Woot! Woot!

On the Vay-Cay!

Darwin IS dead. That's why.

This was sent to me via email, but is worth posting:

 

Nurse's Point of View on Evacuation Shelters during Gustav Personal insight to hurricane evacuation centers   Wednesday, September 10 2008

Sherri Hagerhjelm, RN, volunteered her time to help Gustav evacuees at the shelter in Shreveport , La.   During her volunteer hours she was required to be escorted by a National Guardsmen armed with an assault rifle to ensure her safety.  In a letter to the editor of a south Louisiana newspaper, Hagerhjelm offers a unique perspective on evacuation centers: Dear Editor, I am a nurse who has just completed volunteer working approximately 120 hours as the clinic director in a Hurricane Gustav evacuation shelter in Shreveport , Louisiana over the last 7 days.  I would love to see someone look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective.  Local and national news channels have covered the evacuation and "horrible" conditions the evacuees had to endure during Hurricane Gustav.     True - some things were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification.   At any point, does anyone address the responsibility (or irresponsibility) of the evacuees?   Does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone, charger, cigarettes and lighter but forget their child's insulin?   Is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle (most of which are narcotics)?   Isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?   Is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth of drugs, alcohol and weapons being brought into the shelter?   Am I less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby, watching me work 26 hours straight, not even raising her head from the pillow to comfort her own son?   Why does it incense me to hear a man say "I ain't goin' home 'til I get my FEMA check"  when I would love to just go home and see my daughters who I have only seen 3 times this week?   Is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay his copay while the FEMA declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free medications under the disaster rules?   Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a "daycare"?   Have government entitlements created this mentality and am I facilitating it with my work?   Will I be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor Christian if I hesitate to work at the next shelter because I have worked for 7 days being called every curse word imaginable, feeling threatened and fearing for my personal safety in the shelter?   Exhausted and battered, Sherri Hagerhjelm, RN

Here we go again

out of my ass...

So This guy is a social worker and he's suing the county he works for.

I am all about religious freedom.

BUT.

I grew up in a family that served. My parents were nurses. In a field where you care for people, you don't always get to choose your hours. People don't need you until five o'clock or until sundown and then just freeze until you are able to get back to work.

IF it turns out they asked him to stay late on Friday or come in on Saturday for team building exercises? Then yeah, I'd complain. I understand the importance of the Sabbath but you chose to be in a service profession.

Fully acknowledging that the sum total of what I know is exactly what is printed in that link and nothing more, um, I think he's in the wrong line of work. There are ways to help people, help children, that don't require you to have flexible hours. I don't think social work is one of them.

Compounding that is the fact that he's suing them for not reprimanding co-workers based upon things OTHER people heard. That would open the county up to lawsuits on the other end, wouldn't it?

Do I doubt that the remarks were made? Not really--Ass hats are everywhere. IS anti semitism still a problem in the world today? Yes, I honestly believe that it is--and that sucks, but THIS lawsuit seems flimsy to my untrained eyeballs, and the combination of the two makes him seem ...unseemly.

we interrupt this blogging interruption

for a slight kvetch.

 

Wouldn't Maya's ability, if it's all tied in to Adrenaline, be manifesting when Mohinder (oooooh, Mo-HINder!  yes I am a twelve year old) goes all primal man on her?

 

I realize she's not scared, but...um...her adrenaline was definitely surging.  ahem.

 

 

 

We now return to your regularly scheduled blogging silence.

 

Because honest to Dawg, I got nothin.

 

 

Blog? What Blog?

OOOOOHHH.

Sorry about that.

No time for a post right now, but can I thank Bill Gates for no longer shaking his ass while Jerry Seinfeld watches?

I find the new ads a huge improvement.

L/Cpl. Jason Hanson
21 years old from Forks, Washington
3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force
July 29, 2006


L/Cpl. Jason Hanson died when a gasoline truck near a building he was in exploded, causing the building to collapse in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Three other Marines were also killed in the blast. Lance Cpl. Anthony E. Butterfield, 19 yrs. old, of Clovis, California; Cpl. Phillip E. Baucus, 28 yrs. old, of Wolf Creek, Montana; Sgt. Christian B. Williams, 27 yrs. old, of Winter Haven, Florida.

Hanson graduated in 2003 and joined the Marines in 2005. He married his wife just before shipping out.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Like hey, Forks Washington is everywhere these days thanks to Twilight. Anyone talking about young men still giving their lives? Anyone? Where are THIS BOY'S Facebook Flair buttons?

