I pay attention to pop culture!

Tags

dork, Horror movies, Simpsons, Wikipedia

Last night on the Simpsons Homer started spider climbing on the wall with his head facing backwards, while the tune of Tubular Bells played in the background.

Me: That’s a reference to The Exorcist!

Perfect Husband: *head pat*

Me: I know that because I read the Wikipedia entry on it yesterday!

Perfect Husband: *Facepalm* I like you.

I don’t have the swine flu

Tags

H1N1, swine flu

…But my husband is terrified that I might.

The cold I had a couple weeks ago is still clinging to my chest and sinus cavities. TWO of Perfect Husband’s coworkers and a friend of ours have all come down with the swine flu, so he’s understandably paranoid.

But it’s not the swine flu. No fever or any other flu symptoms.

…I do think I need a rest, though.

*cough*

One week remaining…

Tags

NaNoWriMo

…I still have no idea what to write for NaNoWriMo, and I’m starting to get scared.

Bless you, Pavlov

Tags

Ducky's, Fridays, indian food, Perfect Husband, tgif, toonie movie

TGIF.

I love Fridays. I have loved Fridays since first year university, when Friday was the day to go to Ducky’s, drink Mike’s Hard Lemonade and then finish the evening with a midnight toonie movie at the Vogue Cinema.

I loved it because it was fun and because I’m the kind of person who loves routine. It makes the fun comforting. Comforting fun is the best kind of fun.

Fridays were easily the best day of the week. Not only was it the day to have fun with your friends, you had the whole weekend stretching ahead of you. Granted, that might involve writing 20 page papers or all-day play rehearsals, but none of that mattered because it was Friday night and you do not think about papers on Friday. I’m pretty sure that’s in the Bible, somewhere, near the place where he tells people to rest on the seventh day. THOU SHALT PARTY ON THE FIFTH DAY AND FEAST ON POPCORN AND BEER.

The association remains. I haven’t seen a toonie movie in years. We don’t drink much nowadays, and when we do, I can’t hold my liquor. But the association remains.

Fridays = fun.

Sure, todays isn’t really Friday for me OR Perfect Husband, because we both work Saturday and I work Sunday, too. We’re exhausted, and hungry, and both of us spent a portion of our day cleaning up my beloved dog’s diarrhea. But I’m still loving the fact that it’s Friday so I am pestering Perfect Husband to order us some Indian food to celebrate.

Because it’s Friday, you know?

We need a word

Tags

feelings, our little secret, underwear, words

…for that special kind of bummed-out that you get when you realize that you put your underwear on inside out this morning.

…Perfect Husband and I are working on it, but we are accepting suggestions.

Maybe I need to get me a veterinarian

Tags

Alzheimer's, deprenyl, DHA, dogs, H1N1, intelligence, IQ, omega-3, pregnancy, puppy food, research, science, senility, swine flu, vaccine, veterinarian, veterinary medicine

I was speaking to Perfect Girlfriend the other day on the phone through my snuffles and wheezes, and she worried out loud about the swine flu, since BC has more than its fair share of cases. We started talking about the vaccine, and I mentioned that there has been a vaccine out for dogs for months.

“For dogs. For DOGS?” exclaimed the aspiring doctor, “We’re still waiting on it for people, but dogs get one?”

That’s the thing, though. Dogs get all kinds of stuff that people don’t. Animal science, in a lot of ways, is much further advanced than people science, simply because it’s easier to approve medication and testing for dogs than it is for people. If another thalidomide thing happens, but to dogs, people don’t lose as much sleep at night.

For example, take Anipryl. Generically named deprenyl, this drug has been around since the seventies. They use it for Parkinson’s and depression in people. But in dogs, they use it for Cushing’s disease and for senility. That’s right. In dogs, cognitive dysfunction closely resembles Alzheimer’s in humans (similar plaques on the brain) and they have a treatment for it, which works. The creator of the company which makes Anipryl is actually a Parkinson’s patient/researcher who thought that deprenyl was the most miraculous drug evar. He found that preliminary studies showed that it actually reduces the overall effects of aging. That’s right, it’s a life-extender. It actually makes animals live longer, although apparently it mostly works on male rats rather than females. Something to do with dopamine? I dunno.

Anyway, the FDA was having none of it so he founded the veterinary drug company because they CAN use it on dogs. They have been treating dog Alzheimer’s (it’s VERY common in older dogs) with this drug since 1992. It’s still not  approved for use in humans for Alzheimer’s, although studies keep going on indicating that it really might help people too, and I think some doctors are beginning to use it as off-label use.

So your dog can have its senility cured, but your grandmother? Not so much.

