Annabelle Speaks

Family Lexicon

Every family has their own special lexicon.  Those words or phrases that make sense ONLY to you.  Inside jokes or television/movie quotes turned into everyday language.  Often I don't even know there is a reference to pop culture at all until I've been using a particular phrase for years.  I was well into my 20s before I learned that Bedtime For Bonzo was a movie and not just something you say to kids to let them know it is time to get ready for bed. 

 

A lot of my family lexicon comes from Monty Python.  We can blame my dad for that one.  My dad, along with most of his ten siblings, is very, very good at imitating voices and accents.  I am still occasionally startled when I hear my dad's voice come out of the TV if Monty Python is on.  Oh, but it is wafer thin!  We already got one!  I'm not dead yet!

 

I'm pretty sure we have a fair amount of Star Trek in there, too, though the only one that comes to mind at the moment is the ever-popular "Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a _____!"

 

Other sayings just come from family history.  I'm sure my dad will correct me on the particulars of this, but sometime during my dad's childhood there was a boy in the neighborhood who had a sister named Emma.  He was around on and off to play with some sibling or other (there are eleven in my dad's family spanning 20 years in age).  I believe the boy may have had a disability of some sort.  Emma was in charge of him at any rate, and when Emma said it was time to go home, it was time to go home.  His response to her was always the same.

 

"Oh-tay, Emma."

 

It sort of melted into a one-word response, ohtayemma.  I grew up hearing and saying this all the time in place of a simple "okay" or "got it" or "will do".  I didn't realize it until recently, but my wife has started to pick up on this saying, too.  I remember pointing it out to my dad.  T is really family now!  She can do Fisher-speak!

 

Yesterday I learned that my iPhone is a member of the family, too.  (What?  IT IS.  Shut up.)  iPhones, like most cell phones I suppose, have predictive-spelling built in that learns what words you type often as a sort of built-in spell check or shortcut.  Yesterday I was texting T and when I typed in "Oh", the predictive spelling filled in "Ohtayemma".  Aww.  It's like warm-fuzzy family memories wrapped up in my phone.

 

I probably shouldn't point out that the predictive spelling has also learned "crackwhore" and "strippers".  Awesome.

 

Do you have any good bits of family lexicon to share?

Perks Of Grownup-hood: Staying Up Late, Not Falling Down This Time, and FOOD

Last night T and I accidentally stayed up past our bedtime.  I mean, we were up REALLY late.  Like, 10:30!  Whoo!  The crazy life we lead.  The reason we were up So Late is that we got sucked into an episode of Hoarders.  I had seen one too many people commenting about this show online and I had to see it for myself.  Man, that show is like a train wreck in television form.  I couldn't look away!  After we finally peeled ourselves off the couch and headed for bed T proclaimed, "I love other peoples dysfunction."  My wife, ladies and gentlemen.  (I love her.)

 

I'm totally blaming my sleep deprived state for the fact that I nearly fell face-first down the escalator in my building this morning when I was rushing to my therapy appointment.  My knee locked up for no apparent reason and whoo boy did I come close to taking a header down the stairs.  When I got to therapy and was hurriedly explaining why I was so discombobulated Therapist said that she was having That Day, too, and not three minutes later she looked down at her sleeve and pointed out that her shirt was on inside-out.

 

Despite my discombobulation, my current attempt at Eating Like A Damn Adult is so far working out.  I managed to stay productive last night and cook real food (chicken, crash potatoes, broccoli) and packed lunches for both T and I (chili, bread, potatoes, a banana and a brownie for her; chicken, spinach, sunflower seeds, yogurt, and clementines for me).  I even ate oatmeal instead of kitkats for breakfast this morning.  GO ME!

 

T's friend Holly was invited for dinner last night, but opted to stay home and do some grading.  I was a bit bummed that she didn't come over - I love feeding other people.  I'm not really a fan of cooking for the sake of cooking, nor cooking just for myself, but I LOVE to cook and bake for other people.  There is just something soothing about feeding people.  I used to do that a lot in college, and in fact that is how I soothed myself and a bunch of my friends on 9/11/01 - I spent the entire day, and much of the next few days, turning out baked goods and casseroles and burgers and whatever else I could make for people.  Even now I bake treats for coworkers nearly every week during our busy season (late January to mid April), and have even been known to bring brownies in to my doctor's office upon request.  I'm a total suck-up like that.

