Rain Breaw

No on Prop 8

My Mom on Prop 8 (she’s really nailed it):

“When you allow, honor acknowledge acceptance, tolerance and love we all win. Anything that creates more fear, division, superiority and or hate gets a no vote from me. Simple”

I have to say, when the campaigning for and against Prop 8 began, I was somewhat annoyed. Our world as we know it is threatened right now, what with global warming, a complete economic meltdown, an energy crisis, a looming water crisis that no one talks about, wars everywhere, famine, etc. I kept asking: what are we doing talking about marriage with all of this going on?

Seeing the intensity of the “Yes on Prop 8″ campaign, however, and hearing the ludicrous claims such as “allowing gay marriage means our children will be taught about gay marriage in elementary school,” I’ve come to realize that this is, in some ways, one of the most important California propositions on the ballot this year.

Why?

Well, for the reason my mom stated above. We have a proposition on the ballot that promotes constitutionalizing discrimination. We have people in a huge rage against love. Our priorities are extremely out of balance right now.

The last eight years have all been about fear (axis of evil, terrorists, if you aren’t with us, you are against us, the list goes on). Can we now rise above the past eight years and our long-time fears to help each other find peace in our communities by accepting each other for who we are and how we choose to love?

Why I’m afraid of the Hatchet.

When McCain says that what we need is an absolute spending freeze, except in defense and “other essential services,” what, exactly, does he intend to freeze?

Thinking about the services the government offers, from infrastructure to medicare to education, police, firefighters, I’d like to know what it is that McCain considers un-essential.

California may have to have it’s own spending freeze - possibly even before the November election.  If it does, what will happen?  Will classroom doors be open?  Will firefighters be available to save a family from a burning home?

Will my mom be able to access the medication she needs to continue on to the next day?

What happens when the entire nation has to suddenly start asking the single final question I asked above… will my mom, my son, my brother, my grandmother?

Obama is damn right we need a scalpel, not a hatchet!  Nothing is more likely to cause utter chaos, even potentially riots and, well, serious harm to our internal national security, than a majority of Americans genuinely fearing the untimely loss of their loved ones.

On another note, regarding foreign policy: I’m scared.  I was somewhat young and naive in November of 2000, when election “results” came in and I immaturely yelled at my Republican friend and co-worker: “he’s (Bush) going to start World War III.”  What frightens me is that I was not entirely wrong.  If we don’t turn things around now, I’m afraid history will show me to be right.

For an important read that is far less scattered than this post debate #2 blog post, please check out the New Yorker’s sound endorsement of Obama:

www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/10/13/081013taco_talk_editors

Stand Up To Cancer Mobile Donation

Developing a mobile donation piece for Stand Up To Cancer has been very educational.  Mobile Giving, a new company that works with non-profits offering a mobile donation mechanism, has really helped us through this and enabled us to have this cool little widget.  

After you donate, you’ll be able to copy the code and put this widget on your own blog, website, or elsewhere!

Hemp Milk and Shrimp Scampi

I’ve been remiss in my commitment to use this blog to help others with insane food allergies like me.

More than two months later, I’m still finding my health and happiness levels increasing progressively with my new dietary “restrictions.”  I’m still enjoying great food.  In fact, my meals have improved so dramatically that I’m not sure I would want to go back to what I ate before!

My favorite meal thus far, and perhaps my favorite meal ever: Quinoa Shrimp Scampi.  Jon’s mom, Chris, found this recipe for us on the Boston Globe website:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/05/18/runaway_grain/

We had to alter the recipe slightly, but in spite of alterations this is an unbelievable culinary treat!

Another great find: hemp milk.  People often make an odd face or snide remark when this is mentioned, but hemp milk has saved me.  I love coffee with cream in it.  Half and Half, heavy cream, doesn’t matter as long as it is chock full of fat and milk.  Rice milk just wasn’t cutting it.  Coffee was becoming a huge dissappointment.  Hemp milk is filled with dense texture from the hemp nuts, and is almost a substitute for cream!  (The only problem - it separates from the coffee like oil in water, so you must keep a spoon handy.  Or, you can start drinking your coffee out of little red straws, which has been my tactic.)

I’ve also become especially attuned to radio reports on health standards based on region (read: culinary culture), and am developing theories based on those reports.  Stay tuned for a future blog post specifically about my theories on global health!

More great receipes coming soon.  For now: skip the soy dairy gluten free brownie mix from Trader Joe’s.  At best… brown chocolate-like slop. 

