A Whiff of Something Chemical...

The last two days, there's been a whiff of something strong in my apartment--a hint of a chemical smell. Mom and Dad have been having a few renovations done upstairs, and we thought it had something to do with that. But to be fair to our workmen, who have been very conscientious about not inflicting stuff on me that I can't take, I didn't smell anything remotely like it upstairs.

It smelled a bit like turpentine or fingernail polish remover. It was very distinctive! Both of those products make me very ill too, which is why smelling this odor was such a bad deal. I kept waiting for the bad reaction to hit.

By last night, the odor had become more than a whiff; there was a steady diffusion centered around the fridge, but while it drove me nuts and Maria went batty hunting for the source because she could smell it too, we still couldn't find what was causing it. I knew that the source couldn't be the fridge or the dishwasher, or the garbage disposal, or anything I put in my kitchen, because I just don't do chemicals like that. I can't. I even thought it might be the book I was reading, but...no. The book smells funny like printers ink and chemically processed paper (a smell that is also beginning to wear on me some), but it wasn't that strong, and it wasn't right for the source of the problem.

Aside from some puffiness around my eyes and a little sinus pressure, I was mostly fine up until 9 last night, when I started getting very dizzy. While I wasn't happy about it, this is not my typical reaction to chemical contaminants.

This morning, the odor was gone, and so was the dizziness. And then, I happened to glance in the fruit bowl, and there sat this odd, bluish-gray globe at the bottom of the bowl that used to be an orange.

I could have sworn that orange was the proper color yesterday and the day before yesterday. I've been in that fruit bowl several times in the last forty-eight hours for fruit for Maria's lunches and snacks for myself! But it doesn't matter. That orange went bad right under our noses, and because it didn't smell--to either of us--like an orange going bad, we didn't figure it out until it was all covered with mold.

You know, chemical sensitivity reactions are like that. It took me years for my body to wind up in the state of hyper-reactivity that it is now in. During that time, there were lots of warning signs, but because I didn't know how to read them, I didn't realize what was going on until it was too late. If I had understood what was happening sooner, I might have been able to slow the progression down or stop it altogether.

I made a lot of bad choices during those years. I washed clothes with bleach and cleaned house with all of the chemical cleaners that are so very bad for me. I used hairspray, deodorant, and skin products that were chemically loaded. In short, I lived what is considered a fairly normal American life.

The "normal American life" is a disaster waiting for a place to happen, and most folks out there don't realize it. Just because you don't react to stuff like I do right now doesn't mean that you won't start having your own problems and reactions in the future if you keep using all the products that Americans buy without thinking about what they're doing with those products! It keeps happening to more and more people. The chemicals in those products are not good for anyone! They tend to build up in our tissues. If your body isn't able to process and eliminate these chemicals effectively, someday you will end up like me if you don't start being more careful!

So--think about it. Just because you don't have any reactions now, if you don't change your life-style to be more careful and cautious with chemicals, you absolutely could wind up struggling like I am now. And I don't want that. I'd rather see those I know making healthy wise choices, and staying healthy.

Ms. Contrary Artist

Ms. Contrary Artist: Click "Collect Me" to help me win $10,000 and a show in the most immense exhibition of art in New York City : Art Takes Times Square.

Johnny's Really BIG BOOGER: A Modern Parable

Once upon a time there was a boy name Johnny, and he had to blow his nose.

But instead of blowing his nose in a Kleenex, he leaned over beside his desk into little Amy's personal space (their desks were grouped together) and, using his forefinger and thumb, exhaled with great gusto and caught his giant loogie as it was expelled--just before it landed in her lap!

Propelled by shock and horror, little Amy abandoned her chair with a clatter, and screamed for their teacher, "Mrs. Waffle! Mrs. Waffle! Johnny's playing with his boogers, and he's putting them on me!"

"Mrs. Waffle, Amy's hurting my feelings," Johnny shouted back. "She doesn't like my really neat booger and I blew it out just for her!" He held it up to show everyone in the class.

Everyone grossed out! Everyone, except Mrs. Waffle! She came down the aisle, and began scolding Amy for upsetting Johnny!* 

"Shame on you, Amy! Don't you know that you're hurting Johnny's feelings?" Mrs. Waffle said, as she took little Amy by the hand and turned her to face Johnny, who had just figured out how to make a cat's cradle out of his booger, and was swinging the slimy strands back and forth between his fingers. He screwed up his face and stuck out his tongue at her.

"Yeah! Shame on you!" Johnny added in a taunting voice.

Little Amy glared at him.

"Tell Johnny you are sorry, or I shall have to send you to the principal's office!"**

Amy looked at her teacher in horror as her classmates groaned and snickered. Mrs. Waffle set her face in a grim almost-smile, because frowning at any child was against school policy. "Say. You're. Sorry."

