A cool new LJ tool I'd like to see

By the way, I was thinking it would be cool to be able to see a mood calendar. Use their css, just like the calendar that shows a clickable number of posts in the day, except populate it with the mood icon (in the person's own set) for the post that day. If there are several, you can either show several little ones or show only the one that is used the most and then put a + by it.

Out of town again

I'll be gone through Sunday, most likely. My godparents want to go to Sea World before my parents' passes expire, so I'm going to play tour guide. =)

More people would switch to Linux if...

Based in part on a conversation with my husband a few days ago, I've decided to compile a list of things that I think would help the Linux community gain dominance over alternative operating systems.

I shall begin with things that Charles and I have discussed recently or that I have thought about recently. Please note that I have used Debian and Ubuntu, but by far more Ubuntu, so my observations are with that bias.

1. Pre-install a package manager by default. I know "apt-get synaptic" isn't hard for most of you, but how are us noobs supposed to know it's there? The package system in general is great, esspecially coming from a Windows background, but it needs to be more visible.
2. Get behind communities building "killer apps." For me, GRAMPS, the open source genealogy program was my killer app in that it got me to switch to primarily using Linux (in the days when I was dual-booting). Things like that are great for niche markets like genealogists, graphic artists (Gimp- do you know how expensive Photoshop is?), etc, and enough to push some people over that line. However, there also have to be replacements for mainstream software. See below.
3. Get behind communities building software replacements. Sure, once in a while we need to have new bright ideas. However, most of the time we don't need to re-invent the wheel. Everyone wants an office suite, done. Everyone wants internet communication, done. Everyone wants internet browsers and rss readers, done. Everyone wants pop mail clients, done. What's not done?
1. I used to love Access for work stuff, and I worked at a swimming pool. I can only imagine people with real jobs, with more real shoes and less water. (But again, don't re-invent the wheel. What we need to do is optimize Open Office and enhance support for Access there.)
2. I know for a fact that I'm not the only person who strugged with an M$ Money replacement. No one's quite there yet in what I've seen, but if I was to make a wager on it, my money (no pun intended) would be squarely on kMyMoney. They're not quite there yet with reports, but boy are they close. The workflow is similar, the features are almost there...
   
4. Get these software replacements into the hands of Windows users. Imagine the day when instead of paying for Office and Photoshop, everyone downloaded Open Office and Gimp. Then instead of downloading YIM, AIM, and MSN Messenger, they downloaded Gaim. Now, imagine when all of those users, those OOo/Gimp/Gaim-using users, switch to Linux. Suddenly things don't look so foreign, and they realize that there's even more free software out there. The shock is reduced, kind of like tranquilizing an animal when putting it into a new environment! (I know some people are resistant to the idea of creating Windows binaries for Linux software, but this is the upside.)
   
5. Do things right. One of my major annoyances has been sound lately, but I'm sure that there are other things out there. I have a sound icon on my toolbar that has ultimately become useless. I can slide the master sound over, but programs such as Gaim and Flash (on MySpace profiles) override the master sound on the computer. Useless! I have the computer muted and things are dinging at me and throwing music at me, it's not the OS's fault, but it certainly ruins the experience. (Another example is accessibility being turned on causing my genealogy program to crash. What's with that???)

I'll come back to this when I have more, hopefully I'll keep the numbering right. =P

Selective Service

In poking around the school's website, I was reading some stuff about the Selective Service (links to there in relation to financial aide and such). Did you know that illegal immigrants are required to register for the draft? However, they're told that "Selective Service does not collect any information which would indicate whether or not you are undocumented. You want to protect yourself for future U.S. citizenship and other government benefits and programs by registering with Selective Service. Do it today!" I just found that noteworthy. I'm tempted to say I have a bridge to sell you, but then I decided that it's actually more thought-provoking that it's quite possible they really do want to draft the illegal immigrants. They're keeping their information filed away with promises of future benefits, and choosing not to pursue immigration-related charges against them. Not sure what to think about that...

Going back to school. Again. Slowly...

