Just now I woke up and had yet another strange dream. It revolved around Christmas and I was sleeping next to my husband. I couldn't see who he is since he had his face buried in the pillow, but his hair was definitely short and brown.

The phone started ringing.

Groaning, I woke up groggily and reached for the phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hey Lisa- this is Lynda. I'm calling you to let you know that your mother stopped by yesterday morning...."

"Oh man..." I sighed. My heart sunk knowing that I didn't even live in the area anymore. I had moved to another city and started teaching there 4 years ago.

"She's coming to Greendale tomorrow morning. And there's some wonderful news- she cleaned herself up and your dad may remarry her."

... I paused, almost dropping the phone. This was unexpected.

"But before your parents do, your mother told me that she wanted to make mends with you first since she heard you were having a baby."

I blushed. Lynda was correct, I was pregnant. 3 months along. But I didn't think they would ever get back together. Mom had messed up her life too much to reconcile with him and a part of me felt nervous and even scared. How was I going to handle this situation after years of her absence and missing all the major milestones since I was a teenager?

"Well, I got to go. See you around Christmas!" She said in a happy voice and hung up.

Sighing, I laid back down and fell asleep, thinking about her and Christmas shopping. It was so close to Christmas eve, if not already that I almost forgot about it... Then I woke up.

Yet another dream related to Christmas... Not that I'm really expecting it. The chances of something like this happening on Christmas Eve is very slim. I'll just settle for a new laptop for traveling and college...

right...i was going to wait until friday, but i'm not entirely sure if that'll leave enough time for this. this is charity drive specific information.

Q1: are you an american?
- If YES proceed to Q2.
- If NO this does not apply to you, sorry guys.

Q2: do you support the idea of everyone being able to see a doctor when they need to regardless of how poor they are?
- If YES, proceed further.
- If NO, i'm not quite sure why you're watching a charity drive.

right now the Health Care Bill is being put to the senate. this bill will make it so america, like many other countries in the world including japan and canada, has national health care. some people are leery of this, but i've never heard a canadian complain and i never had an issue with waiting to see a doctor or get medicine in japan. these systems work, honestly.

right now, 47 million people are uninsured in america. that means 47 million people can't get medical attention if they need it, because they can't afford it. that is the population of south africa. that is the population of iran. that's an entire country's worth of people unable to see a doctor. i dunno about you, but that seems pretty lousy. oh, and in addition to that? 25 million people are under insured. they can't get the proper medical attention. that's the population of saudi arabia, unable to get what they need at a doctor's.

and i think that's absolutely unforgivable, in a country as powerful and well off (comparatively) as the USA.

the health care bill will provide 96% of americans with affordable, real, functional health care. if you're not worried about health insurance right now, either you've got the money for private insurance in the middle of a depression (and should be considering using it to help others...) or you're still under your parents' health insurance. eventually, you won't qualify to be under your parents' insurance. you'll want to go to the doctor, and realize just how expensive it is without insurance. so you can either be poor and sick, or rich and exclusive.

or, you can write to your senators.

we live in a very cool age where that's extremely easy to do. it takes you two seconds to write to your senators and say "i live in this state, and i want you to vote to allow the health care bill." okay, it might take you three seconds if you want to spell check it or get detailed in your reasons.

so what does this have to do with the charity drive?
the charity drive by nature is to help people who don't have the means to help themselves. affordable health care is a BIG help.

if you write to your senators, it will count as 5$ per senator in the charity drive to whatever side you want.
you can encourage others to write to senators too. i'd appriciate a screencap of your letter, or at least a copy-paste of it and who your senators are.

contact your senators here with ease :D

just please be sure of the following things
- do not swear at your senators. it should go without saying, but this is the internet.
- do spell check.
- do not put in a fake name, and do not spam them with 50 fake identities. use your real name, and be honest.

regardless of if the bill gets passed or not, i'd like to be able to say that we have done our part trying to get it passed. i've been saying it for years, but one vote does make a difference. one letter to a senator can make a difference too. some senators won't listen to this no matter what, but the point is that we can try to make a difference, regardless of the odds.

charity comes in many forms.

