Universal Health Care

On NPR this week I heard someone (sorry I'm not sure who it was) debating why Universal Health Care is sooooo bad for everyone. This person argued that in places like France and Sweden people don't get to choose their doctors. They may not get treated immediately, and overall the health care quality will not be as good as it could be if health care was privatized.

Now let me be completely honest with you for a moment, I'm a big fan of Universal Health Care. I think it is ridiculous that people have to spend an exorbitant amount of money on health insurance every year, and the moment they have an accident or get sick they still get stuck with paying a good portion of the bill (or all of the bill) because insurance companies try to weasel their way out of paying for as much of the bill as possible. Then after all that, you are guaranteed to have your insurance rates go up. And even worse, if you have some sort of terminal illness or precondition to something like sleep apnea you then have to pay loads more money for them to pay a portion of your bills, that's IF they allow you to keep them as your insurance provider.

So now that you know my view on that, let me tell you about my personal experience with Universal Health Care. In 2004 I was studying abroad in southern France. One night near the end of March I was in excruciating pain. The lower/right hand side of my back was throbbing. I didn't know what was wrong, and I just prayed and prayed it would go away by the morning. It took hours to fall asleep. In the morning I felt ill. More ill than I have ever felt in my entire life. I had planned to spend that day being a tourist with a friend in Lourdes. I told my friend how sick I was, but I didn't want to miss out on an adventure so I went anyway. Around 11 am I thought I was going to pass out. I found a bathroom, and tried to calm down. I was breathing heavily, and I couldn't see straight. Since I was in the bathroom, I decided to relieve myself (sorry to be so disgusting, but this is an essential part of the story). I realized immediately that I peeing blood. I started crying. I didn't know what to do. I was in a foreign country with socialized health care for gads sake!

I told my friend that I was peeing blood (this friend was a friend I met in France, and hence was French). He immediately called up some people and asked what doctors they would recommend I go see. Then I called and made an appointment for the next morning. I chose the doctor. The next morning I arrived to my appointment on time, and I didn't even have to wait. Nor did I have to pay some huge health care cost :) My doctor was very knowledgeable. She made me feel comfortable. She performed a whole exam even though pretty immediately she identified that I had a kidney stone. She informed me of all my options, and told me her highest recommendations. She then sent me to a lab to get my pee tested. At a time when I was feeling physically at my worst, and was scared of out my mind to be sick in a foreign country, it was a relief to have such a great experience with the French SOCIALIZED health care system.

I honestly don't think that our experiences with our doctors will change that dramatically if we adopted Universal Health Care. I do believe that more people will receive health care, and that people will be able to afford health care. I think it is a great idea and American's shouldn't be so scared of socializing something that everyone requires once in a while.

Besides, we are already socializing banks (due to the Wall Street/Bailout crisis). As a matter of fact I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher and heard Chris Rock (I believe) mention that Americans are so afraid of SOCIALISM, but now with the whole Wall Street-Money Crisis-Bailout thing going on, we are SOCIALISTS and aren't receiving any of the benefits of socialism...like Universal Health Care, equal education for everyone...and that sort of stuff. Of course he was making a joke about the current crisis, but he does make a good point.

On The Road

Yesterday while I was driving on the U.S. 101 South at 1:30 in the afternoon something odd happened. I was in the middle lane, traffic was running smoothly right around the 65 MPH speed limit, when all of a sudden all of the cars around me hit their brakes. I figured there was an accident, or road construction, or something. After all traffic isn't usually stalled at that time of day, even on the 101. I drove for a few minutes, I didn't see an accident. I didn't see construction. I didn't even see a car pulled off to the side of the road having car troubles. What I did see was a horizontal line of cars leading the following pack of cars I was in (I was actually quite near the front of the pack). Leading the pack of cars was a typical black and white police car. It had it's lights flashing and it was behaving oddly; It was driving diagonally, back-and-forth, across all of the lanes, not allowing any cars in any of the lanes to pass it. I thought, "well, this cop must know something I don't. Surely NOW we'll come to some construction, or a terrible accident of sorts". Minutes and miles pass, we are all driving about 25 MPH. I don't see any construction. I don't see any accidents, not even a car pulled off to the side of the road. Then all of a sudden I see the cop speed straight ahead, off into the distance and disappear, and nothing else happened. Isn't that weird? Very strange in my opinion.

