Health

I'm home today. Not really intentional but this morning, my lower digestive system decided it was going to gum up the works and make me feel like I was going to have to expel everything from the other end. I'm better now, after spending the better part of 3-4 hours either in the bathroom, curled up feeling sick, or asleep*, but this is part of a long line of annoying minor complaints I've had for the past two weeks.

Though, there is something. I had my yearly blood test last week. Since I'm on anti-anxiety drugs, the psychiatrist wants to make sure any feelings of moodiness, anxiety, depression or lack of energy (not to mention the side effect of feeling sleepy) were due to a busted brain and 15 mg of Lexapro, rather than everything else, I have to get blood drawn yearly. Except the only time this actually happened was when I was first medicated in '07. In between, the lab started testing Vitamin D levels.

Yesterday, I got a call from the nurse noting that my Vitamin D levels were low, and could I please come in next week to consult? I figure this is probably a mix of me not drinking milk and the fact I'm not eating as much fish as I used to. On the other hand, one website says as little as 10 minutes in sunlight should give me enough Vitamin D, assuming my body isn't breaking the parts that make it. Especially considering I have fair skin.

Before then, I hit up google for Vitamin D deficiency in adults. Rickets is what happens in kids, and it's apparently a lot less fun in people who are trying to grow bones than people who just need to maintain them. Adults just start bone softening, and are at increased risk of osteoporosis later on. Also, apparently you get pain from this, and fatigue. It would be really nice if the aches and pains were just from 'crappy diet' and would clear up if I start taking a multivitamin.

Bah, all my bitching about health makes me sound like an old woman. I'm not even thirty yet.

* Sleep is generally how I deal with feeling crummy, unless it's too crummy to sleep.

... And also a family rant.

Not quite a rant, but more a frustration I'm trying to work out.

Dad just emailed me to invite me to spend Christmas and his birthday in Florida with him and Marjorie, my stepmother. Normally I spend Christmas in Nebraska -- Dad lives there, Mom lives there, neither of my siblings have moved out of state, and I still have friends in Lincoln. But Dad and Marjorie have taken to spending winter break in Florida for the weather. Dad apparently thought I did things closer to how we did things as kids -- I'd spend Thanksgiving with one parent, and Christmas with the other, so he offered to pay for my plane ticket down to Florida, assuming I'd see Mom next month.

Well, except I don't feel like flying across the country for a long weekend, so I normally take a bus to Boston and visit my extended family there for the Thanksgiving holidays. So, if I take Dad up on his offer, I save some money, get to see him for Christmas, and get to spend Christmas on the beach. On the other hand, I won't see Mom or my friends -- and probably Jenn and Matt, since my sister both has to deal with spending time with Matt's family and if given a choice between Mom and Dad, will choose Mom. (I don't know about Ben -- he doesn't like having his routine disrupted*, but he also does like seeing Dad, though, unlike me, he sees Dad regularly.)

* And Christmas morning at Mom's is traditional -- normally either we go over Dad's the night before, or for Christmas dinner. Or, more recently, a later weekend.

The only compromise I can come up with is to visit Dad for a week or so for Christmas, and then maybe take a week off for my birthday to visit Nebraska.

Twitter Melodrama: A Play in One Act

Twitter Preacher: “Know God... Know Peace. No God.. No Peace!”

TP's Followers: *retweet*

Twitter software: Huh, a lot of people are saying that. ::automatically picks phrases out, including 'no god':: Better put it on a trending topic.

Chorus (including various and sundry pagans, atheists, troublemakers, and various people just sick of fundamentalist Christians): Hee! Let us play with this. *tweet*

Fundies: What... hey, that's not funny, guys! Damn atheists making 'No God' a trending topic.

Chorus: Guys, you started it. We just picked up the trend and ran with it.

Fundies: *curious mix of death threats and glurge*

Chorus: *botherbotherbotherglee*

Fundies: Twitter, make them stop!

Servers: WTF, this is bad! Red alert, red alert, too much stuff going on!

No God Trending Topic: *suddenly vanishes from the top position*†

Chorus: OMG Censorship!

Fundies: HA! SUCK IT, HERETICS! (Only not, because that would be gay.)


(Sourced from here -- I expect a second act when more blogs get into this, probably within 24 hours of this post going up.)
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† Friends advanced the position that Twitter might have done this as self-preservation to keep the servers running. I submit this is about the equivalent of tossing water on a fire only to realize some wag filled it with gasoline. If there is one thing that will get internet folks up in arms, it's censorship. Heck, it would have been better just to take down the entire Trending Topics widget for a day, just as sort of an even-handed thing, or even take the server down, in hopes that folks would lose interest if you cut off the instant response.