Friday, July 23, 2010

Dailure-Doing for Others

Yesterday, I had a doctor's apointment, and a meeting scheduled right after. I was very impatient and felt that I should probably re-schedule (rather than wait for an hour and a half). When I told the nurse, she said, "we will try and get you out for your meeting and it's better to wait because the insurance you have may not cover after August 1st". So, by the time I made it into the doctor's office I was more than tense, I was tense and upset. I really like my doctor, she's got great bedside manner, and the thought of not being able to go to her.... Needless to say by the time she made it into the office I was on edge (literally on the edge of the table ready to make tracks out of her office). But she started talking to me, asking me what was going on and we began a rather lengthy discussion, mostly about her kids. She told me that she was "overwhelmed by her children". Both are in college and she felt that they "took advantage of her". I basically asked her questions and told her how I might handle the situation. She said, "you don't know how happy I am that you came in today. You were meant to be here." She hugged me and thanked me (about 6 times). When I went out, to the front desk, to make my co-payment, the nurse said, "she is not charging you, apparently you counselled her and she's grateful". I wasn't expecting that and it made me feel 'good' that I had helped, in a small way.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Monday, July 12, 2010

Big FUCKING Dailure

A negative biopsy is one of the biggest and best dailures that I can think of! What a horrible couple of weeks it's been. It aint over but it sure feels a bit better than yesterday, when it was all I could do not to jump out of my skin. The FIFA world cup finals was a good distraction but the entire affair made me so nervous (not a lot of help consider my already fragile state). I managed not to hyperventilate (it was my birthday, yesterday, and there were people 'watching', no, they weren't watching me, they were watching the game at our house). It would have been most undignified if I had started writhing around on the floor, while everyone was watching as Spain played Holland. NOT ONE GOAL until the last five minutes in the second 15 minutes of overtime. Talk about a nail-biter. I thought the game was going to go into penalty kicks. That would have been a royal bummer. It all worked out and Spain scored the one and only winning goal. So I waited ALL day today for a doctor to get back to me with the results. And it wasn't until 5:45 PM that he called and left a message on our answering machine, "the results from the tests look good" was all he said. But it was enough to help me feel that someone had loosened the noose around my mid-section.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Blueberry Mush Mush and Fourth of July

We had a fourth of July celebration, with our neighbors and a few other friends and the food was out of this world. We made marinated flank steaks and sausages, on the grill, fruit and potato salads, home-made brownies (our neighbor, Denise, makes the best fudge brownies) and guacamole. I remembered that it was always a tradition, in our family, to make blueberry mush mush on the 4th. So I asked my oldest childhood friend (practically cousin) Tracy Teweles, for the recipe. So I'm sharing: 1 pint blueberries
1 cup butter, 1 cup flour, 1 cup brown sugar. Mix butter, flower and brown sugar together and slice it up with two knives. Cover the top of the blueberries with the mixture and put into 375 degree oven, for 45 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

When Insults Had Class-Daily Delight

When Insults Had Class
“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
–Winston Churchill
“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”
–Clarence Darrow
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
–William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
—Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”
–Groucho Marx
“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”
–Mark Twain
“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”
–Oscar Wilde
“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one.”
–George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
“Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one.”
–Winston Churchill’s response to George Bernard Shaw
“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.”
–Stephen Bishop
“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.”
–John Bright
“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.”
–Irvin S. Cobb
“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.”
–Samuel Johnson
“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”
–Paul Keating
“He had delusions of adequacy.”
–Walter Kerr
“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?”
–Mark Twain
“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”
–Mae West
“Winston, if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee!”
–Lady Astor to Winston Churchill at a dinner party
“Madam, if I were your husband, I would drink it!”
–Winston Churchill’s response to Lady Astor
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."
—Moses Hadas
"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
—Jack E. Leonard
"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt."
—Robert Redford
"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge."
—Thomas Brackett Reed
"He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them."
—James Reston (about Richard Nixon)
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."
—Charles, Count Talleyrand
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."
—Forrest Tucker
"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any one I know."
—Abraham Lincoln
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts — for support rather than illumination."
—Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."
—Billy Wilder
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”
–Oscar Wilde
"You, Mr. Wilkes, will die either of the pox or on the gallows."
–The Earl of Sandwich
"That depends, my lord, whether I embrace your mistress or your principles."
–John Wilkes's response to The Earl of Sandwich
"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."
—Winston Churchill