Crossing Paths

What We're Eating-Jan 30th Edition

2012-01-30T08:25:00.002-05:00

I almost didn't have time to post this!! I am getting slammed with school work, baby work, work, and menu planning/cooking! I need to reevaluate and make some time in all of that somewhere!

Anyways, here is what we're eating this week:

Breakfast: Paleo Breakfast Casserole from Health Bent
Lunch: Leftovers or Salad

Dinner:
Monday: Chicken piccata and roasted broccoli and cauliflower
Tuesday: Steak Fajitas
Wednesday: Chorizo Mini Meatloaves from Health Bent (I love Health Bent!) and green beans and maybe a salad
Thursday: Hot plate
Friday: Orance Chicken with broccoli
Saturday: Eat out in Cincinnati!
Sunday: Shop and crock pot?

On to reading my 6 different history books. Degree, why must you be so elusive?!

Day 19

2012-01-19T10:10:00.002-05:00

So I've been eating "lacto-paleo" more or less since January 1. I've planned out my meals and have been cooking every meal except for a rare treat out, in which I still had approved foods. My clothes are fitting better, and I have a pair of pants on today that I haven't worn for 4 years. I feel better, I feel like I have more energy, my stomach hardly ever complains anymore and my face and skin feel better. I know this is going to be a slow process, and I've been weighing myself and the weight isn't dropping off as fast as I thought it would.

I think since i've been doing so good for this much time now and the days are flying by, I'm going to make some new goals.

1. Start a Whole 30 on February 1st. (Feb 1-Mar 2nd) which works out perfectly b/c I'm going out with the girls on March 3rd.
2. Implement an exercise plan. I am going to do 10 burpees, 10 pushups, and 10 situps everyday. Add in physical activity whenever possible.
3. Quit weighing myself!! (which is a part of the Whole30 anyways)

Wish me luck!

Wow, another week of food.

2012-01-19T08:30:00.001-05:00

I can't believe that a whole week has passed! Having a baby in the house really makes time fly by. I feel like it's Monday and I have the whole week ahead of me and then all of a sudden it's Friday and I haven't done my homework or made a meal plan or well much of anything! I must admit though, that I do spend plenty of time just "being" with the baby and so at least I am valuing my time even though it is flying past.

Here is the meal plan for the week of 1/23. It is a bit uninspired.
Breakfasts: Egg muffins
Lunches: Leftovers or salad
Dinner:
Monday: Hot plate
Tuesday: Chile Relenos from Health Bent
Wednesday: Chicken Piccata and broccoli
Thursday: Hot plate
Friday: Chicken fingers and salad
Saturday: Steak and baked potatoes (sweet potato for me) and green beans
Sunday: Crockpot?

Sidenote: I have like 3 blog posts composed in my head, but they haven't made it out yet. Hopefully soon!

What We're Eating Week of 1/16/12

2012-01-12T15:34:00.000-05:00

Breakfast this week is going to be Ham and Egg Cups from Paleo Comfort Foods and frittatas

Lunches will be leftovers or salads which sounds less that exciting but I love it. Easy, fast, and tasty!

Dinners:
Monday: Gyro salad-we had this last week but the gyro meat is so darn tasty that I am still craving it!
Tuesday: Mini-Pizza Meatloaf and green beans and maybe salad?
Wednesday: Paleo Orange Chicken with broccoli and carrots
Thursday: Hot Plate from Well Fed
Friday: Shrimp and sweet potato fries
Saturday: eat out!
Sunday: Shop and cook and ?

School/work are keeping me busy this week so hopefully this menu will give me more time to blog! :)

Meal Plan for week of 1/9/12

2012-01-05T14:50:00.000-05:00

All week for the most part for breakfast is Egg Muffins, lunches will be either leftovers or salads or a combination of both. I found this week that I had a lot of extra food and I mainly like hot lunches.

So here's the Dinner Menu:
I should note Monday/Thursday are Shawn's bowling nights, so usually these meals need to be make ahead, crockpot, or extremely fast because Elie doesn't usually let me cook for very long and she's mobile now! Holy heck!

Monday: Gyro Salads. Yum.
Tuesday: Chicken and artichoke with garlic sauce (from the Mark Sisson's book) with zucchini noodles
Wednesday: Arroz con Pollo (same book)
Thursday: Hot plate (I was not enthused with the hot plate I made this week, but it turned out GOOD. I made beef with tomatoes, bell peppers, and pizza seasonings over green beans.)
Friday: Meatza (from Well Fed)
Saturday: Unstuffed cabbage (MS)
Sunday: Breakfast: Paleo Biscuits and Gravy from Paleo Comfort Foods and shop!

Nothing Asian! Sounds delicious!

Product Review: Cuisinart Food Processor

2012-01-05T08:32:00.000-05:00

I have a long, horrid history with food processors. It all began with a mini chopper I got as a gift from my mother. The mini chopper and I got along just fine and I will still whip it out occassionally for a quick garlic chop or the like. The next chapter begins with a small Black and Decker one that I got as a gift. The chopping blades never quite worked properly and it had so many pieces and parts that I'm sure I lost some of it when I moved. It was white and ugly and smelled like smoke when I used it. That is when I decided I needed a new one! I researched them online a bit (apparently not enough) and decided on the Food Network model.

Exhibit A. POS

I liked this model because it had a handy drawer to keep all of the chopping blades in and it was black, which matched my kitchen. I also was able to purchase it at Kohls with a coupon so that made the price not so bad. I brought it home and took it out of the box and then promptly cut myself on the slicing wheel. I didn't lose a finger but it was a pretty deep cut that took a few weeks to heal. Strike 1. Then, the second time I ever used it the goofy handle piece that has to be locked or else it won't work (the part that is spring loaded) cracked off and so from then on to use it i had to hold the spring load down so it would turn on. I googled Food Network to see if I could order a replacement part, but apparently Food Network items sold through Kohls come from a mysterious manufacturer who doesn't do replacements or returns. Or at least that I could find without researching enough for a dissertation. Strike 2. Then one day I decided to chop some cauliflower to make cauli-rice and the bowl part got stuck on the locking mechanism and I could NOT GET IT OFF. The food processor and I had a fight that day, and I won (or lost, depending) and it ended up in the trash can, and then I once again ended up with no food processor.Strike 3, you're OUT. IN THE TRASH!

I went without one for several months. I then decided to hop on the paleo bandwagon and in my quest for the perfect paleo salad dressing, I tried to make mayonaisse in my blender. After going deaf from listening to the blender for the time it took to drip in the olive oil, my emulsion broke and I was left with divorced egg and oil. I needed a new processor. So, I went back to Google and did (more) research and decided that the Cuisinart DFP-7BC 7-Cup Food Processor was going to be my best bet.

Exhibit B: Ooooh. Ahhh.

I did end up getting it from Kohls with another coupon and I ended up getting some Kohls cash back so it was a pretty good deal. Let me tell you I LOVE it! It is a simple machine and I know it's not made as sturdy as the older models of this same type, but i think with some gentle handling it will last me just fine. There aren't too many parts, I like the way the top of the bowl comes off to insert the vegetables or whatnot for chopping and it is pretty darn quiet! And the best part? I made homemade mayo on Sunday and it is delicious! I definitley would recommend this processor and if I ever have to buy another I will buy the same model but with a bigger cup bowl!

Mid Week Update

2012-01-04T12:35:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to stop by and write something and give an update on how things were going since going paleo/primal. I'm going to use paleo for sake of terminology I think, but I am eating a slight amount of dairy and I do consume butter. I may eventually switch to ghee and elimnate dairy but baby steps on that one. In reviewing my meal plan for the week, I noticed that almost every single dinner meal is Asian inspired! Shawn said that it is probably because Asian food is easy to make, yet flavorful. Maybe next week we will go Mexican. So far, I've stuck to my meal plan, the only exception being the chicken fajita salad. We had salad with chicken on it, but I would necessairly call it a fajita. Then again, maybe Mexican is out. :) I am struggling with the salad dressing though. I am a ranch girl, and so far haven't found a substitute. I'm meh about vinagrettes. Perhaps I just haven't found the right one yet. I should just make my own caesar. That I do like.

As far as mood/how my body feels, I'm doing surprisingly better than I thought I would be. I haven't had any "real" cravings and I am not suffering from the dreaded carb withdrawl flu like symptoms. I started my class this quarter that is a 15 each way brisk walk for me twice a week, so that will at least get me some exercise until I can get a handle on the meal planning/cooking/sticking to this. I will then try to implement more regular exercise. I feel this is just one of those instances where I have to do one thing at a time.

The only problem I've really encountered was Shawn complaining about the cost. I think that if we added up what we were spending on food/eating out before, he would see we're actually saving money. Hopefully progress will prove him wrong, although he isn't totally on the bandwagon of this whole thing yet. He eats what I cook, but still is having some meals outside the house and some snacks in the house. At least sweets are my downfall and salty are his, because he can still have them in the house and I dont' ever want them.

New Year means Meal Planning!

2011-12-29T10:51:00.002-05:00

I even made myself a fancy binder, got myself a wipeoff board, and armed myself with some new recipes to try. We are going to smash this year out of the park!

I used this template to create a plan so I can cross stuff out we don't like and circle stuff we do and hopefully reuse weeks when I'm lazy and don't meal plan.

Shawn doensn't like most vegetables so where there is a veggie he doesn't like, I'm going to insert Salad, because he doesn't mind repeats.

Here's our first meal-plan of the new year:
Monday:
Breakfast-Multi colored pepper and spinach frittata
Lunch-Fajita Chicken Salad
Dinner-Chinese BBQ Pork and cabbage and "noodles" (zucchini-making this one up we'll see how it goes)

Tuesday:
Breakfast-same as Monday
Lunch-Leftovers
Dinner-Lettuce Wraps

Wednesday:
Breakfast-a new frittata of undetermined origin
Lunch-Salad of some sort
Dinner-Hot plate from Well Fed

Thursday:
Breakfast-frittata again we love our frittatas
Lunch-Leftovers from hot plate..possibly on lettuce as a salad
Dinner-"Spaghetti" with Roasted Marinara

Friday:
Breakfast-Guess!
Lunch-Leftover Spaghetti
Dinner-Chicken Fried Cauliflower "rice"

Saturday:
Breakfast-Eggs and Bacon
Lunch-Leftovers-use up whatever is going bad
Dinner-Pizza Chili (will post recipe soon!)

Sunday:
Breakfast: Eggs and sausage?
Lunch-Leftovers-use up!! Shop-Meal plan
Dinner: TBD!

I plan on cooking up most of this on Sunday and seeing how it goes to influence next week's plan.

2012 Bucket List

2011-12-28T14:18:00.002-05:00

This is the beginning of my 2012 bucket list. I may end up actually splitting this into smaller bits, but it's the end of the year, and I'm ready to start anew! I wanted to put these down as a good starting place.
Food/Fitness

Eat real food (paleo/primal)
Complete a Whole30
Take a cooking class
Take a knife skills class (learn to chop like an iron chef!)
Sign up for a CSA
Sign up for a meat share
Make homemade vanilla
Make stuffing that doesn't suck
Run a 5K
Learn to jump rope
Learn to ride a bike (no i don't know how)
Try Crossfit

Home

Plan and execute a garden
Landscape the front yard and keep it maintained!
Can garden bounty
Paint and decopage toy box
Refinish hutch
Adhere to weekly cleaning schedule

Personal/Family/Creative

Go on vacation
Visit a winery
Make a junk journal
Scrapbook Elie's portraits/artwork
Read at least 25 books (non school related)
Start a college fund for Elie
Revamp blog and actually blog (hey look I'm off to a good start on this one!)
Go on at least one baby free date night a month

Out with the Old!

2011-12-28T14:02:00.000-05:00

Currently, it is the end of 2011 and I am about to embark on a new journey. Oh, and btw that is the last time you will ever hear me use that term. I loathe when people use the expression "journey". Especially on the biggest loser. There has got to be a better expression to use people, really. I have been reading paleo/primal blogs for over a year now and have tried (unsucessfully) to switch over my eating habits to real food. I think this time is different though, because I have armed myself with the proper tools (a knife, cutting board, empty meal plan, recipe collection binder, and some good old mean motivation). I think that having a place to put down all of the thoughts mulling around in my head is going to help me stay on track and so what better place to do it? The old, trusty, faithful, albeit neglected, blog. And, obviously, I have not followed through with my plan to use this space as a creative/marketing outlet for my scrabooking ~~habit~~ business. SO! as they say, onward! Here's to 2012, and if it's the end of the world, I want to go out happy, healthy, and with no regrets!

Close to My Heart in July!

2011-07-18T16:24:00.000-04:00

http://jpetty.myctmh.com

Click on this link and go shopping! Until July 31st, if you spend $50 you will get a favorite paper product for $1!! Can't beat that!

Close to My Heart has just released their new Autumn/Winter Catalog, and boy, you are not going to want to miss it! Comment or email me for details on how you can get a copy!

Fast Forward

2011-01-20T13:20:00.000-05:00

It's been a LONG time since I've blogged, in my world anyways, but by far not the longest stretch that I've ever gone. I am now 25.5 weeks pregnant and things are moving right along swimmingly. The first of my two baby shower's is a month away and I'm starting to get some ideas together about how I want to decorate baby's room. The room is basically empty, just need to move the dog out and paint and then it will be a blank canvas for baby stuff! I am having a good pregnancy so far, but suffice to say I am not one of those people who LOVES being pregnant. I miss alcohol. I miss being able to sleep comfortably. I miss not waking up in the middle of the night to pee. I miss being able to do normal activities without getting tired. I know that I haven't even reached the worst of these feelings, but bah, I'll take being not pregnant any day.

I signed up to be an independent Close To My Heart consultant back in August the week before I found out I was pregnant. Somehow I hope that I can find enough time to creat things and gain some new customers so that I can continue on. I will have a lot more to scrapbook! I think that I'm probably going to start posting pictures of some of my artwork here so that I can get the "word out" so to speak. Catch yinz all soon!

