So long, 2009 -- it's been hell
Jan. 2nd, 2010 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylChristmas (and at this point New Year's) is over for another year. Whereas last year we celebrated two days early, this year we did it two days late, which was again rather surreal but ended up working out well when one of Tery's last minute presents for me arrived in the mail Saturday. My scrooge of an employer not only made me work my regular shift (which I expected), they asked for overtime! Which I worked since it was just another Friday for me. Consequently when they extended the request to Sunday, I felt free to ignore that one. Let all the people with families who slacked off Friday take care of that.
ADDENDUM: Today, Jan 2, the backlog is finally gone and work is scarce. This is the time all the people who said "screw work, it's the holidays" are looking around saying "where'd all the work go?" Ah, revenge is sweet.
I got a good haul, again mostly thanks to Tery. My family? Oh no. They kept up the long tradition of ignoring my wish list in favor of kitschy crafty shit that invariably goes to my local Goodwill. Except this year instead of crap from the streets of Mexico it was crap from the streets of Hawaii, where my older sister went to work for a few weeks. It was also wrapped in Hawaiian newspapers, so either she went that extra length to give it an authentic, local flavor or it was literally bought, wrapped and mailed from a Hawaiian convenience store.
Do I sound bitter? Only because I go to such pains to get as much as I can afford on their wish lists. Every year I'm driven by some bizarre sense of guilt, and every year Tery tries to remind me how upset their lack of reciprocation made me the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that. Hell, right up until the moment I landed in the ER up to my eyeballs in medical bills I was still planning to send an Omaha steak package on Christmas day.
None of this applies to my mom. She got me one thing off my list, which is all I've ever said: I would be happier with one thing I asked for than ten things I didn't (specifically, ten things that seem to have been chosen for a Yankee swap party, not hand selected with me in mind).
My mom got me a Wii game, "Need for Speed II: Nitro!" You street race bad-ass muscle cars and try to keep the cops off your back. Kind of like "Grand Theft Auto" without killing prostitutes. I guess my Need for Speed wasn't that great initially, because I spent every race consistently in last place. Cracking open the instruction book to see what I was doing wrong, it suggested drafting other cars for style points. "There are other cars?" I thought, because I'd never seen a single one. Tery sat and watched and chuckled and called me "granny," all the while refusing to pick up a controller herself.
Then I worked out how to start the race without stalling out and the fine art of "drifting" (tearing around corners by braking while accelerating and steering hard in the opposite direction), and before long I was scraping along walls and slamming cops out of my way. Oh, it's great fun.
While customizing my car (in the game) I blew my nose (in real life) and got a nosebleed (the game is JUST THAT intense) and was trying to clean up. All Tery heard was a bunch of snorting noises from upstairs and asked, "Did the game come with a dime bag of cocaine?" She's so funny.
Just as fun though a bit tamer and a lot sillier (and not so many cops) is "MarioKart," which Tery gave me. Also "Band Hero," which contains a dismaying number of Taylor Swift songs but is still more fun than "Rock Band: Beatles."
Also the first two Harry Potter Ultimate Edition Blu-rays which are AWESOME and I'm not wasting a cent on any more of the regular versions (also have to sell my existing ones just to fit these two on the shelf). The packaging is a bit deceptive, the same height as standard DVDs, and I'll admit I had a bit of stress thinking she had tried to save money with those instead of the Blu-ray, and how was I going to feign happiness. I know, evidently Christmas is all about me, me, me, me, me.
Between the Harry Potters and the Wii games, Tery said it was like shopping for her 15-year-old son.
Let's see: Boondock Saints unrated DVD. The AFI CD "Crash Love." "Pushing Daisies" Season 2 Blu-ray. And my big big present: one free visit to this place -- indoor skydiving! Looks very, very fun, and we're both glad it wasn't my heart failing that weekend.
She wasn't the only one who did good:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meamjeffyjeff got me the "Watchmen" and "V for Vendetta" graphic novels, to round out my education. There's no promise of hot gay sex anywhere in them, but I'm giving them a look anyway.
Unfortunately my loved ones have yet to fulfill my dearest Christmas wish, that someone toss a steak laced with antifreeze onto Tracey's porch for her dogs. And I mean that with the utmost sincerity.
