Musings of a Banana

Senior Citizen?

I get a lot of things in the mail that are politically connected. I get surveys asking for my opinion on different things like health care, cap and trade and other hot topic issues.  Imagine my surprise when I got a survey from the Senior Citizens Council.  The letter began “As a senior citizen, you know the danger that Social Security is in.”  Well, no, I don’t know because I’m not a senior citizen.  I do know Social Security is in trouble and I seriously doubt I will receive any of the money that I have paid into Social Security.  This letter and survey didn’t get me thinking about Social Security, but what is it about my name that says senior citizen.  When I went in the hospital in February, I had to have a CT scan. The technician was surprised when he came to get me from the ER.  He said I thought you were an elderly lady. What???  Now I am getting surveys for senior citizens.  This is my second mailing in the last few months.  I am only 36 and although sometimes I feel old, I certainly am not a senior citizen.  After 9/11, I seemed to always be called out for extra security checks when I would fly.  I thought maybe my name sounds too Eastern European and I could have been a spy.  I guess I could be a senior citizen spy.  Hey I would get some good discounts.

Stop staring at us

I have two very rambunctious boys.  They can be good and sit still, but when confronted with a huge tree house inside of a McDonald’s they get a little wild.  Today this scenario happened,  a huge tree house inside a McDonald’s.  We went to breakfast with my mom before we started our drive home.  When we got there, there was nobody else sitting in the play area.  Then an older couple came in and sat down. I thought it was odd that they would pick the play area to sit and have breakfast.  While the boys ran around, they gave us dirty looks.  When I took Baden to the bathroom they watched me walk all the way there.    It was rather uncomfortable.  As we were getting ready to leave, we walked past them and the man said “good”. I took this to mean good they are leaving. I don’t normally confront people, but this time I turned around and said do you have a problem.  They looked at each other with shocked looks on their faces.  The woman said no I don’t have a problem. I said well obviously you do because from the time you got in here you have been watching us.  I know my boys were running around and yelling, but you are sitting in the kids area.  If you don’t want to be around kids, sit somewhere else.  I turned around and walked out.  I was so mad.  First of all, the boys would be enduring a 6.5 hour ride in the car.  They needed to be able to run around before we got in the car. Second of all, they were sitting in the kids area where normally there are a lot more kids than just my boys.  They should be thankful it wasn’t a whole slew of kids.  My mom told me I surprised her when I turned around and said something, but she said sometimes you just have to speak up.  You are so right, Mom.

Thoughts on Patriotism

“Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.”  – Calvin Coolidge

“Patriotism is is our obligation to those who have gone before us, to those who follow us, and to those who have died for us.” – George W. Bush

“No matter the nationality, no matter the religion, no matter the ethnic background, America brings out the best in people.” – Arnold Schwarenegger

“The strength of America is her people. You. Me. Us. Our hopes. Our dreams. Our ambitions-and most important, our goodness” – J.C. Watts

“We are Americans first, Americans last, Americans always.” – John McCain

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BH & AH

Since having surgery in April I have found myself referring to before I was in the hospital (BH) and after I was in the hospital.  It’s funny to me that I refer to things in those terms.  I so wanted to get out of the hospital and now it has become a huge part of my vocabulary.  I have had Crohn’s Disease for 14 years now and finally had to have surgery.  I knew going into it that it would be worth it.  I wasn’t prepared for the three abscesses and three drains that I had to deal with over the course of three weeks.  Now that I am healing and feeling better every day I still use the word hospital to refer to before and after my surgery. I don’t even want to step foot in a hospital, but hospitals have been a big part of my life the last six months.  So the last six months have been before hospital and after hospital. That’s how I remember things.  This year I was in the hospital for a total of 31 days.  That’s a lot and something I wasn’t expecting.  I am looking forward to the time I will be able to stop referring to things as BH and AH, but until then I am thankful for my health and the ability to heal.

There are more important things to do…

According to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, the White House is going to sue Arizona over it’s impending immigration law that will go into effect in July.  Remember that when asked in a congressional hearing if he had read the law, Eric Holder said no.  Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, also had not read the law. I seriously doubt that BO (that’s the president) has read the law.  Why oh why spend our money on suing a state that is only doing what the federal government should be doing and that’s enforcing immigration laws.  I have read and watched debates about the Arizona law. BO said if you go out for ice cream you could possibly be stopped by police and asked for your papers.  How silly.  If you are doing something wrong that warrants being stopped by police then you may be asked for papers if the police have reasonable suspicion that you may be in the country illegally.  Some New Mexicans are afraid they may be stopped in Arizona because New Mexico gives drivers licenses to whoever wants them.  New Mexicans believe they may have to carry a passport to Arizona.  This is really getting out of control.  First, the president, the attorney general and homeland security secretary don’t read the law but decry it.  Then they decide to sue Arizona.  There are a lot more important things to do.  Let me think… the economy, the oil spill in the Gulf (that’s another blog post), the war in Afghanistan just to name a few.  Let’s get this country back on track and forget about the state that is only trying to do what the federal government should have been doing all along.

