a great little book

Hold Your Water: 68 Things You Need to Know to Keep Our Planet Blue

Written by Bob Wyland of the Wyland Foundation - they are all about protecting oceans, waterways, and marine life. Mr Wyland is also an amazing painter - just take a look at his whaling walls.

This book is a quick and easy read and gives all sorts of suggestions (more than 68 actually) for conserving and preserving water, not to mention all kinds of facts about water - such as these:

Two-thirds of the world is covered by water - 97.5% of it is undrinkable seawater. Of the remaining 2.5 percent, nearly two-thirds is in polar ice caps, and the remaining third is ours, except half of it is considered polluted by most international standards, 20% is in remote areas, and most of the rest comes as monsoons or floods. Therefore, the amount of fresh water available for human use is less that .08% of all the water on the planet, and 70% of that .08% is used for agriculture. The demands of energy and industry for water is continuing to grow, and in the next two decades, human use of water will increase 40%, and 17% more water than is available will be needed to grow food.

girl power

My body is now one big ache from shoveling wet snow and ice, and the colder it got, the harder the snow and ice got. Should be good for a few calories burned at least.

The woman who had parked next to me didn't even have a scraper, let alone a shovel. Hello? Bachelorette Bible Basics? Be prepared and all that Girl Scout/Girl Guide stuff?

Rule #1: Every girl should have a black lace bra, a power drill, and a pair of red mary janes that she absolutely loves (incidentally, I'm about to buy a new pair that I'm going to pay a stupid price for, but I love them, so there).

Rule #2: Every girl should have a survival kit in her car - shovel, scraper, blanket, flashlight, etc.

Sheesh.

I'm going to have a long soak in a bubble bath now, and then skillet chicken parmesan, and then a Cary Grant movie, ...and, oh, what the hell, a Hugh Grant movie too.

Happy Valentine's Day.

a new friend

This is Lyra. She was named after the spunky, adventurous, and overly curious main character in the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy.

About a year ago, the foster mom noticed her as a kitten following a little old lady around. The lady fed her, but didn't want her in the house, so the foster mom took her in before the weather turned cold.

Besides being pretty, she's got razor-sharp claws, she keeps herself fastidiously clean, she's very good about using the litter box, she's a bit skittish at sudden movements and noises, and she isn't used to being petted too much or picked up, and she has a distinct talent for getting underfoot and nearly tripping me. She's also extremely curious (read: she gets into everything!) - I've come home to find socks pulled out of the laundry basket and the DVD player tilted back against the wall at an odd angle. I was doing some crochet practice last night, and Lyra got interested in the ball of yarn - so interested, in fact, that she picked it up in her mouth, jumped off the couch, and ran around the living room with it, a line of yarn trailing behind her.

On her first day with me, it took her about 10 minutes to get up the nerve to come out of her carrier. Once out, though, she was quick to start exploring. She decided that her safe place would be under the bed, and she stayed there for most of that first day. If I got down on my knees and talked to her, she'd come right out and explore a little bit and then go back under the bed for awhile. She started rubbing against my legs on her quick-explore trips, and she even got brave enough to cuddle up right next to me and snooze on the couch for a bit, which is now her evening habit.

As the days progressed, she spent less time under the bed, and more time finding snooze spots and other places to explore.

The main thing we've got to work on is not swatting and hissing at my dog, particularly unprovoked. Hunny is keeping her distance and remaining very still when Lyra approaches, and it's Lyra who leans in for a swipe, which makes Hunny nervous. I don't expect them to be best buds, but I would like peace to reign.

I attribute her skittishness and defensiveness to the folly of youth and a rough start in life, and hopefully correctable. I imagine it's just a matter of getting used to Hunny and realizing that she's not a threat.

The other cat I was considering apparently has "issues," and probably wouldn't do well in my household. Lyra doesn't seem to mind being on her own when I'm at work, but it's probably quite a shock to go from a household of two other cats and two dogs, to just one dog, so she may need another feline playmate in the near future.

I've made a couple of big realizations. One, is how much I miss Louise and what a near-perfect cat she was. I can't expect Lyra to be like Louise, and I have to respect that where Louise was more laid back and less active, particularly toward the end of her life, Lyra is young and energetic. Two, I had gotten so used to Louise, that starting over from the beginning with a new cat is more of a shock than I had anticipated. The energy in the house feels different, which is to be expected, though a little hard to get used to. I feel like I've been jolted out of the energy pattern I had been accustomed to.

Wish us luck.

it's a privilege

Today is one of those rare days when I really like my job.

My acupuncturist came in and gave a presentation on integrated medicine. I was expecting a lot of resistance from the staff to consider the idea of therapies beyond pills and surgery, especially given the majority of the work we do, but a fair number of people showed up, and quite a few took one of her cards because they were intrigued by the ideas she presented in her wonderful presentation, and they wanted to make an appointment to see what acupuncture might do for them.

I spent the afternoon working on copy for a fundraising brochure for one of our faculty. Dr. Keith Ferdinand had a busy cardiology practice in the 9th Ward in New Orleans. He also lived there. Establishing his practice there was his way of helping the community he had grown up in.

