Gettin' Lucky

Oh score! Jamie and I went to the Pirate game tonight. Unfortunately, the Pirates didn't do much scoring, but no worries, we still had an awesome time.

Besides the rain miraculously stopping and sun coming out for gametime and a Freddy Sanchez bobblehead, we came away with an excellent perk: $10 gift cards to Max & Erma's. You see, we were the "lucky section of the night." Oh yeah!

Looks like we'll be having a deliciously free dinner tomorrow night...

I hate the government, Part 5.

Now its time to wrap up my current hating on the government. I could go on for like 50 more posts but it would be on cliche stuff like Iraq, health care and whatnot. No one really needs more crap thrown into those debates. But anyways, government hating reason #5 relates a lot to reason #1.

And so here it is, suckage reason #5:

No one wastes money better than the good ol' U.S. of A. Like in post #1, we know abstinence doesn't work but have wasted over a billion dollars on it in the last decade. Congress gives themselves a raise all the time for "cost of living increases" but never does the same for minimum wage. As an aside, I read an editorial a while back that suggested writing a little line into the next minimum wage bill that ups it ever so slightly each year for cost of living. Everyone wins. Minimum wage workers get a raise every year and companies don't have to pee their pants figuring out how to give everyone $2 more an hour. And politicians get to feel good about themselves.

Anywho, back to the topic at hand: wasting money on dumb stuff. Its not actually the money wasting that irritates me the most, actually. It is what gets screwed in the process. What specifically got this thought wheel turning was the latest budget proposal that slashes the hell out of cancer funding. Now a $40 million cut isn't much in comparison to the overall cancer budget, however, its effects are huge.

$40 million is everything to cancers that don't get any other funding and unfortunately, those are the cancers that are going to get screwed by the funding cut. And I think today is a particularly good day to discuss why cancer should get $40 million more, not less. Anyone who went to high school with me will remember when Aaron died. That was two years ago today. That obviously affected me much, much more than any of the rest of my friends since he and Tony were friends since kindergarten. Aaron died of pancreatic cancer, which just should not have happened. First of all, kids don't get that. It is an extremely rare disease in old people and pretty much unheard of in kids. Unfortunately, he was going to die from the moment he was diagnosed. A very sad reality, but entirely true. Survival rates for pancreatic cancer are for the 1 year survival, not 5 year survival like every other cancer. There simply is not a 5 year rate. Everyone dies. He made it a lot longer than could ever have been expected though. But what Aaron has to do with cancer funding is that he died because there is no "Plan B" for pancreatic cancer treatment. There is hardly a "Plan A" and it isn't exactly the most effective therapy around. The only way to develop an "Plan B" is with research dollars. Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer is an excellent example of a cancer that while so desperately in need of funding, its money will be cut because it is too rare to be "important." Breast cancer, on the other hand, is swimming in funding, so then, its really not too surprising that there are Plans A-Z for breast cancer treatment. If one doesn't work, try something else that does. You can live with breast cancer.

So as I was typing this, the news said something about the Senate passing another $100 billion Iraq bill. $100 billion is INSANE! I'm pretty sure gathering all that money up in little cash bags, dousing it with some gasoline and striking a match would be just as effective at this point but I suppose we do have to spend something, even if it is cut and run money. The rest of the budget though? I'm gonna say its about 75% sheer crap. If you made it to Congress, you're already rich. Quit paying your unproductive asses so much! Some tiny little town in the middle of a corn field is probably going to get a fancy new bridge or paved road next to one that went up 10 years ago because its Congressman wrote it into a bill and no one really cared. Vote for Bob! And finally, referring back to Reason #1 for hating the government, let's throw in a few hundred million dollars for a crack pot sex-ed program. Meanwhile, in other news, thousands of people, mostly children, quietly suffer and die as the clinical trials that would have saved them shut down. Good riddance!

I hate the government, Part 4.

Hey, I think we might all be able to agree on this one! Justin sums it up pretty well.

I first got irritated when after taking a moment of silence, which is appropriate and nice, they decided to take a couple days off! Now these weren't just random, get no work done work days that Congress usually takes, they were conducting important hearings about how much the Justice Department sucks. Aww, how nice. The busy Congressmen taking time from their hectic schedules to mourn for a nation... and take a trip home to talk about their gun-control stance.

So suckage #4: Politicians capitalizing on/twisting a tragic event into something for their gain. Its not like Virginia Tech is the first example of this. Rudy Gulianni, who's running for president by the way, has been telling people lately that obviously voting for a Democrat means that the terrorists win and we're all going to die 5 minutes after a Democratic president takes the oath of office. Uh huh. Way to exploit 9/11 there, Rudy.

