Kim’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2008)

Kim’s comments from the Runs with scissors group.

I am already thinking ahead to our next read, and I had an idea that may or not fly. What if we all read what we wanted, and then we post about it and see if the others have read it and how they feel about it? bOr should we just stay with one book at a time?

October will be "read a banned book" theme, so start thinking about one we haven't read as a group yet.

O.K., this weekend the boyfriend and I watched the original movie version of this with Spencer Tracy and Friedrich March, playing Drummond and Brady respectively. I encourage you all to watch this AFTER you read the play so you can see it come to life. There are some bits that were added to the movie, but they do not detract from the work.

March and Tracy were evenly matched playing these larger-than-life men, and Gene Kelly, in a rare-non dancing role, plays Hornbeck, the reporter. Dick York (the first Darrin on "Bewitched") plays Bert,and Harry Morgan (yes, Col. Potter from M*A*S*H) plays the judge.

To me the play is less about the debate of evolution vs. creationism, as it is more about the censorship of ideas. It goes with out saying, that this play has been on the banned book list more than once because of it's subject matter. But, like most things banned, I think the censors are afraid, as usual, that it might make you think for yourself.

That is what the debate of this play is about. Ideas. Free thinking and those who wish to hobble minds to think the way they want you too, like all good soldiers should. (Go ahead, drink the Kool-Aid kids...)

Isn't that what censorship is about, a bunch of people trying to dictate what we think, and a good amount of them haven't even read what they are banning? Like Brady, they hide behind what they feel is safe and dare not to go beyond it, possibly afraid that there secure,narrow world,may shatter and open up to something more,something they can't control....something like you?

Well, today I am felling much better. I am able to walk normally and have little pain. It was a good thing the boyfriend had yesterday off (he gets 2 days per week) so he was there to rope me in and keep me from going to class (something I really WANTED to do) but it was not a good idea, as I was just this side of feeling normal yesterday.

I am going with the combination of the two problems since I have gone trough the cyst before and I think the muscle was a side casualty. To top off my week, I get to go for my T-dap tomorrow. This is the new combination shot for adults. It combines your tetanus booster with adult pertussis vaccine (that's Whooping Cough by the way.) I am deathly afraid of needles. My veins collapse easily,and it takes 6-8 sticks per arm to get a little sample, even when I was a kid this was the norm. (Understandable fear, wouldn't you say?) I'm a better off at the lab where they do this all day and can use a pediatric needle in the top of my hand to get what they need. [They once called a psych consult on me at my old doctors when I flipped out over a blood sample. ( I told them to give me the paperwork and let me go to the lab, but they wouldn't listen....):]

So, not one of my fave things here. Thankfully, the boyfriend can work a half day (his boss loves me,not to mention the cookies I send with him to work [she's his boss from his old job, so she's known me for a while now:] and is more than happy to let him be able to come with me tomorrow to hold me down. Literally.

I am so freaked about this, I would rather not do it, but I know getting the treatment for tetanus is worse than what I will go through tomorrow. I am so scared right now, I'm shaking.

Think of me at around 11:15 a.m. when you hear the scream echoing around the world.....

I didn't know where to put this as it could have gone 2 places, but I thought here was the better place. I ended up in an Urgent Care on Sunday, and will not be able to work out this week, as I am just being able to walk normaly today.

On Friday, I swam a 1/2 mile (that makes 1 mile for the week, a first) and then left to go help some friends of mine who were getting ready for their vaction. Since their apartment does not have A/C, some of their electronics would be ruined when they come home, so I agreed to "babysit" them at my house. So, the 17 year old son packed my car with the tote and I didn't unpack it until Saturday morning. I had no idea how heavy it was until I went to unload it.

By Saturday evening, while at the boyfriends,I was in pain. Now,I come by this next thing honestly. My family has never been ones to pop a pill over a little discomfort, and my mother has a high pain tollerance. (Example, after having a hysterectomy to remove her cancer, she tried her best not to take the pain pills she was given on the principle that she would be fine. She eneded up taking them anyway, because we made her.) So, I was reluctant to take anything even though I was in tears due to the pain. I do not use the phrases "I want to go to the ER" or "Take me to Urgent Care". Keep this in mind.

