Accessible? I doubt it.

So I had an appointment yesterday, the first time at this particular doctor.

Everybody knows the list of questions you have to ask when you make an appointment with someone new: Does the doctor take my insurance? Is there anything specific I need to bring for the appointment? If you're having tests, is there anything you should/shouldn't eat beforehand? In addition, I always ask, because I have to, "Is the office accessible?"

"Oh, yeah. We're accessible."

This particular appointment was for an eye exam, something I am about 4 1/2 years late in getting around to. (When you're going to doctor's appointments every other day, it's hard to get a non-emergency appointment to fit in, not to mention the fact that the insurance wouldn't pay for it until this summer.) And I really, really need new glasses. So, I asked when I made the appointment; again when I called back for directions to the office; and one final time when the receptionist called on Friday to confirm my appointment.

"Oh, yeah. We're accessible."

Let me just say that having a ramp does not make your office accessible. Having a ramp is nice, but if the doorway it leads up to is too narrow for a wheelchair to fit through, it means squat. If, once I manage to crawl through your doorway while someone else pushes the folded up chair, I still can't get into an actual exam room, then your office is not accessible. If I have to sit next to the trash while you "clear out a little space" in the HALLWAY for us to condut our exam, you are not accessible. If you have to skip over the "not so important" parts of the exam because someone is trying to get by and you want to "move things along," then your office is not accessible.
Ditto if the woman who fits the glasses has to try and drag her display case in piece by piece (while being totally impatient, as if it were my fault that she had to do so) because I can't get in there either.

That's pretty damn INaccessible, if you ask me.

And, what I should've done was storm off in a huff.

But I couldn't do that, because my mum had already left, and there's isn't so much of a huff if you're stuck in their backhallway until someone can come back to get you.

GRRR!

Because I know you all like to know what I am thinking

As soon as I am thinking it, I thought I'd do a little Emmy -lovin post.

In almost real-time!


First off, Conan is rocking as host:

Of course it's heavy, it's filled with the shattered dreams of four other people

And that rhymes with g as in g we're screwed.
the bit with bob newhart... too funny

The Segdway podium... also funny



--------------------

Sean Hayes pretending to cry

OMG --- the West wing won't be on this fall. I might cry RIGHT NOW!
-------------------
--- It better be chandra Wilson. (who looks be-a-uutiful).. and then it was not. That's just wrong: but then again, I don't watch huff.
----------------------
Mostly, I'm watching, thinking, wow we have some really crappy shows on TV, if these are the things getting nominated: Two and a Half Men (which, right ... my grandmother thinks is hilarious, but I think it's ridiculous). My Name is Earl? May be considered very funny, but I just don't get it at all.
-----------------
Commercial break: quick flip over to Pirates of the Caribbean on Channel 5, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of either Jack Sparrow or Will Turner. Nada. Fooey
----------------------
Never seen the girl in the cafe... oh well.
--------------------

I love how the name of the Weeds episode had to be bleeped out. That is too funny.
---------
The Office is such a funny funny show. Certainly funnier than My name is Earl (did I mention I don't get the appeal of that show?)

but I loved that guys acceptance speech. "God... that's just not cool."
---
also, lemme just say, that the Mac commercials? are seriously funny. I almost want a Mac, but know that I am too lazy to learn a whole different operating system. (I'd be all Where's the little talking paper clip? or why isn't my cursor turning into a pointing finger?)
-------
Simon Cowell's chest is not something that I need to be seeing. Button up, buddy.

Bandstand. Bonus. I looove me some Bandstand. Not that I ever saw it, but I love it just the same. And Dick Clark, well, he hosted Bloopers and Practical Jokes. That's all there is to say about that.
OMG... and the pyramid. Can I play the pyramid? Cuz I will. Don't make me. I will totally beat you, too.


Simon Cowell needs to not be talking. I dislike him right now. He's so smug even though he's not doing anything.

Dick looks FABULOUS. And y'all better stand up. He sounds better. And looks better and I thought his speech was very moving.