So speaking of driving, I was watching Elizabethtown at about 3:30 this morning, and it inspired me to want to go on a road trip. I'd like to travel across the country and listen to music and see places I've heard of, but never seen. Someday.

Speaking of "on the road," On The Road by Jack Kerouac, is one of my favorite books. I haven't read it since high school, but I remember when I read it I felt like going on a road trip and changing my life. For a moment I really wanted to be a beatnik.

Humans are made to RUN

Yesterday my older sister, Jannifer, completed a 100 mile race. She took third place out of all the women, and finished 3 hours faster than she had planned on! I'm so proud of her! That is amazing! About a month ago she competed in a 50 mile race, and I was amazed then. I almost can't believe that she ran a 100 mile race!

It is hard to believe that anyone could run this kind of distance, it must take an incredible amount of training, high levels of pain tolerance, and a huge amount of mental strength!

This morning I discovered this article:
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/may/tramps-like-us/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=
You should read it. It is kind of long, but super interesting. It is all about how humans are designed to run. from the ligaments in our legs that do nothing for walking, but are essential for running, to our BIG butts that balance us when we run, but do nothing when we are walking or sitting (It is even believed that our butts have to be "big" for us to be able to run. That makes me feel better about the size of my buttocks!). The article talks about how our body is more efficient at regulating heat than any other animal, and that is the reason why we can outlast any animal when running long distances whether they are faster than us or not. At some point the animal will have to stop or it will overheat and die of heat exhaustion. Even our neck and shoulders have evolved to help steady us when we run. Incredible.

I don't think I'll go out and run 100 miles any time soon, but it is nice to know that if I set my mind to it and trained intensely I could do it.


This is my sister Jannifer and my brother Nick, the two most amazing runners I know :)

Barack Obama and Technology

Yesterday I was driving in the car listening to NPR. NPR was having a pretty interesting discussion about Barack Obama giving people the opportunity to find out who he will choose to run as his VP running mate via their cell phones.

Someone called in to NPR and said it was just a gimmick to increase his celebrity status. Another said it was so people could feel important and good about supporting Barack Obama. Another said it was an interesting way to collect data from people that likely don't have home phones and therefore couldn't be included in census studies. Someone else said it was a way to get people excited about the campaign. I think those are all pretty interesting answers, and I wish I could have heard the whole discussion before I had reached my destination. Maybe I should download it.

This whole topic kinda got the wheel in my brain turning. I am one of those people that receives daily emails from "Barack." I occasionally donate a bit of money here or there to his campaign, and watch the video clips he sends out. Overall I'm pretty excited about the possibility of him winning, and I really enjoy "hearing" from him or someone on his campaign daily. So as my brain was spinning out of control, I thought, you know this is one of the many reasons why I support Obama. HE GETS MY GENERATION. My generation includes the up and coming leaders of this country, and the people that are the most active throughout the world. He gets that COMMUNICATION is a big deal to my generation, and he uses communication to its greatest potential. He is an effective communicator. Overall, he is savvy, he's in touch with the modern world...that can only be a good thing.

I'm sure I could say a lot more about this, but I won't. I'd love some feedback on this particular post. :)

Running

I started running when I was 14 years old. My whole family runs. Both my parents have ran multiple marathons. My older brother qualified for the Olympic tryouts this past year and competed in the tryouts. My older sister has ran many marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and now runs ultra marathons. My three younger brothers all run. My little sister is good at running, but doesn't like to run. So pretty much my whole family runs, it's a family affair. I'm not a fantastic runner, but I do ok.

When I first started running I adored it. I lived to run. It felt good to have wind blowing in my hair, my legs moving fast, my heart pounding, and sweat dripping down my body. Not only did it physically feel good, but I made so many friends running. For a long time it was normal for me to run 7-10 miles a day six days a week. I've participated in multiple 24 hour runs and I can honestly say that the most I've ever ran in a 24 hour period is 33 miles. I've ran to the top of Mount Timpanogos (11,749 feet in elevation). I've ran three marathons, a handful of half marathons and many, many 10K's and 5K's. I don't bring this up to brag, but to show just how much I LOVED running for so long. I think it is safe to say I was addicted.

Since my last marathon in June of 2005 I haven't loved running. I've hated it. I've dreaded going outside and moving my feet. I've been lucky to get three minimal runs in a week. At some point I even swore off running. I can't really say why. I was just tired of it. Even though I didn't feel like running most days, I was really sad I wasn't keeping up with my runs. Last year, because of a good friend, I ran the San Francisco 1/2 marathon...completely unprepared. Although, I did fine in the race, and really enjoyed the course I still didn't feel like running.

