Melissa Writes

Well, well, well I haven’t been writing weekly like I wanted to.  It’s been an odd summer.  Let me get you caught up quickly.

I bought a gluten-free bread book a couple weeks ago.  I’ve read it cover to cover twice.  I’m now ready to make the leap and buy a bread maker, something I swore I’d never do when I baked with wheat.  I’ve made cinnamon rolls from the book.  I was not thrilled.  The bread portion wasn’t bad, they just didn’t have the cinnamon flavor I was looking for.  I’ve got a few ideas bouncing around on how to fix it.  When I get it right, I’ll post pictures.  I’m not showing things that don’t look good.  Amazing part of them, the butter soaked in.  That’s right the butter soaked into the bread.  If you’ve been in the gluten-free world for awhile you’ll know what an exciting thing that is.  If not, butter used to roll right off the bread.  You make them in muffin cups, I made the 12-cup version, but my 12-cup muffin tins must be slightly smaller than the recipe author’s.  They went over the top of the pan and were a pain to get out.  I’m going to attempt french bread later this week.  Maybe it will be picture worthy.

My summer addiction came back on TV this past week.  That’s right I am a Big Brother addict.  I don’t know if there is a support group for it or not, but even if there was I wouldn’t want to join.  I enjoy my addiction too much to give it up.  I’m not thrilled that Jesse is back on the show, but I am thrilled that this group of house guests are the craziest I’ve seen so far.  In the short two weeks that they have been in the house we’ve had fights, racial slurs, possible love/sex triangles, and already at least one sexual act under the covers.  It blows me away.  I look forward to the upcoming weeks of watching the show on TV, live feeds, and chatting away at hamsterwatch.com.

Crafting yes that’s a sad face after the word crafting.  I love crafting but I’m running out of room in the house, I need some place to set up my stuff.  I’m attempting to make a quilt, I’ve done it before, the attempt comes in trying to use the kitchen table.  I get the table cleared, set-up my stuff, get a few strips or blocks cut and it’s time to do something else.  When I finally get back to the quilt, the table is covered, my stuff is buried and I’m irked.  I did knit the other night during the commercial breaks of Big Brother.  I’m going to attempt to do that every week during at least one show.  Class will be starting back up and I’ll still be working on the same project I was when class stopped.  I also want to sew some reusable bags for grocery shopping, I’ve got crochet patterns for them but I think I could sew them quicker.

Nascar is starting to irk me.  Why?  Well you’ve got teams wooing Danica for money not talent, a judge over turning Mayfield’s suspension who hasn’t attempted to make the field since, and Kyle Busch acting like he is three I’ve about to give up.  Come on, you can’t win everytime.  It’s bad when Larry Mac is calling you out on the carpet for not giving interviews.  You can read it here.  I agree with everything he says there.  At some point no one is going to want to hire or sponsor Kyle and that’s a shame with the driving talent he has.

I started shooting a girl’s senior photos over fourth of July.  Since I’m not a pro and she’s not totally ready, I get to do a little here and there.  It’s nice.  I was super worried about it but she is so photogenic it’s not even funny.  I’ve had a blast doing it.  I hope she likes them.  I can’t wait to see them all printed.  I’m waiting on my CS4 to arrive.  Then I can have lots of fun with them.  I think I’ll go catch the mail box now.  Have  a great day!

I’m floored.  I’m upset.  I’m shocked. I’m appalled.  I can’t not believe that Mayfield won his injunction and can be on track tomorrow at Daytona.

I’m a faithful follower of Bob Packrass on Twitter.  I also follow Jayski.  They are good about getting the info out to people and it saves me from spending hours searching for news. They tweet something, if it’s in my scope of interest then I’m out researching it.  Sometimes it becomes a blog post, other times it’s just filed in the back of my head for safe keeping.  Early in the week Bob tweeted about Mayfield getting Adderall from an Anti-Aging/Spa doctor.  It was later learned that the doctor also has an urgent care facility.  Adderall is not a medication that falls under any of that.  Let’s take a long look at Adderall before we go on.

What is Adderall used to treat?

• ADHD
• Idiopathic Central Nervous System Hypersomnia established by recognized diagnostic criteria
• Drug-induced brain dysfunction
• Epilepsy
• Narcolepsy
• Senile apathetic behavior
• Psychiatric differential diagnosis of depression

None of those things fall under anti-aging medications that I can see.  Also none of them fall under medications that urgent care facilities should be prescribing to patients.  Now let’s look at the side effects of the drug.

Side Effects of Adderall:

• fast, pounding, or uneven heartbeats
• feeling light-headed, fainting;
• increased blood pressure (severe headache, blurred vision, trouble concentrating, chest pain, numbness, seizure);
• tremor, restlessness, hallucinations, unusual behavior, or motor tics (muscle twitches).
• Adderall can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions. Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be awake and alert.

I’m not thrilled with the last side effect.  I’ve seen the positive side effects of Adderall in the classroom so don’t take this as a bashing of the drug.  I still can not see how Mayfield got a legit prescription for this drug from the doctor who prescribed it.  Adderall can and is abused by those without a true need for it.  Now let’s take a look at the abuse of the drug.

• Adderall is comparable to purely refined methamphetamine and is highly addictive
• when snorted or injected creating a rapid increase in brain blood levels, people experience euphoria but also anxiety, an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, insomnia, irritability, sometimes psychotic behavior, and often dependency

Ok, now we know about the first drug that he was on.  Now, let’s think about what was released today.  Mayfield tested positive, four times, for methamphetamines.  OHHHHH now look at what I posted above, Adderall can act like methamphetamines.   People use it the same way they do methamphetamines.  Mayfield gets a prescription for Adderall from a doctor that it doesn’t sound like should be prescribing it.  This is starting to sound like baseball’s steroid problem to me.

Now, let’s look at the injunction that Mayfield won today.  For some reason, I’d like to know, the judge ruled that Nascar improperly suspended Mayfield.  I can only base my opinion on what has been released to the general public.  Which is, Mayfield’s A test came back positive for a banned substance.  Nascar then tested sample B which also came back positive.  After both came back positive Nascar suspended him.  It also allowed Mayfield to race after sample A came back, they did not suspend him until the second came back positive also.  Then after the lawsuit was filed they shipped the two samples off to another lab which found the same results as the first lab.  I’ve heard Mayfield say he was taking Adderall, I have yet to see proof though that it was coming from a legit source, and Claritin.  After researching the effects of Adderall I’m still thinking Nascar made the right decision.  Now, if proof surfaces that the Adderall prescription came from a legit source for legit reasons I’ll retract my statement.  At this point I see Mayfield as a danger on the track.

If I were one of the drivers, after hearing what I have in the last week, I would refuse to go on track Thursday when Mayfield was out there.  I would not feel safe on track going to rate of speed that happens at Daytona with someone who has tested positive for meth.  I couldn’t be sure that they were clean now.  I’ll be interested to find out what the driver’s reactions are to this.

UPDATE: Just reading from Jayski’s site and found this lovely little tidbit. Mullen said in granting the injunction that the irreparable harm appeared to be greater for Mayfield than NASCAR Really?  Is this not a safety factor?  Nascar may not actually lose anything, money wise, but what happens if he’s still not clean?  What happens if he wrecks and hurts someone?  Then isn’t the irreparable harm greater for the Nascar community then for Mayfield?