31 days, Yogi Bear, and a little Socialism

31 days, feeling great, all the normal stuff. Very excited to be through with the first month, and it went by so much faster that I thought it would have and doesn't seem like it was so bad. I know it was but those memories are becoming distant.


My back is still killing me. I did not go into work today, and had my second chiropractor appointment. I am actually in more pain now then I was this morning. It's not the sharp shooting pain, but more of soreness in my upper back, next and left arm and hand. I'll tell him about it when I go back on Friday.

I haven't been off of work for this long in a very long time. Other than the times I've been out of a job that is. It's very strange. I did not go in on Monday, and left early yesterday and no work today. I am going in tomorrow and going to try for the full day, we'll see how it goes.

Being home from work, there are some very interesting things on TV. I didn't know about the Boomerang channel, it's awesome! All classic cartoons like The Flintstones, Woody Woodpecker, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound. I watched for quite a while.

I also tuned into Fox news. I know I know bad idea. I am a totally left bleeding heart liberal, and I do in my daily life talk smack about the right wing, crazy christian, T-bagger, W, and moose hunter lovers. (I will not say their names in my blog; they do not deserve the mention). I also preach equality and treating each other with kindness and understandings, so I decided why not give it a shot to attempt to see the other side of things.

I decided to tune into Glen Beck, with all intentions of watching the full show. I will say right now that I was only able to get half way through before I only had three choices. 1. Change the channel and put on some Comedy Central, or MSNBC, 2. Throw the remote control through the TV, 3. Purchase a gun and go on a bloody rampage. My back hurt too much to throw anything with force, I am a strong supporter of gun control and refuse to ever hold one, let alone purchase one, so I was left with the rational channel change.

I sat on my couch unable to keep my jaw from hitting the floor, his banter just got more and more ridicules, moronic, and plain old dumb.

First thing, to anyone that supports and actually listens to these people. Communism and Socialism are not interchangeable terms they are completely different ideologies. If you are interested in knowing the difference, mentalfloss.com defines it well: http://www.mentalfloss.com/difference/communism-vs-socialism/

He also referred numerous times to the fact that "we don't want what happened in (insert random European country) to happen here" with ABSOLUTLY NO EXPLINATION OR REFERNCE to what event he was talking about. He also refers to himself as a patriot and claims he loves this country, in an quick attempt to find out more information on this person, I came across this quote from his then radio show in 2005 "When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining."

Nice isn't it? It makes me physically ill that there are people that I know personally, and once thought were normal people, whom I still care about and love watch this guy and believe in the lies that he spouts.

I do just wish that someone like Jon Stewart, or really anyone out there with a loud enough voice will call these people what they are, sore losers and racists. Plain and simple if you supported the democratic cause and voted democratic before Obama was elected and all of a sudden have joined the Tea Party movement stop saying that you have become a conservative overnight and be honest and say that you don't like him because he's black and you are a raciest pig, I'll have more respect for you if you just admit it, than if you say that you really think that Moose Hunter should be our next president.

One Month

Today is one full month since my last cigarette! My initial goal was to get to this point, and I made it. It seemed almost like a finish line way back at day one, but I now know that it's not. There is no finish line it's just the rest of my life. I still want to smoke every so often, but much less than I did in the first couple of weeks. Every situation brings different challenges, and old habit return to memory. I just have to keep pushing past those memories and create new ones. Always knowing that I have a better and healthier future ahead of me now. Life is better, smells better, tastes better, in feels better.


I am going to try to post every day, but may miss every so often. I missed yesterday because my back still hurts and I did not feel up to sitting up and typing. I am getting this post out of the way before the pain starts to come back. I went to see a chiropractor yesterday and I do indeed have a pinched nerve in my back, so I'm going to be taking it easy for a while. Just a constant shooting pain, a whole lot better than Saturday, but not anywhere near normal.

Tonight is Tuesday, and that means another new episode of LOST! Which is awesome, but also means another episode closer to the end, which sucks. Either way, can't wait to watch and I'm sure I will be praising and condemning Darlton tomorrow morning. See you then!

28 days later

I did not forget to post yesterday, just wasn't in the mood to write. If I did, it would have been a whole lot of bitching and venting. You see I hurt my back at work on Thursday, didn't feel any better on Friday, by the time I got home from work, I pretty much thought I was going to die. Saturday was worse than Friday. I was not able to do anything that requred lifting my left arm, bending down or basically moving. Needless to say I was not in a good mood, and did not feel like taking it out on the few readerst that I have.
Today I'm still in pain, but much less than yesterday, which is great!
Had an interesting night last night. My little cousin Teresamarie got engaged to her boyfriend Tony! I couldn't be happier for them, they make a great pair.
Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a huge fan of marriage, and don't really like weddings, but this month with first one of my best friends getting engaged and now my cousin, I am actaully excited for them.
Why am I not a big fan of marriage? Well putting aside my horriable first marriage, I feel that marriage should be an equal right. I do not like the "Crazy Christian" right stating that marriage is only between a man and a woman. I feel that any 2 people who love eachother and want to spend their lives together should have the right to get married, if that is what they want. Along with the benefits that go along with it, tax breaks, spousal rights, etc. It is not up to us to say what is right and wrong, and do not bring God into the mix. I can go on about the fear and the bigotry that goes along with being a christian, they do go hand in hand. But I'm not going to do that today. I will just say that I don't want to get married again until marrige is seen as an equal right. It's my small way of taking a stand.
On that note, congratulations Teresamarie and Tony! Live Long and Prosper.