I went to Cal State at Los Angeles from 1996-1997 (at the age of 13). I then went back to high school, graduating in 2001. I bummed around, worked, traveled, then went back to school again, attending the University of Phoenix in Diamond Bar in 2004-2005. I stopped going to school before the summer, my first summer as a manager at an aquatic center (having been an assistant manager the previous summer, I knew I wouldn't be able to do both school and work for those three months). At about that time, my FAFSA got "randomly" selected to be audited, and I figured that rather than prove my parents couldn't afford to educate me I should wait until October when I got married and my parents wouldn't have to be on my financial records. Shortly before we got married, my soon-to-be husband lost his job. Then after getting married, I moved, I got a new job (was working two jobs for a while), he got a new job, I quit my old job (the commute was 77 miles each way for $12.75/hr, not worth it once hubby was working), he lost his new job (so I was working as much as I could), then he got another new job, I quit my new job, and we moved to be closer to his job. I think we've finally slowed down now. *fingers crossed* So I went and applied online for the local community college. I honestly don't plan to work anymore, but perhaps I'll learn something for my own enjoyment or that will help my husband in his open source and consulting stuff, or that will be of help to us when/if we have kids. I'm probably going to continue toward Business Management because that's what I was studying before and it interests me, but I may change that. Funny thing is, when I tried my ssn/dob combination after it sent me an acceptance email (it's not hard to get into community college!), it came up with my maiden name. Strange, I thought, but then I figured it was probably because I had put that name down under "Other names I've attended school as" or some such field. But then, it showed my old address. Bewildered at this point, I poked around and found some health fee hold from Fall of 2005. I think I got enrolled in the Los Angeles Community College District when I took a steward class at the union hall. I never would have thought about that! Anyhow, there's a session of classes starting next week, but that's far too soon, and it's a condensed session. Too fast for me to get stuff together! I told it I'd like to start in "Spring." Off to look at class lists! I'll head down to the college in the next week or two to talk about graduation requirements and other such formalities. Really, I just wanna learn stuff, but I figure it's best to do it right and maybe even graduate some day! =P

Christmas 2

Last night we had Christmas at my husband's family's house. As I predicted after Thanksgiving, there were people, and food! Two of Charles's little brothers kept me entertained/busy pretty much from when we got there until food was served, so I don't know what Charles even did most of the time! It's always nice when everyone comes over, there are enough adults around after kids start going to bed for several conversations to carry on at once. I think it was about 11pm when we got home, we always lose track of time when we're there. =) We went right to bed when we got home, but Charles got into his bag of Christmas stuff this morning and wore all new clothes to work. I'll be getting into the plates of leftovers very soon! (The reason why I don't have pictures here is because Charles's parents, one of his sisters, and a family friend all had cameras out and took plenty of pictures. In my family, I'm the only one that really takes many pictures, so I always bring my camera to their house for such occasions.)

Couches! Yay! (Oh, and Christmas 1)

So, among other Christmas goodies from my family this year, we got couches! You see, my sister Martha got some other couches (I'm unsure where, if she bought them or what) and gave her couches to my other sister Irma. Irma then gave her couches to her husband Paco to use in his garage. Well, he had them for a month or so before he said that they were in his way and too big for the garage, so he gave them to us. In return, we gave him a little blue sofa-chair that we got from a neighbor. We went to my parents' house yesterday and traded our Focus for their Tahoe. Then we went to my sister's house, loaded up the two main portions of the couch set, brought them home and unloaded them. Then we loaded the blue chair for Paco and drove back to mom's in time for our Christmas meal. I don't know if you'd call it a late lunch or early dinner, it was about 3:30pm. We had dinner, did gifts, and were done by like 7:30pm. We were going to go to Irma's to drop off the blue chair after gift-giving but my mom said she'd drop it off for them today, we'll pick up the corner piece in the Explorer some other time. Irma and Paco ran off, so there isn't a picture of the whole family together this year like there normally is... Oh well, just means I have to post more pictures to show everyone! Tonight is Christmas with my husband's family. =) Pictures from last night below! My Aunt Tere and Uncle Mario (also my godparents) My parents and godparents. My sister's kids, Carynna, Michael, and Cyndi (left to right). My sister Martha and her kids. Irma and Paco Me and Charles My cross stitching project went over well. Turns out Cyndi had picked up the same one but had trouble making it because she had forgotten how to do stuff, being so long since she stitched. She said she couldn't believe I finished it. =) Couches!

2006 Christmas Letter

We made a brief Christmas letter this year. It wasn't in time to mail out, but I've posted it here for anyone interested. It actually seems more fitting for a letter from us to be in electronic format than in your physical mailbox, doesn't it? It's got some pictures from throughout the year too. =)

Merry Christmas!