"No! I won't!" Amy twisted out of Mrs. Waffle's grasp, and ran to the far side of the room, where she began screaming at the top of her lungs for Mommy and Daddy. But of course, Mommy and Daddy weren't at the school and so they didn't come. Mrs. Waffle wrote a note saying that Amy had to write a paragraph about how beautiful Johnny's boogers were, and sent little Amy down to the principal's office to stay until she had written it.***

Then, Mrs. Waffle returned to soothing Johnny's trauma and embarrassment. "Why, Johnny, what a beautiful yellow-green booger! Isn't it amazingly long?" his teacher said. "Why, I'll bet if we measured it, it would be long enough to get into the Guinness World Book of Records!" And she fished Amy's ruler out of her desk. 

"May I?" When she actually touched the booger herself, a child in the back row of the class gagged and puked all over his desk and the floor. The two children beside him who had also been generously spattered started crying. He was crying too, but Mrs. Waffle serenely ignored the hullabaloo as she laid the booger out across Amy's and Johnny's desks and measured every sticky, slimy, strand of it. 

"Three feet long! My, what a beautifully long booger," she told Johnny. "Why don't we frame it and hang it at the front of the classroom for everyone to see?"

She found a frame in the storage cupboard, and together, she and Johnny spent the next ten minutes carefully arranging the booger, and hanging the frame above the chalkboard.

Any time anyone in the class groaned or snickered, or made gagging noises, Mrs. Waffle said, "Be quiet! You are wrong to be grossed out, because being grossed out is discriminating against Johnny and his booger, and discrimination is wrong!"^

She finally threatened to send them all to the principal's office, so they were quiet after that, except for the three children still crying in the back of the classroom. 

While she put the frame together, Mrs. Waffle told the class, "Now, class, you can see that boogers are really very beautiful and good. Isn't Johnny a very good boy for sharing his booger with us?"

When the booger was finally hanging on the wall, Mrs. Waffle turned her attention to the three children in the back that were still sitting there, crying and sniffling, and spattered with vomit. 

As Johnny went back to his desk and sat down, Mrs. Waffle scolded the three as severely as possible (without breaking any school guidelines) for disrupting the class. She sent them to the principal too, and said they also had to write paragraphs about boogers, and how they shouldn't care about being vomited on either, because vomit is a normally occurring substance.

After they left the room, Mrs. Waffle ordered her class to write poems about boogers as their class project.^^

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*Which just goes to show that life is never fair!

**Really, it never is!

***Never ever!

^Have you noticed how "We can't discriminate because discrimination is wrong!" has gotten to be the excuse for EVERYTHING these days?

^^Yep. I'm grossed out too, and I wrote it...

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What this horrible little story has to do with real life

We've heard a lot lately about the one percent versus the ninety-nine percent in recent months, thanks to Occupy Wall Street. The general consensus seems to be that when a minority of people, in this case the very wealthy; prevent a majority of other people, in this case, those who are not wealthy--the "99%"-- from being able to create wealth, or worse, actively undermine their ability to create wealth by engaging in unethical practices, that this is great wickedness and SOMEONE ought to do SOMETHING about it! And so we have all of these protesters camping out in downtown parks while defying the police, zoning commissions, and city governments all across America...

If you're on the side of the "99%" that the 1% shouldn't be allowed to call the shots, then you should also be on the side of the 97%....

There's another situation where a small minority is trying to create a situation in Lincoln, Nebraska (and in other cities; most recently, in Omaha), that, if left unchecked, is going to further unbalance our country economically and ethically, and in every moral aspect of life!

I'm talking about the "fairness" movement: the 2-3% of Lincoln, Nebraska residents and residents of other cities and towns who want the other 97% of us to accept their sexually deviant behavior and/or their gender confusion without any comment or reproof. They don't want any social or economic repercussions for proudly declaring what they are and what they do, even though it is not, by any standard, socially acceptable behavior. That their actions also put their health at risk, and the health of everyone around them is also a topic they don't want discussed, nor do they want anyone making decisions with regard to them based on this reality!

They want extra special consideration when it comes to employment and housing, and public accommodations because of their bad choices and self-destructive behavior, and they don't want anyone questioning or otherwise placing limits on their actions or activities.

This 3% is a LOT like little Johnny: they want hang onto their nasty boogers 
and have us admire them instead of throwing them away in the trash! 


They've got our City Council convinced that SOMETHING must be done about this
because frowning on bad behavior is "discrimination," and
"everyone knows that discrimination is wrong!"

We're being told by our City Council that: 

1. an amendment is "necessary" to make life more fair for gays, lesbians, and the transgendered by prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. 
2. this amendment is necessary to bring more economic prosperity to Lincoln, Nebraska. This assertion is not backed up with facts or figures here or in any article or newsworthy item.
3. the City Council is going to vote on this ordinance on May 14th, and there will only be one opportunity for public comment, on May 7th!

Our city council seems a LOT like that horrible Mrs. Waffle. 

They're going to make us face and deal with other people's nasty boogers, and we're going to have to pretend like we accept and admire the boogers--even if it chokes us to do it!

