Archive for September, 2006

“Are Yours the Actions of a True American?”

by athena714 Tuesday, 26 September, 2006

I am overwhelmed right now after watching this.

Keith Olbermann was as angered as I was by Chris Wallace’s ambush of President Clinton on FOX last Friday, and thank God he has the forum and the eloquence to voice that outrage.

In his remarks, he addresses President Bush directly and unmercifully:

We have nothing but your word, and your word has long since ceased to mean anything.

Thus was it left for the previous President to say what so many of us have felt; what so many of us have given you a pass for in the months and even the years after the attack:

You did not try.

You ignored the evidence gathered by your predecessor.

You ignored the evidence gathered by your own people.

Then, you blamed your predecessor.

That would be the textbook definition… Sir, of cowardice.

To enforce the lies of the present, it is necessary to erase the truths of the past.

That was one of the great mechanical realities Eric Blair — writing as George Orwell — gave us in the novel “1984.”

The great philosophical reality he gave us, Mr. Bush, may sound as familiar to you, as it has lately begun to sound familiar to me.

“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power…

“Power is not a means; it is an end.

“One does not establish a dictatorship to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.

“The object of persecution, is persecution. The object of torture, is torture. The object of power… is power.”

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The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be

by athena714 Monday, 25 September, 2006

We watched a really interesting movie last night. It’s called Happy Accidents, and it’s about a woman (Marisa Tomei) who falls in love with a guy (Vincent D’Onofrio) who claims to be a time traveller from the year 2470. Netflix kept recommending it to me, so I figured what the hell. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. It was really good, and funny, and actually very suspenseful. I thought both Tomei and D’Onofrio were really good. She plays a woman with definite co-dependence issues, and even though he’s totally freaking her out with the time-travelling stories, he seems so earnest about it (not to mention she’s in love with him) that she can’t bring herself to break up with him.

I got so wrapped up in the story, I found myself really identifying with her struggle to decide whether or not to believe him. He’s a very likable character, and even though his claims seem absolutely asinine, I really wanted him to be for real. It definitely had me hooked.

Plus we got this gem out of it:

“Religion goes out of favor in 2037 when science discovers the gene that regulates fear.”

HA!

in Film.  Comment?

Heeeeeeeere Fishy Fishy Fishy

by athena714 Sunday, 24 September, 2006

My all time favorite bit from Sesame Street.

Thank God for You Tube.

And here’s more (I remember all of these!):

Bert gives his nephew Brad a bath (look how unbelievably cute little Brad is)

How crayons are made (a classic!)

The Alligator King (featuring the number 7)

The Ladybugs Picnic (with a snappy little tune)

in Television.  Comment?

Yawn.

by athena714 Sunday, 17 September, 2006

A whole lot of nada going on around here. Mellow weekend. Had my second session of acupuncture yesterday and am really enjoying it. It has stopped creeping me out and I think I’m actually feeling more relaxed. We watched Everything is Illuminated tonight and loved loved loved it.

That is all.

Oh, and the perfume company I work for is having a sale on candles and body cremes. Through the end of October, they are all 40% off, so shop it up, peeps. I can heartily recommend the Perfect Veil cremes and candles, and the Perfect Love candles. Those are my faves.

in Day to Day.  Comment?

R.I.P. Ann Richards

by athena714 Wednesday, 13 September, 2006

Ann Richards, the former Governor of Texas, has passed away. She was a classy, witty, strong woman and I admired her very much.

From CNN.com:

Her family said as governor she was most proud of two actions that probably cost her re-election. She vetoed legislation that would allow people to carry concealed handguns, automatic weapons and “cop-killer bullets.” She also vetoed a bill that would have allowed the destruction of the environment over the Edwards Aquifer.

She grabbed the national spotlight with her keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention when she was the Texas state treasurer. Richards won cheers from delegates when she reminded them that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, “only backwards and in high heels.”

Richards sealed her partisan reputation with a blast at George H. W. Bush, a fellow Texan who was vice president at the time: “Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

Four years later, she was chairwoman of the Democratic convention that nominated Bill Clinton for president.

Richards rose to the governorship with a come-from-behind victory over millionaire cowboy Clayton Williams in 1990. She cracked a half-century male grip on the governor’s mansion and celebrated by holding up a T-shirt that showed the state Capitol and read: “A woman’s place is in the dome.”

In four years as governor, Richards championed what she called the “New Texas,” appointing more women and more minorities to state posts than any of her predecessors.

She appointed the first black University of Texas regent; the first crime victim to join the state Criminal Justice Board; the first disabled person to serve on the human services board; and the first teacher to lead the State Board of Education. Under Richards, the fabled Texas Rangers pinned stars on their first black and female officers.

