Like everyone else, I’ve been watching with great interest the goings on with Washington and Wall Street.  I’ve been amazed by some of the hysterical things said and pleasantly surprised by some of the straight-level discussion about what’s going on. 

On a personal level, I’ve been inundated with work at the bank as we have sought to comply with new requirements (and I’m pleased to tell you that the excellent team I work with has more than met the deadlines we were given.)  Just in case I’m under any illusion that only the people who made “bad decisions” are being hurt by the current fall from grace the American economy is experiencing, all I have to do is go to work to see that we are ALL paying for what a few people did.

I have a friend who becomes red in the face with fury over the very idea that his tax money might be used to “bail out” home-owners who took mortgages they can’t afford.  Well, I understand his frustration, but I also know that a foreclosure on your street lowers the value of your property an average of 9% (in some markets it can be over 15%).  So regardless of how you look at it, we are all paying for the mistakes of a few.

So where do we go from here? 

Many of you have kindly read my blogs on economics and offered positive responses to what I’ve been saying.  Well, today Liz Pulliam Weston, a columnist with MSN Money, has an article that calls for the kind of action I hope we can all get behind.  She describes how it is that even economically savy consumers get soaked by anti-consumer practices.  I had to read it twice and think about what she was saying because I think of myself as frugal and money smart, but she’s right.  Some of the abuses she describes are things that I’ve been frustrated by and unable to find a remedy for. She’s asking readers to log into the President’s website and request specific changes that will help consumers avoid victimization by unscrupulous companies. 

Here’s the link to her article: How consumerism hurts consumers

For those who don’t want to read the article but prefer to get to the bottom line, here’s the message she’s asking us to send to President Obama at The White House Contact Form. (At the bottom of that form is a mailing address for those who feel that letters are paid more attention than email.)

Mr. President, a healthy economy needs healthy consumers who are informed and protected. No economic reform will truly be complete until we:

•  impose interest-rate caps.  An 18% rate cap on any consumer loan would give banks enough leeway to lend to those with past credit problems while stopping them from cranking up credit card interest rates to 30% and beyond with little notice or justification.  It would get rid of payday lenders too.
•  End mandatory binding arbitration.  Mandatory binding arbitration renders consumers virtually powerless and encourages businesses to adopt outrageous clauses in their contracts because they know they won’t have to defend them in court. 
•  Add a Cabinet-level position for a consumer advocate.  There’s no one to tell the President how bailouts or stimulus packages or anything else will affect the consumer.  A Secretary of Consumer affairs would be a long-overdue addition to the lineup.
  
• Create a consumer bill of rights.  All the costs of a transaction should be apparent.  Any conflicts of interest should be disclosed.  If something goes wrong you should have the right of redress.  And you should have access to information that’s being kept on you. 
  
• Give the Federal Trade Commission some teeth.  The ability to file only civil charges cripples this agency.  Give it the ability to file criminal charges or devote Justice Department resources.
  
• Protect States’ rights.  The federal government has been pre-empting state consumer-protection laws for years.  If my state legislature wants to better protect its citizens, it should have that right.
  

Liz makes another point that I want to stress (because I’ve already heard from my Dentist friend that my ideas make me one of those God Damned Socialists).  Companies who engage in dishonest practices are bad for capitalism.  The theory has always been that the best companies make it to the top, but in and environment of gutted consumer protections, it’s not the best companies, it’s the best liars who reap the reward.  That’s just UnAmerican.

‘kay here’s the deal.  I’ve been whining and complaining for over 6 months about how bad I feel and how sick I am although no one can figure out what’s wrong with me.  The Dr. doesn’t know, I don’t know, the people I stop on the street corner and ask for advice … they don’t know either.  So I decided at the first of the year that I would see a Naturopath to see if she could figure out what was wrong with me.

I figured based on conversations with the co-worker who recommended this appointment that she would want to do a nutrition evaluation.  The best thing then would be for me to have a log of what I’ve been eating to show her.  Some of you may remember that I used to regularly use (and have recommended) a website called Sparkpeople  (www.sparkpeople.com) where they have the tools available to log your food, fitness, that goal to refrain from spitting when you see that neighbor who walks her dog over to your yard for its daily business … whatever you need to do to have a better life, you can track it at Sparkpeople.

