The Serious Need for Play: Scientific American:

Free, imaginative play is crucial for normal social, emotional and cognitive development. It makes us better adjusted, smarter and less stressed.

"... Parents should let children be children—not just because it should be fun to be a child but because denying youth’s unfettered joys keeps kids from developing into inquisitive, creative creatures, Elkind warns. “Play has to be reframed and seen not as an oppo­site to work but rather as a complement,” he says. “Curiosity, imagination and creativity are like muscles: if you don’t use them, you lose them.” "

I caught this article from Laura's blog and found it very informative and just an all around interesting read.

Yes, it was awful -- now please shut up - CNN.com:

Poignant, tragic, funny, outrageous --most of us have at least one story we tell (and retell) to explain our emotional bruises. But there's a big difference between understanding the past and being stuck in it.
--
"Oh, for God's sake," she says, rolling her eyes. "Could we please stop the drama and get on with our life?"

I normally try to avoid anything dealing with Oprah anymore, but I stumbled across this article on CNN. It echos nicely what I've been saying for years. For me it can be very very easy to slip into self pity. My brother died when I was eight; my father has a violent temper, though never physical hit anyone; was constantly bullied throughout school; so on and so forth. I could weep and moan and go on about how my life was so horrid.

Your life is shaped by your past experiences, not defined by it.

Probably the greatest thing about this article is the points it has to help you avoid getting stuck in that self pity rut. Teaches you how to recognize it and how to fight it.

Komen Greater Atlanta Affiliate | Home:

I'm probably not as vocal as I wish, but some of you might know about my passion for finding a cure for breast cancer. My family has a long history of breast cancer, most recently my sister having a double mastectomy. In getting some new luggage tags, I just found out that there is a local Atlanta group for the Susan G Komen foundation. They have events, volunteers, and newsletters. I strongly suggest to all local women (and men too!) to try to find some way to get involved. Might just see about volunteering once I get back home.

Depressed bad tonight. Pretty much crying myself to sleep.

Just hard. My knees are hurting bad. Meijers was having a Dr. sholes shoe sale, buy one get one for a doller. made each pair about 18 or less. Picked up two pair of really nice black leather shoes. One is casual, closed toe shoes for everyday use, another is a small pump that's really comfy. The only two closed toe shoes I had were my grey boots and a pair of white sneakers. I wanted to get a brown pair of the casuals, but they didn't have any my size. Need to break them in. Left fits perfect, but the right seems a bit too long. I have funky feet anyway: left is a 7 1/2 medium, right is a 7 wide. Near impossioble to get a single pair to fit comfortably.

Anyway, I needed the shoes because its so cold and rainy up here. All I brought were my sandals. My knees are giving out too. Really hurting. Mom doesn't have a working dishwasher so I have to stand there and hand wash everything.

That isn't helping things at all. Mom is... difficult to say the least. Emotional and cranky is about the best way I can describe it. She was doing so well in the hospital. I feel like I'm failing to help her since we've not been doing what we need to do. She's not helping though. Puts off taking her pain meds and resisting taking them at all. I'm trying to be patient, but many times she just doesn't trust me at all, doesn't believe that I've got a brain and know what I'm doing. Trying to be patient, but its quickly wearing me down.

Keep hearing a conversation I had with my sister some time ago. She was saying that I have a real 'gift' for being able to take care of people like I do. What I should have told her is that its not so much that, as I'm able to put on that mask for a time and do what needs to be done. I do it, I don't enjoy it. I'm very good at hiding the pain it causes, hiding the frustraition. I don't let them see me curling up at night and crying myself to sleep wondering how I'm going to make it through the next day.

What hurts the most is that I know it doesn't go both ways. I help everyone else, I be there when they need me, but they will never be there for me. Never really have. Sure Mom's done all the mom stuff, but.. no one can help me with my problems. I stand by them, but I stand alone. Its how its always been. Maybe its my own fault for being able to take care of myself for the most part. Doing what I can to adapt to my difficulties. I don't know.

All I can say is how thankful I am to have quu. He's been with me through the worst, stuck it out and helped me through it. I can count on him. In many ways he is a shealter from the storms of my craziness. I feel so alone up here. Like a lone tree in the middle of a field being buffited by the storms. Just want to go home so bad right now.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. Part of my problem is I don't think I've been taking my meds. I know I took them today, but think I forgot for the past 2-3 days. Feel scatterbrained, frustraited, tired, and just short tempered.

