Stream of Conscience

It was supposed to be a horrible weekend. Rain, sleet, snow, freezing rain, ice. On Friday I stopped by the grocery store to pick the necessities. I already had enough milk, bread and toilet paper (the usual storm staples), so I bought the other necessities: wine, cheese and ice cream. I was all set to hunker down with the possibility of a “snow day” on Monday.

And what happens? I wake up Saturday morning and there’s nada. Weather folks said it would start at 3 p.m., then at dusk. Well, Sunday morning came and guess what. Nana. Now I have to go get ready for work tomorrow.

Stupid weather!

On the positive side, new Dexter tonight.  Season finale.   I don’t think Lilah’s long for the this world, but not sure about Doakes.  Guess I’ll find out in a few hours.  Unless they end the season with a cliffhanger.  In that case:  stupid tv.

I decided I ought to quit bitching about the blog design, and obsessing how to get it to where I want (e.g., spending most of my computer time trying to fix the design) and start writing more. I’m still working on the design, but I’m not going to gripe about it here. Maybe.

And now, the saga of the nose. I’m not allowed to blow my nose, but there’s a lot of stuff up there that’s driving me nuts. I know this is all part of the healing process, so I’m not alarmed. It just means that in addition to the regular nose junk, I have scabby tissue. (Sounds great, doesn’t it?) So, I rinse the nostrils out 3-4 times a day with salt water. The feeling is similar to when you get water up your nose in the swimming pool. And what’s really funny is that when you send the water up one nostril, it comes out the other as well.

Funny thing is, I kind of like it. Yes, it’s really perverse. I think I might become addicted to snorting salt water.

When I saw the doctor on Wednesday, he told me no bending or lifting anything heavier than 10 lbs. Sounds good in theory, but, how am I supposed to feed the cats or empty the dishwasher, or (most importantly) brush Kimmi when she demands it, without bending over? Yesterday, when I bent over to do any of these things, water would run out of my nose. It’s kind of funny, but annoying. Well, at least it’s clear liquid and not anything too gross.

The season premiere of Supernatural was on Thursday. I was a bit underwhelmed. It wasn’t a bad episode, it just didn’t blow me away, like last year’s season premiere. And, given the subject matter, the Seven Deadly Sins, it could have been so much more.

I’m trying to branch out with my tv viewing habits, watching a couple new shows that have gotten lots of buzz, but so far nothing’s really sucked me in.

I’ve fallen asleep on the sofa more times in the last 2 days than I have in the previous 20 years.

I had my first experience with general anesthesia on Monday, and it was probably the thing I was most nervous about going in for septoplasty, i.e., surgery to fix my deviated septum and improve my sinuses. First of all, I knew that going under general anesthesia is pretty serious, which I suppose is why the person administering it is a physician. But I also wondered what it would feel like. Would I dream? Would I somehow subconsciously be aware of what was going on? Would it really make me impervious to pain? Would I even wake up afterwards?

I actually walked into the operating room. I got on the table, and the assistants started prepping me, putting a pillow under my knees, adjusting the head rest. The nurse said we’re going to give you something to make you relax.

The next thing I remember was lying in bed. I was pretty groggy and wondered when the surgery would start. As I lay there (too tired to open my eyes), I began to wonder if the surgery was over and I was in the recovery room. I was breathing through my nose, and I didn’t feel anything on my face. There was absolutely no pain. Finally, someone came in and asked how I was doing & if I had any pain. My first question was, “Is the surgery over?” To my delight, she replied, Yes.”

Obviously, I’d gone unconscious in less than one minute.

My friend brought me home and kind of mothered me for a little bit. Once I got settled onto the sofa with all remotes in hand, she left. That’s when the sofa sleeping began. I fell asleep at least 3 times before finally deciding I ought to go to bed. On Tuesday, I fell asleep a couple times in the morning and a couple more later. And I had an honest-to-goodness nap, where I actually went to bed and slept under the covers.

I imagine most of the tiredness was due to the anesthesia. They say it stays in your system for about 24 hours. But some of it might have been from the pain medication. Whatever it was, it worked really well.

Yesterday I went to the doctor for a checkup and he took out the splints. Holy cow! Those mothers were about 4 inches long! You’d think they’d be poking my eyes out. Now that I think about it, the sinus area under my eyes did feel a little swollen and sensitive.

