Category: Uncategorized

I’ll let you in on a little smidgen of information about myself. I’m 25 years old. By the standards set forth in the United States of America, I’m old enough to fight and die for my country. I’m old enough to buy cigarettes if I so choose. I’m old enough to buy alcohol. I’m old enough to rent a car. I’m old enough to get a cheaper rent on my car insurance because I’m no longer in the 16-24 age bracket. I’m old enough to choose to have my tubes tied or my reproductive tract totally removed. Do you know what I’m not permitted to do? I’m not permitted to choose the location, provider, and method in which to give birth. It’s quite interesting, actually. In this country, a woman has the right to “choose.” I have the right to choose birth control. I have the right to choose an abortion. I have the right to choose adoption. I have the right to choose Plan B. Yet I do not have the right to choose how my baby enters this world. What’s wrong with this picture? We are commended for being “brave” to undergo risky procedures in hostile environments. Yet we are berated for expecting to receive mother-baby-friendly, evidence-based care?

I will be embarking on a series of entries detailing my plight with the current medical-model-of-care. I will discuss how my age has affected my care. I will discuss how my income level has affected my care. I will discuss how my desire for true informed consent has affected my care. I will share my frustrations. I will share links to stories that prove it can be done. I will do everything in my power to bring awareness to the current cesarean epidemic plaguing our country. I will delve into issues of ethics involving the legal field entering into the practice of medicine. I will try to show you just how disgusting this system has gotten. I may isolate myself from some readers, but I don’t care. This isn’t pretty. This isn’t sexy. This is the truth. The truth hurts.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine shared a link to youdata.com. Basically, YouData offers to pay you pocket change for viewing ads and sponsored links. You sign up, fill out information about yourself, and you start viewing ads. Each Friday, they send out payment via paypal, and they dock a 2% fee (not to exceed a dollar) for the mass paypal transaction. I was a bit skeptical — I pride myself on sniffing out a scam that tries to pose as a legit deal — so I waited for her to confirmed that she received money in her paypal account. Last Friday, she did just that, so I signed up on Saturday. Over the course of a week, I collected $6.31 from viewing ads for about 15-30 minutes during the entire week. I didn’t have ads everyday, but it’s still money. After the transaction fee, I was due to collect $6.19. I received an email this afternoon confirming that my money had been sent, and voila!

I also get up to a dollar for each person I refer — and you can, too. Please check it out: http://www.youdata.com/join/meri1030. Times are tough, and we could all use some extra change here and there.

Apparently a new website called Scent.net selling perfume and cologne will be up and running in the near future. Personally, I’m hoping they’ll carry Elizabeth Arden’s Sunflowers at a reasonable price. I’ve had such a hard time finding that particular perfume in recent years, which really is a shame. I first became familiar with this fragrance in middle school, and I absolutely fell in love. While it’s quite strong, a little spray here and there sends my olfactory receptors into euphoria. The scent lasts throughout the day, and it’s just so wonderful for special occasions. The Sunflowers line includes perfume and lotion, and I’ve had an even harder time trying to hunt down the lotion.

I checked my email after lunch to discover that I will now be able to accept paid writing opportunities. My first mission — should I choose to accept it — was to locate a piece of wood furniture; from Scenic Furniture that I liked. That’s simple enough. So, I browsed through their collection of furniture, including bedroom sets, kitchen tables, and even cute little lamps. Each piece has a very Lincoln Logs type of feel to it, and I’d imagine this would be the perfect place to shop for log cabin decor that would make Honest Abe proud. All joking aside, this lovely cutting board caught my attention. I enjoy cooking and baking, so I use cutting boards on a regular basis. The beautiful colors would definitely add to my experience in the kitchen.

Have a look around at their furniture for yourself. Even if you’re not in the market for furniture, you might just enjoy “window” shopping.

I find myself comparing my achievements to those of my peers and feeling rather unaccomplished in life — for example, a peer working in an office in the next building over has a crisp website layout, a fresh and concise résumé, and several clips under her belt already. I have this stale, old site, a relatively bland résumé, and no listing of my clips. I feel like my web-presence should be presented in a better manner, not to mention my occupational status. I’m still non-benefited (sadly, even the free food one can snag around here doesn’t quite count as an actual benefit). I slink back in my chair feeling less than worthy of recognition.