However, this May Greg and I moved to San Mateo, CA. For some reason when I moved up here I caught the running bug. For three months now I've been running almost every day, and I've been loving it. for the first time in three years I'm starting to remember why I loved moving my legs fast, sweating disgusting amounts of sweat, and feeling my heart pound inside of my chest. I caught the running bug just in time to start training for the San Francisco Half Marathon again. I ran it on Sunday and did better than I expected. I mean, I've definitely gotten slower over the past five years, but I did great for me. I held an 8:24 minute per mile for 13.1 miles. I was hoping to hold a 9 minute mile, so that's great. Out of 1,984 people in the half marathon I came in at 443rd. Out of 1,145 women in the race I came in at 140th. Out of 377 females in my age category I came in at 59th. Anyway, this post has turned into me bragging about me...that's probably not very fun to read. So I'm sorry readers. I'm just so happy that I'm loving running again. I have another half marathon this Saturday in Provo, UT. Wish me luck!

Brighton High School Cross Country Team 1999-2000


At the top of Mount Timpanogos with Sarah Larsen and Lorraine Looney


San Francisco 1/2 Marathong 2008

MORE PIZZA

Back in March I wrote a post about pizza in the Bay Area. Tonight Greg and I went out to dinner with our friends Gautam and Mindy to a restaurant called "Cicero's Pizza, the pizza with the secret." Gautam and Mindy are big fans of this restaurant, and now we are too. This pizza was like no pizza I've ever had before. It is the thinnest crust I've ever had. It is thin in the same way that Saltines are thin. I admit, sometimes it is the chewy thick crust that is appealing about a pizza, but the Cicero crust is nothing to laugh at, it is YUMMY!

Our friends recommended the cheese pizza because otherwise it is like having a salad on top of a thin crust, and this pizza is about the taste and texture of the crust. The sauce is pretty good too, sweet, but not too sweet. We also got a pepperoni pizza, which was good because it wasn't too much topping. If you want more information you can check them out here: http://www.cicerospizza.com/

One really great thing about Cicero's pizza is that you can eat a lot of it before getting full. Since the crust is thin you'll want to eat more slices than usual and hence enjoy it over a little more time than a regular pizza. This is a good pizza to eat when enjoying the company of friends.



Since Greg and I moved to San Mateo in May we've started ordering pizza from ZORBAS PIZZA www.zorbaspizza.com
This pizza is delicious! It is my favorite. They have a pretty diverse menu, and as usual we generally get the pepperoni pizza, but sometimes we get it with olives too:) This pizza has a chewy crust; a crust to die for. It is much thicker than Cicero's crust, which is a plus for this pizza. The crust kinda reminds me of Papa John's crusts; chewy. They also have yummy cheese and delicious sauce. I could eat this pizza every week and never get sick of it. ZORBA's also has a really delectable greek salad. I haven't tried any of their other salads, but I would recommend this one.

Now I'm in the mood to have a pizza party.

I Love GREG

Today is mine and Greg's second anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have really been married for two years. Time flies. I just wanted to reminisce about some of my favorite memories of Greg...I have so many it is hard to choose what I want to share. This post may be a bit lengthy, just to warn you.

Greg has written about how we got together, so I won't talk too much about that, but I will say this: our first date...second time around...was amazing. In fact it was magical. We hadn't seen each other in about five years, but it was like we had never been apart. We went to dinner with some friends, then played some games at a friends house...which is a funny story, but probably deserves a blog dedicated solely to that night, so IF you haven't already heard the story feel free to ask.

After that first date Greg sent me an email. This is the email:

hi there kjersti,

so how was the drive back? and work? for me, today was nice and
relaxing, i slept in and then read the da vinci code all afternoon.
how Come i do that? once agAin i'm neglecting my homework; oh well.

i hope you receive this email, this is the address i am trying to use
more and morE now.

i had a wonderful time with you last night. i enjoy discussing thingS
like books and history with you. it sure is a treat when i get to see
you. =) i hope you cAn come to the colin mochrie show with me.

have a great week and don't forget about all of our spRing break plans!!

love,
greg

----

RUBBKI CKBYUH, Y QTEHU OEK
shift = 322 (modulo 26)

You may notice some odd things about this email, originally I didn't. Months after receiving this email Greg asked me if I had figured out "the code". I was so confused, I didn't know what he was talking about. After getting some direction to look through some old emails I was able to figure out that this email was a code. Maybe you can figure it out, if not I can tell you what it means. Anyway, this was the first of many codes that Greg and I exchanged. It really made me feel special when he would give me codes. It was always so exciting to figure them out. I would usually spend hours looking up things like ASCII, binary code, and Caesar Ciphers. Then I would sometimes have to understand certain references to songs, movies, or historical events. It was always worth all the time spent. Greg always had sweet, sometimes cheesy messages for me. I always tried to give him codes back, but mine were always way too easy.


