Disneyland

Somehow, despite all my disgust for the largest, most evil multimedia company in the world, I still managed to contribute a large donation to them in exchange for a season pass to their amusement park. That's right, I bought a season pass for my son and I to Disneyland. This is another area of my life that stimulates nostalgic feelings that heavily persuade me to make decisions that are not connected to my values... damn it. Oh well I can't be perfect. Anyway, my son and I took off for a Disneyland get away for just the afternoon. We arrived around 2 pm and left at 8 pm. It was sprinkling on and off so it wasn't very busy. My son and I were able to enjoy rides with lines from only 5 -15 minutes long. It was a good day to go. Many of my family live in Anaheim and also have passes so every time we head out there it is common that cousins or aunts/uncles will meet us there. My cousins were able to join us this time and the younger ones really kept my son entertained.

Almost Thanksgiving

I ordered clean, humane pork to turn into a lovely roast for Thanksgiving. I am always super excited to cook for people. I use this recipe that I got from the magazine "Bon Appetit" a couple of years back and I have never been able to go back to turkey since the fist bite. This year will be a small gathering, just my mom, hubby son and I. That just means more leftovers. Woohoo! I love thanksgiving leftovers. I love the holidays. I totally get swept away by the decorations and holiday music... I know, I am such a sucker. I can't help it though. There is something so nostalgic about the winter holidays that gets me all giddy.  Here is to a yummy Thanksgiving holiday for all. Bon Appetit!

Bowling night

I went to a bowling birthday party tonight. It was so much fun and I ended up running into about 15 people that I know very well but haven't seen for a couple years. I had so much catching up to do that I didn't even end up getting a chance to bowl. I don't regret it though, it was a great time and I'm glad I went. Life and people are so much more interesting if you have a little space and take time away. When you're in each other's faces all the time on a continual basis, everything just gets repetitive and boring. I used to see most of these people weekly and, like I said, some of whom I haven't seen for moths or years.  It's always good to reunite with people who know you very well. It's those relationships that can pick up right where they left off that are so great in my life.  There's a nostalgic, familiar comfort that they bring. 

Minnesota Man Rescues Deer From Frozen Lake

Image via: WDIO

Whenever I read stories like this I get so touched and a little bit of my faith is restored in man. However, after recently finishing the book Ishmael, I now question this behavior of saving this deer's life.  Is this the opposite swing of the pendulum of playing God. As humans, we spend a lot of time destroying our mother earth and everything apart of it, taking away life from anything we choose. It's easy to wonder who the hell we think we are in this respect, but what about deciding to give life and intervene with the death of another life. Because the animal appreciates the gesture, it only seems like common sense to call this "the right thing to do,"but is it? Why, as humans, do we feel entitled to the role of taking responsibility and control over the fate of everything that exists around us?  Just thinking out loud.

Parenting 101 must read

        

            

The Continuum Concept was the first book I read in relation to child rearing while I was pregnant and I still consider it one of the best I've come across. This book is written by Jane Liedloff, an American writer, who lived for two and a half years with theYequana tribe, deep in the Amazon Forrest. The Continuum Concept opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about babies and children. The Yequana women give birth and keep their babies with them, in arms, until the baby can crawl. Once the baby can crawl the baby spends much time crawling near by while the mother does tasks and goes about her normal day. When the baby can walk, he or she will be playing with all the other children in the tribe essentially being raised by them until the baby needs comfort or nourishment from the mother. The mother does not coddle the baby at all, but at the same time she is there whenever the child cries for her or wants her comfort, or maybe some breastmilk. From birth the child has a place in the tribe and is expected to learn, adapt, and survive, just as all other mammals do. Little toddlers boys are running around with bow and arrows practicing to be just like the adult males in their tribe without injuring each other. Little girls are mimicking the work that the women do. There are no cribs, playpens, forced naps, or plastic toys from China used, ever! The children literally never go through the terrible two stage. They do not have tantrums like we see in our industrialized culture. The adults grow up to be drama free and are happy to work and participate for the well being of their tribe. The biggest difference in our cultures in how we respond to our young is that the Yequana do not push independence on their young. They hold their babies all the time for the first six months or so. They sleep with their babies regularly. There are always children of different ages around who can keep up with the energy and imagination of whatever stage a child may be going through. Once a child grows interested in adult responsibilities or activities, the child is welcomed to advance into that area of subject. There are no kid specific toys or games, no age requirements or limits. The child is a fully respected member of the tribe as soon as they are born and treated as such. Here in America, we bombard our children with special gadgets, gismos and toys to entertain them. We push them away from "adult" activities and children are separated from adult life in general. There is child centered activities and non child activities. Most of the time the child is waiting to be allowed to experience the next "child-centered" activity and are usually forced to be with children their own age, like during school. This causes major frustration for them and studies show that the independence we are pushing, before a child is ready, is actually causing a more insecure adults later in life. The Yequana people are living the same way our ancestors lived thousands of years ago. They still possess something our culture certainly has lost. We can learn a lot from the Yequana people.

