Just a quick update to let everyone know that I have survived the day so far. My neurologist is wonderful, I swear. I got an appointment with her on July 22, the soonest one available, but I emailed and asked if she could get me in sooner. Because I'm not really a complainer, she knows that if I want to be seen, I'm miserable.

Part of the problem I've been experiencing with the headaches is that I have medications for each of the different kind that I get. Over the past week, they have been alternating from one type to the other which makes choosing the proper medication at the correct time difficult. The end result is that I suffer because when the Ibuprofen doesn't work, I don't know which medication to take.

I've been given the go-ahead to skip the Ibuprofen and go straight for the Cafergot. It's straight caffeine and works on "the hair of the dog that bit you" principle. Now you'll know why that idiom just had to be on my list, LOL! Dr. S said that it won't hurt me to have a couple of doses more per day than the bottle says. She asked if I wanted something stronger for the pain and when I said that I did, she knew that I was in trouble. Peeps, I am so afraid of using pain killers that I have had 6 major surgeries without ever using anything for pain besides Tylenol or Ibuprofen.

So now I am happily caffeinated, headaches under control for the time being, and waiting for Dr. S to squeeze me into her schedule as soon as she can. I should be bearable again soon enough.

• Ok, so I'm not having much fun these days what with The Brain asserting its authority over everything I do. In fact, I'm becoming downright nasty to deal with, and the Amazing Egyptian Dude isn't quite sure what to do with, for, or to me. It's hard to tell which one of us is more deserving of sympathy at this point, LOL! Even in the worst of times, I'm usually not grouchy or negative because I see no sense in making everyone around me miserable, too. But the frequent headaches are taking a toll on me, and I am thinking it's probably time to change my name to Oscar.
• Since I don't really want to be Oscar, it's time to make an appointment with the neurologist. Either I need new meds to deal with an old problem, or I have a new problem that the old meds don't treat. The Amazing Egyptian Dude is insisting that I request another MRI just to make sure that the brain patch is still intact; I, however, am not interested in increasing the likelihood that I will glow in the dark before long from all the radiation. Alien glow or not, it's obvious that something is up, and I need to get it checked.
• The blogosphere is an amazing place. Never in a gazillion years would I have expected such an outpouring of support and encouragement from people whom I've never met! Thom, Rosidah, and Sherlock -- you make my day! Not in a Clint Eastwood way, mind you; I mean in a wholly positive way. Between headaches, when I have a clear enough head, I'll try to catch up with my blog reading and leave comments for everyone. Without fail, I find encouraging comments from one of you and don't feel quite so bad at not having the strength to catch up completely.
• We'll have a guest soon. A niece is coming from Egypt to spend the summer with us. She's a couple of years older than our daughter, has been here twice before, and speaks English well enough that we don't need to babysit her. She'll go between our house and the brother-in-law's house, but I expect that she'll end up staying here more often because we have two spare bedrooms and the in-laws have none.
• I finally rescheduled the surgery to have the right side of my thyroid removed. Lucky for me, it's scheduled for August 27, which means that I have to rethink my vacation plans. I'm supposed to go to Texas so that my aunt, sister, and I can make a road trip to Florida to visit two more aunts. I'm trying to get the surgery moved up and figure that since I had to reschedule it from last November, my surgeon ought to work with me on it. We'll see what happens.

Here's wishing for a mostly headache free day because my To Do list is getting out of control! :)

On Friday, I wrote

And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching the new documentaries I got for my birthday, tomorrow my plans include catching up on the laundry, and Sunday, I want to see what happens!

I often wonder how I maintain a sense of optimism, of making plans for things to do in a few days because no matter what I want to do, The Brain has a habit of getting in my way.

The early part of last week was dominated by seizures, those pesky electrical jolts that The Brain uses to let me know who is boss. I should have known that headaches would soon follow, as the two are best buds. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday found me crumpled up on the couch in a feeble attempt to sleep off the pain without much success.