Miss my home. Miss my bed. Miss the fuzzy kitties. Miss the puppy belly. And most of all I miss my husband.

Anyone got a spare set of ruby slippers?

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Doc sent her home today. She's doing great. I'm... remembering how hard this was for me last time. Doesn't help that all I want to do is go curl up and sleep for a week. So fucking tired.

She's napping right now. I should clean, but dammit I'm going to go lay down. I can barely keep my eyes open.

No sleep last night.

Well, more like little sporadic bits of sleep here and there. Around 3am the maintainance man for the cheese factory my mom works at called the house. He got his days mixed up and thought mom hadn't had her surgery yet. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that apparently there had been a fire at the plant. I was too sleepy to ask what happened or how bad it was, so the rest of the might I had psydo-nightmares about the entire plant being burned to the ground.

Did I mention it was freezing cold? When I crawled into bed, had on two shirts, my robe, and even a pair of socks. Buried myself under the sheet, wool blanket, comforter, AND a down comforter.

Oh, and there was a storm. When I finally left the hospital it was all wet, but after I got home it started raining, then grew into a full blown Michigan spring storm. Lasted from about Midnight till 2:30-3am.

*sighs*

Its astonishing that BOTH of mom's knees were the two worst knees her doctor has ever seen. And, this is NOT a young doctor.

Today she did very well. Had a bout of bad nausea before I made it in. Got there in time for their group excersises. Mom really pushes herself. We ate lunch there then she fell back asleep shortly thereafter. That's when I ran to do errands, get american idol set up, etc.

Speaking of american idol...

Mom told me I had to tape this weeks shows for her. Yes, you read right... TAPE. As in.. VHS. Went to target for a few other things, they didn't have any. Went to best buy with little hope. Found a guy and told him "I have an impossible task for you" where in which he proved, while difficult, it was indeed not impossible. Got their last bunch. As in, they are not planning on getting anymore. Started to head to the casheir when I turned to the two guys who ended up helping me and said, "I already know the answer, but I gotta ask: Any Wii's?"

Their answer was a chours of "Yes".

My response: "YOU'RE SHITTING ME!!!!"

Apparently they were frustraited at the fact all their stock was going to the ebay resellers and just instituted a new "policy" of sorts. They are no longer putting them on the shelves. Ebayers simply won't ask a sales person "Can I get 10 wii's?" Personally I wouldn't mind seeing places to the whole "one per customer" thing. Sure, the bold few will work around it, but most won't bother.

Anyway, mine wasn't the last either. A guy heard my exclimations and came over to find out if it was indeed wii's. There was a guy and his son in front of me, the older one behind, and I got the impression there were even more in the back. So, anyone looking for a wii, go to your local best buy. I dunno if its just a decision that this local manager decided, or if its a chain policy now. Either way, support best buy and their effort to defeat the evil resellers (though I blame the people who buy the resold stuff cause if people didn't buy them, no one would resell).

That's what that voice post was about. Doesn't say "hello everyone", says "I got one!" Sorry for the crappy sound. *sighs*

So yesterday I got my wii, set it up and have it working with the wireless.Today I bought Endless Ocean and LOVE it. Beautiful music. Contols can be difficult at times. Perfect time eater. So relaxing. Was just what I needed. Why?

Well, time with mom was pretty good. she had a spot of pain, but not bad and the nausia wasn't back at all. She slept most the time. I left arounf 7:30ish to go make sure her american idol taped properly. My knees, feet, and head were all killing me. Between lack of sleep and the crazy MI weather, I'm suprised my head didn't explode.

Since I didn't want to really buy a game and end up hating it (when games were 15 bucks not much of an issue, but 50 doller games is nothing to sneeze at) I went over to the only rental place I knew of (blockbuster closed sometime after Nov). They didn't have Endless Ocean, even for sale. Frustraited I just said fuck it and left. Not having an account anymore, not sure if they would let me open one with an out of state addy. As I'm pulling out of the parking space, I notice a car pulling in, seemingly heading straight towards me. Stupid me am so focused on the incoming car... I failed to notice the car behind me. *sighs* Tapped the bumper. Didn't do any real damage to the old chrystler, but it slightly dented mom's bumper and left rubber residue. Gods I wish it had been MY car. I'm scared to death that Mom's gonna get in trouble for it.

