Month: January 2019

Daily Prompts

My Life: Day Twelve

Karen

I’m attempting to force myself to write in my blog every day. I’ve gotten SO BAD at keeping up these past several years and someday I’ll be dead and then what?

I’ll be gone but hopefully not forgotten. (Feel free to use these prompts for your own writing).

Today’s prompt(s):

What’s the most time you’ve ever spent apart from your favorite person? Tell us about it.

The most time I’ve spent apart from my favorite person is …

Well first of all, wait, who is my favorite person?

Probably Kevin. (Probably?? I can hear him say that, lol) He knows me the best and we’ve been together for about 32ish years now so …

The longest I’ve been away from Kevin has been one week. I know when he was working for an accounting firm here in town, he would often go out-of-town to do audits and that seemed to never last for more than a few days, at the most. Though it felt longer because I had two small boys with me at home and I didn’t have my buffer to cushion the crazy when he was gone.

But other than taking vacation without me, I’ve never really been away from Kevin for very long.

Yep. He went on a cruise without me.

Actually, two cruises without me.

And I encouraged him to do it.

Kevin, LeRoy and both boys recently went on a cruise that left from New Orleans. They cruised the Western Caribbean without me.

I could have gone, but I really didn’t want to. Plus, I figured the guys would have more fun without a GIRL hanging out with them anyway.

They could oogle all of the pretty girls they wanted to without fearing my reaction.

Their cruise only lasted 5 days, but when you calculate travel days in that equation, they were gone for a week at a time.

For me? I liked not having him around for about two days, but then I started missing him. I LOVE being by myself, I have no trouble being by myself, at all. In fact, I much prefer my company to that of any other people, but when it comes to my favorite person, Kevin, I don’t like being away from him for too long.

It just feels … weird. Empty, I guess.

True, we do most of our activities alone. He spends the majority of his time at the rental house with LeRoy “doing projects,” which consist of buying junk and fixing it up to put into his junk booths and selling. (And he does a pretty decent job at selling his stuff, too).

But at the end of the day, he comes home and we have dinner together. He’s my “home base,” if that makes sense.

I don’t know that he’s interested in going on any more vacations without me but he’s welcome to if he wants to. I trust him not to do anything stupid.

I, of course, fully intend to cash in on this, though. If/when the opportunity comes up to go on vacation with “the girls,” I will absolutely throw the fact that he went on vacation without me, TWICE, into the argument. I’ve been trying to talk the girls at work into going on a cruise with me and I can feel them wavering, but we’re not there yet.

But overall, one week away from each other is really long enough for me.

 

Can We Talk?, Facebook Stories

Damaging our Children

Karen

As the transgender movement has developed, so too has its focus on the transitioning of younger and younger people. TransKids, according to the “about” section of the transgender youth website, is “a safe and affirming place where helping your kids live fully and embodied is our only goal.”

TransKids.biz, which is “dedicated to providing young folks with gender expression gear and resources,” not only recommends transgender children’s books like “Who are you? The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity” and “Be Who You Are,” it markets and sells garments and prosthetics designed to fit young children between the approximate ages of 8-13. [Source]

What the HELL is going on with our children, people?? WHY are we so obsessed with warping our children and making them believe they are someone other than their biological birth? People that are desperate to sell this notion that a boy is not a boy and a girl is not a girl that they are now trying to spoon feed us a product that kids, CHILDREN, can strap on and pretend they are something they are not.

And we wonder why society is so screwed up?!

This is absolute madness to me. For a group of people who loudly proclaim that it’s “science” whenever it comes to climate change on one hand, and then in the very next breathe discount science when it comes to our biological makeup, a GENETIC code that CAN NOT BE CHANGED NO MATTER HOW MUCH WE FORCE HORMONES ON PEOPLE OR STRAP PROSTHETICS TO OUR BODIES, they are wildly inconsistent in their arguments.

How can anyone take them seriously?

Seriously??

I have thoughts on this whole sexual orientation thing. You want to live your life as a gay man, lesbian woman, or any other label you want to dream up, okay. Knock yourself out. I don’t believe in the concept and I certainly don’t think it’s normal or acceptable, but ultimately, who cares what I think. It’s your life. Live it the way you see fit. But don’t expect me to support your choice just as I don’t expect you to support me and my life choices.