I got up early Sunday morning to pee, and I came back to bed, and said to the boyfriend, "I want to go to the emergency room." He was ready to take me there and then, but I said, "Not now, in the morning." By 7 o'clock, we were in a debate of whether or not this was an emergency room worthy visit or if I should wait it out (I wanted to wait, because I didn't want to bother the nice people in the emergency room.) We agreed to the Urgent Care and if they said ER, then I would go.

Now mind you, I have no job and no insurance. The no/low cost clinic I go to has an agreement with 2 hosptitals that if I have to go to the ER, I must pay $60, and the rest may be "forgiven" under the agreement. (Any hospital that gets state and or federal funding, must help you, regardless of financial situation. They get money from the government to cover patients like this. If they refuse you, they can lose funding.)

So, Urgent Care it was. Run by another hospital group, this one has a self-pay option,and was willing to see me. My mom told me to put it on a credit card and she would pay the bill when it came, so I wasn't sweating that part. Fine.

I was quickly seen and a pee-in-the-cup test said that I did not have a UTI. The doctors best guess is that I pulled a groin muscle,an ovarian cyst may have burst, or a combination of the 2. A hernia was also considered, but my mom has had 2 of those and I did not show any symptoms of those.

So, all of this resulted in a doctors educated guess, a recomendation that if it did get worse to go the ER,and her telling me that they would tear up my bill since they didn't do anything.

I am feeling a little better,and it will be slow, but I also know that swimming or my class will only make it hurt worse.

*Sigh*

My friends know nothing of this and won't for 2 weeks when they come home. I will be having them come to my house with the 17 year old to pick up the stuff.

I did mange my 1/2 mile after all last Friday and yesterday, I thought I would only have time for a 1/4 mile, but I surprised myself and did a 1/2 mile. In get this, 38 minutes!

I know we are not scheduled to begin reading this until August 1, but I would like to explain a few things and set some ground rules for the discussion. I know that this play is about a touchy subject, evolution vs. creationism. I do not want this discussion to become about that and that alone. Please stay on the topic of the play and not the issues.

There may be a term mentioned that some you may not be familliar with. Chautauqua (Shaw' taw kwa) Tent or meeting. Chautauqua meetings were poplular in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. They were desgined for adult education and would feature all sorts of entertainment, like speakers, singers and the like. They began in Chautauqua, N.Y., but the style of meeting became poplular elsewhere.

William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow were the prosecuting and defense lawyers for the trial now known as the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925. Bryan lived from 1860-1925, ran for president 3 times, 1896, 1900, 1908, and died 5 days after winning this trial. He was a Presbyterian,a prohibitionist,and a supporter of free silver, a movement to back the nations money with silver instead of gold. (The "Wizard of OZ" is an allegorical tale about the free silver movement, with President Grover Cleveland as the wizard and Bryan as the sacrecrow, as he was known as the boy orator from Nebraska.)

Clarence Darrow was a leading member of the ACLU, lived from 1857-1938. He succesfully defended Leopold and Loeb for the thrill killing of 14 year old Booby Franks in Chicago.

The play was first put into print in 1955, 30 years after the original trial. The writers based it on the actual trial, and the teacher in question did indeed go unpunished as there was no way to prove he did anything wrong, other than violate the Butler Law,which prohibited the teaching of evolution.


Keep all of this in mind as you read the play.

Yesterday,the boyfriend and I did something that I thought was cool. I was born and raised in Northeast Ohio, and have never been to President Garfields house in Mentor. I was inspired by this trip by the new Casey Daniels mystery, "Tomb with a View". For those of you a little lost, Daniels writes mysteries that are set at a ficticious version of the very real Lakeview Cemetery, where Garfield is interred. Her character goes to Lawnfield, the name of Garfields farm, and that is what intrigued me to go. Garfield was a facinating president, who only servered a few months before being shot by a stalker, and dying 80 days later of blood poisoning. (This makes his term the second shortest in history, right after William Henry Harrison, who died 30 days after his inaugaration. Both were from Ohio.)

