It's a GreyDuck meme.

PAST: What were you thankful for when you were young?

Books, snow, my dog.

PRESENT: What are you thankful for today?

Loved ones, my friends and family. Having what I need and a little extra sometimes.

FUTURE: What will you be thankful for next year?

That this whole trying to get into grad school thing is over.

I'm diabetic. I don't like talking about it much. You know what makes it about five times worse? Having to deal with pharmacies and insurance companies. I requested my remaining refill last week, asking for a Tuesday pick-up, to be specific. Now, it's my fault that I didn't pick it up on Tuesday, but I figured I had seven days to get there. Plus I called and left a voice mail - "Please don't put back my insulin refill, I went out of town and forgot, I will be there to get it Monday. I promise." Well, it should come as no surprise that they did put it back in stock, and since my prescription expired on the 26th, they couldn't get it for me. Me: "But it wasn't expired when I asked for the refill!" Them: "Sorry, we now have to call your doctor." Me: "But I left you a message asking you not to put it back!" Them: "Oh well."

Okay, let me be the first to assure you that there's no buzz from insulin. Taking it just makes me feel less crappy. Also, one usually does not get miraculously cured - even though they tell you that losing weight helps the condition, take it from me, it doesn't. So why does the damn prescription even expire? Now I have to wait two to three days while they take their time calling the doctor and I have to do with taking half my meds.

And don't get me started on insurance companies; I have to use the less convenient form of the stuff I have to take with meals. I used to get the handy-dandy pen filled with the stuff. Now that my employer switched insurance companies (which they had to in order to be able to maintain insurance in the first place - 40% increase, don't ya know) I have to lug a vial and syringes around. Very attractive and simple. Not. If I had to do without insurance, paying for this stuff, which is at least $100, would be very problematic. Yet our politicians remain oblivious, because we as a nation are oblivious, just give us our TV and no one gets hurt.

Since I can't be specific about certain events in this particular forum, I present this archive of Abe Simpson (aka Grandpa Simpson) quotes. Enjoy.

"Ah, there's an interesting story behind this nickel. In 1957, I remember it was, I got up in the morning and made myself a piece of toast. I set the toaster to three -- medium brown."

"My story begins in nineteen-dickitty-two! We had to say 'dickitty' because the Kaiser had stolen our word 'twenty'!"

"I leave [as inheritance] these: a box of mint-condition 1918 liberty-head silver dollars. You see, back in those days, rich men would ride around in Zeppelins, dropping coins on people, and one day I seen J. D. Rockefeller flying by. So I run of the house with a big washtub and… hey! Where are you going?"

"I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I acknowledge Missouri!"

"We can’t bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell ‘em stories that don’t go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah - the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..."

"Big deal! When I was a pup, we got spanked by presidents 'til the cows came home! Grover Cleveland spanked me on two non-consecutive occasions!"

"Dear Mr. President, there are too many states. Please eliminate seven."

"Then after World War Two, it got kinda quiet, 'till Superman challenged FDR to a race around the world. FDR beat him by a furlong, or so the comic books would have you believe. The truth lies somewhere in between... "

"Dear Advertisers: I am disgusted with the way old people are depicted on television. We are not all vibrant, fun-loving sex maniacs. Some of us are bitter, resentful individuals who remember the good old days when entertainment was bland and inoffensive. The following is a list of words I never want to hear on television again ..."

"My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!"

"Not many people know this, but I owned the first radio in Springfield. Not much on the air then, just Edison reciting the alphabet over and over. 'A' he'd say. Then 'B'. 'C' would usually follow..."

"I'm itchy! I've got ants in my pants! I'm discombobulated! Give me a calmative!"

"Three wars back we called Sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and we called liberty cabbage "super slaw" and back then a suitcase was known as a "Swedish lunch box." Of course, nobody knew that but me. Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling... "

"Your dad used to be smart as a monkey. Now, he's dumber than a chimp!"

"... Anyway, about my washtub. I’d just used it that morning to wash my turkey, which in those days was known as... a walking bird. We'd always have walking bird on Thanksgiving with all the trimmings: cranberries, injun eyes, yams stuffed with gunpowder. Then we'd all watch football, which in those days was called "baseball"..."

Marge: "Grandpa, are you sitting in the apple pie?"
Grandpa: "I sure hope so."

My subconcsious is taking turns imagining which school will accept me. The past two nights I've dreamt of attending a different school to which I'm applying.

I know dreams are supposed to be deep, important messages from the nooks and crannies of the cranium, but to me, they are usually a tiny little aspect of the day's events magnified. If I get a junk mail ad from Pappa John's, that night I'll dream about a 50 foot tall Pappa John terrorizing the neighborhood, for example.

