Look, I Guest Posted

I was invited to write a guest post over at AffordableBabyOrganics.com. You've read my post about homemade laundry soap - I know you have, because it's the most popular page on Two Under Two - and on my guest post at ABO, I expound a bit on the why and how of homemade laundry soap. You can check out my guest post here, and while you're over there, check out some of the adorable things they have for sale. I haven't shopped with them (yet!) but their products truly are affordable, and oh so cute!

Go see my guest post and tell me what you think!

Let's Talk Religion...

I don't classify myself as anything, religiously. To be honest, I have a very hard time sharing spirituality with anyone, even The Hub, because to me it's such a personal, private thing. I don't like hearing about other people's spirituality, and I don't like sharing mine.

But you know, the question comes up, inevitably. Or someone makes a comment or tells a story, assuming you're of the same faith.

I used to be a Christian. Didn't work out, because try as I might, I could not believe the things I was being taught. I struggled with being a horrible Christian for pretty much my whole life, and then, sometime in 2008, I said, eff this. I am not a Christian. I never felt more like me than when I quit pretending and started exploring alternate viewpoints. One reason I was not comfortable with being a Christian was the belief that non-believers wouldn't be saved. What the hell kind of "savior" only saves conditionally? An asshole kind, that's who. He's also the kind of savior whose followers don't want you to abort a fetus but think it's okay to wage war, and who want to get rid of social welfare programs. Nice.

For awhile there, I called myself pagan. True, I feel a very strong, powerful connection to nature. I sort of believe in plant spirits. I actually believe everything has a spirit, and that all living things - and those made from living things - have energies all their own. Even non living things, such as crystals and other elements, have palpable spirits. I can feel the energy of these things.

But I don't worship them, and I'm totally not into trying any kind of spells, or having ceremonies to celebrate gods or goddesses. I'm just as bad a pagan as I am a Christian.

I read a book by the Dalai Lama, and then another called Teach Yourself Buddhism. I feel a very strong pull to Buddhism, but it's pretty damn confusing. There is so much to know, and there are all these wacky foreign names for all the different sections and parts of Buddhism. Did you know Buddhists don't think of Buddha as a god? I didn't. I was taught (by Christians) that Buddhists were going to hell for worshipping a fat guy. Nope. Not so.

I took the religion quiz, and it said I'm into New Age, neo-Paganism, or Unitarian Universalism. Way to narrow it down there, folks.

Here is a list of what I believe, and what I don't believe.

I believe that Jesus was a real person. I don't believe that he was anything more than a historical figure.

I do not believe in a creator, or in an almighty god. I do not believe in an omniscient, all-knowing god.

I believe the Earth and it's inhabitants were created by a big bang and some evolution.

I don't believe in an afterlife, per se. I believe that when our physical bodies die, our energy is dispersed back into the world. I don't know what happens after that. Are we reincarnated? Do we just become some other form of energy? Do we wander aimlessly as ghosts? I don't think we retain much of ourselves when our energy is dissipated in this way. I think it breaks in a zillion pieces.

I don't believe in killing people, or harming people, physically or emotionally. I don't believe fetuses become people until the moment of birth. I believe the soul energy enters the child at the moment of birth.

I don't think it's okay to recklessly harm or kill plants. I think that when we use plant products - paper, wood, etc. - we should thank the plant for giving it's life.

I don't think it's okay to harm or kill animals for any reason. Even mosquitoes. But I still do. I eat meat too. I think if you have to kill an animal, for food or otherwise, you should thank the creature for giving it's life for you.

I believe we should love all human beings, regardless of (or perhaps because of) our spiritual and religious differences.

I believe we should love our enemies as much as or maybe even more than those we get along with.

I don't believe in a devil. I don't believe there's some asshole down below doing his damndest to tempt us. It just seems silly to me. I don't believe in demons or even angels for that matter. I do believe in positive and negative energy.

I guess that's it. I guess I don't belong anywhere, religiously speaking. That's okay with me. I like to be a loner anyway.

Slackalicious Round Upness.

Yes, it's true, I've been a blog slacker. The Hub came home from the hospital on Monday, and then my stepdaughter went home to Ohio yesterday, so it's been a really wacky week so far. I even missed out on my own meme. Then, I got a special invite from BlogHer (go me) and a couple requests for guest posts (go me again) and a lead on a new, very cool sponsor (go me again again.) So I was crazy busy dealing with all of that.