 

So who wants to come over for dinner tonight?  I'm not completely sure what I'm making, though I will likely include crash potatoes again because MY LANDS those are good.  I've been eating them regularly for probably a year and still it is only through a great show of restraint that I do not have them for breakfast.  Have you had them?  If notgo make them right now.  I don't care if you're reading this at two in the morning.  GO.  Then come back and tell me how much you love them.

2010: The Year I Admit I'm A Boring Adult OMG

Four days off work and what did I do with all that extra time?  Cooked and cleaned.  I didn't play any video games, hardly spent any time on the computer, and I didn't read more than 100 pages of the book I'm reading.  Who am I?  When did I turn into *this kind* of grown-up?  I'll have to make up for it by slacking off for the rest of the week.  I EARNED IT.

 

I did enjoy the cleaning though (I KNOW).  I hauled, no exaggeration, probably around 30 garbage bags of STUFF out of our apartment.  A few bags of books were sold to a used book store ($70!!), a lot of it was donations, a bunch of it was recycling, and a bunch of it was just trash.  Four garbage bags were full of blankets that I put out in the alley on New Year's Eve for the homeless people who dig through the garbage back there - I was glad to see the blankets were gone by morning.  The apartment is still quite dirty (OMG THE DUST), but I have to say I feel a lot lighter, like I myself have lost a bunch of weight just by getting rid of a bunch of stuff we didn't need.  Our fire safe is organized, all the photographs in the house are scanned into the computer(s), our closets and under-bed-storage are cleaned out and organized, the Christmas decorations are put away in new plastic storage bins, and it feels So Good.  (My 19 year old self is sitting back in 2000 rolling her eyes at current-me, because I am just SO UNCOOL OMG.)

 

I also did a bunch of cooking.  I made (and froze) a giant crock pot of pulled chicken, another of chili, cheesecake swirled brownies, pork burgers, and a partridge in a pear tree Jacques Pepin potatoes.  (Thank you to Jonniker for recommending those potatoes.  YUM.  They are right up there with Pioneer Woman's crash potatoes in the list of potato-dishes-I-want-to-marry.  If only the legislature would get off their collective asses and make human-vegetable marriage legal!)

 

Which reminds me, have I ever mentioned that I meant to start a food/cooking blog once upon a time sometime last year?  The amusing part being I'm not actually a very good cook.  I mean, I'm not bad enough to end up on Worst Cooks In America or anything (is anyone else watching that show?).  I get along fine, but I'm not at all in the league of food bloggers.  The idea was to write the blog as I learned to cook, sort of showing how-to-learn-to-cook.  But I didn't really learn much in the kitchen last year, so I suppose it is a good thing I didn't actually write that blog.  I do have (poor quality) photographs of several things I do cook stored on my computer in case I ever change my mind.

 

All this food talk, and I'm totally planning on having popcorn for dinner.  So much for my grown-up self.

Seriously, It Is Driving Me Crazy(er)

You know when a conversation or comment reminds you of a bit of a book or movie or show or song, and then you spend the next 2,384 hours trying to figure out what book/movie/show/song that is that you remembered a piece of, and it slowly drives you insane until three days later at two in the morning it FINALLY comes to you, and then you can sleep again?  I need your help.

I read a book sometime long, long ago.  Possibly for school?  Or maybe just when I was still in school?  It has to be at least 10 years old I'd guess, but it could be a hundred years old; I have no idea.

This is what I remember.  There was a rich old lady who was bedridden.  She hated her caretaker for some reason (I believe the caretaker was the main character of the book?), and whenever the caretaker lady was vacuuming downstairs, that is when the old lady would poop the bed for maximum mess.  At some point the caretaker figured this out and would turn the vacuum on downstairs and wait outside the old lady's room until she had, uh, passed the point of no return on her poop-mission, and then go in with the bedpan and ruin the old lady's messy plans.  Eventually the old lady figures out the trick and won't poop unless she hears the vacuum making the back-and-forth noise (vs the sound of it just running sitting in one place), and the caretaker has to get someone else (the maid?) to vacuum to trick the old lady again.