A neat article about the possible whereabouts of Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, some backstory on his rise and eventual departure from the comic strip universe, and what he may be up to these days. Actually I'm not from Chagrin Falls, but, you know, northeast Ohio is close enough.

Okay, "Iron Chef USA", with William "Pudgy" Shatner as "The Chairman", has got to be the cheesiest thing cable TV has seen in a long time. Words cannot describe the cheesiness. Is Shatner just parodying himself now? Is it possible to become a parody of yourself? Apparently so. There was more cheese in the first five minutes of that show than a manicotti the size of Toledo. I could not handle the cheese. That was enough cheese to give Mr. T lactose intolerance. Wow.

And who designed those taffeta chefs' outfits? You can't cook in taffeta. Imagine the grease stains!

I probably won't be posting regularly for the next few days. A combination of holiday stuff that needs to be done, and my nefarious attempt to get into grad school, I'm afraid.

Yesterday I accompanied Godfrey at his company Christmas party. I can always count on that annual event driving home how little I fit in with the rest of the world at large. No interest in having children, or meaningless small talk...thank gawd for the Food Network and the vagarities of Emeril. (I still can't decide if I like him, his food sounds good but that "Bam!" gimmick is enough to drive you nuts most of the time.)

We put up the Christma$ tree, complete with cat-proof ornaments on the bottom tier. Still don't have the spirit, all I pick up on is the pressure of having to be perfect, buy perfect gifts, buy buy buy buy buy buy. Right when I'm broke and my "check engine" light has reared its ugly illuminated self. Again. I'm afraid that all my friends with December birthdays are going to have to wait until January for their gifts. I was hoping that I could get into the holiday mood by making cookies, but ran out of time, hopefully tomorrow Bake Fest 2003 will commence. Speaking of the Food Network, they have e-mailed me some tasty-sounding cookie recipes to try.

Meanwhile, I've learned that I need to have at least 15 pages on my writing sample. I've cracked 10. This stupid thing needs to be finished in early January. I also need one more letter of recommendation writer for my cause. Wheeee!

Now, I'm not sure if this particular quiz is aimed at gay guys or not...it's cute, at any rate. I've heard a rumor that one of the guys is secretly straight, and I thought that it might be Ted. I like the show, when I can be bothered to watch TV. I doubt that Ted would approve of what I'm going to go fix myself for breakfast - a BLT on whole wheat toast.

Soupervisor: "So, would you be able to leave here a few hours early and buy some office supplies?"

Me:"Does the Pope wear a funny hat?"

Sometimes it pays to be me. In this case, my well-known skills as a shopper were enlisted. The company is hosting a dinner party at the FL Aquarium next month, and Soup wanted some blue envelopes for the invitations, and maybe stickers with fish on them. I scored envelopes with water and fish printed on them in full color, for a very reasonable price.

Ginevra, for all your shopping needs.

At 9:00 AM (Eastern time) today(!) the Calais Consort, a music group composed of Godfrey, Sev, Brian, and Sid will be the guests on WMNF's Live Music Showcase. If you're in the Tampa area, tune into 88.5 FM, out-of-area listeners can hear streaming audio over the Internet. Godfrey describes their music as "mainly historic music, from the Crusades through the 18th century (with a couple of Gipsy Kings tunes to spice things up a bit)".

I hope I can tune them in via an old-fashioned radio - they are very strict about not allowing streaming audio where I work. Our IT guy literally came running to my desk the last time I tried!

I am so proud of the band. They are talented, fun to watch and to listen to. It's obvious that they like each other and love the music that they perform. Guys, whatever the equivalent to "break a leg" for musicians is, yeah, that! Good luck!

Why yes, yes it is. I was able to tune in via radio to the consort's one hour live radio performance this morning. They were in top form. I expect a full report posted from those of you with blogs. I believe Godfrey will have audio footage up at some point as well. Very well done, indeed!

My social calendar was quite full this weekend. Things got kicked off Friday with an invite to Bill and Sue's. They are both great hosts and Sue is an excellent cook. She had a nice array of hors d'oeuvres and drinky-drinks. The topic of blogging came up. "Why would you do that?" she exclaimed. "I tell my daughter, 'If you don't want anyone to find something out, don't write it down!'" Most of us present were bloggers; we told her that not everyone blogs about embarrassing trips to the doctor. Some of us treat blogging more like a newspaper column. We may blog about sports, or movies, or wacky incidents in our lives, without TMI. Bill was concerned that, by blogging, we might run out of things to say when we saw our friends in person. Now, this is actually a concern of mine, silly as it may seem. Since I can't say too much about work here, for instance, I always have stuff to chat about in "meat space".

