A Bad Nurse

Last week, I was opening a package of Goldfish (the cracker, not the animal) and got a massive papercut from the foil-backed paper bag that the fish are in. This papercut was not your average papercut. It was so deep and so large that it bled… a lot. Enough that I had to get a piece of paper towel and apply pressure. And then it didn’t stop, it just stopped dripping. At this point, I decided to get a band-aid, only to realize that I have no band-aids in my home. I am a nurse without a basic nursing supply. And that’s not the only basic health care supply that I am lacking. I also noticed that I don’t have any tylenol, motrin, bandages of any kind. If someone got injured and thought, I know, I’ll go visit my nurse friend Brianne, that person would be sadly disappointed that I would only be able to help them if their injury could be fixed with paper towel and a Flintstone vitamin.

After being shamed by my lack of nursing supplies, I decided to stock up and I did it big time. In addition to buying acetaminophen and ibuprofen (that’s right, generic all the way), I purchased the mother of all first aid kit’s. It’s a thing of beauty. It was only $20 and it has everything. Think of all the things that you might need for a small home injury and then add to it these awesome things: finger splints, eye patches, burn cream, and a full size emergency blanket. How cool is that? Now I’m ready for anything and have the tools to fix any problem. I am real nurse again!

Papercut update: This bad boy was so deep that the next day it started bleeding again twice. Once when the soap got it in the shower and once when I was doing the dishes. Take home lesson for the readers-a bag of goldfish is dangerous-be careful!

 

Dream Home

Erica sent me a link to the New York Times and a slideshow of what is certainly my dream home.

Look at it. The owner built it entirely out of trees. This room is made of whole trees and I think it’s perfect for me. Thanks for finding my dream home, Erica.

 

Trees

I love trees. Love them. Could be called obsessed with them if you wanted to call it that. I have trees everywhere in my life.

New shower curtain: trees

artwork over bed: trees

necklace i wear everyday: irish tree of life

favorite quarter: the connecticut quarter with the tree on it

I love love love trees and was taking some pictures in the park recently and thought I’d show you some of the better ones. (As if there could be a bad tree photo!)

I love these kind of trees that look like they are wearing camos and trying to blend in better.

The above photo makes me want to live in this building and look at this tree everyday. And since the building is on Central Park West, I don’t think it would be the worst place to live.

I ask you: what’s prettier in the world than a tree? I don’t think you can come up with an answer to this question because there isn’t anything.

Today’s blog is in response to Maren’s request that I not blog about rape or aggression. So take this time to enjoy this lovely blog with its beautiful photos and think happy thoughts.

 

Violence Against Women

I know, the title makes this sound like a real upper, and I tell you, it surely is. As part of a class assignment on aggression across cultures, I was doing some research on violence against women and was shocked to learn that approx. 1100 women were killed by intimate partners in the US in 2005. This is an average of 3 per day. Three per day! I must say that I was shocked by this number. That’s a lot of women. Some more shocking statistics include:

1. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which includes crimes that were not reported to the police, 232,960 women in the U.S. were raped or sexually assaulted in 2006. That’s more than 600 women every day.

2. Young women, low-income women and some minorities are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and rape. Women ages 20-24 are at greatest risk of nonfatal domestic violence, and women age 24 and under suffer from the highest rates of rape.

3. The Justice Department estimates that one in five women will experience rape or attempted rape during their college years, and that less than five percent of these rapes will be reported.

4. When we consider race, we see that African-American women face higher rates of domestic violence than white women, and American-Indian women are victimized at a rate more than double that of women of other races.

5. According to the Family Violence Prevention Fund, “growing up in a violent home may be a terrifying and traumatic experience that can affect every aspect of a child’s life, growth and development. . . . children who have been exposed to family violence suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as bed-wetting or nightmares, and were at greater risk than their peers of having allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, headaches and flu.” In addition, women who experience physical abuse as children are at a greater risk of victimization as adults, and men have a far greater (more than double) likelihood of perpetrating abuse.

6. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the cost of domestic violence in 2003 was more than over $8.3 billion. This cost includes medical care, mental health services, and lost productivity.