Their names should be read before every Miley Cyrus concert, Every Fashion week show, every single event where people are gathered, until this nation can actually remember and honor those soldiers and their families with so much on the line.

Sorry to be schmearing the you tube all over...

I would share it with the facebook, but I have no clue how to embed over there.

A wee small Sarah Palin bit.

Beautifully said!

I loved the late late show when it was Tom Snyder's, and I love Craig Ferguson (again with the spelling?).

Maybe it's because they think no one's watching that they are allowed to voice opinions?

I dunno.

My Mother in Law has a lady.

You know, a lady!

A lady to do my hair.


She rattled off something in spanish at dinner the other night, and the Honey starts laughing.

"My mom says your hair looks terrible"

He then translates what he told me to his mom, and she sqwaks and is very flustered.

I KNOW that's not what she said, hoser, I do speak a little. But she has a lady, and she even had a card in her wallet for me.

Wait for it.







Not yet.










Oh, yeah.














now.

 

So my mother in law thinks my hair looks terrible.

Bwahahhahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Dear Metrosexual Opthamologist:

I heart you in a completely asexual manner.

 

You are the very essence of Metrosexuality.

 

I heart your monochromatic wardrobe and your artfully graying blonde spiky hair.

 

The only time anyone in my office (because we all love you and go see you) has seen you in something other than a black tee shirt or turtleneck, it was a white tee shirt-- your tees are always very expensive and lint free, tucked into your belted slacks.

 

I picture your life as pristine and sterile as your office, devoid of drama and/or unsightly displays of poor taste.

 

It is YOUR family I see in all of the picture frames--they are in black and white, too!

 

You go to witty urbane cocktail parties where no one gets hammered and barfs cocktail weenies into the potted plants, and I am sure you drive a German Car.  (Possibly a Mini Cooper if you are sportier than you seem.)

 

I adore you even when you make my pupils as big as a kid in a velvet painting and send me out into the world with nothing but lame roll up sunglasses to shield me from this bizzarr-o world side of town where the cars are CLEAN and blind me with their freshly waxed shine.

 

How did you ever end up in Stockton and not San Francisco?  Were you wanting to be a sleek fish in a cloudy pond, instead of one of a school of sleek monochromatic metrosexual fish?

 

Because you are definitley out of water.

 

xoxo,

 

Jennfactor10.

Sigh.

I was told by someone at work that for someone who cooks, I eat out a hell of a lot.

She knows this because she eats out a hell of a lot, too--and sees ME out.

Maybe I am just statistically more likely to hit the Shitty service lottery because I buy more tickets, or because I was a manager whose whole thing, spiel, schtick--whatever you want to call it--was Good Customer Service.

Let me tell you, I have gone to Marie Callendar's since I was a kid. We had to stop at the MC on Sunrise in Sacramento at least twice a year so my dad could have chili and cornbread. I think my father swooned when they opened one on Hilltop in Redding.

The Honey? Not so fond of it, but an open faced turkey sandwich has broken him on more than one occasion. During the Olympics, he was weak. Little O was overjoyed.

We walked in and I requested a table for four--you can tell the economy is feeling the pinch when there's no waiting at MC. The Honey asked, as she gathered our menus, if we could sit in the bar side so we could watch the Olympics.

Biotch did NOT roll her eyes and huff--I am sure that was NOT what I just saw.

Oh, yes it was, because I'll be damned if she did not take us to the only table in the room that was actually BEHIND every TV. If the Honey sat on the corner, he could look sideways at the big screen. Have we talked about the Honey's temper? I immediately told him we could leave as his eyes got big and slightly crazed. Stupid cow didn't help when she sniffed,

"you can move the table--a little."

A little? REALLY?

We were gathering our stuff back up to go when the Honey looked over and saw Little O with teary eyes. He just caved at that point--resigned himself to not watching the Olympics, and opened his menu.

So the manager comes over to ask if everything is okay, and here's the thing:

The Honey was settled back down, and he is a firm believer that you do NOT complain while any of your food is still in the kitchen.

I told the manager we were fine.

Our waitress was fabulous, and almost made up for the hostess, and the food was fine. After our meal, I asked to speak to the manager. I thougth he ought to know about the eye rolling, huffing, and surly little bitch that had seated us. Did I call her that? No. I simply explained what had happened and that I thought he should be aware.

Fucking unbelievable, because his first response was NOT I am so sorry, or I'll speak to her, it was

"I ASKED you, and you SAID everything was fine."