I seriously CANNOT stop thinking about this book, and it is driving me batty.  I remember NOTHING of the book other than the poop-vacuum thing, which probably says wonders about me but WHATEVER.  Please help me?

2009 In Review

I think Sundry started this a few years back, and I'm in a meme kind of mood, so I thought I'd fill out this quiz for 2009.

 

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? 

Found bizarre, if brief, Internet Fame first by tweeting as a bear wandering around Seattle and later by becoming Amalah's "I-met-her-on-twitter-this-morning" babysitter.  Ah, twitter.

 

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't really make any, besides the ever present thought that I really ought to get in better shape.  I do, however, set monthly goals/resolutions (so I have more frequent start-over points than annual resolutions), and a few have "stuck" and become part of my routine.  I even floss now!  GO ME!

 

3. Did anyone close to you have a child?

My best friend Gail did!  And one of my college friends.  So did a lot of people I stalk/read online.

 

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Blessedly, no.

5. Where did you travel?

Besides my constant circling of the Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois), I spent Thanksgiving with my wife and one of her best friends in North Carolina. 

 

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

A vacation somewhere with just my wife.  Even just a weekend away somewhere.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory?

January 2nd (the day I entered the hospital), January 26th (my first half-day back at work), October 15th (my last day at the hospital).  It has been a heck of a year.

 

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

NOT DYING.  I say that facetiously, but it was really a lot of work.

 

9. What was your biggest failure?

Despite monthly resolutions, I still don't exercise anywhere near as much as I should.

 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

HAHAHA GOD YES.  Other than the whole hospital thing (see above), I also had an eye infection that made my whole face swell up, had an infected cyst on my backbone, had my left foot in a cast for a month, and am currently in the middle of a few months of physical therapy.  I am quite a mess.  Amazingly it was my wife who got swine flu and not me.

 

11. What was the best thing you bought? 

I got my iPhone in February, I think.  Or was that the year before?  I have a bad memory.  I know I bought a new laptop last week.  And we finally got around to ordering wedding pictures, 14 months after our wedding.

 

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My wife got a promotion that involves "Dean" being added to her work title (yay!), and again, I DIDN'T DIE.  Rejoice!

 

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Internet trolls, balloon boy's parents, and probably a million other things that I don't remember right now.  I have a tendency to get super drawn into things and let them affect my mood too much, but on the plus side I have no attention spa...hey look, something SHINY!

 

14. Where did most of your money go?

Doctors and hospitals and prescriptions, oh my!

 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Seeing the midnight showing of New Moon (I KNOW IT IS HORRIBLE, SHUT UP), meeting Gail's new baby, BlogHer.

 

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

Nothing comes to mind.

 

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:  a) happier or sadder?  b) thinner or fatter?  c) richer or poorer?

Much, much, MUCH happier, no thinner or fatter, no richer or poorer.

 

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? 

Cooking and baking new things.  I have much to learn in the kitchen.

 

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Vegging out in front of TV.

 

20. How did you spend Christmas?

Christmas Eve was in Wisconsin at my aunt and uncle's farm, Christmas Day was in Minnesota at my parents' house, and we had a family Christmas the week before that in Illinois at my inlaws'.

 

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? 

I could go the mushy way and say I fall in love with my wife all over again every day (awww) but really I fell in love with the sexy vampires in the Black Dagger Brotherhood books.  What?  Too shallow?

 

22. What was your favorite TV program?

So You Think You Can Dance and Fringe.  Most of the other stuff I watch is background noise when I'm doing something else.

 

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Hate is a very strong word; I don't think I can say that I truly hate anyone.

 

24. What was the best book you read?

That is really, really hard.  I mean, I read 53 books in 2009.  I really liked the previously mentioned Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  The Lovely Bones was also amazing, clearly for very different reasons.  My book tastes are all over the board.

 

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I never discover music; that is what I have a wife for.  She tells me what new stuff I should listen to.

 

26. What did you want and get?

New living room furniture!

