NYC, Aug. 6, 2009- In findings that add to the prospects of regenerating insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes, researchers in Europe, co-funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, have shown that insulin-producing beta cells can be derived from non-insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
Maybe this is the decade? Maybe NOW is when they finally find that cure I've been praying, (yes ME, praying), for since I was 10! Friends and family, it's that time of year again - the kids are back in school, the leaves are turning (actually that is 'cuz it hasn't rained here in ages), and I ask you again to consider making a small donation to the JDRF.
As you know, I have Type 1, or juvenile diabetes. This devastating disease usually strikes preteens - I found out at a camp physical, tho, as my pal Robert can attest, it also hits grown adults! Why don't I just lose some weight, stay away from the ice cream, you ask. If I had Type 2 diabetes, that might help, however (lesson time), everyone is meant to make insulin in their body. It is the "key" that unlocks the sugars in the food we eat, so it can get into our cells and be used as energy. Type 2s make insulin, but either can't fully metabolize it, or they might not make enough. Diet, exercise, and sometimes pills, can help the body use its own insulin more efficiently.
Type I diabetics don't make ANY insulin at all. We have to put it in, or die. Since insulin is a protein, we can't take it as a pill (stomach acid woould destroy it), so we inject it. I have been putting insulin into my body for more than 3 decades now, and frankly, even tho I use a pump now, I am sick of poking holes in my body ON PURPOSE!
Look, if they cure diabetes, they resolve a HUGE portion of the national health crisis! The complications are the same for both diseases and that is what puts our health costs into the BILLIONS - kidney & heart disease, blindness, amputation, circulatory & digestive problems...ALL caused in large part, by DIABETES!
If for no other reason, do it for the children, like this sweet adorable child!
I personally can't afford a donation of $1,500, but I can tug heart strings and muster support and together we can raise $1,500! Maybe it's your $5 that helps end the fight? For the cost of a grande mocha latte or a pack of cigarette? Times are tough for all, and I am grateful for any support you can provide...and if not, I still love you, and hope you will still read my blog
Love, SSP
If you want to make a donation, let me know and I will send you the link to my walkathon page.....your help would be most appreciated!
Dear Euripedes:
You will be thrilled to know that your work is alive and still being butchered after all these years. Please don't roll over in your grave when you see the chorus of The Bacchae dressed like MC Hammer, and the god Dionysus played as Fonzie!
Love, SSP
Dear Science,
How come in the almost 100 years since insulin was discovered, all you have managed to do is make more efficient ways to get it into us? Why can't you figure out how to cure it, and if not that, why can't we have a glucose meter that is more accurate? The government says 18% standard deviation is ok....but I am telling you, if we can dock space ships going 35,000 mph, why can't my glucose meter be within, say 10% of accurate?
just sayin, SSP
Dear ???,
Thank you for making the sun set. I sure do love your work!!
gratefully, SSP
i am in NYC...here for business but as always find some pleasure. I met up with two friends from high school, neither of whom I'd seen in a LONG while, and it was like we just saw each other yesterday! Also saw a pump pal - we have a standing lunch date when I am here in January every year, at the Barking Dog Cafe on 34th Street. It was fun to mix it up a bit, and see her in the summer. I saw The Bacchae in Central Park last night, and while I am a theatre professional, I don't think I am qualified to give much of a review....all I can say is, "you get what you pay for," and since the tickets were FREE, and the show is still in previews, I will reserve judgement, but I just hafta ask, if you are trying to convey a sense of HORROR, and you cover an actors hands and arms in blood, why oh why would you dress her in BLACK? why not white or cream, so the blood can really show to us losers in Row S? anyway...Seeing Mary Stuart tomorrow at the Broadhurst. This has always been one of my favorite Broadway houses. and I have heard nothing but good about this show, so here's to hoping for a good evening!
I am staying on the Upper West Side. My boss has a little studio apartment near Central Park West, and as he is away on vacation, he is letting me crash. He lives like a college student, so it's not the lap of luxury, but it is nice to have a place in a cool neighborhood to call home for a few days. He actually has a house out in the Jersey 'burbs with his partner, so this is really just his crash pad for when he is working. Here are some photos of the place. Lovely brick wall is crumbling and makes everything slightly dusty red. The A/C only really feels good when you are sitting down there - the loft, where the bed is, is always toasty warm.....and the ladder to get up there is QUITE the adventure for this old lady....I don't know how HE does it!
