Now with its own blog!I didn't know that my friend Ned Spofford was over 70. He writes poetry.
I also forgot to mention that I got my start on my emergency supply kit from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Safeway. Back in the summer, Safeway was offering subsidised kits under the auspices of the Red Cross. The kit was in a red backpack with a list of suggested additional supplies and photo of Maria Shriver. After all, it'd be good to see her face in an emergency.
I signed up for a writing workshop with James Frey in Berkeley October 28/29.
He wrote How to Write a Damn Good Novel and a sequel How to Write a Damn Good Novel II. I found the latter one of the most useful and entertaining how-to books on novel writing.
My fellow writer and BMC alum Gina attends every year. She has wonderful things to say about him. If you want to know more, please feel free to email me.
I hope those of you who are writers can join me.
Details are here.
Today is C's 39th birthday. I hope he has many more years left in him. Lots of love.
Even before Katrina hit, I stockpiled a few supplies in case of an emergency. I have some water, army field rations, a battery powered/solar powered radio, first-aid kit, blankets, etc. And today C sent me this article that gets one thing right in that it should be in one place that you can take it and run. But it actually suggests less supplies than I have, and doesn't suggest basic necessities like say a mylar blanket. And alarmingly suggests stupid and dangerous things like a gun (if you already know how to shoot).
But don't worry. I'm not getting a gun. Movement disorders and guns don't mix. Besides I'm wirey and scrappy when cornered as kids in the school yard discovered when they tried to pick on me.
I also think the advice on keeping documents nearby is a little strange. It seems a little post-apocalyptic that all traces of my documents would be gone since copies of our documents are scattered throughout the world, but perhaps the article was geared towards a more provincial audience.
First of all, whoever spins the web of my life has a keen sense of irony, because my OB apt was bumped due to an emergency C-section. I should have had an emergency C-section with Little T. Instead he got stuck instead my birth canal and had to be turned which was excruciating and life-threatening for both of us.
I felt my cervix yesterday and it just felt horribly wrong. Instead of a nice slightly open C-shape, it's a droopy udder with weird bumpy bits. It was ripped to shreds when Little T got stuck there. Now blood gets stuck there when I have my period and it hurts like hell. I feel like my cervix will never hold together to have another kid. It can barely hold together towards the end of my cycle. I feel like my uterus is going to fall out. Not that I want another kid. We'd already decided on two before Little T was born. I put off going to the OB, because I thought I didn't want to go and be told that I was now infertile, and I had that choice taken away from me. Then I read a diary entry from Mary Anne and I realised that I wasn't going to make things better by hiding, so I finally made an apt.
And the good news is the gods had a good laugh, because at least on the ultrasound and on physical exam my uterus and cervix appear fine. There are no polyps, no masses. There are a few small cysts on my ovaries but those are pretty much par for the course for me. My CBC was normal, but the hormone work hadn't come back yet. I guess that could still be screwy. I talked with my OB frankly about my feelings and that something isn't right down there. Trauma about sums it up.
She suggested the patch for the heavy painful periods. It comes in a space-age pouch with a little dancer on it. It amuses me.
After going to the OB, I realised I actually didn't want to hear I could get pregnant again. One of my biggest fears is another accidental pregnancy. Now part of me says "well you didn't do badly with accidental pregnancy, which produced a healthy child Special K, whereas my charted and obssessed-over pregnancy produced Little T a medically fragile child. Even so another accidental pregnancy scares the beejezus out of me. Okay another pregnancy and baby does.
I still feel my wyrd is to have three kids. Maybe one of them won't be a bio-kid, but it doesn't really matter, because most of me thinks I'm insane to contemplate another child since Little T is about four children in himself. I really don't have a desire to have a third child. I just always thought I'd have three kids until Special K was born and I'm a case proof that birth control isn't 100% effective. Hence it's my wyrd.
So I'm relieved and confused, and I'm going to try the patch after my period. And I feel lucky to have choices.
An email from Jim Frey
In addition to the important work being done by the American Red Cross and other relief agencies, there are a number of special efforts we thought writers might be particularly interested in:
Age prejudice 'ubiquitous in UK' - I was particularly struck by the quote "One key point is that a half of all people under the age of 24 have no friends over 70, and vice versa. And the data shows that those without intergenerational friendships are also more likely to hold negative beliefs about the competence of people over 70." Do you have any friends over the age of 70? I used to, but sadly they all died, except for one Ned Spofford. Time to make some new friends.
If you live in the UK, please donate your brain to science...after you're dead of course and presumably no longer using it. Your brain could really help fight debilitating brain diseases. They actually need healthy brains more than diseased brains.
