Watch Ann Coulter Pelted with Pies

Be inspired to diet by this 8500 calorie sandwich.

Feeling hungover today?

Need to convince your mom not to vote for George again this election?

As I have little else to do I was surfing and found a very interesting story. What would you do if you went on a 2 1/2 week vacation and came home to find a total stranger living in your home? This Georgia woman actually ripped up the carpet, replaced the pictures on the walls, moved in her own washer and dryer, and changed the utilities to her name.

Maybe she was just sick of being homeless? Maybe she thought she finally hit the jackpot and this person wouldn't come back? Or maybe she thought the cops would believe her when she told them she was renting the place.

Weirdness.

Although the pain wasn't that bad last night, on Sunday in the wee hours of morning I was awakened by what could only be described as an incredibly painful tight squeezing in my chest. This pain is familiar to me since I had it a lot before we finally found out what was wrong with my neck.

During the unknown phase I often worried I had something wrong with my heart. When I was rushed to the emergency room it was the first thing they ruled out. Much later I was told by the specialist that the chest pain is caused by muscles that are affected when the spine becomes compromised.

I quite possibly over-did it on the weekend as I reorganized my closet and started cleaning for our inspection that is tomorrow. I just hope that there is no real lasting damage to the new disc that was put in my neck. I didn't experience any pain while I was doing the work, which made me think it was ok. But, now I have to tell you I'm very scared.

I wanted to call the surgeon but I'm afraid of him too. I will just wait it out and if it gets really bad I will go back to the hospital.

I hope this is nothing because I hate staying home and I only want to be fully recovered so I can go back to a normal life. Last night I had a slight tightness and an equally small pain in my chest, but nothing woke me up in the middle of the night thankfully. It is hard to take it easy. All I want to do is find things to occupy me while I am stuck here.

We have a professional gardener coming today to do our front garden because I didn't think it fair to make mr. ralph do all the work on his own. He hates working in the garden more than anything else, and it shows. I think the plants will take over if we don't do something to stop it now. I have no idea how much this guy is going to charge, but if he can get it respectable looking now maybe we can keep up with it without feeling so overwhelmed when we look at it.

mr. ralph is also shampooing the carpet. Nothing short of a miracle could make this carpet look good because it was probably 20 years old when we moved in, but after the first once-over, it actually looks decent. When he wakes up today he is going to go over it again. Should be tip-top for the inspection.

The_Cat has to go to the mum-in-law's tomorrow night and stay until after the inspection on Wednesday. I don't think he is going to like it much since he gets locked into her laundry room. It may have been ok when he was a little tike, but now he is so big (almost 6 kilos) and I think he is going to go batty in there without any place to run around. Oh well, it is only for one night.

I had so much trouble when creating this new design. After spending all afternoon yesterday, and on into the night trying to figure out how I buggered the code, I couldn't give up on it. I finally fixed it this morning and now that it is done I dare say I don't plan on changing it again in the near future. But since the time did seem to go by faster since I had something to do, who knows.

The cat is my very own Buckley if you were wondering. He is soooooo cute.

I'll be worthy right . . . only when you realize the gem I am. -Alanis Morissette

I have too much time on my hands.

I hate my situation and I feel as though I am watching every minute that passes. How I will manage to endure this for another 3 weeks is beyond me.

I have come to realize that although I like the occasional night in alone with a book and the chance to go to sleep early, I really do not like sitting at home all day with no one around and nothing to do to keep my mind busy.

Aloneness is not my forte.

I'm not sure I really want to journey into the recesses of my mind, which is probably why I have yet to open myself up in this new blog. It is easier to spend time searching the web for political related stories to get passionate about than it is to face my own demons.

Yesterday I ventured out for a walk by myself after I spoke to a moo buddy who sarcastically remarked that he wouldn't leave his house either if he had to wear a brace because his fragile ego and his vanity wouldn't let him. A stab in my direction, regardless of the intention.

I found the day very warm and my mouth very parched after only 3 laps around the park so I came back home and searched the web for pictures to use in creating a blog template I want to give my brother.

It was during that walk though that I thought much about regret and my life. I had hoped that in packing up things and storing them far out of reach that they would in fact one day disappear.

An asshole friend of mr ralph's found it necessary to point out to me that he doesn't like me because he doesn't think I am good enough for his friend. He brought up a dirty deed of my past to use as an example of how I have mistreated mr ralph and how he deserves better than me.

I was rather drunk during this conversation, but unlike other drunken conversations this one did not disappear in the morning to be replaced with a mind-numbing headache. It has lingered at the forefront.

