Yet another reason to get a college degree...

This was sent to me by a woman at work....cracks me up.

Subject: Only at Wal-Mart

Y'all know how much I just L--O--V--E Wal-Mart. This was sent to me this morning and is absolutely typical of the type of inept service for which Wal-Mart has become known. It used to be that people would say that if you didn't study hard, go to college, etc., that you could always work at McDonalds. Sadly, McDonalds does a much better job training their employees and placing them in positions suitable for their skill-set than Wal-Mart does. We had a "going away" party yesterday for a lady at our Little Rock claim office. One of the supervisors called a Wal-Mart and ordered the cake. He told them to write: "'Best Wishes Suzanne' and underneath that write, 'We will miss you.'"

Here's how the employee at Wal-Mart fulfilled his request. . . ? ?

Too funny.....

Really...? I mean, is that really necessary?

For all the Harry Potter fans out there, myself included, do we really need to know that Albus Dumbledore is gay? I mean...really, does it change anything? Does it change how we see Dumbledore and Harry's relationship? It doesn't and it shouldn't. My brother sent me this link and I have to say, I completely agree with the author. It's just another tidbit, another detail about a character but after the fact...does it really matter that much? If it was such an important part of the story, it would have been included in the original plot. Because sexuality is such a politically charged topic, I feel like J.K. Rowling is exploiting the sexuality of her characters a bit. (Wait....can you actually exploit a fictional character??? whatever...let's just go with if for a minute here). It's almost like she can feel she's running out of Harry Potter steam. She's written all seven books, she's "finished" the series (that's actually debatable) the story is over. There isn't any more uncertainty, suspense for the next installment. People are no longer asking, is Snape really evil? Will Ron and Hermione ever get together? will Harry survive or will he be forced to sacrifice himself? We know the answers to these questions. So maybe she's trying to find a way to keep people interested in the story. Maybe that's me being a little cynical but so be it. She's already said that she's not going to write anymore Harry Potter books, but could it be that she doesn't have any other ideas? Or maybe she just can't let go. She's said that she's going to write a "Character Encyclopedia". Give information and the histories of some of the other, secondary characters. I'm sure it will be a big hit but it seems a little cheap to me. Why can't she just be proud of the body of work she's produced? She wrote 7, rather entertaining books. Can't she just leave it at that? It's not like she needs the money. The woman is already more wealthy than the Queen of England, it's not like she's struggling to make ends meet. The epilogue of the book lets us all know how everyone ended up let's just leave it at that. Or like the author of the article said, let our imaginations fill in any holes that we each see. That's what fiction is supposed to be. That's why we read fiction. A good author gives their reader enough details to make their characters human but enough holes so we, as readers, can fill in the blanks in such a way so we can relate to them on a more personal level. My Harry Potter is different from yours. The way I see Dumbledore is different from the way you see Dumbledore but that's the beauty of fiction...this is sort of digressing into my thesis, so I will stop before I get carried away.

Two Weeks

It's been two weeks since I moved out. Two weeks today. I have to be honest, it's not quite what I expected...I love it and it's great but it's not what I expected...what did I expect, you ask? I'm not quite sure. Turns out having two roommates is a little different in theory than it is in practice. It's not really a problem. Elliot is totally respectful and considerate. He's a nice guy and Sarah doesn't really act differently when he's around. They're not the obnoxious couple type but they're a couple and that changes the dynamic of whoever is around them. I guess I was expecting to move in with my best friend but it's not quite like that. You see, when the best friend has a new best friend in the form of a boyfriend, you have to rearrange and change your expectations. It's not good, it's not bad...it's just different.

It's been almost four weeks since my surgery and people keep asking me how I'm feeling and if I notice any change...honestly...? I don't notice any difference. If anything I feel worse and for the life of me I can't get straight answers from anyone. When I was discharged from the hospital the neurosurgeon said I would be feeling "uncomfortable" for the next little while..when I asked what he meant by "uncomfortable" he could only give me a vague explanation. Since the operation (and especially in the past 4 or 5 days) I've had headaches, backaches, fatigue, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, bad breakouts and I can't seem to find someone to tell me if any of this is normal or not. The headaches are more persistent and sharper than before the surgery. I'm trying to be good and not get irritated or upset but really...it's difficult.

