Anxiety, meds, pain and election

It has been an interesting month. With all the doctors visits, plus this past election, my anxiety has been through the roof. I had been on Strattera for my ADHD and anxiety. It was working, kinda, except there was too much serotonin in my brain. I am taking Propranolol, for my migraines, and it seems like it was only putting a bandaid on the issue. It is helping my migraines, but it also lowered my hr. When I went days without it, due to running out, we realized that my heart rate wasn't going down. It has always been high on Strattera, 90 bpm, but it went over 100 bpm for awhile, going up as high as the low 120s. My anxiety was also out of control, more along the lines of being off of it, and my headaches were relentless. So my Psychiatrist pulled me off of it. I wrote a 2 page paper on things I had forgotten, which seem pertinent to her effective treatment. I am wanting to see if we can go a different route. I am considering anxiety medications and natural methods. I am wanting to stay away from SSRI and SNRI's since it seems my body doesn't react well. Honestly, I should have waited to take the Propranolol. While it doesn't have interactions with Strattera, we would have noticed this much faster without it. That is my fault. I have an appointment at 1:45 today for my Psychologist and I am nervous. The paper contains information that I tend to keep to myself.  My doctors only know broad information about my history, they don't know intimate details. Only my husband does and that was very hard to vocally express. I hate talking about my past. It does cause anxiety and I do get emotional.

Shortly before I came off my Strattera I noticed my boobs started hurting. The pregnancy test says not pregnant, so I have no clue what it is. Plus the timeframe is less likely for pregnancy. Considering when we had sex, the condom, and when I ovulated, it would be a very unlikely. I have 4 more days until my period starts, so for now I will wait. Freud thinks that doing his deep pressure therapy is helping, which is unfortunate. He lays on my chest, which normally does help with anxiety, but right now it hurts a lot for him to do it. He seems to think my little screams of pain is a sign, which makes him apply more pressure. I don't want to discourage him from doing it, but right now it is not helping. I've tried to redirect him to my legs and lower abdomen, which he seems to understand, but he still goes back to my chest.

This election has also not been great for my anxiety. Many of my friends are very disheartened too. I makes me sad that they are scared and for some reason, people don't understand why people are protesting or are scared for their families. I've seen people brush it off as petty behavior and throwing fits because Clinton didn't win. I've also seen them attack these people saying they are upset that their free ride is no longer available. Those people just don't get it. They don't get that people are scared for their basic rights and safety. It isn't about a handout, it is about not wanting your head bashed in because you are walking down the street while being transgender. It is about not wanting unfair treatment medical and business wise for women. It is also not wanting to fear racist people targeting you because you are black, Hispanic or any other race other than white. I am a white female that is straight and married to a man. What I have to worry about pales compared to what others have to worry about. I only have to worry about being sexually assaulted, being paid less or discriminated against in the medical field. I don't have to worry about some lunatic wanting to kill me because I don't fit into their cookie cutter twisted ideals. Even still, I have a way to protect myself from sexual predators and I am more likely to be believed when I am attacked vs a black woman. I am hoping that things resolve and Trump starts seriously rejecting the KKKs support. So far it has been half-ass and so has his support for minorities. Instead of having someone else say he rejects the KKK, he needs to say it himself and keep shouting it. He needs to really make it known. He also needs to be more vocal for womens rights and rights of the LGBTQ community. If his support was as loud as the racist and sexist bull shit that came out of his mouth, we would not have the amount of protesting we have now. These people are scared because they know he doesn't have his support and they are being targeted by his supporters that are racist, sexist and hateful. I get why some supported him. He has promised to get rid of all the boogymen that haunt us, which sounds nice and all, but his hate speech has attracted the trash as well. When you have someone who openly admits to sexually assaulting women, discriminating against blacks in the past, as well as openly talking about how all Muslims and Hispanics are criminals you will attract like-minded people into the open. Those people now think it is okay to commit hate crimes because of what was said by Trump. While he never said, beating a Muslim woman is okay, he never said anything to deter people from doing that. He never openly condemned it, which is why we now have this shit show.

Bleh kind of day

Well, last night's presidential debate was a circus, as usual. I was not expecting anything different, but was hopeful when it started. At first, Trump seemed composed and coherent, but that soon changed. He was easily baited by Clinton, while baiting someone to argue is not the best, it shows his true character. A true leader should not have the tolerance of a child. He is way too unstable to have access to nuclear codes. I don't just base this on his easy to anger on stage. Probably the biggest concern/concerns is/are when he had a family member cut from his father's will, in order to gain more money(greedy bastard), and said people sued. Rightfully so. The money was evenly split among children and their families, but since Trump wanted more money, he decided to write out a sibling and their family. If this wasn't the worst of it, he cut medical care insurance for the nephew's son, a child at the time, to teach them a lesson. He denied medical care for a fucking CHILD! A child for fuck's sake! If this petty asshole had codes for nuclear codes, what makes people think he won't use them to 'teach a lesson' to someone who pisses him off? He has also cut alimony from one of his wives, for telling the truth in a private interview. He did it to 'teach her a lesson'. See the trend? Anyone who goes against him, he has to 'teach them a lesson'. So childish. Thankfully the judge, in that case, told Trump to go fuck himself.

So yeah, it was a circus again thanks to his short temper. When he wasn't having a hissy fit, his stances on issues were deplorable. Yes, I use that word, a word Hillary used. I will not apologise for using it though because his views are deplorable, and anyone who supports those views tend to not be good people either. It doesn't apply to all, but a good majority I have seen are extremely sexist, racist and just downright mean to people who were not exactly like them. He tends to single out Blacks and Hispanics when it comes to inner city issues. He tries to pretty up his words by saying he wants to help them, but he is flat out blaming them for crime rates in inner cities and lack of education. His "bad hombres" comment kinda hit home how racist he is.

 He also doesn't believe in abortion. While I understand it isn't the right option for everyone, no one has the right to tell what a woman can or can't do with her body, which is what he wants to do. He wants to appoint judges that will overturn Roe vs Wade. For some reason, republicans try to spin it as a selfish evil act. In many cases, women are not using it as a form of birth control. I have actually never heard a case of it being used as such. Not only would it get expensive, it would not be good for the woman's body. It isn't something you go, oh I got a fetus in my uterus, damn, let's go have an abortion. No, it doesn't work like that. There are many factors that go into deciding to have an abortion. Many of the same things come up when deciding to try for a child actually. Income is a consideration, and yes I have heard the keep your legs closed argument. I reply with the go fuck yourself, it isn't your body, so mind your own damn business. Contraception fails at times, and if it isn't the right time, it just isn't the right time. No amount of hate speech will change that. The only thing it does is hurt the sentient being  that is actually alive right now and able to comprehend what is going on. Other factors, which are more common, is complications. For some reason, Trump can't seem to comprehend that pregnancies can have complications. Even with all the advances we have had in medicine, childbirth is still very dangerous. While the number of deaths are not as high as they use to be, it is on the rise. There are many contributing factors, but I won't get into that. The one hard fact remains the same. It is the woman,s body, it is her health, it is her decision. Period. No one else's. Just hers.