I don't think much of the guy in question, in fact I don't know if I've ever met a more despicable person, so it would seem that I could dismiss his judgements and forget it.

I cannot.

Guilt is an ugly, vile thing. Living a life motivated by a sense of inadequacy is not fun.

I relate so much to the quote by Alanis as I feel I've lived my entire life based on judgments of other people. If you think I'm pretty, then I am. If you think I am not worthy, then I am not.

It is an energy sapping, futile existence. I will never live up to other people's expectations, and I cannot let my self-worth be dictated by everyone around me. It is not only bad for me, it gets me into trouble.

I only have control over the present. The past shall never be erased.

I have failed miserably at being the perfect partner. I will probably fail again in the future because I have still not reached perfection, but my devotion to him shall never waiver. This is what I know to be true. The intensity of my love has only grown, and for that I deem myself worthy.

I found another Bush quote saying he is going to privatize social security in his next term that is even more damning than the last!

This is from a very enlightening NYtimes article, Without a Doubt, much needed reading for the concerned voter. (link: registration needed)

''I'm going to come out strong after my swearing in,'' Bush said, ''with fundamental tax reform, tort reform, privatizing of Social Security.'' The victories he expects in November, he said, will give us ''two years, at least, until the next midterm. We have to move quickly, because after that I'll be quacking like a duck.''

Thanks to Kos for putting this package together, you can now see an up to date review of the Sinclair saga.

Having studied journalism myself, I was under the impression that when writing a story you are meant to present not only both sides, but also use supporting evidence when you clearly have it.

Consider this quote taken verbatim from the 3rd presidential debate:

Bush: I believe that younger workers ought to be allowed to take some of their own money and put it in a personal savings account, because I understand that they need to get better rates of return than the rates of return being given in the current Social Security trust.

To me that says that W clearly supports the privitization of Social Security, and then Kerry clearly points out the hole in this logic.

Kerry: You just heard he president say that young people ought to be able to take money out of Social Security and put it in their own accounts.
Now, my fellow Americans, that's an invitation to disaster.
The CBO said very clearly that if you were to adopt the president's plan, there would be a $2 trillion hole in Social Security, because today's workers pay in to the system for today's retirees. And the CBO said -- that's the Congressional Budget Office; it's bipartisan -- they said that there would have to be a cut in benefits of 25 percent to 40 percent.
Now, the president has never explained to America, ever, hasn't done it tonight, where does the transitional money, that $2 trillion, come from?

Now that the two are on the campaign trail, and Kerry is again pointing out what the president already said, journalists are not even quoting the material from the debate! This is what was printed in an article by David Espo for the AP

Along the way, he [Kerry] accused his rival of "shameless scare tactics." In an Associated Press interview aboard Air Force One, Bush said Kerry is "trying to scare our seniors" with false charges of a secret Republican plan to privatize Social Security.

I know my hatred for Bush doesn't make me very impartial, but come on! No mention at all about his remarks from the debate! This causes me major frustration. Although the president doesn't clearly say he will put his "belief" into policy, his track record and the things he has said regarding social security are cause for concern. Someone needs to at least point it out for crying out loud!

I had a miserable day yesterday because my kitty is sick. I couldn't stand seeing him so sad knowing he was hurting. He hadn't eaten anything at all in 2 days, and the amount he did eat the previous 2 days was barely a handful of food.

We took him to the vet twice, once after hours and have spent over $200 dollars on him this weekend because he has some kind of gastro-intestinal infection. In our minds, the money was well spent. You have no idea how much we love this little guy.

This morning he seems to be doing better, and is eating (although not much) and drinking. He likes roast chicken better than plain old chicken breast though. The vet told us to feed him chicken because it is mild on the tummy. I did not know that, but he kept turning his nose up at the plain chicken mr. ralph previously cooked up for him. He did however eat the roast chicken we had left over from dinner last night. I'm thinking it has something to do with flavour. This cat is not stupid, he holds out for the good stuff. He has expensive taste.

I'm just so happy he ate something, and he went out back for a while and rolled around basking in some sun. This is very good news since over the past three days he has preferred to hole up under our bed and sit like a rabbit (to protect his tummy we think), or curl up on the bean bag.

You can help stop The Sinclair Group by signing this online petition, and also email the link to all of your friends.

Also Grassroots Nation has put up a resource for sending an email to all advertisers in the Sinclair database at once.

If you thought that with all the media attention the bulge in the President's back has recieved that this would deter them from using it again, you would be wrong.