I’d really been looking forward to having the week off from work. But here it is Thursday, and I haven’t done a darned thing. Of course, today is the first day that I’ve actually felt kind of human. I haven’t had to take any pain medicine, but my sinuses are still annoying. Of course, they’re still in the process of healing. I’d go into more discussion about them, but it’s pretty gross, so I’ll just leave things at that.

In other news, season 3 of Supernatural airs tonight. I’m oddly calm about it. I think I’m worried that the show has peaked with the death of the “Yellow-Eyed Demon.” Plus, the addition of 2 new chicks doesn’t thrill me. I also watched the “Director’s Cut” on the CW website, and was highly underwhelmed. I hope the show doesn’t poop out just when I’m trying to get more friends interested in it.

Then again, I wondered how could season 2 be better than season 1; and yet it was.

Thank you, nuj! I now have my very own Supernatural Season 3 countdown ticker, aka, cute sidebar thingie. Except mine isn’t in my sidebar. (Geez, I guess that means I better get crackin’ with my Supernatural episode summaries!)

I sat in a briefing today that really peeved me. It puts the folks I work with in a bad light, and I feel horrible for them. They are terrific people who are working their asses off; and now, if the briefing slides don’t change between now and next Thursday, there is going to be hell to pay. We will have to scrape no less than three senior officers off the ceiling. So, in order to make the evening more enjoyable, here are:

Thirteen things I’m grateful for:

1. my paycheck, which is rather nice
2. my commute to work, which is pretty easy
3. my car, a 2000 Lexus (I bought it used) that runs like a dream
4. the people I work with. They’re very smart and hard working and I’m so privileged to know them.
5. my home, which provides me immense comfort
6. Kristen and Michael’s impending new arrival
7. in addition to Kristen, her two brothers, who are the absolute bestest
8. my renewed interest in knitting, which allows me to make adorable things for #6
9. all the kitties that have graced my life with their unconditional love; Brandy, Cassie, Chelsea, Britta, Gigi, Daisy, Kimmi and Shadow (even though his unconditional love is sometimes a bit too much)
10. Michelle Market, whose specialties are a perfect fit for my neuroses
11. my iPod, which has allowed me to download songs from Supernatural and make CDs for my “best friend-in-law” and me
12. Supernatural Season 1 DVD sets being on sale so that I can buy a whole bunch of them to give out to others
13. several friends who have birthdays this month who will be getting Supernatural DVDs and CDs as presents.

Yes, it’s true. It really does all boil down to Supernatural!

(Sorry for the inconsistency in blogging, especially my plan to blog the Supernatural summaries once a week. Worse, I have no excuse. Thank you, Teresa, for getting me off my butt and back into the swing of things. Now I’ll have to blog a couple times a week—or more—just to finish up before the start of the third season; which, by the way, doesn’t happen until the beginning of October. again )

Bloody Mary is an important episode in the overall gist of the show. It’s one of the episodes I’d recommend if you wanted to watch just a few episodes of the show in order to understand the entire “mytharc.”

Sam’s nightmares about Jessica’s death continue to haunt him, and it becomes apparent why he’s having these nightmares. Sam feels terribly guilty because he dreamt about Jessica’s death for days before it happened, but said and did nothing about it.

While not essential to the “mytharc” of the series, Skin provides a great insight into Dean’s character, especially his feelings of resentment towards Sam. It might be a good episode to watch as it’s heavily referenced in two of my favorite season 2 episodes, The Usual Suspects and Nightshifter.

Hookman is a stand alone episode. In fact, I never saw it (it was one of only 4 episodes not repeated over the summer) until I bought the Season 1 DVD set, and I was fully able to follow the continuing story.

The only note worth mentioning is that Sam makes a small connection with a young college girl, but explains he isn’t ready to move on yet. At the end, Dean watches hopefully as Sam and the girl talk, but Sam makes no move and is quiet as the two head out of town.

The next two episodes are pretty much stand-alone episodes, but they do provide a few hints into the characters’ psyches.

Dead in the Water continues to be one of my favorites. Dean bonds with a young boy who has gone mute after witnessing a mysterious drowning. Having also witnessed a traumatic event in his own childhood, Dean tells the boy about how his mother’s memory motivates him. This is the first time Sam has seen Dean’s deeper side; but when he asks Dean about it, Dean brushes him off, returning to his stoic, macho facade.