8 weeks

2010-09-20T08:33:00.000-04:00

Today is 8 weeks preggo! That means, in crazy pregnancy calculations, that 2 months are down, only 8 to go! I am still not really suffering from morning sickness and for that I am greatful. I still don't feel GOOD, but it definitely could be WAY worse. This past week I go between feeling immensely thankful, happy, and excited about this, and why in the hell did we do this again? I'm sure those feelings will continue for the rest of the childs life right? :) Wednesday, school starts again. I would be looking forward to it but, honestly, the thought of giving up my naps after work twice a week just makes me want to crawl into a hole and not come out until November. In a few weeks I will be heading to Atlanta for a conference for work. I hope the trip goes smoothly and I'm more looking forward to getting HOME than I am the trip. Sad I know. Our next doctor's appointment is a week from today, and so I'm excited about the next check up to make sure everything is ok. I think we will probably get to see more of a "baby" this time than a tiny little blob.

7 weeks

2010-09-13T20:50:00.000-04:00

Well, I said there was some new stuff and changes coming, I wasn't kidding! I broke my promise to blog on a more regular basis, because what I wanted to blog about, I couldn't say!

Today, I am seven weeks pregnant. When you're trying to conceive, with infertility, you know WAY sooner than normal if it worked or not. So, I've known for the past 3 weeks. I know people try and keep it a secret for the whole first trimester, but when people know you are trying, they tend to ask you more, so I only kept it a secret until I had my first ultrasound at 6 weeks 1 day.

So far, I haven't been sick. I get a little queasy or woozy if I don't eat enough or on time, but no praying to the porcelain god. I do however feel like someone beat me up. I'm so exhausted, I don't think of myself as being pregnant, I feel like...the "host" of some crazy parasite sucking the life energy out of me.

It is hard to not be worried that something bad will happen, because I've waited for so long for this test to be positive and it doesn't quite seem real yet. When the doc called with my test results, I totally expected to hear the your test was negative, I'm sorry response that I always get, but instead she said my beta was 103! congrats! My second beta was 314 two days later so I didn't have too much of a reason to worry. I go for my next appointment on 9/27 at 9 weeks. It's exciting and scary to be planning this huge change in our lives.

Changes!

2010-08-18T20:55:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a few weeks since I've posted, but I've been pretty busy! I've signed up to be a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant! Close to My Heart is a great company that sells awesome scrapbooking and stamping products and I am excited about this new venture. Check out my website at http://jpetty.myctmh.com!

Introducing...Izzy.

2010-08-02T13:25:00.000-04:00

This is one of our two cats, Izzy. He's will be 4 years old at Christmas time. Shawn and I picked him out as Shawn's Christmas present in 2006. That year he spent most of his kittyhood half way up the Christmas tree and would stare out at you from in between branches and ornaments. He's part mainecoon and so he's huge now, but he also eats alot so he's just plain fat. When we first got him, I had a cat, Oreo, and he used to torment her by chasing her around the house. She had irritable bowel syndrome and we had to put her to sleep last year. Izzy now lives on the dining room table, hutch (where his food is), and my dresser because if the dog sees him move from those three spots, she will herd him back to the table. I think this is why he looks grumpy. He sleeps at the foot of my side of the bed every night. He also likes to burrow into my neck and has done this ever since we brought him home as a 6-7 week old kitten. He is a good cat and likes to be near us even though he isn't necessairly a lap cat. I think that he is one of those cats that will live to be 20+ years old.

Hooked.

2010-08-01T19:16:00.002-04:00

Update on my 101 in 1001 Days

2010-07-30T09:49:00.001-04:00

So considering I only have 11 months to get these all done, I thought I'd update you all on my progress of my 101 in 1001 days list. Items in red are completed. Items in blue are just a missed opportunity.

Joann’s 101 Things in 1001 Days
October 1, 2008 to June 29th, 2011 (8 days past my 30th bday)
July 30, 2010

1. Organize and clean out every closet in my house. 3/5
2. ~~Paint the bathroom (next weekend)~~ and kitchen.
3. ~~Finish my wedding~~/honeymoon scrapbooks.
4. Make at least 3 pieces of beaded jewelry.
5. Establish a savings account of at least $3000. 2000/3000
6. Celebrate my 3 year anniversary. 2/3
~~7. Pay off at least one student loan.~~
~~8. Visit Pittsburgh at least once a year. 3/3~~
9. Go to my 10 year high school reunion.
10. Take a midnight walk on the beach with Shawn.
~~11. Be 75% complete towards graduation.~~
12. Keep my front yard with flowers and weeded for an entire summer. (does half count? we didn't plant until July)
13. Pay off my credit card.
14. Lose at least 50 pounds.
15. Participate in a walk for a cause.
~~16. Go see two Dave Matthews’ concerts in different cities on the same tour. (Columbus and Pittsburgh)~~
17. Visit at least 3 states I have not yet been to. (1/3)
~~18. Send out Christmas cards.~~
19. Take at least 25 photos of Shawn and I.
~~20. Get braces.~~ Invisalign November 2009
21. Get Lasix eye surgery.
22. Go to a restaurant and order a merlot.
23. Get a massage. (I have a gift card for one I just haven't gone yet!)
24. Go on vacation with my mom.
25. Visit my aunt and cousin in FL.
26. Party with my cousins in Pittsburgh.
~~27. Get the rest of stuff out of my dad’s house.~~
28. Finish the garage.
29. Finish one badge album on Pogo.
30. Buy an expensive pair of shoes.
~~31. Try one new recipe a month.~~
~~32. Eat an entirely vegetarian meal.~~
~~33. Eat at a gourmet restaurant.~~ I'm counting the Burgandy Room.
~~34. Go see a show in Vegas. Beatles Love!~~
35. Go to NY to see a broadway play.
36. Visit Lake Erie and actually see the lake.
37. Go whale watching.
38. Go to Washington DC and see all the monuments.
39. Take a tour of Europe.
~~40. Have a baby. Definitely working on this one!~~
41. Refinish the hutch
42. Learn how to sew again.
43. Cook dinner for Shawn’s parents.
44. Have a picnic at our house
45. Get a deck and fence.
46. Cook a turkey and all the fixin’s by myself.
~~47. Bake Christmas cookies for everyone.~~
48. Start Christmas shopping in July once.
~~49. Go on a hike at a park.~~
50. Eat dinner with the good china.
51. Get Shawn drunk.
~~52. Let things go more easily.~~ I'm counting therapy!
~~53. Hang up more pictures in my house.~~
54. Stay off the internet for an entire week at home.
55. Read at least 4 non-school books a year, each year. (2/3)
56. Spend less $$ on groceries.
~~57. Buy an antique.~~ Depression glass!
58. Spend more time outside.
59. Go get my makeup done for a special occasion.
~~60. Write a letter to a friend.~~
61. Go an entire month with no pop.
62. Write a poem.
63. Take a class that has nothing to do with my major, just for fun.
64. Volunteer for something.
65. Go on a girls only roadtrip.
66. Be on tv.
67. Watch a black and white movie.
68. Go golfing.
69. Go to a Steeler Game.
~~70. Have Matt over for a visit.~~
71. Post a video on You Tube.
72. Get in shape.
73. Kiss in the rain.
~~74. Throw someone a surprise party.~~
75. Have a Halloween party.
~~76. Go on a picnic.~~
77. Drink ale at an Irish Pub.
~~78. Write an entire notebook for one class in blue ink.~~ Guys, I'm wierd ok, I only use black ink.
79. Visit a factory and take a tour.
~~80. Have dinner in the Short North.~~
81. Go to an Amish restaurant.
82. Go an entire day without speaking.
83. Go three different churches that are different denominations.
84. Establish a cleaning regimen (change sheets @ exactly one week, etc). Almost there on this one!
85. Read a financial blog every day for a week.
86. Buy stock in something.
~~87. Do yoga once.~~
88. Go on a wine tasting. (gonna be cutting these two close with breastfeeding)
89. Go on a beer tasting.
~~90. Drink a flavored coffee.~~
~~91. Pack my lunch for an entire month. No fast food.~~
92. Go to three festivals (ren fest, pumpkin fest, etc).
93. Drink hot apple cidar around a camp fire.
94. Build a snowman in my yard.
95. Take Shawn to Wrigley Field.
~~96. Learn how to use a camera properly.~~ This weekend!
97. Maintain at least a 3.0 average.
~~98. Update my blog regularly.~~
99. Get a facial.
100. Make Shawn breakfast in bed.
101. Watch all the Best Picture winning movies since I was born. (18/21)
1981 - Chariots of Fire
1982 - Gandhi
1983 - Terms of Endearment
1984 - Amadeus
1985 - Out of Africa
~~1986 - Platoon~~
1987 - The Last Emperor
~~1988 - Rain Man~~
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy
~~1990 - Dances With Wolves~~
~~1991 - Silence of the Lambs~~
~~1992 - Unforgiven~~
~~1993 - Schindler's List~~
~~1994 - Forrest Gump~~
~~1995 - Braveheart~~
1996 - The English Patient
~~1997 - Titanic~~
~~1998 - Shakespeare in Love~~
~~1999 - American Beauty~~
~~2000 - Gladiator~~
~~2001 - A Beautiful Mind~~
2002 - Chicago
~~2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King~~
2004 - Million Dollar Baby
2005 - Crash
~~2006 - The Departed~~
~~2007 - No Country For Old Men~~
~~2008 - Slumdog Millionaire~~
~~2009 - The Hurt Locker~~

Now, for the statistics.

I've only completed 28.5 items. I have two items that can never be completed now. That's 28.5/99 which is roughly 29%. I suck. I'm going to have to attack this full force in the next 11 months. I should at least be able to get to 50%, don't you think?

Therapy

2010-07-27T15:06:00.000-04:00

Therapy. File this one under #thingsthatscaretheshitoutofme. Heh, try to tweet that hashtag.

The reason I'm afraid of therapy is at the ripe young age of 18, when I was a freshman in college the first time, I was depressed. I was commuting to school, which meant that already shy me made NO friends what-so-ever. My friends that I did have were all spread out and "away" at college or living in the dorms at my school and I totally did not fit in. I started failing my classes and just being generally miserable all around. I went to my academic advisor and spoke with her about not doing well in any of my classes and she said that I should go to the counseling center and speak with one of the counselors there and that I should withdraw from all of my classes that semester.

I went to the counseling center, met the counselor, she gave me the suicide test (I guess I passed ), poured my heart out to this woman, told her everything that had been bothering me and she looked at me and said, “What do you want from me?” and I said, “I guess I need to to sign a form so I can withdraw” and she said, “You don’t need my signature for that you can do it at the registrar.”

So for the past 10 years, I’ve faced battling with depression a few times, un-medicated and untreated. It’s probably caused me some trouble that I didn’t need, but hey everything is a learning experience right?

However, faced with all of these infertility issues, as well as some other stuff that I haven’t ever dealt with properly, I finally bit the bullet and faced my fears and went to the faculty and staff assistance counselor.

She listened to me and was caring, and asked what I wanted to get out of our session. I wanted to get over my fear of therapy. She said I should see someone just to bounce ideas off of. Translation: yep, you’re crazy, go seek help. So I am. I have my first session tonight and I’m a little nervous. I hope I don’t end up locked up.

Are you there?

2010-07-23T13:22:00.000-04:00

I know that I'm getting back on the blogging horse, but is anyone out there reading any of this? Please leave me a comment even if it just says hi. I will still keep talking to the empty universe if I don't get any, but it will just boost my ego and make me feel better if I get a comment. :)

This week has been extremely rough, culminating on Monday, when I found out my 5th cycle of fertility meds was a failure. Next month the plan is to take Femara, but pretty much go unmonitored, and give all of you who say "it'll happen when you least expect it" a chance to be proven right. I'm sorry I don't have much faith in you, I'd rather see the follicles growing and know that they are going to release eggs. I'm going to give it a shot though.

Food.

2010-07-22T09:57:00.001-04:00

Several months to a year ago I watched the documentaries, King Corn and Food Inc. and since then I've read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food and also Twinkie, Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger. I also read a ton a food blogs every day. Watching/reading those movies and books has made me more conscious of the things I put into my mouth. I currently am trying to completely eliminate high fructose corn syrup from everything I eat, eat less processed foods, eat more local food, and eat grass fed beef and pasture raised chickens/eggs. It's a hard process when so much of that crap is in everything we eat. It requires spending a little bit more time and money to seek out better quality ingredients and make some things from scratch. I don't mind doing this though because I like to cook and I know that taking these steps is going to make me healthier. I feel like doing this can only aid my chances with conception and just overall feeling better. I guess that I just feel like it sucks that no one understands this because everyone is just so used to eating there McDonalds and drinking their Coke and not worring about what toll that is taking on their bodies and the economy. I hate having to justify the things that I put into my mouth when they are actually healthy instead of just crap. Does this mean I will never eat another Quarter pounder with cheese ever again? No. Certainly not. It just means that I'm going to TRY to make better, healthy changes for myself.

Quick Recipe:

Chicken-Cheese-Jalepeno Poppers

6-8 jalepenos halved and seeded
12 strips of bacon cut in half
1 chicken breast cut into 6-8 1 inch chunks (to fit in jalepeno)
Monteray jack cheese (either shredded or cut into long cubes to fit in pepper)
Salt
Pepper
Toothpicks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
3. Assemble peppers by placing cheese inside the pepper half, then a piece of chicken, then wrap the entire pepper with half of a slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick.
4. Bake 350 for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven until bacon and chicken are completely cooked through.
5. Enjoy! (preferably with a refreshing cocktail, they are spicy!)

20 Minute Chili

2010-07-14T20:12:00.000-04:00

Here's my first posted primal recipe! The recipe is for a quick bean-less chili that we actually used to make coney dogs with. It was supper yummy and I am not much of a chili lover! I didn't take pictures because I was in a hurry, but next time, pictures I promise. Here is my version of the recipe from Mark's Daily Apple which is a blog by the author of The Primal Blueprint. You can find it here.