So back to Virginia Tech. Taking time off and issuing their respective statements of sadness or whatever sure made all those lawmakers look good. Fine, be sad, that's very considerate of you, but do not use the death of 32 people as a vote-getting scheme. Its heartless and certainly ineffective. We sure like to talk about changing gun control laws but does that ever happen? Hardly. In fact, since Columbine, the assault weapons ban expired. Thank you, Congress, for proecting me.

I hate the government, Part 3.

For my next installment of why I hate the government, I'm going to change it up a bit. I'm done ranting about why being sex-a-phobic is stupid and counterproductive, but I'm returning to stubborn, righteous George and his cronies. I hate, hate, HATE YOU! Also, Justin, you are probably not goig to agree with a single word of that, but let's agree to disagree, shall we?

Since I'm a loser and have been more mature than your average 30 year old since I was about 8, I was watching Frontline on PBS the other night. Yeah, I know, mock as you like. It just so happened to be about global warming. Now before I go any further, I have to say that PBS is probably as good as it gets for reporting in the US since they have no ratings incentive for advertising dollars and all the crap that makes the rest of our news not so news-like. And well, wouldn't you guess that much like the government's own study suggested that abstinence is a big fat waste o' money but George and company only believe what they want to believe, the government's own global warming study was one big "the end of the world is nigh, we're all going to cook to death!" report. So what does the government do? Ignore it? Oh, if only! They paid lots and lots of attention, actually. But this was not good, proactive attention. Instead of admitting that yes, we're breaking our planet, the administration ordered all mention of the report removed from public records. The news report even showed Congressional briefings where mentions of climate change were blacked out.

That was in the spring of 2003. It took 4 years of fighting and one uber hurricane disaster to get Georgie to wake up... or at least admit that perhaps there is a small global climate change issue. Of course, its more convenient now to follow the opinions of a public that pretty much hates you to try to win back some support. Nevermind that while you were ignoring the global warming report in 2003, you were making up reasons to invade Iraq, leading us into Vietnam 2.0: bigger, badder and even more costly! But I regress, I'm not here to complain about Iraq. That's a big can o' worms that I do not need to open and I think the previous sentence adequately expresses how I feel (and I would like to point out, felt at the time... no stance switching here) about that situation.

So back to global warming. I just do not understand how scientists can ignore science. We often talk about global warming in genocide class since its likely a hidden factor in a lot of the crap that is now going on, and according to our professor, who I am certain knows what he's talking about, the first report that humans were adversely affecting our climate was published in 1937. It is not as though that came out and then 70 years passed before the government study came out. There are probably many, many less studies linking bad diet and heart disease since that hasn't been studied for nearly as long, but we all believe that now don't we?

So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go slather on some SPF 90 since its going to be getting very toasty pretty soon. Happy Earth Day!

I hate the government, Part 2.

New day, new reason to hate the government. This isn't directed directly at George and the idiots in Washington this time, but if it were a national issue, I'm sure they'd incur my wrath too.

Suckage reason #2:

Gardasil has people in an uproar. And what do ya know, its the same people that are all fired up about the suckage reason #1. Obviously, vaccinating girls against something that COULD KILL them is a horrible idea. Honestly, what are those drug companies thinking? Protection from an oncovirus?! Are they crazy?! Children will start having sex in the streets like dogs if we protect them!

GAH! How retarded are people?!? Okay, so you don't want your 12 year old girl vaccinated. That's your stupid decision, but who am I to stop you. I would, however, like to point out that there's a really astronomically high, freaking ginormous chance that when she's not your little 12 year old anymore, she's going to -gasp- have sex. And chances are that if you're all anti-vaccine, you're hoping thats not until she gets married. But let's think about this for a moment, shall we? 95%of people do it before they are married. That's a lot of people. So even if this hypothetical 12 year old doesn't do it until she's married, the chances of her husband also having abstained are ridiculously small. And what do ya know, chances of a guy carrying HPV are actually quite high. He won't know it. She won't know it...until her Pap smear shows abnormal cells. Congratulations, you have cancer and are now going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, lose you hair, and potentially die as you battle for your life.

Now on a more practical level, I know people are concerned that its new and there could be safety issues. Valid argument and if you prefer to opt out for that, I still think you're a little off (The possibility of chemo later in life is a lot more damaging than a well-tested shot.), but not a complete nut. But since its not like I don't know anyone with cancer, I think I'm entirely justified in saying that if there is the teeniest, tiniest, most miniscule chance that a series of 3 shots could potentially save your kid's life at some point, what are you smoking that makes you think this is a bad idea? How ridiculously naive are you to think that just because you're high and mighty religious soap box mandates you be against all things sex-related, you have the right to tear a man (referring to the Texas governor here) to shreads for trying to protect your children? So what if the vaccine manufacturer lined his pockets with cash! This vaccine will save lives, shouldn't that be more important than getting your "values vote"?

