Post Pre-Op

I am on a countdown to a little minor surgery tomorrow. I've opted to have an endometrial ablation so my never ending monthly torment can finally go away.  My other option was hysterectomy and I wasn't feeling the surgery, the three weeks off work, the hospital stay, etc.
This is outpatient and they'll give me xanax and percocet and other stuff and apparently it's like ten minutes of really not so good and then yay done except for three weeks of what they describe as "weeping" out of my uterus.
I am told to think of it like a blister on your finger. That's what they are going to do to my uterus. Basically, they're going to kill it with fire.
I'm not sure what medieval medical school this idea came from, I mean, "lets boil the inside of the uterus until it's dead" that just seems like something more at home in the Inquisition than at one of the best OBs in the metro  BUT....I signed up for it so apparently I'm crazy too.
I'm doing a regimen of high dose ibuprofen and then start the good stuff tonight.
But I can say that as a woman who had her period for 33 years, and four kids, I could be done with this. I really could. And hey my husband will still get to enjoy all of my mood swings from PMS so it's not like I'll be losing any of my girly appeal (snark).

I'd say I'm nervous and I am a little, I know it's going to feel NOT GOOD but on the other hand, I feel relieved. I get to quit doing this FINALLY.
And I get to quit doing it without getting cut open AGAIN.

I'm hoping I made the right choice. I'll let you know.

A picture of my baby girl, just because.
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Post Pre-Op

I am on a countdown to a little minor surgery tomorrow. I've opted to have an endometrial ablation so my never ending monthly torment can finally go away.  My other option was hysterectomy and I wasn't feeling the surgery, the three weeks off work, the hospital stay, etc.
This is outpatient and they'll give me xanax and percocet and other stuff and apparently it's like ten minutes of really not so good and then yay done except for three weeks of what they describe as "weeping" out of my uterus.
I am told to think of it like a blister on your finger. That's what they are going to do to my uterus. Basically, they're going to kill it with fire.
I'm not sure what medieval medical school this idea came from, I mean, "lets boil the inside of the uterus until it's dead" that just seems like something more at home in the Inquisition than at one of the best OBs in the metro  BUT....I signed up for it so apparently I'm crazy too.
I'm doing a regimen of high dose ibuprofen and then start the good stuff tonight.
But I can say that as a woman who had her period for 33 years, and four kids, I could be done with this. I really could. And hey my husband will still get to enjoy all of my mood swings from PMS so it's not like I'll be losing any of my girly appeal (snark).

I'd say I'm nervous and I am a little, I know it's going to feel NOT GOOD but on the other hand, I feel relieved. I get to quit doing this FINALLY.
And I get to quit doing it without getting cut open AGAIN.

I'm hoping I made the right choice. I'll let you know.

A picture of my baby girl, just because.
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I Am A Bad Pleco Mom

This is Snake Plisskin. Yes he has the most awesome name ever.

However, a while back his tummy started getting big. At first, we thought that perhaps Snake was a Snakette and she was going to lay eggs. But then, finally I got online and tried to figure out what was going on because Snake was getting bigger and just didn't seem right.

Turns out, it seems Snake might have a very serious condition called BLOAT where it appears he is constipated, horribly so. That huge bloat is, quit possibly, poo.

Ugh. Bad parent.

So, I read up online and found out that feeding peas, adding maracyn 2 to the water and epsom salts are about all you could do to save the fish and it's likely that they'll die.

Which is a bummer.

But - stay tuned, because we are trying to save Snake because he's part of the family.

The water is cloudy with mashed peas and epsom salts now. We're hoping for the best.
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I Am A Bad Pleco Mom

This is Snake Plisskin. Yes he has the most awesome name ever.

However, a while back his tummy started getting big. At first, we thought that perhaps Snake was a Snakette and she was going to lay eggs. But then, finally I got online and tried to figure out what was going on because Snake was getting bigger and just didn't seem right.

Turns out, it seems Snake might have a very serious condition called BLOAT where it appears he is constipated, horribly so. That huge bloat is, quit possibly, poo.

Ugh. Bad parent.

