Thursday, April 12, 2007

I'm a Smartie with a Sore Tummy

I had intended to post something yesterday, but my body decided it would rather spend the day throwing up and huddling, shaking, on the couch. I still managed to pop around to some blogs and say hi, and get a little work done, but nothing like what I'd hoped.

I also talked to my Mommy. I miss my Mommy. I miss Gatorade. It isn't until a time like this when you're sick that you realize how much you miss home (not entirely true, as I've been missing home for a while now, but still). When you have a cold and can't find NyQuil on the shelves, or Gatorade. When your baby needs Pediatlite and you look for the big bottles of bubblegum flavor she always liked and all you can get is packets of blackcurrant D'oralite powder to mix with water. Which is so not the same thing. (A good NyQuil equivalent is Night Nurse, though, so if you're an American in the UK and don't know about it, ask the pharmacist. They keep it behind the counter. Makes sense because OTC meds here stink.)

And the hubs had to go back to work yesterday, too. So my daughters basically watched me huddle all day. Princess was tremendously sweet and helpful. I guess it takes a crisis. And with hubs gone, no sitting in a darkened room watching X-Files either.

Good news! The wonderful Sonya Vaughn (who I keep forgetting to mention got herself a kick-ass agent last week) tagged me for a "Thinking Blogger Award". How cool is that? I never win anything!

The award comes with two things: A nifty silver button that I'm supposed to link to my samrtiest post, so if someone can tell me how to do that I'd be much obliged; and two, an obligation to tag five more thinking bloggers. Ah, see, the prize has strings attached.

Okay...lessee.

First I'm going Little bird blue, who always has something thought-provoking to say or an interesting opinion to express.

I invariably find Michele Lee's posts worth a read or two. I'm especially looking forward to some of the things she has planned for this month.

Of course there's my crit/writing partner Anna J. Evans, who I adore, and who, in between Thursday Thirteens and rants, posts sexy men pictures every Monday.

I'm also going to tag Serena Joy, because not only does she have a "This Day in History" widget that I envy, but her posts are always chock-full of interesting things.

Last but not least I'm going with Writtenwyrdd, who just returned from a long road trip (go check out the pictures!) and whose thoughts I invariably enjoy reading.

Ideally I would have tagged everyone on my list. I hate having to pick only a few, it makes me feel like a bad person. Or maybe I'm overmeotional from still feeling a little yech. I don't know. Anyway.



Oh, and would everyone here think I was completely insane if I had these people design a castle for me?

I couldn't afford to have it built yet...but maybe one day...

Oh, and Kurt Vonnegut died. I know as a writer I'm supposed to care, because it seems anyone with pretensions to be literary and cool is having paroxysms of grief (as they did when Hunter S. Thompson died) but honestly...I don't, really. Aside from being sad that a human being has died. I didn't like his books. Well written, I guess, and fast reads, but not my thing. So there. Yet again december admits her lack of intellectual capability. Some thinking blogger I am, huh?

22 comments:

Bernita said...

Glad you were tagged, and you tagged Written.
Vonnegut was what, 86?
What IS with this "Oh King, live forever" stuff?

Stacia said...

Honestly, Bernita? I think it's that as society becomes more secular and loses its faith in God or Gods or whomever, we create Gods from people we admire.

So when they die we have a hard time just saying, "Well, he lived a long, good life." We have to make it more than that, because Gods aren't supposed to die, and we need something to believe in.

JMO.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Smart One, but I must chastize you for not puting Bernita on your list. ;~)

I can't get all torn up over someone I don't know dying either, even if it's a celebrity that kicks it. However, I'll be pretty sad when Paul Simonon goes.

"Oh, King (of bass), live forever."

-V95

Stacia said...

Bernita was picked a while ago, V95. I'm in like the fourth round of choices--she was the top.

I cried like a baby when Joe Strummer died. That was an awful day. But I think there's a difference, you know? between being sad someone is gone, and being the way I'm seeing people get over Vonnegut?

I'm going to have to think about that one.

Robyn said...

Witness the scads of people who still cry and hold vigils for John Lennon. He was a good musician who had interesting ideas. He was also a drug addict who treated his first born like crap.

Congrats, you thinking blogger, you! Oh, if I only had 2.5 million to buy us a castle...

Stacia said...

Lol, Robyn! I remember some years ago when the hubs and I were doing some pre-pregnancy "Look at the sweet baby things" shopping, and discovering the John Lennon line of baby stuff. The tag said something about what a good Daddy Lennon was, and Hubs and I were like, "Yeah...tell it to Julian."

There's a writer named Julie Burchill who's said some wicked things about Lennon. Can't say I disagree with any of it.

Anonymous said...

"Bernita was picked a while ago, V95. I'm in like the fourth round of choices--she was the top."

My bad. I should know you better than that. -V95

BernardL said...

Vonnegut and Thompson were the big fad when I attended college in the seventies, so I read all their works as ordered in Lit class. They were the first authors I was excoriated for writing sarcastic remarks about in composition papers. They had already achieved idol status back then. I did get a laugh from my creative writing Prof when he asked what Vonnegut was known for as one of the questions on a composition test, and I answered: Introducing bathroom humor into American Literature. As with everything I've ever read, I liked parts of what Vonnegut and Thompson wrote, primarily because they were polished imaginative writers.

Anonymous said...

Could never get through a Vonnegut book. Or anyone else I was forced to read in school. Probably why - that whole authority problem thing getting in the way.