The wall issue is also getting silly. Has no one that advises him heard of the Great Wall of China and how well that didn't work? Sigh. Then there is his plan for the debt to be reduced while creating jobs. His plan just won't work. Especially if he lowers taxes for big businesses and individuals. You just can't do that. If you do you can't pay for anything. Taxes are useful, it is how you tax that matters. Common sense says to go where the money is. If you cut taxes for the more wealthy, but keep taxes or raise them for middle-class, you won't get much. All you get is very little money and pissed off individuals. I've heard the argument, well if companies can't pay for employees because of taxes you won't have job growth. Yes, this is very accurate, for small businesses. We aren't talking about small business though, we are talking about the guys who own a bunch of yachts and can afford it. We need tougher regulations on those businesses and how they handle jobs. When they are taxed more they do cut people so they don't have to cut their luxuries, which isn't right. If they want to be responsible for job growth, they need to act more responsible. Cutting jobs so they can afford that million dollar vacation is not responsible. It is the exact opposite. You can still have a very wonderful vacation on a fraction of that. You can't expect to drain the middle class and expect everything to work out. It just won't. On the other side, you can't have cuts for both and have it work out. There will be no money for people who need assistance or money for other things, like roads, schools etc. So what will happen? He will need to borrow more money, which will put us in more debt. The 'growth' will be a false one. Similar to how people put a huge amount on a credit card, and then can't pay for any of it. You have the appearance of growth, but in the end, you just crash, and things end up being worse than what they were.

So I actually ranted on that longer than I intended, but I just don't see how people are for him. Well, the Dunning-Kruger effect explains it well, but still. It just shows how many Americans don't want to educate themselves. I live in such a diverse environment, with people from so many other countries, and so far not many are for Trump. They are way more informed on our politics than actual Americans, and that is sad.

So enough of that. Last time I wrote about my birthday and Vlad. He is doing much better, but he is still on antibiotics and steroids. The lump on his neck, the infection, has gone down, but it isn't gone. We have 28 days of more antibiotics and another refill if needed. Hopefully he won't need the refill, but this seems to be a very aggressive infection. He also has only a few more days of the steroid, so I am hoping the pain won't return either.

My health hasn't been the best either. I finally found out that I have loose ligaments, which is what is causing my pain. So I am now in physical therapy for that. My MRI has also been rescheduled because the neurologist and Tricare didn't communicate properly, I had a meltdown at the facility because of stress and anxiety, which resulted in a migraine, which lasted 18 hours. My Strattera has been increased as well, in hopes it will help with my ADHD-related issues. I should know by the end of the month. I feel calmer, but I feel it is just situational and nothing to do with the medicine yet. My period is also coming, today is the due day, but only light pink so far. However, I am having the usual. Pain, nausea, dizziness etc. I know what my period use to feel like, and it has become worse. My doctor ordered a vaginal ultrasound, which didn't show anything, and I am not anemic. The technician said it was normal and to pop a pill, which I can't do because of rebound headaches, and deal with it. I know she went to school for this shit, but I've had my period for 15 years. I know what it use to be like, and now even birth control doesn't help. So no, it isn't normal, especially for me. Right now I am up, dressed and armed because some strange men are coming to my house to fix a leak, which the rental company is dragging their feet to fix, and I feel like shit. I just wanna lay down with my heating pad and curl up in a ball, but I can't. I gotta deal with it because I can't take NSAIDs more than twice a week because of the stupid rebound headaches. I am also vitamin D deficient, I'm in one of the sunniest states, go for daily walks outside, and my body still said fuck you. So I am taking 5000 IU of vitamin D and a calcium supplement to help with uptake. When I am not on my period, I feel better, but that is just silly. My neurologist also put me on a beta blocker for both my migraines and my heart rate. My Strattera is making my heart rate too high, which sucks. It is either I go crazy or I keel over from my heart exploding. My primary also decided she knew better than my Neurologist and tried to argue that I didn't need it. I guess she didn't get the memo that it is treating two things and my heart rate being 115 or higher isn't a good thing. I really like the specialist she sends me to, but she isn't the brightest.....Nor does she like to listen to understand a reasoning behind something. Even so, I do think I need a lower dose for the beta blocker. It is working, but I think it is working too well. Either that, or I need to find a different treatment than Strattera. My pulse is now at a safe range, but it is at the lower end. I can feel my carotid just fine, but my radial is harder to feel now as it is weaker. My neural evaluation has been finally scheduled, kinda. I need to go in first for a consult before Tricare will approve the evaluation, which is what my Neurologist wants. While it just costs me gas and time, it is still annoying that Tricare won't approve what my doctor wants without a doctor's okay. I don't see why this doctor will say no, so the first appointment is quite frankly, pointless. Once I do my dental appointment it will be the same. Consult, then treatment Also if they need to do two things at once, for example, a deep cleaning and a basic cleaning, I either have to pay for one, or schedule them at different times. Which is again, fucking pointless and a waste of time. I know people use this to argue why things like Obama Care doesn't work, but it really has nothing to do with that, and more to do with money. Insurance is a good thing, but like with any money hungry buisness, they need better regulations. Thankfully they can't charge women more money than men for coverage, or drop someone because of a medical condition anymore, so that is a step in the right direction. We still have a long way to go though.

I still need to clean the house, which I really don't want to do. I just feel so crappy from my stupid period now. I just want chocolate, wine and to lay the fuck down. I wish these guys will come soon so I can do part of that. We have no wine or chocolate and I don't feel up to making a trip.

Birthday and Vlad

This past week has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Like I said, I was going to blog about my birthday, which I will here, but I am going to reflect on the past week as well. I haven't forgotten about my face pictures for my new routine. I have been using the toner, but I forgot to exfoliate last week. It was a crazy week though, and I haven't taken pictures either.

I think I mentioned when all this started happening in my last entry, but we noticed Vlad acting funny Sunday. While my brain likes to think worst case scenario, his symptoms at first seemed to be a simple hip issue, like was mentioned before. While it is a hip issue, hip dysplasia grade 3, his spine is showing signs of starting to fuse, oh and he was shot twice, with a pellet gun. At first, they didn't think it was causing issues, because we had not caught the infection yet, but it is. His immune system is being weakened by a condition called metallosis. When we brought him home from the first appointment, he started vomiting at 4:30 am. He proceeded to vomit a total of 14 times before he stopped for good. Which the last time was after the vet visit when we went to fill his prescription. The vet there wanted to look at his x-rays, since he wasn't the one that ordered them, and he found an oddity in his bone structure in his neck. He told us it could be either an infection or cancer, thankfully it was an infection, a bone infection, but at least it wasn't cancer. So he is on a bunch of medication for pain, inflammation, pain and nausea. Since the pellets will be hard to remove, and could very easily cause nerve damage, we plan on doing immune supplements, which the vet thinks will help. Since it was such a hectic morning, all of us forgot about his shot for vomiting. He had not vomited at the vets, so it was very easy to forget about considering what was found and what all needed to be done to test. After he vomited all over himself, we brought him back to the vet for the shot, some pills for the nausea once it wore off, and some wet food that was easy on his stomach. He is still not back to normal yet, but he seems to be getting better. He has gone more than 24 hours without vomiting, so I think we are past that. Now the struggle is to get him up to drink enough water. He is very sleepy from one of his medications, so I will have to wake him up for it, so we are not out of the woods just yet.

When I took Vlad to the vet, Freud panicked. So we will need to start walking Vlad and Mocha with Freud being left either alone or with one of them, so he can get use to being without them. He is way too attached, which is normal. They are as much a part of his family as they are a part of mine. But hopefully getting him use to them being away for a short period will help with the anxiety when they pass. Looking it at realistically, if nothing happens to Freud, these two will pass before him, since he is the youngest. While we won't ever let him be without a companion for long, he won't have these two around for the rest of his life.

