Archive Page 2
When in doubt, recycle.
Okay, so I’m not officially doing NaBloPoMo. The biggest reason is that I’ve been doing daily posts for the Days of Grace project, which means I’ll be posting most days until September 21, 2010, only consolidating under the most dire of circumstances (i.e. lack of free internet access).
But since I am doing fundraising during American Diabetes Awareness month, I feel compelled to post something besides Days of Grace every day. Obviously, on Thursday’s sick day, I missed out. And today, well, it’s a weekend. And I have nothing.
When in doubt, it’s time to recycle. This comes from a meme that was going around Facebook earlier this year, with some slight editing.
Twenty-four random things about me
1. As of this past June, I have spent 12 years in Illinois, 10 years in Wisconsin, and 11 years in Colorado.
2. I was never a NHL fan until I moved to Colorado, so I’m an Avalanche fan and have only a slight interest in what the Blackhawks do. (Though I did go to many UWSP hockey games, traipsing from the dorms to the arena in below zero weather…)
3. Books are always better than their movies, unless that book is Sleepers.
4. I lived in May Roach Residence Hall at UWSP. Yeah, Roach Hall. ’twas great.
5. I don’t mind working with numbers or words, so that’s how I got to be an accounting clerk along with a writer. (But I prefer words.)
6. I changed my name when I got married because of how common my maiden name is and how uncommon my married name is. Otherwise I would have stuck with the maiden name for the usual feminist reasons ;).
7. When I started having a serious online presence, I wish I would have used my maiden name instead of my married name for some degree of anonymity.
8. My first pet growing up was a canary named Squeaky.
9. My beloved pet growing up was a calico cat named Kizzy. Though she was kind of a biatch…
10. I can still remember the (musty) smell of my great-grandmother’s house.
11. I hate that I forget some details of the first house I lived in (until age 12).
12. One of my recurring nightmares has to do with not being able to get back to my immediate family at that first house. Being stuck in the creek or by a train or just getting lost on the way are all reasons why I can’t get home in this dream.
13. I’ve worn glasses since 1980, right before my fourth birthday.
14. That is, except for the three years I wore contacts in college. I never found ones that really fit my extremely near-sighted, astigmatized eyes. (Yes, I’m inventing words now.)
15. Being disadvantaged in the sight department made me hate gym class when I was younger. I was always worried I’d get hit in the eye and my glasses would break (and one time playing volleyball in eighth grade, they nearly did). And I couldn’t stand that I couldn’t see during swimming.
16. Now, I couldn’t imagine not being active. And I would swim for exercise if there were affordable indoor swimming options around here.
17. I am considering doing a triathlon sometime in the next couple years, but I think I need to run a full 5k first and find that affordable indoor swimming option.
18. I used to remember birthdays by heart. Now I need calendars and Facebook reminders.
19. Writing to pen pals got me through the first couple tough years when we moved to Wisconsin when I was in junior high. It was a difficult transition and I was glad to escape through finding people throughout the world.
20. My internal alarm clock usually wakes me up by 6:30 AM on weekends.
21. My immediate family made a big deal out of me being a bicentennial baby (born in 1976), so I’ve always made a big deal out of it. I still have the Spirit of ‘76 elephant a family friend made when I was born.
22. I drank at Ella’s in Stevens Point before I was 21, thanks to the right connections.
23. I will never do karaoke again after the “Beat It” incident on my 21st birthday.
24. My husband is exactly a year and a half older than me. Exactly, to the day.
Filed under: Days of Grace, Diabetes, Meme | 5 Comments
Days of Grace: 46/365
- Warmth all day long.
- Making up yesterday’s work and doing today’s work with an hour to spare.
- Reading so much good diabetes advocacy writing around the ‘net for American Diabetes Awareness Month.
- Making it through an entire grocery shopping trip without becoming impatient or crabby.
- A truly lovely evening at home – dinner and hockey watching with the husband and felines.
Filed under: Days of Grace | Leave a Comment
Show and Tell: The Shirt
While I usually talk type 2 diabetes, it’s been awhile since I’ve talked type 1.
Doesn’t this shirt tell it all? I saw it on CafePress a few years back and thought it was absolutely perfect for my husband, who has had type 1 diabetes since he was 11 years old (March 1986, to be exact).
So, stupid pancreas, right? (Although some have thought the t-shirt shows a piece of the male anatomy…ugh!)
Both types are difficult to deal with, however, people often “forget” about type 1 diabetes. Often news reports generalize diabetes, forgetting that difference between type 1 and type 2. There are similarities, but there are also some significant differences.
Type 1 requires insulin to stay alive – not everyone with type 2 needs insulin. Type 1 comes about through an autoimmune attack. Nobody gets it from eating too much sugar (that’s true of type 2, too, by the way!).
Because of the need for “artificial” insulin, it’s never perfect. Blood sugar can still swing from very high to very low, neither of which is pleasant for the person experiencing it…or the people around them.
Any questions? Ask me here. I happen to be raising money this month (American Diabetes Awareness Month) – for every comment I receive, I will donate a quarter (up to $200) to iPump, a small non-profit providing insulin pumps and other supplies to children in need.
(And then head over to Stirrup Queens for more Show and Tell.)
Filed under: Diabetes, Meme | 7 Comments
Days of Grace: 45/365 (Sick Day)
- I didn’t get sick in public (even though I started feeling very sick in public).
- Caught up on much-needed sleep.
- Applesauce in the house.