HPIM0633.JPG
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

Going to my parents' house soon. We're taking our gift exchange gifts and something for the baby, and hoping someone there will have gifts for us even though Christmas is still somewhat iffy. There will be food, however, or so we've been told.

By the way, in case you've never seen a skateboarding snail, I thought I'd pass this on to brighten everyone's Christmas! =)

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

The draft analysis, obtained by [newspaper], shows that the [train system]'s four tunnels are structurally fragile enough that the damage from a bomb small enough to be carried onto a train could allow 1.2 million gallons of water per minute to gush into a tunnel and flood the system. About 230,000 people use the [train system] each weekday. This is the article I referenced in my earlier post. I've actually decided not to post the entire text or the link, because I feel that it should not have been posted in the first place. Can't you see it now? News source: News at 11, this city's train system is vulnerable! Terrorist: Really? Which trains? News source: The four tunnels of this particular line... Terrorist: They must be reinforced if they go under water, you can't drive a truck into there... News source: You'd only need a bomb small enough to be carried onto a train in a medium-sized backpack... Terrorist: Oh. News source: Miiiillions of gallons of water... Terrorist: Oh! News source: Drowning or stranding 230,000 on a weekday... Terrorist: Oh!! Can't be good, right?

Flock isn't working right...

I wanted to share with you a news story I found interesting, but the "Blog This" feature that normally works with highlighted text or links isn't working. Using File then "New Blog Post" isn't working either, just makes my processor use spike to 100% for a few seconds. Flock automagically installed an update a few days ago, I wonder if that broke it... I'll post the story later.

Back to square one

So, my sister has a follow up visit tomorrow morning in San Diego. There was no way the doctor could see us in the afternoon (my guess is he's got surgeries scheduled for the afternoon) so Irma and I decided to go down tonight. When we made the drive in rush hour last month, it took almost 4 hours. When we made the same drive with no traffic, but having to stop to walk every half hour (a post-op requirement) it took us about 3-4 hours (we stopped for gas and lunch as well as walking though). So we figured that to get to San Diego for a 10am appointment, we'd pretty much have to leave El Monte at about 5, and we couldn't go far in the carpool lane because we'd have to keep getting out. So we decided to stay the night tonight. We were going to leave when it wasn't too busy on the freeways, and hang out at the hotel. Then Dad said he'd like to go, so we decided to leave a little bit earlier today, go to the mall for a movie, then hang out at the hotel. Then Mom and my Godparents decided to go, and that we should go to Sea World today. Mom says if we go to Sea World, we need to be there when it opens (nevermind that it's buy one day, get the rest of 2006 free) so we'd have to leave El Monte at about 5. Wait a minute, I said, that means I have to leave North Hollywood at about 4. Realizing that my Godfather is well versed in driving the Tahoe long distances (he drove it up from Mexico last year), I said they could leave at 5am, I'd leave my house about 9am, and I'd meet them there. Well, if we're going to have to take two cars, then nevermind, they said. They don't want to go to Sea World if it's half day today, stay in the hotel tonight, then half day tomorrow before coming home. That just won't work, and neither will me meeting them there because it's silly for us to take two cars. So no one's going. I asked if Dad is still going, but we skipped that step in the progression backwards, because he'd feel bad that he's going on a trip and no one else is. So instead I'm going to go pick up Irma now, and we're going to hang out at the hotel, go to the doctor in the morning, then come home. My family's complicated...

It's so cold... that I wore a jacket

I would just like to point out that on Saturday I wore a jacket to go to the grocery store because it was a tad windy. That's what I like to call "winter" here in Southern California. Today, I even had a blanket over my legs while at my desk. Granted the windows were open because my husband likes the "fresh" air...

A funny thing happened this year on the way to Christmas...

Christmas has been officially cancelled at my parents' house... or at Disneyland, rather. There is much drama and negativity surrounding our family right now, and this is probably for the best. My parents weren't particularly interested in going in the first place, it seems, but just agreed for the warm fuzzies of the family outing. Drama = no warm fuzzies. My oldest sister wasn't interested in going due to drama and her surgery. I was a bit concerned about being the only person driving- Dad doesn't drive since his stroke, Mom doesn't drive on the freeway, my husband wasn't sure if he was going because he's going to be on call at work, Irma can't due to surgery, and Martha's not allowed to because she's not the best driver, and I suppose my aunt and uncle (also my godparents) could drive but they're visiting from Mexico and would have to follow me. Firstly we wouldn't all fit even if we did take two cars (I count 7-8 adults, 3 teenagers, and 1 baby in a carseat) unless we toss the shortest 2-3 people in the third row of the Tahoe which isn't too comfortable if you're not short enough. Secondly, if things blew up and someone wanted to run away they couldn't, we'd be stuck with each other for the drive home. My other sister is already out-voted, so it really doesn't matter what she thinks. =P  She and the kids have been chummy lately, the four of them and the baby can go. Whether or not there will be food and gift time is unknown at this time.