To make up for slacking, I've compiled a list of sites you just have to visit this week. They're not real people, because I simply can't pick and choose just a few that I love. I love all the blogs I read, and it's too hard to make a choice.

I know there's real people behind these blogs and sites, but they're huge, so it's no biggie.

Fail Blog - if you liked Jay Leno's "Headlines," check out Fail Blog. Generally rated PG13 and up - don't have kids around for this one. (Also, probably best not to read at work.)

Found Magazine - various things people find. Very cool.

Supraterannean - user submitted fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art, and more.

Awkward Family Photos - you will LOL. Also, every time I go here, I realize how awkward the work "awkward" is.

When it rains....

The Hub went to the hospital yesterday. It's a long story, but pretty much what happened is, his appendix was breakdancing in his belly and it got all hung up on some other internal organ and had to be surgically removed.

When he woke up from anesthesia I asked if it felt better now that it was out. "No," he said. "It feels like I've been stabbed." Well no shit honey. You pretty much were, in three different places.

He got very lucky though. At first they thought his appendix had ruptured because his white blood cell count was very, very high, which I guess is indicative of a bad infection, and so they thought it had burst. But when they got in there they found that it had not ruptured yet. That's great because if it had, he would be in the hospital for much longer, on IV antibiotics to avoid sepsis. He was on the antibiotics up until the time of surgery just in case. I don't know why his WBC's were so high.

I was very upset though. We got to the ER around 9am yesterday morning. They did all the tests and stuff and by 11:30 they knew his appendix needed to come out. They scheduled the surgery for 6pm.

Meanwhile he is getting sicker and sicker and by 4:30 his fever was like 104. No one came to check on him for many hours, not even when he would ring his nurse call button. Finally I went out to get a nurse and all the nurses were sitting at the nurse's station, laughing and talking and eating their dinner! I said "My husband's supposed to have surgery at 6," and his nurse sighed heavily, put down her sandwich, and grabbed his chart.

"No," she said. "he's having it tomorrow night."

Uh, no. I'm no doctor but I do know that when you think someone's appendix has ruptured, you need to get it taken care of stat. I asked the nurse if he could have some pain medication int he meantime and she got all nasty with me. Like she thought we were drug seekers or something. Hello, if we were drug seekers the friggen cat scan wouldn't have shown a freaky mass instead of a regular appendix, now would it?

So I called patient relations and told them the story. I was nice, because you don't want to be nasty to the people who are about to hack your husband open with sharp instruments. I told her the story and she was appalled, but said there wasn't much she could do about it. [I want to clarify that we were not at a trauma center. There weren't ambulances bringing in accident victims and such, so it's not like a more serious case came in that needed to be dealt with before The Hub.]

So I calmly asked to be transferred to patient records. You have to understand that by now its 9pm, and he is friggen sick. No one would check his fever but he was really really hot, and he was having trouble breathing from the pain, and he just laid there and cried. The nurse would not come unhook his IV from the wall so he could go to the bathroom, and they wouldn't bring him blankets or anything. They did nothing at all. It was like there were no nurses. Craziest thing was, there were no other patients on the floor at the time.

Anyway I asked for patient records, and the lady asked what I needed that for. I said I was going to call an ambulance and have him transferred to the big hospital in town, because he was very sick and no one would even come check on him or help him to the bathroom or anything. I tried really hard not to get bitchy, but it was a struggle.

The lady pretended to transfer me to records, but then came back and said she couldn't get ahold of them. I wasn't happy but what could I do?

Then, not more than five minutes later, an opening magically appeared in the operating room and they got his surgery done. The surgeon was in his street clothes and said they had called him to do the surgery around noon but kept stalling him, so he couldn't get into the operating room And then, the nurses were suddenly very attentive and spent lots of time making sure The Hub was comfortable and helping bring his fever down.

I'm not angry about it, but I do think someone higher up needs to know what's going on. And I'll be damned if I ever bring anyone to that hospital again. Sure, it's a brand new facility, and they have big screen plasma tv's in each room - but they don't take care of patients! He could have died in there and it would have been hours before anyone knew it. He wasn't on monitors or anything, just an IV that kept backing up and getting blood in it.

So that's the appendix saga. Now he gets two weeks (or more) off work because of the type of work he does. He is totally psyched about it - but I bet he won't be when he realizes his belly hurts every time he moves....