Great news in the California transplant world: California is piloting a donor registry -- at last!

Those of you in other states may already have a donor registry set up (34 states have registries already). This means that when you went to the DMV and signed up to be an organ donor, your intentions were saved in a database and should you ever become brain dead and not have your license on you, the database can be accessed to verify your wishes. Furthermore, if you do have your license on you, the database can be accessed to see if you had any restrictions or specific stipulations.

In California, we filled out wallet-sized cards about our donation intentions and put a pink dot sticker on our licenses, but we had no donor registry. This meant that unless we had that card and/or our license with the pink dot on it at the time of brain death, there was no record of our wishes. That is why it was so important for our family members and friends to know our wishes, because consent would then become the decision of the kin.

Potential donors in California had their card or license on them at the time of brain death less than 10% of the time. Oftentimes people assumed that putting the dot on their license made their wishes clear and thus didn't bother to tell their kin -- and without the license, who knows if their wishes were then carried out.

The Donor Registry resolves many of those issues. Right now it's a website indpendent of the DMV, but we're hoping we can tie it in with them so that people can register to donate when they get their license and/or go to renew it, etc. The California Donor Registry website launches Monday, April 4, 2005 @ 10:00AM with statewide events involving state and local government officials, media, hospitals, volunteer health organizations, churches, and community groups. What's more, CA residents can pre-register as of March 1. If you are one of my friends or family in California and you're reading this, I urge you to join me and all my coworkers and their CA friends and family in pre-registering. I'll be sending out a mass email with the website on it closer to the actual pre-registration date...

...my last message to you on this topic is NOT to assume your state has a registry...make your wishes known to your loved ones regardless of what your state does. It will ensure that you get to give the gift of life no matter what.

p.s. my first day of "flying solo" as Executive Assistant is this Monday, February 14th. I'm taking the fact that I 'start' on Valentine's day as a good omen -- I'm sure I'm going to love my new job. All punning aside, I've been training for the last two days and it's a lot simpler than HR and a whole new kind of interesting -- I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Just wanted to take some time to tell you about the volunteering I'm doing. I sent an email to Mom, Mary, and my old Rumsey Coach, Rick, that pretty much covers it all:

In short, it's awesome. I go from 9am-12pmish on Saturday mornings and basically just play and play and play. It's called "skill drills" and the basic set up is -- arrive at 9am, mess around, play a pick up game of just about anything until 9:30. Then we gather as a group, have an overview of the day's virtue -- one of 9: love, courage, wisdom, faith, hope, respect, self-control...can't remember the other two. It's not religious, just a means of impressing general good citizenship. Then we split off into small groups, where we name ourselves after some theme -- today's was fruits or vegetables, my group (three girls and another volunteer) picked the "Cherry Berry Peaches" :o) -- and get to know each other a little. Then we rotate to different skill stations -- the first week the stations had to do with passing, the second was setting and serving, this week it was positions and scoring -- though there's always a 'free time' station where you go outside and can do whatever you want, and an art station where you draw something to do with that day's virtue. The kids are K-5, which is an energetic bunch and willful but beyond that I'm SO grateful that they haven't hit puberty yet -- which is when the REAL attitude comes out, as I recall!! We do that until about 11:00 when they break out the snacks, and then you can mess around again until about 11:30, when they re-gather to talk about what they've learned, tell 'positive tattles' and give awards -- one for each gender in the volunteers and one for each gender in the kids.

I got the female volunteer award last week. Basically for my group they gave me two of the real rambunctious kids, one the more petulant kids, and then a real sweetheart helper-type kid -- all boys -- all different races, though relatively similar in age. I was pretty cowed at first. They were so aware of who they were assigning to me and the absolute patience I was going to have to have that they said I didn't have to do any of the skill drills -- we could just stay outside where they could run themselves ragged! And it was true -- when I told them, one grabbed a soccer ball, one grabbed a basket ball, one grabbed a volleyball and one grabbed a hoola hoop -- and they promptly scattered to the four compass points!!! They're not real strict about them having to do any one thing, but obviously I need to keep an eye on all of them -- which was a trial itself. Every now and then one would bolt inside without asking -- to use the bathroom or just out of curiosity -- and I was torn between leaving the other three to chase the one down or not knowing where the one was -- but there was always another volunteer who swooped in and helped me out. Justin and Curt -- the two people who run the show -- were impressed with my patience -- as was I, actually, I was able to hang in there all morning without tears, fists, fighting, boo-boos, or true disappearances -- and that was just on my part ;o) -- so they gave me that day's award.

