SWINE FLU? ARE YOU KIDDING?

First it was the bird flu. Actually, it was probably 5,497th, but it was the first outbreak I remember, and the first time I ever felt really afraid of a bird (unless you count the duck down by the lake that repeatedly chased me and tried to untie my shoe during cross-country practice in high school...). Now they are telling us it's the SWINE that are out to get us. What is it with all these animal-named outbreaks? I mean, have they no memory of what Noah did for them? Give a brother (and his sister) some love, man. I, for one, am tired of worrying about all this crazy virus-germ stuff. Here's my daily schedule.

• Wake up.
• Wash hands.
• Take a shower.
• Apply hair product.
• Wash hands.
• Eat breakfast.
• Wash hands.
• Think about dirt.
• Wash hands.
• Drive to school.
• Wash hands in the first available restroom.
• Hear a child sneeze down the hall.
• Wash hands.

And this is how the day continues. I use, although I'm a bit scared of, the hand sanitizer. I am not a total junkie, but I will admit scrambling to get to it in my purse after touching something wet and sticky in a public place. It has its place, but I think it's just a matter of time before the mother-of-all-super-giant-virus-bugs lands on our planet and says, "YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD KILL ME WITH A LITTLE SQUIRT OF HAND SANITIZER?! HA!" And he will say it just like that, too. "HA!", really loud and mean-like. Because he can.
I think that all of this international flying has really fiddled with our immune systems. When someone who lives in Budapest can fly to Canada, go fishing, then travel on to Cancun to soak up some sun and return home in time to present his family with the lovely gift of the Swine Flu, we've got a problem. Sure, the average age of our life expectancy is up, but it's only because we're not plowing the fields on any given day, exhausting ourselves to extinction. That, and Advil. Here's a shameless plug for my favorite friend, who's always there for me in my time of need, ADVIL. I think I'll travel to my local Target store, stock up on Advil, face masks, and a few pints of Ben and Jerry's and ride out this latest outbreak in style. Here's hoping none of you and yours are affected by this latest epidemic (I hope it doesn't go pandemic) and that we can all breathe easy for awhile before we are attacked by the next mammal or reptilian trying to make their mark in history.

I'M NOT DEAD!

I just feel like I've been run over by a very. large. truck! Not really, life is just so crazy, wonderfully busy lately! I've been teaching, cleaning, shuttling, typing, reading, learning, grading, sneezing, birthday-celebrating, organizing--and that's the abbreviated list! My daughter just had her 11th birthday--where has the time gone?? I am enjoying watching both of my kids grow up, and all the ups and downs (but especially the ups!) that accompany these times. We got to spend some time in Calabasas, CA with my phenomenal sister and her family. I always return inspired to take better care of myself--she's in incredible shape and always puts good nutrition as a top priority. One of my favorite Michelle-isms is from awhile back. She was talking about the importance of the right combination of food in a meal;I think this is how it went.
Me: What combo./ratio of protein to fat to carbs are good together?
Michelle: Well, for instance, if you are going to have carbs, you should always have protein with them. You would never want to eat fat and carbs together--that's a bad combination.
Me: Oh really? You mean like a SNICKERS BAR? Yeah, that would be wrong. I'd never want to do that.
I guess that's why she looks like she does, and I look like I do! Damn you, Snickers.

GRAB A TISSUE AND KISS YOUR DOG

A high school friend posted this on Facebook. In the 45 or so seconds it took to watch this video, I went from "going to turn in for the night" to bawling. I left her a message saying that I have to be up for work in about 5 hours, and my eyes are now going to look like puff pastries. All puffiness aside, can you imagine a world where people treated each other this well? And selfless acts such as this were commonplace? I would love to live in that world. One of my favorite quotes of all time is by our guy Ghandi. He says to"Be the change you want to see in the world". It may be a dog-eat-dog world, but it doesn't have to be. It wasn't this time.




P.S. The news reporter on another clip just like this one said that some freeway workers saw the dogs and stopped to help. The injured dog survived!