It's a boy! (And more importantly, it's a judge!)

CNN thinks it knows who Bush's next Supreme Court pick is going to be.

Does the blogosphere seem louder to you?

Hoo boy, Robin Edgar has a blog.

CC
who has seen Robin write many insightful and cool things that aren't about how wronged he is, and hopes to see lots of those. But early indicators are not good.

The Top Ten reasons Halloween is better than sex

10. You're guaranteed to get a little something in the sack.

9. The uglier you are, the easier it is to get some.

8. It doesn't matter if the kids hear you moaning and groaning.

7. Less guilt the morning after.

6. It doesn't matter if they fantasize you're somebody else, because you are.

5. Forty years from now, you'll still enjoy candy.

4. If you don't get what you want, you can always go next door.

3. If you get tired, you can wait 10 minutes and go again.

2. You can wear a Batman mask and nobody thinks you're kinky.

1. You can do the whole neighborhood!


CC
who was just in the mood for a cheap laugh

Nora Ephron with fangs

When CC lived in New Orleans, Anne Rice promoted one of her vampire books by staging an elaborate jazz funeral with herself in a coffin as the corpse.

That was a lame cry for attention.

It's going to take a lot to convince me that this isn't one too.

CC

CC hearts technology

On a flight from DC to Sacramento tonight, I noticed a completely
empty seat in the last row. I abandoned the CSO and trooped back
there, where I watched "the Apprentice" and fell asleep as we flew
across Wyoming.

I ended up sort of stranded as I didn't wake up until the "fasten your
seat belts" light came on, and when the plane landed we were told we
would have to wait on the groud for another plane to be moved out of
the gate.

So I pulled out my BlackBerry and called the CSO on his to say
"hello," then listened to the stewardesses sitting in the back bitch
about what a cranky plane we were.

And now I'm typing on my BlackBerry, sending out a blog post, goofily
delighted to live in this wacky decade.

Time to deplane.

CC

--
http://chalicechick.blogspot.com/

"And she suddenly realized that what she thought was freedom and joy
was nothing but anarchy and sloth."

--Norman Juster's "The Dot and the Line"

Oh, OK, that's good

Harriet Miers just withdrew.

Nice to know that, provided by the pledge of allegiance or not, there's sometimes a little justice.

Head still hurts, though.

CC

Something else to be depressed about

We undeniable still have a justice system that does not provide justice for all as provided by the Pledge of Allegiance. One justice for the rich, one justice for the poor. One justice sometimes for minorities, one for whites.

From a speech Harriet Miers gave ten years ago.

Yes, kids, a lady who thought the pledge of allegiance provides justice ten years ago is about to get on the Goddamned Supreme Court.

I'd have some scotch and go to bed, but Kaiser's website says booze will aggravate my headaches.

CC

CC's ironic horoscope- a headache post

According to an old Tibetan saying, "It is better to live one year in the life of a tiger than 100 years in the life of a sheep." I'm not saying you're a sheep, Cancerian, but I do believe you haven't allowed yourself to enjoy nearly enough experiences as a tiger. It so happens that it's a perfect astrological time to make up for lost time. May I suggest that you turn into the human equivalent of a big, fast, wild feline? Halloween costume recommendations: tiger, panther, leopard, lion.

No one on this earth has ever felt less like a tiger than headachy, depressed CC, who discovered that her new migraine medication doesn't work on her about halfway through a luncheon for a distinguished congressman from the great state of Virginia and worked for the rest of the day as it's not her company's fault her head hurts and she had stuff to do because she was going to take a vacation, but now it's looking like she's not. (Long story.)

And now she's lying in a dark room giving herself thirty minutes or so to feel sorry for herself before she goes back to being stoical. Because there's no point in being anything but stoical about an undangerous pain that won't go away.

Yes, I know you're sorry. And that's nice to know, thank you.

CC

Ps Blush.

Dum de dum

There's nothing like teaching to wake someone up. I have to be in at work early in the morning, but after teaching algebra and geometry for two and a half hours tonight, I'm pretty awake.

TheCSO is off doing his computer stuff. Normally at such times I'd call a friend, but I got home pretty late and the list of friends willing to entertain me at eleven o'clock at night. My feet are too tired to stand in front of the stove and bake something for the Chalicerelative.

So I'm watching "Medium" and trying to relax.

