EastGirlsWest

Literally.

The Boyfriend’s back is out, so we’re alternating hot and cold on the troubled area while he lies on the couch. Cold is no problem - we have all variety of ice packs and frozen vegetables to numb the pain. But hot? We’re not so prepared. I just realized that the warmest, portable objects we have are two Powerbooks - which heat up our laps to a high degree of danger on daily basis. So now I’m putting that scary amount of Hot Processor Action to good use! I guess I better go open a few more applications to really get things going…

Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling’s smug mugs will look so much better behind bars. I couldn’t be more pleased about the Enron verdicts, although, they will probably end up with a cushier incarceration than deserved.

Still, I long for a day when the same G-word would be leveled publicly against The Man Posing As President and many in his administration; for starting a war with false intelligence, torture of prisoners of war, complicity in the Enron debacle, leaking the identity of a CIA agent, stealing an election (or two), having ZERO command of the English language, being really freaking stupid and SO much much much more.

While I’m at it, I’d also like to convinct my HMO (I’m talking about you, Pacificare), for taking my $250 monthy premium and actively contributing to the deterioration of my precarious health. I’m pretty sure that sending me to specialists who can’t squeeze me into their schedules, denying me medication that I desperately need, and reducing me to tears of sheer and utter frustration every single time I call customer service is NOT helping me “get better”.

But hey, at least they’re making money off me so it’s all good, right?

P.S. I must reserve a kind, positive word for Amber, the nice, helpful customer service agent at Pacificare that I spoke with today. I was still reduced to tears, but it was by jackass Pacificare policy, not Amber. She tried to mitigate my hysteria with kindness while I hyperventilated. She probably couldn’t even understand what I was saying half the time.

Thank you, Amber. Thank you.

So while I was in Orlando, Angela produced a fantastic These Days segment on mommy-blogs, and landed my Number One Blog Hero as a guest! If you haven’t read Heather Armstrong’s blog, dooce, please click here immediately and revel in her hilarity, sarcasm, brains, photography skills and great haircut. While her blog certainly has a strong focus on her daughter, she’s been blogging much longer than she’s been a parent. Even it you’re not with child, you WILL be amused. I’m still green with envy over the fact that Angela got to do a pre-interview with Heather, which invloved a long, one-one-one phone conversation.

The lovely and talented Aaryn called in to the show with completely appropriate dooce gushing - which I would have done myself if I had been in town (and by the way, I haven’t told Aaryn this yet, but her blog is so good that she’s running a close second to dooce). Other guests included Aaryn’s friend Samantha and this wacky dad who tracks his daughters development with all kinds of charts, graphs and statistic. It’s worth a visit to his site for the diaper telemetry alone.

Listen here.

Unless you are really enthusiastic about the whole theme park thing, I can’t recommend a visit to Orlando. While I have to admit I spent most of my time there in the confines of a very chilly Marriott, I’m not convinced there were many good reasons to venture out.

Meal highlight was at bluezoo, the Todd English restaurant - which was also, coincidentally, the ONLY restaurant I went to that was not in a strip mall. It was in the incredibly tacky Dolphin Hotel.

There’s much to catch up on - including my sleep, about 20 hours of programs on the DVR, three issues of the New Yorker and a week’s worth of news from Angela.

It’s good to be home.

Now explained. I’ve been in Orlando (the Las Vegas of Florida) since Tuesday, at a conference for work, which involves being dressed in grown-up clothes for breakfast by 7:00am, and not getting back to my room until dinner and after-dinner drinks are over, usually close to midnight. No. Time. To. Sleep. Let alone blog.

BUT

Much of the content from today’s sessions were about blogging. And now the meeting is over. Just returned from two (2!) fruity drinks, poolside, and am out to dinner in a few minutes. Flying back tomorrow, and promise to return to the warm embrace of EGW ASAP. Just in case you missed me…

More soon.

Hi Mom.

It’s your special day, the day for moms, that day of the year when we all say the nice things to our mothers that we really should say all year long.

Tay and I were talking on the phone after our trip to Austin a couple of weeks ago. I asked her “How was your visit with Mom?” and she simply answered “Great! Mom is just so great.”

Well, it’s true.

We’ve put you through a lot in the past year - seems we always do, I guess. There have been moves, health problems, and emotional breakdowns. You’ve traveled great distances to visit us, and slept on beds and futons in various dwellings. You’ve held our hands through tremendous change, and sat next to us in the front seat of the car as we drove you through the mundane rituals of our day-to-day lives. Through it all you are easygoing accepting, and so genuinely interested in experiencing and understanding who we are.

I’m sorry that despite all that you have the kind of daughter who waits until the last minute to FEDEX your Mother’s Day gift, then realizes it’s just too damn expensive and has to get your gift to you late. But I KNEW you didn’t want me to spend that much money to ship your gift. Besides, what more could you want for Mother’s Day than a post written in your honor on a blog that’s read by about 30 people?

So thank you Mom, for all you do, all the time, to make me feel loved and listened to, and to make my life a little easier and better. You are one super cool woman - selfless, smart, strong, and unconditionally supportive, and I know every single day how lucky I am that you are my mother.

Happy Mother’s Day.

