bipolar web surfing Wednesday

Ever read the Drudge Report? It's a must see for me even though it scares me to death sometimes. Yesterday there was a headline that read:  Iran threatens war ships to US. Seriously... if that doesn't snap you out of your isolationist perspective and drag you right into the reality that most of the world feels... I don't know what will. It had -a big picture of Achmin-however-you-spell-it with a big old Quran ... it's Jihad, people. They hate us and they think they will go to Heaven with ten vestal virgins if they kill us. I don't know what a vestal virgin is, exactly, but apparently that's what every Islamic terrorist seeks.

When you get right down to it, how many friends does the U.S. really have? And if we stopped subsidizing everybody, how many of those "friends" would be left?

I try not to dwell on it. Ultimately, whatever will be, will be. All the doom and gloom of being the most hated country in the world... and the frustration of having two warring factions within our country who can't agree on whether or not the sky is blue... makes me want to stop looking at www.drudgereport.com and go to

www.icanhascheezburger.com ... which always makes me giggle and go "awwwww"....

Just like... those times that I check my bank account and subtract the outstanding obligations and divide what's left by the number of days left until payday and then try to factor in the probability of whether or not the magic of child support will appear... just when I start to really feel depressed... I click on

www.tmz.com and immerse myself in totally irrelevant and trashy celebrity gossip. I know we're not supposed to gossip. It's my guilty pleasure.

And if I'm feeling sick... I google my symptoms or go to www.webmd.com to determine what horrible tropical disease I have developed, despite being landlocked and 3000 feet above sea level.

I have to check the news from various and as sundry places such as www.news4jax.com to see if anything is happening in any of the places we frequented. Every now and then I get validation that we were not living in as desirable of an area as I was led to believe.

I have to go to www.mycharmingkids.net and www.kellyskornerblog.com to find out what McMama's five kids and Kelly's two are up to. I also will check my sister in law's blog to see if any cute pics of my nieces and nephews have been posted.  I go to Beth Moore's blog - and her daughter Amanda's blog to get a sweet Christian perspective on the activities of everyday life in the Moore family.

Better living through web-surfing, right?

I have a doctor's appointment for this afternoon. My mildly irritating sore throat/earaches/sinus pain has developed into a truly miserable earache and stuffy nose and I think after three weeks of waiting it out, I've got to admit that it's not going away on it's own. I've also lost my appetite and nothing tastes right. I can handle everything but not being able to eat... (just kidding) (mostly) So there's that on the agenda...

Tomorrow I'm going with Austin to the Probe fair, that thing where different colleges come to your school and try to recruit. I'm really pushing Austin toward some kind of technical "learn a marketable skill" type school and THEN ... once he's able to support himself and be a contributing member of society (if not this household) then  he could take a few college classes to move forward on to bigger and better things. I don't mean to discourage him from getting a college degree. I have a high degree of respect for people who have high degrees... and a large part of my circle of influence here in the mountains are people, like my sister-in-law Angie (Dr. Gant) who have made education a foundation of their lives. I support that. I just can't afford to support Austin through another four-six-ten years of begging him to get up in the mornings and driving him around and running interference when he doesn't perform up to minimum standards.

I am now officially listed as Heather Gant on my insurance license from the State of Georgia. They took forever to make the change and then had me listed as "Heather Grant". When I called the state and said, "thank you very much for updating my license but my last name should be Gant, not Grant"... the girl who answered the phone burst out laughing and said, "that WOULD be a problem, wouldn't it?". It was refreshing to speak to someone with a government job who still maintained a sense of humor. They corrected it in one day so I was in a good humor as well. Now I have to wait for State Farm to correct my sales agreement to match my license AND THEN I can order my new business cards with my new name.

Legally, however, until I submit the request through the county with my $287 name change fee, I will remain as Darby on my drivers license and other official government documents. I'll get there. It might have been easier to go to the divorce hearing and request the name change then... but that would have cost me at least a day of work plus travel expenses plus the aggravation/upset of having to see him and at the time, weighing out the emotional/financial cost, it just made sense to wait until I could do it myself. Here. In Georgia. Tucked away in the safety of these mountains where strangers are friends and evil ex-husbands don't dare to venture. Not to imply that I have multiple evil ex-husbands. Only one of them was evil. And I can't say for sure that he was PURE evil... just really, really mean to me. And my kids. And cats. And so on.

It's Whiny Wednesday, y'all... I'm working 5 and a half hours today... probably sacrificing an hour or better to see the doctor... who knows how much time getting prescriptions filled... and then I can curl back up in my nest and yub my kitties... so hopefully, it will be a day that is filled with sunshine and happiness and joy... and... making a difference!

Have a great day! Love and hugs!