Getting It Off My Chest

[ladysprite]

Things That Are Really Bothering The Heck Out Of Me Today: A List

1) People who decide to give their pets over-the-counter human medication without consulting a veterinarian first. I've had to deal with five toxicology cases so far this week, and it's not even past Tuesday noon yet. No, the internet does not count as a veterinarian. Neither does your cousin who's a groomer, or a human pharmacist. And no, lying about it doesn't suddenly make the drug non-toxic - telling me that you didn't give it after all doesn't magically erase the effects.

2) Authors and script-writers who feel the need to portray mental illness (especially in women) as wide-eyed savants who babble poetic non-sequitors and/or puzzles that hint at Deep Mysteries. I'm not *just* talking about Drusilla and River Tam, but it seems like it started there. And I'd like it to stop. I don't wander around twirling my hair and tilting my head while spewing crap like "The clocks all lost their faces and the kittens want to dance...." in a sing-song voice. Real mental illness isn't nearly that colorful or twee.

3) Bad news. Giving it; receiving it; I've had about a month's worth between when I woke up this morning and the end of my morning appointments. I don't want to tell anyone else that someone or something is dying and I don't want to be told that either.

4) The absence of chocolate at this hospital. Seriously, what clinic doesn't have a secret chocolate stash for days like this?

If I hide under my desk, will today go away?

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*attempts to email you chocolate*

[arachne8x.livejournal.com]

You totally deserve some emergency chocolate right now. 1) and 3) is especially awful and 2) is definitely an issue.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Is there some place nearby that you could order chocolate from, and I could pay for it? Because I would, right now, if only I knew where.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the thought - sadly, I am so far into the middle of nowhere that I don't think I could even get delivery pizza, let alone delivery chocolate.

....that said, the temptation to start a chocolate delivery service is strong now. I can imagine serious demand. I've always wondered why there weren't more dessert delivery services....

chocolate delivery service

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

I endorse this idea. Especially if it involves drones. ;-)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I would guess it's a matter of fragility. Chocolate melts. Ice cream melts. Cakes and pies can easily squash.

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Amphibious dessert delivery services. Because everything is better when it's delivered by frogmen.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[virtualvirtue.livejournal.com]

*huuuuuuuuuuuuuUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuug*

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

*sends GoodThoughts and chocolate (virtual, alas)*

[mamatiger.livejournal.com]

There are two of these around Boston/Cambridge:
Insomnia Cookies. They may not have the biggest delivery areas, though.

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

May you find chocolate.

A slight disagreement. I don't think River became a dispenser of poetic non-sequiturs when she suffered her brain traumas. Flashbacks would seem to indicate that that was part of her natural personality, I am remembering the bit about dinosaurs. Rather it was clouded by her mental issues. Similarly with hints at deep meaning, those were looked at as the *successful* part of her abuse (by monsters).

I think that case may be similar with Drusilla (my memory is fuzzy on that), wasn't she a seer *before* she became a vamp?

[serakit.livejournal.com]

Yes, she was, and she was so pious she thought it was the Devil talking to her-- that was part of what drew Angelus to her to torture her in the first place.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

As I said, those aren't the only characters I'm talking about. And whatever the justification for their behavior, it has led to a stereotype throughout literature and media that "insane/mentally ill girl" is "wide-eyed poetic babbler." Moreover, there were minimal to no significant other indications of mental illness for those characters *beyond* their Naive Psychic Babydoll behavior.

And it's frustrating, and sexist, and a bad stereotype.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Denial is an amazing thing. I'm surprised by how many of my cases happened magically because nothing changed, honestly, no one made *any* changes.

Here's hoping bad news is banished for a bit and you get to help with basic health checkups for kittens and puppies for the next week or so.

And yes, here's hoping the chocolate supplies become abundant.