here's a funny

So, yesterday at work my friend/co-worker was talking about a t.v. show she was watching in which one woman called another woman a whore. The slandered woman indignantly replied, "I'm not a whore, I'm a barrista!"

This is funny when you remember what I do for a living right now. In fact, I think it should be my new catchphrase, don't you?

Rita

Okay, so accidentally posted a blank one. Anyway....

Just wanted to let all my homies in Texas know that we're praying for you out here. Love you all!

Rita

t.v.

A couple of weeks ago some friends of mine decided that we should watch the first season of Lost on dvd before the new season comes out. I was excited about this because for various reasons I had missed a big chunk of the season. So now I'm prepped for next week, but I've just got to say, how has anyone been able to wait a whole summer to see what happened!? Craziness.

I am also excited because supposedly Junebug is finally coming to Wilmington movie theaters. So maybe I'll get to see it before too long.

Peace

Ophelia

For those of you who aren't hurricane trackers, there's a little girl sitting off the east coast named Ophelia. She's a category 1 predicted to land really close to where I live on Tuesday. It's interesting to watch the response in light of Katrina. The North Carolina governor declared a state of emergency in order to call in the National Guard; one of the islands in the Outer Banks has issued mandatory evacuation; and people around town are stocking up on their hurricane supplies. I wonder how many hurricane seasons this uber-preparedness will last through.

On a different note-
Due to our move to North Carolina and a broken VCR, I missed a lot of Lost. In fact, I pretty much didn't watch the last third of the season. But I'm so excited that season 1 is out on DVD! I'm hoping to get it all in before the second season starts.

Oh, and the OC started last week. Yay! (my guilty pleasure, what can I say). The first episode was odd. Very non-first-episode, as someone on a message board put it. But still good, and leaving a lot of room for a good season. We'll see how it goes. Last season, while not as terrible as some would have you believe, had its dissapointments. But Trey is gone, Kirsten seems like her old self, Seth and Summer are together which can be good, Jimmy's around for at least a little while, and Julie is Julie.

Reworking

In a recent post I mentioned that I was having a friend edit/critique a mystery that I've written. Well, I got it back and I am really pumped to start making it better. This is the first time since creative writing in college that I've seriously attacked a project with the intent of making it a first-class read. Also a little daunting though. We'll see how it goes.

A question

Why do people insist on having someone or something to blame for everything that happens in this world? Why must it be someone's fault? Sometimes there is a target for blame, but you know what? Shit happens. Period. Welcome to the world.

Policies

A person I know has been sick for a while...the kind of sick where you have good days and bad days and can't really nail down what's wrong. Last week though, she got really bad and had to go to the Medac (critical care facility), who sent her to her doctor. Now, my friend doesn't have insurance, and had to go to the doctor several months ago as well. She has about a $1,000 bill with them, and has been paying on it faithfully every month. Well, this last visit they asked her how she was planning to pay her new $350 bill and she said that she had planned on just adding it to her existing bill. They sent her back to a little room with, I presume, a business manager-type person who told her that if comes again and can't pay the full amount, they won't treat her.

What?!?!?!?!

I'm thinking if someone is faithfully paying you back, then does it matter that they can't pay every bill up front? It really made me angry at that doctor's office. It's a medical group, so I guess that's why they have the impersonal touch, but still. You'll see people who don't pay (because Medicare pays for them) yet you won't see someone who will eventually reimburse you 100% of your bill, which I'm pretty sure Medicare doesn't do. Fortunately, I know for a fact that not every doctor is that callous.

I know everyone has differing opinions on healthcare (my current theory is that insurance screwed everything up by forcing doctors to jack up their prices so that you HAVE to have insurance) and I sure haven't figured it out, but I wish there were some way to make it less difficult.

I know that everyone out there is bound to have differing opinions on health care