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs of grass fed ground beef
1 small onion diced or chopped (I dice mine small because I don't like to bite into chunks of onion.)
1 can of diced tomatoes (or you could dice up a couple fresh)
1 small can of tomato paste
1 jalapeno (diced finely)
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
salt
pepper
optional: crushed garlic, hot sauce for spicier chili
(I suppose you could even add a dash of cinnamon if you wanted it Cincinnati style.)

Here's what I did: Brown the ground meat add salt and pepper at the end of browning.
While meat is browning, in a large pot combine all of the remaining ingredients on medium low. Add browned ground beef and simmer for 20-25 minutes (or however long you'd like basically) stirring occassionally. Top with cheddar cheese, sour cream, chives, tortilla chips (of course then it wouldn't be primal), or whatever else you like on your chili. Eat and say, "Yum!".

If you wanted to you could make it chipotle chili by substituting in chipotle in adobo instead of the jalapeno. If you are a bean freak then you could add beans and just cook longer I would imagine. As is, it's quick and would be great for a party!

Ran-dumb.

2010-07-13T08:45:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I have the energy today to write an entire post on one topic.

Randoms:

I want my car back. I was in an accident on June 3rd. It's July 13th...still no car. If it was going to take that long to fix, they should've just totaled it. Really.

I went to my faculty/staff assistance appointment and I think I'm going to continue with therapy for a bit until this infertility stuff is over.

Today, I'm beginning my movement towards eating primal. I went to taco bell last night as one last time to fill my body with crap, and it was the worst taco bell I've ever eaten in my entire life. Makes it easy to make the change. Reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan definitely helped sway my decision. I still need to read A Primal Blueprint, but I'm waiting until it becomes available as an e-book. There are plenty of great websites as resources for now. Two of my favorites so far are: Mark's Daily Apple and Primal Matriarch. I probably am going to use this blog for now to post an occasional recipe or story involving this. Just an FYI.

I am exhaused. I hope it's for a good reason.

That is all for now....

Home.

2010-07-09T12:06:00.001-04:00

This post is inspired by Uncle Crappy's post today because my story is ironically opposite his and today I just so happened to be going back to Pittsburgh this evening to visit.

This is Port Vue, Pennsylvania. For short, Pittsburgh. It's also Mr. Squeegy's Window Cleaning service area. Thanks Mr. Squeegy for providing me with an appropriate map image. It's where I lived for the first 21 years of my life and it will always be a part of me. From where I live right now, it's about 3.5 hours to the east.

This is Cincinnati, OH. I moved there when I left Pittsburgh, to a little village on the west side known as Cleves. When I would tell people from back at home where I lived, they all thought I had moved to Cleveland. Really, why would I move to Cleveland? I got my associates degree here, got my first job as a Medical Lab Tech here, and I met my husband here. But he lived in...

Columbus, Ohio. So after 3 years in Cinci, I moved to Columbus. In hindsight, probably not the smartest idea moving in with someone who had only had long distance relationships and had never lived with a girl, but hey look at that, we made it work. This city is where I live, work, play, got hooked on OSU sports (as much as I resisted the process), got married, built my first home, and will hopefully have my first child.

I love living in Columbus, because I'm only an hour and half away from my mom in Cinci, and 3 or so hours from my friends/family in the 'burgh and everything I love is here now. I am 100% Pittsburgh, I bleed black and gold, and I will always love it there...but as they say...you can never go home.

The One That I Tell You Too Much

2010-07-07T16:41:00.000-04:00

I'm going to pretend that I actually have a reader left and assume you've also been reading my occasional tweets and maybe you even know me IRL and have seen my facebook. I think I may have even explained PCOS once or twice here on this very blog. If this is the case, then you know that I'm going through a bit of a battle with the goddess of fertility.

Here's the basic jist of how things go once I figured out I just couldn't get drunk and laid and knocked up one crazy night:

I know I can't get pregnant normal, so as soon as we are married, I/we stop using all protection (for a little under 2 years)
I found a good doc who just so happens to be located 1.5 hours away in Cincinnati. A pain in the ass, but worth it if all this works.
The doctor put me on a treatment for the PCOS, diet, exercise, and Metformin. Metformin is a diabetes drug, and I've actually had to fend off the CareAllies of my insurance company with a stick to prove to them I'm not actually a diabetic. Yet. She (in this case) hoped that I would get a regular cycle back with the Metformin.
When my cycle didn't come back normally, she asked me if I wanted to have kids. I debated it with my husband and we decided to go ahead and do the regular genetic testing that everyone gets done but wait until summer to start trying with fertility meds.
Around Thanksgiving, I decided I didn't want to wait that long, I wanted to get the show on the road. My step-sister finds out she is 20, not married and pregnant.
I try to see a ob/gyn up here but she tells me a week before I'm ready to start Clomid that I can't start it because my testosterone is too high. See definition for PCOS.
In March, I start my first round of low dose 50 mg Clomid. I start peeing on sticks relgiously. I get a cycle day 14 ultrasound. I have one follicle greater than 20mm(going to ovulate). I pee on another stick. It's negative.
In April, I try 100mg of Clomid, hoping to produce two follicles. I produce none. I am crushed.
I make my husband get tested. He is normal. Of course.
In May, I switch to a different drug Femara 7.5mg, a pretty high dose. I have two follicles and decide to do an HCG trigger shot and intrauterine insemination (IUI). It's negative.
I have an HSG test done to make sure my fallopian tubes are open. They are.
In June, I stay with the same dose, just went for my CD14 ultrasound yesterday and I have two follicles. My second IUI is tomorrow. *fingers crossed*

I guess I just grossly underestimated how HARD this was going to be. There is so much to think about, test, explain, and be concerned with. And there are so many people to get annoyed with when they say, it will happen when you least expect it....or it will happen when you stop trying. That could very well be the case, but I don't know about you, I get EXHAUSED just reading all of those bullet points. Trying living the life people. Really.

I'm sure that I'm learning valuable lessons in this situation, but I just feel like I'm falling and no one is going to be there to catch me. This on top of the everyday stressors is about enough to make anyone crack, and do you want to know the best part? I'm not supposed to DRINK. Seriously? How do they expect me to get through all of this unmedicated? Argh. So please forgive me if my blogs or tweets are just way TMI. I need an outlet and Internet, you've never failed me yet.

I wish I knew of a better way to navigate the infertility jungle, but right now, I'm just clinging to a vine and trying to stay positive and not fall off.

The One Millionth Return to Blogging

2010-07-06T19:43:00.000-04:00

Over the past month, I've probably thought of at least 10 blog posts in my head. As you can see they never made it here. I find it funny that I tell myself no one wants to read another blog like this one, because I am boring and who really wants to hear my random ramblings, but then I thought, those are the blogs I like the most. I have a lot of stuff going on right now, wrecked the car, trying to make a baby, dealing with turning 30, same old issues with work and family. I figured I probably should at least have some place that I can put down my thoughts, even if they are mean, honest, and boring. I also have been reading a lot about food, cooking, and primal eating and so I thought I might document my descent into that world as well as recipes and such. Here goes nothing!

What's in a Name?

2010-02-17T10:51:00.000-05:00

My first name is Joann.

According to babynamefacts.com here are some facts:
Gender: girl

Syllables: 2
Characters: 5
Pronunciation: jo-ANN
Origin and Meaning: variation of Joan, gift from God

The name Joann peaked in popularity in the 1930's and 1940's when it was 77th most popular.

Apparently, due to the fact that the majority of people who were of reading age in those decades aren't working in doctors offices, it's too complicated of a name to understand over the telephone.

Conversation with my doc's office just now:
Me: Hello, I'd like to leave a message for the nurse Stephanie, she phoned me on Friday and I have a few questions for her.
Pronunciation/Spelling challenged receptionist: Ok, what is your first name?
Me: jo-ANN J-O-A-N-N
PSCR: What?!
Me: JO-ANN J-O-A-N-N
PSCR: Joann?!
Me: Yes, that is correct.
PSCR: What is your last name?
Me: Petty P-E-T-T-Y
PSCR: P-E-T, what?!

I guess the less letters you have in your name the more complicated it is to figure out. It's not like my name is Jamorquai Josefus Penelope Petunia. I guess I should just flash through time back to the 40's where everybody knows my name.

Randoms

2009-12-30T08:44:00.000-05:00

I have totally failed at updating the blogosphere about the movement of my pearly whites. I know you are all in tears and it may take some time to get over it, but I hope you'll be ok.

I have sent my wedding rings in for their cleaning/inspection and I feel so weird without them, but I still have trouble sometimes getting used to having a different last name. I wonder how long that will last.

I usually don't make New Years resolutions and if I do, I almost never keep them. This year I'm just going to roll with having this quarter off, try to get down in some weight so I can put some more back on (by getting pregnant).

I am pretty sure the clock is moving backwards this week. 2009 doesn't want to leave us.

I got a Wii on Monday and I am loving the Wii Fit exercising.

The dog hasn't had an accident in the house since Saturday. That is the definition of progress.

That is all. Happy 2010 everyone (a day or two early)!

Brace-face

2009-12-02T20:49:00.003-05:00

I'm 28 years old, and finally I was able to afford some braces for myself. As you can see to the left those are my incredibly crooked top front teeth. I ended up getting Invisalign which are actually pretty cool. I have to have quite a few attachments, which I wasn't fully prepared for, but in the end I think it will be worth it. I also get a free Zoom whitening at the end, and again, as you can see, that will be pretty awesome as well.

I've had 7 attachments put on and the first two days were kinda uncomfortable, but since then I've been fine. I get the other 5 on Monday and I'm definitely ready to get the show on the road. So far, they don't hurt, as much as they are annoying. Plastic in your mouth all the time isn't so fun. I will never chew on a straw ever again.

I have to have them on for 13-15 months, so for my 30th birthday, I will have straight teeth!

I'll post a picture of me with the braces in once I get the rest of the attachments.

This is one of the first steps to making a new, better me. :)

Pardon my dust...

2009-12-01T23:50:00.001-05:00

I'm up way too late, so i thought i would try and install a blogger client for Droid. So let the test post ensue! I actually have some ideas for some future posts so maybe I can actually post more than once a year. Let's see if this is going to work!

Answers

2009-11-30T18:56:00.003-05:00

I've never been to therapy. Well, once when I was a freshman at Pitt and depressed, I went to see a counselor. The counselor gave me the suicide test and apparently I wasn't suicidal because after I told her an abbreviated version of my life story and she graded the test, she said, "well what do you want from me?" I didn't know the answer.

Since then, in the past 10 years, I have had probably pretty regular bouts with depression. Despite this, I've never been on medication and still have a somewhat successful existence. The problem is since then and since that fall day at Pitt, I still haven't finished school. I somehow keep sabotaging myself and even as I type this I am skipping yet another class. I ask myself, "Why do I keep doing this?" I don't know the answer.

I'm thinking about actually trying to talk to someone. There are a lot of issues that loom in my future that I know are going to be hard. I know I'm going to have to try hard to get through everything and... I won't know the answer.

The Soul's Last Chapter

2009-06-03T10:04:00.003-04:00

Disclaimer: Philosophical post follows. Don't mind my innocent babblings.

Do you ever wonder where you might have ended up if you'd chosen a different path?

I am a firm believer that fate works much like the way one of those old "choose your own path" novels works. "Turn to page 25 if you want Joey the Discoverer to turn left at the cave." I recently went to my first "real" country concert, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Sugarland, and Kenny Chesney. Then the very next weekend I went to my mom's new hobby of camping at a campground in Dillsboro, IN. This coupled with the fact of all the people from the past who are getting into the whole social networking thing of Facebook, Myspace and Twitter just makes me look up at the sky and wonder..."How in the world did I get to Columbus, OH?" I often feel like a completely same but different person that I used to be. I guess that is the way it's supposed to work though. What if I would have stayed at Pitt, would I still have met my husband? What would I be like if I had been less shy all of those times that I wanted to say something but didn't? I wonder if we ever get to see what would've happened if we'd have made a left instead of a right that one time.

I hope there is. The soul's last chapter.

I read somewhere once that one philosophy of religion that includes reincarnation is that you start out as a baby soul with no experiences and no lessons learned. As you live each life you learn certain lessons and eventually, perhaps when you are an "old soul," you have learned all the lessons there are to learn. You've been the theif and been stolen from, it's then that you're life has less challenges and the closer you are to that last chapter. In my life so far, I haven't had that many challenges to face. I wonder how many lifetimes I might have left according to this idea.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Model for Hire.

2009-03-09T15:39:00.004-04:00

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I am not skinny. Not even average, I am overweight. For the most part, I am ok with this, as I've been overweight for the majority of my life. I'm comfortable with who I am, I'd like to lose weight to be healthier and I'd like to wear more stylish clothing, but all and all, I'm pretty good right here. However, since the wedding I've gained about 15 lbs. This is not a I want to lose weight post, but a rant of other sorts. Due to gaining the 15 lbs, I've begun to shop at Lane Bryant. I call it the fat people store, but anyways, back on track. I don't mind shopping there, because I still wear one of the smaller sizes and most of the clothes are too big for me anyways, and they do have some nice items. BUT. For the love of God, and everything holy I wish they would stop using skinny people as their models.

I received a catalog from them today and every. last. person. is SKINNY. How in the world am I supposed to see what the fat people clothes look like on a person, if that person isn't FAT?!

Look here if you want to see an example. As an overweight person, I seriously resent the fact that they can't even put appropriately sized models in their catalog. I just might stop shopping there. Argh!

Life Changing Events

2009-02-16T17:03:00.003-05:00

Well...I'm not pregnant. Bet I had you fooled! And, since I've recently gotten married it's not that, so what pray tell am I talking about you ask? I've decided to reevaluate my schooling situation. As many (if you can qualify my readers as many) of you know, not only do I work at Ohio State, I am working towards my bachelor's degree there. I have an associates of applied science in Clinical Laboratory Technology, and so I was working towards my bs in bs, uh I mean microbiology. I like to think that I am a strong, smart person, but trying to work and be a wife, and take care of a house, and take these hard ass math and science classes is just well...turning me into a miserable 80 year old shrew. I don't cook, I don't clean (well like I would LIKE to clean), I don't do anything but work, do homework, and bitch about doing work and homework. I think I've just reached my breaking point. I've decided to drop down to one class per quarter instead of two for a few terms, and change my major. I am probably going to either change it to history or business, neither of which have anything to do with my profession. But! I can still take classes, and as long as I end up getting a 4 year degree I will be satisfied with myself. And, amazingly, that's all that matters to me.

