No smiles today, just frowns I've got.
It's time for a rest on the pity pot.

I'm sad, I'm cranky. It'll be a day or two
Of feeling down, of feeling blue.

This isn't just a simple mood swing,
It's an honest to goodness pity pot thing.

You must admit that I've earned this spot
Right up front on the pity pot.

It's just so hard to keep this smile.
I need a pity pot break for just a while.

So give me time to wallow a bit.
I know real soon that I'll get over it.

The clouds will part and the sun will grow hot,
And I'll jump right off this pity pot.

This morning started out right nicely enough. I woke up early, got everything ready to begin grading essays, and was all set to put the past few days' worth of seizures behind me. I had heard something on the news that I just had to share with the Amazing Egyptian Dude, so I got up from my computer desk and began to amble over toward the living room. Maybe half a dozen steps into the trek, and I'm hit with the headache -- the one that makes breathing painful and moving excruciating. It nearly always starts on the right side, as that's the side of my body that Chiari seems to like torturing the most.

I grabbed my head and wobbled over to the couch, where I collapsed in a groaning heap. Whether my cats can sense something is wrong or they just like me being a captive audience for their affections, I don't know; but just seconds after I got myself situated comfortably on the couch, I had one cat at my head, one on my chest, and another on my feet. I fell asleep that way. See when I get these pressure headaches, the only way to deal with them is to sleep them off. Although I did manage to sleep, I awoke with a headache and a droopy right half of my face. If you've ever seen anyone with Bell's Palsy, then you'll know what I mean by a droopy face.

The headache is gone now, but I am wiped out. I am confident that I've earned this break on the pity pot, and by golly, I'm going to take it!

See the other Wordless Wednesday entries here.

• I've seen some improvement on the seizure front -- at last! Yesterday, I had only one. Maybe whatever it was that sent The Brain into a tizzy has moved on to greener pastures? One can only hope!
• Ali has jacked my iPhone. He has discovered how to play games on it and now, as soon as he gets home and settled in for the evening, he snatches my phone. The man will play games until the battery indicator warns him that unless it receives an immediate charge the world will come to an end. Now that he has learned how to charge the phone on the amazing speaker dock that I told him to buy me for my birthday last year, I no longer wake up in the morning to a totally dead phone. Woot, woot!
• While watering the jasmine and grapevine in the backyard yesterday evening, I decided to check out the guava tree at the same time. The one growing in the front yard has looked rather sickly for a couple of months, but the one in the backyard is in full blossom. Looks like Ali and the neighborhood will enjoy guavas later this summer. And it looks like we'll have another amazing grape crop this year, too! Last year's crop was amazing -- I don't think I've seen so many grapes in my whole life as I did when we were cutting the bunches off the single vine that has grown in our yard for about 15 years. Sadly, we didn't get around to cutting off any of the young leaves for stuffing (in Greek, which is most people are familiar with, stuffed grape leaves are called dolmades; in Arabic they are called mahshi wara aynab). Personally, I don't care what the heck you call 'em as long as you call me to eat 'em! Mmmmm...mmmmm....good!
• You know, I think that the average person will never be satisifed with anything the government does. We griped and complained about how poorly prepared FEMA was to handle a disaster after everything we witnessed with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. So when WHO expressed concern about the possibilities of Swine Flu becoming a pandemic, our president responded appropriately. Now that it looks like Mexico's death toll has plummeted from the highest of 159 (it may be more, but that's the highest number I heard reported) to less than 50, some people are throwing hissy fits because they say that our government sacred us unnecessarily. I can't help but wonder how Uncle Sam will ever win with such a difficult crowd to please. Can you imagine the uproar had the CDC remained silent and the Swine Flu turned out to be a more vicious virus? Sheesh, people, give the old uncle a break!
• If you haven't seen Andrew Lloyd Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Techincolor Dream Coat yet, you should! I had the chance to see it all the way through for the first time yesterday and absolutely loved it. Donny Osmond, one of my favorite old teenage heartthrobs, gave an amazing performance. Joan Collins was delightfully wicked, too! You can probably rent it from Netflix, as I saw it on DVD. The musical will soon be revived on London's West End. I'm thinking that's enough reason to visit the UK again, don't you? ;)

If you'd like to join in the fun of random ramblings, just post 5 random thoughts on Tuesday. Send me the link to your post by leaving a comment, and I'll add you to the list of random ramblers!

• Sherlock's Stuff
• My Xanadu Too!
  

I've come to the conclusion that I don't like my brain. My mind? I like it quite a bit, but the hard drive where my mind lives and the motherboard that operates it are currently on my sh*t list. BIG TIME!

I didn't have as many seizures yesterday as I had on the previous two, which is always a good thing. Still, although there were fewer electrical misfiring episodes, they happened -- four times to be precise. As a result, I spent much of yesterday trying to determine exactly what had triggered the power surges this time. And the more I thought about it, the more clueless I became.