Garfield was a teacher, minister,a general,and senator. He was the last president born in a log cabin, and the first president who's mother lived to see him elected and inaugarated. She out lived her son by 7 years. He died 2 months shy of his 50th birthday, and until yesterday, I knew none of this.

Daniels character mentions in the book that she (like the author) was born and raised here, yet no field trips ever went to Lawnfield (30 minutes away from the city of Cleveland)nor was Garfield mentioned much.

There are 8 presidents that came from Ohio,second only to Virginia with 9, yet most people who live here may only know a little about maybe half. That is sad.

Now, I want to find all the presidential sites in Ohio and visit them all. The next nearest to me is McKinley's place in Canton.


Garfields place is a National Park Site, and only costs $5 per person, and most park sites are free. If you are permanently disabled, you can get an Access Pass for free, or you can purchase a National Parks pass for $80 per year if you do a lot of traveling, senior citizens can get one for $10/year.

So, what are you waiting for? Go find a National Park site near you and go learn something! I know I did.

In an odd way I am proud on myself. Yesterday, I only did 6 lengths (3 laps), and did my Tai Chi class. Now, for those of you who are paying attention, that is nowhere near what I normally do, so why proud of myself? I was sick as a dog Sunday and Monday, and was not feeling very normal Tuesday. Yesterday, I woke up tired. I don't know if it was hangover from the weekend or what, but I didn't want to do anything, including read (although I had gawdawful book I was trying to finish may have had something to do with that). Here is why I am proud: I went to the Y anyway. I got in the pool and swam a little and still did my class. Even though I no longer restricted by time (remember I HAD to go so many times a month/week under the program), I still went.

I am feeling much better today and hope to do at least a 1/2 mile tomorrow.

I have been watching the TVLand channel's summer sitcom "Hot in Cleveland". I think it's cute. I read all of the advance stuff on it,and they stated that they were not trying to portray any specific neighborhood or area on the show, but encompass the entire area. Fine.

For those of you who haven't seen it,here's a run down. 3 friends from L.A., an author, a writer, and a celebrity stylist, are going to Paris for 2 weeks. After seeing her newly divorced husband on the plane, the writer decides to start being more spontantious. The plane makes an emergency landing in Cleveland. After a postitive experience in a local bar, the writer decides to rent a house here for 2 weeks, and the other 2 decide to stay with her. The house comes with a snarky caretaker who rounds out the group.

Each week, the women have a minor adventure, like one week they got blind dates for each other. The show is mild and has it funny moments like any other sitcom and since the snarky caretaker is played by Betty White, she gets in some good stuff. All said and fine.

Here is my problem. It is not with the show, but with some twitter-bat of a so called reporter who works for the Plain Dealer (our local paper for those of you who don't live here) and calls herself "The Diva" in what I belive is a lame attempt at humor. This amazingly clueless "journalist" writes about and rates the show based on the reality of it. Her thermometer goes from hot to frigid, and she pulls apart every episode like the fate of the free world depends on it.

Last week, a character who had been fishing caught a fish that (gasp!) you don't find in Lake Erie, yet is found in the Great Lakes in general. Twitter-bat had a field day. She also seized on the made up dishes that the writer character had created for the party she was throwing too meet the neighbors, something she would never have done in L.A. So bloody what if there isn't a dish called "Drew Curry" or "Lebron Rice"? It's a t.v. show. It's fiction!

Frankly, I think the show is a positive for Cleveland like the "Drew Carey Show" was. I have a hard time beliving that all shows set in real places are always 100% accurate. I think miss "Diva" needs to chill out and let it go. Unless they say something terrible, I don't see the big deal.

