anonemouse

I tried to stay away from folks like that, but the smell fills the room. Smoke-smell doesn't bother me that much, as long as it is light. If someone has just finished a cigarette, I don't like how they smell, but I can tolerate it. I just can't tolerate the really heavy stale smoke smell that chain smokers have.

Whoops! Sorry!

Personally, I believe that having an abortion (for most women) is taking responsibility and accountability for your actions. I know that if I was sexually active right now and got pregnant, I would most likely have an abortion. My point is that someone having an abortion doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't taking full responsibilty for their actions. Every sane woman knows that pregnancy is a likely outcome of sex. By having an abortion, IMO, many women are taking responsibility for their actions and acknowledging that they can't take care of a child, for whatever reason. It is much more irresponsible, IMO, to bring a child into this world that you can't take care of.

They know, I just don't think they care.

Musicalmomma, I definitely respect your position, mainly because you respect ours. So many pro-life folks are so militant that you can't have a civil discussion about abortion. We may not agree, but at least we can remain civil.

Look at it this way, Wheetsin, your professor or advisor or whatever was bragging on you. I'd take it as a compliment. I doubt they would do that for an average or mediocre student. You must be talented if you have several professors pressuring you to have your stuff published.

To be honest, I think a "sin tax" on foods that have no redeeming value to them wouldn't be a bad thing. Make the bad foods more expensive than the good foods, and maybe low income folks would be able to feed their kids something other than white bread, chicken nuggets, french fries, and Little Debbie. I know that I personally tend to think twice about getting something expensive, especially if I have a choice between something expensive and something cheaper. To me, it would just be enforcement of proper behavior.

Don't forget the yuppie soccer moms who want to impress all the other soccer moms.

I have to agree with that. Who the hell needs a hummer, anyway? Go buy a freakin' minivan if you want something massive and ugly!

Here you go, Bubble: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/09/execution.pizza/index.html I don't know. Personally, I think the death penalty is wrong. I don't think anyone, not even the state, has the right to sentence another person to death. Or at least, the state should be forced to review all new evidence.

Is anyone else seeing this, or am I just special? The reserved ad spots on the left have little spray-painted numbers on them. And they change every time I refresh!

Oh, yeah. This has been an incredible ordeal. I feel like I take one step forward and two steps back. It seems like no one knows what they're doing. Faxes weren't being sent to the correct number for my insurance company; surgeon's offices weren't getting the right crap from my other doctors; when they DID get the right crap, it got lost; the 1st surgeon's office (I had to switch surgeons) never found out that they weren't covered by my insurance until AFTER everything had been submitted to them; had to have MORE medical tests done before I could be approved; my current surgeon went on maternity leave this summer; I'm having to change insurance policies in August (which means Ill have to have everything resubmitted to insurance if they schedule my date after then), etc., etc., etc. You name it, it's probably delayed my surgery. Believe me, it's not just the military that doesn't know what they're doing.

I'm just so afraid that if I make a fuss, they'll intentionally screw something up and delay me even longer. I am seriously thinking of just calling the office manager up and begging her to try to find me an earlier appointment. The problem is that the surgeon is on maternity leave until sometime in July. At this point, I don't care if they have to sqeeze me in somewhere, I just want to be banded!

People who have obnoxious ringtones on their cellphones. I was eating lunch with my mom a few days ago and someone's cellphone went off while they were at the salad bar in the other room. It was the most obnoxious ringtone EVER. And then both the girl and her mom sat there and played with their cellphones the entire time they were there, changing the ringtones and crap. When will people learn that a restaurant is not the proper place to do that?! I wanted DerickM's poo-flinging monkeys.

I really want my feet to shrink when I get banded. I don't care if the get smaller length-wise, as long as they get narrower. It makes it hell to find pretty shoes that don't make my feet look like squished sausages.

You definitely have a point there, boh.

You guys might get a kick out of this. I gave my students one last assignment, which counted for 40% of their last quiz grade. All they had to do was write about their favorite non-local animal. I wanted them to give me the common name of the animal, the scientific name, and a picture of it. I also wanted them to write a paragraph describing the animal, its habitat, and any special physical or behavioral adaptations that the species has. What did I get? A few good papers and a whole lot of crap, that's what. Would a bunny rabbit or a Siberian Husky or a Guinea pig be your first thought when someone mentions "non-local animal?" Several of my students didn't even bother to disguise the fact that they copied and pasted the material. One even left the phonetic spelling of the common name and a bright blue link in the paragraph. I expected a hell of a lot better from college students.

Heard today from the surgeon's office manager. Right now, I have an appointment to meet the surgeon on August 1st, but she's going to try to get me in earlier. I hope she does, because I don't want to have to go through resending my stuff to insurance when I change policies on August 2nd.

That's the latest update that I've gotten from my surgeon's office about a date for my surgery. My surgeon is on maternity leave until then, but they are going to try to get me in before the end of July. The scheduling department still hasn't called me, but I'll be patient.

Well, I just got a voicemail from my mom. She said that my brother's girlfriend called her today and confirmed that she did have a miscarriage.

My brother's girlfriend probably miscarried today. I don't know all the details, but she spent most of the day at one of the hospitals in Memphis. I don't know what's going to happen now. They were going to get married this summer, but I don't know if that will still happen.

Actually, I was referring to the smoke smell. You know, not the smell you get when you are right next to a smoker, but the stench that you can smell across the room. I don't know if they are just particularly heavy smokers or if they just don't bother to bathe and wash their clothes, but it is stomach-turning to me. Those people literally make me sick. I get nauseated, my throat hurts, and I get headaches, along with my asthma acting up.

Holy crap! What quack filled it that much?

Thanks, Sarah. I'll try to post an update when I find out whether or not she miscarried.

To be honest, I've had a bad taste in my mouth about Mormons ever since my former roommate got married (and subsequently divorced). She married into a Mormon family. She converted to LDS when they were first dating, just so that she could date him. The guy came from a large family. The family was very disfunctional, which stemmed (in my view, at least) from the controlling aspect of the religion. In my experience, the more you try to control someone, the more they try to break free. Anyway, the guy was the most immature boy I have ever met. He went straight from living with Mommy and Daddy to living with his new wife. He was very conflicted about his beliefs, and he rebelled against them pretty much any time he was with my friend. I think this conflict made him very passive-aggressive, depressed, etc. He expected my friend to wait on him for everything, even when they weren't yet married. She did his laundry. She made him meals. He made her get up to get him refills of meals and drinks. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. He was raised to believe that men are waited on hand and foot by women. He was the ultimate mamma's boy. Unfortunately, he never got the teaching that men are supposed to support their families. Once they were married, he moved in with my friend and refused to do house work, refused to go back to college (he was maybe a year away from graduating), and refused to get a job. He just sat there and played video games and played on the computer. Obviously, it wasn't a huge shock when my friend separated from him after 6 months and was officially divorced from him the day before their first anniversary.