So, I read up online and found out that feeding peas, adding maracyn 2 to the water and epsom salts are about all you could do to save the fish and it's likely that they'll die.

Which is a bummer.

But - stay tuned, because we are trying to save Snake because he's part of the family.

The water is cloudy with mashed peas and epsom salts now. We're hoping for the best.
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Memorial Day 2012

It's perfect that today my brother scanned and sent me & the National
archives this pic. I have been looking for it online for years to show my son.
That is my grandpa, bottom left.

Memorial Day 2012

It's perfect that today my brother scanned and sent me & the National
archives this pic. I have been looking for it online for years to show my son.
That is my grandpa, bottom left.

Summer Begins

Every childhood requires these.

Summer Begins

Every childhood requires these.

Last Day of School

It's our last day of school today. Mommy gets to sleep in starting tomorrow!

Last Day of School

It's our last day of school today. Mommy gets to sleep in starting tomorrow!

End of Spring

Our last game !

End of Spring

Our last game !

And There Were Birthdays

It's not the best sort of planning, having your children a few days apart - despite the separation of years, birthdays occurring ten days apart are a financial and logistical clusterfuck.
The twins turned 8, and the girl turned 2 in April. I kid you not, it was like ten days of birthday whirl.

We had parties at home for both birthdays, just us because it is in fact just us, no family or anything nearby but both days were special and fun.
This is where I will admit something kind of weird.
I am sort of used to it JUST being us, after all these years.

I am now a little bit selfish about my family time. Don't get me wrong, I always wish my family and his family were nearby so we could do the family things together. But as far as big random parties full of kids there just to eat my cake and take home my crappy party favors from Oriental Traders? Meh. I dunno. I am sure we'll get back to that some day but there is something so nice and intimate about it just being us. Just us six having the best time celebrating.

For the twins we ended up going to the Children's Museum downtown Atlanta and playing for the day which is always one of our favorites. We hadn't been in almost three years - maybe four. I had forgotten how cute it is.

And yeah Charlie is standing on a step he isn't that tall.
For the girl we went to Chuck E Cheese because TV commercials have given her a new found love for CHUCKEEEEEE as she shouted once we arrived there.

It was a busy ten days. The countdown begins till next April when we'll do it all again.

It's a pain in the ass. But, I wouldn't have it any other way.
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And There Were Birthdays

It's not the best sort of planning, having your children a few days apart - despite the separation of years, birthdays occurring ten days apart are a financial and logistical clusterfuck.
The twins turned 8, and the girl turned 2 in April. I kid you not, it was like ten days of birthday whirl.

We had parties at home for both birthdays, just us because it is in fact just us, no family or anything nearby but both days were special and fun.
This is where I will admit something kind of weird.
I am sort of used to it JUST being us, after all these years.

I am now a little bit selfish about my family time. Don't get me wrong, I always wish my family and his family were nearby so we could do the family things together. But as far as big random parties full of kids there just to eat my cake and take home my crappy party favors from Oriental Traders? Meh. I dunno. I am sure we'll get back to that some day but there is something so nice and intimate about it just being us. Just us six having the best time celebrating.

For the twins we ended up going to the Children's Museum downtown Atlanta and playing for the day which is always one of our favorites. We hadn't been in almost three years - maybe four. I had forgotten how cute it is.

And yeah Charlie is standing on a step he isn't that tall.
For the girl we went to Chuck E Cheese because TV commercials have given her a new found love for CHUCKEEEEEE as she shouted once we arrived there.

It was a busy ten days. The countdown begins till next April when we'll do it all again.

It's a pain in the ass. But, I wouldn't have it any other way.
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The Machine That Goes BING

So, I know I blogged about how I went for my physical and they said "So HEY what's up with your EKG this looks like someone who had a heart attack."
Well they didn't quite say it like that. In my memory it was that casual but it wasn't.
Yesterday, I spent most of my day at the cardiology department at the hospital.

