A Cartoonish Life

Mom had an appointment with the new doctor she's been seeing for her....ahem, "multiple sclerosis." I put it in quotes like that because according to this doctor, she may not even have multiple sclerosis AT ALL. Mom said he took a look at her records, looked dumbfounded, and asked her who exactly diagnosed her with MS. This new doctor says she may just have suffered from a series of mini-strokes and not MS, and mini-strokes are treatable.

.............IT MAY NOT BE M.S.

Twenty years of being treated for it, suffering from it physically and emotionally and financially. And not just Mom. ALL OF US. That shit trickles down and affects those you love. Dad, Gramma Julie, and me and Hunter. Hunter could've had a somewhat normal childhood with a somewhat active mother because of their mistake. I wouldn't have had so many problems with her because of their mistake. She's Gramma Julie's daughter. And Dad's had to put up with so much. Just.............GOD, how can you make an accident like that?!

So yeah. When those tests come in, she and Dad will be looking for a lawyer to sue the pants off that doctor who gave her the MS diagnosis.

The new doctor told her that mini-strokes are treatable, which means she'll have to cut down on the coffee and quit smoking. (Which made me smirk on the inside. WHAT HAVE I BEEN TELLING HER FOR YEARS?!) And she'll have to go to therapy for a little while, and she'll have to just get out and not be pent up inside the house long-suffering. He's not going to treat her for depression and give her a bunch of drugs to numb the pain and NOT actively treat it (YAAAAY).

So. You know what this means? I won't have to feel so bad when I go away to art school!!!!! I won't have to stay around and be forced to help take care of her anymore!!!!

I've been following the Casey Anthony trial pretty much my entire vacation time, and I just want to say this:

If George Anthony were truly in on covering up his own granddaughter's "tragic accidental drowning death," why would Casey have to go borrow a shovel from their neighbors? If the Anthonys had four shovels in their shed, don't you think George would've had a pair of keys on him and just opened up the shed himself? Why would Casey have to borrow a shovel from her neighbor if her dad was the one trying to cover it up?!

It's so obvious that she killed her own daughter. I'm not buying this "I was sexually abused by my dad and trained to cover it up" bullshit that José Baez is spinning as the defense theory. She's already been proven to be a liar; I wouldn't put it past Casey to lie to her own attorney. I think José Baez is grasping at straws for his defense, and he's coming off like Lionel Hutz on "The Simpsons."

It all makes me so irate. I almost don't want to watch anymore of the trial on TruTV and HLN. (Good thing I go back to work tomorrow.)

I'm with the prosecution on this. I'm of the belief that she knocked out Caylee with too much chloroform just so she could go out and party, might have accidentally killed her that way. Or she might have done it on purpose (the duct tape around Caylee's mouth shows that she was still alive when it was put on her) to spite her parents for paying more attention to Caylee than to her. And you know....how can you lie like that? To your parents? To the police? About your job? About your whereabouts? About your child's whereabouts? Sending cops on a wild goose chase, wasting their time and taxpayers' money? And she just sits there in the courtroom with a stone expression on her face, trying to push a tear out while her poor mother is having a hysterical breakdown over seeing Caylee's bed and toys. AAARGH.

Got a call from Mom this morning. So it looks like Roadway made a mistake and Dad isn't re-hired. What complete, utter, total bullshit. And they were ready to hit the road tonight, too. So Dad's upset. He still hasn't found a job. But at least he got approved for extended unemployment. And from what Mom said, Bo's upset, toe, because he seemed like he wanted to get back home to his sissy and bubby and gramma. (GOD, do we miss Bo.)

Today--just minutes ago--we got a letter via certified priority mail for Dad that he was called back to work. Keep in mind this letter was dated August 13th. And today he gets the call about the "oh no, that was a mistake" bullshit.

I don't know how many times I can say "bullshit" about this whole situation in this post, but it really is. It's BULLSHIT. Last year after the first time he was laid off, they called him back to work before they could "officially" lay him off. Then after over a year, they call him back. Then oh no! They made a mistake! No work for you! Why must Dad keep getting jerked around like this? Mom was saying on the phone, "Now I understand why people go on mad shooting sprees."