A Whole Month?

2009-01-29T10:32:00.002-05:00

Wow, there goes my goal of trying to blog more often right out the window along with my professional reputation. I don't mean to be vague, but it really angers me when someone insults my profession. I am a medical lab tech, and yes there are a whole lot of people smarter than me, who know alot more about a lot of things, but sometimes, I actually know what the hell I'm talking about. I'll just leave my little rant at that, because I'm annoyed and I'm sure that I'll go on and on and it will be boring.

Nothing exciting is happening around here, hence my lack of subjects to blog about, but we did have a cancellation yesterday! OSU hardly ever closes and so it was a real treat to not have work or classes. I spent the day oh so wisely, doing absolutely nothing. For those of you keeping track, midterms are next week and so my free day off was definitely not spent in the manner it should have been. I did catch up on some sleep though, so that was a nice change. The next storm is supposed to hit Monday and Tuesday of next week, oh great just in time for the tests! I'll let you know how that goes...

Oh and this weekend, a little pick up game of football is happening, the SUPERBOWL! I really wanted to come home to Pittsburgh to watch the big game, but again, stupid midterms are putting a cramp in my style, so I'll have to watch from the C-bus, but don't think I won't be cheering with every bit of intensity as the yinzers on their home turf! Go STEELERS!

The Great Debate.

2008-12-29T14:46:00.003-05:00

For those of you who don't know, I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). And 6 months ago, I finally got married. So therein begins the great kid debate. Shawn and I decided before we ever got married that if we have kids fine, if we can't, then that's ok too, and we laid out exactly what measures we were willing to take if things don't happen naturally.

The thing is... I don't know if I want to have kids. At times I do, but at times I really don't. I've always kind of let myself hang in the middle there, so that I wouldn't be too let down if I can't have kids.

The part of me that wants the kids, just wants to get it over with, I want to be a relatively young mom. I want to do the preg thing and be done with it, I don't forsee myself as being one of those women who will enjoy pregnancy and glow with it. I'm also hoping that if I do get pregnant then my body will normalize itself somewhat, and I won't have as many annoying "symptoms" of PCOS.

The part of me that doesn't want the kids says that I want to finish school first. That's going to be another 3 years at least though because of my work/class situation. This part is the part that doesn't want to get her hopes up in case I can't get pregnant. The point of the whole so serious post is that, it's been 6 months. Since we've started trying. So now, I'm going to try and embark on a "lifestyle" change to be healthier so I can get pregnant (maybe) and stay that way and be a healthier me.

If this isn't enough weight to motivate me to lose some of it. I don't know what is.

Random...

2008-12-22T08:31:00.002-05:00

What do you do if you accidentially honk your horn while stopped at a red light on a two lane road with lots of traffic? Pretend to wave to someone? Wave and mouth "I'm sorry?"

4 degrees is too cold. This is not Canada.

Don't Hate the Dork.

2008-12-19T08:54:00.002-05:00

I am officially a huge dork, and have started studying for a class before it has commenced. I don't ever want to be that close to not passing again. So sue me. I guess I'm allowed to be dorky, considering I'm adult and all.

Deep Thoughts...

2008-12-16T20:05:00.003-05:00

The wait is over. I have passed freshman chemistry, again. 10 years later. I don't know if i could be so excited and so utterly disappointed in myself at the same time. I was about to change my major from microbiology into something easier, like business. I think some part of me would have felt like I was taking the easy way out instead of toughing through this and proving the ultimate point to myself.

I often wonder if when I graduate if I will feel any different. Will I finally be at peace with myself for making so many mistakes in the past? I intend on making a post to inform my vast readership of my history with college and why all of this freshman chemistry retakingness is so ludiacris, but that will just have to come at a later date.

Randomness:
1. Definitely very funny that the 1st face transplant happened in Cleveland.
2. Every single time I remember to turn on the Steelers, it's the 4th quarter and it's a nail-biting end.
3. Cats ruin Christmas trees and plants. I am Captain Obvious.
4. Why is it that at work beer sounded so good, but at the bar, tasted icky?
5. It's icy out, but not icy enough for a snow day. There is no Santa.

Poor me.

2008-12-08T13:09:00.003-05:00

If anyone knows what I did, kharma wise, to deserve getting sick for finals. Please respond. At least then I'd have something to blame it on.

I have not had a cold for the ENTIRE 3 years that I have lived in Columbus and I get sick two days before a final I HAVE to pass? Seriously?

Ugh. I'm off somewhere napping, dreaming of hybrid orbitals and trig functions in a nyquil induced coma. Wish me luck.

Finals

2008-12-07T21:02:00.003-05:00

Dear Ohio State,

Due to the fact that I've been in school, one or the other, for the past 10 years, I think that I have enough credits as well as life experience to earn a bachelors degree. I don't know if you realize or not, but they let me crossmatch blood to transfuse. INTO people, in which if it was the wrong type, they would DIE. Please forward my completed transcript to my home address. Thanks.

Joann

Bedazzled.

2008-12-01T10:08:00.004-05:00

On Wednesday, I got out of work a little early and decided that I needed to find a few new outfits to wear for the Thanksgiving holiday. Now it is no secret that I am not skinny. I even think lots of people would call me fat, but usually I can find clothes still in normal stores. However, the last 10 lbs I've put on since the wedding have pushed me over into the Lane Bryant range. I HATE shopping at Lane Bryant. I call it the fat people store, sorry if that is offensive, but I am qualified to say so, if you know what I mean. Fat people, apparently, are supposed to be gifted in the chest region and I am just not, so that makes finding clothes in there a challenge for me.

So there I am, perusing around LB with a friend of mine and we are amazed at the amount of rhinestones that one store can contain. Isn't that against the fire code or something? Don't let the sun shine in or there will surely be a fire. My friend noted that it looked like someone with a bedazzler got drunk and went to town.

I manage to find two shirts that don't have rhinestones on them, and since they were having a bogo sale, I decided to try on some jeans. They do not have regular sized jeans at LB, they have sizes 1-8 in three different fits, straight hips, curvy, and fat ass. Is the whole size 1-8 thing supposed to make me feel any better? I just don't get it. I don't even want to know what size I really was in. Carrot sticks here I come. The other odd thing I was amazed by was all of the UGLY patterns that abounded. I mean really, if it is ugly on a beanpole person, do you really thing ENLARGING it is going to make it better? I don't think so. So two shirts and two pair of jeans later, I got some nice clothing, but I am definitely ready to go back to the regular stores. I will use the bedazzler as motivation while I'm on the elliptical every morning next week.

2008-11-25T07:51:00.004-05:00

For your Thanksgiving this year, I decided you might need a little help with some turkey alternatives. I too, like the most traditional traditionalist, believe you should have turkey on Thanksgiving. However with the rising economic concerns this year, I realize it just might not be practical.

Maybe you could try one of these:

It's a chicken noodle soup turkey! Everyone can afford some Campbells!

Or how about one of these?

A mac and cheese turkey! Get yourself a box of generic Kraft for less than a buck!

You can see all of the turkey's in their glory here. Take that Food Network!

Frrr...eeee...zing.

2008-11-24T13:15:00.003-05:00

It is so cold in my office, that it is too cold to blog. Perhaps a witty post tonight from the warmth of my humble abode. Catch ya later.

Beat Michigan!

2008-11-20T07:34:00.004-05:00

When I first moved here to Columbus in 2005, I had little clue what Buckeye nation was about. I was soon to find out because the first job I got here was at Ohio State. I had every intention of starting classes also, because there is a great tuition benefit. Now, I am a Steeler fan, you know, having been born in Pittsburgh. So like many others, I was ignornant to the fact that people actually paid attention to college football. I mean, of course I cheered for Pitt, but I never really paid any attention to the BCS and such. I thought the NFL was the only football that anyone cared about. I tried hard to resist becoming a "poisonous nut", but I am starting to falter. School is hard enough, trying to hate it just makes it worse.

I am not kidding, when I say that here in Columbus, Buckeye nation comes close to paralleling Steeler Nation. No, they don't have cool terrible towels, or an accented announcer, but let me just tell you that these people are crazy when it comes to Buckeye football.

The culmination of all of this crazyness is the Michigan game. The Ohio State/Michigan rivalry roots deep in the hearts of the Buckeye fans. Imagine Steelers/Browns if you will. Tonight, something that I think is a cross between utterly ridiculous and proud to call myself an "almost" buckeye, the Mirror Lake Jump. Mirror Lake is the lake that resides on campus and every year traditionally all of the freshman, and probably a few others, jump into the lake. FYI it is 32 degrees here today. Tonight's forcast is for 12-15mph winds. That means a windchill. Really, are you crazy? Not to mention that the lake is filled with duck poop. A part of me honors the tradition side of it, but let me tell you that if I catch the plague from one of the freshman mirror lake jumpers, I'm going to be angry.

Harrisburg Pike

2008-11-19T09:47:00.002-05:00

Since moving to the southwest side of Columbus, the shortest way to campus from my house is taking Harrisburg Pike. I commonly refer to it as "The Pike". For those of you (which I'm guessing is ALL of you) who aren't familiar with "The Pike" it is a stretch of road in between white trashville and, what is affectionately known as, the ghetto. The particular section that I drive everyday has a plethora of fast food joints, used car lots, and gas stations. The amusing thing about the Pike is that no matter what time of day you are driving it, someone is ALWAYS walking along. I'm serious. I've been on it at 4 am on the way to the airport, and don't you know, there was someone trudging along.

My favorite part of the Pike is closer to white trashville and it is the house with the giant wooden carved bear that is roaring at attention waiting to eat someone. Really? A no tresspassing sign was too much trouble? You had to go and get yourself a giant wooden bear to scare people off? That is taking the token trailer park pink flamingo to another level. The bear is a clear indication of the kind of road that the Pike is. This morning as I was on my way to work at around 7:20 am, driving along, listening to the radio, when all of a sudden, I do a double take. Walking down the Pike was....a cowboy. I'm not joking, the only thing he was missing was his trusty horse and lasso. Dressed to the cowboy nines, including black hat, boots, cowboy looking coat, and shiny white old cowboy beard. Was he on his way to the ro-deo? Maybe he was going to the final battle and fight the bear. I don't know, but I felt as I could honestly say, you never know what you will see on the Pike.

Until...five mintues later when I witnessed a man in full hunting gear riding a bicycle. He had on his hot orange neon camo. I didn't see a gun anywhere, but he did have on a bicycle helmet. I hope he can catch some deer in the woods on his bike.

you just never know... on the Pike.

An Informative Letter to the Freshman

2008-11-18T07:44:00.004-05:00

Dear Freshman at OSU,

Due to the fact that I (for many reasons) am back taking gen chem and calculus again with you this autumn quarter, like I have with so many freshman before, there are a few things I that I would like to let you know.

1. No matter how smart you were in high school and how sky high your soaring honors/AP GPA was, you are more than likely not going to do as well as you thought you would your freshman year. Please do not let this affect your state of mind. Keep going.

2. Please be mindful of people driving on campus. With your soaring GPA you should be able to figure out that although pedestrians have the right-of-way, cars WILL hit you. Especially people driving cars that are stuck taking Gen Chem and Calculus with you. They have places to get to too.

3. Sweatpants/running pants and those robin hood looking boots DO NOT look good together. Get yourself some Nikes or Adidas.

4. Keep in mind that normal people have to spend 3.75 for their lattes and chai's. The world does not work on swipes.

5. It IS ok to skip classes once in awhile. Let other people get a good seat once in awhile.

6. Night classes exist. Please don't look at people like aliens because they have a class after 5 pm.

That is all for now, I will keep you posted of any other pertinant information that might need to be addressed.

Sincerely,

Joann
A non-traditional student

27. Get the rest of stuff out of my dad's house.

2008-10-17T11:09:00.002-04:00

Sadly, my grandmother passed away on October 13, 2008 so I had to go home this week for the funeral.

The service was nice, and I had a good time spending quality time with my family which rarely happens, so I guess we made the most of the bad circumstances for the visit.

I stayed a little extra on Thursday to clean out the closet in my bedroom at my Dad's house. I ended up coming home with a carload of crap that still needs to be unpacked and put away.

The good news is I can cross number 27 off of my list, but the bad news is, it's going to put me behind a little on number 1 because I'm going to have to stick all of the stuff in a closet until I have time to deal with what I want to do with it.

It was kind of depressing to find a dress that I used to wear in high school and find that there is no way in hell it would ever fit me now. It was SO tiny! I thought I was FAT, so incredibly FAT then! I'm only about 35 lbs heavier now, but geez, it's crazy to think about it. Perhaps it will motivate me for number 72. Get in shape.

I also asked my cousins to come out and finish the garage for me and we will party for a weekend, and they seemed like it was a possibility, so I might be well on my way to crossing off number 28.

8. Visit Pittsburgh at least once a year

2008-10-08T12:33:00.002-04:00

I moved to Ohio in July of 2003, first to Cincinnati and then in November of '05 to Columbus. It really bends my mind to think that I have not lived in Pittsburgh for over 5 years now. Crazy sometimes where life drops you off and doesn't come back to get you. The last visit I made home was around September the 12th, and since that is pretty darn close, I'm counting that as my visit this year.

1 of 3 accomplished.

101. Watch all the Best Picture winning movies since I was born.

2008-10-08T12:20:00.002-04:00

I am cheating on this one, because I have seen some of these movies a million times. I can almost dictate to you some of the words.

So here are the ones that I am crossing off:
1988-Rain Man -"Gotta watch Wapner"
1990-Dances With Wolves
1991-Silence of the Lambs
1993-Schindler's List
1994-Forrest Gump
1995-Braveheart
1997-Titanic
1998-Shakespeare in Love
1999-American Beauty
2000-Gladiator
2003-LOTR-Return of the King
2006-The Departed

51. Get Shawn Drunk

2008-10-08T12:09:00.004-04:00

Recieved confirmation that my Handgrenades have been ordered. This puts me well on my way to accomplishing #51.

