{"id":376,"date":"2003-07-17T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2003-07-17T07:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sbw.webfactional.com\/blog\/?p=376"},"modified":"2003-07-17T07:50:00","modified_gmt":"2003-07-17T07:50:00","slug":"376","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/2003\/07\/376\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p>True to form, I have once again not written when perhaps I really should have.  The gaps in my journals, written since April 21st, 1979, always indicate a particularly difficult time.  Perhaps it is because I do more talking than writing during times like this, but I also fear that not committing to paper keeps me from helping myself.  Actually, I have no idea why, I just know that it is a habit to shy away from the written word when things get hairy.<\/p>\n<p>I am in the middle of the battery of health tests required for the Peace Corps.  I have now seen two doctors, one dentist and four nurses, in two different states, over the course of a month.  And I&#8217;m far from done.  I am still waiting for the results of my PAP and HIV test, and I have to get another urinalysis done since my test last week showed a presence of blood.  They are thinking it was left over from my period, and I am certainly hoping the same.  It is the only anomaly so far in all of my tests, and every inch of my body has been prodded.  In one day, I had a hearing test, a vision test, a hemoglobin finger-stick, a TB test shot, urinalysis, and blood drawn for HIV, blood type, and RH-factor testing.  The visit before I had a full physical and pelvic exam.  In a week I get all of the results, the last tests, and I just might be finished.   Two months of paperwork will go into my pre-addressed FedEx form, and then the real waiting game begins.  I may not hear anything for months, my program, country, continent, and leave date could all change, and all I can do is be flexible and patient.<\/p>\n<p>And I have to decide what I really want to do.  Once I&#8217;ve sent the FedEx, I&#8217;m going to try my best to not even worry about it until I get my invitation, and in that week, make a choice to affect the next two plus years of my life.  I don&#8217;t want to live the next few months as if I will be leaving shortly; I want to live as though nothing is fixed and take it from there.<\/p>\n<p>I have to send out great thanks to my family and friends, even those who do not even know that I write this blog, who rallied around me this last week when I was attacked by the dark side.  Someone tried to break me, tried to make me feel worthless and foolish and as though I was totally full of shit.  This person sat me down and detailed what she believed to be a list, a long one, of my faults, and in the meantime, also insulted the very way I live my life.  I actually believed her for almost a whole day, until I finally started talking to some of my friends and family who were furious.  And I finally realized that although, as Ian said, maybe 15% of what she said was true, the other 85% was horseshit and she isn&#8217;t even worth a reply.  Simply put, she is sick, and cruel, and insane with jealousy and anger, and she is not a person I want in my life.<\/p>\n<p>And I am jealous of the millions of people in France right now who get a glimpse of Lance Armstrong and the rest as they fly by at 45 miles an hour.  And jealous of those who have a TV, when I can only listen to the Tour on my computer.  Turns out more people watch the Tour de France than any other sporting event, including the Super Bowl.  If you&#8217;ve never watched these men in action, gentle reader, I encourage you to check it out.  And I need to figure out why there are no women in the Tour de France.  Hmmm.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>True to form, I have once again not written when perhaps I really should have. The gaps in my journals, written since April 21st, 1979, always indicate a particularly difficult time. Perhaps it is because I do more talking than writing during times like this, but I also fear that not committing to paper keeps [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}