December 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Mr. Plastic Picker was sitting at the dinner table last night. He had worked another 12 hour overtime shift on the weekend. He was able to work from his home-office and the shift was not bad. I did not work other than catching up on a few messages and results. I’m really good about turning things off on the weekend now. Between Friday night at 530pm and Sunday at 4pm, really as an outpatient pediatrician I should not have to check my inbox. So I haven’t and it’s been fine. When I do check it, my brain is more efficient and I’m able to close charts and deal with clinical matters more efficiently. A good and focused brain is a really helpful thing. Plogging, eating a plant-rich diet mostly home-cooked, making trash art and sleeping better has really healed my brain. I was part of a UC Berkeley Premed Honor Society Career Panel yesterday, and I knew I was almost as smart as their undergraduates doing MCB (their acronym for Molecular and Cellular Biology). Super nice kids.

Anyway, I was sitting after dinner with Mr. Plastic Picker and the kids had drifted off to their respective rooms. Our thrice-inherited artificial tree that we’ve had for over a decade is still not decorated. The kids don’t seem to be in rush. They always do it together, and we have our daughters home-made Peperment Bark ready to consume during the upcoming event – whenever that should be. So our children had gone off to their rooms, to finish projects. I’m not allowed to loiter too long in their rooms. If I sit on their super comfortable reading chairs and look at them, I get this patient look from both of my children. The look means, “I love you mommy. But this is our space, and it’s time to go.” I want to just sit there and look at them studying, but I know it’s time to move out of their rooms. I love it that they have a sanctuary, which is one of the main reasons we moved to this house five years ago. My brother’s company built it, so we got to in some ways build our own house.

So despite being the one who made that fateful decision almost 6 years ago, to uproot us from our super low-interest 15-year-fixed mortgage Spanish-Style colonial house in hip urban neighborhood to a still low but not as low 30-year-fixed mortgage modern two-story beach-area new build. It has room for the whole family with extra to spare, including two bunnies who just finished thumping. I just ran up to check on them on their balcony to make sure the neighborhood cat had not tried to attack them. Honestly, I think they just thumped knowing I was downstairs and demanded hay. I gave them some hay and the thumping stopped.

But getting back to my conversation with Mr. Plastic Picker. We had very simple steamed vegetables and dumplings with rice for dinner. Kids were happy, and added each a fried egg. I had baked sweet potatoes again in the oven, and am just still in love with the sweet potatoe skin with olive oil and rosemary. I had not quite a half as desert, with a touch of honey and cinnamon. Really good. As I was enjoying my sweet potatoe I asked my husband how many bags he thinks I picked up this month. He answered, wrong. I asked him how many bags I picked up total for lifetime. He answered, wrong again. I asked him how many sand toys he thinks I’ve picked up. He answered, wrong again. And then he got really irritated when he looked up from his iPhone (he was scrolling nonsensical sites probably) and said, “Are you going to ask me about every category???!!!” Finally, I got his attention. He had been ignoring me. I am his wife. It’s not like I went out and bought an expensive hand bag, or had an affair. I just was quizzing him. I told him, “No. I won’t ask you anymore. But last one, how many salvaged items total do you think I’ve picked up?” He guessed somewhere in the 500s, and I told him gleefully – “No! Almost 1350.” https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/Mr. Plastic Picker was genuinely astonished, but still went back to his scrolling. That is fine, I got his attention enough to satisfy me – the mother of his two well-raised children who just cooked them organic vegetables and presented his parents a beautifully roasted sweet potatoe.

But that is a lot of things that have been salvaged. #1332 things from the environment that would have otherwise been thrown away that I’ve reployed into the circulation mostly recycling things. The number of pieces of clothing is remarkable as well. #117 discrete clothing items. Most have been donated and were in good condition. But I will be honest, there are a few items that were very stylish that I wear. I’ve even gifted a few to friends. And that is it. I wanted to let you know the same thing I let Mr. Plastic Picker know.

Did you also know that the most popular blogpost is actually the one I wrote about Star Trek Enterprise???!!! LOL. Well over a few thousand people have read that post. My fanfiction about Trip and T’Pol. Have a wonderful Monday everyone. Since this post was so easy – I’m going to go bake something.