MMMMM

OoooKay.Most of you either know or suspect I see a Psychologist. After the last one “fixed” my OCD he retired (ha). I did not find a new one right away because things were going okay and my family doc was scripting my Luvox for me until I switched doctors and the new one told me she’d not script SSRI’s and I’d have to go get a new Psychologist “just to monitor your meds”.

Understandable but kind of a pain in the ass. Finding a Psychologist or therapist in general is a long and tedious process to find the one you match well with. (I personally liked the one that tried to sleep with me) So I ask her for a suggestion and she says “Sure!” and her little computer spits out a lottery ticket with the name of a shrink on it! Really? You don’t know any? “Oh no, I’m not from around here” Shit. So I gamble and make the appointment.

First visit I’m sure walked into an abandoned apartment. If it weren’t for the TV playing CNN with an old orange sitting next to it I’d be sure that crack heads ran out with whatever they could carry because besides a couple of couches that is all there was – besides dust. Just as I’m reaching for the doorknob out bursts this gorgeous redheaded women with hair to her ass wearing all camo green. “Hi, you came.” Have a seat I’ll be right out.” Now I’m about as intrigued as you get in these situations and I sit my ass down on the dust ripped up leatherish couch and wait.

She calls me in and I’m looking at everything – her, her chair covered in vitamin c tabs or something – the crooked pictures, the peeled orange on the floor with no napkin under it. The paperwork thrown in a circle around her little swivel chair and the fact that her hair almost always covers one eye.

“Sit down” she says and I do. So we talk what’s going on – blah blah” Anxiety is my main thing – I have this OCD and although it is much better I still have a lot of anxiety. “Who put you on Luvox?” “Dr. Leopald” “SDr Leopald!!, I worked under him – great guy!” I feel better now because I absolutely LOVED Dr Leopald.

So after all the this and that she tells me what I REALLY need it to quit eating meat and go on a raw foods diet. Meat is like an opiate and it only makes you feel better for a while. Meat and foods cooked until the good enzymes are burnt out – they just aren’t good for the biological processes our body needs to accomplish to make us happy, healthy and beautiful! PROBIOTICS! You must take them also. Not any – get the good stuff.

Three appointments later and I finally agreed to commit to one month. Since Monday I have not had a bit of meat nor cooked food. I feel like I’m DYING! I feel like if I see one more apple I’m going to stick it in her tailpipe (you decide which one). Cabbage and carrots and probiotics and blue-green algae, veggie juice and lettuce. Even Papaya made me gag for the sheer “Un-meatness” of it. I have a headache I’m can barely walk around I’m MAD! I am mad. I know this is all part of this detox process but it.is.pure.hell.

So I’m going to blog about this diet and we will see how this goes together. Doc Hamilton is supposed to talk people off of the edge of roof ledges, you people can talk me down from the Oreo and bacon sandwich I’d kill for.

Stinky

Stinky

He showed up on the front step to the townhouse out of the blue. The cutest kitten EVER (I may be a touch biased, admittedly), a poor little forlorn flame-point himmy-ish kitten. He’d try to sneak in the door when people were coming home. We figured he must have a home; NO ONE would be able to ditch this adorable face, right?

After a couple days, we gave up and let him in, because we are the picture of self-restraint toward possibly abandoned critters. Hell, we would have brought him in the first day but didn’t want to effectively steal him.

He soon took over the entire house and everyone in it. OK, the other cats merely tolerated him. Jen noticed that his back-end was rather dirty and so set about bathing him.

That was when she discovered a problem: he appeared to have a very bad wound. “Under his tail,” if you get my meaning.

She finished cleaning him as best she could and set up a vet appointment for him. (All the while, Stinky remained as friendly as if he’d been laying uninjured on a favourite person’s lap.)  The vet did not give Jen much good news. Stinky had a torn sphincter, which is not nearly as funny as it sounds. Still, they did surgery on his poor lil bum, and Jen tended to his healing rectum. She is a much bigger person than me; I was grossed out just hearing about it. It involved Vaseline, rubber gloves, poop pulling…and let’s leave it at that.  Jen deserves some sort of award. A large award.

For all of this, Stinky was an incredibly happy and friendly kitten. He claimed Josh as his person, and Jen and I suspect it was because much like Stinky, Josh’s socks had a tendency to smell really foul, so they were like his comrades in arms.  Yes, cats who can start a loaf, but not fully push it out or pinch it off tend to be a tad ripe.

Stinky and Josh

Stinky and Josh

Jen pretty much devoted herself to trying to make Stinky better.   Poor lil guy tried to hide when in pain from a half dislodged turd, but he wasn’t difficult to find, you just had to follow your nose.  Jen would clean him up and he’d be back to his happy lil self again.

