Dear General Hospital...

Dear General Hospital,

The last few weeks, I've been trying to catch up with episodes dating back to April.  So, I'm wondering, GH, what the heck is going on?  After 75 years or so of Luke being the awesome fun-loving lush we all love, you decide NOW is the time to get all up in his grill and intervene? Really?  Who's dumbass idea was that?  Sure, you got to show Anthony Geary's range of emotions and stuff, but seriously?  He wasn't even drunk the night of Jake's death.  It's all so stupid.  But then, after you decide to commit to this horrible storyline and have the intervention, you totally blow the opportunity to show some awesome old footage.  I mean, really?  You've got the original Lucky.  What's the point if not to be able to bust out some awesome old school footage every chance you get?  Ugh. 

Thank you for getting rid of Brenda.  I know that once upon a time we all LOVED Brenda, but that time has passed and she's just sort of annoying now.

The whole Sonny running around with his gun all willy nilly is also getting old.  Like I just saw the episode where he bursts into Robin's house and "accidentally" grazes her with a bullet meant to shoot Jax.  How is Sonny not in jail?  Seriously?  It's not like he's this criminal mastermind.  He runs around, waving his gun at anyone who annoys him, and now he's just shooting people in front of witnesses?  What the heck?  Though, the best moment ever was Robin and Patrick's kid, Emma, telling daddy that "mommy got shot" when he walks into his house.  I don't know why, but it was funny.  Though, when did that kid get old enough to start talking?

Next, is this whole Jackel PI bullshit.  Well, I'll admit, occasionally it's amusing.  But mostly it's just annoying.  Move on already. 

Lulu and Maxie need more screen time together.  Those two can pull off some great, funny dialogue if anyone would ever give them the chance.

Speaking of Lulu, following her dad to Florida and working at a whore house? REALLY?!?!?  Thankfully, something tragic happened with my DVR and like a week or two of episodes were gone or not recorded so I missed most of that story line.  She was there, then suddenly her and Dante were chillin' at Helena's mansion. I never want to see Lulu working at a whore house again. it's dumb.

Since I already mentioned Helena...please bring her back.  It's been so long since there has been some good old fashioned Cassadine mischief.  At this point, I would accept them resurrecting Stavros somehow if it meant some crazy Cassadine fun. 

I remarked about this on facebook, but I'll say it again.  The farewell scene between Nik and Lucky was AWESOME.  Nik has been annoying the crud out of me but that was one of the best scenes I've seen on that show in a while.  Though, I guess they are bringing Nik back, so it was for naught, but it was still awesome.  I do wish they had busted out some old footage, though, since both the original actors were in the scene.

GH, have you run out of all imagination?  The whole "tragic storm car accident" story every 6 months is getting old.  I yearn for a good hospital fire, hotel hostage situation...anything but another car accident.

Which leads me to...how many friggin head injuries can Jason suffer from in one life time?  I mean, seriously, is there NO ONE ELSE in Port Charles (other than stupid Siohban, who's looking to break Jason's record) that can get hit in the head?  I mean, when was the last time someone had really good amnesia?  Even Micheal woke up from his gun shot wound to the head with his memory more or less intact.  Maybe you could give Carly or Sonny amnesia.  Turn them into sane people who don't run around being stupid all the time.  There's a thought.

I never used to like Sam and Jason together, but this time around I guess I sort of do.  Who knew?  And I totally want a lug nut necklace.  I wonder if that will become a fashion now.

Let's see...what else...oh, are they trying to set Carly up with Shawn?  Cause they have ZERO chemistry and it would just be weird.  Oh, Siobhan needs to go.  They basically keep trying to kill her anyway, all she seems to do is follow Liz around and yell at her, and she's annoying.  I mean, she's borderline psycho about the way she's up in Liz's face constantly.  Also, I wish they had shown more old Liz and Lucky flashbacks during Lucky's 17 thousand hour drug high.  I think I just love flashbacks. 

