Being Ugly

In the United States we live in a society which values the way women  look entirely too much. I'm actually really hard on myself, and I need to remember the amazing things my body has done.

My body has done wonderful things. It took me to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (and back, which was in doubt for a few miles there). It's run two marathons. It's recovered from 3 concussions. It's grown two marvelous people inside of it. I've put it through two very long labors only to be subjected to two C-sections and it's recovered beautifully. It dances, albeit not very well. It sings. It manages to get up every morning.

I'm so hard on it for not looking like it did 10 years ago, for not being flat where it should be and for being flat where it shouldn't be,  but I should appreciate it for all of the things it still does for me, and for all the experience it's gained thus far. My aches should remind me of all of the things my body has stretched for, my wrinkles the wisdom gained with every new experience.

Here's an interview that Dustin Hoffman did about an epiphany  he had while filming Tootsie.  I think that a lot of men think this way about women, which is unfortunate. I know all of the Mom's I know are doing their best to raise little humans who value women as people first and women second. We also need to start being nicer to ourselves.

Here's why we should be worried about the Ebola Virus

We do have a decent healthcare system in the United States, but if Ebola begins to spread, the health care system will very quickly be overrun.

We don't actually have the resources at 95% of hospitals to deal with an outbreak.

Doctors in the United States are not familiar with Ebola, which is understandable, because they never see it. The symptoms of this disease are very similar to influenza, especially in the beginning phases.

I've been following this outbreak in Africa, and it seemed as though authorities were strangely silent about it in the beginning. I don't think it's some sort of conspiracy, I just think people are in denial about what this disease can do.

We simply don't know enough about it, and the hospitals have no experience dealing with a disease so easily spread and so very deadly.

This disease spreads through contact with bodily fluids, yes, but it doesn't require close contact. It requires exposure to soiled garments, vomit, saliva, breast milk, sweat. Think of all the things you touch every day that have been touched by other people. Duncan did not have to lie about being in contact with an Ebola victim. Honestly, the disease in Africa is spreading so quickly that he could have ridden in a cab someone else had ridden in. He may have used a public restroom immediately after someone infected and shedding the virus.

Our hospital systems will quickly become overwhelmed if there is an outbreak in this country. There really needs to be a global effort to contain and eradicate this virus at it's source. It's not going to stop moving, and it's too hard to isolate everyone in this global society.

This virus kills as many people as the bubonic plague did. We came up with  antibiotics to treat it, finally, but it killed 50-80%  of the people who were infected, just like Ebola.

I don't think we need to be pointing fingers and blaming the Dallas Hospital, I think they did the best they could, but I also think the people at the top of these organizations don't realize how hard it is to get supplies, or the pressure placed upon the staff to do their jobs even when situations aren't ideal. there were a lot of mistakes made, but we need to stop making them. At least now it seems as though the government has a clear plan going forward.

I don't think we should panic, but I also don't think we should stick our heads in the sand.
We really need to focus a bit more on containing this outbreak than on terrorist sects right now. This has the potential to kill so many more of us, just as indiscriminately.

We Should Totally be worried about Ebola

I'm a medical technologist, I've been working in hospitals since I graduated from college 15 years ago. WE SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE WORRIED ABOUT EBOLA.

Nicolas Cage in Left Behind

The newest version of Left Behind came out in theaters on October 3. So, I've been waiting for this movie to come out since I saw a trailer for it 8 months ago on Reddit. I first thought it was a joke, then determined it was real and desperately wanted to see it.

 The Rapture is a mostly American evangelical Christian belief that Christian believers will be raptured at the end times. From the Latin root raptus, meaning to be carried away.

The history of it is pretty interesting. There's no real definite support for it in the bible. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of stuff about the end times, and some passages about the believers meeting
Jesus in the air, and some other stuff about tribulation...but essentially some different dudes over time have interpreted all these passages to death and decided on their own interpretations. It's a belief that became popular in the late 1700s, early 1800s based on some different guys interpretations of what the bible says. I mean, this is extrapolation of the vaguest kind. Times, times, and half a time (Daniel 7:25) is interpreted as 3 and 1/2 years...um...

