Morning Rounds and Evening Musings

because surgery sucks. Wes had his orientation today (which was ridiculous in itself because it was 12 hours) where he learned that he needs to be on the surgery floor by 5am, and will be off around 6pm every night. That means he has a 3:45 wake up call. And that means a 9:00pm bedtime.

Because my schedule on Tuesday means I don't get home until 10pm, I won't see Wes between Monday and Wednesday nights, every week for the next 2 months. Not to mention that the people on his same team last month worked 14 days straight with NO days off. We live in the same house, but you probably wouldn't know it!

Ok, whining done for tonight.

In college, some friends and I made semi-frequent trips to give plasma in exchange for cash. That lasted until I nearly passed out after seeing a big blob of my own blood in a bubble on my arm after the nurse took out the needle. Eck!

Last year, I participated in a study to test a new HIV vaccine/contraceptive for women (imagine if women in Africa had means to protect themselves against cheating husbands and the stds and diseases they so often bring home with them!) . The procedures involved were quite unpleasant--I won't illuminate the details, but let's just say routine gynecological visits now qualify as 'no big deal.'

Today, I enrolled in a study testing a new vaccine against the Vietnamese strain of Avian flu. I was thrilled when the doctor announced that I was in group 9--the most complicated study group therefore requiring the most number of visits. Between now and Thanksgiving, I'll make 9 visits to the Hope Clinic. At $50 a pop, that's $450!!

For a blood draw, a needle stick, some vital signs, and some of my time, I'd say the price is right. An extra bonus was that I found out I'm not pregnant, and my blood pressure and pulse have gone significantly down since my last physical in January 08. Guess those trips to the gym are paying off!

My Contemporary Anglican Theology class is reading Rowan Williams' Resurrection. It's a book about, um, the resurrection. And why it's important.

I was preparing to write my paper on one of the chapters this morning (which requires reading PAINSTAKINGLY slow!) and came across these thoughts:

"Confession is at once the acknowledgment of sin, the proclamation of faith and the praise of God...it is not needed by God (who knows the secrets of the heart), but it is offered as a witness and exhortation to the world. Confession displays the memory of sin as an occasion for the glorifying of God...to know oneself as a reconciled sinner is to know God as a reconciling savior."

I've never thought of confession in quite that way before--the asking for grace and forgiveness is itself the proclamation of God's grace, not just a device to make God happy and make ourselves feel guilty.

Wes and I have been trying to eat less meat and more vegetables, both in order to be more environmentally conscious and to be healthier and more creative in our cooking.

One of our favorites has been to make a "Southern Vegetable Plate" for dinner. We have grilled squash, gingered beets, pole beans (cooked southern style, with bacon!), corn and basil salad, and fresh tomatoes. It not only tastes great, but it looks beautiful! Below is the recipe we use for gingered beets. It takes a little while, but they are delicious!

Gingered Beets

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

2-3 large beets
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. unbleached bread flour
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 - 2 Tbsp. rapadura sugar
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 1/2 tsp. ginger, minced
1/4 tsp. dry mustard

Instructions

Scrub beets and place them, whole and unpeeled, in a kettle with salted water to cover. Boil for about 45 minutes until beets can be easily pierced with a knife. Drain cooked beets, reserving 1/2 cup liquid. When beets are cool enough to handle, slip off the skins and cut away the stems and roots. Slice beets into 1/4-inch rounds and then cut into strips.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and brown lightly, stirring often. Add 1/2 cup of beet liquid and whisk until smooth. Stir in the other ingredients and the beet strips. Heat through on low heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Serves 4.

Source: Moosewood Collective, Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant.

Also, Wes' dad sent along a recipe we were skeptical of--Tofu Asian Salad--but it is also delicious. I made this for dinner one night and thought it would not be enough to fill us up, but we couldn't eat it all!

1 block soft tofu
1-2 cucumbers
2 tomatoes
garlic

Dice tofu, cucumbers and tomatoes and mix together in a bowl. Fry a couple of TBs of garlic and add to the top.

Dressing:
3 TB soy sauce
1 TB Mirin (I didn't have this, so used 4 TB soy sauce)
1 TB rice vinegar
1 TB sesame oil

Mix together, pour over top the salad and toss!

It's not as if I need a whole lot to remind me that I don't want to live in Atlanta forever, but just in case I do someday...:

1. Wes and I are crossing the street AT A CROSSWALK, ON A GREEN LIGHT on the way home from the grocery store when a cop who is trying to turn left at said green light practically runs us over--but not before shaking his fist and pointing at the blinking 'don't walk' sign.

I don't know what kind of morphed driver's ed I took, but last time I checked, pedestrians ALWAYS get the right of way--and doubly so when walking across the street at a crosswalk, at a green light.

Question: If the cop not only won't enforce laws protecting pedestrians, but violates them himself...uuhhhh, shouldn't we move (especially since we are pedestrians quite often)?

2. This is not my story, but I think I can still do it justice. Wes is riding his bike home from the hospital like he does every day--on the street, heaven forbid, when an ambulance driving behind him gets on the loudspeaker and announces to Wes and everyone in a 5 mile radius that he should be riding on the sidewalk.

