mangoriffic

So. What is up with the mango? During my grocery excursion yesterday I purchased one mango. I said to myself "Now there is an ugly-ish, funky looking fruit for $1. Probably I should buy that."

Now I've never bought/tasted/tried to cut up a mango before, so the whole thing turned into a very confusing experience. First I tried to cut it in half. Nothing doing, apparently mangoes have pits...no...it's not a pit, it's like a stalk through the middle of the fruit (note: the stalk doesn't taste good. At all.). So then I kept up hacking off random pieces from the stalk until we had a huge pile of mango flesh.

We settled onto the couch, toasted ourselves with mango slices and chomped down. Which is when we discovered that the peel is really nasty. We couldn't figure out if we were supposed to eat it, but it's wildly tough texture and tendency to taste like chemicals made us think no. So we spent a great deal of time peeling mango from its peel with our teeth. The flesh of this fruit is sticky...like juicy sticky that gets all over your face (if you are me) and hands and if you wipe your hands on your jeans it looks like somebody sneezed and got loogies on you. Still, it was a strange but tasty experience.

Not wanting to leave out our babies, I cut off little hunks for the hamsters. Mutton Chop loves fruit and grabbed it from me - then she tasted it and smacked her lips for a while. We'd never seen a hamster smack its lips and there is no way to describe it that will convey how ridiculous it looks. I think the laughter continued for 60 straight seconds. Chip picked up the mango and then tried to drop it, but it stuck to his little paw-hands and when he finally got it off his paws he sat looking at those little furry extensions with an expression of utter puzzlement.

I'm still not quite sure what I think of this bizzaro fruit, but the tasting of new fruits has begun: next up, the pomegranate. Maybe I'll look it up online first, though...

checked-up

Mom picked me up this morning (for the car of delight is still dead, never to run again) and drove me through narrow, harrowing streets of City doom to my little doctor's office.

Success! I am pleased to report that my new doctor did not scare, hurt, or yell at me. She was so great and easy to talk to. She put my cringes immediately at ease :)

After much talking and catching up (I'd gone MIA from the doc's for about a year and apparently they frown on this) I got my two RXs renewed and have a new muscle-relaxer to try...I'd tell you what it is but I sort of already dropped it off at Sam's Club (this just in: you don't have to have a Sam's membership to fill your prescriptions there and, even though under the same corporation, they are actually cheaper than Wal*Mart!) and have forgotten the long, hard-to-pronounce name.

So I'm happy and at ease. Except that I'm due for my next pap smear at the end of January. Gross.

After this jubilantly easy to get through appointment we ate dollar-menu Wendy's and hit up the grocery stores:

Aldi's...is the stupidest store I've been to, but I keep going back because of great prices on spinach, mac and cheese, juice, and bread. First of all, making people pay a quarter to get a cart - even if you get the quarter back in the end - will keep people from leaving the carts everywhere, but it's darned inconvenient for people who never have quarters in their pockets. I also must say that narrow, crowded aisles, along with a guaranteed long, slow moving line is (to put it mildly) annoying.

Wal*Mart...is the best store I've been to, and I've started getting my groceries there almost exclusively (no offense, Wegman's) because of the low cost, ease of finding things, and quick check out lines. I love Wal*Mart, it is my friend.

We came home and I collapsed upon the floor (after thanking Mom profusely for all the rides she keeps giving me) for about 30 seconds. It would have been longer, but let's face it - yogurt, milk, and cheese don't do too well sitting on the counter for long periods of time.

I then cheerfully sat myself down at the computer to hammer out this faithful account, and in the middle of doing so I remembered that oh yah...the worker's comp auditor guy is coming today at 4:30 p.m. Maybe I should stop spilling my tired brain into my keyboard and get things ready for him.

it's check-up time

It annoys me, I admit, to have to make an appointment just to get a standard refill on my medication. Though I'm not nearly the RX junky I've been in the past, I still have 2 (sometimes 3) standard drugs to help me get through my Fibromyalgic days. While I've been meaning to talk to my doc anyway about some possible changes to my meds (including getting an opinion about Lyrica) I cringe at the thought of walking into the doc's office tomorrow.

Cringe factors:

* Not having medical insurance - those office visits are not cheap.
* My doc left (got married and wants to have kids - how dare she get her own life!) and this appointment is with a new face. It's hard to find a good doctor when you have FMS and I liked my old doc so much, she was open and easy to get along with. The new face is at the same office, but still...I liked the old face!
* My doc office is in the dreaded City...the 'bad' part of town. The part of town your husband doesn't let you travel to alone, and while he agrees that it's alright to have his mom along with you, everybody still worries until you are safely home.

Nonetheless...off Mom and I go tomorrow for the exciting appointment.

*cringe*