Katrina changed all that in a matter of days. He lost everything - both his home and his practice - files, hugely expensive diagnostic equipment, everything. He relocated to Atlanta and started over again. Instead of dwelling in bitterness over the lack of progress to rebuild the city, he chose instead to do something about it, and formed the Health Outreach Prevention and Empowerment (HOPE) program through the Association of Black Cardiologists. They've done, and continue to do, amazing things:

• Supporting shelters in local communities
• Assisting with letter writing campaigns to Senators and Congressional leaders
• Providing transportation to resource centers and transitional housing units
• Providing food, toiletries, and clothing
• Providing telephone access for family contact
• Providing health-based recreational activities for the shelters
• Developing key contacts in cities needing direct financial support for evacuees
• Distributing debit cards for transportation and personal needs of victims
• Purchasing a Mobile Medical Unit to allow ABC to provide basic essential care for chronic illnesses in high-risk communities

• Conducting health screening events
• Supplying cell phones to Reach 2010 "At The Heart of New Orleans" a community–based, cardiovascular risk reduction research project

• Supporting "Health Recovery Week" a collaborative effort with the New Orleans Health Department and Morehouse School of Medicine

He asked us to help create a brochure to hand out at association meetings and other venues to remind people that while pictures of the French Quarter and the Garden District and the Superdome may lead many to believe that everything is back to normal, it ain't. Especially in places like New Orleans East, or the lower 9th Ward, or St. Bernard Parish.

The current level of health care available in New Orleans proper remains only a small fraction of what it once was. Only three of nine hospitals within Orleans Parish have reopened, and the total functioning in-patient beds are less than 50%. Many people who had jobs and health insurance before the hurricane were without both after it, and they have to do one of two things - go to emergency rooms for treatment and rack up bills they can't pay or go without health care altogether until the free clinics come to town, by which time they're in severe pain and suffering from chronic conditions.

Roughly 60% of the New Orleans population lives outside the city post-evacuation. More alarming, three-fourths of the city's medical providers have not returned. What's more, they may not be able to return. Dr. Ferdinand said that while he could rebuild his practice on the site where it used to be, the area is so environmentally toxic, it wouldn't be habitable.

Management was quick to agree to help with this brochure project, and I was lucky enough to be asked to write the copy for it. We're doing the design, layout, and printing as well. I'm also trying to talk management into making a monetary donation to HOPE. (If you would like to donate, or would like to find out more about the program, go here.)

A brochure is a small thing, I know, but it's something nonetheless. I need more projects like this.

Remember that scene in The Bishop's Wife where Cary Grant's angel character, Dudley, helps the blind man cross the street? The blind man thanks him, and Cary Grant simply says "It's a privilege," and you know he meant it. I do too.

Feel free to re-post the donation link.

what the doctor said

I was listening to an interview with Christiane Northrup tonight, and as usual, she said a lot of good and useful things:

Read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Stop it with the shallow breathing

Eat your vegetables - 9 servings a day, which is not as bad as it sounds because a serving is half a cup

Take the time to actually chew your food

Take omega-3s every day, either as fish oil or flaxseed; your brain needs them

Don't just sit there, move some every day

Watch your wheat/oats/corn/barley intake because one in three women has a gluten allergy

Vitamin D will be the next big thing, as there is reliable evidence that it can reduce your risk of certain cancers

Whatever you don't deal with in your cycling years (physical, emotional, and otherwise) will come back and bite you and then some during menopause

Avoid the synthetic HRT, go for the bio-identical stuff

Deal with your mother relationships, whether you are a mother and/or you have one - accept that your mother may not always have been perfect, and neither will you be

Avoid and/or ditch people who put you down for taking care of yourself and having your act together

Whatever you absolutely loved to do when you were 11 years old, start doing again (no wonder I want to take cello lessons 20 years on; when I was 11, I was just starting guitar lessons - must be a string thing)

I'm six years old today

I've been at my current job for six years, as of today. I don't know how I've managed to brazen it out for so long, especially because the company has gone through so many ups and downs and renamings and rebirths and splits and reorganziations. I can only attribute it to what is normally my negative habit of retreating into my shell when chaos and tempers and insane clients run amuck. I keep my office door shut most of the time, not only to muffle the noise from the hallway (whose bright idea was it to put all the writers and editors near the copy machine and the printer anyway?), but also to preserve some semblance of calm and control.

I also don't play well with the corporatey stuff. They tried to pull me into it on numerous occasions, and I think they've finally realized that I'm just not corporate material, and they just leave me to my research and writing. I don't give a damn about the ESOP money - you can't miss what you don't have; benefits are only good if you can make use of them; my briefcase can only hold so many labels; and how many bags and coffee mugs and hats and towels with the company logo on them does a girl need?

It occurs to me, though, that in these six years, I've been in five different positions, and I'm about to embark on a sixth one, so maybe I'm a job hopper after all, and I just managed to do it within one company and its subsidiaries.

I've stayed more for the people I work with than anything. I've been lucky to have at least two really good bosses, and there are some personalities that just work really well together, however eccentric we all may be (and we are, trust me). I've also kept in touch with many of the people who have left, and I can't say the same about previous jobs.

Several people celebrated 10-year anniversaries last year. I wonder if I'll make it that long. Actually, do I WANT to be at this company for that long? There's a thinker...

now whose column am I going to read?

Molly Ivins died yesterday. She fought breast cancer for seven years. Seven years! Imagine what that must have been like. She was serious and funny and liberal and an adopted Texan and a fabulous writer all at once. From her pen, Bush became Shrub. She was our modern Dorothy Parker. No wonder I liked her.

Read her columns. Read her books. And if you're a woman, please follow her advice:

"Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done."