car. Someday, I will have enough money to do custom paint for her. Someday . . .

Yes, my car is dirty. So what's your point?

What is this, national Make Faces at the Funny-Looking Car Day?

Driving home from my parents house, somebody rolled down the passenger window of his car and hung half-out of it, making funny faces and gestures at what I thought was my car. After the light, I saw somebody on the other side of my car doing it. Being in the center lane, I made mental jump that they were actually aiming for each other, and I just happened to be in the middle.

Then, a mile or two down the road, a third car comes up in the left lane, and there's somebody sticking out his tongue and waggling his fingers at me from the rear passenger seat. Now, I know I drive a PT Cruiser, and while I think they're all kinds of funky and just frickin' awesome, to some people, they're just funny-looking. But . . . do you usually hang out a window in traffic on a six-lane road just to look funny back?

Maybe it was the dirt. I park in a gravel lot gone heavily to dirt, so I don't even try to keep the car clean, just waxed.

You're sh*#^ing me.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_ep5+shtml/150136.shtml?5day?large

Amy sent me this, with a little note: "To all the Katrina victims, just to make them feel more at home."

Yes, our state currently has a couple thousand evacuees. Yes, we do get the occasional tropical system that scoots straight up the Sea of Cortez/Gulf of Baja. And yes, this pattern is what caused the 1983 floods. We do flood, in Tucson, on the reasonably regular basis of about every ten years. The last one was in 1993. I've been thinking that we're due.

And yet, the first words out of my mouth when I saw it were, "You're shitting me."

Quote of the Week

"I’m quite certain they have sex, I’m just not quite certain that’s what makes more faeries."

--Kendra Tarket, on the logistic of faerie reproduction