On Dear and Death

Deer piss me off. That's right. Bambi and his little friends can go to hell.

Twice this week I was nearly killed by deer (or the other way around is more likely). I currently commute an hour each way to and from work through rural Michigan country side. It is not rare for me to see wild life on the side of the road (both dead and alive). I've seen chickens pecking along the side of the road, turkeys attempting to cross, and even a gigantic dead cow in someones front yard, not to mention numerous dead raccoons, opossums, squirrels, etc. However, none of these animals (at least the living ones) have tried to either murder me or com mitt suicide.

On Tuesday morning some little toddler aged deer ran out in front of me from absolutely NOwhere. I came probably 6" from hitting him. I had to slam on my breaks and was thankful that there were no cars behind me otherwise there would have been a crash. Everything on the seat next to me (which is sort of my mobile office) crashed on the the floor spilling the contents of my purse, unplugging my ipod, and nearly giving me a stroke. I had to stop at a near by gas station to pick my heart out from my feet.

This morning while driving a heard of about 10 of these little fuckers ran across the road. As per usual they did not give any sort of warning or show themselves before darting across the road. Once again I had to slam on my breaks tossing the contents of my "mobile office" careening onto the floor, and this time causing me to spill my coffee down the front of my shirt (thankfully it was iced coffee, not scaldingly hot). This is where I draw the line. Coffee is the only thing that makes me a person at 6am, take away 1oz of that miraculous beverage and some shit's going down. Now i was not only short on my elixir of life, but I was covered in coffee. Oddly enough, I keep several changes of clothes in my car and was able to change before arriving at my office, but stripping down to a tank top on the side of the road is never easy nor fun.

Recently Michigan lifted the ban on baiting deer during hunting season. I think this is good. Those little fuckers have a death wish anyway.

From the girl who won't cry while watching Bambi ever again...

Being a WISE Woman

I am absolutely loving my new job. I am given so much more freedom, autonomy, respect, and support than at my old job. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked at WAS, but I out grew the position I was in and personally felt that the organization was on the way out. I needed to move on.

I feel so comfortable at WISE. The staff is amazing; they are supportive, helpful, entertaining, and respectful. Most of the staff is under 35-years-old and have been there less than 1 year. I think this has a lot to do with the fantastic dynamic we all have. I have really connected to several of the other women and genuinely enjoy the company of all of them.

Also, the increased pay is also a huge plus. :-)

However, today was a frustrating day when 5:00 rolled around. I dedicated a large chunk of my day to assisting a client work on a personal protection order (PPO) against her husband. She had petitioned the court for a PPO earlier this week, and it was denied. Not knowing that we were not able to re-do another PPO and request it be done ex parte (without a hearing), I spent 2 hours with her at her home drafting another statement and more time on my own getting things around for her only to find out at the end of the day that the court would not accept another written petition for a PPO and that she'd have to go in front of a judge as her last resort to get her PPO granted.

This made me feel foolish for not knowing that and wasting her time and emotions. Writing that statement and going to the clerks office twice in one week was extremely emotionally draining for her. She is terrified to go in front of the judge and now I must tell her that this is what she must do. The court system is infuriating sometimes.

In other news, 10 days until I am officially a resident of Mecosta County! Huzzah!

New Blog Coming Soon

There have been some seriously major events in my life since my last update on March 25th.

1) I'm no longer dying of a uncontrollable upper resperatory infection
2) I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes on April 6th
3) I was hospitalized in April for what was essentially kidney failure
4) I got a new job
5) I will soon be moving out of Mount Pleasant into Big Rapids

I won't bore you with details about these major events, but the diabetes diagnosis has gotten me thinking about starting a new blog.

Most of the information available for newly diagnosed diabetics is geared towards those over the age of 45. I am several years from that mark. I am only 23 years old. Type II diabetes is becoming a pandemic in the United States and people are being diagnosted at younger and younger ages. This is mostly due to lifestyle, but regardless of how someone has come down with this condition, the materials available are not necessarily applicable to generation X or millenials.

