Briefly: Anne Rice

It was news yesterday that Anne Rice left Christiantity. I didn't bother reading the articles yesterday, but this morning, in between dealing with the plague and snuggling kittens, I decided to take a look. I am ever so glad that I did.

Honestly, I'm not a big Anne Rice fan. I have some of her books, but they don't really get read much. However, her comments are completely spot on.

"My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me," Rice wrote. "But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.”

The biggest deterrent from Christianity today are Christians and those that call themselves ministers, priests, and (for goodness sake) prophets. I'm not saying they are all bad, but the faith as a whole has very visible leaders who are absolute criminals. It's embarrasing to thing that people are so uneducated in their own scripture that they choose to follow these people.

Christianity is about a relationship with Christ not with other Christians, so I think Anne is making the absolute best decision possible.

Fedex Smartpost

Exactly what is smart about Smartpost from Fedex? From what I can tell and what I have experienced, it's a ridiculously slow service. It's more expensive than USPS, but slower. The absolute only plus side is that you have a tracking number that is actually functional. USPS first class has no legal obligation to ever update their tracking information, but I have had pretty decent luck with them anyway.

When I pay seven dollars for Old Navy to send me a half pound shirt, I'd like to get it in under a week. They could use priority mail for under five dollars and have it to me in two days after leaving their warehouse.

COURTNEY DON'T PLAY THAT, OLD NAVY! I know shipping times and costs. I got an email on Monday that the package had shipped and it won't be here until August third. Seriously? Where is the convenience of the internet now? I could have actually gone to the freaking mall by this point, and you guys know how much of a procrastinator I can be.

Comments on CNN stories I may or may not have read.

Today, I've decided to comment on stories from CNN, since I can't really talk about other things that are going on in my life. I'm not planning on reading all of the stories, but I do plan to comment anyway.

Headline 1. Lohan's jail comfort food: Twizzlers
Comment: Who cares? Seriously, I don't care if she's eating stink bugs. She's in jail because she is an idiot. She's correct when she says she hasn't been treated fairly. Anyone else would have been in jail a long time ago.

Headline 2. Pattinson inspires underwear line
Comment: Does he even have an ass? Taylor Lautner could inspire a whole lot more than an underwear line. (Please tell me he's 18 already.)

Headline 3.  No Charges for 7 Jackson Docs
Comment: Are we really surprised? Not to mention, MJ would have taken the drugs no matter what. He could buy them legally, illegally, and semi-legally. He could ask his fans and they would deliver them directly. An addict will do drugs as long as they can get them or until they come to a place where they begin to recover. He had no desire to recover.

Headline 4: Mom, 22, dies after silicone shots
Comment:  Plastic surgery is ridiculous for most people, and especially ridiculous for a 22 year old. I'd like to see this country step away from the looking like an absolute freak of nature phase and step into the "focusing on health" phase. Your body is beautiful. Work with it. Nurture it. You aren't a literal piece of clay. Stop with the mutilation. I'm not against plastic surgery for reconstructive purposes, for (actual) medical purposes, or to remove large birth marks and things of that nature. I've had minor plastic surgery a few times myself for medical reasons. However, for the majority of folks who die, knowing the risks of plastic surgery, it really seems like more of a "only the strong or smart survive" thing. You weren't smart enough to accept yourself for who you are and you weren't strong enough to survive the surgery. Game over.

Headline 5: Home Births Can be Harmful
Comment: I actually read this one, though it was just a blog post. The story glosses over any actual facts. It says that a "STRONGLY WORDED EDITORIAL" in Britain says that home births double the risk of neonatal death and that hospital delivery should be the preferred method. Ironically, home births in the US and Britain are increasing. The first comment hits it right on the head though.

"Likely, the cause of this increase (in the United States, anyways) is a lack of health insurance (due to unaffordability) and the incredible high cost of delivering a baby in a hospital without health insurance."


As a person who has done research on how much it costs to have a baby in the hospital, I can tell you that it's more than I would pay for a new car in most cases. (It's like two of my car brand new, actually.) I think that there are actually two reasons for the rise in home births. The first is economical. The second is that people want to be in charge of their birthing experience. I'm very direct with my doctor. I let him know ahead of time what I want, but that I am open to change. I don't want an epidural or drugs of any kind, but if this labor stretches out for hours I might just say "Shoot me up, doc."

Headline 6: Essence Defends White Editor Pick
Who cares? Essence has the right to pick anyone they want for the position. They could hire my cat Obi Wan and no one could say a damned thing about it. (Granted, Obi Wan is black.) Also, they are a fashion editor. No one gets angry when a women's magazine has a male fashion editor. It's the same concept. Welcome to the future. Equality works both ways.

I must see this.

I know it's ridiculous, but I can't help it. I get giggles every time I see the trailers.

I wonder what the heck is on this sound track though?

After this week...

I think I need this book.

What a freaking Monday!

