John Edwards will win the Democratic primaries. I know this because J. Crew is advertising swimsuits in their winter catalog.

This is a year of optimism. I can't remember a time in the last four years when Americans, in general, had a brighter outlook than they do now. The economy is better! We got Saddam! And, even if you hate Bush and everything he's done for the country, c'mon get happy: it's election year! You can finally shove it to the man.

Everyone's feeling it, and not least of all major clothing retailers. I was shocked to recieve two swimsuit catalogs this week, one each from J. Crew and Victoria's Secret. I remember last year's J. Crew swim catalog came in March, because I felt silly for buying a suit at the very beginning of Spring. My little sis and I have already checked out the suits online at American Eagle and Delias. What can this early summer marketing mean? There's no warming trend in sight; rather, it's a sign that America is ready for summer, for good times.

Maybe my fashion/politics correlation won't pan out. I guess we'll see soon enough what kind of chances Edwards has. I just don't see how a nation that's buying bikinis even as a blizzard wails on the East Coast can elect a Bush Basher or a man who keeps reminding everyone of the Vietnam war. John Edwards is keeping his campaign and his message optimistic; I think that's what people are going to buy this season.

On Declawing

I know many of you guys have seen my claws. So beautiful, so thick and strong were they! So natural looking! (Isn't 'natural looking' such a great contradiction in terms, btw?) But they are gone, at least for now. Alli Cat has been declawed.

I thought it would be a great idea. My damn nails kept getting chipped by my sporting endeavors, and every time I went in for a manicure I worried about getting Hepatitis C from the sharp objects Madame Nail likes to wield. But now I feel like half of a whole. I can't pick up slides anymore. I can't even open a soda can properly, since my nails are pretty much clipped down to the quick. I have the hands of a nail-biting twelve year old girl.

I miss being able to scratch an itch and have it resolved immediately. The only thing I don't really miss is the appearance. There's something about having long nails, like having long hair, that is strangely appealing. It says to potential suitors, "Hey, I'm healthy and eat plenty of protein. I would be a great mother to your children." At least, this is what Nancy Etkoff says on the issue. For the record, I did not get my claws in order to advertise my sexual readiness.

On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to riding my bike and not having the end of my glove fingers straining against each claw. I'm going to enjoy making cookies without having to scrub my nails with a brush afterwards. I wasn't cut out for this claw business. Even though my natural nails will probably be scrappy for a while, until they grow out, I kind of like it-- it makes me look like a devil-may-care tomboy. I think that suits me better than manicured nails anyway-- after all, claws are for pussies. ;o)

Isn't it funny the things we remember? I was just accessioning a specimen from someone with the last name Gross, when I remembered reading a Cabbage Patch book when I was three and pronouncing the word "gross" as if it rhymed with "cross." I was very embarrassed when I was corrected by my mom. I don't think I even knew what gross meant at that point. Ladies and gentlemen, I was a perfectionist even at the tender age of three.

Thank you, Susie, for taking me up on the health insurance debate.

My previous stance was pretty judgmental. I was basically implying that some illnesses aren't your fault (like cystic fibrosis), but that some are (like getting cancer twice by not quitting smoking). The truth is, it's a continuum. Is it someone's fault if they get AIDS? Do the circumstances matter? If so, is it really an insurance company's place to be deciding under what circumstances a person is "at fault" for their illnesses? Slippery slope! Slippery slope!

I'm inclined to think it's possible, but the cost of such an oversight would be tremendous. It would be cheaper to have socialized medicine. Socialized medicine is kind of anti-American, in that it's saying everyone should be treated the same regardless of their circumstances. This is very much a country where you expect to get more when you pay more. But health is tricky because there is so much we don't understand about what causes people to do the things they do. Some people have suicidal tendencies. It's easy for me to say that it's their fault that they tried to kill themselves, but then again I wasn't born with dysfunctional dopamine receptors.

The way France does it, you pay a certain amount in taxes for basic healthcare, and if you're rich and want better care you can pay extra for supplemental insurance. There's a lot less restrictions on the care that people receive, but they don't seem to have runaway medical costs. I'm going to research their method and decide whether or not I like it.

OK, this is way heavier than most of the stuff I get into here... if you came reading for something lighthearted, I apologize. Have a mai tai on me.
:)

Hey everyone,

Well, it's almost February... almost time for my summer mix! Being a true California girl, I live for the summer, which means:

1. Buying my first swimsuit in March.
2. Wearing warm weather clothes before it's temperate enough and then shivering.
3. Making a summer CD while it's still winter.

So, I'd like to enlist your help! If you have any suggestions for songs, just email me. I am amenable to any genre or time period. The only requirement is that the song has to evoke a kicked-back summer vibe.

I love it here in SF, but sometimes it's just an effed up city.

