Cue the Jeopardy theme song

Is it no longer recommended that people involved in an argument or discussion (which is just code for "argument", really) stop and think before they fly off at the mouth? Because I have been the reigning champ of fly off at the mouth my whole life. So I decided to try this "gather your thoughts before you proceed method" lately. I have tried it twice and both times the "argument" ended without me.
These were both fairly large "discussions" (one way the heck larger, to be sure) full of emotion and feelings. So maybe it is really just seen as a way to surrender to the other side? But I have more to say. And I am not very likely to bring the whole thing up again, with either party, so now these issues will just sit and fester, unresolved, until the next time.
Maybe I need to think faster or just remove my feelings from the situation.
Or maybe everyone should just remember what even my ex finally found to be true which is that I AM ALWAYS RIGHT!
Hmm...
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So much to say

But I'm going to wait until I can be clear and not strictly emotional.

The problem with blogs is that they are not just online journals where you can say everything you want to, people who kind of know you read this, too, and then there's that fallout.
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The doctor is in.

But the receptionist's minds are out!

Ready for this fun bit of oversharing? I am having a lady problem so I called my doctor's office to order a prescription of diflucan to clear it up. (I warned about oversharing). They have this receptionist who is somewhat new (less than 6 months-ish) and irritates the living crap out of me. She's about 60 and has this reallllllly short hair which she then puts little tiny bow barrettes in.
In the bangs.
"Seriously?" You ask
Seriously.
So she answers the phone and I smother my dry heave when I hear her duck voice (like when someone's tongue is too big for their mouth?) and say I would like to order a prescription for a yeast infection pill. "Hmmm... Is this a prescription you normally get?"
Uh, when I need to!
"Well, when I need it, I call in and order it. It's not like it comes with refills or anything"
I can see she wants me to call and order it through my pharmacy. I also know, because I have dealt with this doctor's office more than she has, that they won't fill this prescription that way.
It took 3 minutes of discussing how I only need it sometimes and what her job should now be with that nugget of information before she moved on. (Yes, I timed it)
"Well," she said in that sensual voice of hers (seriously, you hear it from the bottom of her throat but it's all phlegmy. It's just sooo lovely), "what symptoms are you having?"
..
Normally this is not an out of line question, right? IF YOU ARE A NURSE!!! This lady is NOT a nurse. She is not even close to a nurse. She is a receptionist who can't, after 6 months, ask questions in the right order. (She asked my birthdate, then my issue, then my name. Every OTHER receptionist goes birthdate, name, issue. So guess how I believe the system works)
By now, my kind, patient, placating mood had worn thin.
"YEAST INFECTION type symptoms!!!"
"Oh. And what medication do you normally take for that?"

My question is, are there really NO other candidates to fire from that job? No one lasts more than a year anyway. Can't we skip ahead to the next dingleberry brained person and get rid of this twit? (I just called an old person a twit. Accurately.)

She eventually decided that I had been tormented enough and informed me that my doctor I regularly see is in today so she would forward all this to her nurse, that the forwarding wouldn't be a problem, and that the nurse would call with questions.

I felt like King Arthur, searching for the holy grail of oral diflucan, trying to cross the troll's bridge. "WHAT are your symptoms?!"
In fact, she may now be synonomous in my head with Dora the Explorer's Grumpy Old Troll song
"I'm the grumpy old trollll who lives under the [desk], Hey! I'm the grumpy old trollllll who lives under the [desk]. "

You think the fun is over? Oh no! It's only half done. Because then I had to call Alex's doctor to refill his meds.
The receptionists there are usually fantastic. Not so much, today.
First, they wanted my name. Before his name. Uh, okay.
"Holly Young"
"Hmm, how do you spell your name?"
What?!? It's reallllly hard.
"H-O-L-L-Y" pause "Y-O-U-N-G"
"Okay, and what's your last name?"

WTF is it today??? Is there some receptionist brain sucking alien out there? Because I seriously doubt they all got together and made the resolution to be significantly dumber on the phone.

