September 2007 – Page 2 – Wrekehavoc.com

Month: September 2007

professional patient

Posted on September 17, 2007 by wrekehavoc

another day, another scan. i can safely say that if someone clever at washington radiology had a little too much to drink and perhaps a little more time on his hands, he could have fun piecing together various body parts of mine which have been scanned over the past year and a half, thanks to my illness. i suspect that one night, BS will wake up and see my body, bright in the darkness, beside him. i suppose it would be a way to earn extra money (come see the freaky-ass mom who glows in the dark!) and hell, it will make it easy for the cars to see me and my kids come halloween night!

last week’s scan of my abdomen showed i have either a little gallstone or a polyp. joy. my doctor isn’t convinced that something that small is causing my discomfort — he’s wondering if something else is causing me pain. (like i even want to find out.) today, i had to get a scan of my chest (no, not a mammogram — although that’s overdue for this year, too) to see whether those fun little nodules i have in my lungs stayed put, or whether they’ve decided to do something crazy (like form a third political party).

it was one of the radiology tech’s first day at work today, so i had to explain why i was getting today’s CT chest scan. how people with CVID often get infections and fun things show up on chest and sinus scans because of it. its the same reason, essentially, why i get to have my very first endoscopy later this week. (can you say higher incidence of stomach cancer?) boy, there’s nothing more fun than having a tube down your throat. oh, wait. there is. having an endoscopy AND a colonoscopy at the same time. now THAT’S got to be more fun than humans ought to be allowed to have.

i can’t wait for september to be over. i scheduled all my fun things — plus some more IVIG goodness next week — this month. next month, i want a new challenge. something really scary, not like this life-threatening illness crap.

i think i’ll take up skydiving, though photocopying my ass seems equally dangerous and more in order.

super why!

Posted on September 17, 2007 by wrekehavoc

please G-d, get the super why! theme song out of my head!

it all started when i heard about this great new pbs kids show called super why! a wonderful reading show. i looked it up at pbskids.org to find it was not on yet. of course, they had a first episode on line, so jools immediately hooked himself up to it. and he hasn’t stopped since.

now, we TIVO the show, in spite of WETA’s and TIVO’s disagreement over when the show is actually on. and i’l be darned if the theme isn’t catchy, in that overblown, love boat theme meets something groovy circa 1972. (i wonder if lenny kravitz might be behind the music somehow.)

if it helps jools start down the happy course of reading, well, i’ll get over myself r e a l l y fast.

come sit on my couch

Posted on September 15, 2007 by wrekehavoc

molly, by way of kelly, had a fun meme. i tried it. you can, too:

1. Go to www.careercruising.com.
2. Put in Username: nycareers; Password: landmark.
3. Take their “Career Matchmaker” questions.
4. Post the top whatever results

there are those who might think that i sort of have achieved #16 informally.

1.	Casting Director
2.	Human Resources Specialist
3.	Paralegal
4.	Archivist
5.	Historian
6.	Lawyer
7.	Civil Litigator
8.	Corporate / Commercial Lawyer
9.	Judge
10.	Critic
11.	Writer
12.	Print Journalist
13.	Director
14.	Political Aide
15.	Court Clerk
16.	Stuntperson
17.	Insurance Claims Adjuster
18.	Criminal Lawyer
19.	Venture Capitalist
20.	Curator
21.	Legal Secretary
22.	Housekeeper
23.	Hospital Service Worker
24.	Animal Trainer
25.	Communications Specialist
26.	Adoption Counselor
27.	Mediator
28.	Fundraiser
29.	Lobbyist
30.	Humanitarian Aid Worker
31.	Family and Consumer Scientist
32.	Anthropologist
33.	Actor
34.	Medical Secretary
35.	Industrial-Organizational Psychologist
36.	Stock Clerk
37.	Editor
38.	Marriage and Family Therapist
39.	Postal Clerk
40.	Multimedia Developer

i can't cook

Posted on September 14, 2007 by wrekehavoc

one day, my family is going to buy me a t-shirt. on this t-shirt, i will be quoted with something i say often after attempting to cook a healthy, somewhat interesting meal:

there is nothing more rewarding than cooking for a family.

