Yup, I'm up with the knitting, and that's the proof. Actually, that exact piece is no longer in existence as I frogged it and began afresh.
Why you might ask, not at least keep it as testament to my early efforts?
Do you really want to know? It's kind of a train wreck, so if you want to skip ahead, I will most certainly understand. Scroll down to the cute baby and you can get blissfully on with your day.
If, on the other hand, you're up for the horrifying details, by all means read on.
If you remember, the plan was to take the how-to class at my fave LYS (Borealis Yarns), then blissfully go off to jury duty for a week of sitting on my duff and practicing my new skills. Instead I was picked in the first group of jurors called first thing Monday morning and instead landed my duff in the jury box for a week and a half of medical malpractice hell. Did I ever mention that I'm a physical therapist? Or that my MIL is a nurse? Or that my sister is an oral surgeon? Or that that (sorry, too fried to get out of that) means that her first iteration was a dentist, as was the plaintiff in this case? Or that I live 2 houses down from a Ramsey County judge, the county I was serving in? Or that I've had 3 spinals, one with each of my c-sections, at the very hospital at which said dental plaintiff had said problem with a spinal, by an anesthesiologist that for all I know could have been mine because I was so darn happy to be having babies safely leaving my body (I have a problem that mandates scheduled c-sections...about 3 months into #1, a bonehead specialist linked the words "labor" and "blood bath". yep, VERY happy with my c-sections thank you!) I really didn't care who they were as long as they gave me good drugs? I ask you ladies and gentlemen, how the !#@#! did I land on this jury?
DO I sound wound up, because it's been over a week since it was over and I'm feeling all wound up again. Let me take a minute.
...
...
...
OK, still wound, but let's plow on.
Those that know me understand. Medical malpractice torques my tit. Sorry, but it does. I understand that there are cases of gross negligence out there, and they deserve redress, but this...this was definitely not one of those. Took us about 30 seconds in the jury room to ascertain that all of us had spent 10 days waiting for the plaintiff's lawyer to prove anything, to do anything but throw innuendo, be manipulative and downright sleezy. Pretty bad when your chief witness is totally discredited by the defense based on ethical guidelines for professional testimony put forth by their own national professional organization, and then ends up saying that they think there was nothing the doctor could have done to avoid the injury...that HE DID EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO AVOID A COMPLICATION OF THIS SORT FROM OCCURRING.
OK, break for deep breathing.
...
...
...
So, we 7 members of the jury were left wondering why we were there in the first place.
Then we got the instructions from the judge and all was made clear.
The malpractice charges and the "compensation for damages" were to be considered totally separately. Independent of each other. That means that even if there was not a spot of proof that the doctor did anything wrong, even if what happened was a disclosed and accepted complication of the procedure, even if informed consent of said possible complications of said procedure was obtained, the issue of whether or not Mr Plaintiff was deserving of monetary compensation for his past and future pain and suffering, lost wages and medical expenses was to be considered on it's own merits.
Seriously. (sorry Lime and Violet, gotts to do it)
Can I tell you that my head almost exploded when Mr. Plays 18 Holes 3 Times A Week At His $25,000 a Year Country Club's attorney "suggested" in his closing argument that something in the range of 1.4 to 2.5 MILLION DOLLARS might be considered adequate compensation for poor Mr. Still Works A Relatively Normal Schedule For Someone that Has Time To Golf 54 Holes of Golf a Week at the Practice He Can Sell For $800,000 When He Retires?
SERIOUSLY.
Enough about the case. It made me mad, let's leave it there.
In the midst of all that, I'm stressed to the max because my hubby is taking time away from work at a very, very bad time, and asks me every other sentence when I'll be done...and my mom, a resident of the land of passive agressiva, is doing the same. The baby was sick the whole week before with respiratory gunk, then we had a jolly weekend of GI flu to build up to it, he got an infected blister on his little toe which caused all the skin to slough off and me to think they were going to have to amputate. By the time I was done, everyone in my family besides myself was sick and I had an emotional breakdown one evening. It took until mid-week last week to get everyone back on track, at which point I started breaking down again, I think because coming up on B-day #1 for baby #3 was just too much. The past year has just been too much. 4 more years until Kindergarten, just too much. Returning to a social life revolving around music and early childhood classes, just too much. Lots of crying, just too much. (More on all that to come, I'm sure. Can't go there now, just too, too much!)
I never, ever, ever want to go through that again. At least I can't serve again for at least 2 years. I may be recovered by then.
To change the mood here's the birthday boy:
Why you might ask, not at least keep it as testament to my early efforts?
Do you really want to know? It's kind of a train wreck, so if you want to skip ahead, I will most certainly understand. Scroll down to the cute baby and you can get blissfully on with your day.
If, on the other hand, you're up for the horrifying details, by all means read on.