The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce has decided to remain neutral on this issue in spite of the significantly increased legal liability for businesses they admit that this amendment will create! Exactly how does increased legal liability promote job and business growth, and guarantee future economic growth? 

And then there's the added bombshell that if this law passes, every religious institution in Lincoln, Nebraska will be required to hire persons of deviant sexual practice and/or confused gender identity, and they will also be open to legal harassment via the courts if they don't.

There's supposedly a fix for that being discussed, but--after the latest revelations about "protections for religious institutions" in Obama Care, do you trust these people any at all?

Last night, I learned a few more facts that I think I ought to share:

The councilmen have already decided how they are going to vote on this new law. The council is currently stacked at four in favor of this "fairness law" and two against. 

Four councilmen have decided to vote for this outrageous law even before the period for public comment has passed! 

They are going to vote in favor of this "fairness law" even with the admitted flaws in the wording that increase the risk of legal suits and harassment for businesses and religious institutions! And, they are going to vote for it despite questions of whether this law is legal for the council to consider in the first place!

Now what, I ask, is so fair or just about that???

We are like the rest of Mrs. Waffle's class. 


I feel particularly for little Amy! I don't want anyone blowing their boogers in my lap!

Most of us are very grossed out by what these people do, and we don't want anything to do with their boogers. We want them to throw their dirty snot-rags in the trash like the rest of us do, and not parade their slimy green boogers and force us to pretend like we admire them for displaying their boogers, and for having such big, UGLY boogers, and...and...

Why should we do anything of the sort? This is OUR city. We are the 97%. 

Let's stand up for what is right and honorable and good. Let's say no to this perversion of justice! Let's say, "Down with showing us your boogers!"

Will you join me?

Supporting documentation:

18 Elected Leaders Show Support For Fairness Amendment

Letter to the Editor: A New Vote Would Be Fair, by Bill Austin
Lincoln Chamber Likely To Remain Neutral On Fairness Amendment

Disclaimer: none of the people mentioned in the parable are real, nor are they based on real characters.

Friends, Like Plants

Azaleas blooming at the arboretum on UNL East Campus

Need time and attention to blossom into something special!

My friend, Marcia and I hung out at the arboretum on the East Campus of UNL yesterday. Marcia is a relatively recent friend, but I feel like I've known her all of my life! We hung out with her friend Simi for a photo shoot, then met up with Simi's husband. After that, Marcia and I visited the Dairy Store, because I'd never been.

Mega Calorie Alert: the servers only use big scoops for scooping their ice cream!

Afterwards, we walked around the grounds and photographed more flowers.

In addition to the azaleas, here are a few flowers I took pictures of yesterday:

The only decent peony left blooming! Wow, they bloomed out early!

O'Neill Red horse chestnut in full bloom

There were two O'Neill Red horse chestnuts in the arboretum, and one white horse chestnut that is just beginning to bloom. The O'Neill Red's pink flowers are spectactular! While I didn't notice a particular fragrance (possibly because of the azaleas blooming elsewhere nearby?), I didn't notice an unpleasant odor either. I kept wondering why I'd never seen any other horse chestnuts before in people's yards. What a lovely tree!

Horse Chestnut blossoms visited by a Painted Lady butterfly

Even the Painted Lady butterflies loved the flowers. This little butterfly obliged me with several different poses before fluttering off.

Another Painted Lady on a blooming bush that isn't labeled.

Fringe Tree

This Fringe tree, and the Chinese Fringe tree across the walkway from it, exuded the most lovely, yet delicate fragrance.

My Pinterest Manifesto

       I like to follow people on Pinterest! I'm glad when they want to follow me too.
But I've got to tell you, there are some things which I feel need addressing before they get out of hand! I've Unfollowed a couple of people, and reported one. Hence the following manifesto!

My Pinterest Manifesto

I reserve the right not to follow you, even if you follow me,

 especially if the first picture I see on your boards is kinky or pornographic.

I will report your naughty images, too.

I reserve the right to Unfollow you if I discover your image links have been tampered with,

and do not link to anything relevant to the image.

I will probably report your images for this too,

(I have already done so once)

especially if I become convinced that you were the one tampering with the address links.

Even if you make it clear in the description

that your link has nothing to do with the image it's attached to,

I am still most likely to Unfollow you.

I view it as a matter of form and substance;

Of desiring the real McCoy; true gold, not fool's gold;

relevant images linking to relevant links offering honest information.

I don't want to see pretty images promising links to wonderful places and things,

that when I click through, 

connect to Starbucks surveys and other bogus sites.

This adds up in my mind to: 

False, non-relevant, questionable content, intending harm!

When you do this, I am beyond irritated with you for wasting my time,

and I wonder if you really have grasped what Pinterest is about,

or if you are just another aimless child in an adult's body,

who's all about the mayhem you can cause;

out of control, self-centered, seeking attention...

Who definitely needs a time out!

So let's be clear on this:

Follow the rules on Pinterest, and I'll be your very good friend!

Mess with me, and we won't ever be friends at all.