BC will tell anyone within striking distance that her mommy can bake pretty well (no one can beat my brownies, i tell ya!), but her mommy cannot cook. period. and she isn’t too far off. see, if i had my druthers, i would be trying all sorts of vegetarian fare every single night. this is problematic: BS is an affirmed carnivore, BC hates most things that aren’t full of salt or sugar, and jools? well, he’s the kid who lost weight at his well-baby visit last time, remember?

last night’s rosh hashana dinner pretty much proved the point.

*i roasted a chicken — not too hard, and nobody fell ill with salmonella.

*i made matzo ball soup, which the kids liked even though some of the matzo balls fell apart in the soup (BS wouldn’t touch it), looking like something nasty. (i’ll refrain from the rest of my description as a public service.) taste 6, looks, -12.

*i made a cauliflower concoction in the slow cooker that no one, not even i liked — and now i have a major slow cooker mess AND the house smells like bad gas.

*i made jewish apple cake, which wasn’t my best effort — the kids turned up their noses because it wasn’t too sweet.

*and i bought challah, which was stupidstupidSTUPID — that’s the one element of the meal i can ACTUALLY MAKE WELL. but see, the folks from great harvest were nice enough to come on sunday to shul and show all the hebrew school kids how to make challah. and after they brought all that dough for us to bake and eat, it only seemed fair to buy some challah from them to show them some love.

when the matzah ball soup began to fail, i threw some rice into the oven to bake. (joy of cooking has a wonderful baked rice recipe that results in almost foolproof rice.) i know, i know. not exactly traditional ashkenazi holiday jew food. of course, when i took the rice out of the oven, i burnt my wrist, right in the wrist-slitting position. VERY attractive. (note to BS: i need a really nice bracelet now to conceal this scar. in case you’re wondering.)

so mom, if you’re reading this, i didn’t try to off myself after realizing that i am the world’s worst cook. i just need to realize what you realized long ago. sometimes, the best thing you can make for dinner are reservations.

media 'ho

Posted on September 13, 2007 by wrekehavoc

today, the letter i wrote i made it into today’s washington post.

i only wish i had actually taken the time to think first before i wrote.

in a related note, a friend sent kathy griffin’s take on it all…

uhm… apologies for the public private joke

Posted on September 12, 2007 by wrekehavoc

so the dude goes away for ANOTHER year at burning man and ends up as a drag bridesmaid. i suspect it was too hot for the kilt.

oh scally, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do, luv.

[and while we’re at it, where are my damn hobnobs? you were on MY continent, albeit the wrong side. bring me MY biscuits, dammit. ;-)]

my brave boy

Posted on September 11, 2007 by wrekehavoc

we all know that officials from the district of columbia move in mysterious ways. very little can explain things like this, for example. hell, very little can explain how marion barry continues to have a career in politics. but that’s the beauty and wonder of DC.

so it should come as no surprise to anyone that the licensure people from the district came to my son’s school the other day. for years and years, no one from DC licensing cared when kids’ lead tests were done. and here in VA, no one really cares after the 1st necessary one at a few months old.

surprise!

now they do. and if all of us folks don’t get lead tests on our kids by early october, well, there will be fines. inadvertent preschool dropouts. cats and dogs. living together. mass hysteria. you get the picture.

so today, instead of having a special day with jools, i had a morning of nooooooooooooo, mommy. i don’t want to have a blood test!
noooooooooooooooo!

now, i can’t blame the kid. of course, i get poked or jabbed at least once a month these days (and yesterday, i had a whopper of a shot in my knee, so believe me, i am empathetic). but when its a rare thing, like it is (thankfully) for poor jools, well, damn, it’s hard to explain. so you do what any sane parent does. you employ the most important survival tactic known to parents everywhere.

you bribe your child.

let’s see: the kid got a lollipop (before lunch! he gleefully told anyone within earshot! yep. a day without mama the hardass.) the kid got to eat chips from taco hell. and when we visited the library, the kid got to spend 30 minutes on the kids computer. 30. whole. minutes. and i neglected to find a book to read before that. so i sat and enjoyed the silent screen version of bailey’s bookhouse. for. 30. whole. minutes.