Anyway, as the morning goes by you don't notice how much energy you're expending -- physical AND emotional -- it's only when you finally stop that you realized you're about to collapse -- as I'm sure you all know. I've been astonished the past two weekends at how wrecked I've been -- for the WHOLE weekend -- after volunteering. So this weekend I took matters into my own hands and bought a jamba juice (the name for the local fresh-fruit-smoothie chain) with an energy boost (added vitamins and herbal remedies to lend extra energy) afterwards and it seems to have worked...I was tired but not destroyed!!

So that's how it's going. We have next weekend off due to the holiday and then three more weekends after that, and then after that they switch sports. Since it doesn't actually require a great deal of skill, I might stick with it even when it's basketball or soccer...not sure yet. I'm not shocked at how little giving up a Saturday morning of sleeping in bothers me compared to all the goofy, loud, hopeful, sweet fun that's replaced it.

Last weekend I went to ROCK SF (Real Options for City Kids in SF) and attended the training for volleyball "skill drills":

"Real Options for City Kids (ROCK) is dedicated to nurturing the healthy development of children by listening attentively to their needs and by providing opportunities to those who might not otherwise have access. ROCK aims to promote the positive development and long-term success of the youth that it serves through a combination of in-school and after school learning enrichment, sports and fitness, leadership training, outdoor adventure, and summer camp opportunities. ROCK's programs are designed to serve girls and boys, ages 6-14, who live in or attend school in San Francisco's Visitacion Valley.

ROCK provides opportunities for youth in multiple environments, such as sports and fitness and learning enrichment. This allows ROCK volunteers to recognize each child's unique strengths and abilities and encourage their growth and development in all areas.

Skill Drills offer instruction and encouragement in three rotating sports, including basketball, volleyball, and soccer. For each sport, there are six to eight consecutive weeks of three hour Saturday morning sessions, all designed for elementary and intermediate sports skill development and conditioning. Each Skill Drill session emphasizes conditioning and fitness exercises, non-competitive skill development drills, and team-building activities. The minimum volunteer to child ratio for all sessions is 1:3, and each of the Skill Drills serve on average, 50 kids per session."

Which sounds pretty professional, but really, it's a lot of having fun bouncing around with kids who need a little extra attention for three hours, with some volleyball drills mixed in.

I can't wait. I hope to attend all six weeks. First one is this weekend...

Check out the ROCK SF website for more info.

As of February 1, 2005, I'll be the new Executive Assistant at the Donor Network.

2005 is a bang up year so far.

love,
e

Wow, I haven't even said Happy New Year yet. Happy New Year.

Just because one does these kinds of things around this time of year, let's do a 2004 year in review for me...

Jan - Feb: finished up my file audit job in Merced; 2-Dad visits.
March: worked at SF Health Plan. Alexandra visits (?).
April: began working as a temp at the Donor Network; Mom visits; Leslie and I surprise Lexi in Seattle for her birthday.
May: Hired as a part time employee.
June: Hired as a full time employee; finally get health benefits; went to Landmark Forum; turn 25; met Steve; Jeptha visits.
July-Aug: began Landmark Seminar, went to Landmark Advanced Course.
Sept: finished Landmark Seminar; Steve and I move in together; celebrate Steve's 30th birthday; run into Meg; get my first raise; go to wedding of friends of Steve.
Oct - Dec: Mom visits; Jules visits; go home for Thanksgiving; bring Steve home with me for Christmas; go to 3 more weddings; get my first big bonus.

June has, as my mom says, always been "my" month, and clearly this year it was a huge turning point for me!

Here's to a healthy and prosperous 2005 for us all. :)

Acceptance

When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud
And goes down burning into the gulf below,
No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud
At what has happened. Birds, at least must know
It is the change to darkness in the sky.
Murmuring something quiet in her breast,
One bird begins to close a faded eye;
Or overtaken too far from his nest,
Hurrying low above the grove, some waif
Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.
At most he thinks or twitters softly, 'Safe!
Now let the night be dark for all of me.
Let the night be too dark for me to see
Into the future. Let what will be, be.'

