Conversation of the Day

During a conversation (topic undisclosed) while walking through Trader Joe's:

BFF:  I'm not saying you're on the merge of a meltdown but I'm picking that you might be.
Me:  Yes, I am....but I'm in the middle of the grocery store and if we keep talking about this I'm going to be a puddle.
BFF:  Oh ok, let's not do that.

She knows me, she gets me, she's my person.

And will be here in 24 hours!!!

At which point I'll probably have a meltdown in a gay bar on Capitol Hill which seems about right.

So...stay tuned for that....

Hoity-Toity

Today:

• I found myself in training asking, (outloud) “Studies show that HIV replicates best in the gut.  Is this a convenient coincidence that HIV Treatment drugs are administered orally to compliment that or if it manifested differently would an injectable or alternative form of drug administration be more ideal (i.e. how a vaccine is administered)? ”
• I'm listening to Chopin
• Having for lunch: veggie paella, sautéed green beans with slivered almonds, potato torte with garlic aioli with a side of blanched salted almonds.

I feel so hoity-toity I want to slap myself in the face. 

C’mon...Check yourself sister.   

Excited Times Infinity

BFF:  Are you free to hang next Friday? Should we come into Seattle? Go to a gay bar?

Me: I'm around next Friday and have reserved the evening for hanging out with you two.  I'll actually be up near Kirkland at 6:00ish. I'm getting my hair did so we should go out on the town.

BFF: I love that you're getting your hair done to hang with the tranny BFF and her bi-sexual gf. Don't let anyone tell you that you're not open minded.

BFF is here in a week and we’re hanging out in gay bars.  Just like old times. 

Last time we hung out at a gay bar it was in NYC at the famous Stonewall Inn (made famous by the Stonewall Riots) and it was drag night. The best drag queen, with legs any man would want and any woman would envy, stole the show with a set of pipes that would knock your heels off and the shortest blue sequin "dress" that you'll ever see.

Maybe I have a really dark (also sideways) video of it.

 

Excited times infinity. The possibilities are endless.

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

-Langston Hughes

Weekending

Who had an awesome weekend?!?!
Me. That’s who.  Hope you did, too.

Friday: Rosie Thomas show who makes you believe in love again. She’s so cray.  And amazing. I wish everyone could have heard her, tucked her away in your pocket and carried her with you throughout your day. 

Saturday was action packed with goodness.  The sun was out in its full glory, so magnificent that almost makes you forget the last 8 months of grey and drear.

I headed north for a 30 mile ride.  I always forget how much I love to ride until I’m out there.  The biker tan line is back and I love it.  The trail was minimally busy and the nods and knowing smiles from other bikers only further boost your go.  Must learn to ride with mouth closed.

Drove Big Red through the car wash and then promptly drove myself straight through the DQ for an ice cream cone.  At this point I thought this why way America is chubby and AWESOME.

Spent time with the folks and did more detail cleaning of the car.  A clean car is a happy driver.

By the time I got home I was the best kind of exhausted. 

Sunday, morning walk and Gasworks park hill lounging with a dear friend.  Then home for make lunch for the moms. While mom napped I laid in the sun like a splattered egg.  So friggin happy.  Full, warm and tan. I said thanks to mom for the olive skin and lack of gray hair and being all around a good person. 

Guys, let’s have more weekends like this!

May Day

I got a soap box. I keep it low profile at least on the interwebs when it comes to certain topics. Consider this your warning that this is a soapbox post.  Cease and desist if you’re not interested.

Well, it’s May Day today.  There is a day of for protesting going on around the world.  Here in Seattle, the protests have turned “violent” in a building-destroying kind of way.  Lame. C’mon.  

 If I could protest protesting I would.  I just don’t get it.

 Allow me to provide some context.

Once a month all of the global health teams get together to hear from leadership about recent trips/topics of interest.  Yesterday we met to hear about recent leadership trips to Zambia, which focused on highlighting the efforts around HIV and malaria, a country hit heavily by both. 

They shared a couple things:

*A picture of a woman who was HIVpostive, very sick and through a series of drug therapies has since been able to give birth to an HIV negative healthy baby boy.  He has a real shot at a healthy life now.

*Stories about Coptic church Archbishops and members of the clergy who operate and run private hospitals in Africa caring for orphans of HIV/AIDS related deaths. 

*A mobile HIV diagnosis site where people can go and get regular tests for HIV, as diagnosis is one of the obstacles of preventing HIV because 1.) If you don’t know you have it, you can unknowingly spread it and 2.) if you do have it you need treatment for your personal health and to mitigate the potential for further transmission.  

*Stories of pharmacies that stock anti-retroviral drugs used to treat patients with HIV/AIDS and the many huddles involved from development to distribution especially related to developing countries. 

Today we screened a documentary called “My Own Two Wheels” that highlights people around the world who without any real means are improving theirs and the lives of other by simply using a bike. Incredible stories.   

A colleague at the foundation is spearheading an effort to bring awareness to the global populations that live in “extreme poverty”.  In doing so, he is living on $1.50USD per day for food which is how the World Bank quantifies “extreme poverty”.  It’s called Live Below the Line which I would highly recommend checking out and join in doing so.

But all this over the past couple day really got me thinking.    

I got to thinking about my problems.  Maybe you’ve been thinking about your problems. But you think we got real problems...I'm beginning to doubt that.  And the more I doubt, the more I begin to look at this day of protest with real embarrassment and understanding of why the world hates us. So, might I suggest that those who believe they are in the oppressed 99%, perhaps we could expand the scope, and understand, globally, the “we” here in the developed world, with all the goodness we have are really in the 1%, a very privileged 1%.  And the real problems, poverty and disease cannot be picketed away.   Throwing rocks through windows or protesting by not going to work doesn’t solve real problems.  And I get it, I totally get that a collective can send a really loud message but a collective can also actively make actual change in real people’s lives.  We have a responsibilities as  contributing members of society and to do good in this world. And I don’t mean my or your world, I mean the global world, that world where people with real problems live in.   

I imagine lots of people share the same sentiments and there are a handful that don’t.  So I think I connect with this small more intimate idea of placing perspective of personal problems in a global context.  My problems aren't problem.  They aren't anything.  They are just this life happening.   Just a really great life happening. 

So if you have extra time, spend it wisely.  If you have extra financial resources, spend it generously.  If you have extra emotional capacity, spend it kindly.  Hug your dad, call a friend, buy someone flowers, go to work but don’t throw stones, literally or proverbially.

Me thinks that’s what will make this world a better place.

Off soap box.

Attack of the 50 foot Woman

That's what I must feel like to him.

I love:

-what happens at 32 seconds

-his face at 1:12

Future heartbreaker.