Ultimately, people will have to answer for their lives before the judgement chair.

But now that the public has gotten used to people and their screwed up life views and their insistence that there are multiple sexual orientations and that same-sex couples are “normal”, or at the very least commonplace, the attention needs to shift to something more perverse and disturbing because the dust has settled too much, we need more chaos, something new to “fight” about.

Because you see, honestly, people truly don’t care how you live your lives. Most people have ZERO interest in what you do in your bedrooms. Truly. They really, truly don’t care. Contrary to popular belief, the world does not revolve around attention-seeking people that for whatever reason, feel like they have to shove their beliefs down everyone’s throats. Sure, we become complacent after a time but not because we’re accepting these mixed up individuals’ claims but because we’re simply tired of listening to the madness. It does no good to try and talk sense into people like this, they have no desire for honest discourse, they just want to argue and again, justify their warped sense of self. And just as an adult finally throws up his/her hands after listening to an argumentative child for hours on end, rationale adults do the same – fine, have it your way. I’m tired of fighting with you.

I’m not saying this is right, or even acceptable, but it is human nature. I find myself doing the same thing. You can only pound your head against a concrete wall for so long before your notice the cracked skull and the blood dripping down your temples.

But that madness concerns legal adults who have every right to live their lives the way they choose to live them. Now we’re talking about pushing agendas on vulnerable children who have no idea who they are or how to live their lives. They are impressionable and eager to please the adults in their lives. They trust the adults in their lives to help them navigate this little thing we call life, not to further confuse them and push FADS down their throats.

It’s disgusting, dangerous and emotional child abuse, pure and simple. 

I’m not blaming the children, they don’t know better. The adults in their lives, however, DO.

Following the increasing social acceptance of the adult transgender movement in western culture, the focus has begun to shift toward children who express what may appear to be gender dysphoria.

Despite the possibility of irreparable physical and psychological damage to prepubescent children who are given hormone therapy and offered transitional services, there is a small but vocal group of Americans pushing for the unconditional cultural approval of such things.

WHY are we allowing this “small but vocal group of Americans” to suddenly change the natural course of things? And not just in this arena, but overall? Do you know how many times I’ve read articles about a “supposed” injustice started by a small group of individuals that ultimately MAKE the changes they want? Because we give in as a society? Even though the MAJORITY of people have no desire for that change?

WHY DO WE DO THIS? Why do we cave?? Is it because we’re afraid people will call us names? Like racist, homophobic and on and on? If we’re standing up for what we believe is right, and we have a solid argument and proof to back ourselves up, WHO CARES IF SOMEONE CALLS US NAMES. It’s like a schoolyard bully who has no logical reason why he/she is acting that way, it’s just the way he/she FEELS, but when confronted can do nothing but name call and physically intimidate to get the point across.

Feelings are not rational. If we allow ourselves to live our lives based on our feelings well … we get the kind of world we’re living in now. Chaotic and completely upside down.

And yet, the majority of us remain silent. We allow these bullies to push and push until we’re so far gone, we’re not sure who to fight back anymore.

It’s sad and disturbing.

And now, these whacks have turned their attention to our children.

OUR CHILDREN.

Who will later become adults with this warped-sense of life ingrained into their heads.

When will we stand up, be adults, and simply say, STOP THIS NONSENSE.

WHEN? 

Daily Prompts

My Life: Day Eleven

Karen

I’m attempting to force myself to write in my blog every day. I’ve gotten SO BAD at keeping up these past several years and someday I’ll be dead and then what?

I’ll be gone but hopefully not forgotten. (Feel free to use these prompts for your own writing).

Today’s prompt(s):

The most surprised you’ve ever been.

I don’t like surprises. At least when I’m the recipient. I like being the person surprising someone but don’t surprise me.

Ever.

I like control. I feel comfortable when I’m in control.

Though I know filling in for each other at work WILL happen, I work with nine doctors after all, I HATE it when I’m asked to fill in at the last minute. I absolutely don’t mind if I’m given a head’s up and I can prepare, but to walk in and someone say, “Oh hey, Karen, I need you to fill in for so-and-so” makes my butt cheeks clinch.