Porn makes you blind but just for a few seconds.
Smoking makes you blind and it's for life. It's so sad how they find more and more how bad smoking is for you. Of course my granddad smoked until he was 90.
I read this fascinating article in the Economist that the chimpanzee gene has been completely sequenced. It turns out that the genomes "differ by only 1.2% over the course of some 3 billion pairs" I had always thought we were 98% similar, but it turns out we're actually 98.8% similar. Wow. "There are no immediately obvious genes—present in one, but not the other—that account for such characteristic human attributes as intelligence or even hairlessness. And while there is a gene connected with language, known as FOXP2, it had already been discovered." The article points out "it may be that many of the crucial differences are not in the genes themselves, but in how and when the messages those genes carry are transcribed and translated into the protein molecules that do the work in cells—and thus, ultimately, determine what an organism looks like and how it behaves." Even so, it was humbling to read and as the article rightly points out, chimpanzees used to be classified as Homo troglodytes and that's how I think of them.
I also enjoyed reading this article on how particle physics makes things magnetic which ended "So, next time you have an MRI scan, remember that part of the picture depends on something that isn't really there. Strange, eh?"
Sad to read this article about how mad cow disease might be caused by humans infecting cows, you have to pay, so I can't quote from it either, but the upshot is that human waste from the Ganges was collected by bone collectors in India and was then fed to cows in Britain. The Economist admits it's far fetched. Even so, it confirms my dislike for beef. Dunno what I'm allergic to in beef, but maybe it's humans brains....
And last and definitely least, Ipod releases a shiny new cell phone Now I need to wait for the combo cell phone/Ipod/Palm/camera. Shiny happy/music playing/camera/pda that runs out of batteries in minutes.
Much of my news about Katrina comes from frumiousb who's an American Mawrter now living in Holland. Her post is locked due to content unrelated to Katrina.
I'm very outraged. We pay billions of dollars a year for troops and helicopters and ships. Why aren't they descending on NO to help our own people in their time of need?
An excellent series of lj posts from a nurse in a hospital in NO.
In one post, she asks for some clothing and towels and a pillow for herself. It's rather pathetic.
Bush appointed a weak manager to FEMA, because he was busy fighting wars and dealing with Homeland Security and now it's come to bite him hard with these series of awful headlines: FEMA sent fire crews...to hand out flyers, FEMA sent help only after the storm was over, Offers of aid have been held up in FEMA red tape
Or maybe he just lives in the same world as his mother: Barbara Bush Calls Evacuees Better Off
Or perhaps Bush just read these uplifting stories about heroes in NO in CounterPunch.org that I never heard of until Frumiousb linked to it.
Here's one I found from the BBC: Online gamers lend a hand
And keeping with my pledge to also report on international affairs, here's some outrage about China, Yahoo puts a Chinese dissident in jail
Last but certainly not least, Jed has an excellent post about the Same sex marriage act in California. If you're in California, please go here and follow his instructions.
I cried on the way home from Little T's hand apt, because the hand surgeon told me that Little T's left arm probably wouldn't improve much. I wasn't going to cry. I was going to just tough it out. Then I thought to myself "If I were my friend, would I think it was okay to cry?" So I cried. Not as much as I thought I would. I didn't have any particular dreams for his arm as such.
It did really hurt to hear that part of the cause might be brachioplexus. I'm still letting go the small voice that blames me for not making the horrible OB do an ultrasound on Little T's entire body and not just his head. When I was admitted, the nurse examined me and probably felt his arm and asked for an u/s to see where his head was. The OB on duty very snidely agreed and just waved the wand briefly over his head. I had a fleeting desire to ask to see the entire body, but it seemed silly at the time, so I didn't ask. If she had, she would have seen his huge left arm, and we'd have both been spared an incredibly traumatic birth. Even if she had no, I'd have felt less regret, because I'd have done every possible thing I could. I so rarely regret speaking up and asking for what I want, but there it is.
And that reminds me of my uncle's question "How do you cope with all this?". He asked me as we were sitting at the reception of my brother's wedding, which no doubt influenced my answer: We have some choices in life, but a lot of our choices come as part of a package deal. I didn't grow up in the richest country in the world, but I choose to stay here. I chose C to be my husband. I'm happy with those decisions. Even knowing what I know now, I wouldn't want to choose someone else. I choose the entire package.
