ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Monthly Archive: August 2009

Monday

31

August 2009

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Weekend in Lake Tahoe

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This weekend we went up to Lake Tahoe for a quick break from the heat. I hadn’t been up there since the family vacation last summer, when we last saw John (our good friend who passed away this spring). The drive up and the first afternoon were filled with smoke from the fire burning close to Yosemite, but by the evening it cleared up nicely. We went to a little cocktail hour at the local hotel – it was on a floating pier, which was pretty sweet. 

Saturday I made my first attempt at high-altitude running. 6500 feet really does feel different from sea level, especially going up steep hills. But I did it. I’m excited to say that I’m going to run the next three days but take off all the time when I am in Seattle. I don’t really feel like running in the rain, and I haven’t taken more than three or four days off in a row since November, so I hope it’ll be a good rest that will kick-start the final push towards what will likely be my last race this year, the Royal Parks Half Marathon.

Saturday we also went to this pop-up exhibit on the history of the Lake Tahoe area. It was put togehter quite well, and made me hope the exhibitors eventually put together a book on the topic. The area has been pretty interesting – the Washoe tribe used it as their summer getaway, loggers took it over for awhile, a man bought up lots of land to conserve it (while raising his own lion at this crazy huge mansion), and of course Frank Sinatra owned part of one of the more famous casinos in the North Shore, the Cal-Neva. For someone who has been going up to Tahoe since she could walk, it was especially interesting.

The rest of the weekend we were pretty lazy, wandering around town, losing money to the slot machine gods, and eating very yummy food. On the way out this evening we passed the beginning of a nasty fire in Auburn, which should be contained in the next day (hopefully). 

Below are some pictures, which are in an order only posterous understands. But you’ll see some shots of the exhibit, some views of the cloudy skies, the Lake, and this amazing dog that is half wolf and all awesome.

Friday

28

August 2009

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Danville Hotel

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My hometown has a few cool things associated with it. Model Christie Turlington went to one of the local high schools. The pilot that successfully landed Flight 1549 on the Hudson River this January – Capt. Chesley Sullenberger – lives here. There’s an awesome Woody Guthrie song that’s about the town –  We’ve got the Iron Horse trail, the Old Oak Tree (the town symbol), and a main street that in parts resembles a Hollywood back lot version of the Old West.

One of the best buildings is the Danville Hotel. It’s existed since 1874, and has been in its current location since 1927. Every Mothers Day my family would have brunch at the fancy restaurant in the Hotel, complete with the most amazing sopaipillas.

Probably a decade or more ago the fancy restaurant closed down and was replaced with a Mexican restaurant. That, too, has been shuttered, and now the building is falling apart. It made me so sad to see. I went back to take some pictures before it completely falls apart.

Wednesday

26

August 2009

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Tuesday

25

August 2009

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Pay Pal Just Impressed Me

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So as you can read last night I was frustrated beyond frustration. I probably shouldn’t make financial calls at 10:30 at night.

This morning I called Pay Pal. It turns out that my old account was still open and a company called Nexus Europe Limited (http://nexuseurope.net/) charged my Pay Pal account over $50 two Mondays ago. Now, that particular Monday I was tooling around Manhattan, and I’ve never heard of Nexus Europe Limited, so yes that was not a real charge. 

Pay Pal saw that I hadn’t used my account in years and so refused to pay Nexus but the transaction to pull the funds from my Citibank account had already gone through. An old e-mail address was attached to that account, so their notification went there and not to the one I currently use.

Wade from Pay Pal was so nice and explaind that the money was still in my Pay Pal account, so we just closed it which meant the money would go straight back into my bank account.

I am impressed. It took maybe 10 minutes with Pay Pal to get it straightened out. I am especially impressed at how quickly they react to possible fraud. If I’d had my current e-mail address associated with the old account I would have know about this two weeks ago.

Now I know that even if I don’t know the ultimate vendor (in this case Nexus Europe Limited), I should see if I can find the contact information for whatever company shows up on the bank statement and call them first if there’s just one suspicious charge on my debit card.

Tuesday

25

August 2009

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Monday Night Frustration

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A couple of days ago I noticed a charge in my checking account from Pay Pal. While I don’t currently have an account with them I know a lot of businesses use them to collect online payments, so it is certainly possible that I would encounter them while purchasing from a small business online. Unfortunately I have no record of this Pay Pal charge. I searched my gmail for Pay Pal, for the electronic check company they use and for the amount charged. I looked back at an old vitamin order that shipped in parts to see if that company was were charging me for the second shipment. But nope. Nothing.