Ran into the store, talked to the car owner, who really didn't care since it didn't do any damage. I still am kicking myself for not leaving my cell number 'just in case'. Better than then him suddenly trying to contact mom. Doubt anything will come of it anyway. Shouldn't take much to get the dent out anyway. Just.. gah.

Even more frustraited, I make my way towards the house and detour to best buy (it is literally on the way). Endless Ocean is 30 bucks, Smash Brothers is 50... hmmm... lemme see... Yeah, got endless ocean.

Came home, almost 8:30, and American Idol is STILL going on. Its their funraiser thing. Growling, I go to get on the puter to make the donation mom asked me to, only to find that the CD rack with all her CDs had tipped over while I was away.

Move the rack, put back the CDs, make the donation, though I can't find my cell phone in my bag. While I'm looking for it, notice during a commercial break that the VCR had stopped recording. I stick endless ocean in, but while I'm trying to figure out how to get the Wii to display (switching to line 2 with a button buried in the remote), I notice that although the VCR did what I told it to, American Idol was STILL GOING ON!!! GAH! I make the mad rush to get it recording again. Would you believe I had just rewound it? Thankfully it was some girl's rock/country performance, and it only clipped the first half of it. Oh.. and THEN.. Right at the end, just as Maria Carey is comming on stage, the tape gets to the end and starts to rewind. I had forgotten to put it in EP mode. FuckinA. Another mad rush to put a new tape in. I hope mom doesn't mind too much. I didn't care for the song anyway. She'll love the fact I got what was important: the closing performance of the idol finalist singing a "praise and worship" song. I'm temped to install itunes on mom's computer just to buy that song for her. Its one of her favs too. That's twice now that they have had christian themes going on. Dolly Parton and her song when she 'mentored' last week, then this. Flat out suprised me.

Anyway.. the best thing was, right after I got Idol retaping the first time.. Robin Williams came out. He's such a good comedian. Had me in near tears. Just what I needed.

After all the taping was done, Finally got into my game. So much fun. I'll 'review' it later.

Crashing now. Should have 3 hours ago. Once again gotta get up early, and its fucking cold out (barely above 30 right now I think).

Night peeps.

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She's out of surgery and doing fine. Doctor said this knee was like the other, worst he's ever seen in his professional career (we're talking 20 or so years of surgery). Said it was like barnicals rubbing together. I think he means the ends of the bones. Her Ostiogenis Imperficta means her bones are less dence, almost like a sponge. Its a mirical this hasn't caused her any pain. I've had my knee go out once like she does. Only way to describe it is that it is like you take a step and suddenly your leg isn't there. Very scary, but not painful. Well, unless you are not able to catch yourself and fall.

Oh, and this hospital has NO WIFI!! Suprisingly my sister went through more withdrawl than I.

Right now waiting for them to let us go back to the recovery room. She's still in post-op.

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Anyone having problems with congestion/stuffy nose, I can highly recommend the Zicam "Extreme Congestion relief" with aloe. Just bought some and HOLY COW I can breathe again.

And for the locals, anyone remember Cherokee Cattle Company? It used to be one of the best steak houses in town, but over the years cooks changed and it has gone downhill. Well, a while back the folks who own the Marietta Diner bought the place. I was wary at first, but we just tried it out and BOY have they improved things! I seriously suggest people to try them out sometime.

Metro Atlanta YMCAs
Cobb County YMCAs
Google Map: Metro Atlanta YMCAs

So, my old roomies, tatianamik and internetbrain, are going to be moving here to Atlanta, hopefully soon. While talking with Tanya, she mentions the YMCA and gives me a link to the one near where I live. Not too terribly far. I look at the membership fees and my jaw hits the floor. $126 intro, $53 a month for a single adult. $175 intro, $76 a month for two adults. But then I notice it's for all "Metro Atlanta YMCAs". How many can there really be? Well, try something like 26. The 'map' they have is impossible to tell where anything really is, so I took the addresses and made a google map of them all. Not only is there the one near us, but there is one not to far from where quu works. The one near us not only has a pool, whirlpool, and sauna... but also a rock climbing wall. How cool is that? I'm thinking we're going to hold off on our memberships until after I get back from up north. That way I have my own car and can go during the day. Maybe if I get used to being out and getting some exercise I'll be more likely to do stuff at home. Who knows. But anyway, thought I'd share what I found!