I might add that I mentioned to mr. ralph before watching the debate that Bush had no reason to discontinue using it since all they really have to do is deny it and call it a wrinkle in his shirt. Someone should have frisked the guy before going on air, instead of letting him get away with this again.

Does it really take a lot to anger the Cheneys?

I happen to agree that this very misplaced anger shows that the Chenys could just be ashamed about their lesbian daughter.

"We're all God's children," he said. "And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not a choice."

It is very evident to me that Kerry was using her as an example to say she didn't choose to be gay. Maybe her mom and dad disagree? Bush never answered the question. In fact he said, "I don't know." That makes me think he does think it is a choice and just didn't want to say it.

I can't believe Mrs. Cheny had the nerve to claim that Senator Kerry "is not a good man." And she should know because she is a mom. Was it a "cheap and tawdry political trick?" I think not. How embarrassing for them that they want to spin it that way, calling even more attention to their apparent shame.

In other news, the FCC Chief said that they will not block the anti-Kerry show that the Sinclair Group will be airing.

I know I'm not really good at the politics blogging thing, but it seems to be the only thing on my mind. And things keep happening that really piss me off.

Living in Australia puts me a little behind in the news and since mr. ralph reads news on the web a little more often than I do, he happened to know about the Sinclair Group shenanigans before I did. The only US news program we get on a regular basis, News Hour with Jim Lahrer on PBS gets shown here a day later.

Yes I know we really should get cable tv, but we had some problems due to the fact that we live in a block of flats where no one else has cable and in order to get it everyone would have to get it also. But basically what I'm getting at is that I only heard the scandalous news last night about how they plan on forcing all their sindicates to show a 90 minute long political commercial and pass it off as news in prime-time, commercial free television just two weeks from a very critical election in which the candidate they support is not doing so well.

Although the major news networks have already turned down the vets proposal to show the documentary, the Sinclair group said the program is a "newsworthy event."

As quoted from this Washington Post article, Vice president Mark Hyman said, "This is a powerful story, the networks are acting like Holocaust deniers and pretending [the POWs] don't exist. It would be irresponsible to ignore them."

In order to try to give equal partisan time they've invited Kerry to sit on a panel where so far he is the only one invited to discuss the allegations made in the film. I've read articles that say Kerry denies ever being told about the film, or being invited, and others that say he has refused the invite. I personally don't think he should attend since the showing is illegal and it would be basically like walking into the lion's den.

How can a group that is so obviously in full support of president Bush claim that they are only reporting this because they feel it is newsworthy? Campaign finance records show that company's executives have donated thousands of dollars to Bush's campaign. In April, the company was in the news for refusing to run a "Nightline" show in which hundreds of names of American troops killed in Iraq were read by ABC anchor Ted Koppel.

Republicans argue that Michael Moore used his documentary Farenheit 9/11 to drum up support for John Kerry. The real difference between Michael Moore's documentary and this one is choice. I saw the Michael Moore documentary but I also paid for it. This thing is being passed off as news, which it is not.

On the Sinclair groups website they offer an email address for anyone who wants to comment on their decision. But if you are really outraged, why not make some phone calls to the local station owned by the Sinclair group. I think it is too easy to delete emails. Here is a link that shows information on how you can boycott.

I decided to give Buckley a bath yesterday, half out of boredom and half out of curiosity to see how it would go.



Isn't he cute?

The bath itself wasn't so bad. He really only fought to get away with minimal effort. I only had to push him down with one hand. He is not exactly afraid of water, when we spray him with it he just looks at us in confusion and then licks it off while going back to doing whatever annoying behaviour he was doing beforehand. The hard part was trying to dry him off.

He didn't want any of that and hid under the bed licking it off himself. This morning in the wee hours I heard him dry heaving. The poor thing had licked way too much hair and had a hair ball. I felt so bad since it was my fault. The only thing I could remember to do was put butter on his paw. My mother would do that to my cats when I was growing up, but I don't remember if it ever actually helped. If I have any readers that might know any home remedies for hair balls, please leave some advice. Thanks.

And finally it is a campaign reduced to taunts, if you don't feel like reading it all, just read my interesting snippets:

But Cheney, campaigning in Iowa, said that under Saddam Hussein the country probably would have served as a source of weapons for terrorists.

Did we send troops to war based on probably?

"The situation we faced was Saddam Hussein and Iraq presented the most likely place where there could be a nexus between the terrorists on the one hand and weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said.