Because I never got headaches in my younger days, I had no way of sympathizing with my friends who did. My attitude was that you take an aspirin or a Tylenol and get on with life. But that was before I experienced one! The Mayo Clinic has an online migraine self-assessment test that I took yesterday, during a period when the headaches were on vacation. Here's my result:

Your answers indicate that you're currently experiencing a severe level of disability as a result of your migraines.
It's important to talk to your doctor about strategies for coping with your migraines. Because your level of disability is severe, it's likely that your doctor will recommend a combination of acute and preventive medications to help you cope. Preventive therapy can help you control migraines before they happen. Acute treatment involves taking medicine to stop the pain as soon as a headache begins.

Yep, been there and done that. I have a cornucopia of medications at my disposal and use them when necessary. Between migraines, ice pick, cluster, and pressure headaches, it's often challenging to determine which medication to take. And because I don't want to rely on the medications, I always start with Ibuprofen. If I catch it early enough, 800mg of Ibuprofen will usually take care of the ice pick, cluster, and pressure headaches, but the darn migraines are a completely different story! For those, I have a pill to take as soon as the pain begins. Most of the time, it works like magic; for the times when it doesn't, I can take a different pill to help bring it under control.

So, despite the plan to watch my new documentaries, catch up with the laundry, and see what exciting things I could do on Sunday, I spent the weekend at war with The Brain. Again.

Share some of your favorite movies from the '80's on your blog and link back to The Bumbles.

It looks like we have two choices for this week's movie meme, and I have to admit to being thrilled about it because the other option, Hitchcock films, is one I would have had to pass. I'm not such a fan of Hitchcock's work and can count on one hand the number of his films I have actually seen from start to finish. Sorry, Bumbles!


It wasn't until I began to compile this list that I realized how many of the movies that I watch over and over and over again, most of the time with my daughter (born in 1982), came from the 80's! When I did, though, I changed my list to include only those movies that I have seen 10 or more times because if I didn't do this, my list would be way toooooo long!

The Goonies (1985): My absolute favorite movie of all time. "Do the truffle shuffle!"

Labyrinth (1986): I love the story, love the music, love the Bowie! "Nothing is as it seems in this place."

Valley Girl (1983): Nicholas Cage before he was NICHOLAS CAGE. "Man, he's like tripendicular, ya know?"

Beetlejuice (1988): I'm still looking for a copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. "I'm the ghost with the most, babe."

Dirty Dancing (1987): Coming of age stories don't get any better than this one! "Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."

The Karate Kid (1984): Other than The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the Amazing Egyptian Dude is not one who watches movies multiple times like I do. Except for this one. "Wax on. Wax off."

9 to 5 (1980): Who'd have thunk that Ms. Dolly could act? "If you ever say another word about me or make another indecent proposal, I'm gonna get that gun of mine, and I'm gonna change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot!"

Urban Cowboy (1980): As someone who grew up on country music, I have to admit to being genuinely excited to find it taking such a prominent place in the pop culture of the 80's, thanks to this film. "I was country when country wasn't cool." (That's not from the film, it's from a Barbara Mandrell song of the same period, but it sums up my feelings perfectly.)

Romancing the Stone (1984): Kathleen Turner gave one of her best performances ever in this film. "That was the end of Grogan... the man who killed my father, raped and murdered my sister, burned my ranch, shot my dog, and stole my Bible!"

Better Off Dead (1985): Oh, the joys of teenage angst! And don't forget to pay the paperboy! "I want my two dollars!"

Other favorites from the 80's include: A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Color Purple (1985),
The Elephant Man (1980), The Little Mermaid (1989), The Neverending Story (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), Somewhere in Time (1980), The Worst Witch (1986), and Xanadu (1980).

Andrew Johnston may not have won the 2008 season of Britain's Got Talent, but he sure did win my heart with his rendition of Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Pie Jesu."





