Reminders

What happened to doctors offices making reminder calls the day before your appointment? I was in the shower today and thought "Oh shit, I missed a dental appointment yesterday." Then as I'm rinsing shampoo out of my hair, I realize, that I have not YET missed it. But I was about to. It was not yesterday, it was this morning. At 8:45am. I was in the shower at about 8:20am. It takes 20 minutes at least to get to campus, and that's in no traffic. And I had wet hair, dirty teeth, and unfed dog, etc. Shit.

So I bust a move out of the shower, throw on clothes, brush my teeth and dry my hair at the same time (serious feat, let me tell you), fed the dog, took her to the bathroom, then ran out the door. I decided I would drive instead of take the bus since I didn't have time to risk waiting at the bus stop if it didn't arrive immediately. I would suck it up and pay the $10 day-fee to park on campus. I called on the way to tell them I'd be late. They were extremely accommodating, and simply rebooked me for a little later. Awesome.

I get to my appointment. Everything's fine. Then I realize that I CANNOT FORGET that I drove my car to work today. I would not be that surprised if I ended up on the bus to go home only to remember that my car is still parked on campus...

Countdowns

I have a Mac. Macs have this thing called the Dashboard, where you can put various widgets that you want quick access to. I have things like stickies, a calculator, the weather, etc. here. I also have countdown widgets. I LOVE countdowns. They get me motivated and excited for the future. I haven't been using them in the past 6 months for some reason, but started it up again a few weeks ago. Today I did some countdown widget organization and thought I would share.

• 40 days til I get to meet my newest nephew (who isn't born yet, but will be by then)
• 48 days til I take the licensing exam
• 61 days til Academy of Eating Disorders conference in Miami
• 97 days til my amazing friends Kristen and Andrew come to visit
• 106 days til MiniRitt is due (MiniRitt is the nickname of my friends' yet-to-be-named baby because their last name is Rittman).

Those are the only countdowns I have going on right now, although I'm sure things will be added along the way. My brother graduates from high school on June 17th. I could add that one, but I guess 111 days seems too far off. I mean, I have to have limits, right?!

Facebook Ad

An ad on the side of my Facebook today said this: "Were you born at St. Mary Medical Center Long Beach? Was one of your family members born here? Meet and discuss your memories with us."

Now, sure, if your family member was born there, you may have memories of going to visit them in the hospital, but really? "Were you born here" and "discuss your memories." Pretty sure I have no memories of being born. Also pretty sure that no one does...

Skinny Pepsi

So Diet Pepsi is releasing a new can that is taller and skinnier than the old one. I saw it on the End Fat Talk page, which was cranky about it promoting a thin-ideal. So I read the afore-linked-to release about the can, and well, I have to agree with the Fat Talk people... Pepsi talks about supporting "beautiful, confident women" with the new can, but then also announces it at Fashion Week and teams up with fashion and beauty product companies (who also promote a thin ideal in order to sell products). If you felt good about the way you looked and were truly confident, you wouldn't need to buy so many beauty products. The thin-ideal works for them.

I know a lot of people who drink diet soda because (a) they like them and/or (b) they struggle with weight. That's fine, and I'm not bashing the idea of diet soda generally. I wouldn't be complaining if they had updated the shape of their can purely for a change in design and to make it look interesting and novel - to draw attention to it. But to say that it's in support of beautiful, confident women and then promote the new can alongside the beauty industry...they may as well just say "We want you to think you're fat so that you'll drink our diet soda. And we don't really care if it means you'll be unhappy and think poorly about yourself and may actually mean that you WON'T feel beautiful or confident. At least then you'll buy our soda...cause you'll think it will help."

The release also says that the new can design is the "perfect complement to today's most stylish looks." How does a can complement an outfit? Really?

This sort of feels like this pretzel ad I saw a few months ago stating "You can never be too thin." Um, Pretzel Crisps, let me invite you to any eating disorder inpatient unit. Turns out you CAN be too thin...

I work in the eating disorder field. I ALSO work in the obesity field. We need to strike a balance here, folks, or the world is gonna be one messed up place.

5 days in New York

This mother and son were on my flights to and from JFK. This means that we all spent the exact same amount of time in the city. They sat first class and had priority luggage check (meaning that their 5 suitcases (3 Louis Vuittons and 2 TUMIs) came out first). Five days. Two people. Five suitcases. Plus their carry-ons. Checked bags are $25 each on United, plus more for priority. I will never understand the way some people spend money...

I had 1 suitcase and a carry-on that essentially had a laptop and a pair of shoes in it... My suitcase is a sensible one whose brand I do not even recall because it is not emblazoned all over the thing. This is all fine by me.

Side note - I will say that TUMI suitcases seem like a better use of of money than the Louis Vuittons simply because my cheaper suitcases often fall apart sooner than I would like after being tossed around by airlines. Altough the Louis Vuittons seem as though they would also suffer damage, the hardcase TUMIs seem pretty indestructible. At least based on looks.

Auto-Correct

This website about the perils of auto-correct on text messages has made me laugh out loud on many occasions. This kind of thing happens to me when I text a lot, but it's usually something boring. I just remembered a good one from Christmas, though, and I thought I would share:

Saturday 25 December 2010:

(After an earlier conversation via text that is not worth repeating on the internet)

Adam: Haha. Merry Christmas.

Me: To you too. Wait, you're Jewish!

Adam: Yep. I can still ethically hope that yours is merry!

Me: True. Thanks!

Me: Shabot slalom

Me: Text correct fail

Me: Shalom...

Adam: I'm imagining skiing between huge white candles while trying to chant prayers...

Me: Haha. Awesome

Tears of Mixed Emotion

When I was little, my family thought I was heartless. I didn't cry at anything. The movie My Girl, where Macaulay Culkin's character dies from bee stings (sorry if that spoiled it for anyone, but come on, it's 20 years old...), didn't make me cry, although my sisters and mom were soppy messes.

What they didn't realize is that it must have been an age thing - cause now I cry at anything. Today it was Obama's speech at the Tucson memorial for the victims of the shooting. I cried when he mentioned Giffords opening her eyes for the first time. I cried when he thanked the people who took down the shooter before he could reload and shoot more. And I cried when he talked about wanting to make America be the place that children like Christina Taylor-Green wanted it to be. "If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost." You can see the whole memorial (and jump around to just see Obama's speech if you want), here. It wasn't life-changing by any means, but I think it was really beautiful and definitely the type of speech that makes me want to be a better person.

Also, I wonder if Michelle's attraction to her husband increases exponentially every time he gives an inspiring speech like this one. I kind of think it would...