If turning 50 in 15 days were a big deal to me, I suppose that I could attribute the seizures to a belated midlife crisis since I never really had one in my thirties. Remember folks, a midlife crisis happens at the halfway mark of life and although some of us may want to be around when we're 100, the mid-point for most of us occurs around 35. Besides, Dante Alighieri already set the bar for us way back in the day -- with the midlife crisis that led him to make that famous trip to Hell:

"Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost."
(Inferno I.1-3)

But to be honest, turning 50 doesn't phase me in the least. I got over all that age trauma when I hit 30 so that by the time 40 rolled around, I was happy to be alive and didn't care how old I was anymore! Hitting the Golden Years, I've discovered, is actually something to look forward to.

With age comes privilege. We tend to make excuses for the embarrassing behavior of "older" folks because, well, they're old; their biological time clocks are running in reverse as they make their way toward a second childhood. Don't you remember the Sphinx's riddle from Oedipus?

What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?

Man starts out on all fours in the crawling stage, learns to walk on two legs as he matures, and in old age uses on a cane for assistance, thus regressing or moving back to a period of reliance on others. Maybe when I'm 50, I can crank up the car radio when CCR's "Bad Moon Rising" comes on the oldies station and my daughter won't be embarrassed anymore. She can, after all, chalk up my rocking out while driving to old age instead of some pitiful attempt to be cool! But as interesting as all this is, it doesn't account for the seizures.

So if it's not worrying about old age, what has triggered these electrical surges in The Brain? Honestly, I can only say, "Beats me!" And the beat goes

on
and
on
and
on
and
on

Welcome to my world or as Alice Cooper would say, "Welcome to My Nightmare."

This is the first time that I've participated in this meme, but it looked like so much fun that I just couldn't pass it up. I've chosen a funny song to start with because Mondays should always begin with fun!



Gitarzan by Ray Stevens

He's free as the breeze
He's always at ease
He lives in the jungle and hangs by his knees
As he swings through the trees
With a trapeze in his B.V.D.s
He's got a union card and he's practicing hard
To play, the guitar, gonna be a big star
Yeah, he's gonna go far
And carry moonbeams home in a jar
He ordered Chet's guitar course C.O.D.
Makes A and E and he's working on B
Big C&W and R&B and even the chimpanzees agree
That someday soon he'll be a celebrity
Get it, get it, get it.

Gitarzan, he's a gitar man
He's all you can stand
Give him a hand, Gitarzan

He's got a girl named Jane
With no last name
Kinda homely and plain
But he loves her just the same
Cause she kindles the flame
And it drives him insane
When he hears her say
She really does her thing
It's her claim to fame
Come on sing one Jane
Baby, baby, oh baby
Baby, oh baby

They've got a pet monkey who likes
To get drunk and sing boogie woogie
And it sounds real funky
Come on your turn boy
Sing one monkey
Let's hear it for the monkey
On Saturday night they need some excitement
Jane gets right and the monkey gets tight
And their voices unite
In the pale moonlight
And it sounds all right

Yeah, it's dynamite, it's out of sight
Let's hear it right now
Baby, baby oh baby
Yeah, shut up baby, I'm trying to sing
Get it, get it, get it
Repeat Chorus

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

Here's the list of 100 Movies that Yahoo! says we should see before we die (in alphabetical order). After looking at the list, I can honestly say that it's missing quite a few of the ones I would have included as "must see" films, but oh well. The ones that I have seen are in bold. Which ones have you seen? The ones that I would add to the list are at the end of Yahoo's list.

Thanks to NurseExec at Driven to Distraction for the great idea!

**I'm a bit ahead of schedule because seizures have been bothering me quite a bit for the past two days and since I really don't want to miss out Sunday Stealing, I did mine between seizures just in case tomorrow is more of the same.**

First Job: I worked in an old-fashioned movie theater that was privately owned by a very unusual husband and wife team. I was 15 and got to see movies free, so it was easy to put up with the Addams Family of bosses.

First Real Job: Receptionist at a huge Buick dealership. Unfortunately, the owner was less than honest, and the DMV closed him down. I went to work one morning and discovered that a security company was in charge and all employees were sent away.


First Favorite Politician: Abraham Lincoln. My grandfather, a Civil War buff, sparked my interest in our 16th president, and it has never died.




First Car: 1973 Plymouth Duster

First Record/CD: Same Train / Different Time by Merle Haggard

First Sport Played: Barbies -- that counts, doesn't it?

First Concert: The Beatles

First Foreign Country Visited: Mexico


First Favorite TV Show: It's About Time. For years, I have remembered the theme song for this goofy show! Don't ask me why, because I honestly can't tell you. My very first school lunch box was the one in the photo below. Oh, what I'd give to have one of them now!




