There are Many Reasons to Love Cambridge, but the Best of All is Fall

Usually, I am NOT an autumn person.  Summer is where it's at for me.  Sun.  Warmth.  Blue skies.  T-shirts.  Beaches.  Gardens.  Upon hearing each of these words I am filled with a combination of glee and absolute comfort.  Fall typically affects me in the opposite way.  Instead of glee, I feel dread.  Instead of comfort, I feel out of sorts.  Despite my lament for the passing of summer, in Cambridge I am offered the solace of an autumnal rainbow of leaves quietly assuaging the pain of the impending wind-chills and icy precipitations of winter.  Even I can appreciate the beauty of autumn in a place like this.  The air is crisp and each step is filled with a soundtrack of crunching leaves.

These are a few pics I've taken this fall.  Please click on them to make them big, so you can really see:

Fall Leaf Bouquet made up of fallen leaves on my street.

Annual rowing event on the Charles River, just outside my door:

High School football practice in Athens, Pa.

Cherry and Green Apple Snow Cone.

My Mom's Street.

Suzanne, The City, and Tosca.

My sister-in-law Suzanne lives the kind of life that girls dream about.  She's young. She lives in NYC in a cozy loft neighboring central park with her two loyal and protective dogs. She has a fabulous collection of footwear, including a pair of candy red cowboy boots. She practices jujitsu. And she is a professional writer.  Yea, I know, wasn't that all of our plans when we were imagining life as a young adult. I really like Suzanne.  She's strong, opinionated, and elegant, but mostly just a lot of fun.  It had been my plan to go visit her for a while now, and the perfect opportunity presented itself when Charlotte and her mom invited me to an opera, Tosca, at the Metropolitan Opera as an early birthday present.

On Friday afternoon I jumped on a bus to NYC to meet up with Suzanne.  I only mention this mundane detail because on the bus I sat next to one of the most interesting people I have ever encountered.  He was an elderly man in his 70's or so, but with a much younger countenance.  He had penetrating eyes and was dressed much like an old school Ivy Leaguer, in his sweater over a collared shirt and a pair of khakis.  We started chatting and I found out he had a PhD from the Divinity School at Yale and after years and years had decided that he was a Zen Buddhist.  This Divinity School grad, turned investment banker, turned Buddhist who now lives in Greenwich Village chatted with me for nearly all of the 5 hour trip.  As the story of his life so far unfolded during our conversation, I came to realize that life is long.

So I arrived in NYC and met up with Suz and a handsome friend of hers.  We went for dinner, Ukranian, and then Suz and I went back to her place and talked through the night about life, love, and rock'n roll.  The next morning she made me some of the most delicious muffins I have ever eaten, lemon blueberry (I are three for breakfast), and then she took me an a walk through central park.  Do you know how huge central park is?  I had no idea. If you walk its perimeter its more than 6 miles around.  It's like a nature reserve in the middle of the concrete dessert of NYC.  I loved it.

I met up with Char, Dolores and Sister Carrington (a lady from my hometown who is 85 and made it a goal to see an opera at the Met before she kicks the bucket) for lunch and then to the Opera.  It was nice to hang out with Charlotte without her kids.  Let's be honest, kids and husbands are great, wonderful even, but they can get in the way.  The few hours I spent with Charlotte sans husbands and kids was like the good old days.

Tosca was a wonderful Opera.  The singers' voices were beautiful, not too warbley.  The staging was stark but realistic.  The story was dramatic and sad.  And of course, as in all tragedies, all the characters die in the end.  Tosca's death was the most traumatic as she jumped to her death for the top of a watch tower.  Just as you saw her throw her body out of the window of the tower the theater went pitch black and the curtain fell.  The audience gasped in unison at her death, but as the lights come back on and the curtain raised for our heroine to take her bow the audience erupted into applause.  It was really exhilarating.  What a wonderful birthday present..

Map of Manhattan and Central Park. 

 

 Suz's friendly puppy.

 

 Blueberry Muffins=perfect breakfast

 

Love.

 

 Central Park.

 

Largest collection of the endangered American Elm.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends.

Googling my name:

I googled my name and up popped this blog post on RaceWire:

Racial Privilege on Full Display in NY Times’s “Why We Travel”

Click to enlarge.
by Ian Lovett
The New York Times Travel section’s most recent slide show, “Why We Travel,” adds 13 new slides and captions to last year’s slide show of the same name. Unfortunately, “Why We Travel” conveys the very worst of Western attitudes about travel, developing countries, and Otherness.

