A twiend and I were discussing the program briefly after the show. She broke her ankle earlier this year and said her doctor had no issues with writing her script after script for pain meds, but she would often sit in pain because she didn’t want to become dependent on them. I could definitely relate.

I am the kind of person to try every other remedy before I pop a pain pill. I hate pills anyway (they stink!) but also because my father suffers from chronic pain on a daily basis. Debilitating migraines and back and neck pain plague him to the point where he now takes shots to alleviate the misery. The minute something begins to hurt, he calls for his pills. He has a cabinet in his bedroom that looks like a pharmacy shelf, full front to back with both over the counter and prescription medications and pain killers like Oxy and codeine.

I once went home for a visit, said I had a headache from the flight. He handed me a pill and like a dummy, I took it. I figured at the worst it would be Tylenol 3.

Soon after I took the pill, my mom asked me to go to the store. Safeway was just down the street a few blocks but it took me forever to get there. Once  was there, I had forgotten what I went to the store to buy. After wandering the store for a few minutes, I remembered that I had made a list, slowly picked up the items and drove home. “I feel funny,” I remember saying as I dumped the bag of groceries on the counter. “But my headache is gone.”

My mom looked at me, her eyes narrowed, talking to my father over my shoulder.  ”What did you give her?”

My dad shrugs. “Oxycodone.”

It was then decided that my dad was no longer allowed to give me pain medication. A headache, to him, means gripping, searing, illness-inducing pain. So pain releif, to him, is a prescription medication.

I’ve had several friends that suffer from chronic, debilitating pain as well. It hurts my heart to see them have to seek out others with the same prescriptions to get a little relief, when doctors are so afraid of patients getting hooked that they don’t prescribe enough to keep a patient pain free. To the other end of the spectrum, a doctor that was a guest on Dr. Phil’s show said t drove it home by saying, “If 11 manatees washed up on the beach every single day, there would be outrage. But these are people, and nothing is being done.” It’s not only celebrities that are dying from overdoses! It’s regular people. It’s you and it’s me.  That’s frightening, to me!

I don’t think that my dad is abusing his medications. I do think he is dependent upon them, and that’s something I’ve never wanted to be.  I guess maybe that’s why I have such an aversion to medication. ANY kind of medication, since I also refuse to go on antidepressants. I’ve seen my dad pop a pill for something my whole life. There’s something about it, that is unappealing to me.  It’s not what I want to be.

While I am sure there is a middle ground between ‘pops a pill for everything’ and ‘never takes pills, ever’, maybe I just like being different but I haven’t ever been tempted to explore it. I feel like I am such a black or white, off or on, hot or cold person that my pendulum would simply swing to the other end.  You never know, I could be staring at myself up there on the Dr. Phil show!

Becoming dependent on something, to me, is a loss of freedom and control. And if it’s one thing I like, it’s being in control.

Today is March 10th, National Women and Girls’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD). Created by the Office of Women’s Health, NWGHAAD is March 10th of every year. Its goal is to serve as a day for women to come together to encourage dialogue and educate women and girls about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its increasing impact.

The Diary is proud to be on the list of blogs Rocking that Red Pump today! For information about the Red Pump Project, visit the site here!

I “Rock the Red Pump” because:

• Black women make up 66% of all new diagnoses of HIV in women
• Women are the caretakers and when we get sick, it truly affects those around us
• HIV is one of the deadliest diseases in the world, yet it’s one of the few that isn’t communicable (like malaria) or initiated within the body (like cancer)
• I want women to be empowered to live well with the disease (if they are positive) and for those who don’t have it to make sure they don’t get it.
• Every 9 1/2 minutes, someone is infected with HIV. It’s time to stop this trend!

It can go, now. Please to be bringing SPRING.

And I’m not interested in hearing about how ‘that’s not a lot of snow’… we don’t have PLOWS, people!

So… riddle me this…

I don’t watch either show with any sense of regularity, so maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about, but… was the Tonight Show with Jay Leno really that good?

