Kerry'd Away

If you have read, or heard, the national news today you might have heard about a hearing that took place yesterday in front of the House Democratic Steering and Policy committee regarding Obama’s latest edict that church-based organizations (schools, hospitals, etc) would have to provide health care coverage for contraception and abortion. A few weeks ago I posted on my blog about the Catholic Church’s response to this edict, and I again urge you to stand with the Catholics and refuse to go along with this latest overreach of government authority.

According to Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown Law student (and the only person to testify in front of this committee on this matter), the edict from the Obama administration must remain in place because women on her campus are going broke due to the high cost of contraception. Miss Fluke says, “Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school.” (Spokane Conservative Examiner) She goes on to say that for students who are in her position, studying law on a scholarship, it’s practically an entire summer’s salary. When it was suggested that she choose a different school that will provide contraception Miss Fluke became upset and stated that she was being asked to make a choice between her education and her health simply because she’s a woman.

As a woman, I feel that I have the right to stand up and dispute a few things that dear Sandra has said. First off, when did FREE contraceptives become a right?? I’ve checked the Bill of Rights in our Constitution and nowhere does it say that we have the right to free contraceptives no matter our religious affiliation. This is what happens when you raise a generation of children with the entitlement mentality. Participation trophies and being unable to tell a child when they have done wrong is the cause of this. We can’t be negative! Everybody should feel good about themselves! We must not ruin their self esteem! Guess what, kiddos? Life isn’t fair! As my dad would say, “Not til the end of July.” Whenever we told him that something wasn’t fair, that’s what we heard because our County fair is always held the last week of July. Only then would it be ‘fair’. Nothing in life is free. Nothing. There is a cost to everything, whether it’s monetary and you’re paying it or your neighbor is paying it. Free cable? Nope. That’s stealing. Free food? Nope, it has cost something to somebody along the way. Freedom? Nope, there are thousands of soldiers who sacrificed to ensure our freedom. So NOTHING is free. Sorry, Sandra. You might have to take an extra shift at the grease pit in order to afford your birth control pills.

As for the cost of contraception, I am curious as to what her definition of ‘contraception’ might be. You see, I worked in a drug store when I was in high school so I’ve stocked the various forms of birth control that exist out there. If her female classmates are spending $3,000 on condoms then I think that there is a much bigger problem going on. I have two thoughts on this… 1) Why aren’t the guys sharing in the cost of the contraceptives? 2) They are law students! Shouldn’t they be studying and not worrying about who they are going to sleep with tonight?? It’s no wonder that we get such slimy lawyers out there! How are they passing the bar exams? Are they ‘scoring’ in more ways than one? I know that you will find this hard to believe, but college is supposed to be where you go to get an education. Not where you go to get some action. I know! It shocks a lot of people. When I was in college I was too busy trying to pass tests and do homework. I wasn’t worried about how many guys I was going to sleep with (by the way, that number was a big whopping ZERO). Perhaps these women wouldn’t be as worried about paying for birth control if they were actually having to pay for their schooling! If cost really is a factor, though, as a former seller of drugs (pharmaceutical and completely legal), I can tell you that the cheapest form of birth control is…. ABSTINENCE.

Yes, shocking. I know. The thought that you could actually ABSTAIN from sex?? The world might come to an end. I assure you that this is the cheapest form of birth control! In the entire history of the world there has only been one time when abstinence resulted in a pregnancy. One time. So, unless you look out your front window to find camels on your lawn and a huge star blazing above your house, I think that you can be assured that you won’t get pregnant by going with this method.