You know what the the only thing worse than feeling this way in the morning is? Getting to the end of the day and realizing you probably would have been better off if you had just stayed in bed.

How Not to Impress the Folks at the Diabetes Institute.

• When asked to show up early to fill out paperwork for a class that starts at 2:30pm, show up at 2:27pm.
• Conveniently run out of test strips during the class.
• After conveniently running out of test strips, have your sugar crash.
• When the instructor notices that you've suddenly started sweating, shaking, and breathing hard and asks you if you are ok, completely burst into tears and wail "I DON'T KNOW!"
• Borrow another test strip from a fellow student and show the teacher your ridiculously low score, sending her into a fury getting you both glucose tablets and a glucose drink.
• Allow the teacher and the class to discuss everything you ate for the last 24 hours and discover that you have completely failed to have anything resembling a normal carbohydrate intake. Green beans, despite the fact that I've eaten a ton of them, are not carbs.

The class was very informative and it helped me to see that I need to eat more and more often. To combat yesterday's problem, I brought my appropriate snack bag. 

Tuesday Tunes

Today I heard some good stuff on the radio. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, but recently I've been letting Country and Bluegrass fill up my mornings.

This song is so pretty, but incredibly sad. Personally, I'm glad I saw it without the video. What is happening to their heads? It's like the Bee Gees stylist from the 70's and Justin Beiber's current stylist got together to form some Hellmouth of hair. I'm going to get sucked into the 13 second mark and buzz those boys. Also, what's with the weird suits and skinny ties? I think the woman is very pretty in the kind of striking way. She has a mouth like Tyne Daly, who I like a lot. Her hair reminds me of Rod Stewart, but that's okay.

Lyrically, it's a lovely song.




I hadn't heard this one for a long time. I was about a block from work, sitting in traffic, when it came on. Thank goodness for that, because I cried my face off. You can't be driving down the highway crying. It's just dangerous.

It just reminds me of a conversation I had with my father when I went to see him for the first time since I was about 4 or 5. I was in my early twenties with children of my own and it put me in a perfect position to try and understand.




This one is really happy, thank goodness. In all honesty, I started my morning with this, but after the other two I figured we could all use a happier song.

Sugar and Me.

Sugar and I have always had a good relationship. I don't eat a lot of it. I respect that sugar is delicious, but that if I eat too much of it there are consequences. Recently, my definition of "too much" has changed. Not because I have changed my mind about how much I think is alright, but because my body now fails to process it.

Plain and simple. If I eat too much sugar, I feel it. In the past, I could have a sweet tea with lunch and be fine. I can't do that now. I thought that it was just being pregnant when it started happening about a month ago. Sometimes, I would have desert with lunch and on those days I felt miserable. I had no idea I would be diagnosed with gestational diabetes. If my sugar gets too high I feel heavy, very tired, and I can't think clearly. I feel like I am breathing through mud.

To a certain extent, putting a name on these feeling has empowered me to feel better. If I make the right choices, I feel fine.

Another thing that has been helpful is monitoring my blood sugar. I get my supplies today, but we had extras around the house so I started this weekend. I will now have to check my sugar four times a day. I thought it would bother me, but literally after the second time I was fine.  I don't enjoy it, but I don't dread it. When I check about an hour after I eat I can see if the food I ate was something I should eat again or not.

I never really thought about it, but milk has carbs in it. (Whole milk has 12g in a 1 cup serving.) My husband has been drawing carbs to my attention constantly. At first, I was annoyed and it was hurtful, but I really think he's attempting to make me aware. If I have one pint of milk and a Twix bar that's over 50g of carbs. (When I say Twix bar, I mean if I eat both of the bars in the package.) That's more than I eat in most meals.

I still have no plans to count carbs, but I do think it's currently important to be aware of them.

It's now time to head to the Doctor for my regularly scheduled exam. I leave you with this. Please replace the word lover with sugar. It fits.

Weekend Update

• 1 child
• 3 games of Monopoly
• 1 Urbz Penthouse acquired

Max was over this weekend for a make up weekend. It's rare to have him alone, but we had a good time and everyone seemed happy. He slept slightly later than usual, but he stayed up slightly later too, so that had a good deal to do with it.

Saturday, we took Max to Hardee's. He'd never been there and he wanted to try it. I personally thought it was an experience he could have lived without, but in the interest of letting him try new things, we went. It was pretty mediocre. He didn't like the hamburger, but he thought my chicken tenders were good. He ate my onion rings too. James and I agreed that the oil was not fresh, so everything could have been better, but it's Hardee's so you can't expect too much.

We got home early on Friday night, so we played Disney Monopoly. My husband spent a good portion of the game sitting in jail and insisting that it was the ultimate strategy. I argued that it was against the rules since they explicitly state that you may roll the dice three times, but then you have to pay to get out of jail. He argued that if you had no money you might be allowed to sit in jail. This was a non-issue since he had more than enough to pay to get out. He was also angry because there is no "Pot" or reward for landing on Free Parking. He said that every game he has ever played had a pot. I showed him the rules and he couldn't believe that I was right. He then said that the game encourages "House Rules" and that should be one of them. I disagreed because I felt like it lengthened an already lengthy game. That night, I won.


