Divas and Kidney Stones

As I got some positive feedback regarding my blog about health tips, I thought I'd pass on more interesting and EASY tips. Consider yourself fortunate if you don't like to wade through a lot of health articles that will make you feel doomed and raise your blood pressure. You can read my blog and at least get some info. Better than sitting there playing Tetris eating Krispy Kremes. Hmm...or is it?

Today I read Dr. Mercola's article on the dreaded Kidney Stone. Click that link to read the article or if you prefer, you can go the page and see/hear him talk about it. Although you really should read it yourself for details, for the lazy readers, here's the short story: drink more water, less soda/beer, more exercise, less soy/oxalate foods (sorry, you'll have to look those up). Following the article, readers have submitted some helpful suggestions. Believe me, if you ever get a kidney stone, you'll be scouring the earth and internet for helpful suggestions. Click the link or someday you may be screaming in pain "Why oh why didn't I click the liiiiinnnnk?!"

I would also like to recommend a few invaluable supplements: tumeric + green tea (take them together); resveratrol; ubiquinol. There are a lot of other supplements that most of us should take, but I think those are the "must takes", especially the latter two for us midlifers. I recommend ordering online from Swanson Health.

Enough about health, I want to discuss divas. I've been reading Madonna's biography for lack of a better read. It's strange, I recently borrowed books by two of my favorite authors: Dean Koontz and Dick Francis, both of whom I've been reading for years. Why is it I couldn't get past two chapters of either books??? Is it my imagination or has their writing morphed into prose so overly descriptive that my reading time doubled? Dick Francis' sentences seem to be anti-sentences, as if he were writing backwards. Meanwhile, Dean Koontz feels he has to over-describe every single scene, every single character, every single step each character takes. Please, I haven't got all day!

Again, TGFI (Thank Gore For Internet)! I just now opened Amazon.com in another window and looked up Dick Francis' "Second Wind" and I quote the consensus of 81 "reviewers":

"I am a die hard Dick Francis fan - I have reread most of his books several times. This one I won't. It's disjointed and extremely slow to get to the plot ( which is so convoluted that even at the end it didn't make sense). I had to force myself to finish it in the hopes that it would get better, it didn't. There was very little character development, far too many of the pages were taken up by descriptions ..."

Hallelujah! I wasn't imagining things! And so what about the Dean Koontz "One Door Away From Heaven:??? Just 3 1/2 stars, which is low compared to his other books! And here's the favored critique:

"The plot of "One Door" is so bloated and rambling that at times I found myself skipping ahead in frustration. A good editor would have ripped away entire chapters of meandering description..."

YES!! I feel totally vindicated now. I have to admit I felt puzzled and guilty for giving up on these two favorites after two chapters. I've never done that and was worried that in my older age I was losing my reading skills. It also occurred to me that I was becoming overly critical and wanting fast-moving reads because let's face it, time goes faster as we get older (I explained this phenomena in an earlier blog).

So back to Divas! Jordan had picked out the Madonna biography at the library, but she doesn't read books. I've always had a love-hate thing for Madonna so did not care to read about her. But for lack of anything better, I flipped through the book and ended up reading it. Unlike Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, or Barbra Streisand, Madonna has no easily identifiable talent, so I'm sure many people like myself are attracted to her yet dislike her for seeming to be undeserving of her success. Reading this biography validated my ambivalence: while I'm now able to understand she is deserving of her success, I'm still not a fan. Nothing's changed since the time I watched her for the first time in the 80's in her "Burning Up" video. I recognized that she was going to be "big", but at the same time didn't like her.

Meanwhile, this morning I have an important mission: securing two seats to a rare Mariah Carey "intimate" performance in Las Vegas. Yes, intimate...meaning "only" 2500 seats in the theater. I tried to tell Jordan that we could buy 30 CD's instead of 2 tickets, but nope, no deal. I remember also my first sight of Mariah Carey in her "Vision of Love" video. Another easy call that this singer was special. I worry somewhat about Mariah, though. She seems to be struggling with the fact that she's getting older, but it just goes to show that even the most successful have their insecurities.

How on earth we "middling" folk make it through each day is truly a miracle! Could it have something to do with tumeric, resveratrol, and ubiquinol?

Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

I was in Honolulu for a week. I was planning to take my laptop with me, but the crazy last-minute-packing day found me with a sore back so the thought of lugging that not-so-light laptop was not appealing...not to mention I couldn't find the carrying case. It seems I'm forever looking for things these days.

My Maui friend Karen made my day today. She sent me a funny forwarded email. Ordinarily I don't care for forwarded emails, especially the mushy/threatening type (oh please forward this sentimental loving message to 10 friends OR ELSE YOU WILL HAVE TEN YEARS OF BAD LUCK, YOU SELFISH OAF!). Karen, however, can be counted on to forward only the FUNNIEST or most informative of forwarded emails. Today's email made me feel NORMAL. I could've written it! The following is a shortened Colleen version of the forwarded email entitled "Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder":

I'm packing for Honolulu. "Vitamins!" I remember. I head for the kitchen to pack up a week's supply of vitamins. I have two dozen different bottles of supplements to go through. Before I begin, I realize that I'm running low on calcium, tumeric and COQ10. I can't order it while I'm away, so I have to do it NOW before I forget. I go to the computer to order it online from Swanson (GREAT company!). As soon as I turn on the computer, I hear the email alert. A friend in Honolulu is emailing to ask about getting together for dinner. Hmmm, I'd better phone my mom FIRST to ask her plans before I make dinner plans. I phone her, she reminds me to take her some Miracle Soap. I go to my boxes of soap. Running out of soap! I'll have to order more before I go to Honolulu because it takes a month to get here! I'd better make a list. Where's the pen? Oh, there's one on the diningroom table. I go to the diningroom and see the mess of newspapers on the table. Oh hey, I forgot to read the Garden Island this morning. I sit down to read. The first article I read mentions Hawaiian Airlines. Omigod! I should be packing! Now where was I?
"Vitamins!"

As I said, that's a SHORTENED version. The real version lasts all day and thus explains why it takes me all day to pack. AND--I'm not making this up--explains why while unpacking in Honolulu, I looked in my carryon bag and was shocked to find that I'd inadvertently packed our cordless phone from Kauai! WHAT THE...?!?!

Swanson has both Gingko Biloba and Bacopa Monnieri--great supplements for brain/memory support. Which reminds me, I never did put in that Swanson order!