He loved to snuggle under the blankets with people, Josh was always his first choice, so a lot of the time he’d be in my room, unfortunately the lack of proper sphincter control led to erm, presents being left.  I sleep FAR too heavily.  How do I know this?  Well, have you ever rolled over as you were waking up onto a cold somewhat firm but still moist cat turd? I have… I was not happy let me tell you.   Still, he was worth the risk…

You know, the more I write about him, the less I want to finish.  It’s as though, by not finishing the story, I can pretend nothing bad happened, I can just focus on the good memories and pretend that’s all there were.  In the end though, he couldn’t be saved. His rear-end started healing shut; Jen had it operated on again, but it started to do the same thing.  It was decided that it was not fair to put him through that over and over with all signs pointing to him not healing properly. He was in pain that was worsening with each attempt to help him, yet he still stayed sweet, but the balance between his suffering and his enjoying life had tipped the wrong way with no real likelihood of improving.  It wasn’t fair to make him endure it because we couldn’t let him go.  And it was damned near impossible to give him up, even Josh, who has no real care either way for cats, still wishes he could have Stinky back. He was special, the few months we had him for still affect us in ways far exceeding the impact he had the time to make.

areobsod

Do not attempt to adjust the display settings. I am controlling the transmission. I will control the horizontal. I will control the vertical. I repeat: there is nothing wrong with your computer(that I know of…). You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from my inner mind to the outer limits. (Until one of the fab 5 catches me and runs me off mwa hahaha)

Now, the problem is, I’m not entirely certain how to continue, I just really wanted an excuse to use that Outer Limits opening.

I manage to forget important things; birthdays, anniversaries, where I left my keys, whether I actually came in to the kitchen for a purpose… That sort of thing…

Stupid random useless shyte though? That shit I remember…

For example:

Add more useless facts, along with really shitty song lyrics I remember randomly from songs I’ve only heard twice, and you’ve got my brain in a nutshell…

It is a rare occassion when I find something that gives me pause to say, “Wow, that is an original idea.” The other night was one of those times. I was just browsing through things on my computer and then I found this site. www.its-genetic.com is bringing a whole new revolution to art. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the sequencing of alleles that scientists use for forensics, paternity tests, or to see if an organ transplant is compatible. Imagine taking those images of your alleles and being able to put them on canvas to hang in your home or office. It would definitely be a conversation starter!

Well, that is exactly what this company does. It’s Genetic ,the company that supplies these fascinating pieces, was founded by Sabitha Prabhakran Ph.D. and Brooke Russell Ph.D. They both believe in making science fun and I think they may have just found a way to reach the masses.

All you have to do is go to their site to contact them to make an order, then they will send you a kit to do a buccal swab of the tissue inside of your mouth for DNA testing. They use a special process of testing called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR allows them to focus in on one particular sequence of DNA and magnifies that sequence in order to see specific alleles within that particular strain of DNA. After the PCR is completed, a gel electrophoresis image is made of the alleles within that strand of DNA and they take a picture of it. That is how these canvas images are made. They copy the picture of the gel electrophoresis PCR onto the canvas and then it is shipped to you for your viewing pleasure.

The idea is indeed original, but a bit pricey. The cheapest piece of Genetic Art that they sell is for about $350.00 plus shipping and handling. For those with a little extra cash lining your pockets, this might just be the topic of conversation at your next cocktail party.

style_pink

marshmallow

In the 1960’s a man by the name of Walter Mischel conducted a series of tests at Stanford University. He gathered a group of four year olds and put them in a room for twenty minutes with a single marshmallow. The children were told that if they waited to the end of the time period without eating the first marshmallow then they would receive a second one as well. You can imagine how hard it could be for a four year old to do such a thing but it is possible. The four year olds that waited to receive the second marshmallow by not eating the first one in the twenty minute wait must have been pretty patient!
According to Mr. Mischel, the rewards that these children received were  much more than just a second marshmallow. He followed these children throughout their lives and found that they were more successful than those that chose to eat the first marshmallow instead of waiting for the second. The children that waited did better in school, standardized tests, they chose better careers, and had better adjusted family lives. How could one little marshmallow determine this you might ask?
Mr. Mischel used the marshmallow test as a way to gage the children’s capacity for deferred gratification. The longer the child can delay their gratification the better they are at making choices in life. Deferring gratification to reach an ultimate goal is a way of battling with one’s own ego and overcoming it to receive bigger rewards. A lot more than just fluff, huh?
The marshmallow test

Click on the link to watch the video. It is absolutely hillarious.

