Paper or Plastic?

This was in the NYT today - it's an article about taxing supermarket shoppers who use plastic bags. Legislators, however, are concerned about public backlash. As in, "we're in a recession and you're going to charge us FIVE CENTS for using a plastic bag?" I say invest a mere $5 in two large cloth bags and quit complaining. 

Anyway I was driven to take a peek at this site, savetheplasticbag.com. Now I'm far from an environmental activist, and I can respect that this guy's done his research before claiming that plastic bags hurt the environment less than paper bags. That's fine with me, it might even be true. But the problem is that he's only comparing plastic bags to paper bags, and not to reusable bags. I want to know what kind of impact we'd have if we all chose reusable bags? 

Also, there's a mention on this site of the "Philly Enquirer". That sounds like a tabloid to me. I think around here we call it the Inquirer, but nice try. 

What do YOU think?

Edumacational Services

Definitely want to invest in that learning program. 

So typical...

Ok... I admit this may be a tad bit discriminatory, but I wanted to share this news story that I found on the most reliable and intellectual of sources, Yahoo!:

click here

It's about a 68-year old Korean lady who has failed her written driving test 775 times. SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE TIMES. I know little old asian ladies are persistent, if not downright pushy (as exemplified by a little old asian lady who scurried past me this morning to be the first on the elevator, even though there was a line of people waiting and we were obviously all going to pile in), but this is just ridiculous.

Revolutionary Road to the End of the World

In an (albeit poor) attempt to catch up on some Oscar-nominated films in the last days before the ceremony, Will and I went to see "Revolutionary Road" and rented "Encounters at the End of the World". Neither movie really struck me as particularly wonderful. Instead, what I find really interesting is how, even though we chose these films randomly, together they create a particularly intriguing conversation. 

RR was about a couple involved in an unsuccessful struggle to break free of the monotony of traditional 1950's American society. EEW was about a group of people, each with an unusual story and dream, thrown together to do extraordinary work in an alien place off the ordinarily-travelled grid. So where one movie was about perpetual and stifling normalcy, the other was about infinite possibility. 

Yet for all the differences they had, one message was the same - that we're all pretty much doomed because of our human condition. The main characters in RR couldn't act on their desires, putting them in an excruciating and perpetual state of stagnation. And the scientists and Werner Herzog from EEW believed that nature would eventually wipe out human life altogether, a conclusion that seems to make everything we're doing here meaningless. 

But while the message of EEW was just as depressing as that of RR, my reactions to the two movies were vastly different. I did feel truly depressed after RR (and yes... I shed more than a few tears).  But after seeing EEW, I feel inspired to go out and do something meaningful and uncommon, and shape my own story by following my dreams before my short life is over. And yet again (as I have so many times, and even once on this blog), I'm left asking myself what my dream truly is. 

In the meantime, I'll spend tonight reflecting on the cinematic weekend I had with a fitting activity - watching the Oscars with a group of friends. 

Here's to another week... 

Seven Hours in Healthcare

Last night was quite the adventure.

Will picked me up from work complaining of a pain in his side which got worse as we walked. When we were finally home, he was practically doubled over and complaining of chills, even though the apartment is hot. As someone who doesn't often complain, I knew it wasn't petty. It got to the point where we were questioning the ER, and with a little nudge from my dad, we headed down the block to Pennsylvania Hospital.

To be honest I was a little excited. First off, I come from a family of doctors and grew up around hospitals and medical offices, so that environment is familiar, rather than uncomfortable as it is for most people. I respect doctors and I don't mind being around them (as long as there's nothing wrong with me, of course). I also figured it would feel like an episode of Scrubs, with lots of flustered med students running around and maybe some crazy people going through heroine withdrawal or bikers with bloody knees.

Needless to say it was nothing like that. Save for a woman who moaned and stumbled around like she was drunk, the waiting room was tame. There was a family there, sitting in a circle and solemnly discussing the fate of a family member who had "learned her lesson and will hopefully change", but what lesson she learned I couldn't decipher. And there was a girl who complained of stomach pain and sat hunched over, constantly shaking her foot.

I figured we'd wait for 30 minutes, MAYBE an hour if it was crowded, but we ended up in that dull waiting room for 3 hours until finally, at 11PM, they called us in. We were taken to a room and Will had to undress. We sat there for another hour and half, and by that time I was so frustrated from the waiting that I felt tears welling in my eyes for no good reason. We watched some TV - fittingly Anderson Cooper was reporting Obama's search for a new Secretary of Health.

Finally at midnight a nurse came in to set some things up. But at the rate everything was going I figured we'd be there til the sun came up.

I was almost right... at aroung 3 AM after bloodwork, an ultrasound of Will's gall bladder, and an ungodly amount of sitting, lying, and waiting in a dim room punctuated by the sounds of beeping and breathing pumps, we were free to go - empty handed.

It was NOT a pleasant experience. I don't doubt that something is plaguing Will, it just must not be as serious as we made it out to be. Maybe gas. We'll see how he feels tonight. But all the waiting and the frustration - not just ours but the palpable frustration of everyone else in the ER, including the doctors - it made me very angry.

