Some days I just shake my head.

What the hell is wrong with people??

The other night I heard of a 16-year old who was "recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia." Folks, I've ranted about this before. At the risk of sounding inflammatory and pissing off the masses (I do that, it's part of my charm)... Fibromyalgia is a load of hooey. It's the new Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It's what your doctor labels you with when you have nothing tangible wrong with you but everything to complain about, when you're convinced you have something but nobody seems to be able to diagnose you...when you will be pacified by a label to pin on your whininess. Is it coincidence that 90% of the patients with fibromyalgia also just happen to be middle-aged, divorced or otherwise unhappy women who also suffer from depression? I'm thinkin' not. Perfecly illustrated by the Lyrica commercial out there that begins "My doctor put me on a new medicine for my fibromyalgia. And it's not an antidepressant!" Says it all.

But sixteen. Really??

All kinds of labels get put on all kinds of things. Problem children are labeled autistic or ADHD. I'm not saying for a second that these diagnoses are not real - for heaven's sake, I take medicine for ADD myself - but I think they are wildly overdiagnosed. It's just my opinion, but I think crappy, irresponsible parenting is to blame for half of what I see diagnosed as either of those. I've seen kids, teenagers mostly, labeled with bizarre, obscure, terrible-sounding and sympathy-garnering things like "central nervous system dystrophy" and "selective attention deficit disorder" (Really?? Yes, really.) Sometimes I think the diagnoses are fabricated by Google-happy parents, and sometimes they actually bring documentation from some institution of quackery that validates the dread disease their little ray of sunshine suffers from.

We as a nation have become completely irresponsible. Aren't parents accountable for anything involving their kids anymore?? Kids can be overdramatic, everybody knows that. One of our girls tends to malinger and goes through spurts where I'm sure the office staff at school want to say "What hurts now?" Another of 'em has occasional allergic reactions to something, none of us can figure out what. And the other tends toward the Oscar-worthy playup of soccer injuries. The boys, well, they just aren't old enough to milk anything, and don't have more than bumps and bruises and normal boy stuff. But you know what?? We don't rush them off to the ER every time something is a little wrong, and we don't look for mysterious diagnoses that make us feel better as parents.

Gar.

It's freaking January. Awesome.

I can't let this one go.

Folks, I get a lot of bullshit spam in my e-mail inbox. Lots I've invited myself, every once in a while a real e-mail from somebody important gets mixed in there... but occasionally such a gem comes along that I have to share the wealth. So to speak.

Here's what I got today:

fromKim Cole
reply-todhlcourierservice.us@gmail.com

to
dateSat, Jan 17, 2009 at 5:24 AM
subjectYour Package Delivery

hide details 5:24 AM Reply


Customer Care Service
DHL EXPRESS LIMITED

ATTENTION...ATTENTION...ATTENTION
Due to the high rate of the level of scammed emails going around on the global on parcels being shipped via the FedEx Courier Company, we are hereby happy to bring it to your notice that the shipping company has being changed after your parcel has been recovered, therefore, shipment will be from the Dhl Courier Company now.

We are hereby passing an essential message to all our valuable customers to be very careful while presenting their receivers residential address to avoid wrong delivery. This is the Dhl courier service company mailing you as per your inheritance/contract payment parcel that was being directed to our office for shipment to you from the Ministry of Finance office, we got to know that the reason why you have not received your funds is the misunderstanding between you and Local/International Authorities in regard of their request as per their insurance certificate which happens to be course of your Parcel pending for the past one year.Meanwhile we are hereby happy to inform you that the Dhl Company has finalized the issue of the Insurance certificate with the Federal Authorities, the authorities has listed 11 valuable parcel's to be intact in their office for release to their various recipients.

We are happy to inform you once again that your parcel that contains the sum of $1.3million dollars is among the 11parcel's listed in their custody which has now being released to us and is now in our office and also with your name as the receiver despite that we lost your private residential address along with your private phone number which is an indication that you can now re-confirm your residential address back to the Dhl company where your Parcel can be delivered without hesitation.

However, All the shipment fee and other fee has been taken care of before incident Occured, this company has spent out of our incomes in the process by recovering back your parcel from the Authorities, so, dear custumer we once again appreciate your patronage in our favour. Without hesitations you are to pay the sum of $585 for the security keeping fee of your parcel via western-union or money-gram so that your parcel can be delivered to your residential address before it accumulates a demurrage after one week of release from the Authorities, as you know your parcel is not just an ordinary parcel but with a huge amount and I think you understand what is being meant by accumulating a demurrage? You are being assured that as soon as the security keeping Fee {$585} of your parcel is being settled and payment is being confirmed. shipment of your package will take effect immediately and it will be brought to your doorstep under 48 hours of shipment. The tracking number of your !
parcel will be sent to you via e-m

Full Name
Address
Phone/Fax Number

Mind you, you have to settle the $585 for the Security Keeping fee of your parcel being in our custody all this while and there is no way the parcel will be shipped out to you if you don't setle this fee. Dhl is one of the world's great success stories, the start-up that revolutionized the delivery of packages and information. In the past 30 years, we've grown up and grown into a diverse family of
companies -a Dhl that's bigger, stronger, better than ever.

