Ant-EYE-biotics

My right eye has been bugging me for about a week or so and since Martin Luther King Jr. gave me the day off today, I figured I'd finally go and figure out what was causing the annoyingly excessive tearing and sneezing. Just because my eye was rather swollen this morning and had bothered me all night, doesn't mean that I wasn't planning on having someone look at it today anyway. Although, I totally wasn't.


Doesn't my eye look perfectly healthy and normal to you?

Well, it seems that my optometrist thinks that I have a low grade viral infection in my eye, which was determined by putting a fluorescent dye in my eye and looking at it with a blue light that was similar to the ALS I use at work all the time. Although, he says, it might be accompanied by bacteria as well... and since I'm in discomfort, I might as well have a prescription for some eye drop antibiotics and use them four times a day. Peachy.

I'm not sure if anyone knows this other than my mother (remember that time I had pink eye?), but... I simply can't do eye drops. The whole thing is beyond me. I could stick my finger in my eye if I had to, but dropping liquid from a bottle is just completely beyond my technical abilities. I can't see the drop, so I don't know when it's going to fall, and those drops just hang on the end of the bottle forever, now, don't they? Actually managing to get it inside my eye and not somewhere on my cheek or eyelid is impossible.

Imagine my surprise when I got the first dose in properly on the first try. I hope the rest of the applications go as smoothly, because I really have no faith in my ability to conquer the complexity that is eye drops. Cross your fingers (or your eyes) for me. I can only hope that this will clear up whatever's been going on in there the past few days. Especially since it cost me $45 for the eye exam and antibiotics.


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I Love Hat

Remy says, "Woof woof!" which I'm sure means, "Go Giants!", not, "Stop putting stupid hats on my head!"


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Go Big Blue

I've been a Giants fan since I was eight or nine. Certainly, there were a few years that I wasn't really following professional football at all, but not this year. I've been watching the team this season, along with the Chiefs, because well, I thought I should cheer for the hometown team. I finally made it to my first professional football game, too.

It's nice to be able to say this, the year I really got back into watching and cheering for football...

YAY!! The Giants are going to the Superbowl! Finally, I can cheer for a team instead of watching commercials (which, by the way, have been seriously lacking in quality in recent years).


Sure, they're up against an undefeated team, but I have faith in my underdogs, and of their NFL record of ten consecutive wins on the road. Plus, I hear that cheaters never win...

GO GIANTS!


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Why Even Bother With Elections Now?

Chuck Norris approves Mike Huckabee for President.



Maybe we should let Jack Bauer weigh in on the subject, too.


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Teeeheeeheeeheee

Get this widget!

This makes me laugh. Teehee. Heeee. Hee. It's so funny in a super creepy way. Her head flails around as if completely independent of her body! Go ahead... click her head. Teeeeheeeeheeehee.


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Hillary's "Tears for Votes" Campaign

Sigh. I didn't want to do this, but I've found myself so angry about this non-issue that I need to speak my peace. Just to get everyone on the same page, if you haven't seen the infamous Hillary Clinton "crying" clip, here it is. She was at an informal coffee shop meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was asked how she could stand the stress of the campaign trail:


It evokes a memory of Howard Dean "screaming" after naming states. Both events were blown completely out of proportion. So, here's what I have to say:

1. I don't think this was staged, and I'll tell you why. This is the most natural and authentic I have heard Hillary's voice... ever.

2. She is not "crying" or holding back tears because she thinks she's losing her campaign or because of her defeat to Obama in the Iowa caucus. She's not crying because of the stress. I have held back those exact same tears. They are tears of pride for her country and the opportunities she has been given in her lifetime. They are tears for her own accomplishments and those that she has not yet finished fighting for. Those are tears of passion and determination to get the job done. I completely understand them. They are not a sign of weakness, they are a sign of hope for the future and the potential that we have as a country.

3. Yes, it is very likely that she cries about other things like the war, the Katrina aftermath, and so on. Just because it's never been caught on film before doesn't mean that she has not cried for those things.

4. She's not the only one who has teared up on the campaign trail. That's right, Republican Mitt Romney choked up on NBC's "Meet the Press" while talking about his religion. Later, in a speech made during the Iowa caucus, tears welled in his eyes as he spoke of watching the casket of a soldier killed in Iraq being carried off of an airplane at the airport he was invited to, to welcome a soldier home. No one had told him the soldier returning was no longer alive. Not one person in the media talked about these events. Stop making this a female weakness issue. It has nothing to do with the matter. Get beyond this double standard.

5. In the book Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush, which went on sale Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007, President Bush is quoted as saying, “I’ve got God’s shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot. I do a lot of crying in this job. I’ll bet I’ve shed more tears than you can count, as president. I’ll shed some tomorrow.” How many more of these things must I point out? I've even seen Bush cry at an awards ceremony.

