It didn’t really even hit me until that first morning in September.  There I was packing lunches for three school-age children!  My youngest had turned five and was now starting kindergarten, so there they all were, going to the same elementary school.  Was I ever exhausted when I finally sent them all to the school bus.  I had had to make sure they had their lunches packed: at least for now, they had all decided they would eat lunch made at home every single day.  Then there were the things they needed to bring.  Janet, now in fifth grade, had to have art supplies on the first day.  We had spent the whole afternoon shopping at two different stores for construction paper, markers, and watercolors.  I made sure she had brought her notebook and her purse.  Michael was starting second grade and had to have pencils with erasers, his favorite book of stories, and a lined notebook.  The only thing Christie needed was her lunch—after lunch I would be picking her up at school and no doubt she would be armed with all kinds of things the kindergarten teacher would give them.  What I’ll have to do now is get some of those kids organizers.  I think they come in these little briefcase-like contraptions and have different packets for notebooks, pens, art stuff, and school textbooks.  At least for Janet and Michael, this will help me get them ready in the morning so they can make that damn bus on time.

Deb asked me why a wireless system would be better, and I had a bunch of reasons.  The first reason, of course, was that I was doing the installation. I wanted to have it bought and installed in a reasonable period of time.  I didn't want to fussing with wires and connections.  Plug and play is much easier.  We had spent a lot of time going over various systems, both the type we could install and the type where we had to have it installed.  I thought that for what we have in the house we were better off just going with a basic wireless unit.  It would be so much better than the wired sets too.  We wouldn't have to worry about what to do if the power goes out or if there is a short in the system.  I thought that wireless is the way to go.  Deb wasn't too sure though.  I ran her through some of the things that I learned, and I think she was convinced.  When we went over to Tom and Layla's house and found out that they had just installed a wireless system, I think that is what sold her on it.   The next day we placed and order.

Do they not have Lasik in Missouri or is everyone there simply a horrible, horrible driver?  Either way, I think more advanced eye surgery perhaps requiring a laser would be a valuable addition to the welfare of the people of Missouri.  Lasik in Missouri would only help the people see better and then they could drive well.  Well, theoretically, they would drive well.  There’s no accounting for a large grouping of people who just don’t know the proper rules of the road or don’t care about their fellow drivers.  I graduated from college last summer and before I went out into the real world to find a real job I went on a massive cross-country road trip.  Somehow, I found time to fit in all 48 of the continental United States and I’m quite proud of that.  Yet, Missouri had the worst drivers I’d ever seen.  I was dodging cars left and right out on the highways and in the towns and cities.  They seemed to all have grown used to each other and could instinctually avoid each other.  I, obviously, couldn’t.  I think I hit my horn so many times that it broke, but everyone just laughed at me.  Some people, I swear, just don’t care about outsiders or visitors. 

I am having trouble sleeping lately. It’s because I am balding. Is that not the weirdest thing you have ever heard? It’s not because I am worried about balding, it’s because my forehead itches like crazy, especially just after I wake up and right before I go to bed. It looks as if I have dandruff with no hair, it’s dry and flaky and it itches more than any contraction of poison ivy I have ever had. I look like I have leprosy and even worse is that people don’t want to come near me, maybe they are afraid that baldness is contagious. I wanted help because although no one has said anything, I knew it was just a matter of time before it was brought up. I met with my girlfriend’s stylist, Rimerna. She did my girlfriend’s hair from her house in one of the weirdest neighborhoods in Chicago. She actually lived in the upstairs portion of the building, renting out whatever was left after the salon to whoever was weird enough to rent property in such an area. It took me a while to actually make an appointment with Rimerna. I tried looking into other options but I was too embarrassed. Rimerna was the epitome of a hippy. She looked Bohemian with a huge head of dreaded hair. Who would want someone with dreads, which are basically knots, to do their hair? Her eyes were always glossed over and it seemed as if it took a lot of concentration on her part to hold a minute long conversation. I finally got up the nerve to call her and made an appointment. The day I went in I told her my problem. She looked at my head for what seemed like forever. I seriously thought she was going to sprinkle some dust on my head and do a dance and say that I was cured. She finally broke the silence by suggesting I use a cream. I had been through this, I told her, I want something that will make my hair grow back. She look surprised and suggested a hair loss treatment. She then decided to call in the big dogs. She gave me a number for a hair loss treatment program in the West Loop and I was on my way.

