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?

I’ve been going to do this for over a week now, but I’m having now luck with getting time to write. It’s almost midnight now.  Before I get on my rant, let me get this part out I have no problems with female drivers.  I am a female, I want a great female driver out there, and I have done a series on female drivers.  I am looking at interviewing Chrissy Wallace sometime this summer to add to the series.  Now my thoughts and opinions about Danica.

Danica is a gorgeous woman.  I will admit that.  I think that’s what she has going for herself.  I’m not a prude, here’s a dirty little secret of mine, I loved the show The Girls Next Door.  That’s right, Hef’s ex-girlfriends were my second favorite thing to watch on a Sunday.  I just feel that Danica is selling her looks more than she is selling her talents.  That cheapens the whole thing.  It makes it feel like she’s out there for her looks instead of talent.  I have major issues with women being judged for their looks.  There is so much more to a woman than that.

Danica has been consistent in IRL.  I’ll give her that.  Nascar is nothing like the IRL, look at the guys who have made the transition.  Tony Stewart is one of the few in recent years that has been successful.  I’m worried that she’ll be a mid-pack at best driver.  I’m not looking forward to that.  I want a front running woman.  There’s no reason we can’t have one.  I’m just not sold on the idea that Danica has it in her to be that woman.

Why do I think she’s getting romanced by Nascar?  She’s a sponsor’s dream.  She’s going to be bringing big bucks.  Men love her and I’m guessing that they are betting that there are women who will be drawn to her because she’s a female in a male dominated world.  That’s not a good enough reason if you ask me.  I understand that you have to have sponsors in the racing world, it just costs too much money.  I’m tired though of having a bunch of ok, so, so drivers because they can draw big bucks from sponsors.  I would rather have a field of less than forty-three cars that was amazing then a full field of O.K. drivers.  I want great racing again.  I don’t think Danica is going to contribute to the sport in that way.

I also think that this is a way to draw/grab more watchers.  I’m not going to go off on that whole issue, that will have to be another post, catch the Open Letter To Nascar for some of my thoughts on it. I’m sure there will be some come over to Nascar.  Danica has dedicated fans and I would hope that those fans would follow her to the new sport.  I bet a few people will tune in just to see her in action.  I know that I tuned into IRL to see her in action a couple of times.  I’m just not sure if the racing is exciting enough right now to hold them.  I think once you turn someone off it will take a lot to get them back into it.

Ok, so what are your thoughts on it?

My lovely followers, no matter how few you are, please sit back while I rip at Nascar for a moment. Feel free to leave your comments below if you have any rants you want to add.

Nascar, first I want to tell you that I  love you.  Ok, well it’s more in like with you lately.  See you’ve made me mad. I don’t love things I’m mad at.

I’m not your demographic, I know.  I’m your target age 29, I’m your target sex female, but I’m not someone who was drawn to the sport by Dale Sr.’s death.  Nope I’d been watching long before that.  September of 1979, do the math, I’ve watched since birth.  I’m not a white collar girl, not here, blue collar all the way.  My favorite drivers weren’t picked by how cute they are or how well they fill out the uniform.  I’m sure I’ve got what you would call redneck tendencies.  You want to disown us, we don’t bring you enough money.  That doesn’t matter to me, it’s still a sport near to my heart.

Cookie cutter tracks suck!  It’s not good racing.  Darlington and The Rock provided better racing then Kansas and Las Vegas ever could.  I live an hour from Kansas Speedway and have been there once.  I’d much rather nap in my air conditioned house then in the stands.

You’ve forgotten your roots.  I understand the sport had to grow out of just the south.  Growth can only keep happening when you don’t cut your roots off.  You start killing all the tradition in Nascar and you alienate your core.  See those blue collar people who were fans before 2001, they are the ones who will drive all over the country to watch the races.  For the white collar crowd you are just a status symbol.  Nascar is their new country club, soon that will wear off and they won’t want you anymore.

You hide your head in the sand.  That’s right Nascar your head is stuck in the sand.  For whatever reason you don’t want to see the problems that you have.  Your first step will be to admit you have problems.  Not sure what they are?  Let me help.

Punks are taking over the sport.  Remember back in 2001 when Kevin Harvick came in and thought he was too cool for school?  You sat his butt, the vets kicked his butt, and now he’s not a punk anymore.  His head is on straight and he is a pretty decent guy on the track.  You need to let that happen to some of the new guys.  Punks aren’t fun to watch or listen to.  It’s bad when you hear almost every race, “Well, I’m just that much better than everyone else.”  Guess what it turns some of us off.

You have a drug problem.  I know you don’t want to hear that, but you do. You’ve had it for years, it’s not new.  Remember Tim Richmond?  Yeah, I know you thought everyone else had forgotten about it too.  You’ve kicked a few out, but you haven’t done anything to help them.  The problem doesn’t go away if you wash your hands of them.  You are supposed to be a family, family members help each other.  Get them into a program, get them some counseling, do something, something is better than nothing.  You are busting lower rung people.  You want me to believe that if the Aaron Fike’s of the sport are scoring some drugs, that you don’t have upper tier drivers doing the same thing?  Please, give me a break.  You want to wake someone up?  Bust some of the big names.  I know you know who they are.  Do it, set some precedence.  

Nascar the ball is in your court now, what are you going to do with it?

I’ve had two blogs before, both were super specific themes.  One was a Nascar blog, the other was a gluten-free blog.  I love both topics, the problem is I have a million hundreds interests.  I want to share them all. When you have a racing blog you can’t talk about your new knitting project.  I need a place to just write. Share myself with the world. So here it is, melissawrites.com.  Nifty huh?

I’m not going to bore you with the basics about me.  If you really want to know that, well find me.  I’ll tell you.  I will tell you what you can expect from this blog.  Nascar news, gluten-free, crafting, photography, fire fighting, rants, and maybe even a few raves about something; if you are lucky I might pull out a few old interviews I did for a Nascar site.  

How to find me:

Twitter: @melissameek

E-Mail: melissa@melissawrites.com