That makes me feel much better! Oh that's right, I forgot, we went to war based on "most likely".

I laughed out loud after readying the following joke from Senator Kerry:

The North Carolina Democrat contended that Bush was out of touch with important issues including health care and the economy, including jobs lost to other nations. "I'll tell you what would be good for the economy, would be to outsource George Bush he said.

I've got a question for the President, "What exactly are you afraid of?"

Bush's rally was invitation-only. About 100 demonstrators gathered outside, many carrying signs protesting the Iraq war. "Fear more years," read one sign. "Bush's war: how many lives per gallon?" said another.

The truth hurts eh?

I stayed up later than mr. ralph tonight to watch the end of an imported American mini-series called The 4400. I honestly feel like 6 hours were stolen from me since I still don't understand the first thing about it. The end was very odd, almost like the network cut it off before it was finished.

I think this is the first time in ages that he has gone to sleep before me. I am usually the first to pass out on the couch while watching TV. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps. Aww.

The laptop's d key is sticking.

Also, it is already getting warmer here and I sense that this summer is going to be a hot miserable one.

Buckley bugs me all day with his insistent clawing at the door if I don't let him outside. Then when I let him out I have to watch him so he doesn't go into the neighbor's yard and wander too far from home. He has discovered that the fence is not too tall for him to jump over, and the birds that fly too and fro really entice him. I know he would eventually come back, but I don't really want him spending time at the old ladies house. I know she has a cat (although we haven't seen him in a while) and he could end up in a fight. Since he hasn't been around other cats since he left his siblings as a kitten, I just don't want to chance it.

Just in case you aren't aware, I am one of those sick pet owners that talks non-stop about her pet. You will eventually want to kill me. Plus if you were to turn on our digital camera this very moment all you will find is pictures of him. It isn't just me either, we are equally twisted. We love him and he loves us.

I rang my insurance company today because I wanted to be assured that they have forwarded all documents necessary to ensure my employer will pay me on schedule. I wanted to be on top of it even though my case manager promised me she would be timely.

According to the guy who answered her line, she is on leave and nothing has been done so far. They have received the medical certificates from my surgeon, but that is it. I am not very pleased with this chick, and if I have to go without pay due to her incompetence I will complain to her boss.

I probably should go to sleep now, but what reason do I really have to get to bed? I haven't even been off work for more than two weeks, including the days in hospital, and I am sick of it. I hate being at home all day. I've never been a home-body. I have redesigned this site and thought I would feel inspired to write, but I haven't really felt like writing much either. The year off may have made me rusty.

This seems to be the week of famous people dying. I was sad to hear of Christopher Reeve, and also Rodney Dangerfield earlier this week. It is especially sad about Superman, a real hero of my age group.

Now I am totally changing gears because the weirdest thing just happened to me. As I have been at home and decided to log on to MSN Messenger (which I probably haven't used in well over a year), I saw an ex love-interest of mine online and thought I would say hi. I got a very weird response via email and feel a bit taken back by it.

Hi Ms. Ralph,
I'm sorry, but I don't want to catch up. Things have changed and I don't feel like it's really appropriate to chat with you any more. I'd rather keep what we had in the past. Hope you're happy in whatever you are doing.
Take care,
-ex love interest

Upon reading it a second time I begin to wonder what he meant by "things have changed." At first I assumed he was jumping to conclusions thinking I still harbor an interest in him, which would be pretty damn presumptuous since we haven't spoken in almost 2 years and I am happily married. But I am not sure if that is what he means. In any case it is quite a stake in the heart to be told by someone you once cared for that they have no interest in catching up with you.

Maybe he has issues that he has not resolved. I don't really know. I told him that of course he can choose who he speaks to and who he doesn't. I think I may have preferred him to just simply ignore me and block me from seeing him online than tell me so very bluntly to piss off.

Jesus the English have some nerve. They even say F*%k You in the most polite way possible. Sting any less? Ah well, it is really no big deal. I simply deleted him and that is that.

This guy has got balls of steel though. Seriously.

Yet again Bush feels the need to twist the truth in order to discredit John Kerry. He is a sad desperate man and I hope the American people will not be fooled at this latest attempt to undermine Kerry.

I worry a lot about the problems that the Bush campaign are planning to unleash on Election Day. A back up system is being put in place that could cause confusion.

"Rules for who casts provisional ballots and how they are counted probably will vary even within states, especially if there are long lines, confusion and hot tempers at the polls, election experts said.
Some of the states where the race is tightest, such as Florida and Ohio, also have the strictest rules for provisional ballots. "

Of course there will be hot tempers and long lines!

