23 March–19 April 2015 microblogging

Microblog posts of mine that only made it to Twitter and not to Google or Tumblr.

Just another visit with my oral surgeon. —23 Mar.

A consultation with the surgeons. —25 Mar.

I’m still getting over a gastrointestinal bug I first noticed Wednesday when I preferred to stand in the hospital waiting room than sit. 🏥😷 —27 Mar.

Ensalada con pollo. —27 Mar.

House of Cards ≠ “Oscar’s Farts,” a rarely seen episode of The Odd Couple. 📺 —1 Apr.

Chef salad. —2 Apr.

With participants from the gay men’s discussion group. —3 Apr.

Una otra ensalada con pollo. —9 Apr.

At the Persian Parade. —19 Apr.

At the festival after the Persian Parade. —19 Apr.

Yesterday, I did jury service and wasn’t even picked for a voir dire panel, let alone a jury. All I did for about five and a half hours was write in my diary, check online social networks with their free Wi‐Fi, talk on the telephone with my mother, watch movies and flirt with a few attractive men. Then for my trouble, they gave me a certificate good for four years that thanks me for my “participation and contribution to the delivery of justice.” 😌

With five participants (plus the facilitator), the gay men’s discussion group Friday was quite well attended compared to how it’s been recently. The introductions and preliminary talk about ourselves led into an organic discussion about addiction. As it turns out, I was the only one without an addictive personality; everyone else present has had true addictions to alcohol or to recreational drugs or to sex or to overeating. Gripping a discussion as it was, I had difficulty relating to it for that reason, but also for one other: Multiple participants were happy to attribute their strengths to God and take credit for their accomplishments away from themselves in order to hand it over to a Deity. Even those who saw the benefit of praising and recognizing merit in human accomplishment still tempered it with God talk. (God gave me the tools the overcome my addiction but I had to use them.) The facilitator even attributed human ethics to God, saying that he truly believed that our internal voice that knows right from wrong (to which we do not always listen) is God. Another participant compared God to the sun and humans to the planets which revolve around it. Nevertheless, this was an exceptional discussion in which I learned about their strategies for overcoming their issues and I got to briefly discuss the adjustment disorder I feel I had in the early Aughts.

It was the first night of Passover and I had no seder to attend, but I went out to eat with the men’s group participants to a local diner and had a Passover meal of chicken cordon bleu, a garden salad and side vegetables (no bread).