January 2010
41 posts
“One cannot live well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
– Kanh Opezh
Let's Go
After sitting next to an inspired woman from Santa Fe at a recent dinner party, I want to retreat to Taos, New Mexico for two weeks of hiking and yoga practice.
Apparently, God is a Wingman
Dude: Excuse me?
Me: (engrossed in the alternative health section of Barnes & Nobel -- startled) Yes?
Dude: I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!
Me: (calming, slightly) Oh... that's okay...?
Dude: I don't normally do this... but... I happened to notice you on the escalator, while I was sitting over there reading my bible.
Good for you, Monkey. →
Hilarity from ED
Look What I Pulled Up Next to Today
Major Flatlining
How was your day?
Well, you know... typical.
Typical?
Well, it's just discouraging. I see so many unethical things it's hard not to think everything is going to hell.
Like what?
Well, I had a patient today - 50, an alcoholic, didn't take very good care of his health... was in for abdominal pain.
Right...
At 6pm the doctor came in - hadn't seen him all day. He got about half way from the door to the patient's bed - "Hi, how are you?" - and before the patient could answer, the doctor's phone rings and he excuses himself.
Okay...
He never goes back in to see the patient. I watched him walk right down the hallway -- he never went back. But of course, I see the chart, and the doctor's charted that he listened to his lungs, heart, etc... ordered some tests, made a change to the patient's diet - the poor guy hadn't eaten solid foods in two days, and of course at 7pm, the hospital kitchen isn't open!
Wait, so he basically just lied that he saw this patient? Oh, god. That's really so awful.
Yup. And of course, he's going to bill a hefty amount for that. Meanwhile, the patient had a whole list of questions to go over with the doctor (that I helped him write) and of course, those are never going to be answered. It's just so unethical. It's so disgusting!
This just makes me feel ill. I wish I didn't know this was going on. So, what you can do?
This is just a drop in the bucket. I see this and worse all the time. I've tried reporting it. No one cares. Nothing happens. Lies and corruption at every level.
(Sigh) Glass of wine?
I Could Get Used to This
Sunday morning coffee, New York Times, doves at the feeder, blue skies and a cool breeze in the backyard bamboo…
Scenes From a Catastrophe
In today’s NYT
There's Lots Out There
Here, It's All About the Specials
“You know what it is? It’s that moment when you’re walking to the bathroom at Diner at 2 o’clock in the morning, and everyone is wearing a cool hat and looks up at you over their grass-fed food. You feel like everything in the world is happening right there at that very moment. But it’s an illusion. It’s empty. It’s already gone.”
-JL
Los Carros Locos
I don’t think car shopping is fun. It’s stressful. Yes, the Blue Book, the Consumer Reports lists… I know I should just buy a Honda and be done with it.
However, I’ve always wanted the following impractical cars:
1. 1989 El Camino
2. Early 1980s CJ7
3. 1984 911
4. Brand-new MB SL500
The El Camino is just crazy. It’s totally ridiculous...
I Think That...
… one of the reasons it’s so hard to leave New York is because it rescued me. That it saved my life. It gave me peace, strength and showed me, to my surprise, over and over again, that I deserved all it so generously bestowed upon me.
“It was like a glorified screen saver.”
– CB, unimpressed, critiques Avatar
Being a Tree and Not a Vine
Watching the sunset at Vanderbilt Beach is a ritual that has gone on nearly 15 years of my life. Meeting friends and neighbors down on the sand every night, walking along the surf, settling into a beach chair with a cheap can of beer, watching the continuous game of bocce ball — a typical high school evening and still the regular practice of peers who never got out or gave it up.
The...
Love in the Time of Africa
With permission, an email excerpt from a dear friend currently learning the ways of love and life in Mali, Africa. Follow her adventures here.
… Then, after some secret handholding at breakfast, we snuck off into the desert, like five dunes away.
But when we got back, he went to off to work and Bouba said, “You are in the family now. We’re going to make marriage for you...
Life on Palm Tree Drive
Old Florida charm in Punta Gorda can’t be beat. Life slows way down in this little town where immediately it has you believe it’s possible to quietly slip off the radar and just be happy.