I know this isn’t exactly a chipper blog post, but I found after reading these numbers that I thought violence against women had decreased and find that I am wrong. In reading about cultural psychology for my class, I think it’s interesting to think about the kind of culture we have in American where so much violence against women occurs. If it was less culturally acceptable across the board, then one would think there would be a lot less of it. In many cultures across the globe and in many smaller pockets of the US, violence against women and the control aggressive men exert over women is seen as a sign of prowess, masculinity and stature in society. Unfortunate for the rest of us who have to live in fear of them.

In case you are wondering where I got my numbers and information, it all came from the National Organization for Women website found here: http://www.now.org/issues/violence/stats.html.

 

 

 

Cultural Psychology

hello friends, below please enjoy this paragraph from my cultural psychology textbook that i found particularly interesting. Although, I am aware that there is a good chance that only Erica will agree. So to the rest of you, you are welcome for expanding your education and I apologize for the boredom.

“One construct that has been shown to be very important in understanding aggression across cultures concerns honor. Honor refers to respect, esteem, or admiration, and some cultures can be characterized as cultures of honor, in which norms place a strong emphasis on status and reputation. In these cultures, insults, threats, and sexual infidelity can especially threaten one’s honor, often resulting in anger, which leads to violence and aggression. Higher rates of violent crimes and other acts in the US South, for instance, have been linked to a ’southern culture of honor’. In one study, for example, participants were purposefully bumped by a research confederate and called an “asshole”. Individuals born in the northern United States were relatively unaffected by the insult; those from the South, however, were more likely to believe that their masculinity was threatened, were more upset, more physiologically an cognitively primed for aggression, and were more likely to actually engage in aggressive behavior. These acts were interpreted as attempts to restore lost honor. Cortisol and testosterone levels were measured, and both were found to be elevated in the Southern sample.”

I found this paragraph on aggression particularly interesting, being from an area of the country that behaves in this southern-aggressive way. I also then began to ponder the fact that a large percentage of the people who like to own guns are also those that belong to this “honor culture” of the south and how disconcerting the idea is that they have elevated testosterone and cortisol levels when they get bumped and insulted by a stranger. Something delightful for us all to ponder…

 

Marathon

Yesterday was Maren’s first ING New York City Marathon. Let me walk you through the day. First, we woke up at 9:00 to watch the coverage on NBC of the elite men and women. And in Maren’s very first NYC Marathon, an American man won for the first time since 1982. 1982! Way to make your country proud! After the elite men and women finish, there’s enough time to walk from our house to the finish line and stop for some coffee.

Meghan met up with us at the house so she and I could enjoy our third marathon together. We tend to have great luck with the people around us and yesterday was no exception. The woman next to us was awesome!

 

Let’s take a moment to talk about what it’s like to be in Central Park when it’s at its most beautiful. It was a beautiful fall day. Crisp, cool, dry. There were leaves falling along as we walked and as the runners ran. The park was filled with the yellows, oranges and browns of the falling leaves. Seriously, a sight to behold.

We then made our way to the racers to cheer them on.

Maren didn’t quite get this until she did it herself. It is hard to describe why it’s so great to someone who’s never been there. But once you stand next to complete strangers, clapping together, cheering together, calling out runners names together, you finally understand how great it is to be a New Yorker on Marathon Day! So many New Yorkers trek to the park to encourage the 42,000 American and international runners who are nearing the end of their 26.2 mile trek through all 5 burroughs of New York City. It’s a fantastic thing to do. And the best part is, we don’t know these runners. We couldn’t pick them out of a line-up. And if they weren’t running, we’d be irritated with them on the subway or in Times Square, but this is the one day when extra people in the city is welcome by most all of us. A day when you congratulate people wrapped like baked potatoes for their hard work. A day when you yell out the names of complete strangers as they run by you and they throw you the thumbs up. A day when you high five strangers as they pass on their way to the finish. I can’t tell you how great it is. But now, Maren can.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Brianne’s favorite day in New York City.

 

Lung Health

Friday I woke up freakishly early for me (10:30) and after I did my homework ate lunch, unpacked my groceries, I decided to go on a cleaning spree. There’s just something so invigorating about giving your house a good scrub. What’s not so invigorating is a lung-full of bleach. I sprayed the shower with a bleach mixture and then started coughing which interrupted my plan to hold my breath during the bleach spraying and led me to take a giant breath of the aerosolized bleach. I can’t be sure, after all, I’m only a nurse, but I don’t think this is 100% great for my overall lung health.

