13 Thursday: Riding the Wave
1. I want to be a Blue Man when I grow up.
2. I want to write a poem with the words critic and citrus in the same line.
3. I still miss Seinfeld.
4. I spent an afternoon last week with a young man with developmental disabilities and an elder woman who is losing her short term memory. It was the most fun I had all week.
5. Sometimes it feels like my health hangs by a thread. If it gets pulled too hard the whole thing can unravel. And isn’t it funny that a yarn can be a story or strands for weaving but you spin both of them?
6. I’m fighting a bladder infection brought on because the antibiotics I was on for a tooth infection killed all my good bacteria with the bad. They used antibiotics to treat a bladder infection.
7. Watching TV ads for drugs that show happy pictures set to happy music while the narrator spiels off a list of possible side effects – Abdominal bleeding, anemia, black stool, blood in urine, blurred vision, changes in heartbeat, chills – is like seeing someone beat a dog while calling him a “good boy.”
8. “Comb your hair” takes on a whole new meaning HERE.
9. HERE too.
10. Why do we have 3 letters – K, C, and Q – that say the same sound when one would do?
11. Someone owes Michael Moore and me an apology. Look HERE.
12. I recently became interested in the word “Frisbee,” wanting to know what it means and why a flying disc toy would be named that. Doing some research, I learned that there was a Frisbee Baking Company in Connecticut that made pies. Supposedly, after some college student ate the pies they tossed the empty pie tins around, which is how Frisbee got it’s name. But before a Frisbee was called Frisbee it was called a Pluto Plate.
13. I’ve discovered that the saying “I can’t catch my breath” is actually true. I’ve been so busy lately that I sometimes forget to breath. For the past few months I’ve been working with a small group on plans for a Local Writer’s Room, one of the themed rooms at the new Hotel Floyd in downtown Floyd. I’ve been shopping for art, which is collecting in my living room, and now – after just having a foster care resident for five days, writing three stories for the Floyd Press back-to-back with two more due to another paper – I just got word that it’s showtime. The Hotel Floyd has been built using green products and is decorated with all local art by local groups. Check out their website (still under construction) HERE. And read more about the Writer’s Room HERE.
Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13’s are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here. This is #99.
September 20th, 2007 9:00 am
You have certainly been busy. If you write that poem with critic and citrus in the same line I would love to read it!
My T13 is up, come on by.
September 20th, 2007 9:33 am
I hope you catch your breath soon. I think one of the pissiest things ever, for lack of a better word, is when an antibiotic eats all your good bacteria from another part of your body and makes that sick. I mean honestly, how ridiculous is that?
I really do hope you feel completely better from head to toe soon!
September 20th, 2007 9:43 am
What a list! Hope you are feeling better!!!
Contest starting on my blog tomorrow morning if you are interested! (there are some happy prizes)
September 20th, 2007 10:32 am
6 is ironic. If you do #2, I want to hear it on youtube.
I recently discovered a heart in your stomach has a physical root too. It’s a sensation like beating down there in just an exact shape of nervousness.
September 20th, 2007 10:59 am
I miss Seinfeld too, watch the reruns, they have such great lines!
Drug ads on TV – I just recently saw one (I think it was for Requip for restless leg syndrome) that listed a side effect of gambling…
The Hotel is going to be great! I like the picture at the bottom – feet up on the porch railing, flip flops and boots.
Another great 13, thanks for sharing your Thursday Thoughts!
September 20th, 2007 11:21 am
Bladder infections are the bane of my existence. I sympathize!
September 20th, 2007 11:29 am
Colleen, be super vigilant about the bladder infection. My doctors insisted THAT was the start of the severe sepsis that came THIS close to killing me a year ago April. Google severe sepsis and see what I mean.
Granted, I am older than God, but being wrapped up like a mummy & flown on a helicopter from Rocky Mount’s ER to Roanoke’s team of specialists, as the ER doc said to my husband..”Your wife is dying!”
I didn’t (I check the obits daily to be sure) but spent 15 days in Roanoke’s ICU and a year at home recovering.