I am going to start a blog geared towards dealing with and controlling diabetes in persons under the age of 35. We are not retirees who have endless amounts of time to exercise and make all of our food from scratch or ncessarily have the income to purchase high quality ingreedients. Ideally I would like the blog to be a support for the younger sufferers of diabetes as well as information on how to realistically control sugars while living the chaotic life we youngsters lead.

pulling the US out of recessoin one box of tissues at a time

10 trips to the doctor
1 trip to the ER
2 family practitioners
5 boxes of tissues
6 bottles of afrin nasal spray
10 prescriptions
12 vials of blood
7 urine tests
2 pap smears
1 breast ultrasound
5 sick days

I'm pretty sure I should be buying stock in Puffs facial tissue at this point. Today marks week 10 of being sick. These 10 weeks have been filled with a cold, the flu, a UTI, a vaginal infection, an IUD expulsion, an upper respiratory infection, and a sprained back (yes, a sprained back - from coughing). Also, a diabetes scare, breast cancer scare, and discovery of early on set rheumatoid arthritis in my spin.

My body is staging an all out protest against life. As of this week I "only" have an upper respiratory infection and sprained back. I have seriously never been this sick for this long in my life. Hopefully this next round of drugs will do the trick. Otherwise, well, I guess I'll just have to get used to coughing until I vomit for the rest of my life. Ok, that's a bit dramatic. Sue me.

Through it all though, I've kept my sense of humor and my glass-half-full attitude has prevailed. I credit this to the people in my life who have helped me realize that things could be worse, and that one day I will be healthy again... and for them I am thankful.

mother nature... here's some midol

Living in Michigan is exceedingly annoying. Case an point, today is March 23rd and the first official day of spring was 3 days ago. Mother nature clearly forgot to look at the calendar.

Michigan has had a terrible winter this time around. And not the normal kind of shitty winter, where it sucks all around. This year we would have weeks of mild (but cold and windy) weather and then mother nature would get her panties in a bunch and shit snow on us in one big dump, such as the Groundhogs Day Snowpocalypse.

Things have been looking up though. In recent weeks the weather in Michigan has reach a sunny 63*. That day was glorious. Skirts came out from the bin under my bed, I contemplated flip flops, and I haven't worn a coat in at least 3 weeks. People's moods have improved, and the all around atmosphere was that of spring.

Until yesterday. Upon waking up, I checked my blackberry only to discover that my weather app was bleeping a message at me. It was warning me of a winter storm warning. Being the ever optimist I didn't believe it. However, from 3:30pm until this moment my area has gotten 6" of snow and at least a 1/4" of ice on the roads. At least I don't have to work today and I have enough cigarettes and coke to get me through the day without having to leave.

But what takes the cake? I saw my first 2011 Robin today. On top of a snow pile.

That bird is pissed.

ink ideas

I'm thinking about getting a new tattoo. I already have 5. A word advice to those who don't have tattoos yet - they are an addiction. But for me, tattoos are no light matter. All five of my current tattoos have a significant meaning to me, so that when I'm 85 and that fairy looks like a dead body I won't regret it.

This tattoo will be no different. I had several ideas, including, a gerbera daisy (they are my favorite flower, even before everyone and their sister was using them for their weddings), a quote of some sort (most of the quotes I like are far too long to be a respectable tattoo), and a Harry Potter inspired tattoo (yes, I know that is the dorkiest idea ever... but Harry Potter literally changed my life. But that's a story for another post).

I finally settled on an option. I've always thought that Hinduism is a beautiful religion, mostly because one of their chief beliefs is that no one religion is right or wrong, but that every religion has its merits and nobody can know for sure who is right. If a Jew, Muslim, or Christian wanted to go and worship at a Hindu temple they would be welcome with open arms. I think that is beautiful.

That said, one of my favorite Hindu gods is Ganesh. This is the story of Ganesh:

"Lord Shiva, the Hindu God of death and destruction was away at a war. His wife Pavarti, who was a goddess in her own right, wished to bathe. Having no-one to guard the door to her apartments she conceived of the idea of giving birth to a son who could provide this service for her. Thus Ganesh was created, since goddesses have the power to do such things.

Pavarti gave Ganesh instructions that he was to stand guard at the entrance of her apartments and that he was to admit no-one until she gave word that it was OK to do so. Ganesh took up his post and undertook his assignment enthusiastically.

