My 'eye-opening' experience with Healthcare

So if you hadn't heard.. I recently had a chalazion (sounds terrible, I know... but an infected one is called a hordoleum)... but all it is a clogged sebaceous gland in the eyelid, and as a result, you get a raised bump that was about half the size of a dime. Google it, you'll find much more disgusting pictures than the one I had.

When I found out I had it, Heather WebMD'd it and found out that I should put a warm compress on it, and if it doesn't go away, go see a doctor.... I did this.... and it didn't go away. I went to the ASU health clinic and waited 4o minutes to hear the doctor tell me exactly what Heather told me... except to see an ophthalmologist instead. That was $10. Ok..

So I warm compress it for 10 more days and it doesn't go away...(by the way, warm compressing your eye really makes you pretty worthless, as you can't really do anything except lay down or watch TV). I went to the ophthalmologist and after a 20 minute wait, I was told that I had a chalazion (I already knew this) and that I would need to come back to have outpatient surgery. Again, nothing new that I already did not know. That was $35.

I wait another week to finally go in to have it lopped off... after some numbing of the eyeball and some anesthetic dropped into the eyes, he 'pinched' it off (there was some pain) and told me to keep some gauze on it for 5 minutes and would be back.... 40 minutes later he shows up to tell me all is good and that I could leave, since the damn office was closing up and locking doors anyway. He totally forgot I was there. That was another $35. Add a $5 prescription onto that, and I can't figure out if the time or $ was the big loss in this endeavor.

Really! Hulu you're awesome!

I was just visiting Hulu (for those that don't know, its a site with a bunch of videos) and on the front page was a video that looked to be a bunch of football players gathered around a coach... their jerseys were red and white and the title of the video (documentary) was 'Second to None'. I started thinking is that the Utes. It was!

Then I figured it was just a college football highlight video. It wasn't. It's a full on documentary of the Utes 2008 season on the front page of Hulu. Here's the link.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/101888/second-to-none

I thought the Indians were not in the Postseason

So I have been watching some October baseball and did not know that the Cleveland Indians - my favorite team - was in the postseason... well, not really, but one could get confused. If you can remember, the Indians were 1 win away from the World Series in 2007, with a stacked lineup and 2 Cy Young Award candidates (CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona.... Sabathia ended up winning and another Indian, Cliff Lee would go on to win it the year after). Well, they lost and over the last two seasons ended up selling players like it was 3pm in the afternoon on a Saturday garage sale... (aka you just try to sell things for a dollar, so you don't have to find somewhere to place the junk)

So what's my point? Well every game that I watch this October, there are some Indians from that team making key plays. They are:

CC Sabathia (Yankee)--- finally had a quality win in the postseason because boy did he lay some eggs in 07.

Cliff Lee (Philly)--- dominated the Rockies twice

Ben Francisco (Philly)--- just made an awesome diving catch tonight

Rafael Betancourt (Rockies)--- came in the game in pressure situations twice and shut the Phillies down.

Casey Blake (Dodgers)--- didn't see many of their games, but seemed to be up in key situtaions

Victor Martinez (BoSox)--- guessing he didn't have much of an impact since they got swept.

Anyways, this is my way of moping, since my team now sucks, and all of our good players are doing well elsewhere.

Happy Meal!

So I have this theory that anytime you are shocked (or full of some emotion) in response to someone else's actions.... you just say, "Jeez, its not a happy meal!"

I know this is confusing, when you read it like this... but listen through a few examples because I haven't found an instance where I truly couldn't use it. Yet at the same time, no one understands my 'theory' so I'm either crazy or extraordinary. Here are some examples, which I'm making up on the spot.

EX 1: Someone is washing the window with the squeegee thing at the gas station and does it all hurriedly, leaving smudges... I roll down the window and say " Jeez, its not a happy meal!", meaning that you can't just rush the window cleaning and expect a good job like you could in the devouring of a happy meal.

EX 2: Someone wins a free coke from one of those under the bottle cap promotions and exudes exhilaration beyond a normal point of excitement. Once they calm down, I say "Jeez, its not a happy meal!" meaning that I have never seen excitement as such since I saw a kid jump fo rjoy over the toy inside the happy meal.

EX 3: A couple is walking down the street when someone cuts right in between them (rudely) and continues on without saying 'sorry' or anything like that. A person either yells out to the 'cutter' or says to the other "Jeez, its not a happy meal!" meaning that its not like you are bullying through a crowded line at McDonalds to get my happy meal. A simple 'pardon me' or walk around would suffice.

(All of these were hypothetical... I'm sorry that I use a McDonald's reference in this theory.)

My Rileyisms have been doubted before, but one's such as 'delicious' and 'old man winter' among many latched on, until they were being used daily... while I don't expect the same for this one, I had to defend it with some case examples :)

Kickball

So I recently played co-ed kickball with Heather (and her work peeps)..... had 4 hits out of like 7 at bats (its harder than you think when there is 10 people fielding) and made some ridiculous running plays. I dodged 2 throws within 4 seconds, impressing many spectators... but I digress. There are 2 points I need to make about this game.

First, the correct play in Kickball is to just bunt, aka kick the ball like 3 feet down the line. Everybody (even slow people) who did this got to first base, because no one is allowed in this space... so the catcher, pitcher, and 3B have to chase it down and make a barehanded across the field throw to the 1B with a ball that you can't grip, nor throw accurately more than 15-20 feet. Thus, if I can successfully bunt it without popping it up (which I was 1 of 2 in my attempts), I can score from 1st on the next play because its hard to field and throw the ball... and if needed, I only have to dodge 1 ball.

Second, the game is really easy for anyone to pick up... making it funny to watch people who think they are athletic, when in reality they probably are not. Why is this funny to me? Because a few people were so into the game that trash talking came about... some trash talking and some tempers in kickball... YES! That's what I'm talking about.

The ease of playing this game (for everyone, not me) is making me think of other universal games/sports that anyone can play.... but the only one I can think of is frisbee... and maybe soccer. But Kickball, I think, is the easiest to pick up and play well right away.

Still, I had a lot of fun and am doing it again this Tuesday!

PS Heather played really well too... she had more catches than me and got on base 3 times.... impressive.