My mother told me that in 2000, New Orleans which is an area full of predominate Democratic voters had their polling locations changed and everyone showed up to vote in the wrong place. Of course they claim notification was sent, but how could thousands of people be lying when they say they were never notified of the change?

One just has to wonder what tactics Bush will employ in this election to ensure his victory. I put nothing past him.

As a lover of all things related to Halloween I think this picture of Bush and Kerry carved on pumpkins is rather charming. Pumpkin carver Hugh McMahon of New York City carved the lanterns.

I have to say that I am increasingly appalled by the lack of political knowlege (international or otherwise) that people around me have. I wore a Kerry/Edwards pen on my bluejean jacket and was asked by two different women, one who is 20 and the other who is 28, "Who is Kerry Edwards?"

I couldn't believe it. I of course scoffed at them both, although it happened on two separate occasions. I informed them that John Kerry, and John Edwards were the Democratic Party's canidates for President and Vice President of the U.S.

What did they have to say for themselves? They don't follow politics, especially in America. Turn on the television, the radio, or read a newspaper people!

What they do not realise is that the president of the United States, more than ever now has a major impact on the world.

I come from a very non-political background. Although my parents always vote in presidential elections, politics wasn't a topic of major discourse in our family. I have always been a little indifferent about the political outcome of every presidential election I have been alive for--that is, until now.

I know that politics is a sticky subject and more often than not can become ugly when discussed with the wrong crowd. I have been in several pointless arguments with mr ralph's so-called friend who is a full-fledged Bush supporter. We won't go down that path right now, but I do understand why some people my age choose to ignore political debates and decide to ignore altogether the politics of America.

I hope against all hope that the young people in America know who John Kerry and John Edwards are. I hope they will no longer sit back and let the old ruin the country, and that they will vote in this election. I admittedly have up until this point in my life been against voting. I have issues with the electoral college and the whole election process in America and have come to the conclusion that my single vote really doesn't do much, if anything at all in deciding the outcome of the election. The 2000 election couldn't have proved my point more after Bush stole the election and cheated his way into the whitehouse.

Maybe it is my relationship with mr ralph that has helped bring about this political change in me, although we disagree completely about several issues, mainly the war in Iraq. But what I have begun to do is open my eyes to the world and have begun to see how bad things are in America and how bad things could get globally if he is not taken out of office. I don't know very much about Johh Kerry. I would be the first to admit that he is not so much the right canidate as Bush is the wrong one. We cannot allow Bush four more years to ruin healthcare, destroy our environment by appointing lobbyists, and sit back and reap all the benefits of his huge tax cuts for the wealthy.

During our trip to America recently I spent a lot of time in museums as you can imagine since mr ralph is getting a PhD in history. At the D Day museum in New Orleans you can see posters from WWII when Americans were asked to conserve spending so the government had enough money to fund the war. What is Bush doing? Conserving or spending us deeper and deeper into debt that we may never see the end of? While the poor are getting poorer the fat are getting fatter. The super rich love Bush and that is why he has all the funds he needs to continually smear Kerry, or anyone for that matter that jeopardizes his hold over the country.

One of the things I despise most about Bush is how he tries so hard to be every man's man yet he has always been a man of leisure. How can he afford to live on permanent holiday and go fishing and hunting all the time? Because he is a rich, greedy man who has no qualms about persuing his main interest, himself. At one time I was at an odds about his intellegence. I still am not convinced he is running the show.
I truly believe that it will be a very dark day if he is re-elected.

I have to say I have been pleased with the debates so far. In this second one Bush looked even more like a raving lunatic than in the first. I thought it very disrespectful the way he stood up and pounced on the mic before Senator Kerry even finished answering a question, and I thought it a HUGE error to not answer the question where he was asked to give 3 mistakes he has made in office. He leaped to his defence and started babbling about how he did not make a mistake in invaiding Iraq. If he is not willing to admit mistakes, he is not capable of fixing them.

Hello everyone.

I am back, from what literally feels like the dead.

It has been quite a while since the death of my old web site, and if you are hailing this as one of my long time readers, please do not mention the website by name in any comments visible to the public. I'd rather not have someone type it into a websearch and find me here. I don't want to die again, at least not anytime soon.

I didn't feel like writing for a longtime. I don't even remember how many months it has been since the eulogy was published and the archives deleted. Even though I shed real tears that day (again with the dramatics) I actually heaved a huge sigh of relief as well. There is only so much bleeding, gut wrenching, brutal honesty one can stand. I think I had my fill.

