For those about to debate ...

Dear Jackass That's Passing Colds Around -

If you don't mind, I would appreciate not having this sore throat. And I'm sure that similarly-affected friends, lovelies and sexies feel the same way.

So weather/jackass/unknown endogenous-exogenous sources ... go away. NOW!


No Love Whatsoever,

Carlita Bonita

I know that by going to the allergist for a second opinion, I'm doing the Right Thing^TM. I'm picking up where the internist seemed to blow me off (in the bad way, you dirty birdies ... heh) - yet, it almost feels like I'm 5 years old and undermining the authority of a grown-up, of Someone Who Knows Better^TM.

I know, I know ... it's my body, I hired this doctor - and if I don't feel comfortable with her bedside manner and/or the way she handled my presenting complaint(s), I can go to another doctor (or specialist) for a second opinion - or fire her. I wouldn't be this way if I were facing the Big C, or something else potentially terminal - I'd be clamoring to get a second, maybe even a third opinion (okay, so that would be denial speaking...) rather than taking the word of just one doctor.

Still, it feels strange. I didn't like the treatment (or lack thereof) that I received at the hands of my internist, so I am going to a specialist, to have my suspiscions confirmed or refuted - whichever the case may be. It's what I did when I suspected that I was sinking into a heavy depression - and what I did when I didn't think that my internist could properly treat a sports-related knee injury ... why I can't wrap my mind around the fact that this is the exact same idea is beyond me.

Also, it'll be good to find out what all I am allergic to - up until now, it has been like a crapshoot, total luck of the draw. Whatever the allergen of the season was - that was probably the allergen that had me positively miserable at that time. The only definites seem to be pet dander and grasses - not just any pollen that may come from their being mowed, but just coming in contact with them (i.e.: walking in the grass barefoot, or sitting on the lawn, without a towel or blanket between the grass and me) can give me a nasty case of hives.

Dear Doctor -

When I come to you, and explain that I am having serious problem with my allergies - and it's gone beyond what used to be my personal worst and into symptoms that have long-term asthmatics nodding their heads in understanding ... I'd appreciate not being dismissed, and made to feel as though all that is wrong with me is seasonal allergies gone awry.

As someone that has dealt in allergies in their various iterations since childhood, I can attest that while they are better now than they have been in all my years in St. Louis - this coughing, wheezing, tight chest, getting-seriously-winded-just-going-up-a-minor-incline business ... it's NOT normal. It's not right.

Don't just listen to my chest/lungs with your stethoscope and say "I don't hear any whistling or wheezing - so it doesn't appear to be asthma". Don't just thrust a small bag with a month's worth of Zyrtec samples into my hands, write off my symptoms as "seasonal allergies - or possibly due to mold in the city" and send me on my merry way.

You didn't even get out a Peak Flow Meter to check my lung capacity. Did you not hear me saying that I was getting severely short of breath going up ONE flight of stairs, or on a short incline? When it happened to me about 6 months ago, I could understand - do you NOT realize that this is happening to me 35 pounds lighter, and quite suddenly?!?

Thanks to your dismissive treatment, I have decided to make an appointment with an allergist, for a second opinion - as well as allergy tests. A co-worker has even offered to bring in a spare Peak Flow Meter, so I can track my lung capacity readings on my own.

Not feeling much love,

Carly

I'm too easily amused today.

Due to a co-worker's computer monitor dying a slow painful death (it has been emitting a burning smell on occasion) and her getting a new monitor, I have finally gotten speakers for my computer.

Yes, I have moved into the late 20th century, and my computer is no longer mute. I can play my CDs - and co-workers' CDs - as well as Internet Radio Stations at work, to fight off boredom and silence!

So yay - I've got my Jesse Valenzuela CD in the computer, and I'm a very happy girl.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how attractive do you think you are?
On average, I'd say that I am a 7 or 8. If you'd asked me a few years ago, I would've said that I was only a 3 or a 4.


Soup
What local restaurant would you recommend to a visitor to your town or city?
Stelladoro Pizza - the best pizza, hands down. Even the Cheese Pizza rocks socks hardcore.


Salad
What's a lesson you had to learn the hard way?
That it's okay to depend on other people and ask for help from time to time. That I don't always have to do *everything* on my own, without assistance.


Main Course
Name something in your life that you feel you can depend on 100%.
That I will talk to my family at least once a week, and that my sister - who might say that I'm a butthead to my face - loves me, and thinks that I'm the coolest sister ever.


Dessert
If you could see the front page of a newspaper from September 24, 2104, what would you imagine the headline might be?
American Utilities Continue to be Powered By Swaggart, Falwell, Robertson, et al Spinning In Their Graves - 75 Years After Gay Marriage Federally Legalized by First Female President

Again ... ganked from Something Awful - sick, sick puppies, all of them. ;)

For nakedhead - Henry Rollins - The Lullabies

Certain Punk circles have been waiting for this one ... if only to say "Told you so!!" Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Aruba (A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett)

He's not a loser ... he's just goth, baby! John Mayer - Underneath This Flesh

The Linkin Park CD we're *all* waiting on: Linkin Park - I Get Along With The Popular Kids

I almost inhaled my fruit pop over this one - Metallica - St. Augustine

I don't want to turn into a hypochondriac - or a total Drama Mama here - but, I'm finding it a bit peculiar that some days, I can get up stairs, hills and other minor inclines with no problems. Other days, I'm huffing and puffing as though I had just run a friggin' marathon.