First Favorite Actor: Rock Hudson

First Favorite Actress: Doris Day



First Girlfriend/Boyfriend: The first love of my life was my Uncle Jerry. He stayed with us when he was in the Navy and stationed in San Diego. Since I'm the first grandchild on both sides of the family, I readily admit to being terribly spoiled and never wanting for attention as a child. Uncle Jerry, however, was my special pal because he watched Batman with me. From as early as I can remember, I was convinced that I would marry my Uncle Jerry. He broke my heart, though, when I was five and he married my Aunt Juanita. Poor thing had to really work at winning me over after she stole my man, but she succeeded just fine.

First Encounter with a Famous Person: The Everly Brothers used to play at Townhall Party where my parents went to dance. They took me along when I was a baby, and The Everly Brothers watched me while my parents jitterbugged around the dance hall.

First Brush With Death: If I've had one, I'm blissfully unaware of it and hope that I don't have one until it's the real deal.

First House/Condo Owned: The one I live in now. I hate moving!

First Film Seen: The first movie I remember from childhood is The Three Lives of Thomasina from 1964. I was five.


First Favorite Recording Artist: Merle Haggard

First Favorite Radio Station: 93 KHJ Boss Radio

First Book I Remember Reading: My grandmother was Queen for a Day in 1964 or thereabouts, and one of the prizes she won was a set of Childcraft Books which she gave to me and my sisters. I remember spending hours engrossed in those books, especially the one with the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales.

First Meme You Answered on Your Blog: I think that the first one I did was Movies A-Z. It's been a while. . .


Check out the other entries for Sunday Stealing!

Life is filled with ironies. Yesterday, while writing my post for Blogging Against Disablism Day, I had a seizure. It was the first of several that plagued me throughout the day. Like always, I did what I could between electrical overloads and the naps that follow them. But by the time the fifth seizure came along, I had had enough. My level of frustration reached the boiling point mostly because I have grading that needs to get done, and it's incredibly difficult to maintain focus on student essays when one's brain is performing the electric slide at regular intervals. Seizures make me craziest if they come when I've got something that I need to finish within a certain time frame, otherwise I deal with them quite well.

By mid-afternoon, I had given up on the notion of grading and returning papers. Feeling completely defeated, I settled into my nest on the couch to read a book that a student had loaned me. Two paragraphs into the text, seizure number six came along and blew the reading fuse. Patience be damned! Whatever it was that had triggered the seizures obviously hadn't gotten any better because my brain was still trying to get my attention.

I still don't know what upset The Brain yesterday, but whatever it was must not be resolved yet because this morning began with a double-header: a headache AND a seizure. You know, I wouldn't mind this crap so much if it made me look as cool as this chameleon!

Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day (BADD), and I'm thrilled to participate for the first time. I thought long and hard about what I would write, but I kept coming up with topics that I had already blogged about: why people are kinder to me than others with invisible illnesses, what it's like to experience a seizure, the letter to my brain written out of frustration over an especially active day of seizures, or feeling trapped in the various circles of life. But very early this morning, I decided not to write about me and my disabilites; instead, I chose to write about Uncle Ronnie and "the leg." I hope that you enjoy it.

~*~*~*~*~

My Uncle Ronnie is quite a character. With a quick wit, a story to tell, and an impeccable sense of comedic timing, Uncle Ronnie made the summer trips to my Dad's hometown in Colorado something that I, his eldest niece, looked forward to each year. We never knew what he would say or do, but my sisters and I knew that Uncle Ronnie would somehow, some way make us laugh as if we'd never experienced the joy of laughter before. And as much as I loved laughing with Uncle Ronnie, he has no clue that he is responsible for some of my most cherished childhood memories and for teaching me how to turn a disability into an asset.

I've never known Uncle Ronnie without "the leg"; it's as much a part of him as his goofy sense of humor. Because I was a toddler when it happened, I have no recollection of the event that changed Uncle Ronnie's life, but I believe that a drunk driver hit him as he crossed a street in San Francisco while stationed there when he was in the Navy. He suffered a leg injury that became gangrenous and resulted in the amputation of that leg just above the knee. He learned to walk with the aid of a prosthetic leg, but he preferred to use crutches at home. It wasn't until I became an adult that I learned that the early versions of "the leg" often caused Uncle Ronnie more pain than using it provided him with assistance.

Uncle Ronnie used "the leg" for more than walking. We live in different states and saw him only during the annual family vacation to my dad's hometown in Colorado. Of course, in our excitement to hear Uncle Ronnie's goofy stories like how he had just gotten a perm and didn't want us to mess up his hair (it was about 1/4" long), it was hard for me and my sisters to control ourselves. Once, when my youngest sister was about 4 or 5, she was bouncing up and down on Uncle Ronnie's lap as they were playing around. In a very serious voice, Uncle Ronnie told her that if she didn't sit still, his leg would turn to stone. Because "the leg" had always informed our understanding of "normal" where Uncle Ronnie was concerned, Melody continued to bounce, figuring that it was just another one of his funny stories. Suddenly, Uncle Ronnie stood Melody on the floor and stared at his legs. Gingerly, he touched first one, then the other; he squeezed and rubbed and tapped lightly on each leg as if he were selecting produce from the supermarket. We watched his curious motions with much interest. He grabbed Melody's hand, placed it on the shin of "the leg" and instructed her to knock on it. She looked at him like he had lost his mind, but knock on his leg, she did. And when "the leg" emitted a sound in response to her tapping, Melody's eyes became saucer-like. "See," Uncle Ronnie said, "you didn't sit still like I told you to, and now my leg has turned to stone!"

