Are You Loyal to Your Old Area Code?

Have you moved recently? Is your cell phone still loyal to your old area code? Do you feel the need to get a new number in your new area code?

I ask because as many of you know I moved from my beloved New Jersey and the 732 area code to rural Georgia and the 770 area code in June of 2007. I staunchly refused to change my number when I arrived because I was a Jersey Girl. I'm still a Jersey Girl but I'm getting tired of the funny looks at the doctors office and other places when people ask for my cell number. I don't know why but I feel like by giving up that 732 cell# I am giving up a bit of myself and my rights to go home again. Yeah, I know that's stupid but I like my cell number, I've had it for like 5 years now. If I change I might get an ugly number.

I remember watching Men in Trees last year and the main character, played by Anne Heche, faced a similar decision and it totally resonated with me.

Men in Trees - Episode: Get a Life Area Codes 917 and 646

Annie: Jack, no! A 646, maybe, but a 917? That's vintage, that's class, that's New York City.

The original area code for land lines in New York City/Manhattan was 212. In the 90s, the 917 area code was overlaid in the same area, meaning new numbers, mostly cell phones, were given the 917 area code. In 1999, area code 646 was added. This is why Annie calls 917 vintage. If someone has a 917 area code, it is believed to be more elite because a person had a cell phone before the big wave of technology.

Recent Celebrity Deaths

I was affected and saddened by varying degrees by all of the recent celebrity deaths.

Ed Mc Mahon - was the sidekick to Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show for over 20 years. I have always been a night owl and grew up watching that show. I remember when it was 90 minutes and was upset when they shortened it to only 60 minutes.

His sideline was the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes and like many other Americans I fantasized about the day he would show up at my front door with a BIG check.

Farrah Fawcett - When I was a kid and she was at her peak, she was still Farrah Fawcett-Majors. She was the beautiful, blonde angel that everyone loved. Bonus she was married to the Six Million Dollar Man they were the epitome of the beautiful Hollywood couple.

I probably never gave her the credit she deserved as a dramatic actress; but she had a profound and positive influence on my floundering pubescent self-esteem, for which I am eternally grateful. As a result of that poster in the red one piece swimsuit I stopped being ashamed of my small boobs for which I was teased unmercifully at school and started walking taller and prouder. I rarely got my hair to feather as perfectly as hers did, but I think the gift of self esteem to an adolescent girl is worth far more in retrospect.

Michael Jackson - I literally grew up with his music. I watched the cartoons of the Jackson 5 religiously and I even had the coloring books. From 1976 until now, I don't think I have ever made a mix tape/CD that didn't include at least one of his songs. I think I stopped liking his physical appearance after Thriller. Over the years and his myriad of changes I have chosen to remember MJ as he looked when I first became aware of him. That's the Michael I had a crush on and when I hear ABC, or Rockin' Robin I can shut my eyes and see his sweet, brown, smiling face.

I think Michael Jackson's death makes me the most sad because he was only 7 years older than me and his death reminds me of my own mortality.

Mystery Malady

So this morning (Saturday, 6/27/09) around 4:00 AM I am puttering around on the PC, whilst eating popcorn and drinking lemonade. I dropped a piece of popcorn on the floor and picked it up with my toes. Yeah, I know I'm weird; but I've been picking stuff up with my feet since I was a kid. Besides it's not like I was gonna eat it.

Anyway as I lift my right foot to put the popcorn in my left hand I had the most God awful stabbing pain in my lower right abdomen, near the pelvic bone. It felt kinda swollen, then I was sidetracked by the immense heat, nausea, and dizziness that swept over me. I have a portable a/c unit in my room and I was cool and comfy mere seconds before. Now all of a sudden, sweat is popping out on my forehead and I'm nauseous. WTF?!? When I try to put my leg down the pain gets worse and I feel a hard knot, like a large marble, between my belly button my pelvic bone. I push on it and it hurts bad, but then it disappears and the pain goes away. I stumble to my bed and basically pass out until about 11:00 AM.

My self diagnosis was a hernia until I of course checked the net and now I am thinking possibly appendicitis because I have had intermittent nausea, dizziness, lack of appetite, and consistent tenderness in the lower right quadrant of my abdomen all day.