Of the 62 travelers featured, 57 hail from the United States, Canada, Australia, or Europe. And of the other five, three now live at least part-time in the U.S., while the remaining two are the only travelers shown on religious pilgrimage. The “We” of “Why We Travel,” then, refers to Westerners…and white people. 55 of those same 62 travelers are white.

One slide, in particular, epitomizes the show’s disinterest in people of color. It shows two white American women in a Tokyo metro station, separated by one seat from two Japanese men. “Amanda, 25, right,” the caption reads. Except she’s not on the right; the Japanese men are—she is second from the left, right only of her sister.

Such active blindness portrays travel as a privilege reserved for a specific class of people. The many shots of white vacationers luxuriating in developing countries with no locals in sight reinforces this interpretation. As does another telling slide, which depicts a white Australian man photographing a young Pakistani girl in a dress traditional, calling her a “sort of tribal people.” That is, Westerners partake, while people of developing countries are partaken of, just like the landscapes and architecture shown in other slides.

The even more insidious subtext of featuring white people almost exclusively in a show titled “Why We Travel” is that, “This is how and why We travel—They must travel differently.” Although a majority of the Taj Mahal’s visitors are, in fact, Indian, this slideshow profiles a young Danish woman’s trip to the famous tomb, while the only Indian traveler profiled is shown on a religious pilgrimage, not visiting the Taj.

All of which reinforces an idea of the Other that travel can, at its best upend.
Ian Lovett is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced

If you are interested in some great "girl power" reading please try this.  It's smart and funny.

When Best Friends Come to Visit....

As many of you may know by now, I have joined the Boston College Chorale. It's a group of mostly BC undergrads, so although I don't exactly fit the typical member profile, it is a chance for me to sing. I used to sing a lot, and I really loved it, but after college, I just let that part of me fade out. Now that I am studying again at a university but am also almost done with school "for good," I thought I should take advantage of the opportunity to join one last collegiate choir.

Mrs. W my high school voice teacher and second mother and my best friend Charlotte were very happy to learn that my first concert was on the weekend that they planned to visit me in Boston. They were even more ecstatic to find out that I was performing with the Boston Pops and Bernadette Peters. 

The concert went well.  The Pops were perfect.  Bernie, as the undergrads like to refer to her, was sensational in a tight sequined dress.  At age 61, she works it like a 30 year old.  I saw Keith Lockhart, the Pops director, place his hand over his heart and act as if he would swoon from her vocal sex appeal. As overpriced as the event was, it was really fun.  And it was so nice to have Char and DW there to greet me when it was all over.

But most importantly,  Dolores, Charlotte, and her two extraordinarily beautiful and uniquely "wired" children, Dottie and Elliot came to spend time with me.   I loved having them around and I was sad to see them leave.  Charlotte's kids are the sweetest, although they also have a demonic side as well.  One of my favorite memories from the weekend was when Elliott was crying on the floor, and Charlotte asked Dottie what happened to him. Dottie proudly admitted in her dainty little girl voice that she pushed him down the stairs.  We all just busted up laughing.

Highlights of the visit included:

1.  Bernadette Peters lying on the piano during her sultry rendition of "Fever."

 

 2.  Visiting Harvard. . .

 

Elliot liked the leaves.

Charlotte and I in front of Longfellow's house.

Someone at Harvard made this little tree house on campus, and Jonathan couldn't wait to show it to Dottie.  Notice Dottie's smile, it's a bit maniacal. I like those kinds the best.

When we told Elliot that we expected him to end up at Harvard he looked around and then started crying.

3.  Eating corndogs and "chowda" in bread bowls at Quincy Market.

"mmmmm......after eating this delicious chowda I will also eat your soul.  Wink.Wink."

 

 Although Dottie looks like she doesn't like her corn dog in this picture, she is really just disgusted that her mother waited almost 5 years before she gave her one of these delectable culinary masterpieces.

Elliot couldn't jam it down his throat fast enough. 

4.  Walking the Freedom Trail.

 This is the spot of the Boston Massacre and the balcony from which the Declaration of Independence was read.

 

Paul Revere's home.  

 

The old State house.

 

A very old tombstone.  Mother Goose was also interred at this graveyard. Yes, apparently, she was real.  Notice the skull at the top.  As I walked through the grave yard I felt like I had entered a child's scary Halloween drawing. 

 

 Colin and James.  They are the cutest.

 

 The Landon's joined us on our Freedom Trail adventure.  It was very fun.

 

 Boston is very pretty.