*also, just a side note here, as a wheelchair user who can walk with LOTS of help, the stairs on all these shows kind of pisses me off. There's no way for someone who can't climb the stairs to win & get up there. They have to wait backstage or something. It's not equality, people. It's little things like that that you don't notice till you need to notice. Even if somebody just broke their toe or something, they'd have to hop up there. Why not a little ramp on one side? Just sayin' End of rant*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tina Fey is funny. I'm looking forward to her new show.



I also love the Colbert Report. And I think the Tony's should be in a separate category. It doesn't seem like those two things are similar (not to even mention
Barry manilow).



---------
I should probably be paying more attention, but this part was boring. Move on please.
To something interesting.

But Conan gets a bonus again, with the whole "Kareem Abdul Jabar" bit. (Is it sad that I would only know who he is b/c I watched Airplane a lot as a kid?)

I should probably be paying more attention, but this part was boring. Move on please.
To something interesting.

But Conan gets a bonus again, with the whole "Kareem Abdul Jabar" bit. (Is it sad that I would only know who he is b/c I watched Airplane a lot as a kid?)


Marishka Hargitay: Didn't she just have a baby. Cus she's too skinny for that.
But I don't like her new hair... or her dress. One is too long the other is too frumpy.

I liked the little Deal or No Deal bit, even though I don't watch that show.


The Bears for the Colbert Report. LOL
Also The David Blaine Bit. I'm sorry, but that was pretty funny.

All the variety show bits were funny, I usually like them. :)

Jon Stewart is a funny guy, and The Daily Show is excellent always. But I'm waiting for tomorrow night's Colbert Report, b/c I know it's going to be good. No, wait... are they on vacation??? UGH if they are. Not good.
-----
Just checkin back with the Pirates, and there, again, I'm watching the ghosties. These things should be timed better. I dont like ghosties. I want Depp or Bloom. Darn Pirates.
-----

They're running the Governor commercials already (have been for months actually), and I really have no idea of who I am voting for. I know who I am NOT voting for, but narrowing down who I will vote for is a bit harder.

------------------------------------------

I wish I had TIVO. That would be very, very nice. Colbert Report, West Wing, and Daily Show repeats whenever I choose. :drool:

House. I love that he has an English Accent. It just makes him Hotter. And the French bit was funny. I didn't see any of those miniseries. I can't think of the last time I watched a mini-series. Oh well.


I love Bradley Whitford, and I think they have some great chemistry. Another show I'm looking forward to. Yippee.
ETA: See, doesn't that look good? And it's not to far away.

The Office, it would be nothing without Steve Carrell. The King of Queens is nothing, even with the very funny Kevin James. And Monk is all about Tony Shaloub. So I'm very OK with him winning, because he does a fabulous job as Monk.

Uh-oh, dead people montage forthcoming. Must find tissues.
----


Candice Bergen is wearing something very unatttractive.

She looks exactly the same: Jackie Collins - it's been what, 20 years? Um... I'm going to decline to comment. But the tribute to Aaron Spelling was moving: I didn't know how much he had done, and how long his career was. (Although we could have done without Fantasy Island, IMO) But the And The Band Played On was such a strong piece, and I've watched 90210, Charmed, 7th Heaven, even the Angels on re-runs. (And they looked pretty dang good themselves) It's a strong body of work, that's for sure. Aww... little bit of tears, learning more about the man.

-------------------------&&&&&--------------------------------

10:02, and I don't know if poor Bob will make it.


Have to go scrounge up my 10:00 feeding, but I don't want to miss Jon & Steven together.

I didn't see any of the made-for-TV movies, either. Although I liked the commercial for the girl in the cafe. So, that's nice, anyways.
Also, the mention of a new Harry Potter movie is enough to cheer me up a bit.


LOL Conan. Fox News. Uck.

Here's my guys... I knew they would be funny. "Godless sodomites." "Pablum"
"Golden Idol... Babylon" There's sooo cute. I could melt.


"I Lost to Barry Manilow!!!!" Line of the night. Line of the night!


Why, in your acceptance speech, do you have to say "who's here tonight"? I don't think that matters one way or the other, does it? Not to me anyways.

I hate the "In Memoriam" because I always forget who has died, and then I'm sad all over again.
(Shelley Winters, Richard Pryor, John Spencer, Don Knotts)

And I hate how sometimes people clap and sometimes they don't. That just makes me sadder.

