I've Got a Broken Face

I have a bad relationship with my teeth. It's very sore subject with me because I try my hardest to take care of my body but for some reason no matter how hard I try, my teeth simply refuse to cooperate. I also don't go to the dentist as much as I should because every time I do go it ends up costing buckets of money and I start feeling bad about myself so I keep putting it off and putting it off until it's absolutely necessary. (Yes, I know that doing this will only make my situation worse.) So yesterday I made an appointment with my dentist because I've had this cracked tooth for quite a while and though it hasn't given me any trouble I thought it was high time I had it looked at. Naturally, now that I've made the appointment for the end of the month, just today it has suddenly gotten worse and is really starting to bother me. Now I can't decide if I should try to get in to see the dentist right away or if I should wait it out the two weeks until my scheduled appointment. The trouble is though, when stuff like this happens to me it becomes all I can think about and I start having daydreams where all of my teeth fall out and people start calling me Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel. Plus, I start thinking about how the last time I needed a root canal/crown super-combo it cost us a whopping $900, even WITH INSURANCE. I don't have any problems with any other part of my body. Why can't they pay for my rotten teeth? Blah.

The Post In Which I Perpetuate the Culture of Death

Ok, that's not really true. But I could go the rest of my life without hearing the following five phrases and be a happy woman:

1. Culture of Life

and conversely, the above mentioned:

2. Culture of Death

3. Activist Judges

4. Judicial Tyranny

5. Runaway Judiciary

Now that I've got that out of my system I move on to more pressing questions, such as:

To TIVO or not to TIVO?

Ever since Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel went off the air, I have been half searching, half waiting for another funny, smart, emotionally gripping sci-fi/fantasy type show to come on the air. Since not much has come down the pipe lately (other than the cancelled Firefly) I have pretty much fallen into what can now be referred to as my Reality TV Addiction Phase (or RTVAP.) Curse you Tyra Banks and America's Next Top Model! You are so eeeevil, yet oh-so-good. However, I've been hearing much buzz about this new-ish show on UPN called Veronica Mars, and I'm considering giving it a try in hopes of curing my need for a Buffy-type fix. Apparently it's a show about a high school girl who is also a spy and it's being held up as kind of the new Buffy. I'm intrigued. I also don't like giving up another hour a week of my time to the Idiot Box so I'm a bit hesitant to get hooked on another television show. (Again, curse you Tyra Banks!) Has anyone out there seen it? I think I'm going to TIVO a couple of episodes and see if I'm drawn in. Then hopefully I can catch the reruns over the summer.

My Baby Just Cares for Me

What a weekend. I just survived my second Juliana/Bailee sleepover in eight days. Tired now. Today was absolutely beautiful though, which made up a little for how much nonstop refereeing I had to do. (For some reason the word "refereeing" doesn't look real but I just looked it up and it does exist although when I see it in type it appears a bit like I made it up. Or like I'm talking about reefer. I'm feeling kind of fried in the brain tonight.) Anyway, we were outside at the park and playing in the driveway most of the afternoon which was lovely. Plus I wore sandals outside of my house for the first time this year which was super fun. AND, because Jason is the awesomest (TOTALLY not a real word) husband ever, he purchased me a pro-account at Flickr.com! For some of you, I'm sure that last sentence read like complete gibberish, but those of you out there that use and love the Flickr website will understand why I'm making with the smileys.

Now if only I could get my hands on a laptop then we'd be talkin'...

Blah.

Just popping in to say I'm probably not going to post about anything until after the weekend. For the past couple of days I've been watching way too much cable news and listening to talk radio so now I'm feeling pretty depleted. Every once in a while I get too caught up emotionally in certain things that go on in our world and I need to learn to take a few steps back and relax. For me, it's nothing a little chocolate and candy-colored eggs won't cure. As for the rest of the country, I'm not so sure.

I Give Up

I should just stop watching the news entirely. Why, oh why can't people just kill themselves in peace and stop taking other people along with them?

I'm going to retreat into my land of ponies and unicorns tonight and immerse myself in reality television like American Idol and America's Next Top Model. I need to fill my mind with some useless trash.

Cleansing the Palate

I Will Try Not To Say Much More About This Subject But I Found This Article Interesting

From Salon.com:

As Republicans plotted congressional intervention last week to extend the life of Terri Schiavo, a Texas woman named Wanda Hudson watched her six-month-old baby die in her arms after doctors removed the breathing tube that kept him alive. Hudson didn't want the tube removed, but the baby's doctors decided for her. A judge signed off on the decision under the Texas futile care law -- a provision first signed into law in 1999 by then-Gov. George W. Bush.

Under the 1999 law, doctors in Texas can, with the support of a hospital ethics committee, can overrule the wishes of family members and terminate life-support measures if they believe further care would be futile. Bush signed the bill after interested parties, including anti-abortion activists, agreed on compromise language that required hospitals to give families 10 days' notice before terminating care and to help families find an alternative treatment facility that would continue care instead.

That process worked last week for the family of Spiro Nikolouzos, a retired electrical engineer who was critically injured in a car accident 10 years ago and has been in a persistent vegetative state since at least 2001. The Houston Chronicle reports that a lawyer for Nikolouzos' family was able to delay the termination of care by a Houston hospital just long enough for the family to find a nursing home in San Antonio that would take him in.

Wanda Hudson didn't have that option. According to the Chronicle, Texas Children's Hospital said it contacted 40 facilities with newborn intensive care units, but not one of them would accept Hudson's baby. He died last Tuesday, just minutes after doctors removed his breathing tube. So far as we can tell, neither the White House nor any member of Congress made any effort to intervene in the case.


I guess I just don't understand the way people have taken one woman's story and used her image so shamelessly as a poster-person for their cause. If I were Terry Schiavo I would be furious. But then again I suppose she doesn't even realize what's going on.

Just for the record I'd like to say that if anything ever happens to me like what happened to this poor woman fifteen years ago- PLEASE DON'T KEEP ME HANGING AROUND FOR OVER A DECADE AND THEN PARADE ME AROUND ON TV. Just don't keep me around at all, ok? We really should require everybody to state in writing such wishes.

Thank you very much. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.