Lyrics

To see more Music Monday posts, go here. For Musical Monday posts, go here.

**This meme presented me with a serious quandry because I don't hate much of anything. Even though the items on this list are prefaced with "most hated," a more accurate word choice for how I feel about them would have to be "most disliked."

1. Most hated food: brussels sprouts

2. Most hated person: I don't hate people -- it's a waste of time and energy; however, I really dislike Fred Phelps and his family.

3. Most hated job: Does laundry count?

4. Most hated city: Paris, France -- again, I don't hate it, but I sure didn't like finding dog poop all over the place -- on the sidewalks, on the metro, in front of cafes and restaurants, etc. Yuck!

5. Most hated band: If the band screams instead of sings, I don't like them. I have to be able to understand the lyrics to a song for it to have meaning for me.

6. Most hated (non-blog) website: Both of Fred Phelps' websites. If you want to know who he is and what the websites are, Google his name or Westboro Baptist Church.

7. Most hated TV program: O'Reilly Factor and Hannity on FOX News

8. Most hated politician: Right now, it's the Governator and although I don't really hate him, I'm coming closer and closer to it!

9. Most hated artist: Jackson Pollack -- what's up with the splashes, anyway?

10. Most hated book: The Way Things Ought to Be

11. Most hated shop or store: I don't shop enough to have one.

12. Most hated organization: NAMBLA

13. Most hated historical event: June 28, 1914 -- the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which became the catalyst for World War I, the single event that changed the world for the worse more than any other in human history

14. Most hated sport: football

15. Most hated technology: nuclear bombs

16. Most hated annual event: Valentine's Day

17. Most hated daily task: cleaning litterboxes

18. Most hated comedian: any of them who think that foul language makes them funny

19. Most hated blog: Bill O'Reilly: Blog

20. Most hated song: The Song that Never Ends

Our very strange weather continues. . .but we haven't had an earthquake, yet.




Ok, so click the play button on the YouTube video and then look at these photos I took today. These were taken shortly after 9 this morning as I was heading from our home to our business:

It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc. Go ahead and grab the button and make your own post. Be as detailed as you like, the more detail the more fun for those of us visiting. Susanne, the hostess, just asks that it be kept family friendly. Click here to play along with us.

1. I love African Violets, and my kitchen is filled with them. They're all in bloom at the moment and as much as I need to split this one into at least 3 additional pots, I couldn't stand the thought of killing the blooms. Transplanting can wait.


2. My obsession with The Phantom of the Opera was reborn this week. It may be driving everyone else around me bonkers, but I'm having a great time watching the movie several times a day.




3. Earlier in the week I mentioned that one of my cats, Camry, was in heat. I scheduled an appointment for her to be spayed on June 22. Wouldn't you know it that just when I get everything set with the vet's office, she goes back to normal! It doesn't really matter; she still needs to be spayed and besides, the next couple of weeks should be much more pleasant with her not in heat and chirping all over the house!

4. Because I wake up before the possums go to bed, I managed to see President Obama's speech in the Amazing Egyptian Dude's homeland in real time. I have to say that it was fantastic to hear the president of my country acknowledge my value to it as an educated Muslim woman who wears a scarf. Yep -- the times, they are a changin'!

5. A dear friend sent me the following in an email; it was the highlight of my entire week:




This little boy wanted to see if the President's hair felt like his. For some reason, it made me burst into tears. Perhaps I cried at the beautiful demonstration of a child's curiosity when he hasn't been "shushed." Maybe it was the thought that this young boy could see part of himself in the President of the United States for the very first time. More than likely, I cried at the humble way President Obama bent down to the boy's level and allowed him to feel his hair.

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll already know that I am a Geek who loves things that teach me something. As a result, I'm hooked on documentary films and now, podcasts. I had heard my students talking about podcasts but knew nothing about them until I got an iPhone two years ago. Now, I not only know about podcasts, but I subscribe to approximately 30 different ones! So this week, my list is for my Top 13 Educational Podcasts. Whenever possible, I've included a link to the RSS feed just in case you might be interested in listening, too. if you use iTunes, most of them are available there, too. Enjoy!