I was supposed to meet up with Michelle from Raw Cool tonight, but she is getting ready for a marathon and couldn't make it...bummer....I will look for you in January, chica!!
I was hoping for a nice falafel sandwich at my favorite place in the village - Ali Baba on Macdougal...but it is CLOSED for frickin' repairs...more likely, it was condemned, but damnation, I was aching for one!! They just don't taste the same in Tucson!
More later....
Look at your hands. Manicure lately? If you have a mirror, take a glance. You are probably looking at combed, perhaps even styled hair (or at least hair with that potential, if you managed to get out of your pajamas yet). You may be at work, reading this undercover, or at home while dinner is cooking, or maybe at a coffee shop while you are waiting for your own inspiration to hit. Whatever, you are nice and comfy in a chair, protected from the sun, probably well fed, and (again if you managed to get out of your jammies), wearing clean, neat clothing.
There is usually a dull roar rushing in my ears when I am New York City. I tend to tune out the sounds and smells, and focus on the sights before me, and so I don't hear the traffic or screaming. I don't smell the piss, though I do see the people lying in the doorways and on the warm vents rising from the subway. Today, while there was no one NEEDING to lie on a warm vent, I did hear something as I strode forcibly across town...I had brushed past a man wearing a sandwich board, handing out flyers, as usual. I just don't care to take the flyers...I won't use them and I hate to waste the paper...but as I passed, I heard him say "please," softly, to the person behind me. There was something urgent in his voice that made me turn around....and actually glance at him and he said it again as the woman stopped to see what he had. I walked on, but then for some reason, I felt compelled to turn around. I walked back towards the corner and watched him for a few minutes.
His job is to stand on the corner of 46th and 6th Avenue and hand out flyers for a nail salon. 99.9% of the people who pass, like me, ignore him, or avoid him. No one looks at him, and I am sure most are annoyed when he gets in their way on the sidewalk.
So I watched him for a few minutes. I watched how he never showed dejection or despair or frustration or anger in his stony face as he tried to do his job. He never got pushy or obnoxious - just stood there, trying to stay out of people's way as they crossed the street and still try to get a flyer into someone's willing hand. I am sure the sandwich board was not comfortable - I bet people bump into it all the time. A few people actually stopped and he talked earnestly to them, pointing down the street toward the store, eager to cross the street with them to show them where to go....but no one crossed the street with him, no one headed off to get a mani/pedi or a hair cut..
I walked over and asked him for a flyer. He tried to walk me across the street - indicating to me that traffic needed to stop first - wait, wait, he said. I said I couldn't do it right now, as I had to get back to the office. He did not speak good english and so I used some sign language and slow talk...Work Now. Go Later, OK? ahhh OK...he got it. You come back here for Me, Yes? for Flyer?
The guy may get paid a tiny bit to distribute the flyers, but I now understand that he really earns money if HIS standing on the corner results in a sale in the store. His dinner, his family may depend on me not only taking his piece of paper (only to toss it in a garbage can down the street) but going TO the store and buying something and being sure to let them know HE is the reason I am here. Ah ha - commission sales!
What an easy, painless way to HELP someone! And they are everywhere, those folks who work on commission - the phone guys in the mall, the ladies at macy's, the guy selling a car, the girls selling cookies by the liquor store. We are gonna buy this stuff anyway, and I know how I just loathe being harrassed by "salesmen" when I just want to look and make my decision....so why not just buy the slightly overpriced box of cookies from the girls in green, even though Oreos are on sale? I dunno, I just find it annoying to be ASKED to buy something....
