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October 31, 2005
Follow your own rules, not others
I had an altercation in a well known chain store last week. I have a rule of thumb about calling people ‘on the carpet’ in public. Ignore it, keep your mouth shut and get on with whatever you’re doing are my rules. It makes live simpler --- and, safer.
Sometimes I can’t follow my rules and Saturday was one of those days. The check-out lines were long, the building hot, and people were sick of the rainy days. I was in the line for check-out 9 (fiction) and these two women were in line 7. As we all sometimes think, the other line is shorter or moving faster. So, these two women moved over to my line right behind me. One said to the other as they were moving over, that line will take forever with those ragheads up there. I wasn’t sure but I thought I saw to whom she was referring. It pissed me off --- I’m getting sick of people calling others by derogatory
names.
I turned around and said to her, “That’s not acceptable.” She looked at me with distain and told me if I didn’t like it I could go jump. I repeated, “It’s not acceptable.” She looked menacing enough. Her friend looked embarrassed - - - or, maybe I was hoping she was embarrassed. Ummm, I sized it up - - - there were two of them - - - I haven’t thrown a punch since 7th grade and then there were only two punches. We both were good students and realized our dispute wasn’t worth getting suspended - - - we were stupidly on school grounds.
Back to the check-out line - - - I smiled my best brightest smile and turned around. I never looked in their direction again - - - I didn’t hear any conversation. They may have been sticking pins in a doll, throwing gestures my way or, perhaps were humbled. It’s not my place to humble anybody; I was intruding on someone else’s freedom of speech. That’s what this country’s Bill of Rights grants. I’m not the Enforcer. I disobeyed my own rules of conduct - - - and I was lucky. Nothing bad happened but it could have.
I better understand why people don’t want to get involved - - - you have to be smart.
Assess the situation and if it’s dangerous to you or anyone - - - call 911. My assessment
in retrospect is to keep my yap shut.
Until next time - - -
Posted by johanna on 3:37 PM | Comments (1471)
October 11, 2005
Been away for a while - - -
This week holds hope. About three weeks ago I got a shameless case of urticaria.
‘A skin condition characterized by welts that itch intensely, caused by an allergic reaction, an infection, or a nervous condition. Also called HIVES.’
I’ve never had a hive - - - I used to marvel (well, truth be told - I laughed) at a friend in college who would eat a mouthful of banana and in a nana-second her lower lip protruded several inches. Cool! Do it again!
Hives is an experience I could do without. These were not just red itchy blotches. These hives unionized - - - they clustered, traveled and popped up in new locations daily. They were super-colossal – titanic creatures of the dermis - damn, my dermis. The territory covered and duration was incredible --- I found myself unable to go an hour without checking it out. At one point I was in a meeting watching the hives move down my arm onto my fingers - ugly, unamusing. Initially, I used OTC allergy medicine and it worked for an hour or so and then the beast started running amok and to quote my doc --- ‘started a life of its own.’
You see, sometimes traditional medicine is a quick fix --- I opted for the quick fix. Corticosteroids are powerful drugs that get the job done --- in my case it took a little longer than anyone imagined. I have not been a pill popper so I wrongly assumed my immune system would cave into this super drug and I’d be cured - - - immediately. It wasn’t working. Let me quickly explain how my body reacted to these drugs. It’s like a formula JB=A+D #$%$^$#fighting. Corticosteroids cause the body to AWAKEN, antihistamines cause DROWSINESS. Remember Osmosis Jones in 2001? Chris Rock was the voice Osmosis Jones My body was functioning inharmoniously (ya think?) --- it was jiggling like gelatin inside. This was not good – doc suggested I take 2 antihistamines at bedtime (whenever that was now) and sleep through until morning. I have not slept so well in decades. Really, decades!
Ummm, I think my neck grew overnight. I was starved --- I knew it was the drugs so I grabbed a yogurt and took more pills. My doc sent me to another doc --- allergist --- good man. I liked him even if he didn’t think my urticaria was all that unusual. The phlebotomist (nice sanguine word) at Quest took a pint of my blood (OK, 12 vials) - - - she was good, NO PAIN WHATSOEVER. I may never know what caused this reaction - - - I don’t particularly care - - - I just don’t want it to happen again.
The short story is the hives have receded; my body is mottled with colors but not humongous welts. My face vaguely resembles a chipmunk - - - round and angelic. Eyes are puffy with dark circles - - - sometimes I even have a healthy flush. The bi-product is I have no aches and pains - - - can’t breathe great but hey, can’t have it all.
Maybe - - - by my birthday I’ll start looking like - - - it’s just not all that important!
OK, folks, enlighten us all with your tales of medicine gone awry.
Posted by johanna on 12:52 PM | Comments (2142)