On top of being insanely sick, I've had a bit of some computer problems. My CPU was being maxed out by a file (from windows) and had no way of stopping it. My guess is that the crappy McAfee software my laptop came with was finally strangling my poor lappy to death. Because McAfee is worse than Constrictor Vine (anyone who get's that refrence get's a cookie that's not be coughed on) the only way to be rid of it was a clean install.

So, now is sit, here with my new clean setup (minus mcafee) and am once again loving how my laptop performs. We got the esata card and cord and my external HD (named "Ashes to Ashes") works like a charm. There's some graphics lag, but well within tolerable range. Now that all the crap is gone, I even have an extra 10 gig that my recovery (read useless) partition was taking up. As well as the small amount that Dell's "Media Direct" ran off of. For the curious, Media Direct is kinda nifty, allows you to watch media, etc without actually loading up the OS. Something I don't need since my puter is all but a desktop for me.

That all being said.. I've downloaded the latest version of Trillian and have gotten it somewhat setup. If, for some odd reason you think i'm ignoring you, it's ilkely that my settings are all simply messed up and I need to get you back in the proper place on my IM. So, please feel free to toss me an IM so I can get the alerts for you setup. Found out that There were others that I hadn't gotten setup for in MONTHS after I got this new one. Please understand, Because i've got 4-5 different im logins, my "offline contacts" is so huge it's impossible to navigate. Combine that with the fact I usually rename people so half the names on my IM list I don't recognize (but don't have the heart to delete).

And with that, i'm giong to hit 'send' then go lay down. I feel like I've been hit by a mac truck a few times.

Of course, while I'm getting ready to send this, I realize that the nifty Firefox plugin i'm using to send it sucks for livejournal compatibility. Not tags, no icons, no nuthing. If you had wordpress or blogger I guess this would be ok. *sighs* time to go find Semagic again.

Yes, once again both quu and I are sick. Thankfully it's just a sore throat, blah thing. Started somewhat yesterday and today both of our voices are near gone. I woke up and could barely make a squeek. I've managed to be able to make those squeeks sound like words, but not much. It hurts too.

Other than that we're doing pretty ok. I feel totally exhausted even though I got plenty of sleep.

In other news, I have a brand new shiny 750 gb external hard drive. Why do I need such exuberance you ask? Well, my laptop only has about 100gigs  of space.. and I had run out. Consider that I have Office 2007 (Outlook, Word, Excel, Access, Infopath, OneNote, PowerPoint, Visio, Publisher), Visual Studio, and then my games: WoW, LOTRO (yes I started playing), Hellgate, HalfLife 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Oblivion, Sim City Societies, Black and White 2, Overlord, and probably more that I'm not thinking of. It was getting to the point where I was having to uninstall games to install new ones. Not fun.

So anyway... this weekend it must have really hit home how my space issues are cause Pat bought me the new external HD. The thought was to install all my games on IT so that I don't have to clog up my main HD.Well, I've encountered a bit of a problem. For some reason my games are lagging, and I'm not talking just a minimal delay. It's visible skipping in the graphics and loading. Now, first off, my friend rhast figured out that by default it had the drive on a setting so that I could just unplug it and go. Something to do with cacheing or something. Anyway, got that changed over to a "performance" setting, now i have to do the whole "safely remove hardware" to unplug it, which i do anyway. It was fine for a while... but now it's lagging again. Right now defragging my main drive, hopping that might fix some of the issues.. but it worries me. Anyone got any other ideas? My ehd has ESATA connection, but my laptop doesn't have it by default so I'd have to go get an expansion card or something to make use of it. I'd rather NOT have to go that route. So.. ideas?

So, after two nights of restless sleep and a cough that is near killing him, I managed to drag pat into the doctor.

I was right, sorta. No.. it's not congestion, or at least not completely.

He's got bronchitis. Ya.. that's right..bronchitis. I noticed i started coughing yesterday, and my restless sleep and constant lethargy might be signs I have it as well. Tomorrow going in myself, though the problem might be that I have a history of asthma. Hopefully, if i do have it, since I'm catching it early i won't be as bad off as pat.

But anyway...

To anyone we've been around in the past two weeks, please be on the lookout if you start coughing a lot and find yourself having trouble breathing. Again, due to quarantine we won't be hanging out with peeps until we know we're in the clear. Knowing me, could be a while since I usually take double the time to kick a sickness than pat, though I usually have it much milder.

