By the way... I'm getting old. Yep. I am. My birthdays are no longer a celebration, but more a drinking fest to forget.
I'll be celebrating forgetting Saturday.
I talked to an old friend last night about it:
me: Dude, I'm getting old
Isaac: I know, the other day someone mentioned to me that I'm almost 30! I couldn't believe it!!
me: Um, Isaac, I'm a year and a half older than you
Isaac: well, we still got a little way to go.
Reading the news this morning, I ran across this article that I have mixed feelings on. The article (in case you don't have time to check it out) is about a college campus in Utah that per state laws, allows staff & students to carry concealed weapons on campus. (Of course to legally do it, you must have a permit to carry concealed.) One of the students who does carry concealed talks about how he's had a permit for three years, but more recently started actually carry after the Virgina Tech shooting. His feeling is that it doesn't make him feel more shielded from a possible attack, but that it would at least give him a chance. I can understand that, you are in a room and someone decides to go on a shooting rampage, you have a gun, you shoot the attacker and perhaps end the entire battle right there. Ok, I can see how that could work. I can see how people could think that had someone else had a gun on them the day a student shooter came in, it may have saved other people's, if not their own, lives. (I'm keeping the student random, as sadly these scenarios are becoming more frequent)
I also wonder though, if this wouldn't become even more common place if everyone carried guns. So you've been having a bad semester, you've been ruthlessly bullied all year, a teacher plays favorites, and your not the favorite, and one day you come to a complete boil... you [legally] are armed, in a rash of anger you strike out. Wouldn't it be less lethal if the kid strikes out with a fist or words than a gun? Even a knife, really.
But, then again, who says the person strikes out then, instead of planning an attack later?
The other topic touched on in the article stipulates concerns over how secure other students and staff would feel, plus why unconcealed weapons could be a bad thing. All of which I understand, because seriously, if you can visibly see a gun on a body, would you really tell the person to shove off? Would a teacher feel comfortable disciplining a student who carried a weapon? Wouldn't' this change the dynamics of a learning environment? Wouldn't it change the dynamics of all social (civilian) interactions?
Would it really be any safer?
****
In the interest of full disclosure, I have a handgun. I've shot pistols, rifles and semi-automatics. I do not hate guns, in fact I enjoy target shooting, and am even pretty good at it. I know how to completely dissemble my gun, and overall I feel comfortable handling guns. That being said, my gun, it's stored unloaded, with 2 bullets in the spare clip in a locked safe. The bullets are hidden in a cabinet, the keys to the safe are hidden elsewhere. Yes the cabinet, the safe and the place where the keys are hidden are all in a relatively close proximity, but in a life or death situation there is no plausible way that I could use the gun for self defense. Defeats the purpose of owning a handgun doesn't it? Because I am aware of where & how my gun is stored, it would not be the first thing I would reach for in the case of a home invasion (Luckily my husband sleeps closest to the door)(not so luckily, he sleeps thru almost anything, while I wake up if the cat meows)
I also think having a gun in your home, or on a shooting range, or in your car (given that is fairly normal during hunting season around heaya (threw that in to fit with the local accent)) is completely different than carrying a concealed weapon in a public forum on a daily basis. Although as I think about it, I know people in the area who do have permits to carry a concealed weapon, a lot really. I wanted to apply for it as well, as I don't feel right about driving down the road with a gun sitting on my front seat, les I be pulled over and interrogated about it...after all I could be related to a Colombian drug lord for all I know. But in my constant state of procrastination, I've had the application for 3 years now... so sooner or later I'll get it filled out.
WOW. We are already half way thru February.
I have to admit that I haven't been to the gym at all this month. Nope, not once. Instead I've been sleeping in, which is a bit weird, since I am a noted insomniac. Although the crappy cold spells lately haven't really been all that encouraging either. Excuses, excuses. I'll get back to the gym, soon I'm sure. I refuse to stress about it.
Today marks Anna's first birthday:-) It's amazing to me, (and I'm sure her parents) that it's been a year since she arrived. She is such a happy, relaxed baby, I don't know how the hell my brother managed that. Mom's genes must have been kick ass, because that couldn't be from my brother! I'll have to make sure my camera is charged up, because I can guarantee if she has her way the cake will be flying.
Hippy mamma (wife to hippy brother, and expecting in September) has been fighting morning sickness, much more than she had with her daughter. Twins run in her family, so they are taking some ribbing about having twins since everything with this pregnancy is different than the first. Going from initally thinking they weren't going to be able to have kids, to possibly having twins, well.... that could be a shock to the system for them.
On a competely selfish note, how cool would it be to have three babies to knit for?
Next weekend brings my birthday! I'll be a fresh 27... how scary!! I think every year I drink more (and more and more and.. well you get the idea) than the last simply because it takes that much more to make me forget that I'm getting old!
Also, I met perhaps one of the coolest doctors last week, who is now my pcp. The mad scientist is head of a local hospital, but when you meet him, he has no pomposity around him whatsoever. He's also the pcp for my husband, which was part of the reason I chose him. My husband, um, he's a hater, so if he liked his doc, then how could I go wrong? I had a lapse of reason, and asked if we could have the same pcp, or if it was considered a conflict of interest. (When I had to have a lawyer for some real estate things, prior to taking me as a client, they had to make sure they hadn't in the past represented the other party) My husband laughed at me and said "No, that's only with lawyers. I think this is more like us establishing a family doctor."
(In the case we decide to have kids, right? That's what I thought he was saying.) Which prompted me to schedule another appointment with the box doc to renew my birth control. Thanks, no kids. For now. Maybe ever.
Which also brings me to the second cool doc, my box doc, who laughed at me when I relayed the progression from "when are you getting married" to "when are you having kids". Then wrote the script. She was very cool as well, but I can't say I'm a big fan of having the med student there as an audience. To be fair, the med student was great, we chatted before the doc came in, but these yearly appointments? Not a tv game show involving the option to use a lifeline or poll the audience. Thanks.
Husband, are you reading this? bragging time, my bp? 100/68. yup, I am one cool cucumber.
We are waiting on some test results back on a seperate medical issue that caused some concern last year. Fingers crossed, it was a fluke. I should hear back in a couple weeks, I'm going the optimist route, and thinking everything is great.
*** Valentines's Day
We were going to go lo-key for V day, since it is largely over commercialized (but I do still appreciate the thought). I told Mike that all I wanted for Vday was him to cook me dinner. My husband, the poor soul, can't cook (really, really can't). He can preheat the oven and throw in some fries, aside from that, he knows how to use the microwave and that's about it. Plus, me, I eat vegetables, and well, he hates vegetables. He tries. He cooked me some veggies (the ones that come in a handy little plastic bag and you toss in the microwave) as my dinner, which was very yummy. Sometimes, I'm easy.