 

28. What did you want and not get?

A kitchen aid mixer.  We just don't have room in our kitchen of tiiiiiiiiny counters, but I'm trying to change that.  

 

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

I really hardly watch movies at all.  I did go to the midnight showing of New Moon, and it was awesomely bad.  I don't know if I saw any other movies this year.

 

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 29, and my wife had to work late my wife was out of town with her family, and I couldn't go with due to my work, so that night I went to dinner with my friend Jennifer and had deep fried Twinkies for dessert, thus shortening my lifespan by five years, but they were SO WORTH IT.

 

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

More free time to accomplish all the stuff I want to read/listen to/write/experience.  I need one of those time-turner things like in Harry Potter.

 

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

Um, I finally bought some clothes that fit?  I'm really bad at fashion.  I need someone to take me shopping and fix that.

 

33. What kept you sane?

That implies I am, or ever have been, sane.  The thing that keeps me from falling completely off the deep end (again) is my imagination and being able to daydream myself a break from stress.

 

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Taylor Lautner, which is creepy since he is 17OMG.  But did you see New Moon?  I could wash my clothes on his abs, my gods.

 

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

After the year I've had, HEALTH CARE.

 

36. Who did you miss?

My family.  I never get to see them enough, and I ALWAYS cry when I have to leave them after Christmas and I know I won't see them again for months.

 

37. Who was the best new person you met?

I met bunches of people at Blogher, and bunches of people online, and many new friends and acquaintances in real life.  There is no way I could list all the awesomeness.

 

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.

Just. Keep. Breathing.  It'll all be okay.

Happy "Christmas is Done" Week!

Rock on, Mom.

I just survived FIVE CHRISTMASES, where is my trophy?  I love holidays, and I love my family, but I am so over-stimulated and over-socialized right now I sort of want to hide myself in a closet for a few weeks and just not talk to anyone.  I am a fan of quiet.

All five Christmases were, however, a hit.  There were embarrassing family stories told for the 9,000th time, highly competitive board games, ridiculous amounts of loot, much laughter, and so much food I nearly had to roll myself back to Chicago.  I have a new chin composed entirely of Oreo truffles.  I would have gained more than one new chin were it not for the calories I burned laughing at exchanges like this:

What was actually said:
AuntM: Teryn, how are your teas?
Teryn:  Oh, they're alright.  Pretty good, really.

What everyone else in the room heard:
AuntM:  Teryn, how are your titties?
Teryn:  Oh, they're alright.  Pretty good, really

Guess what we all kept asking Teryn for the rest of the weekend?  Go on, guess.

We spent much of the day after Christmas at the mall taking advantage of the fact that there is no sales tax on clothes in Minnesota, versus the 10%+ sales tax we have here in Chicago.  I will refrain from giving you a blow-by-blow account of all the deals I snagged and just say that it took me six trips from the car to our third-floor apartment to get all of our new stuff into the apartment.

Speaking of deals, I'm not sure if this is an everywhere-thing, or just a Midwestern-thing, but do you all announce your good clothing deals to anyone who compliments something you are wearing?  Three times this weekend I complimented a family member on their clothes and their response was something like "Thanks!  I got it for THREE DOLLARS."  I know this has happened to me outside of my family, too, so it isn't just our particular brand of crazy.

Lastly, one of the best parts of the weekend, I got to meet Isabel!  Two weeks old and so tiny and sweet and I spent the entire time we were there trying not to swallow her whole.  I seriously need to get me one of these.

Not the cute blond, I already have her (that would be my wife).  SMOOSHY TINY BABY OMG WANT.  She was asleep the whole time we were there, making the cutest squeeky and growly noises ever in history.  I am positively deliriously happy for my friends and their new baby.  That is one lucky baby, and they are two lucky new parents.

All I Want For Christmas Is Massive Amounts Of Food And A Nap

Christmases #1 and #2 OF five are now behind us.  Clearly there is Much Busy Activity happening in the House of Annabelle this time of year (FIVE CHRISTMASES), thus the limited posting.  I’m only two Christmases into the season and already I am pretty much ready to sleep until New Years.  The two Christmases we had this weekend were with my in-laws, who are lovely (if slightly insane) people.  There was vegan chili-“cheese” dip, there was Chinese food, there was a snuggie gifted to my uncle-in-law, there was a “heated discussion” about Art Garfunkel (yes, really) and there was a Frenchman my brother-in-law met on the Internet who is visiting for a month.  I love them all, and I didn't have retreat to the attic for quiet time hardly at all!