~*~
Speaking of "that weekend" (dun dun DUN), hopefully some of you care enough to wonder maybe how I'm getting on.
Since gallstones are exacerbated by fatty foods, I almost immediately set about cutting as much fat from my diet as I could -- not a happy activity, but then neither was grabbing my chest and swimming through fever, chills and nausea. One of Tery's techs actually had the surgery at age 20 and recommended a daily limit of 30 grams.
If you read the sides of most food products, the first thing you notice is that 30 grams is not a lot and can easily be consumed very quickly if you aren't paying attention (which I never have before now). Like, two teaspoons of peanut butter is 16, and that's half your allowance gone! The second thing you notice is that even foods that claim to be low fat only get that way because the serving size is about one-quarter what I was eating.
Let me tell you, when you only eat one piece of chocolate a week (I can't possibly give it up entirely), it's the best damn tasting chocolate you've had in your whole life. Of course, I'm not wasting that one moment of indulgence on cheap Hershey's products: Tery got me two bags of Lindor for stocking stuffers that at this rate will last until my birthday.
So, portion control. Portion control and no more 2% milk (which is pretty much my only reason for living. Well, that and now my Need for Speed!) I've struck on a satisfactory substitute in mixing Silk with nonfat milk. Silk straight up is too thick and nonfat too watery. Plus cutting the Silk with very cheap nonfat is more economical too. I also only have it with breakfast, I drink water the rest of the day. Never has a milk product survived so long in our fridge.
It's really not so terrible, except I'm STARVING all the time. Lean Cuisine frozen meals are quite tasty, I just feel like I need to eat two to get a complete serving. My stomach is slowly shrinking, but I swear I can feel it every hour of the day. Only just in the last 48 hours have I stopped feeling ravenous from the minute I wake up to the moment I fall asleep.
But the good news is not a lick of pain either. For all I know I could eat more than 30 grams, or even go back to regular milk, but my discharge instuctions forbid it and I always feel a wave of unsympathy when I type a report of a patient pigheadedly noncompliant with recommendations. I've got this Vicodin prescription sitting in my medicine cabinet, which MyFriendDeb joked I should try selling on the black market to pay for my ambulance ride.
I visited the internist this past Monday, a jovial Nigerian guy named Dr. Obinnah -- well, I suppose I'd be jovial too if I got paid $120 for less than 30 minutes of my time, which is what he got from insurance-less me. He at least seemed a bit more sympathetic to my plight, and joked, "Maybe for you Obama's plan will come through, yes?"
He said I didn't need surgery, could probably manage through diet (which was good news apart from the wanting to eat the waiting room furniture). He also said I needed to exercise, which was a bit of a kick in the teeth after going to the gym three times a week for nine months. He was probably using the BMI scale (Body Mass Index) which, stupidly in my opinion, only considers height and weight and no concession made for muscle content. The BMI classifies me as "obese" which I absolutely am not. In fact I think I look pretty good as long as I keep my clothes on. On the bright side cutting all this fat out of my diet should start producing some real results.
He determined all this from talking to me and poking at my abdomen. Maybe the easiest 120 bucks ever.
Not out of the woods yet: my liver numbers are elevated, which could mean either inflammation from the gallstones or hepatitis. Fingers crossed for the first. Back in a month to recheck. (He asked me if I was SURE I didn't drink. Well, unless I drink SO MUCH that I completely black out any memory of it...which, sadly given the state of my memory on a good day, isn't as wackadoo as it sounds...)
So I broke down and got insurance. Truthfully, for all my bitching the primary reason I didn't have it before was because I think the insurance companies are a bunch of greedy crooks that are more interested in increasing their profit margin than taking care of their clients. But I'm only basing this on letters I type for doctors begging them to reconsider denying a patient's (seemingly perfectly valid) claim. My one consolation was I wasn't giving my money to those vultures. Maybe my employer's insurance is one of the good guys. We'll see. With the very real possibility of surgery looming for me, I guess I can't afford the luxury of principles anymore.
~*~
So, 2009 in review:
This was the year of the Blu-ray.
It was also the year of the Wii.
