I can't take any more!!!!

[JanusAscending]

The world is going insane! What is my Grandson being born into!!!???? Will there be a world left for him to know as we knew it??? It's been a very bad couple of days for me.Yesterday I woke up to hear news of Israel proclaiming War. My son in law hurt his back, and may have a herniated disc, and my daughter waiting to "pop" at any moment. All this while on my third day of giving up the cigs "cold turkey", and sucking on a damned straw!!! My dear departed Dad promised me that this is what helped him quit, so I thought I'd try it. Listening to Frist bullshitting about stem cell research with Wolf Blitzer, and after switching back and forth between the Senate and the House today, I'm going out to by a pack of cigs.!! I promised I'd quit as soon as Aidan was born ( cause I'm keeping him here when daughter goes back to work) Think I'll wait til then! This is too hard given the circumstances!! Later! DC

[ginnyinWI]

1. advice (if you want it)

Consider taking a "news fast". Just don't watch. If you can't stand that, then just allow yourself a 15 min. update such as you hear on NPR at the top of the hour or on BBC radio, just to make sure the world is still there, and then shut it off again! I'm planning on doing this when we go on vacation next week. ;)

I quit smoking in my late teens, but I was only a half-pack a day smoker and only had smoked for 6 months. Credit to a non-smoking new boyfriend for the motivation--I didn't want to smell like smoke around him! I was able to taper off gradually until down to one a day, then quit easily. I realize it was easier because I was a light smoker. And who knows, maybe they put more evil chemicals in them now than they did in the 70s.

[JanusAscending]

9. I appreciate the advice. Yeah, I'm on OVERLOAD!!

I will try to cut back on the news, and maybe stay off the computer for a few days, but I think I'm as addicted to DU as I am to nicotine!! When I was smoking the most, I was at two packs of Pall Malls a day. Then after my husband quit, I cut back to one pack of filtered Menthol Lites. I've cut that in half, because I can't afford to smoke any more !! The only place I can smoke anymore is home, in my car and outdoors. None of my kids smoke, and whenever I visit, I'm relegated to the outside "rain, snow or swealtering heat!!" I'll tell you one thing, November can't come fast enough for me!! These guys in office are trying to get us all killed off!! I get to vote Lieberman out next month, and it can't come soon enough for me!!

[Island Blue]

2. Hang in there DC

I feel much the same way that you do right now. My younger brother and SIL are expecting their first baby (a boy) two weeks from today. The world sucks at the moment (mainly due to the actions of the giggling murderer living in the White House) but we have to hold it together and work to make things better. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude (very had these days, I know) and think that by the time these little guys are celebrating their 3rd birthdays, President Kerry will have been in office for six months!

Best wishes on the birth of Aidan, and with quitting smoking!

[TayTay]

3. Hang on DC

Remember the Serenity Prayer and the wisdom it contains:

"God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
courage to change the things we can,
and wisdom to know the difference."

The Christian faith holds that there is a sin of blasphemy. Most people think it has to just do with swearing. (If that's the case, by the way, I am doomed, LOL!) However, blasphemy is not just about swearing; it's about assuming that you can do more than you actually can. It's about believing that you have 'godlike' powers to affect the world, which of course is not true for anyone. Why is this a sin? Because it leads to the inevitable downfall when a person learns they can't do what 'God' can do: control all events. That leads to despair which is the state of immobility and the state wherein a person takes no action at all because of the false belief that all actions are doomed.

We neither control all things nor are all events beyond our control. We have to live in the middle and do what we actually can do. I can't save the world all by myself from environmental disaster, but I can reduce, reuse and recycle things. I can't get 'world peace,' but I can petition those who can affect it and I can try to teach my own kids and tose around me to treat others with respect and affection. I am not responsible for the world. I am responsible for my place in the world. There is a world of difference in that.

Peace!

