Maggie's Farm

What junk food, Retriever? I could do a line of those little white Hostess donuts right now. Soo good with a cold Coke. Yum. And don't give me any home-on-the-range chicken that's been eating bugs and scorpions. I want only those fat ones that have worn pink contacts to avoid pecking so they're happy and content boids.

Okay. I'm not into organic at all. I confess.

I've been grocery shopping three times this year. Usually, I get my kids to go or my ex will go. I so hate it I haven't the words to describe the experience. I can't stand seeing someone I know because you have to talk, and then you see them in the next aisle, so you skip an aisle and on and on. I pick mid-morning on Wednesdays. It's very quiet then and I don't worry about seeing anyone. I always have a great list that I leave it in the car. Always. I should pin it to my shirt.

I have no use for snotty salespeople. A friend of mine and I, dressed in jeans, went to Tyson's Corner and happened to see a jewelry counter right at the huge open doors of the ritzy Garfinkles. We walked in and a very smartly dressed woman ditzed around and finally deigned to ask if we wanted anything. My friend wanted to see a ring and then another one, and the woman let out an audible sigh of 'such peasants'..... She was so rude to my friend that I got mad and said very quietly: "Lady, if you had the right to be so rude, you'd be on this side of the counter."
Then I pulled out a pen and piece of paper and slowly and deliberately wrote her name down - glancing several times at her breast to get it right. Stupid woman. Just ask for their names...... it changes the whole dynamic.

Must qualify that: I live in horse country where someone with horse poop on their shoes could be worth thirty million dollars. In other words, what you look like is no indicator of anything.

Darn, I could really go for a giant chocolate muffin. :) Maybe two.......... I need to gain a little weight.
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That settles it. I have to go see what a Whole Foods store is like. I have heard people rave about them, but we don't have one in my town.

Retriever,

You weren't acting all bad about organic food. I am impressed by your dedication to shopping and preparing good meals. Meals, cooking, for me are a drag. That's from cooking for a doctor for 20 years whose presence at the table I could never count on. Plus, my mother was such a witch about manners and my 'need' for salt, that sitting down family style has always been difficult. My hat is off to you. I'm like... when are we getting a Boston Market so I can drive up for dinner?

I laughed out loud at all you leaving the table for computers. We email each other in the house. My office is upstairs as are the kids' rooms - right across the hall and down the hall... I'd email one of them and ask them to go get me a Coke. Or even funnier, "What are you doing?" When I bought this house, it was under construction and I had it wired for sound and for TV. I have satellite TV and I got each child their own box. My box is for the living room and my bedroom (first floor). None of us have ever been TV watchers, and I only watch the news or TLC or the History Channel - channels they'd not watch. So, they got their own TV and box. One night I was laughing at "Whose Line Is It Anyway" and I heard laughing from upstairs. Both kids were in their separate rooms watching the same show I was. It was a one-time shot, but it's a clear signal about contemporary life. Now with our computers, the TV only comes on for Brit Hume, and the kids don't watch at all.

Oh....they both have phones that email. That's wonderful because without calling, I can talk to them anywhere. I'm not a phone person. Could easily live without one.

I'm not sure what spurred all this chatter... must be getting tired. Time to go read. I'm reading "I am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter. I love that stuff. It's about how we think.

They have discovered that lithium grows brain matter. They have gone so far as to experiment with non-therapuetic doses as an adjunct to other meds for depression and schizophrenia and....this is the best - Alzheimer's. It's worth Googling if you're interested. I recall you mentioned bipolar..... this is very reassuring on all fronts.
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The naval story I cannot bear is the one where the sailors were left in the sea surrounded by sharks. Many were killed by sharks. I can't remember the name of the vessel. oh, sad.

Retriever,

AT&T just bought Cingular. My daughter is getting the iPhone, but if you wait a couple of months, the price may come down. I doubt it, though, considering Apple doesn't play by the rules of the market as it is its own market. Full disclosure: I won't buy or use anything but a MAC. My son has TMobile and that seems reasonable. I don't know what the iPhone will be for the monthly service. Plenty of copycats coming online, though.

My brother emailed today to tell me that Ritalin is now being used for people with Parkinson's. My father has it, and I am very excited. I researched it, and it seems to block the dopamine receptors so more dopamine remains in the system. It said that the results are fairly astounding in how patients respond. That is wonderful news as my father developed it late in life - he'll not die of it - and he cannot walk very well. He uses a walker or a cane. This may help his walk which would be the best thing.

I saw that food article in TIME. I cannot get too serious about it all for some reason. Best thing I ever read about diets and health, I read in the '70's in a Redbook magazine. It basically said diets are doomed to fail because the take a psychological toll on you. The only way to stay healthy and to 'diet' if one wants/needs to is to do everything with moderation. It included exercising, drinking, eating....every thing. The point was never to feel deprived because that messed with your head. Moderate behaviors are always tolerable. Except when I want a Krispee Kreme chocolate drizzled glazed donut and drive into town at 10 P.M. to get one.

I read another article about Big Pharma and though lengthy and detailed, one thing struck me: A large percentage of their work now is on tangential uses for drugs that have been on the market and are now being used for things other than their original purpose. Good news keeps coming in.

Skook's story made me think of a snotty little restaurant in our Renaissance downtown area. It is very nice but not that big of a deal. The owner is a handsome man who stands around in too-tight jeans and says hello or helps out occasionally. He came to ask a friend and me what we'd like to drink. I asked for a frozen Margarita and he flinched back and moved forward with his chin tucked and his bulge bulging and said, "Oh. We don't serve those here." Fine. Except I didn't like his tone of voice - as if a froo-froo drink on a hot day was too bourgeois for his fine establishment. I said, "Would you mind repeating that in a different tone of voice?" My friend, my lawyer, almost slid under the table.... He said, "I beg your pardon." I said, "I know." and stood up to leave and handed him my fine linen napkin and said, "Do mop your brow."

Okay...that's it. I've told of the only two times I was a brat in public. I'm always nice in public. It's the snot thing I can't deal with.

Time for bed.... Sure wish I had a line of Oreos to do. :)

Pass me a nice cold Margarita with a side of Oreos.
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Retriever,

Yes! The clerical error thing and the long wait for help. oh, That made the story, event, so much sadder. No doubt those who survived are traumatized for life.

Here's another off-label almost-miracle story about drugs. Propanolol, a simple, inexpensive, blood pressure medicine has changed the lives of people with PTSD. When a person gets a flashback (or one is induced in therapy) take propanolol. Or, if you're doing it in therapy, take it before you go... The propanolol deactivates the receptors that keep adrenaline and cortisol flooding the system during a flashback, and that helps the memory become processed in the amygdala as opposed to floating around waiting to screw you up with some bad mojo memories. The point - if the body does not respond as if it is reliving the trauma, the memory lessens its effect on the person. You don't forget the memory - it just does not affect you or your body in the classic trauma reaction. A woman participating in a blind study happened to be one in the study who was taking propanolol though she didn't know it. She'd been violently raped as a young girl and had suffered terribly from the resulting PTSD. She was home one evening watching TV with her husband and something triggered a bad flashback so she took a couple of propanolols. To her and the researchers shock, the woman had a mere, non-reactive memory of the rape. It was like magic.

Trauma units in Iraq are using it. War makes for the worst PTSD, and there are huge efforts to ameliorate it before it becomes full-blown.

I think 30 10mg. pills costs five bucks.

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Skook,

I might get arrested. :) I hate a supercilious attitude from someone waiting on me. I'm paying. They're working. Now get it straight. :]
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