I Luv Planet Unicorn

A new episode is coming soon! Check out episodes 1-5 in the meantime, if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

I Guess There's Still Drinking Liberally Meet-ups...

I can't believe I missed the State of the Union drinking game AGAIN. The non-traditional Monday date faked me out. Curses!

Run Merckx RUN!!!

You will never see a creature happier or more unself-consciously authentic than when you see this dog run. The pictures don't do the spectacle justice, but they will give you the idea.

I had another near-perfect half-weekend in SLO yesterday. I wish I could have had the whole weekend, but such is life. The weather even obliged for the most part--no grief on the way up or down, minimal in between. I had been going to head up to the Angeles to find some snow for trekking, but Peter said they had some out his way so I packed the 'shoes and up I went. By the time we got out to Black Mountain, there wasn't much snow left at all, certainly not enough to warrant snowshoes, but enough to facilitate a snowball tiff and certainly enough for two dogs to eat and play.

The signs said the road was impassable, but stubbornly on we pressed--WE will be judges of that, we said. When Merckx couldn't stand it any more, Peter stopped and let him chase the car the rest of the way up the road to the trailhead. The tread was a little slippery in spots, but straightforward enough. We set our sights on two large rock formations in the distance and off we went. We found some interesting (bear? we forgot to look it up when we got home) scat along the way, Peter ambushed me with some snowballs from a sidehill as I followed up behind and I embarrassed myself by forgetting my learnin' and totally throwing like a girl in response.

Once of top of the rock, we could see the Carrizo Plain on the other side of the hills, we could see Hwy 58 unfurling itself across the land toward Bakersfield, and in the way distance we could see the Sierras covered in all kinds of snow. The contours of the land were pretty amazing and it looked so vast from that view. The clouds were far away and the day was balmy. Once we got back to the car, Peter loaded up Eddy and let Merckx uncork an impressive chase all the way down this time.

The clouds and rain were returning by the time we got back to town--after a brief winning struggle with the Lazy Monster, we got on the bikes and headed out up Prefumo Canyon, which was lush and gorgeous. We saw rainclouds over Avila, and ended up bagging the section that goes to Avila Pier, and Peter tried with mixed success to get me to lay off my brakes already as he pulled me home.

And for the evening entertainment: The new Woody Allen movie? Salsa dancing? Bruins basketball game? Why not all 3? At least, that was the plan. After dinner and the movie (which was quite enjoyable--go see!) we again tangled with the Lazy Monster before deciding to sit out the dancing for another time and maybe still catch the game, until we decided that tea and shared stories sounded just as attractive and since we were already home...which was warm...and dry...and pervaded by an awesome revolutionary kitty...so, we let Mark Twain and Stephen Jay Gould provide us a rip-roarin' good evening instead.

I dragged myself kicking and screaming (on the inside!) home this morning. Work wasn't so bad except I was tired and my last client was a huge Scottish guy who about wore me out but he was nice at least and very entertaining. After that a quick foray up to Malibu for a meet/greet of the new team and job at the end of their sponsor day shindig. I'm not sure how much I'll be allowed to blog, but it is going to be and interesting year indeed--that much I can promise.

Caption This Photo

Rude Pundit declares it to be "the awesomest MLK day photo featuring a white president and a black child". I don't disagree.

Friday Cat Blogging

I just had to.

You Know You're Having an Interesting Day When...

...your patient pees in the trash can, and it's not even yet 10AM.

Oy.

Bush Gets a Biopic

No, really--it's true, and brought to you by Oliver Stone!

Check out the seriously awesome "preview", stolen from the vaults! Enjoy!

Little Help?

Does anyone have any trail beta on backpacking in the southern half of Los Padres? I'm thinking maybe San Rafael or Dick Smith Wilderness areas the weekend before I have to work Tour of CA stuff. I've a tremendous yen to get out to the hills where I belong instead of this fugging city where I live for the next 6 to 11 months. I'd like to do a 2-night trip, with a base camp at the first night so I can do some longer day-hike ranging before hiking out. Any insights are appreciated!

Mike Huckabee Needs to Shut Up. A Lot.

Or so I was saying to a friend the other night. Here's the latest piece of evidence for my claim:

"You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag. In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole, that's what we'd do."—Ordained minister and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, assuring a crowd in South Carolina of his enthusiastic support for their continued embrace of the Confederate flag.

The heartwarming display of family values is giving me the vapors, I do declare--and from a minister no less! As Liss remarks over at Shakesville, what would Jesus tell people to shove up their asses? Shit howdy, I can't open my mouth wide enough to O-o loud enough.

The Jokes, They Write Themselves: Part Wev

Via Jill at Feministe, who titles her post "Not That You Didn't Already Know Fabio Was a Dipshit, but Sweet Jesus". Do check out the comments, they are pretty hilarious.

I agree, he definitely has...a way...with words.

Qian Zheng, Surprises That Rock Edition

What did I tell you about this year pulling straight? A sizable chunk of student loans are gone, another will be gone by the end of the year, the other debt is nearly gone and won't be gone by Chinese New Year (according to tradition!) but will at least be erased by the end of February. What else? I LOVE my clinic shifts this term, especially the pain clinic at Venice Family--the integrative setting is so exciting and I'm learning so much from what the biomed docs, nurses, chiros, and translators have to say at our weekly meetings. I can't wait to find a setting like this for practice! At school, my stage IV lung cancer patient is doing extremely well, my infertility patient is finally pregnant this week (she's taken about 4 pregnancy tests to be sure even though her PCP assures her she's quite expectant) and while my amenorrhea patient still hasn't gotten a period she's made tremendous strides toward making decisions about getting her life under control and wouldn't you know her anxiety is improving to boot? So all that feels pretty inspiring.