When I went back to Sparkpeople to start my log, I wondered if in the data base of hundreds of articles they had anything on “edema” that might point me in a direction we haven’t explored previously.  There at the bottom of the page, in the final paragraph I found this “Low protein levels in the blood caused by malnutrition, kidney and liver disease can cause edema. The proteins help to hold salt and water inside the blood vessels so fluid does not leak out into the tissues. If a blood protein called albumin gets too low, fluid is retained and edema occurs, especially in the feet, ankles and lower legs.”

Hmmmmmm

Well, we’ve already checked for everything else, what if I have a malnutrition issue? 

So last Friday, I started adding lean protein to my diet in large amounts.  I’m not eating a lot of extra meat, I’m adding a lo carb protein drink to each meal.  I get 15-18 grams of protein in each one.  Oh, and I’m drinking more water because I know from past experience that higher protein in my diet means I need more water and we’ll just leave it at that. 

So, between Friday and Monday I had such a serious reduction in swelling that on Monday I didn’t even wear the support socks.  Last night when I came home from work and took off my shoes, my feet weren’t swollen at all.  AT ALL.  These feet have been swollen beyond recognition for SIX MONTHS.  They aren’t swollen tonight at all.  To put that into context, my feet went from a size 8.5 to a 6.5 in seven days time.  My loafers that I’ve been wearing to work sound like flip flops when I walk they are so much too big now.  One week of added protein made that much difference.

I’m still going to see the Naturopath on Tuesday.  But we won’t be having the conversation I thought we’d be having when I made the appointment.  It’s hard to believe that my problem was malnutrition.  You’d think that would be the last place to look!   It’s not like I don’t eat. 

Wild huh.      

*******

Sparkpeople is completely free.  The data base of articles is found under the “Your Health” section, A-Z.  Medical content is reviewed by the staff of the Harvard Medical School.

*******

My little SIMS family has six kids now.  The oldest three just left for college and Dad is sad.  He just bought this big house for them all and now it’s too empty.  Mom is kind of okay with taking a break, but Dad has this way of looking at her that suggests that there will probably be more babies coming …

We headed out of here early to go to church in the mountains and visit Miss Eva.  But there was snow on the highway, so I turned back.  It’s not bad now, but it’s just starting and I had no confidence that it would be safe to travel home later. 

I didn’t feel so well last night.  Headache that reduced me to tears.  Major pity-party.  I hate hate hate not feeling well.  The past six months of not feeling well, having symptoms that no one knows how to cure, has worn me out.  I’m just tired.  I don’t think the headache has anything to do with my other issues, I think it was just a regular old run-of-the-mill migraine which I only very rarely experience.  (Poor Tucker carries that burden in this family.)

So now here I am.  At home, with no previously made plan for what I’ll do. 

I think I’ll run a Life Simulation. 

My favorite PC game for years has been the SIMS.  I can’t remember who first introduced me to it, but I’ve been hooked.  I go through periods where I don’t play as often, but then something will happen and I’ll start up again.  This time I’m not sure what got me started but I know what’s kept me going.  My boys told their dad they wanted to give me SIMS expansion packs for Christmas.  SO he picked up two new packs for me.  

Oh MY.  Then I bought two more for myself.  Now my SIMS have Freetime, can own their own Businesses, can go to College, and experience changing Seasons. 

I have several little families going now.  Tell me how weird this is?  I have a family that is approximately the same as my family of origin.  I created a Dad who looks like a photo of my dad from when he was young (except I didn’t realize until I saw him in profile that his nose is too big.)  I created a Mom who looks like my Mom.  And then I set them to work having babies.  The oldest is me, but from there things have gone awry.  There should have been two more girls  then a boy, but the next two to be born were both boys.  So we’re still in the game trying to get to my sisters. 