I have an ominous feeling that this is most likely appendicitis; but I don't want to go to the ER on a Saturday night. That's when all the drunks, bar fights, and domestic violence people are in there. Plus I want a real surgeon, not a student who will make my belly look like a Rand Mc Nally map. I'm hoping I can hold out until at least 9 AM on Monday. Then again maybe it's something routine but not potentially deadly like a hernia.

Oh and the third option is, adhesions from my most recent surgery in May. That was a hysteroscopic myomectomy.

Anyone with a medical background want to take a stab at a diagnosis?

Septic Tanks Are Barbaric

The septic tank and leech field debacle continues. Chad started to dig today
as you can see. He thought he was putting in additional septic lines
but it seems someone (phone, cable, electric who knows?) cut through
the septic field lines. And the reason we have had to get our septic
tanks pumped 3 times in the last 7 weeks is because we have only been
using one-third of the available septic lines. So I'm not sure if he
can repair that or if we still need new lines dug.

Don't even get me started on why the septic tank is in the front yard underneath the master bedroom window. We've got 1.25 acres most of which is backyard. They should have put it there!

I'm not being elitist, septic tanks Are barbaric. Coming from the civilized north where septic tanks are as common as hen's teeth; to Georgia where they are as common as Walmart. I just don't understand. A septic tank and field is a functional but extremely archaic way to remove human waste. No matter how well constructed and maintained you always run the risk of contaminating the ground water supply.

If it weren't for bad luck, I swear we wouldn't have any luck at all.

2 niggaz in a pickup truck

My parents, my mother in particular has a long history of not believing me when I tell her something. It doesn't matter what it is, she just assumes I am wrong and anybody else is correct...especially if that someone else is a male. Her mother was the same way. So I guess it's hereditary, or maybe it's just because mom is of the last genration to think men must have all the answers.

Anywho I was trying to get the pool clean. We didn't open it until last Wednesday because mom said not to. More on this monumental headache later.

Mom almost bought $138 worth of frozen steak and fish from '2 niggaz in a pickup truck' today. I think my blood pressure went through the roof. The guys worked for some shyster company, the name was neatly printed on the side of the truck to give an air of legitimacy.

I looked at the meat but it didn't look fresh, even though it was frozen and cryo-vac'd which is like being hermetically sealed. The website was on the side of the truck so I quick looked it up and found all sorts of complaints! I printed out one and mom didnt believe me! She listened to that shyster salesman. She believed some black man off the street over ME!!!! I was PISSED OFF!
I went back and printed out 3 different complaints and finally she believed me. She grudgingly made them take the meat out of the freezer in the garage. Luckily she had yet to give them a check.

Let me tell you, I was LIVID! When I tell you something is a SCAM and provide proof of said scam, then Damn It you better believe me and do as I say.

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy anything from The Cattle Exchange! The company is real, but the product is substandard and it's basically just a scam. They come door to door selling frozen steaks, burgers, fish, shrimp and I think they had some pork chops. Best part of the scam it's not a freezer truck. It's a pickup with a freezer in the back of it. The kind you bend over and reach into, that you buy at Sears. What is this plugged into? It was 3 PM when they got to us, how long had it been unplugged? Since 8 AM or 9AM? Meh, no thank you.


Bottom Line: When I tell you the berries are ripe, get your basket and start picking.

Matricide isn't murder . . .

If I can get my blood pressure down and settle my nerves long enough to stop thinking matricide is worth the time I would have to serve in prison. I will blog about what my beloved mother did today to set me off; and put me in such a foul mood. This may take some more wine. Yes, I have already had one glass of chardonnay.

Quotes I Like

Being caregiver to senior citizens is like living with 80 year old toddlers . . .
who are in constant need of a nap. Patricia Green

"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't,
than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is." Albert Camus

Without integrity there is no love. ~ Halle Berry

"Forgive me for not writing but this man is exhausting.” ~ Wallis Simpson

"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." ~ Dalai Lama

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. Marcus Aurelius

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. Marcus Aurelius

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees. Marcus Aurelius

Poverty is the mother of crime. Marcus Aurelius

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. Marcus Aurelius

I'm very happy at home. I love to just hang out with my daughter, I love to work in my garden. I'm not a gaping hole of need. Uma Thurman

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Marcus Tullius Cicero

The country is making a big mistake not teaching kids to cook and raise a garden and build fires. Loretta Lynn