The three of us learned an important lesson from "the leg" that day -- sometimes acting silly is inappropriate, even with someone as fun and funny as our Uncle Ronnie. We had no understanding of the situation at the time but learned as we got older that the prosthetic leg Uncle Ronnie wore often caused horrific blisters that didn't heal well. Melody's energetic movement caused pain for Uncle Ronnie as "the leg" rubbed against an open blister. Instead of making Melody feel guilty for causing him pain or frightening her about it which might, in turn, make her feel uncomfortable about sitting on his lap, Uncle Ronnie turned his discomfort into a teachable moment on appropriate behavior and the importance of self control.

"The leg," and Uncle Ronnie's attitude toward its role in his life, has helped me to deal better with my own disabilities. I can't recall ever hearing Uncle Ronnie complain about the pain or his disability. What I remember best is him taking us fishing, more often without "the leg" than with it; I remember sharing feasts of grilled rainbow trout fresh from our catch of the day. I remember rubbing his head in a deliberate attempt at messing up his newly permed hair. I remember coming home from school one day and finding "the leg" resting on a pillow and neatly tucked under the covers in the middle of my bed. I remember a man who hasn't let his disability define or confine him.

And on the days when it seems like the endless parade of headaches, seizures, drop attacks, dizziness, double-vision, or any of the other things that make up the Chiari cornucopia will push me over the edge, I need only to picture "the leg" in my bed to put it all into the proper perspective.

Thanks, Uncle Ronnie, you've taught me well.

The nation has been abuzz for the past several days in the wake of the release of memos that discuss torture, also called "enhanced interrogation techniques," from members of the Bush administration. While pundits on the right have expressed outrage over the documents' entrance into the public sphere, pundits on the left have escalated the debate over whether or not the people and agencies involved in the behavior outlined in them deserve further investigation and possible prosecution. One side contends that waterboarding, a torture technique with a long history (see the woodcut from 1556 on the right), at least as practiced by agents of the United States, does not constitute torture. It is, they argue, a legal "enhanced interrogation technique." The opposition recalls that in

• 1949, the U.S. brought charges of war crimes against Yukio Asano, a Japanese soldier, for waterboarding a U.S. civilian, and
  
• that when the Khmer Rouge used the same technique on its own people, the United States considered it a method of torture, or
  
• that an American soldier was court-martialed following the Washington Post's publication of a photo depicting his supervision of the waterboarding of a captured North Vietnamese soldier, and
• that as recently as 1983, Texas Sheriff James Parker and three of his deputies were tried, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison for using an "enhanced interrogation technique" to extract "confessions" from prisoners.

Perhaps a definition of torture can clear up the confusion between the two sides' positions.

On February 4, 1985, The United Nations Convention Against Torture established the definition for torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions" (I.1.1.). Under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, the United States of America became a signatory to the Convention on April 18, 1988. Considering that those on the right hold former President Reagan in such high regard, they should have no problem accepting a definition for which he applied his, and the nation's, stamp of approval. One might expect the opposition to the U.S. approved definition of the term to come from the left, but it hasn't. Much like former President Clinton's now infamous remark that "that depends on what your definition of is is," a question of semantics in which the right found a great deal of humor and hypocrisy, waterboarding as a method of torture or an "enhanced interrogation technique" has been reduced to little more than an issue of word choice.

But while the pundits in Washington, on both the right and the left, argue over a definition, the practice of torture in its many forms has taken a toll on members of our military. To wit, U.S. Soldier Killed Herself -- After Refusing to Take Part in Torture. What makes this young girl's story so tragic to me is that her action is the ultimate sacrifice made in defense of her beliefs. It's not that she was a Mormon girl who gave up her life rather than do something she felt was wrong that makes her death so tragic -- I don't think that her religion has anything at all to do with it; the tragedy for me is that this young warrior couldn't convince her fellow soldiers that what they were doing was wrong and failing to do that, she could think of no other way out of her ethical dilemma. In her case, and the cases of others like her, suicide is not the ultimate act of a coward; instead, it becomes the ultimate act of bravery, as these soldiers kill themselves to avoid becoming like the enemy while their fellow soldiers see nothing wrong in emulating enemy behavior. And that is just plain sad irrespective of the side of the political spectrum on which you sit.

