Umbilical Hernias, Fear of Pain, and Death (it's fear of pain, not fear of death)

I wanted to post a picture of an umbilical hernia but they were just way too gross and I thought this picture of a little kid wearing a harness to hold in his umbilical hernia was better.

Every time I have to say I'm having surgery on my umbilical hernia I just cringe. I hate the way it sounds! I wish I was saying something a lot more exciting like I'm having a tummy tuck or something. But unfortunately I'm not. I'm going under the knife and anaesthesia next Wednesday to have this annoying thing fixed.

What else? Why is it that when you have a deadline like this over your head the days just fly back way faster than any other time ever? I am trying to tie up a bunch of loose ends at work and I need to make sure that I leave everything prepared for when I'm gone. The days are thus flying by like crazy.

And whenever I'm going under the knife and anaesthesia I get this little prick of fear that I'm either going to 1. wake up during surgery and that I'll feel everything or 2. that I won't wake up at all. I don't even know why I have that fear. I went completely under when I had my tonsils taken out when I was in 2nd grade, when I had all my wisdom teeth taken out when I was 16 and most recently when I had my lap band put in. Every time I've reacted well to the anaesthesia and I've woken right up like I was in a deep yummy sleep. So I don't know why I worry.

So Wednesday is the day. If I die know this. I didn't do everything I wanted to do in life but I got a bunch of good stuff done. I can't complain. (my friends hate when I talk about dying) I still didn't take my trip around the world.

But I CAN'T DIE because I'm hopefully going to MIAMI when I get back. YEAH! I have to go for work but I'm going to stay over the weekend like I often do when I'm going for work. I'm totally going to relax. I want to go to a spa so I can have a great massage and I'm going to go to South Beach. Can't wait!

Oh and on one last note my mother-in-law the saint took my kids overnight yesterday and Rey and I had the chance to go get margaritas at the little Mexican restaurant by our house and to be silly together. It was a great feeling. That's all.

P.S. Oh yeah, and Glow in the dark Mars Mud that we bought at the Children's Museum is awesome! It reminds me of that old Slime toy that was around when we were kids.

Interesting Things This Week

I went to the lab to have some blood work done and it always amazes me how people dress out in public. My favorite was when the elevator doors opened at one point and there was a lady in big black rollers standing in front waiting for the elevator to go the opposite direction. She didn't even have a scarf on her head to cover or attempt to hide the rollers. Another lady was wearing house shoes. Like fluffy house shoes! Wow! Why do people do that? When I get old if I start doing either one of those things please lock me up!


Then I had a wonderful experience at the lab. The young girl phlebotomist almost killed me! She stabbed me in the left arm and then kept moving the needle around to the point that she made me scream from the pain! After all the torture she didn't even get any blood out.


So then she said she was going to take it from my hand and I told her, "NO! Please try my right arm first! I would rather you stick me in the arm again." It hurts really bad in the hand! When I had one of the kids I had to have the IV stuck in my hand and I cried from the pain, it was that bad. Thank goodness she was able to draw what she needed from my right arm. Now I'm sporting a little purple bruise on the inside of my arm.


I received the August issue of Texas Monthly and I'm calling it a Trifecta. There are three great things about this issue.

1. There's an excerpt from my cousin Oscar Casares' new novel Amigoland.
2. There's a review on Nina Diaz from Girl in a Coma,
3. In the cover story, "The 50 Best Burgers in Texas" Speedy Burger's Mexican Burger is listed as #48. Speedy Burger is down the street from my house on Irvington and I LOVE their Mexican burger. YUM! I'm so glad it got the recognition it deserves.

So it's official. I'm having surgery in early August. I have to have a hernia repaired. Yes, yuck, I know. On a bad note, yes it will be painful the first couple of days and yes, I have to be absolutely still for like a week.

But on a good note, I will be at home for two weeks and I have a list of things I'm going to do while I'm having to stay at home. Like finally finishing Seth's baby book. Yes, he's 5 and I'm just now finishing it. I also have a couple of other projects I need to get started and this will be a good opportunity to get them done.

The first week I can't drive and I have to be pretty still. The second week I think I can drive but I can't do anything strenuous. So the first week, after the initial pain wears off, I can get some of my projects started.

I know I encountered a lot of other interesting things this week but I can't remember them now. I'm getting old. Oh yeah! Which reminds me. It's now going to be 29 weeks to 40! The count down begins!

My Daughter is Addicted to Astro Boy

My husband introduced my daughter to Astro Boy. It's a cartoon he used to watch in the 80s when he was a kid. My daughter fell in love and now she's been watching every show that's available on the Watch Instantly feature of Netflix.

I wikipedied him to see what it says about him and I was surprised to learn that the show ran from 1963-1966 in Japan and that it was actually the first anime cartoon. Rey thought that Speed Racer was first but I guess it was the first one we saw here in the U.S.

