Jazmee27 
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I really should get my hair done. But, as I explained to Mom yesterday, my major concern in deciding not to was safety.
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It’s that time of year when you don’t know what to wear. Cold, frigid temperatures at night, warmer days… except when it’s real windy, like today: 20-25 mile an hour winds, high of 40, low around 22.
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Reply #261. May 17 12, 8:52 AM
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Jazmee27
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The good news is, I got out for fresh air. Went to Holiday, got three inches cut from the length and thinned, then stopped at MacDonald’s for lunch. Grilled chicken sandwich, fries, and “Coke… Not bad for fast food!
“Ever since it’s been spring, it’s been cold,” Grandma said when she picked me up. **The calendar says *”spring,” I thought, **but the weather says *”no!”
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Reply #262. May 17 12, 8:52 AM
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Jazmee27
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I love my naturally-curly hair, even on the days I can’t control it. It’s… well… me, and straightening it… **why would I want to do *that?
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Reply #263. May 17 12, 8:53 AM
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Jazmee27
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My mother is also blessed with natural curls—but my grandmother… straight as straight can be. “It’s disgusting,” she’s said to me more than once—talking about my curls. “I’d just like to cut them off and paste them on my head!”
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Reply #264. May 17 12, 8:54 AM
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Jazmee27
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She’s not the only one jealous of my “golden locks”: when I was in the hospital, I got a number of comments from people who only wished they had curly hair. Of course, my grandmother can—and does—get a perm, but…
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Reply #265. May 17 12, 8:54 AM
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Jazmee27
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I seem to be the minority when it comes to liking my curls. I think back to when I lived with Mom, Edy, Edward and Elysha—and I remember the times Elysha would come home, all excited, and ask me to feel her hair. “Do you like it?” Well… not exactly—and though I didn’t say that, I fear she could tell—my facial expressions are incredibly transparent. In fact, if I ever had something to hide… I couldn’t!
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Reply #266. May 17 12, 8:55 AM
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Jazmee27
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Back to the point of this rant: I never did understand why Elysha was so keen to get rid of her curls. What’s so great about straight hair? Sure, the curls could create tangles, or become unmanageable depending how long it is. And my hair, it’s so thick “it’s enough for six people—long enough for three, and thick enough for three more!” And while, in an attempt to make it easier to manage, I’ve cut my hair—when I was younger than I am now but “old enough to know better”) I’d never dream of getting it straightened. Again, I like my curls!
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Reply #267. May 17 12, 8:56 AM
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Jazmee27
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It's been a while since I wrote this, but Mom still has to go to him (although she'd like to "fire him," her back won't allow it)
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Mom goes to the chiropractor again on Monday. Until then, she has to "lay on the floor for ten minutes" at least twice a day."
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Reply #268. May 17 12, 8:58 AM
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Jazmee27
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"I'm sure he [the chiropractor] knows what he's doing," I said, after I'd stopped laughing hysterically, "but right now I'm thinking he's a crackpot!"
"He does know what he's doing," Mom replied. "I went into his office with a splitting headache. He cracked my neck and asked, "How's the headache now?"
Low and behold, the headache was gone!”
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Reply #269. May 17 12, 8:59 AM
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Jazmee27
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What does PROFESSIONAL mean? How do we determine who is one? A certain level of education? What does that say about social skills? Or anything else that matters?
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These so-called “professionals” in the medical community **do not impress me *much. I can’t even count the number of “experts” who say unhelpful things such as, “test results are inconclusive” or “we can’t help you”.
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Reply #270. May 17 12, 9:01 AM
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Jazmee27
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I was on the phone earlier today with my great aunt who, just last week, went to the ER with gastrointestinal complaints. “It could be coming from your bladder, or a number of other places,” the doctor told her. Then, he proceeded to inform her she could go home. “Listen,” she said, “I can barely walk, and I’m all alone. Can’t you do something, like an ultrasound?” “Oh,” he replied, as if the suggestion surprised him, “I guess we should.”
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Reply #271. May 17 12, 9:02 AM
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Jazmee27
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Tonight on the phone, Anita told me she’s tempted to, the next time she goes to a doctor, ask where he or she went to Med School—or to see credentials. “That really tells you nothing,” I commented. “All that does is tell you where he or she got educated, or that he or she is certified or licensed—not if any of that education was retained.”
