May 2008 Archives

Allie and I were going to go see the Dresden Dolls tonight in Dallas. She's been excited about this for a long time, and I was too. She'd already bought the tickets, and everything was set...

And then, this morning, at 4 AM, she woke up in pain. And it kept getting worse. For 3 hours she dealt with it without any medical assistance, until her mother finally took her to the hospital and she was given pain meds. (Not that she avoided going to the hospital -- she waited 30 minutes before telling her mother about it, then her mother took an hour getting ready to go, then for an hour and a half they waited for the doctors at the hospital.)

She had kidney stones. At her age, that's rare. Usually you're older before that happens.

Anyway.

So she had kidney stones. Lots of pain. At 10 AM she calls me (having been given morphine) and lets me know that she was at the hospital with kidney stones, and that she may not make it to the show. Well, the show was the last of my worries, with her having kidney stones and all. But after assuring me that she was okay, she told me to try to find someone to take to the show.

So I called all three of my friends, and then called a couple of hers, and nobody could go that didn't already have a ticket. But, gladly, Allie had started feeling better.

So she decided she felt okay to go. Yay! And we were going to see Bree, our friend who we hadn't seen in a year. It looked to be a good day.

But, after a few hours at the show (before the band even started playing), Allie started feeling bad again. So we went home, and left Bree and her family and friend to enjoy the show without us.

I don't feel bad about it, except I know that Allie was really looking forward to that show. I don't mind that I didn't get to see it; there will be other opportunities. I'm just glad Allie's feeling better.

But overall, today wasn't a very good day for her. I'm glad I could be there, but I hope tomorrow's better.

Tomorrow I visit my grandparents and we start paying off my debt. Excitement!

More news as it arrives.

I'm now an officially ordained Minister in the Universal Life Church, and as such, I've started my own church, called the Legion of Life (LoL). All are welcome to join, regardless of religious affiliation (or lack thereof).

The ULC is purely non-denominational, and accepts people from all faiths and religions.

So, now that I'm a Minister, I can legally perform weddings, baptisms, funerals, and any manner of other religious ceremonies (except circumcision, which I'll leave to the doctors).

No joke. This is totally for real.

You can call me Reverend Iceschade now.

And join my church, the LoL.

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the possible side effects of having sex is nine months of gradual weight gain, strange cravings, back pain, and finally, a brand new baby. I mean... That's how I was born. And I'm willing to venture that's how you were born as well.

Why is it, then, that so many kids these days have this strange idea that they're immune to the whole pregnancy thing, and that they can have unprotected, consequence-free sex whenever they want?

It's quite alarming, really. Through my entire four years in High School, I heard of maybe two or three teen pregnancies. I know that there were plenty more than I heard of, but it still didn't seem that drastic.

But recently I've been hearing about teen pregnancies with alarmingly higher frequency. It seems like once a week there's someone new that I used to know that's getting pregnant. And more often than not, it's someone who really has no business getting pregnant or raising a child (usually because they're still so damn childish themselves). Sometimes it becomes a success story, and they grow up some and become a decent mother, and sometimes the father sticks around to help them out because he actually gives a damn about the kid and the mother. But in most cases I've seen, the father decides to flake out and be a jerk about things. Shirking his responsibilities instead of manning up and helping out.

It's getting to the point that it's no longer surprising that someone new is pregnant. Rather than "oh my God, someone's pregnant!" it has become "I wonder who's next in line?" And then, when the next teen pregnancy rears its head, the questions become "I wonder what she'll do... Keep it, abort it, or adopt it?" and "Will the dad stick around or be a douchebag and skip town?"

One thing that scares me about all these teen pregnancies, though, is the fact that so many of the teen mothers knew each other, and knew about each other's pregnancies. They'd hear about one, talk about how sad it is that the boyfriend skipped town, how tragic it will be when she has to give it up, and how "goodness, that person should have known better, at least used protection!" And then a month later you hear that the same person making the comments about the first is suddenly pregnant as well. It's that whole "it'll happen to them, but never to me" mindset, I guess.

Seriously, though, you'd think that after the first one, the rest would start taking steps to prevent pregnancy for themselves. When Sue sees Jane get pregnant, you'd think that Sue would get on birth control, or start using condoms, or stop having sex. I mean, that's common sense, right?

But... I guess not. Common Sense seems to be lacking in this part of town.

At least we know Children of Men won't be coming true anytime soon.

Alright, boys and girls, here begins my brain-dump. You don't have to read it, you don't have to like it, you don't have to care. But you can, if you want. Obviously, there will be more to read later on, so check back whenever you want.