I have the HMO Family Practice Residents this morning. I helped start this rotation with my old mentor almost a decade ago. Now I just give one lecture on Pediatric Obesity and mentor one morning. I used to think it was a burden, but now I really enjoy my one day. I make muffins for the three residents and I take them on a field trip to visit a former resident who works upstairs. He is a friend. I have a bag of our family’s garden produce with tomatoes, eggplants and peppers to give him. Today I did vary it up a bit. I usually make the HMO residents banana walnut muffins but this morning I was up at 430am and wanted to use up the semi-mushy apples. So I made almost vegan apple cinnamon muffins. I also cooked down most of the apples for my own kids for breakfast/lunch. My teen daughter is needing more fiber, if you know what I mean.
A dear patient family gave me the wooden calendar blocks, to help me remember the day.
August 24, 2021
by drplasticpicker
This beautiful wooden date blocks was lovingly given to me by a patient’s family. This is to help me remember what day it is. It pictures very well on Instagram too! It was so kind of them. It really was. Yesterday was the first clinical care day after 1.5 weeks of vacation. Most of that vacation was home, but I we did have that wonderful trip to San Francisco. It was so nice to see my patients again, and I reconnected with a few families I had not seen in a while. I met a nice new family as they are embarking on this adventure called parenthood. I missed a call from another parent, who I will try to call again today. I was able to stop by the HMO coffee shop to get the coffee grounds. It was 7.6 kg of coffee grounds. Our HMO patients were drinking a lot of coffee yesterday! It’s all in the composter now.
Our aerobin400 hard at work.
It’s 645AM and it’s a work at home day. I have our middle management meeting today. I need to actually listen to the COVID lectures really carefully now, and review all the American College of Immunization Practice updates well. I’m responsible for signing all the immunization orders in our entire organization now. I need to pivot and be more detail oriented, but I don’t mind relearning that skillset. I was an endocrine fellow at some point, and we were if anything but detail oriented. The devils is in the details.
And this week on my OFF time it’s all Green Team for the HMO (which is actual real HMO work that I’m doing for free) and meetings for practice runs on two big presentations. I don’t mind though and actually excited about those tasks because vaccines and climate work and healthcare sustainability practice is now my focus. Thank you for following along. I truly appreciate it. Just blogging and writing a bit every morning clears my mind and helps me figure out what I need to do with life. I have time these days because we just decided not to buy things we did not need. It frees a lot of mental space and time. For exampled, the used uniform sale at school ws 45 minutes and done. The entire process of buying uniforms for our kids was usually $700 (versus $70) and take weeks of agonizing.
Our daughter found everything she wanted without hurting the earth.
Our last summer in Boston years ago. We decided to leave.
August 23, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I think the reason I’m so enamored with Dawson’s Creek right now, other then the really good script writing and dialouge, is the idea of home. I’ve realized now that those stories and books that are “friends,” the ones that I read over and over again – have that theme. Where is one’s home? What is one’s relationship with place and how do you define it? For me, my environmental activism like many others is anchored in the idea of the places I call home and trying to literally clean those pieces of earth or the sky above it. That it is all related to the need to preserve the amazon and the water quality in the entire ocean, is why it now encompasses literally the entire world.
But it’s the end of August, and although the work of earth-saving will continue – the kids’ summer break is drawing to a close. They have another two weeks until school restarts. They are still at their fancy prep school and I’m at peace with the exorbiant tuition that we pay which is the antithesis of much of what I stand for. But I accept that it’s okay to have contradictions in one’s life. I’m Dr. Plastic Picker but we still get sushi in styrofoam once in a while. I extol the cost savings and health-benefits of making your own home-made pizza, yet I buy salt and pepper fried chicken wings for our clinic at moments of weakness.
Yes it’s the end of August and it’s been a really good summer for the kids despite the altered vacation plans and the COVID delta surge. We stayed mostly in the house, still social distancing. We did have the kids do a few outings mostly with family and to family houses where everyone who was able to , was vaccinated. Our son had his 16th birthday with two vaccinated friends at Liberty Station where they had lunch at the outside food court and masked. My sister came into town, and our family got together several times for dinner. That was probably the best part of the summer. And instead of Oregon and Montana, we instead did a short driving trip to San Francisco where we wandered around up there.
