Happy Thanksgiving

Well today is Thanksgiving. I have seen the usual ‘I am thankful for family, friends, etc’ posts and to tell the truth after the past few weeks today was going to be just another day for me. Some last minute cleaning, the baking and cooking to be done. Of course the family time. That is how it would have been if it were not for a series of events and a few new people that came into my life and two people (husband and wife) that I have never met, and never will, yet I now know so much about their lives and their more than 60 years of marriage.

THE GOOD

The clerk at the corner Circle K has made even my angriest day bearable. This guy is always smiling, ALWAYS says hello/good morning, and he knows the customers by name or nickname. Even on what could have been HIS crappiest days, he was finding humor in the situation and the number of customers helping him out was staggering.

THE SAD

I could say that being a military spouse is hard and all that blah, blah, blah stuff. The truth is it isn't much harder than being a civilian wife… we just change locations frequently. Sometimes it happens when we really don’t want, or need, it to happen. Last Thursday I was informed that someone dear to me would be PCS’ing almost 2 months earlier than planned. She is my Wing-man at the Attic, my left arm, the one person I wholly trust to leave the keys with and she gets things done! She may be young but she is smart and uses common sense.

I will miss you dearly Hooker Wing-man!

THE HUMBLING

Last Friday the Chaplains office called and said they had a donation to deliver. Normally donations are made on Tuesdays & Thursdays but this was special. A retired USAF service member had passed away and his widow generously donated almost their entire house! Furniture, clothing, kitchen wares, and decades of mementos and gifts acquired from around the world. On Tuesday we somberly opened boxes and began the task of sorting through the contents.

Side note - It is a little weird going through someone else’s things when you know they are dead. Most times donations are from those still living and not an entire lifetime of stuff.

The first few boxes were nothing out of the ordinary, we went about it quietly. Then we started to discover items from decades past. An old vacuum cleaner from the 40’s – 50’s. A ladies portable salon style hair dryer (my grandmother had one). An iron so old we were afraid to plug it in! Then we opened boxes that made us jump up and down in excitement. They had gifts and items from everywhere they had been stationed. From people they had met, and been friends with, everywhere around the world. Their 50^th Anniversary album was in there as well as one of his personal diaries. 60 years of being together and she stood by her man until the very end. There was only 1 picture of them to be found among all the boxes and belongings. 

It was at this point that these ‘things’ were not just things anymore.

They were memories of a lifetime together.

They were reminders of the good times and the bad times they had endured TOGETHER for over 60 years. Handmade items that each of them had made together and signed, dated, and location given. Items obtained at each duty station.

I got to thinking about how things happen in life. Some things we don’t like and some we do. But these things ALWAYS happen for a reason, a lesson to learn, enrichment to your life, a memory to cherish. These times are when we learn to love a little more, find out how much we can endure, lean on those we trust the most at our most vulnerable times. They become memories, good or bad, that we can reflect on… they help shape us and make us who we are. No matter where the next duty station in your life is you have to make the best of it, good days & bad days. They ALL become memories! From 120* temps to ghost towns, -42* and weeks of nighttime, day after day of dreary rain and family that drives you crazy… Oh sure ‘YOU HATE IT HERE’ but they all shape you and become memories you treasure, shake your head in disgust or laugh hysterically at in the years to come.

So today I am not only thankful for my family (even though they bailed on me) and my friends. I am thankful for all the people who have somehow in some way shaped my life into what it is. I am thankful to the military for giving me the opportunity to meet some of the most amazing people, and some of the most revolting people too. Remember it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round!

And that picture we found in all that stuff? Well we hung it on the cork-board in the sorting room. We hung it in memory of the couple that had touched so many lives with theirs and through their generosity and the sharing of their lifetime of memories with others to create new memories in new lives.

Here I go again....