For those of you who don't know my dear husband, he doesn't drink. Which, made marrying me all that more interesting and challenging I'm sure. Well...I take that back, he does drink, just not enough to get drunk. He is 6'5 and not a skinny minny so I'm guessing that it will take a lot of alcohol to accomplish this task. I think a coupla handgrenades ought to do the trick. Halloween drunkedness here we come! I just hope he doesn't puke on me. :)

I'll keep you posted.

#1. Organize and clean out every closet in my house.

2008-10-08T12:06:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, I decided it was high time to get something crossed off of my list, because it began on September 23 and well last weekend was October 4 and I hadn't done anything yet.

Shawn was at a golf outing on Saturday, and me being the loser that I am, decided to start cleaning. I managed to clean out and organize one closet. I can't cross this off my list but, I guess that is one down.

Hall
Master Bedroom
Bedroom1
Bedroom2-Complete!
Linen

101 Things in 1001 days.

2008-10-08T12:01:00.002-04:00

Well...

Because Jen was the reason that I started a blog, way back in the day. And I saw that she was doing the 101 things in 1001 days, I decided to do it too. I wasn't going to post it on the blog, but I think I need a way to keep track of it, so here goes.

It just so happens that September 23, 2008 is 1001 days away from my 30th birthday, June 21, 2011. That is when I began.

Here's the list:

1. Organize and clean out every closet in my house.
2. Paint the bathroom and kitchen.
3. Finish my wedding/honeymoon scrapbooks.
4. Make at least 3 pieces of beaded jewelry.
5. Establish a savings account of at least $3000.
6. Celebrate my 3 year anniversary.
7. Pay off at least one student loan.
8. Visit Pittsburgh at least once a year.
9. Go to my 10 year high school reunion.
10. Take a midnight walk on the beach with Shawn.
11. Be 75% complete towards graduation.
12. Keep my front yard with flowers and weeded for an entire summer.
13. Pay off my credit card.
14. Lose at least 50 pounds.
15. Participate in a walk for a cause.
16. Go see two Dave Matthews’ concerts in different cities on the same tour.
17. Visit at least 3 states I have not yet been to.
18. Send out Christmas cards.
19. Take at least 25 photos of Shawn and I.
20. Get braces.
21. Get Lasix eye surgery.
22. Go to a restaurant and order a merlot.
23. Get a massage.
24. Go on vacation with my mom.
25. Visit my aunt and cousin in FL.
26. Party with my cousins in Pittsburgh.
27. Get the rest of stuff out of my dad’s house.
28. Finish the garage.
29. Finish one badge album.
30. Buy an expensive pair of shoes.
31. Try one new recipe a month.
32. Eat an entirely vegetarian meal.
33. Eat at a gormet restaurant.
34. Go see a show in Vegas.
35. Go to NY to see a broadway play.
36. Visit Lake Erie and actually see the lake.
37. Go whale watching.
38. Go to Washington DC and see all the monuments.
39. Take a tour of Europe.
40. Have a baby.
41. Refinish the hutch and the dining room table
42. Learn how to sew again.
43. Cook dinner for Shawn’s parents.
44. Have a picnic at our house
45. Get a deck and fence.
46. Cook a turkey and all the fixin’s by myself.
47. Bake Christmas cookies for everyone.
48. Start Christmas shopping in July once.
49. Go on a hike at a park.
50. Eat dinner with the good china.
51. Get Shawn drunk.
52. Let things go more easily.
53. Hang up more pictures in my house.
54. Stay off the internet for an entire week at home.
55. Read at least 4 non-school books a year, each year.
56. Spend less $$ on groceries.
57. Buy an antique.
58. Spend more time outside.
59. Go get my makeup done for a special occasion.
60. Write a letter to a friend.
61. Go an entire month with no pop.
62. Write a poem.
63. Take a class that has nothing to do with my major, just for fun.
64. Volunteer for something.
65. Go on a girls only roadtrip.
66. Be on tv.
67. Watch a black and white movie.
68. Go golfing.
69. Go to a Steeler Game.
70. Have Matt over for a visit.
71. Post a video on You Tube.
72. Get in shape.
73. Kiss in the rain.
74. Throw someone a surprise party.
75. Have a Halloween party.
76. Go on a picnic.
77. Drink ale at an Irish Pub.
78. Write an entire notebook for one class in blue ink.
79. Visit a factory and take a tour.
80. Have dinner in the Short North.
81. Go to an Amish restaurant.
82. Go an entire day without speaking.
83. Go three different churches that are different denominations.
84. Establish a cleaning regimen (change sheets @ exactly one week, etc).
85. Read a financial blog every day for a week.
86. Buy stock in something.
87. Do yoga once.
88. Go on a wine tasting.
89. Go on a beer tasting.
90. Drink a flavored coffee.
91. Pack my lunch for an entire month. No fast food.
92. Go to three festivals (ren fest, pumpkin fest, etc).
93. Drink hot apple cidar around a camp fire.
94. Build a snowman in my yard.
95. Take Shawn to Wrigley Field.
96. Learn how to use a camera properly.
97. Maintain at least a 3.0 average.
98. Update my blog regularly.
99. Get a facial.
100. Make Shawn breakfast in bed.
101. Watch all the Best Picture winning movies since I was born. (0/18)

Throw away your canteloupes.

2008-04-01T08:42:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, so it's pretty boring so far today. No exciting stories from class last night, no exciting stories from the drive into work. Let's take a look at the morning news, shall we?

The first headline that caught my eye, Members of Russian Cult Trickle Out of Cave. Ok, so if your buried in a cave, waiting for the end of the world, and your cave collapses, isn't that the end of the world? For you, at least? Hmm..

This guy has just got the right idea. I don't get these people at all. How could you watch your child in pain and not try and take action to stop it? If you believe in all the religious junk, the parents are the vehicle God has sent to care for his children on this earth. I don't think his intent was to have just prayer as enough to cure them so they can live out their lives according to his plan. If it was, why would he have created antibiotics and such? Or are antibiotics the devil's evil plan?

Better toss out your Hondouran Canteloupes. There is a joke here somewhere.

Even the news is not very exciting this morning.

half post-it's like half mast

2008-03-28T13:20:00.003-04:00

Today, kids, marks a very important mile stone in the happenings of me, your hostess. What is today, you ask? In exactly 3 months from today, I will be getting married. 3 months. 12 weeks. 90 days. 2160 hours...unless my math is awful. Don't get me wrong, I am excited about getting married, or else I wouldn't be doing it. However, the whole being the center of attention for an entire day thing, planned the whole shin-dig, oh god this is it, moment, is what I'm not looking forward to.
I had planned to write this whole amusing post about the subject, but it frightens me so, that I think I'll just quit thinking about it.

Columbus Craigslist: First Edition

2008-03-24T16:09:00.005-04:00

I am an avid reader of TheBurghBlog and PittGirl, who is the author of said blog, always mines craiglist for some inevitably funny posts. I hate to be a copycat, but the Columbus craigslist has some gems to offer to the three people who read this so I'm going to take a stab at it.

I've decided to take this first addition from the "Rants and Raves" section, because that's what I was reading today.

They are debating the use of marijuana today and the first post I clicked on was "Devil's Lettuce" here are some goodies from that post:

"The government does not want us to have it because it cuts into the lobbyists business."

"Me personally, whether I smoked today is the difference between when someone gives me the douchebag treatment whether I tell em its not my fault your wifes a fat fucking whore or just smile and walk away instead. It makes co-existing with a planet were 90% of people are morons and a country where 60% are killing themselves one twinkie(per fist) at a time."

Can you picture it? We're all dying in all the smoke and destruction with a twinkie in each hand. At least we won't go hungry..

Great post #2.
I am from Pennsylvania, not Ohio, and I will say that until the day I die.

Craigslist: The cure for alcoholism.

Enough of the ranting and raving for today, it's time for class.

Another Spring Break over.

2008-03-21T08:04:00.003-04:00

Good Morning! TGIF, right? Although I am glad it's Friday, I'm shedding a little tear because it is the end of Spring Break. I have immensly enjoyed Spring Break this year. Was I down in South Beach partying it up with all of the trampy ho's? No. Was I away in South America helping poor people build their houses? No. What was I doing you ask? I was...going home after work. The excitement! It was so nice to know that I didn't have to remain on campus for 12+ hours two days a week. Next Monday, I start, "dum math" as apposed to "dum dum math" which was last quarter, and the second half of European history. I officially just have a language and a lit gen ed to finish and then I will be all done with my gen eds. It only took 9 years. :) I would never have imagined that I'd be in college for this long, maybe it's keeping me youthful. I can't NOT go though when it is free.

Yesterday was the 100 day mark until the wedding. Ugh. I have never had so much excitement and dread for one day in my entire life. I got my hair done yesterday, to celebrate the occassion, and I love it. I will have to give up my first born to pay for it but I guess it's worth getting it done every now and then.

The Great Return.

2008-03-11T09:50:00.002-04:00

Let me preface this post by saying that I know that probably 1 or 2 people may read this, or they might not. I recognize this and yet I continue to blog anyways.

Apparently, I feel the need to begin blogging again once a year. For the past few months, I have been thinking about what I could do with this blog. I could continue on with my random, perhaps even sometimes witty posts. I could make this a Columbus blog, in spirit of "The Burgh Blog" that I like reading so much as a displaced burgher. I have some other ideas, but maybe I'll just keep them a secret until I can actually implement them into the content. I don't know. Then there is the possibility that this will be the last post for another year. Who knows?

More later.

Blog Revival

2006-10-10T21:43:00.000-04:00

The honest truth. My life is pretty boring, why share it with the world? I just can't stay away from the blog though. Hopefully I have like one reader left. Driving home from work today I was keeping pace with a Mustang Cobra. We were both going above the speed limit and there were both people tailgaiting us. It is some unwritten law that you DO NOT ride the ass of a Mustang, and you especially DO NOT ride the ass of a Mustang Cobra. The guy flipped me off to boot. How do I get flipped off for speeding?!? I will never understand drivers on 315. They don't make any sense.

I read an article the other day that says that Columbus is the most expensive real estate market in Ohio. There's hope for finding a nice house for under $200,000. Where do these people work that they can afford mortgages of a bazillion dollars a month?!

SCAM!

2006-09-14T21:30:00.000-04:00

As of today, I've taken over a month off from the blog. I have missed it some, but I've been keeping up with all of the regular reads, despite my lack of internet access all day at work. It is nice to be doing something all day long, instead of bouncing from website to website reaching the end of the internet. I've decided to blog tonight because I have something to complain about. Blogging is always a good outfit for complaining. Contrary to conventional thought, that everyone hates to hear complaining, I think it is fun sometimes to read people's feelings on a subject. Even if it is negative. Tonight's cheif complaint is well the whole health insurance/drug company scam. I recieved a call from my pharmacy this evening letting me know that one of my prescriptions (for GERD) can not be filled because it is not a "plan preferred" drug. In other words, if the doc says that I've tried other things and that's the only one that will work, they will cover it for double what the "preferred" drug is. That's IF he says that. Let me just tell you how much it sucks to switch around stomach related medicines. You never know what it will do to you, but chances are a few days of miserableness will ensue. Ugh, just what I need. My sleeping schedule is all mucked up because I have to wake up before any human should be awake unless they are returning from a long night of partying and/or the bar. 4:30 am! Seriously, this is a ridiculous time to wake up. To get 8 hours of sleep in, I would have to go to sleep at 8:30. Grandma's don't even go to sleep that early. Anyways...I'm tired is the point of the story, and I don't need to add on the stomach issues. Blog again soon. I think I promise.

New Ideas

2006-08-06T00:57:00.000-04:00

I think that I need a new direction for my blog. I just can't seem to come up with any good topics these days, and if I do it's mostly negative. I don't want to be a negative nancy. I was even thinking of getting the paths it's own home, but I'm not sure that anyone even reads it. It probably would help if I had interesting things to say, and blogged more often, eh? I will be starting a new job in a week, and I definitely will have less time available for blogging, but I am going to ponder how I can make this into something worth reading. I know I can do it, I'm witty sometimes. ;) If you have any suggestions, you should comment...or heck comment just to let me know that more people that 2 read this. Um and well...stay tuned.

Life, I like a good survey.

2006-07-18T15:28:00.000-04:00

Bold the ones you've done...try it it's fun! I even rhyme.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne.
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Deleted a line of this survey
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror.
96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived.
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon Hiked Partway
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head (thinking about it)
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life

Debating the Issues.

2006-07-17T14:18:00.000-04:00

I think that if you are a somewhat intelligent person, and you follow the news, and you have it in your character to have opinions about topics that concern us humans, then you have an opinion about a particular issue that really hits home for you, one that you're passionate about, at least in the debate setting, be it with friends or family only. For me that is...research, in this particular rant, embryonic stem cell research.

Although I have no excuse to bitch about it, because I cast my republican vote in the last two presidential elections (don't hate people, I obviously was misled and not thinking clearly) our dear dear el presidente, Bush-o is set to vito a stem cell research funding bill. If you remember correctly when he first came into office, he passed a bill that only the 78 stem cell lines currently in use, could be and stay in use. Well...that turned out to be even less, because through trial and error, some ding dong figure out that if you feed the stem cells with mouse proteins, they will turn into MOUSE cells, but anyways, now the debate is risen again and we have the age old question, is it a life or isn't it?

I don't think that the people arguing in this debate are really seeing the true issue here. As the Rock used to say, "IT DOESN'T MATTER"...whether or not it's a life or not. If using that embryo that was going to be destroyed by discarding it ANYWAYS, what is the difference if we use it to CURE diseases. Those cells can be used to fix a lot of stuff. Imagine people being able to live without diabetes and other diseases even worse. I don't even know what all they can fix, but it's a lot of stuff and it's ridiculous to me to have the answer sitting there in front of you and not look at it. I don't think people should "breed" embryonic stem cells, but if they're sitting there gathering petri dish dust, why the fuck not put them to good use? I don't think God would give us the tools to cure and fight disease if he didn't want us to use them. Why should anyone have the right to say what we can and can't do? If using embryonic stem cells for research is wrong, then why is it the politicians business to say whether it's right or not, if it's wrong then the people performing the research will be punished. What if it is wrong, but those researchers save even one life, isn't that the work of god? Saving lives, helping people, caring about fellow man? Guess that's just what I believe.

