A couple of days ago, this meeting invite showed up in my In Box.
Best Outlook invite ever. Took me all of five seconds to accept.
Maybe you can fight City Hall, after all. Our request for information on any zoning restrictions pertaining to the “No Parking” signs we wanted to put up had gone ignored for two weeks, and we were just itching for a fight.
“We can’t let The Man keep us down!” I shouted. “It’s time to rise up. We shall overcome!”
“What exactly are you overcoming?” a coworker asked.
“Injustices,” I answered, hoping this vague refrain would not prompt further questions. Fortunately, it did not. Maybe Ferguson is still fresh on everybody’s minds. Or Damian Lillard’s All-Star snub. In any case, there are enough generic injustices in the world to make my march on City Hall seem much more exciting than asking for permission to put up a sign.
The actual storming of City Hall was sort of anti-climactic. Once we threw open the door and barged in, we kind of stood around politely until the woman behind the counter asked us how she might be of assistance. And when we reminded her we’d stopped by a couple of weeks earlier and had yet to hear back from The Powers That Be, she disappeared down the hall and returned a few minutes later, telling us we were free to put up our sign. All thoughts of staging a Be-In were quickly dashed.
Good thing. I wouldn’t know where or how to be-gin a Be-In. Truth is, I don’t even know what a Be-In is. But it sounds exciting.
Our ideals may not have been as lofty as “rejecting middle-class morality,” but at least we came back with answers, not to mention a great story about the day we tangled with local government…and won.
I don’t know why Tara says I have a tendency for over-exaggeration, by the way.
In other news, I had a doctor’s appointment last week and it went really well. My commitment to a healthy diet and exercise are paying off in spades; my blood sugars are way down, in the low-to-normal range, so my doctor took me off insulin. This means I am taking no medications to treat my diabetes. I consider that a big WIN because only 16% of patients are able to control their diabetes through lifestyle changes alone. And it also validates my insistence that I had Type 2 diabetes. My doctor suspected I was Type 1 because very few T2 patients develop diabetic ketoacidosis, the life-threatening condition I was admitted to the hospital for in December. I countered with the fact that very few adults develop T1 diabetes. Either way, I was a medical anomaly. He ran lab tests, and sure enough, my intuition was correct. Thankfully, because T2 is definitely more manageable. I’m living proof of that.
As of this morning, I have lost 23.5 lbs. since leaving the hospital. Ironically, this may be the healthiest I’ve ever been my entire life. It turns out watching your carbs and eliminating sugar really do work wonders for your body! Who knew? Walking every single day, anywhere from 30-90 minutes, doesn’t hurt, either. The first few weeks after I was discharged I was craving those things like crazy, but now I don’t miss them at all. The positive comments I am receiving from my coworkers are added motivation to keep up the hard work, too. They tell me I look like a different person. I certainly feel like one.
Happy weekending, y’all.
Mark Petruska 
Congratulations on your city hall win and your good health! Yay! I love that you are making so much progress with your health and that you medication free! Woot!
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Thank you! Up next: weaning myself off the blood pressure meds. All in due time, though.
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Slow and steady wins the race!
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over-exaggeration
Being so dramatic can be counter productive. More positive response may be achieved by expressing moderate exaggeration or reserved exaggeration or perhaps the British style of gentlemanly exaggeration. If you have a PhD literature perhaps hyperbolic exaggeration may be applied effectively.
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Those Brits do have quite the reputation for being gentlemanly. I am always reminded of the bicyclist in National Lampoon’s European Vacation who kept apologizing to Clark Griswold for being in the path of his car at the wrong time. No PhD for me. No letters of any kind, actually. I’m more of a self-taught exaggerator.
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“Either way, I was a medical anomaly” – it is always nice to know you are special. Did you storm the hall with a battering ram or are you more of a pitchfork kind of person?
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I should say I used a battering ram to bust down the door, but really I just pulled it open. Not nearly as bad-ass, I know.
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Mark, a HUGE congratulations on your City Hall win!
BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I’m even more happy to hear about your amazing progress with your health.
*cheering LOUDLY*
“They tell me I look like a different person. I certainly feel like one.”
You GO, boy!
Have a faaaaaaaaaaabulous weekend!
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Thank you, Ron! On both counts. I don’t know which I’m prouder of.
OK, it’s the health stuff. Really a no-brainer.
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I do not know what is required of a Be-In, I have participated in Sit-Ins when protesting, but a Be-In sounds interesting too. Kudos on getting your sign posted.
And extra kudos for the health improvements and positive lifestyle change! Not having to do insulin everyday has to feel like a major success! Enjoy it, Mark!
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Thanks, Jess. It’s a huge burden off my back. To go from giving myself copious amounts of insulin 4 times a day after being discharged to this…I’m just really happy with how I’m taking care of myself and am loving the results! I’m also a little jealous of your sit-in.
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Wow, Mark! I’m really proud of you for your healthy lifestyle changes. Now, if you get your overall cholesterol down to 140 like me, I will be really impressed…………..I only say this because I have high blood pressure, which confuses the heck out of every health professional I encounter.
You and me….medical anomalies! BTW….I love a good exaggerator!
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Funny thing is, a year before my diagnosis, my cholesterol was fine – under 200, as it should be. But because of the diabetes, it absolutely skyrocketed. Don’t even get me started on my triglycerides. Fortunately, with all the lifestyle changes I’ve incorporated, I fully expect those numbers to drop significantly. I’ll learn where I stand in another couple of months. Don’t know if I can get it down to 140, but with everything else falling into place nicely, we’ll just see what happens! Thank you for your kind words, by the way.
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