Rizzo's Ramblings... TCM Blog awards Shine on MotherF*ckers!!!

OK so here's the thing. I have 3 smokes to get me through this blog post and I just ate dinner. (Fried tillapia, broccoli and cheese rice, and broccoli but I don't blog about that shit because someone else is, ya know?) Anyway, I had just gotten home from the registration/orientation for my brand new freshman daughter :'( when Frenchy texted me and said we had gotten some blogging award thingamajig and she was working and could I answer some questions and link up to 15 blogs. (15??? For realz???) I said I could after I cooked dinner, but then I said maybe we both could do it so you guys could hear from both of us. Then she said I could go first, which was great because that means I get to use up all the blogs... HA! I don't really know what the hell is going on. There is this theme going on. Shine on. Over at Saltwater Sessions they said we had to include this pic:

They made some great musical reference in the blog where they received the award here, but all I can think of is Shine on, Motherfuckers!! And so that it shall be. Now, there are some rules to this award. One of which being that I repost that pic ^^^^, another one is I have to post 7 facts about me, and the last is I have to share 15 blogs and give them the award. (Always a string attached, amirite?) ;)
SOoooo 7 facts about me:
1) I'm an asshole.
2) I only have 2 smokes now, getting ready to be 1 because I smoke like a freight train.
3) I have to go buy smokes in the rain. :(
4) I'm a procrastinator.
5) I am 5'7" tall
6) I never feel good enough or like I do enough.
7) I am not good at in person social situations. I am a nervous freak.

Now on to the good stuff. I don't know if I can come up with 15 blogs. I will try. There are a few at the very top of my list though. I hope you guys have already heard of them because they are fucking awesome! So to you guys I am getting ready to link:  (You are getting their Facebook pages, damnit. It's the best I can do...)
SHINE ON, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fruits and Nuts

Tripping While Standing Still

Epic Adventures in Motherhood

A.D.D. Music Mamma

Fodder 4 Fathers

You're The Worm in My Tequila

Gah! I got 6 you guys! I am almost out of smokes! Frenchy will be posting some more for you! Oh and HEY you are supposed to repost our blog/Fbook page in the blog where you hand out your awards. Kind of like I did for Saltwater Sessions ;)
Peace out!
-R-

Rizzo's Ramblings...Hi! I'm Rizzo and I'm currently.....

GOING OUT OF MY MIND. Or I am already gone out of it. The other day (yesterday?) I announced that I would begin fundraising for a Diabetic Alert Dog for my daughter. I do that. I get to a point where I am tired of talking and reading about it. I have to start somewhere, sometime, so why not now? I have gotten in touch with a trainer and there is one family ahead if us. We. Are. Next. Well, hold on a minute here. What? We are next? Wait. 

                     (breathe)

At some point, (about 5 minutes after the happy dance) I realized I was going to have to interact with people. Initiate conversation. In person. Gah! It is pretty scary, I have to admit. I'm all right behind a keyboard. I have time to formulate my thoughts. I get infinite time to backspace and proofread. Sometimes, I will spend 10 minutes agonizing over what to say. When I do that I usually just "select all" and then hit the backspace button! You don't really get that opportunity in real life. My huge fear right now is that at some point contacting the local media is going to be a must. I have a strategy that allows me to hold off on that a bit. (I wrote a blog about procrastination...) 

I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of the most challenging things I have done in my life. It is going to be SO worth it!! I hope you guys will bear with me because I am sure I will be blogging about this quite a bit. 