All my love,
Jess

P.S. Happy Mother’s Day to all of my dear friends who are mothers. Barb, Hope, Jen, Aaryn, Pam, Tara, Marina, Judy, Kim, Colleen, Peggy and anyone else I forgot to mention. You’re doing a fantastic job!

Spent a wonderful day in LA yesterday. You know, I’ve been meaning to start a recurring post theme called “San Diego We Feel Good About”. Places and things in San Diego that, well, we feel good about. The proximity of LA, my friends, falls into this category.

When I first moved here I heard a lot of “…and LA is only two hours away…” from the many who were trying to sell me on the merits of America’s Finest City. I’ve lived lots of places that were only two hours away from other places. And honestly? The effort was rarely made. For example: I grew up in Connecticut, less than two
hours away from New York City, and I think my parents took us there once.

But now, all the rules have been broken! We actually DO go to LA on fun little adventures, quite often. And it doesn’t take that long to get there. It’s the perfect day trip - you love it while you’re there, but are happy to return to sleepy San Diego at the end of the day.

So we managed to go to three (3!) museums, eat two meals and get some shopping in. A more successful day I cannot imagine.

Started off at The Getty Center. OMG. I had been told it was extraordinary. Heard first-hand accounts of it’s fabulousness. Read that it was breathtaking. Once there, I was overwhelmed. The setting, views, architecture and landscaping all work perfectly together, creating a space that is truly grand, yet still welcoming. I never even made it inside to look at the art. While The Boyfriend did research in the library, I spent the entire time wandering through the spaces between the various pavilions, walking through the garden, admiring the views. Note to Richard Meir and Robert Irwin: well done.

After lunch at the Getty, we drove to Little Tokyo to check out the Noguchi exhibit at the Japanese American Museum. Talented man, that Isamu. The sculpture and furniture were of course great, but we particularly enjoyed seeing a selection of the set pieces he built for Martha Graham.

After the Noguchi exhibit, I somehow found myself at a certain car dealership that The Boyfriend had sniffed out and driven to as if the location were embedded in his personal GPS. I barely had time to register what was happening. One minute we were driving by the Disney Concert Hall to admire it’s wavy Gehry-ness, and the next thing I know I’m on the roof of a building in downtown LA, wandering among a sea of luxury cars with a salesman named Anton.

From said car dealership we drove over to Reform Gallery in West Hollywood. Reform is not a museum, but is, in fact, just like visiting one. This is because everything is extremely beautiful and somewhat rare, and we could never afford to own any of it. Still, we hardly miss the chance to stop by when we’re in LA.

Also stopped into one of our favorite stores, OK on Third Street, where I overheard the following conversation between two salespeople:

“What should I get my mom for Mother’s Day? Is there something I can get her here? What would she like?”
“How about a book?”
“Yeah, but we don’t have any books on plastic surgery.”

Our last museum stop was the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) for two shows: Gustav Klimt and Ettore Sottsass. We waited until after 5:00 to go because then it’s free.

I had never been to LACMA either, and it’s quite a lovely collection of buildings and public space. There was jazz band performing for free to a large crowd of wacky Angelenos, who were dancing, drinking and generally enjoying themselves. You can read (and listen) about the Klimt exhibit here. The paintings were recently returned to the heir of the family they were looted from by the Nazi’s. And they were beautiful.

Finished the day off with yummy Cuban food at Versailles on La Cienega, and a drive home that was nearly traffic-free. Car tunes? Currently obsessed with Elbow - third album, Leaders of the Free World.

Read New ‘Anti-Abortion Pill’ Kills Mother, Leaves Fetus Alive. It’s a nice little follow-up to the post before last.

For those of you who have been asking, here they are.

They’re good, right?

Forget the battle to preserve Roe v. Wade, people. That’s old news. Now it’s Griswold v. Connecticut.

Today’s New York Times contains a frightening article about the Christian Right’s burning desire to end the separation of the sex act and procreation. They’re still fighting your right to an abortion, but now they’d like to take that a teensy step further, into your bedroom, to curtail all that selfish, evil, hedonistic and deviant sex-for-pleasure you’ve been having.

Simply put: “The battle line…is shifting backward, from viability to implantation.”

There are quotes from representatives from a wide variety of social conservative groups, all proclaiming their belief that contraception is wrong, that The Pill has done untold damage to the moral fabric of America, and that even in marriage - sex is for procreation. They don’t just want to impact legislation about pills and procedures - they want a say in the way people think and behave.

And the Bush Administration? Well, we know he’s been avoiding a statement on whether he even believes in contraception for awhile now (I guess that’s a ‘no’, unless it’s for Jenna and Barbara). But here’s just one scary sample of the rhetoric from his team:

Dr. Joseph B. Stanford, who was appointed by President Bush in 2002 to the F.D.A.’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee despite (or perhaps because of) his opposition to contraception, sounded not a little like Daniel Defoe in a 1999 essay he wrote: “Sexual union in marriage ought to be a complete giving of each spouse to the other, and when fertility (or potential fertility) is deliberately excluded from that giving I am convinced that something valuable is lost. A husband will sometimes begin to see his wife as an object of sexual pleasure who should always be available for gratification.”

Charming.

There’s not much I can add to that. Just read the article, and then have some really hot sex without the risk of pregnancy while you still can.