My birthday was nice. I went on my usual walk, and came home and relaxed, until we went out for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Their portion sizes really have gone down. It isn't a bad thing, but it was surprising since I haven't eaten there for close to two years. From my parents, I recieved money, which allowed us to go out for my birthday, and an adorable wine holder in the shape of a dog. From my brother and Chrissy I received Majoras Mask and Chrono Trigger. I just finished Portal, so I can now start on Crono Trigger, which I am excited about. Josh's mom got me a gift card from amazon, as well as sandals, earrings, and lipstick. From the gift card I ordered 3 tops, two which have arrived, 1 more pair of earrings, two belts, Ramekins for baking, a professional cooking torch, and a corgi decal.

The two tops fit well and are exactly what I was looking for. One is a cowl neck halter top, which is a purplish color. It was advertised as maroon, but it isn't quite that. Which is fine, I am not super picky on colors as long as they aren't hideous, like a barf green. The other is a black top that buttons in the back around the neck, and ties around the lower back. The front is covered up to the neck, but the back is exposed. It is very sexy, while being modest as well. The earrings I ordered are a multi color pearl that goes along with my necklace. I planned on wearing them this past weekend, but things went downhill with Vlad, so we needed to take care of him. Which I don't mind doing, but it just breaks my hear seeing him like this. The Decal I have not put on my truck just yet. I need to clean the back window first, which I am being lazy about. The two belts I ordered for my black sandals. I have a lot of brown belts, but no black, so I am now able to wear more of my outfits that were originally for my brown boots, but since it is hot as hell here, sandals are preferred. I just used one of the Ramekins for baked Ricotta, and it held up well, so I am pleased about that. I have yet to fill and test out the torch. I need to get a butane filler for it

I don't wanna adult today

I want to start off with I had a wonderful birthday. I will make another post about it, but for now I will blog about other things. Today is the day of Vlad's vet visit. Roughly two weeks ago, we took the dogs to the vet for a hello visit, since we just got here, and random issues that were not too big of a deal. Freud has stopped eating his poop thankfully, pineapple is amazing for that apparently, and Mocha is still senile/blind. We recently got a desk for our laptop and she has ran into it. She seems to have gotten use to it's placement now though thankfully. We still need to be careful with her, but it is difficult when she wants to run full speed. Vlad was having issues pooping. He didn't want to, so we thought it was anal glands. It wasn't that and the vet said he was fine, and that as long as he poops once a day he is good. He does that now, but he isn't on a schedule like he use to. He has suddenly started having issues with his legs. We noticed it Sunday, he was limping and overall slow. Monday he was worse and it progressed from there I have to pick him up to get him to go outside to even pee. I bring him water and food now because he has balance issues. I saw him today try to get up. He sat up, tried to get up 4 times before he got to his feet, almost falling over, and hobbled to Mocha's padded bed.

I'm scared something is seriously wrong with him. I am hoping it is something like hip dysplasia or something that is easily treated and quality of life can be improved with general medication. His quick decline worries me though. He was such a healthy spunky dog and now he does nothing but lay down. He doesn't even wanna play with Freud anymore. When I don't catch him right away, Vlad is tolerant of his playfulness. I can tell he would rather be left alone though. I know going to the vet is a must, but I fear the diagnosis. It is that time of the month though, so my anxiety is through the roof and so is my emotions. So adulting right now is very difficult. I just want to snap my fingers and make the issues go away.

Freud has an Instagram account and this week I have been half assing everything. I have ideas for his account, but I just don't want to do anything. For Freud's Instagram I used an old picture for a throw back Thursday. I did clean the house, but I haven't exercised because I'm scared to leave Vlad's side, and I haven't organized anything. Besides being swept and surfaces sanitized, the house is a mess. We need to go to the dump again to get rid of more bulk no one wants to buy, and I need to go through things to toss in the usual trash that isn't too bulky.

Speaking of Instagram, I noticed an email from change.org. It was about helping curb bullying on Instagram. While I rarely encounter it, it is a common thing. It seems Instagram, with it's newest update, helped fix some of these issues. They aren't great fixes, but it is an improvement. You can now hide commonly reported offensive words in your comments. That doesn't stop it from happening, but you can't see it until someone points it out in a nice manner, that doesn't fit the criteria for hidden comment. Yesterday two asshats decided to harass me for simply un-following an account. I didn't make a fuss, I simply hit un-follow and the person I un-followed made a rude comment on my profile for un-following them, and how they were un-following me now. I could honestly care less if they un-followed me. They could have simply hit the un-follow button, but nope, they decided to be a dick about it. In hindsight, I should have just deleted and blocked the fucker. Instead I commented that I didn't care if they un-followed me, and I gave the reason, why I un-followed, publicly....Because they are now a follow for follow account and I find that type of thing stupid. They played stupid, or are actually stupid, I don't know I pretty much explained why I un-followed and why I was commenting about it, but I had to re-explain myself in a very over simplified manner. Seriously. I had to literally do a list of events that took place, up to my first comment. Which said exactly what I did prior, except not in a long winded manner. I reported them after that, because I didn't want them to have access to my profile and reporting blocks them. They deleted my comments, and kept theirs to make it look like I was begging for a follow, their comments were mocking me in a way that made it look like I wanted them to follow me without following them, which is why I over simplified my explanation, because I felt they didn't understand, hence why I now think they were playing stupid. Anyways, one of their lackies decided to jump in on the fun of harassing me. I sent a private message this time to explain what happened, didn't know it was a lackie at the time, and of course they acted like a bitch. In other words neither didn't care they bullied me. I can't actually take proper steps to make sure it is handled. Instagram has a crappy customer service. The reporting is a joke and once they block you, you can't see the private messages. So you can't save that is proof. So yeah, it is shitty, but uh well. They don't seem to have continued. As long as they don't do anything more, I don't care. However, it doesn't always stop for everyone. Some people suffer severe bullying to the point where the person doing the bullying stalks the poor person. I've seen the person go from one social media to another, just to harass a person. So it is hard to get away from it. I've also seen it go as far as the bully finding the actual person they are bullying, and continue it away from social media. So the fact they don't have an option to help stop it asap, it makes bullying easier on it's platform. Oh and fun fact, you can't reach them via email. If you try it says email is full.

Not too long ago I blogged about guns and shooting of a kid. I did a quick update search and it still seems to stay the same, he pulled a Ruger replica on a cop, but this time it is reported another person was shot and killed. I have not blogged about innocent people being killed by police, but it is way too common. I mean come on, if it is true, how the fuck do you mistake a book for a gun. They look nothing alike. I understand that the man didn't follow orders, but for fucks sake, that is no reason to kill a person. For all they know, he could not have heard them properly. It has been a more common place for white cops to shoot black people, but this time it was a black cop that shot a black person. I'm not saying race isn't a factor in some white on black shootings involving cops, but I really think it is a lack of training issue. My husband is highly trained and if he shot a civilian while deployed, and it was an innocent person that he murdered, he would be charged. I really don't know why the same standards can't be applied to our police force. Yes, they risk their lives, but so does my husband, and he is held to stricter standards.....and has better training. So why can't our cops get better training huh?

So yeah, period, I'm pissy, sad and emotional. It is a bad combo. I need more pads, so I might get a bottle of wine while I'm at it.

Guns

I am a supporter of guns, I carry myself and support the second amendment. I also support good gun laws. It is a person's right to carry, within reason. Lately, the news has been flooded with stories of cops killing armed people, mostly blacks. Some of the stories have me outraged, just like any other person, because some cops should not be cops. The same way some doctors should not be doctors etc. The newest story is of a 13-year-old. At first, I thought, what the fuck is wrong with that cop, but like a reasonable person, I did some digging.