It’s so easy these days to find a place to buy cheap organizers. You can find them online, especially through sites like E-bay or Craigslist. There are an abundance of retail stores and online companies that sell different types of organizers. Because of the superfluous stores they have to sell them at a good price. Supply is higher than demand. One downfall to buying a cheap organizer is that you are probably going to receive cheap quality too. If you’re looking for something that will last awhile but you’re not too worried about its exterior appearance, then you will definitely have the easiest time finding a cheap organizer. Buying plastic bins, which are sold all over the place, will take care of all of your organizational needs. Not only are they the cheapest, they’re also the lightest and the sturdiest. Most plastic bins are waterproof so you can keep them in your basement and not have to worry if it floods or put them in a storage facility.  Taking proper care of these bins will ensure that they will last a lifetime. Make sure not to store anything in them like fluids or chemicals that have the potential to eat away at the plastic. You can find these bins at any department store or major retailers.

Our daughters have begun to assuage our concerns that they can take good care of themselves while they are away at school.  We have had a harder time adjusting to their going away than they have.  Not that we would tell them how concerned we have been.  But they seem to know we are worried as most parents are when they send their kids off to school.  The girls have assured us their living arrangements are pretty safe, the area they live in is well-lit and that there is even surveillance security around the campus and even in the student residences.  I wonder if they know how much we appreciate them acknowledging our concerns the way they do?  We couldn’t be prouder of our girls, and we know they will do well in their studies.  They have always worked hard and gotten excellent grades.  Even though they have had their mischievous moments growing up, for the most part, there are no complaints from us.  Maybe by the time our sons are ready to fly the coop, we will have gotten used to the idea and it won’t be such a shock to our systems as it was with the girls.

LASIK eye surgery has become the most popular eye surgery option among people. With growing days more and more people are opting for LASIK surgery. LASIK surgery saves one from the burden and   discomfort of wearing a glass or contact lens. Although LASIK is such a lucrative option, it is good to have certain questions for your LASIK surgeon.  Although LASIK is a very easy and simple process, an incompetent and inexperienced doctor may cause a lot of complications. So before choosing a doctor one should always verify the credentials of the doctor. One should also ask the doctor about his/her experience with performing the surgery. If the doctor is very experienced and has successful operations to his name then he can be easily trusted to give good results. One should also ask the doctor about contact information of their previous patients to verify their experience of the LASIK surgery. One should also not forget to ask the doctor about the procedure and what kind of anesthesia would be used. The healing time of the eye should also be verified with the doctor. One should always ask the time in which he/she can regain normal sight. Above all the cost of the LASIK surgery should also be asked from the doctor beforehand so that one can plan the budget.

When I got diagnosed with diabetes, I decided to go all out when buying the equipment I would need in my house to keep it under control.  I figured that this was my health that I was talking about so this shouldn’t be a situation where I should try to scrimp and save.  I wanted to have all the latest glucose monitor options and supplies, so I bought the Cardio Check ST Analyzer starter kit.  This thing does just about everything that I can think of: it measures triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, katone and glucose – and it comes with lancets and test strips.  I know that it may seem a bit excessive, but if I’m going to do something I like to do it right.  If I’m going to be using it to check my blood sugar, I want it to check everything else as well.  The way I figure it, there’s no sense in trying to keep my sugar levels good if my cholesterol and triglycerides are all out of whack.  This monitor is not just going to tell me if I’m keeping my diabetes in check, it’s going to tell me if I’m keeping my health in check.

Have you ever randomly typed your name into an internet search engine and seen what comes up?  I typed in my name, Bart Allen Milesaus the Third, onto google and came up with a lot of strange results.  There is a Bart Allen Milesaus III who works as a personal injury attorney in Miami.  He’s apparently forty-three years old and is the best person to contact in southern Florida if a car hits you or a safe falls out of the sky down on top of you.  What other than a personal injury attorney in Miami?  Well, there’s someone with my name that works as a male stripper in Atlanta.  He headlines a different club every night of the week and I’m afraid to look at the pictures.  Someone else with my name was named Wal-Mart’s employee of the month in Portland, Washington and they wished him well on his two-week vacation to Sonoma, California in the middle of wine country.  Then there’s the guy who has a political blog that claims there’s a vast left wing conspiracy holding liberal republicans down, but they’ll still win the next string of elections.  At least all these people are pretty interesting if nothing else. 

My cousin Jack is a personal injury attorney in New York.  We are the same age, so when we were growing up, he was practically like a brother to me.  Our mothers are very close, so we spent a lot of time together.  We lived in the same town and went to the same schools through high school.  When college rolled around, I went to Indiana University, and he went to New York University.  He came back to Chicago to go to law school at Depaul, but then he decided to move back to New York for work.  It was nice to get a chance to spend some time with him for the few years that he was back in Chicago for law school.  He had a lot of friends out in New York from college, and he wanted to get back there to work.  Neither one of us are very good at keeping in touch with one another, so we do not talk as much as we used to anymore.  We trade e-mails when we can, and once in a while I get a hilarious drunk dial from him in the middle of the night.  I keep telling him he’s too old to do that anymore, but he still does.