And I didn't choose that horrible OB and probably she'd have just made fun of me for asking to see the entire body and refused. I went to the hospital in labour, but not active labour, and my water had been broken for just two hours. It was also my second birth and with my first, my sack had not broken until almost when Special K was born. Even so, the OB insisted that she give me pitocin. I equally insistently refused. I said I'd go into active labour on my own. I was right. And pitocin might well have killed Little T. So I got the big thing right. She got angry with me and that clouded her judgement. I think she labelled me as a "difficult patient" and ignored her nurse who noticed something was wrong.
For some reason, the hand surgeon asked if I wanted to have another. We have thought about it. He said "It's not hereditary." I know that. And unlike perhaps many able-bodied parents, I never had the dream of the perfect child. And I still wonder if Little T might not also have my movement disorder as well. Special K doesn't appear to. I just don't know if we can handle Little T and Special K and a third child. We were thinking two kids before Little T was born anyway. But never say never.
And I realised it's so much his arm that bothers me. It's other people treating him badly. I mostly want to spare Little T a painful childhood. Because I know what it's like to be teased mercilessly because you have a disability. But at least I can provide him a soft place to land. I already know he's a very strong person and there's just something about him that attracts people, charisma if you will. I think if we can get him through all these hospitalizations in one whole piece and that's still an if in my mind, he'll be okay.
I read this searing BBC Op-ed that begins:"The only difference between the chaos of New Orleans and a Third World disaster operation, he said, was that a foreign dictator would have responded better." Well also writes "If journalists were there with cameras beaming the suffering live across America, where were the officers and troops?" It's rather harsh, but it is true that suffering could have been averted with better planning. Wells writes about the levees but the real culprit is the devastation of the wetlands which allow flooding to take place.
If you want to help, you donate to Second Harvest, which according to Charity Navigator, and Forbes is a more efficient charity, but smaller charity than the Red Cross. Of course you can also donate to the Red Cross and specify Katrina relief fund. You can also donate to various Live Journal people who will donate to various charities. Shadesong compiled a list here.
I just saw the Oprah show so I decided to update this post. She showed the SuperDome and it looked just awful full of disease and germs. People described children raped as they went to the bathroom. It sounds unbelievable. Bodies rot on the sidewalks. They talked about gangs ruling the streets. I really don't understand if these are isolated incidents and the people reported them to get on the Oprah show, or it was widespread. Either way it reflects badly on New Orleans.
Being the Oprah show, it was also a celebrity fest with various celebrities doing good. I'm glad Oprah is part of the movement to make it fashionable for celebrities to do good. I miss Diana Princess of Wales today. She'd be there, smiling and handing out flowers. Ah, well.
The people on the Oprah show questioned if the government would have responded better if the people were richer. I question if Bush would have responded better if New Orleans had voted Republican.
The Economist hardly a bastion of environmentalism places the blame for much of the damage in New Orleans on the destruction of wetlands around New Orleans instead on Bush who IMO also shares the blame. I believe that if we don't take care of the earth, then it won't take care of us. We are still creatures part of the ecosystem of the earth. Though scientists can't yet prove any causal links between these recent disasters and global warming, I think they're all linked.
Frumiousb linked to an article about why people didn't leave:Living Paycheck to Paycheck Made Leaving Impossible - But I still didn't get it. I mean the warning was given a couple days before the hurricane. So they could just walk out, but then I talked to C who supplied the missing piece: They probably didn't take the warning seriously which is understandable, because hurricanes are unpredictable. They didn't want to leave their stuff and take the chance that the hurricane wouldn't be that bad and have their stuff stolen, or worse be stuck in the open with their elderly and infirm.
From Kynn, I learned The Red Cross wasn't allowed in NO at first They are now. It's clear the National Guard is stretched too thin, so it can't help the people in New Orleans like it should and so the Red Cross couldn't help at first.
C showed me this NY Times OP ed about the contempt of Bush for FEMA which contributed to the tragedy includin "the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients."
As I blogged earlier, I sent an email to Starbucks, I include the response below. My Catbert translation: Our PR campaign is working. This blogger has advertised for Starbucks. We are very pleased.
But I am also pleased that as a side benefit it supports the lesbigay community. Hooray!
Dear Thida,
Thank you for contacting Starbucks Coffee Company. We sincerely appreciate your comments about our efforts to support diversity.
As a Company, we are deeply committed to our Mission Statement and Guiding Principles. One of our six principles is "embracing diversity as an essential component to the way we do business." This includes the gay and lesbian community.
Starbucks has a long history of giving back to communities where we operate. We strive to support organizations that are important to our partners (employees) and customers.
Again, thank you for contacting Starbucks Coffee Company.
Sincerely,
Jessa M.
