When It Snows, It Blizzards

First of all, I want to assure everyone that I had an absolutely wonderful vacation visiting my family in New Mexico for the Christmas holiday and I plan at some point to muse over the events, observations and funny bits at some point, but I realize that I just cannot get past everything that has happened since Tuesday morning first. Part of me wanted to write everything chronologically but part of me is just a bundle of anxiety and exasperation. What else can happen this year? Already even!

Tuesday when I was traveling back from New Mexico to Portland, the snow storm caused my flight in Atlanta to be canceled. I, of course, couldn’t call anyone because my cell phone was dead and the charger was in my luggage (this will become important to the story in a bit). It took over an hour of standing in line with my stressed out dog in his carrier (despite tranquilizers) to get rebooked on a flight leaving on Wednesday at 12:30pm. Then Delta booked me a room at the Red Roof Inn for a rate of $56/night (they apparently got other people into the Hilton and the Hyatt for the same rate) which I had to pay myself because they don’t have to pay hotel stays if it’s an Act of God that causes a flight cancellation. Now, apparently, when they rebook your flight, they don’t give you back your luggage; instead, they give you an overnight kit which contains:

• a razor
• a thumb-sized container of deodorant
• a toothbrush and a small container of toothpaste
• a folding hairbrush
• a see-through white XL Delta t-shirt
• a packet of laundry detergent

I can only assume that the detergent is there so you can wash the clothes you’ve been traveling in but then you only have to wear the see-through t-shirt to wear to the laundry room in the hotel which seems a bit unseemly.

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Paranoia, The New American Way

Remember when after 9/11, we were all filled with the pride of patriotism and the American Way?  Remember how we weren’t going to “let the terrorists win” by changing us, by living in fear, because that’s exactly what they wanted because they wanted to destroy our American Way, our freedoms, our pride?

Well, they’re winning.   We live in a ridiculous paranoid state that is the new American Way.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

- Benjamin Franklin

The Portland International Jetport in Maine was shut down for six hours on Wednesday after an unknown someone spilled a mixture of flour and sugar on the luggage carousel in the baggage claim.  A Haz Mat team was called out at noon and initial tests were negative for a biological substance; further testing revealed powder substance was the common ingredients used in a sugar cookie.  It’s believed that a passenger was carrying the sugar cookie concoction in a plastic bag and spilled it.  No one knows what flight the passenger was on or where he or she might have gone.

Our paranoia has begun to paralyze us.  We are jumping at the most ridiculous things.  The last time I flew, the airport security thought I might have a bomb in the saltwater taffy I purchased in the gift shop and held everyone up while they ran it through some sort of bomb-sniffing machine.

Meanwhile, we all now have to stand in lines in our sock feet and our possessions separated into containers on conveyor belts waiting anxiously to see if this is our turn to not just walk through the arched metal detector but to be asked to “step over there.” 

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ACLJ To Sue Portland School Board Over Birth Control For Minors

I’ve written about the local controversy regarding the Portland School Board’s recent vote to allow the Health Center at King Middle School to provide birth control to students who range in ages 11 to 14. It’s been in the national news quite a bit thanks to outraged conservative talk show hosts like O’Reilly and Glen Beck even though King Middle School won’t be the first middle school to offer oral birth control — schools in Boston and Seattle have had successful teen-pregnancy-rate-reducing programs for years, as I’ve mentioned before.

Now we’re in the national news again. A D.C.-based, Christian law group started by Pat Robertson, the American Center for Law & Justice has given the Portland School Board an ultimatum — reverse the new policy or they are going to sue supposedly on behalf of the student’s parents. The legal group did say that they would accept a compromise if the board would ensure that only students ages 14 and up have access to the birth control and only with written permission from their parents.

As a local, I admit to being tee’d off that they’re butting their noses into a local affair.

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Let’s Talk About Maine Teen Sex, Baby

According to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll, Sixty-seven percent of people polled support giving contraceptives to students and nearly that many (62%) believe that doing so will reduce the number of teen pregnancies. While, most who support schools distributing contraceptives do prefer that they only go to children whose parents have consented permission to do so, people are closely divided over whether sex education and birth control are more effective than stressing morality and abstinence, and, of course, whether or not giving contraceptives to teenagers encourages them to engage in sexual activity.

