Feeling Better

I stayed home from work yesterday. I slept like a banshee. I'm talking I went to bed at 11:00 the night before, and got up at 7:00 to call into work (after 3 trips to the greater toilet district). Then I went back to bed after chatting with Neil for about 30 minutes. I slept on and off until 6:20 pm. I probably would have slept longer, but the dog was shaking uncontrolably in bed. So, I figured she needed to go out for a walk. She peed twice -- I'm talking Tom Hanks in a League of Their Own type of release here. Then she promptly had doggie-diarrhea in the slightly forested area near the tennis court. I've heard of dogs looking like their owners, but this is ridiculous. She's doing better now too.

Major Texas and I ordered a pizza and watched Doctor Who on Sci-Fi. Those crazy brits. Story line: good. Special effects: Cheddar. M.T. then checked some e-mail or whatever it is he does on the computer, and I fired up the new game I got for my PS2. All in all it was a very relaxing day/evening yesterday. It's rare that the both of us just get to kick back and relax and do the things we like to do for fun. A veritable Rockwell painting -- cat sleeping on the back of the couch, dog sleeping underneath him on the couch. M.T. and I relaxing.

Now we're getting ready to head down to Woodrbridge and maybe go to Ikea. I definately need to go to the Polo store and get a new sweatshirt. I realized that my favorite sweatshirt has definately seen better days, and needs to be replaced. The cuffs are fraying and it's got a lot of holes in the seems. I figure it's got about a year of laying-around-the-house use left in it, but that leaves me without a nice one to wear out in public. So, AJ's tip for the day: get yourself to the Polo Factory Store (or any place that sells Polo) and get yourself a nice sweatshirt. They're about $30.00 if you catch a good sale, and they're the most comfortable thing you'll ever own.

I'm off to spend some money. May everyone have a good, shiny happy people type of day.

On the Lighter Side

I have a very practical jokish relationship with God. And I like to think God appreciates my sense of humor.

I say things like "I think God is really a fat, black, Jewish lesbian" over a nice lunch with friends. Said comment garners the appropriate laughs, and we pack up to go see Bruce Almighty in the theater. Half-way through the movie, God responds with her own joke. I kid you not -- one of my front teeth abcesses and I'm in mind-blinding pain. The obligatory trip to the ER to figure out what's causing the pain (because of course this happens on a Sunday), then the trip to the dentist, and then the endodonist for the root canal, and back to the dentist for a crown. So, God obviously got the joke and took umbrage with me calling her fat. Never call the Divine fat, it's a recipe for disaster, because God will take the one-ups-manship to the next level.

Now, I don't recall having made any God jokes in the past 48 hours. So, I'm completely at a loss for why my ass has decided it's a juicer. I'm sure I thought that Fred Phelps was a total nut-job and I most likely said it aloud, but I don't think that's the cause of my Divinely-visited ass-plague. But on the off chance that this another of your pratical jokes God: UNCLE .... UNCLE. MAKE IT STOP!!!! (and I won't ever call you fat again!)

See, wasn't that a lot more entertaining than me just saying I've come down with the stomach flu?

Follow Up

I made a comment in the post below about Religion, and after posting it I realized 2 things.

1) I didn't feel very good about it, as it stood, and
2) I felt it needed a bit of explination, so:

Let me start by saying that the word that best describes my religious views is agnostic. When I was younger (say around until the time I was 16 or 17) I was very involved in my local church and did all sorts of things with the Youth Group, and Church Camp and the whole nine-yards. Then I started too actually look around me and see what the people in my Church were actually doing, and I realized it was some pretty un-Christian stuff. The last straw for me was the bully-pulpit one Sunday about how we all needed to tithe more so we could have an elevator put in the Church. I stopped going shortly thereafter. Last year I was stricken from the membership rolls because I hadn't attended services in over 10 years (duh, I've lived in VA for the past 10 years, not OH). I actually got a letter informing me of this, and that if I wanted to keep my membership I could either "come to a worship service, or give the traditional tithe to the church".

I also became dissillusioned with the Church when I realized that I was gay. I read lots of books to see if my faith and who I am were compatible. I eventually had to decide to be true to myself, because no matter what I did that wasn't going to change. Things might have turned out differently if I had access to the books that have been published since the 1980's and the internet, but I worked with what I had. And what I had wasn't very helpful. There was one particularly good book -- I've long since forgotten the title -- but amidst the sea of fire and brimstone, it wasn't enough to help me keep the faith. As I did then, as I do now, I refuse to believe that just by being who I am that I am a sinner, and the only way to get to heaven is for me to be something, somebody I'm not.