I called Citibank to see how to get an investigation into this. Now, it may be an entirely legitimate purchase; it happened the first couple of weeks in August, when I was running around trying to get everything in place for my move. But the only way for me to find out is to have information on who put through the request through Pay Pal.

George (the Citibank representative) was, I think, trying to be helpful. However, I’ve not experience such condescension from someone allegedly trying to help me since the police officer who took my statement after my bag was stolen my second year of college. George had the same tone that implied he felt he was trying to explain to a five year old that the Earth is round.

He had his list of questions, all of which were yes or no. Unfortunately, my situation didn’t lend itself to yes or no answers. It got so frustrating that at one point I asked if my call was annoying him because the condesenscion reached amazing levels. That seemed to upset him, possibly since the calls are recorded. Anyway, the conclusion George came to (via Citibank’s crack Q & A) is that since made at least one purchase via Pay Pal at some point in the distant past, this current charge is probably correct, and Citibank can provide no further assistance without stopping payment (which causes both a fee to be charged to me AND cannot be guaranteed).

After telling me to contact the vendor (difficult, since the whole point is that I don’t know on whose behalf Pay Pal was charing me) George gave me a trace number and I hung up before I said anything inappropriate, although I wasn’t as friendly as I could have been. I know it’s not George’s fault that his bank’s procedure isn’t helpful to me in this instance. I’m sure hearing from someone like me – who can’t be certain that the charge is fraudulent – makes his evening a little more difficult. I just wish George didn’t present himself in such a condescending manner.

I’ve e-mailed Pay Pal and will call them in the morning to try to get some more information. There’s no option from their pre-selected menu for “you charged me and I don’t know what for,” so I’m sure my e-mail will get routed and re-routed among many departments. As I’ve said, this may very well be a legitimate charge that perhaps was delayed a couple of months, but I can’t know until I know who put through the charge.

With that in mind, here is my thought about how this type of situation should be avoided. What if we require that companies who process payments on behalf of others put the actual business / account name on the note as well? If Pay Pal is charging on behalf of Sunshine Cleaning, it should show up on my bank statement as Pay Pal / Sunshine Cleaning. If I’ve never heard of Sunshine Cleaning, I would then know that the charge was likely an error or fraud.

Just another thing to add to my to do list for when I’m queen . . . 

Saturday

22

August 2009

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Odd Facebook Encounter + Inevitable Run-In = Odd Evening

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Now that I’m back visiting home for a month I know that I’ll run into some people. A few classmates from high school have stayed in and around the area, and some are not that far away. It’s always been a bit of a stomach flip for me, going downtown to run errands or grab lunch, because I don’t know who I’ll run into. In general (especially thanks to Facebook) I’m in touch with everyone from my hometown with whom I want to be in touch. They know when I’m visiting, so we will make plans to meet up.

Everyone else? Yeah, I’m generally not hoping to run into them. Not because they weren’t nice people, or because of anything having to do with them specifically, but because I don’t particularly enjoy small talk. Sure, sometimes I’ll run into someone that I’d lost touch with and am genuinely interested in how life is going with them, but usually not so much. You have between one and three children? Great! Your husband works in sales? Super. Seriously. That’s great. But I don’t really care.

Tonight on the way to pick up dinner I ran into a married couple from my high school. While we aren’t still in touch, I saw them at the reunion last fall and enjoyed talking to them. They’re nice, doing some interesting things, and I don’t find it awkward to talk to them. So that’s good – my first inevitable run-in and it wasn’t painful.

Then I came home to a Facebook message from a woman who is apparently the fiance of a guy I dated when I was 17. He doesn’t have a Facebook account but is trying to track down my college boyfriend – who he used to know – and is doing it via my account. We lost touch when we stopped dating. So that’s a dozen years that have gone by where I have thought of him maybe a handful of times. It’s so strange to me, the double-edged sword that is social networking. Yes, I’ve gotten back in touch with some great people. But me being out there means that people with whom I’ve lost touch (and don’t mind one bit) can contact me.