[JanusAscending]

12. Thanks for making me stop and think, and count my blessings!

Yeah,I AM A CONTROL FREAK !! You got my number. It's hard to be patient some times. I worry about my kids like they were still my babies. I love the serenity prayer, but what struck me most by your post was read between the lines, "baby steps, baby steps" I love the old spiritual " If I can help somebody, as I pass this way, then my living will not be in vain!" I'm just so ANGRY at bush right now I can't stand it! This would never have happened under Kerry's watch....:cry: I do however, believe that the "proverbial shit is about to hit the proverbial fan" and the doo doo is going to smack them right in their faces. They won't know what hit them, when they are forced to come down from their Ivory Towers!!! Love ya! DC

[sandnsea]

4. Nicotine Lozenges

I promise, they'll work. I quit a month before my grandson was born, that was over a year ago and never had another one. You take one, you feel better. You realize it really is just the nicotine you want. You then realize sane people don't stick their heads in chimneys to get a whiff of smoke, addicts do. And you go from there. I also have a stash of sugar free spearmints and Werther's. And my son smokes so the cigarettes are around all the time, really does not bother me.

My son also happened to hurt his back last year and was down for 5-6 months. It was a herniated disc, but it did get better. He just rested as much as possible and paid attention to things like how he slept and such. MSM Glucosamine also helps a lot. I hope your sil is able to do that without complete loss of all income.

When that baby gets here, you are just not going to believe how much you love him. Changes everything. The world is a continuum, good and bad since the beginning. It will be such for him, and it will be okay.

Oh, and one last thing, if your daughter tells you your voice sounds like scratch on a chalkboard, don't take it personal. I understand many daughters are annoyed by the very existence of their mothers during childbirth. I sat in a corner and bit my nails and sniffed back tears. :shrug:

Hang in there! :hug:

[JanusAscending]

7. Sounds like something I'd like to try!

Do you recall what the cost was? I've quit before using the patch, but the last time I tried them, I found I was allergic to the adhesive. Every place I tried to put it on my body, had a red welt on it when I took it off. I still have some in my bathroom vanity drawer. As to my SIL, he had an MRI done today, won't know for sure 'til Mon. His Dr. (ortho) says he's 99% sure it's a herniated disk. He is a dry wall installer and painter. Workman's comp may be of help financially, but he can't do anything about surgery until after the baby comes. I did run out and get a pack of cigs., but I'm rationing them. this is not going to be easy for me. I've smoked on and off since I was 14!! Used to swipe my Dads !My husband quit "cold turkey" when my daughter turned 18. It was a promise he made to her, and he kept it. I told him he was a better man than I am Charlie Brown!!! Love DC

[sandnsea]

10. Do you have a Rite-Aid?

We get the generic at Rite-Aid and they are $32 for 72. You can also get the brand ones cheaper at Costco and order them off EBay, there's also $5 coupons in most boxes. There is an original kind, which is more of a warm spearminty thing. And then there's a mint like peppermint that people who smoke menthols might like better. The Rite Aid generics are labeled mint, but they're more like the original ones.

I started off with about 9 a day, my husband a lot more. You can take up to 20 a day. We quit at the same time and didn't kill each other, or really fight all that much. They really do work. However, as I've heard from others, getting off the replacement is hard too and we are still using them. BUT we think it's better than smoking. I use about 4 a day and really when I'm out and about I don't even think about it and almost never think about smoking anymore. If they're here, I stick one in my mouth, if not, I just suck on a mint or hard candy. I think it's an emotional crutch at this point. I've used the patch too, I quit for a few weeks with it, but when take off the patch day came, I freaked out. That's why I prefer the lozenges, I don't care how long I have to use them. Although I do think I'll be off them by the end of summer.

They wanted to do surgery on my son too, but he had all kinds of workmen's comp problems. It turned out by the time he got through the workmen's comp mess, his back was better anyway. He's just not going to do heavy labor anymore, he's in school to become paralegal right now. There is some kind of new procedure in Eugene here, where they put some kind of cushiony thing between your vertebrae instead of doing the fusion thing. I think that's what it is, IIRC. Back surgeries scare me, I don't know if they should, but they do. I hope your son does well, I know how miserable it is. My son walked around stooped over for about 4 months. We had a hard time even getting a doctor to see him without several hundred dollars up front, it was unbelievable to me. Certainly not like the workmen's comp I remember back in the day. Oregon privatized workmen's comp and it's a disaster. We've got our batch of right wingers with their brillaint free market ideas too. I sure hope your state is better on that regard than ours.