I went for a stress test and who knew those take hours and hours? Not me.
I learned that first of all they start an IV and shoot you up with radioactive stuffs so they can see your heart better with a big fancy machine. The radioactive stuffs is in a lead case, yet you are supposed to believe it's safe to be inside your body. Call me nutty, but if it isn't safe to HANDLE how can it be safe inside my body? But I digress...
So I waited the requisite 15-20 minutes - watching the View in a little lounge area, and then went in and laid down in the imaging room. This bit was kind of surreal because - THEY HAD A NEW MACHINE.
It was the first day the machine was in production and literally the hospital administrator was there, people FROM SIEMENS who make the machine, and like every imaging person in the hospital. All getting trained and learning ABOUT the machine.
Everyone was EXCITED about the machine. So I just laid down on the table and was slid under this huge thing with giant panels that rotated around my body. They said the old machine would take 20-30 minutes but this new one would take 4.
And that was true, it totally took like 4 minutes.
Then - the machine went BING and I slid out from under the panels.
I want to know what comedian designed the machine to go BING.

Then after a bit they took me in to do the stress test. Except, when they had me lay down and did an EKG like that the cardiologist got a furrowed brow and and started mumbling about left bundling, and called someone else over to look and there was more mumbling and then they told me that they'd have to do a "chemical" stress test instead of the treadmill because treadmill was going to give a false positive due to some nerve stuff they were seeing in my heart.

And without further ado the nurse pushed something into my IV and I was running for my life. Well, my heart and lungs were. It's like the worst feeling in the world, or one of them. Like a huge man is sitting on your chest, like your heart is trying to leap out of your chest, like you're out of body but stuck in your body and the whole time they are asking "Are you ok? Does your heart hurt? Are you ok?" and I am just laying there trying NOT to freak out and trying to answer. Finally they said it was over and yes, the invisible fat man got off my chest.

At that point the cardiologist brought over my EKG and started talking about branch bundle clusters and that it's typically seen post heart attack, saying what his test showed was that I had some post heart attack behavior electrically going on in my heart, one side of my nerves wasn't working right.

NOW SNACK TIME!

I was taken back to the lounge and the sweetest nurses in the world brought me some lunch while I watched some show called CHEW.COM or something, (it was actually sort of cute) and ate my turkey sandwich and tried to digest that I had in fact had a heart attack.

There were a lot of other people in the lounge, all of them inpatient I realized as I kept getting referred to as "our outpatient".  One guy was asleep and I could totally see his balls under his hospital gown. I didn't snap pics bcse that's rude but I did text people and laugh cuz truly I needed to laugh.

Then back to imaging where a NEW crowd of people had gathered to see the machine that goes BING. And 4 more minutes of giant machine fun.

After that, they took me to a room to take out my IV and check my BP and stuff. They said that their final results would be determined by combining all the imaging and the EKG results and stuff and I would get a call. One of the nuclear imaging people said they never get people as young as me in there and not to worry he thought I'd be fine.

I thought I was fine until I got to the car and called home, and started sobbing hysterically because you know, HEART ATTACK.

I also felt sick and horrible from all the medicine just BAD, and sort of overwhelmed by nerves. I called work and said I couldn't be in after all and went home where the husband tucked me into bed and closed the bedroom door. I don't even remember falling asleep.

He came in about three hours later and cut off my hospital bands and informed me that the hospital called.

I DID NOT HAVE A HEART ATTACK. MY HEART IS FINE.

Well, it's not fine. It's weird. I will end up talking to my regular doctor about the branch bundle cluster thing however - the NEW FANCY MACHINE THAT GOES BING has declared me to be ok.

How happy am I?

There are no words.

BING!
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The Machine That Goes BING

So, I know I blogged about how I went for my physical and they said "So HEY what's up with your EKG this looks like someone who had a heart attack."
Well they didn't quite say it like that. In my memory it was that casual but it wasn't.
Yesterday, I spent most of my day at the cardiology department at the hospital.