6. Having men analyze Hillary's tears will only inspire more women to defy the continuance of male chauvinism in politics. The more you talk about it, the more it will hurt your campaign. Quit while you're ahead. It is clear that women bonded over the issue that the media created. Women aren't going to let them get rid of Hillary just like they did with Dean. This has made Hillary more human to everyone. More compassionate, more likable, and more likely to be a leader. She is no longer Bill Clinton's stone cold unemotional wife.

7. Oh, and one other not-really-related thing: McCain's primary win in New Hampshire was reported when only 12% of the votes were in, yet the Democratic race was claimed, "too close to call", even though Hillary Clinton led in the polls ALL NIGHT. I just wanted to point that out. People were expecting Clinton to fail, and when she didn't, they couldn't even report the facts. Maybe an African American president won't be the 'biggest American political story in modern times' that all the media are looking for. Maybe, just maybe, the country will decide to spell change "w-o-m-a-n", not "o-b-a-m-a". Congratulations, Hillary Clinton. You're the first woman to ever win a primary presidential election, and as a fellow woman, I am proud of you.


Okay, I suppose I'm done for now. I just wanted you to know that the news media makes me sick.


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An Open Letter to John Edwards

Dear John Edwards,

Please create another speech or pay someone else to do so (is the writer's strike affecting you, too?). I have seen you speak live three times on television and each time you've said approximately the same thing. And so I ask you to stop speaking about the girl who died because she didn't get a liver transplant and the dude who couldn't get his cleft palate fixed until he was 50 because of lack of health insurance. Also, I know your family worked in the mills. Let's work on talking about something else.

Thanks,
Nikki

An Open Letter to John McCain

Dear Senator John McCain,

There is no "R" in Washington. Please stop putting one there.

Thank you,
Nikki

The Vampires Saved My Life!

I'm writing this blog because Brenda told me it was due. Apparently I now have deadlines or something, and am responsible for entertaining people at least on a monthly or biweekly basis... or... some sort of time period.

Last night I saw a piece on the news that said Kansas City was at a critical shortage for blood, especially O negative and B negative blood. So, being the upstanding fine citizen that I am, I thought I'd go out to the Community Blood Center and give them my blood tonight after work. I somehow conned a coworker with O negative blood to come with me.

On the way there, there must have been some sort of multicar vehicular insanity happen on the road because they closed both lanes of traffic. We took some random made up detour where I guessed a lot. (Yes, I do think your Garmin is brilliant and I do want one, okay?) But, we eventually made it because my sense of direction is so keen. (I hear you laughing.)

We go in, fill out the paper work, and get to givin' ye old blood. And because I know you're interested, my temperature was 99.1, my pulse was 72 and my blood pressure told them I was dead (or 102/68). But they took my blood anyway. And my hemoglobin fell at 14.7, so that was good because it has to be between 12 and 18 and women usually fall on the lower end of that range. So, I guess I'm in relatively good health. Because I pretend that's a physical.

I have to tell you though, that needle is way bigger than I remember. I gave the 500ml of blood relatively fast for me, and when I was done I hung my legs off the side of the cot thing and felt fine. Then I sat down and drank my apple juice and had a cookie and a half waiting for my coworker... and then... I felt odd. All of a sudden. And I got all hot and sweaty and just didn't feel right, although I can't really describe exactly how I felt. Just that it was "not right". So, I put my head down and felt myself sweat... a lot. Like, summertime running outside sweat when it all drips off your face. Apparently I sweat so much that it went through my shirt and left a nice wetness on the back of my chair.

Coworker made me look at her, noticed that I was YELLOW, and asked a nurse for help. FOUR nurses rushed to me, picked me up off the chair, laid me down on the floor, and propped my legs and feet in the chair. When asked how I was doing, I replied, "I don't know." And then I said, "Really hot."

They broke open four of those instant ice pack things and put one on my forehead, one on my stomach, one on my neck, and one on the back of my neck. I was cooled off pretty instantly and started feeling better within a few seconds. They made me drink some RC Cola (That still exists?) through a straw... which... was interesting. I was sucking on the straw but getting little fluid through it, which made me laugh and wonder if the straw was defective or if I was an idiot. I'm still not sure of the answer to that. (I also don't need your input on the matter.)

I laid there for a while, sat up a little, drank the soda from the cup, and was totally fine. Then I got fun questions I had to answer for the nurse and she wrote some things down on my chart thingamabob. Fun times!

I got a free long sleeve t-shirt (large) and a sticker for my ordeal! Oh, and some apple juice and RC Cola and Oreos.

I'm not really sure what happened or why because I had a normal lunch, drank 3 bottles of water today, and had a "snack" of a package of crackers and a Snickers bar before I actually gave blood. Maybe something in that combination was a bad idea. *shrug*

Either way, I'll totally do it again. My little inconvenience is worth it if I can help out someone else in need. Yay for B negative blood and the other 2 percent of the population that has it! Don't worry, I'm here for you!


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