The same is true of nurses. Anita remembers this nurse who drove her wheelchair up to the car. “Put one foot in at a time.”
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Reply #272. May 17 12, 9:03 AM
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Jazmee27
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But the best example is from when I was at the doctor’s and needed bloodwork: The whole damn lab team was in, trying to find a vein. The one woman even stuck me with the needle *after she confessed she couldn’t find anything. Finally, the doctor came in and put a stop to it: “We’re not torturing her. She can go to the Lab.” Coincidentally, at the Lab they found the vein right away!
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Reply #273. May 17 12, 9:04 AM
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Jazmee27
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I'd be perfectly happy if I could forego doctor's visits. *Unfortunately*...
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Tonight at the doctor’s office, Mom was reading a study on off label use in the elderly. She explained to me that, when she’s at work, she has no time to read such things. Scanning is out of the question, too: either the phone is ringing, or someone is knocking on her office door, or she has an e-mail (which makes a sound after it comes in, demanding her undivided attention [and so she ends up taking work home {I asked her if the question of why she does what she does ever enters her mind}])
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Reply #274. May 17 12, 9:06 AM
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Jazmee27
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Anyway, she tried to explain to me in the simplest way possible what she was reading about. In essence, a physician can prescribe a psychiatric drug for an elderly patient with dementia, even though FDA guidelines stipulate antipsychotic medications are not to be given to certain populations.
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Reply #275. May 17 12, 9:06 AM
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Jazmee27
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The study Mom is reading is multiple pages (I think she said 20, or was it 16? [not that it matters]). The problem is that, rather than denying payment, the nursing home where Mom works is in danger of losing its license because some of the residents have been prescribed such medications. “Crock of applesauce“ I muttered, to which Mom said, “A big crock of applesauce!”
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Reply #276. May 17 12, 9:07 AM
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Jazmee27
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Reading, reading, reading... I can't get enough of reading (even doing research or looking at oldtextbooks [I even, at one time, read the Pocket Dictionary])
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I thank the Internet for bringing the link up again, the one about the young woman from Sierra Leone who came to America seeking freedom and safety. But I wasn’t interested in the Ladies’ Home Journal links, which only told me the story I’d read in the April issue. Instead, I wanted  http://www.martyduren.com/2010/03/15/asylum-or-incarceration-lady-liberty-drops-her-torch/.
Some of the themes in my stories follow the path of justice, or lack thereof, and I could feel the wheels turning after I read the article about Isatu Jalloh, then again as I read through this article:
“Having traveled internationally a fair bit in my life, I can tell you that, even with the economic issues facing the U. S., it remains the desired destination
of millions around the world. While on the Kenyan plains, Maasi evangelists told me of their desire to come to America. Russian women marry American men
so that they may come to the land of the free. Entire families cross Caribbean and Atlantic waters in vessels not-quite-seaworthy to escape oppression,
the very act of which reaffirms America as the home of the brave. Elaborate systems of transportation, tunnels and river crossings have been devised, not
only to run drugs, but to have a chance at making more than 5 dollars a day. Years ago, I worked alongside a number of green-carded Mexican landscape workers
in Gwinnett County, GA who told me they were making more every hour than they could make in a day in Mexico (where they could not even find a job unless
they bribed someone).
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Reply #277. May 17 12, 9:11 AM
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Jazmee27
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Oops--whatever I did with that... that's just *wrong*
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Reply #278. May 17 12, 9:13 AM
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Jazmee27
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Ooh--you mean I actually had a point to this story?
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When I started college, the first class I took was English 101. One of the essays I wanted to write was something along the lines of “A not so democratic nation” or “A not so Christian nation.” With hindsight, these were not the best ideas for essay titles or subjects. I might even add that a broader look into inhumane practices or the misuse of justice wouldn’t have been appropriate concepts for me at that time, having jumped straight from the public school system to a college, even if it was only a community college.
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Reply #279. May 17 12, 9:16 AM
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Jazmee27
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It saddens me to note that, aside from the first paragraph of “What is terrorism” rough draft, I don’t have an y of my English 101 papers. Of course, that could be because the papers I’ve read from back then were… let’s just say that I couldn’t read them, thinking of my own writing as that of a kindergartner.
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Reply #280. May 17 12, 9:17 AM
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