Starbucks Customer Relations
Parasites brainwash grasshoppers into death dive - Shows that depression and suicide (at least in grasshoppers) can have a strong biochemical cause
Autism has multiple genetic types - I could have told you that. :) My movement disorder myclonic dystonia has multiple genetic types. The only type identified so far responds to alcohol. Mine doesn't. "Good thing too." says my dad.
Two brainy scifi memes taken from HelenSchappell
And it figures I'm Janeway, because she's based on Katherine Hepburn who went to my alma mater Bryn Mawr.
After spending hours and even days talking to people, casting an invocation and giving a speech at my brother's wedding, I'm tired and even a little dizzy.
His wedding ceremony was in the "meadow" really sea grasses at Asilomar in Monterey. The day of the rehearsal was overcast and gray and beastly cold, but the sun shone brightly on the wedding day and even in sleeveless silk tops we bridesmaids were warm. Of course the bride was beautiful. It was lovely to see all my English relatives, but unfortunately we were incredibly tired, and it was a three-day affair. And after the first day we were already exhausted.
Special K ran around delighted and smiling and occasionally collapsed into a few meltdowns, because she stayed up until midnight and took no naps. She loved playing with her cousins and wandering up on stage during the speeches. When my uncle asked if anyone knew of any reason why the couple could not be lawfully wed, Special K said loudly "I want to be loud!". While the bride's family and friends were singing during the service, Special K and some of her little cousins sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" a little distance away. Little T laughed and smiled as long as we were holding him and cried if someone else held him or he was in the car. He tweaked a lot of noses over the weekend.
I'm normally a tea drinker, but I've already drank 1 and a bit of coffee today. I need it. I'm incredibly tired, but I did get some sun as I went with the bride and the other bridesmaids to choose flowers. I sat on a bench and gazed at the hills. I drank coffee and I chatted. I wandered through a corn maze that smelled delicious and ambled along a chamomile labyrinth that was surprisingly relaxing. I'm ready to read an invocation for my brother's wedding later this afternoon.
Special K was literally jumping up and down on the sofa cushions at midnight while I was falling asleep on the sofa at Misha's after rehearsal party. Of course there's a reception and then there's an after reception party too. Off for a walk on the beach then a nap if the kids let me.
 | You scored as Sparrow. You are Sparrow! You've been distracted from your usual spiritual pursuits by work and family. Get your hubby to babysit one night a week while you study Buddhist meditation at the local sangha. |
Mobile phones don't cause cancer - Phew! My cell-talking friends and I can all rest easier now.
My friend akienm blogged about this Virtual Laser bluetooth keyboard for your Treo. That's really cool! And great for disabled folks like me who have trouble using the writing pads and small keyboards on PDAs.
Treos are now also available on pay-as-go plans. I'm pretty close to buying one, except I can't really justify the expense right now. I just need a book tour or something. Treo gods of the universe, hear my plea! :)
Special K started preschool again today with "Preschool Orientation". It's a shorter day and the parent/s attend too. We were late and saw Special K's old teachers on our way in, which was lovely, but a little confusing for Special K.
Her new classroom is the largest of the five and has 28 kids. Her old classroom had 24, but also had 4 teachers. She already knows one of the teachers. And the teacher talked about her to another parent. "X loves art. I hope other kids will too." said this parent. "Oh, yes" said the teacher "Special K loves art." Indeed she does. Though her art at home primarily consists of cutting paper, cardboard, feathers, felt, and anything else I let her cut into tiny bits.
Special K clung to me at first, but at snacktime she happily walked away outside while the parents stayed inside for the parent orientation. A few other kids came back crying, but not Special K. Later she wanted me to sit with her on the "grass" while she poured fake rocks into my hand. I had to explain to her the grass was fake, because she wanted to pluck it.
The parent who originally recommend this preschool to us has her younger child in the same class and she specifically asked for this classroom. Her older child was in for two years in a row. Like Special K, I still miss our old class. The teachers there was so warm and friendly. They provided an oasis for Little K with the chaos and drama of Little T's hospitalizations. It makes me teary just thinking about it. The new teachers are less polished and needed notes for the orientation. But I'm sure we'll both get used to it.
I just got my business cards made for free (shipping $5.25) at Vistaprint. No more ripping off bits of paper to give people my contact info.
National Geographic sent me Christmas cards. Hello? It's September 1. I know the stores are already filled with Halloween costumes. So can we at least celebrate that first?
According to usps.com, my little bundle of joy arrived safely. Perhaps it wasn't the wisest idea to send it just before Labour Day, but it's done now.