There’s another family with a mom who has my middle name and looks like me if I were thin.  (Hey, it’s my game).  She’s married to a man who adores her and they have five kids so far but her lifetime goal is to have 10 and he’s happy with that because he not only enjoys the making of kids process, he likes kids.  (So that’s different from my real experience but it’s what I would have had if I could have had everything I wanted.)  The husband in that little household wants to be a Mad Scientist.  He’s always doing experiments. 

I have a single Mom, Maggie, who started the game with two teens.  Her son, Liam, was a little troubled at first but has just been accepted to college with scholarships and is doing well.  Her daughter, Julie, the straight A student surprised everyone by going to the police academy instead of the university and is happy as a law-enforcement officer.  She just got engaged to the first boy she ever kissed.  Jeb from next door. 

Jeb is a good kid.  He’s going to be a doctor.  His only weakness so far seems to be Julie.  He can’t keep himself from the temptation of fooling around with her in the hot tub.  He has a good heart though, and he daydreams a lot about having a family with his Love. 

There are other characters and other houses but those are the main four that I play with.  This is the first time I’ve started out with my parents as characters and that’s been really wild.   It’s nice to be able to simulate a “do-over” and have the parents in the game be more like the parents I wish mine had been.

In a way this whole gaming thing is about parenting for me.  It’s a way to parent a lot of little people (even though they aren’t real).  It’s also about parenting myself.  Giving me a little space to dream and affirming to me that it’s okay to want to be nurtured.  I’m not very good at accepting nurture.  But I do need it. 

I had a conversation with Bff the other day that somehow wound up here.  Bff doesn’t need parenting the way I do.  When I fuss around my fussing is accepted because that’s part of who I am and my BFF accepts me.  But in reverse, BFF does a lot of little nurturing things for me that sometimes just break my heart because they are so unexpected.  Not unexpected because they are out of character for my friend to do but because it’s so out of my realm of experience to have someone do them for me. 

I’m a difficult friend.  I love my friends.  I try to be there for them.  And yet I have a tendency to get so caught up in my own issues that I’m always realizing about five minutes too late that they just said something really significant that deserved a compassionate response. 

Cool Mary has been in Indiana for the wedding of her youngest.  Wow.  I can’t wait for her to get back home so we can talk about what that was like. 

But for today, I’ll be taking it easy.  Getting the kids ready to go back to school tomorrow.  I have some work I’d like to finish up on a poetry project.  And in the background of all that I’ll be running my SIMS game. 

*******

I just made this up!  On Friday I had lunch with a co-worker at Jersey Jacks which is a soup and sandwich shop close to the office.  There I was introduced to Creamy Chicken and Green Chile soup and it was amazing.  So I couldn’t resist attempting my own version.  I’m determined that 2009 will be the year of eating healthier foods (which for me means higher protein, lower fats and carbs so maybe my hair will start growing back).  My version is way lower in fat than JJ’s version and it’s still kicking good!

Terri’s Creamy Chicken and Green Chile Soup

1 med onion diced small
1 16 frozen container green chile (hot) – thawed
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 can reduced fat cr of chicken soup
8 oz fat free cream cheese
4 oz fat free cheddar cheese
2 c fat free half and half
1 T oregano
1 t paprika
1 t black pepper

Spray the bottom of a large saucepan with non-stick spray.  Saute onion for about three minutes on med-hi until they are transparent and sweet smelling.  Add  green chile and chicken.  When heated through reduce heat to med-lo.  Add cheeses and half and half stirring periodically until melted and slightly bubbly.  Add herbs and spices.  (adjust to taste)  Don’t let the soup boil or get too hot or the cheese will scorch. 

Serve immediately.  You can eat it with crackers if you like, or tortilla chips.  I just had it straight. 

Just noticed that as it cools it thickens up.  This would be a great filling for chicken enchiladas. 

I’m ready for a new year, saying goodbye to the old.  Everything this week is about time.  How much do we have?  How we spend it? 

Yesterday was Tucker’s birthday.  He’s 12.  Seems like only yesterday he was toddling outside to pour bubble bath in the fish pond. 

The image retrieval system has been down at work for the past three days so my manager has been finding things to keep me “off the streets” until I can access the documents to do my regular job.  I’ve been really busy doing really tedious work.  So I’m praying that part comes in today!