I knew this wouldn't be the solution to all my problems the way many people think it should be. Most people think I should be feeling better and symptoms should be gone by now. What people can't seem to grasp, no matter how many times I tell them, is this is going to be a long, difficult process. It's not going to be over in a matter of weeks. I'll be lucky if it's over in a matter of months!

Ugh...I just re-read what i wrote. I'm tired of sounding like this. I need to get over this and just deal with life.

Home Sweet Home

To put all curious minds at rest, I moved into my new apartment on Monday, October 8th. YAY! We actually have some furniture and we've been having fun getting other stuff and decorating a little bit. We actually have vaulted ceilings and we had a fire in our wood burning fire place on Saturday. I was at home all last week and today is my first full day back at work. It's almost 3:00 and i'm not sure how much longer i'll be. I'm starting to fade a bit but i don't really want to go back home...it's too quiet after being there all by my lonesome all of last week.

ANYWAY....i've moved and i love it (i'll try to get some pictures posted...although that would mean actually taking pictures of said new apartment...i'll work on it) and i'm back at work!

Insult to Injury..

It just seems slightly unfair that right after I have surgery i also get a cold. AND because of the nature of the surgery i cannot blow my nose. IF I were to make the mistake to blow my nose there is a good chance that I would rip out the stitches in my nose...(you know the stitches that were used to close the incision they made to widen my nasal passage)...and start to leak CS fluid (the spinal fluid around your brain) and that doesn't really sound like a good idea or a pleasant experience. But I suppose that breathing through your nose is a little overrated.

But on the bright side of life, I am moving on Monday. YAY! I've been slowly packing up my stuff over the past couple of days and all that's left is the stuff that I really can't pack until the last moment or stuff that I'm not going to pack...clothes, bedding, bathroom stuff etc. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate. I looked around my room and it's not a very big room but when i started putting everything into boxes it seemed like there was way more stuff than there should be. Most of the boxes are filled with my books. I tried to spread them out and put in lighter stuff but most of the boxes are pretty heavy. I've got friends helping me but it's three flights of stairs...that's a lot of stairs and i'm not "technically" allowed to lift anything (so says my doctor...if i strain too much it can cause more of the tricky CS fluid to leak...that sounds kind of strange)...but i feel bad about having other people carry all the big/heavy stuff, so we'll see how i'm feeling on monday. I'm pretty excited. We haven't actually seen the apartment but we've seen the model and they're pretty nice and since ours is on the third floor (top floor) we get vaulted ceilings and i think there's a wood burning fire place...which would be nice with this cold weather we've been having lately. I'm excited. Excited to be out on my own. Excited to move in with Sarah. Just plane old excited!!! I'll post pictures once we get all settled.

Love this commercial

I love this commercial but i couldn't remember what it was for so i couldn't find it on youtube to show to my coworkers and they, of course, all thought i was crazy. BUT in my drug induced delirium in the Neuro Critical Care Unit sort of watching tv, it came on. I was excited and i asked my mom to tell my sister what the commercial was for because she really likes it too and neither of us could remember what it was for. So now all can click and enjoy!

Home

So I'm home. I got home yesterday. There were some complications that extended my stay a few extra days but I'm home and all things considered, I'm doing pretty good. I still feel like crap and probably will for the next couple of weeks. Over all, it wasn't a terrible, horrible experience. It was surgery, not so pleasant but it wasn't the horrifying experience that i've been trained to expect from past medical procedures.

My arms look like I'm a drug addict. For a couple of days they had to draw my blood every hour and after a while, my veins started to protest. Why didn't they just insert an IV or something? well, they did but the needled pulled out of the vein (there's a medical term they used but i can't remember it) and they had to take it out and the other hand had the IV for my antibiotics/fluids etc. I've got some funny looking bruises on my stomach from where they gave me blood thinning injections and insulin injections. For the past four days i've basically been a human pincushion. But like i said, all things considered, I'm doing pretty good. The hardest part is going to be not doing too much. I always push myself more than i should. I feel "good" so i go do something and then i end up feeling like crap. And in this case doing "something" can be as simple as going up and down the stairs too many times or even showering. I took a shower this afternoon and it feels great to be clean, but i am utterly pooped now. And food tastes funny. Not horrible...just off.

So yeah...i'm home. I'm alive and i'm feeling good...relatively speaking.