Not surprisingly, while men and women have similar views about whether to provide contraceptives to students, men are more likely than women to think it will encourage sexual intercourse — 43% to 55%. Perhaps men themselves consider just having a form of birth control like a green light in their minds, while women consider birth control as a precaution like the Boy Scout motto “Always be prepared.”

Teenage pregnancy rates have declined to about 75 per 1,000 teens, down from a 1990 peak of 117 pregnancies, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research center. Still, it’s important to note that nearly half of teens aged 15 to 19 report having had sex at least once, and almost 750,000 of them a year become pregnant.

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Maine Middle School Contraceptive Controversy Rages On Locally

Although the national coverage seems to have died down a bit, the local controversy regarding the Portland School Board’s decision to allow King Middle School’s Health Center to distribute medical birth control to students rages on. All of the national outrage has created some misconceptions as well as brought some excellent concerns to the table.

• According to a national survey, 18 to 20 percent of adolescents have had intercourse by age 14, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts. [Birth Control For Maine Middle Schoolers]

• One misconception that conservative talk show hosts and leaders have led the public to believe is that Maine is the first school system to provide this kind of service. Actually, middle schools in Baltimore and Seattle have provided oral contraceptives to students since the early 1990s and the programs have been successful in reducing teen pregnancy rates. In Baltimore, where there are health clinics at three middle schools, the number full-term pregnancies for girls under 15 dropped from 113 in 1995 to 44 in 2005. Maine has the 5th lowest teen pregnancy rate in the country, so while it isn’t expecting as dramatic a rate drop, there were a reported 7 teen pregnancies among 3 middle schools in four years and those numbers hopefully can be reduced further. King reported 1 pregnancy last year and other students who were sexually active.

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Maine Middle School To Offer Responsible Choice

Back in the 80’s, when I was in high school, I had some friends who lived near my grandparents. I wrote to them often back then but only saw them a few times a year. I’ll admit that looking back now, we came from different backgrounds, social classes, and financial situations. Of course, at the time, I just thought they were more interesting to hang out with than my grandparents — though these are the same grandparents with the refrigerator for their keg…

Anyway, one of the kids had a younger sister who was in sixth grade. She was incredibly tall for a sixth grader but still she was only about 11 or 12. Her parents had to put her on birth control pills. Had to. That’s what I was told. Apparently they couldn’t keep her from having sex; so rather than have her get pregnant at that young age and have her go through either the trauma of having an abortion or having a baby at such a young age, they were making her take birth control pills.

Since I was a very good girl attending a private Christian school at the time, I thought this was very scandalous. Much more scandalous things would come from that family over the years and I eventually became numb to it. Besides, there are far more scandalous things on the news these days — look at Britney Spears. (Why is her child custody case even on the news? Do people really care?)

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Pug Convention

I’d been promising Pugly for the last month that if it weren’t rainy on Wednesday, we’d go to the Pug meet-up on the Eastern Prom in Portland after daycare since we’re already in Portland on Wednesdays anyway. I almost completely forgot about it this week and it was a gorgeous day. However, when I picked him up at daycare, the gal asked if we were going to the Pug convention and when I asked if he wanted to go play with the Puggies, he got all excited, so off we went.

We were early and the first ones there, but eventually the Eastern Prom filled up with Pugs of all shapes and sizes. You know, I’ve never seen two Pugs that didn’t like each other. The Portland Pug Meet-ups are a wonderful, magical experience. Pugs everywhere off leash just racing about together playing and being loved by strangers who just love Pugs. I think Pug owners are just about as unique as their pets because as of yet I haven’t seen a Pug Parent who didn’t love another Pug Parent or another’s Pug.