I feel as though I am slowly making my way down a red carpet, walking (ok, maybe typing is a better word choice) purposefully toward the stage (er, blog) where I will deliver a speech (ahem, make a post) thanking all the little people (well, it's really just one -- Ali of the White Heart) for their help on my journey to fame because I have been honored by Shauna of Shauna's Life in Pain and Other Fun Things and Sherlock of Sherlock's Stuff with the Premio Dardos award which, rumor has it, is Italian for "prize darts"! My first blog award, and I get a double dose -- how amazing is that?! Ladies, thank you both for deeming my blog worthy of such notice.

Here’s the purpose of the award:

The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.

These are the rules:

1. Accept the award by posting on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog.
2. Pass the award to another 10 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they've been selected for this award.

And now, I'd like to share this honor with the following people, listed here in no particular order:

OSM of One Sick Mother

Lacie of Live, Love, Laugh

Carolyn of Carolyn's Chiari

Dave of Chewing the Fat

The Goldfish of Diary of a Goldfish

Anni of Hootin' Anni's

Jayne d'Arcy of A Light in the Dark

Yaman of Yaman's Amateur Ramblings

Laila of Raising Yousuf and Noor: Diary of a Palestinian Mother

Nicole of Creative Disaster


Before signing off, I'd like to thank these writers for making my day a little brighter each time I read their blogs. Whether they're telling a story, sharing personal experience, providing food for thought, providing a platform for the discussion of important issues, these bloggers epitomize the purpose behind the Premio Dardos award in my view.

And finally, thanks to Shauna and Sherlock for believing that my blog is worthy of this award; I appreciate your feedback tremendously!

Sherlock, you're quite the inspiration! Not only did you inspire me to fix up my blog's template, but your post of random thoughts has inspired me to start a meme for myself -- Random Thoughts on Tuesday. From now on, I won't feel compelled to come up with a formal post on Tuesday mornings; instead, I'll just post a collection of whatever pops into my head when I hit the keyboard. This could be fun, frightening, thought provoking, comment invoking, interesting, or maybe even entertaining. Let's see what happens!

• Is anyone besides me starting to get worried about the Swine Flu and its potential to become a deadly pandemic? This morning, I found an interesting article in the Times (UK edition -- because I love to read interntional newspapers) called "Ten Facts About Swine Flu" and one of those facts is that "The most lethal flu pandemic of the past century was also caused by a swine flu strain. One billion people are thought to have contracted "Spanish flu" in 1918-19, of whom around 50 million were killed - although the death toll could have been much higher." Now, isn't that just what we all needed to know?
• I'm becoming addicted to blog widgets. There are so many nifty and fun things to put on a blog these days that I have to force myself to remember that not everyone has a high speed internet connection and that too many widgets can slow the load time significantly on a dial-up service. Maybe I could satisfy my widget addiction by rotating them a couple of times a month. . .
• My 50th birthday is coming up in about three weeks, and I've been trying to figure out what I want. Ok, well, actually I know what I want; I'm just having a hard time justifying its purchase, LOL! It's kind of hard to build a convincing argument for a $250 iPhone case!
• Today is D-Day for my retirement paperwork. I will take the last of it to HR after my class this afternoon and see what comes next. It took forever to get the info I needed from one of the community colleges and although I finally got it on Friday, I'm not sure that it's all that I needed from them. Let's just say the employee from payroll was anything but interested in helping me. Maybe, fingers crossed, what I have is enough to get the ball rolling to coordinate the pensions between the two plans for which I qualify.
• On the censorship front, the ALA (American Library Association) has released its list of the Top 10 Challenged Books for 2008. I wasn't surprised to see that And Tango Makes Three remained at the top of the list from last year. What I did find interesting, though, is that none of Judy Blume's books made the top 10 this time! Ms. Blume does, however, remain the most frequently challenged author in American history. What an honor!

If you want to join in the fun of random ramblings, just post five random thoughts this Tuesday. Enjoy!

The oldest texts known to mankind were written in the form of poetry; it has been around since humanity began to record its existence on earth. Poetry is timeless, universal, and familiar. We don't have to speak a language to hear a rhyme, recognize a cadence, feel a rhythm, mark out a meter (a poetic unit of measure based on the number of syllables in a word). We may not know the technical names for the poetic forms or be able to distinguish a sonnet from a ghazal, an iamb from a spondee, or a heroic couplet from blank verse, but the point is that knowledge of these things is not necessary to feel the beauty of the poetry!

Even with no understanding of the Arabic language, I could hear the rhythm, meter, and rhyme scheme of the poetry in the Qur'an quite easily the first time I heard it. I didn't have to know the meaning of the words to follow the hypnotic rhythms of the ayat (verses), to discern the patterns in the structure, to catch the internal and end rhymes within each line, to hear assonance and alliteration. Because I lacked familiarity with the language, the poetic form itself spoke to me. The poetry of the work crossed the barriers of time, language, culture, and geography, reaching out to me in a way that only a truly universal art form can.