I get so mad when wealthy people,politicians,sports figures and the like get away with just about everything because money can be used to silence people one way or the other. What gets me about the current situation, is how nasy Cleveland is being about this. From the media to the owner of the team, everyone is being just vile, and I am tired of hearing it.

I am tired of all of this sports nonsense, this elevating one person above all others because this person can hit a ball with a stick or whatnot. What ever happened to being sucessfull because you were smart?

The only sport I have ever seen get the deserved front page headline was when a local girl won this years national spelling bee.

You never see headlines about the mathletes, chess clubs, academic teams, or the like. It's always physical sports, not mental that get all the attention. Now, where I went to high school, since it was smaller than most local suburban schools, a lot of people played more than one sport and our girls teams were well supported. Sports players were not seen as godlings because of this.

What I would like to see is teachers get paid what they are worth, schools teach what kids NEED to know and not due to some standardized test, brains be valued over braun, and that the chess club gets a headline now and then. I would like to see athletes and celebutantes knocked out of the lime light, and research scientists and people who make a difference be newsworthy.

In a world where people follow the inane tweets of people they don't know, who follow celebrity news like the end of the world is going occur if we don't know what Cairo Smelly Ears is upto EVERY flipping second!, I sadly do not think this will ever happen.

We need to change how we see these people, how we react to them. If we start treating what is important, then maybe what is truly important, will become headline news.

I just came from my doctors appointment and I couldn't wait to go to the library tomorrow and post then, so I stopped by on my way home.




THE SCALE WORKED! IT WORKED FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THE 7 YEARS I HAVE BEEN GOING THERE! I NOW WEIGH: DRUMROLL PLEASE...........

334!

I don't know my starting weight,but the scale only goes up to 350, so even with room for error, I have still lost weight!

(I also have tennis elbow (!) and I don't play tennis, but I have a wrap brace and it will go away on it's own.)

WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):):):):):):)

Well,apparently we all survived the end of the world last night, and nothing seems to be any worse off.

I greatly hope that with his tiny mind made up now, we will stop hearing about it on a local level in a few days. I will give the Cleveland Plain Dealer credit today, as they did put it as headline news, but did it in as an outer page that went over the front page section that was easily removed to read the real news. They also restrained themselves from using mountain sized print for a headline.

I must admit I am an Ohio State fan, but I am not obsessed. I am a fan of the Browns and the Indians (yes, no matter how badly they play)but I know that the end of the world does not occur when a player leaves. Yes, I have been saddened when somebody I truly like to see play leaves, but it does not mean the world will stop spinning on it's axis.

As I tell the kids (when I'm working)"there is a whole world out there, go explore it!"

*Sigh* I feel like I am a minority on this....

Yesterday, I did 50 lengths. That is a half mile plus 3 extra laps for those of you who speak lap. The most I have done has been 48 lengths. I felt like I could do more, but thought better of it, and by the time Tai Chi was over, I was glad I did not push. To top it all off, I did a 1/4 mile in 15 minutes, and the entire 1/2 mile in 40. That is 5 minutes off of both! Not bad for someone who wasn't able to swim for 2 weeks, huh?

I live in Cleveland, home of Lebron James, of whom I a SICK and TIRED of hearing about! For those who actually care about "the brat" as I call him, this decision of his is being treated like WWIII will begin based on where he plays. I would like to say I don't give a s***. I support my local teams, even if I don't care for the sport, and I do not, I will admit, care for basketball. I still support my team, but I am tired of everyone acting like this is the end of the world!

Players come and go. That's what happens in professional sports. How many times has a player that was well liked gotten traded or left? Plenty! And did the world come to a screeching halt? No!

I realize that good players draw crowds and that means more money for the local economy which desparately needs it. I do not deny that. What does annoy me, however, is the press pushing one player above all else and acting like there aren't other people on the team who are just as good, maybe even better, than the godling they focus on. Knowledge of the others may be dwarfed by the fact that the coach also pushes this person to the forefront and makes it harder for the others to shine, something else I will admit. The draw has to play or people won't watch.