A little insight...

2006-07-13T09:43:00.000-04:00

into the "fascinating" person that is me...

The following are my top 10 personal characteristics according to this website.

1. Love of learning
You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.
2. Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness
Thinking things through and examining them from all sides are important aspects of who you are. You do not jump to conclusions, and you rely only on solid evidence to make your decisions. You are able to change your mind.
3. Curiosity and interest in the world
You are curious about everything. You are always asking questions, and you find all subjects and topics fascinating. You like exploration and discovery.
4. Humor and playfulness
You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.
5. Modesty and humility
You do not seek the spotlight, preferring to let your accomplishments speak for themselves. You do not regard yourself as special, and others recognize and value your modesty.
6. Fairness, equity, and justice
Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance.
7. Perspective (wisdom)
Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself.
8. Caution, prudence, and discretion
You are a careful person, and your choices are consistently prudent ones. You do not say or do things that you might later regret.
9. Capacity to love and be loved
You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you
10. Honesty, authenticity, and genuineness
You are an honest person, not only by speaking the truth but by living your life in a genuine and authentic way. You are down to earth and without pretense; you are a "real" person.

Twister

2006-07-12T13:02:00.000-04:00

I am afraid of a lot of things, but lately, on the forefront of my mind has been.. TORNADO. I am dealthy afraid of tornados. I never used to have to worry about them, because in Pittsburgh there are so many hills that if one does strike, it's usually not that bad and is limited because of the hilly terrain of the region. There have been a few bad tornados, but for the most part, snow is more of a concern in good ole western PA. In the smack dab middle of Ohio, NOT THE CASE. It is freakin flat here people. I mean, I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles, and well not that many miles, but seriously it's flat. I live nestled close to one of the few hills in the area to make me feel more at home. However, this doesn't lessen the tornado fear. I am afraid of many things associated with tornados, like: what if I am sleeping and don't make it to the basement? What if the cat runs away from me and i can't catch her on the way to the basement? What if I am in my car? What if Shawn is not home and his car is swept away? What if my car is swept away? What if the tornado comes crashing straight through our house? I'm psycho about this stuff, for real yo. I must have been hit by a twister in a past life or something.
Of course, the local weather does not help, broadcasting the radar continuously and calling county and town officials to make sure that nothing has yet happened. A few tornado warnings ago we were at Outback eating, and they had the continuous radar channel on and some guy at the bar went over to it and turned it off. I commented to Shawn that if the tornado struck us and everyone lay dying that i was helping that man LAST.
Hopefully, I can make it through the summer without being blown around like the cow in Twister and if severe weather does strike I'll be tuned in to the local channels just like they want me to be, paranoid as all hell.

Disgusting.

2006-07-05T15:19:00.000-04:00

I feel crappy. I am officially the fattest I have ever been in my life. Fatter than pizza and macaroni and cheese everyday in the dorm fat. Shawn is overweight too and he's started exercising and is going to watch what he eats and I'm sure he'll lose weight. It's not that easy for me and I don't think he understands that. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome and although I'm not going to go into what that is, pretty much means that I have a syndrome where my body chemicals are so whacked out that losing weight for me is like hearing FUCK on the radio. It just is against the rules. I have been doing some online research and a lo-carb diet seems to be what is prescribed to people with PCOS. I need to get to the doctor and make sure that this is the right idea, but I already know how to do it so I think I'm going to start up my own diet in the meantime and then when I can get back to the doc, I will make sure what I am doing is correct. Lo-carb dieting is scary but relatively easy for me. I'm not going to turn this into an dieting blog, but I may update once a week with a diet blog. Kinda like the weekend cat blogging thing. Which is cool I might add. Hope the holiday was good for everyone.

Oh What to Wear or What not to Wear, that is the question...

2006-06-28T13:11:00.000-04:00

Shopping. Something I love to do but yet, a daunting task for me. I watch What Not to Wear and I wonder if I belong on that show. I am now in my *GULP* mid-twenties, but am I dressing like a mid 20something? I have several issues with buying clothes.
Here are a few:
I am not skinny. This limits the number of stores in which I can shop at. Interestingly enough, Cincinnati actually has a lot nicer plus size clothes than either Pittsburgh or Columbus.

Taking #1 into consideration, if I measure myself, and follow a standard sizing chart, my waist, hip, and bust measurements are 3 completely different sizes, that are not right next to each other mind you. How am I supposed to shop for pants when my waist and hips are 3 sizes different? This makes catalog/online shopping absolutely useless for me.

Fat people clothes are not cute. If I shop in the misses section I look like an old lady, and if I’m lucky enough to find a junior plus section, I look to young. The women’s section? Forget that, I swim in that stuff. The skinny stores are too small and the fat people stores are too big. I try to shop at Lane Bryant and everything just looks ridiculous. I do not have a 40DDD bust.

I tend to pick out dressier clothing when shopping. Ordinarily this would not be a problem, except that I don’t GO anywhere to wear dressier clothing. I wear scrubs or jeans/t-shirts to work (I work with poop sometimes people), and every where else I might venture is casual.

I am cheap. Well…no I don’t have much money….oh well but I’m still cheap. I can’t spend 40 on a tank top even if I have 40 to spend on a tank top. This makes shopping at the mall difficult. Am I sacrificing quality for quantity?

I bet I’d be a challenge for the What Not to Wear people. I don’t think I want to go on that show though, it wouldn’t even be them making fun of me, I don’t think 5000 is enough to replace your ENTIRE wardrobe like everything I own. Although I feel like I wear the same 3 outfits all the time, so maybe it would be. I hope I don’t completely lose it and be one of those people who still wears close from the decade that they graduated high school in. Ugh.

2006-06-27T10:48:00.000-04:00

Wow, what another short-long week. It seems to be going fast but the days drag on and seem like they last around 10 years. I've been having stomach issues this week so it's not been very fun. I wish I could get a tummy transplant. A new smaller one that works good and can eat all the pizza rolls it wants without hurting.

I got some bead and wire making supplies for my birthday from Shawn, so I've been keeping busy making lovely jewelry. I am thinking of eventually setting up an online store for it, but right now I'm just practicing. It's fun. I think I am going to become addicted to beads though. I must...have...new...beads...worse than crack I tell you.

Did you hear about those people in Missouri who were celebrating the 100th anniversary of their Elks lodge building and it collapsed on them. Perhaps they should've celebrated 50 and then built a new building. That's scary shit though, some of the OSU buidlings seem like they could come crashing down at any minute. I'll just have to wait till fall to find out if any are going to give way. I decided to take the summer off and dropped my one class I was taking. I am SO not motivated to go to school, I hope this is a passing phase, and that I haven't hit that point where I'm ready to settle with my MLT and not go any further. If I am, I guess that's just the brakes.

I'm boring these days, I know, nothing much exciting is happening around. I think sometimes that's a good thing.

Recap.

2006-06-22T15:17:00.000-04:00

6-21-06: 6something am: Annoying squeak of ironing board. Fall back asleep.

6-21-06: 8 something am: Annoying bill collector call for people who used to posses our phone number or who are giving out one number off of theirs and it happens to be ours. Fall back asleep.

6-21-06: 9:30am: Another annoying bill collector call. See above. These people must owe money to every company in American and some in India. I finally decide to give up trying to sleep until at least 10 on the day of me.

6-21-06: 9:35am: Darkness. I peer through the mini blinds of my condo because I am too lazy to pick out curtains and death must be near because it looks as if the world is going to end. I hope this is not a forecast of my 25th year of life.

6-21-06: sometime in between 10-11 am: Lightening is striking outside my front door so close that it shakes the entire place. The cat awakes from her nap and looks up at me like: Quit that, I'm trying to nap, are you blind?

6-21-06 11:30 am: I decide to eat cheese fries with bacon bits for lunch because the freezer is too full and I can because it's my birthday.

6-21-06: 1:00pm: Days of Our Lives: Steve and Kayla are back and keep roaming around St Luke's church but never bumping into one another. Steve has amnesia and Kayla thinks he's dead. I love soap operas. Someone is always back from the dead with amnesia. It's great entertainment.

6-21-06: 2:00pm: Nap time. I decide to take a nap because it's gloomy and I can cause it's my birthday.

6-21-06: 4:00pm: Shawn gets home early from work. I get my gift and we decide to go to Senor Antonio's for dinner. Margarita and the world's largest chicken quesadilla. Dude at another table at Senor's pronounced it quesa-dillll a. What a tool.

6-21-06: Later in evening: DQ ice cream cake. YAY! The best stuff on earth.

There's the rundown of yesterday. Aren't you glad i didn't blog? I'm saving the partying for 4th of July weekend. I'm going to commemorate a year of sobriety (I have not been drunk since last July, yes I am pathetic) by getting so wasted. Bring on the rumplemintz baby.

Yay, the day before.

2006-06-20T16:28:00.000-04:00

I'm off tomorrow in honor of my birth a quarter century ago, and I plan on watching the food network, soap operas, and of course, blogging. Until tomorrow!

Ack, I'm it!

2006-06-19T19:31:00.000-04:00

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.
A. When the price of a compact disc is higher.
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch?
A. The First magazine from June 5, 2006: DROP 9 lbs this week!!! (if you eat only rice and fruit, yeah right)
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
A. Mash: The episode where hawkeye sends to chicago for Adam's ribs and forgets to order coleslaw.
4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
A. 7:25pm
5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?
A. 7:33 pm
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
A. Shawn's music playing, um offspring at the moment.
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
A. I stepped outside this morning to go to work.
8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
A. My cd's and the cat, she was on top of the book
9. What are you wearing?
A. A tee shirt and blue mesh exercise shorts, but i'm not exercising.
10. Did you dream last night?
A. Yes, but I don't remember them..
11. When did you last laugh?
A. Yesterday.
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A. Two bulletin boards. One has my kitten calendar, my 93 A history test, spare keys to my car, a free condom's bumper sticker, a ribbon from cinci state that Johanna gave us, the OSU calendar, and my pennsylvania license plate. The other one has stamps and coupons on it.
13. Seen anything weird lately?
A. Shawn is on his computer? lol
14. What do you think of this quiz?
A. More interesting than most.
15. What is the last film or video you saw?
A. I watched almost all of Pirates of the Caribbean.
16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
A. First I’d pay off all of my debt and Shawn's. Then I'd buy us a house, a wedding, and a nice honeymoon, and some new cars, give my mom some, and invest the rest.
17. Tell me something about you that I don’t know.
A. PETA would hate me.
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
A. I would help those all over in need.
19. Do you like to dance?
A. Only when I'm alone.
20. Comment to George Bush:
A. I once had a boyfriend that almost broke up with me because I voted for you, then he dumped me so I voted for you again in spite, and look what you did. Share some of that oil money with us, and um...don't speak in public anymore...ever.
21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Corrine Rose after my grandmothers
22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Scott Lawrence, maybe?
23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
A. Yes.
24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gate?
A. What are your 3 questions? My high school history teacher always used to say that you got three questions when you got to heaven. You could ask anything you want, but it could only be 3 questions.
25. 4 people who must also do this quiz on THEIR blog.
A. Um, well Jen already did it, and although I read a lot of blogs daily, I'm sure that no one will get my tag, so if you see this and you think it's cool, you hereby get a TAG! from me.

The Count.

2006-06-19T15:10:00.000-04:00

Today is the day before, dumb-dumb math begins. Yes, that's right, the day before my brain fully develops I will be embarking on a journey into the nether regions of math. Math for a 9th grader. When it comes to math, I am not the smartest book on the shelf, I'm not quite to the level of pamphlet though either. At any rate, I haven't taken a math course in approx. 5 years, well and finished with a passing grade. It was at this point, that I was faced with taking the Ohio State math placement test. No problem!

Perhaps, I should have brushed up on the algebra before clicking submit on the online test form. I placed as an R. R for RETARD. I am in the next to the lowest math course that they offer, and I bought the book for this wonderous class on Saturday. Upon leafing through it's material, I discovered that I will be learning about: the real number line, adding and subtracting fractions, and exponents. The book doesn't even mention variables until the LAST CHAPTER. Lord have mercy on my mathless soul. Oh gee, I hope I can pass THIS class. I might need to call in The Count for some assistance. One last chance, uh uh uh, two last chances, uh uh uh.

Oh, What a Week.

2006-06-16T12:56:00.000-04:00

Mid June in 2006...I hate when there are topics that I can't blog about. I probably could, but with the semi-sensitive nature of my current profession, it bars all speak of the exact issues on my mind. I wish I could share with you all of the ridiculous natures of my current issues. Sheesh, it's going to be interesting folks, very interesting.

Do they make chill pills? Oh wait that's called Xanax, isn't it...I think I need me some of those for the up coming months.

I guess lots of alcohol will have to suffice. I didn't end up drinking a lot of beer on Wednesday. I had one Bud Light pounder, but I did have an M&M glacier from Ritter's custard, and that did almost the same trick. YAY for Ritters!

This weekend is going to be hot hot hot, like go swimming in random people's pools and hope they didn't pee in them, hot. I hope we can survive without an enormous electric bill. Yikes.

2006-06-14T13:46:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I was getting frustrated with blogger, and so I left it be for a week or so to see if it was only me who was bogging down their servers. heh. It must be, because I'm back and they're in action, so here we go. Steelers. Here we go, oh, uh whoops, wait, Ben is in the hospital. I'm glad that he's ok, but for cripes sake, be more careful Ben. Motorcycle drivers in general have to be more careful, because well, motorcycles have less wheels. And um, cars are bigger. It's not very difficult science. We (as in the world, and especially the world close to Pittsburgh) will be hearing about this no matter what, if Ben plays, if he doesn't, if he gets a hangnail infection, etc. On that note I'll turn to a different subject...

This day.

