Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Thinking Pink, and thinking our government is CRAZY!

It's October 1.  Think PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I am so grateful I found that lump back in June of 2010.  My mammogram that April did NOT find it.  Every woman should get a mammogram, but don't stop there.  Self-examination is critical.  Many women find their own cancers, like I did.  And then be aggressive!  Don't wait around hoping the lump will go away.  I admit I did do that for the first 24 hours. I was on vacation, after all, in another state.  I kept thinking I wasn't really feeling what I knew was there.  Every few minutes I would check to see if it was gone so I wouldn't have to call the doctor.  After 24 hours, I called the doctor.  From that day to the day it was finally removed, along with a lot of lymph nodes, was THREE MONTHS.  I'm still convinced that is one reason it may have been Stage Two by that time, but I had no choice.  That's just how long it took to get a house sold, a house bought, a car moved across country, and many tests done.  So don't wait more than 24 hours if you find a lump or your mammogram comes back questionable.  Get it done!

OK, enough ranting about that.

Now for the next rant.  Our government is shut down.  Ridiculous.  I thought Congress was crazy over the last few years.  At the last election, I was sure they would all get voted out, but NO!  Most were returned to their positions to get to TODAY.  Geez.  I'm sure we are the laughing-stocks of the world this morning.

I remember back in 1996 when the government shut down. Mark was still an active federal employee for NASA at the time.  When that shut down finally ended, they all got their back pay.  This time they are saying there will be no back pay.  So where is all that tax money going?  We are all still paying federal income taxes. I'm pretty sure no one is going to be told to keep that money in his pocket.  Maybe they will apply all those dollars from unpaid salaries today (and for the rest of the shutdown, however long that may be) to the federal deficit.  What do you think?  Hah!  Probably not. Better not go to buy Congress breakfast meetings, or anything else!

I also remember that back in 1996, Lowell was on a big multi-day school field trip to NYC.  They were supposed to tour Ellis Island that day, but they got turned away because the government shut down had just gone into effect.  I'm quite sure there are school kids in the DC area being told they can't go to the Smithsonian on a field trip today.  I'm sure all the tourists in DC will notice the government is shut down when they walk up to those beautiful buildings and find the doors locked.  Just crazy.

OK, enough about that rant, too.

Other than all of this, I am about to go line-dancing and swimming.  Fun.  If the weather is nice, we will kill the day at the pool until around 4:30.  At 5:30 I will be auditioning for a solo for the Guys and Dolls concert in December.  Yesterday, we read through the play for November. It was so funny.  My two parts are both in Act One, so I'm not sure how that is going to work.  I have only three lines as Mrs. Cratchit, but I think they will have to be memorized.  This is a "staged reading," meaning everyone's lines are going to be on paper in front of them, but sort of hidden from the audience.  We need to know it pretty well, but it's like having a little prompter in front of you.  I don't think that's going to work for Mrs. Cratchit's three lines, so I'll memorize those.  My other character is Belle, Scrooge's love interest from his past.  She is a witness, which means my lines will be in front of me up there.  She had quite a lot of lines and closes Act One, so I'm pretty pleased with both my parts.  If you are reading this and live in Solivita, I hope you get tickets to the show!




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