As we all know, and some actually said -- I cannot stay away. Inside me lives a need to write, a need that has resurfaced.

I want to catch everyone up to speed, but then I keep remembering that I have probably lost the majority of my readers because only a select few were a part of the notification list. I will link to it again for those of you that want to be told when I write. For the moment it may be everyday since the business that was once my life has now dwindled to halt.

Around 9 months ago I woke up to an all-consuming, unrelenting pain in my right shoulder/arm that went on for around 3 days as I was taken to and from the doctor's office and the emergency room (twice) to try to figure out what the hell was wrong with me and for them to finally give me the strong stuff (oxycodone) because none of that codeine crap was working. In the end we figured out that 1. The pain had begun at work and was a cause of the repetitive incorrect use of the mouse and the alignment desk/height ratio and 2. It was not going away. After work-cover approved my claim and I had an MRI done I was told that the problem was being caused by a disc in my neck that through wear and strain was bulging outside of my spine. I began taking pain pills and anti-inflammatory drugs on a daily basis and was off work for rather short time considering the damage that was done. In retrospect I should have taken off a much longer time. I went back to work and was referred to a spinal surgeon who had a waiting list for the appointment. Work was ok as I was assessed and given the right workstation height and began using my left hand for the mouse. My work actually got better and the speed at which I perform my job increased because I no longer wrote anything down but incorporated notified (I work on the phone constantly in a financial service).

To make this rather long story shorter, the bulge did not heal on its own and go back inside like a good little disc. No it did not. I spent the last 6 months in vain hope that it would. The surgeon I began to see was not pro-surgery in my case at first. Because I was working and otherwise performing my daily functions with a minimum amount of pain he thought we would give it a chance to heal itself because apparently it does happen. I even went on a holiday to America (which was brilliant) and spent the better of 4 weeks jaunting around in various transportation devices which in effect caused me a great deal of new pain.

I returned a little worse for wear and had a new MRI scan done to see if I had indeed improved or worsened. Because I had an appointment the same day as the scan (god forbid I miss too much work and get paid for not being there!) it was necessary for me to wait for the scan to take with me. I was told this would take approximately 1 hour. We were waiting for nearly 3. You can imagine my total dismay as I was told that the scan had to be re-viewed and various other excuses as to why they couldn't produce them into my hot little hands. It was getting very close to my appointment and mr. ralph and I were meant to walk there. We were inpatient to say the least. Finally after being told that the tech actually had spoken to my doctor (which lit up all kinds of red lights in my head) we were given the scan and we were off. We walked very fast and were only a few minutes late in the end but I had to wait another 45 minutes to see my doctor.

You see he was in anguish about what to do, I could see the look of concern on his face before he began to speak. He told me that my symptoms alone did not warrant the need for surgery, but the compression on my spine was very worrying. His words were exactly this, "If you were my daughter or my wife I would tell you to have this surgery." He basically sold me on it with that. I have to tell you that surgery was not what I wanted to hear. The first guy I saw recommended straight off the bat. He was practically waving a knife at my neck and it frightened me. Then he referred me to this new guy. And I liked him. He was nice and calm and told me he didn't think I required surgery. He gave me hope. My hope failed me, my neck failed me, I was distraught.
I left the office with tears welling up in my eyes and was given hospital admission forms to fill out in the event that I choose to have the surgery. I walked in a daze out to the car to meet mr. ralph and told him the bad news. We decided later that night that I would do it. The doctor practically told me I was a walking time-bomb that could be paralyzed any day just from a bump or a jolt. The increased pain brought on by my holiday also gave me some incentive.

So I had the surgery. I have been home for almost 6 days. The surgery was on the 27th and the doctor said it went well. Although I do not regret doing it, I have to say that the pain was more than I expected. I would have been happy had I been more prepared for the pain. I may sound like a baby but it hurt so damn bad. I am still recovering, the first phase of recovery is 6 weeks and I still have lingering nerve pain and a lot of pain in the head/neck/back area. I have to wear a god-awful brace when I walk or leave the house. People stare. There is nothing worse than walking around and seeing people stare at you and forget that you can see them staring, laughing, pointing. I mean come on people! I actually miss work now because I have friends there. Yes, I actually made friends! I know!

I think I have written enough. I have a tendency to go on and on and I need to rest these arms now. I know I will write more soon. I don't have a lot to do.

I like Ralph; As if you couldn't tell this is a work in progress.