Twenty Six Days and counting

Day Twenty Six, and once again, nothing new to report. Walking through the alleys to and from work don't really bother me anymore. Especially after this morning, I saw a woman, couldn't have been older than 40 or so smoking and hacking at the same time. You could hear her cough half way down the street. If any of you know me well enough, you know that the sound of people coughing, especially that deep flemmy cough makes me gag. I cannot stand it. I have moved seats on the train and shot people dirty looks if they are sitting behind me coughing. I tell my co-workers to go home, I can't stand the sound. So this really bothered me to see her still smoking after sounding like that. I'm sure I've done the same thing, and I'm happy and lucky that was only when I was sick and I never had that smokers cough and have had enough sense to attempt quitting before I did.


And I have what feels like a pinched nerve near my left shoulder blade, it has been killing me since yesterday afternoon. Any tips for dealing with it, other than going to a chiropractor?

1/4 of 100 days

I am a quarter the way through my first 100 days. I have no idea why 100 days is significant. I know that the media always take a close look at the first 100 days of a presidency, so I just decided as I was writing that these 100 days are just as important.

In being 1/4th the way there, I would take a deeper look into this journey, but 25 days doesn't seem long enough to really look into, maybe at 50 or 75 but for sure 100.
I have nothing else to write about this morning. I am back at work feeling a whole lot better than yesterday. I woke up and wasn't tempted to go back to bed. The day of rest paid off.

If I think of anything important or inspiring to talk about I'll post it later, but most likely, I'll see you tomorrow.

24 days, sick day, and LOST!

I took a sick day today, that's why I'm blogging so late. Nothing serious just a scratchy throat and stuffy nose. Figured that I'd take a day to rest and try to keep it from becoming a full blown cold, plus I've been extremely tired the past two days.


Onto Lost! Let me tell you the first episode LAX was crazy awesome! Have a couple of answers like the black smoke can't cross the white powder that's why it was surrounding the cabin, so that makes no more sense than it did before. I am very upset that I had to watch Juliet die twice in the same episode! I mean I was crying at the last scene of the recap with Sawyer yelling at her to not let go, and you do it 2 more times, Damon and Carlton, what in the world were you thinking! At least you didn't kill Charlie again, it was close, but alt timeline Charlie made it, even though he was promptly arrested and won't become the Charlie we loved on the island and will most likely OD soon, he's still alive, because if you killed Charlie again I'd have to fly on down to Hawaii and do some damage!

So basically that is my theory. If you believe in string theory, there are millions of alternative universes out there. Basically every decision that you make, there is a universe that you made the opposite choice. So now the show is dealing with two separate universes, one where the plane crashed and the bomb put them all into the current timeline, and one where the plane didn't crash and none of them ever met. I think I like it, well done Darlton! Well done!

So the quitting is going great, I feel more like myself than ever before, I just feel normal.

Day 23, Elections, and LOST!

Twenty-three days smoke free! I'm really running out of things to talk about on this subject, so I decided that after 30 days I will update on this venture weekly instead of daily.




Today is primary election day here in Illinois! I know a lot of you don't vote in primaries because you don't want to declare a party or don't think they really matter. They do matter, this is the time when you get to decide who will be in the general election. I don't want to hear anyone in the general election that didn't vote in the primary complain that they don't like any of the candidates. Now is the time to have your say. I don't care if your Democratic, Republican or independent. Although in Illinois it's pretty much a waste of time to pull an Independent party ticket, since there is usually no opposition. Me, I'm pulling a democratic ticket, I know that won't surprise anyone. I'm still undecided on who I've voting for governor, I've always liked Quinn, seems like a normal guy who pulls for the little guy, but Hynes doesn't seem so bad either. I have to do some research and most likely won't make up my mind until I'm in the booth. I support Alexi Giannoulias for senate, I've liked him since the Obama election when I first noticed him, and think he is the right person to fill Obama's seat. Cook County board is a no win election I don't like anyone, but I really don't like Stroger, so it's choosing who is the least evil out of the group. We shall see.



On a more exciting note, tonight is the premier of the final season of Lost! I can't wait to see what happened after Juliet set off the bomb last season. I have been a huge fan of the show since it premiered, so am very excited to have it back, and also sad that this is the last season. I'll try to post a recap tomorrow.