Another television commercial inspired rant.

http://www.mychronicmigraine.com/about-chronic-migraine/

“By the time most patients come to their doctor with complaints of headache, they have likely been suffering for years. Chronic Migraine is a type of headache, but there are many different kinds of headaches – and there are different treatment options, depending on the type. If you think you are experiencing Chronic Migraine, it’s important to recognize it early, with a diagnosis from your doctor.”

I see this advertisement frequently. ‘Chronic Migraine’, never heard that term before!  Now I will give this site kudos for giving a minimalistic list of triggers and the difference between types of headaches but they seem to lack a lot by avoiding some easy things to do and listing questions to ask your doctor.

Being that I get migraine headaches I thought I'd check it out.

I thought maybe this site could be a good place for information so I signed up to see what else they offered. They have a migraine diary but nowhere on there is there a place to track your DIET or anything else that may trigger a migraine. The site does say that food/diet can trigger migraines but there is no list. Nothing to give you a place to start in checking the foods/products you use.

I know that MSG/preservatives and certain foods and colorings, as well as the barometric pressure in changing weather systems can, and often do, trigger mine.

The biggest thing I got from this site was that MEDICATION is the answer.  

Anyone who knows me already knows I don’t like to take meds unless the problem is life threatening… my incident with Blastocystis parasite in 2006 and a kidney infection in 2008 are the last times I took manmade (synthetic) medications.

I already know from past experiences (mine and GI Joe’s) that the doctors are more than happy to throw a prescription at your symptom and move on to the next patient on the list. IMO it would be far more productive, and cost effective in the end, to find the CAUSE and treat the actual problem. In GI Joe’s case they did scans but chose to use prescriptions to mask the symptoms and now he has faced the removal of his gallbladder and is facing major back surgery.

Now I understand that doctors went to school for a really long time and know stuff about a lot of medical things but unless SUPERMAN is my doctor they don’t have x-ray vision. Is this pain being caused by something potentially lethal and we’re wasting valuable time tossing meds at a symptom? IMO let’s do a full body scan and check for something there. At the least my doctor will have a baseline scan for future reference.

Think about it.

You get frequent ‘migraine headaches’, your head hurts, you feel like vomiting , light and sound make you retreat into a darkened room, but WHY, what is causing it? There is an actual reason WHY and your doctor just tossed some pills at you and dismissed you like a child rather than creating a plan to find the WHY behind your headaches.

If you fell and had pain in your arm they’d x-ray to check for a broken bone or tendon damage. Even car accident victims and potential stroke/heart attack victims get various scans and tests to rule things out.

http://www.drugs.com/sfx/imitrex-side-effects.html

Side Effects of Imitrex - for the Consumer

Imitrex

All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects. Check with your doctor if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome when using Imitrex:

Anxiety; burning, numbness, or tingling of the skin; dizziness; drowsiness; feeling of heaviness, pressure, or tightness; feeling strange; mild, temporary flushing; muscle aches or cramps; nausea; neck stiffness; pain, swelling, or redness at the injection site; sick feeling; stomach upset; throat or sinus discomfort; tight feeling in the head; tingling; tiredness; vomiting; warm/hot sensation; weakness.

Gosh, this list of side effects is pretty much what my migraines feel like minus the “redness at the injection site”. How would I know which is my pain and which is the drug?

What you have to search for is the long term effects and other problems associated with meds. Imitrex can affect the heart and liver, and other organs. If you don’t know you have a potential underlying medical condition this can be deadly. If you take other medications they CAN cause serious problems, even death. If your doctor isn’t READING your file and ASKING YOU questions you need to get a new doctor. 

My latest RANT

Sorry I haven't been around lately. LIFE seems to toss things in the path at the most inopportune times. Lately I've been in search of people with common sense and of the dozens of people I come across very few posses the ability to think or do things for themselves, or at least try to do things themselves before asking for help. Seriously people GOOGLE stuff before you whine because, if I don't readily have an answer, the first thing I will do when you ask for help is to GOOGLE that request!