Saturday, night we played again. To appease my husband, we allowed a pot. To appease me, we agreed that you couldn't sit in jail indefinitely. He won that game. Sunday, after taking Max home, we played the original version of Monopoly. (My husband dislikes the use of Tinkerbell in the Disney version. She moves whenever there are doubles. If you land on her space she pays your rent or buys you the property.) It looked pretty desperate for me for a while, but after landing on Free Parking I was able to win the game.


This morning, I felt tired but ready to go to work when I woke up. XM Radio helped by providing the following:



(I remember listening to this when I was little with my mother. TELL ME CAN YA FEEL IT?)



Chatham County Line - Out of the Running. (I cried when I heard it.)

There is no substitute for diet and exercise.

For today's chat, I would like everyone to grab a mirror, look themselves in the eyes, and tell themselves:

• There is no substitute for diet and exercise.
• There is no substitute for diet and exercise. 
• There is no substitute for diet and exercise.  

No matter how much we wish there was a drug that make us thin, there simply isn't. Even if there was, you shouldn't take it. Your body is made to work in a very specific way. Jamming chemicals into it to force it to dump weight or burn calories or whatever the miracle promise of the moment is just won't work. It may work temporarily, but when you stop taking it your body will begin to behave the way it did before the drug.

My thoughts on this topic were brought on by the FDA not approving a new diet drug.

For those of you who don't know me well, let me define what I mean by the word "Diet." I do not believe in dieting in a traditional sense. I do not believe in depriving yourself of everything delicious. I do not believe in no carbs, all protein, no sugar, nothing white, all cabbage or any other ridiculous thing. I believe in moderation. If you want a cookie, have one or two. Do not eat the entire plate. You CAN have whatever you want, you just have to share and watch your portions.

I believe in having an active lifestyle. Live your life. Run, jump, play, swim, take walks, bounce in place, have sex or do whatever makes you feel good.Exercise comes in many forms. Find one that works for you.

I have a friend who says it is unfair for me to say anything about weight loss and weight loss drugs because I am not fat, overweight, or whatever term you prefer. I'm certainly not tiny, but I don't worry about weight. My family has always focused on eating right and being active. We don't eat diet foods, but we love fruits and vegetables and try to not eat a lot of processed food.

It is my hope that we stop looking to the drug companies for solutions, and start looking at ourselves and seeing what we can do. I don't think dumping "bad foods" is a good idea. I think it leads to stuffing yourself later. I recommend steadily increasing your intake of good food.(Not that I'm a dietitian or anything.)

You get one life. Don't waste it alternately starving yourself and stuffing yourself. Be the healthiest happiest you. Also, don't look at magazines and movies. You are a real, non-photoshopped, person. Your curves are beautiful and genetic. We are not all meant to be 5'10'' and 120lbs, thank goodness. We are not all going to be ripped.

Okay, I'm going to go have a donut.  

Seriously?

Today, I took and failed my second Gestational Diabetes test. I have officially been diagnosed as having Gestational Diabetes. I'm not terribly worried about it because it's totally manageable and I'll only have it until our son is born a few months from now.

Sadia and I were discussing whether is was too soon to blame things on my blood sugar, since I had just tripped and nearly flung myself across the office. We were just joking around, but then she joked that my husband gave me Diabetes. I laughed, but the mail person who was standing there looked at me, in all seriousness, and said that it was totally possible. His face was so serious. I stood there for a moment, mouth agape, and realized he wasn't joking. I laughed and gently told him that it's not contagious.

It really reminded me of all the misconceptions people have. Not just about medical issues, but about the world at large. (For instance, I know people who honestly believe you can get AIDS from a toilet seat or living with a gay person.)

YES! SHOE VICTORY!

Have you ever had a shoe that you liked so much that you didn't want to get rid of them, despite the fact that they are now treadless and worn so thin that a mouse fingernail could shred them? Even when you eventually come to the conclusion that a new shoe must be purchased, you hold out because you can't find the exact shoe you want? The shoe you actually want was purchased for you about 3 years ago by a friend and they don't sell them anymore. The shoe you actually want is currently (barely) on your foot. That was my dilemma.

This morning I decided to go to the website of the store where there original shoes were purchased, just to take a brief look. The shoe fairy, knowing I'm notoriously lazy when it comes to shopping, granted my only true shoe wish. There, on the front page of the women's shoe section, were my dream shoes. (Please cue Dream Lover by Mariah Carey. FINE, I'll do it for you.)




Here are my tried and true, brown, gold, and blue shoes:

                                         (There will be no mocking of my incredibly white legs.)

Here are soon to be new, brown, gold, and blue shoes:

I plan to play this when I buy my new shoes. (P.S. They are on sale at JC Penney and on their site here.)