The variety of styles, forms, devices, and shapes makes poetry an amazingly diverse literary form. Poetry can be as simple as a limerick

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee."
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

or as complex and filled with specific devices as an epic

Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles the son of Peleus,
the destructive rage that sent countless ills on the Achaeans...
(Iliad, I.1-2)

Poetry can tell a story like Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; it can teach a lesson like the ones on the importance of good behavior in Little Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley; it can inspire like John Donne's Holy Sonnet X or the 8th Psalm from the Bible. Set a poem to music, and you have a song.

Long after the celebrations of poetry during the month of April have passed, its timeless beauty will continue. If you'd like to experience some of the best poetry in the English language, here are a few of my favorites:

• Paradise Lost by John Milton
• "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne
• William Shakespeare's Sonnets
• The Blessed Damozel by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning
• "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manly Hopkins
• "Song" by Christina Rossetti
• The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
• "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes
• "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

Enjoy!

I've written before about the feeling of running in a hamster wheel and not getting anywhere, especially when it concerns the miserable Chiari headaches that I get more than often than I like. The past few days have involved a lot more running in circles without getting anywhere, and I am intensely frustrated about it.

Sleep, or rather the lack thereof, which is often at the center of the circular dilemma, proved even more elusive this weekend than normal. I played musical beds all weekend long as I tried to find a comfortable position for my neck so that sleeping didn't trigger a headache and wake me up. Fat chance! Whether I built the nest of pillows on the couch, our bed, or the futon in Iman's old room, I simply could not get comfortable enough to sleep longer than 30-40 minutes at a stretch. My neck doesn't usually give trouble, unless the muscles tense up in response to a particularly nasty headache; however, the bones in my neck are now a source of pain on their own. It's a bit freaky to roll my head around in an attempt to loosen up the neck muscles and hear the grinding of bone on bone when I do! The grinding sound gets loud enough that even Ali can hear it. So, I now have to figure out if the pain the neck is the source of the sleeping problem, or if the the sleeping problem is causing the pain in the neck. Wonderful!

Now that the rant / vent is over, I'm going to move on and make a real post, LOL!

1. What are your current obsessions?
Grey's Anatomy, iPhone apps, popping exczema blisters -- I need a life!

2. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
black pants

3. What's for dinner?
Not sure, Ali's at the market buying something as I type. He'll surprise me.

4. Last thing you bought?
a purse

5. What are you listening to?
Appalachia: A History of the Mountains, a PBS documentary

6. If you were a god/goddess who would you be?
Myself -- can't imagine a better goddess than me!

7. Favorite holiday spots?
London is my number one choice for fun, culture, and fish & chips, but Texas wins because my sister and favorite aunt live there

8. Reading right now?
re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

9. 4 words to describe yourself.
talkative, assertive, friendly, stressed

10. Guilty pleasure?
butter pecan ice cream

11. Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak?
my husband -- he's a one-man comedy act most of the time

12. Planning to travel to next?
Texas and Florida -- it's the family thing again

13. Best thing you ate or drank lately?
see #10

14. When did you last get tipsy?
almost 30 years ago

15. Care to share some wisdom?
Never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person.

16. Nicest thing anyone’s ever said to you?
"Good to see you" from my husband after my brain surgery. It was the signal to me that everything had gone well.

Play along here.

OMG, I'm not even retired yet but have already begun thinking like my dad behaved when he was forced to retire early several years ago! I was in the throes of grad school, and my time was occupied with research, reading, writing papers, and presenting papers at conferences. As a result, I didn't have a lot of free time for housework and our home quickly became cluttered. A few days after he retired, my poor dad, who really didn't know what to do with himself, showed up, with cleaning supplies in hand, at my home very early one morning and informed me that he had come to help me clean house. I still have a few weeks to go until I retire, but I feel the same way -- it's time to clean house!

As much as I liked the original template that I was using for this blog, I really wanted something that worked better with its name. Inspired by Sherlock's recent template update, I took on the task of scouting around for a new look and, voila, here you have it! I love the coffee cup in the header and the notes at the top. The diary / planner look that I like so much from the original template is continued in this one, with the addition of a gorgeous looking pen for the search bar. Overall, my daughter and I agree that this template just works.

In addition to changing the overall look, I've added some nifty new widgets to the sidebar. I am a passionate advocate against the censorship of books in our school system and once I retire in a few weeks, I will really need an outlet to vent my frustrations over the narrow-mindedness of the would-be censors. What better place to do that than here on my own blog? So to that end, I've added a bookshelf filled with challenged books and a news feed for the topics of challenged books, banned books, and censorship. I will soon add a list of links on the topic as well.

I was recently invited to write for a political blog, although I haven't yet determined if I will have the time necessary to devote to it. Politics is an important part of my life, and I hope to begin blogging a bit more about that, too. My life, after all, is more than just my invisible illness!

