mysid

I was so nervous last night watching the election results that I actually threw up. No lie. Thank goodness they declared President Obama the winner before I went to bed last night, or I wouldn't have slept a wink. I wanted to do a Snoopy-esque happy dance, but my husband and I have a tacit agreement not to exult too openly when the other's candidate loses.

But I did feel like dancing in the streets, waving a rainbow flag, when I heard that not only did President Obama beat Mittens, but four states, FOUR, either voted in favor of marriage equality or voted against an amendment banning it.*

To quote Debbie in Queer as Folk: “A word of advice, my sweet Emmett - mourn the losses because they are many. But celebrate the victories because they are few.”

For a complete roundup of significant votes, see this entry by gehayi.

*Minnesota voters defeated a ballot measure that would have made marriage discrimination part of their state constitution, and voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington voted to legalize marriage equality.

My teenage daughter went to a costume party tonight. (It was supposed to be last Sunday, but got postponed by the hurricane.) One of the girls went as "God's Gift to Men". She wore a large bow and a gift tag that said, "To: Men, From: God".

The eye of hurricane is getting pretty close now, and trees are begining to fall. A large one just came down at my husband's office, as did one across the street from it. (We were told by a tenant in the apartment above the office.)

Our town is officially postponing Trick or Treating until Friday.

My brother, a staunch Republican, knowing that I'm just as staunchly Democrat, said to my twelve year old son, "Try to convince your mom to vote for Romney, would you?"

My son, "I wouldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I like Big Bird."

I bought a package of wonton wrappers (fresh pasta squares) and decided to make some homemade ravioli. (I've done so once before, and they were delish.) I made a cheese filling, assembled the ravioli, and put them in the fridge until dinner. Time consuming, but hopefully worth the effort.

I boiled them in two batches. The first batch came out beautifully; the second batch, not so much. I think all but one of the ravioli in the second batch leaked open, and I ended up with ricotta soup with square noodles--not what I was going for.

At least I've been reminded why it's easier to buy premade filled pastas. A lot quicker, and much less likely to self-destruct.

I was at a staff meeting of the preschool where I work, and as it's part of a church, the head pastor was attending as well. (He doesn't usually, but special circumstances.)

Anyway... the pastor was making a point and started to say, "We're all baptised Christians here," and then he looked directly across the table and saw me--and remembered that I'm an atheist. (An atheist who teaches in Sunday School, volunteers with the children's choirs, and brings her kids to Sunday School and church. Yeah, I'm hardcore.) He immediately laughed and said, "Well, almost all of us."

I laughed and said, "Well, I was baptized."

After the meeting, he apologized and said that he hoped I wasn't offended. I assured him that I wasn't and added, "My brother calls me 'the heathen'".

"Oh, I think you're closer to the Kingdom than you let on," he replied.

Still an atheist, but I guess I'm a good one. It's kind of like when my college roommate said that it was OK that I didn't drink because "You're a fun non-drinker."

OK, market research people. I know you have a job to do, and that job sometimes involves surveying people to find out what they think or feel about various topics. I'd like to help you--no, really I would. But if you ever want me to help you with a telephone survey again, you're going to have to adhere to a few ground rules.

1) Keep telephone surveys SHORT. Chances are, you've caught me in the middle of my life happening, and I can only spare you a few minutes. If the survey goes on, and on, and on, not only are you seriously inconveniencing me, but you're hurting yourself as well, for I may not finish the survey, and I'll be far less likely to agree to be questioned next time.

Yesterday's caller ended up wasting both of our precious time. His survey went on so long, that I ultimately had to hang up the phone (time to take my son to karate) before the survey was complete, thus rendering all my answers null and void. Plus, I refused to even start a survey with tonight's caller as I'd sacrificed enough time to surveys this week.

2) A good way to shorten your survey, Don't ask redundant questions. The same question asked three slightly different ways is not three different questions. Asked and answered; move on.

More than once yesterday, I asked the caller, "Didn't you already ask this?" The problem was especially acute as I could only pick out a few key words in each question, due to:

3) Please make sure that the callers you hire do not have thick accents. Given the lack of visual clues in a telephone conversation, voice is all we have. If I can't understand the question, I can't answer it.

I mean no disrespect to yesterday's caller; I'm impressed that he obviously speaks at least two languages (compared to my one). But his English was so heavily accented that I could only understand a few words in each question. My answers were not based on the questions asked, but based on my best guess of the questions asked.

4) Accept "I don't know" and "I don't care" as acceptable answers. They're very often true, and I'd rather tell you the truth instead of choosing one of the stock answers you've given me to choose from.

ETA: Oh my lord. I just got another survey call. That's three in two days. How'd I get so lucky?

OK, I've been putting off this post for a while because (A) Children's Hospital blocks my access to LJ (And DW) so I couldn't post "live", (B) you're probably getting sick of "My daughter is sick" posts, and (C) I had to gather my thoughts. But I couldn't avoid it forever. After a hospitalization, I always feel like I can't post anything else until I've done a recap, and eventually it gets a bit silly how long I go without posting.

The short version: A few days after the Emergency Room Visit of Hopeless Despair (TM), we went back to Children's Hospital (CHOP) for an endoscopy. It was supposed to be an outpatient visit, but the doctor discovered that my daughter's GI tract was severely irritated for most of its length. That, plus the discovery of various viruses in her bloodstream (the cultures were in from previous week's blood tests) indicated a severe viral infection. Daughter was admitted to the hospital to get IV antiviral medication. (She was already on an antiviral, but this was more targeted to the viruses she had.) We ended up staying six days.

In a way, it was kind of a kick in the pants. We knew in an abstract way that the immune suppression drugs she has to take to avoid organ rejection would impair her ability to fight off illnesses. This was the first time, but undoubtedly not the last time, that we saw exactly what that means. She caught what should have been a minor virus, was severely sick for a month, and hospitalized for a week.

She's now been out of CHOP for six days, and doing wonderfully. I think she's finally ready to go back to school tomorrow. We're a month into the school year, and she's only been there for 3 1/2 days so far. The school just started sending tutors for Homebound Instruction, so they should help her get caught up.

She's been so amazing.

My daughter recovered from her liver transplant in record time--and now we're paying for it (in the karmic sense). We're two weeks into the new school year, and I think she's only gone to school for 3 1/2 days. (She's a freshman in high school, and she really wants to go to school!) Her symptoms are vague (back pain, abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness) making a diagnosis difficult. Tests have been run, so we've been able to figure out what it is not (rejection, pancreatitis, appendicitis, intestinal blockage, etc.), but we still don't know what it is.

Yesterday, we spent twelve hours in the Emergency Room, and in the end they sent us home still having no clue what's wrong with her. They knew it wasn't anything immediately life threatening, and they had no good reason to keep her--especially over the weekend when her doctor wouldn't be there. But for my daughter, that was the breaking point. She's never gone to the hospital and not gotten a diagnosis before; she's never gone to the hospital and left feeling worse than when she came in before. Upon hearing that she was being discharged, she broke down crying.

I had an idea when we got home, so we're about to test it out. Most of her symptoms might be explained by her intestinal flora being thrown out of whack by the antibiotics she's taking. She used to take acidophilus, but the doctor had her stop when she had her transplant. I just asked the doctor to let her resume taking it. Cross your fingers that it helps!

erastes asked for "moar puppy pictures," so here you go!

( Peek here for puppy. )