This week we have two more Christmases with my family (extended family in Wisconsin on Christmas Eve, immediate family in Minnesota on Christmas Day).  Wednesday we are having dinner with my parents and a couple of their neighbors.  Both families have grown-up children that I used to babysit, and WOW do I feel old when I think about that.  One just turned 21 last week, and another is in LAW SCHOOL.  That just isn't right.  But I am looking forward to seeing them, even if they make me feel old.

 

I am also SUPER EXCITED to see my best friend Gail, who up and had a baby girl two weeks ago.  I have yet to see any pictures, because Gail is sort of busy caring for the Amazing Growling Baby (she growls!  HOW CUTE IS THAT?), so I'll have to take a million pictures when I'm there.  Or maybe I'll just abscond with the baby.  I'm sure no one will notice that my purse is growling on the way out the door, right?

 

So the week ahead promises to be filled with cookies and babies and truffles and presents and candy and family and popcorn and good friends.  I just need to make sure that I restrict my eating enough so that I can still fit behind the wheel to drive back to Chicago on Sunday.  I know, I set some lofty goals.

 

Happy holidays, all!  May your days be filled with joy, may your nights be filled with comfort, and may your driveways magically shovel themselves.

This, That, and The Other

These are the best brownies I've made in a long time.  I didn't think I'd like them, as peanut butter cookies/bars always seem too dry and blah to me (I prefer my peanut butter on toast, or on a spoon), but OMG YUM.

OMG THERE ARE ANN REED CDs I DO NOT OWN HOW DID THAT HAPPEN.  I am not a huge folk-music person, but something about Ann Reed really gets to me.  I've loved her for fifteen years or so.  My livejournal account (HOLLA!) used to be titled and designed after some of her song titles/lyrics.

I am hopefully going to finish the most recent book in this series this week, so I can move further on down my to-read list.  I have been in a serious vampire-mood lately, as you can see from my recent books on Goodreads, but my next two books are non-vampire!  Next up are The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood and The Brimstone Wedding, by Barbara Vine and Ruth Rendell, in whichever order ILL sends them to me.  After that I think will be The Myth of You and Me: A Novel by Leah Stewart, which I will read based on the rec of a friend, despite the fact that I HATE it when authors give books a post-colon-subtitle-thingy of "a novel".  Yes, I can see that.  I would, however, love to see a book with a post-colon-subtitle-thingy of "a book".

P.S.  What is that post-colon-subtitle thingy called?  Does it have an actual name?

Serious Pain in the Ass

I never wanted this to become a journal of Anne's Medical Issues but MY LANDS.  I have EIGHT medical related appointments in five days.  EIGHT.  One of which just netted me a prescription of terrifyingly large pills (bigger than a dime, I shit you not). We don't think it is anything overly serious, though of course being me I have 327 unique complications that make my particular infection strange and complicating, and I go back in a week for a referral to a surgeon.  A surgeon who will cut open my back by my spine, ACK.  I am going to spend the next week pointedly NOT THINKING ABOUT THAT.  (Translation:  I am going to spend the next week worrying about and obsessing over the infection moving into my spine and/or the surgeon cutting into my spine and paralysing me.  Fun!)

 

Onwards!

 

We got a light dusting of snow here in Chicago this morning with a promise of several inches over the next few days.  I'm hoping the nice blanket of white (our first snow of the year) will do something to jump-start my Christmas spirit.  I usually love the holidays, the pretty lights, the Christmas cookies, the music...but this year I just can't get into it.  I have my shopping done and my presents wrapped, but I haven't bothered to put up the Christmas tree yet, and I don't think I will.  If I take it out and put it up, that just means I have to take it down and put it away in a few weeks, and that is WORK.  BAH HUMBUG.  Maybe I need to go see another doctor, as I think my heart may be two sizes too small this year.