Saturday night was Sid and Ken's big Yule dinner. She had quite a crowd, and served tons of food. (By the way, Sid, I've decided I have to make that pumpkin souffle dish for Christmas. Please send me the recipe, or, heck, post it here for everyone.) Other highlights were the ham, of course, lots of yummy white wine, and a dessert selection that included raspberry cheese (much better than it may sound), and too many cookies. Gamera brought a neat story-telling game, which I would have played if I had imbibed more.

The gift exchange was pretty funny. Seems Bri had drawn my name, only the slip of paper with my name went through the wash. Oops. So he had to pick a gift that anyone in our group would like - he went with food, excellent choice, a fancy mojo sauce and balsamic dipping oil, and an aerodynamic spatula. The way he explained his predicament was pretty hilarious.

I'm certainly not one to judge when it comes to gift exchange snafus; I drew Lunchbox's name, but I waited a bit late to order his gift, so it didn't arrive in time for the party. Silly me. As a result, he had the dubious distinction of being the first recipient of some of my Bad Art. I have recently decided that, for a while, anyway, that my homehade gifty items will consist of photography by Yours Truly. Now, usually that will mean that people will get photographs of themselves, usually at SCA events. That's not what I mean by Bad Art, because my friends are all good-looking, and it's a pleasure to photograph them. No, by Bad Art I mean photographs that I take that are supposed to be artsy, but are probably pretty bad. Well, I don't know, maybe it's decent work. I'm a bit paranoid about what is good or pleasing art and what is bad. I have recently seen someone laboring under the impression that his art is great, when it's really kind of, well...bad. (This is not referring to anyone who reads this blog, I assure you.) Anyway, Lunchbox was a good sport about it, and to make up for it he also got a couple of SCA pics. On a related note, I may need to get a new camera, just a basic SLR, if they still make them.

In between soirees, I took it easy for the most part. My pancreas decided to get off its lazy ass and do its job (it will do that on rare occasion) so I spent most of Saturday dizzy. I wrapped some gifts, stuff like that.

On a slightly more momentous note, I recently heard from a former professor, (the one I corresponded with a couple of months ago) who, after reviewing a draft of my analytical paper, has agreed to write some letters of reccomendation on my behalf for grad school. I cannot express how happy this makes me; it's a very big deal, and should be quite a boost. I sent him a packet with info like my undergrad transcripts, admissions essay, and, of course, addressed stamped envelopes to carry his letters to the various programs to which I am applying. My quest to apply to grad school is coming together. I've sent almost all my applications out; all that remains is the departmental materials, such as the writing samples. Soon all that will be in the mail, and I can just sit back and relax. (Ha!)

I hope all of you out there are enjoying the season. I am finally starting to get a bit of the spirit myself.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be a photographer for the time being. I come by an interest in photography honestly - Mum was quite a shutterbug for a while, until recently she usually had more than one camera, in fact at one time she had more cameras than the stereotypical Asian tourist. My brother was quite a photographer in the 70s, he even had a darkroom. I was yearbook photographer, and that's where I learned the basics. I had a very trusty, all manual Pentax K1000. Ask to see my high school yearbook sometime and I'll show you some of the neat pictures I took. Just don't look at my senior picture, okay? I can still hear the junior high students yelling for me to take their pictures. Ah, good times. So I've been looking around on e-Bay for something similar. I've always had Nikon envy, so I may try to get a Nikon FG, which is pretty much manual as well, just better built and a couple more options.

The problem with stalking items on e-Bay is that urge, you know, "Oh, there's what you want! Better get it NOW!! Fortunately, FGs seem to be in plentiful supply, so I suppose I'll play the Waiting Game. It's always nice to be able to pay for what you win.

(Oh, if I get another camera, I'll have three - a nice digital, a nice point-n-shoot, and an Art School model.) P.S> - the Waiting Game sucks!

Why I'm looking at used Nikons on e-Bay when I don't have any money to spare is beyond me. I'll call it long-term research. What will I wind up with: the FE, EM, FM, FM2N...they all sound alike! I like reading the camera reviews on photo.net, especially when they make fun of "yuppies" with point and shoot cameras, or, even better, they go back and forth debating the merits of various cameras, and stoop to calling each other stupid. Now that's entertainment, a bunch of camera geeks arguing amongst themselves!

Sekrit confession: I like the Nikons that are all black. They look like super-stealthy spy cameras!

Whatever you may celebrate this time of year, have a happy one!