mhryvnak.net

TV:  Weeds, Survivorman, Science Channel, Handy Manny, Celebrity Apprentice, Golden Girls repeats on Lifetime

Music: Sarah Bareilles, That new song by Sean Kingston & Natasha Bedingfield, The Juno Soundtrack, The Plain White Tees

Misc:  Google Newsreader (I have Stephanie to thank for this), Scrabulous on Facebook…I’m totally addicted, my Wilkes-Barre Postcard Book, Chow.com, Reading various NEPA News Articles and saying aloud "Wow, I bet Gort will be all over this.", Current Events

Seriously.  Ask me about any current events in Northeast PA, I am skooled.  Ok, I need to eat something and then its time to check Scrabulous again (for the ten thousandth time today).

As I was checking my google reader RSS feeds this morning I noticed that Britney Spears was once again taken to an LA hospital on a 5150 order (psychiatric hold).  I’ve been meaning to post about Britney and her issues for a while now, I just never got around to collecting my thoughts on the matter.  I honestly feel really bad for her.  I know she has millions of dollars, and probably could give a shit less about some little unfunny 27 year old from Pennsylvania thinks of her, but whatever.  And if you don’t give a shit about Britney or her problems, then you should probably stop reading right here.

Part of the reason I feel bad for her is because I think I sort of know what she is going through.  If I had to analyze her mental health situation (now, I’m not a doctor or have no degree on the matter) I would have to say that she has postpartum depression that she never got treated for the first time around (after having her first son — I don’t know his name).  I know this because I went through a similar situation after having Gabby.  Crazy thoughts enter your brain.  You get extremely paranoid.  You have trouble leaving the house.  You cry at the drop of a hat.  Your chemical balance is basically all out of whack.  Hormones are all over the board.  You lose who you are.  I could go on and on.  I could go into details further, but it was a dark period of my life that I’d rather forget. 

The bottom line is that I ended up getting the help I needed and I’m back to my normal self.  By the time I had Owen, the hormonal changes did not effect me one bit.  It is a rough road.  I think if you are dealing with depression before you have the baby it is 10 times worse after you have the baby.  The hormones effect you way worse. 

Believe it or not, Britney and I were pregnant at the same time.  I was pregnant for a few months before hearing on the news that she was pregnant (both times).  Now granted, Gabby and Owen are 20 months (…to the day…) apart, and she had her kids closer together than I did, but only by a few months.  Her boys are younger than Gabby and Owen.  I know how stressful it can be to deal with 2 toddlers while trying to balance a career and other things.  I know she probably has nannies and baby-sitters probably that were helping her out before she lost custody of the kids, but raising 2 babies that close in age are a handful for ANY parent. 

Right now she needs a level headed person that can guide her on the right path.  She is surrounded by enablers that are not allowing her to get better.  And no, I don’t think her manager, Paparazzi Boyfriend, Dr. Phil or her staff members are a good example of "level headed".  She’s never going to regain her sanity if she is surrounded by these people.  They are just telling her what she wants to hear, because she is Britney Spears, pop queen of the universe.  I have a reality check for you Britney, you are now a mother.  Everything else takes a back seat and your former kid-free self gets buried in a shallow grave under a pile of dirty diapers, naked barbies and drool filled bibs.  There is nothing wrong with it, you just have to recognize it, accept it and move on.  You’re life will never be what it was ever again. 

I am rooting for ya Britney, those little boys need you.  Get better soon. 

Blah blah blah.  I hope I didn’t sell out by posting this, but I think it needed to be said. 

And now, for your entertainment I will share a snippet from today’s edition of the Times Leader Police Blotter.  (The good part highlighted in bold)

" Lamar K. Johnson, 27, of South Grant Street, Wilkes-Barre, was charged Wednesday after police said they found marijuana inside his car.

Johnson was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, driving while operating privilege is suspended and a traffic offense. He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $5,000 bail.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police stopped Johnson on Columbus Avenue at about 11:50 p.m. Wednesday for driving a car with a broken headlight. Police detected an odor of marijuana coming from inside Johnson’s car.