After much exploring, I settled on the view that every human has a spark of the divine in them. And if you listen close enough that spark can give you guidance and direction in life. It's kind of like deified self-reliance or spiritual individualism. Maybe it's just Senor Holy Ghost talking to me in my mind. It's kind of hard to explain, but it keeps me centered.

The long and the short of it boils down to: I've seen (and experienced) how institutioanlized religion is used to marginalize, demonize and manipulate people, so I'm always very mistrustful of it. I hate seeing whole Churches use Bible passages they don't even put in context to vilify whole groups of people. Even more, I hate seeing politicians using people's religious beliefs to further their own goals.

A person's relationship with the Divine should be personal and private, and not used to steer public policy. And I respect every person's relationship with their Faith.

So, if my previous post came across as being antagonistic towards Religion, now you know why.

Do You Smell That?

It must be election season.

I just read this and I'm alternatingly baffled and pissed off.

Greatest Threat? I don't think so. With all the other problems facing our country, that she would even make this claim is just sheer political pandering: Gotta keep the right-wing religio-nut jobs in a constant state of fear or we're gonna lose this election.

My apologies to my readers of Faith, but it's crap like this that makes me feel totally justified in thinking that Religion is a very bad thing. Or perhaps I should clarify and say the manipulation of people's religious beliefs is a very bad thing. Of course, this wouldn't be an issue if religion didn't exist.

PT, Part 2

The PT gods giveth and they taketh away.

The most excellent:
-- Each time I go, now I will get a head/neck/shoulders massage ... for 30 minutes.

The most heinous:
--They've added a new set of exercises to my list. And they're all painful. I'll stick a rolled towel under your shoulder blades and make you wave your arms around like a cheerleader on speed and see how much you like little miss perky gym leader.

In summary, I felt really good at the end of my first 30 minutes of PT (even got rid of my headache), but the second 30 minutes were torture. Screw the necksercises for today, I'm taking a nap.

[UPDATE:] I actually have 2 separate PT people treating me. Think along the lines of good cop, bad cop. The good one gives me neck massages, the bad one makes me use the arm bike and do painful stretches. But I know they're working as a team, so I know the evil is widespread and invasive.

Thank You for the Music

Just a quick note to thank everyone that's come by over the past few days, cased the joint, and left a comment or 2!

THANKS!

I'll respond to some of the comments a little bit later. I'm playing catch up at work today, because I have to get a lot done before I leave at noon for my PT appointment -- which is on the other side of town (near my house), so I won't be returning to work once I'm finished with PT. Kind of sad that I have to leave at noon to make a 2:30 appointment, no?

And for the record, this is a no-trepanning zone. Ice cream scoops are used solely for ice-cream -- or feel free to club each other with them, I don't care. Just don't scoop each others' brains out. Because I really don't want to have to say:

Don't make me pull this blog over! If you don't stop trepanning your sister, we're going right back to the house and no Chuck-E-Cheese for you!

A New Look

I chose a new template for the fall season. Hope you all like.

And I think it's a bit easier to read than the other one was. I'll eventually get around to cleaning up the links on the side of the page.

I've Been a Bad AJ

So I haven't been doing my necksercizes. Not even a little bit.

I know I should be, but somehow I just don't find the time in the day to tilt my head to the side and hold for 5 seconds. Plus all the other random combinations of tilt and hold that I'm supposed to be doing. I better do them today, because I've got PT tomorrow.

At least I have started sleeping on my side. So I can say to the PT people that I have done something that they've told me to do. The down side to this is the dog now has room on the bed to curl up next to me while I'm sleeping. And she's a bed hog.

Make Me Some Butter!

This is totally lame.

Gifts

Don't you just hate it when you have the perfect gift idea for someone, and then vendors refuse to comply with your desire to go to said store and acquire the gift you have in mind?

I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. I was able to purchase 50% of the gift I had in mind. If I chose to continue with the original plan, I'll have to special order the other item. Or it might be time to go back to the drawing board and revise this idea. And I do have some other ideas.

So, if the birthday person reads this post, know that I've been plotting your b-day and have been partially thwarted by the retail powers that be. Maybe I'll just have to get you a pink and purple polkadotted thong instead -- cause everyone loves ass-floss on their birthday.