maternal duty vs. civic duty

i signed up a few weeks ago to chaperone my daughter's field trip this morning. which is always fun, but it's at the same time that barack obama is speaking down at the university. i really would have loved to have been able to hear him speak. damn.

p.s. for those following the saga with my brother - he's doing much better. thank you for asking.

on the importance of assertiveness

First off, thanks to everyone who has expressed concern about my brother. Here's the story.

Day one: Monday 6 AM he goes to the E.R. because he had been diagnosed with pneumonia a week before, but is now coughing up blood. They run some tests and say, well it looks like your pneumonia is gone, but you're in congestive heart failure. Apparently he had approx. 20 pounds of fluid around his heart and lungs. I go in to visit him at 8 PM, and he's still sitting in the E.R. On a gurney. Peeing into disposable urinals. And a doctor hadn't been in to see him for nearly nine hours.

I take it upon myself to start harrassing the hospital staff. I have to harrass the nurse twice before she comes in. Then, finally after I was there for two hours, a doctor came in. I start grilling her about him coughing up blood. I'm not dumb. I know that coughing up blood is one of the first signs of TB. She doesn't think that it's an issue. She looked at his chart, poked at him a little, and left. Frustrating.

Day two: Still sitting on a gurney in the E.R. Tiny room. No television, no telephone, still not allowed to leave the room to use the toilet. Around noon, they tell him that he finally has been assigned a room, they're just getting it ready for him. Then another doctor comes in and he has to give his entire history again. This doctor hears "coughing up blood" and decides that now (after 36 hours in the E.R.) that my brother should be tested for TB before he is moved. So, he is taken off the list for a room, and put on a new list for a negative pressure room (of which there are only four rooms in the entire hospital) just in case he has TB.

Day three: Yup. Still sitting on a gurney in the E.R. but in a new fancy isolated room. I show up at 9:30 AM, and a doctor hasn't seen my brother since 8 PM the night before. I crack my knuckles and go into attack mode. I tell the nurses that we need to see the doctor. Then I call the patient advocacy office. I do this in rotation for a couple hours before a charge nurse finally comes in and says the TB precaution has been removed so he's back on the list for a regular room, but that the doctor assigned to see my brother "is too busy to come see him" and another doctor will be on after 2 PM that will come check on him. I flip my shit just a little and call the patient advocacy office again and give the girl on the other end a very calm ass ripping. A few minutes later, his nurse comes in, they have a room for him and he should be transferred some time that evening.

I don't know if my constant harrassment had anything to do with them finally taking care of him, but I'd like to think that maybe it did. Apparently, since my brother hadn't chosen a primary care physician on his insurance plan, there wasn't anyone to push his labs through and get things done. What a pile of horse shit.

Day four: I go to visit my brother in his brand-spanking new hospital room. He was transferred about an hour after I left the E.R. the day before. Since arriving at the new hospital, he had an ultrasound of his heart, saw five different doctors, nurses checked on him all the time, he had a flat screen television and access to a telephone. It was like being released from prison and checking into the Ritz-Carlton.

So, they think he probably got a viral infection in his heart, exacerbated by the pneumonia and other health issues (weight and smoking) which basically made his heart start to fail. When they did the ultrasound, it was pumping at only about 20% efficiency, and the entire heart was enlarged. They have him on all sorts of meds to try to get the heart strong again.

Day five: A pulmonologist looked at his CAT scan because there were some abnormalities in the lung. There's some fluid in his left lung and some swelling in his lymph nodes, so now they are deciding whether to do a biopsy to rule out lymphoma or sarcoidosis.


