soupy says

Yesterday I mailed my medical forms to the Peace Corps and started a new job.

My medical labs got in over a week ago, but I ended up needing a dental appointment because one of the required check-ups hadn’t been done since 2004. After my dentist visit, I swung by the doctor’s to pick up my forms, but I discovered that one page hadn’t been signed. I had to wait until the next morning for this signature to be completed. Every form gave me a clean bill of health. I am a healthy girl. It seems that the only way I wouldn’t get medically cleared is that something in the paperwork got messed up. I hope that is not the case.

As for work, I’m back in retail. I needed something that I wouldn’t feel like a total jerk quitting 5 - 6 months later. It’s my first time working in clothing, and it is my first time not on the cash register. It’s my most mindless job to date, but I’m not going to face customer check-out-line-wrath. Although I am working for another mega-corporation, so far, this one seems to be pretty low on the evil scale. The employee benefits are pretty nice (more so if you stick around long term), and they actually believe in good customer service. All this means I am not working for another Best Buy, and that, I refuse to do ever again.

The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005
It deserves a mention for just for the fellowing entry:

27. Ann Coulter

Charges: The fact that Coulter is considered desirable by Republicans belies their sick and masochistic nature. We saw Coulter in person this year, and she is a revolting skeleton with a boob job and a grotesquely oversized head, who feeds only on the hatred of her target audience, liberals. Only redeeming quality is that she is impossible to take seriously–really more of a shock comic than a political commentator, whether she knows it or not.

Exhibit A: “I’m getting a little fed up with hearing about, oh, civilian casualties.”

Sentence: Confined to Mississippi, forever banned from interacting with the lefty intellectuals she lives to antagonize.

But the rest of the list is pretty fun as well. The picture for Bill O’Reilly (number 10) is fantastic, and I wholeheartedly agree with number 1.

Uh oh. I have rediscovered the Bravo network.

This evening I spent my time watching To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, two episodes of “Project Runway,” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” Also, I forgot that Bravo seems to be the only station that shows ads for Orbitz’s Gay Travel specials.

I do want to say, in my defense, that while I wasted precious brain cells on shit television, I crafted and made paper beads. Well, until my glue stick died that is.

President Bush says

In 2005 the American economy turned in a performance that is the envy of the industrialized world, and we did this in spite of higher oil prices and natural disasters. We’re strong, and I’m optimistic about the future of this economy.

Hm. But then you have these “facts” from the Economic Policy Institute (Even more behind the link.)

Consequently, median household income (inflation-adjusted) has fallen five years in a row and was 4% lower in 2004 than in 1999, falling from $46,129 to $44,389.

The personal savings rate is negative for the first time since WWII.

More than 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since January 2000.

More children are living in poverty: the child poverty rate increased from 16.2% in 2000 to 17.8% in 2004.

Households are spending more on health care. Family health costs rose 43-45% for married couples with children, single mothers, and young singles from 2000 to 2003.

The wisdom of Rush Limbaugh:

I’m not talking — I know how many of you want to be sexually harassed — that’s not what I’m asking. But if somebody wants to hire you to look good for whoever is the first to walk in the door every day, why not, if that’s your asset?
Now, I have a real-world question for those of you women in the audience. Just something I’d like to know. How many of you in the secrecy and privacy of your own dreams and hopes would love to be hired as eye candy?

See context here.

Fun addition! I bring you a quote from my cousin.

“I get all my news from Rush Limbaugh.”

The scariest part? He’s not the only one.

I had a pretty weird dream last night. So, for fun I decided to look up symbols in the Dream Dictionary.

A male and female deer got into our house. The male deer ran around while the female deer just lied by the door.

To see a deer in your dream, symbolizes grace, gentleness, and natural beauty. It has feminine qualities and may point to the feminine aspect within yourself. It also represents independence and virility. Consider the symbol to be a pun for someone who is “dear” to you.

To see your home in your dream, signifies security, basic needs, and values. You may feel at home at your new job or you finally feel settled and comfortable in a new environment.

Somehow as the male deer ran around, I got on its back. When I got near the front door, I got the door open and the deer ran out.

A door that opens to the outside, signifies your need to be more accessible to others.

I discovered that my dog was laying outside gushing blood from an open wound on her tummy.

If the dog is dead or dying, then it indicates a loss of a good friend. Alternatively, it represents a deterioration of your instincts. Also consider common notions associated with the word dog, such as loyalty (”man’s best friend”) and to be “treated like a dog”.

To see your or someone else’s pet in your dream, represents civilized instincts. You are keeping your temper in line. Alternatively, it indicates a need for love and acceptance. You are lacking attention from others and are feeling neglected. The pet may also be a pun for “petting” as in some sexual behavior.

Then I woke up.

First of all, you decides this dream interpretation stuff?
Secondly, my dreams suck.

I miss my professors’ lectures. Well, the good ones anyway. That is why I’m so happy to have found Stanford on iTunes. Free education!

I just listened to one titled “Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq.” I highly recommend it. Prof. David really sums up my feelings reguarding our current situation: neither party has really been offering up realistic solutions. To get to it click on “Open Stanford on iTunes,” then on “Faculty Lectures, and then click on number 21. The lecture is based on his book by the same name. Of course, I’ll just add it to my reading list of 329372423723 other books.

I decided to upload all my Peace Corps posts from the old blog so they’d all be in one place.

But other than that, a new start of sorts.

Today, I went to the doctor (well, doctor’s assistant) to get my Peace Corps physical. The nurse had a nephew currently serving in Africa, and she looked over the paperwork and commented how much there was (”a pap smear is required?”). The doctor’s assistant that did the actual physical said she had just done one of these a short time ago, and that she knew “how much work it is!”

After the check-up, I was supposed to hang tight until everything was ready for my blood tests. A short time later, the doctor’s assistant came in and told me that it would be a bit longer. The nurse was on the phone with the lab to see if they could consolidate some of the test tubes for multiple tests. “They want a lot of blood.” When I sat down to get poked, the nurse said, “it’s a good thing you’ve given blood before.” Then during the test, another nurse came by and saw all the tubes and said, “whoa.” Ok, you get the picture.

However, shortly after the nurse started to take blood, I realized I hadn’t eaten since about 11:45 AM, and at that point, it was about 5 PM. Yes, I had given blood before, but the first time I gave, I almost passed out because I hadn’t eaten right before. Uh oh. I was doing ok until the very last tube. I was feeling a little lightheaded, but I knew it was over soon.

The nurse said, “We should get you some orange juice.”
“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.”

As soon as she said, “We are all done.” My head started swim. All of a sudden there were five people around me, and the nurse told me to put my head between my legs. Someone else got an orange juice box. I felt a lot better after sitting there for a minute, but the nurse led me into a room and had me lay down while she took my TB test. I was told that all of a sudden my face turned white. As I left the office, the nurse gave me peanut butter crackers. I have to go back Friday to get the results of my TB test, and then I get to go in Tuesday for the much loved pap smear. (I promise I will not go into as much detail describing that visit. ha.)

So, for any potential Peace Corps applicants out there, eat before you go into your doctor’s appointment. You are going to give “a lot of blood.”

Thanks, Uncle Sam!