An Update

So, I haven't written in a while - what with the test and working on my personal statement and being busy as can possibly be ...

But I wanted to drop you an update. I got my scores on the Miller Analogies Test today. I got a scaled score of 469, which I actually knew immediately after I took the test. However, I had no idea what that score meant.

Until today.

Apparently, I am smart. I can qualify for Mensa. And some other weird ass society called the Triple 9's. I scored in the 99th percentile of everyone taking this test.

I am off now to learn the secret handshake.

Today's Episode, in Which Yours Truly Battles with Pefectionism

I found out on Tuesday that the graduate program to which I am applying had a major error in its application materials. Rather than the application being due on June 1, it is actually due on February 15. This normally would not be a major issue, as it is a month away and I can pull transcripts, recommendations, and essays together in that amount of time, no problem (well, no problem except for the fact that I am battling SAD right now, big time). The major issue is that I took the GREs way back in 1997 or 1998, when the GREs were still taken with paper and pencil in a large room filled with hundreds of panicky college seniors and a few of us oldsters.

Which, of course, means that my scores are no longer reportable. Which is irritating because I did a damn fine job on them. I even impressed myself! But they are expired, because apparently your smarts and your ability to perform graduate level work as indicated by a silly test disappear after five years. So, I have to take a test. And pronto. Like next Tuesday afternoon.

The university to which I am applying gives me the option of taking either the GREs or the Miller Analogies Test. I have opted for the later because it is: (1) shorter in length, (2) a heck of a lot cheaper, (3) I can take it next week and the scores will be there in time, and (4) should play to my major strengths.

See, I have always found analogies to be fairly simple. A is to B as C is to D; dog is to cat as puppy is to (a: kitten, b: platypus, c: chick; d: colt). Answer is A, duh. And since I have the vocabulary of a walking dictionary and used to have a somwhat disgusting amount of trivia stuffed in my frontal lobes, I figured I would totally blow the MAT out of the water, especially as the test claims to use only things that should be common knowledge.

Alrighty then. I have a study book with some practice exams. On Wednesday, I decided to take one to get a feel for how the computer test will work. My first test? 61 out of 100.

Eeeeepppppppp!

So, I take three more.... scoring between 72 and 76.

This is cause for panic, no? Apparently, my brain is now filled only with celebrity trivia and popular culture references. Not common knowledge - like the number of players on a football team, the middle names of US presidents, and the relative sizes of lakes on various continents. Sadly, all the countries of the world, which I dutifully memorized once upon a time, appear to have new names and capitals. I seem to have, however, retained a significant amount of the periodic table, astronomy, and biology I learned more than 15 years ago, and if they ask something about Greek or Norse mythology, I am totally blowing that question out of the water. Although the practice test had some info about the Muses incorrect. And, practice, it is Vesta and not Vestia. Really.

Being one of these insufferable perfectionists, I decided to see just how bad my scores were. And so went to the Google to look it up. And lo and behold, the MAT is apparently graded on a curve. Most posts I saw were from people wanting to get about a 70. One piece of research I saw said that people going into education (the field to which I am applying) score an average of 60 out of 100. The university itself doesn't even list a minimum required score. So, really, I should be ok if I can keep my score above 70, because do I honestly think everyone else taking the test is going to know that Pomona is the goddess of fruit and that an elver is a baby eel and that Neanderthals lived about 75,000 years ago and that Czolgosz assisinated McKinley and that Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and that Yanomami are indigenous to Brazil and that Sean and John are forms of the same name and that a calorie is a measurement of heat and that Robespierre was guillotined rather than hanged? I think not! Although I am pleased to report that I did remember all those things in the test!

So, I should be fine. And even if I don't do as well as I want (I would settle for an 80), I would think that having a master's degree from Harvard would mean something!

So why can't I get over this feeling that unless I do 90+ out of 100 on this test that I am a horrid failure?

A Meme for the New Year

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things or facts about yourself. At the end choose 16 people to tag. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

Yeah, I don't play tag, but onward with the 16 random facts!