I have my little bottle of Frexinet (sp?) for my midnight celebration. 

There was an accident with the shelf in the refrigerator a couple weeks ago.  Tucker was pushing something in with his foot (don’t ask, I can’t picture why he thought that was a good idea to start with) he slipped, he stepped down hard, and the plastic shelf in the bottom of the refrigerator got broken.  Since we moved into this apartment that shelf has been a problem.  It sloped forward so I had to be really careful what was placed on if because things were likely to tumble out.  Yesterday (there’s that time thing again) the maintenance guy replaced it with a new one.  The new one is sturdier and doesn’t slope.  Hallelujah!  If I’d known how much nicer it would be, I’d have had Tucker using his feet a long time back. 

I’ll be counting down the hours of my last day of work in 2008.

Time to go.

Happy New Year Everyone. 

So, as I’m sitting in the dark (I was afraid to take my sleeping medication before bed because I feared I’d miss out on being alert enough to appreciate what happens here on Christmas Morning) I’m thinking about Christmas Food.  And it’s occurred to me that I don’t think I could make Christmas dinner without a can of Cream of Mushroom soup.  In fact, this year, I’m gonna need three. 

Hm.

When did Cream of Mushroom soup become so important a holiday ingredient that I’d have to cancel dinner without it?

Be honest, did YOU make at least one recipe with Cream of Mushroom soup for your holiday repast?

* * * * * * *

Tucker was afraid that he would miss out on the excitement too.  He didn’t have the option of staying up all night (not that I’ve done it on purpose) but he solved his problem in his own special way.  He’s sleeping with his presents.  In his bed, under his blankets. 

* * * * * * *

May your Holiday be Merry And Bright!  And may you rest well on Christmas Night. 

We’ve gotten into a routine of large Sunday dinners served mid afternoon and then a dessert in the evening.  For the past several weeks, I’ve been setting out frozen dough to rise and bake into the rolls to accompany our weekly indulgence.  (We also indulge in Breakfast on Saturday mornings and we have date night on Friday, so we are really about our indulgences).

Today I decided to make extra rolls so instead of 6, I put 18 little dough blobs in the oven.  I took them out, set them aside to cool for a moment while I finished the rest of the food.  (Today we had hamburger stroganhoff, mini penne pasta, salad of romaine, orange slices, walnuts and poppy seed dressing, and acorn squash baked with a little brown sugar and cinnamon.)  When I was ready to call the boys to the table, I noticed that the bread basket looked odd.  When I checked there were only 6 rolls instead of 18. 

“What happened?” (me)

“I don’t know mom. I was walking by, and I smelled them, and the next thing I knew there were a whole bunch of rolls gone.” (Tucker)

 (me)

“Um, they were really good, and soft, and hot … ” (Tucker)

 (me)

“Um, do I have to eat the squash?  I’m suddenly not very hungry.”  (Tucker)

 (me)

* * * * * *

I’m feeling better.  My Dr. told me to cease and desist from the Naproxen immediately, which settled my stomach right down.  I’ve been taking extra strength Tylenol which isn’t helping my leg as much as the Naproxen did, but I’m not throwing up and I am walking so I can live with medium help.  Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. 

* * * * * * *

I’ve started a new SIMS 2 game.  I keep thinking I’m going to outgrow SIMS, but really I love this game.  I created one family.  Just a little man and a little woman.  And boy howdy do they like each other.  A lot.  He’s got thinning hair, glasses, a full beard, a little belly … And she thinks he’s the hottest thing since fresh baked bread. 

I’m gonna have to create another little family because these guys are obviously having a honeymoon and they aren’t doing anything to get out and meet their neighbors. 

* * * * * * *

I’ve been reading the newspapers.  Lord, have mercy.  We have some really stupid people making comments out there.  My fav stupid comment from the past week, (no its not the Gov of Illinois, he’s already been dealt with in late night jokes) comes from Charles Krauthammer who called the link between the US Economy and Health Care a “Non Sequitur”. 