Hunger Games?

 I entered  to win a compound bow last year while I was at a gun show, yes a gun show, and sure enough I won it with just one $20 raffle ticket. I had been wanting to get a bow for a few years but I did not have the time or money to invest with just having a new baby. I love my bow and now I am applying for the bow hunters education license, which I hope to obtain by February 2014. I am having a hard time finding any folks in L.A. who bow-hunt let alone hunt at all. We are in L.A. so I am not surprised.  For now I am just target shooting. The license allows one to learn how to make the  most humane kill by learning the anatomy of different animals, when hunting seasons end and begin, tracking your kill, recovering your kill, safety, and outdoor preparedness.  Sorry for any vegetarians, vegans or animal lovers who find hunting offensive.

Single mom... almost

For the last two weeks my husband ha been working out of town. I had to scramble for on call childcare because my job requires me to sometimes leave in the middle of the night to attend a birth. The universe somehow always seems to provide. I found a doula who is now my on call childcare person. I am glad I can rest knowing that I have childcare that will answer their phone at 3 am to come and sleep at my house to care for my child. The doing everything by myself all day and night has been interesting.  I definitely have even more respect for the men and women who are single parents full time.  It is not easy!  My hubby came back for today, Saturday, and will leave again tomorrow.  I am looking forward to when this job of his comes back to L.A.

Pray for me!

Cluster headache hell

Let me introduce you to the most painful headache known to mankind, The Cluster Headache.  This headache is also known as the suicide headache because a portion of people who suffer from these nightmare headaches eventually off themselves. I am a sufferer of these mother effers and, although I am not the type to kill myself, I do often wonder how I could enjoy life taking these things on for the rest of my life.  These headaches reside behind the eye, usually the right. The pain is stabbing and comes in waves, putting pressure on the sinuses and the temple. This causes the affected eye to tear and swell up, like in the picture. The headache also causes temporary mental disorientation and confusion. Cluster headaches can last from minutes to days.  My eye has completely shut during several episodes.  Let me clarify that I am no wussy when it comes to pain. I was a union iron worker and I have had smashed fingers, burned skin from molten iron dripping off of a beam I was cutting with a torch, I have had broken bones, I dislocated my knee, I have been kicked by horses, and I have given birth naturally at home. I did not cry when any of these events occurred, not even during the dislocation of the knee. However, a cluster headache will make me its bitch in less than an hour and have me crying for mercy in the most pathetic of ways.  I would probably assault someone if they stood in they way of me getting relief from one of these things.  When one comes on, sometimes I catch it in time and keep it at bay. This is the best case scenario and it feels like a regular headache behind my eye for three days,  while both sleeping and awake.  The worst scenario is when no amount of over the counter headache medicine works and I need someone to drive me to the hospital to get injections of immuntirex to stop the pain.
 I just had one of these bitch ass headaches last week in between going to three births, doing school work, and getting ready for Halloween. Luckily this time I kept it on the light side.  I am 34 years old. It is seriously depressing to think that I may have to look forward to a lifetime of visits from these unwanted painful episodes. I do not want to be dependent on drugs to deal with this problem. I continue to search for more holistic approaches so that I do not have to harm my body with the side effects that accompany the allopathic medicines out there.  Lack of oxygen has been linked to these headaches and sometimes I am able to make them go away with deep breathing exercises. That is what I did this last week.

Anyway, I would never wish one of these on my worst enemy.  They totally suck!