(How’s them visuals??)

So to surprise me and I receive it well, is rare.

It has happened before. When Kevin and I lived in our rental house, shortly after we got married, when Blake was a baby and I believe it was around Christmas time, I walked into the spare bedroom to get something and then came back out to talk to Kevin.

“Did you notice anything unusual?” Kevin asked.

“No.” Was my response.

“Really?” he asked. “That’s weird, follow me.”

So I followed Kevin back into the bedroom. “What do you see?”

I looked around and shrugged. “Nothing.”

He nodded toward a huge lump of something covered by a blanket.

I blinked and am embarrassed to say it really didn’t register for a few seconds. Then I gasped, lifted the blanket off and saw it.

It was a curio case to put all of my Previous Moment figurines in.

(Because back then, I collected them. I know. I KNOW)

CURIOS

I just have knick knacks in there now, no Previous Moments (though I still have most of them and I bet they’re worth some money today) but it’s the same case. I LOVE my case. It fits my personality, I think. Sleek and sexy.

(Why are you laughing??)

I had no idea Kevin was even THINKING about buying me a curio case. I had never mentioned wanting one and until he bought me one, I didn’t even know I WANTED one. But that is one time that will always stick out in my mind because because he truly took me by surprise.

Book Corner

Book Review: The Lullaby Girl

Karen

 

Detective Angie Pallorino took down a serial killer permanently and, according to her superiors, with excessive force. Benched on a desk assignment for twelve months, Angie struggles to maintain her sense of identity—if she’s not a detective, who is she? Then a decades-old cold case washes ashore, pulling her into an investigation she recognizes as deeply personal.

Angie’s lover and partner, James Maddocks, sees it, too. But spearheading an ongoing probe into a sex-trafficking ring while keeping Angie’s increasing obsession with her case in check is taking its toll. As startling connections between the parallel investigations emerge, Maddocks realizes he has even more than Angie’s emotional state to worry about.

Driven and desperate to solve her case, Angie goes rogue, risking her relationship, career, and very life in pursuit of answers. She’ll learn that some truths are too painful to bear, and some sacrifices include collateral damage.

But Angie Pallorino won’t let it go. She can’t. It’s not in her blood.

 

This is the second Angie Pallorino book in the series. I like this character, a lot. She’s strong, independent, not afraid of getting hurt, either physically or emotionally, all in the name of doing what is right.

She’s damaged. And she has demons to work through, but don’t we all, on some level?

I REALLY like how the first book’s case led directly into the second book. You can read this book as a standalone, but the reading The Drowned Girls would make The Lullaby Girl make a bit more sense.

I didn’t give it five stars because I felt like it dragged a bit, but not so much that it  yanked me out of the story. I also really like how Ms. White weaves a story around two different cases at once. At first, it’s a little confusing and a bit disorienting, but she soon makes it clear that the cases are tied together somehow and it works.

There were a few editorial mistakes. Missing words that momentarily made me stumble, but they were minor and not a deal breaker.

The story itself was disturbing but believable. Unfortunately, I’m sure there are sex-trafficking rings moving to this day and I’m sure they won’t be going anywhere any time soon. That sort of evil goes hand-in-hand with our fallen world today.

The love story between Angie and James is a bit hard to swallow. They seem too mismatched and the majority of this book they didn’t interact much at all. I don’t doubt their feelings for one another but I do wonder at the motivation for their feelings for one another. I understand where they are coming from but given the personalities I’ve read thus far it almost makes them a couple feel … off. I think the ending, between these two, was too rushed and felt contrived. I would have liked to see them interact more and maybe put off the ending for another book, or two. I feel like these two need more relationship building opportunities, outside of solving cases together.

Though I understand Angie’s anger and confusion, she needs to get herself sorted out first, and allow the reader to see this growth, before she jumps into anything long term with any character. Though to be fair, nothing concrete was resolved in this book between the two, just implied.

I didn’t really see the bad guy coming till near the end of the book, which was a nice surprise. I like how Angie’s parent’s relationship was complicated and a by product of their unfortunate circumstances. It’s hard to write anything more about that situation as I feel like that was a central part of the book’s premise and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but suffice it to say, it was believable, on a more disturbing, realistic level.

