Writing in the Corner

I got a call from little boy’s school yesterday. He had a rash around his hairline. It was weird. They thought I might want to come look at it. Well, yes, I would like to come look at it, but I didn’t have a car, and by the time I walked there, it would have been time for him to come home from school. Since he felt fine, he just went back to class.

When he got off the bus an hour or so later, he was kind of whiny. I asked if he was OK, and he said his legs hurt. I looked at his legs, and saw that they were sunburn red and swollen around the ankles. I asked him what had happened. He said he wandered into an ant hill.

His ankles looked really bad yesterday, and the rash was also on his back. The rash is gone today, and the swelling and redness are much better, but I’m concerned that if this was an allergic reaction, the next time could be much worse. I’m probably going to try to get him in to see a pediatrician next week. I will have a car on Wednesday afternoon next week, so maybe that will work. Or, I may just take DH in to work on Friday, if he doesn’t mind. Maybe I should ask before I post!

I bet I get a bunch of google hits from this one. It may even rival my get rid of findjizz and azaleas are eating my caterpillars posts.

From ABCNews.com:

Dr. Nathan Shapira and other scientists at the University of Florida have been studying the phenomena of Internet addiction and are proposing that mental health professionals use a simple five-point checklist.

In a recent issue of Current Psychology, the university’s scientists say online obsession can be pinpointed with a MOUSE. Or, more specifically, people should ask themselves:

Do you spend More time that you intend to online?

Are Other responsibilities being neglected?

Are you Unsuccessful at cutting back the amount of time online?

Are you having Significant relationship problems because of your Internet use?

Do you have Excessive thoughts or anxiety when you’re not online?

The researchers say their rodent-based idiom came after face-to-face evaluations of over 30 volunteers, many of whom identified themselves as having problems the Internet.

Based on their research, they say Web-a-holics are likely to spend more than 30 hours a week online and their nonessential Internet use was 10 times greater than essential job- or school-related use.

And from the Kansas State Collegian:

Men at the average age of 29 and women at the average age of 43 who have the vocational background of “none” including homemakers, the disabled, retired persons or students make up the largest demographic of Internet addicts, according to clinical research done by the Center for Online and Internet Addiction.

…the desire to escape stress, can contribute to Internet addiction…

Mariann Fountain, clinical manager of COMCARE of Sedgwick County Addiction Treatment Services, said the desire to escape the routine, or stress of life is a reason people become addicted to the Internet.

“People who are lonely and curious are at risk,” she said. “Also people who want to escape their real lives by being someone else or doing things they wouldn’t normally do are at risk.”

Cyber-relational addiction can also cause problems in being able to relate to people in face-to-face situations, Ann Johnson said.

“I think it limits experience with social skill development, being able to problem solve, and being able to negotiate relationships with others,” she said. “One thing about the online experience of interaction is that there can often be a time lag between a question and a response, so people have time to formulate what they are going to say — or moderate their emotional response. It doesn’t happen that way when they get into a face-to-face interaction with another person.”

Gary Johnson said if a person’s online activities start to cut into the way they function socially, their relationships with others, or their occupations, they should seek help.

I mentioned this issue at the end of my last session with my therapist. We’re going to discuss it in greater detail at my next appointment.

Not all of the items in the UofF study apply to me. Just the first three. I’m rarely online for more than an hour when DH is home, which explains why #4 isn’t an issue. And I’m rarely offline during the day, so by the time I am offline, I’m pretty well sated.

I’m also concerned, though, about being online affecting my ability to function in “real life” social situations. I used to be able to think on my feet, and to read people. Now, I find myself stammering and feeling inept in real conversations (not good in a job interview) and I assume that people are how they present themselves. I hear almost entirely the content of what people say, and don’t read the context.

What bothers me most is the things going undone. I don’t have very high standards as far as housework goes, and (thankfully) neither does my DH. But gosh, shouldn’t I be able to vacuum more often than bi-weekly? Shouldn’t the kitchen floor be swept more often than that, as well? I’m doing OK with the laundry, and with the dishes. But it’s not like I have anything really to DO, and little boy is gone all day, and I have tons of free time. I could be sewing curtains, or painting my bathroom, or even just spray painting little boy’s bookcase. But instead I sit in this chair for hours…I’m not exaggerating, hours…reading blogs, writing to strangers, looking at job listings (but this is not how I spend the majority of my time).