I really appreciate you guys "liking and sharing" that page for me. Much Love!! -R-

Rizzo's Ramblings...Drugs, Drinks, or Donuts

Yesterday I tempted Fate. I knew when I did it that it was a bad idea. When I said "Bring it on, I can handle anything!", I knew I was asking for it. I should not have said it. I should not have asked Fate to do her worst. Although, to some of you, what I am about to say will surely be nothing in comparison to what you are going through. It is really nothing in comparison to what Fate could have dealt. But, I should not have asked for it. You see, a couple weeks ago I got some lab results from my Type 1 daughter's endocrinologist that said her kidney's had begun to show damage. My daughter is 14. The story of her diagnosis can be read here. There is a picture in that blog of a month's supply of pump supplies. My daughter no longer pumps insulin. She is back on the injections. Seven a day. Her sugar is more controlled on injections and we desperately need that control. According to her lab results, now more than ever because her kidneys are beginning to fail. At any rate. Back to yesterday. Yesterday was a scheduled call from her insurance company's Diabetes Managed Care Plan Registered Nurse. I had SO MANY questions about her kidneys and those lab tests. The registered nurse was very alarmed at first. Yes the creatinine/microalbumin ratio test result was very high. Yes, that is a bad sign. Did they test the BUN and creatinine serum levels in her blood? Yes. Yes, they did. Those results were normal. All of a sudden the registered nurse for the insurance company asks me if my daughter could have been on her period when this urine sample was taken. I say, yes, my daughter was on her period. She made an issue of it when she gave the urine sample. She didn't want to pee in a cup. The registered nurse informs me that this is most likely WHY protein showed up in my daughter's urine. (Blood IS protein). The registered nurse informs me that the blood lab work results show that my daughter's kidneys are working PERFECTLY. (Cue the angels singing on high and tears of joy and gratitude and me thanking the nurse profusely.) Then, when I woke my daughter up to do her morning sugar check, her blood sugar was 96. That is the HOLY GRAIL of blood sugars for my daughter.After a snoopy dance in the hallway, I got dressed, got in my car, and headed to work. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I said to Fate "Bring it on! I can take it!'. Because everything was wonderful. Because my daughter's kidneys are perfect. Because her blood sugar was perfect. Because I am an idiot. Everything at work was non descript. Not too may rooms to clean. None of them were FUBAR. I got out at a decent time without too much cussing or fighting as is want to happen throughout the day where I work. I got home and I made the mistake of checking my mail. I NEVER  check my mail when I know there are no bills in it. I will go weeks without checking it. (I know the mail lady hates me, but it is not for that reason.) Within that small metal box was an ad flyer and my 16 year old son's report card. My brilliant, funny, handsome, 16 year old son. I shouldn't have opened it. I should have thrown it away with the ad flyer. I should have waited for a few weeks. I should have burned it in effigy. Anything besides open it. Because within that envelope, mailed so innocently from the high school, was Fate's punishment to me. For all intents and purposes, my son FAILED the tenth grade. Not because he isn't brilliant. Not because the classes were too hard (even though he WAS in Pre AP English), but because he is a lazy, non motivated little shit. He also failed Algebra 2. The WHOLE FIRST SEMESTER was a line of "F's". The second semester you could tell he tried to not fail, because they were all "A's" and "B's". He passed his Pre AP English SOL with a pass advanced score. But he failed for the year because he didn't do his work. Fate kicked my ass yesterday. Handed it to me on a plate, even. Fate reminded me that there is a reason I should never say "Go ahead, make my day". I am NOT Dirty Harry. I am a plain old housewife. I can NOT handle whatever Fate has to offer. As a matter of fact, I don't WANT to. So, I apologize to Fate. I would even kiss Fate's ass if need be, and that is saying a lot because I kiss ass for no one. With that being said, I have to go. I have to find drugs, a drink, or some donuts.