This morning, as I was walking to the gym, it was fall. Fall in January. What else would one expect, considering it's winter in July and November boasted a high temp of 90 degrees this year? Anyway, the three trees in my neighborhood decided to drop their dry leaves this week. As I walked through the mess the leaves scraped, but they didn't crunch. If they had fallen on a bed of grass, the leaves would have stayed in one spot and crunched satisfyingly under my feet. Unfortunately, the "urban forest" comprises about 10 trees total choked at the trunk by concrete, so what I got was leaves sliding around, scraping the cement as I half kicked them. To the residents of Pacific at Hyde: I apologize if you were awakened by my leaf-scrapings this morning at 5:45am. Please be assured that by next week it will be time for the Fall rains to begin and the leaves will be gone or soggy.

---

There's this unspoken maxim that wearing perfume in a gym earns you the enmity of all. I never really understood why... until this morning in Spinning. This woman next to me was wearing the same vanilla-y lotion that my old PI, Vivian, used to wear. For 45 minutes all I could think of was how that scent used to mean that she was arching over me, looking at my research progress in my lab notebook, twitching disapprovingly. Very stressful, even in my memory. Oh God, I think I smell it again. Damn you, spin girl!

I just rediscovered something so cool... my uncle's old leather jacket.

It's really big on me (ridiculous looking, actually) but it's perfectly worn, and it poufs out in an 80's kind of way and cups my butt at the back. It's by Agnés B., which is a totally hip French label, and my uncle bought it when he was living in the Netherlands. He gave it to me about five months ago, kind of for nostalgia more than anything else. He said it doesn't fit his style anymore, and since he had it when I visited him in Holland when I was four he thought I might remember it and like to keep it. I guess it's my souvenir from my only trip (so far) to Europe.

But I'm wearing it out tonight since it's so devastatingly cool! And all my other coats are so predictable. Tailored jean jacket: perfect for casual drinks, but ho hum for going out. Powder blue Mac: puhleeze. velvet suit jacket... almost. But this is better.

I was going to replace the lining, since it's kind of worn and the pocket has a hole... but I like it better this way. It's more honest. And I don't want to get rid of the "Agnés B. homme" label. ;o)

Let me preface this story with a short explanation: at my office, I am the computer expert, the "techie geek." For all of you who know me well enough to know how clueless I am with a computer, this should seem like a laughably inaccurate label. But I'm a big fish in a small pond, and these people know considerably less about computers than I do.

So it is with this in mind that my supervisor, Susie, came to ask with computer help today. She had a picture that she wanted to set as her computer wallpaper. I thought it was funny that she didn't know how to do it herself, but I went ahead and did it.

But then it turned out that WASN'T the funny part. The funny part is that once it was done, her screen looked exactly the same-- because her desktop was completely covered with folders, files, documents, and other detritus. I guess I'm enough of a techie geek to know you have to be anal about keeping your desktop clean!

Health insurance as we know it is a stupid idea for health-conscious people. It's nice to know that if something catastrophic happens, like a car accident or cancer, I will be taken care of. But really, that's all I want it for. I spend way less than the $200 per month my health insurance costs for my employer.

The thing about American health insurance that gets me steamed is that the profit they make on me is going to pay for people who knowlingly and recklessly compromise their own health. I am subsidizing other people's carelessness. For example, I help pay for the second round of cancer treatment for a smoker who had his tongue resected in 2000, and continued to smoke. This kind of thing happens all the time. The problem is that there is no dollar incentive for people to take preventive measures for their own health. If that man has an HMO, it's possible his medical care during cancer treatment costs him less than $100 a month, while the actual cost could be $50,000 a month or more.

More on this later. If anyone wants to debate this with me, I'd love it. I'll buy you a beer and we can talk about it.

"Bring it On... Again!" is finally coming out! I can't believe it. That has been the most long-awaited movie that nobody cares about. Seriously, it was supposed to go straight to video in 2001.

I've been thinking about the most recent SATC episode. My thoughts:

No, sir, I don't like it!

First thing: Robert's character is a little, um, different. He's acting all kinds of crazy. Hello! He's a doctor, not a skeezy pimp, remember? Smith is unlike any guy in the world. I don't buy his waiting for Samantha deal. And Charlotte needs something real to do. I don't even like the show anymore! I hope this was just a segue into this season and not a taste of plots to come.

Emergency chicken shortage!!

So on Sunday night I went to Le Beau to buy some outrageously expensive chicken. My little corner market is, well... around the corner, but I pay for the location with the $$ food that's there. So chicken breasts are something like $6.50/lb.

...unless there are none, because of MAD COW.

It was crazy. No chicken breasts, and very few eggs. Hmm. I didn't put two and two together until I went to Safeway the following night and Safeway was all out of chicken breasts as well.

Allow me to repeat: SAFEWAY WAS OUT OF CHICKEN BREASTS. They were running dangerously low on thighs, drumsticks, and giblets as well. No turkey breasts. Sorry.

Here's what I think happened:
a) there's a chicken shortage due to chickens dying from chicken flu
b) people are buying more chicken than normal because of mad cow
c) new year's resolutions to eat fewer Big Macs and more grilled chicken

So it's gonna be fish fish fish until San Francisco markets can locate some good poultry. RGAHHA I need chicken!