Insurance woes

The website says this doctor takes our particular insurance plan, the phone customer service people set me up with him (I was unable to sign up for an account, as I mentioned earlier. So I pick this doctor as my primary care physician, and call for an appointment. The girl tells me that he starts working at 10, and I said 10 sounds just fine. I arrive at 10, and the front desk girl tells me "I don't know why they gave you a 10:00 appointment, the doctor won't even be here until 11:00." That's fine, I said, I can start doing paperwork. Her first question is am I on Medicare. No, I reply, here's my insurance card. She takes it, calls the insurance company to verify, then comes back and says that our plan (called "Point of Service" by the insurance company) is an HMO plan and that the doctor is not an HMO provider, so he won't take it. Grrr to them, I say! It says right there on my insurance company website that they participate in the Point of Service plan. So now I have to change again and make another appointment. Did I also mention, by the way, that our dental insurance cards say to go to their website for participating dentists but it's a financial services company and there'es nothing dental anywhere on their website? On the bright side, eye doctor went well. He said that my left eye is pretty good and my right eye is very bad, which I must say I knew already. My depth perception is bad for that reason, but my eyes are otherwise healthy. I was going to do transition lenses, but now that I'm not lifeguarding most of my sunlight time is while driving, and the girl who helped me with lens/frame selections explained that they're activated by UV, so when in your car with a UV-blocking windshield they won't go dark. So I'm getting one pair of normal glasses and one pair of sunglasses (polarized). I asked for blue tint, but they couldn't do the blue tint on polarized lenses, only grey or brown. I like my blue sunglasses, because the sky looks pretty even on a cloudy day. In the end I figured that it would be better to not see reflective back windshields on the freeway than to have a perpetually blue sky. Prioritizing, you see? The bad news: glasses are expensive. Oh well, we won't have as much into savings and/or Christmas as we had planned, but I'll be able to see. That's a good thing! There's a distinct possibility that Christmas will be canceled this year at my parents' house after all. Due to the drama I mentioned in my previous post, as well as some new stuff, it could turn out badly if we did have Christmas, so it may just be better if we don't... I already bought something for my gift exchange person, and stitched something for the baby, and I know what we're getting for Charles's gift exchange person but we haven't gotten it yet. All going somewhere in one or two cars (and thus not being able to run away) seems a tad scary at this point though.

Statistics

Latest statistics from my genealogy program. Note many more incompletely named people. That's from my sister's input, there were many families she knew the number and gender of each sibling, but not names. I'm hoping that knowing exactly what I'm missing will help me when I talk to my mom, she should be able to fill in most of those incomplete people.


Individuals
----------------------------
Number of individuals: 285
Males: 141
Females: 144
Individuals with incomplete names: 36
Individuals missing birth dates: 224
Disconnected individuals: 4
Family Information
----------------------------
Number of families: 86
Unique surnames: 57
Media Objects
----------------------------
Individuals with media objects: 73
Total number of media object references: 112
Number of unique media objects: 111

New leads to research

My oldest sister helped me add some (mostly living) relatives to my database over the weekend. She was a lot of help, mom will be even more help once I get her onboard with the idea.

I've been searching FamilySearch for some names that either I didn't have before or that I hadn't searched before. I've been making a habit of looking for other things with the same source information, which is generally just two clicks away. I get a lot of siblings and other relatives by doing this, although it's a little tedious. I basically open up everyone with the same surname from the same source and look for ways they link to what I already have. (Another person with the same surname baptised at the same church two years later with the same grand-parents? Yeah, that goes in my database.)

In doing this after finding a marriage date for my great-grandparents, I found a few more suspect people.

My great-grandparents, Guilebaldo Echeverria and Refugio Morfin were married at the Nuestra Senora De Guadalupe church, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico on July 2nd, 1879.

Federico Echeverria and Julia Bonilla were married at the same church on July 5th, 1979. (Just 3 days later!)

