NaBloPoMo '10

It's here! National blog posting month is upon us again, as is my participation! It feels much too early, especially since it will be 80 degrees on Wednesday. NaBloPoMo is supposed to happen when it's hot chocolate and comforter weather, not sandal weather. Get ready for more frequent stories about my pets, Albert and Pumpkin (riveting narrative fodder). Also, maybe some stories about such interesting and varied topics as my hair, school, California, Teen Mom, movies I've seen lately, my struggle to read for pleasure between the months of August and June, what I'm learning this year about science, shoes and the beach. In honor of a new month (and my 6th year of blogging), I've changed my blog template for the FIRST TIME EVER! That picture is of dried flowers outside an awesome book store in Oaxaca that we patronized this summer.

vacation 4 of 2010

It is late October and I have yet to recap vacation 4. Dragging these recaps out gives me another reason to look at summer pictures (and makes me contemplate getting a haircut). Vacation 4 was really special—it was a hang out session with old friends and cute babies, followed up with an encore trip to the OSF.

I went to Portland to meet with some rad ladies who’ve been in my life for more than 18 years (feeling so old!). It was very short, but within the span of 48 hours, I managed to: 1. eat two different fried pies, 2. go down a few depressing facebook holes, 3. witness the culminating performance of best summer camp I have ever heard of, 4. hold a really cute baby, 5. learn/play poker, 6. play pictionary, 7. hang out with Bea (!), and 8. pick blackberries.

This was a band formed during a summer session of the rock camp for girls that blew my mind wide open. Tiny, little girls were writing their own song lyrics about candy, summer and fun. Then learning to play instruments! At the end, they got to develop their own personal “stage presence” and perform their song for a ton of people. Super inspiring!


Here’s a picture of the Portland food carts—the site of my consumption of 2 different fried pies (peanut butter/chocolate and chocolate/coconut). They also sell things like fries with vegan poutine. Portland is possibly the hippest city in the US. The food carts embody this.


Then we drove down to Eugene! We stayed at Aurelia’s house and generally lay about as women of leisure. I held this baby a lot—he charms the pants off of everyone he meets with his smiling and overall pleasant nature! His name is Quentin.


After parting ways with my old friends, I took a train from Eugene down to Ashland to meet my gentleman caller. The train ride was absolutely beautiful—it’s on the Amtrak Coast Starlight route. It felt a little old-timey, and I did get slightly bored near the end, but I’d still recommend it. Trains! (The solution to many modern problems) I think I’d like to do the whole route at some point and rent a sleeping cabin. The guy sitting next to me was named Sheldon Stark Jr. and he informed me that his father was a famous TV writer. I went home to confirm this to be truth (through the imdb)! We chatted for a long time about California, natural resources, his love of trains and the quality of train food.




When I got to Ashland, I was picked up by this dude:


We saw the stage adaptation of Throne of Blood and drove home down the I-5. Here’s Mount Shasta from the window at 70 mph.

Fighter for (cat) justice

As any long term reader of this blog knows, my beloved feline companion, Pumpkin, has experienced acute renal failure on two separate occasions as the direct result of corporate greed. She ate contaminated pet food back in ’07 when many animals were dying because melamine was added to foods in order to boost the protein content without actually providing more actual protein. I fed her only one can before I started noticing that she was not well. My cat kidney-failure detecting senses were razor sharp because of her FIRST acute kidney failure as a result of the prescription drug, Metacam.

Metacam is used for arthritis and joint issues in dogs with wide success, and until recently, has been pushed by the drug company as a nice off-label application suitable for cats as well. I, along with others on the many cat kidney failure support groups that I belong to (!) knew that it was causing serious harm to animals. The drug company surely knew as well, though they did not take responsibility until critical mass was reached and lawsuits were imminent (I mean, why stop making money and selling it until people make you, right? Forget the “right thing to do”).