I’m going to buy a little timer this weekend, and see if I can manage my time better. Even if it’s to try going one hour on/one hour off. And then try weaning myself down to twice a day, for an hour each time, except when I’m searching job listings on Monday (classifieds) and Friday (local employer links). If that doesn’t work, maybe I need the butt equivalent of a joy buzzer on my chair to attach to the timer.

Please feel free to discuss. I’d like to hear what my readers have to say about this.

About two months ago, our beater car threw a rod. Because I’m severely unemployed, we have elected not to buy another at this time (unless somebody out there has an leads on a local beater car for sale). This has left me, for the most part, trapped at home. DH has to drive to New Orleans every day; there really isn’t an option about that. Taking a ride share van would probably cost close to $400/month, and most of them only go to the CBD. Cheaper than owning a car, I guess, but we don’t have $400/month.

This leaves me carless. I don’t live in an area where you can easily walk to shopping, restaurants, grocery, etc., especially if you have arthritis in your knees and chronic achilles tendonitis. So most of the time, I’m trapped at home. Sometimes a friend will give me a ride someplace, but I don’t have a lot of friends; I don’t like asking for favors from people who are only casual acquaintances, and my one good friend, who would take me anywhere, has been pretty sick the last few weeks.

But today, older son is home from college for fall break, and I scheduled MD and dentist appointments for him this morning. This required a car. So I got up at Oh Dark Thirty, took DH to New Orleans, and came home. (I went back to bed. I was really tired.) Older son has finished his appointments and now I HAVE A CAR. I can get in it and drive it. I can press on the accelerator to make it move, and press on the brake to make it stop. I can activate the turn signals. I can turn the round thing to change direction. I have a license from the state of Louisiana to do all these things.

I have been thinking for two days now where I will drive. I think I will drive to the gas station, and then I will drive to the hair cutting place and partake. I will drive to the grocery store and buy things like whipped cream and stick margarine. And then, later this afternoon, I will drive to New Orleans and fetch my husband.

Well, I’ll try to make this my last entry on the subject. Time has an article about the tour and what the artists are hoping to accomplish. Rolling Stone interviewed Bruce about why he’s entering the political arena for the first time in his 30+ year career. And there’s quite a lively debate about whether he should even be doing this on the discussion page at brucespringsteen.net. As of this writing, the thread is 119 pages long, at 20 posts per page.

I’ve read the interviews (though not the thread…I had other stuff to do today!) and I’m purring inside at the ideas expressed:

• The artist as a voice, just a voice.
• Responsibility to your fans and to your ideals.
• The limits of what the musicians can do, but how they felt it was so necessary to do it anyway.

My old boss in Columbus is also a huge Springsteen fan. We only talk any more when there’s a Springsteen concert coming up, or when we’ve read a review that makes us think “Oh, my heck.” (Example: Bruce played Incident on 57th St. in Philadelphia during the reunion tour in ‘99/2000; the first time he’d played that song in 20 years.) But I haven’t spoken or written to him about this tour at all, because…well, because he’s such a freakin’ Republican, somewhat to the right of Orrin Hatch, and I don’t think it would be a pleasant conversation. I don’t like political discussion, really; there’s just entirely too much vitriol.

I may write something more Monday night, after the broadcast on the Sundance Channel. But now I’ll give it a rest.

I’m a true believer. I believe in rock and roll. I suppose that dates me. I’m 44. I’m a real child of the sixty’s. I was ten when The Beatles broke up, in the third grade. I lived through disco, and was briefly infected by it.

But when I was 20, I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on The River tour, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I was born again.

Last night, Bruce Springsteen and the Band, John Fogerty, Bright Eyes, and REM played in Philadelphia on the opening night of the Vote for Change tour. Read the article. Read it slowly, and savor it. I was able to visualize myself there. My rate of respiration and my heart rate increased. I got teary-eyed. I got goosebumps.

I believe in rock and roll. Music can save your immortal soul. Maybe it can even save the country.

I’m about to change my theme music, at left, to include Bruce’s “The Promised Land.”

Blow away the dreams that tear you apart

Blow away the dreams that break your heart

Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

The dogs on Main Street howl

’cause they understand

If I could take one moment into my hands

Mister I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man

And I believe in a promised land.