I don't know why, but the teen drama lover in me would LOVE to see Kristina with Ethan.  I just think it would be fun.  They keep saying how he's soooo much older than her but...hmmm...Abby is like 40 years older than Micheal.  Ethan is like 4 years older than Kristina (at least in real life).  Also, he's all "i've lived this hard life, i'm an old soul". Um, Kristina was kidnapped as a child by Faith, has a mobster father who nearly blew her up last year when she was fake dating Johnny, had a crazy girl hitting boyfriend almost kill her, her brother was shot in the head, hmmm...I don't think she's quite the sheltered little lamb everyone keeps trying to say she is. Anyway, I think they would be good for each other.

I kind of miss crazy Dr. Lisa.  I guess she's in a coma so they can bring her back at anytime.  Oh, and Robin as Chief-of-Staff is a bit on the unrealistic side. She's like 34.  Come on.  Monica still works at the hospital.  What about her? I realize that she has had so much botex that her face doesn't move at all, but that's ok.  We can infer her emotions from the look in her eyes.

Dante...don't care...Olivia...don't care....Johnny...don't care....Anthony...don't care...Steve...don't care....that's about it, I think. Anyway, I still have like the last few weeks to watch, so we'll see what happens!

Jenn

I'm here....

Quote of the Day: "Veronica and I trying this new fad called uh, jogging. I believe it's jogging or yogging. it might be a soft j. I'm not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It's supposed to be wild." - Ron Burgundy


In case anyone is wondering....

I'm still here stalking all of your blogs for updates.  I'm just being lazy about my updates.  But since I was awoken at 5am by work for a production issue and I am now awake, I thought I'd bust out a quick update.

A few things have been going on.  I've been training (http://itrainthereforeiaminpain.blogspot.com/). Well, I use that term loosely these days.  It's more like I've been applying excessive force to the bones in my feet, thus causing microfractures in my heel.  I suppose it could be called "training" by some. I mean, it's not like I purposefully set out to break my heel. It was just a fantastic side effect of this yogging thing. So, the Darth Boot has made a fantastical comeback.

Some of you may recognize the Darth Boot (See: http://jpnkn.xanga.com/566565494/things-i-didnt-know/).  It made it's first appearance in 2007 when I tore the ligament in my ankle.  Fortunately (well, i'm not sure if "fortunately" is the appropriate word but...), I had the foresight to keep the boot after I was done using it circa 2007.  It cost me $500, making it one of my most valuable possessions at the time, so I kept it.  I figured that I'm me and that meant there were reasonably good odds that I would require it's use again at some point.  I'm not going to sugar coat it, I'm a total spasm, possibly a klutz, and it was not unlikely that I would do something to injure myself again in the future.  Plus, did I mention the darn thing cost $500?  For that much money, I was going to make it a new family heirloom.  I'm fortunate that walking cast technology hasn't improved so dramatically in the last 4 years, so when the doctor said that I would need the boot for my cracked heel and I was like "funny, you should say that cause I just happen to have one in my trunk...", he thought of that as good news and didn't make me buy another one. 


Getting to the story of the injury...

I'd started having some massive pain in my heel (and what I thought was the lower part of my ankle) while running in Chicago a few weeks ago. We were there for Lollapalooza (oh, yeah, I went to that this year).  Being there for Lolla did not stop us from our training.  Noooooo, not us because we are serious athletes.  So, I started to have pain during running which only got worse from all the walking around the city and at Lolla.  By the middle of the week following Lolla, I couldn't run at all and by the week after that, I was not walking so well.  The pain was getting worse, things were swelling, and I was in tears by the end of each day.  So, I went to the doctor.  He initially tried taping a pad to the bottom of my foot to provide more arch support to see if that would relieve things, but after a few days of trying that out, I was like "um, NO".  So, step two was yesterday.  That involved a bright pink soft cast and the Darth Boot. He'll take the cast off monday to see if the swelling is down and we'll see what happens from there.  This could dramatically affect my time in the triathlon in three weeks...assuming he doesn't put a complete halt on that.  He sort of has already but I've yet to accept defeat.  I can still swim and bike without pain, and assuming the Darth Boot doesn't disqualify me, I really have no problem hobbling the 3 miles to finish.  If I still have a cast of any sort, though, that will put a stop to things, since I can't bike with a cast.  We'll see.