1. Stuff You Missed in History Class: In addition to hosts with pleasant voices and some really quirky topics, these brief (10-20 minutes long) podcasts make history lessons lots of fun! Some of the recent topics include things like

• Did Betsy Ross Really Make the First American Flag?
• Was There Reall a Pied Piper of Hamelin?
• How Hitler's Propaganda Machine Worked
• Will the World Really End in 2012?
• Does My Vote Count?

2. This American Life: Part of the Chicago Public Radio programming, This American Life offers mostly real stories from, by, and about real people. Some are funny, some are sad, some are poignant, all are good and offer a life lesson to be learned. Immensely popular, the radio show has become a television show; both have won numerous international awards.

3. PRI's The World: American Influence: The World's American Influence covers US foreign policy, from inside Washington to the far corners of the globe. I've learned a great deal about the way our government interacts with others from this podcast.

4. Bill Moyers Journal: Moyers' popular PBS show in podcast form. Topics range from politics to ethics to faith, and everything in between.

5. American Experience: Listen to introductory segments for new and upcoming American Experience programs, America's most-watched history series. This one doesn't really "teach" per se, but if you're a fan of this series, it's a great way to stay on top of upcoming episodes.

6. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer: Daily, in-depth news and analysis from the Web site of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

7. 60 Minutes (Full Broadcast): I don't always remember to watch 60 Minutes when it airs on television, so this podcast is a godsend for me. It's the full show in audio form!

8. The Marketplace of Ideas: The Marketplace of Ideas is a radio show and podcast about books, culture, commerce and fascinating concepts.

9. President Obama's Weekly Radio Address: The weekly address to the nation by President Barack Obama.

10. Hunting Humbug 101: A crash course in shooting down bad arguments. Two skeptics examine poor reasoning - 1 fallacy each week - real fallacies from pseudoscience, science misconceptions, politics, philosophy and media. Learn how to argue using logic and reason instead of emotion.

11. Great Books -- A Chapter a Day: A free audio book podcast of the best books and poems ever written. Choose any book or poem from the online library and click to listen. A great book is labeled thus because its themes are universal and transcend time, language, country, and culture. The end result is that there's always something to learn from reading a great book.

12. Living Books for the Ears: This weekly podcast offers "old time radio" adaptations of great books and historic stories. These fully dramatized half hour audio programs are a terrific way to introduce kids to these classic tales. But everyone, young or old, will enjoy listening to these excellent, wholesome radio adaptations (in great sound quality).

13. Old Time Radio Thrillers: Old Time Radio Network Thrillers, thrilling mystery, espionage, and political intrigue. Step into the world of action and Psychological twist that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

After a rather nasty seizure last night, I crashed on the couch until the Amazing Egyptian Dude came home. I visited with him for a few minutes before falling back to sleep, and he left me there, zonked out and blissfully unaware of anything except the joy of an adventure in Lullabye Land. Because I need a "nest" of pillows to properly support my neck and prevent headaches, he doesn't like to leave me asleep on the couch unless I fell asleep there after a seizure; then, he won't wake me for anything.

It's currently 4:17 a.m., and I have been awake since shortly before 2. If you've read my blog before, you'll know that this isn't anything unusual for me. Except that today it is -- it REALLY is! I would have stayed asleep had it not been for the fact that an unusually loud and unfamiliar sound woke me up. It took me several minutes and opening the back door to finally figure out what it was:





I'm not afraid of thunder and lightning but living in Southern California does make me unaccustomed to hearing and seeing it. The sound and light show continued for a good 30 minutes and at one point, the thunder was so close, so strong, and so loud that it rattled the windows in my house! Interesting, during the entire performance, not a single drop of rain fell!

This is earthquake weather, peeps, I'm tellin' ya!

