Scribblings

I am finding that one of the best things about getting older… and trust me, this is a limited list… is that I no longer feel any obligation to fulfill social responsibilities that I don’t feel like exerting myself for. Not only do I not feel obligated, but I’ve finally turned the corner on the guilt and no longer feel guilty about staying home and hunkering in with my animals and a good book rather than go out and be social. So those of you whose social events I actually show up for should be honored. You are on a

As I continue to suffer from dizziness every day, my brother reminded me that our mother also suffered from vertigo and dizziness. Wonderful. I’ve inherited everything from her except her petite figure and full head of hair. Just charming.

Dizziness not associated with pot or alcohol is not half as much fun.

I recently spent almost nine hours on an ER bed waiting for a hospital room. I’ve decided, based on the soreness of my ass, that ER beds are made of the same material as airline seats back in the cattle car section. Yep, those same airline seats they always tell you can double as flotation devices. Just stick your arms through the straps and float. Right. You will sink like a rock. Those airline seats have all the floatibility of a cement brick. And less comfort. So I have to wonder why hospitals went to the same manufacturers to get

When I nursed, we had no pretenses about what you were served for meals. It was hospital food. No frills. No muss. No fuss. No taste. No visual appeal. But it did not pretend to any other aspirations.

Now in hospitals they call it “dining”. You order your own personal preferences from a menu that would not be out of place in a decent bistro. The descriptions were clearly written by the same person.

Then the food comes. And guess what? They can call it what they want, but it’s still hospital food.

Spent the night in the hospital with dehydration and other stupid things wrong. I knew I was in trouble when I lost my appetite and didn’t want to eat at all. I always figured in my life that would be the first sign of imminent death.

A wasp gets in your house and you still can’t move fast to get rid of it. Not only that, you don’t even get that excited since excitement would require a level of energy you simply don’t possess.

My birthday wish for you this year is that the US Congress stops fixing the infrastructure in countries all over the mid-east and instead concentrates on making you whole again.

I grew up in a time when Americans did not run around waving rubber fingers and screaming, “We’re number one” at every possible opportunity. Of course we believed America was number one. We felt we proved it every day in the way we lived and thrived, in the way our middle class grew stronger, in the way the world looked to us for moral authority because, in America, we didn’t torture, kill or discriminate. At least, that was the illusion.

The truth, sadly, was that we did discriminate against any citizens we felt were different. If you were black or