So, what do you think of the

Most everyone who has lived in California for a while has heard of earthquake weather. I've lived in Southern California all my life and am very much aware of and in tune with the phenomena. Basically, when the weather makes dramatic, short-term changes from cool to hot to cool or hot to cool to hot, we can expect an earthquake. It's not science, I know, but the two have gone hand-in-hand often enough that it has become predictable.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were uncharacteristically hot for April in Southern California. We had a mini heatwave that increased our temperature from the norm in the 70s to upwards of 90 degrees. When the heatwave ended, we went from 93 in the daytime to a nighttime low of 54! Now that's a dramatic fluctuation in the temperature and the hallmark of "earthquake weather." Whether it's intuition or experience, I can't say, but through the years, I've become pretty doggone good at recognizing the weather patterns that portend a temblor and am seldom off when I predict a quake. In fact, family and friends have been known to ask me whether or not we're having "earthquake weather."

It was not a major surprise then, for me at least, that we had two quakes yesterday.

Both of the quakes were centered in Yorba Linda, hometown of Richard M. Nixon, about 2 miles from our business in Fullerton which is where I was when the first quake hit. From someone who has experienced several major and memorable California quakes, including

• 6.6 Sylmar (San Fernando) Quake on 2-9-71 -- This one cracked the foundation of our home, some 30 miles away from the epicenter!
• 5.9 Whittier Narrows Quake on 10-1-87
• 5.0 Pasadena Quake on 12-3-88
• 5.4 Upland Quake on 2-28-90
• 6.1 Joshua Tree Quake on 4-22-92
• 7.3 Landers Quake at 4:57 AM on 6-28-92 -- This was the most frightening earthquake I have ever experienced, mostly because it was followed by several very strong aftershocks; it caused so much shaking that the water from our swimming pool overflowed from the deck into our living room! Some amazing photos, including a few that show the crack (total length is about 53 miles!) in the earth's surface that resulted from this quake, are available here.
  
• 6.4 Big Bear Quake at 8:05 AM on 6-28-92 -- Technically, this one was an aftershock from the Landers Quake -- the biggest of the aftershocks the followed it -- but it occurred on a completely different fault than Landers
• 5.7 Mojave Quake on 7-11-92
• 6.7 Northridge Quake at 4:30 AM on 1-17-94 -- Although not as strong on the seismograph as the Landers quake, this one shook longer and harder. Because the epicenter was directly beneath a heavily populated city, this quake collapsed several sections of a major freeway, toppled the crown of a landmark artdeco skyscraper in Hollywood, and triggered the collapse of several buildings. You can see some amazing photos of the damage here.
• 5.4 Ridgecrest Quake on 8-17-95 -- Not big as far as earthquakes go, but this one is rememberable for the more than 2,500 aftershocks that followed, some of which measured in at 6.0!
• 7.1 Hector Mine Quake on 10-16-99 -- This quake happened so far out in the desert that although it was really strong, it didn't cause much damage beyond a surface split and lots of rattled nerves.

I can honestly say that yesterday's temblors weren't very impressive. Both were short in terms of time (barely 2-3 seconds long) and shaking. Actually, there wasn't any shake to these quakes -- they were snapping motions. The aftershocks and microquakes continue, with the last one happening about an hour ago (it is currently 4:43 AM PDT). It will be interesting to see what, if anything, develops over the next few days. We live on the San Andreas Fault, one of the most active fault lines in the state. Since it's been a while since we had a big one, I suppose now would be a really good time to give the old earthquake survival supplies box a quick once over.

Oh boy, am I glad that Thursday is a day with words because I've got quite a few of them milling about in my head, begging to travel down to my hands and the keyboard where they can come to life! Pardon what, I feel certain, will become a rather disjointed post.

Student X Update
Tuesday marked my class' first departure away from censorship in textbooks and reading materials used in classrooms and movement to censorship in other areas of American life. We
began with the censorship of images and information related to the war on Iraq. This lesson includes three online readings, two of which include graphic images from the war. I had prepared a handout of war photographs from the American Civil War, WW's I and II, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War juxtaposed against Goya's 3rd of May 1808. Our discussion would examine why graphic depictions of war are celebrated when oil on canvas is the medium but censored when the medium is a photograph.

I've never felt the need to practice self-censorship in my classroom until Student X's behavior last week. Since Student X had expressed "disgust" about a violent scene in the book at the center of the conflict, I worried that showing graphic images of the violent results of war might be just enough to send an emotionally unstable individual over the edge. I decided that it would be best to start the class with a disclaimer that explained the discussion and the use of the images along with an offer to excuse anyone who would be uncomfortable.

When I walked into the classroom, Student X's usual spot in the front row was empty. Although Student X is, as I mentioned in the first post, always late for class, on Tuesday, the student had arrived early and taken a seat at the very back of the classroom, positioned in such a way as to be flanked on either side by classmates and hiding behind another one. In a class of only 14 students, such a drastic seat change doesn't go unnoticed and since Student X has always been a regular participant in discussions, the move brought a palpable feeling of uncertainty to the classroom. I went ahead with the disclaimer and made the offer, once again, for anyone to leave when I put the class into groups to work with the images. Nobody left, and we made it through the discussion without a single peep from Student X. We'll see what happens today when we examine censorship in music. . .