Then there’s the DHA thing. Recently, everyone’s been talking about DHA. Recent studies have revealed that DHA is even better than Mozart for making babies smarter. Mothers who take DHA supplements (usually cod liver oil – remember your mother forcing that stuff down your throat? Blech) during pregnancy end up with babies whose IQs are higher, who are better at problem solving, and have better hand-eye coordination. Suddenly scientists realize that there is DHA in breast milk but not in formula, and they are now thinking that this explains why breast-fed babies tend to be 6-10 IQ points higher than formula fed babies. So of course now formulas are rushing to add it and advertise it.

The pet industry has known about DHA for forever. Iams has been boasting about it in their commercials recently, that they have the “smart puppy” omega-3 supplements in their puppy food, but actually, the veterinary diets have put DHA in their food for a long, long, time. This is one of the many reasons why I made a point of feeding my Beloved Dog a veterinary diet when he was a puppy just five short years ago… and then resolved to take omega 3 supplements when I was pregnant!

Then Iams started adding it in their food and doing a bunch of studies which they published with much noise and clamour, duplicating what the Waltham Centre and Hill’s had found out long before: puppies whose mothers ate DHA enriched food while pregnant ended up doing much better on intelligence tests. For example, 68% of DHA enriched puppies were able to learn to recognize symbols which indicated the direction to go in order to find food, while only 30% of non-enriched puppies could do that. Studies also found out long ago that DHA was essential for proper eye development in rats.

And it’s not like they didn’t connect it with humans. They did. Notice that this abstract is from 1980. I wasn’t even born yet. But do you see how cautious they’re being? Basically they’re saying “So, apparently fatty acids are associated with bigger brained babies. Interesting.” Why weren’t companies like Similac looking into this thirty years ago? I don’t know why it took thirty years for them to start advertising it to the world at large, but I know one thing – the veterinary industry knew it, and took advantage of it without any qualms.

Hell, even pregnant mothers know this instinctively. When Perfect Girlfriend was pregnant, she developed cravings for seafood. It was like her body was saying “give us the fish oil! BABBY NEEDS FISH OIL.” But instead, thanks to our throwing mercury about recklessly and poisoning our waters, mothers are advised to avoid eating too much fish during pregnancy.

Anyway, my point is, when it comes to the cutting edge of science research – your vet hears it first.

I spent way too much time agonizing over this…

Tags

bloggers, blogs, I'm Reading, memes, movies, Shhh

Okay, I’ve been thinking for days over this meme posted by Sweet Salty Kate. On Hallowe’en night, there will be a random draw of respondents for a chance to win a signed copy of her upcoming book  The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods signed by the author, and a spot in the reviewer’s circle on the author’s blog at kateinglis.com. But don’t do it. The more people who do this meme, the lower my chances are of winning, and why would you want to do that to me? Why?

Anyway, here it is! I feel like there should be a list of honourable mentions at the bottom, I left out so many of my favourite books…

1)  You are facing an epic journey. You may choose one companion, one tool and one vehicle from any book or film to accompany you. Or just one of the three. It’s up to you. What do you choose?

Okay. I have decided to take Westley, aka The Man In Black, from Goldman’s Princess Bride because the man is witty AND unstoppable. Inconceivable! Then I would chose Pullman’s altheiometre as my tool, because that’s just dang handy AND pretty. But… I don’t want a vehicle. I would instead prefer a trusty mount. I can’t decide whether I would rather have Bree, from A Horse and His Boy (definitely handy and intelligent, but perhaps a tad too smug) or Artax from The Neverending Story (pleasingly servile, but quick to give up in difficult circumstances). Hmm…

2)  You can escape to the insides of any book. Where do you go, and why?

I know it’s terribly trite, but… Harry Potter. I mean, COME ON. I want to worship at Dumbledore’s feet and then get Hagrid to introduce me to some unicorns. I also want a pet as smart as Hedwig or Crookshanks.

3)  You can bring one literary character into your current life. Who do you choose, and why?

I think I would bring Stargirl into my life. She would make me want to be a better person and there would never be a dull moment with her around.

4)  __Where The Heart Is__ or ___Good Night Mr. Tom____ is my go-to book. I could read that book fifty-seven times in a row without a break for food or a pee and not be remotely bored. In fact I’ve already done that but it wasn’t fifty-seven times. It was sixty-four.

5)  Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most enviable?

Ooh… this is a toughy. I could pick Hazel, from Watership Down, who gets to have adventures AND be Chief Rabbit, plus he gets to be a rabbit, which I thought was pretty awesome to begin with. Or Meg from A Wrinkle In Time, who despite being a total brat not only wins the love of the intelligent and protective Calvin, but gets an ADORABLE little brother (I would have killed for a smart, thoughtful, adoring baby brother) AND gets to be babied and cuddled by Aunt Beast. I love being babied. Then there’s White Fang. Man, I used to spend hours pretending that I was White Fang’s side kick, hunting rabbits and stuff and fighting with him for the Love Master. White Fang was KICK ASS.