It’s here that 93 Percent masters living it right, perfecting his latest music project, building chicken tacos, and kindly deflecting Jehovah’s Witnesses. We take our morning...
4 tags
Currently Delighting In...
It’s about time for a new Current Obsessions post.
(I’m changing the title because I’m sick of people being “obsessed” with things. Just as I’m sick of chick-lit books being titled “Confession of a ________.”)
1. Cheerios
This cereal is awesome. (And not to be confused with nasty Honey Nut Cheerios which will forever be ruined for me after...
Hipsters, I Miss You
(Thanks to AGP for forwarding this awesome site.)
Oh, by gosh, by golly! You did not see this one coming?!? You just bought a vintage Schwinn 10 speed only to find out that fixed gear track bikes were hip! Then you take it outside and WTF?!?! IT’S KINDA COLD OUT!!! How are you going to ride in mid 30 degree temperatures?!? Obviously, you are dressed for exercise. Skin tight corduroy pants?...
“Organic Chemistry and A&P I and II? Bitch please. I’ve survived...”
Eff You, Salt Cave!
Naples Salt Cave just sounds stupid, I agree. A room in a strip mall that is full of pink Himalayan dry rock salt and a few patio chairs. Okay, so that’s not how they describe it, but that’s how I’m describing it.
I guess the purpose of sitting in this cave as the air fills with this salt is to breathe deeply and let the healing powers of this ancient practice take hold. ...
Tracking the Painted Bunting
Nothing like a gorgeous day in the swamp with SZ and JM on one of the rare warm days this winter.
Corkscrew was alive with the usual characters, but on that afternoon, a painted bunting visited the boardwalk entrance - a delight I have been waiting to see all my (birding-interested) life.
More photos of our lovely day here.
It's Like Career Week Here in My World
Tomorrow I shadow a physician assistant and Saturday I go to yoga training. Mid-week I’ll be an astronaut, Indian chief and rabbi.
Best Albums of 2009 (According to My Cousin)
After the revolution, when we’re all farming the land and weaving things, GM will be busy burning CDs for the tribe and making lists like this one.
WatchLouis C. K. “Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy”
Horseshoe Observation Platform
Having a look over the sawgrass and swamp maple on a beautiful afternoon.
CG, my dear friend and first New York roomie, has been blogging for years. I like to know what she’s up to all the way over there in LA, around the world on tour, or wherever she might currently be taking photos launching up into the sky.
I love her for many, many reason. Most recently for the fact that she too just discovered The Office and is obsessed, which I just read on her blog. I...
Yogrrrrrr
In addition to the yoga cat, there are a few things that can make a yoga class the opposite of relaxing, reflective and rejuvenating. Here are some things that piss me off while I’m working toward compassion, tolerance and flexibility.
1. Overuse of Incense
You know when you’re walking down 1st avenue and around 11th street you suddenly are overwhelmed by Nag Champa sticks...
Joyful Practices
In honor of my finest yoga practice (which happened this evening, day 10 of my challenge) I’m settling with a McDonald’s hot fudge sundae and Donnie Darko. A McDonald’s sundae, a filthy, guilty pleasure much like cocaine and sequins, should be enjoyed in the rarest of occasions and with uninhibited joy. Like this moment, right now.
"I'll Go!"
I don’t think “Attend Monster Truck Rally” was on my Do Before I Die list, but alas, I can now cross it off.
When there is a free ticket to something like this maniacal event, you just go. A study of sociology it was for sure. I could already hear the engines of the trucks and the sound of junker cars being crushed before I even shut down the Buick at the Germain Arena...
Chinese Food for Thought
There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer’s neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?”
A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the...
1 tag
My New Favorite Wine
The neighbors across the street are amazing. The husband is this prince of an Argentine who is as kind as can be, and the best BBQer around. His wife is just the sweetest, warmest woman who knows how I cannot resist a steak dinner her husband prepares on their custom-built Argentine outdoor grill. Few things are better than a long meal with excellent, entertaining company. (Particularly those...