Attentively Attentive to all Things

So sometimes how you plan to work through your day doesn't always happen.  Right?  Yesterday, my plan was to quietly remember the beautiful souls lost in the Parkland shooting a year ago, and be cognizant of the pain still there for the families and friends.  I had read the words of Jennifer Guttenberg in Newsweek yesterday, crying as she wrote about that day last year when she found out her daughter was not coming home.  I would say a few words to each of my classes, foster a small, meaningful discussion, and then move on to our lesson.  We're behind and trying to catch up before finals week next week.  My classroom is always a safe place for discussion of any topic, even the ones that bring us the most discomfort.  But that wasn't to be. Wednesday night around 10:30pm, my co-teacher texts me and asks if I'm awake.  Now, my first thought was "what did one of our students do THIS time?" or something similar.  How wrong I was.  What f...

Reminder: All of These Republican Candidates Are Horrible I saw this article posted on a Facebook wall this morning, clicked, and found myself nodding in agreement almost immediately. See, I didn't watch the entire GOP debate last night.  I was too busy channeling my inner Van Gogh at Wine and Canvas (ear still intact, thank you very much!).  I only caught the last part of it as I got ready for bed.  I don't feel that I missed much at all, though.  Thanks 24 hour news on almost every channel.... First though, let me say that I am more of an independent who agrees with a lot of Democratic policies.  I did vote for President Obama in both elections, and I am fine with my vote.  Did he do everything he said he would?  Of course not!  Do any of them?  NO.  Politicians make promises during the campaign that they try to push through, but cannot for whatever reason.  Partisan politics, whiny senators who go out of their way to block ...

Since SMWC's shocking announcement last week, I've refrained from posting all weekend.  I needed to let my heart heal a bit and my head to begin processing the facts without those pesky emotions getting in the way.  Plus, I needed a break!  So many students, both current and past, are very upset about this decision, and have been posting on social media all weekend.  I couldn't get my own emotions in check while having my heart ripped out by the posts of others.  I could have easily taken to social media and voiced my frustration and anger, but I chose not to.  I'm not brave enough, I suppose, to put all those feelings out there.  Kudos to those who were. As we reach a week out, I know there are a few points that I've been focusing my frustration on, and have questions about.  I'm incredibly upset for the current students- many that I know- who are getting thrown into blindly.  While it's easy to say that there have been guys in campus clas...

I have a rant ahead, and before I get going, let me preface what I am about to rant about.  For about a year now, we've been making an effort to more environmentally friendly.  No, we're not as good at this as we'd like, but it's a slow process and we keep plugging away.  We have plans to do more, but require the time to put such practices into place.  We're getting there, however. One of the things I've been trying really hard to do is stop using plastic grocery sacks in favor of the fabric ones. I have nothing against anyone who uses them, of course.  They are handy to have around and last a long time.  However, when you get to where you have 2 cabinets full of them, then it's time to rethink the plastic grocery sack.  Yes, we can take them to recycled (another stage in our process), but why not use something reusable?  I have multiple fabric bags from many, many different places: CVS, Kroger, Walmart, the bookstore, one from my dear friend Kr...

I usually do not have any problems with Walmart.  I see them as a necessary evil, and so I do shop there for groceries, etc.  I'd rather have a Target, but I digress.... So today I went to Walmart to print out some pictures for Dave's Valentine's Day present.  My dear friend Sara, who is an excellent photographer, kindly took pictures of myself and Caris at my house a few weeks ago.  Today, I went to Walmart to have these printed, so I could frame them for Dave.  When I arrived, I was asked for a release to reprint the photos.  I was confused, as these prints were not taken at a professional studio, but in my living room.  When I explained this to her, I was told I could not have my pictures unless I had a written release from the photographer.  Umm...excuse me?  After explaining again that these were not from a studio (to which the guy standing next to her said "they're studio, they have to be") I became a little angry.  The girl wait...

I am disgusted.  This will be no mild-mannered blog post, folks.  I'm pissed.  This is my opinion of the events of the day, and my opinion only. My thoughts are with everyone present at the meeting where this took place.  I cannot imagine the horror. As I listen to the news media back track over announcing Rep. Giffords dead, and now indicating she is in surgery in critical condition, my thoughts go to the person who commit this crime.  This just proves that people cannot be adult about ANYTHING anymore, and have to act like a spoiled brat that doesn't get their way.  There's a reason America is a democracy, there's a reason so many died to preserve our freedom, and people like this have no sense of anything.  They are a waste of space.  What has happened to our country, that people think it's okay to do something like this? And now to the shooter: Who in the hell do you think you are?  I don't care what kind of life you had, or how bad...