Headaches Update
Whether the heat or the stress from the Student X situation is the cause, I don't know, but the past three days have been made much worse by headaches. The constant feeling that my eyeballs are ready to pop out of my head from the pressure inside it has made sleeping, already a big problem for me, nearly impossible. Ibuprofen, my pain med of choice, can do only so much and with headaches coming fast and furious, I quickly reached the daily limit. Yesterday started out quite promising; because I had had only one headache in the night, I awoke feeling refreshed. Pshaw, that didn't last too long! Shortly after 11 am, another one struck with pain so bad that I had to lie down in order to breathe comfortably. With a much cooler temperature yesterday and a fair amount of sleep last night without a headache, I'm beginning to think that the hot weather is the culprit. If that's the case, summer ought to be most pleasant -- not!

My least favorite time of year is clearly approaching. Whatever happened to April showers bringing May flowers? We're not going to get much rain here in the draught-ridden southern part of the Golden State with the 90+ degrees temperatures we've had for the past three days, that's for sure!

I've never been a fan of the summer months. Sunburn, heat rash, and sweat just aren't on my list of things to enjoy. Even as a kid, the only part of the summer months that I actually enjoyed were the weeks that we made the family road trip to the east coast. When summer came, I hid away in my bedroom with a pile of books and didn't emerge until time to return to school in September.

The older I get, the harder it is to tolerate summer. Of course the problem isn't helped by the fact that one of my medications elevates the body temperature so that while everyone around me is feeling comfortable, I am hot and miserable. Honestly, I can tell when the temperature in my house increases by a single degree!

At least in adulthood I have the benefit of a home with central air. And during the months of June, July, August, and September, the electric company loves me!

1. My uncle once : was the reason that my grandmother became Queen for a Day.

2. Never in my life : have I been without a cat.

3. When I was seventeen : my mom died.

4. High School was : more fun than productive.

5. I will never forget : my doll with the bright red hair, nor will I ever forget that my dad threw her away. Gotcha, Dad!

6. I once met : Bobby Vinton

7. There’s this girl I know who :

8. Once, at a bar : something must have happened, but I wasn't there.

9. By noon, I’m usually : ready for a nap.

10. Last night : I watched Grey Garden on HBO.

11. If only I had : a brain? some courage? a heart?

12. Next time I go to gym/church : will be the first in a very long time.

13. Susan Boyle : rocks!

14. What worries me most : is that my brain will cease to function before my body does.

15. When I turn my head left, I see : Maggie, one of my cats, napping in the sunlight.

16. When I turn my head right, I see : double.

17. You know I’m lying when : I tell you that I don't mind that you're late.

18. What I miss most about the eighties : is my age during that decade.

19. If I was a character in Shakespeare, I’d be : Othello.

20. By this time next year : I will be basking in the glory of retirement.

21. A better name for me would be : hard to come up with. Carleen works really well.

22. I have a hard time understanding : why people willingly remain ignorant (as in uninformed).

23. If I ever go back to school, I’ll : be a very happy camper.

24. You know I like you if : I introduce you to my family.

25. If I ever won an award, the first person I’d thank would be : my husband.

26. When I compare 80’s rock to 90’s rock : I get lost. It all sounds the same to me.

27. Take my advice, never : listen to my advice!

28. My ideal breakfast is : a toasted sesame seed bagel loaded with cream cheese.

29. A song I love, but do not own is : not in existence.

30. If you visit my hometown, I suggest : coming during the Strawberry Festival.

31. My favorite Beatle is : Paul McCartney

32. Why won’t people : use basic manners any longer?

33. If you spend the night at my house : at least one of my cats will keep you company.

34. I’d stop my wedding for : my friend Cindy's potato salad.

35. The world could do without : ignorant people.

36. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than : willingly drive over a bridge.

37. My favorite blonde is : Doris Day

38: Paper clips are more useful than : Q-tips

39. If I do anything well, it’s : talk.

40. And by the way : this has been the most interesting meme I've ever done!

Want to join in on the fun or see more answers? Click here: Sunday Stealing.

You Are Mind

If you dream it, then you can do it. You are very mentally sharp and strong. You enjoy challenging yourself both at work and with studies. You love mastering difficult tasks. You thrive in new environments, even stressful ones. You are able to study everything objectively. You have a upbeat attitude, and won't be deterred easily. You are open minded and optimistic about the future.

Are You Mind, Body, or Spirit?

Or wishful thinking? You decide.

Because the really, really good ones are so few and far between for me, I feel the need to celebrate the genuinely good days when I have them. Today has been one of those rarest of gems.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but perhaps that is what has made today so good; it was deliciously ordinary!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, click here.