Weekly General Hospital Rant

I tried to do this on another blog, but I've decided to ditch that blog and this is one of the posts that will continue on because I have to get this out in the open for my own sanity. If you don't watch GH, just skip this weekly post.

• When did Kelly's reopen? Last thing I remember it blew up with Mike inside. True, Luke mentioned something about rebuilding, but then Luke has been mentioning things off and on through the month and then disappearing....(see #4 ) So Kelly's just opened without fanfare or mention? Or did I miss something?


• I hate the federal agents. Rayner is a complete idiot and the man who plays him is the worst actor. I could do a better job of acting and I'm not even a man! As for the pig-tailed Winifred....can she drop the "Spinelli speak"? She obviously did that while undercover because no FBI head honcho would hire someone who jabbers like that. Stop it. There is only one Spinelli.


• For months now I have suggested (to anyone who would listen) that the storyline should have Sonny and Jason really working for the WSB all these years undercover. I got excited when the FBI was brought in, but alas, the writers didn't follow my idea. And where is the WSB? Please...if you insist on this storyline then you should have used Scorpio. Or Sean? Way better actors and characters then this Rayner dude.


• And speaking of Scorpio....what happened to his "son" and Luke? We see them and now we don't. They are on one day and gone the next. It is starting to make me a tad nuts. Stick with a story, would you? And please....bring back Luke and give him a real story!


• Why is it that Sonny's home is so accessible? Everyone in Port Charles seems able to just walk in and wander around. For a mobster who has two bodyguards his security sucks!


• Really hate to see Sam back with Jason and Elizabeth back with Lucky. Can you spell B-O-R-I-N-G? I like that Sam is into detecting and danger (reminds me of Felicia, a WAY better character), but I hate her with Jason. Can we not find her someone else to work with. Maybe Mac? He could use a facelift. Let him get back into the thick of detective work instead of running around whining about everyone else's detecting.


• Please, please, please, stop hiring these new actors when you have old ones that are sorely missed. The great thing about GH is the past history. Stop all the mob nonsense and get back to the hospital and the people that run around in it. I miss Monica, Bobbi (although her face lift makes me sad), Alan, Edward, and Tracy. I don't; however, care about seeing someone who looks like someone else. Rebecca Shaw? Seriously, does that ever happen? Why wouldn't that woman run for the hills? I hope that storyline will emerge quickly, and it had better be something creative.


• And what is happening to the hospital? Is it completely burned? Is it even open? Are the nurses and doctors out of work? An update please!


• Love Sonny (and Maurice's ad-libbing) when he is in a scene with Spinelli. Kudos to the two actors!

Two month check into my New Year's Resolutions

I promised myself that I would keep better tabs on how I was doing in keeping my resolutions. I had hoped to do this assessment each month, but January got away from me. Probably, two months is better anyway. Let's see how I'm doing.....(scale 1-10 with 10 being the ultimate score)

1. To work on being patient and to not react hysterically like my forefathers. New motto: "Let it go". Hmmm...I think actually I've done very well in this department. I've made sure to stop myself if I notice some hysteria and to count to five before continuing. I've even helped others "let go", but I'm sure my family might see this a tad differently. I'm giving myself a 7 on this one.


2. To get back on my exercise track, lose 15 pounds, and live comfortably with my body however it may turn out. Yeah, okay that hasn't happened. I blame my workout buddy. It is all her fault. She isn't motivated. And my eye surgery put me down for two weeks. This is a 2.


3. To get to the beach at least twice a month. This I accomplished in January thanks to having company, but February was way too cold! Today is perfect, but I have the eye thing....not a good idea right now. I'll call that a 5.


4. To get birthday cards and gifts out on time. Okay, that wasn't an official resolution, but one I added on to my blog. I suck at this. I don't know what the problem is because I get hallmark reminders two weeks in advance. I'm determined to conquer this one. Right now it is a 2.

Total points: 16 out of possible 40.

I guess I have some work to do.....

Trying to get the worm

Today was the first day I have been able to drive and take my children to school in the morning. Because I have gotten behind in a few things I decided that I would drop off the kids and get cracking on getting my errands done. The following are some of the interesting tidbits that happened to me all before 9:30 AM.

