Wild-Heart.net

I think I’ve written in the past, if not in the current archives, at least at some point in the last 7 years of blogging, that my mother had a mission to expose my sister and I to what she considered great works of literature at very young ages. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead were read to us at some point before we were 6 and 7. Of course she left out parts she felt were to adult for our innocent minds. But Rand was there, along with Tolkien and The Bible and many others. This probably explains a lot about my own crazy brain.

As an adult I’ve gone back and read Rand’s works on my own and while I find her philosophy of Objectivism and it’s relation to Libertarianism intriguing and can see how being exposed to her works at an early age influenced who I am today, I find her writing style to be something that drives me absolutely bonkers. Reading her works as an adult I wished I could smack her at times for coming across as presenting her philosophy in a manner, that feels to me, akin to theology. For a woman/author who professed to be an atheist she sure did have a way of getting preachy. Not that I disagree with her philosophy, I simply don’t enjoy her writing style. I love to watch old interviews of her and taped lectures that she gave, I just don’t want to read her books ever again.

Which now brings me to the series of books that I am now, thankfully, nearly finished reading. The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. When I picked up the first book in the series nearly a year ago, I knew nothing about the author or the series. I read the back cover and the first few pages and thought I’d give it a go. I really enjoyed the first two books. Then came the third and something struck a chord in me. The author was obviously a fan of Ayn Rand. I ended up at his website and sure enough, he has links to The Ayn Rand Institute and pages explaining his philosophy and how it is inspired by Rand’s Objectivism.

I spend more time reading these days than I do prattling about on the internet. By the time our homeschool day is over I am pretty much sick of looking at computer screen and once the boys are all in bed I’d rather curl up with a book and escape the stress of the day than try to come up with something entertaining and witty to put here. Goodkind’s series has been what has occupied most of my evenings since Baby Boy’s first hospitalization a year ago next month. I’m nearly done with the tenth book in the eleven book series and I want to smack the author with his ponytail. He’s not inspired by Objectivism. He’s obsessed with it. Let’s see, how do I describe this series of books… Take some Tolkien, toss in some R.A. Salvatore, a pinch of Robert Jordon and a crap load of one tragic hero who’s supposed to save the world but doesn’t know how but does know how to preach endlessly the importance of individualism and objectivism and freedom and you have the series in a nutshell. Which also leaves you with a a nutty Chelle, because I feel compelled to finish any series of books that I start.

Except for Terry Pratchett. How anyone can put him on the same par as Douglas Adams is beyond me. But then again, when it comes to British comedic-satire, I adore Adams but can’t stand Pratchett. Just as I adore many Brit-coms but never could stand Monty Python.

One more Goodkind book and I can put this series behind me. Any recommendations as to what I should sink my literary teeth into next?

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Thanks to that show I had a night filled with nonsensical, seriously warped dreams of The Smurfs. I was Azriel and it was snowing and I was freezing. Woke up from the dream to find Joseph had stolen all of the covers yet again and I really was very cold and I had to pee. Just an hour before the alarm clock was due to go off. I hate Robot Chicken.

2007. I swear this year is simply trying to kick my ass to see how much I can handle.

Late Monday evening, Boy #2 woke up with a stomach ache. We assumed it was either a virus or gas as the tummy pain wasn’t localized. The stomach pain continued through yesterday but by 20:00 the pain had become localized to his right side and more severe. We could have taken him to the pediatrician’s after hours clinic but I knew if they suspected appendicitis they would send us to the hospital, the same if we went to the urgent care clinic, so we went directly to the emergency room.

We didn’t have a very long wait in the waiting room. The doctor and first year resident ordered lab work which came back with a sky high white count, so off to radiology they sent us for a CT-scan. Twenty minutes later we had the results. Acute appendicitis.  They went ahead and started his IV line in the ER and gave him some Nubain for the pain.  Then we had to wait and see if the surgeon on call and the anesthesia team would be willing to perform the procedure at that particular hospital. We had taken him to the hospital closest to home (about a 5 minute drive). It seemed that the problem was that they do not do pediatric surgeries so they first had to find out if the surgeon would do it, he asked his hight and weight (5′ 6″, 129) and said, “He’s the size of a small man, I’ll do it, let me know what anesthesia says.” At first they didn’t want to do it. So they made calls to the other two hospitals in town and nope, they couldn’t do it, they were backed up and wouldn’t be able to touch him until sometime later this afternoon at the earliest, they relented and agreed to perform the procedure where he was.

The surgeon was able to remove his appendix with the lap/scope procedure. He started at 02:00 was done in 45 minutes. Boy #2 then spent an hour in recovery before they brought him up to his room. They discharged him this afternoon at 14:00. Man, was he ready to get the heck out of there and come home. He had been ready to get home since they brought him his breakfast tray of “clear liquids only.” For the next 4 hours it was like having a grumpy old man in the room. “I want real food. I need something I can sink my teeth into. I’m sick of peeing into this jug thingy.  Can’t you talk to the nurse and tell her she HAS to let me go home now?!” Heh. He’s been resting comfortably and has had no need for the Lortab they sent him home with. Ibuprofen has been sufficient to keep his surgical pain under control.

I  thought that tomorrow we might have a day of reprieve. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out that way. Baby Boy and I had appointments scheduled with our neuro-shrink for Friday but his office called and asked us to reschedule for tomorrow morning. Neuro-shrink is also a forensic-shrink and he was called in for more testimony for a trial at the last minute for Friday so they had to shuffle things around.

Damn. I’m exhausted.

Why not? That’s what we’ll be doing later today. We planned this with friends almost a year in advance. While getting together with family and extended family to celebrate the official holiday is great, we got to talking about how nice it would be to have a Thanksgiving Dinner with just friends with no worries about dressing up the children or worrying about who you or your spouse might offend because we all know as much as we love our families and enjoy spending time with them, they are more easily offended than our close friends are. And gods love him, but I think when we get together with Joseph’s family he lives to say offensive things that he knows will make his mother cringe and twitch so I spend our family get togethers holding my breath hoping my children don’t act like they were raised by wolves and that Joseph doesn’t alienate his mother any further than he already has.

I’m bringing the Bob Andy pie and Pumpkin pie and the stuffing. My back and hips are currently protesting a great deal. I think it was the prep work for the stuffing that did it. I’ve yet to find in any grocery store down here, unseasoned stuffing. You know, the dried bread cubes? Everything is always pre-seasoned. That means I end up having to toast the bread and cut the cubes myself along with the other goodies that go into recipe. Too much time on my feet.

Any who… I hope y’all are enjoying your Sunday.