The Premiere Oncology internship is looking promising, and I've been looking into ways to work toward helping get the Hinchey Bill (the bill that would get acupuncture added to the Medicare and Federal Employee Benefit Plan schedules of benefits) passed, since it looks like it actually has the best chance of passing in years. And yeah, the debate over whether or not it's a good idea to join a system that is so broken goes on, but that's another post for another day.

The coupe de grace came this morning in the form of a certain pro cycling team which had been considering me for soigneur work (and then declining to get back to me even to tell me they'd gone with someone else) calling me this morning to offer me the job! I go in tomorrow morning to sign the papers and make it all official like. I'm still in the pinching myself stage, but there it is. All the things I was looking forward to--new professional contacts, plenty of bloggable experiences, not to mention my Escape From LA fund are to be mine after all.

I really can't express how good it feels to be so excited about my life again, to feel more securely rooted and focused than I have ever been, to be getting it right, to finally be winning, to just be so happy I laugh out loud for no apparent reason and to be so delighted with the beauty of the world around me all it takes is a bike ride to Lopez Lake under a clear azure sky to feel high as a kite. I can hardly wait to see what February will bring--Tour of California, here I come!

Friday Cat Blogging

Yeah, I know it's not quite Friday, but tomorrow stands to be a pretty busy day, and Thursday Cat Blogging just sounds lame.

It's good to be the king.

Jon Stewart on Hillary's "Meltdown"

Plenty of others have already blogged the topic a-plenty, but this one is worth watching since as usual The Daily Show gets it more right than most other "legitimate" news outlets out there. I love the part near the end where Rudy chimes in--is there nothing he can't relate to 9/11? I bet not.

Video here.

It's God's Will, Bitchez!

Jon Ponder wonders whether Huckabee's loss in NH is all part of God's larger plan like the rest of the campaign and dares reporters to ask exactly that question. That is a presser I would love to see.

RIP Sir Edmund Hillary

One of the great adventurers of our time has passed on at the age of 88 today.
Full story and bio here.

Inflection Point for 2008

No, literally--this one is an acupuncture point, as well as my chosen metaphorical inflection point à la Francis Tapon's book on life lessons he learned from thru-hiking the AT. I was going through my comp study binder, starting to get myself organized for the last rush and push toward my LAc, and I found it in my points tables:

Qian Zheng.

It's an extra point, meaning it's not on a channel. It translates as "Pull Straight" and it is extremely useful for treating deviation of eye and mouth, a locked jaw, TMJ issues, unblocking the ears, etc. Oh, and it's also a big facelift point into the bargain. It felt especially meaningful because this is the year that everything is finally going to pull straight--all the slow, painful, plodding preparation I've been doing in school, on myself, in myself, my life, etc. is finally in place to pull straight like never before. I say this with some confidence because I feel an internal rootedness and certainty and confidence I never felt before--large missing pieces of the picture heretofore. That which has been crooked and inefficient will be righted and realigned and re-centered and that which has been locked into a tunnel vision, rusted shut, and weakened will be opened up and revitalized by fresh perspectives and resources not known before. Like any adventure worth the grime, it's going to be hard, exciting, and totally fun.

For now, Jen just called to say she and Devin are on their way over--I'm going to go enjoy my first actual meal of actual food in almost a week. Away we go!

The World Is Rather Small

So yesterday evening I'm out for a brief walk around the Elvis Loop (they are still dressed to fête New Year's, btw) in a desperate attempt to jump start my knotted-up appetite working again. And while I am walking a friend I had been meaning to call and get together with over a post-finals coffee calls. The backdrop is this: Aaron and I have been friends since 7th grade, but after a weird and thoroughly alienating senior year that still no one can explain to me why I was so ostrasized by most of my former friends, I was ready to turn my back on Shasta, and Redding, after graduation and I pretty much did. I packed up and headed off to UCLA where I bloomed and grew and felt ridiculously happy and excited with my new life and didn't think much about the life I'd left behind. About 4 years later, I ran into this guy on Bruin Walk who looked familiar, and I realized it was Aaron, and that he had transferred. We hung out a few times with another high school friend who was in town for the summer on an architecture internship, but after graduation we lost touch again. Fast forward another 10 years, when I get an email from my myspace account from Aaron, who has found me because he started studying TCM at Emperor's (our cross-town rival, aka the party acupuncture school) at the exact time I started at Yo San!

Last night he called to relate that while he was in the rehab facility recovering from his surgery for a nasty little episode of cauda equina syndrome, he noticed a doc with a very familiar face, but couldn't name it until..."Dr. Lehfeldt?!" spontaneously poppped out of his mouth. And lo, it was--Dr. Max Lehfeldt, MD--little Max with the golden voice that got him into Madrigals as a sophomore all grown up to be a hunky plastic surgeon! Or maybe not. We're supposed to have coffee in a couple of weeks, I'll let you know. It will be fun to catch up though, as I've always liked Max and he was one of the few people who was cool to me that wretched final year. I never cease to be amazed at how paths cross, diverge, run skew or parallel, then cross again after so many years when least expected. You really do never quite know what will happen or who will find you when you get up in the morning.