• Each morning on the way to and from school I like to listen to a local radio station duo, Big D and Bubba. They are quite hysterical and start my day off right. Usually, they have a question that they ask and put out to the listening audience who then calls in with answers. Today's question was, What is the one thing that you do that no one knows about? The two best answers I liked: "I iron my undergarments." and "I like to go to cemeteries and lie down in the holes they dig for dead people."

• I needed to run into Target to get a gift card or a gift for my niece's birthday (which I missed 4 days ago) and somehow ended up in the woman's clothing section. While searching through the clearance rack I kept hearing this woman yell, "Emmanuel!" There would be silence and then she would say it loudly again, followed by the mocking tone of her younger daughter berating her brother. There was nothing panicked about the tone. It was more of an "Emmanuel, get your ass over here and quit horsing around." It was seriously driving me crazy, but as I made my way to the dressing room the tone changed and I noticed the woman was hurriedly walking up and down aisles. I went into the dressing room, which is run by the switchboard operator, and while looking at myself in the mirror wearing a $3.98 shirt I heard a voice over the walkie-talkie announcing that a child was missing. Immediately, more voices came over the talkie. "Negative in electronics." "Negative in toys." and then, "I have a small boy jumping on a trampoline." I listened as the first voice asked if the boy had a backpack. "No, no backpack, but he is wearing a brown shirt." Then the first voice with relief, "That's him." I looked at myself in the mirror and I was crying. Kudos to Target and its staff for their quick response.

• While standing in the checkout line at the Dollar Store I noticed that they sold pregnancy tests. Really? Would you trust those results?

• I treated myself to a Starbucks (I have loads of gift cards from the holidays) since I was so with it in getting my errands done. So not to burn my tongue I took off the lid, blew in the coffee, sipped some, closed the lid and left it to cool more while I hit the Dollar Store. I got back into the car, picked up my coffee, and took a sip. Of course, the lid was not properly back on and the coffee spilled all over my white shirt.

I think that I'm better off leaving this morning nonsense to the early birds. I don't really like worms anyhow.....

Sum of what I do

Darcy is studying a fiction book about Florida called, The Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith. It is an interesting story about a family who moves into Florida territory in the 1800's. This book is being studied in her Language Arts class as well as in her Humanities class.

She had to do two projects and take a test on the book. She didn't do well on the test and then had to write a 5 paragraph paper on the book. As I was reading the paper and thumbing through the book, my motherly instincts kicked in and I realized my daughter had not read the book! Apparently, some of the lower reading level children were in a group with the teacher who would read and go over each chapter with these kids. Darcy just made sure to sit close to the group and listen in...

So....we spent an entire Sunday reading the book aloud. Once that was finished I made her jump into her projects.

The picture above is her extra credit project. On the back side is the family tree of the family in the book. This side is Darcy's tree with four generations. I came up with the idea of a tree with pictures. Darcy did most of the research, calling her grandparents and quizzing her parents. Once that was done we took photos and scanned them into the computer into a print shop program. We had no problem with my side of the family as I had photos for everyone. Tom's side was a tad more complicated. We had Tom and his parents, but not photos of his parents' parents. A call to the grandparents did not help. They had photos, but no scanner and they live a good 40 minutes from us. We left that side blank while we pondered what to do.

Tom's helpful suggestion was exactly what I knew he would say.

Tom: "Who cares? Take some pictures of old people off the Internet and put them on it. No one is going to know or care who those pictures are."

I picked the scariest and ugliest people I could find. It didn't phase him. Only after that did we learn that after my phone call to his mother Tom actually, without our knowing, had gone up to his parent's house to fix some computer problem. Neither he nor his mother thought about GETTING THE PHOTOS.

In the end I took old black and white photos of his parents. His father, Roger, became his own father. Roger's sister became his mother. Mary Anne became her mother and her brother became his father. Because the siblings really do resemble their parents, no kidding.

So the tree isn't truly accurate in pictures, but the rest is history.

Dabbling while impaired....