Tery bought a new car.
She also got a DUI and lost her license.
We both got gym memberships and radical lifestyle changes.
My niece Jane was born.
Our cat Alsatia died at 17 years old.
We adopted cat Logan (status still pending -- he attacked the bird twice this weekend and Frances is still very much on the fence about his residency)
Ferret Washburn had $1500 surgery for an obstruction.
I bought a new computer I can't use (oh yeah, still gotta tell you guys about that)
I went to the ER with gallstones.
I was forced to abandon my principles.
Bring it on, 2010.
ADDENDUM: Today, Jan 2, the backlog is finally gone and work is scarce. This is the time all the people who said "screw work, it's the holidays" are looking around saying "where'd all the work go?" Ah, revenge is sweet.
I got a good haul, again mostly thanks to Tery. My family? Oh no. They kept up the long tradition of ignoring my wish list in favor of kitschy crafty shit that invariably goes to my local Goodwill. Except this year instead of crap from the streets of Mexico it was crap from the streets of Hawaii, where my older sister went to work for a few weeks. It was also wrapped in Hawaiian newspapers, so either she went that extra length to give it an authentic, local flavor or it was literally bought, wrapped and mailed from a Hawaiian convenience store.
Do I sound bitter? Only because I go to such pains to get as much as I can afford on their wish lists. Every year I'm driven by some bizarre sense of guilt, and every year Tery tries to remind me how upset their lack of reciprocation made me the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that. Hell, right up until the moment I landed in the ER up to my eyeballs in medical bills I was still planning to send an Omaha steak package on Christmas day.
None of this applies to my mom. She got me one thing off my list, which is all I've ever said: I would be happier with one thing I asked for than ten things I didn't (specifically, ten things that seem to have been chosen for a Yankee swap party, not hand selected with me in mind).
My mom got me a Wii game, "Need for Speed II: Nitro!" You street race bad-ass muscle cars and try to keep the cops off your back. Kind of like "Grand Theft Auto" without killing prostitutes. I guess my Need for Speed wasn't that great initially, because I spent every race consistently in last place. Cracking open the instruction book to see what I was doing wrong, it suggested drafting other cars for style points. "There are other cars?" I thought, because I'd never seen a single one. Tery sat and watched and chuckled and called me "granny," all the while refusing to pick up a controller herself.
Then I worked out how to start the race without stalling out and the fine art of "drifting" (tearing around corners by braking while accelerating and steering hard in the opposite direction), and before long I was scraping along walls and slamming cops out of my way. Oh, it's great fun.
While customizing my car (in the game) I blew my nose (in real life) and got a nosebleed (the game is JUST THAT intense) and was trying to clean up. All Tery heard was a bunch of snorting noises from upstairs and asked, "Did the game come with a dime bag of cocaine?" She's so funny.
Just as fun though a bit tamer and a lot sillier (and not so many cops) is "MarioKart," which Tery gave me. Also "Band Hero," which contains a dismaying number of Taylor Swift songs but is still more fun than "Rock Band: Beatles."
Also the first two Harry Potter Ultimate Edition Blu-rays which are AWESOME and I'm not wasting a cent on any more of the regular versions (also have to sell my existing ones just to fit these two on the shelf). The packaging is a bit deceptive, the same height as standard DVDs, and I'll admit I had a bit of stress thinking she had tried to save money with those instead of the Blu-ray, and how was I going to feign happiness. I know, evidently Christmas is all about me, me, me, me, me.
Between the Harry Potters and the Wii games, Tery said it was like shopping for her 15-year-old son.
Let's see: Boondock Saints unrated DVD. The AFI CD "Crash Love." "Pushing Daisies" Season 2 Blu-ray. And my big big present: one free visit to this place -- indoor skydiving! Looks very, very fun, and we're both glad it wasn't my heart failing that weekend.
She wasn't the only one who did good:
meamjeffyjeff got me the "Watchmen" and "V for Vendetta" graphic novels, to round out my education. There's no promise of hot gay sex anywhere in them, but I'm giving them a look anyway.Unfortunately my loved ones have yet to fulfill my dearest Christmas wish, that someone toss a steak laced with antifreeze onto Tracey's porch for her dogs. And I mean that with the utmost sincerity.