Nothing has changed physically - my weight has actually gone down, so I like to think that my physical condition is improving. I know that my allergies tend to be an upper-respiratory thing, manifested in watery eyes, constant sneezing, runny nose/ congestion, sore throat - but on occasion, it gets into coughing and wheezing attacks.

Sometimes, the coughing and wheezing hits at the worst moments - last Saturday, for example: I was talking to Kellie, laughing over some witty/stupid comment one of us had made, when all of a sudden, my sides and stomach started to tighten and I was having trouble breathing. I was laughing so hard that I didn't know if I was crying because I was laughing so much, or crying because I was freaked out over the sudden onset of side and stomach constriction.


I know, I need to get off my ass and call the doctor, if only to get some better allergy meds, because the Claritin just isn't working. I just want to know if I'm possibly dealing with asthma - or making much to-do over nothing at all?

Dear Grumpy Old Man Client -

Go ahead, summon the Hounds of Hell to do your evil bidding. See if I care.

At this point, I'm so stressed, and so near my breaking point, that your being pissed off over my predecessor's ineptitude will only roll off my back.

I'll just smile and grit my teeth. Take down your information and put you near the top of my queue - just so I'm not taking your bullshit stürm-und-drang home with me tonight.

Remind myself that there's more to life than someone who seems to feel like a total suck on my life-force. That not everyone is a jackass that tells me that I'm lucky that they opened their mail today. (Ooooh - shower me in confetti, willya?)

No Love. Ever.

Me

You know, I don't think I'd mentioned it yet ... but Kellie and I are moving in a couple of weeks!

Okay, so this move is merely 4 blocks due west of our current place (no kidding), but as San Francisco goes, we're talking hellacious hills in the course of those four blocks. :-/


So, we've decided to get a moving company. Not because we're lazy slackers. Well, okay, so that's about 50 - 99% of it. The rest of it is that we don't want to exhaust our resources when it comes to our friends, and we'd like to not be strapped onto some medieval torture device to get our backs returned to alignment post-move!! (Especially since Ren Faires are winding down as it gets into the fall and cooler weather)

Kellie has been the one to handle most of the duties when it comes to finding our new place - whether it's actually finding the place, getting boxes to pack our stuff in, or even looking for inexpensive, reasonably attractive furniture - she's been the main woman behind it all.

I got the important responsibility of finding the movers. Sure, it sounds pretty easy - all you really want is someone that can schlep your crap in a truck, just a few blocks west, without screwing you over on the price. Oh good brother (and sister) ... if only it were that easy!


( Step by step ... oooh baby... )


( Do You Hear Me? Do You Care? )


( Our Costumers Can Vouch for Our Work! )

To be continued, soon ...

Normally, I'm not one to be in the Shameless Promotion of Clients game ... but in this instance, I'm more than willing to give in, without any kickbacks involved. :)


You know that you've had the best of intentions when it comes to being more environmentally aware - even if all you do is make sure that you put a soda can in the recycle bin once a month. Hey, it's better than your college roommate, who used enough hairspray to cause a hole in the Ozone over Fargo, North Dakota, right?

Or you're more aware of animal testing on products - and demand that if it's going to be done, that they use Death Row inmates, not cute fuzzy bunnies. Besides, what do hardened criminals have to live for? At least cute fuzzy bunnies are, well, cute ... fuzzy ... bunnies!!


Okay - so you're more serious than that. You actually have 6 bins at your place - one for the paper recycling, one for aluminum recycling, one for plastics recycling, one for glass recycling, one for composting, and one for the miscellaneous items (all one or two that somehow manage to enter your humble abode ... you're not sure how, but there they are).

When it comes to animal testing, you've stopped using products made by anyone that tests on animals, or has a 6-degrees-of-separation relationship to any company that does such testing, years before it was cool. You don't eat or wear animal products in any way, shape or form. You might even attend candlelight vigils at Universities that perform animal testing, or hand out leaflets about animal abuse at the circus when it comes to your Fair City.


Well, no matter where you are on that spectrum - whether you're a Fairweather Treehugger, because Pamela Anderson's doing it or a Greenpeace/PETA Lifer because you're thinking of Mother Earth - Method Home Products is a line of environmentally-friendly, not-tested-on-animals home care products.


Not only do they smell good, clean well, and come in very pretty packages - they don't test on animals, and don't use any solvents or chemicals that are environmentally or family-unfriendly.

In other words, you can use Method's goodness to clean up your house, and not have to worry over the puppy licking the floor you'd just cleaned up - or having to rinse off the countertop after cleaning it, because the kitchen cleaner will not contaminate your food.


Besides, if you're not convinced by the pretty packages or the swell website, how could you not get into a product line that has scents like "lemon ginger", "pomegranate", "mandarin orange", "sweetwater", "cucumber" and abhors that "artificial pine scent"?

Also, check out the entire site to get the story behind the company, including their "People Against Dirty^tm" philosophy, their initial ad campaigns, and where to buy Method Home products.

{/shameless promotion}