In other news...

Let's see...what have I been up to? Well, I'm pretty sure I owe like 15 thousand pictures of the day.  I'll have to see about that at some point.  I've also become slightly obsessed with Republicans.  Not to say that I'm becoming a Republican.  I'm just obsessed, fascinated, and slightly scared of them. Except Ron Paul.  I sort of love him. But he's not really a Republican, so I think it's ok for me to love him. Apparently, there are a few others who are loving him, because recent polls are showing him to be the only Republican candidate who could beat Obama in the election.  But polls are polls and who knows how accurate they are. I've never been polled.  How does one even get polled?  That came out wrong...I meant, how does one get involved in polling...wait...that also didn't sound right...nevermind. 

I watched the Republican debates August 11.  They were...entertaining.  I'm a bit annoyed with Fox though.  They like to say how fair they are but I think they are stinking liars.  Or maybe I just don't watch enough news to have realized that sensationalism and obvious bias have become truth these days.  I did not like the fact that they displayed each candidate's religion as part of their stats.  I feel that it's irrelevant and potentially prejudicial.  Wasn't one of the reasons this country was like created so that folks could have some religious freedom?  Thus, telling me that Mitt is Mormon or Cain is Southern Baptist is just a way to potentially bias me for or against them but otherwise irrelevant.  I don't know.  I just think it's not cool.  Also, I'm so sick of the abortion and gay marriage topics being brought up.  Neither have anything to do with the running of the government.  Actually, gay marriage would potentially benefit the federal government.  Based on my understanding of the tax rates shown here: http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/federal-income-tax-brackets-and-marginal-rates/, married people get totally ganked.  "Ganked" meaning, taxed more than single people.  Thus, the more marriages there are, the more federal income tax the government gets to collect.  The more taxes collected by the Federal government, the more opportunity for them to totally abuse funds, er, I mean catch up with debt.  So, fiscally speaking, gay marriage across the national would be financially beneficial to the country.  Other than that, it's none of the federal governments damn business.  I'm just saying.  I like Ron Paul's view.  He's all "doesn't matter what my personal view is on the matter. Marriage shouldn't be the business of the federal government". He goes even further to say that he doesn't understand why anyone needs a license to get married.  My view is that marriage is a contract between people.  That contract entitles people to certain things (like benefits, property, decision making rights, etc).  It shouldn't matter who's a part of the contract.  Heck, if 5 people want to all marry each other, it should just require a more complicated contract to clearly define who's got what rights as part of that contractual agreement.  Beyond that, I don't think ANY of us has the right to judge or try to force our own moral beliefs on others as long as those others are not inflicting violence or physical harm or trying to take my personal property.

Freedom, people, it's called Freedom.  And I'm told this country was built on it. I did a little research (I occationally do that) and guess what word is NOT in the constitution (you know, that document that this country is based on)?  Marriage.  It's not mentioned one single time.  Not even to define that people could get married at all. One could argue that any type of Marriage recognized by the federal government is unconstitutional.  I'm just saying.  I get pretty fired up about this because the reality is that the politicians LOVE bringing up these sorts of inflammatory "morality" topics at election time.  Heck, they are even talking about ADDING a marriage amendment.  And though the likeliness of that ever happening is low, talk of it is enough to swing votes and it's stupid.  Because, BTW, whether you support gay marriage or not, the moment you support there being any kind of constitutional amendment that defines something like marriage, which is a personal act and shouldn't be the business of the FEDERAL government, you open up the door to all sorts of ways that the government can start setting about rules that limit everyone's personal liberties.  And at some point, one of those rules could affect you and then you'll be all "crap, I should really have given a little more thought to that whole Marriage amendment thing because now I'm not allowed to have more than one child because the Federal government decided that morally, multiple children per household is not good for the overall welfare of the country."  That might seem like a ridiculous example, but is it really? See also: China.  Anyway, I've gone off on this rant because I just think that instead of focusing on these "moral" issues, the candidates should be focused on things that are a little more relevent, like, hmmmmm, I hear there's a problem with people getting jobs and that the US owes money to a few people.  I wonder if that could be important?!