CC

Ps. Sorry about the disappearing Linguist Friend essay. I'll try to get it back up within a few days.

Sweet Mother of all that's swell, I have a diagnosis!

Latest Kaiser doctor says Roger was right. It's cluster headaches.

My Immitrex is on order and I start it tomorrow.

Right now, I get one more night of happy, silly, functionally illiterate CC on tylenol with codeine.

CC
who has a lot to say, but can't, you know, say it really. *Giggle*

Sniffle.

Really nice photos of New Orleans.

CC

ok, fine another headache post

I'm at Kaiser so much these days I should be walking through the place like a casino greeter.

Pain hit about a 5 on my pain scale of choice and I made another appointment for tonight, whch turned out to be pointless. They offered me narcotics injections but the pain wasn't the central issue. They couldn't give me a neurologist referral. I will have to come back on Monday for that.

CC

Ps. While I am starting to think Roger's diagnosis of cluster headches was spot on, the doctor sure laughed at me when asked for his suggested medcation. Tylenol with codeine will have to suffice apparently.

Headache Update

Kaiser gave me perscription Motrin, which has been enough to get the pain down to where I can pretty much function. So I am going to function for a few days and catch up on things in my life. I will probably make a doctor's appointment for sometime this weekend.

Soon I will write about things other than my headache, I swear. I am aware of the degree to which I am being humored in y'all still reading my blog.

CC

"Devil went down to Georgia" and separation of church and state: CC finds she doesn't care

I know it's an American classic and all, but I can take or leave Charlie Daniels band's Devil Went Down to Georgia. Primus does a decent cover, but on the whole, meh.

So I'm finding myself having trouble getting excited one way or another about a high school band director pulling it from the school's routine because someone in a local papar complained about separation of church and state. I can sort of see both sides. And mostly, I think it's stupid either way.

Have I mentioned that my head hurts?

CC

cranky

Yep, still in pain and add Kava Kava and pressure points to the list of things that don't work, at least on me, at least right now.

My test prep company couldn't find a substitute so I had to teach algebra with huge screaming pain in my head. By the time class was over, I could have fallen asleep right there. Of course now that it's the middle of the night I'm wide awake again.

After a long day at work, I went to check on the ChaliceRelative, then I actually did a pretty good job of teaching despite everything. My minister is preaching on stoicism on Sunday and for a few minutes tonight I actually entertained the thought that I could feel smug as I listened before remembering that I had regaled the entire internet with my tale of woe. Oh well.

I'm trying not to mention it at work (I think it's a good sign that I'm coming off as not too dramatic when people think brain tumor* jokes are still funny. WtF people?)

But I'm being all needy and lame around TheCSO and my assorted pals. And that's not good. Now that I've had it for a week, I am starting to wonder if I should be trying to eatablish a new headache normal. I mean, giving myself special treatment because I have a headache is getting old. Earlier in the week the answer to "How long have you had the headache?" was "a couple of days." Now it's "Since Thursday." On Friday the answer will become "Since last Thursday."

I think by the time the answer becomes "Since October" my friends will be a little tired of me being snappish and bitchy for no reason.

All right, NOW I'm being melodramatic. So maybe that's a sign I should curl up in bed and give sleeping another shot.

CC

*For the record, my headaches are worst in the afternoon and early evening while the warning sign for a brain tumor is when they are worst in the morning, I'm not vomiting, no seizures or weird weaknesses and the optometrist didn't see any signs of increased intracranial pressure. But it still scares the shit out of me that I can't remember recent things well when I'm normally then one who remembers everything. Intellectually, I realize this is because my brain is spending a lot of time these days going "Ow ow ow ow ow ow"but it is still freaky. Upshot: Not funny.


Ps. Apologized to theCSO for being such a whiner recently. He responded "You've been much worse before with less reason." I'm such a lucky girl.

Headache Update

Day six

Optometrist says it's not my eyes.

GP says she doesn't know what it is, so she gave me medicine for a sinus infection.

Things I have tried to make my headache go away:

1. Extra sleep
2. Extra water
3. Extra caffeine
4. No caffeine
5. Tylenol
6. Steam
7. Over-the-counter decongestants
8. Bayer (helped some)
9. Excedrin (ditto)
10. Sitting in the dark (also helped a bit)
11. Talking out emotional stuff (there's a few things up, but not an unusual number or of an unusual intensity.)
12. Prescription decongestants and nose drops.