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Thirteen Things You Might Not Know About Me, 1rst

Thirteen Things about J. Lynne I lived 23 of my 36 breathing years in New Orleans, but not consecutively; one period for 12 years and one for 11 years. Coincidentally the reason I moved to New Orleans in 1993 and the reason I moved away in 2004 were the same — unemployment; despite being told by my high school guidance counselor that computer science would bring great fortune and job security, I have yet to find that to be true after 15 years. Before anyone asks, no, I didn’t have any family left in New Orleans during Katrina; my parents had moved to New Mexico in 2002; I do still have a number of friends in the area. Everyone I know luckily survived, even if their belongings didn’t — two friends lived just blocks from the Canal Street levee break. I currently live in Maine with two cats and a Pug in a red house. I couldn’t get a third cat because I’m single and you know that single women can’t have 3 cats or they become crazy old maids. So I have a Pug. When I moved to Maine, I drove up without an apartment rented and without knowing anyone but the people I’d interviewed with for my job. I stayed in hotels for a month with my two cats (didn’t have the Pug yet) while I looked for a decent, affordable apartment that a piano would fit in — it took at least 2 weeks for me to accept that up here no one needs central A/C so apartments just don’t have them. My current obsessive hobby of choice is photography. I am participating in Project365 — a world-wide phenomenon where amateur and professional photographers alike take at least one photo every day for a year. (View my Project365 as a slideshow.) Ironically I started out doing digital photography because I thought it would be a cheep hobby, but a new Canon PowerShot S3 IS, a bunch of printed photographs, picture frames, and a lot of books on photography later, and I can tell you that is a myth. Since January 1, 2007, I have taken over 1000 photographs and have posted 941 to Flickr; 189 of those photos appear to be of my Pug. According to Flickr’s mysterious rules of “Interestingness”, 16 of my photos have made it to Flickr’s infamous Explore; 10 of those are of my Pug and technically one was taken last year. (View my Flickr Explored Photos as a Slideshow.) The reason that I needed to save money is because I bought a house in November, which is a really big commitment; I guess I’m staying in Maine. As it turns out, houses have a lot more unexpected expenses than apartments and you can’t just call the landlord and have things magically repaired while you are at work. It also turns out that the landscaping and garden fairies don’t come while you are at work either. However, for $25 a week, the lawnmower man will come once a week and make all the dandelions disappear from your yard. I have discovered that it is not easy to make new friends all over again in your mid-30’s if you move to somewhere you know no one and you don’t immediately click with your co-workers. By your 30’s you’ve pretty much defined your social circles and there’s really very little change until you hit retirement age, I think. I kind of think it’s easier if you relocate as a couple. Couples seem to find other couples to do things with, but by your mid-30’s everyone’s pretty much looking to become a couple or looking to find other couples to hang out with. Look at Friends, for example. Integrating outsiders never really worked out once they reached their 30’s and Monica and Chandler were always trying to find appropriate partners for the single “friends” so they could do couple things. In fact, they spent quite a bit of time just trying to find someone to pair off with to become a couple. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a ready-made group of friends for me in Maine yet. I have been diagnosed with chronic migraines, IgA Nephropathy (an autoimmune kidney disease), fibromyalgia, gastroparesis (a condition in which the stomach digestion is slowed), IBS, general anxiety disorder, and chronic depression. I probably also have some OCD in there. As a result of my medical problems, my doctors have put me on a strict pescetarian diet — no flesh of any animals other than fish or other types of seafood. I’m supposed to eat lots of soy products too. I was already eating 75% this way when the doctor told me no more red meat or chicken. As a result of being told I can’t have those things, naturally, I cheat on really rare occasions. To be honest, I don’t really like the smell or taste of meat most of the time anyway. I have been blogging in various places for over 6 years and have been “outed” several times by a health magazine, The New York Times, and Good Morning, America. I suspect I lost a job because I was blogging rather nasty things about my boss though using all fake names but I can’t prove it. It’s just a reminder that nothing is really anonymous or private in Cyberspace. While this is the closest I’ve come to using my real name on a blog, I still use aliases for my pets because some of them — Pugly — have become quite well-known by their online monikers and besides, you never know when some pet-o-phile will come across their photos and want to stalk them. They must be protected. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Jeremy Eric qtpies7 Robin Ed byoc hazel Amy the Black

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