Emmys Part 2

Because that one was getting longer than I like to read, and I don't want you all to wander away.

While we are waiting... I have an appointment tomorrow. Which means I actually have to leave the house. Do you know when the last time I left the house was? Um.... over a month ago. Which means I have to figure out where my bra is (b/c I don't wear it in the house if I don't have to), and shoes. And all that kind of "going-out-of-the-house-try-really-hard-to-look-like-a-normal-person" stuff. And, as an added bonus, we've got the punkin and da peanut, and mum is still recovering from her bruised rib, so it should all be very interesting.

Now, wasn't that better than whatever commercial was on?

I actually saw Ambulance Girl; meh, wasn't all that impressed.

I wonder why Elizabeth the First is such a compelling figure for people? A few years back there was a whole slew of Elizabethian pictures, remember? And there were a slew about 30 years before that, and a bunch sprinkled in from the beginning black & FC-5-i386-disc2.iso
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Saturday Photo Hunt

and other assorted stuff.

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Today's theme is blue.

I don't know what everybody else is posting, since I don't like to look until after I've posted, but I took blue to mean not the color, but the feeling.

Here's some pictures of my bunch being a little blue, a little melancholy, or sad, or depressed in spirit.

Here's Older Brother with Punkin (Youngest Nephew) after waiting about 45 minutes in line for Santa Claus a few years back. Although I don't know why they're so blue: they went shopping while I waited in line. I guess maybe they thought I would roll over all the little children in front of me, like some kind of wheelchair bulldozer. Needless to say, I did not do that.

Look! It's me. (See, people, I sometimes post me, even though I hate, hatehatehatehate to have my picture 'tooken.') Here I am, looking pretty dejected, waiting for my Senior Prom date. I am blue because A) it is 5:30 and he is late. I hate being late. I have been ready since about 4; and B) it is 5:30, I have taken a box and a half of caffine pills in order to be semi-energetic tonite, and it is obviously not working. My hands are shaking, sure, but I could still curl up in a ball underneath the table and fall asleep... which, I maybe did (and, that wasn't even my worst prom story). CFS/FM certainly sucked during high school (and, unfortunately, hasn't stopped sucking since).


And, lastly, here's SisterM, being comforted by our grandmother, after surviving the terror that is getting up on stage to dance. She survived the terror, btw, by not actually getting up on the stage, but instead, bursting into tears and having to be carried away. But, to give her credit, she did manage to do it the next year.

So, there's us, with the blues.












Also of note today, according to to my NOW action newsletter, today is Women's Equality Day! Here's what they had to say about it:

On August 26, 1920, after 72 years of lobbying and protest, women finally won the right to vote in the United States.

In 1971, the late, great Rep. Bella Abzug convinced Congress to designate Aug. 26 as Women's Equality Day. Women's lives have changed dramatically since 1920 and even since 1971. By organizing, voting, speaking out and demanding change, we have made incredible leaps in every arena. But, we still have a long way to go.

Of course, we do. But I just have to spend a little while thinking about those "72 years of lobbying and protest," and how far we've been able to come. So, Happy Women's Equality Day, everbody!

Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come...

An actual post! With words and everything!

You all must be sooo impressed!

Or not.

I'm trying not to feel guilty about not posting more regularly, but I often feel guilty about things I have no control over. Which is why I'm trying not to. Because I don't need virtual guilt on top of everything else. So... we deal.

Blogging is a bonus in my life: I've "met" so many fabulous people, connections that I can't even believe. People show up here and read about whatever it is I am babbling about on any given day, and I can't express just how much I appreciate it. But I hate it when a blog I love is letting the new posts lapse, so I hate to do it to anybody who shows up here looking for some news.

The adjusting part should be slowing down after this week: As school starts up again, and Pumpkin/Youngest Nephew isn't spending the entire day with us, I should have a bit of energy and brainpower left at the end of the day, which I will GLADLY share with y'all.

So, hang tight. I really do appreciate it. (And will not feel guilty anymore... now that I've explained it all. Cuz I know you, my people, understand.)