I swear, this is like an episode of House. But without the grumpy (yet strangely attractive) gimpy doc.

feeling like rodney dangerfield

nope, i still get plenty of respect. but i'm going back to school.

quick history, because i don't want to get into the details. i was, once upon a time, a straight A student. i went into boston university to study marine biology, but had to leave one semester into my sophomore year. i started working full time to support myself, got married, had kids, and just never got around to finishing.

the whole unfinished school thing has always been the albatross around my neck, but life's necessities were keeping me from finishing up. everything has finally aligned (due in no small part to our recent move to NM) and i'm officially a student again.

most of my old credits aren't going to transfer for my degree, so i'm basically starting from scratch. i'm going to go to the community college here for a year, then transfer over to UNM. another thing that really blows is that my math skills have disappeared from many years of non-use, so i have to take a lower level math course just to get into the math classes i need for my degree. that is a fat load of suck.

i'm loading up on the classes though, because i want to get this shit done with. five classes plus a lab. if you don't see updates from me much, or if i don't answer my phone, or if i start posting random gibberish at 2 a.m., just assume that i'm studying too much.

random moment of the day

we were leaving the airport after picking up some people, and had to pull over to the side because the car that was following us didn't get through the traffic signal, and they didn't know where they were going.

next thing we see is a police car pull behind us with its lights flashing. i think "oh shit. they think we're terrorists pulled over near the airport."

the officer walks up to the car and he's holding a lasso in his hand. yes. a lasso.

one word flashes through my head: hogtie.

he leans over and says, "are you stopped because of the sheep?" we explain the reason we are stopped and he says, "ok. there's a sheep running loose somewhere around here. carry on."

this shit doesn't happen in chicago, i'll tell you what.

5 awesome things for the week

yeah, it's only wednesday. so what?

1. the cupcake shop up the road has strawberries that are stuffed with cheesecake, then dipped in chocolate. yeah, i said it. cheesecake-stuffed chocolate-dipped strawberries.

2. the lady at the sandwich shop who wondered aloud if they would make her sandwich in a bowl, with no bread. nothing like carb-fear to ruin a genius sandwich.

3. my dyson. i vacuum every day now just to see what will go flying around its crazy cyclone.

4. making mix cds. it brings me joy to impose my musical taste on other people.

5. the incredibly fit, handsome, muscular man who jogs shirtless down my road every morning. thank you.

i was hoping you'd call

I Live – for other people's happiness

I Work – hard for my sanity

I Talk – if someone is listening

I Wish – I could finance my wishes

I Enjoy – planting things and watching them grow

I Look – younger than my age

I Find – comfort in music

I Smell – clean

I Hide – my sadness

I Pray – no, not really

I Walk – with my own feet

I Write – words without a tune

I See – monsters

I Sing – always

I Can – remember everything but your name

I Watch – birds cock their head to the side looking for worms in the ground

I Yearn – for a full nights sleep

I Daydream – about travel

I Want – to eat fantastic food while gazing at the mediterranean sea

I Cry – at television shows

I Read – too many magazines

I Love – my kids

I Wonder – how many people are happy with their lives

I Touch – fabrics to feel their texture

I Hurt – in my right shoulder almost constantly

I Fear – being boring

I Hope – that my children grow up to be decent people

I Eat – poorly

I Quit – almost everything

I Bathe – every day

I Drink – water like a fish

I Stop – abruptly

I Save – junk

I Hug – people i genuinely like

I Play – like i'm a pirate

I Miss – my best friends

I Hold – on too tightly to the steering wheel while driving

I Forgive – rarely

I Drive – a gas guzzler

I Learn – all the time

I Have – stinky feet

I Don't – trust most people

I Made – choices that i live with

I Kiss – sparingly

I Believe – in evolution

I Wait – until everyone stops talking before saying something

I Dance – like nobody is watching

I Need – a concert

I Feel – sun on my skin

I Know – lots of random things

I Am – trying to change

solving for x

Writerscafe.org put forth this challenge: Write a story or poem containing 26 sentences (or lines) the first one starting with the letter A, then B, C, and so on until you've reached the letter Z. Be warned, X is the tricky one. I'm looking for the most complete story or poem AND the most creative solution for X. Happy writing!


Albuquerque is beautiful in the springtime. Bluer skies than you had ever imagined hang overhead. Clouds only punctuate the clear blue of the skies. Dusk brings glorious sunsets of orange, purple and pink. Every color in the crayon box crawling across the landscape. Forests of pine and tumbleweeds dot the mountainsides. Gravel crunches underfoot as you walk towards the base of the mountains. Hikers and bikers wave at you and nod hello. In fact, everyone seems a little more friendly here, like maybe they know you from somewhere. Juniper grows in almost every yard. Kiva fireplaces stand as a reminder of native traditions.

