Best non-made-up disease that sounds made-up

Popcorn lung.

That's right. It's a real disease according to a pulmonary specialist at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

What happens is the fumes from microwave popcorn, which contain diacetyl, poison the lungs.
Or something like that.

"Dr. Cecile Rose said the ailing patient, a man whom she wouldn't identify, consumed 'several bags of extra butter flavored microwave popcorn' every day for several years.

He described progressively worsening respiratory symptoms of coughing and shortness of breath. Tests found his ability to exhale was deteriorating, Rose said, although his condition seemed to stabilize after he quit using microwave popcorn."

I'm going to make a wild guess that popcorn lung isn't his only problem after consuming "several bags of extra butter flavored popcorn a day for several years".

When my friend's sister read this article, she immediately sent up this request:
"Dear God,
Please don't let my sister die from eating too much microwave popcorn.
Amen"

Check out the article. It's worth a perusal.

Birthday twins!

My sister-in-law and I had a shared birthday party on Saturday night. Our favorite hometown pizza (Nubiano's) - cheese for me, pepperoni for her, and supreme for dad, ev, and mom; a DQ ice cream cake for dessert; and some fruit and veggies on the side made for a perfect meal. We had a fire outside to usher in the evening, and the stars that night were spectacular.

Em and I ended up at our small party in the exact same shirt - Gap Outlet, classic v-neck T, color: pink. I had dark jeans turned up into capris and she had navy capris. It was uncanny the way we matched for our joint birthday celebration.

Everything matched us, too. Our packages were wrapped in papers with light pinks, our cards had light pink, our cake was iced in light pink lettering. When we went outside for the fire, mom changed into a light pink polo, I think because she felt left out as the only girl not in that color.

Suzanna being cute!

Our little echo.

Rockin' out

REO Speedwagon is coming to Indiana.

Sunday, October 7th, they'll be at the Emens Auditorium at Ball State.

Who's in with me?

Reading

I've been wanting to read this book for a year.

I first saw it last August when I was birthday shopping for my sister-in-law. Intrigued by the cover initially, after reading the back of the jacket, I knew that both she and I would enjoy this novel.

To be honest, I can't remember if I bought it for her. But it has been on my radar ever since. My sister bought it, then, sometime within the year, and lent it to me after reading it herself. It's been gathering dust for months on the little rickety bookshelf between the dressers in my bedroom. I've wanted to read it, since having possession of it, but it's easy to pass over on that tiny, low, out-of-the-way bookshelf. Plus, Harry Potter and his gang side-swiped me mid-March and have usurped all my literary time since.

Last week, I began a list of "Things to Do" for the remainder of my August and the subsequent September. The defining factor of items on this list, what separates them from the many, similar lists I keep at work, is that this list is for fun. I make lists of what to do for fun. In my free time. (Does that somehow diminish the "free" part? Jury's out.)

In an ambitious gesture, I included 3 book titles on the list. What with school starting and thus working late, small group, and some other yet-to-be-defined activities, reading three books in a month seemed impossible even as I wrote it. Diligently, however, the very next day, I picked up The Memory Keeper's Daughter. A tale of loss, emptiness, longing and endless searching. A story of hopelessness, and yet, moments of redemption and all of it told in such beautiful language. An astounding work of art, this novel. Recommended to all.

It's 6 am

and I have been up for a few hours, having gone to bed at midnight. The original incessant itching of my legs has resulted in hives in miniature all over them. I don't know how to make the itching stop. I'm kind of going insane.

I'm tired and yet wide awake. I tried sleeping on the couch to no avail. I can't shut my mind off; I keep running through work scenarios as I lay there with my eyes closed.

This sucks. All I want is a full night of sleep. I can't remember the last time that happened.
No hives. No problem-solving. Nothing but unencumbered, uninterrupted 8 to 9 hours of sleep.

I knew August was going to be busy, but I was not prepared for the exhaustion that would accompany said busy-ness.

In the past 10 working days (well, including this week), I will have been in workshops, conferences, or meetings for 8 hours on 8 of those days. That gave me two in my office to try to come up with an agenda and handout for, and further organizing of, a training session that I'll be giving next week to new student employees, which I was informed about this week. Not to mention the 10 other items on my list of things to do. But, alas, no time.

Classes start on Tuesday, and I'm grateful, despite the somewhat stressful additions that have been added to my job this semester. I'll be grateful to have new faces to look at, more people in the library daily than I've seen this entire summer put together. And some old friends are returning; I must say, I've missed them.

Cheers to a new semester, new faces, new chances, new trials, new successes, and hopefully, some new hobbies. I'm fresh out of ideas!