If you can't beat'em...join'em.

Almost daily, I hear at least one catalog of injuries or pains. I suppose that is to be expected, working in a chronic pain management clinic, but I don't know exactly how I feel about that. If your always focused on the bad, that is all you will see. This morning I woke up and realized that I have my own little set of troubles and decided to blog about them. Why? I do not know. It seemed like a good idea at the time...
1) Insect bite. Right hand, between thumb and pointer finger. Swelling. Minor pain/irritation while holding writing utensils and attempting to write. Resulting from filling gas tank later in the evening.
2) Bruise. Right Upper Arm. Mostly healed. Hardly noticeable except for by vision. Resulting from mosquito bite earlier in the week. Potentially part of allergic reaction to previously mentioned mosquito.
3) Minor infection. Right hand, middle finger, second knuckle. Resulting from splinter received while helping friend put together newly purchased bookshelves from IKEA. At the time of injury, half of sliver was removed, but the infected portion was lodged deeper in the flesh and was inaccessible without specialized instruments.
4) Insect bite. Neck, left side. Severe itching and irritation. Dang mosquitoes.
5) Muscle soreness and spasms. Both legs-calves. Resulting from inadequate stretching previous to a 5-6 mile hike and followed immediately by minor chills due to being caught in a cloud burst and some mild canyon winds.
6) Puncture wound. Left foot. Directly under fourth toe. Caused by small glass shard inadvertently located in shag carpet just outside bathroom door. Profuse bleeding controlled by neosporin and band aid.
Okay. That's my current list of injuries and pains. Do I feel better for having done this? Not particularly. Will I do this again? Probably not. Well...maybe when my doctor requires me to do so. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure that I can come up with other things to keep myself entertained.

warm fuzzy moment

As is typical for any given day at work, I spent quite a bit of time on the phone. This also means I spent quite a bit of time on hold. I've come to terms with it. I will learn patience by waiting for people, really, whether I want to or not. (another day ask me my theories on insurance companies and their corresponding hold/elevator music...fascinating.) As I was on the phone today I had a realization-I don't know that it fits in the "genius" category, but realization none the less. I made the mistake of wondering how many messages I leave on any given day. That lead to "I wonder how many people have me on their answering machine on any given day" and then it evolved to "I wonder how many scrapbooks I'm in that aren't my own," etc. Wow. That was kind of a crazy thought. How many times do we impact people without realizing it? With the whole switch to pre-authorizations at work, it's taken me away from the front desk more often than not. Yesterday I called one of our patients to set up an appointment for her and as we finished, she told me that she missed seeing me up front. Oh. Wow. Warm fuzzy. I'm missed! That's a happy thought. I guess I like to think that I could have had one of those moments where I unconsciously influenced someone for good...

sooooo...i need to update this thing....hmmmm.......this kills me. i once had someone tell me, live a life that's novel worthy. i'd like to think that i do...that someday i will write a book about my life, but i don't know if that is the most promising idea that i've had in the past 5 years. i have all sorts of ideas, but if i can't remember them long enough to get them on a blog, how am i going to remember them long enough to get them in a book?!? good grief.
moving on...for christmas last year i gave my grandparents a "gift". i told them that i'd cook them dinner once a month for the next year. i do, and frankly, i enjoy it. today was one of those days. today, however, it turned into a service project on top of the dinner. i ended up transcribing a personal history while i was waiting for my lasagna to cook. i have honestly never met this woman and i probably won't ever meet her, but i'm not going to lie...i loved reading her stories. she made me mildly nostalgic for my childhood, but also made me completely amazed and amused by the child warnings and recalls that are announced every day. i have a new nephew. next week, he'll be one month old. a few days ago, we took him out on his first outing to target(monumental, i'm sure). as his mother and i walked down the baby aisle, we noticed three or four toys all on recall for some reason or another. becky made the comment that she wasn't sure that she wanted her kid to play with toys that could potentially be harmful. reverting back to the unknown woman and her personal history, this woman wrote about her favorite toys and childhood haunts. she used to play in the rafters in the roof of her house in all the electrical wires...she broke her nose jumping off that same roof...her plans for a swimming pool in the freshly dug hole for a septic tank...and my personal favorite, the basement that leaked water so she and her brother built a raft to play in the basement and once fell in...really? why were my toys not that cool?!? how is it that our parents and grandparents had the incredible toys with small pieces, lead-based paint, and random straps that could potential injure children with small body parts? why is it that when my basement flooded, i was restricted to the upper level until the water had been drained...i suppose with experience comes practicality...oh well.

funny story...

Being new to the blogging world, I keep checking my blog hoping that someone else (perhaps Locke or Demosthenes?) has updated it. Funny how that works . . . or doesn't.

excuses.