Jientje from Heaven Is in Belgium, the creator of this meme, writes: "As long as people have been around, they have tried to communicate with each other. As a means of getting the message across as clearly as possible, idioms and sayings have found their way into our language. Now, because "a picture paints a thousand words", I thought it would be nice to make this a new photo challenge. The idea is to choose an idiom, or a saying, ( even slang is allowed) and illustrate it with a picture. Each week we'll cover two letters of the alphabet, okay? "To play along, click here.

These photos are not mine. My sister's mother-in-law sent them to me in an email yesterday, and I just had to share them. :) The seizures are back, so I am posting early and heading for bed to hopefully sleep them off. Happy WW to everyone!





I love the expression on the dog's face!


For more Wordless Wednesday entries, click here.

• No seizures, no headaches yesterday! Keeping my fingers crossed that today is the same.
• Later this morning, I'll drop off the paperwork that makes my retirement official. Our esteemed Governator is still ticked off that the people didn't vote his way in the May 19 special election and as a result, he keeps making all kinds of threats about where he will make cuts to save money. Lucky for me, my pension fund is one of those areas. As he attempts to pull the Golden State out of the fiscal crisis, the next few weeks will be interesting to watch.
• Camry, the kitten who came to dinner 9 months ago, is in heat. It's been a very long time since I had to deal with a cycling cat, as all my others are spayed or neutered. My daughter, whose cat Camry ended up being, didn't get around to spaying her before she brought her back to live at my house. And now, I get to deal with a cat that slinks along the ground with her fanny in the air, while she chirps out a call for a boy -- any boy. I managed to get an appointment for her to be spayed at the same low cost clinic where I take all my cats, but she won't be "fixed" until June 22! In the meantime, we'll have to deal with the funky walking and chirping kitty.
• Back in February, I wrote about a song that had become an obsession. It has happened again! Maybe because I didn't get to see Phantom, thanks to The Brain taking control of me, that I am once again absolutely obsessed by it. I've watched the movie at least three times a day since Saturday and even put it on my iPhone to listen to in the car. How easy it would be if my obsession were for just one song, but my life could never be that simple! Oh no, I have to go through half a dozen songs before starting all over again.
• Because I had no seizures or headaches yesterday, I was incredibly focused and productive. Armed with my desktop To Do list, I knuckled down, buckled down, and did it, did it, did it (you do remember the lyrics to last week's Music Monday meme, right?). Today needs to be much of the same so that I can catch up to what went by the wayside while I graded papers.
• I don't usually do this, but I am going to open my big mouth and speak my piece about the murder of Dr. George Tiller on Sunday, 31 May 2009. If this isn't a clear cut case of terrorism, then I clearly don't understand the definition of the term! Just like the idiots who blow up themselves and others hide behind their backasswards interpretations of my religion to justify their actions, Scott Roeder, Dr. Tiller's suspected killer, has hidden himself behind the robe of Christianity to justify his. Already, the freakazoids are coming out of the woodwork with some even going so far as to say that Dr. Tiller "reaped what he has sown" (Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue). I'm going to monitor this situation and case very closely, because I have a sneaking suspicion that the Phelps KKKlan, also of Kansas, will stage their usual "march" at Dr. Tiller's funeral. If you're not already familiar with Fred Phelps and family, the best way to become acquainted with them is to visit their website, www.godhatesfags.com. I refuse, on principle, to provide a link here to such an enterprise. People, get off your high horses and call this one for what it is -- first degree murder committed by a terrorist.
  

Last week, we asked you about how you watch movies. Quite a few of you shared how you watch from your own collection. So now we would like a glimpse into your collection of movies. Even if you don't have a physical collection to share, you must have some stored on the DVR, downloaded onto the laptop or ones that you rent over and over and over. We'll show you ours if you show us yours! Don't be shy - share on your blog and link back here at The Bumbles.