Leaving this place made it fresh again. Maybe if I hadn't left I wouldn't see it through the same eyes. New experiences and places provide a contrast with which to compare these things. Only by leaving could I finally see the colors. Perhaps I could have returned sooner, but I'm not certain it would be the same.

Quirkiness seems to fit here better than it does in other places. Route 66 runs through the heart of this town and the retro kitsch still permeates the area. Strange people abound here, like the naked guy who protests outside the military base. Tribes of Native Americans own the land surrounding the city, stopping it from sprawling too far. Usually, you can find little shops on the edge of the reservations that still sell bread baked in their round mud ovens fueled by firewood.

Visitors to this town might not understand the homes here; stucco squares in every imaginable shade of brown, looking like ancient adobe huts. Water is scarce in these high country deserts, so the people have grown to adapt. Xeriscaped yards dominate the neighborhoods with gravel covered lawns instead of water thirsty grass. Yucca, cactus, and agave with their spiky, spiny leaves defend their alien landscape. Zealots for the lush green lawns of suburban America might not love it here, but I think that I do.

5 awesome things for the week

1. My new nephew: Finnegan. Born March 5th at 11:11pm. 7 lbs 2 ounces. Apparently he is here on a mission for Justice, Ass-Kicking, and making his folks proud. I'm going to buy him a T-shirt that says "I just made poo"



2. a ten day forecast with highs from 66°F to 72°F. i think i'm hiking in the mountains this weekend.

3. the cubano sandwich with apple slaw at relish. i had one yesterday for lunch and only sheer willpower is keeping me from going back to have another today. it's joey tribiani heaven in that place. best sandwiches in the city.

4. driving at night through the heights and being able to see the whole city. <

5. rediscovering my hometown. everyone should try it.

i made it

we got into albuquerque on saturday. still looking for a house. i actually found the house i wanted on saturday, but by tuesday, it was sold. DOH! anyways here's some pics:

most of southern illinois looks just like this:


st. louis


these signs are all along the highway in oklahoma. i have no clue what they mean. if anyone has the answer, please let me know.


one should not try to take photos of the moon while driving. danger! danger!


joshua never believes me that it snows in nm. i thought i left illinois to get away from this.


once we got over the mountains it was all bright and sunny. it's been in the 60's all week. woohay!

i'm out

dear chicago,

my relationship with you has been strained from the beginning. deep down, i'm a southern girl, and your cold, midwestern stylings just haven't worked for me. i won't miss your wind or your snow. i won't miss the fact that you have given your freeways code names so the outsiders cannot understand your traffic reports. i won't miss your never-ending sprawling boring suburbs. and i won't miss winters that seem to last 8 months out of the year.

but these things i shall miss:

- concert buddies, first and foremost. you know who you are. and you rock like whoa. you held my hand swaying in front of pat sansone's stripey socks. you got me water when i was parched. you made cat faces at me. you brought snacks and drinks for our long drives to and fro. you stopped strange lesbians from dry humping me. wait, no you didn't. that actually happened. ass. i'll miss you anyways.

- schubas. need i say more? i emo heart the schubas photo booth.

- portillos beef sandwich, dipped with sweet and hot peppers.

- dick prall. travel west, young man.

- crate and barrel. there's no crate in nm. suck!

um... yeah... i think that's all i will miss.

next stop: albuquerque.

are you freaking kidding me??!!?!?

I got a phone call from my mother in law about an hour ago. It started out relatively painless. Then she asked what my plans were this weekend. What are my plans? Well, I'm moving in four days. My plans are to start organizing the items that I'm taking in the car with me for my 18-hour drive with two young children. My plans are to do laundry so I'm not packing and moving dirty things. My plans are to throw out extraneous items so I don't have to move them. My plans are to have an anxiety attack and sob quietly in the corner. What are your plans? "I have some packing and organizing to do," I say.

"Well," she says, "we were wondering if we could drive up this weekend to visit with the girls before you left." My house has been on the market since November. You haven't come to visit in nearly a year. My husband - your son - just left this past Monday after being home for 10 days, and you want to visit the weekend before my move? Are you for real?!? "I'm going to be pretty busy. I really don't think that will work," I say. "But the movers are going to be doing all the packing," she says. I politely decline.