If anyone is interested in reading more about what the rapture is, they can check out Wikipedia, which I feel gives a pretty good explanation. It also gives some links to some amazing people, like some guy named Increase Mather, and his son, Cotton. It's no surprise these guys were involved with the Salem witch trials.

There are  also a lot of Christian websites those interested can immerse themselves in, and plenty of people who will spew hate at you for questioning their beliefs in the end times, as well. Anyways, I'm Catholic, so I don't get raptured. I pretty much wind up straight in hell.

 But man oh man, The rapture is the stuff of Hollywood horror. Kids disappearing from their parents, teenager waking up to find their whole families gone. Then, what happens next? Torture for the next seven years.

As a story premise this is BRILLIANT. My husband was terrified when he was a child that everyone he knew would be raptured and he would be left alone. He used to wake up in the middle of the night and check to make sure everyone else was still in bed.

Unfortunately the Christians have yet to use the story gold that history has handed to them. Unable to stop beating the audience to death with their evangelical  message, the story crashes and burns. Sometimes less is more guys. I may not have accepted Jesus into my heart in quite the way you have but I'm not a moron.

I can only assume that editing choices and directing were also dictated by the need to be nice instead of actually telling someone that the choices made were perhaps not the best.

A movie based on the rapture should be like a zombie flick, not really about the zombies, but about what the people do in response to the zombies. How do they react when placed in this confusing/terrifying situation.

Instead we get a nice Muslim man, who isn't saved because he's Muslim (nice isn't enough to get you saved), a dwarf with a lot of issues about being short, and a busy business man who also isn't saved, because he had no time for Jesus or family, oh, yep, and a drug addict, and lots of mom's missing their kids.

My companions giving their best Nic Cage impersonations

There is an HBO show called the leftovers that just came out this year based on the rapture that I'm told might get it right. Looking forward to watching it.

I

Sometimes People are Just Nice

Last Sunday, with my kids in the car, I ran out of gas. I used to run out of gas a lot when I was younger, something about wanting the universe to conform to my needs of buying more cigarettes and not gas, and trying to will my car to continue running on nothing.

It's been a good 10 years I would say, since I ran out of gas. I was on my way to the grocery store to overbuy snacks and things for my kids because we had a new babysitter coming on Monday (and it totally makes me nervous, so I want to make things super easy so the newbie never wants to kill himself throughout the day) and to get money out of the ATM. Luckily I decided to drive up 7th Street instead of getting immediately on the highway. I knew we were relatively low on fuel, but the little orange light had yet to come on, so I thought we were safe, at least until after I had gotten a coffee.

Well, now I know the little orange light is broken.

 We managed to coast to a stop halfway into an empty parking lot. I then managed to push the car by myself all the way into the parking lot, but it was still sitting in the middle of the lane, and no amount of coaxing (or cursing) could get it to move one more inch.

Stinko was screaming his head off, and up stepped my first angel of the day, out on a Sunday morning walking his boxer with his girlfriend, he took a minute to help me shove the car into a parking spot. Hooray! The gas station was only a block and a half away, and I had Eli's little front carrier, so I decided further help was unnecessary. I

 did drastically underestimate the amount of time it would take me to walk a block in a half with a two-year-old, especially when the terrain is riddled with fresh rain puddles. My second angel of the day was the homeless guy who offered to pump the gas into the can so I wouldn't have to lean over with Stinko's legs dangling into the fresh gas stream.

 Finally, a mom of two saw me walking back down the street, Stinko strapped to my front, with Chompy in hand, eating a Spongebob ice cream and still jumping in puddles, and took the time to stop and give us a bottle of water and a couple of pairs of sunglasses, because hey, it gets hot out here in AZ. All of these little acts of kindness helped me weather the storm in good spirits. I know I complain a lot, but sometimes people are so darn nice.