We'll keep ya updated. Just gotta remember to go to the doc tomorrow for me. For now, going on near 21 hours since i slept last. Hopefully this will fix my sleep schedule.. if only I can get a good restful sleep. Been having at the least unpleasant dreams, at the worst full blown nightmares. Had one where i nearly woke up screaming. Just thinking about it disturbs me to no end. That's the kicker... they are all WEIRD.. not really scary. And, talking to pat, he's having the same thing. Neither one of us have gotten a good restful sleep in over a week.

Oh, mental note: I must stay away from abuderal. That's the inhaler that i react badly too. Gives me the shakes and fucks up my perception. I wonder if this is what people feel like when they are on speed or something... dunno don't care. I don't like it and can barely function. Thank god for spell check or you people wouldn't be able to read this.

I think i'm gonna go curl up with my husband.

nini

Woke up with a massive headache.

Eyes hurt, almost migraine level.

Felt a bit dizzy, lips are dry, cotton mouth... dehydration. So I drink a lot of water. Doesn't seem to help

Ate lunch, it was good.

Couple hours later.. the glands in my throat suddenly feel like they are swelling up. Still feeling dizzy... go to lay down. I -think- i sleep because one moment I' in one position, next thing i know river is laying her head against my ankle and i have no clue how I got in the position on my other side.

Head feels like it's about to explode.

going to take a shower.. maybe lay down.

blood pressure through the roof as there is drama over on the nwn game i USED to play. I've quit btw, more details over on my silvershadow_ journal.

pat home.. feel sick.. snuggles then shower.

Well, christmas is come and gone, still have a handful of cards to still send out.. hopefully before new years. *sighs* But.. got a LOT done.

( Cut for kids stuff. )

( Cake and Soup Adventures! )

( Christmas. )

( Gaming. )

( LJ Icons! )

( Health and Depression. )

( Da House! )

Gah.. that's about all I can think of.

Trying to get back in contact with friends again.. but it's hard. Ya'll know how bad I am at keeping in touch.

Looking forward to ShadowCon though.

Enough for now.. hope ya'll enjoy the LJ cuts.. didn't want to clog up the friends pages and make everyone ignore me. >_>;;;

Laters!

Mom went to her orthopedic doctor today. Her flabitius (sp?) was acting up again and she needed him to look it over before the surgery on friday.

Well, after they took an x-ray, no sign of a stress fracture so its highly likely its an infection. As it stands now, they are going to have to postpone the surgery at least a month. She needs some blood work, a bone scan, and a few other tests to confirm there is an infection though. If they all come clean they might have the surgery while I'm still here.

Dunno what's gonna happen. Right now we are not even thinking hypotheticles until we know for sure what's going on. It might be incovent, but everyone has to agree that it would be monumentiusly stupid to have surgery nine inches away from a possible infection. He knows its incovenent, hell its incovenent for him too, but its the smart thing to do. I really like him.

Still need to call my insurance and work out the stuff with the GP up here. Just wish I could find good doctors down in atlanta. This GP is the one who originally diagnosed me with Bipolar (back then it was manic/depressive disorder). Really nice, but good doctor. Maybe he knows someone down in atlanta.

I wanna go back to sleep. Feel like I'm getting depressed again. Don't want to do anything. I don't get out of bed till after noon. Mostly sitting there with my laptop playing games and surfing the net. I think I'm homesick. I miss Pat so much. Miss River and the kitties. I'd almost kill to have Ladye Grey curl up in my lap. Last night I could almost feel River curled up with me.

Just wanna go home. But I'll deal. At least we'll have a vacation.

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After spending the past 3 hours in frustration.. I FINALLY got the new wireless router to work on my mom's cable. So now my laptop is actually USEFUL again. >_< My mom's computer only has 256mb of ram, and it's SOO slow that when I was trying to do the settings for the router the stupid thing would CHOKE. Through some weird twist of fate, I got it working long enough to setup the wireless, which then in turn let me do the connection wizard using my laptop. All that matters is that now it's working.

Anywho.. Tomorrow going down to visit my sister and the kids, dunno what we're going to do, but I'm looking forward to seeing them all.

I'm still coughing up a lung or two. Well.. it's like there is this constant tickle in the back of my throat. I'm not actually coughing up anything from my lungs. Annoying as hell.

Wee.. Pat just called to tell me he got dinner from Taco Bell. He was working till 11pm tonight. ;_; My poor baby.