Since the whole eye thing has happened, I've spent quite a bit of time home with nothing to do but putter around the house and the computer. I've spent some time trying to master my video postings and movie making. I use Picasa because that is the program that all my camera stuff downloads into and the new version of Picasa has introduced me to movie making. I would love to have a weekly video, but that might be too enterprising.

Meanwhile, here is a previous video that I never knew how to get into my post! It is my little theater girl doing a scene from Mama Mia.

Knock on wood that this is over!

Surgery #2 - Left Eye

For some reason, this surgery was completely different from beginning to end. First, I was a nervous nellie. I'm not sure why, but I was anxious, weepy, and worried. Secondly, they took me in right away, stretched me out on the bed, and did everything at once from eye drops to blood pressure, to taping down my head to jabbing me in the hand with the drugs. It was rush, rush, rush. I felt even more anxious and then they wheeled me off to the surgery room.

I didn't have nearly as many eye drops this time, which I kept mentioning to whoever would listen. The response, "No, we don't have to do as many the second time around." Huh? What? Why not? I was sure I was going to feel this surgery as they sliced through my cornea because of the lack of numbing drops, but alas, all went well.

The surgery was a "slam, bam, thank you ma'am" quick one, and the whole process from beginning to slipping me into the car took an hour. Last time....3 hours. This eye didn't have the pain that the first one did. The big difference was that everything and everyone looked red. That disappeared this morning. The vision isn't as clear distance wise as the right eye, but I believe that they tweak the Crystallens in the other eye to help me see better up close. I'll find out more at the follow-up visit today.

Thanks to everyone who sent me emails, and cards, and to those who phoned me. I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers sent my way. Right now I'm typing this without glasses and my future looks clear!

My Little Monkey

Best & Worse at the Oscars 2009

Best Oscar Moments for me:

• Kate Winslet having her dad whistle so she could find him.
• Sean Penn's speech.
• The Japanese guy's speech "sanking" everyone and then calmly saying, "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto."
• Anne Hathaway belting out her part in the opening musical number.
• The cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire really enjoying themselves and showing pure joy at all their wins.
• Ben Stiller doing his Joaquin Phoenix impression.
• Tina Fey and Steve Martin as presenters.
• Will Smith as a presenter.
• Queen Latifah singing a tribute to the members of the Hollywood community who have died.
• Jerry Lewis' speech. Sweet, short and to the point.

Yucky Oscar Moments for me:

• Cutting to Angelina Jolie when Jennifer Aniston was on stage.
• Cutting to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt yet again while Jennifer Aniston was on stage.
• That video spot with the two guys from some comedy I've never seen.
• Those who pulled out paper and read off names to thank. If you are going to do that sing it or something.
• Not enough songs nominated.
• Wall-E should have won more. Best animated film I've seen in a long time. I think it was over some people's heads.

Oscar Buzz

Sunday night I watched the Oscars. I haven't really watched them in a while because A) I've usually never seen the movies that are nominated and B) the show is too long and too boring. This year I watched because I was pulling for Slumdog Millionaire, a movie I actually saw and truly loved, and I was all caught up in the Mickey Rourke hype.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I loved Hugh Jackman's opening number and was thrilled with Anne Hathaway's performance. I was clapping like I was there when she belted out her part. I also enjoyed seeing the five past award winners coming out on stage and paying tribute to this year's nominees. I wondered if they had written what they were saying, which would have made it more meaningful if they had, but I thought it was a nice touch for both past and present. Apparently, I am in the minority.

Everything I have read the past two days has been mostly negative regarding this year's Oscar show, and everyone hated those five alumni. I don't get it. Our television newspaper critic had an article today that gave his suggestions for fixing the show. It took up almost an entire page and really wasn't helpful, in my opinion. I've decided to respond to all this whining. The following is some of the criticisms that annoyed me.