1. I've come to really dislike winter but can't imagine living somewhere where there isn't winter. Although that quaint town in the Yucatan looks very inviting.
2. Usually, I wish I were a lady of leisure. However, that would require winning the lottery, which, in turn, requires one to play it.
3. I am almost 35 and I still suffer with acne once in a while.
4. I am fairly certain I haven't lived up to my potential.
5. Yes, I chew my fingernails.
6. Like most Americans, I spend far too much time watching television.
7. When I am sad and/or angry, I clean.
8. Lately, I've really only been reading magazines.
9. I used to think I was born to do something spectacularly important. I don't believe that now.
10. I am what is called an extroverted introvert. I am by nature an introvert but can be wonderfully extroverted when the need arises...
11. Despite what my partner thinks, I am the funny one.
12. I often struggle with envy.
13. I also suffer from procrastination.
14. I can be impatient.
15. I adore gardening but I do possess the black thumb of death.
16. I am a comma nazi.

So True

A Ten Things Meme

My friend Kristin posted this on facebook. It was thought provoking so I decided to take it.

Here are my answers ---

Ten Things I Wish I Could Say to Ten Different People
1) You are a good person but you keep making bad choices.
2) I would rather you were honest instead of diplomatic all the time.
3) For someone who is so smart, you can be very, very stupid.
4) I am really worried about you.
5) You are an emotionally selfish bastard.
6) I have never seen someone so accomplished and with such potential have such low self-esteem.
7) I am glad that I no longer have anything to do with you.
8) Grow up, already.
9) You are not the center of universe.
10) I know that sometimes what we see in other people is nothing but smoke and mirrors, but I am very envious of your life.

Nine Things About Me
1) I am not nearly as smart as everyone thinks.
2) I am so tired of being strong all the time.
3) Sometimes, I don’t want to make all the decisions.
4) I actually am a stereotypical Pisces – dreamy, unfocused, and escapist.
5) I sometimes feel very isolated.
6) I think I was born in the wrong century.
7) I am often filled with self-doubt.
8) I love to cook for others, but would just as soon eat out when I am on my own.
9) I often feel like a fraud.

Eight Ways to Win My Heart
1) Be present, and I mean be present emotionally, mentally, and physically.
2) Be open to trying something new.
3) Do a household chore unexpectedly.
4) Understand that I am a serious person with a tendency toward worrywartism. Accept that these are important tendencies that got me as far in life as I have gotten. They could be moderated but I don’t want them to go away entirely.
5) I don’t take care of myself very well. Help me be better at this.
6) Occasionally, go away.
7) Talk to me and listen too.
8) I often mess things up. Be patient and forgiving.

Seven Things that Cross My Mind
1) Life would have been so much better if I had grown up to be a ninja T-rex princess.
2) Why is life so damn hard?
3) The rat race is a complete waste of time.
4) Why do I still have acne at almost 35?
5) Why so many weird dreams?
6) My house is so messy right now, it is causing me distress, but I have no idea when I will be able to get it back in order.
7) Why do I go to such lengths to help others be successful when I won’t do the same for myself?

Six Things I Do Before I Go To Bed
1) Lock the front door
2) Turn off the window fan
3) Pee
4) Open the bedroom door
5) Put on my nightgown
6) Lie awake for just about forever.

Five People Who Mean A Lot to Me
1) Mia Madre
2) Donna
3) Jenn N
4) Tambone
5) Boxer

Four Things I'm Wearing Right Now
1) Glasses
2) my ivory shirt, that seems to have shrunk in the dryer
3) brown pants
4) shoes that are too big and need a heel pad

Three Songs I Listen to Often
1) Viva la Vida (Coldplay)
2) Haunted (Poe)
3) Stupid Girls (Pink)

Two Things I Want to Do Before I Die
1) Figure out my purpose in life.
2) Be debt free

One Confession
1) I often feel like my life is filled with nothing but failure. I don’t understand why I feel that way. I don’t know how to fix it.

I Could Deal With This....

An accomplished diplomat who can virtually do no wrong, you sometimes know it is best to rely on the council of others while holding the reins.

There are some words which I have known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." These words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie -- as a wisdom, and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged

I Have Been Enjoying This Song Far Too Much Lately

Possible because it is more thoughtful than the normal crap that gets on American radio.....

Still, his Elmer Fudding of Catholic (he sings it Kwatholic) does irritate me a bit....