-- Robert Frost

Merry Christmas one and all. (~_-)

Oh man -- took an extra hour today and an extra hour yesterday but I finally am free of my job and open enrollment for the next 10 days!! Woo hoo!

Steve and I head for Baltimore tomorrow and then CT on Sunday. Can't wait.

On a different note, you may or may not have heard the cases of people publicly soliciting "directed" donation of organs for themselves or loved ones. There have been a few recent cases with some publicity on this. I thought you might like to know the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)'s stance on the matter, which is also CTDN's stance:

You are probably familiar with recent instances where transplant candidates or their family members have solicited deceased donors for their individual need through public communications such as billboards and web sites. There have also been isolated attempts to learn the identity of potential deceased donors and individually contact the potential donor’s family[...]

The overwhelming majority of deceased donor transplants occur anonymously and without specifying an intended recipient of the donated organ. The existence of a personal bond that would cause a donor or donor family to favor a named transplant candidate is rare. Attempts to develop such a personal bond through unsolicited contact with or public appeals to families of deceased donors are problematic[...]

Recognizing that organ donation and transplantation are founded on altruism and equity, the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors opposes any attempt by an individual transplant candidate (or his/her representatives) to solicit organ donation from a deceased donor ahead of other waiting candidates in a manner that subverts the established principles and objectives of equitable organ allocation. This is a particular concern when commercial space is utilized to solicit directed donation from a member of the public for a specific candidate. Such efforts may divert organs from patients with critical need to those who are less ill. In addition, such appeals, although well-intentioned, compromise the principle of fairness.

The Board encourages anyone considering a public appeal to promote the overall need for organ donation and not solicit an organ donation for an individual candidate. (my bold)

Food for thought -- should this topic come up in your daily life, consider doing a little educational outreach. :)

The holiday party CTDN had this past Saturday was a blast. I forgot my digital camera, though, so I'll have to wait and see if any of the other people send out an email with pictures. :( Steve came with me and though he didn't have a tie with red in it to match my red dress, he still looked dashing and handsome.

They had some casino booths set up and gave us a fake $500 bill with which to 'gamble.' Any chips we had at the end of the night went toward raffle tickets. Steve and I played roulette for hours -- the first time for both of us -- and he divised a pretty solid system that won him either 35 to 1 or 8 to 1 odds fairly frequently. Because the raffle was technically for CTDN employees, he donated his extra chips to me, so I had twice the chips with which to enter the raffle.

I did win 3 raffle prizes (!): a round of mini-golf, a free lunch at a nice restaurant, AND...a massage and facial at a local spa!!! Very exciting. And Irma, who had to leave early, gave me her chips, and I put her name in too -- so she also won mini-golf and free pizza hut.

Lucky girl I was this weekend. (*^_^*)

By the way, on November 20th I attended a coworker's wedding. Here's me with the blushing bride and my other coworker -- the one who gave me the pumpkin pie recipe. 

This is that insignia of which I spoke. 

Thanksgiving was a huge (and by huge I mean enormously fattening) success. I even made the pumpkin pie this year, thanks to a coworker's recipe, and it came out shockingly well. It's amazing what a thrill one can get from the simple act of creation -- in this case, baking.

My newest addition to my nutcracker collection is a Jester, signed by Steinbach himself. VERY cool. The jester was the unofficial mascot at EWS, thanks to Revels.

We also were treated to a delicious meal at a decadent new restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg -- the Fat Canary. I adore their insignia, which I'll post shortly.

We're finally being plunged into our 'winter' here in California -- I'm freezing today!! The local weather report has today's temp at 53 degrees...have I grown SO thin-skinned?? They'll make a cali-girl of me yet...Steve pointed out that only in California does winter mean that everything turns green. And it's true. The famous tall grass coating the rolling hills of California that gave it its nickname -- the golden state -- turns a lush green during the fall thanks to the cooler temps and added precipitation.

2 weeks from Thursday Steve and I will be on a plane to the East Coast. I can't believe it, and I can't wait. In the meantime I'm throwing myself headlong into the gauntlet that is Christmas shopping...so much stuff, so much cost, so hard to make a decision...

Just another example of how great CTDN is: both Christmas Day and New Year's Day -- standard holidays from work -- fall on Saturdays this year. So our CEO decided not only to give us Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off, as per our policy, but the Thursdays before as well, since ordinarily we would get two days per holiday.