I went for a stress test and who knew those take hours and hours? Not me.
I learned that first of all they start an IV and shoot you up with radioactive stuffs so they can see your heart better with a big fancy machine. The radioactive stuffs is in a lead case, yet you are supposed to believe it's safe to be inside your body. Call me nutty, but if it isn't safe to HANDLE how can it be safe inside my body? But I digress...
So I waited the requisite 15-20 minutes - watching the View in a little lounge area, and then went in and laid down in the imaging room. This bit was kind of surreal because - THEY HAD A NEW MACHINE.
It was the first day the machine was in production and literally the hospital administrator was there, people FROM SIEMENS who make the machine, and like every imaging person in the hospital. All getting trained and learning ABOUT the machine.
Everyone was EXCITED about the machine. So I just laid down on the table and was slid under this huge thing with giant panels that rotated around my body. They said the old machine would take 20-30 minutes but this new one would take 4.
And that was true, it totally took like 4 minutes.
Then - the machine went BING and I slid out from under the panels.
I want to know what comedian designed the machine to go BING.

Then after a bit they took me in to do the stress test. Except, when they had me lay down and did an EKG like that the cardiologist got a furrowed brow and and started mumbling about left bundling, and called someone else over to look and there was more mumbling and then they told me that they'd have to do a "chemical" stress test instead of the treadmill because treadmill was going to give a false positive due to some nerve stuff they were seeing in my heart.

And without further ado the nurse pushed something into my IV and I was running for my life. Well, my heart and lungs were. It's like the worst feeling in the world, or one of them. Like a huge man is sitting on your chest, like your heart is trying to leap out of your chest, like you're out of body but stuck in your body and the whole time they are asking "Are you ok? Does your heart hurt? Are you ok?" and I am just laying there trying NOT to freak out and trying to answer. Finally they said it was over and yes, the invisible fat man got off my chest.

At that point the cardiologist brought over my EKG and started talking about branch bundle clusters and that it's typically seen post heart attack, saying what his test showed was that I had some post heart attack behavior electrically going on in my heart, one side of my nerves wasn't working right.

NOW SNACK TIME!

I was taken back to the lounge and the sweetest nurses in the world brought me some lunch while I watched some show called CHEW.COM or something, (it was actually sort of cute) and ate my turkey sandwich and tried to digest that I had in fact had a heart attack.

There were a lot of other people in the lounge, all of them inpatient I realized as I kept getting referred to as "our outpatient".  One guy was asleep and I could totally see his balls under his hospital gown. I didn't snap pics bcse that's rude but I did text people and laugh cuz truly I needed to laugh.

Then back to imaging where a NEW crowd of people had gathered to see the machine that goes BING. And 4 more minutes of giant machine fun.

After that, they took me to a room to take out my IV and check my BP and stuff. They said that their final results would be determined by combining all the imaging and the EKG results and stuff and I would get a call. One of the nuclear imaging people said they never get people as young as me in there and not to worry he thought I'd be fine.

I thought I was fine until I got to the car and called home, and started sobbing hysterically because you know, HEART ATTACK.

I also felt sick and horrible from all the medicine just BAD, and sort of overwhelmed by nerves. I called work and said I couldn't be in after all and went home where the husband tucked me into bed and closed the bedroom door. I don't even remember falling asleep.

He came in about three hours later and cut off my hospital bands and informed me that the hospital called.

I DID NOT HAVE A HEART ATTACK. MY HEART IS FINE.

Well, it's not fine. It's weird. I will end up talking to my regular doctor about the branch bundle cluster thing however - the NEW FANCY MACHINE THAT GOES BING has declared me to be ok.

How happy am I?

There are no words.

BING!
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My May Birchbox - Gossip Girl Theme!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQag9zzjqOI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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My May Birchbox - Gossip Girl Theme!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQag9zzjqOI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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Vitamin D Apparently Fixes Everything

For the past few years, I've been overwhelmed with tired. People would tell me "You have three kids, you have two special needs kids, you have four kids, you work full time, your life is stressful, you made the Kessel Run in 12 Parsecs - OF COURSE YOU ARE TIRED."
But, they didn't get it. I wasn't tired. I was dead.
It didn't matter how much I slept. I woke up every day not with a sense of dread and depression, but with this desperate mood of "How long until I can get back into bed."
If I sat still too long, I'd fall asleep. I wouldn't even remember laying down at night, that's how quickly I was asleep every night.
As for how I was feeling otherwise, long days of overwhelming fatigue and aching and just feeling like I can't do this one more day, yet the next day would come and the next and the next and more days than I can remember yet I never felt better.
It never got better.

