Thursday, February 22, 2007

Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)

I started an entry last week, but got sidetracked with God only knows what. And of course, just when I started this, the access to some data for which I have been waiting was finally granted. I need to get cranking on the assignment because I'm calling my doctor in a few minutes and making an appt. I'm sick again and I've decided not to wait it out this time since it simply came back two weeks later.

Well, that was fun. I got to play with numbers and did what I could. I think I'm supposed to do more, but I've asked for clarification. I got a dr.'s appt. for 3:00 this afternoon. I'm highly annoyed because this was going to be my opportunity to go to the gym five days a week since Maureen is on vacation. Instead I'm going to the doctor and yesterday I went home as I was just exhausted.

I am loving my iPod Nano, except for the fact that it only holds 1,321 songs. Last weekend, I took some off and put others on. I don't remember what I deleted, but I know I added The Stooges, The Thompson Twins, and Tones on Tail. The thing is there are so many more songs I want to put on, but can't without taking something off. I can see a few ABBA songs going, but I like having completely different stuff on there. I need a 30-gig iPod at least. ARGH!!! I want to go from Sammy Davis, Jr. to the Sex Pistols to Elvis Costello to Diana Krall (his wife) to Joy Division to Ultravox to ABBA to Culture Club to Nick Cave or whatever order the iPod chooses. Instead I seem to get a lot of Joy Division and Nick Cave whom I love, but I need a little more variety. I'm thinking I need to take some off, but I just don't see me taking off any Joy Division. I already culled out duplicate songs from different albums/different mixes and that about killed me.

Last Sunday a friend from the University invited a core group of us over for a tea party. I had to bail out of Mass at 11:20 (for the record Mass started at 10:00, we are NOT Baptist, thank you very much, 2 hour masses are not necessary) and we were only at the Sign of Peace. Mom probably wasn't happy, but for heaven's sake, this is getting ridiculous! The tea party was to start at noon and I hate being late. I arrived on time and it was a very lovely day. We had our choice of teas (caffeine and herbal) and plenty of food. I had cucumber sandwiches of which I'm quite fond, but there were also chicken cashew salad sandwiches, mini frittatas with bacon, scones with clotted cream, pumpkin cookies (I'm sure they were delicious, if you like pumpkin), etc. After tea, we headed for the basement and the big mother TV where we watched a movie I could have lived without ever seeing – The Devil's Advocate. Egads, Al Pacino is just icky in that movie!!! *shudder*

This past Sunday I bailed on Mass because I spent the weekend with a 99.5F temp and just didn't feel like dealing with another 2 hour Mass. I called Mom to tell her, because otherwise she worries when I'm not there, which is kind of annoying at my age to have to check with your Mom. I know she wasn't pleased about me not going, but crap, if I'm going to hell because I missed Mass this past Sunday I'm already in big trouble from the years (1990-1994, 1996-2000) when I didn't go.

The past two Saturdays I went to reiki sessions. My friend Soyon had told us about her reiki sessions at the last knitting night and it sounded interesting. She described it as a healing "thing" (for lack of a better term) and I figured it couldn't hurt, so I made my first appt. Soyon told us that she saw lights during her session which I didn't see. I'm wondering if you have to buy into it fully for it to really work and although I'm open-minded, I'm not sure I could be described as being completely into it. Although, at one point on the first Saturday, I was lying on my back (this happens fully-clothed) and the reiki therapist was doing her thing and laid her hands on my right arm. I felt off-balance and tipped toward the right at about a 45-degree angle, even though I verified that both my shoulder blades were flat on the massage table. The same thing happened when she had made her way to my left side and laid her hands on my left arm. I thought it was interesting, but didn't say anything. When the session was up, she told me that I was off-balance (anybody who knows me, I'm thinking this isn't a shock) and described how she was being knocked off balance herself. I would have scoffed if I hadn't felt it myself. She said to carry hematite with me as it's supposed to balance/center a person. I have a boatload of hematite beads at home, so I made myself a hematite bracelet and this past Saturday, the tipping sensation was very mild – maybe 5-degrees. Who knows if it works/is working? But I figure that it's harmless, and if it works, what the heck.

Today is Paczki (PUEN-chki) Day here in Detroit. When I was in Catholic school it was either called Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday (no clue what "shrove" means), but due to the heavy Polish influence here, it is now called Paczki Day and it's covered by all the news outlets. Here is what the Freep had to say. There were people up at 3:30 this morning – actually, not just up, but already at the friggin' bakery in Hamtramck. I had my one at 7:00 this morning thanks to a colleague, and I still feel nauseous from all the fat and calories.

I haven't decided what I'm doing for Lent yet this year. Usually, I give up all manner of indulgences, but I'm not feeling the need this year. I think I'll try to stop swearing, which shouldn't be too hard as I have been pretty good lately. And I'm definitely giving up junk food (for the record, this does not include good chocolate or desserts at TJ's or birthday cake and ice cream (the nieces' and one nephew's b-days always fall during Lent and I've decided not to be my mother and play martyr and sigh heavily while declining the said cake and ice cream). I also want to give up going to Mass, but everybody tells me that kind of flies in the face of what Lent's about. Ah well.

I wrote most of the preceding last week and this past Tuesday, but I didn't have time to post before heading to the doctor's office and I stayed home sick yesterday so it didn't get posted until today. I trust you can all handle its disjointed crazy mixed-upedness..

11 Comments:

At Thursday, 22 February, 2007, Blogger fakies said...