Making Halloween memories

This Halloween was pretty special. My kid is almost 5 years old so he is totally into the magic of this holiday and he was very passionate about his costume. We read the original Peter Pan and he also listened tot he audiobook about 25 times. He can recite parts of the book as if he wrote it himself!  Clearly he just had to be Peter Pan. We put him in my girlfriend's daughter's green leggings and a green shirt to start him off. Then my friend made him a felt Peter Pan hat and loaned him a brown head band for a belt. For a couple bucks we transformed my kid into a pretty nice resemblance of Peter Pan.

I proceeded to rifle through my friends closet and was very pleased to find wigs and vintage dresses.  I was able to put together a free halloween get up as well. 

Not too shabby, eh? My husband gave me strange looks all night and my son said I looked funny and kinda scary. Ha!  

I forgot that small children do not like when their parent's appearance changes. I remember when I was three and a half and I woke up to my father getting ready for work. He had shaved his mustache off for the first time in my life and I freaked out. I mean I was unconsolable. His personality, familiar voice and body was the same, but his face was unrecognizable. This was beyond traumatizing. M son didn't experience anything that dramatic but I knew what he meant when he said I looked scary. 

Happy Halloween! 

The Pacific Garbage Patch

If you live in a city or town that has public trash disposal then you probably are in the routine of taking your trash out to the can or bin provided to you for weekly pick up. When your trash gets smelly or piled up you simply throw the trash out and then each week, poof, it all disappears for your convenience.  And where does the trash go after that? The city dump right?  But what about after that? Some of it gets buried into the ground, which we call landfills, some may get burned or even recycled. However, if your anywhere near a shore line then you can bet that a large amount goes out to sea. In the Pacific ocean is the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, which is about 19 million square kilometers (7 million square miles). The Great Pacific Garbage Patch collects marine debris in the Gyre from North America and Asia, as well as ships traveling through the area. There is an eastern rubbish patch and a western rubbish patch. The western rubbish patch, closest to the United States, is estimated to be about the size of Texas. This is not one big floating trash island, but rather it's made up of some floating trash and some trash-masses in sporadic areas, dense trash at the bottom of the ocean floor in other areas, but mostly it consist of millions of small and microscopic pieces of plastic, about .4 pieces per cubic meter, floating over a roughly 5000 square km area of the Pacific. Plastic makes up the greatest percentage of the trash in the ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is comprised of items including discarded fishing nets, medical waste, plastic bottles and cans. However, the greatest volume of trash in the garbage patch is microplastics. The amount has increased significantly over the past 40 years. This is not only disgusting, it's a travesty! For most of us living in industrialized countries, we do not have to deal with the inconvenience or the devastating effects this has on the world around us.  Sooner or later, however, no matter where or how you live, everyone will suffer from the abuse that has been inflicted upon our mother ocean. 

  We can already see the negative impacts this garbage patch is having on wildlife and shorelines. Birds, fish and other sea-life are dying or becoming impaired from the trash that has invaded their world.  There are many fish and birds that have fataloutcomes due to consuming undigestible plastics and other trash. Turtles and sea mammals become entangled in some floating waste.These are just a couple examples of how animals are affected. The trash that blocks the sunlight prevents the algae and plankton from getting the nutrients they need to survive. Fish and turtles feed on the algae and plankton. Predator fish and whales feed on the fish and turtles.  If the plankton and algae cannot grow the entire food chain is compromised. 
There are no nations taking responsibility for the Pacific garbage patch because it lies so far away fro any coast line.  There are dedicated international organization dedicated to preventing the patch from getting any larger.
I found it difficult to collect solid evidence of the Pacific Garbage Patch since the area is so very remote and few have actually traveled there. I realized that some of the picture posted on the internet depicting miles of trash were not actually even from that area of the ocean. Finally, I stumbled across this Vice video which has actual footage of the Pacific Garbage Patch.  Please don't let anyone try and convince you that things are not as catastrophic as they seem regardless if you see mountains of trash or not.  I did some research and discovered that I was not merely an alarmist jumping on the band wagon of the garbage patch scare.  Please enjoy this video and decide for yourself. This is part 1 of three you can view the rest on You Tube.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi