Searching for Mrs. Welby

Green up...win book

In the spirit of Debunot, I have decided to come up with my own contest about life improvement. This time the prize is a copy of Gorgeously Green.

If you join my contest, you are committing to greening up. For the next 30 days, make your world a better place. And email me when you've done something. (Remember, Yoda...do or do not, there is no try.)

It can be as simple as changing lightbulbs, turning your thermostat up, or going to Target (canvas bags are not just for groceries you know) with your own reusable bags. Or as advanced as getting an energy audit or buying rainbarrels (which I am doing as soon as I can after our move next week).

So, email me at mrs.welby (at) gmail (dot) com to green up!

Who will tell us? I think we already know the answer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/opinion/04friedman.html?ex=1367640000&en=a340eaf4afd1a6f4&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The grocery cart problem

Can anyone tell me why it is somehow acceptable to leave a grocery cart in the middle of a parking lot?

Is EVERYONE in that big of a rush? Even the single, healthy people who have no children with them?

What school did these people attend? What kind of discipline did their parents provide? What kind of example do they set for their own children?

Society is really going down the tubes.

A peek into my "real" job

While I am not a "nursey-nurse" anymore (i.e., would be dangerous if I touched a patient at this point), I still work in healthcare. Specifically, I work in medication safety. Hard to explain, what the hell I get paid for but this article in today's Wall Street Journal may help (Mike Cohen is my boss, and one of my heroes):

http://online.wsj.com/article/the_informed_patient.html

As Dr. Arm tells me I work to make his job more difficult and make him less efficient with all these new steps and "bullshit" he has to do to order meds. I agree. Nurses pride themselves on being highly efficient multitaskers. This safety shit sucks.

But so does dying from a mistake someone made just because they were getting yelled at or were just really fucking tired. Or, losing your medical or nursing license because somehow you ended up giving someone a fatal dose of chemotherapy that you didn't even prepare or order.

So maybe all this bullshit should be thought of more like putting speedbumps in the parking lot of an elementary school. What a pain to have to slow down when you're late. But what a relief you didn't just run over your kid's best friend or baby brother. It's just time, not wasted time.

Loving Less

There is a concept out there I struggle with. I struggle because I know in my heart it's the right thing for me to do, yet there are times I get tired of all this delayed gratification and want want want. It's this idea that we've all got too much crap. We need to simplify.

Our family has been forced to simplify a bit. We put 75% of our stuff (50% of our furniture) in storage in June 2006. We moved to a small rental with our own furniture and our own kitchen stuff until July 2007. In July 2007, we moved again, rented more storage units. Now everything except our kids' toys and the baby furniture is in storage until we buy a house. We're in a furnished 1,700 sq ft rental. What in the hell did I do with all that other crap? Do I really need anything nicer than Ikea china and wine glasses? Tervis tumblers to drink out of?

But I get in this "deprivation" mindset when I start looking at houses. "Go for it!! You deserve it. You can finally afford it" is what the devil on one shoulder says. But the angel on the other side says, "you're pretty happy at 1,700 sq ft, it's just more space to heat and cool."

We've got to do this though. I already cringe at the oil tank in my basement. Bigger house, more fuel. It's an issue on both sides of the election. We can do it. It may not be easy. We may piss people off, especially those marketing people.

It doesn't mean we live like crap. We just have less. It can be super nice stuff, just not so much of it. Like my sister, she could live out of a suitcase. But inside that suitcase is silk Natori underwear, a 100% wool sweater, a Pink blouse, Benetton pants, and a Burberry coat with a wool liner (one coat, many seasons). Stuff to last forever, not to toss at the end of one season of wearing. 

Read more at:  http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/03/austerity-is-hip.html

Arabia on my mind....

Pictures for thought:

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/02/where-is-all-oil-money-going.html

Arab overload

Just couldn't help but put those Bad Idea Jeans back on this weekend. We had an Arab Film Fest here. Friday was Syriana, Saturday The Kingdom. So, maybe more like an Anti-Arab Film Fest. I am on overload, confused, and disturbed.