September 20th, 2007 11:32 am
I got rid of it with massive does of Vitamin C and a jump start from my acupuncturist. I take a gram every hour or two. It’s water soluble and you pee out what you can’t use. Once the problem goes away you have to keep taking C for awhile and taper off it gradually.
I just a conversation with a guy who has “rebound insomnia” from taking sleeping pills. Another irony that many of the prescribed drugs end of creating what they are treating. I’ve had rebound headaches after taking Ibuprofen that were worse than the original headache.
PS I also just heard today (all this at a breakfast party for my girlfriend Jayn http://looseleafnotes.com/notes/2006/04/home_is_where_the_art_is.html) about someone else that got sepsis from a UTI.
September 20th, 2007 12:01 pm
It’s funny how important aspiration is and we get so caught up in our rushing that we forget to breathe deeply did not know that about the frisbee,. super cool
September 20th, 2007 12:48 pm
All very interesting and thought-provoking! The Frisbee origin was especially interesting.
September 20th, 2007 12:48 pm
Wow, you need a nap Colleen! That’s busy. I’d really like to stay at the Hotel Floyd.
September 20th, 2007 1:47 pm
Concentrated cranberry, pill form, is sometimes available. Health food supplement area. Works a treat for keeping UTI’s in check.
September 20th, 2007 2:59 pm
Hey Babe, back from Canada visiting my only grand….Love your red harvest. Hope you are feeling better. I love your mind, even though I would have to drop bread crumbs to find my way out again.
September 20th, 2007 3:09 pm
First, Colleen, let me suggest that you go back to my blog and read about the SIXTH person in this post. I think you’ll understand why, especially after reading the comments.
This is how I think: “And isn’t it funny that a yarn can be a story or strands for weaving but you spin both of them?”
So’s this: “Why do we have 3 letters – K, C, and Q – that say the same sound when one would do?” I say let’s blame it on the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans; after the Norman conquest of 1066, William the Conqueror killed most of the Anglo-Saxon nobility and placed Normans in all government and church positions. According to the History of the English language ( http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/language_society_retired/56816 ): “The English language, as the language of the now lower class, was considered a vulgar base tongue, effects of which may still be seen today. Consider the following words: fornicate, defecate, urinate. That’s the nice way to say those words, yet we have other words that express those same meanings, but they are swear words, not so nice. Guess, which words are French? The nice ones. Our swear words had no such improper meaning for the Anglo-Saxons; they were just the words you used.”
In the link back to spring, you said, “I would research the purchase of an antique typewriter.” What brand did you get? I have one from 1919 or 1920 that belonged to my former husband’s father and was used for his trucking business. It’s in storage right how, but it is a CORONA before he got together with SMITH (or maybe it’s the other way around … I forget). Long ago when I bought an electric typewriter, the company polished up my little CORONA and put it into perfect condition, for free. I think the guy just wanted to see all the parts!
Can I afford to spend a night or two in the Writers Suite of the Hotel Floyd? What’s it cost? I’m sure there’s some really good reason I need to take a trip to Floyd one of these days.
I wish you well, Colleen, though my puny mind cannot for the life of me figure out how one antibiotic can fix the damage of another antibiotic. I say get lots of rest, drink lots of fluids, and pamper yourself in any way you can!
September 20th, 2007 3:51 pm
Number 7? Ohmigosh, SO true! And about the breathing, I’ve been catching myself forgetting to breathe! And suddenly I’m gasping for air, trying to remember how to do something that’s supposed to be automatic!
Happy TT! Feel better!
September 20th, 2007 5:27 pm
I saw in the comments that you are on the mend from the infection, but I take a probiotic called culturelle, and another brand that I can’t think of, because I can’t eat yogurt. It really helps bolster my immune system.
I know what you mean about the drug side-effects. I reluctantly started crestor, after a long period of deliberation, and the muscle aches make me feel like I’ve just had a good work out (tho, they do seem to be tapering off now, after a week). But those ones you listed? No way! That does not seem worth it.
