Saturday, December 31, 2011
New year
Friday, December 30, 2011
FW: Thanks for everything
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:44:12 -0600
From: mp_collins@hotmail.com
To: Sharon.~~~~~@~~~~~~.com; Lisa.~~~~~@~~~~~.com
CC: Jamila.~~~~~@~~~~~.com
Subject: Fw: Re: FW: Thanks for everything
In case you two were wondering what the heck our mother was talking about in the first paragraph ...
Monica Collins (from mobile)
From: Monica Collins <~~~~~@~~~~~.com>
Date: Dec 29, 2011 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: FW: Thanks for everything
To: Tracey on ~~~~~ <~~~~~@~~~~~.net>
I'm sure the first part is referring to me. As I tried to tell you, I was not arguing the point that was made. It is true that I don't put others before myself and if I had kids, I might have trained myself to do that. Then again, I might not have; we will never know. It was when I was trying to rectify my error that I got pissed. As it was, I went ahead and did it because I would rather hear (as I'm sure that I will sometime in the future) that I did correct the error against your wishes instead of how I left you with the portion of ham that you did not want.
Monica Collins (from mobile)
On Dec 26, 2011 9:20 AM, Tracey on AT&T <csrich1947@att.net> wrote:
From: Tracey on AT&T [mailto:~~~~~@~~~~~t.net]
Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 9:04 PM
To: '~~~~~@~~~~~'
Subject: RE: Thanks for everything
You are so welcome. Thank you for coming and bringing the family. Everything was wonderful until the very last and maybe I said something I should not have said. But maybe it needed saying way before now. Maybe it has been said in other ways and other people have not listened.
I will say this, on this one day, I put everyone else first and myself last. I still got myself some gifts but my focus was getting you all something you would like and really wanted. Sharon, I hope you and Steve enjoy the blanket. Monica the book you got the girls is the bomb. I would never have thought of getting it for them. I hope with all the drawing material they learn how to draw something that looks like the real thing, which I cannot do. Jamila, if you want a different drawing machine, box that one up and send it back and I'll get the one you want. BTW – I had a picture of Brooklyn in her new coat that Lisa texted me but she had difficulty sending it. I'll try sending it to myself and attaching it to this email. So I know that Brooklyn liked her gift and I think Alana and Kendal liked the Michael Jackson dance game for wii. Tell Steven, that I have something planned for his birthday that I might like to borrow from time to time, and to let me know about the camera. I really think I have the cable over her. I'll try to remember to put it in my purse and bring it with me when I come over.
Of all the gifts you guys gave me, everything it is just perfect. Jamila I love the pajamas. Monica the gift cards are always welcome and one to my favorite restaurant!!! But the gift Sharon gave me is the one that has me the most excited. In the past I was going to take some writing classes but I am always so tired that I did not think I would get much out of it and I really did not have time to write. I do now. I know that I have books in my head. I just have to figure out how to get what is in my head onto paper in a way that others will want to read. This is a perfect gift for me and so thoughtful. I was looking at the certificate last night. I'm definitely going to take all four of the classes listed. I can't think of a better way for me to get started on my writing career. Then I think I am going to go on a writing seminar to Arizona put on by SMU. That's only a hop, skip, and a jump from Las Vegas – that will either be my reward or my consultation for getting through the class. Then I'll give myself a year of hard writing and see where I am after that point. Let's see if I can sell something to someone.
Thanks again for yesterday. You all made me so happy.
From: ~~~~~ [mailto:~~~~~]
Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 8:17 PM
To: Tracey ~~~~~
Subject: Thanks for everything
We all had a great time. Thanks for making the meal and for all of the great gifts. The girls have been sketching since we got home.
We'll probably sleep late (until 7:30), straighten up, get some last minute things for camping trip + Lani's friend's b-day gift,, then to the movies and then lunch courtesy of Monica and Jamila's gift cards. I promised them no computer during the day, so we'll see how that all pans out.
I hope you liked your gift. I tried to think of something different, but interesting that you can and will use. There were about 6 total, but those I printed were the four that were most relevant to what you're working on right now.
Decide what classes, and I'll do the registration. Or, I can send you the link and you can register with my card.
Love you bunches! Thanks for all the things you do!