Police searched Johnson and found he was carrying a bag of marijuana in his pants and found 13 packaged bags of marijuana in his car’s trunk.

Several bottles of fabric softener, laundry detergent and bleach were also found in the trunk; they are used to conceal marijuana odors, police said."

WTF?  That is the funniest thing I have ever heard.  Maybe febreeze would have worked better?  Sheesh. 

My nose has been itchy now really bad for about two weeks.  I’ve been taking claritin-d for it because I figured it was happening due to being trapped in this house all day with my dog – a sheltie (LONG HAIR) – who sheds all four seasons out of the year.  The claritin sorta helped, but after the 12 hours were up I was itching and sneezing just as bad as before. 

It turns out today that I realized what was happening…  My house is heated by natural gas….. (cue side rant)

[Side rant:  It costs a FORTUNE.  I also have a gas stove, gas water heater and gas dryer more than 50 years old.  I am on the budget with PG Energy or UGI (whoever the hell they are masquerading as now) and am still paying upwards of 200 dollars a month.  I have a very tiny house.  I would hate to see the bill for a LARGE house.  Or, the bill for not being on the budget in the current house.  If I had to guestimate, I would say it would probably be close to 400 dollars (if not more).  Thank god, the new house we are moving to is heated by electricity over natural gas.  Anyway...back to the purpose of me posting this blog entry]

….And our furnace is forced air.  It makes the air very dry in our house.  While we have a humidifier attached to the furnace and small humidifiers to run in individual rooms, the house is still drier than the Sahara Desert in a rainstorm.  Well now here’s the kicker.  The reason my nose has been itching and bothering me so badly is because the skin inside of my nose is dry and its peeling off.  i just figured that out this afternoon after a piece of the dry skin fell out of my nose.  At first I thought, ew a booger…but it looked like skin you’d peel off of your body after a sun burn. 

I know, I know….TMI!  But, Isn’t that the most disgusting thing you have ever heard?  I’ve never ever had this happen before in my life!  Can you even put lotion up your nose?  I could just see myself explaining this to my hubby and kids.  "No really, I’m not picking my nose, I’m putting lotion up there."

Ew.  But I digress. 

American Idol is on, so ciao!

Around 9:30am I hear *BOOM*

I was half asleep and rushed upstairs to see what the noise was half expecting to find Gabby’s dresser on top of her (as she LOVES to use the handles as foot holes and climbs to the top of it — she actually broke one of her handles off last week doing this).  Nope. 

I opened Owen’s door and he was on the floor of his room crying.  He figured out how to climb out of the crib.  Well not climb out so much as fall out.  This is the first time he’s ever done this, so this is a major thing.  His crib is already on the lowest setting, and I had to take out the bumper pads because he would manage to wedge his fat legs underneath the bumper pad and then out the side of the crib (in between the spindles).  When his leg would get stuck he’d just keep screaming until one of us went in to rescue him.  This was a daily occurance until I decided to take out the bumper pads, now it only happens once in a while.  Blah.  We are just one more step away from full kid anarchy in this house.

Once he figures out how how to turn a door knob, its all over.  We will have 2 escape artists.  I know you are probably wondering why I can’t just put up a gate and solve the problem.  Well, smarty pants….I will tell you why.  They are smart enough to know how to climb over gates or open them.  Gabby can open doors, climb gates, open gates, escape from a jail cell and do our taxes.  She is smarter than the average toddler.  She is slowly teaching Owen her techniques.  Like I said…in a few months its going to be kid anarchy. 

Gabby and Owen are going to be in Rich’s brother’s wedding as a flower girl and a ring bearer sometime in the near future.  I fail to see how this is going to work unless cattle prods are involved.  Ok maybe not….  Sure they will be cute, but I really don’t see them taking directions and following them when they don’t even listen to me when I tell them to pick up toys or stop screaming, etc.  They are starting to get to the point where they ignore me when I want to get them dressed or change their diapers, when they know that it has to happen.  Like, Hi.  You’re butt smells worse than a tire fire, get over here so I can stop air pollution NOW!  They just go on watching Spongebob Squarepants thinking, oh its just Mom talking again, ignore her, this is a funny part anyway!