Turns out the kid had a bb gun that looked exactly like a real handgun. I have taken a look of said bb gun, and up close it is obvious, but from a distance, it does look like a real gun. I would have shot someone pulling that out too. It is an honest mistake. Now, what was the 13-year-old doing with that gun? He robbed someone. Yep, robbed. All the sudden this story doesn't sound so absurd. Naturally, the parents are upset, rightfully so, their child is dead, and are wanting an unbiased investigation. That is totally reasonable. However, there are some serious questions that need to be addressed. Besides the obvious morals issues, considering he held a gun to someone and robbed them, another is why the hell did this kid have a bb gun that resembled a Ruger? It is a very good replica, it does it's job in looking like the real deal. 

Like I said before, I am for a person's right to carry, however, it is obvious why a 13-year-old isn't allowed to carry. So why are there guns for kids resembling the real deal? It makes a cops job difficult. To shoot or not to shoot? We all talk about trigger happy cops that shoot the innocent, but rarely is the threat really talked about. While the average cop gets the gun training of a kindergartener, there is a real threat. Two things really need to be addressed.....Well three if you count the issue of getting rid of bad cops, since that seems to be hard as fuck. First off, our cops really need more training. I get more training than our cops and I am not required to know how to use a gun by my job. If your job entails firearms, you need at least weekly training at the range. It doesn't have to be long, an hour a week, and then a skills test once a month is not too hard. For fucks sake, I had to prove my skills as a lifeguard more often than our cops. We are not doing them any favors by not training them properly. It just makes their job even harder. While shoot to kill is a good way to teach, considering an armed person that wants to harm isn't going to stop when there is an attempt to disarm, it should not be the only training. Small target training should be enforced. When a person reaches for an assumed weapon, the first shot should be a small, non-lethal target. It really doesn't take that long of a time to pull the trigger and then pull it again if the action is not stopped. Especially with kids, most are not going to continue with their actions if shot in the foot. Now I'm not saying all confrontations end like this, but with this situation, it could have been used. All it takes is one trigger pull, adjust the aim for the second shot, and reassess the situation. While it isn't sensible for the average Joe, cops should be taught this. Again, this isn't feasible for all situations, but it is a method that should be taught as a part of their skills. I'm sure many will disagree with that, but it is my opinion on how to vary their training. Another thing mentioned in the reporting was that the child fled. I am not sure how far he fled, but a good method for fleeing subjects is tazing them. I already know their gun training is shoddy, so I presume they don't have much training with these either. While I don't have all the details. I still feel the cop only had one skill at his disposal that was really enforced, which is the shoot to kill. Which is sad and not fair to the cop. Not only does he have to deal with the investigation, he has to deal with the fact he killed a child. A troubled child, but a child none the less. 

Secondly, we need to stop making toy guns look like the real deal. This wasn't a matter of a kid going pew pew pew, with an orange gun at a cop, it was a kid that had something that looked like something that could KILL you. I need to emphasize that. It looks like a weapon that could kill, and was pulled out when cops were chasing him. Now comes the hard choice. Should the cop risk his life, in the off chance it was what it turned out to be, or should he shoot to protect himself from what looks like a weapon. Yes, this is a child, but so many forget that kids are capable of killing. Hell, this kid robbed someone with his bb gun, so honestly, in my opinion, it was only a matter of time before he obtained a real gun and killed someone if there was no intervention. From what is reported, it seems like the kid was involved in a gang. I really can't think of another reason why a 19-year-old would hang out with a 13-year-old and then happen to rob someone with a gun. This was reported to be admitted by the 19-year-old 'friend'. 

I do feel for the family. I can't imagine losing a child. With empathy, I can have somewhat of an idea of what it might be like. I know the mother thought the world of this child, but if the facts come out the shooting was justified, she really needs to reflect and focus on her daughter. I don't know if she just missed the signs, or if the household is conducive for this type of behavior, but I really hope her daughter turns out well. Losing a brother is hard, but if she turns out like her brother, that would be even more tragic. I truly hope that the investigation helps the family get some closure, but I feel there won't be any, especially after the confession and the bb gun evidence. It certainly doesn't help the tension that is going on currently, but, this wasn't a case of a racist person killing a black person. As it turns out, there was more to it, more that needs to lead to changes.

Birthday tomorrow

My 27th birthday will be tomorrow. While I am excited to celebrate it, my skin is showing all those years of abuse. While I never went tanning on a regular basis, only on vacations to the beach and even then most of the time was spent playing. Laying around baking never really appealed to me. I applied sunscreen, but not as often as I should. Even now, I don't put sunscreen on my face daily like I should. I need to crack down and find a good facial sunscreen. One reason I never really tried to find one is because my skin reacts to almost every damn sunscreen out there. I found a brand for my body that works, but it leaves my face super oily, hence why I don't apply it to my face on a regular basis.

It started a few months ago. I noticed some spots on my cheeks, now I have more and some on my nose. They are not super noticeable, but it is a reminder I am getting older and my skin is saying fuck you, take care of me properly. I have also noticed my dark circles have gotten a tad darker. My eyes use to be bright, but no longer. I got comfortable with my facewash and moisturizer, CeraVe, but now it is time for a big girl routine. I am reluctantly researching products for my face, and soon to be chest, I noticed a texture difference there too, oh and lovely stretch marks on my boobs, I mean like what the fuck? I am only a 32C, I should not have stretch marks on my boobs. I don't wear a bra when home, which is probably the culprit. I refuse to restrict them! You can't see the marks in a bikini, so my husband can deal with it. Back to my face skin.......Well after I noticed it wasn't going away and actually progressing somewhat, I decided on a few products. They aren't high-end products, but this shit isn't cheap! I knew I could not get away with bottom line products. For one they don't work, secondly, my skin won't tolerate it. Since the price adds up, because I was being stubborn and not using these products already, despite every article I read that said to start getting your products in your early 20's,

I had to get two products to start off with. I chose a toner and a scrub. I still have facial lotion and face wash and I refuse to be wasteful, so my face will have to deal until I run out of the products. For the toner, I decided to go with Thayers Alcohol-free rosewater. The reviews were good and I liked the ingredients. It uses rosewater, which is good for soothing the skin and has been said to have anti-inflammatory properties. Witch hazel is another ingredient that I wanted in my skincare routine since it helps with pimples and reduces puffiness. While I don't suffer from a lot of acne, I do have the occasional pimple, which a daily toner will help combat. The last ingredient that drew me to this product is aloe. Aloe is very soothing and it can help with sunburns and such.The second thing I decided on was Aveeno positively ageless. I was hesitant at first because this is a very common brand, and with super common brands comes useless crap. This, however, got really good reviews. It is made with mushrooms and has vitamin C, which is a plus. I will have to play guinea pig and make sure these don't make my skin go crazy. Today was my first day and so far so good. No burning and my skin feels smooth. There is no excessive redness, besides the normal red nose zone that I usually have. When a product is super irritating that will be super red. It is pretty tame compared to other products I used before I started using Cerave. Now I have not decided to fully ditch Cerave. I still really like the facial cleanser. I will obviously have to switch out the moisturizer for an anti-aging one and the next purchase will be an eye cream. BTW, eye creams are freaken expensive as hell. I am debating on when to get the facial mask, yeah, mask. The scrub and mask is a once a week type of thing, and the toner, creams and toner will be daily. So that is a total of 4 items I am adding to my routine, and 1 I am switching for sure. The items alone is not that bad, the most expensive is 17 dollars, which is actually the moisturizer. It has green tea, so it is to be expected, but all products at once is expensive!