It's the little things

The last few weeks at work have been insane. I have a deadline coming up for a major proposal early next week. It's a totally cool project but also incredibly complex - involving more than 15 major partners and an almost $700,000 budget with multiple subcontractors and in-kind cost sharing. Trying to explain the whole thing in 25 pages is nigh on impossible and has been made more difficult by the fact that the two leaders of the project are like oil and water in terms of their working styles. On top of all this, I have a major report and a proposal that I just haven't been able to get to, more than 15 students interested in applying for Fulbrights, class is starting, and all manner of insanity.

Needless to say, I am a little stressed out. I am tired but suffering from insomnia. My back hurts. My hip hurts. And all I can see are things that need to be done - mowing the lawn, the garden, sweeping, cleaning the bathroom etc etc....

Anyway, there is a shitstorm of crap that is swirling around my general area and an implosion was imminent. It happened last night.

Now, dear readers will know that I am more of a feline than a canine person. That being said, the boxer is a nice dog. Big and smelly and clumsy, yes, but usually endearing. But it has been hard adjusting to living with a dog. For example, it is practically impossible to go away for a weekend, especially on short notice. Cats watch themselves; dogs need sitters or boarding kennels. If we take him with us, it can be hard to find a dog-friendly hotel. And really, how much fun would a dog have sleeping in the back of a car for hours on end? We couldn't even go into a restaurant in the summer because the dog can't come in and it is a death sentence to leave him in the car.

And did I mention that he is big and smelly and clumsy?

Now, the boxer has taken a major shine to me. When I come home from work he practically does somersaults of joy. If I happen to get home before Boxer and am napping on the couch, the boxer barks at Boxer when he comes home. The boxer also likes to sleep on the floor near my side of the bed. Now, this wasn't a huge deal at first because he slept a lot towards the end of the bed, and, although I get up a gazillion times a night, I knew I could swing my legs over, stand up, and then slowly nudge him out of the way. Nudge, nudge, nudge.

Recently, however, he has started sleeping in ever varying places along my side of the bed, including half under the bed with just his front shoulders and head sticking out. Twice, earlier this week, I stepped on him while getting up. Once, I tripped over him and fell down while coming back to bed. Last night, I was reading on the bed and my leg slipped off the edge and wonked the boxer in the head, whereupon he yelped and nipped at me.

Now, I don't blame him. If I accidently kicked me, I would probably yelp and nip me as well. But everything has just been too much lately and that was the last straw. I put my head down on my reading material and sobbed. Boxer got busy rubbing my back and telling me it will be ok and I just really wanted to die or for everyone to just go the hell away. I went into the bathroom and washed my face and all those feelings disapated, but the initial moment was very difficult.

I am so thankful that Boxer is patient. And we are working hard on figuring how to handle the boxer, because I will no doubt step on him again and it not only makes me feel like a shit, but eventually I could hurt him and then he will hurt me. I am glad that I am centered enough to know that all my reactions to things are overly ramped up right now because I have reached critical exhaustion. But it is hard; and it's the little things that are the hardest. I guess all you can really do is manage each one, one at a time.....

Omnivore's Meme

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (but not intentionally)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Notice how nearly everything that isn't bolded is alcohol or tobacco related?

How I Spent My Lunch Today

A list of my favorite movies - one for each year I have been alive, stolen from Boxer.

Oh, and I ate quinoa salad too... picture to come....

1974 - Animals Are Beautiful People, although it was hard to choose between this funny documentary that includes drunk elephants and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre

1975 - Jaws, another tough choice as 1975 is also the year of Monty Python and the Holy Grail as well as Picnic at Hanging Rock

1976 - Carrie

1977 - The Hobbit, the animated version. Scared the heck out of me as a child. We even had it on record, with it's little comic book included.

1978 - The Deer Hunter

1979 - What a year! Alien, The Jerk, Life of Brian, The Rose, Star Trek - Too hard, but I will have to say Alien.

1980 - Another hard year, but I will say The Shining, the Kubrick version.

1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982 - Another great year - I can't choose between Blade Runner and Tootsie

1983 - A great year for comedy - Trading Places and National Lampoon's Vacation

1984 - The Terminator

1985 - The Goonies!!! Love love love!

1986 - Blue Velvet - took me a long time to understand it, but it is truly great filmmaking

1987 - The Lost Boys

1988 - Scrooged - because of Carol Kane

1989 - The 'Burbs, although I also liked War of The Roses, watching kathleen Turner kick Michael Douglas's ass....