I am frustrated beyond belief.  Supernanny?  Are you listening?

Last night, Gabby screwed up the curtains hanging in her room.  I was not particularly thrilled about this because it meant that either A) she was pulling on the curtains.  B) she was standing on top of her rocking chair or C) standing on top of her dresser.  ALL DANGEROUS THINGS TO BE DOING BTW.  I am just at my wits end, beat down and tired.  I don’t know how to deal with her destructive behavior anymore. 

To think Owen may be starting to develop the same habits makes me just want to break down and cry then drive my car off of the highest cliff I can find. 

Does anyone have any good suggestions? 

I have a phone interview this afternoon.  Wish me luck!

Update:  They never ended up calling.  Story of my life.  No, I don’t want to talk about it, ok?

Me:  *Singing the Wonder Pets theme song*

Gabby:  "You’re not happy enough!"

Um, sorry?

I obviously did not get enough sleep last night and I’m paying for it dearly today.  I was on my feet all day long and now I’m exhausted.  I can’t even move.  I have some pictures I need to upload and I need to talk about a certain incident, but it will have to wait until I have a complete night of sleep.  I haven’t felt this crappy since Black Friday shopping. 

Bye for now.  More tomorrow.

Its 2:18am and I can’t sleep.  I fell asleep and was out cold around 11pm, but now I’m restless and can’t fall back to sleep.  I’m watching WVIA (local PBS affiliate) and NOVA is on.  Apparently they are profiling this family in another country, and all of the members of the family walk on all fours – hand walkers.  The mother and the father were 3rd cousins or something, and they are talking about their walking genes mutating.  Could you imagine?  Geez. 

The Ron White show was FREAKING HILARIOUS!  Absolute gold as far as comedy is concerned.  I know a lot of people are probably turned off by the fact that he’s on the Redneck Comedy Tour, but I think he’s the funniest one on there — if you’ve ever seen it — he’s the one that smokes and drinks on stage.  He had a bottle of whiskey and was smoking a cigar tonight.  We were in row D in the left-center.  We were so close you could smell the cigar and see the smoke.  Prior to that, we went to the River Street Ale House.  They changed their menu around since the last time we were there, and it was not good at all.  Its weird when I go to a restaurant and am not able to find one thing that I like on the menu.  I got these Pretzel Chicken bites that were awful.  They did not taste like pretzels, and they were not bite sized.  They were very herby (which usually I like) but there was way too much going on in there, even by my standards.  The beer was cold and good.  That was about the only thing it had going for it.  As we were leaving these assholes come in and are like "WHO DIED IN HERE?  ITS LIKE A FUNERAL, MAN!"  Then some other guy goes "WHO WANTS TO GET ON THE BUS, JOIN THE BUS COME ON YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!"  Like what the fuck?  I noticed there were about 10 people in this group of rowdy drunk assholes.  They all had shirts that said "GOT BEER?".  Classy.  After we paid our check and left I looked outside and seen an ACTUAL SCHOOLBUS in the parking lot from Yatesville.  A Schoolbus.  Wow.  I hope they got kicked out of there.  Btw, where the hell is Yatesville anyway?  Is that even local to Wilkes-Barre at all?

The Park and Lock Central Parkade on South Main Street is all sorts of fucked up.  They knocked down the twirling exit and now the parkade is 2way.  The spots on the left are all parallel parking spots and the spots on the right are diaginol.  All of the spots on the corners are gone to make room for 2 way traffic.  Its a white hot ghetto mess.  Thank god I do not work for "The Company" downtown anymore.  I’d be so nervous to park my car in that parkade in its current status.  I have a picture we took of the back of Provinicial Towers — where they are building the new Transportation Center.  I’ll have to post that later on to flickr.  What a disaster. 

Oh speaking of which, I added new pictures to flickr and some new videos to youtube.  Check ‘em out.

There is no more soda in the house…I’m gonna have to go shopping at some point tomorrow.  Yuck.

Well I guess I’m gonna go try to lay back down.  I need to put on a TV show that will really put me to sleep.  I wonder if Fraiser is on?

Peace out, cubscouts.