I think his red boots are hilarious and I told my daughter so. She said that he got those when he was in the robot circus. I'm worried. I also saw that there are 193 episodes and I'm afraid she's made it her goal to watch all 193.

I asked her and she told me only one season is available to view. Woo! Good! I'll have to monitor that.

It's Sunday and I brought a bunch of work home with me. But I also need to go grocery shopping and I need to work on my laundry.

I wanted to take the kids to the Children's Museum. I bought a membership for the kids and I'm yet to take them again. Why does that always happen? I think memberships are great for stay-at-home moms. Too much to do and never enough time!

Can Mexicans Dress?

Compact By Anne Taintor

I went to a Latina event and I was a little uncomfortable with the topic. I wondered if I was the only person who was embarrassed and the woman next to me confirmed that yes, she too wasn't too crazy about the topic. Maybe she had different reasons for feeling the way I did.

FIRST of all, it was in a public setting with non-Hispanic people around us. It was in a restaurant and people were eating nearby within earshot. We weren't in a private room. Then second, the topic was all about appropriate dress. I couldn't help but think that the non-Hispanic people around us who were hearing us were thinking, "HOW sweet! They're teaching the Latinas how to dress because they don't know better!" I wonder if I was the only one who had her intelligence insulted? Besides my neighbor of course.

Good grief! That was too hilarious! I almost wished I could have filmed it. It would have been priceless on Guanabee. My cousin would have cracked up over it.

Then I wonder, what makes people so snobby and what makes them think they are better than other people? It's an interesting social question. Growing up I went to a high school that was a really even mix of different races and social classes. I went to school with girls that acted like they were better than everyone else. Very likely their mothers raised them to think this way.
I was in the group of friends who were middle of the road, most of us were in nerds, but we were the kind of kids that were friends with everyone.

I find it very interesting that my daughter goes to elementary school with a lot of the kind of girls who seem to be the daughters of the girls I went to high school with. I have personally witnessed my daughter saying hi to a little girl in the hall and the little girl just continued to ignore her, with me walking alongside her. I couldn't help myself.

I had to say, "'Jane' doesn't seem to hear you. Either that or she hasn't been taught that it's RUDE not to say hello back when someone is saying hello to you." The little snot looked straight at me with a serious face and didn't say a word. And no, she was not deaf or blind.

All I can say is that this kind of training starts at home. I love my daughter's open personality. She says HI to everyone and tries to hug everyone at school. I'm sure she has her moments of rudeness too, don't get me wrong.

OK. Time to get in the shower and get my clothes ready for tomorrow. I need to make sure it's office "appropriate" for White Corporate America.

I've Been Missing For Several Reasons

(Drawing by Miranda of Perry the Platypus and Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb. Drawn while we were in New Orleans.)

My life has been as hectic as it will ever be. There was New Orleans, there was my district convention, work, and life in general as we see it today. I was also finding myself too wrapped up in Facebook.

Yes, Facebook. The cat is out of the bag. Even though I was set up on super private and you probably couldn't even view me, I somehow ended up with 188 friends. I was inviting all the friends.

I realized that Facebook was consuming my life. I was spending way too much time on there reading updates, sending friends gifts, drinks and taking silly tests. I took a look at both my blogs and also saw that I wasn't even writing any more!

A few years ago a published writer told me that I shouldn't wast time blogging. I was kind of annoyed when he told me that, but then I reasoned that it was his opinion and he only meant well for me, offering advise from a writer. I wrote about it here on this blog and received a lot of comments from friends encouraging me to keep blogging. I see it as a writing exercise.

THEN came Facebook. It became too time consuming! It was way worse than blogging any day. So I decided to take a look at my friends list and limit it to mainly family and "family." I cut out all other friends, including high school friends and professional contacts.

I didn't think anything of it at first but apparently it is a big deal. It prompted me to send out an e-mail to all my friends explaining my decision. I've caused conversations, e-mails have been sent to me and one sister called the other and told her she couldn't believe that I had done such a thing. She considered it terribly rude. Another sister, who get this, wasn't even on Facebook and has no idea why I did what I did, didn't even talk to me about it, said of course I had done that because it was a good example of how selfish I am. Good grief!

It's really weird to me that Facebook is taken so very personally. I can't believe that someone would think that I am removing them from my LIFE just because I removed them from my Facebook. It prompted me to create a someecard especially for that topic and with that line. How did Facebook become a substitute for life? How did it become a substitute for networking?

I'm also going to write a better more thought out blog for skirt! about this topic. I find it so sad and hilarious all at the same time. So keep an eye out for it.

P.S. I sent a follow-up e-mail to friends that I removed and told them I'm on Twitter. (For some reason Twitter isn't as addictive as FB) No one has requested to follow me so I take that to mean that 1. they're not on Twitter or 2. They said, "Forget you, forgot you! Never thought about you."