Faster, Faster, Don't Stop Now

I solemnly swear, Gilad is kicking my ass.

(Anyone ever made it through one of his workouts without crying "uncle" at some point?)

I hate working out.

Now off to make lunch, make tea, tighten screws, clean brass, clean kitchen, take a shower, call my grandmother, brush the dog's teeth, and call the hospital to find out why the heck my insurance didn't pay for my pap smear.

Due to the fact that I suck at working out at home (and don't have resistance machines to truly help me build muscle), I did a month membership at a gym. Today was my first day.

*dies*

People, at least I was smart enough to go to a gym I went to four or five years ago. I remembered how to use the machines. Which is great, considering if you don't get a year membership, you don't get a consultation with a trainer. I was smart and hopped on the treadmill for 20 minutes first. I need to work on the cardio first and foremost. Then I hit the machines. I've discovered a few things.

1. My left knee is still not completely better from kickball. Brace from here on out. (The shin, though, is the big problem. Top of the shin, even. That doesn't take pressure well.)

2. My legs are in way better shape than my arms. Not surprising, since I'm female.

3. My carpal also doesn't like certain exercises.

4. I'm still going to have to go to the high school football field on weekends for sprints.

5. I hate exercise. But I don't do it if I try to do it at home. If I go someplace else, I actually get things done (mostly so I can go back home and collapse on the couch). Now the key is figuring out what time of day is best for exercise - morning or afternoon. Tomorrow I'll try afternoon.

You know, my day should suck tons of ass considering I currently have R. Kelly's remix to "Ignition" stuck in my head. But it doesn't. Heh.

***

I'm highly jealous of all of the people who got to go to Comic Con. After hearing all of the juicy details about the Smallville panel (Sam! *Squee!*) and the poster signings, oh and hearing about Stargate, and Hugh Jackman (*swoon*).

Seriously, thinking very hard about going next year.

***

I've been pretty anti-social online for the past couple of weeks. Well, and in real life too. Lots of anti-social going on. Took me a bit to figure out it was PMS related. Damn PMS. Irritating as hell. Especially this time, because it gave me the hormones of a 13-year-old girl with PMS.

Yes, I have been bitchy. So be glad my presence was much smaller.

***

To make up for being so antisocial, here are the happy birthdays I have yet to wish for the past week:

medie
kmonkey
angelsgracie

Happy Birthday! May you feel and look older/younger, may you get plenty of chocolate/nookie/fanfic, and may your days be bright and happy.

*g* How's that for inserting all into one.

***

For all who've been curious as to whatever happened with those goody packages I was going to send out...one part of them decided to be a long and tedious process. So I think I'm just going to send that out at a later date and ship out some of the stuff now. It's too much of a hassle to try and get the bags done. The beading is fun, but it's definitely something that requires extended periods of free time and creative spark.

***

We've been having a crisis in the family that's been quite emotionally draining for a while now. My grandfather had a hip replacement back in April. After the surgery he went home for about three weeks, but he started having severe pain and got very sick. Back in the hospital and...it turned out he had gotten a staph infection.

Now, by the doctor's admission, the infection came from either instruments not being sterilized correctly, or someone didn't wash their hands enough. This resulted in a strain of staph that is hideous. Debilitating pain. My grandfather was actually prepared to die. He missed my sister's wedding because of the staph (in order to clean out all of the infection, they had to remove the hip they had just put in and leave it out for 6 weeks). I had never seen this man cry before in my life, but now, every time I see him he cries.

Well, once the staph was supposed to be all cleared out, they were going to put the hip back in. They do. Like the first surgery, they put in the wrong size hip. Now his left leg is a half inch longer than the right. They also didn't test to see if the staph was completely gone before inserting the hip. AND they didn't put him on antibiotics to prevent infection (which is standard procedure) after the surgery.

Yep, he got an infection, although we're very glad the staph is apparently gone.

Now, this doctor keeps continually lying to my grandmother, telling her he's never had a case like this (he's had several), and that everything's fine when it isn't. Is it any surprise that this doctor has been sued many, many times?

My family is being a pain in the butt about it of course. My mother and aunt got involved, but no one can convince my grandmother that my grandfather needs to go to another doctor. And the doctor just lies to everyone. And he's certainly not afraid of lawyers.

And there's a strong possibility, based on some things we've seen so far, that the hospital is going to try to charge my grandparents for the hospitalization time for the staph infection and for the second hip replacement.

At which time I will be getting involved. I've had enough of this crap, and no one wants to take my legal advice (which I got from an actual lawyer - *gasp* - about how to protect our butts since the doctor is incompetent), so if the money gets to be an issue, I'm butting in. The hospital had a bad reputation for years. They recently managed to turn their image around and start looking good again to the public. I know the PR folks. I used to work for the wife of the hospital's president.

If they aren't afraid of lawyers, go after their reputation. I'll be a bitch about it and loud. I have no fear. Hell, I'm moving from the area once school is done anyway. It's not like they can come after me, and going after little old people just looks bad in the press.

But anyway, I'm possibly going to try getting in touch with the PR guy over there and see what the hospital's stance might be. Just to be preemptive (because it's not like anyone else in my family is thinking of what might happen).

Ain't life a bitch sometimes?

***

Oh, and in a brilliant maneuvre, I managed to forget to vote on the_treasury before Friday. And darn it, it was the categories I really, really cared about.

I'm such a dope.

***

This week is going to be crazy. I have to have my ScrewClark fic done by Friday, a paper is due on Monday for school, my death penalty debate is next Wednesday (so research time), I'm registering for fall semester this week...the list goes on.

***

Oh, and I've also started exercising. *snort* I run three days a week. The reason this actually works though is because I'm running with my sister. We have no excuses if we're together. Unfortunately, we ran really hard on Friday night because we were being chased by a pug named Bruno.

Cute thing. Nippy though.

***

And on the NASCAR front (watches everyone run away)...

Hey, plum_evil, have I ever told you that I have one of those full-size advertising cutouts of the Criminal in my apartment? *g* I've gotten to the point I don't even see it anymore, but I noticed it last night in the corner. Junior looking all scruffy and Budweisery. Hee.

And my sister has declared that the Winston is now the official race we go to each year (as long as it stays in North Carolina). We're thinking of making it a big girls thing next year (no husbands/boyfriends allowed). If you're interested, come about that time (and lord that was deeeeeeep South), when it's ticket ordering time, I can give you a holler to see if you want to come with us.