This post is getting rather long, but I have one more point to make regarding Miss Fluke’s testimony. She claims that by choosing another school to attend she would have to be making a choice between her education or her health. Now, I know that there are some women who take the pill for medical reasons. I was one of them. However, if 40% of the women on campus are on birth control for medical reasons then I think that the Attorney General should be looking into the situation because something is not right! I have another fact for Miss Fluke, though. There are some serious risks that come with any kind of hormonal birth control. This includes pills, IUDs, the shot, or the latest NuvaRing. The reason that these work is because they change your hormone levels and trick your body into not releasing an egg. This way nothing gets fertilized and you should not be able to get pregnant. These methods are not 100% guaranteed to work and you are always cautioned that you should use a second method if you need to prevent pregnancy or STDs. When you mess with your hormones your body reacts in various ways. The most serious risks that you run with these kinds of birth control are strokes, blood clots and heart attacks. You can say, “Oh, those are so minimal that I’m willing to take the chance!” Remember that I said I was on birth control for medical reasons? My doctor ended up taking me off of them because a) it wasn’t working and b) my blood pressure was going through the roof. I normally have low blood pressure so this was a serious issue. As soon as my body was cleared of the extra hormones my blood pressure came down and normalized. Now I’m not allowed to go back onto any kind of hormonal birth control and it doesn’t bother me a bit.

Not convinced? Here are some news stories regarding birth control pills, and I admit that not all of them are about serious health risks, but they are enough of a concern that you shouldn’t rely on just the pill:

More Birth Control Pills Recalled – Feb 27, 2012

Women Warned Over Popular Birth Control Medication – Feb 29, 2012

Other Health Issues Lost in Birth Control Debate – Feb 19, 2012

NuvaRing Stroke Lawsuit Filed Over Birth Control Ring Risks – Feb 17, 2012

If you read my blog last week, you probably noticed that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything. It was not a good week. Actually, every week is the same for me; I count down the days until I get to see Jay. He’s been working Saturdays for what seems like forever, but it’s mandatory so he has to do it. I’m just happy to get to see his smiling face.

Isn’t he cute?? Yes, I’m very much biased, but I can’t help myself. I can be horribly grumpy on my drive down. I get even grumpier when I see that the college students have hogged up my space in front of Jay’s house. But when I get inside and have a few moments to catch up with everything that’s gone on, then I can feel the stress and anger melting away. Perhaps it’s the hotness that does it.

I mean, could you stay grumpy if you were around something this hot? Just look at those chiseled features… the coolness that radiates outward… the confidence that smolders under the surface… the ‘raring-to-go’ that is barely contained… and you should see Jay fly it! Wowzers! Being surrounded by jets as hot as this one just completely does me in. 😉

Friday night I had a delightful call that made me realize that even when I feel like I’m all alone, there are people out there who care about me.

*WARNING* – some super bragging is on its way….

To make me smile, my very dearest sweetie stopped and picked these up for me on his way home:

Aren’t they gorgeous? Yes, I had to put them on my stove in an attempt to keep them away from the cats. It didn’t work. The greenery has been chewed all to bits. 😦

Jay wants to make me happy, and he’s doing a very good job. If he’s not careful he’s going to have me in his life for a VERY long time! There won’t be a crowbar strong enough to pry me out of there. 🙂

This picture reminded me of a poem that I’ve had running through my mind all week. I can’t recall it all word-for-word, but I remember the meaning behind it. It went something like this:

“Birdhouses”

People said they were a good excuse for looking up.

That was it. That was the entire poem. My 8th grade English teacher, Miss Manna, had a book of poems that were written during the Depression. For some reason this poem really stuck out for me. We were supposed to pick a poem that would enable us to create three different types of projects based on it. When I chose this one my teacher thought that I should pick another one because how could you possibly do a three part project on one sentence? The first part was a written essay, I think, based on what you felt the poem meant. That was easy. The second part… I can’t remember what that involved. The third part, however, had to involve the class. A lot of kids chose to create games based on their poems. At the time I was very much into cake decorating, so I baked a 9×13 cake and decorated it to look like a birdhouse with a bird in it. It really wasn’t very creative, but it worked and I scored really high on the entire thing.