I call my husband about 30 minutes later and ask him if he knew his mother was going to call me. He says that he did not, but that he just talked to them. Yes, that's right. His mother called him right after she got off the phone with me. She called him at a conference in Florida, where he is working, to try her passive-aggressive wonder powers on him. He had pretty much the same response I did, and told them that he was working and didn't have time for this. (Have I mentioned I love this man?)

This is the real kicker. Where were my in-laws three weekends ago? They were home in Cincinnati babysitting my sister-in-law's child. Where were they the weekend after that, when my husband was home? They were in Cleveland, visiting my sister-in-law. Where were they last weekend when my husband was still home? They were in southern Ohio for the birth of another grandkid... Okay, I have to give them that one.

There's a reason I'm moving 1400 miles away.

cigarettes and empty bottles, empty bottles

The Beat Kitchen, Chicago. February 18, 2007
Teitur w/ Jenny Owen Youngs and Curtis Evans

I almost didn't go to this show. I was out until 2 AM the night before and I had to drive out to O'Hare at 4 AM the next morning. But I couldn't justify missing a chance to see Teitur as my last concert as a Chicagoland resident, so with my kickass concert buddy guru James alongside me we made one last trek into the city together for a show.

We were both exhausted from being out so late the night before, but the website said the opener started at 7:30, so we weren't figuring to stay out too late. Then to arrive at the show and see the openers wouldn't start until 8:30? That's all kinds of ass. The venue was dark and cold with black painted walls and ceiling, blue lights over the stage, and a low hanging dank cloud of cigarette smoke. The first opener was Curtis Evans. He's a local Chicago boy, and seemed to have his share of friends in the audience.

Jenny Owen Youngs was next, and she was incredible. She has a unique voice and sings brutally honest songs. She was also hilarious and interacted a lot with the crowd. At one point, James turned to me and said, "I think I'm in love." To which I replied, "Me too. If you don't marry her, I will."



At one point, that crazy bitch jumped off the stage right into the audience. I think I touched her ass. Nevermind. I just imagined that. She did play a rousing rendition of Nelly's "Hot in Herre" though. That wasn't in my imagination.

Also not in my imagination:


Seriously, take me to shows. I'll get the pictures you would never dare to ask for yourself. I should really hire myself out for things like this.

I took my chances to run to the loo between sets and ran into Dick Prall out in the bar area. I was really hoping to see him before I moved, so that was a total bonus to my night. I'm sorry Lynn, I did not get any pictures of Dick. I did see Dick. I did wrap my arms around Dick and give Dick a big hug. There's nothing quite as good as a random Dick sighting. I could go on, but now I'm just being dirty.

Of course, the real draw of the night was Teitur himself.



I'm the worst person in the world for setlists, but here's what I remember:

don't want you to wake up
sleeping with the lights on
amanda's dream
poetry and aeroplanes
lets go dancing
i run the carousel
thief about to break in
you get me
josephine
umbrellas in the rain
hitchhiker
guilt by association
louis louis
baby you don't ever have to see me again
i was just thinking



I'm certain I missed something. But such is life. If you ever get the chance to see Teitur in concert, please go. He's a fantastic performer with a really unique voice and sound.









Full flickr photoset here

I did get to talk to Teitur a little bit after the show. He's going to be doing some recording down in Australia and some mixing in Santa Barbara. So keep your ears peeled for news on a new record. Yippee!

snow, polar bears, and dylan mcdermott

We spent Christmas and New Years in Albuquerque this year. Wouldn't it figure that Albuquerque received record-breaking snowfall while we were there, and we didn't pack snow gear? Anyways, here's a photographic review of my trip.

They say the sky is bluer in Albuquerque than other places. Something to do with lack of moisture in the air and light refraction. Judge for yourself.



The morning we got in town, the clouds were just sitting on top of the mountains.


Snow + cacti = awesome.


I love the Flying Star Cafe. They had matzoh ball soup when I was sick. (Or is it matzo?)


We got 22" of snow in a 48 hour time period.


We went to the zoo to watch polar bears wrestle.


And mountain lions lick themselves.


Even the orangutans were in a festive mood.


My favorites from the aquarium:
Puffer


Jellies


And the Slippery Dick.