I hate the government, Part 1.

Yep, thats right. I hate the government, particular George and his dense, stubborn cronies. Go ahead, Alberto Gonzales, slap my name on the watch list. I said it: You guys suck!

Suckage reason #1:

Any idiot on the street corner could probably tell you that abstinence only sex education is total crap. Health teachers stand in classrooms telling kids not to drink, smoke, do drugs and omg, please don't have sex! until they're blue in the face. So the smoking and drug use message actually wins a lot of kids over: slowing poisoning yourself isn't all that cool. But drinking, eh, probably not as much and certainly not the don't have sex message. All the other "omg, please don't do this!" messages are against something dangerous. Its not like we need to shoot up with heroin or down a few shots to keep the species going, but sex, on the other hand--we're supposed to have sex. Now I'm not saying go out and do it when you're 13 or anything. No, thats stupid, but if telling kids not to do things that are going to kill them (i.e. drugs) doesn't work, why on earth would saying "don't have sex until you're married, its bad!" have any effect?

Well, as it turns, out... wait for it, wait for it... IT HAS ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT. That's right. Zero, nothing, completely ineffective. And this brought to you by a government commissioned study. So there ya go, in black and white with all the pretty supporting statistics: Telling kids don't have sex until you're married does nothing.

So why does this spark my rage at George and his cronies, you ask. Well in their infinite, righteous wisdom, they have concluded that this report doesn't matter. Never mind that if it was about anything but sex, they'd go "wow, we're wasting millions of dollars on this, we should cut it," but since apparently George Bush is the pinnacle of value ("Vote for Values!" my ass), we have to keep this funding rolling in. In fact, let's up it by almost $30 million for next year and, oh just wait, it gets better, let's shift the focus from abstinence to prevent pregnancy and STDs to abstinence as a way to build relationships and moral character. Also, I'm quite certain that the "information on sexually transmitted diseases" that these folks provide routinely gets ripped apart by public health officials for being incredibly inaccurate. Yeah, this will work great.

Chocolate covered pretzels, chips and pizza, oh my!

The past few days have been quite fun. I, however, will soon be gaining about 50lbs from them. Oops.

First there was, of course, Duane's and my anniversary so I stayed over there all weekend. That means a lot of eating out. Oh, tastey Qdoba and pizza goodness!

Then there was the Easter gift from his mom. She is my new favorite person². In addition to a pretty nice shirt... hey, who doesn't like new clothes?!... the gift bag contained a 10 year supply of chocolate covered pretzels. Chocolate covered pretzels, in case you are unaware, are the greatest food EVER created. There was also a can of Lays Stax, so Pringles by a different name, and I like deliciously salty chips almost as much as I like chocolate covered pretzels.




And finally, capping off the great food trifect of fat, lol, I went out to dinner with my lab earlier this evening. We ate at Milano's to celebrate Pat graduating/going to grad school. That was seriously the most fun I've had with a group of completely new people at college. Yay for my lab friends! Heh, I also learned all sorts of interesting and/or really disturbing things about most of the chemistry department. My really old lab TA, for example, sometimes thinks about female students in inappropriate ways...and then tells poor Tim, another TA and grad student that just switched to our lab, all about it. And apparently, summer research is more like play Nerf football in the hallways. Haha, fun times. Fun times.

Three Years!

Today is Duane and my 3rd "anniversary." Heh, it gets quotes since technically speaking, we never made it official. He didn't get the complex girl rules of "ask me out and then ask me out," so we had to pick a random day. That is quite alright though, its actually sort of cute. :-p

I have an Ochem exam tonight, so we're certainly not going out until tomorrow. I have a feeling its going to be the best weekend ever.

Happy anniversary! I love you, Duane.

We're breaking from Darfur..

My entire, ENTIRE, grade in Honors Seminar will be determined tomorrow. Try not to panic, right? HA! Its a group paper/presentation. Let me tell you how much I love groupwork. Oh wait, I do not. I like to do things ahead of time--planned out in advance and done nicely. The rest of the world waits until about 3:00 am the night that the project is due to even begin thinking about it. Its killing me!

No matter. At least we have an idea (I'm pretty sure one group doesn't even have a project idea yet.) and a working draft that Jenny is polishing off as well as a spiffy, "professionally done" Powerpoint, complete with video! This video, actually. Watch. Laugh. Be sad that its true.



