I finally did it!!

Today I took my 2nd retest for my driver's license, and wouldn't you know it. I passed!! Third time's the charm, like they say. I think several factors helped me this time around:

1. I practiced yesterday and this morning, and in the same car I was taking the test in.

2. The tester was really friendly and laid back, unlike the last guy I had. He actually helped me with the parking that I got stuck on last time. I wasn't nervous during the test this time.

3. I had the new wallet Crystalee gave me for Christmas in my pocket. Gifts from my girlfriend bring me luck !
 

Response to "Invalid Entry" 

Ok, I decided to do something a little different for this entry. The title of the entry alone inspired me to write a poem, so here it is.

Note, pardon my sick sense of humor at the end of this poem. I just wanted to put a twist in.

"The Madwoman in the Attic"

Late at night I try to sleep, but I am kept awake.
A voice rambles on inside the walls of my house,
but I can't understand the incoherent speech.
She argues with herself, getting answers as well.
I even hear my name admist the garbled mess
of yelling and screaming.
I march upstairs, determined, yet a little afraid
of the madwoman in my attic.
I've seen her there before, knitting something and then
pulling it apart so she can knit it again.
Behind the attic door I hear her singing now,
Battle Hymn of the Republic, I think.
I open the door, and she stares me down, cold and silent,
her voice muted upon my entrance.
Yet a fire still burns in her eyes,
mad as a hatter, as they say.
Her blanket lies on the floor at her feet.
I pick it up, and wrap her up in it.
"Go to bed, mother, it is late."
 

Response to "Invalid Entry" 

2006 has been a much better year for me than 2005 was. I started feeling better after my diabetes complications, I turned a quarter of a century, and fell in love with the best girlfriend ever. I'm not gonna do a month by month breakdown, because I don't remember what happened many of the months, but I feel that this has been a good year for me. If all continues to go well, by the end of this year, I should have my driver's license, which will make a good lead in for 2007.

While I did submit some stories and poems to contests this year, I won't find out about them until next year, so I can't say as of yet if they are good happenings. I guess I can say, however, that I did take the chance and made the submissions, so that is a positive effect this year.
 

Response to "I’m Not Too Old To Have A Hero" 

No one is ever too old to have a hero. I believe there will always be some in our lives or that we know of that we look up to and admire, that inspire us and drive us to become like them.

My hero J.R.R. Tolkien. Ever since I was little, I have loved The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and in recent years I have done research into his life and have learned how extraordinary this man was. Not only did he write the forerunner of fantasy as we know it, but the world he created is so real that we can believe that it could exist. Tolkien used his knowledge of language to create the languages of Middle Earth, from Elvish to Dwarven to the old Black Speech used in the days of The Silmarillion. Names of characters were derived from their respective languages, just like ours are (last names like Baker, Fisher, Smith...all come from jobs that people did).

All the emphasis Tolkien put into crafting his world, beyond that of the books, allow us to explore his imagination and fantasy. I know it has made me wish I could travel to Middle Earth and just explore all over. I want to visit the Shire and Mirkwood Forest, and see Minas TIrith and it's tower.

I write fantasy as well, and while I know I'm nowhere near his level, I look up to him and aspire to create a world and characters that future generations will adore.

 

As part of the Poetry League, I had to write a poem with the topic: "like a kid in a candy store." This is my entry, which won the first match!!

ID: 1191671   (Rated: 18+) Temptation  like a kid in a candy store by Mark C Bradley

Response to "Invalid Entry" 

I know I've done a lot of stupid things in my life. Hell, we all do. It's a part of being human to make mistakes and do stupid shit. But I know the stupidest thing I've ever done...I attempted to kill myself.

I think I've written about this before, but for any new readers or those who don't want to look back that far, I will tell it again. I am a diabetic of over 10 years now, and I am what they call a brittle diabetic. Sometimes just a cold or the shits can throw my entire diabetes out of whack. So after many years of not controlling it as well as I could (or should) have, my body turned against me.