1990 - Jacob's Ladder

1991 - Thelma and Louise

1992 - Death Becomes Her

1993 - Army of Darkness

1994 - Heavenly Creatures

1995 - Tank Girl

1996 - Beavis and Butthead Do America - the rules didn't say it had to be a good movie!

1997 - Likewise, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

1998 - Gods and Monsters

1999 - But I'm a Cheerleader

2000 - O Brother, Where Art Thou?

2001 - Fellowship of the Ring

2002 - About a Boy

2003 - Japanese Story

2004 - The Incredibles

2005 - The Descent

2006 - Thank You for Smoking

2007 - Ratatouille - I have seen almost no movies from2007, but I liked this one....


My god, have I really been alive that long?

Haha!


You are Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard 65% Will Riker 60% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 60% Deanna Troi 50% Chekov 45% Geordi LaForge 45% Spock 40% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 40% Uhura 40% Beverly Crusher 35% Worf 35% Mr. Scott 30% James T. Kirk (Captain) 25% Mr. Sulu 25% Data 12%

Yes, I Am a Crabby Cat

My apologies. I will get over it.

Yeah for vacation! Even if it is just helping my honey move....

Answers to My Meme

Here you are! Everyone did pretty damn fine....


Where did we meet? Well, duh, you all got this one!

Take a stab at my middle name? My middle name is Ann. When I was a precocious youngster, I actually spelled it Anne, after Anne of Green Gables and it is therefore spelled incorrectly on my college diploma. Harvard, wisely, asked me if I wanted my middle name on my diploma, and since I never use it, I said no.

Do I smoke? Nope. I smoked only one time in my life and got grounded so bad, it still hurts.

Color of my eyes? My eyes are officially hazel, that jumble of colors when your eyes aren't any one color. Before my gastric bypass, they were more golden hazel. Since then, they have become much more green.

Do I have any siblings? No human siblings, although mia madre always jokes that I am Ike's (the dog's) sister.

What's one of my favorite things to do? Cooking, camping, gardening......

What's my favorite type of music? This is a really hard one as I am all over the map, but everyone certainly touched on at least one genre of music I listen to on a regular basis.

Am I shy or outgoing? My Div School friends are trying to create a new personality category - the extroverted introvert. These are people, like mystics, who have to be extroverted for specific periods of time and have to be darn good at it, but would prefer to live lives of quiet contemplation. While I am not a mystic, I do believe that I am an extroverted introvert.

Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules? Mom actually hit this one on the head. I secretly desire to be a rebel but I have a rule-abiding streak about a mile wide in me. I have no idea why this is. It is why I feel guilty about things like taking time off from work. Sadly, following the rules rarely allows one to really get ahead in life, which is also why I still am a poor wretch.

Any special talents? I really don't feel that I have any special talents, although I know a lot of people would disagree. The closest thing I feel I have that is a special talent is the ability to remain completely calm and take control during other people's emergencies. Not my own emergencies, but other people's.

How many children do I have? No human children, and, currently, only one fur-child.

If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would bring? The answer to this one depends on if there is any hope of getting off said island. But should we be stuck, yeah, probably something cooking related....

What Do You Know about Me?

Here is a fun meme I stole from Little Merry Sunshine...

In this survey, you tell me what you know about me! You can put your answers in the Comments section.

Where did we meet?
Take a stab at my middle name?
Do I smoke?
Color of my eyes?
Do I have any siblings?
What's one of my favorite things to do?
What's my favorite type of music?
Am I shy or outgoing?
Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules?
Any special talents?
How many children do I have?
If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would bring?

I've Been Tagged

Here's the rules:
A) The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
B) Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
C) At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) Ten years ago I was: hmmm, let's see. That would be 1998. I was working as a reporter for a small community newspaper and contemplating what to do next. I was applying to graduate schools as a just in case.

2) Five things on today's to do list: 1) deep clean at least one room in my house. 2) make something for dinner that is large enough to provide leftovers for lunch. 3) call Leo's old vet and get the records for his last exams so we can go to a new vet. 4) call The Women's Union and tell them to stop sending me donation appeals. 5) Finish a mini-proposal for internal funding for an outside collaboration.