I know the drug company knew something was wrong as early as 2005, because I (and my father) personally called and told them that something was wrong. We also asked that we be reimbursed for Pumpkin’s extensive medical bills ($3,000). Their response: it DOES work in cats and Pumpkin was an outlier case where it caused some side affects. When pushed by me in a subsequent phone call, their legal team told me that they did not in fact “officially” endorse it and if my vet used it off-label, then she was ultimately the one responsible for my bills because she prescribed a drug that was not FDA approved in cats. Awesome corporate strategy dudes!! (side note: during the pet food contamination fiasco, Iams DID reimburse me for every vet bill, which again totaled about $3,000. Though I will never by their product again, I do not have the intense hatred for them that I would have had they not “done the right thing” (why is that such a novel concept for companies?)).



Flash forward to 2010: Pumpkin is still alive and dealing with the annoyance of having Albert around. My mother is one of the few people in America who still receive the actual paper on their doorstep. She is also (I suspect) one of the few people who still literally “read” most articles in the paper. Yesterday, she called to tell me that in the Dr. Dolittler animal advice section of the Miami Herald, the vet recommended the use of Metacam for arthritis in cats. If there is one thing that I do well, it is to become indignant.

I immediately posted a comment in the online version of the paper about my experience with Metacam and its unsuitability for cats. I then e-mailed the vet directly to ask her to print a retraction about Metacam. She responded and agreed to make a retraction in the next print edition and she also posted a clarification in the comments section. Swift justice! Experiences like this make me very happy about technology and the interweb. Within 24 hours, view points were clarified and retractions were made. In the olden days (when I was in high school), information could not be conveyed so quickly (well, maybe with a phone, but that’s emotionally bold. Thank goodness we can sit behind computers and type in our opinions about everything from wedding favors to Bill O’Reilly’s suit without ever revealing our true selves! Yay internet (!) for emboldening anyone with a modem!)

Summer e-reads

Writing that last blog entry compelled me to compile my summer reading list and tell you about it (briefly).

This summer, I read exclusively on the Kindle that I bought my beloved during the last holiday season. This was the first summer of actual Kindle use and it taught us a valuable lesson—we both need one in order to vacation happily. On one of our flights, a lady told us that when a family has more than one, books are automatically downloaded to all, making it practical to have two (fall purchase imminent).

I had intended to engage in “serious summer reading” surrounding the theme of environmental decay. Instead, I read thrillers and my second playboy bunny memoir.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo—Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest
The Constant Gardener—John Le Carre
Sh*t My Dad Says—Justin Halpern
Sliding Into Home—Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett
The Passage—Justin Cronin

The “Millennium trilogy”, as the Stieg Larsson books are called, was captivating in the beginning. I’m not normally a reader of thrillers, but totally get that they are exciting, fast-paced page turners. It was good at first, then it got a little boring, and when bored, it becomes easier to see the short-comings in writing style. Granted, the books are translated, but they lack a certain lyricism that I enjoy. They also seemed uneven, and the characters lacked 3 dimensions.

Becoming interested in the thriller genre, I moved on to the Constant Gardener, which was amazing. It was very well-written and heartbreaking. It was as much a love story as it was a spy thriller. When I finished reading it, the Millennium thriller looked a lot worse.

From here, I decided that I needed some light plane-reading. Kendra Wilkinson’s book came out this summer was only $10 on the Kindle, so I made a commitment. I should preface this by admitting that this is the second post-Hef memoir I’ve read from a bunny this year. I’m not sure what’s going on in my brain, but apparently I have a budding interest in the Playboy mansion. The memoir was weak, as she is only 23 years old. She’s likeable enough, but I already saw the movie thirteen, so her teenage exploits were almost passé. And then….well we kind of already know. I’d recommend reading it when it gets down to .89 on the Kindle, which is how much Jane Eyre currently costs.



I read Shit My Dad Says and recommend it. I know you can get his tweets for free, but the book is really funny and I laughed so hard that I cried when reading it. There are a bunch of stories about his dad, in addition to his best zingers.

Finally, I read the epic (800 page) new vampire, post-apocalyptic novel, The Passage. It was by far the most amazing thing I read this summer. There was so much attention to developing characters and their nuances. It was also thrilling and did a great job of making me feel the emptiness of the new world. I think this is going to be the first in a trilogy (also, religious undertones abound, especially towards the end), which kind of blows my mind, as when I was reading it I thought, “I hope this never ends”.