Speaking of freedom being taken away...

I was listening to the radio the other day and the song You Found Me by The Fray was on.  So, one of the lyrics goes like this:

"I found God on the corner of 1st and Amistad
Where the West was all but won
All alone, smoking his last cigarette
I said, 'Where you been?" He said, 'Ask anything.' "

Except that the line "all alone, smoking his last cigarette" was bleeped out of the song.  Well, not bleeped out but cut out.  So there was like this weird empty space.  They edited it out.  I was like "what?!?!"  Now they edit out references to smoking? Or was this specifically edited to remove the reference to God smoking?  Either way, when did that start happening?  When did "smoking" become a curse word?  I find this level of censorship a bit alarming.  I mean, if people think that editing out that line is going to keep a kid from running out and smoking a cigarette or that keeping the verse would cause a kid to run out and smoke a cigarette, I fear that the collective has it's head up it's ass.  I mean, seriously, I found it disturbing.


Jenn - I believe I've ranted enough for one morning...

A work filled weekend...

“I use the word totally too much. I need to change it up and use a word that is different but has the same meaning. Mitch do you like submarine sandwhiches? All-encompassingly...” - Mitch Hedberg  

We finally paint a room...  

So, it's been over a year since we bought the house and we've only managed to get the kids rooms, the upstairs family room, and the kids bathroom painted.  The rest of the house is still the beige color it was at time of purchase.  I finally couldn't take it anymore, so we decided to paint the master bedroom.  We've been randomly picking paint color samples over the past 6 or so months and putting blocks of color on the walls to see what we like.  We made a decision about 2 months ago but couldn't find a good weekend to get it done.  So, I put it on the schedule.     Saturday: We did our bike and swim workouts (see: http://itrainthereforeiaminpain.blogspot.com/ for an update on that).  We then head out to buy the paint at about noon. Of course, we picked Glidden colors, which is sold at Walmart and I guess there was like a paint buying frenzy last week or Saturday morning, because all the local Walmarts where out of the type of paint we wanted to use. We went home and cleared out the room, while trying to come up with how to solve this dilema.    Fortunately, I had the color chips and Lowes was able to match them.  We were determined to get those colors! Glidden Blue-Grey Slate and Pale Jade.  We also got it into our head that we wanted a ceiling fan for the bedroom.  We always like a fan on and there was already wiring for it. So, trip to Lowes ended up being a few hours of us looking at ceiling fans, trying to decide which one we liked best.  We ended up with this one:

 

By the time we got home, there was only enough time to get one wall prepped and painted (the dark wall).  Boyfriend started putting the ceiling fan together, only to realize halfway through that the glass for the light was broken.  So, he gave up on that for the night, and I got the dark wall painted.

Sunday: We got up at 9am and got started.  I started taping off for the other three walls, while Boyfriend went back to Lowes to get a replacement for the broken part of the fan and to bring me some breakfast.  He's such a good hunter/gatherer when he puts his mind to it.  He got back and got the light together and up while I painted the other three walls. We hung around for a bit while paint dried and then he went out to scare us up some dinner while I painted the second coat on the light colored walls.  We finally got everything done and the room put together at like 11:30pm.  That was rough, because not only did we not have time to do our workout, but he had to get up at 4:30am for his flight to Boston for work.  I'm sure he's very tired!

Pictures....

Boyfriend doing something manly in preparation.

I forgot to take the before pictures while the furniture was still in there.

Don't look at the bad picture in the Bathroom. It came with the house.

All the primed spots are where there were random paint color samples.

I love the door to the deck, even though we barely use it right now.

Ceiling fan is up!

Art and pictures on the walls is Phase 2.

The dark wall.

That's closer to what the color looks like in real life.

TV will be moving out to the living room but I'm not ready yet!

I really like those colors together.

Lucy is all confused about the changes.

Domo is art!

Now I just have to catch up on my working out!

Jenn - Very busy weekend!!!