3) Things I do if I were a billionaire: Ah, I used to play this game with a friend, and even at my most wasteful, I would never spend more than 500 million. Most of my dreams involve paying off bills and buy my mom a nice place to live that has no stairs. I would buy myself and my sweety a home in the country. Would travel some. Would give to charity. All the standards. I am not terribly exciting in this regard.

4) Three bad habits: 1. Perfectionism. 2. Too impatient. 3. Driving too fast.

5) Five places I've lived: Wheeler, WI; Lake Forest, IL; Somerville, MA, Attleboro, MA; and Waukegan, IL.

6) Five jobs I've had in my life: high school summer janitor; safety eyeglass salesperson; filling clerk for fungus samples; journalist; grantwriter.

If you read this, consider yourself tagged.

Because for some reason, I keep thinking today is October 23rd

What Should I Do?

How do you know when it is time to euthanize an animal, a cat friend you have raised since he was a wee thing?

Leo is really struggling again. Nothing I feed him seems to help. He acts like he is starving to death. This last week he has been struck with explosive diarrhea. I come home to 4-5 accidents a day. I need to get a SpotBot to clean the carpet. I woke this morning at 4 am to the sound of shit being sprayed not a foot from my head. I have lost 3 pairs of shoes.

I can't find a vet to do a house call. He is vet phobic from all the visits we have had in the last four years. None of the food seems to help. Antibiotics help for a short while. But I am told that chronic diarrhea in some cats is nearly impossible to diagnose and treat. I just sent an email to the vet closest to my houses in hopes she might have some suggestions, but I don't have much hope. Just a whisper.

I am crying as I type this because I can't even believe that I am thinking about putting him to sleep. I ask myself if it is really because he is in pain and in decline or am I just feeling selfish and inconvenienced. I just don't know what to do.


Leo is almost 13. He has been fragile all his life. He probably should never have lived at all. His mother stopped feeding him when he was very young. Do I just say, he has had a good life, better than anything he could have had if we hadn't come together, but now it is time for him to pass? Am I being a selfish, horrid person? And if I have him euthanized because it is the right thing to do, how do I get through this?

National Poetry Month

Brave Sir Robin has done several posts in honor of National Poetry Month. Go over to his place and check it out. Today's challenge is to leave a comment in haiku!

Dear readers may not realize that yours truly was actually quite a good poet at one point in her youth. And this is not even my own thinking. Yours truly was published and everything. But I stopped writing after college, because I found it emotional destructive. And I undertook an expository writing career, and really, it is too damn hard to write all day and then write when I get home. Nowadays, when I think I should get started on writing again, I lean more towards short stories and novels. And, someday, someday, I might actually do one!

In honor of National Poetry Month and my own history, please enjoy this poem. It plays off of my interests in using mythology for women's empowerment, reclaiming, if you well, and feminist mythmaking. In college, I wrote a lot of poems focusing on mythology and even self-published a little chap book called Divinity (2 whole copies!). I also did a series on depression in spring time, some of which are quite good. If I find them, I will try to share them. This particular poem here, I originally wrote in English and then translated it into Latin. I think the Latin version is better. It is more lyrical and there are some Latin words that have their own special power, words we don't have in English. For example, "flores meis in crinis sicut in noctis umbris taedae flamantur." The literal translation in English is "The flowers in my hair like torches flamed in the dark shadows ." Very Yoda-esque. But, for those who know any Latin, a taeda (taedae, pl) is the torch used during the wedding processional.


Persephone

There had never been shadow
until the ground split
and a man and his chariot
rushed onto the field like something
spilling from the bowels of the earth.
Flesh burned from my bones
as he took me into
the underworld and the flowers
in my hair flamed like torches
in the gloom. I thought
everything lost, no more
dances or maidenhood. I thought
I would die in the arms of the king.
But a hunger ached my belly;
each pomegranate seed
I ate filled me, and I
knew this was
the first moment I had
lived. My life opened
to the dark like a moonflower.
I became a queen.