Anyway, with the way that my week was going I kept thinking about how others have had it, and are having it, worse than me. When you’re walking through your own mud and mire it’s hard to keep that in mind. I would think of the poem, and of looking up, and it reminded me that God is in all things and has a plan for us all. I just had to keep faith in Him. Also, I had to remember that Friday would be around the corner and then things would be better. lol

How was your Friday? Mine started off with my coworker being on the phone a dozen times. Then my boss called us into his office where I was essentially told that I had been passed over for a promotion that I had applied for. Then I received an e-mail stating that in order to fix my dehumidifier they would have to send a tech out to look at it, despite the fact that the stupid thing is less than a year old. Also, I’ve been thinking about Chrissy a lot and missing her. Finally, the weather was not nice on my ride to Jay’s. But it’s all good. Do you know why? Because I am at Jay’s and I have two days before I have to go back to work. 🙂

It’s also nice when you have people who care about you call just to check in. It makes you happy knowing that there’s somebody out there who is thinking about you. When things are getting me down, I try to recall a moment when something made me bust out laughing. Tomorrow I am heading a little further south for the day in order to visit with a college friend. We had a TON of fun in school and without any alcohol involved whatsoever. Let me tell you a few stories…

I went to college out in the Finger Lakes region of NY. It’s a gorgeous region, but they don’t get nearly as much snow as what I was used to where I grew up. One morning we had classes canceled because we had received about a foot of snow overnight. I was amazed that they would shut things down because I wasn’t used to that. Where I lived if we got a foot of snow overnight you had to take things a little slower, but we did it. Well, my friends thought it would be fun to play in the snow. So we trudge out there and I’m trying to enjoy myself (I’m not much of a fan of the snow) when out of nowhere one of my tiny and very petite friends ran at me and did her best to tackle me. What ended up happening was she bounced off of me and landed in the snow. I looked down at her as if to say, “What in the world was that??” My other friends were dying of laughter because they said it lookedlike a ball bouncing off of a brick wall. I hadn’t even budged!

My friend whom I will be visiting tomorrow used to live across the hall from me. I didn’t have a roommate during most of my time at college, but I had a double room. I would keep a bedspread on the other bed so that my friends could lounge on that if they were visiting me. Which they did, except for Vikkie. She would sneak into my room while I was doing homework or watching TV, and leap onto my bed… the one that I was using! She would then proceed to hog up the space and hang out with me. Whenever I would point out to her that there was an entire empty bed on the other side of the room she would insist that my bed was the ‘Community Bed’ and therefore open to all visitors. lol. When I moved into my house she insisted that I needed to have the Community Bed ready for when she visited. It may seem silly and not at all funny, but it makes me laugh.

Let me leave you with one last thought that I try to live by everyday:

Smile. It makes people wonder what you’re plotting. 🙂

This is me. Okay, not literally, but this is how I’ve been feeling lately. Have you ever wished that you could fight with certain family members just so that you wouldn’t have to deal with them anymore? That’s what I’ve been wishing for lately. It’s not good, I know, but it would relieve a lot of the frustration, stress and pressure that I’ve been dealing with for a while. I just want to run away. Far, far away. In my head all I can hear are the Monty Python guys yelling, “Run away! Run away!”

I’m fed up with engineers who are impatient. With bosses who can’t make a decision. With coworkers who are incompetent morons.

I’m tired of basements that leak. Of new dehumidifiers that are icing up for no good reason. Of old washers that wring my clothes into tight little ropes and ALWAYS manage to tangle up my bra straps with the rest of my clothes. Of ovens that don’t heat to temperature. Of dryers that don’t suck the cat hair off of anything.

I want to run away from people who can’t understand a simple concept no matter how many times it’s been explained to them. From weather that snows one second and rains the next. From the worry of trying to stay warm without the stupid gas company over-estimating my gas usage. From the worry of how badly our government is ruining the economy and making it hard for everybody to be able to afford the necessities.

Sometimes I think that a good cry will help, so I try it. All it does is make my nose run and give me a headache. It doesn’t solve any of the issues. Especially when you feel so alone. Or when you are thinking about issues that are a big deal to you, and somebody bothers you with what you feel is trivial. It makes me want to pull deep into my shell and shut everybody out. But that won’t solve anything, either.

I just don’t know what to do to make myself feel better. I feel like I’m treading water and barely keeping my head afloat. The only thing that I can do is to take a deep breath, perhaps cry a few tears, and muster up my best Scarlett O’Hara voice when saying, “Tomorrow is another day.”

First off, I have to tell you that this was the best Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had. It’s amazing how a really great relationship can make everything that much better. I don’t try to put a lot of emphasis on Valentine’s Day, but since it was the first one for me and Jay I wanted to make it special. Neither of us have a history of great Valentine’s Days.