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Female Pattern Baldness

So, do you want to know all the things wrong with me? I'm going to type and maybe some will come out. We'll find out together.

I had my gallbladder removed a year and a half ago. After that I lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time. It started in May. In August, I went to my doctor and asked why my hair was falling out. She placated me and tested my thyroid but said the handful of hair was "totally normal hair loss" for one shower. Um, NOT FOR ME, or I wouldn't have bothered coming in.

That would be like going to the doctor because my eyes are STILL BROWN! *shocked and appalled look*

Whatever, after that, I started back to school, packed on a bunch more fat (all I had lost plus some, for extra fun). Well, when I started this diabetic-esque diet this fall, I started feeling like I was losing weight. Turns out, I was. About a month ago, I found I was again holding handfuls of hair by the end of my shower. It was the craziest thing.

FINALLY, I put it all together. When your body loses weight, it also loses hair. Something about how the hair cycle gets interrupted and then when you begin maintaining a weight again, your hair resumes growth and actually comes in healthier and thicker than before. So that's good, now if only I can make sure I don't take so long to lose weight that I go totally bald before it's able to grow again!

PS, that picture is NOT of my head.

PPS, I did not share some of the things I thought I might so you're safe. :o)

Resolutely Unresolute.

I think I am going to start a new year's resolution about blogging more often.

Now I just need to find something fun to say.

Last night we went to Goretti's house for New Year's Eve. The kids laid around on the floor watching movies while the adults crocheted and were, generally, OLD about the whole evening.
I have never understood the draw to celebrating New Year's. It just seems really unfair to the rest of the months. Why don't we stay up and watch a ball drop and have fireworks to welcome in any of the other months? And then? Then we take the first day of the year off. We close the stores that don't HAVE to be opened, management always takes the day off, and we set a FANTASTIC precedent for the entire new year! Oy!
Anyway, before we went to Manzo's house we were playing the Moulin Rouge soundtrack and singing along like crazy people, as per usual. Aiden told Annie she's not allowed to marry anyone until he loves her as much as Aiden loves her mom (ME!). She very reverently accepted this rule. It was funny, though, that he said that because I was thinking about how the girls won't be allowed to marry anyone who is not willing to sing Come What May to her. Or any of the other fantastical love songs. Great minds, we are, thinking alike.


Last night was the first time ever that any of the kids made it to midnight. Alex and Annie both made it. The cute part was that Ashley came and crawled up on my lap and said she was ready to go to bed. I love it when she, or any of the kids for that matter, listen to their bodies and admit they are tired.





On a completely different note, but still all about me, I lost 25 pounds, give or take, this semester. I was given a diagnosis of being pre-diabetic (stupid fat fat FAT) in September and then lost my insurance until December. So I have not actually gone to the doctor to get all my blood sugar devices yet (I go on Tuesday). Anyway, since I had gestational diabetes with Ashley, I sort of knew what I was doing without the dang finger pokes and just went to a somewhat modified diabetic diet.


For those of you that don't know, that basically means low carb. I can SOOOO do low carb. It's like a game. And while I cannot lose weight for the life of me (literally), I can win games! So I didn't weigh myself until Christmas break. And I was down 25 pounds before you account for heavier clothes and boots and stuff.

(I do my weighing on the scale at Rite Aid and was not in the mood to stand there and take off as much as possible to still be decent in public while weighing in. Hence, the boots and coat and stuff stayed ON)(which is also why this is not being posted from JAIL!)

Guess What

It's a post! I didn't die! I'm still alive and kicking and here. Just haven't been HERE, per se.

Tons happened since the last actual post. Mom, I'm sorry about that last one there, I don't have a right to "publicly" blogflog you (I made that up. I'm going to copyright it!) when I own half of this relationship. I love you and I am sorry.

So.... I turned the big 3-0 yesterday. and I am still alive today, so that's good. I wasn't actually that worried about it. I don't mind getting older, just make the jokes because it's what one is supposed to do somehow. Couple that expectation with the fact that I am hi-larious (and oh so modest!) and there you have me, making jokes about aging when I don't actually mind at all.