I expect the toner to last me about 3 months, maybe more, the scrub is small, but a little goes a long way, so I can see that lasting 2 months, I am not sure about the other products yet, but I will update once I start using them. I will also do a before an after picture from day 1 to day 30. So once a week I will take a picture. I am currently trying to take a decent photo with a note 2. The quality is crap compared to my husband's phone. Samsung broke my note 4 with the most recent update and my mother gave me a cracked phone, which was amazing, but the integrity was already compromised so Mocha stepping on it completely destroyed it. So, I dug up this old phone and I've had to deal with the no wifi, getting expensive, and no GPS, annoying. I know his response, why not use the good camera. Well because have you ever tried to take a selfie with a fucking Nikon DX. I can switch to the less, zoom lens, but that doesn't have an autofocus feature and trying to take a decent selfie will take forever. Like I said, it isn't bad, but I can see the change, and I need to start something new before I look twice my age instead of younger than I am. So this is my skin, day 1 with one use of the toner and scrub. Obviously nothing different yet, but I will keep updating before and after photos until I have all the products that my skin likes, and have had that routine for a full 30 days.

Rainy Days

Today was suppose to be a rainy day. It is dreary, but it really hasn't stormed like the weather channel said it would. Even the radar looked like it would be a day full of rain. Alas, there is no rain. I decided to not go on my walk in exchange of getting things done around the house.

My day started like normal. I woke up exhausted and groggy. I use to be a mornings person. I am not sure what happened. As a teen, I was a night person and same with the early parts of college. As the years went on though, I started going to bed earlier and waking up at a reasonable time. My sleeping patterns have gone back to that of my teenage self for some reason. I toss and turn at night, and want to nap during the day. I am currently trying to fight that urge to lay down and nap. I had a breakfast of a pear with my zucchini bread and a cup of tea. I had popcorn as a snack, which was not that great. I love the idea of popping the kernels on the stove, but it never seems to turn out right. I think it might be the fact I don't have a nonstick pot. I am just using stainless steel, so it tends to burn. Popping it in a lunch bag is bleh as well. For lunch I had a whole tomato and mushrooms sauteed in chicken broth and marsala cooking wine with herbs. It was accompanied by a small potato and whole grain bread, because my cholesterol is borderline for some reason....Yay. So I need to boost my whole grain intake and lower my fatty meats, whole milk and egg consumption. I am not really thrilled about that. It is my own fault though. I had studied and research health and nutrition and everything I have read, including studies, said that whole milk, butter, daily whole egg consumption, and meats were not good for heart health. In recent years though people have come forward saying all those studies were wrong and that their 'study', saying all those foods, are actually good for you. In the back of my mind I was saying bull shit, because you know I wanted to eat all those foods more often in exchange for my bread and grains, because you know, they said those were bad and the actual reason for health issues. I love bread, but I love fat even more. Nothing better than a sunny side up egg with a steak cooked in butter, because that is oh so healthy. In the end, I am an idiot for disregarding years of research and I am paying for it. Now I didn't eat steak that often, but many of my meals involved meat as the front and center and veggies, which you actually want front and center, as a second thought. It accompanied the meat instead of vice versa. For dinner, we will be having black bean sweet potato chili. We still have cornbread left over, from before the results, so I will be feeding my husband that and will be eating a salad with my chili. This whole cholesterol thing is so frustrating considering I am a healthy weight, skinny in fact. I am only 116 pounds at 5'3. It just goes to show you that you can be skinny and not be healthy. I exercise too so it really is all my diet. Slowly, but surely I will be going back to my olive oil obsessed, dairy free milks, low-fat yogurts, egg whites and a mostly vegetable and grain diet with lean meat/seafood in moderation, life. That doesn't mean my life will be super strict. I will just enjoy the occasional treat like I use to, in moderation, on the weekends.

After I had my breakfast I made it my mission to knock out making doctors appointments. My doctor has me seeing a psychologist, which I really don't need for my Strattera, a neurologist, for my headache issue, that arose recently with activity, as well as my short term memory issues, the obgyn, for the usual yearly fun visit, and an orthopedic surgeon for my shoulder. All this will be wrapped up with a follow up with her. While it doesn't seem like much to do, it took me hours. Mostly because I had to answer the same damn questions over and over again about myself, my insurance and my husband, which takes awhile. Mostly because there was a shit ton of questions and there was the waiting time. The neurologists was the worst. I thought she forgot about me. There was no music or anything for people on hold and it was silent for a good 20 minutes. I wanted to hang up, but I didn't feel like going through that waiting, just in case I was not forgotten. I still don't know if she just went, oh fuck someone is on hold, after 20 minutes or if there was a line of us on hold.

Once I was done with doctor shit I proceeded to clean the house. My dogs avoided me like usual and now I am happy with it being clean, even if it only lasts a day or two before I have to do it over again. To help lower my heart, which my Strattera spikes, I decided to mix lavender and mint essential oils in my diffuser and sip on water. Since I am seeing a psychologist I might ask about different medications, not Adderall or Ritalin. Constant high heart rate isn't good, but I am hesitant since many of what I have looked up came with even worse side effects. I don't particularly want manic attacks or seizures in exchange for ADHD symptom control. I've tried not taking it, which didn't work either. While my heart rate isn't in a dangerous zone, it is 90 bpm which isn't bad, but it is high compared to my age, weight and physical activity. Without it my heart rate was 70, so I know it is the Strattera fucking with my heart rate. Sadly, it isn't affecting my cholesterol. If it was I could still keep eating all that delicious crap.

Sugar Bear Hair scam

So this company is gaining a lot of followers, sadly, since they seem to be a scam. They ask for 30 dollars for 1 month supply of 'vitamins'. Now since this company, from what I can tell, is fairly new, their formula probably has not been tested for safety by a third party. Speaking of safety, their vitamin levels are really high. While biotin is relatively safe, their levels are at over 1000% of the RDA. That level is just stupid high and while you pee it out, which is a waste of expensive ass vitamins, your liver and kidneys still have to process and rid your body of the excess. The fat soluble vitamins, aka the vitamins the body can't really get rid of as easily, are also way too high.

The products vitamin A content is at 42% and the vitamin D content is at 100% and vitamin E is at 55%. Many people pop vitamins without really doing research. When it comes to fat soluble vitamins and minerals, the higher the percentage is not better. Not unless you are deficient or are on a crash diet where you aren't eating, which is also stupid. I won't get into that though. So if this was just a biotin vitamin I would not have brought up the percentage, but again, there is just too much of certain vitamins which is taxing your organs.

Why am I blogging about this product? Well because they blocked me, from commenting, for a simple question, which on their part is very petty and unprofessional. I asked them to justify the 30 dollar price tag based on their ingredients and quantity when competitors price their products at 10-14 dollars for the same amount. I never got an answer, but I have seen them try to justify the cost by saying they are the first of their kind, which news flash, they are not! Not even close. I didn't quote that claim, but I did bring up the competition. So it seems that they don't want people to know that there are alternative, because if they knew, they could not price gouge anymore. Though if the average person did a simple google search, scams like this would not take root.