 

 Paul Revere is a handsome man.

 

Boston.

5.  My early Birthday present, handmade by Charlotte.  We are cosmically connected for life.  If you don't know what that means...well, I would say, of course you don't.  Few people in life are cosmically connected like me and Char.  It's kind of like we are Siamese twins, but with our souls.  Does that make more sense?  This pillow, I think, is the home decoration that most perfectly embodies our friendship.  Thanks so much Charlotte.  This is my favorite present that you have ever given me. 

Thanks so much for coming guys.  Thanks DW for coming to my concert and for buying me delicious treats.  I hope you can come again soon!! I love you!

I laughed so hard I cried...

Another reason to love Mass: Newburyport, Ma

Last week Jonathan went out of town for more interviews.  It's been a stressful time for us, especially for him.  With school just starting and the race to find a great job in this horrible economy in the home stretch, Jonathan is really feeling the pressure of being a law student.  I feel bad for him, but at the same time his anxiety is certainly becoming a part of my daily life as well, so sometimes I'm not as supportive as I could be.  I'm sure everything is going to be fine, but we can't wait until this whole process is over.

In to other news, while Jonathan was out of town, Katie, my sis, and I decided to take a short day trip to Newburyport, Mass to visit Plum Island.  It was one of the most magical places I have ever visited.  Plum Island is a barrier island off the coast of Mass and so the ocean behaves very differently there than I am used to.  The surf broke in a million different places and in a million different directions.  Most magical though was a narrow (like 20 feet wide) piece of the beach that jutted out several hundred feet into the ocean, like a pier.  The waves broke all around us and at times it felt like we would be swallowed up by the ocean at any minute.  The sunset was magical.  Part of the sky was almost black with a rainstorm and the other part was perfectly blue and sunny. It was an experience I won't forget and one I hope to replicate soon.  Unfortunately, I sent the camera with Jonathan on his trip (no, he didn't take any pictures), so I didn't get to take any photos of our adventure. 
But here's one I found online to get your imagination going:

Health Care Reform

With all of the media, politicians, and pundits out there spinning the health care reform debate in opposite directions, making one side out to be unfeeling and merciless and the other to be socialist, pinko commies, how do we really come to understand Barack Obama's proposed reform and its implications for our country?  It's a question that I am certainly not qualified to answer completely, but for my own peace of mind, I've decided to do some research to begin to sort out the arguments and the truth from the lies.

Reasons Why We Need Reform?

Our health care system is a mess.  I've compiled a list of problems (with links to the sources) that our health care system, and thus, the American citizen is facing under today's health care status quo.  I was really taken aback to learn that:

• Most everyone agrees...President Obama, Republican and Democratic members of Congress, the American Medical Association and America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents the insurance industry, all have agreed the system needs to be changed. How to do it is the question.
  
• Latest Census Bureau estimates show that the overall number of the uninsured rose from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008.  More than one in four adults between ages 18 and 34 were without health insurance in 2008. They account for 55.1 percent of uninsured Americans, and the percentage is growing, up from 53.8 percent a year earlier. 
• Rising health care costs are the single biggest economic concern facing American businesses, according to a survey of businesses by Business Forward.  Nearly 90% of those polled cite health care costs as a major concern, more than taxes, government regulation, labor costs or energy costs. If costs continue to rise as expected, nearly 9 out of 10 business leaders expect to raise their employees' deductibles and copayments. Nearly 8 out of 10 expect to cut benefits. And nearly one in three expects to lay off employees.
• In the United States, total health care spending was $2.4 trillion in 2007--or $7,900 per person -- according to an analysis published in the journal Health Affairs. National health spending is expected to reach $2.5 trillion in 2009, accounting for 17.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). By 2018, national health care expenditures are expected to reach $4.4 trillion—more than double 2007 spending.The United States spends 52 percent more per person than the next most costly nation, Norway, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Just to give you some idea of what other countries are spending: United Kingdom $2,760 per person, France is $3,449 per person, Canada $3,678 per person, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 
• While some would argue that medical care is better in the United States than in these other countries, others would say the opposite is true. For example, the United States ranks 50th in life expectancy, and 180th infant mortality (meaning 179 countries have higher infant mortality rates such as Angola and Turkey and 43 countries have lower infant mortality rates such as France and Sweden) according to the CIA World Factbook.
• Most individual insurance policies are discriminatory against women.  Most individual insurance policies are permitted to exclude maternity care. Most states permit insurance companies to set premiums based on gender and generally charge women more than men for individual policies. Women are more likely than men to face limits or restrictions in prescription drugs, mental health or other care.