While on the subject of health, let’s talk about what a great day for sport tomorrow is. First, at 9:00am the marathon tv coverage starts. It’s a nice hour of warm-fuzzy stories about the top marathon runners so we can decide who to cheer for. It’s during this time that I pick a winner  and then cheer them on as they haul ass to the finish line. After the top runners finish the race, we are going to head out to see the regular joe’s finish the marathon and cheer them on. As you have heard before, the New York City Marathon is my favorite day of the year in the city. It’s hard to explain, you just really have to be here. I inevitably tear up when cheering on the runners. It’s such a great day to be a New Yorker. And who gets to experience it for the first time? Maren Stefanie Genow! I’m so jealous of it being her first time.

Anyway, after the marathon, the Packers play the Vikings and then it’s game 4 of the World Series. Seriously, this is a lot of sport to cram into one day and I can only hope I’m up to the challenge.

Saturday sporting update: M Go Blue!

P.S. Happy Halloween!

 

Phonetastrophe!

Tuesday night, I made a pumpkin pie for Zak since he had to miss Canadian Thanksgiving and loves pumpkin pie the most. I decided to take my iphone into the kitchen to listen to some music while I was baking. What happened next is both tragic and funny. I went to pour the pie mixture into the pie crust and some of it poured onto my iphone, slid down the side and into the bottom speakers and area where the charger plugs in. Since then the maximum volume on the phone is about 10% of what it used to be. The volume is so slight that when the phone is right next to me, I only notice it ringing if I look up and see that the screen is lit up. This is not good! And when I told Maren and Zak my sad story, they were both unsympathetic and implied that one shouldn’t bring expensive phones into the kitchen. Rude! Sometimes all a girl is looking for is “sucks to your asmar” and she gets attitude! Moral of the story: pumpkin pie is bad for cell phones.

 

Recent Random Info

1. As much as fifty gallons of maple sap are used to make a single gallon of maple syrup.

2. A cockroach’s favorite food is the glue on the back of stamps.

3. Male monkeys lose the hair on their heads in the same manner human males do.

4. Professional hockey players skate at average speeds of twenty to twenty-five miles per hour.

5. A scallop has a total of thirty-five eyes, all of which are blue.

6. A tea in China called white tea is simply boiled water.

 

 

Where’s Zak?

(Sorry for the few days of blogging absense. I thought I had blogged for a couple of days longer than I actually had and was unhappy to discover that you were all yearning for my ramblings and weren’t getting them.)

Maren and I were shocked to discover the other day that we haven’t seen Zak in the month of October and it’s nearly over. Due to some extra shifts on Zak’s part, we kept missing eachother all month. So, last night we rectified that situation everyone style, with dinner, drinks and game play. When Meghan left and I had to re-stock the game closet, I bought us some unexpected games like Trouble and Chutes and Ladders. Last night we opted for our first game of Trouble in about 2 decades. It was quite the barn burner with this Genow emerging victorious after a heated battle between the rest of everyone. I’m telling you, if you see this game as an option, get it and play it. I promise you’ll have fun.

If you’re wondering why we played this game on my bed it’s because we didn’t feel like sitting on the floor and we still don’t have dining room chairs. Baby steps to adult living, baby steps. In the photo below, I asked Maren and Zak to look at me and smile and this is what I got.

After our rousing game of trouble, we played Jungle Uno which is just a spiced up and more fun version of Uno. I started out dominating and then somehow lost to Maren. I’m still not sure what happened. Although I think she may have pretended to be bad to lull us into a coma and then kicked our asses. This is however, just a theory. We then tried several times to have Zak stretch out his arm and take a group photo before remembering that cameras come with timer features. And aren’t we all glad? For how else would we have gotten this lovely three-man-prom-pose picture? Credit for this photo goes to Meghan who did not take it but discovered that Brianne and Maren together photograph best when in the prom pose.

P.S. Isn’t it a bummer that Zak didn’t get the memo on wearing stripes?