She polished Texas’ image, courted movie producers, championed the North American Free Trade Agreement, oversaw an expansion of the state prison system, and presided over rising student achievement scores and plunging dropout rates.

Asked once what she might have done differently had she known she was going to be a one-term governor, Richards grinned.

“Oh, I would probably have raised more hell.”

in Current Affairs.  Comment?

Kitten Attack!

by athena714 Thursday, 7 September, 2006

Turns out the two sweet little angel kittens we rescued from the pound are actually unholy terrors. Hell cats.

OK, not really, but I haven’t had a kitten in a really long time and I forgot how insane they are. These two hardly stop moving all day, hence the lack of new pictures, because I’m too slow and they all turn out blurry.

They zoom through the house at top speed, knocking shit over, tearing holes in the couches. If Jethro happens to be next to you on the couch and you so much as move a pinky, he attacks it. They play in their litter box, throwing sand this way and that. Then they kick the clumps of poo out and bat them around.

They’re still awfully cute though. Jethro dragged this toy shark out of my bedroom (yes, I have a stuffed toy shark in my bedroom. I also have a stingray) all the way to the living room and proceeded to terrorize it. Millie tried to get in on the action, but Jethro had the situation under control.

Kittens_shark

Jethro_shark

in Critters.  Comment?

Better Today

by athena714 Wednesday, 6 September, 2006

Feeling better today after a night’s sleep, and I was able to make an appointment with Dr. Hubert for October 11, so that’s not too long of a wait.

The Fertility and Surgical Associates of California center is right near our house, in Encino, so that’s nice. They have a great website with lots of information on all the different tests and treatment they do. I get the feeling that this is the big time, these guys really know their stuff. So I’m actually kind of excited.

The first thing they asked me though is whether or not my insurance covers treatment for infertility, the answer to which is a resounding “NO”. Oh well, as long as we don’t get to IVF too quickly, we can handle it. The IUI was only $300, and that is totally manageable. It’s just when you start talking injectible medications that the costs skyrocket. Blech.

in Pregnancy Quest. 1 Comment

What Do You Do When Your Doctor Gives Up On You?

by athena714 Tuesday, 5 September, 2006

Yeah, so I talked to my doctor tonight and he told me that it’s time for me to talk to a fertility specialist so that I can “consider other options”. I asked him what those options might be and he said a few things that involved a lot of needles. Yay. He told me not to worry because “You’re 29, you’ll get pregnant, I just don’t know how much it’s going to cost”. Great. Then he made a couple cracks about how preschool these days is more expensive than a cycle of IVF and that at least I don’t have to worry about that yet. Thanks for that.

Hawk says it’s a good thing, and even admirable for him to refer me to someone else, because it shows that he doesn’t want to waste my time with treatments that so far haven’t worked, wants me to get to the bottom of my fertility issues, and ultimately wants me to get pregnant. I guess this is true, but right now I feel like he gave up on me.

This is the point I never wanted to get to. I see IVF looming in front of me as more and more of a possibility and that scares the shit out of me.

He gave me the names of some specialists near me that he said are great, so I’ll give one of them a call tomorrow. One of them is this guy, and one of the pages I found through Google says he’s great but it took months for an appointment. Whatever. I could use the break.

in Pregnancy Quest.  Comment?

Lucky

by athena714 Tuesday, 5 September, 2006

I am a lucky woman.

I have so many people who love and support me, it really makes my heart feel like bursting sometimes. A shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, an email from an ocean away.

In a time like this, it really makes me feel better, so much more alive, to know that I am loved. It makes me think that everything is going to be OK.

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It Didn’t Work.

by athena714 Monday, 4 September, 2006

The IUI didn’t work. I got my period today.

I’m having a really hard time with this. I had such hopes for this treatment, sure that this was going to be it. I talked with everybody about it - my family, all my friends. We told them all about the procedure, joking that we were going to have twins - “better two than none, right?”. Indeed.

Right now I feel hopeless and I hate feeling this way. Because besides feeling hopeless I also start feeling angry - angry towards every pregnant woman I see, angry at the universe because this isn’t FAIR, dammit. And angry at people who tell me “If it’s meant to be…” Well why WOULDN’T it be? What did I do, why wouldn’t I be meant to have a baby?

In my head, I know that each IUI cycle only has a 10-15% chance of success, so just because it didn’t work this time doesn’t mean that it won’t work next time. But in my heart I’m feeling a lot less rational than that.

I’m going to take this month off. No Clomid, no procedures. I need a break.

in Pregnancy Quest. 1 Comment