My husband had to start seeing a rheumatologist for several autoimmune disorders, and because of my family history, he signed me up for an appointment. When I went, I told her about my family history and she checked me for all the joint paint and did lots of Xrays then ordered ALL the bloodwork.

I will assume it was ALL the bloodwork as they took 8 vials.

The result was, no rheumatoid arthritis, no psoriatic arthritis, no lupus, no nothing really glaring , a bit of osteoarthritis in my old bad knee from basketball, but "only" a  bit.

However, my vitamin D? Didn't really HAVE any. My score was like 7. I don't know out of "what".

So she put me on a dose that is like 50,000 units a week plus I take supplements every day.

The first two weeks I didn't feel any change and was about to call bullshit when.....I woke up one day.

And I felt really good.

LIKE A HUMAN AGAIN.

I wake up every day feeling good. I don't spend my day counting how long until I can go to sleep. People at work talk about being tired and I realized, I'm not. It's like suddenly I AM ME AGAIN and I can't believe something as simple as vitamin D can jack up your whole life. But it can.

I kind of want to evangelize about it but I don't want to be annoying. But taking vitamin D gave me back my LIFE again, my WILL to have my life again. God I feel better.

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Vitamin D Apparently Fixes Everything

For the past few years, I've been overwhelmed with tired. People would tell me "You have three kids, you have two special needs kids, you have four kids, you work full time, your life is stressful, you made the Kessel Run in 12 Parsecs - OF COURSE YOU ARE TIRED."
But, they didn't get it. I wasn't tired. I was dead.
It didn't matter how much I slept. I woke up every day not with a sense of dread and depression, but with this desperate mood of "How long until I can get back into bed."
If I sat still too long, I'd fall asleep. I wouldn't even remember laying down at night, that's how quickly I was asleep every night.
As for how I was feeling otherwise, long days of overwhelming fatigue and aching and just feeling like I can't do this one more day, yet the next day would come and the next and the next and more days than I can remember yet I never felt better.
It never got better.

My husband had to start seeing a rheumatologist for several autoimmune disorders, and because of my family history, he signed me up for an appointment. When I went, I told her about my family history and she checked me for all the joint paint and did lots of Xrays then ordered ALL the bloodwork.

I will assume it was ALL the bloodwork as they took 8 vials.

The result was, no rheumatoid arthritis, no psoriatic arthritis, no lupus, no nothing really glaring , a bit of osteoarthritis in my old bad knee from basketball, but "only" a  bit.

However, my vitamin D? Didn't really HAVE any. My score was like 7. I don't know out of "what".

So she put me on a dose that is like 50,000 units a week plus I take supplements every day.

The first two weeks I didn't feel any change and was about to call bullshit when.....I woke up one day.

And I felt really good.

LIKE A HUMAN AGAIN.

I wake up every day feeling good. I don't spend my day counting how long until I can go to sleep. People at work talk about being tired and I realized, I'm not. It's like suddenly I AM ME AGAIN and I can't believe something as simple as vitamin D can jack up your whole life. But it can.

I kind of want to evangelize about it but I don't want to be annoying. But taking vitamin D gave me back my LIFE again, my WILL to have my life again. God I feel better.

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OMG STOP IT

One of the things I find most annoying about the Atlanta commute daily is that really,unless you are a nutter you need to listen to the radio for traffic updates. You simply HAVE to. Because in the fifteen minutes between when I leave the house to take the oldest boy to school to when I actually get on the interstate things can go from ALL CLEAR to AVOID THE INTERSTATES AT ALL COST.

So you have to listen.

I flip around because my tastes are catholic and I can't be arsed to listen to some things, especially any non-traffic talk with one exception. I will listen to the three minute news updates. This counts as the length and breadth of my news intake on any day if I can help it. I like to live in a fairy land where there is no sadness and hearing the news kills that.