Crossing LA on Venice

I admit it, I’m somewhat insane.  A 7.5 mile bike ride on Venice Blvd., across Los Angeles, is not exactly the ideal bike ride.

But I estimate a gas savings of $25/week (even as the proud driver of an efficient Honda Civic).  I get to stay in shape in spite of my busy schedule.  I have more energy.  It’s a pleasurable way to start and end the day!

I’m beginning to wonder, though.  My throat has started to hurt.  Is that just because of the anxiousness resulting from the sheer scope of my current employment?  My age-old asthma acting up as we near the summer months?  Or am I starting to experience the harshest of realities of living in a smog ridden city and riding out in the open next to buses, large trucks, SUVs, idling cars watching me zip past them by in traffic?

That’s a scary thought.

Maybe riding my bike will give more people the idea, and traffic will settle down.  Maybe by setting an example, I’ll help lead to critical mass and revolutionize the way we travel?

(I’ve written before in a post, and I will write again… traffic in LA is so bad, I really don’t spend any more time traveling on my bike than I do in my car!)

Ten+Inches=Small Action (Blog SU2C)

I like my hair. Even as it begins to turn grey (early!), it remains un-damaged by dyes, presses, perms, regular blow-dryer use, excessive product. … I don’t remember how I got the idea, but I was a single-digit age when it first occurred to me to chop it all off and donate my precious braid to Locks of Love. Something about that act was so satisfying that I have been doing it every two or three years since. …

Read the full post on the Stand Up To Cancer blog:

http://www.standup2cancer.org/blog_su2c/2008/06/ten_inches_small_action.php

Becoming Gluten/Soy/Dairy Free

For the past three years I have been getting progressively more tired, my eczema more frustrating and inconvenient and, well, ugly, and my mood more generally irritable.  I was attributing all three rather debilitating problems to stress and exhaustion from film school and being over-worked.  Forcing myself to sleep 7-8 hours a night for three months straight helped a little, but then I started a demanding job with Stand Up To Cancer (return at the end of May for more information on that), and I couldn’t stick to my sleep regimen to save my life.

Very quickly, within two weeks of starting the job, I regressed to where I was before I started my strict sleep plan.  I thought biking to work (7.5 miles each way) would help, but while it is a wonderful way to start and end my days, it didn’t solve the problem.  And the decline in my health was becoming noticeable not just to me, but to everyone around me as well.

I finally dug deep into my pockets and scheduled an appointment with a doctor who came highly recommended, and learned a life-altering fact: Gluten, which includes wheat, barley and malt, is poison for me.  Every time I eat a cookie, grab a bagel, nibble on a pretzel, drink a fiber-enhanced beverage, I’m making myself sicker and sicker.

And the icing on my now poisonous cake?  Because I’ve been so evil to my body for… my entire life! I have developed allergies to other basics as well - dairy, soy, almonds, eggs (and chicken inconclusive).

This is actually great news: I’m otherwise completely healthy!  I’m fit as can be (hey, I frequently bike 7.5 miles each way to and from work, what do you expect?).  For someone who spends her days surrounded by talk of cancer, this is a happy diagnosis for deeply troubling symptoms.  I have complete control over this.

And so, last week I became gluten, wheat, soy, dairy, egg, chicken, almond free.  

Open your cabinet and read the ingredients on the items you have in there.  Chances are you won’t find a single thing I can eat!  That’s what happened to me when I got home the night I received this news.  Try looking at a menu anywhere - even a vegan or health-food restaurant.  You’ll have to settle for the nice bowl of white rice.  Yes, this diet is extremely difficult.

But - I had no idea how sick I was until I removed these things from my diet.  I feel *amazing* - my energy levels have soared.  I’m happy.  I don’t feel nearly as stressed in spite of the fact that I’ve hit crunch time at work.  I don’t fall asleep until I get into bed.  I wake up with my alarm clock.  My skin is normal again.

This reminds me of how I felt when I first got glasses.  I had absolutely no idea how bad my vision was until the moment I stepped outside with new glasses (at the age of 14) and realized that trees had individual leaves.  I had no idea how sick I was until just a few days ago, when I discovered what it feels like to be entirely healthy.

And the real irony?  I’m now eating meals that are not only far more healthful, but tastier!   Having to pay attention to what I eat means being creative and figuring out what I truly enjoy.

