My D-List

Celebrities
I used to love the trashy weekly magazines like US Weekly and In Touch. It used to be my guilty pleasure to buy those magazines before flights. I enjoyed checking celebrity gossip websites. I used to watch E! News Live while making dinner every night. I don't know when it happened, but a couple of months ago I finally said "E!nough!" It was my pre-New Year's resolution to swear off the celebrity junk. It made me feel silly to spend so much time reading about these people's lives when I have a life of my own. While I will still click on a link on the rarest occasion, and only if it's on CNN, I've decided I have other things I'd rather be doing. And really, why should we care if Lindsey Lohan is getting her appendix taken out when there are much better things to be worrying about?

Doctors
Lesson learned over the past couple of years: When it comes to health care, take matters into your own hands, be proactive when you think something is wrong, and follow up. I'm not down on the medical profession just because my dad died of a heart attack prematurely and unnecessarily after doctors swore nothing was wrong with his heart. I've noticed myself that doctors just either don't care enough or are too busy to care enough about patients. I first noticed this problem when I went to see a dermatologist about my insanely itchy skin that I suffered from for a couple of years. I showed the doctor my legs, which had dry, red patches on them and bruises from scratching so much. He prescribed an allergy medication, which worked like a charm because I've only had a couple of flare-ups since. However, when I went in for a checkup a week or so later, he simply asked how I was and sent me on my way. No checking my legs out (haha) or making sure the skin was doing better. He's a SKIN doctor, wouldn't you think he'd do a quick check?

As I mentioned last week, I am having my thyroid checked. I gave blood on Thursday and should have been called last Friday. I finally called them on Tuesday afternoon, and they were supposed to call me back. Thursday evening at 7. Have I heard from them? No. Granted, it's not a life-threatening problem, but come on. Bottom line: You can't count on anyone besides yourself to care about your health so don't be afraid to get second opinions (lesson learned from our vet visit as well!) and keep calling until they talk to you.

And, on a lighter note, in a case of a picture being worth a thousand words:

I'm willing to sacrifice my dignity to show you exactly who the boss is in the household--at least when Alan's not around. Here I am (yes, about to fall asleep), studiously reading my Bible, when Marti comes and makes herself perfectly comfortable.