Oh, You Silly Fast Fooders
A couple of years ago I read Fast Food Nation, and haven’t eaten fast food since. Well, not exactly none. I’m dicriminating in the fast food I’ll eat so I will eat from a mom-and-pop burrito shop that cooks using real food but not McDonalds. One of the things I remember reading is that Burger King used (uses?) beef extract for flavoring it’s chicken sandwiches. To most people maybe no big deal. But I don’t eat beef. At all. Ever. Seems like KFC is doing this now too. I don’t eat KFC but does this seem dishonest to anyone ele? Check it out: El Pollo Loco Commercial
If you don’t care, great, but I want to know what I’m eating. When I order chicken, I expect it to be chicken.
The Tragedy of Times Past
Just off the coast of Palos Verdes, where my mother grew up, is apparently the world’s largest deposit of banned DDT. From 1947 to 1971 (coincidentally, the entire time my mother lived there), a chemical company released 110 tons of DDT and 10 tons of toxic PCB’s into the sewers that flowed into the oceans there. The EPA has declared 17 square miles of ocean a Superfund site, meaning that it is one of the most hazardous places in the country. (EPA Proposed $36-Million Cleanup of Palos Verdes)
Interestingly, you would never know any of this by looking at it. The Palos Verdes coastline is beautiful. Palos Verdes Drive winds around the peninsula, sandwiched between hills on one side and steep cliffs descending to the ocean on the other. Where there hasn’t been development (an amount of area that has decreased dramatically since my childhood, I’ll admit) you can find shorebirds, butterflies, and flaming-orange California poppies mingling with purple lupine and golden mustard flowers. Whales pass by here as they migrate from Alaska to Baja California and back every year; you can watch them from the shore. Dolphins swim in the waves near surfers. Childhood friends collected abalone here. The road, bumpy from near-constant seismic activity, was a thrilling adventure upon which to drive.
I didn’t swim in this part of the ocean. I swam more than a few miles north of this; the ocean current here runs from north to south, meaning I probably wasn’t exposed much to this. My mother proably was, however. Can I make a connection between this and my mother’s breast cancer? Or her siblings’ reproductive cancers? Not definitively. Ultimately my mother died too young from lung cancer, having developed it after years of smoking and COPD. There are studies, however, linking pre-adolescent exposure to DDT to cancers, and according to the CDC website, “The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) determined that DDT may reasonable be anticipated to be a human carcinogen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined that DDT may possibly cause cancer in humans. The EPA determined that DDT, DDE, and DDD are probable human carcinogens.” (CDC and DDT)
I can’t even begin to say how sad this makes me. And angry.
The Horrible, No-Good,Very Bad Day(s)
Levi just got home from the hospital. Was it serious? I’m not entirely sure…he had a high fever that wouldn’t respond to tylenol, and there was some speculation about whether or not he had pneumonia (he probably didn’t, although now we are not sure what sort of virus/bacteria he had). Of course, once he got sick he went on a nursing strike, dehydrated himself, and made himself worse. The first night we were there the nurses hooked him up to an IV and he felt almost instantly better, although it still took the better part of the night for his fever to go away. Although he felt better so soon we had to stay in the hospital an additional 24 hours for “observation.” I get it, I really do…he’s three months old and they wanted to make sure he’s okay. Still, it really sucked. Anyway, he’s all better now, like he was never sick at all. Just as happy as can be, and making up for lost time on the nursing. I was so worried about him and I’m so glad he is as resiliant as he is.
Just as upsetting, though, was the insinuation from some people that I somehow made my child sick by sending him to daycare. Yes, children in daycare get sick. So do children outside of daycare. He could have picked up his bug anywhere – a restaurant, the bookstore, Starbucks – or daycare – he comes with us everwhere so who knows? That my “lifestyle choice,” the one I made to help put a roof over my families head and put food on our table, is responsible for making my child sick is absurd. I hate these stupid mommy wars that pit working moms against stay-at-home moms. I don’t get on stay-at-home moms about the choices they make. I don’t love my child any less because I work; nor do I give him substandard care. Anybody in my life that isn’t supportive of me and my family has no place in my/our lives. Anybody that doesn’t think I’ll enforce that fact doesn’t know me very well.