Even better: I have a wonderful supportive partner, Jon, who has really taken upon himself the task of learning as much as he can about my new food restrictions and how to eat normally in spite of them.  This weekend, he made me chocolate chip cookies.  Soy/dairy/gluten free chocolate chip cookies.  And they were excellent.  He’s actually made the process of transitioning to an entirely new lifestyle (because that’s what being soy/dairy/gluten free requires) fun.

The internet is amazing, and there are a lot of resources out there for this kind of restrictive diet.  Usually, however, the people who write in are able to eat one of the three culprits above.  So, consider this my first of many posts that will offer insight into living entirely free of all three.  I’ll write about tasty safe products, adventures, the trials, and whatever else comes to mind.  If you have advice, or your own stories to share, please comment!

More later… now I have to continue standing up to cancer (my current job).  We have a deadline to make.

Washington Mutual should be ashamed

This morning I went into a Washington Mutual for a simple transaction.  This particular one had just been souped up with the new “design” that they are starting to put it.  I hadn’t seen it before.

This simple transaction - changing a large bill into small ones - was possibly one of the most confusing banking experiences I’d ever had. The bank has “re-vamped” its interior design into a flower pattern, with kiosks sitting out in middle of the room in what appears to someone fortunate enough to figure out how to get into line to be random placement.

Once I figured out the line, I stood there looking every which way trying to see where I was going to go to do my transaction. Fortunately, the tellers call across the room.

I gave the woman my bills, and she gave me a slip of paper rather than the smaller bills. I ask her where my bills were, and she tells me I have to go to a “change station.” What’s that? I ask. She points into the random bunch of kiosks.

Okay…. ? Where? What?

No one answers my questions - they look at me like I’m stupid. “Duh, the change station, idiot.”

Finally I figure out where the change station is, and go get my change.

BUT… the ENTIRE TIME I was there, feeling confused, frustrated and annoyed, I was also getting VERY angry. Why? Because the entire time I was thinking about my mom.

My mom is legally blind. She can see color fairly well, but not much else. She sees in two-dimensions, not three, and to her the world looks a little like a super blurry Monet painting.

So, what happens to someone like her in this blurry world of crazy flower-pattered kiosks in which people just point into the jumble?

“Someone like her” is not just the occasional legally blind individual - it is also an elderly person with less than perfect vision, or the person who wears glasses but for some reason hasn’t got them available at this moment in time.

For that matter, what happens to someone in a wheel chair? If you get mis-turned, it would be a frustrating experience to turn around again in search of where you are supposed to be!

This is an extremely irresponsible design. Washington Mutual should be horribly ashamed. I’m ashamed that all of my accounts are with this bank - and considering changing this fact in spite of WaMu’s impressive online interface.

Avoid 3rd Street

3rd St. is labeled as a bike route, but don’t do it. At least, not west of Wilton.  Traffic isn’t so much of a problem - there is actually plenty of room for you, your bike, and the plenty of stuff you’ll pile onto your bike after visiting the various stores (such as Trader Joe’s) on 3rd.

The unfortunate problem with 3rd St. is that, while the main part of the road itself is kept up quite nicely, the shoulders are very poorly maintained. Riding on a 3rd St. shoulder definitely requires a mountain bike. If you enjoy feeling everything inside of your body vibrate as you bounce from broken concrete to broken concrete, you’ll enjoy this particular bike route. If not, here is the best alternative I’ve found so far:

2nd Street will get you as far east as Hudson.
Pop onto 3rd until you get down to the next light, but break the law and use the sidewalk. It is also poorly maintained, but at least you aren’t jumping about in traffic.
At the next light, bounce down to 4th St., which you can take to Wilton. Once you’ve gotten as far as Wilton, 3rd will actually be okay.

Riding with traffic, spending a lot less

In just a few days of using my bike as my primary form of transportation, I’ve discovered the secret to getting around Los Angeles.  Bike riding removes the hassle of parking entirely, and, believe it or not, I usually finding myself keeping up with the traffic!  Sure, they pass me.  Moments later, I pass them.  Dislike riding behind a smog-spewing schoolbus?  No problem!  Peddle faster!<p> I’m also estimating that, when considering the cost of gas and parking in LA, I’m actually saving somewhere between $2-$3 per day! Multiply that by 365, and I’ve got a month’s worth of student loan repayments just by riding my bike whenever possible.<p> Of course this only works if you know the roads in LA, and specifically know which ones to avoid when on a bike. I’m still figuring that out.