Morning!

I'm already all riled up this morning, because CBS Sunday Morning is doing a thing about the Evils of Gambling, and some gambling addiction counselor just said "an alcoholic can just stay away from the bar, but a problem gambler has to see all the popular culture that celebrates gambling." Um, seriously?? Our popular culture doesn't continuously celebrate drinking?? Liquor is only available at one kind of place? PLEASE.

Phew. I feel better.

I am often up at that time, too, and I am not a mother. Craxy!

It is also freezing here. I am actually about to see if I can go buy a blanket or curtain to shut of the alcove in my living room that has no heat., because there is a big blast of cold air coming from there.

I have weird heat, though, because the furnace is in my apartment, and there are no heat runs, so the extremities of the apartment get very cold.

some gambling addiction counselor just said "an alcoholic can just stay away from the bar, but a problem gambler has to see all the popular culture that celebrates gambling." Um, seriously??

Yeah, my experience contradicts that. Number of times offered an alcoholic drink this week? 3 or 4. Number of times offered any form of gambling opportunity? 0.

Yeah, but did you watch CSI, Calli? JUST AS BAD AS BEING OFFERED A DRINK.

It's so weird how winters here are so much milder than where I grew up (about 220 miles north of here). It doesn't seem like a real winter to me until it gets below zero.

Yeah, I get that. But I don't think it's the location - I think winters in this region have gotten seriously milder/less snowy than twenty or so years ago. And it's kind of sad and freaky.

That said, it is plenty cold right now. Yesterday I had to bribe myself with a trip to the cupcake store in order to take the dog on a reasonable length walk.

did you watch CSI, Calli? JUST AS BAD AS BEING OFFERED A DRINK.

No, but evidently I should. Booze costs way too much, and I'm already paying for cable. So thanks for the tip!

I wonder how the gambling addiction counselor feels about gambling as an addiction relative to sex as an addiction. I mean, would she say our culture doesn't celebrate sex either?

Lesson No. 8907 about the internet:

it fuels my OCD. I dropped books off at the school book depository yesterday AM before class. The library opens at 10:00 AM and my class began at 8:00. Thanks to the internet, I can check my library record and see that they have not been checked back in. I ask you, WHY NOT?! So I'll check again later today to see if they do get checked in.

Paranoia is a beautiful thing.

I guess the gambling counselor has a serious case of "If you have a nail, the world looks like a hammer" syndrome, tunnel vision for her cause of choice.

That said, I know you can't go into almost any grocery, convenience, liquor store around here without passing the state lottery on sale, not to mention sports being ubiquitous in our culture/news, which I suppose would be a big trigger to some gamblers. Because most of us don't have a gambling problem, it's nearly invisible to us.

I seem to be arguing myself around to seeing it from her point of view. Though of course, she's taking a big leap over all the social situations that involve liquor, all the ads in various places and et cetera.

In conclusion: addiction is hard, and deserves a lot of understanding.

I guess the gambling counselor has a serious case of "If you have a nail, the world looks like a hammer" syndrome, tunnel vision for her cause of choice.

This.

In conclusion: addiction is hard, and deserves a lot of understanding.

Also this.

Really it was the pop culture part that killed me -- later on the same show, they had a thing about Super Bowl ads, many of which are for beer, of course.

Ah well, moving on! I think I'll go buy a six-pack and a scratch card.

Speaking of CSI (not really), if anyone watched L&O on Friday, my sister was very briefly in the first scene! She's the angry looking woman in the front row in the camouflage jacket, and there's a close-up of her shouting at the Anne Coulterish speaker right before everyone rushes the stage. (Ripped-from-the-headlines opening scenes that only tangentially affect the case don't need whitefont, right?)