Yours Affectionately.
Kim Cole
Dhl Offers Global Shipping, Logistics Management,
Supply Chain Management and More.

Damn those Authorities, anyway.
Good grief. It's sad to me that there are folks who fall into this crap trap.

Miscellany

Reading over my local paper this morning, apparently the gang scuffle that killed two kids last week was over a presumably stolen iPod. WTF? A 17-year old and an 18-year old, gunned down by a 19-year old with an SKS at a city park. I don't even know what to say. Maybe the surprising part is that it didn't surprise me all that much. And that's a sad thing, because I live in a city that's not all that huge, and not known for being a violent place, except to those of us who deal with its underbelly all the time.

Have had a sort of loose thread of sentiment running through my head of late, sort of a "why can't we all just get along?" thing. People are so gosh-darned rude. Of course this all started during the holiday shopping rush immediately before Christmas... we waited in line at the electronics counter of Wal-Mart with about 6 or 7 other people, the lone clerk in the department doing his level best to ring up people, open display cases, and answer the incessantly ringing phone. A woman, well-dressed (i.e. in my mind grown-up enough to know better) pushed her way impatiently to the front of the line and butted into the conversation the people in front of us were having with the clerk, "Excuse me, EXCUSE me. Is there anyone working in the fabric department? I've been standing back there for ten minutes, ringing the bell like Santa Claus!" The guy behind the counter just smiled as best he could and said "I'll check" and we looked at each other, amazed at her impoliteness and his ability to resist telling her to f#*k right smooth off.

There've been other instances in the past few weeks too, things that just make us shake our heads in utter bewilderment. But I've had a couple of cups of coffee, so my morning grump is starting to wear off and my attitude improving.

The weather has been crisp here. Okay, it's been goddamn cold. We're learning lessons at our house about being responsible and prepared and taking what you will need to the other parent's house...and learning lessons about not half-assing kitchen cleanup or other chores...and learning lessons about whining and talking back and generally having attitude...and learning lessons about leaving our stuff laying all around. I have this thing I do, which all of the kids hate, but which seems to work okay - we have what's called a "buyback box." After the kids go to school or to bed, I make a sweep of the house and gather up everything that belongs to anybody that isn't where it belongs. Dump it in a box. If somebody can't find something of theirs, if it happens to be in the buyback box, they have to do a chore of some kind to buy back whatever they need. Grumbles aplenty... but the amount of stuff in the box daily is dwindling. It sure beats screaming about it. The next stage is pulling the linens off unmade beds. ;-) ("Gosh, you're gonna be cold tonight without any sheets or blankets," she says with an evil smile.)

And I'm trying to be more positive. It was pointed out to me last week that I made five disparaging comments about myself in the span of an hour. Which was a knock upside the head. I knew I did it, but I didn't know I did it incessantly. No wonder I drive people I love insane. (Of course, in some cases it's a short drive. I love you, sweetie...)

Now, I think I'm gonna throw some pictures out there.
A shot of Christmas morning at our joint. Boys drowning in Star Wars toys and fighter planes, girls ignoring everything except their new laptops and iPods...


The kids got a Wii from their Grandpa and Grandma Alger, and I think Scott and I played with it more than they did right at first. Simplify...by beating the virtual crap out of each other. The boxing is a decent ab and arm workout, we found, and I'm well on my way to developing tennis elbow.


I made Scott a quilt for Christmas - lots of y'all probably know he collects lots of military uniforms and so forth, so I thought it would be cool if I made him a patchwork quilt out of lots of different uniforms that looked like they'd seen some experience. I scouted the local thrift stores for the perfect pieces to cut up, and it took me a month or so, but I was pretty proud of the end result as it's the first quilt I've ever made. He likes it too. Woo hoo!


Here's a quick shot of us at the aforementioned holiday party... Ain't we cute together??



We took the gang bowling last week, and had a lot of fun - except for the price tag. Dang, I used to think bowling was good cheap fun.


Ahhhh...enough babbling for now. On the docket today: More coffee. Shower. Organize the boys' toys. And make dentist and eye doctor appointments for some of us.