But the way he said "please." The futility and hope mixed in his soft voice...Maybe this will be the one that goes and gets a manicure, maybe I ride the subway home tonight instead of walking 90 blocks (after standing on the street corner for 8 straight hours). I was actually planning to get a mani/pedi anyway - they are 50% cheaper here than they are in Tucson. Now, instead of the usual place in my old 'hood Hellsea (Hell's Kitchen has been so cleaned up, they've given it a new cleaned up name!), I think I will go back to that corner tomorrow and let him walk me over to his store.....and next time I am at Macy's I might let the over eager lady "start a dressing room" for me...and I will remember her name and let the clerk know who helped me.....and I will get that darn box of Samoa's even though I know they are really expensive...
I promise I won't be so annoyed the next time someone shoves a piece of paper at me, or implores me to buy something, and I will remember this sad, hopeful man who said Please.
Hello to anyone who still checks in on my blog. It has been a busy summer, with the move and Hawaii, and then the reunion. Then I went to Chicago for a meeting. I was in a hotel right up the river from the BlogHer conference and totally forgot about that...there are more than a few people I would have like to have met, or tried to meet....one of the reasons I don't write anymore is cuz I spend too much time online reading other people's work!! 
But I love Chicago and it was nice to be there when it wasn't 2 degrees like it is in February. We ate at McCormick and Schmicks on Saturday night, and the meeting was productive and everyone was happy with my work.
Then I took the train over to Michigan City, my sissy picked me up and drove the rest of the way back to Grand Rapids to spend a few days with 
her family...it was a REALLY unusually nice time, and GREAT weather! Apparently the 
4th coldest July on record, but I was not complaining. Oldest niece and only nephew worked a lot while I was there, but in a state where the unemployment is highest in the country, I suppose you do what you need to do to keep a job - I am proud of them!
Middle niece and I hung out, and we fed the horses and played with the dogs, and I slept ALOT, and 
Sissy took her and I to the beach for a nice evening in the lake. We saw the movie UP, which was cute, and we visited middle niece at work - she made me a HUGE ice cream sundae and I ate every bit of it...
Then it was home for a week. Moved in a little bit more. My boyfriend reminded me that there is no future to our relationship, thank you very much, but was kind enough to move my book cases and put up an antenna on the roof AND bought me awesome filters for my a/c. If there is no future in this, I could get used to these doomed relationships!
Now I am in NYC. I am here for a conference, but am arranging to have a damn fine social time. So far, I have seen two friends from high school I haven't seen in ages (thanks to Facebook), and have plans to meet up with Michelle this Thursday - I am very excited cuz I LOVE her blog :-)
More photos from the reunions and with Michelle when I get home.....Peace
Every year my crazy family gets together on the 4th of July. We have a big pool party at Aunt C's house, and all the third and fourth cousins splash and scream and eat. Used to be me and my first and second cousins who did the screaming and splashing...now it is everyone's kids, and it is so 
cool that my sister's kids KNOW my dad's first cousin's grand kids like they were their OWN first cousins! And there is always plenty of food! Lots and LOTS of food!
This year, we decided to make it a more 
official bit of a family reunion, and 
we had a 
couple extra cousins and neighbor kids hanging around, which was fine. I know it doesn't show in this photo, but I AM related to all the people here, despite my skin color!!
We 
usually do a talent show and this year, rather than ask me to arrange something (since the last time I did, a few people ended up in tears), 
they threw together an impromptu "milk challenge." Let's just say it wasn't my family at their best, then again, maybe it was. The goal was to drink a gallon of milk in an hour...and keep it down....We had 4 competitors, and only 1 finished the milk, but they all lost it....and then Miss K decided to give it a try and she didn't make it either. That is here laying in the grass below - ahh to be 13 again!
The night ends on the roof where all the agile and nimble go to watch fireworks. This year, instead of using the ladder to get down, almost everyone elected to jump to the pool. I know my aunt's heart must do a couple of double flips when this happens, but I know she has insurance....
Besides she was going to France the next day, so someone else was gonna have to do any 'splaining that needed doing.
I think the last guy broke up with me three years ago after attending this bash. All the druggies, ex-cons, tiddy dancers, interracial daters, single moms, hippies, un-employed ex and current cons...you name it, we have the gamut...we also have judges, lawyers, teachers, preachers, FBI guys and more....we put FUN in Dysfunctional, but we are an equal opportunity, diverse kind of a gang...Maybe we will see YOU there next year!!