Lost

When is the last time you saw a pay phone? I bet it’s been awhile.  Today, I had one of those days when I needed one. I left my cell phone at home.  We were down in Albuquerque for swim lessons. I had made plans with Bill to meet him for lunch.  He said I will call you.  Well he called me, but I didn’t get any of the calls.  I left my phone on my dresser.  UGH!!!!  When I got to the restaurant Bill was no where to be found.  So I took off down the road in search of a pay phone.  None to be found.  Plus since we still have Maryland numbers, I wasn’t sure 75 cents would pay for a long distance call.   Billy told me he saw a pay phone by the ATM.  I thought he was just being silly.  That is until we went to Walmart in Edgewood to return something and there in Customer Service was a pay phone next to the ATM.  He was right.   It all ended well.  I spied Bill’s truck traveling down Central Avenue and we had lunch after all.    From now on, I will make a mental checklist, wallet, keys and cell phone.  Can’t leave home without it.

Girl Power

The primary for the 2010 election were held in New Mexico today.  The biggest race was for the republican candidate for governor. Susanna Martinez won the nomination and will face off against Diane Denish, the current lieutenant governor.  Talk about girl power.  This will be the first time in New Mexico where two women will run against one another for governor.  Already people are wondering if the campaign will be dirty because two women are running?  I think this is a bit sexist.  Are they saying women are catty? I mean there are women who are, but I would hope that both the candidates would rise above this talk and run fair campaigns.  Even though I am not a registered a voter of  New Mexico (I vote in Utah), I am looking forward to the coming months to see how the campaigns are run.  I hope these women can show the detractors a  thing or two.

The American Dream

I was watching America’s Got Talent.  This is a show where people of all ages come to show off their talents to possibly win a  show in Las Vegas.  There are people from all walks of life.  There was an awesome choir made of formerly homeless veterans.  They were great.  There were also some really bad acts, too.  The thing that got me though were the people from other countries who had come to the United States for the American Dream. This one guy from France came specifically to make it big.  He said he hated to leave his family in France, but he had to achieve the American Dream.  This got me to thinking that I never hear anybody say I want the English Dream or the French Dream or any other country for that matter.  What is it about America that makes people from other countries believe their dreams can be achieved here?  Despite what our current president thinks, we are a great country.  People from other countries dream of coming here to make it big or just to do better for their families.  When I hear people say they want to move to another country, I think they have to be crazy.  Why would anyone want to move away from the greatest country in the world?  America does have talent in its people and in the dreams it extends to those around the world.

House Arrest

I have been from the hospital a week now. It is so wonderful to be home.  Since I still have a drain in and have home health care checking on me, I can’t really go anywhere.  I can go get a hair cut, go to doctor appointments, go to church and go for special occasions like Billy’s graduation.  The rest of the time I have to stay at home.  I feel like I am under house arrest.  I do take a ride every once in awhile to the mailbox or for errands.  But I am not allowed to go shopping or go to the movies.  It’s not too bad because I have a drain bag hanging off my shirt and I don’t particularly want people staring at me.  I am just glad to be home. I have an appointment on Thursday and I hope the drain will be taken out then.  Until then I am under house arrest sans ankle bracelet.

Is so ready to go home…

When I embarked on this journey to surgically correct my Crohn’s disease, I was apprehensive but felt good about the procedure. The procedure didn’t go as planned, but I was still positive and knew it would be a longer road.  Now I am in the hospital almost two weeks and am trying very hard to find a light at the end of the tunnel. I know the light is there and I will be able to feel the sun on my face and not just look at the window at it.  It is tough to be hear for so long when I expected to be here a week.  My target date to go home has come and gone and now I am back to square one. I was eating a full liquid diet, but know am back to just total nutrition and ice chips.  I try not to eat a lot of ice chips because then I have to go to the bathroom a lot which is an ordeal.  I have an abscess which then I had to get a drainage tube placed.  Not fun at all.  I just want to go home.  I cried today really hard after seeing my family.  It is so hard to see  the boys and not be able to really hug them.  I get stressed when I am around them especially now that I have a drainage tube.  I just have to get through this and know I can.  I need a  lot of prayers.  I try to keep my own prayers up and try very hard to keep my own spirits up.