6)  Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most frightening?

E.T. Even though I knew he was nice, I was still terrified that an evil E.T. would appear under my desk and come at me, arms flailing and gibbering.

7) Every time I read ____His Dark Materials_______, I see something in it that I haven’t seen before. Those books have so many levels, man.

8)  It is imperative that ___The Giver_____ be made into a movie. Now. I am already picketing Hollywood for this—but if they cast ____a sixteen year old_____ as ____Jonas______, I will not be happy. I will, however, be appeased if they cast ___Hugh Laurie as the Giver, though they’d have to give him a beard and age him a bit_____.

9)  ___The Water Babies______ is a book that should never be made (or should have never been made) into a film.

10)  After all these years, the __kid being trapped in the closet with the dead dude_____ scene in the book/movie ______The Goonies______ still manages to give me the queebs. Although that’s tied with the scene in Hatchet where the kid finds the skeleton of the dead pilot underwater and it has bits on it and it wobbles.

11)  After all these years, the ___Stone Table/Aslan Resurrection_____ scene in the book/movie ___The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe______ still manages to give me a thrill.

12)  If I could corner the author ____James Herriot_____________, here’s what I’d say to them one minute or less about their book(s), __…pretty much everything he ever wrote_______________: Your stories are amazing, and funny, and heartwarming, and I love your self deprecating humour and I found studying veterinary technology SO much easier because of reading your books – I already knew all this veterinary medicine from when I was a small child. Want to have dinner? TELL ME MORE STORIES.

13)  The coolest non-fiction book I’ve ever read is __A Short History of Nearly Everything___. Every time I flip through it, it makes me want to ____read it out loud to my future children because it is hilarious in its informativeness_____________.

Mmm. Gooey.

Tags

cold, nurse practioner, sick, sims 2

So I suddenly came down with a sore throat and sniffles Wednesday night. I whined about it to Perfect Husband for a little while, then took a bunch of Advil and went to bed, planning to sleep it off. The sniffles got worse over night and I woke at two in the morning with the realization that I was actually sick, and one night’s sleep wasn’t going to shoo it away.

Crap.

See, Saturday I was supposed to take a drive with my favourite client and speak at the MS Society. Apparently, one of their members had run into my client and her dog and was like “they make service dogs for people in wheelchairs too??” and he was so excited that he immediately applied for a dog and then asked us to make a presentation to help spread the word.

When I went to bed Wednesday night, I was thinking “gee, I hope my throat isn’t still sore for Saturday, or speaking will really suck.” Then I woke up with the cold realization that if I was sick, I simply couldn’t go. People with MS are usually on immunosuppressants. Getting into a car with this client and breathing on her for several hours, not to mention all the people at the meeting, would be like saying “here – have a hospital visit.”

So I went into work the next morning and passed the buck to a coworker. Then I went home sick.

This stinks.

But the good news is I can spend all day playing Sims 2. Sims 2 loves me. Sims 2 doesn’t care that I’m sniffling and gooey and scratchy and moany.

Oh, in other news, I have a family doctor again kind of sort of. She’s not really a doctor. She’s a nurse practitioner. The hospital referred me to her (she works in the bowels of their basement and I was terrified I was going to walk past the morgue while trying to find this place) and she says she can keep me as a patient. I’m not entirely clear on how this is really different from a doctor. Apparently she can diagnose, order tests, and she prescribed me three months of Wellbutrin. Obviously the education angle is different, but isn’t that basically a doctor? Is she, like, a sub-doctor? Should I be willing to put my health in her hands, rather than finding a GP? I’m not sure. She seemed nice and competent enough. In fact, she spent an hour talking to me. An HOUR! I can’t think of any GP who had that kind of time for me.

Then I got sick. Stupid hospitals.

So many brands of crazy am I.

Tags

babies, baby names, family, friends, Thanksgiving

I have so much I want to talk about that I haven’t been able to decide on the topic for a blog post. So I’m just going to update you on all of it in one big muddled post. So there!

Thankgiving was amazing. An old friend from Nova Scotia recently moved to the Okanagan for a temporary internship, and she and her brand spanking new husband drove down to visit us this weekend. Since Perfect Husband and I are trying to lure them further West, we took them straight downtown on the skytrain, took them through Stanley Park and the Aquarium, and then finished our seduction with a meal of high-end sushi. They are now willing to admit that they might like to live here for a couple of years. Not to settle, of course, they say hastily, but maybe… just a little while.

Mwahahahahahahahaha.

Since my main complaint about living out here is how isolated I feel from my friends and family, this is a huge step. I was in pure delight all weekend. I love turkey dinners, so I spent all Sunday happily puttering about in the kitchen with my friend and looking forward to a big dinner with people I love. It was grand. I was so happy. Thank you, Wellbutrin (or possibly Placebo Effect)!