Rizzo's Ramblings...Mental Health Day

As you guys know from my Facebook update this morning, I played hooky from work to lay out in the sun. Well, not JUST to lay out in the sun, but also to spend time with my daughter and to recharge my batteries. From previous blog posts, you (should) know that I am a housekeeper for a hotel (motel?). I have been working 6 days a week sometimes cleaning 20 or more rooms in a day. I was their only housekeeper for a month or more until I had a small meltdown and threatened to quit if they didn't get me some help. They *did* hire someone else, but she is so slow that it takes her four times as long as me to get the job done. That means that I get called in on my "day off" because she can't handle the workload. This happened just this past week. So, today, I called in with a fake ailment so that I could have a day off. I probably wouldn't have done it if A) I had actually gotten a day off this week *or* B) the other housekeeper hadn't gotten TWO days off this week *or* C) it had been raining or a crappy day. I told my employer when I was hired that when school let out for summer break I would need no less than TWO weekdays off. The reasons being that I do not want to leave my 16 and 14 year olds home alone to their own devices five days a week, and because I like to spend time with them. Surprisingly enough, they like to spend time with me, too, and I am going to take advantage of that for as long as I can. School let out last Wednesday. The first day off I was supposed to have got blew all to hell because there was more than ten rooms and the other girl is slow as owl shit. I got the call, I broke the plans I had made with my kids, and I went to work. When I woke up this morning and the weatherman was predicting the perfect summer day with a high UV index I made up my mind to take a mental health day. I called in early enough for them to find someone to cover for me (whether they did or not I don't know). I told them I had suddenly come down with some terrible malady and that I would be unable to work today. I immediately woke up my teenagers and asked them what time they needed to be up in order to get ready to go to the town pool at 12 when it opened. (Don't you love how I woke them up to ask them what time they wanted to be up? I hate it when people do that shit to me! <insert maniacal laughter here>) My son had been up until 4AM gaming with his friends, so he didn't want to go. My daughter wanted to be up at 11. That meant that from 6AM until 11AM I got to sit on my ass and do nothing but watch Facebook and drink coffee. At eleven I got my daughter up, and we were at the pool by 12:30. For the record, I am kind of funny about swimming in a public pool, *especially* with about 20 small children in it, so all I did was soak up the sun. There is nothing more relaxing to me than lying under the sun on a cloudless day and basking in the heat. It's the only time I *like* to sweat. Yes. I know all about skin cancer. I'm a fair haired, fair skinned, freckly girl so I have been warned about skin cancer A LOT! But guess what? I smoke, so I have bigger cancers to worry about!! Besides, the vitamin D is ESSENTIAL to my well being! I swear vitamin D from the SUN is a mood stabilizer. I am happiest when I have soaked it up on a regular basis, and I have a beautiful tan. Think perfectly fried chicken golden brown. That's me. Guess what I use to attain it? Butter!! (No joke. Best tanning "oil" I have ever used!) While I enjoyed a mega dose of vitamin D, I also enjoyed getting to watch my teenage daughter frolic in the water with her friends. Hearing her laugh is one if the best things in this world! So this evening I am relaxed, recharged, rejuvenated, and ready to work tomorrow. I will be in such a good mood for the next few days that it would not surprise me if my boss asked me to be sick more often!! Everyone needs a mental health day! If you have not had one on a while, I *highly* recommend you take one promptly! Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to turn in early because baking in the sun always makes me sleepy. I hope you guys have a great day tomorrow. I know I am going to!!  ( And remember: Take *all* the mental health days! Rizzo's orders!)

Frenchy's Follies... Obama care???

So, just curious.... anyone real knowledgeable on the oh-so-fabulous Obama care? Seems like we don't know much about it, and they are rolling out the online exchanges in about 6 months. Do you even know what an exchange is?

I think it's a little odd that we don't know much about this. Why do we have to wait until 3 months before we are forced to get this health care to know how much it's going to be? Most people need to prepare for added expenses like this. Seems poorly planned in my opinion.

The exchange is going to be an online place for buying your health care. Yep I said "BUYING". You will have to pay for it or you will have an extra "tax" for not having health care. How that is legal I have no idea. It is penalizing you for not having health care. Isn't that your choice??? The only people that will get health insurance for free is anyone making under $15,000 that qualify for Medicaid. Everyone else has to pay something for it. In fact, from my research, Obama care may be just as expensive as health care now through an employer. Sooooo.... how is this so great again?