Several things seem pretty backwards about this scenario including an inappropriate use of hospital equipment, the rudeness of the drivers of the ambulance and the fact that they shouted at Wes to perform an action that is actually AGAINST THE LAW! Bikers are not only entitled to be on the roads, but it is illegal for them to ride on sidewalks. Way to call it, genius!

See, Wes? I even told it without expletives.

Rule #1: Always travel with more water than you think you'll need. For example (hypothetical, of course), if there is an abundance of water at the trail head, you should drink up! And then filter more so that BOTH of you are carrying full water bottles. Don't begin a hike without being fully hydrated, and never, NEVER assume there will be plenty of water!

Because sometimes there isn't any water and after you've hiked six miles, your tongue begins to stick to the roof of your mouth, every hill looks like it's Everest, and you begin to go a little crazy imagining that you might have to turn around and go six miles more back to the beginning of the trail head, except that it's already 4:30 and that will mean not only another long six miles with no water, but a hike in the dark--and all for nothing because you're right back where you've started!

So if you come six miles, and feel you can't go any further and you just might die of dehydration (though your doctorish husband assures you that since you're still sweating and your skin is not 'tenting' you're fine) send your much stronger companion ahead to search for water. But when he comes back with an empty water bottle, resist the urge to cry (you'll lose what little water you have left!) and get a little creative!

Maybe there's a forest service road that intersects with your trail, and after hiking down it for a mile or so (much shorter than the six it would take if you turned around) there will be the tiniest stream--your survival! There you can drink gallons and gallons of water and all will be well with the world again.

Not that this very important rule is something we learned from personal experience last weekend in North Carolina. No, we are far too experienced to make such an elementary mistake.

So, I don't usually blog about politics, but I am taking a Religion and Politics class at Candler this year, and it's election year, so that might be about to change. Watch the video below, and come to your own conclusions about it before reading (or not reading) my own, slightly opinionated ones below it.

Barack Obama and John McCain were interviewed by Rick Warren--pastor of Saddleback mega-church in California. The question they are responding to in this clip is, "Does evil exist? And if it does, do we ignore it, negotiate with it, confront it or defeat it?'



Ok, and now you should stop reading, unless you're a sucker for inflammatory ranting.

Regardless of the fact that the question was actually a thinly-veiled question about terrorism (notice the vocabulary of negotiation, confrontation, defeat, etc.), and that McCain understood that the question was about terrorism and that Obama answered the question at its face value...

Is this what we've become? A nation who is more satisfied with spoon-fed pithy soundbites that oversimplify really complex issues that theologians and ethicists have worked on for millennia than with honest, non-partisan answers? I, for one, cannot handle 4 more years of the same rhetoric--rhetoric that paints evil as being 'out there' in those 'radical Islamic nations' that hate our freedom. Isn't the more Christian conception of evil that it does indeed abide in our hearts, in our homes and that while we will by no means ever 'defeat' it, it is nonetheless the Christian responsibility that calls us to 'confront' it? Not confront it only by hunting Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but to confront it by addressing the poverty in our own streets, the societal factors that leave us with broken homes? Aren't we all sinful (not just Osama bin Laden and all those residing in Islamic nations)?

Not only is the response to the question deeply troubling to me, but it is almost more frustrating and disheartening that the very thing that appeals to me about Barack--the honest, less-polished, more authentic and less-political nature of his responses--is the thing that might end up kicking him in the ass come November 4th!! Not once did he use an answer to the question to assert what he would do should he become the next president. Instead, he engaged with Warren, looking him in the eye, answering the questions in a painstaking manner that acknowledged not only the complexity of the issues, but the diversity of respectable opinions on them. But does he receive the applause? No! Because he acknowledges that not only does each of us experience evil in the world, but that our imperfections sometimes mean that we commit evil in our attempts to overcome it!!

Because Americans are apparently more interested in electing someone who knows how to play the game--knows how to turn a question about where evil is in the world and what our role is as humans in confronting it to a question about terrorism and all the evil that exists 'out there' in those nations not abiding by God's law, and not chosen by the Almighty--than they are to elect someone who could care less about obtaining the right political resume that enables him to turn legitimate questions into opportunities for furthering his party's rhetoric about national security.

I'm frustrated. Frustrated that according to the polls, McCain and Obama are neck and neck. Seriously? Have we learned nothing over the last 8 years? Frustrated that I (a pro-life, anti-war but pro-rebuilding in a responsible way, pro-healthcare, mostly-democrat) see in Obama a candidate willing to talk about religion and politics in a way that makes sense (and that is constitutional!!), and speaks in a way that at least suggests that he is not skilled in the GAME of political ridiculousness and might STILL LOSE the election.

End of rant. And sorry for any who are offended by the above comments. But this is my blog--my outlet. And tonight, I needed an outlet and a glass of red wine. And come November 4th, I may also need a one-way ticket to Canada, where civilized, rational people must exist along with universal healthcare.