On another note - Bones starts tonight! Do you watch it?? 9pm BST! (10 CET, where I am)

We could watch it together!

Stacia said...

I watch it when I get the chance, Isa, which isnt as often as I'd like. I saw the Stephen Fry episode (last week?) though, and I hope I'll get to watch it more this season.

Lol on your answer, Bernard! I think he was a talented man, just not to my taste. I do loathe the idea of a teacher yelling at people for expressing their taste, though.

No worries, V95!

Anonymous said...

I think the Stephen Fry episodes are from last season though, and there were a few of them I saw over the last few weeks.

I think tonight it the UK start of season 3. I think it started in the US a few weeks ago.

At least, it better be tonight and not last week, I will be very pissy!!!

Anonymous said...

Ok I have to correct myself. Its not new season, I misread some ad or something. I got confused because sky shows both old and current season during prime time! And since Im not a big TV watcher, I only saw it by coincidence and didnt realize I was watching 2 seasons at the same time.

No wonder I kept getting confused!

But "we" are still behind the US, tonight's episode that just aired was shown in the US on March 14th.

Ok, I'll stop blabbing about this now. ;)

Anonymous said...

Don't waste your time missing NyQuil, December. A while ago, the old guy had a cold and he was taking tons of the stuff, and he kept saying, "Why's my nose so effing stuffed up? I'm taking NyQuil by the buttload, and I'm still going through a hundred kleenexes a day!" So I read the label, and horror of horrors, it no longer contains any decongestant. I'm not kidding. They took out the pseudoephedrine because scumbags druggies make methamphetamine with it, and they're anticipating that the FDA will start putting products with that ingredient behind the pharmacy counter. They don't want NyQuil to be out of sight, out of mind, so they just removed the most fucking important ingredient without telling anyone. Corporate fuckwads.

And while we're being all truthy about John Lennon and his questionable parenting skills, let's not forget the Buddha, who was really a deadbeat dad who abandoned his wife and son so he could go off on some quest for enlightenment. Just think, a whole religion that started because a guy couldn't take a nagging wife and screaming kid.

I read a collection of short stories by Vonnegut, but I guess I'm not much of a short fiction fan, because they really didn't do it for me. He had some interesting ideas, and maybe he was someone to admire, but I can't really convince myself to wail or gnash my teeth over his passing. I mean, he was an old guy. Old guys die.

Congrats on being picked, hon, and sorry to hear you've been feeling crappy.

Anna J. Evans said...

I would be so honored if I thought you were right, but...

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!! IT'S OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WHO'S EVER BEEN TO MY BLOG THAT I DO NOT THINK....EVER!!

Sorry, that wasn't really shouted because with my bronchitis my voice isn't that loud. Sniff. Will try to figure out how to fake that I somehow deserved a thinking blogger nomination tomorrow.

I mean...a random blogger award, yes.

And maybe, occasionally, on a good day, a mildy funny haha blogger award.

Or maybe a typing before thinking things through at all award...that would ahve been a good one.

Hugs....so ditto what that person said about Nyquil! it f-ing sucks, and has thusly allowed my lungs to become filled with hard green pellets that make me long for death as i cough them up.

A

Serena said...

I'm honored that you'd tag my warped and disordered thought processes.:)

s.w. vaughn said...

See, that's why you're a thinking blogger -- you don't bow to the masses and go along with what they say! :-)

Alas, I have gone with it. Not because I'm a fervent admirer, but because he seemed to have been a genuinely nice, intelligent person and an advocate for freedom of speech. One of them good guys.

Thanks for the props! You still rock! :-)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the Nyquil blog is absolutely correct-They removed the pseudophed because of the meth issues and actually replaced it with an antihistamine (which I've never found to be as effective). I have no idea why they wouldn't just go with phenylephrine (another decon w/o the meth capabilities). Very lazy on their part! So keep using your "nite nurse " there or whatever it's called!!

T.Morgan

Anonymous said...

Aww, I am so flattered. I have been so out of it this week that I realized after reading your blog thatI had been writing my autism blogs and saving them for April and yet here it is April and I'm still saving them instead of posting them!! What a dunderhead I am this week.

Thank you so much for the compliments! It means a lot. :)

Stacia said...

I hate being so far behind, Isa. But I love getting Nip/Tuck on DVD from my best friend before they've even started airing the episodes here. :->

Kis, that is awful. I'm shocked NyQuil would violate our trust like that. We need to start a letter-writing campaign (does it sound like I'm not serious? Because I really am. What can we count on if we can't count on NyQuil?)

Good point about Buddha, too. I read an article a few years ago about how so many of these big humanistic thinkkers or whatever were just absolute shits to women and children.

Night Nurse really isn't any better, T. No medicines here are as good as the US ones. It's just better than most of the medicines here, which is to say it isn't toally useless.

Stacia said...

Sorry, Anna. ;-)

And you're welcome Michele and Serena.

And thanks again Sonya!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the Blogger award! Never read Vonnegut.
Hate NyQuil. It gave me a two day hangover. (Antihistamines don't work on colds, only allergies)
I will build a castle one day!

Anonymous said...

I'm just catching up with my blog reading and saw you mentioned me! Thank you! Most of the time I don't feel like a thinker, just a bombastic loud mouth who likes attention far more than she is willing to admit, lol.

I know you are feeling better by now, but it must suck to be sick when you feel a bit ungrounded in your surroundings. On the other hand, I'd love to live in the UK.