Our projects have to be on Darfur. So our group is doing the media influence on genocide and the lovely folks at Jib Jab couldn't have timed their video release any better. And finally, during the height of the mess that is Darfur, fifteen thousand people were dying each month but no one reading this knows that. At the same time, however, Tom Cruise was jumping on Oprah's couch and brainwashing Joey, which I think everyone reading this knows. I hate you America.

I'm a 55 year old man...

So said John about 289347239847 times tonight. This definitely made for a perfect last day of work: A patient so crazy and unbearable that while the time passed quickly since I certainly wasn't bored, it was an "OMG I hate my job!" kind of night. No second guessing that two weeks notice. Nope. No way. There was, however, joyous skipping to the parking garage.

Today being Easter, however, means that John couldn't possibly have been the strangest part of my day. Oh no, religious holidays bring the religious nuts out of the woodwork. So there I was, sitting in the little vending area of the cafeteria, minding my own business and trying to enjoy my stuffed shells and hot sausage, and who do I find myself in this room with? Only the most religiously insane woman ever to live, of course. Here is a summary of her phone conversation:

• Sweet Jesus!, Lord Almighty! and Amen, hallelujah! should be interjected after nearly every word.
• There are "EPs" in the world that do harm to babies, people and human beings, sweet Jesus, amen! Also, dry cleaning chemicals harm babies, people and human beings.
• EPs are responsible for great evil, however, I don't think it stands for "evil people" since she also rambled about evil doers for a while, sweet Jesus, Almighty!
• She thinks when she goes back to work that God wants her to stick to cleaning bathrooms, not doing the laundry. He answered her in the letter she wrote to Him.

Good times, good times. I might almost miss this job, I thought. Nope, John is whacking his head off the wall again. I hate this job. Goodbye, crazy man!

Two Weeks' Notice

Oh yeah, the angels are singing. I just finished writing my letter of resignation, you see. No more crazy watching for me. Hurrah!

Well, sorta. I'm actually working one last day: tomorrow. But tomorrow is Easter! Yes, yes, it is. But my family sucks and we don't do anything. Ditto for just about every other holiday. :-( Oh well, working gets me holiday pay. $13/hour, oh yeah! That will help replenish the bank account, especially after Jamie's and my shopping spree last weekend.

So no more Mercy, oh the joys! That means:

1. I will no longer return home smelling like old person and/or homeless person nastiness.
2. My new tennis shoes will not get peed on like the last pair did. Darn you, Elmer!
3. No more contact precautions. MRSA and HIV+? Oh boy, I hit the lottery tonight!
4. My voicemail gets a nice vacation since the only messages I ever get are from work.
5. I do not have to ignore said voicemails anymore.
6. No more dirty old man patients hitting on me. Or proposing... Norm. -vomits-
7. Speaking of vomit... no more vomit! Well, until camp at least. Little kids like to vomit.
8. Freedom! No more being held hostage past my off time when my relief is MIA.
9. I get to spend my summer researching with Dr. Rita instead of watching crazies, woo!
10. Three glorious weeks of nothingness before said research starts. Oh yeah.

Oh, happy day!

Three years ago today was the Drama Club's New York trip, which while I expecting to have a good time-- really how can you not have a fun time in NYC, especially when showing a large paper cutout of your little cousin around, haha--I certainly didn't think it was going to turn out to be pretty much the greatest 3 days of my life.



I liked Duane; Duane liked me, but of course, being the little pansies that we were, neither one of us were planning on doing anything about that. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but I was like "ahh, don't date friends, that never goes well!" -ahem- Corey. Anyways, good ol' matchmaker Sarah saved the day. She not only snapped this, my favorite picture of the two of us (not because its an amazingly good picture or anything, just sentimental value) but she pretty much forced us into sitting with each other on the way home, which resulted in my legs thrown over his lap and the greatest, albeit extremely awkward, lol, few hours of the entire trip. Thanks, Sarah!



Of course, I was sitting there thinking, "What are you doing, stupid girl?! You can't go draping yourself over the guy and then be like 'ah, no, I don't like him. Nope, not me,' and hope nothing comes of it but at the same time, gah! I don't want stop!" I really should have seen that coming though... Heh, starting with pouting the entire way back from JETS a month before because Justin needed a ride and got to sit in the front seat and definitely when (girly moment warning!)--and believe me, logically this sounds ridiculous but it really was that great-- on the ride to New York, somewhere on the bumby mountain roads while both of our feet were in the isle, my foot bumped into his and well, I felt "the spark."