I am a memeber of an online book club. We read books and we talk about them via the internet. This could be a good or a bad thing for me, considering I am somewhat of an over-analyst. If there is something to be found, I will find it. If there's not, I may create it anyway, just so I can have something to talk about. (This could be an indication that I talk way too much.) Recently, one of the girls in the club responded to one of our books via artwork. She looks to be some sort of graphic artist and based a piece on Marc Chagall's "The Village and I." Now-I will freely admit that I am not an artist. My stick figures could honestly use some help. This lack in ability may or may not have something to do with seperation that I have created between myself and art. I appreciate art and I really do enjoy standing in front of a picture and asking the timeless question "what does it mean?" (see, it's the analyst in me!),but creating art? That is an entirely different concept. Some express ideas and emotions through poetry. Some through music. I have recently come to terms with the fact that I am not one of those people. Strangely enough, it was a personality test. In career guidance in 9th grade, I was a hard red-those who know me well will chuckle at that thought. Recently, I took a different test that told me that I am a mastermind. Basically this means that I come up with the basic idea and I leave the rest to others. This explains my great plans but lack of execution. I'm not a great leader unless I have to be. I will let others work on the problem until I am completely satisfied that they can't do it on their own and then I'll step in. This is why I am not an artist. They take the idea and implement it. They may add some of their own personality to it, but the basic idea stands.
Keeping that thought in mind...this is my latest project.
Courtship as seen through the gentlemen of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.
Jane Austen had a lot to say and an amusing way of putting it across. This concept is (quite contrary to the previous paragraph's rant) not my idea. This is actually my attempt at execution of someone else's idea. In all of my great experience I have learned that it is a dangerous idea to compare husbands according to their actions. The glorious part of this is the simple fact that I don't have a husband. Therefore I can freely compare and contrast these fictional characters and no one will get offended. These are some notes I jotted down the last time I watched the movie. Some of the comments are mine, some belong to my roommate, and some belong to the characters themselves. All in all, I hope someone can make sense of them...

Edward Ferras-
=too sedate=caring=a bit spineless=initially unclear expectations=apron strings=falters in keeping his word=half honest=the road to hell is paved with good intentions=he acknowledges his short comings=COWARD=ultimately honors his promises=marries for love=dutiful=tries to right the wrong (or at least apologize)=

Colonel Brandon-
=smitten=awe and admiration=offers help and not a solution=he wants better for her=attentive=focused on others=has ammunition to use and doesn’t=”kindest and best of men”=gives all he can=he made her better=

Willoughby-
=”knight in shining armor”=courteous=asks permission for everything=bold=“takes liberty”=enigmatic=follows up=presumptious=”perfect man”=too similar/half of pertinent topics in 7 hours=exciting=commitment-phobe=tears down Brandon to build himself=avoids the repercussions=marries for money=

Mister Palmer-
=silent integrity=patient=realist=

This list fascinates me. Honestly, the characters that I dislike the most have some of the characteristics that I value the most. The characters that I adore, end up with some traits that drive me absolutely CRAZY!!! I guess this just proves that there is no one perfect person. There are mostly perfect people, but no perfect people. This also proves through a list of broken thoughts, the original concept of this post-that my thought process is broken and unpolished, but full of ideas to be expounded upon by others.

word play

one of my favorite things to do is read the dictionary. i know, i'm a big nerd. i've come to terms with it, it's okay. this also means that i get really excited when words are added to the dictionary. a few weeks ago, i saw the little notice in the paper announcing the eleventh edition of the merriam-webster dictionary. yay for 100 new words!!! my top two favorites (thus far) are pescatarian-a vegetarian who eats fish and mondegreen-words mistaken for other words. how could one not be fascinated by a vegetarian (defined as a person who does not eat or does not believe in eating meat, FISH, fowl, or, in some cases, any food derived from animals, as eggs or cheese, but subsists on vegetables, fruits, nuts, grain, etc.) who eats fish? [i'm sensing a self-deconstruction in the near future.] or perhaps trying to classify the differences between "excuse me while I kiss this guy" and "excuse me while I kiss the sky"? i'm once again reminded of my linguistics class and totally intrigued by the noises that our mouths make and the subtle differences that make drastic changes in final outcomes. language is such a fascinating thing. how in the world do we make sounds, identify them, and then standardize them? who really has the power to do that?(that's another question for another day...) yay for the evolution of language! yes. there was a very good reason that i studied words...

red, white, blue . . . and green?

now to preface my 4th of July entry, i should start a few years ago. once upon a time in my life, i worked at dinosaur national monument. now, this was a very enlightening experience for me. i met a lot of people and established a few opinions. my father went so far as to declare me politically as a "conservative green". is that really possible? that's a bit beside the point. wait, back to the 4th of July. i decided, at the invitation of a good friend, to return to my small town roots for the holiday weekend. i grew up in a small town, passed many holidays in even smaller towns, and have spent most of the time completely amused and entertained by the activities found there. this year, i found no less in richfield. they have what is called the "fish grab". (if you want a visual, try http://youtube.com/watch?v=xEBNBvtPbEA&feature=related.) basically, kids 0-11, are given the opportunity to catch a fish with their bare hands. fascinating, no? yeah, that's what i thought. i'll admit i found it quite amusing for about 5-10 minutes until i saw what was actually happening to the fish. as displayed in the youtube clip, the little kids walked while the fish swam. my view was of the other end of the scale, the 9-11 year old kids. i saw one of the older kids with blood smeared across his chest and a rather large fish hooked on his finger. this picture, which will be forever ingrained in my mind, could be interpreted a few ways: 1) the kid picked a fight with his best friend when he tried to rip off the prize trout; 2) the poor fish was beaten to death (i'm telling you, the 9-11 year old kids have a pretty violent streak in them!); or 3) it was actually a mercy killing rather than letting the poor fish suffocate (if they can really do that) in his hands. really it could have been any of the three choices, but the thing that hit me more than the fish or the blood occured after i saw it all. i turned around and said two things, "i can't watch this anymore" and "those poor fish". as i made the "those poor fish" comment, something happened that surprised me and resurrected my green streak...someone agreed with me!?! not that i have anything against richfield, but that shocked me, especially considering the source of the consent. it was the stereotypical middle-aged-white-male-in-a-texas-ball-cap who surely spent everyday of his childhood summers fishing and tormenting small animals. really?!? i suppose all of us have a little green in us, whether we believe it or not. kermit the frog probably said it best, "it's not easy being green."