But sitting back and reflecting during this summer, I’m really proud of our kids. They both grew intellectually and emotionally quite a bit. Both took risks. Our daughter threw herself into volleyball and found something outside of academics that gives her passion and purpose. She’s made such a good group of friends through volleyball that I’m forever grateful to the Neptune Volleyball Club. We were buying used uniforms at the fancy prep school used uniform sale, and we ran into some happy friends but mostly what seemed to us unhappy acquaintances. It’s been good for her to get out of her friend bubble and get to know other people. She delved into her love of ceramics, and it’s something that she is exploring now. She’s going to join the ceramics club and also taking another course as an elective. I fully support this. And our son finished Advanced Chemistry over the summer and surprisingly enjoyed it. He did very well, and will take AP Chemistry this next year. He was proud to have finished his SAT prep course that took up a lot of the summer. And the summer writing course that he was resistent to doing, he actually really enjoyed.
Mr. Plastic Picker and I are so proud of our kids. For us, focusing on them as intellectuals and giving them the room to take intellectual risks has been very important. And for us that has helped us as people too. I’m trying to take risks in my career and to grow professionally and intellectually. Mr. Plastic Picker is still trying to figure out his path as well. It was overall a really good to summer for the kids and our family.
Getting ready with my new political friends for our photo-up. One is city government and the other running for congress. I’m just a pediatrician getting my climate anger at the world OUT.
August 22, 2021
by drplasticpicker
Everything about yesterday was just great and fun. It was also one of the most impactful things I’ve done. Will it end up in the closure of this methane-spewing peaker power plant in the Environmental Justice community of El Cajon which is surrounded by black/brown children who happeend to be born into poor families and kids from refugee families? I don’t know. Will it make a dent in the fight against this existential crisis of climate change? I don’t know. But I tried. I tried so much with my whole heart. I did it with joy. I brought my friend Dr. Dear Friend along and re-inspired her into activism along the way (she had protested as a child along with Ceasar Chavez). We had a great morning and day together.
Okay. I’m up and the comments are written. Dr. Dear Friend and I are representing San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air at a rally in El Cajon, and I’m speaking about the health affects of power plants on pediatric asthma. It’s funny when you speak on a topic that you know well and are passionate about, it comes very easily. I started writing my comments about 45 minutes ago and I’m done now. I used bits and pieces from our journal article. Since I wrote the words with my friends, it’s okay for me to use those phrases directly. I intermixed health facts with a story. Patient stories are always powerful.
I thought I needed strength when I started blogging this morning, but I’m okay. I fill myself up on real food that is mostl vegetables and a lot of really delicious tomatoes. I also got a very good nights sleep last night. Without coffee, my body naturally quiets toward the end of the day and I don’t wake up at 2-3am anymore. We are supposed to be there by 930AM, and I’ll leave here in about an hour. Pick up Dr. Dear Friend and we’ll meet the other climate activist at 930AM. We’ll walk one mile together to the rally. I guess I don’t have as much time as I thought. My speech is done but I need to practice. Okay. Here it is.
We can learn about restoring society by looking at healthy forest.
August 20, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I’m drinking a cup of black tea plain this morning. It’s been probably six weeks since I stopped drinking coffee, naturally. I went for a very long walk yesterday. I was intending to just do a quick walk around the neighborhood and get one bag, but I ended up at the beach again and it was very wild and dramatic. I saw a father furiously and franatically waving to two young boys who were caught up far from the shore. The waves were very strong, and he was gesticulating wildly to get them to come closer to shore. I saw the ocean tide come in very far, and I couldn’t walk home on my usual path North, and had to turn south. The ocean had created a watery barrier dividing the beach. Rather than risk getting very wet or jumping across the few feet of shallow sea that block my path, I simply headed south.
But I’ve been thinking about the idea of True Noth lately. We talk about that at our HMO a lot, that quality is our true north. I heard it again on the literal 8th time I’m rewatching key scenes in Dawson’s Creek (yes I think it’s like the 8th time) where Joey Potter looks at Dawson Leery and asks him if he’s lost his true north. It’s the fixed point in the sky that you can always use to guide and navigate.