#4, my favorite customers are the ones with developmental disabilities; they are happy and easy to please, converstional and friendly, funny and interesting.
As always, great thirteen!
September 20th, 2007 5:43 pm
I took probiotics while on the antibiotic. I was on antibiotics for nearly a month because of complications on the tooth. I knew they caused yeast infections but didn’t know about the UTI. I guess a yeast infection can lead to that.
The side effects I listed were the less common side effects for over-the -counter motrin.
Bonnie, the typewriter that was donated was from around 1955. It has a history of being used right here in Floyd at the Bank of Floyd. I hope to write about it soon. Don’t know what the rooms are going to cost yet, but soon we will have photos up. I hope you do come!
September 20th, 2007 6:42 pm
I’m on the dual antibiotic track, myself. Second round, stronger than the first, designed to kick the collective butts of the damage caused a) by a misdiagnosed illness, and b) by a poor choice of initial antibiotics.
Sometimes the treatments are worse than the illness.
Except when you can’t catch your breath.
September 20th, 2007 7:36 pm
Someone may gave already said this Colleen, but ACIDOPHOLUS…Always take this wonderful thing to return the needed flora and bacteria to your body killed off by Antibiotics—I take ACIDOPHOLUS every day and if I would have to take an antibiotic I would increase the amount to compensate for the drug killing of those very important componants…!
Hope you feel better soon, my dear….
As always you have a TT that is packed full of interesting and entertaiming things, covering many subjects and interests…Glad to read that the Hotel is about to open or at least, be ready to finish decorating. I remember you writing about it in past posts….Such a wonderful idea for each room to have a “theme”.
September 20th, 2007 10:00 pm
Reading all you’ve been doing makes it hard for ME to catch my breath!
I know what you mean by the health and hanging on by a thread…and that ain’t no yarn!
September 20th, 2007 10:30 pm
Numbers 5 & 6 made me go “ouch”. Please take care of yourself. On my end it feels as though my personal life is unravelling b/c of all the time I have to spend at work . . . I am seriously in need of a retreat.
September 20th, 2007 11:38 pm
I have an answer for #10. It is because the language is English, not French.
September 21st, 2007 2:41 am
Interesting list. I never knew that about frisbees.
September 21st, 2007 9:32 am
I can so relate to your health comments! I have some crazy immune system thing going on and I have run the antibiotic gauntlet for some time now. So frustrating. Hope you find some relief soon.
I love the Blue Man Group too. Glad Michele sent me today.
September 21st, 2007 9:35 am
Hey–thanks for visiting my blog. I’m here via Michele. Great stuff!
The Red Sox are in first place but just barely. But they’ll make the play offs one way or the other.
September 21st, 2007 10:14 am
I would love to see the hotel. I always love when something bucks the trend of chain-everything and uses local items. My friend is a woodworker and makes beautiful tables, chairs, benches, etc. I see his work everywhere. It’s much better to see things that was made locally and to know the person who made it instead of the “made in China” trend. Perhaps we wouldn’t have recalled products if you knew were the maker lived.
September 21st, 2007 11:10 am
Dad was just diagnosed with a UTI, for which he received antibiotics…sigh…
Oh, and I recently finished a series of books in which the main character would often forget to breath! Funny you mentioned it 🙂
September 21st, 2007 12:54 pm
yes, #7….isn’t it absurd?
September 21st, 2007 10:18 pm
Wow,a lot to process. I can’t seem to get beyond feeling so badly for the kids with the hair condition/gene. They seem well-adjusted, but I just think about how hard it must be fore them. Makes me realize how easy I have it, comparatively, and that’s always a good thing.
~S 🙂
September 22nd, 2007 10:37 am
I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, because I’ve not read all the comments, but your bladder problem sounds like interstitial cystitis. I’ve had it a few times and antibiotics just make it worse.
What’s helped: “Take one half of a teaspoon of baking soda and put it in a full glass of water. Stir, let sit a minute, and then drink it down. You can repeat this up to 4 times a day, not to exceed 2 teaspoons per day.” (link)
Hope you get to feeling better soon!