Here's what we can do to change the world right now, to a better ride: Take all that money we spent on weapons and defense each year and instead spend it feeding, clothing, and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and WE CAN EXPLORE SPACE, TOGETHER, BOTH INNER AND OUTER, forever ... in peace. -Bill Hicks

as a long time gym leader enthusiast, i can safely say something we always hoped for was exact replicas of badges from the games and/or anime. they've come close, but even those ones cut out in the thunderbadge shape are too small/colored differently.

this video would have been awesome anyway - a VHS with all eight of ash's gym battles from indigo league - but it comes complete with a set of shiny metal badges that are EXACT FUCKING REPLICAS of REAL gym badges.

i managed to win this incredibly rare, never before seen set for remarkably cheap and i cannot fucking wait for it to arrive so i can go nuts with the photographs @_____@ for now, sleep!

THEY CAUGHT ICHIHASHI!!! FUCKING FINALLY!!!!

no but seriously. what a relief. and we were JUST discussing him in class today too!

my tv broke



fuuuuuuuuck


dont have the money for a new one lol

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/251632

South Park's Dead Celebrities episode. I never laughed so hard at anything for a long time!

"Lisa, you got a TABE entry test today," said the instructor.

I nodded, cringed then looked at it. The word math seemed to pulse out to me more than the English and Reading stuff, which is what the test was mostly about.

The instructor studied the look of fear on my face. "Do not worry. This is not a pass or fail situation. This is just to see where you are at. And by the time you're done with the GOAL program, you will be given more tests and it will be time to take the assessment. Then we'll know where to place you during the fall of next year."

I nodded weakly, turning pale. I can feel the tingle in the back of my neck and chest as a warning sign, spreading throughout my body. Every muscle of my body tensed and my breathing became rapid.

"Follow me, Lisa," said the instructor.

I followed the blonde lady into the computer lab and she placed me on a PC at the far end of the room. The whole test itself was self explanatory. I went through the Reading and English parts with ease. By the time I got to the several questions in math, I tensed up even more.

"No... no. God no. Please God, not now," I think to myself. The wave of panic washed over me like a tidal wave, pulling me under, drowning me. I try to remind myself that I was no longer in special ed and everything's different in college now. The instructors actually cared about me and will actually teach me everything I need to know. They want me to teach, saying that good teachers are desperately needed. Besides. I had a calculator.

"I can do this. It is time to face math. I'm not a cowardly child. I have control. Things are different now..." My mind slips and plunges.

Too late. I dwelled on the post traumatic distress that Nancy Wagner bestowed upon me, taking root inside my shaken soul. All color just drained from my face by the time I got to the hardest questions of math; stuff that I was never taught.

My body felt heavy yet I was weightless at the same time. The numbers begin to spin out of control, laughing and mocking me, forcing me to remember the humiliation and failures I suffered. Every memory I had endured 8 years ago came back to me with a blinding force.

I can't see. Everything was a blur.

My heart pounds. My mind screams for help. For a moment I couldn't remember to breathe.
My movements are that of a ghost. I am at weightless and lead heavy all at once.

I can’t see…I can’t see…I can’t…

My heart is pounding. My mind screams. Am I still breathing?

Red dots cloud my mind, starting to fade to blackness. It felt like I was being strangled and dying. Dying in the hands of Nancy, who had complete control of my tormented mind. I try to fight back.

Taking a deep breath I just numbly answered the questions by guessing and pushed submit. Then I walked into the office and said that I was finished. My voice was unrecognizable and shaky. Traumatized.

"What the hell did that bitch do to me?" I began to wonder as I returned to my seat and finished my English test for the rest of the class period.

What am I going to do for the next 4 years? What if I keep failing? I'm scared that I won't be able to graduate on time because of this problem... dyscalculia.

Doesn't really concern anyone unless they're from whirled, even then- read from the bottom up.

( Read from the bottom up )

i spent like 6 hours drawing this and now i don't even know if i want to finish it - or HOW to =( BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

also thinks i was waiting for didn't come in the mail today BOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOoOO!!! but at least i got everyone's johto pokedolls :D