Oh, and also, just to clean house a little bit... Thank you Thank You to those who helped with the whole backing up the blog thing: I knew there was a much much easier way than the way I was doing it. Welcome, to all the new readers (hello, I am not usually this boring.. I don't think), come back manana for a Saturday Photo Hunt, if you feel like it. And spammers, I do not want phetermine, or any sort of work from home scheme, so please stop leaving the links in my comments.

Peaces, my peoples.

I want to shop. It's not what I am doing (also falling into that category? Blogging regularly), but it's what I want to be doing. Instead I am trying to get my body to adjust to taking care of the punkin and the peanut (youngest nephew and niece) for a lot of hours. Every day. Said body would rather... revolt.

Particularly said brain, what with the whole "thinking" thing. Fun.

So I wanna go shopping. Be frivolous and buy something I don't really need at all. But what I'm actually going to do? Is probably play Pacman online or stare out the window.

Hope your week is looking happy.

NTE

My Very Exceptional Mother Could Just Serve Us Potato Chips, Xena

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

---

In honor of all the new planets that have popped up this week, here's Youngest Nephew and his new, youthful solar system. (As represented by superballs).




Baby Planets Cerus, Cheron and 2003 UB 313 (Nicknamed Xena) are all represented, but you can't see them all. Cheron and Xena are in the hallway, because they are just "too far away to be in the close room." And one of those balls is supposed to be the sun, but not a red one. So there.

A little help from my friends

Hey there everybody... I'm just wondering.

Gotta little technical question for y'all.

When you talk about backing up your blog, how exactly do you do that?

Exactly?

Cuz I've been going through and copying all the posts and stuff and saving them in Word.

I'm thinking there's a trick or two (hundred) that I don't know, and that I am doing this entirely wrong.

So, help me out a bit, will ya?

Thanks!

I'm still (vaguely) here

I'm trying to write a post about pain and (lack of)sleep, but since the topics are hitting way too close to home this week, my brain power just ain't cuttin it. (Not to mention Niece and Youngest Nephew's Mum & Dad have gone back to work, so guess who's the boss?)

So, I really am here, somewhere, and hope to be legible soon.

Until then, check out what I am checking out:

Sesame Street goodness over at The Lovely Ms. Davis.

Something I am sure I am late coming to the party about over at Woot.com.


Maya's Granny (fast becoming one of my first-reads everyday), doing a little bit of linky-goodness herself on an excellent topic.


And Mom-101 having
a lot in common with me.

Be back soon, hopefully!

C'mon and have some fun...

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Well, today's theme was harder than I thought it would be, that's for sure.

The problem wasn't that I couldn't find anything funny, it was that everything was funny!

We are, as will be quite evident if you keep reading, a bunch of total goofballs.




Exhibit A:
Oldest Sister, SisterS. Age 2, Circa 1978. Wonder what the heck she is reading...




Exhibit B:
Oldest Sister's only son, Oldest Nephew, NephewR. Age 1, Circa 1997. After he got finished playing with the boxes he got for Christmas...




Exhibit C:
Youngest Sister, SisterK. Full of teeth, sometime during her first 2 years on Earth, so 1988-9 ish.



Exhibit whatever letter comes next... D, that's it:
Second Sister, SisterJ. At her christening, a couple of months old, circa 1983. Goofball genes are very strong here.





Sister M is Exhibit E:
Age 2, the summer of 1988.




Seriously, do you need more proof?

Then check out
Youngest Nephew, NephewA, takin a bath in our sink the summer he was 1. 2001.





And lastly, his daddy, Only Brother, being a goof when he was takin a bath, way back in the summer of 77.



I am sooo looking forward to what other people have posted as funny...

I'll be checkin you all out!

Thanks for stopping by!

why do we EVER throw anything away?

Seriously, people?

E_V_E_R!

Because now we are looking for a playpen. But not the new kind. The OLD kind. The kind with sides that fold down. The kind that has hinges and mesh and all those things that we, as babies, were apparently to stupid to know were extremely dangerous. The kind that we have had at least 3 seperate times in the past.

Where did they go?

And why are we looking for such a death trap?

To put our most precious baby in, of course.