Now tell me, what company follows that logic?? And yes, they're paid holidays.

I was going to take the Thursday before Christmas Eve off anyway, since I'll be in CT. What this new announcement means, though, is that Thursday won't count against my personal vacation time. And my first week back from said vacation will be a 3 day week.

Fa la la la la, la la la RA!

While doing data entry, the brain is driven to create random and crazy things to compensate for the tedious orderliness of entry after entry.


This time, unfortunately, there were victims involved.
Anthony pointed out to me the really beauty of this picture -- it's a visual pun.
He's drowning in life savers. :o)

Sometimes, particularly on especially stressful days, I am struck by just how weird it is to be human, in light of all the arbitrary and bizarre constructs we have set up around ourselves. Some of it seems real -- finding a mate, or a meal, for example -- but some of it, especially the work world, with all of the anxiety and neuroses that have nothing to do with physical danger, is just so bizarre.

How the heck did all of humanity get me to the point where I'm trying to speak as quickly as I can about dental plan websites to a manager who is trying to get an appointment in before the plan year is out?

This is a nifty hippo holder that I found at a second-hand store. I think it's from the 70s. It tends to hold my post-its and pens, though here one of my coworkers has fed it a persimmon. ;)

Click on the word "persimmon" to relive my first experience with one nearly a year ago.

This year marks the second election I've ever been able to vote in, and the first time that I educated myself on the state and local issues as well as the presidential race. I watched two out of the four debates (the first and last presidential ones); donated money; read the newspaper, newsletters, and email forwards; and all around did my darndest to stay informed and involved.

I must say, it's a hard pill to swallow when you put so much of your mental energy into something and then your candidate doesn't get elected or your measure doesn't pass (but what a thrill when it does work out...stem cell research, for example). It's startling to see, every four years, just exactly where your opinions stand among your fellow countrymen, and where your city/town, county, state, and region stand. The vote seems to me to be just as beneficial as a national poll as it is an election.

Steve and I spent some time last night at dinner discussing where else in the world we might want to live. We went over the roster -- Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Caribbean...but the truth is, no matter who is in power, there's really no place like the U.S. once you're used to it.

In the end, we decided that if the Continental U.S. drove us crazy, we'd move to Alaska or Hawaii. We figured six months of winter and a ratio of 7 men to every 1 woman, or volcanoes, tsunamis, and mice infestation might take our minds off the powers that be...

...at least until the next election. See you in two years. *Sigh.*

Did YOU vote today?

Everybody's doing it.

I will have done my part to effect change in my local, state and federal governments at approximately 4:45pm PST today.

If there's anything George Bush's presidency has unequivocally and inarguably done, it's been to rally an unprecedented national interest and involvement in politics in all previously apathetic demographics. For him or against him, you're talking about him.

Your prey is one of the dumbest birds on earth. As dumb as a rock, and therefore aptly named: Rock Dove. More commonly known as a pigeon. Sitting atop a building at the crest of the hill on 19th street, a particularly fat and naive one wobbles into view, mid-street. You see red, smell victory. Your lovely flight-ready feathers are nearly silent as you dive bomb and - SUCCESS! - clasp your unwittingly witless prey in your steely grip. You take a moment to savor the idiocy of the foul fattie beneath your claws -- and hear a noise. Human voices. Two of them emerge from the front gate of a house nearby and head towards you. "What is that?" you hear, and they continue to approach. You can't risk it -- as they stop in awe, you release your voluptuous victim and escape to the top of the nearest building. "That was a HAWK!" they screech, as the portly pigeon flees to the shadows of a nearby truck, unscathed and barely aware of its brush with death. HAWK?? Come on. You're small, your tail is small, your beak is small, your coloring smooth, and your tail is most certainly not red. They advance on the site of your attack, but alas, you had not even shed blood yet -- nothing but a handful of scattered feathers marks the spot. They look up at you, the female puts on her glasses, the male suggests red-tailed hawk, the female insists on later research, noting your small beak. As they walk away, you hear the male say, "in all my years of living here I've NEVER seen that before..." Your pudgey prey is at this point well-hidden, and escapes unpunished...for now...

(editor's note...to see the birds you actually probably were, go here for theory 1 and here for theory 2 (female).)