Midsummer Night's Dream

As I mentioned previously, I attended a health care rally on Saturday. Though I wasn't able to stay through the whole thing I was so proud to be there at all, and be marching for something so important. It was really inspiring that so many other people showed up too! Hopefully the ball really starts to roll on that issue, in a positive direction, and something can finally get done. I felt a little silly chanting, but I got over it.

Enthusiastic rally leader : "What do we want!!??"

Me : "Health care."

Rally leader: "When do we want it!!?"

Me : "Now?"

I wasn't quite that bad, but a public speaker (or shouter) I am not.

Saturday was kind of filled with important events, since that's also the day I handed over my security deposit for the studio I'm moving into (please work out!!). In between those two important events though I spent a really nice afternoon watching A Midsummer Night's Dream over on Governor's Island. It was great. The cast was wonderful (and I'm not just saying that because I know one of the actors!) and though my boyfriend is more of a theatre buff then me, I do always have fun when I go.

We were able to explore the island a little too, which, by the way, I cannot believe there are all those beautiful buildings and houses just SITTING there, wasted. I wish I had a camera, since it didn't even feel like I was in the city. One thing I am discovering about New York City is that there are all these little pockets in the city, where you feel like you're somewhere else entirely.

Governor's Island kind of feels like a post-apocalypse English countryside, in the nicest possible way. There's a little fort, and lots of cute little white painted houses, and stately brick buildings. There's also an abandoned stone hospital and a library with paint slowly peeling off the clapboards, which I think would make an great horror movie set.

I didn't realize there was a place like that just a seven minute ferry ride from NYC, and hopefully one day the city will be able to put it to some use. I think it would make a great self contained university campus, and my bf pointed out its Renaissance Fair potential (yes, I do have a dress I wear to those, I'm a little embarrassed to admit). If I ever get the chance to go to one here, I'll post some pictures for you all.

On a lighter note...

This video is hilarious, especially if you're Italian. I think my aunt sent it to me. I don't think I've posted it before, so enjoy.

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/flash/default.asp

Edited to add: Ok, I totally have posted this link before. Oh well, deal :-).

Cheap NYC apartment update

I found an apartment within my budget (barely). Let me repeat that, because it is a little unbelievable to me. I found an apartment, a studio, that I can afford in Brooklyn. Now I am FREAKING OUT. I have to find someone to take over my current room, I need to pack, I need to hire a truck to move stuff, and I need to do all this without spending any money and in two weeks. Did I mention I only have two weeks to move?

All sorts of nightmare scenarios are running through my head :

1. No one will take my old room and I will have to pay two rents (impossible on my budget, by the way).

2. The apartment is a scam and I will show up to pick up the keys in two weeks and not find anyone there, leaving me homeless and out a security deposit.

3. I will move in but the apartment will be a nightmare, nothing will work, and I will have to move out again (where???).

4. I will move in and the building goes into foreclosure or burns down or something and I will have to move out again.

5. I will never find another freelance or full time job again EVER and my unemployment will run out, leaving me unable to pay rent and homeless.

6. My brain will explode.

7. Everything will cost double what I expect, I will find I budgeted wrong, and I will run out of money and end up homeless or something.

8. Some awful combination of the above.

So even though this is what I wanted, right now I am so scared it will fall apart I can't be happy yet. I'll be happy when I've moved in and everything is settled. Right now, I'm just stressed. Please send good vibes my way!

Health Care (yes, again)

Tomorrow I'm marching for health care. I don't remember ever attending a rally before but this is definitely a cause worth showing up for. Being a dual citizen I have had a taste of what government health care can be in my other country. I liked that taste. I had the flu and was able to see a doctor, be prescribed medicine and pick that medicine up all totally for free.

I love America, without reserve. But you don't get that here. Even if you have private health care there's always a co-pay and who wants to pay $40 for a visit and some medicine for just the flu? So we (well I, but I bet I'm not the only one) struggle on, sick longer than we have to be, costing our workplaces money by not being able to work. It makes no sense to me. If we have public libraries, public schools, public roads, etc. why is public health care so different? Because it's more expensive? If people could afford better early care less people would get sick enough to need the really expensive stuff.

And if it's too expensive for the government, for a community as a whole, to be able to cover it, imagine what a drain on an individual household it is. Especially if you can't work due to your illness. Private insurance is so so so expensive. Too expensive unless you work for a business big enough to pay for it for you - which by the way, does cost you, because if your boss wasn't paying hundreds of dollars a month for your health care maybe they could give you that raise you want so bad. And talk about death panels, they turn people down all the time. Have you ever heard of a compassionate caring insurance company? Please.

I did some research. I'm young and healthy and it would cost almost $200 a month for me to get the most basic catastrophe insurance. I would still have deductibles to meet, still have co-pays, still have potentially thousands of dollars of out of pocket expense for an illness or accident. And it would cost me more than food does a month for something that could still bankrupt me and that I hope I would not ever use.

I would rather pay slightly higher taxes (yeah I said it) and know that I was covered, because those taxes could never possibly add up to what it would cost me to pay for private health care myself, or cost me as much as it would if I ever got sick while on that private plan. Not everyone can work for a big company and be covered. Lots of people work for small businesses or want to start them. Lots of people freelance. Lots of people, especially right now, are in between jobs and many artists/actors/entertainers may never have jobs that are covered. Do we not count?