Since we don’t get to see each other during the week we had discussed it and decided to celebrate the weekend after the 14th. He had to work Friday night, which was depressing since he already works a million hours during the week because of mandatory overtime, but I used the time alone in his place to my advantage. I like trying to surprise him, and sometimes I’m fairly good at it.

I made some sugar cookies for Jay a few weeks ago and told him that he should be nice to his coworkers and take some in for them. I had definitely made plenty. He mentioned that perhaps if he shared his cookies with one of them that this guy’s wife would make a fruit pizza for Jay to share. I’ve never made a fruit pizza in my life and had only had it once, actually, but I thought that I would surprise Jay with one. I used Allrecipes.com to find a recipe and settled on this Fruit Pizza. A fruit pizza is basically a giant sugar cookie that you frost with cream cheese and top with your choice of fruit in a pretty pattern. I chose kiwi, strawberry and pineapple for mine. You are supposed to make a glaze for it, too, but I had forgotten to take my cornstarch with me. Instead of the glaze I just drizzled chocolate syrup over it, which Jay loves.

As the crust was cooling I ran out to my car and grabbed the gift that I had purchased for Jay. Then I sat it on the coffee table, along with a couple other little things, and hoped that he would like everything. The bad thing about Jay working Friday nights is that I don’t sleep well. I try to stay up late so that I will be exhausted and then won’t wake up very often. Why? Because every time I wake up I look at the clock to see what time it is, and then I figure out how many more hours until Jay is home. Yes, it’s a horrible sickness. lol. As I’ve explained to him, it’s worse than trying to get through the hours of Christmas Eve to make it to Christmas morning. Jay gets out of work at 6:30 and is usually home no later than 7. Well, if I wake up around 5:30, then that’s it… I can’t get back to sleep. In fact, I don’t think that there’s ever been a time when he’s returned home from work and I was completely sacked out.  Yes, I’m sad. lol

Since I was up he made us coffee and then I insisted that he open his gift. Remember, he works in an iron foundry and had just gotten home from work.

That is his excited, “Look at the airplane!!” look. lol. Yes, I am a horrible enabler and I bought him a new R/C plane for Valentine’s Day. It makes him happy, though, and that’s all that matters to me.

When we had been in a hobby shop he had spotted this and was thinking about buying it. At that point in time I had no thoughts of getting it for him, but I insisted that he didn’t need another plane at that point in time. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that it dawned on me that this would make a great gift for him because I knew that he wanted it. He was very happy.

As for me, he wanted to get me bling, but was unsure what I would like. He didn’t want to get me something that I would hate. I insisted that I wouldn’t hate anything that he had picked out for me, but he wasn’t buying that line because he knows women. lol. Instead we went to the mall where he had to endure me going through the cases of four different jewelry stores. I didn’t even know what to pick! Did I want another pair of earrings? Perhaps a necklace? Maybe a nice gemstone ring? I didn’t want to pick something just to pick it. I was waiting for something to jump out at me. I rarely buy my own jewelry so I don’t often even know what calls to me when I have an entire store to look at.

Then it jumped out at me. I saw it and it was so pretty that I was quite sure it was more than what I wanted him to spend on me, so I didn’t say anything. After the last store, though, nothing else had spoken to me. Jay was still unsure of what my tastes were so I told him that I would show him what I had found. It was the prettiest emerald ring. Wouldn’t you agree?

I apologize for the quality of the picture, but jewelry is so hard to photograph. My bathroom had the best light, so this was done over the sink. Can you see why it called to me?

I was trying to get a better picture of the side detail, but Bob thought that I was doing something in the sink so he got into the shot at the last moment. lol. If you look at the blurry picture to the right you can see a little emerald on the band. There are three diamond chips that run below this little emerald, and then four diamond chips that run between the large emerald on top and the little ones on each side of the ring. So there are a total of 14 diamond chips and three emeralds. It really is gorgeous, and though I didn’t want Jay spending a bunch of money on me, it is gorgeous and I think of him every time I look at it. Isn’t he such a sweetie??

Sorry that you had to listen to me brag on him, yet again. He just makes me so happy that I want to share it with the world. 🙂