Now I know I said competitors prices were between 10-14, which the average is, vitajoy, which is a hair, nail and skin vitamin, that doesn't have the excess crap and just biotin, is 7.50 on Amazon with the add-on tag. So guess what, they aren't unique, they aren't special and they sure as hell should not be 30 dollars for a simple vitamin. It is absurd and not even they can justify that price tag to me. I am not surprised, though, since their claim is easily proven false. Sugar Bear Hair is just another one of those products a company tries to market unique to gain money. While the gummy is cute, and the blue color is fun, just save yourself the money and buy a different supplement. If you don't mind swallowing pills, you can get cruelty free vitamins for even less. Oh, and another plus to the cheaper price, vitajoy is made in the USA. I don't know where the fuck Sugar Bear produces it's vitamin. If it is China or some other place that produces these types of product on pennies, you are paying 30 dollars that probably cost less than a dollar to produce. A fun fact about imported vitamins is that only 2% are actually tested. China is also one of the top producers of America's vitamin supplements as well. So I would not be surprised if they produce their product in China. If your product is using raw or natural products from China, you can be sure that heavy metals are present, which is why third party testing of a supplement is always good to have. They can keep companies in place and help prevent crappy products from entering the market as frequently.

Clean House....Somewhat

It has been awhile since I last blogged, and a few things have happened since then. Today was uneventful for the most part. I exercise, cleaned, and tried to get my dog to shit....Yes shit

 I have three wonderful dogs that love to either scare me, annoy me, or on occasion cuddle. Vlad, the middle age one is refusing to poop and hasn't since Monday afternoon. This happened once before when he had infected anal glands, so I scheduled a vet appointment for this Saturday for all three. Freud, the youngest has developed this lovely appetite for his own shit. He won't eat the other dogs, just his, so he is getting checked for worms. It started when we had to cut back his food, he was 32 pounds and is suppose to be 25. So his tubby ass is probably being gluttonous, but I would rather be safe than sorry. I've been feeding him low calorie 'filler' foods since he started and currently have green beans in the oven, drying out, for munchies during the day. Mocha, our oldest, is running into more things. We know she is going blind, but we want to get her checked since it is becoming more frequent and she isn't slowing down to make sure she doesn't run head on into a table. This is the first time since the move since they have been to a vet clinic, so this chaos will be interesting. Speaking of vets, I didn't know that Petco had a day for low-cost vaccines. My husband and I went after being told by my brother's girlfriend that she spent half of what they do at the vet for their pups. While there is a bit of a wait, it ends up being way cheaper and more budget friendly, which I am happy about.

Speaking of health, I saw my new doctor last week. I have mixed feelings, leaning towards not impressed. The reviews online say she is nice, but I found her quite standoffish. While I like the fact that she referred me to a specialist for my shoulder, she also referred me to a place to get my blood drawn/pee in a cup for testing, and a psychologist for my non-controlled medication for ADHD, which I've been taking since I was 13. To me, this screams incompetent. She says I am depressed, but depression and ADHD have many similar symptoms, but they aren't the same, at all. I've never had a general practitioner question my previous diagnosis. I had it diagnosed as a child by a professional, and then retested at 18 for college. I've also never been to a place where I had to go elsewhere to pee and draw blood. I am aware it is sent to a lab, but not having the capability is just odd. Heck even a Gastroenterologist I went to, in a hick town in GA, had trained personnel and the capability to draw blood. This is far from a hick town, yet I can't get the pre-testing and treatment I need in one place. After I run around and do what she wants done, I will give her one last chance, because I only really need someone to prescribe me my medication for now. The fun thing though, is if she still refuses to simply prescribe my medication and has me running around for it, I will become unstable emotionally. This is the only medication that has treated my attention issues as well as the mental crap that comes along with ADHD. If that happens my insurance will be getting an angry call. I have roughly two months left, so if this psychologist wants to play games and not prescribe me the medication I've needed since fucking 13 years of age, I will probably just flat out ask for another doctor, even if the pain in my shoulder hasn't been addressed. I would rather live with this pain than run out again.

So this blog is suppose to be about a clean house right? Well kinda. I wanted to finish my thoughts on a funny/happy note. In a previous blog, I mentioned not being able to find Ammonia free Windex in Target and going with Seventh Generation spray for cleaning. Well, I tried it out today during my semi light cleaning. It says it has a lemongrass citrus scent.........which is complete and utter bullshit. While the lung friendly formula is holding up, the scent smells like new tires, which is really weird. I will finish the bottle, but a tire scented sink is both humorous and not wanted. I am going to look into the ingredients more, to see how they accomplished that scent, because that is kinda impressive without it being toxic. Especially when lemongrass oils don't smell anything like tires lol. My dogs are never happy when it comes to cleaning, which is a daily occurrence. They each get a brushing twice a week, yet still seem to throw their fur all over the house. It's favorite spot is in the hallway closets and the living room carpet. It can't go more than 3 days without  looking like crap, so it is vacuumed often. Our backyard is also quite sandy, so daily sweeping is a must and kitchen counter and sink cleaning is daily as well. Today I did all that plus the bathrooms and a light dusting in the master bedroom. Despite it being a frequent activity, the dogs seem to detest it. Their faces hold the expression of, 'wtf are you doing, you crazy woman'! I can't blame them, I am a bit fanatic when it comes to cleaning. Organization I have just about given up on for now considering movers broke much of our organizational furniture and shit is kinda just laying around the house. Even when we had an organized house, papers seemed to keep piling in random locations and things used was not put away. It was a never ending cycle of the pick up game, which I think I will play tomorrow. My shoulder hurts too much to organize stuff right now.

Childish

One of my friends posted a funny, fictional, video about a child who called the police on his mom for spanking him. Long story short, the cop ended up opening a can of good old fashioned discipline to back up the mother. It was hilarious, and like with most controversial topics I could not resist being sucked into the black hole of the comment section.  It is a guilty pleasure of mine and most of the time it doesn't disappoint. While I rarely contribute, it still doesn't stop me from laughing at many of the stupid comments. I clicked on a comment of a woman that reminisced her own similar story, with a feel good happy ending about her son growing up to be a good man. Nothing out of the ordinary or really that funny, but it had a lot of comments, which generally hints to an argument.

The one that started the argument told her story, one of being spanked and being traumatized by it. It is one I have heard before by people who flat out think spanking, as a form of discipline, is abuse. One person brought up a question, a valid one, if what she experienced was aversion to her father, because she knew she could not get away with things when she told him the truth, and favored her mother because she never disciplined her. This is actually a very common issue with parents. One will discipline the child, and the other won't. The end result will be a child, obviously disliking one parent and favoring the other. No one likes getting in trouble, and if not brought up with a consistent set of standards, one will avoid the truth when it comes to authority figures or people who have a set standard that the individual doesn't like. Another possibility, which I did not see addressed, was that she was actually abused and what she associates with spanking is not true discipline. While some vehemently deny that there is a difference between physical discipline and abuse, there is. Well her response was typical. She cursed out the person asking the question and then claimed she took child development classes. So what is the big deal about telling a person to fuck off? Well nothing really. Some people need to be told to fuck off, but this person just posed a question, and not in a mean way. The fun started there, more people questioned her, one being why she thinks she is so knowledgeable about childhood development from taking a course. I wondered that too because she stated that those kids, who stay with parents who spank, have Stockholm syndrome. To clarify, Stockholm syndrome is used to describe a feeling of trust or affection towards a kidnapper or captor. Which is not applicable here. She continues to rant about how shitty parents are just creating more shitty parents by spanking

There was one poor woman who typed up a story in response to this woman's attacks and hysteria. It talked about her mother spanking her and her siblings as kids. Her example was a perfect example of the difference, yet this woman refused to read her comment and proceeded to attack her. She even stated in her response she didn't read it and continued to puff out her chest, claiming she knew better than everyone else. The woman's story was how her grandmother was raised without being spanked, or disciplined at all really, yet beat the shit out of this woman's mother. Despite being beating and abused, she didn't do the same to her children. She only spanked when needed and it was never hard or aggressive. The ironic part was that she even stated, at the end, that she wanted to use other methods of discipline with her children and spanking as a last resort. So despite her wonderful example, she essentially agreed with this woman that no spanking is ideal, in her opinion. So because of this woman's lack of reading skills, she completely missed the fact that someone actually agreed with her. Which to me, was absolutely hilarious. The argument, or lack thereof, took it's natural path of people mocking the woman's appearance and such, because she could not keep calm and just answer respectfully.