Funny for the Dog Lovers Out There
The following new combination dog breeds are now recognized by the AKC:
Collie + Lhasa Apso
Collapso, a dog that folds up for easy transport
Spitz + Chow Chow
Spitz-Chow, a dog that throws up a lot
Pointer + Setter
Poinsetter, a traditional Christmas pet
Malamute + Pointer
Moot Point, owned by….oh, well, it doesn’t matter anyway
Great Pyrenees + Dachshund
Pyradachs, a puzzling breed
Pekingnese + Lhasa Apso
Peekasso, an abstract dog
Irish Water Spaniel + English Springer Spaniel
Irish Springer, a dog fresh and clean as a whistle
Labrador Retriever + Curly Coated Retriever
Lab Coat Retriever, the choice of research scientists
Newfoundland + Basset Hound
Newfound Asset Hound, a dog for financial advisors
Terrier + Bulldog
Terribull, a dog that makes awful mistakes
Bloodhound + Labrador
Blabador, a dog that barks incessantly
Collie + Malamute
Commute, a dog that travels to work
Deerhound + Terrier
Derriere, a dog that’s true to the end
Bull Terrier + Shitzu
Bull….. Oh, never mind
In a Nutshell
Things have been hectic lately, thus a lack of postings for a while. And I’ve been out of contact with almost everyone (including on MySpace, Facebook, etc..sorry if you’ve messaged me and I haven’t responded. I will…eventually.). Nonetheless, things are going well. In a nutshell:
1. I continue to enjoy my job; I look forward to going in each day.
2. Levi is great. He has adjusted to daycare to both my delight and my chagrin. I arrive at the end of each day to a happy baby and I can’t spend enough time time with him each night. He is also changing and growing each day before my eyes, also delightful but kind of sad too. At least he won’t outgrow me for a long while.
3. Shawn and I found a place to live in Alexandria. Long story short, we are going to rent for a while in order to save up some money and will buy in a year or two. Alas, we had found the house of dreams while househunting but it wasn’t meant to be so waiting a bit to buy might just be the best option.
4. We have done very little exploring, what with the househunting, baby, etc… We’ve just been too busy and too tired. We did get together with some friends both who live here and we haven’t seen in years and who are out here visiting themselves (hello Jen!). We also went to a baseball game, more expensive than I remember but just as fun. I’m looking forward to getting out more in the summer when the weather is warmer.
Levi in His Sunhat
Me and Levi at Game
On Daddy's Shoulders
Shawn is in Boston right now visiting Hailey and I’m exhausted. I’ll write more soon; I’m off to bed.
It Was a Crazy Idea
For those that thought I was crazy to move 6000 miles with a new baby to start a new job, ALONE, without Shawn to help, you were right. I was crazy. And I knew it at the time although I couldn’t admit it to anyone or I wouldn’t have done it, and then I would have wasted the wonderful opportunities with which I’ve been presented.
The first two weeks have been really hard. I’ve been really tired and overwhelmed a lot of it. The first two weeks have also been really great and I feel really blessed to have such a wonderful family and a job I’m really happy with.
But most importantly, Shawn arrives TONIGHT!! I’ve missed him so much and I’m so excited to see him.