In due course the Lord Shiva returned from his war and went to enter. Ganesh, according to his instructions, forbade him entry. Shiva was enraged by Ganesh’s impudence and drew his sword and cut off Ganesh's head.

Pavarti emerged to find Ganesh decapitated and flew into a rage. Even though he was immensely powerful Shiva was upset with Pavarti’s rage. He swore to make amends by taking the head of the first living thing he found to replace Ganesh’s head. The first animal he came across was an elephant. Accordingly he took the head from the elephant an placed it on Ganesh’s body."

Ganesh is believed to be the remover of obsticles and the god of success and knowledge. This has significance to me and I have decided to get some sort of Ganesh tattoo in the next couple of months. Where, will be the next decision. My current idea is either on my right shoulder blade or in between my shoulder blades.

Here are some images that I will give to the tattoo artist to make up a design for me:

6 Freakin' Awesome Super Powers

My inspiration for this one came to me while talking with some of my volunteers at work. Several of my volunteers are students in the Social Work department at the same university I graduated from. We were discussing social work and the available jobs with a Bachelors of Social Work. I pretty much think that social workers are super heros and decided to illustrate the 6 most awesome super powers!

Enjoy!

7 Reasons Not Being a College Student Sucks Major Dino Balls

This is what I do in my spare time, and will probably become a common theme for this blog.

I apologize for the lack of graphic spectacularity. a) I am not an artist, and b) I do not own a scanner, so I had to take pictures of the panels with my phone, send them to facebook, save the files on my computer, and then smash them back together using GraphicConverter (mac equivalent to MS Paint). Perhaps someday I will own a scanner, but I assure you my artistic skills will not get any better.

i hang with dementors

I'm a ginger. I love being a ginger. I don't know if I'm Irish or not because the dad-ster is adopted, but regardless St. Patrick's day is tomorrow and it got me thinking about being a ginger, and how sweet it really is.

However, in past years it has become a trend to make fun of gingers for being "soulless" or "evil." (thank you South Park) Some gingers are offended by this trend. I, however, embrace it.

There are, admittedly, certain draw backs to being a ginger. Chief among them, the fact that I can spend approximately 17 minutes in direct summer sunlight before I am guaranteed skin cancer when I'm 85, and the need to spend $20/week on cans of SPF 100 sunblock.

However....

Here are 7 reasons that it ROCKS to be a ginger.

1) I can hang out with dementors and not be effected
2) I can go to voodoo witch doctors and escape making payment with my soul
3) I'm like seeing a unicorn or a dodo bird. Gingers only make up 3% of the worlds population
4) The males of my species are immediately intrigued by my existence
5) I can't be held responsible for my "evil doings" because, well, I have no soul
6) I never have to worry about the mistake of selling my soul to satan for favors
7) I can easily break awkward silences with a good ginger joke at my own expense

So go ahead, call me a "day-walker" or a "soulless ginger." It freakin' rocks to be a ginger.

#bejealous

springing forward

There are several signs that spring is on its way. For me, the first of those signs is when the snow begins to melt, revealing the cigarette butts I was too lazy to properly dispose of and I must harvest them to avoid my apartment looking like something out of "My Name is Earl." Second among the signs for me is when we "spring forward" for daylights savings time.

A lot of people like the spring time daylights savings time, but for me it has a very special meaning. Growing up, my mother worked about an hour from where we lived. And for those of you who really know me, I have a really strange (perhaps boardering on inappropriate) relationship with my mother. This daily commute for my mother meant leaving her children before the sun came up and arriving back home after the sun came down during the fall and winter seasons (which are horribly long for those of you not experienced in Michigan weather and seasons).

However, when spring's daylight savings time rolled around mom would arrive back home around 6, and we still had a couple of hours of daylight left to be a family that didn't revolve around homework and the boob tube.

I awoke this morning thinking it was 9:30am according to my alarm clock, but as I checked my blackberry (to delete the daily emails I inevitably receive in the middle of the night), I realized we had sprung forward at 2am. I instantly got a smile on my face and realized that, despite how shitty winter gets every year (and it was pretty shitty this time around), that spring really IS on its way.