Now where is the wtf? While the above is funny, it didn't make me go wtf. What made me go wtf was after reading all of this, I decided to take a peek at who this woman was. I had already come to the conclusion that her tirades were childish and starting to get petty, but this made everything even more hilarious. People have bad days and go off the deep end it happens, so I wanted to see if this was normal, or a bad day. I have attached a little-cropped screen shot, to protect her identity, well somewhat, this isn't private, so she can be easily found. What really made me go wtf was how she thinks she is more adult because she plays Assassin's Creed. It seems she can't quite comprehend what fictional history is. You learn jack and shit from it considering the plot only takes place located in the past. Aka the story isn't real, the place or event might be, but it isn't real! At all! The only historical accuracy in the first game is that it took place during the Crusades and that there was a Guild to intimidate people, that is it. There are mentions of real things, but considering the plot, it is not an actual historical event. So you are still playing a game, like a child. If you play these games, thinking you learn shit, you won't be able to discern fact from fiction.



BTW, I love games, I play them and watch my husband play them. Nothing wrong with it until you think you are superior. In the end, considering her posts, I am not too surprised she posted this as a status. It is hilarious none the less though.

Safe space and trigger warnings

I listened to a podcast about college campus safe spaces and trigger warnings today. While the podcast was funny and cheeky, it really didn't fully address these two. It more attacked them because of people abusing the system instead of explaining why they are there. I'm sure everyone hates those who abuse systems in place, well except the abusers.

Let's delve into trigger warnings first. These are actually a very good thing. I can almost guarantee everyone wants to be warned before they see or hear something that they feel uncomfortable with. Some might just avoid it, others, like myself, will still proceed despite the warning. Things that make myself uncomfortable doesn't necessarily make my husband, mother, friends etc uncomfortable and vice versa. Just because they are not triggered by said thing, doesn't make it right for them to force me to go through that experience. No one really knows the feelings or emotional stress of others, even if they experience the same event. People handle different events and stressors differently and discrediting someone's emotional pain, because you were not affected the same way, is a douche move. Am I a bitch sometimes? Absolutely! There are times where I just cannot comprehend another person's reasoning or feelings and I will reflect internally, or verbally with my husband, pulling from my own experience. It happens, but there is a difference between not understanding and flat out saying that the person is attention seeking or lazy. Triggers are very real and can cause a lot of harm to certain individuals. A trigger isn't just an uncomfortable feeling. It is something that causes a lot of stress, anxiety and can even cause the person to physically harm themselves. It is really nothing to make light of, especially when an affected person is around. Are some abuse cases obvious, yes, one example is taking out a book like Pride and Prejudice out of required reading curriculum because someone finds it sexist. While sexism is still alive and relevant today, it is a fucking 200+ year old book. I certainly am not that old, but I do know that things were way different back then, and the romance of the book reflected the times. Sexism is a part of history, and it will awlays be a part of it. Hell, that would be a good paper topic after reading the book, an over used topic, but a good one none the less. Now, I cannot remember the book that much, so I cannot create a good trigger warning from that book, but there was a book called Brothers, that I do remember. It is a very good book written by Yu Hua. It isn't without it's disturbing parts though, especially those towards women. This book does require a trigger warning because a rape victim could be very easily triggered by some of the contents. This is exactly what trigger warnings are good for and why they should be kept around. My teacher in college was understanding and did warn the class. I can't think of anyone who didn't read it, but if someone had trouble reading the book, he had an alternative for them. I have seen so many people saying trigger warnings are censorship, or a way of getting out of class work. No, it is there to avoid a flash-back, regressing back to the state when the trauma happened, etc. Teachers who are prepared have alternatives for those who cannot read or listen to what is being taught at the time. Brothers, while a fantastic book, wasn't necessary when it came to Chinese literature about the 20th century. There are more books, this was just the teacher's preference.

Safe spaces also have their places on college campuses. A reoccurring thought process I see is to grow up. Let me compare this to smoking. I know there are still assholes that will say, oh just move away from me, but smoking use to be a real issue on college campuses. Where I went had designated smokings areas, which is great, because it allows for non-smokers to go around them. So how does smoking compare? Well, people have different senses of humor, some very inappropriate. I find things that are inappropriate funny, does that mean I should push that on someone else, no. Safe spaces are for people of any race, sexuality, gender identity, etc, to go in order to remove themselves from things they feel uncomfortable with. While not all uncomfortable things should be avoided, like talking about sex with your kids, avoiding racist jokes should be made available to those who are uncomfortable by them. It is a place where they won't hear the word faggot, retarded, or jokes about their sexuality, race etc. Some people don't want to hear that crap and having a place to go to get away from that is a good thing, because sometimes walking away doesn't work. Especially when it is something that is widely accepted and they can't go anywhere without hearing it.

Now what about my blog? It could be offensive to some, yes, that is very true. I addressed my language use and such in my first blog....I can see if I can post a warning elsewhere. I haven't really fiddled with this thing much. The fun thing about the internet though is that you can get away from the crap you find offensive, for the most part. If you find my blog offensive, you can easily not click on the link. It isn't being read to you, you have to click it to read it. It takes action on your part, an action that can be avoided. If blogger offends you, hell you can easily block websites. There are ways to do that. Your safe space would be other parts of the internet and well, reread my first post for the warning.  As far as emotional triggers go, I would like to think my blog is not a trigger, but I might in the future touch on sensitive topics and those for sure will have a warning in the title itself. This is why I like trigger warnings/safe spaces and will continue to support them.

WTF Rice

If anyone keeps up with nutrition studies and the like, you should know by now that rice contains higher amounts of Inorganic Arsenic, you know the stuff that is actually toxic. This is due to many factors, but biggest seems to be our shitty farming practices in the past, and somewhat now a days, depending on growing locations and their regulations, or lack there of. Sadly this does not only effect rice, so I still eat rice. For me, it is just something to keep in mind. For others, they freak out and avoid the stuff. The same people seem to not know that many fruits and veggies, because you know, the whole agricultural practices issue, contain it as well. Not in the same quantity, but still, if you consume a lot of fruits and veggies, you aren't avoiding Inorganic Arsenic. Same with ground water, if you aren't filtering the shit out of your water, you are still consuming it, so either way you are fucked. So yay! The wtf comes from a post I saw today on reasons why not to give your child rice cereal. It completely ignored the actual issue and instead went with pseudoscience nonsense.

First point it made was that rice cereal is nutritionally void. For simplicity sake I went with white rice Gerber nutritional values. The info can be found here.
https://medical.gerber.com/products/cereal

Let's start from the top shall we? Besides calories, which is 60 per serving, it contains 0.5 grams of fat. While this seems like a small amount, lets remember this is for at least 4 months of age or older. Not for adults, unless you are into that, which I won't judge if you are. Generally you start a little older than 4 months, unless directed by a pediatrician, but 4-6 is the general age range. The fat is good for absorbing fat vitamins and minerals. They are vitamin A, E, D and K. The most common fat soluble minerals are iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium and potassium. There is more, but that is what most people should be able to identify. So, that is one nutrient that is in the rice cereal that helps your baby.