Then I realize there are glaring differences between me and my peers — I just so happen to have a family of my own to raise and care for. While my peers have plenty of time to climb the clichéd ladder, I spend much of my free time teaching my young children how the world works. It may not be even remotely as glamourous as my schoolmate from high school’s interactions with Hollywood’s biggest names, but I certainly do derive a high level of satisfaction from watching my children grow and change as individuals. Who says you really have to keep up with your peers in order to succeed?

Each day seems to bring a new adventure for my generally groggy self. Some days are obviously better than others, but life can be a serious challenge from time to time. Of course, we all experience challenges in our lives — without challenging, we most certainly couldn’t grow as individuals. Growth is a regular occurence in all aspects of life, and life could not exist without growth. I hope to successfully grow as an individual, even if I am the only person who is affected by that growth. I cannot grow taller. I would prefer not to grow wider. I would love to grow in wisdom and knowledge. I would love to grow in grace and dignity. Here’s to hoping for the sake of hope. Sometimes, hope is all you need to go on.

Hemingway was once challenged to write the shortest story ever. He came up with this six-word gem — “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” In those six words, he successfully tells you that someone is selling a pair of never-worn baby shoes, allowing the reader to speculate as to why those baby shoes were never worn. His success has led to numerous attempts at writing a six-word story. At one point, I took up the challenge myself and came up with this — “I drank tea today. The End.” While I doubt my attempt lives up to Hemingway, I do rather like it. It would seem many stories can be told with a mere six words.

In the past ninety days, I’ve posted eighteen times — not including this post. I apparently need to reach the lovely number twenty before I can be approved to make a bit of cash off my writing. I suspect that Tuesday will be the day I resubmit for a fourth try. Yes, my fourth try. Of course, I’ve not even stopped to take the time to redesign my blog. I must reiterate the purple layout just doesn’t seem to suit my needs at this point. While I could switch back to the default layout, I’m reluctant to do so because I’m almost positive I’d need to customize that as well. If I’m going to customize a layout, I might as well make it count.

In other news, it seems my spam filters aren’t even picking up very many spambot comments these days. Perhaps one of the zombie networks has been raided by the authorities, to which I would rejoice. Granted, it doesn’t take too much effort to rid myself of the filthy little things. 😉

What’s a woman to do when the forecast calls for severe weather overnight? “Be prepared for tornadic activity.” Excuse me? Are you telling me that I could be sleeping peacefully in my bed one moment, then hurled to my death the next? Are you telling me I should remain conscious throughout the night, cowering in the closet under the stairs? Are you also telling me it’s a Thursday night, meaning I still have one more work day to complete? Please pardom me while I have a meltdown. I live in a townhouse on the corner of my building. Said townhouse occupies the second and third stories of the building. My bedroom is on the third story, which is the top floor. Above my ceiling? The roof. I suppose the doppler will determine my courses of action for the evening. For now, excuse me while I shut down the office for another night.

I’ve begun to formulate a very detailed, thoughtful post that I’d like to publish within the next few weeks. I’m absolutely ecstatic that I’ve finally gotten some inspiration to write. Writer’s block plagued me for much of the past several months, so much so that each post I’ve done in the past few months feels forced and lack-luster. I’ve felt like my writing hasn’t really meant much, nor have I felt it warranted attention. I feel refreshed to have an idea again.

I would also like to express my disdain for April Fool’s Day. I suppose you can mostly chalk it up to a “prank” someone played on me five years ago today, but this “holiday” never really sat well with me. Playing horribly cruel jokes on your loved ones and friends? That’s absolutely mean-spirited and hurtful. I don’t care how funny you think you are — it still hurts those people you’re fooling. If anyone wants to argue about worthless holidays with me, I will always say that April Fool’s Day is the most worthless waste of a day. You think Valentine’s Day is a commercial deal? At least it’s a day for celebrating love. April Fool’s Day doesn’t have any warm and fuzzy feelings involved. You don’t get into the spirit of giving, you don’t get creatively spooky, and you don’t give thanks for what you have. No, the whole day revolves around tricking and spotting tricks. It’s disgusting.