I am definitely looking forward to reading book three in Angie Pallorino’s series.

Daily Prompts

My Life: Day Ten

Karen

I’m attempting to force myself to write in my blog every day. I’ve gotten SO BAD at keeping up these past several years and someday I’ll be dead and then what?

I’ll be gone but hopefully not forgotten. (Feel free to use these prompts for your own writing).

Today’s prompt(s):

Write a diary entry dated ten years in the future.

Dear 2029 me – I’M OLD!

GURL – YOU LOOK GOOD.

Okay, who am I fooling? I’m just happy you’re still breathing to read this post.

So. You and Kevin have been married nearly 40 years. THAT’S SO CRAZY!

And that means Blake is 36 and Brandon is nearly 34. I hope they are married and have 2.5 kids by now.

Which would make us grandparents!!

You better be a cool grandma. You better have your priorities straight and always be there for your kids/grandkids because it makes a huge difference!

I wonder how many cruises we will have been on by now? We try to take one every year so by 2029 we’ll have been on … nearly 25 cruises? I wonder what sort of places we’ve been, what sort of adventures we’ve been on? What sort of beautiful, memorable pictures we have?

Am I still working in healthcare? I know girl, who knew you would last this long in a job. I’ve worked in healthcare the longest I’ve worked in any other job. I have a seven-year itch for nearly everything – jobs, cars. Am I doing something else? Legal field, maybe? (foreshadowing??)

Or maybe I quit and am now a full-time writer with three or four novels under my belt by now?

If not, WHY NOT?

So Kevin is well into his 60’s. Is he retired? Where is LeRoy?

What car am I driving? I hope it’s a sports car – my goal is to be a very COOL grandma someday. 🙂

Overall, future self, I hope you’re happy, healthy and secure. That’s all I ever wanted for you.

See you in another ten years!

 

Work Stuff

Monster Doctor

Karen

I hesitate to write this post. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about the medical field, or more specifically, neurosurgery, but I feel I must talk about this because it HAUNTS me.

I don’t know if anyone outside of Texas would really know about this case. I certainly never heard of it until my PA started talking about the podcast and how we MUST listen to it. (Actually, my doctor might have been the one to bring it to my PA’s attention, I’m not sure).

The name of the podcast? Dr. Death.

It’s a true-life horror story of Christopher Duntsch, a neurosurgeon who maimed, and in two cases, killed, over 30 people in a two-year span.

33 Patients. A Charming Surgeon. A Spineless System.

We’re at our most vulnerable when we go to our doctors. We trust the person at the other end of that scalpel. We trust the hospital. We trust the system. Dr. Christopher Duntsch was a neurosurgeon who radiated confidence. He claimed he was the best in Dallas. If you had back pain, and had tried everything else, Dr. Duntsch could give you the spine surgery that would take your pain away. But soon his patients started to experience complications. And all they had to protect them was a system ill equipped to stop the madness. From Wondery, the network behind the hit podcast Dirty John, DR. DEATH is about a medical system that failed to protect these patients at every possible turn. Reported and hosted by Laura Beil.

In case you’re not aware, I am a medical assistant that works in a neurosurgery clinic. We have nine surgeons in our practice, eight neurosurgeons and an interventional neuro radiologist (he specializes in aneurysms). I’m very blessed to work with some of the best doctors in the country, in my opinion. They are all awesome and they are all excellent surgeons.

So, listening to this podcast REALLY hit home for me. Too close to home. I feel like it’s changed my perspective in regards to my job, the doctors I work with and the medical field as a whole. I frequently got goosebumps listening to what this crazy man did to people.

But it’s almost more alarming that he didn’t stop even after being confronted with the results, he refused to accept the reality that he was hurting people, and that he was allowed to continue to maim people.

In a nutshell, this man graduated from med school in neurosurgery. In addition, he had a PhD in research developing some serum that would regenerate cells in the spine and in essence, make spine surgery unnecessary in some cases.

There’s no question he was smart. You would have to be to graduate from medical school and become a spine surgeon.

However, he reportedly became addicted to drugs and there was a witness account of how he would be up all night partying, then put his lab coat on and go to to work the next day.