~*~
Speaking of "that weekend" (dun dun DUN), hopefully some of you care enough to wonder maybe how I'm getting on.
Since gallstones are exacerbated by fatty foods, I almost immediately set about cutting as much fat from my diet as I could -- not a happy activity, but then neither was grabbing my chest and swimming through fever, chills and nausea. One of Tery's techs actually had the surgery at age 20 and recommended a daily limit of 30 grams.
If you read the sides of most food products, the first thing you notice is that 30 grams is not a lot and can easily be consumed very quickly if you aren't paying attention (which I never have before now). Like, two teaspoons of peanut butter is 16, and that's half your allowance gone! The second thing you notice is that even foods that claim to be low fat only get that way because the serving size is about one-quarter what I was eating.
Let me tell you, when you only eat one piece of chocolate a week (I can't possibly give it up entirely), it's the best damn tasting chocolate you've had in your whole life. Of course, I'm not wasting that one moment of indulgence on cheap Hershey's products: Tery got me two bags of Lindor for stocking stuffers that at this rate will last until my birthday.
So, portion control. Portion control and no more 2% milk (which is pretty much my only reason for living. Well, that and now my Need for Speed!) I've struck on a satisfactory substitute in mixing Silk with nonfat milk. Silk straight up is too thick and nonfat too watery. Plus cutting the Silk with very cheap nonfat is more economical too. I also only have it with breakfast, I drink water the rest of the day. Never has a milk product survived so long in our fridge.
It's really not so terrible, except I'm STARVING all the time. Lean Cuisine frozen meals are quite tasty, I just feel like I need to eat two to get a complete serving. My stomach is slowly shrinking, but I swear I can feel it every hour of the day. Only just in the last 48 hours have I stopped feeling ravenous from the minute I wake up to the moment I fall asleep.
But the good news is not a lick of pain either. For all I know I could eat more than 30 grams, or even go back to regular milk, but my discharge instuctions forbid it and I always feel a wave of unsympathy when I type a report of a patient pigheadedly noncompliant with recommendations. I've got this Vicodin prescription sitting in my medicine cabinet, which MyFriendDeb joked I should try selling on the black market to pay for my ambulance ride.
I visited the internist this past Monday, a jovial Nigerian guy named Dr. Obinnah -- well, I suppose I'd be jovial too if I got paid $120 for less than 30 minutes of my time, which is what he got from insurance-less me. He at least seemed a bit more sympathetic to my plight, and joked, "Maybe for you Obama's plan will come through, yes?"
He said I didn't need surgery, could probably manage through diet (which was good news apart from the wanting to eat the waiting room furniture). He also said I needed to exercise, which was a bit of a kick in the teeth after going to the gym three times a week for nine months. He was probably using the BMI scale (Body Mass Index) which, stupidly in my opinion, only considers height and weight and no concession made for muscle content. The BMI classifies me as "obese" which I absolutely am not. In fact I think I look pretty good as long as I keep my clothes on. On the bright side cutting all this fat out of my diet should start producing some real results.
He determined all this from talking to me and poking at my abdomen. Maybe the easiest 120 bucks ever.
Not out of the woods yet: my liver numbers are elevated, which could mean either inflammation from the gallstones or hepatitis. Fingers crossed for the first. Back in a month to recheck. (He asked me if I was SURE I didn't drink. Well, unless I drink SO MUCH that I completely black out any memory of it...which, sadly given the state of my memory on a good day, isn't as wackadoo as it sounds...)
So I broke down and got insurance. Truthfully, for all my bitching the primary reason I didn't have it before was because I think the insurance companies are a bunch of greedy crooks that are more interested in increasing their profit margin than taking care of their clients. But I'm only basing this on letters I type for doctors begging them to reconsider denying a patient's (seemingly perfectly valid) claim. My one consolation was I wasn't giving my money to those vultures. Maybe my employer's insurance is one of the good guys. We'll see. With the very real possibility of surgery looming for me, I guess I can't afford the luxury of principles anymore.
~*~
So, 2009 in review:
This was the year of the Blu-ray.
It was also the year of the Wii.
Tery bought a new car.