Because the playpens they have now? With the pretty music boxes and mobiles and fabulous add-ons? Are too friggin tall. For people in wheelchairs. And unless the soon to be 3 month old decides that she would like to start climbing RIGHT NOW, then I'm going to need something I can actually use.

But thanks, for all the warnings.

And, also?

If these things are so dangerous, why are they so expensive on e-bay???

Just wondering.

----

Note to people unfamiliar with NTE: I am ranting. I will actually be buying one of these playpens, but will EXTREMELY careful with my use of it. Sarcasm, people. It's a gift.

Today, I am Charlie Brown

and my grandmother is Lucy Van Pelt. She's down at the other end of the field, making a good show about how this time she's not going to move the football. This time, when I get down there, it's going to be right where it is now & I'll be able to kick it, and our team will cheer because we've finally won.


And somehow... every single time, a part of me believes her.


A part of me thinks: "She can't possibly do this to me again! I mean, eventually, she's going to have to let me kick the stupid thing. She promised... and I know she's promised before, but this time she actually means it."

Of course, there's also a whole 'nother part of my brain saying "You idiot... Of course she's going to move the ball! You're going to get down there, prepared to kick, all amped up, your leg is gonna swing out, hit nothing but air, and keep going forward until you fly into the air and land on your ass.

AGAIN!!
Stop listening to her.
Her word, her promises mean nothing!"

So, yet again, I listened to the wrong voice: let myself believe that this time she was actually going to do the right thing: that she was going to stand up for herself, and her daughters, and me.


And, yet again, she caved. She gave in.


She picked the football up just as my foot swung out, full of momentum and as powerful as I could make it.

And, yet again, I landed on my big fat ass.

And, as usual, not so much as an apology.


Nana's more into the "denial" aspect of things... "Let's all pretend that I didn't just screw you all over again!"

Let's not.

I'm sorry if I can't be all happy and cheerful this time.

I'm sorry if I can't let you prattle on and on about how different next time will be.

The fact that you have the gall to look hurt when I tell you I don't believe you is just part of your Lucy-spiel. "Of course I am telling the truth!" You coax. All offended that I would even suggest such a thing. "All those other times, it wasn't my fault. I was holding the football and there was wind... or mud... or another player who came along and kicked it before you got there. I always keep my promises. And, next time, you'll see."

Well, maybe next time, you will.

But I won't be the one kicking.

I need to sit on the sidelines for a while.

I have to take myself out of your game.


"You promise me this; you promise me that
You promise me anything under the sun,
then you give me a kiss and
you're grabbing your hat,
and you're off to
the races again.

When I think of the time gone by...

When I think of the way I try...

I could honestly die."

Sue Me, Guys & Dolls.

Money makes the world go a-round...

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

--------------------

But my nephew makes the money go a-round.

Here's today's SPH: Youngest Nephew practicing is new-found money spinning technique & me trying to figure out the "fast-action" setting on my camera. One of us (age 6) did really well; the other needs more practice.

Enjoy!






----

-----

lemme just say

that your age is not an excuse for your behavior if you are over 10 years old.

Honestly, telling me that you are "56 goddamn years old" does not help your argument. Just because you'll soon be old enough to collect Social Security doesn't mean you have carte blanche to act like an ass.

And don't tell me that your bad behavior is acceptable because you are over a certain age: if anything, it's the total opposite. Listen, I'm 27-goddamn-years-old, and I know better than that.


So, so should you.


The end.

July Perfect Post

Of course, there was debate. Of course, I have such a hard time narrowing things down to just one post (see the "oh-so-close" posts below), but I decided on

Maya's Granny's post about Dr. Anna Pou and the four patients
who died mysteriously during Katrina. I think she raises some very very good questions.




The "oh-so-close" posts this month:


Mom 101 questions her feminist credentials.

The tearjerker over at two peas.

This post, over at "Smart Bitches, if only for the lines, "Once again: Willem Dafoe in drag is NOT an acceptable substitute for a female model. Christ. And accordingly, cover artists should never use Uncle Herbert--you know, the uncle who always hugged you just that little bit too long and made the awkward, discomfiting jokes about your development when your breasts started growing--as a model for the hero. Common sense, people"