And this was during his residency.

“Over the course of two years, Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. Dr. Death operated on 38 patients in the Dallas area. Of those 38, 31 were left paralyzed or seriously injured and two of them died from surgical complications.”

One of those patients? Was his best friend Jerry Summers.

Mr. Summers had neck surgery. Duntsch botched his surgery so badly not only is he a quadriplegic today, but Duntsch nearly decapitated him due to drilling out nearly all of one vertebrae.

He placed screws into muscle. He drilled “ping-pong” sized holes in vertebrae. He completely destroyed nerve endings. He killed one side of the thyroid in one patient and I believe put a hole in the same patient’s esophagus.

Listening to this story made me physically sick.

How can a person purposefully do these things to other humans? How does a person not SEE what he’s done and STILL continue to operate as if nothing is wrong?

The man is pure evil.

In the case of Mary Efurd, she was on the operating table when his previous patient was hemorrhaging, BROKE SCRUB, which means, he left the operating room and compromised the sterile environment and the patient’s back was still open with her spine exposed, to argue with the hospital administration to allow him to operate, once again, on the dying woman because he was convinced he could fix her.

One of his patients came in for a follow up and when Duntsch looked at the patient’s scans, he noted a foreign object was in her spine. That turned out to be a sponge he left in the patient.

He diagnosed another patient with a malignant tissue and that turned out to be the patient’s normal muscle tissue.

It just goes on and on. And the whole time I’m just sitting there, flabbergasted, that 1. he continued to do surgeries even though he KNEW he harmed other patients so that to me means he was intentionally doing it, 2. that the operating staff allowed it to happen, though there is a story of one resident surgeon physically putting his hands over Duntsch and telling him to stop, he was dangerous and he wouldn’t work with him ever again, 3. that someone didn’t report him to the medical board, it took getting the police involved before he was stopped.

It’s so disturbing on so many levels. Are doctors really that untouchable??

Listening to this real-life horror story has really changed my perspective at work. I think I take my job even more seriously now and it awes me that so many people put so much trust in my doctor and his team. It’s humbling, quite honestly.

I can’t imagine the pressure that realization is to doctors.

And it concerns me that there doesn’t seem to be a checks/balances process in place for a situation like this. Granted, this was a one-of-kind tragedy and I pray nothing like this ever happens again, but how effective is the disciplinary actions for when something doesn’t go right?

I also put myself in the shoes of his office manager and the nurses that worked with him in his clinic. How could you ethically work with a monster like this? I know his office manager did end up quitting and telling anyone who would listen what was going on, but still, IMAGINE THE STRESS AND THE GUILT OF IT ALL.

And how must Duntsch’s parents feel when they found out what their son had done to people? I truly can’t fathom it.

It’s a shocking story but one we can learn from, I think.

I just pray, we do.

Daily Prompts

My Life: Day Nine

Karen

I’m attempting to force myself to write in my blog every day. I’ve gotten SO BAD at keeping up these past several years and someday I’ll be dead and then what?

I’ll be gone but hopefully not forgotten. (Feel free to use these prompts for your own writing).

Today’s prompt(s):

What is your favorite work of art? What do you love about it?

I’m not really into art. I appreciate art, but it’s not something I seek out or take an interest in.

The art that really captures my attention, are landscapes, or moments in time, or beauty, like a vase of flowers, something that evokes an emotion in me.

Which I get is the objective of art as a whole.

But something recognizable, a person, a place, something tangible and beautiful.

I can’t STAND abstract art. To me, it looks like something a child drew and it’s chaotic and mindless. No thanks.

I love the art of words. Or the art of photography. Or the art of creating something unique and different with your own hands.

For example, I love my aunt/uncle’s Etsy shop. I love the art he creates using steel. He’s a welder by trade and he figured how to utilize his unique gifts to offer something beautiful to people.

And my mom’s crafts. She’s been making beautiful things all her life.

The only “art” I feel I have is writing, and that might be debatable with some people.

My husband’s art is finding old/broken things and turning them into something functional and/or decorative. Kevin also painted this:

ArtKev.jpg

THIS, to me, is beauty.

This is also my favorite piece of art we have in our home: