People are making a mountain out of a molehill with this contraception-being-provided-by-insurance issue.  Christian organizations do not want to be forced to include birth control in their insurance policies because it goes against their religion and people have freedom of religion in this country, by golly!

What about the person on their payroll who would like more affordable contraception options?  What about her freedom of religion?  Hey, Christian Organizations, by not giving someone the option to practice their religion as they choose (i.e. they have no religious objection to birth control), aren’t you doing exactly the same thing to them as what you are complaining the government is trying to do to you?

Here is an idea, and you will have to pardon its crazy extremism… if you have a moral objection to birth control then DO NOT TAKE IT.  That is your freedom of religion.  If I have no such objections, then I can take it.  No one has the right to force their personal beliefs or opinions on someone else.

By including birth control in insurance policies you are not condoning it, but simply allowing people who have no qualms an option to choose it.  After all, it is a free country right?  Or perhaps it is only a free country for those that agree with you.

I have to be honest and admit I do not understand why Catholics believe birth control is a sin in the first place.  I did a Google about it and found a page that explains that the Bible condemns birth control in the book of Genesis.  A man named Onan’s brother died and he was instructed to go to the brother’s wife and give her offspring in his brother’s name (this was the law back then).  “But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also.” (Gen.38:8-10).

Pulling out is a form of birth control and God killed a dude for it.  CASE CLOSED!  BIRTH CONTROL BAD!!

But here’s another radical, extremist thought… perhaps what God was mad about was not the fact that Onan pulled out, but that he disobeyed his instruction.  Perhaps God was mad that Onan willfully disobeyed this brotherly duty, but yet was still willing to fuck his brother’s widow (sorry for the coarseness, but that is what he did…it wasn’t making love or having sex).  That seems like a much better reason to kill someone than a little mess on the ground.  In fact, the New Living Translation of the Bible agrees with me, for their verse 10 states, “But the LORD considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the LORD took Onan’s life, too.”

So yeah… nothing to do with birth control.

I think having children you cannot provide for monetarily or emotionally is infinitely worse than birth control will ever be.

This morning I was nearly sweating as I commuted to work.  This afternoon/evening I needed my old lady sweater on the way home.  I went out with a co-worker to pick up lunch and the sudden drop in temperature was startling, even by Midwest standards.

On an unrelated-but-equally-startling note, we are pretty sure Mr. W is going to have to close his gaming/comic store in June.  We are both very sad about this, as it brings him a lot of joy.

There may be an opening in the marketing department at work.  I’m going to look into it, but it seems like the current employee is transferring to a different department because marketing is having a lot of problems, and that doesn’t inspire confidence.  Eh, we’ll see.  Just a thought I had. “Hey Teri, you have an MBA in Marketing…perhaps you should put that to use while you’re paying it off.” /shrug

Girls’ Weekend #4 is fast approaching, and I am pretty damn excited.  This year we are meeting up in Atlanta.  Going to the Zoo, the aquarium, an art museum, and the World of Coke [the bubbly beverage kind not the snorting kind, in case there was some confusion].  Gonna meet up with my old college roommate, Sarah, for some pampering time and fancy dinner.  I wish I didn’t have to fly there, however.  I am angered by the TSA’s new pornoscan or molestation travel policy, but it’s too far to drive.  Pornoscan it is!

In more stressing news, I found a lump in one of my breasts.  The earliest I could see the doctor was the 19th, but then they pushed it back to the 24th, so I will find out what’s going on then.  Been trying not to think about it, but that never works.  My mom told me to stop copying off of her.  She said in her first year of marriage to my dad he lost his job and she found a lump.  I did not know that I was copying them but have decided to stop forthwith.  [After all, it's only a matter of time until she gets pregnant.]

So who here had amazing things happen in their first year of marriage?  Like of the winning-the-lottery or publishing-a-novel variety?  I will gladly start copying you instead.

Winter is a magical time of snow, toy-making elves, and weight gain [if you are me].  Mr. W attributes winter weight to my being German, and I’m not going to argue with him as that sounds a hell of a lot better than “I’m a lazy ass who eats too much chocolate.”  I’m not the most active person typically.  I have a desk job and my primary hobbies are: reading, playing video games, playing table-top RPG games, and watching movies.  I got sedentary action going on.  I think winter compounds the problem, as my general attitude is “It’s too damn cold to: take a walk/get out of bed/move.”

So anyway, it isn’t winter anymore, and I need to get my bikini body back.  And by “bikini body”, I mean “lose some weight but there’s still no way in hell you’d catch my body in a bikini”.  This means raising the activity level.  Work has also recently slowed down, allowing me time to work out in our company gym.  So I’ve been trying to go there every day for some elliptical fun [term used loosely]!  Also, when Mr. W doesn’t pick me up from work I am walking home from the train station instead of taking the bus (about 1.5ish miles).  And Mr. W and I are taking walks when it is nice out.

But I wanted something more to do at home because I still kind of felt like a lazy blob.  So I went on Amazon and looked at exercise videos that I could instantly download.  I looked for ones that had the highest ratings, and I read reviews.  I bought one of The Biggest Loser ones because it looked pretty promising.  That might seem silly to you, and that’s okay.  I’ve never watched the show and know nothing about any of the people on it, but it had hundreds of four and five-star reviews.

Another thing I liked about it is, if you buy the three or four different chapters, you have several complete workouts in varying degrees of difficulty.  I figured, once I master the first one, I can just move on without buying a new workout!  I do not see myself mastering this workout any time soon.  The first workout is entitled “Low Intensity Cardio” but should really be called “Squat ‘Til You Die”.

I did it for the first time on Friday.  My quads were killing me the rest of the evening, but I was a-okay come Saturday morning.  Encouraged from my rapid rebound, I did it again on Sunday.  And I have to say, I think there is some kind of cruel joke going on.  You try a new workout and your body is all, “Oh yeah, bring it.  I feel great!  Can’t wait to do this again!!” So you do it again and your body is like, “Haha, syke!  How do you like pain, Stupid Head?!”

I don’t think there is a muscle in my body that does not hurt.  Except perhaps those in my fingers, which is how I am still able to type this.  Going to do it again on Wednesday though–I must not succumb to the will of my quads.  They will squat, dammit, like they’ve never squatted before.

I’m exhausted. Paige says that citrus is supposed to wake you up so, seeing as I’m off caffeine now, I’m really hoping this Simply Orange juice will do the job. If it’s any indication of just how tired I am, in the previous sentence I originally wrote “I’m really opening this Simply Orange juice will do the job”. That doesn’t make any sense at all. Silly brain!

You know what I never did? I never told you all never to take Cipro. Like, ever. Don’t ever take it. I had a really bad UTI in mid-February. I had to take several rounds of different antibiotics to get rid of it, the first of which was Cipro. See, back then, I was innocent. I was naive enough to believe that my doctor would never prescribe me a drug that would hurt me more. Silly Teri!

A few days following my three-days course of Cipro, I started developing burning pain in my Achilles tendon. I did a little Internet research and WHAMMO! Looks like this drug can cause tendonitis and/or tendon rupture, renal and/or liver failure, sensitivity to light, fevers, back pain, hallucinations, seizures…the list goes on and on. I was very fortunate that my experience with the drug culminated only in fevers, achilles tendonitis, back pain, and vaginal inflammation. And it didn’t even get rid of the UTI. In fact, if Cipro doesn’t get rid of a bacteria, it strengthens it so that most other antibiotics won’t kill it either. Super!

Cipro actually has the strongest warning that the FDA can give a prescription medicine–called black box–due specifically to its tendency to cause tendonitis and tendon rupture. People had to file multiple lawsuits against the FDA before they instituted this warning level.

My mom has had two encounters with Cipro [and they were both before we knew how horrible the drug was]. The first time happened when I was in high school. Mom was admitted to the hospital for a very bad kidney stone/kidney infection and the hospital staff overdosed her with Cipro. I’m not sure exactly how many symptoms she suffered from, but there were a LOT–including hallucinations.

Her second experience was a 7- or 10-day dose a little over a year ago. Ever since she has had tendon problems in her foot. She is still recovering from this, a few months ago she received steroid injections and had to have a cast for immobility. And it is all thanks to Cipro.

Like I said, I only took it for three days, and still I suffered from tendonitis, had to go to the emergency room, had a full-leg splint and crutches for three days, and a handful of follow-up appointments with an orthopedic specialist who prescribed heel inserts [the inserts raise the leg and shorten your calf muscles, which eases tension on the achilles tendon] and limited my physical activity. At my last appointment on April 30th, he informed me that he thinks I am finally out of the woods for tendon rupture and shouldn’t require physical therapy. I’m still wearing the prescribed heel inserts but can gradually start weening myself off them for a couple hours a day. I am still not allowed to run or jump, just to be safe, as those activities could still cause a rupture.

I took Cipro for ONLY THREE DAYS. Seriously–if a doctor ever tries to give you a prescription for the stuff, tell him to shove it up his ass.

Also, you know what? I think the orange juice helped.

I tried to keep track of how many times I threw up, because at the very least it would be interesting to take bets on, but I lost count.  My best guess estimate is 21.  In case you were wondering, the culprit was a McDonald’s breakfast burrito.  [Ah, little burrito, you had always been so good to me.  Eating you in the morning with your little packet of Hot Sauce was such a treat.  But no longer!  I shall avoid you and your dirty schemes forevermore!]

Thankfully, Mr. W came over and took care of me, fetching [and forcing me to drink] bottles of water and Gatorade.  I was pretty useless on Friday as well: dehydrated and weak.  A lot of laying around that day.  I’m all right now, though my stomach/appetite is still a little off.

In other news, I love how stupid people are sometimes.  Take this guy who, when arrested for possession of child pornography, blamed the whole thing on his cat.  Well done, sir.  You make me laugh.