Since we are on fat soluble minerals and vitamins, rice cereal has A, E, Calcium, Iron and zinc. So what do these do in the body? To keep it simple, A helps with the immune system, your eyes, skin and reproduction. If there isn't enough in the diet then it should be obvious what the end result is. Crappy immune system, trouble with vision, skin issues and reproductive issues. Vitamin E is actually very rare to be deficient in, but it plays a role in maintaining red blood cells. A very important role actually, so having it in your diet is a good idea, even if it is rare to be lacking it. Next in line is Calcium. Every one has heard about calcium and strong bones, but that isn't all it is good for. If you don't have enough calcium it can actually increase your LDL levels, cause insomnia, because we all know a cranky baby at 1 in the morning is so wonderful, irregular heart beats and more. Iron is well known for the condition Anemia. When you lack iron you develop anemia, which I can assure you, is no fun. It is a very important mineral since it aids in the transport of oxygen. Along with anemia, low iron levels contribute to digestive issues, which also includes intestinal bleeding. Seeing blood in your own stool is scary, seeing it in your babies is even more scary. Zinc is the last on the nutrition list, but it still plays an important role in the body. It also plays a role in the immune system, as well as cell division, growth and wound healing. Lack means poor wound healing, delayed growth and symptoms include diarrhea and skin issues. Rice cereal has more vitamins, minerals and other nutrients for the body, however, just from the fat soluble examples, it should be apparent that rice cereal is not nutritionally void.

Speaking of which, the post contradicts itself stating that rice cereal contains artificial iron which blocks the iron from breast milk from being absorbed.....So if rice cereal is nutritionally void, it would not be fortified with iron. I can not emphasize the face palm with this contradiction. Another relevant 'fact' *cough*, bull shit point, is that the added vitamins is harder for baby to absorb.  Now if you don't understand the different types of iron this could be confusing because the body does absorb a certain type more readily. Heme iron is absorbed by the body more quickly, but a supplemental iron won't block the absorption of heme. That is just stupid. Let me elaborate. The body will use what is easier to absorb, aka what is in breast milk, and the fat soluble vitamins and minerals not used will be stored in the body for later when it is needed. So again, no it won't be blocked. While there are better sources that our body can absorb more easily, that doesn't mean that it can't absorb the nutrients. It just means that if there is an easier absorbed source in the body, it will use that before the other.

Another point of the post was that the baby doesn't produce amylase, which is needed for grain digestion. So let's address amylase first. It is for carbohydrate digestion. So if you don't produce enough, you are fucked with vegetables and fruits too, not just grains. So, now comes babies. While yes, babies don't produce a lot of amylase, until about one year of age, like adults do, it is present in their saliva in enough quantity to break down less complex carbs. Aka white rice. Another source that babies get to help with carb digestion, is from mamas milk. So yet again, the whole 'blocks nutrient absorption in breast milk' is debunked. So while they aren't as good as as adults are at digesting complex carbohydrates, they can still digest them. It is why pediatricians suggest certain foods to start off with, and not say barley.

'Rice cereal fills the babies belly and the baby misses out on much needed nutrients' is another absurd claim, which given the above, it has now become painfully obvious how stupid this thought process is. Now if that is all you are feeding baby, that isn't healthy, because stated above it is higher in inorganic arsenic. The fun thing about the human body though is that it can get rid of arsenic, pretty easily actually. It can be stored in nails and hair when exposed for a long period of time, which most of us are, but that isn't harmful and as long as baby, or parents, are not eating only rice in high quantities every day, aka at breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is really no concern that has been studied, so far, when it comes to inorganic arsenic consumption in a balanced diet, which does include rice.

When it comes to sleep, some babies have a hard time with it. One cause is GERD. It is actually a very common cause and the number one recommended food for it is rice. Yet this post claims that rice cereal won't help a baby sleep. It really doesn't give a reason why, well most of the post doesn't give any reasoning, it just states things without giving the reasoning behind the statement. Rice is bland, heavy, and it stays in the stomach easier since it is so easy to digest. When acid comes back up into the esophagus when you lay down, what babies do when they sleep, it causes a very unpleasant feeling that the baby doesn't understand nor wants to ignore, hence the crying at 1 am. So when you feed something that is more bland and doesn't aggravate GERD symptoms, you have a happy baby that will sleep better.

 While I enjoy facebook posts as much as the next person, some of the things posted really make me go wtf, and this was one of them. It isn't a stressful wtf, but more of a humerus one due to lack of actual understanding or even research. A simple google search could have debunked the post right off the bat.

Idiot Driver

After many wtf moments that lead to obvious frustration and stress I have decided to blog about it to relieve said stress. So onward to today's wtf moment/moments. Oh, warning, like my daily life, this contains offensive language to some, though the title alone should give that away. 

Today's adventure led me to PetSmart. The drive over was uneventful, oh and many wtf moments comes from driving, not all, but many. I found a cute dog shirt, that I didn't buy, it is too freaken hot here in Florida to justify getting my dogs clothes. The dog food was purchased and my next stop, for cleaning supplies was Target. I am not a fan of Target, mostly due to the companies lack of personal information security, but I went anyways because the other stores were out of the way. On the way to Target people were not wanting to let a big Ram truck over so it could turn onto the street it needed to go down. Funny how that is. You speed up to pass and they don't let you over, you slow down to get behind them and the asshat behind them does the same thing, and won't let you over. Annoying as it is, no biggie, I went to the next light, turned around and made my way to Target. Inside Target was decent, selection sucked as usual. I don't understand why you need a whole aisle for Lysol and right next to it a tiny selection of Windex, which none were ammonia free. So I went with Seventh Generation disinfecting cleaner, because with three dogs things need disinfecting, and I am tired of my lungs burning after using the crap with ammonia. Which if my lungs burn, it probably does the same to them. There was one strange individual there that had a huge bag and one hand was in his pocket. I left it alone though because I didn't really want to deal with people and so far he had not caused any commotion, he was just an odd one. However, after exiting Target was where the issue arose. I got to the light okay, when it turned green I made my normal turn, but for some reason, while speeding up to the speed limit, some idiot thought it was a good idea to barely put an inch between his bumper and mine, aka cutting me off, and then put on his breaks. I'm not sure if he just ignored the fact that I was twice his size and could easily just make a nice pancake out of him, but none the less, he made his stupid move. He seemed bewildered that I honked at him, then proceeded to yell at him at the light before I made my other turn. I really was not in the mood for paying for his dumb ass to go to the hospital and my car to be fixed, because judging from that crap you called a car, I presume you were not insured. So driving with some common sense and caution would behoove you. While yelling at him was not the best option, and I could have gone on my way, he almost caused a wreck that could have easily hurt him and probably that person on the sidewalk in front of us. You know, because when you hit someone in a car that is accelerating forwards, you don't really go backwards, despite your dumb ass breaking an inch from my bumper. Which that point I made clear, so hopefully he actually thinks about his surroundings next time, if not, I hope that he takes out only a tree when he finally wreaks. 

Since moving to Florida I have noticed the drivers are worse, but the beauty of the state makes up for it. All in all I like living here. It definitely isn't without it's wtf moments, both frustrating and funny. I will be blogging funny wtf moments as well, because an all negative blog is not healthy. My hopes in this is to one, relieve stress, like stated above, which so far it has accomplished. Secondly, I hope that anyone who happens to read this blog it will bring some giggles or smirks. I am no comedian, but I would like to think my sense of humor is not only amusing to myself. 

One last random wtf moment, when I first entered the area I am living in, which is not a country town, I saw a horse crossing sign. I have yet to see a horse and rider on the sidewalk, but the signs do exist, which is really amusing to me.