• Winners were too predictable. Really? Rocky winning Best Picture back in 1976? Only people that saw that coming were the fans who loved the movie. I suggest you throw in some other nominees that the other shows haven't honored if you think the SAG and Golden Globes are spoiling your fun.
• Oscars lack diversity. Most of Slumdog Millionaire's winners were not even Indian. Are you kidding me? You want movies about other countries to be produced, written and acted by people in that same country? Too bad for Indian directors and producers for not finding Vikas Swarup's book and realizing the potential. Kudos to Danny Boyle for doing so and for using real Indian children (not actors) in the movie. If you want diversity try opening up more nominated movie categories such as Best Comedy Picture and Best Musical to go along with Best Animated.
• The show is too long. Okay, this one I agree with. The Oscars are always long. I suggest you give out the boring awards that viewers at home usually don't care about (sound editing, costume design, set design, etc) before the show goes on air. That would cut out an hour right there and open up time for more entertaining numbers. All the presenters, nominees, guests, etc. show up and do the red carpet, go inside and mingle with cocktails and appetizers while you give out those awards. Then an hour later start the televised show. The Kodak theater audience will be happier with liquor and food in their bellies and the viewing audience will be glad to not have to sit through endless speeches from people we've never seen.
• Hated the five past winners complimenting the nominees. You like someone reading the names of the nominees and seeing a clip of their acting in the movie? Usually the same clip we see over and over again throughout the night. Yeah, that is entertaining. How nice was it seeing Goldie Hawn and Robert De niro? How funny was Cuba Gooding Jr.'s little speech to Robert Downey Jr.? Lighten up, folks!

Hanging out with 4th graders

Me: "What is it you are trying to do?"

9-year-old boy: (struggling to get his arm into his jacket) "I'm trying to get my jacket on."

Me: "Let me help."

9-year-old boy: "The problem, see, is that I'm here without my mother. I can't do anything without my mother's help."

9-year-old girl: "What will you do when you go away to college?"

9-year-old boy: "I'm not going to college." (shrugs) I'm going to hang out on the beach, veg out, drink rum."

Me: "Rum?"

9-year-old boy: "Yeah, rum. You know, Grey Goose."

Me: "Grey Goose is vodka."

9-year-old boy: "Whatever. It's good stuff."

Steve Austin has nothing on me....

Surgery #1, Right eye
Things I worried that could go wrong and / what really transpired:

• Blindness - This was something on the paper that I had to sign saying I understood this was a possibility. / Not only am I not blind, but I can see distance without any aid. At today's follow-up, my vision was 20/10. My hot surgeon said, "Damn, I'm good."

• The juice they planned on giving me would not relax me. / It started out with the nurse having trouble finding the vein in my hand. It ended with her blowing said vein. Lucky for me (and her)I was tied down to the bed with my eyes closed. The juice might have put me to sleep, but they all kept talking to me.

• The numbing stuff wouldn't work and I would feel the slicing and dicing. / My eye was numb, but I did feel the astigmatism flattening. A tad painful, but I'm a Mason warrior.

• They would work on the wrong eye / Not happening because they put a piece of white tape over my right eye, tucked my hair up into a shower cap, doused my right eye with horrible colored dye drops and made me sit in the full waiting room with my left eye opened.

• It would take longer than the 6-7 minutes I was promised. / Haven't a clue how long it took. I was there a total of 3 hours. I was only supposed to be there for 2 hours, but a 92-year-old patient got ahead of me when his family member caused a scene in the waiting room.

• My blood pressure would be sky high and they wouldn't be able to operate / My bp was 109/78 with a 53 pulse rate. I was worried I wasn't alive.

• I would want to close my eye when I saw an instrument coming close / Again...not happening. They throw you off balance by pouring more drops into your eye and while that is happening and your eye is wide open someone else covers your upper face with a clear piece of sticky plastic. Then they cut it open right over your eye. I'm sure my bp shot up a tad at that one.

All in all, I survived. Worst thing is having to do it all over again next week on the other eye. After today's follow-up appointment I made the mistake of staying and watching a live cataract surgery being performed. You wouldn't even believe all the new worries I have now.....

Seeing things in a new light

So I have cataracts. They need to come out so that I can see again, especially in my right eye. I signed up for surgery, researched my options, decided on just cataract removal, went to my pre-op tests and discovered that I have astigmatism.

But not only do I have that, but I have weird and "unusual" astigmatisms. Apparently, I have cornea astigmatism and lenticular astigmatism, but the cornea is horizontal and the lens is vertical so for most of my life the two have canceled each other out which resulted in zero astigmatism problems and no one noticing.