It doesn’t make sense to Mr. Krauthammer that there’s any link between the two.  Apparently the fact that health care costs have so far outpaced the rate of inflation that even the largest of companies are struggling to provide insurance for their employees hasn’t registered on his radar.  Apparently the fact that more than half the hospitals in this nation are on the brink of financial collapse due to the tidal wave of uninsured patients coming through their door doesn’t seem like an issue to him.  Apparently the inadequate supply of Doctors, nurses, radiology technicians, physical therapists … name a health care occupation and I’ll show you an occupation with a need for more trained workers than we can foresee having even if enrollment rates in these courses doubled for each of the next three years… doesn’t bother him, or at least doesn’t strike him as an economic problem.  

We have a Trillion Dollar industry struggling with demand that can’t be supplied and supply that isn’t getting paid.  Seems like that’s a huge economic problem to me. 

* * * * * * *  

There are about 8 “how to handle your money in seriously sucky times” blogs that I’m dying to write.  Or maybe it’s a book, with chapters and not many pictures.   But in truth, I think it’s too late for a lot of people.  The money management they haven’t been practicing for the past 10 years is about to have them for lunch with a side of “sucks to be you.”

I’m there too.  My monetary position took a serious blow last summer.  I’m lucky that I’m not totally broke.  But in spite of years of my Maggie MacFrugal lifestyle, I can see broke from here.  It’s scary. 

You don’t have a soul.  You are a soul.  You have a body.  C. S. Lewis

I hurt my leg just before Halloween.  I’m not sure what I did or how I did it.  At first I thought I’d pulled a muscle, but it wasn’t getting better and wasn’t getting better.  So yesterday, I visited the Dr. (and I can’t tell you what a luxurious feeling it is to be able to visit a Dr., let alone MY Dr. in a practice in which I’m enrolled as a patient)  but anyway, the point is that I visited the Dr. and described what was going on.

I left with a presciption for Naproxen and an appointment to have a sonogram on my leg tomorrow to rule out blood clots.  The downside to having a chat with a Dr. is their unfortunate tendency to tell you that the thing that’s hurting you MIGHT kill you. 

So last night, I took the Naproxen.  This morning I took the Naproxen.  This afternoon I started throwing up.  Apparently, anyone who has even had an ulcer, sat by someone on a bus who has an ulcer, or even looked up the word “ulcer” on Web M.D. should never never never take Naproxen.  Which kind of makes me wonder why it’s so great to have a Dr. with my chart open on his lap reading about my issues with the ulcer in September if he’s going to prescribe something that will in one day undo all the progress I’ve made in the past four months.  But, I digress again.

My leg hasn’t hurt today.  It’s had a couple moments of twinge, like a remembered pain.  But it wasn’t real pain.  My stomach on the other hand, has not been so lucky.  I’m not happy that I have to choose between my stomach and my leg.    

I’m a generally happy person.  Really.  I am.  But give me a physical complaint to complain about and I will become the worst downer in the room.  So much so that even I can’t stand my company. 

It’s a good thing that I haven’t been tested by great adversity.  I can’t even pass the pop quiz. 

For 13 years we had an experiment in legislation of morality which lead to rum-running, bathtub booze that caused people to go blind, and the rise of gangsterism.

Did we learn anything from Prohibition?

Actually, I just wanted a provocative headline so that I could say THANK YOU to the anonymous person who gave me Lifetime. 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Thanks to the support of many of you, I reached my goal of 100,000 credits.  I logged in on Saturday and attempted to use them to purchase Xanga Lifetime.  Instead of Lifetime, I got a message saying thank you for my purchase of ONE MONTH and a deduction of 4,000 credits from my total.  I emailed Xanga requesting that this be rectified.  Today, I received a polite reply informing me that Xanga no longer offers Lifetime for credits.  I could purchase 1 month, 6 months or 12 months, but not the Lifetime that I’ve been working toward for the past 9 months. 

I thought it would be more fun to “earn” Lifetime this way than to buy it.  I was wrong.  This isn’t fun at all.  This in fact is a really nasty feeling like I’m the gullible kid who finds herself naked at the prom while everyone laughs.  I’m not the kind of person to have a hissy fit and leave when things don’t go my way.  But I think it’s fair to express my disappoinment.