Proposed Reform?

Obama has proposed a Health Care Reform Plan to begin to mitigate the outrageous cost of health care for the country and for its citizens.  I'll try to talk about some of its important points, but you can read all about the plan here.

• $900,000,000,000.00 over the next 10 years--Let's get this out of the way right now, the costs of this reform plan will be around 900 billion dollars over the next ten years.  However, Obama promises to not increase the deficit by even a dime (his words).  He claims that savings from reforming the health system combined with fees collected from insurance companies offering expensive policies will more than pay for his plan.   If the savings don't materialize, Obama promises to cut other areas of govt to pay for it.
  
• Putting restraints on the way that insurance companies do business/make money--Insurance companies make money by gambling that those they insure will remain healthy, and they will do (and should do, in the current system) everything in their power to reduce their risk.  This means, in essence, that your money, not you, is what they care about.  Obama says, sure, we're in a free market system, but, just like in other industries, we need to put some regulations on insurance companies to protect society.  Here's what he came up with:
  
• Under the President’s plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny coverage for health reasons or risks. 
• The President’s plan will end insurers’ practice of charging different premiums or denying coverage based on gender, and will limit premium variation based on age. 
• The President’s plan prohibits insurance companies from rescinding coverage that has already been purchased except in cases of fraud (in other words, insurance agencies can't cancel your plan because you are costing them too munch money.) 
• The President’s plan will cap out-of-pocket expenses and will prohibit insurance companies from imposing annual or lifetime caps on benefit payments. 
• The President’s plan ensures that all Americans have access to free preventive services under their health insurance plans.
• Streamline Medicare overhead costs and provide prescription drug benefits to the elderly
  
• The Exchange--The administration will create a new insurance marketplace that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy private insurance at competitive prices.  In other words, insurance companies that meet the policy requirements of the Exchange will become part of an online market place, where people who aren't offered insurance through their employment or small business owners can literally shop around for the best insurance policy to fit their needs.  It reminds me of how we shopped around for our car insurance. This is important, experts claim, because right now insurance companies are mega-giants and each state has very few of these companies operating within it.  For example, in Alabama, Blue Cross Blue Shield controls 75-90% of the private insurance market.  Hospitals and doctors say they have little to no wiggle room in negotiating rates. Small businesses say they are held hostage to whatever price increases Blue Cross demands. As the exchange develops and grows, more and more insurance companies will move to this insurance marketplace, increasing competition and driving down premiums.  
• Making insurance and medical care more affordable--The President’s plan will provide new tax credits on a sliding scale to individuals, families, and small businesses (larger business won't qualify) that will limit how much of their income can be spent on premiums.  If you pay a lot for insurance and medical bills, the govt will give you a credit to help mitigate your cost.
  
• Offers a public health insurance option to the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage-- Here's the part that so many people are really worried about, the public option.  Barack Obama proposes to create a govt owned, non-profit health insurance company that will offer insurance to people who can't afford private plans.  This public insurance company will not be run by tax dollars, but like private insurance companies, by premiums collected from its customers.  According to Obama, "It would only be an option for those who don't have insurance.  No one would be forced to choose it, and it would not impact those of you who already have insurance.  In fact, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, we believe that less than 5 percent of Americans would sign up...By avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits and excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers, and would also keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better, the same way public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students without in any way inhibiting a vibrant system of private colleges and universities."
• Immediately offers new,  low-cost coverage through a national "high rish" pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created in 2013. 
• Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in the health care costs and align incentive for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality.  Obama mentions reforming the health care system to be more like Intermountain Health Care in Utah and a couple other stand out hospitals.  Utah's total health care costs per capita are the lowest in the country. The state is efficient even by international standards, its costs ranking below countries such as Norway, Denmark and France. Statisticians explain that low costs are not only explained by Utah's healthy life style, but by IHC's efficient practice standards. Here's an example of what makes IHC better, that may blow your mind: In the mid-1990s, only about 40 percent of heart surgery patients nationally were going home with the right medications -- beta blockers, anticoagulants and other potentially lifesaving drugs. Intermountain Healthcare's numbers were better, but not by much. So, in 1997, a research team at the Salt Lake City-based nonprofit health system developed a low-tech solution: a mandatory two-page checklist to help doctors ensure discharged patients get exactly what they need.  It was a simple innovation, yet one that yielded impressive results. Within a year, more than 90 percent of patients were getting appropriate medications. Readmission rates at its hospitals went down. Survival rates went up.  Making evidence-based medicine easy to practice is Intermountain's modus operandi. Do that, its top managers and clinicians say, and health care gets better -- and cheaper. Intermountain Health Care collects a lot of data and the uses that data to develop best practices that doctors follow, revolutionary.  Using Intermountain as a benchmark, the 2008 Dartmouth report says, the nation could reduce health care spending on acute and chronic illnesses by as much as 40 percent. 
• Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects that could help doctors focus on putting their patients first, not on practicing defensive medicine--Medical malpractice reform is something that Republicans have fought for years.  Many economists are skeptical that malpractice insurance premiums paid by doctors — or even the practice of defensive medicine to avoid litigation — are major reasons for soaring health care costs. But the issue looms large politically because many conservatives in both parties are convinced that doctors routinely order tests their patients don't need because they're afraid of getting sued.  So this will help doctors feel more comfortable practicing medicine and it could reduce costs. 
  