Speaking of which, yesterday was my last pill. I have an appointment today for a recheck in the hospital’s Care Clinic (where they referred me since my family doctor is patently useless).

Next: People are having babies again. I wish they would stop that. This time it’s an old acquaintance from the days when my ex and I were still together, who still reads my LJ and is on my Facebook. This is her second son, and I find it unfair that she gets two while I have none. What’s more, the baby is cute. I don’t get bothered so much when people have ugly babies. A girl I went to high school with recently had a baby too, but either the pictures are lower quality or the baby is missing some essential cute-factor, because it didn’t make my uterus squee the way this other baby did. I’m willing to blame lower quality photos. In any case, I’m sure this newest influx of babies was behind my dream last week. Over the weekend I dreamed that another, very unmaternal friend of mine had a baby. Even she has a baby, I remember thinking.

It’s stuff like this that makes me feel like a crazy person. When I worked at Sketchy Vets, two of the vets were pregnant. Both were women in their mid thirties who had hit a plateau in their careers and decided to have babies out of sheer boredom with life. Both freely admitted to never having planned to have children, and I believe them, because in the four months I worked there, they still didn’t plan for children. They talked pregnancy a lot. Pregnancy yoga, pregnancy pilates, lets-check-the-ultrasound-machine-to-see-what-my-baby-is-doing-in-there. But never once, in the four months I was there, did they talk about what they would do with their fetuses once they exited the womb. They didn’t talk about parenting methods, or whether they would read to their babies. They didn’t talk about sleep training or attachment parenting. They didn’t talk about parenting period. They were pregnant, and that was fun. Trendy even. All the celebrities are doing it, don’t you know? But even half way through their pregnancies, they still weren’t thinking like parents. I’m sure that all changed once the babies arrived, but they thought it was bizarre that I already planned to be one.

I have always planned on being a parent. I got attached to my Baby Think It Over in high school. I remember reflecting on the name Matthew when I first read Anne of Green Gables at age eight, and how I might like that for my son’s name. I remember having second thoughts when I discovered that the nickname for that name is Matt. I wasn’t sure I wanted to name my son for something you wipe your feet on. Even now, I love the name Matthew though I probably won’t use it. Perfect Husband and I had the Great Name Conversation before we even got engaged. For weeks we would be driving in the car and someone would say “Jeremy?” or “Hazel?” and the other would accept or veto it. We had our children’s names agreed and decided on before he ever proposed. After all, how could we get married if we couldn’t agree on our children’s names?

The vets at Sketchy Vets thought this was bizarre. Here I was, engaged to be married, only in my mid twenties, and I wanted a family. When a cat named William came in, and I said, “Oh, that’s what I want to name my son,” they said “you have a name picked out?” like they thought I was crazy.  When I said once day that I’d like to own a King Charles Spaniel some day, and maybe name it Ramona, they said “You have your whole life planned out, don’t you?” and they did not seem to think that was mentally healthy.

I’m sorry, should we all just get pregnant out of a “sure, why the hell not? I’m 35” sentiment? Is that a better way to become a parent, or just a different way?

I haven’t seen these women in nearly two years, but I still keep defending myself to them in my head.

“You know babies are false advertising, don’t you?” a woman said at my current workplace last year, condescendingly. Yes, thanks. My goddaughter is now five years old. I walked the floor with her during her bouts of colic. More and more women I know who are my age are becoming mothers. I read Mommy Blogs. I am aware that babies scream, and poop, and ruin your social life and your personal life, too. It’s crazy to want one, I know that, but I do.  And if having children was really that terrible, I wouldn’t know so many women who purposely conceived a second time.

Maybe it’s unfeminist to want to procreate. Maybe it is only considered acceptable if you are in your thirties and simply want to try maternity fashions. Maybe actually wanting to rear and raise a child is considered far too humdrum unless one is nearing their midlife crisis. But here’s the thing – it took my parents eight years to have me. They just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. My mother has always refused to explain why it took them so long to have me, but has admitted to having to seek “professional help.” She has frequently apologized to me for not being able to give me siblings.  Maybe the problem was on my father’s side of things, but I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have problems conceiving too. And I don’t want to find this out when I’m 34.

Or maybe I’m simply a product of peer pressure and genetic urges.

But I want to be a mother, dangit. I’d even take a girl at this point. That’s right, folks, I’ve hit that point.

Is it really over?

Tags

antidepressants, friends, Thanksgiving, turkey dinner, wellbutrin, work

Turkey + Old friends +Wellbutrin = Happy Carol.

Back to Work +Working Saturday + Dark When I Get Up = Tired Carol