The last photos is me, my dad, and his oldest buddy...I think it was this guy that gave me my first beer on my 3rd or 4th birthday? He is as much a part of my family as anyone.
HEYYY!!! here i am!! It has been a while since i posted and i keep putting it off cuz i want to finish the tale of Hawaii, and then the jaunt to the South to see the fam-damily for the 4th, and now I am in Chicago and I just can't seem to find the time/energy to go all the way back to what was happening a MONTH ago...so here are a few more photos of the trip to Hawaii and then I will post a few of the trip
to Texas, and then maybe I will continue the story part later.....This was a neat little Ukelele Festival I happened upon near Kona one day. These ladies just randomly were in the audience and a few people goaded them into performing...it was very cool.
Another in the "foot series" - hey Ryan has his pregnancy series...I
got my feet in various piles of stuff..... I know Hapuna Beach is supposed to be the BEST...but I must say, I liked Kakua Beach, near the 4 Seasons. Very private, very clean, what's not to like??
So, following are some random sunsets, a rainbow at the volcano - ME at the volcano (2 different pictures, I am not what one would characterize as a "rainbow." A cloud of doom and gloom perhaps, but a rainbow, never). Then there is the 350 lb blue marlin...and this one didn't win. They don't eat these fish, so what REALLY is the point of killing them?? just for the sport of it? I don't get it 
THIS has all been to assuage my own guilt at not posting. I don't think it has helped, but I am late for dinner....
The day started out with JPs slightly odd gardener puttering around in the back yard. He does a great job with the jungle, but I locked the door before I got in the shower. After a quick stop at Safeway, I headed to Kahalu'u Beach for some snokeling. I used up the rest of my underwater camera taking some great pictures (I hope - it is one of those feee-yulm cameras and I need to get them developed and then scanned - what a pain!) of the yellow and black fishies, and the neon pastel ones. There was also a really cool all black one with a rainbow colored fin. It was really a nice time - the coral and all the little fishes nibbling away on it, I even saw Nemo....or maybe it was a cousin. Then, I felt something tug on my foot....twice....nothing was there everytime I turned around, but it freaked me out enough to get out. Kahalu'u is also home to a few Honu, or sea turtles. 
They were trying to get up on shore - you'd think people had never seen turtles before...they just could not leave the poor things alone. Fortunately, i know how to use the zoom lens on my camera!! One thing that drove me insane was the number of people YELLING at their children! This one kid, Weston, really took the heat for his obnoxious sister who got off scot free everytime she did something wrong....Parents, next time you feel the need to chastise your kids, make sure it is n't the littler, cuter one you should be yelling at!!
Finally I had enough of humanity and went up to the almost always deserted beach near the Energy Lab by the airport. Planes were taking off - big jumbo jets and little commuter planes, all whizzing right over my head. 
I sat on the lava rocks and watched the day fade. The surf pounded the rocks as if it were trying to hack a short cut through the island. Let's anthropomorphize the sea even further, it was an angry beast trying to take back the path that this intrusive 40,000' mountain of rock was blocking...did you know, if you put Mt. Everest on the sea floor next to the big island, it would just barely poke out of the ocean...and Mauna Kea would still be going up and up???
Anyway....it was a nice finish to the day, watching the surf destroy the tide pools...much nicer than watching the kids try to destroy the turtles at the other beach! 
Wednesday was a much more exciting day...I drove to South Point, the farthest (duh) South point in the United States - take that, Key West. As you can see from the tree, it is pretty windy down there....all the trees have a certain "lean" to them. The water down there is BIG and wild and incredibly blue...I stood by the old boat hoists and it was lulling me into wanting to jump...come to me, it was saying. Jump in, I will catch you and toss you gently against the rock cliffs. 
I literally had to force myself to hang onto the rusty ladder, or I think I might have done it! You could see all the way to the bottom, the giant boulders - it really was beckoning to me. I knew if I got a good running start I could get far enough away from the rock wall that I might be able to clear the boulders. Finally, I tore myself away and walked a little further, to get to the actual "south point." I had cell reception, so I called my mama :-) 
She gets calls from me at random places I find myself...at the Arc de Triomphe, on the South Rim, from the Empire State Building, etc.