Anywho, I want to also get you thinking about some things that haven't even been addressed at all! How will the all the hospitals, doctors offices, drug and supply companies prepare for this influx of people that will now be going to the doctor when they sneeze a couple of times? I already have a month long wait to see a specialist and urgent care centers have extremely long wait times. Don't you think we could have prepared for that as well? See, if I were president, I would have rolled out some sort of incentive back in 2010 when this was introduced, to get people to go to medical school. Like, pay for a portion or all of tuition to medical school. Especially since new doctors will surely see a decrease in pay with the government reimbursing doctors offices and hospitals even less than private insurance companies have over the years. Give incentives to people that choose to still enter the medical field since they all be working harder for less money. Then this year there would have been a bunch of doctors graduating from basic medical school that could have worked while they went into a specialty program. I mean, think about it!!!

And what about the quality of health care? Supposedly drug companies and medical supply companies will be getting less money for their products. I'm pretty sure this will decrease the quality of the products, and with the doctors cramming more people in, I would think that will cause a drop in the quality of health care as well.

Will we still have co pays for doctors visits and surgeries? WHO KNOWS!!! Will there be a deductible you have to meet every year WHO KNOWS!!Isn't that strange?!

Since I own a small business, let me share with you what I know about that from Obama's own website. Any business with 50 or more employees is required to offer health insurance through an exchange of private health care companies. If they don't offer it, they are penalized $2000-3000 per person. So lets say you have 70 employees. How will you afford to pay for health insurance for all of them? You can't! But you can't afford to be penalized either! So you have to let 21 people go and make the other 49 work harder. Don't you think this will impact the economy drastically come January? Along with the blow of less money for the same things from the medical community? I mean, when we were given a "stimulus" of an extra $20 a paycheck that was supposed to help the economy sooooooo much. So won't these penalties, potential layoffs, and drastically low reimbursements hurt the economy sooooo much too?

My friend works for a company with about 650 people. They estimate that they will have to pay out an extra 1.5 million dollars a year to insure people that may not even WANT health insurance! Why couldn't we just regulate regular insurance companies? Holding the insurance companies accountable for not spending the premium money, and making them reimburse people that money like the Affordable Care Act is doing right now. Not allow for pre existing conditions and caps on benefits, like the Affordable Care Act is doing right now! Making female and male health insurance premiums the same like the Affordable Health Care Act is doing now. WHY COULDN'T WE HAVE STOPPED THERE?!?!

Don't you know there is a reason that people come to America for the best health care? Don't you think that changing the dynamic of it THAT MUCH is going to fuck it all up?!?! And what if it does? Can we pretend it never happened and go back? And will they change the name to the UNAFFORDABLE Care Act if it is as expensive as they are now thinking it may be?

The biggest question at all though, is this.... Are we willing to fuck up the entire medical industry, to then be paying almost the same money we would have for our individual or group insurance anyways?