[JanusAscending]

14. P.S. After re-reading your post,

I forgot to tell you, My daughter doesn't even want me in the Hospital until after the baby arrives!! She's having a C Section, and while they staple her back together and all, the new Daddy gets to spend about 45 min. alone with the baby. She doesn't want me there until he calls to tell me Aidan's arrived !!! It will take me all of 45 Min's. to get there, as she's having the baby at the Sharon Medical Center, and I'm in Thomaston. I'm going to have to whisper in his ear, and have him call me as soon as he's out of the OR, so the timing will be perfect.:woohoo:

[sandnsea]

15. Oh, that's sweet

They want a more private time under the circumstances, I can understand that.

I guess my daughter's childbirthing fits her personality actually, she has always been very social. She had sleep-overs at 3 years old, was always wandering off to find a friend. So at my grandson's birth there was me, my husband, my youngest son, my sil, his sister, and two of my daughter's friends. Plus the doctor and the RN. It was a regular welcoming committee. So she had plenty of hovering hens, and then actually wanted her dad and husband and nobody else when she was actually delivering. It was a pretty amazing thing.

Grandbabies really are grand!!

[JI7]

5. this didn't have to happen

i'm thinking back to how hard Clinton worked for peace in the middle east. at what Carter did.

and looking at what the idiot we have right now has done. there was a huge lack of any concern there. it's like during Katrina where he just sat back and did nothing while things just kept getting worse. even with all the warnings. the same thing here. the same with 9/11, the same with Iraq.

[JanusAscending]

6. Thanks! I do sooooo agree with you on this.

I don't know if it's showing up on your "puter" but at the bottom of the thread, after your post, there's a whole bunch of site ads for smoking cessation!!! Think someone is trying to tell me something??

[JI7]

8. yeah, i see those ads also

good luck to you if you decide to quit smoking.

[sandnsea]

11. I hear he's at a bbq this time

You can always count on the chimp to have his priorities in line.

[JanusAscending]

13. Did you see the clips of him on cable news??

He's just too stupid to live! The reporters where asking him serious questions about the outbreak of war in Israel and Lebanon, and he said "I thought you were going to ask me about the pig roast?" DUH???? I hear that the new German female leader is just as dense as he is, God help us!!I watched him "jockying" for position in a photo shoot to be next to her, and pushed Laura over to the other side of him. I think I really pity "pickles" She doesn't seem to be a happy camper at all. I bet she wishes he would resign, 'cause I think all this pressure is going to push him over the edge!! I have a "visualization" of him being asked the wrong question, and having to be taken away in a straight jacket!!! Are you listening Lord?? Hope so.

[sandnsea]

16. I heard about it

I didn't have the news on today because I knew it was going to send me round the bend. I would have thought that clip would have been posted by now, I haven't seen it yet. I still don't understand how anybody can watch stuff like that and see him as a brave and intelligent leader, just boggles the mind.

[ginnyinWI]

17. the chimp doesn't "do" details.

All this Middle East stuff is just too complicated--gets in the way of the par-tay! So I think he relies heavily on Cheney, Rummy and others to tell him what to do and say. He's simply too intellectually lazy and incurious; if he can get through a day without any heavy lifting, he certainly will.

I've often thought of what he does now in comparison to when he was a cheerleader at Andover; it's kind of the same thing! And we know his favorite thing of all is to go out on the campaign trail and be "cheerleader extrodinaire".

Even his legendary "people skills" are bad! He thought Putin was a good guy, because Putin was good at fooling him by saying the right words and showing * a medal he was wearing that his mom gave him, or something like that. Can we all say, "gullible"?!?

As for Pickles, he has no consideration for her. Time and time again I've seen her all dressed up in a long skirt and having to negotiate stairs in high heels, and he does NOT even offer his arm! (Is he too busy trying to walk himself or what?) She will lamely grab at his coat sleeve, and even then he does not respond by crooking his elbow so she can hold on! That one little thing speaks volumes and volumes to me!
Even my middle-class-raised husband has always known how to offer an arm!

Well anyway, thanks for the opportunity to rant--I feel better. :)

[rox63]

18. I know what you mean about the world going insane

Every time I hear the news, it gets more and more bizarre and twisted. I may need to take a break from the news for a few days, or my head will explode. x(

[JanusAscending]

19. I'm trying that too!! Good luck with that!!

I'm just too damned NOSY !! I have a need to know what's going on so that I'll know when to grab up my little dog and RUN FOR THE HILLS !! (Berkshire Hills that is ) no cement pond, no movie stars, and definitely no black gold!! God, I try to be funny and I just make myself :cry: DC