- “Nurse” cats, looking out for me and comforting me today.
- Feeling tons better this evening.
(No other posting tonight as I continue to recover from this minor yuck.)
Filed under: Days of Grace | 2 Comments
Days of Grace: 44/365
- Early morning workout on a weekday that didn’t end in me racing for the bathroom after my bus commute due to excessive consumption of water during said workout.
- Warm and sunny day.
- Lifting myself rather quickly out of a dark mood brought on by the end of daylight savings time. (I have to thank Scott for the motivation.)
- Taking my lunch break not only to eat, but to write as well.
- Finding out about Colorado Patient Navigator Training. (Thanks again, Lynn!!)
Filed under: Days of Grace | Leave a Comment
Follow them.
Yes. I tweet.
Yes. I follow.
And here are some people/organization/cats you should be following.
@SafetyNurse Because I once worked for a medical device manufacturer and learned more about what can go wrong in the operating room than anyone should, now I read this sort of stuff with great interest.
@KellyRawlings Editor at Diabetic Living who isn’t afraid to tweet diabetes-related mishaps (and is cheering my return to vigorous exercise)
@SI_PeterKing He knows football.
@veronicaeye Insights on everything from feminism to football. And everything in between.
@MrBaconpants Doesn’t bacon say it all?
@Powells Best. bookstore. ever.
@sockington The cat who tweets. And who makes me really think twice about having my own brood of felines.
Filed under: The 'Net | 3 Comments
Days of Grace: 43/365
- Today could have been worse.
- Being able to laugh in spite of another bad day.
- V.
- Good memories of watching the original V with a childhood friend.
- Soft, cuddly, purring felines.
Filed under: Days of Grace | 2 Comments
That nurse thing.
Kim commented yesterday and said it’s never too late to become a nurse.
That is true. What is also true is that my pre-requisites are expiring for some program and that I don’t have the desire to sit in the classroom again and the end result I would desire would take years (and money) to achieve.
When I began my pursuit of pre-requisites, the end goal I sought out was becoming a nurse specialist in cardiac care. Back in 1993, while my father recovered from his heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery, the nurses who educated him and our family had a definite impact on me. Compassionate and knowledgeable, they were there to make us all comfortable.
After I was done with pre-requisites (anatomy & physiology, microbiology, statistics – oh my), I worked as a nursing assistant for about two weeks. It didn’t go well. I was seen as too compassionate in a setting where speed was key. It turned me off to general hospital shift work, that’s for sure.
Now that I’m a few years separated from that experience, I don’t regret all the classes I took. Like I said yesterday, it helps me understand disease mechanisms and research studies (and how research can be skewed any which way you’d like).
What I’d love to do is be a formal patient advocate for those newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Show them that small steps can lead to improved health outcomes. Encourage them to slowly change eating habits and add exercise to daily routines. It’s a shame that there is no program for people like me to become certified diabetes educators. I’d have to become a nurse or a dietitian or psychologist or a myriad of other possibilities that require more education than I’m willing to take on at this time.
For now, I’ll just continue my informal diabetes advocacy and freelance writing about health issues. For now.
Filed under: Health | 12 Comments
Days of Grace: 42/365
- Comments for a good cause (thank you!)
- Plenty of blog material from said comments
- Reducing my caffeine intake
- Beginning to read and contemplate Comfortable with Uncertainty
- A good Monday Night Football game
Filed under: Days of Grace | Leave a Comment
Blog away!
How long have I been blogging? That’s a question I often hesitate to answer.
This particular blog began November 9, 2005 over at Blogger as a way to talk about my type 2 diabetes and hypothyroidism diagnoses earlier that year and how I hoped to be much healthier in my thirties. However, I’d been using the URL for another version for a few months prior, nothing at all to do with health matters. Talking about our love for visiting Montana, about my dreams to become a nurse, and just random writing that came along. (Yes, things didn’t turn out exactly how I planned on the nurse thing though the pre-requisites have proved useful in understanding diabetes and other disease mechanisms as I blog about health.)
In 2003, I had a short-lived blog, also at Blogger. I didn’t really have time to write back in those days, so it was more like a pre-teen diary. It turned into a LiveJournal that same year, where I could keep that diary a bit more private. I still have the URL for the LiveJournal, but I don’t post there anymore. I don’t feel the need to keep a diary anymore – either I just put the stuff out there on my public blogs or I keep my thoughts to myself.
Even before that, I had a webpage at geocities. Talk about a blast from the past. I’m talking back in 1996, back before I met Greg in person, back when I was in college in small Stevens Point, Wisconsin. And when I stop to think about it, it was kind of blogging. I would write about autobiographical aspects of life, trying to piece together how that made me who I was at that present time. And somehow I hoped that some of the people from my childhood in Illinois would find the webpage and make contact with me. (Sigh, it took many more years for that to happen.)
My, my how things have changed since that first webpage. I never would have imagined that I’d be accessing the ‘net on a smart phone or that I’d be all a-Twitter, not unlike the text-based BBS where I first “met” my future husband. Or that I’d be able to reconnect with all sorts of people via Facebook, including quite a few from that suburban Chicago childhood. Or that the ‘net would be THIS big. Or that I’d finally be able to make some money from my blogging ventures after a long journey through administrative assistant and accounting clerk jobs to do what I really love.
So, there you have it. This blog has been around for four years (next week), in two different venues. But I’ve been writing on the ‘net much longer than that.
Filed under: The 'Net, Writing | 6 Comments