 

Lastly, to end on a more positive note, I have been really digging the vampire/supernatural books again.  This is not a new obsession for me (see: reading Interview with a Vampire in junior high), but it had been dormant for almost a year, and it is nice to have it back.  I just re-started reading the Dresden Files books with book six last week, and I fell in love with the series all over again.  I think last year I may have OD'd on them a bit, reading the first five all in a row, but with a few months off I am all set to start plowing through them again.  I'm just about to start the last book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, too, which is sad.  I think the next one comes out in April or May of next year, and I'm not sure I have the patience for that.  Thankfully with the Goodreads friending of Jonniker (who is made of awesome, and not just because of her taste in books or because she said we might be book soul mates), I should be able to find enough to read in the meantime.

Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting, Except Me, Because I'm A Pushover

I was on my way out of a business seminar yesterday when I was stopped by a pair of Street corner Shoeshine Guys.  I saw the pair of them get escorted off the property of the hotel five minutes before, so I knew they weren't supposed to be there.  As is my rule with people asking for money on the street, I was polite and smiled but said I wasn't interested.  I apply this rule to the homeless as well as to save the whales/support X politician/sign this petition types.  I do not feel comfortable handing someone money on the street, no matter how good the cause.

 

Most of the time I don't have a problem with this strategy and they move on, but not this guy.  He gets down on his knees in front of me and starts poking at my shoe.  I am stuck at a red light, and his buddy is on the only other corner I could cross to.  There are people all around us, but I still start to feel really, really trapped and stuck and scared.  Despite my continuing insistence that I did not need my shoes shined, the guy squirted polish stuff on my shoes and started polishing them anyway!  This was a surprisingly violating experience.  By this point I felt like I had to go along with the unauthorized shoe shining.  As he polished my shoes and I missed my green light and got stuck for another stoplight cycle.  All the while in my head I was just praying this would be over as fast as possible.  I felt strangely used and dirty and trapped and embarrassed and just STUCK.

 

This is not an entirely uncommon feeling for me, as I am terminally afraid of offending someone or hurting their feelings, even if they are in the wrong and are offending me/hurting my feelings.  Every time I get stopped on the street for something, which is often since my office is on a busy/touristy part of Michigan Avenue, I feel bad turning them down and spend the next five or ten minutes wondering if my refusal was too rude or if I made them feel bad.  It doesn't take much force to override my refusal and guilt me into listening to the pitch/buying something/signing a petition.  Heaven forbid I walk away from them and they "don't like me"!  I don't like that I'm such a push-over, but I totally am.

 

Yesterday afternoon I was telling my therapist about the unauthorized shoe-shining and my general exasperation at my pushoverness, and she suggested I try a self-defense class.  Not that I'm going to go all kung-fu on someone to keep them from shining my shoes, but such classes can help with the pushoverness that I have such a problem with.  My reaction surprised the heck out of me - I had a mini panic attack.

 

The thought of taking a self defense class terrifies me.  First of all it is a physical activity in a group of people I don't know.  I really hate that, and have since my very first day of Phys-Ed in elementary school.  I am roughly as coordinated as a drunk hippopotamus walking through a fun-house on stilts, and I live in Great Fear of injuring myself in a stupid way in front of witnesses.  Secondly, I just cannot get behind the idea of using the self-defense moves, even if I need them.  I was assaulted on my way home from work almost two years ago, and the thought of turning back time and using self-defense moves to change the course of that assault makes me more sick to my stomach than the thought of re-living the assault as it happened.  I know I "should" feel empowered by gaining the ability to defend myself, but it is quite the opposite.  Why, you ask?  Because the thought of hurting that guy, even though it would have been to stop him from hurting me, makes me want to throw up.  I just can't do it.  He might not like me then!

 

I am well aware that is a completely unhealthy (and crazy) way to react.  Therapist agrees, and thinks I should look into a self-defense class purely because the thought of it pulls such a strong reaction out of me.  Maybe during lunch today I'll peruse the Internet and see what I can find.

 

Have any of you taken a self defense class?  How did it go?  And if you happen to live in Chicago, where did you go?  Do you want to come with me and give me handfuls of Xanax during the class?