This day SUCKS. Like seriously people, it really freakin sucks. My last week of being 24 and it's gotta be SUCKY. I am going to drink tonight in the hopes that tomorrow will not suck quite as bad. I'm talking beer, and well as much as i can drink in 3 hours of watching Shawn bowl. A LOT OF BEER. They'll probably run out as soon as i get to the window, because that would be just my luck today. Hopefully I'll have more witty things to say tomorrow, after the beer, because after the suck of today, I can barely think at all.

Fun with Sloganizer, again.

2006-06-06T15:47:00.000-04:00

Do you know Economics? (The Final I have tonight)

The Queen of Finals.

Funky Work.

Play Joann, Start Living.

Don't eat this blog!

2006-06-06T15:11:00.000-04:00

Aside note: I have not been neglecting the blog. I have now had 3 blogs on 3 seperate occassions eaten by blogger. As soon as I get some spare change, I am going to look into getting my own domain. Even if no one reads it.

What's more important to you, a career where you are doing what you love, or a career where you are going to make decent money? I know that money isn't everything and you have to love what you do to force yourself to go to work everyday and put in your 8+ hours for the next 30 years, but at what cost? I am suffering from this huge dilemma.

I am a scientist. Specifically, I love learning/knowing about how the body works, about disease processes, and all of that like. I expecially like the subjects of microbiology and immunology. However, even if I plan on getting my doctorate in one of these fields, I will not make very much money. The problem there in lies with me being lazy and somewhat greedy.

I haven't done school the right way. I started and stopped and messed up so much that I now have been in school for 7 years and I've only got an associates degree, and basically less than half of the requirements I need for a b.s. in microbiology. It will take me at least another 3 years to get my degree because of the university's policy for staff who are students. I just can not justify going anywhere past that for the same amount of money that I make right now. I just can't. However, this leaves me lost, what am I supposed to do with my life? Should I obtain a degree in something that I'm less crazy about just to make more money? Or should I suffer through all of this school, all the while being on a strict budget, just to be on a strict budget with a big framed piece of paper on the wall? I just don't know.

2006-06-05T12:57:00.000-04:00

If Blogger.com would get their shit together and let the damn pages load, I'd post a blog.

Go To Hell.

2006-06-05T12:52:00.000-04:00

6/6/06 is tomorrow and some people think it's a sign of the apocalypse. It must be, because the people in Hell are celebrating. Hell, Michagan that is. I think these people are so cool. They are having a big costume party complete with Blood Devil (Bloody Mary's) drinks and a big huge gate into Hell that looks all firey and devilish. They are even selling 1 sq in deeds, so you can own your very own portion of Hell. I wish tomorrow wasn't going to be so Hellish for me, or I'd go to Hell and celebrate 6/6/06 with all the Hellians, watch "The Omen" and listen to some Slayer. How awesome.

It is fitting that Hell is in Michigan. I'd still rather go to Hell than Cleveland though.

Ridiculous.

2006-06-01T10:47:00.000-04:00

Indonesia! Hello. Get with the freakin program. You may not care if the entire world dies of the bird flu but everyone else does!

All but one of the family members who have caught the bird flu in Indonesia have died, and the dude who is still alive? Yeah, he is refusing to take medicine, and his caretaker is refusing to wear a mask. He is contained in a hut with an open door where chickens and cats lurk outside. He doesn't think he got sick from a bird. The village thinks that evil spirits made the family sick.

HELLO! WHO, I know it's hard to deal with local/state governments who aren't organized, but please, help these people to understand.

Good grief.

RIP PVE

2006-05-30T13:41:00.000-04:00

I am officially MySpace addicted. I'm sure not as much as some of the tweens of today, as I don't post glittery graphics and the like, but I still usually visit the site daily. There are two causes for this, one is that I have a generous amount of time in the day to spend online, and two, I don't have any friends.

I'll be the first to admit that having no friends is my fault, but at any rate, looking at the profiles of old friends fills some deep need of sociality. Is that a word? Oh well it fits my purpose. Onward!

So here I am searching around on my space, looking at people I went to high school with, siblings of people I went to high school with and it leads me to draw some conclusions.

1. I am getting older.
2. Some people never change.
3. Everyone else I graduated with is getting older also. Heh.
4. Not everyone stays friends with the people that they were friends w/ in high school. Even in the small town that I am from.

I know that last one may sound silly to you. Where I grew up, almost no one leaves, and friends' kids end up being friends and so on. My parents went to the same high school I did. My mom and dad were both friends with a few of the same people that they went to school with. My mom was friends with her best friend from 1st grade. I just grew up expecting that I'd follow the same path. That I'd meet someone from at least close to the area and our kids would go to my high school. I never imagined myself being anywhere but there. My school district was made up of 4 borough's. There were 3 elementary schools, with the kids from the 4th borough split between the other 3 schools. Growing up, we only knew those kids in our school, they lived close, and so there is where our friendships began. I was friends with about 4 or 5 other girls from my elementary school. The districts' junior and senior high school is combined so when we all started 7th grade, we were all thrown together. Of course, we all intermingled and became friends with each other, but when it came down to it, the 3 main groups of friends still existed. My stupid friends even came up with names for the cliques. I still feel like I can't divulge the names to you, 7 years later. I'm sure you're wondering where this long boring story leads to...well the thing is...the group of friends from one of the boroughs, they still hang out. It's amazing to me, because barely any of my original group would even dare speak to each other if we knew where the others were at. My elementary school got knocked down and the founding relationships of my childhood lie with the rubble in some unknown location.

It's just odd to me the way things turned out. Never as you expect it, I guess. It will be interesting to see what happens at the reunion in a few years.

I find myself LOST! at the bowling alley.

2006-05-25T10:25:00.000-04:00

I used to think bowling was a game people played when bored and wanted to go have fun. Maybe drink a few beers, smoke a few cigarettes, end up having a good night out with friends.

I was wrong.

Sure, when I was younger my dad used to watch bowling on TV, and my mother and I thought it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. It seemed to me that everyone always knocked down all the pins and so what the heck were they competing for, and why the heck would you want to watch it.

Then it happened...I met a guy who bowls. I mean bowling as in a sport, bowling as in a competitive game in which winning, scoring, and ball shape and size matter.

I now know more about bowling than I ever thought I would, and well, now I still think some things are ridiculous, but I've come to a sort of appriciation for the activity. Not everyone always scores a 300, and shooting the ball straight down the middle of the lane is not the talent of bowling. You have to get your ball to "hook" so it goes between pins on the side to knock all of em down, and get a strike. It's quite complicated actually.

Last night, I went to watch Shawn bowl in a league that he was sub-ing (substitute bowler) in. There was one girl there bowling in the league and she was so totally obnoxious. She was not that young, but acting like she was and taking advantage of all of the guys, with the "I'm the only girl here so I'm the center of attention, pay attention to me and want me" kinda attitude. Blech. Then, the reason that Shawn was bowling, was the guy he was bowling for said that he's been having bad stread and wanted to take a few weeks off. He was THERE anyways. Why on earth would you get a sub and then come anyways? It makes absolutely no sense to me what-so-ever. If you want some weeks off, TAKE THEM OFF. Sheesh. This all led to a "discussion" between us, but we ended up resolving under the common ground that LOST! was on, and it takes two heads to figure that shit out sometimes.

Warning: Slightly Sappy.

2006-05-24T13:53:00.000-04:00

My first serious relationship (or first love, whichever you would like to call it) definitely taught me alot about myself, alot about what I wanted in a relationship, and alot about life and just growing up in general. I did some things that I am not so proud of then, and since then, but I try to use those things as a way of learning not to make the mistakes again. I am still friends with that first ex, and recently his current girlfriend of over two years (I think, it's around there) has broken up with him. I feel bad for him because I know what it's like to be dumped (although it's only happened to me once). I spent 2.5 hours yesterday talking to him on the phone, trying to make him understand and move on. I don't know if anything I said worked, but I felt like I at least gave it a good shot. I hate having to be the person that is blunt and tells you what you need to hear, but don't necessairly want to. I feel like I'm being mean and I know that sometimes it's what needs to be done but that doesn't make me like it any better.

It also sucks because I kind of have been where this girl is at, and I'm ashamed to say that I've done some of the things she is doing (and worse) to some of my previous relationships. At least I can recognize that the things that I have done were wrong, and never do them in the future. I wish that I could tell her what I've learned and maybe then she'd see what a great guy he is and think twice about what she is doing. The game doesn't work like that though and so I guess all I can do is be there for my friend and hope that everything will work out for the best for him. I am SO glad that I have Shawn, and that I never have to go through any of that again. It is a huge relief and it makes me love and appriciate what I have even more.

HPV

2006-05-19T09:11:00.000-04:00

This article is good news but it makes me a little angry.

The title: Panel urges U.S. to OK cervical cancer vaccine
Shots against common STD could be recommended for girls as young as 9

Ugh! This vaccine is not a cancer vaccine. This vaccine protects against 2 types of Human Papillomavirus(HPV) that, studies have shown, lead to cervical cancer and also 2 types of HPV that cause genital warts. I guess there are plenty of educated people who know that the definition of vaccine is (at least according to dictionary.com) "preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen, such as a bacterium or virus, or of a portion of the pathogen's structure that upon administration stimulates antibody production or cellular immunity against the pathogen but is incapable of causing severe infection." But I'm guessing, when the common folk read this title, they think, "Gee, this will prevent or even cure cancer."

I think that the article does contain some good facts about HPV, but it doesn't quite explain everything. The Q&A part of the article is very misleading especially if you only click on one of the questions. The introduction question states that HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause warts on your genitals, feet, and hands. HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause warts on your genitals. However, the papillomavirus that causes warts on your hands is not generally sexually transmitted.

The article lists some scary statistics, but I don't think it does a good enough job of explaining that not everyone with HPV has genital warts, and that the disease can be silent and a person may never know they have it. The kind of HPV that causes cervical cancer can just cause subtle changes in the cells of the cervix. I think that any publicity on the disease at all should stress the importance of getting regular pap smears. The scariest thing about HPV is that even if you practice safe sex, you are still at risk, because it has not been proven whether or not condoms are effective against the virus. This statistic is really scary.
"At least 50 percent of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV at some point in their lives. By age 50, at least 80 percent of women will have acquired genital HPV. An estimated 9.2 million sexually active teens and young adults have genital HPV."
9.2 million. Wow.

This morning, on the Today show, Katie Couric said the exact same thing that this "cancer vaccine" was coming out. I had to leave for work so I didn't get to see the segment, but I wonder if Katie did a good job of letting people know what HPV is really about. In my Pathophysiology class, I did my research paper on HPV and cervical cancer, so I happen to know a lot about the subject matter at hand. I think the risk of getting any STD is scary, but this is one people don't necessairly think about, but it should be on the list of "big ones".

Look out Pat! Tsunami!

2006-05-18T16:04:00.000-04:00

Have you heard the latest prediction? This is a doozy people. Pat Robertson, in all his 700 club glory, now gets his information directly from God. God has informed Pat that there will be a great tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean just as big as the one in the South Pacific/Indian Ocean area. The United States will suffer.

Did he fall asleep with his scotch and the Discovery channel again?

Yes, there is a possibility of a tsunami in the Atlantic, but I watched that show, and they said that it was not very likely. I guess that if you're getting your information straight from the man upstairs, it must be true. Attention coastal dwellers: Pack up your shit and move to Christian-town because that is the only true way to be "saved." From the tsunami of course.Upon further investigation of Mr. Robertson, I learned that he resides in Virginia Beach, VA and so therefore he's in the danger zone. I guess God has decided that the tsunami is not Pat's call back home. I guess he should spread his "goodness" here on earth a little longer.

Pittsburgh Vs Columbus

2006-05-17T14:14:00.000-04:00

Football:
In Pittsburgh, you root for the Steelers, you bleed black and gold.
In Columbus, you root for whatever NFL team has a buckeye on it, you bleed scarlett
and gray.
Winner: Pittsburgh. One team is easier to keep track of, and what fun is it to bleed red?
Everyone does that.

Highways:
In Pittsburgh, you sit in traffic on the parkway north/west and the parkway east or you go 35 mph on back roads.
In Columbus, you can take 270 around, 71 up or down, 70 across, or 315 through each at 65mph (or faster).
Winner: Columbus. Who wants to sit in traffic hoping that parts of bridges don't fall through the windshield of your car?

Bars:
In Pittsburgh, you can go to the South Side or to the Strip.
In Columbus, you can go to High St. or... well I don't know of another cool place.
Winner: Pittsburgh. The South Side just rocks.

Language/Accent:
In Pittsburgh, there is a cool accent/dialect with words such as yinz, up 'er, redd up, keller, sammich, filled(field), fahr, etc.
In Columbus, there are places named after weird indianish names such as bucyrus, olentangy, scioto, pataskala, kinnikinnick.
Winner: Pittsburgh. Ok, so I left out Monongahela and Youghiogheny, I'm a native Pittsburgher! Old and Tangy? what? Scioto? I can't get used to these.

Landscape:
In Pittsburgh, there are steep hills.
In Columbus, it is flat.
Winner: Tie. As much as I hate to admit it, it's easier to drive in the flat, but I am still afraid of Tornadoes striking.

You can never go home again, and that is why I probably won't ever live in Pittsburgh again. But, it will always be my home and the place that I compare everywhere else to. No matter what it's shortcomings are, I will always love the city.

1981: Part 1

2006-05-16T15:41:00.000-04:00

In light of my quarter of a century birthday, up until my birthday in one month and 5 days I'm going to begin installments of... 1981.

Not quite as weird as 1984, but it's always fun to hear 25 years ago today, this happened.