Aurelio Figueroa and Trinidad Morfin were married at the same church on January 20th, 1880. (5 months later.)

Oronato Milanes and Jesus Echeverria were married at the same church on November 4th, 1883. (4 years later.)


These are in fact the only records matching the two surnames I'm tracking that were extracted from the church's records. In my mind, I find it very likely that these were two sibling groups. Unfortunately, although marriage records or birth records would give me these people's parents' names, the marriage documents from the church do not. The three couples I'm unsure of are going in my research database for now.

I'm back

My sister Irma's surgery went well. Almost as soon as she got settled in her own room, she had some moderate bleeding from one of the incisions (there are 5 I believe) which caused them to not give her any more blood thinners. The blood thinners were supposed to be a twice-a-day injection to ward off blood clots, so that increased the need to walk around and keep on her foot pumps (a clever device that simulates walking by compressing the bottoms of your feet alternately every few seconds). She also had to stay one more day than expected because of nausea. The doctors and nurses were great. In particular, I really liked the surgeon, Dr. Tanaka. I was in the surgery waiting room, and the staff were calling the room on the phone. A waiting family member would pick up and ask around for who's waiting for such-and-such person... Dr. Tanaka was only one of two doctors in the 3-4 hours that I was in the waiting room who actually came to the waiting room to look for the respective families and talk face-to-face, that actually made a big impression on me. They had us a little bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to spend the night (we hadn't budgeted for a hotel), but someone else who knew better cleared it up for us. In fact, they said that once in a while they don't have enough room but not as many people have this kind of surgery during the holiday season. So I got my own little (tiny, moderately comfortable) cot. It was a room for two patients, and they were kind enough to "reserve" the other half of the room so no patients were put in it unless they got inundated. Since it was half of a patient room, I had my own TV and lights and such, which was cool. They gave me a badge that would validate my parking for the whole time we were there, but I actually never left the hospital. I ate at the cafeteria, it was closer and healthier (not necessarily cheaper though) and I wanted to get back as soon as I could. It always seemed like every time I went to go eat, there was a nurse or therapist or someone in the room when I got back. =P Friday night, I couldn't sleep. It was about 7pm before Irma was moved from recovery to her own room. I went to dinner about that time, and I was having trouble sleeping, partly because at about 10pm we noticed she was bleeding when blood soaked through her hospital gown. We didn't attempt to sleep until about 1:30am. Many phone calls to be made that night as well. Saturday night, I knocked out  pretty quick (after midnight vitals) but woke up every time a nurse came into the room. Saturday night, I was vaguely aware that the nurse was changing the dressing from where it was bleeding. I remember Irma telling me "it's bleeding again" and I nodded and went back to sleep.  I don't know what time it was, but I was too tired to even respond. Sunday night, I woke up hearing "what's your sister's name?" from the nurse. It was 4am, and she wanted me to go for a few laps around the floor with Irma while she changed the sheets (more bleeding). We walked, then I went back to sleep until like 10am. On Monday, the bleeding issue was finally resolved, and I think I actually slept though the night. When I woke up, Irma was already sitting up drinking some water and I think she'd even had her vitals taken before I woke up. I've been getting progressively more tired through the stay, and I think I'm going to sleep off a good part of tomorrow... I must say that I think it's a great idea on the hospital's part to allow one person to stay, I'm not sure if that's an arrangement through the bariatric practice that they're working with or what, because not everyone on our pre-dominantly post-surgery floor got to have overnight visitors (the two Department of Corrections officers guarding a patient down the hall don't count as overnight "visitors"). It certainly frees up a lot of the nurses' time to have a family member to do menial tasks like helping with shoes, food, clothes, walking, and so on. Also, when the patient is on narcotic medication such as morphine, it's good to have someone there to make sure that medical instructions are retained and followed. On the way back home today, we went to the store (well, she waited in the car) and got chicken broth, which will be her main non-water sustenance until she's able to eat solid foods. Water for hydration, vitamins and protein drinks (a powder mixed in water) for nutrition, and chicken broth for variety and flavor. I think that she was well prepared for what to expect her lifestyle to be after surgery, but it was still a bit of a shock to actually change to it. Not in the sense of difference from her old lifestyle, so much as difference from being in the hospital. We were counting on our fingers how many hours since her last IV-injections of certain medications to determine whether she needed to take the full day's dose after she was released or not, for example. Tomorrow should be easier, I'm going to have to keep on top of her about it. Particularly about water, she needs to drink more water than she really ever has. She needs to go back for a follow up on Wednesday of next week, which I plan to drive her to. (She actually can't drive for "a couple of weeks" which may put a damper on Christmas plans. At the follow up, she should know more about when each limitation will be lifted.) She hasn't made the appointment yet, but we're hoping to do 1:30/2:00pm or so, so that we can leave after the people with the real jobs have arrived at work and thus have left the freeways. We made about 2.5 hours on Thursday leaving at 9:30am. It was more like 4 hours driving back today though, first we stopped for gas at Sea World Drive, then to walk at the rest stop in the area of Camp Pendleton, then for me to have lunch (my only meal so far today, which reminds me that I'm hungry now) and her to walk again in Buena Park, then to the store once we were in El Monte... My other sister, Martha, called on Thursday (the night before her surgery) to talk about some family drama that's going on... It's kind of a long story, which I suppose I may write about later if anything actually becomes of it. Sufficed to say for the moment, however, that it's a matter of prolonged hardship for Irma and her husband if Martha gets her way. She's attempting to spin it in such a way that it looks like an attractive option for everyone involved, and of course she uses the children as an excuse. Even if it was a good idea, it really wasn't appropriate to talk about it the night before a major surgery. Irma was stressed about the conversation even until today, but we hadn't heard from Martha since Friday I think (I talked to her, Irma was asleep at the time). We theorized that Mom may have told Martha to knock it off after Irma told Mom about the phone call. However, when Mom and Dad came to see Irma today at her house, they said they actually haven't seen or heard from Martha in two days. Yet, that's not unusual for her. That's probably a bad thing, if something were to happen to her we wouldn't recognize it or differentiate it from her normal behavior. (And that's probably why she doesn't have her kids with her anymore.) Anyhow, I'm really glad that I was able to be there for my sister when she needed someone. I know I wouldn't want to go through an experience like that alone. Many thanks to my husband for making it possible for me to not have to work, and for making his own meals for almost a week while I was gone. He even did some laundry and house cleaning, I'm quite impressed!