Greg and I lived about four hours away from each other before he moved to California, but before he moved we use to take turns driving back and forth on the weekends to see each other. One weekend I visited him it was really rainy. We didn't know what to do, but one thing you should know about Greg is that he is full of good, creative, unique ideas. He suggested that we take the TRAX (the Salt Lake City train) to downtown Salt Lake City and go to the courthouse to watch a court hearing.

On the train ride we both started to notice the strange people sitting around us. Greg pulled out a notebook and started writing me notes. We started to make up stories about each of the people on the train and kept passing them back and forth. It was so hard to contain my laughter. We still have the notebook, somewhere, with all our notes. By the end of the train ride Greg had asked, or at least suggested to me (in the notes) to come out to California with him when he moved to go to Stanford. It was on that train ride that I realized I was falling in love....I know, I'm a cheese ball.

Once we got to the court house we couldn't decide if we wanted to go into a drug hearing, murder hearing, divorce hearing or what...so we left and went out to lunch.


When we were first married we lived in Redmond, Washington. Greg was doing an internship, and had moved there before we got married. When I moved there I didn't know a soul. We were only staying for the summer so I didn't get a job, and for some reason I was really scared to go do anything alone so I didn't know a soul besides Greg all summer. Greg was so wonderful during this time though. Everyday at lunch time he would come home to our apartment and have lunch with me. (which was about a ten minute drive one way...so it took up a big chunk of his lunch hour). It was the best part of my day everyday. It would make me light up the same way I get now when I pick Greg up from the train station. The moment I see Greg I can't help but to smile. I always like when he comes home. Even if I've had a bad day everything gets all better the moment Greg gets home. He makes me so happy....so back to Washington. Since I didn't know a soul I got pretty lonely. At some point I got a bit depressed and cried about it to Greg. The next day he showed up in the middle of the afternoon and said something like, "Honey get ready, I'm taking you on a date." Then he took me to see a Woody Allen movie and to my favorite restaurant in the whole world, Thai Ginger. Greg always knows how to make me happy.


Some of our best moments together have been when either of us have had to make big decisions like where to work, where to go to school, what to study, where to move, etc. The day I found out I was accepted to Santa Clara University (the school I really really really wanted to get into for my masters program) Greg pulled out the camera and as I opened the acceptance letter I started jumping up and down and screaming, and Greg joined right in. We celebrated that night. It is the most wonderful feeling to get to share moments like that with Greg.


Funny things happen with Greg around all the time. One time, not too terribly long ago Greg and I were wrestling (something we do far too often). He started to bite my armpit. I screamed out, "I hope you got deodorant on your teeth!" Immediately Greg ran out of the room spitting and screaming "I did, I did!" Another time we were wrestling he piledrived me head first, that hurt really bad, but it was funny.

There are so many good memories, like: camping in Bryce Canyon, Camping along the Oregon Coast, Camping in Yosemite, Big Sur, Death Valley, Mount Ranier, Colter Bay and other randome places. Going to baseball games for the Salt Lake Bees (aka Stingers, or Buzz), Seattle Mariners, and of course the San Francisco Giants. Going swimming (something we really enjoy doing together), or simply sitting around watching our many favorite T.V. series like Arrested Development, Real Time with Bill Maher, LOST, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dexter, Prison Break, and others.

How could I forget to mention going to Greg's cabin!?! The first time I went to Greg's cabin I was 16. We watched Better Off Dead. Years later he took me there for spring break and taught me how to snowboard. The cabin is a sacred, special place for us. Maybe someday we'll go back up in the attic to read a story that we wrote on the walls in random order with a code to decipher what order in which the story should be read.

We have a lot of great memories together, I've merely mentioned a few of them. I love being married to Greg. It really is the best thing that has ever happened to me. :)