If you remember, the plan was to take the how-to class at my fave LYS (Borealis Yarns), then blissfully go off to jury duty for a week of sitting on my duff and practicing my new skills. Instead I was picked in the first group of jurors called first thing Monday morning and instead landed my duff in the jury box for a week and a half of medical malpractice hell. Did I ever mention that I'm a physical therapist? Or that my MIL is a nurse? Or that my sister is an oral surgeon? Or that that (sorry, too fried to get out of that) means that her first iteration was a dentist, as was the plaintiff in this case? Or that I live 2 houses down from a Ramsey County judge, the county I was serving in? Or that I've had 3 spinals, one with each of my c-sections, at the very hospital at which said dental plaintiff had said problem with a spinal, by an anesthesiologist that for all I know could have been mine because I was so darn happy to be having babies safely leaving my body (I have a problem that mandates scheduled c-sections...about 3 months into #1, a bonehead specialist linked the words "labor" and "blood bath". yep, VERY happy with my c-sections thank you!) I really didn't care who they were as long as they gave me good drugs? I ask you ladies and gentlemen, how the !#@#! did I land on this jury?
DO I sound wound up, because it's been over a week since it was over and I'm feeling all wound up again. Let me take a minute.
...
...
...
OK, still wound, but let's plow on.
Those that know me understand. Medical malpractice torques my tit. Sorry, but it does. I understand that there are cases of gross negligence out there, and they deserve redress, but this...this was definitely not one of those. Took us about 30 seconds in the jury room to ascertain that all of us had spent 10 days waiting for the plaintiff's lawyer to prove anything, to do anything but throw innuendo, be manipulative and downright sleezy. Pretty bad when your chief witness is totally discredited by the defense based on ethical guidelines for professional testimony put forth by their own national professional organization, and then ends up saying that they think there was nothing the doctor could have done to avoid the injury...that HE DID EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO AVOID A COMPLICATION OF THIS SORT FROM OCCURRING.
OK, break for deep breathing.
...
...
...
So, we 7 members of the jury were left wondering why we were there in the first place.
Then we got the instructions from the judge and all was made clear.
The malpractice charges and the "compensation for damages" were to be considered totally separately. Independent of each other. That means that even if there was not a spot of proof that the doctor did anything wrong, even if what happened was a disclosed and accepted complication of the procedure, even if informed consent of said possible complications of said procedure was obtained, the issue of whether or not Mr Plaintiff was deserving of monetary compensation for his past and future pain and suffering, lost wages and medical expenses was to be considered on it's own merits.
Seriously. (sorry Lime and Violet, gotts to do it)
Can I tell you that my head almost exploded when Mr. Plays 18 Holes 3 Times A Week At His $25,000 a Year Country Club's attorney "suggested" in his closing argument that something in the range of 1.4 to 2.5 MILLION DOLLARS might be considered adequate compensation for poor Mr. Still Works A Relatively Normal Schedule For Someone that Has Time To Golf 54 Holes of Golf a Week at the Practice He Can Sell For $800,000 When He Retires?
SERIOUSLY.
Enough about the case. It made me mad, let's leave it there.
In the midst of all that, I'm stressed to the max because my hubby is taking time away from work at a very, very bad time, and asks me every other sentence when I'll be done...and my mom, a resident of the land of passive agressiva, is doing the same. The baby was sick the whole week before with respiratory gunk, then we had a jolly weekend of GI flu to build up to it, he got an infected blister on his little toe which caused all the skin to slough off and me to think they were going to have to amputate. By the time I was done, everyone in my family besides myself was sick and I had an emotional breakdown one evening. It took until mid-week last week to get everyone back on track, at which point I started breaking down again, I think because coming up on B-day #1 for baby #3 was just too much. The past year has just been too much. 4 more years until Kindergarten, just too much. Returning to a social life revolving around music and early childhood classes, just too much. Lots of crying, just too much. (More on all that to come, I'm sure. Can't go there now, just too, too much!)
I never, ever, ever want to go through that again. At least I can't serve again for at least 2 years. I may be recovered by then.
To change the mood here's the birthday boy:
Yes, dear reader, it's safe to go back in the water. For today's exciting bit of linkage, I have a few new podcasts to share:Crochet Unraveled by the ladies of Crochetville
Great fun to hear their voices, and have someone to point out things of interest on this VERY active forum....not to mention having something crochet-specific going on!
CraftBorg
If you don't get the reference, this might not be for you, but if you can get past a bit of sci-fi/harry potter banter, this is a very inspirational podcast by two very bi-craftical friends. Their format is fresh and the craft missions are fun.
PodcasterNews: Art of Gracious Living
Who doesn't want more of that? I L.O.V.E this. It makes my heart happy.
And a couple of books I'm lusting after: (linked to Amazon because I can't get the Loop-d-Loop website to work in Mozilla)
Loop-d-Loop: More Than 40 Novel Designs for Knitters
and COMING IN MAY:
Loop-d-Loop CROCHET: More Than 40 Novel Designs for Crocheters (or Knitters Taking up the Hook)
Pictures of my REAL first finished FO and my many, many WIP sooooooooon, I promise!
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