Pop rocks, people. Pop rocks exploding in my brain. I could hear them fizzing and hissing. I wasn't asking for a discount on my meal, I was not hitting him up for a free pie. I had started by telling him how great our waitress was. I thought he ought to know about his hostess, but it turns out he must have been the one who trained her! He worked up to a half hearted I'm sorry you feel that way, but added that we could have sat anywhere, there were tables open that faced the TV. Um, yeah, that was kind of my point, asshole.

ANYWAY, I wrote a letter to Marie's website, and it was almost completely grown up. I may have used the term stink eye when the Honey asked for bar seating. It was much more rational than my open letter to Chili's and/or Border's.

I have no expectation of anything but a form letter from Marie's, but I felt soooo much better having written it to corporate.

Did I ever tell you about my mother and the feedback form at Italian Cottage?
My roommate Kat, the Bad Boyfriend and I went to IC to meet my folks for dinner, and we got there before my folks. Waitress Paula was a complete cow to us--almost THREW Kat's coffee on her. As soon as my folks showed up she was sweet as pie. We were stunned at the turn about, and told my parents about it.
In place of the hefty tip my parents usually left, my mother wrote on the back of the check:

"We hope that when Paula gets back to her kennel, her mother growls and snaps at her."

My mom rocks.

More polly-tics

Palin.
McCain.
Obama.
Whassihname (Okay, Okay, Biden).

Bill and Hillary made it work with a middle schooler in the white house. How old was Amy Carter when Jimmy lived there?

I don't have a problem with Palin as a woman or as a mother in the veep position, I am assuming her Hubs will step up, along with some sort of help. Your teenaged daughter could get knocked up whether you are a stay at home mom or the CEO of a fortune 500 company. That's just biology.

Obama has young kids. Michelle is there to fill in the gaps. Shit, kids have been raised by single parents and done just fine.

But I think I am skeeved out by choosing to step up your job duties (when you are already in a position of power) when your children are so very young. Wouldn't you miss out on so much?

The show with Geena Davis as the female pres. versus old crusty Donald Sutherland? That was a show we enjoyed for the two weeks it was on, and kinda showed a woman trying to still do it all. Minus the newborn.

I like that Palin colors outside the lines. I like that about McCain. I was disappointed that he had the same fat-cat republican partying that his lifelong campaign reforms have railed against. I am sad that political analysts say that a huge part of Palin's populatiry in Alaska comes from UNdoing her predecessor's fuck ups, and that she's actually done little in terms of pro-active legislation. I LIKE that she has huevos (whether those have to be testicles or ovaries to be cool in your book, she's got 'em), but I think McCain would have demonstrated his lack of a gigantic elephant shaped monkey on his back if he had gone with his heart and picked Lieberman.

Obama said the magical words, and I listened hard for McCain to say them, too, but he didn't. At this point in the game, I could still be swayed either way. I have heard both the pro choice and the benefits streamlining for vets that are near and dear to my heart from Obama. But I am unconvinced that he can make those happen, or that his commitments are to anything other than what he thinks we want to hear.

What I like about McCain is that he HAS pissed off Republicans in the past. He is still, however, tainted with Bush-iness.

good lord.

I just spoke with a woman, and her friend had the most god awful stain on her shirt. 

 

It looked like a big gray nipple.
 
This was not a gray shirt, and it was NOT like her shirt was wet. 

 

This was an old, dried stain like a giant grey nipple on a shirt that was, quite frankly, already too tight.

 

It was staring at me. 

 

I had trouble finishing my sentences. 

 

I wanted to hand her my Tide stick.

 

Ah, life in customer service...

I have a new boyfriend.

My sister-in-law started it.

 

She introduced us to Steve.

 

Steve does things our husbands won't--things the Honey wouldn't DREAM of.

 

My mother called me one day giggling and told me about Sam. 

 

Then she sent Sven to me.

 

Ah, those Scooba brothers.  They are to die for.

Wednesday Hero

Lance Cpl. Ryan T. McCaughn
19 years old from Manchester, New Hampshire
1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force
November 7, 2006


"I just can't believe it," said Nicole Cote, mother of L/Cpl. McCoughn. "It's not supposed to happen this way. Your kids aren't supposed to leave you." McCoughn joined the USMC during his Senior year of High School. "He said he needed to do this. He said if he could keep one dad from going to Iraq and he could take his place instead, then he'll feel like he's accomplished something."

Lance Cpl. Ryan T. McCaughn was killed on November 7, 2006 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq. He leaves behind his mother, father, step-father and two brothers.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.