Generally I listen to Quickies with Vicky on B985 which is OK, it's generic but I generally don't mind listening to that morning team, they are likable enough really.

Until now.

Because they're doing this new thing, which baffles and sort of gives me road rage in the morning. I equate it to the old FOX NEWS drops they used to do when it was a new network (yeah that long ago) trying to drive up viewership. FOX would do drops like this "Were six bodies found in a farmers field? Tune in at six to find out."

I mean WHAT THE CRAP? Obviously the answer is YES because if the answer was no, that's just stupid.

Now, some clever git at B985 has got in on that action, and Vicky will read part of a story "Brad Pitt says that there is only one thing he uses to shave his testicle...and you'll have to go to our WEBSITE to find out what that is."

/Clears Throat.

Let me help you, oh radio station of mine.

First of all, your website function should be informational in the sense of, stuff about your radio station. Promotions, play lists, music news, events you are part of and sure - crap from your on air celebs because I know some folks don't have lives and CARE about that. Trying to drive me there as if I would read your website as a viable source of news is nearly comic. We live in Atlanta and CNN has this VERY handy website plus, there are about a billion other primary source news outlets on the planet so, really, at best you guys are third tier and not viable players in this arena.

Secondly, after days of frustration with you FOR this very behavior, I actually wanted to read the end of one of your stupid blurbs, and I went to your website and IT WASN'T THERE. So there you go. Total fail.
You GOT my traffic to your website and a good prolonged visit too while I hunted around trying to find it.
By the time I gave up, I had actually forgotten what it was I was looking for. So again, bravo. Well done.

Stop it B985. Read the news. Just READ what is happening. Stop being coy with the news and trying to falsely inflate your website traffic. It's lame and transparent and really, makes me want to throat punch someone.

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OMG STOP IT

One of the things I find most annoying about the Atlanta commute daily is that really,unless you are a nutter you need to listen to the radio for traffic updates. You simply HAVE to. Because in the fifteen minutes between when I leave the house to take the oldest boy to school to when I actually get on the interstate things can go from ALL CLEAR to AVOID THE INTERSTATES AT ALL COST.

So you have to listen.

I flip around because my tastes are catholic and I can't be arsed to listen to some things, especially any non-traffic talk with one exception. I will listen to the three minute news updates. This counts as the length and breadth of my news intake on any day if I can help it. I like to live in a fairy land where there is no sadness and hearing the news kills that.

Generally I listen to Quickies with Vicky on B985 which is OK, it's generic but I generally don't mind listening to that morning team, they are likable enough really.

Until now.

Because they're doing this new thing, which baffles and sort of gives me road rage in the morning. I equate it to the old FOX NEWS drops they used to do when it was a new network (yeah that long ago) trying to drive up viewership. FOX would do drops like this "Were six bodies found in a farmers field? Tune in at six to find out."

I mean WHAT THE CRAP? Obviously the answer is YES because if the answer was no, that's just stupid.

Now, some clever git at B985 has got in on that action, and Vicky will read part of a story "Brad Pitt says that there is only one thing he uses to shave his testicle...and you'll have to go to our WEBSITE to find out what that is."

/Clears Throat.

Let me help you, oh radio station of mine.

First of all, your website function should be informational in the sense of, stuff about your radio station. Promotions, play lists, music news, events you are part of and sure - crap from your on air celebs because I know some folks don't have lives and CARE about that. Trying to drive me there as if I would read your website as a viable source of news is nearly comic. We live in Atlanta and CNN has this VERY handy website plus, there are about a billion other primary source news outlets on the planet so, really, at best you guys are third tier and not viable players in this arena.

Secondly, after days of frustration with you FOR this very behavior, I actually wanted to read the end of one of your stupid blurbs, and I went to your website and IT WASN'T THERE. So there you go. Total fail.
You GOT my traffic to your website and a good prolonged visit too while I hunted around trying to find it.
By the time I gave up, I had actually forgotten what it was I was looking for. So again, bravo. Well done.

Stop it B985. Read the news. Just READ what is happening. Stop being coy with the news and trying to falsely inflate your website traffic. It's lame and transparent and really, makes me want to throat punch someone.

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