Things We Think But Often Do Not Say

I actually started this post back in 2008.  I guess I just had to let the idea marinate for a few years.

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I read an article yesterday about a US Army Major (Andrew Olmstead) who was an avid blogger and was, unfortunately, killed in Iraq earlier this month. He had written a post to be published in the event of his death. His last post manages to be erudite, funny and touching. I wish I had been reading his stuff sooner (and under better circumstances) and it makes me think that we could have been friends if we'd happened to live/work/be in the same place. Anyone that quotes Team America--World Police, The Princess Bride, and Plato is someone I can hang with. Here's the link if you're interested in reading it.

My interest here is not to get into a political or polemic discussion about the war in Iraq. Everyone has his or her opinion, to which he or she is more than entitled. But it seems to me that the majority of the time, despite discussion, people's minds or opinions aren't changed and everyone just ends up being irritated.

What struck me most about the idea of a "Last Post" is that the things that are most likely to be included are things that really should be said while you are still alive. I have no doubt Major Olmstead expressed his sentiments to his wife and family prior to his death and that he only used his blog as a public forum for them, but it inspired me to be more mindful of telling the people around me how greatful I am to have them in my life. And since I have a (potential) world audience, I'd like to do some expressing of my own.

I have said before that TLS is one of the best things to happen to me and I mean that with all of my heart.  He is smart, funny, kind, and generous to a fault. He'll happily give you the shirt off his back, help you build a fence, and give you a killer gift for a special occasion. He's a friend to animals, has an amazingly quick wit, keeps our household in good running order, and does the difficult but necessary deeds that seem to be beyond my ability to bear. He makes me laugh--daily. And he ain't hard on the eyes, either. We've laughed and cried our way through almost 20 years together and I cannot wait to see what the next 20+ has to offer.

Random Roundup

I have a feeling that this post is going to be extremely disjointed. Nay, I know that this post is going to be at least somewhat disjointed. Why, you ask. Well, mostly because that is how my mind works these days...disjointedly. I think I've mentioned before about how all the fertility drugs I was taking several years ago would make me loopy, which gave rise to TLS's nicknames for me, such as Lupronia, Follistimia, and Repronexia. Apparently, as it turns out, every single hormone makes me loopy. And as I am now well into perimenopause, I am chock full of random hormones. (Really, Intertia Girl, you ask. You're not even forty, as the giant, green countdown clock likes to tell me.) Yes, perimenopause. I have the hot flashes, night sweats, moodiness, and brains-leaking-out-the-ears syndrome. Case in point: the other day I went into the garage to get in the car to go to work. I opened the backseat to put my computer bag in, shut it, and then promptly walked around the back of the car to the passenger side and OPENED THE DOOR like I was going to be chauffered around like a lady of leisure. What the...?

What was I just talking about? I'm pretty sure that I had a point when I started this whole thing, but heck if I know what it was. The whole disjointed thing sent me off into the hormone tangent and now I'm just lost.

See? Disjointed.

Oh! I got the next section of my giant semester-long project back graded and... DRUMROLL, PLEASE... got a 99. Woooo! I got my grade the other night when I had been suffering from what TLS's family likes to call stuffitis. (You know, when you're too full and you feel ill.) I opened the email with the grade and then ran immediately through the house, sliding into the kitchen where TLS was sitting at the table reading the latest Astronomy magazine. He looked up at me with this weird expression.

Me: I got a freakin' 99!!!!!!!
TLS: Oh, I'm glad. I thought for a minute that you were coming in to throw up.
(Pause)
Me: Yeah, right. Forget running into the bathroom, I'm all about vomiting in the kitchen in front of you.

That's my husband, always keeping it real.

Things I Am Thankful For (Or, Alternately, Things For Which I Am Thankful...If You Are Picky About Your Grammar)

A partial list:

1. My loving husband, TLS, who (in the words of the movie Juno, which I have watched far too much of lately) is the cheese to my macaroni.
2. My friends and family. 'nuff said.
3. The good ol' US of A
4. My job (not always my favorite place to be, but it sure helps keep the heat on, the cars in gas, and food on the table)
5. My overall good health
6. Blue skies, crisp weather and the smell of wood smoke

Head cold is progressing nicely into a lovely productive cough, right on schedule. I figure that I should feel really great just about the time that my Thanksgiving holiday is over. Ah well, things could be worse and I guess there is some irony in bemoaning something so inconsequential in a thanksgiving post.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

You Can Call Me BOA

TLS and I were eating sushi at our favorite neighborhood sushi place this weekend. (And by neighborhood, I don't mean that it is in our neighborhood. We're lucky to have a gas station and a feed store in our neighborhood, so I'm figuring that the first sushi restaurant will open near us in, oh, about 2020. I simply mean to convey that it is a family-owned, non-conglomerate business. But I digress. As usual.) The sushi chef had a college football game on the TV and it happened to be between the school where TLS and I met and a local university. TLS graduated there in 1992 when I was attending my first (abortive) stint in graduate school--a story to be told for another day. Here's how the general conversation went:

Me: We should really go back for a football game this season.
TLS: Yeah, a couple of alumni like us, they must be dying to have us back.
Me: We'll, you're the alumnus. I just attended.
(pause)
TLS: They want you too; you're Bride of Alumnus

I think I might have found my new nickname.