Sam is still having trouble sleeping as Phantom Traveler begins. Dean is contacted by a man, Jerry, he and his father had helped a few years before. Jerry has found some unusual noises on a recording from a plane crash. When they meet, Jerry tells Sam about how proud his dad was of him. Sam is surprised, because the two of them fought constantly before Sam left for college, leaving Sam to believe his father didn’t want him to go.

On a lighter note, we learn that Dean is afraid of flying. It makes for some humorous moments, and is mentioned in Everybody Loves a Clown.

With the hope of getting new Supernatural viewers for season 3, I thought it might be a good idea to provide a bit of the history of the show. While you can enjoy the show without knowing its history, being aware of the backstory helps in understanding the characters’ personalities and motivations.

Over the course of the next 11 or 12 weeks, I’m going to try to summarize the Supernatural backstory. I don’t plan to write episode summaries per se; rather, I want to concentrate on the events that carry over from one episode to another, such as the brothers’ relationship and what drives each of them. So, let me start…

Meet the Winchesters

In the Pilot, John and Mary Winchester are a young couple from Lawrence, Kansas, (more…)

I have been remiss not only in updating my blog, but also in furthering my blogging education. Finally this weekend, I went back to read my favorite blogstress, Lorelle on Wordpress, and boy, have I missed a bunch! (But then, with Lorelle, if you miss a day, you’ve usually missed something worthwhile and useful.)

I was actually looking for something specific (how to add a page to let new comment authors know their post is being held for moderation), but couldn’t find it. I’m sure that if I keep on reading her blog, the topic will come up again; as will how to hide subpages until the main page is selected, which I also want to incorporate here.

However, I did find a couple to great articles worth my time. One is this week’s blog challenge, which is to write about why I started blogging. I can do that very easily as I’ve done it several time already.

The other was the announcement of the blogging marathon to take place on July 28th. One of my goals for this year is to participate in a marathon. Since my health doesn’t really allow me to stay up all night, I thought I’d support by actively commenting on the marathoners’ blogs.

Except that now I’ve come up with a couple of ideas that could be used in a blog marathon. Maybe I could blog on my own for, say, 18 hours, but I think that’d take away from those that are “running” the whole marathon. Besides, my goal was to actively comment, not blog. So I really ought to stick with my goals rather than try to bite off more than I can chew.

However, I think I’ll take one of my marathon ideas and write about it on a weekly basis; and that is to write a serialized synopsis of the tv show Supernatural. Perhaps I can provide a “story so far” series in hopes of getting new viewers to start watching the 3rd season without being too far out of the loop. I’d sort of tried this at my LiveJournal blog, but I think in support of 2007 goal #3, incorporate my blogs, I’ll go ahead move my Supernatural obsession addiction discussions over here.

I’m taking a writing class. The idea is to possibly write a memoir about my parents. I came to this conclusion after a heavy-duty session with my counselor. The impetus for it was the season finale of Supernatural. In it, one of the brothers sells his soul in order to bring his brother back to life. (Hey, the series is named Supernatural for a reason!) As selling brother says as he’s getting his ass reamed by the fabulous Bobby Singer, “At least maybe now my life can mean something.” To which Bobby says “And it didn’t before? Are you that screwed in the head?”  (To which I always reply, “Yes, Bobby, he is.”)

This scene really affected me because I’ve often felt the same way.  Why am I here?  I haven’t procreated, I’m stuck in a job I don’t like, I’ve alienated a couple of great friends, my only brother and I are estranged, and I haven’t done any extra-curricular activities in several years.

Ever since my father died over 10 years ago, I’ve wanted to write about my parents. They were part of the “greatest generation.” The things they lived through as young adults, I can’t even fathom. And they were two of the best people I’ve ever known. (They weren’t necessarily the best parents, which is partly why I’m so screwed in the head, but they were wonderful people, and I’m so glad I got to know them as an adult.)

While I’m a fairly good writer, I’m not terribly creative. I’m hoping this class will help me tap into some part of my brain I haven’t used yet. Wish me luck. By the way, for my first assignment, I wrote about a trip I took last week to Fort Worth, Texas. You can read about it ad nauseum here. (Most of the posts on the first page relate the story. And I’ll be writing about it here, too, because it was just that awesome!) This week, I’m going to write about my grandfather, Sigel Overholt.  Funny name, wonderful man.