So, there are some of the points of the plan as I understand them.  Jonathan is going to write a comment in response to this post that will explain why many people, like him, can't support much of  this plan for reform.   Please feel free to add your enlightened comments as well, since we are all trying to learn more about what this reform will mean for us.

School Starts Today...

Jonathan has been back to school for a week now, but I've enjoyed almost three weeks of glorious vacation time since returning from Japan.  I love vacation.  I love visiting my family. I love the summer.  I love to be home.

School starts for me this morning, and although I am excited for this new academic year, I'm also sad to see summer go.  I was made for summer.  It's strange how happy and truly comfortable I feel when the sun shines down from a clear blue sky and fresh green leaves fill the trees.  When I walk outside and feel the summer air wrap itself around my bare skin, especially the spot just behind my knees, I feel free and light and happy.

Good bye summer.

I had to live up the last few weeks of my summer vacation.  Here's how I spent my time:

August 23:  Flew home to America.  Spent the night in Atlanta to prepare for my week long, solo roadtrip from Atlanta to Boston.

August 24 and 25:  First stop, Raleigh, NC, my childhood home:

 

South of the Border.  If you have not been to this ridiculous tourist destination, you should add it to your list.  I held my pee for an hour (a feat for me) just so I had a reason to stop here.

 My red-haired grandma and my dinosaur-loving Uncle Pete.  They live in deep south North Carolina.  The kind of place you think only exists in books.  I hadn't been there since I was a teenager.  It was nice to return to my roots. 

This is my childhood best friend Elizabeth.  Although I don't see her often, she is one of the few people that I feel cosmically connected to.  We spent our evening eating delicious pizza, talking, and playing rock band.

August 25 and 26:  Second Stop, Northwestern, Va, Home of my Dad, Step-mom Clara, and Bellita

I love visiting my Dad and Clara.  Their house is a country paradise.  They are always doing something fun.  I neglected to take pictures while I was visiting them.  So here is one that shows my Dad admiring his beautiful yard and their house.  My dad is obsessed with mowing the grass.  Dad and Clara have a Koi pond, several gardens, a hammock, and tree swing, woods and the list goes on and on.

August 26-31: Third stop Northeastern PA, Mom and Ron, Justin and Olivia, Charlotte and the Kiddies, and Dolores. I made an extended stop in my home town because I had so many people to visit.  My mom and I sewed one day.  I went to church.  I visited my grandparents.  Ate Dandy Pizza at Justin's.  And I cooked Olivia's first day of school breakfast.  It was an exciting visit.

Olivia's First day of Kindergarten.  Her bookbag was as big as her.

Then there is Dottie, my name sake.  I brought her back some Japanese panda stickers and she went about decorating herself with them.

August 31:  Boston, MA, Home.

Home! I was reunited with my stressed out husband, Jonathan who had 29 interviews the week I was away.  I love him.  I love where we live.  It was so nice to arrive home, finally.  The next week I cleaned and unpacked our house.  Went night swimming with friends in Walden Pond.  Picked blueberries and raspberries at a local farm.  Saw "500 Days of Summer." Laid out on Singing Beach. And had a Jane Austen girls night.  Now it's time for school

I wish I took pictures of Walden Pond the night we went swimming.  There was a full moon and stars, and it was perfect.  But I went back the next day...

Thoreau's Cabin at Walden Pond

 

Thoreau

  

Walden Pond

  

Berry Picking

  

  

Farm made Soda

  

  

Singing Beach

  

Jonathan Body Surfing

  

Our friends from the Lane

  

Me trying to be a mermaid

  

Singing Beach