I've been watching more of televisions advertisements and, WOW, society has gone downhill in the areas of acceptability and double standards. 

This one in particular is really stuck in my craw. 

I saw an ad with Ellen DeGeneres and Sofia Vergara and... well, it pissed me off! Here we are teaching our children about tolerance and inner beauty, to love themselves and embrace their differences, and there is Ellen dissing on Sofia's accent in order to promote face goo that women will smear on in order to HIDE their natural outward beauty! In looking at previous ads I got even more riled up when Ellen said something to the effect of "Hey there wrinkle face". Seriously, I like Ellen and the things she does for communities but calling women names to get them to buy chemical filled UN-natural products is a line in the sand. Bad strategy by the company and Bad on Ellen for not thinking about it before agreeing to do it!

It seems to me that society insinuates that women should be rail thin, have voluptuous bosoms, flawless skin, straight brilliantly white teeth, an all over glowing tan, and oozing sexuality at every moment. Our children (female and male) see this EVERYWHERE and it is etched in their brains that if they are not THAT they are not desirable. Then a movement starts to teach our children to love themselves as they are, yet these ads are still being created and aired. Now the 'older generation' is being ridiculed in an attempt to sell wrinkle goo because for some reason NATURAL AGING is wrong? WTH? 

I laugh really hard at the Victoria's Secret commercials.

Number of overweight women: 46.9 million

Number of obese women: 23 million

This info was found on a quick GOOGLE search at:

http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/fast-factsobesity-amp-overweight-statisticsmdashthe-supersizing-epidemic-of-america

Apparently V.S. is unaware of the weight issues facing MILLIONS of women, let alone the economic crisis going on, yet night after night my 9 year old gets to watch voluptuous scantily clad women strike seductive poses in an attempt to sell UNDERWEAR! Very few people ever see my undergarments... me, husband, the cashier at the store when I buy them, and maybe the dog or cat when I do laundry. Personally I want something comfortable that won't irritate my skin with lace and stuff, this is AZ and it's hot. I don't need my breasts shoved up under my chin and I seriously don't want to be picking $20 underwear outta my butt all day long. ß THAT is not comfortable nor sexy!

I recently saw a story on television where several actresses ‘Tweeted’ pictures of themselves without make-up and they were BEAUTIFUL! Not perfectly flawless beautiful but normal looking everyday beautiful. They looked like me, uneven skin tone and all! Apparently people liked this little event and IMO they should make a few movies and television shows where NOBODY is ‘all done up’. How about the local news just being natural while reporting on the daily occurrences of humans being their natural murderous & thieving, or caring & helping selves’?

Some made-up t.v. personality 'selling' me a story is not why I watch. I watch certain news shows for the INFORMATION, get me info that answers my questions and I'll watch more often. I watch television shows for the story & plot, not for the curvy blonde & the perfect abs guy, give me a good story line with a half believable plot and I will tune in week after week. 

Either people like you or they don’t. 

Not everyone is going to like you, nor will you like everyone else.

It's not my lot in life to make every single person like me.

It's not my job in life to make everyone happy.

I like myself and tend to my own happiness. 

For the record I do color my hair. 

As the seasons change so do my moods, so I color my hair.

I do not follow a trend or fashion. 

I judge my hair color purchases on price and ingredients not on t.v. ads.

Medical Ignorance or just plain old LAZY....

This has been bothering me for some time now.

Television advertisements for prescription drugs and over the counter medications.

Here’s how it starts;

You go to your doctor for some issue: Can’t sleep, back pain, allergies, anxiety… whatever the ailment may be. Doc talks to you *if you’re lucky enough to see THE DOCTOR*, writes you a prescription and sends you on your way. You end up at the pharmacy and they fill your meds, talk to you briefly about the drug and off you go. But wait, inside the bag are some papers that give far more info on the drug(s) – did you read these papers, REALLY?  Be honest with yourself here, if you really read these you know they start with scientific mumbo jumbo and towards the end they get busy with side effects and DEATH warnings.