Good enough that after only 7 months of Conan being in the Big Chair, and Jay doing a deplorable version of… uhmmmmm what I understood was the same damn show, just at 10pm, that they just reversed the entire deal? Canceled Jay’s sucktastic show, gave him back the Tonight Show, and ousted Conan? Allegedly, this is what is happening.

How……….how is this right? Am I not understanding some far fetched reason? Is this just show business?

It seems like NBC has been screwing people over for decades. When I was growing up, the big deal was that Letterman was mad that he didn’t get the Tonight Show. I daresay that was nearly 20 years ago. Then Conan struck a deal in 2004 to take over the show in 2009.  Jay was going to retire. Jay didn’t know this?  Was this some sort of surprise?

So, Jay didn’t want to retire. NBC gave him another show. That’s basically the Tonight Show for people who can’t stay up late. It was awful, all three or four times I watched. Sucked so bad NBC canceled it. Okay. Uh. So. It would seem to me that Jay is out of a job, then. How does this turn into Jay going back to the Tonight Show? Allegedly.

I don’t mind either of them but wow, Jay is looking like a purebred asshole in all of this. I just wonder if NBC has him over the same barrell that he has Conan over. I mean… there’s a whole new set and new staff. Does the staff stay? The set?

Clusterf*ck. I mean, really!

Ugh. I’ve kind of always wanted to work in Entertainment. It’s the glitz I love, but I love the backside too. Unfortunately sometimes the backside is real dirty. Needs a good wipe. Ew. Horrible analogy. Sorry about that!

1. They Did What? (aka These Chicks Need Some Serious Therapy)

Unless you live under a rock (and I sometimes do) you’ve heard about these… ladies… that lured a man to a hotel room, held him hostage, and then superglued himself to himself. And in case you didn’t hear, you can read all about it.

Really? I mean…. really? First of all, I guess I am a jaded (I prefer REAL) individual, because I am totally not surprised that a dude was cheating on one woman with three others. I mean, not that I expect it or anything but I must hear two or three stories of infidelity a day, so… yeah. Okay? You find out your dude is sleeping around with more than one other chick and go a lil off the deep end.

My feeling is that I would have to be some kind of crazy to hatch a plan like this and go along with it.  Sure, my girls and I would get some cheesecake or some chicken wings (different situations call for different foods!) and we’d sit down and hash it out and be mad and say all the things we wished we could do.  But then we would build a bridge and get the Hell over it, dump him, move on, get our revenge by living well and all that good stuff.  Lure a dude to a hotel, hold him hostage, GLUE HIMSELF TO HIMSELF?

Doing too much.

Because really, a dude that is creepin’ on you is not worth the brain power that it would take to come up with a plan like that. The muscle power used to exert such a plan would be a complete waste. Honestly? I’d rather waste that moving on.  I’m sure they wanted closure, or wanted to make him pay, or some other really great, understandable but misguided reason.  Do any of them really feel better? And do they think he learned his lesson? And now dude is in jail his OWN SELF? Boy, bye.

2. The Only Reason I Might Catch Jay Leno’s New Show

I’m not saying the man isn’t a hot piece of vanilla sky,  but contrary to what you might be thinking, though I have been ‘down with the swirl’ at times, I’m not checking for Mr NBC Nightly News.

I’m sure I don’t know what I am talking about, so someone please correct me– Jay Leno opted not to renew his contract with the Late Show, and so now we have been saddled with Conan O’Brien  (the tallest man in TV, OMG) and Jimmy Fallon (insert mildly amused face HERE). But instead of riding off into the sunset straddling 2 or 3 of his classic cars, Jay is coming back to NBC.  To host a late night show. Uhm… Okay.