CC

CC's favorite Desperate Housewife

In response to Fausto's question

Duh!

Bree!

Lynette is so self-pitying as to be totally unwatchable. I fast forward through her scenes. When I don't, I'm always sorry. What a megabitch. Does she actually give her kids a bunch of sugar so they will behave badly when other people watch them, so that said other people will feel sorry for Lynette? Yes, she does. Can you freaking believe girlfriend was jealous of her kid's IMAGINARY FRIEND? Why, yes, she was.

And every episode had the same Lynette plot for the entire last season.

Susan and Gabrielle are OK, in their way, but I wouldn't watch a show about just them. That I don't hate Susan is a compliment to Teri Hatcher, not the writers.

But I found Bree's attempts to make sense of the world in the early episodes absolutely riveting. She's a person who wants to live an unambiguous life in ambiguous world. I see a lot of depth to Bree and a lot of really interesting complexity. Her character was very consistent, yet never exactly predictable last season. I think she's very well written.

Or, well, I did. I don't know what the hell is up with her now.

I was actually planning a "Let us now praise Bree Van Kamp" post at the end of last season going into some of the theology of her way of dealing with the world. Now it will probably never happen.

CC

Revenge is Sweet, huh, DHL?

Y'all may remember my rant about DHL a few weeks ago.

Well, we bought our negatives from our wedding photographer last week and she sent them, you guessed it, DHL.

The CSO reports that he fished them out of the puddle just fine and that our always-on-the-ball photographer had put them in a plastic bag inside the soaked cardboard envelope.

They weren't damaged a bit.

So there.

CC

I'm getting sick of Desperate Housewives, BTW

Unbelieveable things about Bree's storyline:

1. Her husband has been murdered and she just doesn't seem to care why or by whom.

2. A woman obsessed with propriety is dating a month after her husband died.

3. The new man doesn't get along with her teenage son, and she acts like it is the son's fault and he is being unreasonable for objecting to the above two.

4. She could love someone whom she basically doesn't know anything about.

5. The cops would ask "Do you love George" on a lie detector test and the results would be at all meaningful.

OK, that's it. I think I'm done with this show. The plots were never worth it. I watched for the characters and they are writing my favorite character so badly that I'm just losing interest.

CC

How much to talk about

The great headache of 2005 is on its fourth day. Both the CSO and Cecily-with-a-calling have suggested dehydration as a possible cause so this morning I have drunk two liters of water. Now I'm pissing like a racehorse and my head hurts. I've take ibuprofen. I've gotten my glasses readjusted. I have a doctor's appointment for Monday.

Part of me is considering committing suicide by bashing my head into something and part of me is starting to wonder if perhaps I will miss the headache a bit when it is gone. As I often do, I find myself thinking of Kierkegaard writing "My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known -- no wonder, then, that I return the love."

All of this has put me in an extremely bad mood, which is probably why some things I've dealt with recently are producing this reaction.

Today I am pondering how much we have to tell people about what's going on in our lives. My issue is that I almost never tell anyone (outside a very tight inner circle of friends) about the upsetting things in my life for the simple reason that there are too many of them. My family is a big southern novel and somebody is always getting arrested, getting fired, getting estranged from somebnody else or doing something self-destructive and having to go into the hospital. The only reason that I am not a colossal bore to all my friends is that I do not talk about it. Yes, some individual events are upsetting enough that I write about them or talk about them here, but as a general principal I ask people what's up with them instead.

I don't want to punish people for caring about me, just sometimes I wish they didn't quite so much.

I had told one lady in my church that my Dad hasn't been doing well. Today in front of another lady she asks how he is. Lady #2 says "Is your dad sick?" I mumbled a yes (the truth) and that he would be fine (a lie) and shuffled off, hoping that the whole church wouldn't find out. My parents' church is full of well-meaning people who have a nasty habit of turning church families into community service projects, a tendency that brings to mind C.S. Lewis' comment "She's the sort of woman who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression."

I really do only announce births, deaths and marriages at Joys and Concerns.

This attitude is fine when it comes to church, but it has created issues for me when friends of mine have been offended that I didn't confide. But those who aren't really close to me seem uncomfortable when I do.

So that's what I'm thinking about today. At least for an hour as I go take a nap before I meet a friend for lunch. My head hurts, you know.

CC