Anyway.. got it all working, posting this... then heading to bed. we're waking up at 7am to get breakfast before heading to my sisters.

LATER PEEPS!

Made it up to Michigan fine.

Finally got enough sleep to help kick most the sickness out. Still tired as shit. Feel like I've been hit by a truck. Crud has settled in my lungs so I'm coughing everything up this morning. Ate a nutagrain bar, popped a halls in my mouth, cough a ton, now I'm going back to sleep.

Just don't feel like facing the world today.

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I'm worried about my weight.

Before you jump to conclusions, it's not the typical way most women are worried about their weight.

I've lost 10 pounds in the past two months. When I started the Lamictal, I weighted myself at 142 lbs. When I weighted myself last night, I was barely pushing 130 lbs. I'm also freezing all the time again. This worries me.

If I'm cold, then it's highly likely I'm burning off my body fat. Probably meaning I'm not eating enough. Lamictal says that it can have a side effect of weight loss, but my understanding was that it was actually 'decreased appetite' and therefore one lost weight. I'm hungry.. I'm hungry all the damn time... but after a few bites I just can't eat anymore. My insurance won't let me go to a specialist without a reference, so come monday I'm calling my psychologist and getting an appt with them. See.. I've been having these stomach problems since long before I started my meds so I don't really think the meds are causing this.

My hope is that when I go in for my psychologist that I can get a reference to a GI specialist. Once I get a reference, I can go to whatever doc I want, so does anyone highly recommend/know of a good GI doctor?

Yes... after dropping quu off at work I had to stop for gas (was running on empty) and said "fuck it" and went to that Handcocks closing sale I mentioned a few days ago.

Came away with 6 yards of brown crushed velvet, almost 11 yards of this ruddy reddish crushed velvet, both for $1.20 a yard. Nine yards of this brown twill cotton for 90 cents a yard. And a whopping 17 and a half yards of this gorgeous amber Kona cotton for 86 cents a yard. Also got some real Tatting thread (white and off white), 2 plastic tatting shuttles, one metal 'heirloom' shuttle (so I can tat while sitting around events and stuff), some buttons for the green dress (they go on the sleeves), as well as some more green thread 'just in case'. Even with the cheap prices it was more than I should have spent. But then I'm sorta a cheapskate. However, I have had kinda a crappy past few days, and while some women go therapy shopping for shoes or clothes, I go therapy shopping for craft stuff. Well.. at least it wasn't power tools.......... >_>;;;

Thinking of making some nice dresses out of the velvet. The brown I'm looking to use for some pants and maybe a sideless surcoat (not sure if I've got enough to make both). The amber is going to be a dress and then some. I can almost see using the brown sideless surcoat over an amber dress, but I'll need more color to go with it. I'm kicking myself for being silly and using this pattern rather than using the default easy dress layouts we all use for the SCA. Parts of this dress are lackluster (the lacings in the back and the neckline that's gathered for starters).  Also, if anyone wants some of this fabric just lemme know! God knows I've got PLENTY of this amber cloth. I might take pics of it later.

Speaking of the dress, I'm having to re-baste the whole thing. When I basted it the first time I stayed inside the 5/8ths of an inch seam allowance (like right along the edge of the fabric). The problem I'm now running into is the markings for the arm's is completely off. I wouldn't be so pissed if River hadn't have eaten my spool of navy blue thread that I was using for basteing. I've got a couple white spools so if I can't salvage more of the blue I'll switch to it.

Had a doctors appt today, went well. He's going to keep me on the 100mg of Lamictil for now. After a month or so might change the dosage but for now the current one is doing good. He did say that the antacid meds (even the bigger ones like Prolosec) should be fine, just being sure not to take them at the same time. I might try that and see if it helps. Things are getting worse. Made a mistake with dinner tonight and ended up with something akin to Italian sausage (cept it was Mediterranean) and it's ripped my stomach to shreds. quu was a sweetheart and stopped to get me a smoothie on the way home which helped a TON. One thing the doc today suggested was just going straight to a GI specialist rather than wasting time trying to find a GP that doesn't suck. I -think- though that to go to a specialist my insurance requires a referral, but might get around that by just going to a 'doc in a box' and getting a referral that way. Tomorrow I have to call the insurance anyway cause they are doing something funky with my therapist bill.

Anyway.. I'm exhausted so I think I might grab the DS, the rest of my smoothie and go lay down for a bit.