Summer Outside Playing, I'm Not

Growing up in the sunny beach town of San Diego, summer has always been something I've looked forward to in Popsicle-melting, tan-line-acquiring, toes-in-the-warm-sand sizzling anticipation. Three months off school to do whatever we want!

Recently I was reminiscing about this and I asked a 10 year old girl what she was planning on doing for her summer vacation... She replied: "eat tacos."

The simplicity, humor, and foresight in that response was enough to incapacitate my attention for a good 30 seconds before I broke out into a huge grin. "That sounds perfect," I told her.

With a single mom that was working full time and going to school, 90% of my summers were spent watching Ricky Lake, getting into fights with my brother, and burning ants with a magnifying glass. These of course were not ideal activities, but for me, the activity didn't matter. Summer offered something completely different - the freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, because I didn't have anywhere to be or anyone else to please.

But in the true sense of the phrase 'all good things must come to an end,' summer vacations are all but obsolete for me now. Once I graduated college and entered into the monochromatic, responsibility-filled, I-have-to-pay-off-all-these-bills adult life, summer became just like any other passing season that just happened to have warmer weather.

Now it occurs to me that summer was never about warm weather - it was about doing things that you usually don't get to do. Coincidentally, for me that now includes being out in the sunshine and it pains me to think that it's 75 degrees and sunny outside and I'm stuck here at my desk, staring at beige cubicle walls, and cold because the air conditioning is blasting, without so much as a glance out of a window.

So what does all this mean to those of us stuck in the concrete jungle? It means that we have to actively pursue the characteristics of summer. The chance to do what it is that really makes you happy is out there, you just have to take it.

Luckily for the most of us, there is a 3 day weekend coming up. What a perfect chance to practice our new found 'seize the summer day' attitudes. :)

Literally and figuratively, eating tacos.

Pandora's Box

Pandora, for those of you that are unfamiliar, is a self-proclaimed "music genome project." It is in my opinion one of the best inventions for music in my lifetime - you enter a song, genre, or artist, and it analyzes the musical characteristics of what you entered and spits out an endless playlist of songs. You not only get to hear all the songs you know and love and choose, but you get to learn of new songs and artists that you may have never found on your own.

And if that weren't enough, you can also turn down choices it selected for you, add more variety, tell it how often to play particular songs, skip ahead to the next song, pause, get more info about the songs, buy the songs instantly, add endless amounts of stations, share stations with other people, listen to pre-made stations, and see fun facts or the lyrics of the songs playing.

Basically, you can create the perfect radio station(s) that only plays the songs you like and listen anywhere you have Internet access (yes, even on your smart phone). Unlike satellite radio that repeats the same playlists over and over again, Pandora has an endless database so it only gets better with time. The era of individuality has arrived and Pandora has certainly hit the mark with their online radio station.

Because this has been around almost 10 years now, I suppose most of you have heard of Pandora and are wondering why I'm bringing it up like it's a new thing. Here's why...

Pandora is a clear example of the direction our world is headed. Me, me, me, now, now, now. The coming trend is personalized, individualized, instant gratification. While on one scale we have the potentially unbound creativity stemming from freedom of expression and increased value placed upon individuality, the other side holds the polarization of the individuals from the group which has been time-tested to lead to the dismantling of systems and chaos. Two heads are better than one turns into my head's better than yours. When we become separated from our unity we open the door to comparison followed immediately by envy. Envy breeds sadness, contempt, and dissatisfaction. And what are we left with? Radio stations and pink iPads?

Just as in the time-old tale of Pandora's box... at least we still have hope.

How Do You Tipple?

Today's word of the day: Tipple. Verb or noun. It can mean to drink liquor or be an intoxicating liquor drink, or be "a device that tilts or overturns a freight car to dump its contents." AWESOME.

One of the many pieces of evidence that the English language was developed with a sense of humor, ingenuity, and so that it makes it impossible to learn for any non-native speaker.

Things I Learned at the Dentist

After 18 months of procrastinating, I finally broke down and made an appointment to see the dentist. I came away with 3 fillings, a numb face, and several lessons learned:

1. Even the law is subjective. It was my first visit to this particular dentist office so I had to fill out the standard sign-your-life-away-paperwork. In this packet, as required by law, they have to give you a copy of their privacy practices, the following is an excerpt from that:

"We will also use our professional judgement and our experience with common practice to make reasonable inferences of your best interest..."

This statement is hilarious. Subjectivity is oozing out of it like a festering wound. The doctor's "professional judgement" is the sole proprietor of my dental records. And common practice? Just because everyone else is doing it, means its OK to do? I'm willing to bet that the author of this document was really good at bullshitting essays in school. That's a reasonable inference, right?

2. Doing the right thing is usually more expensive. My boss is a health freak and thinks that everything on this earth has toxins in it that are killing us (I'm not sure I disagree). While he may be at the extreme end of the spectrum, he found out he had mercury poisoning from his fillings. Of course, I was intrigued enough to do a little due diligence, and now I am forever changed on the perspective of dental fillings. (Seriously, watch this video.)

So the dentist comes to me with two options: amalgam fillings for free or the white composite ones for $42 each. I should have known that the insurance businessmen would pin me with that decision. But really, if they only knew the long term effects of mercury poisoning, maybe they'd find that the short term increased cost for the non-mercury-seeping fillings is less than several hundred doctors visits for vision, coordination, and muscle weakness problems that occur after a lifetime of subjection to mercury poison. Mercury poison is also transferable to unborn babies - your mom may have never dropped you on your head - but she most likely had metal fillings that poisoned you...

If you haven't already guessed I opted for the white fillings (not because I have $$ to burn) because it was the right thing to do.

3. It is incredibly hard to put lip gloss on when you can't feel your lips. Think of the old lady in that commercial asking "Is it on straaaaaaight?" That was me. Followed by a comical procession of me trying to sip my coffee, me trying to eat lunch, me trying not to drool... losing control of my lip is not my favorite thing.

The biggest lessons I learned out of it all is - step up the dental hygeine. Brushing and flossing regularly is not enough anymore.