And that leads to another issue. With an in-person encounter I can at least smile and nod and not be a jerk if I run into someone unexpectedly. It might even be a pleasent experience. But receiving random e-mails and friend requests – especially ones to which I’d just as soon not respond – is somewhat invasive. I don’t want to be rude to anyone, in person or online, but I also haven’t figured out how to nicely “ignore” my cousin or former coworker friend requests, or simply not reply to an e-mail.

Tuesday

18

August 2009

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Why I Get to the Airport Crazy Early

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I usually take the air train to the airport. It’s great if you have the time and not a lot of baggage. This morning, since I’m moving, I took a car service so there would be space for my luggage. I got to the airport 2h 15m before my departure time.
 
 
It took me 10 minutes to get from the curb to the check-in line. The terminal was packed in a way I’d never seen. People were loaing their s–t. Yelling at staff, cutting in lines. I get being stressed that one might miss one’s flight, but calling people jerks and squealing generally has no impact on the flight’s departure. After 40 minutes in line I checked my bags and went to security. The line extended fully out past the snaking ropes to the deep recesses of the terminal. It moved quickly, but again people felt they were clearly the most important people there and thus had no need to wait in the line. I’d love it if the TSA folks would send them to the back if they catch people cutting. I feel like missing one’s flight due to being a jackass might prevent the activity in the future.
 
 
But I made it. I even got breakfast before running to the plane. California here I come.

Monday

17

August 2009

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Favorite Things – NYC Edition

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Since I’m about to leave NYC, I thought I’d take a minute to get down in print some of my best times in the City. I suppose I could have gotten all introspective and such, but this is more fun.

So, here are my favorites from the past seven years:

Education
Post-class ritual: Beer and a Baked Potato at Swift with Perry and Allegra
Test-taking moment: Finance midterm moments after a huge fight with a guy
Offensive speaker: The sexist graduation speaker who seemed to only think women are involved in public service
Saying by a classmate: “Sucks to be poor.” Close second: “The only way people will pay attention to recycling is if a big pile of recycleables falls on and crushes an old woman to death.”

Living Arrangements
Apartment: Park Slope studio 
Bitchy roommate moment: Lauren not letting Jamie and Dan stay in our shared studio while I was in class even though it was pouring outside.
Mentally unstable roommate moment: Terence accusing me of stealing his liquor and withholding $50 from my security deposit for a broken salad plate
Sane, normal, fun rommate: Michelle

Cultural
Theater-going experience: Seeing Hair in Central Park with Eric
Unintentionally hilarious theater-going experience: Pirate Queen
Museum exhibition: Buckminster Fuller at the Whitney
Concert (large scale): U2 at Madison Square Garden
Concert (small scale): 10-piece band – including saw – at the Museum of Modern Art
Political moment: Cheering with Jonathan, Herman and Kathleen when Obama was declared the winer

Outdoors
Coney Island moment: Crossing the finish line on the boardwalk after completing the Brooklyn half-marathon
Traditional beach moment: Summer Friday with Kathleen
Not-so-tradtional beach moment: Stuck at Jones Beach with John and Allegra for four hours trying to get home after the Blue Angels air show
Central Park moment: My first week of school, laying in Sheep’s meadow, studying and realizing I’d made it to NYC for real

Work
Surreal day: Leading families into the ‘pit’ at the WTC site on the first anniversary of September 11
Unintentional humor: Instinctively crouching a bit when having my picture taken with the Mayor to make the height disparity less obvious (which lead to his comment that I’d go far in politics)
Job: The one I just left
Hardest, but ultimately right, decision: Not taking the job offered to me in Seattle last year
Moment that choked me up a little: Seeing how much effort Jonathan and Paula put into my good-bye party

Holidays
Beach vacation: Puerto Rico with Allegra
Regular escape: Seattle
Annual visit: Stephanie coming to NYC every single year I lived here
Wedding in a place I’d never been: Kate and Richard in St. Louis
Tradition: Orphans Thanksgiving with Herman, Kathleen, Megan, Aaron and whomever else is in town

You’ve been good to me, New York. Thanks.

Friday

14

August 2009

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Right to die

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By Arthur Brice
CNN

(CNN) — An Australian high court ruled Friday that a quadriplegic man has the right to refuse food and water and can be allowed to die, a rare legal finding that some see as a major victory for right-to-die campaigners.

Euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke said Rossiter's case is significant because his mind is fully functional.

Euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke said Rossiter’s case is significant because his mind is fully functional.

The ruling means that the nursing facility in which Christian Rossiter has lived since November 2008 cannot be held criminally liable for allowing the patient to die, the Supreme Court of Western Australia said.

“I’m happy that I won my right to die,” Rossiter, 49, said afterward. But he added that he will further consult with a doctor because he may change his mind.

A leading Australian right-to-die advocate called the ruling a significant victory.

“I don’t know that many people will want to die this way. But for people who do, it’s a very important decision,” said Dr. Philip Nitschke, founder and director of Exit International, a leading global voluntary euthanasia and end-of-life advocacy group.

Nitschke noted that Rossiter’s case is significant because his mind is fully functional.

“This is the first time that it’s come up with a person that’s rational and lucid,” Nitschke told CNN. “This is unusual. It’s very rare.”

Chief Justice Wayne Martin noted that distinction in his order, saying, “Mr. Rossiter is not a child, nor is he terminally ill, nor dying. He is not in a vegetative state, nor does he lack the capacity to communicate his wishes. There is therefore no question of other persons making decisions on his behalf.

“Rather, this is a case in which a person with full mental capacity and the ability to communicate his wishes has indicated that he wishes to direct those who have assumed responsibility for his care to discontinue the provision of treatment which maintains his existence.”

Some family and right-to-life groups opposed Rossiter’s request.

“Really, what we should be doing is looking after each other rather than facilitating an escape,” John Barich of the Australian Family Association said in a TV interview.

Peter O’Meara, president of Western Australia’s Right to Life Association, said, “The law which is being applied can be a dangerous precedent.”

Rossiter has suffered a series of injuries since 1988 that have left him with limited foot movement and the ability to wriggle only one finger. He is fed through a stomach tube. He relies on staff at the Brightwater Care Group nursing facility in the city of Perth for such routine care as regular turning, cleaning, assistance with bowel movements, physical and occupational therapy and speech pathology.

Australian law gives patients the right to refuse life-saving treatment, but helping someone commit suicide is a crime that can carry a life prison sentence. The Brightwater nursing facility sought the ruling to make sure it would not be held liable if it complied with Rossiter’s request to stop all nutrition and hydration, except to be given enough liquid to make it possible to take pain medication.

Rossiter attended the hearing in a wheelchair, breathing through a tracheotomy tube in his throat. He told the judge he wants to die.

It’s a point he has been making publicly.

“I can’t move,” Rossiter said in a televised interview this week. “I can’t even wipe the tears from my eyes. And I’d like to die. I’m imprisoned in my own body. I have no fear of death. Just pain.”

Rossiter pointed out in a recent interview with the PerthNow news outlet that he once led an active life.

“This is living hell,” he is quoted as saying. “I used to be a cyclist, I used to be a keen walker. I bushwalked around the world. … I’ve rock climbed in Yosemite Valley in California up very steep cliffs. I’ve got a degree in economics and now I can’t even read a newspaper, I can’t turn the pages.”

Rossiter joined the Exit International right-to-death organization about three months ago, said Nitschke, who talked with him before the hearing.

Nitschke said Rossiter appeared “very happy” afterward.

A Brightwater executive said the company appreciates that the court’s ruling has relieved the nursing facility of any liability.

“The whole organization has been most concerned for Mr. Rossiter but also concerned for our own legal standing and this has clarified things greatly,” said Penny Flett, the company’s chief executive.

While hailing the victory, Nitschke decried the fact that Rossiter will have to undergo a slow and painful death through starvation, rather than having a quicker and painless way to end his life. Because he cannot use his hands, Rossiter must rely on others to withhold treatment rather than being able to take his own life. Switzerland has an assisted suicide law, and Rossiter has considered going there.

“It’s a bit sad that the best that Australia can come up with,” Nitschke said, “is that we can let a person like that starve to death.”

Interesting story out of Australia.

Monday

10

August 2009

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COMMENTS

GOOP

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This was almost a Facebook update, but that seemed the wrong venue.
 
Have you heard of goop.com? It is Gwyneth Paltrow’s website/newsletter. She shares her helpful tips to help the rest of us mortalsl Huzzah!
 
Please check out her sitel
 
And then grab the September Vanity Fair, turn to page 260 and enjoy.