Logically for me this is the part where I decide if these risks are worth taking for some short term relief.

Watch and listen to the commercials carefully *watch them on youtube so you can go back and really HEAR this stuff*, the side effects they speak of in correlation to what the medication is for can be HILARIOUS. 

Viagra/Cialis *male enhancement* side effects include: headache, dizziness, indigestion, back pain, nasal congestion, diarrhea, abnormal vision, ringing in the ears… just to name a few.

*I know when I feel like total crap I want to get frisky… NOT*

http://erectile-dysfunction.emedtv.com/viagra/viagra-side-effects.html

http://erectile-dysfunction.emedtv.com/cialis/cialis-side-effects.html

Cymbalta *for depression* , I am just giving you a link because it depresses me to type all the possible side effects one may experience using this medication. As if you weren’t depressed enough or feeling bad BEFORE you started taking this drug!

http://depression.emedtv.com/cymbalta/cymbalta-side-effects.html

Zoloft *depression*, this one I laugh at not because it is funny but because I actually know someone who exhibits MOST of the side effects yet the doc says it’s ok to take. It states that this drug “has been studied thoroughly in clinical trials, in which a group of people taking the drug have side effects documented and compared to another group not taking the medicine”  yet I have only found short term studies (24 months or less) and people are taking this stuff for YEARS!

http://depression.emedtv.com/zoloft/zoloft-side-effects.html

Celebrex *arthritis/pain*, I will not take this med! If I can’t move that well because of my arthritis and/or pain then I surely don’t want to take this and have a side effect pop up and not be able to RUN for the bathroom!

http://arthritis.emedtv.com/celebrex/celebrex-side-effects.html

There are more prescription medications on the market than I could list here, just Google a drug name and start reading *although that may make you feel sick*.

In my next post I think I'll take a jab at those Medical Lawsuit advertisements we see on television.... everyone's entitled to something, right?

Write what you know.....

I’ve been reading a lot of books and blogs about blogging *nothing new, I LOVE to read* and they all say the same thing in the first chapter “Write what you know”. Well I know lots of things so I could write about lots of things *and I probably will* but I am comfortable being logical & mostly rational in my thoughts, using the brain I was born with and commonsense that lately it seems is quite Uncommon!

And to be very blunt I AM SARCASTIC!

Let’s start with the name of this blog “Chopstick Lobotomy”.

Some people have asked, where in the world did that crazy name come from?

It was something I simply blurted out on facebook one day in the midst of dealing with some of “THOSE” people that I don’t play with very well, there are lots of those people on facebook  *most of them are not on my friends list*. We all know what chopsticks are, if you don’t know what a lobotomy is I suggest you Google it. Yes it is absurd to think one can perform a surgical procedure with cheap set of bamboo chopsticks but, seriously now, the end result would most likely be the same whether done by an expensive surgeon or by YOU!

After trying very hard to deal with “those people” it becomes obvious that you are not getting through to them which in turn makes that one vein in your forehead bulge out *it throbs and pulsates too*, your eye starts twitching uncontrollably, vulgarities begin spewing from your mouth and the migraine begins. At this point you think about how easy it would be to just jam those chopsticks into your eye sockets and twirl the frontal lobe around so that “those people” no longer bother you *you’d be just like them at this point*… Thus, Chopstick Lobotomy was born!

Some things that happen in life you learn from, while others just leave you scratching your head. I have learned a lot of lessons in my time on this planet but it seems that in the last 15 years or so I am scratching my head more often trying to figure out what in hell is happening to society *it’s a wonder I’m not bald yet*. Some things REALLY bother me while others I tolerate or just tune out. Some call them rants but these are the things I will be blogging about in the future.  I will pick a topic based on my actual life experiences *past or present* and let loose. I may really elaborate on a topic or I might just keep it super simple. Either way it is MY blog and I write what I want when I want.