I’m just watching Erin Brockovich again, and I’m really really angry. Why the heck can’t the US get it’s act together and provide universal health care? I know so many of my friends and family (myself included since I have had no health care of any type for more than 5 years, aside from a 5 month period where I had access to supplemental care such as dental) either suffer through more than they need to or suffer horribly high medical bills. It’s just plain stupid! The only arguments I’ve heard against it are that:
1. It would raise taxes: boo hoo.. you’ll end up paying less (way way less) in the long run, unless you’re a magic fairy who never gets sick their entire life.
2. It would discourage new doctors or make doctors move to other countries: I don’t think so, unless I’m mistaken (which I very well could be).. there aren’t many non-universal health care countries left that those doctors would be as comfortable living in.. That’s really just my opinion though.
3. The HMO’s, Insurance Companies, Hospital Owners and other such business peoples would lose money and jobs, they would never let it happen: Yes it would be painful from a business side for awhile until things sorted themselves out, but at least all of those people wouldn’t have to worry about health care costs right?

How could it be bad?

So Monday night my throat started to feel scratchy.. by bedtime it was full on “I just swallowed a porcupine” mode. Tuesday, it got really bad. That night I was switching from sweating hot to freezing cold all night. That morning my throat felt better but I had the worst aches. I could barely stand up. Oh and I lost my voice too. We had Ken’s cousin Joel over to go to dinner and I sounded so horrible, I’m sure he thought I had the plague. While we were walking in the underground parking garage I felt like I was going to pass out a few times. Last night I got to sleep ok, but I woke up 3 hours later feeling like it had been a whole night, so I got up, had some more honey, took an advil and drank some water. I was really hot so I ended up watching Bloodrayne. What an awful movie. I thought it would be decent because it has a bunch of well known actors. Like Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriquez, Ben Kinglsey, Billy Zane.. but it was horrid!

During the movie my nose started getting drippy and I went back to bed right after. I woke up at 11am when our guests arrived. I was hoping I would feel a ton better, and while I don’t have the massive aches like yesterday or the porcupine throat of Tuesday, my tongue feels about twice it’s normal size, I’m talking like I just went to the dentists office and my nose is even runnier. I really hope that no one else gets sick from this. Though our cousin, Michelle said she had pretty much the same symptoms. Maybe we got sick at the same time, but I haven’t seen her in over a week now.

Everyone went to lunch, but I chose to stay home because I’m not feeling that hot and struggling to breathe in public is not one of my favorite things to do. I don’t think I could eat right now anyway. Rogue is meowing his head off because he was SO tortured by having to hide from a 16 month old He’s such a drama queen! I’m just going to try to relax for a few minutes till everyone returns.

I can’t wait until the weekend of the 26th! Ken and I are driving to NY to celebrate one of my favorite holidays in my favorite way! The Haunted Hayrides at the Double M Ranch in Ballston Spa. I always made it a rule to go whenever I was in the state and I haven’t been for many years. I also can’t wait to introduce Ken to my Grandfather and my Uncle and his family. He’s only ever met my Grandma and Great Aunt Marie. We’re having a big family dinner on Saturday night, and my mom and younger brother are coming from Virginia as well. I can’t wait to introduce him to Ted’s Fish Fry, he can’t quite understand my love affair with a place named after a food I won’t eat, but oh my god their hot dogs and shakes are awesome.

My mom and younger brother also want to meet up on Sunday for a very early dinner at a German restaurant they apparently love. Should be a fun fun weekend!

This was a great ending to the series.. not how I would have wanted it to end, but things seldom do end up the way you want them. I finished this book while visiting my friend Melar in Georgia. I loved all of the real life references, even the real-but-fictional King.

This was done for a Halloween themed sig exchange between the sig artists on the EQ2 forums.

I found the quote on a website, it’s by Benjamin Haydon. I thought it fit her description very well I really like how the background came out. I used a few hawaiian flowers She wanted her guild tag in red so I paired it with her name to give more balance. The black, blue and light blue symbolize her hope of bringing lightness to the dark.

Timrum wanted a dark assassin-y sig using a picture from Neriak if possible. I didn’t cut his character out myself, it proved too difficult for my skills as his character was surrounded by a dark purple background that matched his skin color. I did however do a lot of touch-ups on the Neriak statue and coloration on his character.