Move from research database

I moved some "very likely" people from my research database to my live database. The names and locations matched up, but I wasn't 100% sure because it would have my great-grandfather born when his father was in his late 50s. In the end, I decided that it was entirely possible.

Of course, with these names and dates I've added, that gives me enough information to request vital records to "prove" the relationships. Currently, in my database:

Individuals
----------------------------
Number of individuals: 218
Males: 110
Females: 108
Individuals with incomplete names: 19
Individuals missing birth dates: 157
Disconnected individuals: 7

Family Information
----------------------------
Number of families: 69
Unique surnames: 54

Media Objects
----------------------------
Individuals with media objects: 73
Total number of media object references: 112
Number of unique media objects: 111

(Last time I finished a genealogy work session, total people was 203, making 15 people added. Most of them come from familysearch.org.)

Out of town, sister's surgery

My oldest sister Irma is having an elective (yet life-saving) surgery on Friday. I'm going to be leaving later today (hopefully not too much later) to mom's house, where I will trade cars with her. Tomorrow morning we leave about 9 or 10am to San Diego, where she has a 1:30pm appointment. We'll be staying in a hotel Thursday night and she'll be in surgery first thing Friday morning. We should be back by Tuesday at the latest. Prayers would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Oh no...

Santa has a blog. The concept is amusing, but a tad disturbing. =P

From the news today: Don't parent and drive

Crying doll gives teen parenting, driving lesson

Read full story for latest details.

I find this pretty funny, actually. Now the schools are going to have to start teaching when it's appropriate or not appropriate to let your baby cry. Like, for example, when doing 65mph on the freeway, it can probably wait.

That's what happens when they get you all built up about failing the class if the baby cries to long, though. The girl's probably a D- student that couldn't afford to fail that class or she wouldn't graduate, and if it wasn't in the news her teacher wouldn't have believed "I had to let the baby cry for 3 minutes un-attended so that I could pull over safely."

You know, the latest ones I've seen of these dolls have a key that you have to use, and the zip-tie the key to your wrist so that you can't have someone else care for the baby. Made me feel sorry for the kids that are in band/cheer/sports, I thought it would be more responsible to get a baby sitter than to take your baby to a football game...