Always Grateful,
Sharon
Sent via ~~~~~
From: "Tracey ~~~~~" <c~~~~~>
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:37:56 -0600
To: 'Tracey ~~~~~'<~~~~~>; <Sharon.~~~~~@t~~~~~>; 'S.~~~~~'<~~~~~t>; <~~~~~>; <~~~~~>; <~~~~~>; <~~~~~>
Subject: RE: This Christmas as opposed to last Christmas
Washed, dried, and put away several loads of clothes. Got all the clothes off the chairs in my bedroom and bathroom and hung them up. Tried to label most of the presents (at least I got everything into a bag except for two items). Set the oven to clean itself and washed up most of the dishes. The bird is in the fridge ready to be stuffed and cooked. Santa will be here in 23 minutes.
From: Tracey Richardson [mailto:csrich47@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2011 9:39 PM
To: 'Sharon.Harvey@thomsonreuters.com'; 'S. Harvey'; 'mp_collins@hotmail.com'; 'shamara26@hotmail.com'; 'lwiley1@sbcglobal.net'; 'lisa.wiley@ihg.com'
Subject: This Christmas as opposed to last Christmas
Last Christmas, as I was getting the turkey ready for the oven, I was in so much pain I wanted to cry. In fact, I said to myself that I was never going to try to cook dinner by myself again. What a difference a year and a successful rotator cuff surgery can bring. I have lifted the bird several times, chopped up the veggies (last weekend) and sauted them today. I have washed up all the dishes several times and did my hair (involving holding my arms over my head for long periods of time). All with no pain. And most of all I can drive my car without having to move my hands around the steering wheel. I can one-hand it. I am actually looking forward to Christmas morning and not moaning and crying in my sleep. And I'm watching "A Wonderful Life" after watching "Miracle on 34th Street" two of my favorite Christmas movies. The other one, "The Thin Man" I'll watch later tonight.
See you all tomorrow, or later today if you don't get this until Christmas Day. Merry Christmas to all.
Mom
My mother
Thursday, December 22, 2011
House Call Doctor : How Can You Tell If You Have Anxiety? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™
House Call Doctor : How Can You Tell If You Have Anxiety? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™Clipped from: http://housecalldoctor.quickanddirtytips.com/how-can-you-tell-if-you-have-anxiety.aspx |
| Always disliked doing and will try to avoid | Uncomfortable doing, but will do |
| For as far back as I can remember, I have hated asking for assistance. Part of it is more of a willfulness to do it on my own, which would probably be classified under bipolarity's delusions of grandeur. Not wanting to be made to feel somewhat beholding to, or humbled by others might also be that too, which I pretty much always feel when having to go to someone for something fairly substantial. If I have to do it, I of course do, however I will go through other steps first instead of trying that one first. | I will ask instructors and bosses for instruction on how to do something. I usually prefer to not have to ask if others are around, so that my question might not be considered as unworthy, or beneath me; after all, it's bad enough that the person being asked might think that. I definitely do not like to be reamed the riot act around others, for the very reason. However, since this very topic was one of the items brought to the attention of the group that was set up here at work, I know that I am not out of the ordinary in feeling this one. |
| The despising levels grow when it concerns my family. Many a person have had to suffer a relatives giving them their opinion on the ills that they have done, all wrapped up in the candy coating of giving information for that person's own good. Because of the Molotov cocktail that makes me 'me', I have heard that pretty much non-stop since early childhood. Once I got to the point where I was not required to live through it, and subsequently be put into the position of 'feeling bad' over it, I have gone though some pains, many times great, to avoid it whenever possible. I have spent a night away from home because I could not get home and would not call a family member for a ride. I have spent a period of time without power in my home. To avoid more 'conversations' about my handful of cats, I don't have my family over, however I pretty much avoided having my family over when I moved out, due to not sharing my personal information, for pretty much the same reasons. | I prefer not to have conversations that give a lot of information to others when out, like at work. One, I probably at assigning my own feelings in situations like that: I don't want to listen to other people's conversations either. I don't want private information that I can't do anything with, since I do try to refrain from 'gossiping', and I don't like overhearing other people's confidential or business talk to family or others. I don't necessarily want or like seeing them in that light. Also, I tend to feel uncomfortable over my conversations, since they often involve fixing some financial matter, like dealing with creditors in years past, or other such subjects. |