I am more affected by this due to the fact that my sister lives in Amman, Jordan. Her husband works at the US Embassy there. Besides banging his head against a wall for 8+ hours a day, I can't imagine what they are paying him for. My sister and her husband are lawyers, Washingtonians who think they may be able to make a difference. She, however, is currently a part-time secretary in order to promote her husband's career. Both receive "hazard pay" though since they work in a dangerous area. Wooo hooo, thank God for that extra 15% the US feels will compensate for death by terror.

An email message from her 2 weeks ago:

I walked out of the apt today to go across the st to the gym at the embassy and today is the islamic new year day so it is a holiday and this man came out of the garage next door with a gutted goat caracas!....they still sacrifice goats on so many holidays....I saw fur out of the corner of my eye and then horns and i was tempted not to look but I had to

Just to note, her apartment (which is flanked by Jordanian Police holding machine guns), contains a safe room and emergency walkie talkies. She and her husband both got Lasix eye surgery for two reasons: one, the air is so dry and there is so much sand, contacts are difficult to wear; two, if you are captured by terrorists, they will destroy your glasses.

Last week, she and her husband were walking to the movie theater, holding hands on the street. She wears completely Western clothing, as is legal and accepted by Jordanian law. When they arrived at the theater, they each went to the restroom. Her husband finished first. As he walked out of the restroom, he saw a Jordanian police officer walking into the ladies' room. He followed and said, "What are you doing?" and the policeman said the same. A heated verbal exchange followed (my sister and her husband speak Arabic), a supervisor was called. My sister was almost arrested for prostitution. Men and men can hold hands, women and women can too. But not women and men.

Another time, a taxi driver asked my sister if she was American. She said that she was German. He started at her in the rear view mirror with a big smile and then said in Arabic, "Good. Germans good. Hitler good. Americans bad."

So, I'm signing off of movies that show Americans getting blown up and where only those Americans with safe rooms live to tell their story. It's not so entertaining.

Election issues: Democrat side

What's a woman to do? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/opinion/08steinem.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=gloria&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Another idea: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27kennedy.html?em&ex=1201755600&en=14e65d0b403e8d5b&ei=5087%0A

Here's one I cannot believe: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin/the-ascendancy-of-barack-_b_83682.html

Oil that is

There is something very creepy about living in a house with an oil tank. We live in an old (70+ years) house with an oil furnace/boiler and radiators (you may recall that it nearly exploded 2 weeks ago?). The house would probably make a great This Old House episode if they ever did that infrared heat loss camera on it. In order to heat this house, we have to get regular fill ups from the oil company into this giant tank that is in our basement, right next to the washer and dryer. So I have to stare at it at least 4 days a week.

Everytime I'm down there I am reminded about so many issues. Global warming, destruction of Alaskan wilderness, the US dependance on oil, war in Iraq, our lack of green engineering (and US-born engineers) in most homes, and the price per gallon of oil. It's right there, in my face. I am a huge oil consumer. And our house is small!!!!! Plus it's a rental so we can't do a damn thing to help the insulation or to even think about alternative energy renovations.

In case you haven't guessed, I believe in global warming. Dr. Arm says it is a Democrat "theory." Mostly he hates Al Gore. I think it may be unfortnate that Al seems to be the face of this for many. At least the man is TRYING though: he DOES have solar panels on his Nashville home and he drives a Lexus hybrid. All those critics should just shut it if they haven't taken at least a minimal step in the right direction. Dr. Arm almost made fun of me for buying some compact florescent lightbulbs!

It's so crazy to think I'm just sucking up oil as fast as I can in this 17 degree evening while kids are getting blown up in Iraq over oil. Somehow it's different than the gas pump for the car. It's pure oil sitting in my basement. A bubbling crude, oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. Our next house just cannot have this. I'm wiggin.

Hard Times by rabbit blog

You gotta read this:

http://www.rabbitblog.com/

I was in Rabbit's 9th grade class. I was NOT a cheerleader and I do not remember Devo. However, I do remember my table-mate in art class, Princess Garrett. She was super scary at first. But, she told me I looked like Holly (Robert Scorpio's wife) on General Hospital. From that point on, she had my back. This was good. I was not even 5 feet tall, shy and white. To me, Princess was huge and had a massive vocabulary of profanity and could kick ass. And she could sing. We were in chorus together. Everyone needs a Princess. I miss her.