Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"If an al-Qaeda dirty bomb exploded in my state, I now see what 'plan' awaits after 4 years of 'being serious' about terrorism.

"We don't have a plan. We have some sort of terrible spasm."

-- "phobos deimos", 2005-09-03

I'll try to write up how my Christmas went later -- for now I'll just say that it was a mix of stress and joy and irritation and pleasure and challenges and family, and that thanks to certain organic compounds I managed to get to it.

Yesterday I didn't hurt as much as I thought I would; I was just very tired.

Today, it [expletive]ing hurts. So badly that I really wasn't all that certain about making it back across the street after moving my car to avoid a street-cleaning-day ticket. It must be "just the fibromyalgia" because I'm pretty sure I didn't sprain a muscle in my back in my sleep or wreck my thigh rolling over. My shoulder, well who knows?

Being able to get to family festivities on Sunday despite not having a very good day physically required a lot of pain meds. So although I made it through yesterday with nothing more than an antihistamine and a proton pump inhibitor, today I still have a strong "eww, not more drugs already" feeling opposite the "but damn, this hurts".

Time to re-evaluate the urgency of various items on my to-do list. And to see whether I can un-knot any of the especially painful bits with a hot shower.

And I'm pretty sure my mother still doesn't comprehend my pain situation. (I also got to hear her parrot anti-Canadian-drug FUD. Whee.)

Anyhow, I managed not to miss Christmas, at least.

Since twistedchick is on the injured list, I'll do my tiny, disorganized part to help spread news. I subscribe to a convenient email service called "Megavote" which drops a weekly summary of how my representatives in the House and Senate voted in the past week (and a little info on what's coming up in Congress next) into my mailbox. From this afternoon's mailing (abridged):

Congress has completed its work for the year. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on January 18, 2006. The House is scheduled to reconvene on January 31, 2006.

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Recent Senate Votes:

[...]

Cloture Motion; ANWR Drilling -- Vote Rejected (56-44)

The Senate fell short of invoking cloture on the Defense spending bill that contained a provision allowing for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Sen. Paul Sarbanes voted NO
Sen. Barbara Mikulski voted NO

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Defense Appropriations Act, FY2006 -- Vote Agreed to (93-0, 7 Not Voting)

Following the removal of the ANWR provision, the Senate passed this $453 billion bill funding the Department of Defense for the 2006 fiscal year.
Sen. Paul Sarbanes voted YES
Sen. Barbara Mikulski voted YES