I know our country has healthcare problems. I don't know who's to blame for it - HMOs who charge exorbitant amounts for basic services and treat people like liabilities? People who don't take care of themselves and make healthcare unaffordable for the rest of us? The media and ad agencies who perpetuate our fears that every little thing is a huge deal? Is it growing disrespect and distrust of our medical providers? The effects of frivolous malpractice suits?

Whatever it is, something absolutely needs to be done, and I hope whoever Obama chooses, they get on it as soon as possible so I never have to waste 7 hours of my life again in a hospital.

City Snowscapes

On Tuesday night it snowed in the city, and it was absolutely magical. So of course I stood out in it and took pictures. Enjoy. 

I'm on Urbandictionary.com

I think this is both 100% creepy and 100% awesome. In an act of desperate vanity, I searched my name on urbandictionary.com and this is what came up.

The definition couldn't BE more appropriate for me! I swear I didn't make this definition, and if it was posted by one of my friends, I did NOT know about it.

But whoever did do it was pretty awesome, and I'll forgive that ingenious is spelled wrong.

I Surrender

Ok... so pretty much everyone and their mom has that Facebook note with the 25 random facts about them... and I'm too much of a rebel to do it on Facebook. But it looks like TONS of fun, so I'm going to do it here. Here goes:

1. When I was younger I had blonde, very curly hair.

2. My mom died of breast cancer when I was 3, and I have one vivid memory of her saying, "You look maaaahvelous daaahling." I don't know if this is a real memory, or something I saw on a video, or even something I just made up in my head that seems to fit. It's quite possibly that last one.

3. I'm procrastinating right now.

4. I've had a lot of dream jobs in my life, but currently my goal is to be a correspondent for NPR who gets to interview interesting people and report interesting stories. Much like Terry Gross.

5. My dream broadway role is Eponine in Les Mis. I know it's cliche. Shut up.

6. I just started a book called "This Common Secret: My Life as An Abortion Doctor" by Susan Wicklund. I got interested in it after hearing the author interviewed on none other than NPR.

7. My two best friends in high school were a gay guy and a lesbian. We had endless amounts of fun. I mean good clean fun, not that kind of fun.

8. Once in a community theatre show I played a sassy, cowgirl-esque grasshopper. During one performance, I was ad-libbing and mentioned something about one of my bug relatives being squashed. Apparently a woman in the audience complained that my reference was too violent for her daughter.

9. I really like the taste of cherry Nyquil.

10. I'm not extremely into sports, but I get really cranky and angry and take it personally when a team I'm rooting for loses (I'm talking about you, Eagles)

11. I bought scalped tickets on the street for a U2 concert in Dublin. It was totally worth it.

12. Speaking of Dublin, Ireland is my favorite country in the world. Scotland comes in a close second; Nicaragua is third.

13. I lose respect for people if they don't spell or punctuate things correctly. That said, I am often guilty of these offenses myself, but when I do it it's ok. :)

14. There's a show that I watch pretty much every night of the week. Monday: House. Tuesday: Scrubs. Wednesday: Lost. Thursday: The Office. Friday: The Soup. And... every night I like to watch Jeopardy and reruns of Scrubs on Comedy Central. I also have a weakness for bad reality TV like Tool Academy, Double Shot at Love, and Ruby... but also good reality TV like Project Runway, Supernanny, and What Not to Wear.

15. I'm surprisingly good at the game SSX Tricky on Playstation 2. I also KICK ASS at Tetris and always play the hardest level of game type-B so I can get a spaceship.

16. Thinking of 25 random things about myself is really tough.

17. I only got accepted to 2 of the 7 colleges to which I applied, but ended up being really happy at Muhlenberg.

18. While at Muhlenberg, I volunteered as an ESL conversational mentor. One of the students in my session was Indian, and worked at the Dunkin' Donuts near school. He gave me free bagels and hot chocolate. It was pretty much awesome.

19. My favorite restaurant is The Olive Garden. But it's always so darn crowded!

20. I got a good piece of advice today when interviewing someone for an article. When writing an email to a potential employer, it's a good idea to write it in Word and then copy and paste it into the email. That's so you can spell-check it.

21. My grandparents on my dad's side are holocaust survivors. My grandfather doesn't know his real birthday or age. He was shot in the leg during WWII. Sorry... that was a few facts in one.

22. My apartment still doesn't have HD.

23. I used to own a red Jetta and her name was Frida. I named her that because [gory imagery to follow] there's a scene in the movie Frida where she loses her baby in bed and is surrounded by bright red blood. It's honestly the first thing I thought of when I saw my car.

24. I have this memory that always stands out in my mind of sitting on my swingset late on a summer day, looking up at the darkening sky and pondering the vastness and mystery of the universe. I was probably like 12. But it still baffles me.

25. At the house where I grew up, I had a sandbox. For my brother Mike's bar mitzvah, which was Hawaii themed and held in our backyard, my dad screwed a life-size fake palm tree into my sandbox. That's just the kind of guy my dad is.

Phew. That took a whole half hour. Now back to work... in the meantime, check out the article I wrote! I'm published!