[somebody please help me. i’m melting.]

but you know what? the dude earned it. we sat there, with gospel music blaring from the phlebotemist’s radio, and the dude barely even whimpered. he even thanked the lady for the bugs bunny band aid. maybe it was the gospel stuff. who the hell knows.

all i know is that i can hardly wait for flu shots…

what is it good for? absolutely nothing.

Posted on September 10, 2007 by wrekehavoc

you know, when BC tells me that she’ll still be hungry for dinner if I let her snarf down some cookies?

i believe that about as much as i believe this.

tomorrow is the 6th anniversary of a most terrible day. it’s bad enough that i’ve had to have the conversation with BC about planes going into buildings. it’s even worse that one of my former colleagues lost his wife in one of them.

we have one of the official Arlington trees growing in our yard, grown to commemorate one of the lives lost at the Pentagon. it has grown huge, to match my anger over this Administration’s foreign policy. we’ll put out the American flag in memory of all of those lives needlessly lost: the people in NY, the people in PA, the people in the Pentagon.

and the people in Iraq. ours and theirs.

broooooooooooooooce!

Posted on September 9, 2007 by wrekehavoc

jersey girl alert: bruce is coming to town (if you say bruce who, well, i might just smack ya upside da head) with a new album to push (radio nowhere is the first release). so yeah, he looks a little like a rahway resident on the cover. so what?

i always *heart* the albums with the E Street Band the best (even if patti scialfa’s voice grates on my nerves. don’t get me wrong; i’m glad he ended up with a jersey girl instead of julianne whats-her-name.) i wondered about fans who attended his last tour and were annoyed by the whole jug-band thing. i mean, what the hell — did they think he was going to belt out born to run on a tuba?

want a fun little tour of BS’s hometown, which also happens to be the Boss’s hometown? tee hee, i remember holding the camera for some of the shots. course, the place has changed a LOT since a decade’s gone by…

but i digress. i’m just hoping i don’t have to cut into the kids’ college funds for tickets this time. if only the newsweek link was still live recounting the tale of BS competing, unknowingly, with one of his sisters, for a VH1 charity package of backstage passes and front-row seats. this sort of thing only happens to us.

yep. we’re revisiting a portion of our youth today. it’s kind of fun to revisit youth with a little more money. although frankly, given the choice, i think i’d still take the youth.

all i want is everything

Posted on September 7, 2007 by wrekehavoc

with sincerest apologies to southside johnny and the asbury jukes…

i feel good today. r e a l l y good. don’t know how long the feeling will last, and nevermind the fact that i have to go get a CT scan of my chest and an U/S of my abdomen. (bahaha. i want a doctor to take your picture so i can look at you from inside as well.) i. feel. good. (dagnabit.) when i feel good, i feel like i can think about the future. cos when i feel good, i feel like i’ll be around a loooooong time into the future.

so, i was mentally cataloging things this morning while waiting in the hematologist’s office (platelets=190~ IVIG is my friend!). things i want.

1) eight consecutive hours of uninterrupted sleep.

2) well-adjusted kids who seem relatively happy doing what they’re doing.

3) a rest for my BS who could definitely do with one.

4) plenty of time to play.

5) plenty of time to write.

6) plenty of time.

7) an opportunity to see family and friends who i don’t get to see all that often.

8) an opportunity to apologize to people i was horrid to when i was a teen (i have been reading my journals from high school, and there are a few people i inadvertantly messed about a little. not intentionally, of course — i was a mixed-up kid, just like the next one. i just didn’t see the view from 40,000 feet like i do now.)

9) time to be what i always wanted to be as a grownup.

10) repeat.

i feel good. so i sort of have everything. already.