| Some personal information I will go out of my way to avoid giving. This is usually information that tends to really grate against some people, such as how many abortions I have had. I usually avoid that topic altogether, since it can be a hotbed, from the most religious to an atheist who might classify one such as I from anywhere between unworthy, to sleezy or trashy, to whatever. IMO, those are the opinions that are hard to shake once they have formed in someone's mind about you. Even bad spenders have received titles of that kind from some people. | I don't like when I've discovered that I've asked the same question numerous times. I also get embarrassed when I've discovered that I have been referring to someone with the wrong name and they have had to correct me. The embarrassment tends to provide ample emotion for me to remember the name |
| Crying, even for something good | I will often rely on husbands/boyfriends to ask questions of, since I do not want to appear less in someone else's eyes. |
| If a fault of mine is mentioned to me, I will try to turn it away from myself, or I might flip the situation around so that the other person is receiving some kind of guilt, so that mine is less. An example would be that the other night, my family and I were talking about touchpad/tablets and I had mentioned that I had a keyboard for mine, to which my mother replied 'why am I not surprised', to which I then replied back something like 'and where did I get that from?'. Unfortunately, my mother's version of this trait is just like mine, as in 'and where did I get that from', so she will flip things around just as fast, except she believes that I, and my youngest sister, the only other one to receive everything that she has, only in various degrees, switch it around on purpose to pick on her. IMO, my sister does it quite a bit to pick on her, I however do it merely trying to not have to deal with a fault being presented to me. | When a boss might call me into his/her office, I will quite frequently assume it's because of some wrong that I've done. After so many years of having done wrong things, I now automatically assume that I have again done something incorrectly. |
| I will frequently avoid asking for permission to do something, or avoid conversations with others where I might not get what I want, so that I don't get the no answer. I attribute that to an anxiety due to not wanting the feeling of dealing with the refusal, and subsequently not getting whatever it is I desire to acquire. |
How Can You Tell If You Have Anxiety?
The next two articles will cover an area that takes up a lot of my time in practice: anxiety and depression. These two problems are not just mental health issues; their presence can also greatly affect a person's physical health. Today I'll focus on anxiety, although I will start out with some general principles around both of these conditions.
How Can You Tell If You Have Anxiety?
When discussing anxiety and depression, we first have to define terms because both words represent emotions and medical conditions. Anxiety, the emotion, is a normal part of life. If you see flashing lights in your rear-view mirror, you get anxious. Simply feeling anxious is not cause for medical concern. The same is true for the emotion in depression--sadness--which happens as a normal part of life.
Clinical anxiety and depression are not the same as the emotions, although the emotions are present. These are real medical problems that have a big impact on your life. Two things separate emotional states and clinical conditions: duration and severity. In order to "officially" diagnose clinical anxiety and depression, symptoms have to last more than three months and have a significant impact on the daily function of life (although in reality, they are often diagnosed before 3 months).
I'm going to leave depression for next week and focus on anxiety now.
What Is Anxiety?
So what is anxiety? Anxiety, the emotion, is a feeling of powerlessness or helplessness. If you had a magic button in your car that made the police car behind you disappear, the presence of those lights wouldn't be so traumatic. It's the inability to control things we think may hurt us that makes us anxious. When clinical anxiety exists, it makes life feel out of control...which creates more anxiety. That is perhaps the hardest thing about clinical anxiety: you get anxious about being anxious.
How Is OCD Related to Anxiety?
But anxiety takes many forms, many of which don't look like anxiety. When a person feels out of control, they often find ways to compensate. A good example of this is obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. Many people with OCD have something in their life--past or present--that they want to control but can't. Perhaps they were abused as a child, or perhaps they've lost spouse or child. Their reaction is to control something that is in their power--like keeping their house clean, washing their hands, or locking the door. That attempt to control things becomes a compulsion--something they can't stop from doing.
What Is Generalized-Anxiety Disorder?
Sometimes anxiety is a non-specific feeling of worry or dread, such as with generalized anxiety disorder. Anxiety can be very specific to situations, such as with phobias including fear of bugs, snakes, public speaking, heights, or water. I am not talking about people who don't like bugs or snakes, I am talking about people who won't leave their house or can't sleep because of these fears. Sometimes the anxiety revolves around relationships, as is the case with social anxiety disorder, and sometimes the symptoms come in episodic flares, like with panic disorder. Finally, some people escape their anxiety using alcohol, drugs, or other addictions. That list is by no means exhaustive; the bottom line with these behaviors is that they are a reaction to the person's vulnerability or helplessness.
