Hi mom!

This entry is for my mother, who informed me that she checks my blog every “few days” to see if I’ve updated. I’ve had a few blog-worthy ideas, but alas a bit of the lazy/preoccupied bug. This evening, however, I listened to ”to the best of our knowledge” on NPR which happened to be focused on two things I’ve been thinking a lot about lately—mind/body connection and happiness (with dashes of optimism and philosophy). It was great and I got lots of nice summaries about how western thought has approached the idea, like J.S. Mills idea that we’re happy when we’re not thinking about it. I can’t wait to pull them out during all of those cocktail party conversations that are a part of ones roaring 30’s! More importantly, it put my late 20’s malaise into perspective (it’s a cultural phenomenon), and made me peaceful with the knowledge that it’s what EVERYONE is concerned about. I am not an island in my misery! I also got the sense that my rearing in a technological culture with the absence of religion might be to blame, though arguments like that tend to only exacerbate my angst.

Aside from that, I’ve finally discovered the proper and most effective way to administer a good ear cleaning! The challenge presented itself about a month ago, when I was attempting to clean my ears with an evil Q-tip and actually clogged my right (phone) ear to the point of partial deafness. It was terribly distressing and, not knowing what to do, I recalled a conversation I’d had about 6 years ago regarding the merits of ear candling. My male friend told me to forgo the hippie bullshit and head straight to Albertson’s for some hydrogen peroxide, but I am not so easily swayed. Instead I made a beeline for the health foods store and picked up a pair of pure beeswax ear candles. When I arrived home, I threw caution to the wind and stuck one in. It’s definitely a two person job, so my companion lit it up and I closed my eyes in order to strengthen my other senses (specifically ear) to the experience. It made many a crackling noise, and my ear started to feel incredibly hot. Dismissing rationality, I pressed on, periodically yelling at my male friend to “make sure my head isn’t on fire”.

After it burned down almost completely, we took it out and inspected the contents. There was a ton of waxy substance in addition to a yellow powdery film. We were both convinced that it had done a job on my head and pulled out some major wax. I then decided to consult the internets. Things I learned: 1. it’s very popular in the Amish community. 2. the Canadian medical board (or whatever) disavows it’s use. 3. many, many an experiment has been performed in order to figure out if it actually works. Most of the experiments concluded that it does not in fact work, with various levels of science involved. For instance, someone brought up the question of the pressure needed to actually pull wax out of the ear canal--supposedly it would destroy the ear drum. Someone else enlisted the help of an ear specialist who examined ear wax before and after ear candling and found that the only difference was a slight indentation in the wax after candling. Based on this, I decided it must be a hoax. But my companion was now sold on the idea. We wavered about igniting the second ear candle, and attempted to perform our own experiment. We let the candle burn for a few minutes and noticed that a lot of powdery substance was produced, though we saw no wax. We didn’t let it burn down further because I killed the flame with water. Our experiment: inconclusive. More importantly, my ear was still clogged.

I left the comfort of my abode a second time for some hydrogen peroxide, which seemed to do the trick. Yesterday, however, my ear was clogged AGAIN! This time, I took a hot shower and used 6 mL total ( 1 ml dowsing 6 times) of HP in each ear. The steam melted the wax, which then came out nicely with the HP. It was perfect and enough visible wax came out to convince me that it was a necessary hygiene (beauty?) regimen. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures. I do, however, have a picture of my friend Aurelia’s baby!




And a goose.



And a picture of the birthday present I bought for my nephew, Frank’s, birthday.



And a link to Will’s blog.