...won't people let me help them? I just don't understand. As a patient account rep, I try my best to be pro-active when it comes to a patients outstanding balance. I talk to them early in the process, and work out something that will keep their balance from going to an outside collection agency, and ultimately on their credit report. It's for their benefit, not me. When a patient tells me they don't care, then why should I? This also goes for asking the patient to take an active role in their care and management of their balance. I cannot do everything for a patient when it comes to their finances. Patients have to participate in the process and do some of the dirty work. Nothing frustrates me more than a patient telling me I am prolonging their agony because they do not want to make a ten minute phone call to their insurance company to give them the information they've requested. I can only do so much. *sigh*

I seem to be in a ranting phase, so please forgive me. I'll try to post something of substance this week.... On another message board, (see the bigger fish a few entries earlier) I was included in with 3 other people on a birthday thread. People can post birthday wishes, etc. One person, an admin for that board, and someone who I thought was a rational, mature adult, decided to go onto this thread and wish everyone a happy birthday, but me. Seriously. Now, I do have history with this woman, but it's been months and honestly, I'm over all that drama. But now in light of this, it kind of brings it back home for me. Anyone who reads this thread now knows this woman purposely left me out of her birthday wishes for some snarky reason. Was it really worth it? Anyone who looks at this thread knows this woman left me out, and I'm sure they wonder why. Did she think this would make her look good in the eyes of the members? If I was a member who knew nothing about the history, I ...

Yesterday, I turned 35.  Now, I'm not one of those women who get depressed over my age.  Why bother?  I can't stop time, really have no wish to.  As I sit here and ponder 35, I think about what all I've done or accomplished.  I decided to make a list, starting with my marriage, and then another list of what is left to do.  It's not impressive, but it's me.   It also starts off very materialistic, which I am not, but I decided to leave them in any way.  This was prompted mostly by a memory of a pink elephant in the corner. Married Dave, and have stayed married to him for almost 12 years now. Own my own home. Attend a nationally known liberal arts college, proudly. Wear ring from before mentioned college. Have suffered 4 miscarriages, and went through 3 doctors before the last one got it right. Have the most beautiful little girl in the world (yeah, I'm biased.  Get over it.) Have full-time, decent paying job to pay for before mentioned house. Have...

So while I've not blogged in a while, that doesn't mean my head has been underground, no matter how much I wish it could be. ;) This morning I received a message from my boss, which had been forwarded from her boss, asking employees to sign a petition about Medicare reform. This petition, found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/meltdown/ asks people to sign their name to try to convince Congress to overhaul the Medicare reimbursement system. I have mixed feelings about this. For starters, it is true that physicians have faced deep cuts in Medicare payments over the last few years. No argument there. We write off tons of money every day. However, most of the doctors I work for drive VERY expensive cars, and have several of them. They have huge houses in gated communities, send their kids to private schools, use the most expensive day care facilities, or have nannies for their children. They take vacations to exotic locations, and all in all live the good life. Anyone see an...

Earlier this morning, I received a forwarded email from my father-in-law about a campaign to rid our lives of aspartame. My father-in-law strongly believes in the health hazzards of this sweetener, and me not being a scientist, have no basis to argue this fact. I wish them well on their mission of banning this item from our lives, if in fact it is hazardous. But this not the reason for this blog post. The email mentioned above was written by someone with a doctor salutation. I've no knowledge of what this person is a doctor of, nor how this person is employed. The email was a long plea to the FDA asking them to ban Aspartame, citing many studies, calling for the resignation of an corrupt individual who was a lobbyist and on FDA payroll, etc. Sadly, I can't relate to you the gist of their argument because of the multiple grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the entire letter. I found myself too distracted to even pay attention to what they were trying to convey. I know ...

I have a rant. I don't do this often, but I find this morning I'm not able to ignore my thoughts on this any longer. I am one of four administrators of a new fan fiction, general interest board. We're quirky, have lots of crazy posts, and a smattering of good stories to read. We have a place for those who like to create fan graphics to show off their work, and a place for fanvidders to post links to their videos. I love our cozy board, and plan to remain there until I'm the last member left standing. I hope that is a long time from now. The bigger fish in the JA fandom, a huge board of 5,000 members and multiple pages of fiction is where many of us came from, for personal reasons of our own. I won't go into those reasons here. I'm hearing that we are looked upon as the competition. What a joke! I mean seriously, we have 300 members! We have some things this bigger fish does not, and will not allow. Are you kidding me? The level of paranoia is absurd. If we wante...

I live in the Midwest, meaning we can go from 32 degrees and snow, to 50 degrees and rain with a drive of about 5 miles to the South. I'm used to the crazy weather here, and sometimes it's kind of nice, in a weird, Midwestern sort of way. At least we have all three seasons. However, what is not nice are the people who drive 4x4 vehicles and think they are invincible. I drive a Honda CR-V, and no, it's not 4-wheel drive. It gets around well and I feel relatively safe driving my 8 month old around in slick road conditions. This only applies, though, when others aren't around me, specifically, the aforementioned 4-wheel drive drivers. Don't get me wrong, my rant does not include all of these people, but who it does include are those who insist on driving 50mph or faster on snow packed roads, and then when you aren't going their desired speed, they ride your bumper as you drive the normal 30-40mph speed. More than once I have found myself pulling over into the snow-...