{"id":1728,"date":"2019-10-16T15:38:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T20:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/control-h.org\/wordpress\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2019-10-16T15:38:15","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T20:38:15","slug":"sixteen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/2019\/10\/16\/sixteen-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixteen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Write about three things you did for the first time in the past year.<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Okay, so three things I\u2019ve done this year that I\u2019d never done before. &nbsp;Please excuse the odd organization; &nbsp;i started with bullets, and I\u2019m not sure if that was the correct way to go. &nbsp;There\u2019s multiple paragraphs for each. &nbsp;Of course, if I was writing a DoD PowerPoint presentation, they\u2019d be&nbsp;<strong>awesome.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Anyway, on to it&#8230;.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Ate a raw oyster. A few, actually. They were listed as a specialty at my friend\u2019s restaurant. I\u2019d been considering doing it. The opportunity presented itself, so I went for it. Reaction? Not bad. Probably something I wouldn\u2019t go for often, but it was good. If you want an example of what a nerd I am, in the months leading up to that time, I actually googled how to eat them. Do you chew them? Swallow whole? What? Obviously, roasted or fried you chew, but what of the raw variety. The answers I found said, essentially, take a few bites, let the flavor circulate around your mouth, then swallow. Yes, this is a pretty lukewarm reaction, but I\u2019ve found months later that I have a craving again. It\u2019s the oddest damned thing.<\/li><li>Spent a night in the hospital. This one didn\u2019t happen until it was oyster season again. Obviously, they don\u2019t serve those there. Both times were terribly unpleasant. One night the first time, two the second. The second instance was one day shy of a month later. Both were due to infections. Both of different bacteria. Both, ultimately, of the same cause. Protip: when you\u2019re killing your immune system every four weeks, inserting foreign bodies into your body is a really bad idea(TM). Ultimately, I place the blame on one medical provider. I won\u2019t write much about this here because I\u2019m still considering all options (and, yes, that includes whatever legal remedies might be available). But, in my current job, I have no leave at all. None. I don\u2019t even get paid holidays. If I\u2019m not working, I\u2019m not getting paid. I was also completely out-of-control. When I was younger, I prided myself in my ability to put up with nearly anything. Since I got sick, I\u2019ve had to get over that. There\u2019s things that I just can\u2019t control anymore. My body is included in that growing list. That includes my emotions. I\u2019m tempted to go back to some of what I wrote in about 2005 where I felt like I was completely numb to everything. Things have certainly changed. There\u2019ve been high highs, and low lows. Sarah and I chuckle at one of our animated sons, Butters from \u201cSouth Park,\u201d (And if you know either of us, you can see how that\u2019s our boy&#8230;.) who was sitting on a curb crying after his girlfriend (a waitress at a place modeled after Hooters) dumped him. Stan was sitting nearby despairing about getting blown out by his new circle of friends. \u201cI\u2019d rather be a crying little pussy than a faggy goth kid.\u201d<\/li><li>Walked away from a terrible work situation. Here, I\u2019m talking about my last job. I don\u2019t even try to miss it, knowing I won\u2019t be able to. I\u2019m still on decent terms with a few of the people I encountered, but there\u2019s others I hope I never speak to again. Aside from the last two jobs, I\u2019ve never felt that way before. Again, there\u2019s a lot more I could say on this one, but won\u2019t. I was used. I hope the people responsible have memories so short that they can look themselves in the mirror again someday.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p>I could write for hours about these, but I think I\u2019ve said enough. &nbsp;The last one is a bit of a cop-out; &nbsp;I could have written about the sheer volume of whining about the election. &nbsp;Oh, you\u2019re going to have a peaceful protest? &nbsp;Yeah, I give that about half an hour. &nbsp;Also, nobody cares. &nbsp;The Commonwealth of Virginia supported a loser. &nbsp;Again. &nbsp;This has been true many times in the past. &nbsp;So, too, that I voted for whoever lost.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>But I get it. &nbsp;I\u2019m a bigot because I didn\u2019t vote for the party of historic racism. &nbsp;Hmmmm\u2026okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Write about three things you did for the first time in the past year. Okay, so three things I\u2019ve done this year that I\u2019d never done before. &nbsp;Please excuse the odd organization; &nbsp;i started with bullets, and I\u2019m not sure if that was the correct way to go. &nbsp;There\u2019s multiple paragraphs for each. &nbsp;Of course, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-journal-writers-month","tag-nojomo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}