And for fuck's sake, if it's that bad, then maybe Dad needs to dip into whatever inheritance he has coming from Grandma Cozie. Or sell the goddamn house down there and all of that fancy antique stuff she has that we'll do nothing with up here. To hell with letting the money in the trust fund or whatever grow with interest, and to hell with whatever Hunter and I would receive if anything happens to Dad. If you need that money, then fucking USE IT.

(AND WHERE'S MY FUCKING TEA SET?!!! The one thing I wanted out of the house, that nice blue-and-white floral China tea set, and I still don't have it. FUCK!!!!)


Kevin's dad isn't doing too well, either, sad to say. It turns out he has cancer of the liver. Kevin had to make a hard decision regarding "DNR" (do not resuscitate) in case he takes a turn for the worst. He had a discussion with his dad, and I guess his dad wants them to try to resuscitate if it ever comes to that. Kevin's had a rough year. First Fester, and now this. I know he's trying very hard to be strong about it and hang in there, but the stress is wearing him down. And I feel so useless and the best I can do is just stick by him and be the good supportive girlfriend. It's just...like I said. I feel so useless.

Dad had to make that decision with Grandma Cozie, too. We (meaning me, Hunter, Mom and Dad) had a discussion about this sort of thing a couple of years ago. Mom does not want to be resuscitated in case she ever gets that bad; she's dealt with being in all sorts of pain in the last 20 years with her MS, and she just wants her suffering to end. Dad was the opposite. He said he wants everything that can be done to keep him alive and kicking. I tend to side with Dad. I forget what Hunter said, though.

All of this sort of stuff really makes me question God's existence, though. What sort of God would want people to suffer or get jerked around like this? I want to be positive and to believe and Him, but everything is making it really hard for me to do so.

In DC, even the Spelling Bee draws protesters.

By LAUREN SAUSSER, Associated Press Writer Lauren Sausser, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jun 3, 3:55 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The nation's capital always draws its share of protesters, picketing for causes ranging from health care reform to immigration policy.

But spelling bee protesters? They're out here, too.

Four peaceful protesters, some dressed in full-length black and yellow bee costumes, represented the American Literacy Council and the London-based Spelling Society and stood outside the Grand Hyatt on Thursday, where the Scripps National Spelling Bee is being held. Their message was short: Simplify the way we spell words.

Roberta Mahoney, 81, a former Fairfax County, Va. elementary school principal, said the current language obstructs 40 percent of the population from learning how to read, write and spell.

"Our alphabet has 425-plus ways of putting words together in illogical ways," Mahoney said.

The protesting cohort distributed pins to willing passers-by with their logo, "Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much."

According to literature distributed by the group, it makes more sense for "fruit" to be spelled as "froot," "slow" should be "slo," and "heifer" — a word spelled correctly during the first oral round of the bee Thursday by Texas competitor Ramesh Ghanta — should be "hefer."

Meanwhile, inside the hotel's Independence Ballroom, 273 spellers celebrated the complexity of the language in all its glory, correctly spelling words like zaibatsu, vibrissae and biauriculate.

While the protesters could make headway with cell phone texters who routinely swap "u" for "you" and "gr8" for "great," their message may be a harder sell for the Scripps crowd.

Mahoney had trouble gaining traction with at least one bee attendee. New Mexico resident Matthew Evans, 15, a former speller whose sister is participating in the bee this year, reasoned with her that if English spellings were changed, spelling bees would cease to exist.

"If a dictionary lists 'enough' as 'enuf,' the spelling bee goes by the dictionary, therefore all the spelling words are easier to spell, so the spelling bee is gone," Evans said.

"Well," Mahoney replied, "they could pick their own dictionary."

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Online: http://www.americanliteracy.com

http://www.spellingsociety.org

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I.....I just.....I can't even put into words how outraged this makes me. I can understand if you legitimately have a learning disorder which makes it hard to spell, but come on. This just sounds like a bunch of lazy dipshits who didn't apply themselves in school that are pissed off and need something to protest. And not only that, but have the Internet and the use of text messaging seriously dumbed people down that much? It's kind of sad, really

The simple fact of the matter is that when you go to college, professors expect you to be on a higher level of knowledge. If you so much as have one spelling error on an assignment or term paper, they take points off for that sort of thing. They expect a certain degree of professionalism from their students.