Most Viewed: Ella Enchanted and Raising Helen are tied for this category. I've talked before about the sleeping issues that The Brain causes me to have and how I live with them by keeping a DVD in the portable player that lives beside my bed. These two movies spent months, quite literally, in the portable DVD player and were used as my "let's try to fall asleep" movies. Despite what might seem like a negative attachment to them, I really do like both films.

Never Viewed: My dad gave me a 5-DVD collection of documentaries about the ancient world for my birthday. I haven't had time yet to open and watch them. Now that I am retired, though, I expect that problem to be solved soon!

Afraid to Admit You Own: Honestly, I can't think of any. I don't buy DVDs unless I know the movie is one that I will watch more than once; it doesn't make fiscal sense for me to own a DVD that I will view as many times as I was willing to pay to see the movie in a theater.

Guilty Pleasure: Billy Jack, hands down! There was a movie theater in a neighboring city that offered super cheap prices on Saturday matinees. My parents would give me and my sisters $1.00 each, enough money to buy our tickets and get something from the concession stand, and drop us off for a couple of hours of freedom for them and heaven for us. My first real job was at this movie theater, and it was there where my sisters and I encountered our first movie hero, Billy Jack. I think that there are a total of five Billy Jack films, but I have been able to find only the first one on DVD. The movie is unbelievably cheesy by today's standards; however, I still watch it through the eyes of a 1970's adolescent.

Most Shared: Raise the Red Lantern has to be the movie that I have shared the most. There is something positively haunting about this film; it is at once uplifting and horrifying, real yet fantastic. There may be other films that I would rank higher on my list of favorites than this one, but none of them surpass the story of Songlian when it comes to recommendations!

Why Did We Buy This: Like the Afraid to Admit You Own category, I can't think of anything to fill this one. If I doubt that I will watch it more than once, I don't buy the DVD. Instead, I'll wait until I can see the movie on one of our many satellite channels.

Most Treasured: Much of my DVD collection consists of documentaries and in my book, none of them rates even close to Ken Burns' The Civil War. I have watched this film so many times that the Amazing Egyptian Dude and my Dear Daughter have both threatened me with physical harm if I ever watch it again while they are a home. Lucky for me, I burned a copy of it onto my laptop and can watch it while I work without fearing for my life!

Wildcard: I love old movies and musicals! Among the favorites in my collection would have to be Pillow Talk, Flower Drum Song, Young at Heart, South Pacific, and Calamity Jane. Can you tell that I also adore Doris Day?

My mom introduced me to Mac Davis way back in the early 70's, and his music was a staple around our house. Back then, we were on the cutting edge of music technology with our quadraphonic 8-track stereo system, and my mom enjoyed nothing more than popping in a tape and dancing around the living room while lip syncing. Let's just say that Mac Davis' Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me tape got more than its fair share of sync time!

Although Mac Davis is known for having written some of Elvis' biggest hits, including "In the Ghetto," he was a singer, too. I've got all of his albums in my iTunes and enjoy reminiscing about my youth by playing them. But when I'm feeling kind of down and missing my mom, it's "Biff, the Friendly Purple Bear" that I listen to.

The sound quality on this video isn't the best in the world but even with scratchy sound, you'll want to keep a tissue handy!





Lyrics

Now I was a play horse you pulled with a string,
On wheels where my legs should be.
And he was the boy who pulled the toy
Around the treehouse tree.
And for the longest time it was just us two,
The boy and the horse that was me,
Until the day the purple bear came
To live in the treehouse tree.

Now it was early one spring,
and I was tied by my string
In the field of a make-believe farm
When around the house, the boy and the bear
Came marching arm in arm.
"This is Biff," said the boy to me,
"He's the friendly purple bear."
And Biff stooped down and stroked my mane
With a paw of purple hair.
"Biff has come to stay," said the boy,
"To pretend with me and you
And he can do anything a boy and a toy
Believe purple bears can do."

