Weekend Round-Up

So, I finally finished Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" on Friday. I was impressed. The series is easily one of the best I've ever read. When asked what the "moral" of the books is, Lemony Snicket a.k.a. Daniel Handler famously said "When you see Count Olaf, scream and run away."

Nevertheless, the series has a multitude of complex and entertaining lessons for readers of all ages. The overarching, I think, is that life is a series of ebbs and flows, ups and downs, lefts and rights, ins and outs, villains and heroes, safety and danger, night and day, black and white, and that different people see things in different ways. Also, despite the fact that the opinions and concerns of the young are often disregarded, our elders themselves make unfortunate, ridiculous, and devastating mistakes on a daily basis.

...but Mr. Handler still summed it up best.

I also watched "Zodiac" this weekend, which was good enough to keep me up until 3 in the morning, when I was ready to fall asleep at midnight...

My brother, Wayne, visited this weekend, along with his wife Rita and my niece Abby. He's a neuroradiologist at Ohio State. He took a look at my X-Rays and confirmed that the Orthopedic surgeons assessment was probably dead on...so surgery is indeed in my near future. My niece, Abby, is a dancer and photographer, which, I think, makes her one of the few members of my family interested in the arts...keep it up!


Now I'm just relaxing...getting ready for the long week of work I have ahead of me...gotta build up some comp time for the surgery...

Oh....and WATCH "THE HOST" PEOPLES!!!....that's all I'm a sayin'...

How to escape your own brain

That's the how-to manual I need. My brain, which feels much more like tapioca pudding than a head of cauliflower these days, needs to rest.

I can't even begin to discuss my confusion on how the brain (my brain, in particular) works.

Lately, the memory center of my brain has been malfunctioning. For example, events that occurred in the past that I would never imagine forgetting, I've forgotten. And random memories that I've attempted to blockade for years are popping into my mental playground uninvited.

I know any doctor or good friend will tell you it's not good to repress memories, no matter how much you don't want to be reminded of certain events. I, on the other hand, have encouraged the repression of painful memories for as long as I can remember. But now, that mentality is chasing me down, biting me on the ass, and the memories are pushing through, no matter what I do to avoid them.

I suppose since I haven't been working, my mind has had more of an opportunity to wander, and that could be a viable explanation for this new phenomena. Besides, in recent years, I've pushed past my adversities, pretending to be much stronger than I really am, and failed to confront certain issues that are now haunting me.

I'm ready to leave my past miseries at the door, but they don't seem to be ready to let me go. And it's consuming. I've done such a good job of expelling negativity from my life in the past year, and I can't allow these new, old reminders bring me down.

I'm so thankful for the wonders in my life now. I need to free up that space upstairs for millions of happy memories to come.

I gave up the therapy thing a long time ago; it doesn't work. I hate talking to anyone about my problems because, well, I'd like to look a lot stronger than I really am. So, I'll be doing a lot of private journaling - and then burning - it seems. One way or another, I'll set these demons free.

Surgery

Well, I found out today that I'm going to have surgery on my clavicle within the next couple of weeks. Yay!

(feel the sarcasm sinking in deep)
(now REALLY feel it)

Well, hell...if it'll fix this abnormal looking bulge poking into my skin where a normal clavicle should be....why not? They're going to put a metal plate in there to make it stay put....which, in turn, might have to be surgically removed after a year or two. The alternative, though, would be to put up with moderate pain for the rest of my life.

It would be cool, though, if they could somehow make me into a kick-ass cyborg while they're in there.

(Tap, tap, tap) Is this thing on?

Everyone knows ranting and raving every once in a while is absolutely necessary to survival. And Lord knows Nick and I always have something to rant and rave about. When you care, that's what happens.

More people should rant and rave. Let me rephrase that. More people should rant and rave about important things. Like health care, tuition expenses, and the lack of whole walnuts at the local Wal-Mart.

Well, with this blog, that's exactly what we'll be doing: ranting and raving about important things. Hopefully, our readers will be inspired, and they, too, will begin to rant and rave about things that matter.

Because if we don't do the griping, who will?

The Bad Beginning

Welcome to Blabbling with Nick and Jenn. This is where we go off about stuff and talk about general things in our lives. You know, like a blog...with babbling...blabbling. (Roll eyes here)

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