So I'm marching tomorrow. I hope I'm not alone. And I really hope our Senators, and Obama, and Hillary and everyone else who has the power to make a change follows through and we finally, FINALLY, have what most other first world countries take for granted.

Books books book!!!

I am a bookworm (do people even use that word anymore? I digress.). Ever since I learned how to read, back in first grade, I spent most of my free time (and sometimes not so free time, like when a teacher was talking) going through book after book. I am especially proud of the fact that I had a grade school teacher tell me I was the only student she'd ever gotten into trouble for reading too much. I have noticed as I've gotten older that reading has gotten cooler, but sadly my choice of books still tends to be on the nerdier side, with fantasy and sci-fi being two of my favorite genres.

(By the way, just want to say I am not profiting AT ALL through this review or your clicking on the widget. Not that anyone thinks I am, but I wanted to throw that out there.)

I am currently in the throes of geek excitement over the fact that the newest book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, An Echo In The Bone, is coming out in just a couple weeks. I LOVE that series. It is a little romance novely, a little fantasy, a little farfetched in premise if I'm being honest - in short, not exactly War and Peace, but it is so well written and so engaging that really, who cares? For those who have never heard of it, the series follows a modern day woman who has fallen through a time hole into the 18th century Scottish Highlands, and who eventually moves with her hot Scottish husband to the new world, where they are sucked into the rising conflict between the colonies and the motherland (I like the term motherland. I don't get to use it enough). The author has obviously put a lot of research into each book of the series, and when I read through them I am not only entertained by the characters but I feel like I am learning a little bit of history despite myself.

It would have been easy for this book to end up as a fluffy little romance novel, I mean seriously, hole in time leading to forced marriage to old fashioned Scottish stud? Really? But it didn't, mainly because the characters actually act in a way that makes sense. Like, there are no heaving bosoms, no smoldering dark threatening yet lustful glances, no feisty declarations of hatred and independence immediately before brutal-yet-melting kisses.

On a side not, my pet peeve with romance novels (which this series isn't, just saying) is that both characters tend to be absolutely hateful towards each other, going so far as to beat, humiliate, rape (they don't call it that but seriously, even if the heroine ends up enjoying it despite herself, no means no) and enslave the object of their eventual affections, and still then call it love. Who falls in love with someone who treats them that way? That's not love, that's Stockholm Syndrome.

Anyway, the Outlander series avoids that trap and makes the leap into authentic historical fiction, with just enough fantasy and romance to appeal to lovers of those genres. The characters are intelligent and likable, and though there are obvious cultural differences faced by the main couple, those differences are discussed and worked through, not just ignored once the author has bled enough drama out of them. It is the ultimate story of star crossed lovers, with deadly enemies, epic battles, injury, torture and heroic rescues, but somehow it is all believable. And it is incredibly moving - I frequently find myself tearing up or laughing out loud while reading through these books. I cannot wait for the next book to come out - sometimes I wish I could just lock all my favorite authors into a tower and force them all to WRITE FASTER DAMN YOU but when those books finally arrive they are worth the wait.

Sanctuary

I found a refuge today in an unexpected place. I'd been running around dropping off resumes, trying to keep on going, trying to carve a life and career in a city that takes no prisoners. It's been a cycle lately of resumes resumes resumes, just hoping someone will actually read one and see what I can do. Passing a tall brick wall I came to an open gateway and on impulse I turned in.

St. Luke in the Fields.

Beautiful. Like a secret garden, a little oasis in the city. Tangled vines and flowers, tall guardian trees shading those who had come to find peace. I sat for five minutes, then five more, my book in my lap, just staring at those vines. Ten minutes is all I can sit - I haven't discovered stillness yet. I'm a girl who has the tv on with a computer on my lap, a book on the table next to me, constantly changing channels, always refreshing my browser. I am still learning how to dive into a pool of peacefulness and let it engulf me. Still learning how to quiet my mind. But I was able to find that quiet for ten minutes in the middle of my day.

I walked around the garden then, admired the wild order of it. I went into the little thrift shop next door, curious to see if the same spirit lived there as in the garden. It did, and some cute clothes and shoes also lived there, for when I have more money to spend. Then I dropped off one more resume and came home. If those hours of walking and dropping off papers today come to nothing, it's ok. My payment, if it can be called that, for today's work is finding that little garden right when I needed it.

Pet Rapture

Have you ever worried about what would happen to your pet after all the Christians were brought to Heaven? Fear no more! My boyfriend just told me about this website, a post-rapture pet care service.

Image courtesy of Eternal Earth Bound Pets

Now, if you're like me, you don't know what the Rapture is. Apparently it's when God comes down and picks up all the good Christians and brings them up to Heaven. Since I guess pets can't be good Christians, they will be left behind with all the non-believers and sinners. And some clever non-believer has decided to make a little money off this, by offering (for cash! that people are willing to pay!!) to take care of those poor left behind pets.

Hilarious!!

Now, it does seem to be a bit of a catch-22 legally since if the people who run the website actually believe in the Rapture, wouldn't they be taken up too? And if they don't believe in it, then they are blatantly scamming people. So I feel like at some point they're going to get sued. But then again, maybe the pet loving Christians are willing to take that risk. Either way, in a country where the inventor of the Pet Rock can get rich, obviously this website has a chance too.