I understand all of that, I really do. It doesn't mean I have to like it, or want my news hijacked by all of this nonsense. I realize that he has done for Cleveland what Jordan did for Chicago. (I wonder if people in Chicago felt how I do now back when he was playing...)

If he stays, he stays, if he goes, he goes. There is always a good chance that he could stay or go, and have a career ending injury during the first game of the season and all of this state of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! THE SKY IS FALLING!" will be for nought. If he does go, I hope he will at least be gracious about it and not do what Albert Belle did years ago, and say it wasn't about the money, make it about the money, and then trash the living daylights out of his former team.

I am tired of sports figures being treated like they are important. I am tired of twitterbat socialite/former child stars trying to be grow-ups/celebutante being more important than what happened to REAL people during the day. I don't care what KingKongHiltonLoLowhat's-her-tits did today, nor will I care tomorrow.

I'm going to read a book. Wake me when the appocolypse is over.

Well, since I evidently can't read, I will have to change my swimming days to either Tuesday or Thursday until the end of the Summer Camp program. It is clearly on the schedule, which I have, that EVERY week, the kids have the pool on Mon./Wed./Fri. from 1-2,unless they are on a field trip. Yay. I don't mean to seem bitter, but I only have the one suit that is easy to get into (not when wet mind you) so I have really been utilizing the fact that I stay for Tai Chi Wed./Fri. So, I will be swimming one day per week until camp is over, so I plan on doing a 1/2 mile each week while working up to 3/4 mile and then the full mile. I believe that I can do this, in fact I KNOW I can do this. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be on the news swimming for swimming across Lake Erie...

Today is the final day of GoFit! and since I now have my scholarship, tomorrow I will be going as a member of the Y. Today, I plan on swimming a 1/2 mile if I can, to make up for not being able to swim last week. I hope to be able to do this again on Friday.

I know that the program ending should not really affect me now that I have the membership, but it is. I am not sad that it is ending, but I guess I am a little gratefull for it all the same. This program, of which I was terrified to sign up for, has allowed me to find out what I am made of, what I am capeable of, and that I am not what I thought I was. I have learned that I can succeed when I thougt I was destined to fail. I have learned that I am better than the sum of my parts, and that I am better than any gym class I survived in school.

I was terrified of this program, not because I thought I would fail (I am always prepared for that) but because of old nightmares from gym classes past, where I did my best, but was always the slow fat kid, several paces behind everyone else. I dreaded exercise because I feel tired and worn out when I'm done, not exhillarated like others get. Thanks to my Aqua Tai Chi class and lap swim, I do feel better after than when I walked in the door.

I am not done on this journey, and I plan on keeping up this blog about how I am doing. I still plan on at least 3 days per week like I have been doing, and I still hope to swim a mile before Christmas. Thank you all for being there for me these last 3 months. Your support and encouragement helped me keep my chin up and my head up high. For those of you who are starting out, start slow, keep a steady pace, and know that I am rooting for you.

O.k. I will put up a poll and we will vote next week, staring on July 1.

Next week, I am making Coconut Brownies for Josh (another desk clerk) and for the director of the facility, who have birthdays next Friday and Saturday. Josh said that they will have to do something for me soon and he wrote down my birthday. Carlton was VERY happy with his treat, and I rendered him speechless, which is no small feat.

I am restricted to only Tai Chi this week since the Summer Camp kids are being allowed to use the poo during the normal adult lap. Next week, the pursuit of a mile begins.

Today, after I deliver birthday cup cakes to Carlton the desk clerk, I will be making my membership official. I'm excited to be able to continue on and keep plugging away at this. I know I am not,nor am I trying to, be thin or lose vast amounts of weight. I am just trying to be a healthier version of myself, what ever that version looks like.

Thank you both. It was hard,yet I have been trying to prepare myself for it since she turned 1 and the average is 1-2 years for a life span. She knew she was loved, and soon she will be out in my back yard under a lovely pine tree that gets a lot of sun.