Metro
The metro is a godsend out here – a very expensive and not altogether quicker method of transportation – but a godsend nonetheless. My second day at work, and my first day working in D.C. itself, I had an absolute nightmare of a commute home. I was fooled by the commute into the city in the morning, which was full of muted yellow sunshine, cherry blossoms on trees, and memorials as I crossed the Fourteenth Street Bridge. It also took me just under 45 minutes, which in my book is reaonable in any big city. The ride home was another story, as I sat, literally, for over 3 hours in one place on Fourteenth Street with no way to turn around and no alternate route. I was late picking up Levi by over two hours. I was hysterical, sobbing in the car as I couldn’t get to my son. My cell phone battery was nearly dead and I couldn’t call anyone because I needed to be available if the daycare had to reach me (I had already called them several times to let them know where I was and what was going on, but I didn’t want the line of communication to go dead.) When I finally go to Levi he was, of course, fine because the folks at KinderCare take very good care of him but I didn’t want to put him down. Of course, it was late and after a good meal he only wanted to go to bed so we skipped our nightly bath and I put him down, reluctantly. Anyway, I have taken the metro for the past two days now, which I rather enjoy. It’s clean, comfortable and ultra-convenient, and more importantly, I don’t get lost or have the sort of delays associated with road failures (Apparently signal lights were out on the road I was on, but I never saw that. They were all working where I was.) Obstensibly, it will also give me some personal time to read or listen to my ipod, things I don’t get to do at all now. I just need to find a good book now…My only complaint is that, as I said before, it isn’t cheap. All told, round trip and parking costs me almost $14 per day. Since I don’t have a car payment it may actually cost me less to drive, but I just don’t think driving to work is worth the aggravation. And I do like that I’m making less of an environmental footprint, something I’ve been trying to do in other areas of my life.
First Day at Daycare
Can you tell the smile is fake? Actually, I’m almost about to cry here. Luckily, Levi took the transition to day care better than him mommy.
Speaking of moms, today I miss mine a lot. I feel so sad that she’s not here to know her grandson. I think she especially would have liked this photo.
Our Friend, the Cow
Maybe you already know that I don’t eat red meat, and that I never have. Yes, that’s right, I’ve never had a hamburger or a steak and I don’t feel like I’m missing much. I’m not judgmental of other people eating beef and I’m not a vegetarian (although I do eat a lot of vegetarian meals because I really like them and they are usually quick and easy to make, not to mention often very healthy). There was a lot of talk in the news last week, though, about eating red meat raising your cancer risk so I thought for my carnivorous friends I would challenge them to eat one (or one more) vegetarian meal per week. One of my favorite resources for vegetarian recipes is my Moosewood Restaurant New Classics cookbook, which ironically I got on the Borders discount rack for $2.99; I use this more than any other cookbook I own. Shawn and I make the Basque Beans recipe especially often. Moosewood does, however, put some of their recipes online and they rotate regularly which ones they put up. Check it out for inspiration!
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
I wanted to write about the vaccine versus autism debate when I was in school in the fall; it had come up as a topic of interest in our class discussions and vaccines are something I feel very strongly about. I didn’t blog about it at the time, probably because I was busy and it’s sometimes easier to blog about the more mundane things in my life. So, my friend Kat beat me to the punch with her blog post on MySpace. I was reminded of the issue today, though, when on the front of the Los Angeles Times there was an article, Drop in Vaccination Rates Raises Risk at Some California Schools. Basically, some parents don’t vaccinate their children because they believe, without scientific evidence, that vaccines cause autism or are otherwise unnecessary. Not true. These people put their own, and other people’s children, at risk every day, and I think that’s criminal. I really don’t want my child to attend school with children that are not vaccinated because some selfish parent thinks it their “right” to put my child and the rest of the population at risk for some truly terrible diseases.
Vaccines, simply put, they save lives. Not only that, they save millions of people worldwide from horrible pain and physical debilitation from diseases that are preventable. Anyone who has travelled more than topically in countries far poorer than our own where these diseases are still prevalent has probably seen people with polio and hepatitis, and they are probably aware they don’t see many more people who are invisible due to their early death or disablement.
Perhaps if more people understood the facts and realized that vaccination is a public health issue and not a personal choice then they might make different decisions. But perhaps not, we live in a time when personal “freedom” outweighs personal responsibility. How sad.