Blogged with Flock

I must have been confused

I always thought that your company website was the best way to resolve after-hours issues... It seems that the company website for our new medical insurance company doesn't even let people register their accounts outside of business hours. I got this response:

Member Registration Not Available

Thank you for your interest in registering for myCIGNA.com. Unfortunately, registration services are currently unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience. The registration process is available: Monday to Friday from 7 am to Midnight (EST) Sat. from 8 am to 8 pm (EST) Sun. from 2–7 pm (EST)

It then proceeds to tell me that operators are standing by 24/7 in case I'm having trouble doing it during those hours. Does a real person have to look at each of them or what? And if so, why aren't those 24/7 operators doing it?

Finally got our insurance cards

Our medical insurance cards, which state that our coverage is effective November 2nd, 2006, just arrived in the mail today. Took a couple of phone calls too, I'm annoyed that it took them a month to get them to us. I tell Charles I think they should give us an extra month of coverage when/if he leaves the company. Anyhow, going to their website now to pick out primary care physician and such, hopefully get in there for a checkup as soon as possible. My sister is having surgery on the 8th of December, so there's only a slight chance of seeing the doctor before I go down to San Diego with her, but if I can I'll do so.

Things on my medical to do list: (maybe a repost)

• General check up.
• Chronic back pain and crackling of spine.
• Check for proper dosage of my thyroid medication. My old doctor had wanted to check on this before we lost our old insurance because I gained some weight between visits when I'd been swimming regularly and just started my thyroid medication.
  
• Talk about my feet and possibly about seeing a podiatrist: I've had freezing cold feet for over a week, my cracked heels, and I think my arches may have flattened or something due to my 7-ish years of my sandals-only job. It was actually painful to wear tennis shoes, although it's been subsiding a little bit.
• Talk about an exercize plan. I want to stick with low impact stuff (water aerobics, belly dancing) until I get my back issues resolved, but even belly dancing makes my bad knee sore and crackly.

Things on my dental to do list:

• General check up & cleaning.
  
• Talk about orthodontics. I don't feel like my teeth line up properly when I bite down, I chew only in the corners of my mouth and it's uncomfortable when I sleep and stuff.
• Talk about whitening. For a non-smoker who doesn't like coffee, that area needs improvement too.

Bad dreams...

I had two really bad dreams last night.

In the first one, I was driving the Explorer on the freeway. I was in the #1 lane (far left) of about 3 or 4 lanes. To my left were railroad tracks. They were normal railroad tracks, but embedded into the ground like they are in light rail or at the stations. There was a Metrolink train coming toward us on the tracks, a normal occurrence for people who drive the 10 freeway (except in real life, there's a concrete barrier and several yards in between them and the cars). I remember thinking that we were approaching the Cal State area, and in my dream I was thinking about how the train stops there. In real life, the freeway pulls away, and the carpool lane goes up a ramp to the bus stop above the train station. In my dream, I remember thinking that the train would cut across and traffic would stop as passengers got off the train and walked across the blocked freeway.

The train was probably almost 100 yards away from my car when it derailed, flopping onto its left in a sea of sparks. Remember, I'm going full freeway speeds in the left lane, and the train's traveling a good speed too... I look to my right but it's packed with cars and there's no way I can get into that lane in time, so I swerve left over the tracks, across what would have been the path of the oncoming train if it was not in my lane now instead. I can feel the bumping of my tires going over the tracks and I stabilize myself paralleling the tracks and the freeway so that I'm not riding on the rails. The train whooshes by my right windows, and I'm looking for the best way to get back to my lane when I'm past it, when another train coming the same direction (on the same track, or did I skip one track onto another?) hits me head on and I wake up.

I wake up with a warm sensation all over my body. It's not adrenaline, I don't think, because my heart isn't racing. I've compared it in the past to a burning sensation, when I've been awaken by dreams of death in fire.

After a while, I go back to sleep and have this second dream. In the second dream, I'm at a waterpark. The first thing I remember is I'm next in line for this attraction. It's actually a rather clever idea I think. You're laying back in a chair and there's a gun that you operate, blasting flying objects that come at you (flying gorillas or something weird like that) in an arcade-style screen at the top of the slide. The screen shows an image of you riding down the slide. There's a non-flying threat somewhere by the flume toward the bottom, that only an expert marksman could have shot in time. It points a funny looking weapon at you. It looks like a water hose about 3 inches in diameter, with a big box a few inches from the end housing the firing and aiming mechanisms. It turns out to be some kind of air cannon, long continuous blasts of air hit my face. I cover my face and turn away, then it stops and hits my side. Next thing I know, I'm released into the flume and am riding the real slide.