Then, I walked the 2 1/2 miles to the Green Sand Beach - it was hot and windy and I almost wimped out a couple of times, but boy am I glad I am not a quitter....It was AMAZING!! and of course, I scrambled all the way to the bottom and sat in it! I ran my toes through it. It is such a curious unreal sight! I
dreaded it, but I had to go back, particularly as 4 van loads of church kids where not too far behind me and they were due any moment so I trudged back up and started the walk back (and yeah, there they were!! talk about a way to destroy some peace and quiet in a hurry!) - fortunately the wind was at my back now, but the sun was in my face and it was hot.....Even so, it was awesome. I was even singing..."sunshine, 
on my shoulder, makes me happy..." and I WAS. About 1/2 way back, a jeep slowed down and they asked me if I wanted I ride....HELLS yeah!! I wasn't THAT happy I would turn down a ride, so they made room and I hopped in, buckled up and HELD ON...wheee! Rog and Chantal from Boise were great - he is an artist and as soon as I get home, I will post a link to his web site
Man, am I loving this "relaxation" shit! I could do this forever! Sorry for leaving you hanging about the green sand, I have had no internet access, and to tell you the truth, have not missed it one bit. Of course, logging in today, I had a MASSIVE amount of email to get through...how did I ever stay in the loop before email, I wonder?
Anyway, to continue to adventure....I decided to get outta dodge on Monday. I got up early and drove 
around the top of the island towards Hilo. I stopped at a scenic overlook and met a cute guy selling Lychee out of the back of his truck. He gave me one, and they are amazing. I didn't want them sitting in the car all day and planned to stop on the way back to get a mess of 'em but he was gone. Anyway, I continued almost to Hilo, destinatation: Akaka Falls. It was gorgeous. I went over to the Kahuna Falls first - en route, I passed a woman who was breathing heavily, bemoaning the fact that it was a waste of a walk and that is was another MILE til I got there. I was a little worried but kept on...what a wimp. It was maybe 1/4 mile and while it wasn't STUNNING, it was still pretty cool. The circle loop was closed, but the walk was just as amazing both directions. It was LUSH and green and the plants were out of this world! Giant ferns and a huge banyan tree. 
Moss dripping from the trees like frosting, and the tranquil sound of water rushing through the stream! Then I went to see the Akaka Falls themselves...wow. 420' drop! It occurred to me several times that the whiney, obnoxious, ill mannered kids I keep running into might make a rather decent offering to Pele from this point and I did look around.....there were a few, but none I thought I could push without getting caught, more's the pity.
Next stop, Laupahoehoe Point, which was devastated by a tsunami on April 1, 1946. 20 students and a few teachers were swept out to sea and never found. The place is eeriely quiet, except for the water, which is BIG and THICK and a deep intense blue.
Then it was up to Waipio Valley. WOW!! what a vista to behold! I momentarily considered walking down th 25% grade - it was ONLY a mile...but then sanity returned and I remembered I would still have to walk back up.....next time, on a horse, perhaps....
I made a pit stop for some ice cream in Honoka'a where I met Paulitta. She was so cool - a Ph.d and a retired teacher - her husband too...Now, she makes custom Aloha shirts and they grow coffee beans. She has repeat customers around the world, who pay $100 for her shirts. She was fascinating - all of her kids are brilliant - her daughter is in Paris, works for the UN or something and one of her sons is in San Francisco and another one back home in the Phillipines. If you want her email address for a shirt, let me know - they were gorgeous...
OK they are kicking me out of Starbucks...more will have to wait!! ALOHA!!!
I love living in the desert! who says it is barren??? I went for a walk early this morning before it got too hot and there bunnies and lizards and frogs and quail and a few other things that moved too quick to be seen but made quite a racket in the underbrush. The prickly pear fruits are ripenng, so it is time to harvest them and make jelly and candy and syrup, so me and Natty got our tongs and a bucket and went "berry pckin'"
Here is out haul...these are prickly pear fruits.....stay tuned as they will eventually turn into margaritas (there is a long drawn out process and I am going to Monterey tomorrow, so for now the fruit is in the freezer)