I heard details on my fave local morning show, The Bert Show on Q100 and the details of the show are that Jay will have one or two celebrity guests, some pre-taped portions, he’ll continue the “jay-walking” segment, and Brian “I’m Way Too Funny For Network News” Williams will do a segment called ‘Stuff that wasn’t good enough to make it on the news“. Can I just set my TIVO to pick up that segment? Maybe it’ll be available on YouTube, because while I am not a huge Jay Leno fan, Brian Williams makes me scream in laughter. He really is that funny– to me. Keep in mind that I love milk commercials and I watch the Starbucks commercials over and over.

3. American Idol Jumps the Shark

I’m about to lose all the followers I never had because I”m about to yap about something I haven’t actually sat  down to watch in years. However, not knowing what I am talking about has never stopped me from opening my mouth before, so here we go.

My thought is that this show has been ‘done’ for some time now, so much so that I’m surprised it has been renewed into oblivion, and people keep getting raises. I’m not sure that this show succeeds at  prepping the artists they bring out of obscurity into the limelight for what life is really like as a recording artist. Like most reality TV, AI is about exposure and advertising– for both the artist and for the network. Personally I feel like this is at the expense of any talent or true ability- there are people who have made the Top Ten that I don’t even GET. Sanjaya, anyone? HORRIBLE.  Of the Idols that have won, few are still under the recording contract they won or signed. I daresay the runner-ups have had better careers than the winners.

And really, you’ll never be able to convince me that AI is not, to some extent,  manipulated by the network and/or producers. Yes, I do think votes count– I don’t think that they’re 100% the pendulum that swings for a contestant as to whether they stay or go, and whether they win or not.

ANYWAY, this week Paula Abdul announced she will not be returning for the 812th season of American Idol. It seems to me that it will be really strange without Paula.  She was the only bona-fide popstar on the show, with the unique perspective of having been where these artists are going (yeah, I know, Randy was in Journey, but… not the same). And I’m sure Kara is doing…an okay job, but maybe Paula feels– because I feel– like Kara was supposed to push her out, or something. AI did not need a 4th judge, and if they’re going to have a 4th judge, make it a revolving spot and let a current music artist give these contestants advice.  Further, raises for Randy, Simon and RYAN (RYAN?!?) and not for Paula, or not as large for Paula, sucks.  It speaks volumes of disrespect and showed Paula exactly what Fox and 19E think of her. I don’t blame her for moving on. I wish her the absolute best.

I heard this morning that Nigel Lithgow offered Paula a position as a judge and choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance. Go. Girl. Getting back to her dance roots will be great for her. She will bounce back, land on her feet, and maybe dance with cartoon cats again. *shrug*

*skips off, singing Opposites Attract*

LOUD. And BITE people.

I’m not a doom and gloom kind of person. I’m not. I won’t be uttering the word Depression anytime soon and I only say ‘We’re In a Recession’ when I’m joking. Truly. Perhaps that’s some head-in-the-sandness, but whatevs. It’s how I deal. So, I’m not intensely negative about the economy,

HOWEVER… People are losing jobs and homes and health care and retirement funds. It is a scary time, for America.

NOW isn’t quite the time to be capitalizing on it. Have a sale, go ahead. Someone has some money, somewhere. They’ll buy your stuff. STOP using those terms to sell your crap!!!

It PISSES me off.

Michael Peterson– claimed to fall asleep by the pool when his wife fell down the stairs.
Scott Peterson- Claimed his wife was abducted/disappeared while he was out fishing.
Drew Peterson- Claimed his wife left him and is off with another man, somewhere. It is alleged that Drew killed his 3rd wife, and he is ENGAGED AGAIN. WTF.

And also… Rihanna…wtf? I’m SO disappointed if the reports are true. He hasn’t even gone to court over the incident yet. Her dad’s foot needs to be way, so far, deep up in his ass. In no way should he be on a jet ski at Diddy’s House, having fun. Where are all of the people who were INCENSED because Chris DARED touch her in that manner??!!

GUH.

I love Paul Harvey. I used to listen to him everyday when I worked in radio. *sigh*