I found a dragon


and a dinosaur biker


This was the runway at the airport the day we left:



We left on New Years Day. Flights hadn't entered or exited the airport for days due to the snow and dense fog from the evaporating snow. Luckily, my flight was neither cancelled nor delayed. Unluckily, it meant that there were lots of people stranded in the airport, so we got stuck sitting on the floor. I'm a people watcher, and I saw a man walk by who looked just like Dylan McDermott. Since I was with two kids under the age of 8, I couldn't exactly nudge one and ask their opinion, so I checked the NM Film Office site, and guess who is filming in NM? That's right. McDermott. Sadly, no photo, as I was unprepared for a celebrity sighting at the Albuquerque Sunport. He was looking pretty raggedy though. Maybe he was amongst the stranded.

it's flu season again. time for my yearly rant regarding the flu, flu shots, and "the stomach flu."

flu shots help prevent whatever strain of influenza virus they predict may be floating around this year. the flu is caused by the influenza virus and is a respiratory illness. symptoms of the flu are as follows:

• Fever (usually high)
  
• Severe aches and pains in the joints and muscles and around the eyes
  
• Generalized weakness
  
• Ill appearance with warm, flushed skin and red, watery eyes
• Headache
  
• Dry cough
• Sore throat and watery discharge from the nose

i know what you're thinking. where's the stomach pains, the diarrhea?? you got a flu shot last year and you still got sick! you were throwing up and had diarrhea for two days. it was horrible! that darn stomach flu. dianne, why didn't you list the vomiting and diarrhea?

well, because you had gastroenteritis. it's caused by any variety of stomach bugs, be they viral or bacterial. there is no flu involved in the so-called "stomach flu." no flu shot in the world will keep you from getting gastroenteritis. washing your hands might help, though.

remember: flu = lungs, nose, throat. if your stomach is involved, don't blame your flu shot.

nerd.

i make no attempt to hide the fact that i'm a total nerd. and in my nerddom, i admit that i love the following things: star trek, sci-fi, books about germs and forensic science, and fantasy novels. yes, fantasy novels. the more magicians and dragons involved, the better.

some of my favorite books as a teen were from a series called dragonlance. these books had it all. elves, magic, dragons, war, romance, death. and an evil mysterious master wizard.

turns out they are making an animated movie out of said dragonlance series. and to play the evil mysterious master wizard? only the man with the coolest voice of our generation.



seriously. i wet myself just a little.

dick prall, park west chicago

went to see my boy, dick prall, play last night at park west. we got there a wee bit late (oops!) due to total ass weather. it was like a monsoon was rolling through chicago. every dip in the sidewalk had become a lake, and traffic sucked nut.

dick rocks.


got dick?


went to dublins with my best friend lynn and my buddy robb. this is where you will find lynn and i after any show.we put $5 in the jukebox. the selection was crap, but we got some random stuff out of there. barenaked ladies, duran duran, foo fighters, johnny cash, michael jackson, tom petty, even some old school funk that made us break out our rollerskating moves. in all, the night was a big thumbs up.

she's crafty

having two little girls is like owning life-size baby dolls. i get to play dress up whenever i want. halloween is one of those times when i go a little crazy, but they like to play along.



scary.





yes. in fact she is missing her two front teeth.







this website's updated by witches.
witches.
witches and me.

dear chicago

so, yeah... i'm moving away. my husband got a job that will be moving us to albuquerque. i was born and raised there and never in a million years did i think i would actually move back. but here i am. and there i go.

i'm not sure when exactly i'll be moving, what with the real estate market being painfully stagnant. i'm hoping either the house sells really fast, or it doesn't sell until february so i don't have to travel for the josh ritter and glen phillips shows. is that sick? i think it is. i have an illness, and the only prescription is more folk singers.

speaking of folkies, i'll be heading into town for a night seeing my favorite local singer, dick prall, play at the park west on friday, november 10. if anyone is interested in joining us, we will be dining at stanleys before the show (mmmm fried chicken and hush puppies), walking over to park west to see dick play, then going to dublins on state street for drinks and merriment. i'd love to see everyone before i go.

if you don't have my cell#, let me know and i'll PM it to you so you can find us.