Proserpina

Numquam fuerat umbra
dum terra se scidit
et vir currusque
sicut aliquid ex terrae
visceris efundens
ad campum cucurrerunt.
Ossis ex meis caro crematur
dum me ad inferiora duxit
et flores meis in crinis
sicut in noctis umbris
taedae flamantur.
Omnia periri putavi,
non diu chorae virginitasque.
Moriri me regis
in bracchiis putavi.
Sed meo in alvo
erant dolor et fames.
Cum quoque semine puniceo
quem edi eram plena.
Me primum vivi
hoc in momento scivi.
Ad tenebras nigras
aperta est vita mea
sicut lunae flos.
Regina fio.

Today's Episode, in Which Heather Reflects on the State of the World


It has been an interesting week.

I am still picking up glass from my broken window, but the high spot of that situation is that at least the snow is melting enough so that I can actually find the pieces.

I ordered seeds and the first batch was shipped this morning. I ordered seeds from six different companies, and apparently one order didn't make it through or something, so now I am deciding if I want to reorder or say screw it to eggplants, carrots, snow peas, and a few other herb/floral type items. I might say screw it and just see what the greenhouse has in May. Now comes the fun part - ripping off nearly half the sod on my lawn in order to till and then plant. If only the snow would go away so that I could take a good stab at it while the ground is still very wet and easier to break up with a shovel.

Gas when I went home last night was $3.13 a gallon. This morning? $3.45.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhaha hahahahahahahahaha hahahahah ha and ha.

Yeah right. If it wouldn't ruin my credit, I would be tempted to call the bank and say, "Please take the eggplant back. Thank you." A monthly Metra pass and a membership in ZipCar, however inconvinient, would be a heck of a lot cheaper than car payment, gas, and insurance.

Speaking of credit, my insurance situation came to a head yesterday as the hospital started to play nasty. Just to refresh your memory, in December I had to have an MRI and an echo because my doc thought I might have had a stroke. She faxed a bunch of papers off and I schedule the appointment for the test at the hospital. A couple of weeks after my test, the insurance company paid for the echo but not the MRI, despite the fact that both tests were ordered on the same day. They say they required prior notification which they had not received.

Well, yesterday, the hospital decided to try and collect the whole amount from me. Threatened to go to collections with it. So I went and threw myself on the mercy of Human Resources and she called the insurance company. Turns out, it is the hospital's fault. Even if the doc didn;t send notification, the hospital should have. As a result, I have no liability. I pay nothing. Still the insurance company was going to do an "intervention" with the hospital to get them to leave me alone and also told me I should just check in with a neurologist without going through my family doctor, considering that I am still having symptoms.

Anyway, I am exhausted and crabby and ready for another vacation! Ha and ha

Today's Episode, in which Heather Gets a Man for Her Birthday

So my birthday was last Thursday, March 13. I spent the day cleaning and lazing around, preparing for something that could have been either wonderful or horrid. Luckily for all involved, it turned out better than wonderful

Back in summer, as the result of a series of fortunate accidents, I began talking with another blogger (Boxer Rebellion) via email (read the whole story here).

Our first email exchange was rather amusing:

Him: Oh and by the way, the picture of you from your family reunion with your face in the watermelon, so very cool. I was going to post a comment when I first saw it, but since I didn't want to come off as some skeezy boy who was trying to hit on you, which I am and would have been, and your mother reads your blog, I just held my tongue till now.

Me: I wish I could say I was the woman in the watermelon. That is actually a cousin, a few times removed (I really need a road map at our family reunions). Our hair is about the same color, but that is about it. I wish it were me. She is wonderfully beautiful. And, honestly, my mom would be totally thrilled to have a boy, skeezy or not, hit on me, especially in public. She's become utterly convinced that I am going to die a stereotypical cat lady......

So we have been emailing and IMing everynight since then and just really clicked. But one never knows what will happen in person. So last Thursday, Boxer flew up here and we had the big meeting. Could we stand each other? Did we smell right? Was there any chemistry? Could we get along?

And the answers are: absolutely, oh yeah, oh baby, and you bet!

So, in June, we are going to take the next step and move in together, here in the Waukegan abode. And I for one will be so happy that we can hold hands and really talk and not type at each other!


And for everyone who has been through relationship hell (like I have been and like, I know, some of my readers have been), don't give up hope because someone wonderful might fall into your blog or your email when you least expect it.



PS. Moving is damn expensive, so if you are so inclined to give a small donation to help with moving expenses, please drop me a line! We would be thankful, and you will receive one of my infamous cookie recipes (yet to be published) in gratitude!