What Causes Anxiety?
Like most illnesses, anxiety disorders are a mix of heredity and environment. Having a family member with clinical anxiety doesn't guarantee you will have it, but it will make you more prone to trauma that can trigger clinical anxiety. But please hear me on an important point: anxiety has a reason. It's not moral weakness or a lack of faith that makes people struggle. Unfortunately, people around those with clinical anxiety don't know that, and often chide them to "just don't worry so much." That adds the emotion of shame to the struggle with anxiety, and it is unnecessary. People with anxiety disorders don't wake up and decide that they will be anxious. They would love to stop, but can't.
How to Cope with Anxiety
Tip #1: Don't feel ashamed. I wouldn't blame you for bleeding if I threw a brick at you, and most people dealing with anxiety have had emotional bricks thrown their way.
Tip #2: Look for root causes. Usually there is something from the past that hasn't been dealt with that you are either trying to escape from or resolve. Understanding why you feel the way you do helps a lot in trying to overcome it.
Tip #3: Talk to someone. If the anxiety is not too big, talking to a friend, family member, or religious leader might help. But big anxiety--anxiety that casts a long shadow in your life--usually needs professional help. Find a counselor who has been trained to treat anxiety. You shouldn't be ashamed for seeking help; it's a much worse thing to run from your problems.
Tip#4: Take medications if needed. There are two main kinds of medications for anxiety: ones that last a short time, and ones that you take every day. The shorter-acting medications are usually medications like Valium or Xanax, which can be addictive if used too often. If you need one of these medications more that a few times a week, you should probably consider getting on a preventive daily medication, like Paxil or Zoloft. These medications don't fix the root problems causing your anxiety, but they do steady your emotions enough that you can face those bigger anxieties that lurk in the shadows.
I'll stop here for now. There is a whole lot more I could say, but I just wanted to give an overview. Next week I'll cover anxiety's cousin: depression.
If you have topics that you want me to cover, send them to housecalldoctor@quickanddirtytips.com, or you can submit them to me on twitter (@housecalldoc) or my Facebook page.
Don't forget about my blog, Musings of a Distractible Mind.
Let me once again remind you that this podcast is for informational purposes only. My goal is to add to your medical knowledge and translate some of the weird medical stuff you hear, so when you do go to your doctor, your visits will be more fruitful. I don't intend to replace your doctor; he or she is the one you should always consult about your own medical condition.
Catch you next time! Stay Healthy!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
They don't know
Monday, December 19, 2011
eMail and Clarity
Collins, Monica P.
just got my email down to 9 items
Lacy, Robert P.
LOL!
4065 in my inbox unread
dont even want to look in other folders
Collins, Monica P.
yes, i know how many you have
i can't keep that many; i tend to ignore everything and miss new stuff.
Lacy, Robert P.
i see
Collins, Monica P.
the only reason i wind up with so many is that i will go a couple of days w/o cleaning it out and then i stop cleaning it.
And we all know how, um, 'easy' it is to find 20-30 free moments around here lol.
Collins, Monica P.
Because I didn't go into work, I got my ass in trouble over the blasted clarity, yet again.
Lacy, Robert P.
orly?
Collins, Monica P.
I had not filled out any of it. When I don't do it on Friday, or Thursday before CDO, I tend to do it on Monday morning before 8am.
So I probably would not have wound up on the report.
Lacy, Robert P.
:O
Collins, Monica P.
I just took a look at when Parnell sent out here email: it was Sunday, so I still would have been screwed. I have a reminder on my phone to do my Clarity, but I only do it on the weekend very sporatically.
Collins, Monica P.
I had sent a reply to her query as to why the hell I didn't get it filled out - my words - however I retracted it because it would have sounded a bit flippant.
Lacy, Robert P.
dang
Collins, Monica P.
lol why do you say that?
Lacy, Robert P.
curious as to what those words were lolz
Collins, Monica P.
My words? 'As a matter of fact, if you must know, I do have reminders set.', Or something like that.
I've already got the remembering to do it part covered.
Lacy, Robert P.
lol
Collins, Monica P.
Right now, it's avoidance not wanting to interrupt myself, but mostly the former I think lol.