And taking the cue, Biff bowed from the waist
Then leaped and kicked his heels,
Then down to the ground with three somersaults
That ended in four cartwheels.
He whirled and twirled and stood on his head,
The boy giggled and slapped his thighs
And I laughed so hard that wooden tears
Rolled out of my painted eyes.
So Biff came to stay in the treehouse tree
And long days came without end
For the boy and the toy and the purple bear
And serious games of pretend.

Like the cowboy game, where the boy is the sheriff
And Biff is a bandit king
They always seemed to end
With the outlaws down in the jail
By the long rope-swing.
And you know there was this great pony race
That lasted for days around the flower bed.
Boy, that was a tough one!
Lucky for us though, I won by a wooden head.
And then one day we entered a pirate's cove
Beneath a bush on the alley side.
Old Biff had a sword and a paper hat,
And a patch across a purple eye.
And there was always the danger
Of outlaws or indians
And creatures from outer space,
And without the courage of the three of us,
We might have lost the whole darn place!

But we were bound by the code of the Musketeers.
Such golden hours were shared
By the freckled-face boy and the wooden horse toy
And Biff, the friendly purple bear.

But as summers passed, the boy grew taller,
And his voice took a strange new ring.
And his visits were few to the treehouse tree,
And never to the long rope-swing.
Biff the purple bear grew sad.
As he climbed down the treehouse tree
He shook his head, "I'm afraid," he said,
"He's forgotten you and me.
It seems, old wooden friend of mine
We've outlasted his boyhood years."
And he turned and he was gone, across the lawn
In a trail of purple tears.

Now I've been put to pasture in the old treehouse
But at times, I've seen from afar
A strange tall boy who mows the lawn
And tinkers about this old car.
But just today I saw a new little boy
Coming down the sidewalk, I swear!
He was headed straight for me
In the treehouse tree
Followed by Biff, that old friendly purple bear.

A group of our friends meets once a month for dinner at a local, and quite popular, Chinese restaurant. The Amazing Egyptian Dude and I don't join them very often, simply because we're usually too busy working on the days when they meet. But last night, we decided to skip working and enjoy ourselves with friends instead.


Jokingly, I call this group the Old Farts Club (Plus Wives at the monthly meetings). On Friday nights, the Amazing Egyptian Dude joins his fellow ex-pats at a local Egyptian style coffee shop to drink tea, tell jokes, play backgammon and chess, reminisce about the good old days, smoke hookah, and talk politics. They call it "going to school"; their wives call it "bliss."

I'm the only non-Egyptian in the group, the youngest member, and the only one of the women to be retired. Among the women, we have an OB/GYN (who happens also to be one of my bestest friends), a university librarian, a housewife, an accountant, an engineer, and me. The men are mostly retired engineers, except for the Amazing Egyptian Dude, who happens to have a degree in accounting, but whose chances of retirement look slimmer and slimmer as our business gets busier and busier.

One of the ladies had just returned from a 3 months stay in Egypt and, as is customary for Egyptians, she had gifts for everyone. She gave each of the men a tarboosh (fez) which, just in case you didn't know, was normal head wear in Egypt some 50 years ago. They were thrilled and wore them throughout the meal:




We had a delicious meal that included this amazing sesame and green onion bread.



The official monthly meeting of the Old Farts Club Plus Wives was filled with fun, laughter, and good food shared among friends. What could be better?

1. Name one person who made you smile today: I haven't seen anyone yet.

2. What were you doing at 8am this morning? It's just now 5am, so I haven't done anything yet.

3. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Sleeping.