The Devil's Advocate just freaked me out. Seeing it once was more than enough.

Lovin' the 30 GB iPod. I don't have it full, but there's close to 2,000 songs on it. I like to shuffle mine too.

 
At Thursday, 22 February, 2007, Blogger LL said...

I think I'd give up Lent for Lent.

My 30 gig ipod is no where near full. Of course I haven't put all of my songs on it, but I doubt I ever will.

 
At Thursday, 22 February, 2007, Blogger fermicat said...

My MP3 player isn't an iPod. It was half the price, which made selecting it an easy choice. And it has 40GB of space, so my entire (very large) CD collection is in there, and there is still room for me to back up all of my personal files from my computers. Love it!

I haven't been to church in twenty years (other than weddings and funerals and occasionally while visiting a family member). But when I did go, we didn't do Lent. Not sure why - too protestant I guess. So I never have to give up anything for lent. I feel sorry for my friends when they give up stuff. It has only been two days and they are already miserable. But who said that my friend needed to give up bread, sugar and caffiene all at the same time. Wouldn't just one of those be enough of a sacrifice?

I used to do Reiki. I took the Level 1 and Level 2 classes. I'm not sure if I could explain how it works or if it really does work, but it is relaxing for both the practicioner and the person being treated, and certainly cannot hurt anything. There are some books and web sites out there that you could look at for more info. It is a calming activity. I learned it to help my old dog when he had episodes of paralysis and back trouble, and it did seem to help him feel better (of course, maybe it was just the attention from me that helped). My former neighbor, the 'crusty old Yankee' from Massachusetts, asked me to Reiki his hands once in a while after he did a lot of gardening and such.

 
At Friday, 23 February, 2007, Blogger Kathleen said...

Trina - Yup, that's what I thought of The Devil's Advocate. No reason to see that more than once. The friend asked us to take it and lose it on the freeway.

LL - Oh, I've contemplated that as well.

Fermi - I wanted a Zen Creativ, but since my home computer is a Mac, my brother (who did the research) said I had to get an iPod. Then he went out and got himself the Zen!!! ARGH! I'm so jealous. There's just no reason to give up everything, for Heaven's sake. One of those would have been sufficient. I'd love for you to explain reiki more fully to me. I had my third and final (for now) appt. yesterday. And it's definitely relaxing.

 
At Friday, 23 February, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hiya :o)


I can shed some light on the Shrove Tuesday thing - Shrove is a misspelling of Shrive (to confess)and people used to go and confess on shrove Tuesday so that they'd be all sorted and forgiven and stuff for ash Wednesday and Lent.

Here in England though, its mostly referred to as pancake day, and everyone has pancakes (our versions are more like crepes than the American ones) as it's supposed to use up all the eggs, milk and fat and things that you're not supposed to have during lent.

I've given up chocolate this year, as I fancy a drink on my birthday which manages to usually fall in Lent. I think giving up lots of stuff and then moaning about it is a bit daft, but there you go. I give it up and don't moan, but mostly people look at me here like I'm a little bit mad for doing anything even vaguely religious if it comes up in conversation so I wouldn't mention it much anyway.

I've suddenly got loads to tell you having vanished for months!

My Aunt used to be a reki master thing (her health has stopped her practicing now) and I was really sceptical, but I think it does do something. I kind of felt a strange warm heat and she spotted some problems I turned out to have afterwards. It was all very relaxing, however you think about it. I still feel a bit "I can't explain it so it can't be real" but having felt it I can't explain that either.

And I have an 80Gb iPod Dave got me at Christmas. I can't fill it up. Or, to be fair, work iTunes. I think it would be great if I could get my head around it....

 
At Friday, 23 February, 2007, Blogger Beth said...

I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well again. I have an iPod phone that holds only 100 songs and I still haven't filled it.

 
At Friday, 23 February, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a 1 GB MP3 player, and I kind of like having to switch things around now and then...keeps you from getting in a rut and forces you to actually look at all the bazillion music files on your puter and figure out what you want to listen to.

And I think giving up going to church for Lent would be awesome. ;)

 
At Friday, 23 February, 2007, Blogger Glen said...

Dear, in my humble opinion you may want to consider that your apartment building is part of your health problems. You are simply sick way too often. And since I usually talk to you on the phone I can hear that you are indeed really sick and not just mopey or tired of work, etc.
Now this may not be something you want to deal with but if you take a step back and read your own blog you will see that you are ill more often than you should be and I for one hate to see you like that as often as I do.
Take that for what it's worth.

 
At Friday, 23 February, 2007, Blogger Nob Hill Omnivore said...

Hey Coy does reiki and says 3 of the 5 people he has see lights or feel their bodies moving like you described. Email him if you want to ask any questions.

 
At Monday, 26 February, 2007, Blogger Heather said...

My little MP3 player only holds between 50-54 songs so in a 12 hour work night I hear the same things about 3 or 4 times. I've quickly discovered what I really like and don't like!!

 
At Wednesday, 07 March, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

A long time for me, been busy getting settled (or rather trying to) in my new job.

FTR, last year I bought a 60 GB iPod (1st gen of the Video ones) - and right now it's around half full; I find I'm using it more right now for the podcasts, actually. The video isn't that bad as well, but the battery life gets crushed then - although I have a bunch of old "24" episodes on it.

I haven't tried to put the 3600 songs on shuffle, though. The Nano is nice, but I keep thinking I'd accidentally break it somehow.

 

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