Episode 1: Births and Deaths

Actors/Actresses/Famous People of note who were born in the same year as me: 1981

Willa Ford-singer
Beverley Mitchell-the 2nd oldest 7th heaven chic...
Elijah Wood-Frodo Baggins is as old as me?
Justin Timberlake-Rock your body!
Alisa Reyes-i dunno she sounded familiar?
Kelly Rowland-from Destiny's Child
Paris Hilton-damn I should be out partying more
Josh Groban-operaish singer
Julia Stiles-she's so cute, I wish she was my friend
Hayden Christensen-Luke is old enough to be my father? What?
Troy Polamalu-I am so not supposed to be the same age as a STEELER!
Jessica Alba-Guess those are real lips and not collagen injections. She's young!
Jamie-Lynn Sigler-I forget who this is.
Anna Kournikova-See guys, I won't look old till Anna does.
Natalie Portman-Please grow your hair back!
Beyonce Knowles-I just have nothing to say.
Johnathan Taylor Thomas-He was my favorite on Home Improvement
Nicole Richie-Definitely, I really think I should be partying more.
Serena Williams-The only thing I've ever one was a few dollars on the lottery. It's not fair.
Ivanka Trump-Well my dad's name IS Donald.
Britney Spears-Two kids ahead of me.
Amy Lee-Another cd Amy, please.

I can't decide if this makes me feel old or not. It is interesting to know that, had I lived in a different city, I could have been in school with Britney or Justin or Paris Hilton.

People who died in 1981:

Bob Marley
Natalie Wood
Bill Haley (like and the comets)

Wow...a lot of people I've never heard of...The nobel peace prizes in medicine were won by a Roger Wolcott Sperry who did split brain research. Interesting.

Rainclouds.

2006-05-16T08:29:00.000-04:00

It is the beginning of my work day, and already things have been going wrong. I woke up late, almost made the mayonaisse explode into a million pieces while packing my lunch, spilled water down my pants while brushing my teeth, and forgot my keycard to get into my area at work. I shudder to think what else this day might bring. I think the rain clouds over central Ohio have taken a liking to the spot directly above my head. I must spend this entire day studying for economics. I need to get at least a C on the 2nd midterm. I have a high C in there right now, but I don't want to take any chances. If I don't pass a class, I have to pay for it, and I'd really rather not have to worry about that. I just don't have an economic sort of brain. I guess I am better at the science instead of the humanities. Economics did teach me enough about supply and demand to know that the oil CEO's are using the rules to their advantage to say that supply/demand is why the prices are rising, but I think it's just so they can throw their darling little daughter's sweet 16 birthday parties on MTV.

We'll call him Lion.

2006-05-15T14:42:00.000-04:00

Ugh. I was searching for some witty comparison type blog for today about Pittsburgh and Columbus, but alas I've given up. You can't even compare the two. There is so much more information about Pittsburgh than there is Columbus, I can't even find really any points to compare. Population and such, but I can't come up with any witty comments about the population. Cut me a break. I was also searching for some interesting, fairly recently updated Columbus blogs to link over there and to become daily reads for me. I can't find any. If you are a Columbus blogger and you have a blog that you want linked, let me know!
I've been so unmotivated lately. I don't want to study, I don't want to go to work I don't want to cook or clean, all I want to do is sleep and well...sleep. It's not even that I'm unhappy with anything, I'm just so exhausted. It kinda sucks. Hopefully, I can get through the midterm/paper period with out digging myself into a hole for the finals. The Dave Matthews concert is the day after finals though, so maybe I'll just crank up some Lover Lay Down and get out of my studying funk. My goal for today was to read my 1.5 chapters of history for tonights class, study for economics for at least 2 hours, and re-read the portions of text in history that are sources for the upcoming paper. Here is what I actually did: Read about .75 chapters of history, marked the pages for the paper, no economics. I did learn the procedure for doing ELISA's though, so I guess the day at work was not a total wash. I guess there's always tonight and tomorrow. I still have to finish playing Rainy Day Spider Solitaire though. In case I lost you, yes I am a huge dork and like to play dumb games on pogo.com. It passes the time and gives you an excuse to procrastinate, and who does not like a game called rainy day spider solitaire, I mean really! Say it. Go ahead, it's fun.
I went to the Cincinnati zoo, and my mother (who is an aspiring photographer) took the picture of the beautiful white lion. I could stare at him all day. Oh wait, I have been...he's on my desktop.

Old Man Shawn, Happy 27th!

2006-05-12T10:54:00.000-04:00

Today is Shawn's birthday. He's taking the day off, so I had to wake up by myself and get ready for work. When I came upstairs to take a shower, he was awake and said, "I feel old." He's always telling me how I'm saying things that insinuate that I am old and what am I going to do when I turn 40 or even 60. Who's calling the kettle black now? We don't really think we're old, we're just going through that period of life where we're like finally grown up. Everyone is getting married and having babies and we are not, so I think that pings a little switch somewhere in the back of our brains. It's time. Though, it's not time for us...yet.

I was reading some of my posts, and my grammar is bad. Seriously. I might have to have Jen start proofing some of my blogs (don't worry Jen I'll pay ya per word...maybe like a penny). Just kidding, but it might be annoying to some of you, so I'll try and construct sentences rather than just type in speak.

I was reading an article today about a study that was done on heterosexual and homosexual people. They did brain scans of the people while they were sniffing male and female pheromone mixtures, as well as, regular scents. The study found that the lesbian brain's reacted more like a heterosexual male, and the homosexual male's brains reacted more like that of a heterosexual female. I'm not sure how extensive this particular study was, but I think this is very interesting data to prove that some people are born gay. I'd be interested to see the results of a bisexual's brain under the same circumstances. I also think it would be interesting to locate the mechanism that causes people to think they were born in the wrong sex. It's too bad I'm not a psychologist.

I'm leaving work early today so I only have around 2 hours to go! YAY! I'm going to pick up a DQ ice cream cake for the birthday celebration. I have not had ice cream in a whole week. Damn, I thought I'd be able to hold out longer.

2006-05-11T12:51:00.000-04:00

Holy Freakin LOST! Batman! The show is finally starting to get back to making you wonder, wtf? at the end of an episode. I think it is REALLY cool how they are doing "The Lost Experience" game thing. They even put a Hanso Foundation commercial on during the bird flu movie. That was freaky, btw, all you skeptics think it can't happen...it definitely can. Back to Lost though, wow, it's always exciting when they find a new hatch. There are some clues that I found on the Lost experience thing that are leading me to form some new theories, but I don't want to spoil it for you. Suffice to say, I think there definitely is a disease that they haven't quite encountered yet on the island. I think there is one more episode before the season finale. I saw in the preview that Michael was telling Sayid to stay, when everyone else was going to battle with the Others, that is very interesting. Michael is leading them into some kinda trap, they better watch out for him. His face at the end of the show last night was so scary. Awesome acting.

I have to go out shopping tonight to find Shawn a birthday present. Ugh. He is such a hard person to shop for, everything he wants is too expensive for my budget. Hopefully, I can find him something without strangling anyone at the mall. I hate going to the malls here. Everyone looks like a picture out of a fashion magazine, and they're all drinking their latte's, driving their SUV's so I can't see my car in between. I feel like I should be wearing a flannel shirt, carring a shot gun, with 10 kids yellin at all of em at the same time, Ya'll git outta dat store, right now, ya'll hear me? Unrefined, is the proper term I think. I'm thinking of getting my hair cut but I am so not even sure how to get it cut. Everytime I do, it always ends up looking exactly the same as it did before, only shorter. We'll see what happens!

2006-05-10T13:35:00.000-04:00

YAY! Today was the final puzzle of the Da Vinci Code Quest, and I had time to log on at 1pm and finish the final puzzle to try and win the grand prize. The final puzzle was kinda easy/kinda hard. I haven't read the Da Vinci code (as previously stated) so I didn't know the 3rd answer, but I don't want to spoil it for you so that's all I'll say.

I skipped History lecture on Monday night (I've only missed one other class, and that was because of our Texas vacation, so I'm not that guilty), so I'm sitting here taking notes on the chapter I missed. I'm kind of upset because I missed the lecture on the Investiture Controversy and that is one of my favorite topics. One of the classes I took at Pitt, and actually did well in, was a course on Midevil Society and Government and the Investiture Controversy was one of our essay questions that I nailed. I think the whole story of it is pretty funny too. Time for a history lesson, kids.

Basically, an investiture, is the practice of laymen appointing church officials. This happened because, during feudalism, the lords would give part of their fief's to make a church and then so that made them think they had to right to elect the priest of that church. The church didn't like that because they, of course, thought that they should appoint who got to be a priest. The great fight was between King Henry IV of Germany and Pope Gregory the VII. Henry sends this letter to Gregory asking him for help with his unruly german nobles. Gregory thinks hey, this guy is in a weak postion with his nobles rebelling against him so he excommunicated some of Henry's advisors. This pisses Henry off and so he sends a letter back declaring Gregory a "false monk" and says "descend and relinquish the qpostolic throne which thou has usurped...I Henry, king by the grace of God, do say unto thee, together with my bishops: Down, Down, to be damned through all the ages." The word usurped is just so mean and nasty, and of course with the whole Down Down to be damned part, Gregory of course is even more pissed and excommunicates Henry. Well, you can't be king if you aren't a part of the church(breaks feudal vows of loyalty) so of course not Henry is in a bad deal. Henry's enemies demand he be judged by Gregory and so everyone agrees to meet at Augsburg. Henry's a smart one though and so he arrives there pleading for absolution. Being a pope, Gregory has a duty to forgive him and absolve his sins, or else he couldn't be pope, so after making Henry wait in the snow for 4 days, he forgives him. Henry has the upper hand now. Gregory eventually excommunicates him again, but Henry's army is so close that Gregory has to flee and ends up dying bitterly.

I just love this story cause each of them think that they are so powerful and have the upper hand and in the end the big ole mean pope loses.

I am doing ok with the watching of the food intake, actually I didn't eat my soup I brought for lunch today because I wasn't particularly hungry. I only had a sandwhich, a sugar free pudding cup, and a low fat string cheese. I'll probably be ready to chew off my arm by dinner time.

TP=TR-TC. Blah.

2006-05-09T13:22:00.000-04:00

I don't want to be a dieter. I'm not sure I want a "lifestyle change" either. I'd like to eat better and exercise, but darn it if i want ice cream once in awhile I want to have it, or pizza, or whatever else good dessert I love to eat there is. I'm going to go to the doc to see a dietician, my insurance pays for it so I figure why not? I even get reimbursed 50% of Weight Watchers if I decide their meal plans are right for me. I just don't know what else to do. I know that I am getting older and that my body probably isn't operating the same way that it used to, not that that way was any good. Blah.

I was going to post a picture of my delicious lunch, but apparently, it's so new that it's not even on the website of frozen meals yet. Yes, they have such things. I promised myself that I was going to start studying economics today, but I've actually been doing work so I guess it'll have to wait till tomorrow. Hope your tuesday was more exciting than mine...

Crap, I forgot a Title.

2006-05-08T15:46:00.000-04:00

It's Monday. At after 3:45 in the afternoon, which is when I'm typing this, you're probably thinking..."gee, what a shocker." I awoke this morning at 5 am by the blasted birds outside my bedroom window. I wanted to go Dick Cheney on their asses, but, I don't have a gun, and if I did I don't know how to aim and fire. I don't think they are quail either. I tried to fall back asleep for the hour I had left until my alarm started going off. I should have just gotten up because when I did wake back up I felt like crap. This week starts the beginning of, "Watch what you eat Week" and it's not meant to be watch all of the generous amounts of pizza rolls and ice cream go down the hatch kinda thing.

I've gained 10 lbs since the beginning of April without changing my diet. In fact, I'm eating better now, 3 meals a day, hardly any snacking, and with walking around campus for classes I am getting more physical activity. It doesn't make any sense. I feel I may have to pay a visit to el doctoro. I am avoiding this because I have to find one that is good, and finding a good doctor is hard to do.

Is anyone playing along with Google's Da Vinci Code Quest? I haven't read the Da Vinci Code, but I've watched some documentaries disproving it. I still think it would be a fun read, and the quest is pretty fun. It ends in a few days and you can submit your entry form from doing all of the puzzles to win a sweet grand prize. The puzzles are pretty cool, there are geography, symbol soduku, organization, and observation, and chess challenges. They seriously give you so much stuff for winning I can't remember it all. I know it involves some travel though and I want that to be my bag baby. I can't wait to go and see the movie on the 19th. I generally like to go and see movies before I read the books in cases like that, because if you read the book first and then go see the movie, the movie tends to suck.

This weekend I think we are going to the Cincinnati zoo, I lived there for 2 years and never went, now I'm 2 hours away and I'm going back for the zoo. Well, technically, we're going back to visit my mom and step-dad, but you know what I mean.

Stolen.

2006-05-05T12:44:00.000-04:00

I saw this on Twelve Two Two Fondue

Accent: I can do some, once I was doing one at work that wasn't quite from any location and the customer I was waiting on had the exact same accent. Don't practice accents at work.
Booze: Captain and coke.
Chore I Hate: Just one? Dishes, laundry
Dog or Cat: Kitten!
Essential Electronics: my computer and the guide on digital cable
Favorite Cologne: Sweet Crush body spray from Victoria's secret, or Aqua di gio cause that's what Shawn wears
Gold or Silver: Both, together.
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Insomnia: Not usually.
Job Title: Medical Laboratory Technician
Kids: Nope.
Living arrangements: In a condomoronium with a monkey.
Most admirable traits: Sense of humor.
Not going to cop to: the cops?
Overnight hospital stays: Nope.
Phobias: heights, family life
Quote: To know and to not yet do, is to not yet know.
Religion: I'm starting one, want to join?
Siblings: Only child
Time I wake up: 6:30 ew.
Unusual talent or skill: I can always tell that the million dollars is not in the case they pick on Deal or No Deal.
Vegetable I love: I don't know if i love any, but i'll eat green beans, corn, salad
Worst habit: Being lazy.
X-rays: Teeth, sinuses, stomach
Yummy foods I make: I make lots of yummy stuff.
Zodiac sign: Cancer, according to some sources and my personality, however, I was born on the summer solstice so some horoscopes say that I am Gemini. Is this why I can never decide what I want to be when I grow up?

A New Home?

2006-05-05T10:34:00.000-04:00

I've recently started blogging a bit more on my old site, and I am tired of losing posts. I want to see if I enjoy the Blogger site more than the old one. I'll probably be making some changes so be sure to check back often.