Well, we aren’t exactly sure. We have had several talented and generous people post on our front page….but now we are in a transitional period.

I am Annabel Lee. I would like those of you who don’t know her to welcome theskyisfalling. We are going to try to…do…something. It should be awesome, as everything we do is awesome.

A big, huge, whole-hearted thanks to Lizard for giving us room to – well, ROAM. We love her, and we love you, and we are going to put our brains together RIGHT NOW to come up with some worthy content. Stay tuned….

Do you give up too easily? After seeing this squirrel go through this obstacle course Squirrel obstacle course, I wonder what drives us humans, especially in relationships. I think that too many of us give up too easily. Hence the high divorce rate. OK, maybe I’m oversimplifying things, but that was my immediate thought.

What is your marriage worth to you? Are you as persistent as this squirrel? In the book, The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially by Linda J. Waite and Maggie Gallagher, the authors researched why marriages last.

As they interviewed couples, they discovered that the ones that simply persisted, holding the marriage together despite hardships, disagreements, and unhappiness, were happier when they interviewed those couples again 5 years later.

Sheer stubbornness to keep their marriage together had made a difference! Do you give up too easily or are you like this squirrel?

When is it all right to lie to your spouse? OK, I know this is a loaded question. Let me give you a hypothetical situation. James and Jennifer are in their car on a long stretch of freeway. James is driving the speed limit, which is 70 miles an hour and they are both engaged in an enjoyable conversation.

Jennifer is turned toward James, so when a bird flies onto the windshield (or James hits a bird), she doesn’t see it, but she hears the sound of impact. James sees the bird hit the windshield. He knows how sensitive Jennifer is about animals, so he tells her it was nothing.

Jennifer insists on knowing, saying she heard a noise and she can see a mark on the windshield. James continues to repeat that it was nothing until Jennifer finally relents.

I cannot read either of their minds unless they tell me what they are thinking and feeling, but I suspect that Jennifer knows James is hiding something from her and I suspect that it bothers her even though she gives up trying to get James to tell her.

I also wonder who James is protecting. Is he protecting Jennifer from feeling bad or is he protecting himself from her feelings?

What are your thoughts about this scenario?

o If you are “Jennifer,” how would you feel about this situation and about things like this being kept from you?
o If you are “James” what would you do in a similar situation?
o Whether you are “Jennifer” or “James,” what do you think about this situation?
o What do you think could be the greater consequences of this situation and the possible impact on their marriage as a whole?

It has long concerned me that unhappy couples tend to focus on what they don’t like about their spouse. This is a set up for more unhappiness.

Waiting for your partner to change is a fruitless exercise. If you’re unhappy, change what you do.

Look for the happiness that you can create. You, alone, are responsible for your happiness, not your partner.

I used to keep a gratitude journal and I got sidetracked and forgot. Got to begin again.

I believe that by focusing on the positive and leaving behind the negative, we can lead happier lives.

Since I’m responsible for my own happiness, I will choose how I see the world and my relationships with those I love. Yes, it’s high time I found that journal and began again.

Who wants to join me? We can start here. What are you grateful for right this minute?

A huge welcome to Michelle! Official bio first, then I’ll give you the low-down on her “frill”:

Michelle received her Master of Science in Counseling Psychology from Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas, in 1993. She has worked as a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas since 1997.

In 2001, she left the Family Violence Prevention Services, where she worked for eight years, to begin her private practice working with couples.

In 2006, Michelle began the transition from Marriage Counselor to Relationship Coach. In 2008, she joined the Relationship Coaching Institute.  Most of her training and practice as a therapist has been very similar to what she has learned in her coaching training.

Michelle focuses mainly on the present, using Solution Oriented modalities to help her clients solve their immediate challenges. She teaches her clients Choice Theory, created by William Glasser, MD. She believes that everyone has the ability to solve his/her own problems. Her job is to ask the powerful questions that allow her clients to think in new and creative ways, thus coming up with their own solutions to the challenges that they face.

Now, lemme tell you ALL about this woman, because she was my college roommate. Ready for the dirt? Here we go…

Michelle is incredibly intelligent and insightful, amazingly creative and fun, and, without fail, kind and thoughtful. She’s a keeper, y’all. I am so happy to see her here at Areop and am looking forward to the discussions her posts will no doubt engender.

Welcome, Michelle! ~Lizard

Who is the leader in your marriage? If you both say, “I am” then you probably engage in lots of power struggles. If you’ve figured out how to equitably share the leadership responsibilities, good for you! I’d love to know what you do to make that work. (more…)

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