Rizzo's Ramblings...It's been a while

It has been a few weeks since I have posted a blog. Not because there is nothing going on in my life, but because I went back to work. It isn't something I had planned on doing. Not that we don't need the money. We ALWAYS need the money, I just had not planned on going back. I work for my step daughter as a housekeeper cleaning motel rooms. It's a little bitty hole in the wall motel mostly used by truckers and people pulling off the interstate for a few hours rest before the get back on the road. I went back because the two housekeepers she had quit without notice. That made me the only one. So, I have been working six days a week. The money is not spectacular. I don't get paid by the hour, I get paid per room. $3.50 for every checkout and $1.75 for stayovers. So, in other words, I get paid three dollars and fifty cents to strip and remake 2 queen beds, take out all the trash, dust, scrub a sink toilet and bathtub, mop the bathroom floor, and vacuum. That doesn't include the idiots who feel like they can trash the place because someone is getting paid to clean up after them. It really is a dirty job. In the past two weeks I have cleaned over a hundred rooms. So that's 200 beds changed, 100 toilets scrubbed, 100 bathtubs scrubbed, 100 bathroom sinks and counters wiped down, 100 floors mopped, 100 floors vacuumed, 200 trash and emptied, 100 dressers dusted, 200 nightstands dusted, etc etc. I have been getting Fridays off. In three weeks I have had three days off. That is usually the day I clean MY house. Today I just can't do it. I'm tired. My back hurts. I have bruises on my knees from scrubbing bathtubs (when I lean over the side my knees hit the edge of the tub). On the bright side, I have lost ten pounds. I'm pretty sure that is the only bright side! So, the next time one of you guys check into a motel room do someone a favor and try to hit the trash can when you throw your trash away. Or try NOT to piss in the bathtub (how does that happen anyway?). Better yet, if your kid isn't completely potty trained put a pull up on them even though you aren't the one who has to change the sheets in the morning. And for God's sake LEAVE A TIP!! No one does and it really sucks. If people don't start appreciating their housekeepers they may just find their sheets dirty and their sinks full of hair. Just sayin'! This has been a PSA for housekeepers everywhere...

Frenchy's Follies... Crazy kids! Out of the mouths of babes...

As a mom, I can tell you that I have been absolutely stunned silent by some of the crazy and outlandish questions my two boys have asked me. I mean, where do they come up with this stuff? No worries! From now on you will never be put on the spot by those little rascals again!

"Mommy, why don't you stand up to pee like I do?"

This one *may* call for a live, peeing-standing-up demo, momma. Trust me, no matter what their age, they will instantly understand why we sit down to pee.

"Who is God? Why can't we see him? Where does God live? What is heaven?"

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go directly to the nearest church, drop off the brats and pick them back up in a few days. Viola! Problem solved!



"Why does my pee pee get big sometimes?"

Ummmmm, parents beware! There is no good answer to this question. Just make up some crazy ass reason so they won't want to touch it again until puberty.

"Do you have to pay to go to work?"

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?! Next question....

"Why is there hair growing on your privates?"

Duh! So it makes them harder to find. Kinda like an adult version of hide and seek, kiddo.

(Usually yelled loudly in public) "Why is that person so oldfatshortugly?"

DO NOT ANSWER THIS QUESTION! Just slowly walk away and whisper to the person "Whose kid is that anyway? He's a rude little bastard isn't he?"

"Why are you my mom?"

Because I pushed your 10 pound chunky little crying ass out of my teeny tiny vagina, that's why!

"Why don't girls have a pee pee?"

Your instinct tells you to make up some kind of scary shit... go with it! Tell them you had one and you cut it off and fed it to the dog. The look on their little face... PRICELESS!


"Why do we always pee when we poop, but we don't poop every time we pee?"

Go ahead and pre-print  the diagram of the sphincter muscle that I have provided. This question comes from left field and will totally catch you off guard. Afterwards, be prepared for a nasty-gram from the teacher who is wondering why the hell you taught your child the word "sphincter". It's such a fun little word for a first grader to say, isn't it?



When in church, during the offering, as you are putting your money into the basket.... "Why do we have to pay to see God?"

Good fucking question kid! <---- Am I right?!?! These kids are smarter than we think, I tell ya!

Whether you think I'm an idiot or a total genius for providing you with these very useful answers to you child's burning questions, I'm a total fucking genius. Hopefully you have realized that I'm joking and that I would never say these things to a kid. Under the age of 2, at least. I was going to write about something serious, but there are too many bad things going on in this world and it's depressing all of us. It was time for a break from all of that.

You're welcome.

A kindergarten student told his teacher he'd found a cat, but it was dead. "How do you know that the cat was dead?" she asked her student. "Because I pissed in its ear and it didn't move," answered the child innocently. "You did WHAT?!?!?!" the teacher yelled in shock. "You know," explained the boy, "I leaned over and went 'Pssst!' and it didn't move." (courtesy of stargazersrealm.com)