In May of 2005, I start to notice that I was constipated a lot, and as a result, I couldn't eat. My stomach hurt all the time. I went to stomach specialists, had numerous enemas done, and even a colonoscopy, and eventually I found out that the nerves that control digestion in my stomach was damaged. This is called gastroparesis. I took some medicine for that, and for the most part, I am doing much better in that respect.

But the nerve damage didn't stop there. The nerves in my body, mainly my legs, were going haywire, and I would get sharp pains in them, worse than a Charlie Horse times a hundred. I couldn't sleep to the point where I'd go a whole week only to sleep for a total of an hour.

My life was miserable that summer. I was in so much pain, unable to eat or sleep, and couldn't enjoy anything. I didn't do many of the things I enjoyed, like getting online, writing, playing video games, even watching TV wasn't as fun.

So one night in the middle of June, I dropped to my lowest low ever, and I decided that my life wasn't worth living anymore. I have a morbid fear of pain, so I didn't want to stab or cut myself. I wanted to try something painless, so I thought I would overdose on my insulin. I gave myself 100 units of my humalog (the kind I take before meals). Now, since deep down I didn't really want to die, I called my brother and told him what I had done, kind of hoping he would tell my mom and she'd call back and alert my grandparents so I could get help.

Instead of dying, or even going into a diabetic coma, I became very incoherent as the night went on, and my grandfather heard me screaming. They called the paramedics and I was rushed to the hospital, where I was given some sugar in an IV.

This was the stupidest thing I have ever done or ever could do. Even when life gets me down sometimes now, I think of that awful place that I was in, and it gets me a new perspective. About a month ago, I found out that the suicidal thoughts were just one of many side effects of the medicine I was taking for the gastroparesis. If, God forbid, I should ever have the gastroparesis again, I will tell the doctors of those effects so they can find something else for me. I am never going into that dark place again in my life. And while I know I will do stupid things again, I will never do anything that stupid. Ever.
 

Response to "Invalid Entry" 

It's funny how we grow up accepting a certain way that a word is pronounced, and when we hear it another way, we think it is funny. I remember hearing my mom pronounce the word "water" like "wood-er" and "oil" as "ull" even though I didn't say them that way. And my aunt says "orange" like "ornge" when I (and many others) say it "arr-inge."

Now I know that dialects also determine how we pronounce things. There is a joke that goes around this time of year: in a Southern elementary school class, the kids are asked to draw a Christmas scene. One kid draws the three wise men, and they are all wearing fireman hats. When the teacher asks the kid why he gave them the hats, the reply is "they are the three wise men that came from afar." The joke being that the Southern accent for "fire" is "far." (Which I know to be true, I dated a girl from Lousiana)


 

Response to "Invalid Entry" 

Mmmmm bread. I have always loved bread, making sandwiches from PB&J to various deli combinations. Bread and butter as a side at dinner time. I love being able to pick the kind of bread I want at Subway (my bread of choice? Italian Herb and Cheese ) Damn, now I'm hungry for a Subway sub!!

I have been asked by people who aren't as familiar with diabetes as I am if bread (well, all starches, really) are a problem for me. No way! Sure, bread has quit a few carbohydrates in it, but it has never been a problem for my diabetes. Here's an interesting fact, however...did you know a brownie has the same amount of carbohydrates as a baked potato? Yeah! So, once in a while if I leave out the potato, I can have a nice dessert and not have to take any extra insulin.
 

Response to "Invalid Entry" 

I am a supporter of capital punishment too. I believe that those who take someone else's life with the intent of doing so should be punished to the fullest extent. And the same goes for rapists and child molesters. End of story.
 

Response to "Don't make me call my lawyer" 

I agree with Lorien . Today's world is full of sue-happy people who either are too stupid to not read warning labels (like the McDonalds coffee incident) or too smart to try to cheat the system. Of course I think many are both. Take, for example, the finger in the chili. I think that is just ludicrous. The woman that did that, even though she got found out later on, knew that people would be gullible enough to think that a piece of a finger would really get past quality control and into her food.

Another thing that I've noticed about our obsession with the legal system is the number of court shows on TV now. Maybe back when, the People's Court was cool, but now there are so many of them that is just ridiculous. And they even have divorce courts too!!

Maybe I should sue someone for the trauma caused by the effects of all this...