Today I have some gripes.  I have been listening to NPR more recently for some unexplained reason.  I guess since I don’t get the newspaper any long and really don’t surf the internet for news updates, I thought maybe NPR would keep me more informed on what is happening in the world.

I heard the other day that Puerto Rico is in debt to the tune of 70 billion dollars.  Seventy billion f…ing dollars.  Do you think that maybe when they made it to one billion, someone should have said, “Maybe we should rethink this strategy?”  No, seventy more and their asses are way in debt.

My brother was stationed in Puerto Rico when he was in the service and said it was one of the most beautiful places ever.  Why don’t they work with that – tourism?  I’d go scuba diving in Puerto Rico.  Shoot I’d go just to snorkel.  I just want to be on a beach, what can I say?

Seventy billion dollars for Puerto Rico and last night on Chelsea I heard that the good ole US of A is in debt in the trillions.  (I just love her show, don’t you?)  I could just puke.  I still have a payment on my house and it makes my stomach hurt.

Puerto Rico, I say, “let it sink back in the ocean.”

And the other thing is about PMS.  My hubster admits last night that he is glad Hillary Clinton is beyond menopause because he could just picture some diplomat pissing her off while she is “OTR” or menopausal and she thinks, “I’m pushing this button.”

I get so sick of men who have absolutely no idea of what being OTR is.  I had PMS from Hell, Hades, eternal damnation and so much more.  One week a month I was a complete monster.  I screamed and hollered and blew up at everyone over the biggest nothings you can imagine.  I was in pain during the first ten years of this roller coaster ride.  My mom took me to the doctor more than once to get a shot so I would be out of pain and out of her hearing.  A look could set me off into a hell storm of emotions.  I could flip that switch so quick it would make your butt dangle.

When I turned 19 I went to Planned Parenthood and got on the pill.  I wanted to have sex and I sure as hell didn’t want to have a baby.  The pill made most of my pain go away but not the emotional explosions.  And I started having migraine headaches.  That will be saved for another blog.

I went into menopause in my fifties and the heat was intense.  I started a job in an office without air conditioning that was in the room next to the boiler room.  People would come into the office and ask how I could stand the heat.  (I needed the job, for heaven’s sake.)

I remember getting up in the middle of the night and walking outside in the winter cold just so I could breathe properly again.  I have made a bucket of ice water just to soak my feet and hands to cool down.

But the part about menopause for me was that I became a human being again.  I got off that emotional roller coaster.  Gone were the tampax, pads, pain, bloating, backache, head stress, and I was just hot.  My emotions began to simmer down.  I didn’t get upset over the least little thing any longer.

I heard someone once say that if men had periods, tampons would be free.  We women should start a campaign that tampons should be free.  The Kotex Company would hate us.