Now the lens will be removed and I will have problems. Going with just the cataract removal will cause me to wear tri-focal glasses. What? Bad enough to tell people I have to have cataract surgery, now I'm going to be looking at them through trifocals?

I opted, after a discussion with my doctor, to go with option #3, the Crystalens. T

Doctor: "It's like washing your car. Are you going to put in the time of carefully washing your Ford that you'd put in with your Jaguar? The Crystalens is the Jaguar.

The "European car" of the lens. It will cost quite a penny, but when all is over I shall see without the aid of contacts or glasses. A little bit of lasik will be provided to flatten my astigmatism as well. The surgery is happening on the 17th. I'm nervous, but content with my decision. The surgeon is young and quite confident without being pompous. I'm hoping for the best. Stay tuned.

A Science Lesson

FYI...

To My Sister-in-law

Still Celebrating

Thanks to friends and family who called, texted, and emailed me their congratulations on the Steelers win! 6 wins for the Burgh!

• My niece Gabby who texted me right after the win to remind me of my promise to send her a shirt if the Steelers won!
• Kelly who called me to offer up congratulations even after sitting next to me for most of the entire game.
• Chris and daughter Gabby who called and left me a congrats message.
• My mother who came over today to offer up her congrats and to listen to me rehash the evening at my friends’ house. 
• Sharon G. who emailed me with 5 seconds on the clock. Points off for mentioning giving the Cards credit for a good challenge. Who cares! But she did congratulate the Steelers.
• My sister Sue who emailed me "Way to Go Steelers!"
• My brother (this was a shocker!) who emailed me "Congratulations! The half-time show was Awesome!!! Oh, and the game was pretty good too!"
• My neighbor, Howard, who emailed me the following: "Well, as you can imagine, I am eating crow today over giving you such a hard time about the Stinky ole Steelers. They lucked out and won the game yesterday. It was a really good game, and I could hear you cheering them all the way over here. Congratulations! And if you had taken my ten cent bet, today you would have had twenty cents to spend on something lavish. I should have been nicer. Your hard-nosed neighbor, Howard"
• My friend Kim who emailed me to tell me she rooted for the Steelers all the way.
• The kids (grades 4th - 8th) who couldn't wait to congratulate me, high-five me, and who just wanted to see my big smile.
• Coach Jared who rooted for the Cardinals, but was man enough to congratulate me after all the crap he threw my way.
• My sister-in-law Julie who called me and told me how much she enjoyed the game.

I appreciate the love everyone! It was a good season, a great Super Bowl, and I'm glad I have a few months to regroup.

The Lombardi Belongs to the Steelers Once More

Steelers 27 Arizona 23

Super Bowl Sunday

Three years ago I heard from friends and family near and far wishing me luck with my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. This year people haven't been showing me as much love, but the game is still a few hours away so I'm hopeful. So far I've received a few well wishes:

• My friend Kelly has not only agreed to attend the Super Bowl party with me, but she wore my Polamalu jersey to work this past week on Super Bowl day AND went out and bought a Steelers shirt to wear to the party this evening.
• My sister-in-law called this morning to wish the Steelers well.
• My friend, Jyoti, offered to go with me this week to Tampa to see if we could spot a Steelers player despite the fact that football is not something she cares about.
• My friend SueG hasn't called yet, but she will call me from work later tonight to wish me well. (I know this because she did this through the playoffs)
• My neighbor Howard wished me well before adding that he was rooting for the Cardinals. He wanted to bet me a dime the birds would pull it out, but I let him know that the Steelers were bird hunting and since we had already taken care of the Ravens he might want to reconsider. By the time I was done with him he said he would pull for the Steelers.
• Another friend texted me good wishes and a "Go Steelers".
• My nephews in Chicago who said, "Go Steelers!" to the girls.

But my most favorite well wish came yesterday from my niece, Gabby. She sent me an email and after she finished saying what she wanted to say in the email she added this...... (don't tell my dad.......go Steelers!!!!!)
Gotta love that!!

GO STEELERS!