It is kind of strange, though, to be in my 14th senior year of college (or something), turning 30, and surrounded by my friends who are all turning 21 this semester.

Not ALL of them, but a good portion anyway.

Another friend of mine turned 20 on November 30th. I had a great deal of aging pain when I realized for TEN WHOLE DAYS ONLY we were in our 20s together.

Now, still talking about getting older.... I have 5 classes this semester. One of them is Human Development: Adults and Aging. My birthday was on the last day of lecture for the class. In an ultimate act of irony (and sorry if this spoils the ending for you) my birthday lecture day was over the very end: DEATH. It was a great way to turn 30.

*sigh*

I miss my mom.

I miss the relationship we had before we didn't talk for 5 months, basically. I miss the friendship I get to have with her when my siblings are not living in her house. I miss what it feels like to feel important to her. I miss knowing that she is proud of me and my kids. I miss being able to talk to her about anything I want. I miss being able to talk to her at all.

Whatever.

The preschool bus

Ashley's preschool comes around with a bus to pick up all the kids for school. There's this neighbor boy of ours who is in his first year of preschool at what he only knows as "Ashley's school" since he saw her there when he toured with his mom last year. She has been sitting by him on the bus every day to and from school so he would feel comfortable. He told his mom it's the way he knows he is getting on and off at the right places; Ashley gets on and off too. He said he knows he's on the right bus because Ashley is on it too. He knows the bus driver will take him to the right house because Ashley will make it happen, somehow.
Today Ashley got on the bus and sat down in the first seat. Next to someone who was already there. Alex, the neighbor boy, had to sit somewhere else. He chose the seat right behind Ashley. Hopefully he still knows where to go!
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YES

I know I posted that same blog twice, more or less. But I got a blackberry and forgot that I could (and did) post things from it to the blog. So you got the update twice on some people and once on others. But how else would I have remembered to tell you how freaking great the kids are on their first days of school?

a super quick update

Things have been crazy in every one's neck of the woods. Life is great down here in Swine Flu-Ville. There's rumored to be about 2500 kids who have had or do have it but it has not yet touched this house. yay!!

The kids are back in school, Alex got his first male teacher, Mr. Church, who is fantastic. They put him in the 5th grade math class since he was the top scoring student in his grade last year in the math section of the WASL but it's proving to be a harder challenge than it should be so we're emailing Mr. Church to get him moved back to 4th grade math. I just can't see how he is supposed to spend 4 hours a night on homework for just math and keep his love of math alive. He's missing part of the foundation that he should have learned in 4th grade math so this should help a lot.

Annie got Mrs. Koerner for 1st grade. This was her teacher for K, too. She had a baby this summer and will officially join her class in the end of October. For now she has Mr. Mcaffrey (or something like that) who she is loving also. Mrs. Koerner was great for Annie's personality so I'm not sad to see her have her again this year at all. Annie is all kinds of smart, too, and is doing great!

Ashley just started preschool again yesterday and is in a class with Miss Molly and Miss Stephanie has her teachers. She has a couple of kids from her class last year and a whole lot of kids she knows from our apartment complex. The downside is there are 15 boys and only 5 girls. Miss Molly had a similar class last year and said it can get crazy really fast. But I think it will be fantastic for her. She continues to struggle with transition times by throwing fits are bedtime. We have learned a fairly effective way to deal with them, though, and until she figures out how to outsmart us with the current tactic, it seems to be working and curbing the duration.

School for me is going fast and crazy but really good. I should graduate in May and then have 2 summer courses to officially finish my course load. Or something. Maybe I'll just graduate in August and not deal with the funky graduation stuff by walking early.

Aiden's doing his stay at home dad thing again this year and seems to be enjoying it. Today is only the second day of Ashley being gone and him being alone for the morning so we'll see how he holds out.

That's life for now. Gotta run to class again so hope everything is great for you guys.