4. What is your favorite candy bar? Skor

5. Have you ever been to a strip club? No

6. What was the last thing you had to drink? Squirt

7. What was the last thing you ate? Chinese food at dinner last night

8. The last sporting event you watched? The last World Cup final game

9. Do you go to church every Sunday? I'm a Muslim, so I don't go to church at all

10. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? Yes

11. What are you doing tomorrow? Finishing up the retirement paperwork to be prepared for a meeting on Tuesday

12. What do you think of when you hear Australia? Rick Springfield

13. Biggest annoyance right now? Answering questions before I've had my first cup of coffee

14. Last song listened to? "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera

15. Do you have a maid service clean your house? Not unless I put on a uniform

16. Are you jealous of anyone? Not that I can think of

17. Is anyone jealous of you? I hope not!

18. What do you usually do during the day? Work, nap, read

19. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? Hatred takes way too much energy; I just ignore people I dislike

20. Are you thinking about someone right now? Juan Valdez, the Colombian coffee dude


To see other entries or play along, visit here.

Way back in the day, I began this blog as way to distract myself from the daily ups and downs of living with a degenerative illness that sometimes knocks me soundly on my butt. It took some time, but it has now become a much enjoyed part of my daily routine -- except on the days when headaches and seizures plague me like they have for most of this week.

I have made a conscious decision to avoid life on the pity pot. In this regard, I am absolutely Stoic. We often associate a lack of emotion with the Stoics, but these guys were far from emotionless; they just chose to avoid emotionalism through the use of logic, reason, and reflection. Like the Stoics, I know that I have no control over Chiari or what it does to me; however, I do have control over how I deal with it. I can make a conscious decision to perch perpetually on the pity pot, or I can choose to plop on the pity pot only as needed and to work with what I have and who I am now to the best of my ability the rest of the time. I nearly always choose the latter.

This past week, however, has seriously tried my determination to avoid feeling sorry for myself. I've had the hurts-to-breathe headaches every single day since Sunday. Thankfully, the medication has helped to bring them under control fairly quickly; however, they are so debilitating that it's hard for me to clear my head of the fog they bring and to focus on tasks. Add seizures, which I had on Tuesday and Wednesday, to the mix, and I become a real mess, really quickly.

To deal with the down time, I've learned to write my meme posts way ahead of time whenever possible and to schedule them to go live on the appropriate days. This makes my blog look like all is peachy keen in my little world, even when I'm curled up in a fetal position on the couch trying desperately to make the world go away. Unfortunately, what I can't do is respond to comments from the couch. And that is the whole purpose behind this post.

Peeps, it's been a miserable week, and I haven't been able to respond with any regularity to your comments. I am truly sorry. I know how important comments are in the blogosphere, really I do, and I appreciate every single one that is left for me. Please don't think that I'm not grateful or that I am ignoring what you have to say; this is not the case. If I don't reply to comments, it's because I'm looking for the toilet paper while I sit on the pity pot or because I'm playing roly-poly on the couch and haven't found a way to uncurl myself and still breathe.

So, here's to the end of the week:

For the past year or two, I required my students to set up and maintain a blog as a way to interest them in the habit of writing regularly. They were instructed to establish an anonymous identity so that not even their classmates would know who they were unless they told; I was the only person who knew which blog was whose. I linked all of the student blogs to a main class blog, where I posted a discussion question to which they all had to respond on their own blogs and then comment on the responses of two of their classmates' posts. Some of them kept their blogs going after the class ended, and others started a whole new blog that had nothing to do with our class. Such is the case of Carrie, a student from the Spring '09 semester.

Carrie and her brother, John, are cycling around the North Sea this summer. When she told me about the adventure that they were about to embark on, I jokingly told Carrie that I hoped she would blog about it so that I could follow along with their progress. Much to my delight and surprise, Carrie told me that she had already set up a blog for that exact purpose, then she thanked me for teaching her how to set up and use this most amazing of online communication platforms.

Well on their way around the North Sea, Carrie and John have traversed Germany and are currently in Denmark. In her most recent post, Carrie relates that she and John have been interviewed for the local newspaper in the 5th Century Viking village where they are currently camping. I hope that some of my readers will pay a visit to Carrie's blog and follow the bicycle ride of a lifetime!

Cycling the North Sea with John and Carrie