What To Title a Post When You Can't Seem To Think of Anything Witty (or Even Pseudo-Witty)

Brain...is...in...overload...right...now.

I just finished writing a discussion posting about U.S. Health Care and Medical Information for my SLIS 5365 class and I think I've managed to use up all the words in my brain. While my three paragraphs were, I'm sure, scintillating, I seem to have overloaded the ol' neural circuits. However, being the dedicated blogger I am, I thought I'd at least give you all something to read. (Really, no thanks are necessary. Just send money. Oh! I jest!)

A vacation story for your general amusement:

We drove from our cabin in Idaho to visit Yellowstone National Park the Thursday of our vacation. (Climbing on my soapbox to add: I think everyone should see Yellowstone before they die. It is a seriously beautiful place that is unique in all the world. End of soapbox rant. You may continue with your enjoyable reading.) We came in through the west entrance which meant that we passed through West Yellowstone, Montana. After our hour and a half drive, we needed to use the facilities there and maybe buy a sweet snack or two to get us through until we could eat our picnic lunch. (Did anyone else just think "pic-a-nic basket" in Yoggi Bear's voice? No? Must be just me, then.) Anyway, TLS purchased a Sunkist orange soda and drank about half of it before we entered the park. He replaced the cap to the soda bottle and we proceeded to start enjoying our Yellowstone adventure. (Question for another post: Why do generally intelligent people lose their minds when they see wildlife?)

We ended up at the Old Faithful area around lunch so we retired to the car to open our pic-a-nic basket (Gotcha this time, didn't I?!). TLS started to open his soda bottle and--in the spirit of the park--the orange liquid formed its own violent geyser and spewed all over TLS's lap, the steering wheel and the car seat. ("Oh, Avis? Sorry about the sticky stain. I hope you have a steam cleaner handy.") TLS's shorts took the brunt of the eruption so until it dried it looked as if he had suffered an orange soda bathroom mishap. Come to think of it, even after it dried, it looked as if he had suffered an orange soda bathroom mishap, but he was a good sport and we managed to have a great day anyway.

We never did figure out why it acted that way. I've never seen that happen before and I hope never to see it again.

Ohhhh, You Thought I Meant LAST Friday.

Yes, yes, I know. I have been very neglectful of the blog of late. I suppose I could give you the full dog-ate-my-homework story, but it's probably best just to say that I have been busy with work (including a full-on, three hanky meltdown one day last week), garden maintenance (I didn't tell you all about our summer gardening? Shame on me.), and sundry things around the house.

Completely random thought:
Does anyone else obsess over new music? You know--listening to it over, and over, and over, and over? ... No one? Really? Well, alrighty then. I just downloaded the song Save Your Best by Steve Reynolds on iTunes and I just played it four times in a row. (Obsess much, Inertia Girl? You betcha!)

So where was I? Oh, my tease from last week. I'd love to give you stories for each of the bullet points, but it is currently 10:00 p.m. CDT and tomorrow is a work day and I'm plumb tuckered from a long day, which (probably only interestingly to me) included an eye doctor's visit where I got to see pictures of my retinas. Love, love, love all things medical so this was right up my alley. Everything looked great (I appreciate your concern)--my maculas were maculating in beautiful pink maculation with veins and arteries in all the right places. Perfecto!

I think all I'm up for this evening is my promised TLS story, so here goes:

I'm not sure if I ever old you that TLS plays four indoor soccer games a week--two games on Tuesday nights and two on Friday nights. Crazy you say? Well, probably a little bit, but as his doctor likes to point out TLS is the only forty-plus year old patient of his that doesn't need to lose any weight or reduce his cholesterol count. And, as a plus for me, it keeps him fit, trim and handsome. (Rawr!) When I left town on the 20th, TLS had both of his scheduled Friday night games. The first game went just fine but during the second one, someone ran into him when he was running full speed. He lost his balance and fell over, catching himself by putting out his right hand. A loud pop ensued and the hand began to swell. He iced it over the weekend and nursed it along. When I got home I started calling it his Incredible Hulk Hand, since it was about twice its normal size and faintly green from the bruising. It was tres, tres sexy, I can tell you right now. He ended up calling his aforementioned doctor and getting in to see him Monday morning. Dr. G. didn't see any fractures on x-ray, but got him in to see a hand specialist on Tuesday morning. Ten x-rays later, TLS was pronounced with three fractures, two to bones in the middle of his hand and one to the radius bone in his arm and was fitted with a fetching royal blue cast. I go out of town and apparently his body decides to rebel. Ah...true love!