It's kind of a cool idea, huh?

Anyhow, after I get to the bottom, I see my mom and her cousin. My mom's cousin needs a little help walking because the ground is wet from the attraction's runoff, so I suggest that I help her walk up the exit area (I would have thought the exit area is the bottom of the slide, but maybe that's only for people who lose the game!). I'm helping her walk up, the floor is squishy and moist, it's weird. Then there's an area where you can step over into the proper entrance line, and she goes over and joins my mom in the entrance line, apparently we've gotten past the worst of the bad footing area and she can take it from there.

So I turn back and expect to see the walkway behind me, but instead it's a slide flume. Alright, I think, I'll slide down. But as I sit down I realize that it's very narrow, and it's blocked by quarters (I guess you have to put in quarters to play the game). I poke at the blockage with my toes, jarring the quarters loose presumably to slide down the flume. I think to myself that in the future I should clear quarter blockages by picking up the quarters and not kicking them away. It still looks too narrow, but I push off from a handhold I find (I have a lot of experience in how to go faster on waterslides, remember, since I was a manager at two pools that had slides) trying to build up speed to get through. I'm not able to get through, though, it would in fact be a tight squeeze for even a young child. So I decide to go through the gap my mom's cousin went through and go down the ride again instead, but when I look upward, that path has also closed itself off. I realize that I'm in a coccoon type structure and there's no way to get out. I'm about to scream for help when I wake up, again with a mild warm sensation, not as strong as before.

In the past, I've had several of these dreams that I remember vividly. I don't seem to remember much about my dreams on a regular basis, these are an exception to that rule...

In about 1999/2000 I was visiting my sister in Las Vegas with the rest of the family. Two parents, two sisters, two brothers-in-law, two nieces, one nephew, and myself makes 10 in a two-bedroom apartment, so several of us were sleeping in the living room. I had a dream that I was in El Monte, at my other sister's house and we were waiting for someone to get ready to go somewhere. The car is across the street, and I'm walking out the side path toward the street when I see airplanes flying overhead. In the background, I see the red and white water tower, a feature that El Monte does have, but not in that location. I sit down on the curb to wait for whomever it is we're waiting for, watching the planes, because they're interesting and I have nothing else to do, then I realize that they're dropping something... The water tower explodes. I'm shocked, confused, then I follow the trail of another bomb with my eyes only to find it's coming toward us. I have a pillow in my arms for some reason, and I grab it in a hug and try to bury both my face and my knees into it, crouching into a ball. I wake up feeling like I'm on fire, a feeling that subsides only after several minutes. It was about 3am, and I couldn't get back to sleep all night. Luckily I had a friend in the UK I was able to call during his lunch break who calmed me down.

Probably in 2001/2002 or so, I had a dream that I was a passenger in a car driven by someone who closely resembled a girl I knew my sophomore year in high school. It was night time, there weren't many cars on the road. We're on an interchange, and although the street curves left, the driver continues to drive straight. We go off the interchange and fly through the air. I try to think of how best to brace myself for the impending impact, and I see the ground rushing toward us in the headlights just before I wake up, again feeling like I've been burned. I haven't liked that kind of intersection ever since. (Like the 118 west to the 23 south, big shadow = big fall.) I also prefer to drive myself when I know the road ahead is possibly scary, rather than be a passenger. The lack of control over the situation was the scariest part of the dream.

In 2005, I had a dream that I was sitting in a car waiting for someone or something, and out of nowhere some people (probably all male) come and try to get into the car. I tried to hit the door locks, but someone had already gotten in, I think through the back driver's side door. They were trying to pull me out of the car, and I was putting up as much of a fight as I could. I remember that some of them had baseball bats... I don't remember much about this dream now, but Charles and I were somewhere in my mom's Camry and someone got into the car mistakenly thinking it was his friend's car, and it made me very nervous... Charles took to tapping on the window before opening the car door if I didn't see him coming.

Then in the past year or so, I had a dream that I was driving alone and somehow got distracted by something and went through a barrier on an overpass. In a seemingly endless flight, I had enough time to try to look for my phone. Instead of calling 911, I had (in the dream) resigned myself to my fate, and wanted to call my husband and say goodbye. I hit water before I found it.

So, that makes six dreams so far that have lead to this rush of something... I should try to figure out what it is...