She also got a DUI and lost her license.
We both got gym memberships and radical lifestyle changes.
My niece Jane was born.
Our cat Alsatia died at 17 years old.
We adopted cat Logan (status still pending -- he attacked the bird twice this weekend and Frances is still very much on the fence about his residency)
Ferret Washburn had $1500 surgery for an obstruction.
I bought a new computer I can't use (oh yeah, still gotta tell you guys about that)
I went to the ER with gallstones.
I was forced to abandon my principles.
Bring it on, 2010.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 10:18 pm (UTC)I'm not saying having big bones is going to add a great deal of weight to your body, but it is going to change the amount of flesh and muscle you carry.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 01:02 pm (UTC)Good thing you learned how to drift, it's pretty fun! ... in a computer game. Yes, computer game.
I love Mariokart, and you can drift there too!
I'm getting a Wii soon, that and my PS3, my unspeakably large speakers and my new 42" LCD TV is going to make a very nice entertainment system in my new apartment :)
Watchmen does have a rather intimate scene between Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan (who's more pansexual than a-sexual in my opinion anyway) so... rawr ;D
no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 01:48 am (UTC)I'm not prepared to try it in Mariokart until I can at least work out how to stop making a beeline for every damn drop-off while still having an uncanny ability to totally miss the power-up floating cubes 1 out of 3 times.
Wooooo, I'm partying with YOU!
Reheheheheheheeeeally? Well, I look forward to that. Not the sexiest couple I can imagine, but we slashers take what we can get. RAWR
no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 11:13 am (UTC)The controls are a bit tricky at first but once you get the sense of how to drift it's sweet. Are you using the wheels?
Come on over!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 01:51 am (UTC)When the movie was in theaters, the women who do the Snapecast podcast went totally ga-ga for Rorschach, which I didn't get at the time (having not seen the movie yet). Maybe I should go back and re-listen now that I get the appeal.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 03:51 am (UTC)Man, your mom got you the best stuff for Christmas. How the heck does indoor skydiving work?
This was the year of the Blu-ray. Tell me about it! Speaking of things that make Christmas gift-giving 20x more expensive.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 10:40 pm (UTC)If you clicked to the site, Miss Lazy Pants, (or perhaps too tricky with your iPhone) you'd see: There's a chamber big enough for one person that creates a super duper wind tunnel that you free-form float in. Crazy ass expensive (like after your first visit you can buy trips at $15 a minute) so let's hope I don't enjoy it TOO much.
I don't think Blu-rays are so much more expensive than DVDs were when they first came out, and if you shop used on the right sites actually cheaper. Higher resale value too!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-11 11:34 am (UTC)Yeah, yeah. Who can plan that far ahead though?
no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 11:54 am (UTC)Good luck with the continued diet! My friend lost a lot of weight earlier this year with strict portion control. She even cut out sugar entirely for the first couple of months. She said the change in diet ultimately made her feel much better, once she got used to it.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 10:43 pm (UTC)Thanks! I knew I was eating crappy, but justified it with the exercise. Guess my body wasn't fooled. Hooray for your friend. : )
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 09:45 pm (UTC)Glad you like the books. Nope, there's not a lot of gay sex in 'em (although there's a fair bit of speculation about V's sexuality), but - heavens above! - that's not usually my motive in buying comic books. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before you write your own, anyhow...
Looking forward to your cover of Slimmers World or somesuch: "Elaine - our slimmer of the year!" and then a quote from you - "I lost 120 pounds and all it took was life-threatening stabbing pains in my chest, hugely expensive hospital time and watching what I eat".
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:16 pm (UTC)Had a hard time distinguishing individual characters a lot of the time (particularly the men, most of them looked the same). Was vaguely irritated when Evey's hair grows back curly after her "incarceration" and she looks NOTHING like she did at the start (I would have been "well, who the hell is THAT?!" if not for the movie). And the whole leader being "in love" with the computer (???) That was a little....too bizarre and abstract.
It was very cool to see how some parts were handled short-hand in the movie and all, but the book didn't elicit nearly the extremely powerful emotional response I got from the movie. Still, enjoyed the article at the end with Alan Moore.
Now onto "Watchmen"!