Many people seem to have lost their true north. Mr. Plastic Picker was very frustrated with work, and I was frustrated for him as well. We were not even supposed to be back in San Diego, and were technically still on vacation. But 4 sick calls in his department later, somehow my husband is working overtime shifts and filling a need. He doesn’t need the overtime and we certainly don’t need the money, and he’d rather be home. But there are patients that need procedures done and that is what happens when you are a doctor. His true north I think is his patients. He does really care about his patients.
My true north is the earth and the climate. And with that, everything is connected. And stories. In the end I’ve realized that I’m interested in stories. Fictional stories like Dawson’s Creek but also real stories. In this time of great hardship due to COVID, political and global upheaval, and also of the existential threat of climate change – what role did you choose to play? Mr. Plastic Picker chose to be the quiet hero, and show up to work. We had to cancel family and business meetings today so that he could do procedures. I’ve chosen to write and do this weird @drplasticpicker journey that helps a little and certainly doesn’t hurt. And if you’ve chosen to play the victim or the villain, than that is okay. We all have our roles. But I don’t think the victims or the villains ever get sequels. Thanks for hearing my continued ramblings regarding life lessons and the earth. Doing a lot of climate work still. Yesterday was an epic day. Dr. Dear Friend and I are going to a protest/rally. Hopefully we don’t get arrested. LOL. No we won’t! But we may make the news. Will let you know! Watch out fossil fuel company, Dr. Plastic Picker is coming to get you!
The same hike, but everyone sees a different vantage point.
August 19, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I’m storing up the memories still. Between my little sister’s visit with our nephew and niece for the first time in almost 2 years, and then our road trip to the Bay Area, our family is storing up those memories. We are back a day earlier than expected and I still have two day of vacation and two days of a weekend off, and now I realize that time is mine and does not belong to the HMO. I’m going to give that time to my climate work and getting the kids ready for the new school year. Our daughter wants to refresh her room, hang up some new posters and swap out some furniture. Our son doesn’t want to do anything with his room, but I need to venture in to dust and declutter.
Our trash art piece perched atop a rescued plastic plant.
August 15, 2021
by drplasticpicker
Joey Potter was right in Dawson’s Creek. She told Dawson during the last season, as he again had an existential crisis about the meaning of his work as a teen soap drama writer – what has he accomplished? Joey looks at Dawson (although she ends up with Pacey Witter – HUNKY DREAM BOAT) that as a writer he is lucky, he gets to live life twice. And that is true on this blog as well. I get to live life twice, and have these blog memories to revist that give me so much joy.
Two two pots. The left will become an upcycled succulent planter, and the right is my morning tea kettle. I bought it in college.
August 14, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I really appreciate everyone following along this environmental journey of mine. This morning I did something simple, I did our family’s monthly donations. Mr. Plastic Picker has to do a lot of overtime due to us being short-staffed during COVID and I got busy last month due to some big climate projects. But we are back at it and donated $200 this month. I try to be strategic with our money as it’s hard earned and we actually work for it. It’s hard to find a more impactful charity than Rainforest Trust, so I’m back at it and the money went to the Rainfroest Trust project in the Central African Republic and Chinko National Forest. By established a National Park there, they help preserve the land that is where African forest meets savanna. Protected species include lions, elephants, African wild dogs and much more. We now know elephants are like beavers, bioengineers of this earth https://www.rainforesttrust.org/projects/central-african-republic-save-a-vast-wilderness-for-lions-chimpanzees-and-elephants/. So it does feel good this morning. My living a sustainable life and working still and making money and not spending it on frivolous things, we chose to help preserve over 200 acres of African forest today.
Fancy night out. We didn’t go in. Just parked in front for free. Restaurant was down the street.
August 13, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I have no problem with fancy and those who are fancy. I guess I would be a hypocrite because I like fancy real estate (that has value of course). It’s much cheaper to join the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club than buy an Oregon Farm. Plus it’s easier to get to a local tennis and beach club than the 14 hour drive from San Diego to our farm. Previously I would judge those that were part of a Beach & Tennis Club but now I don’t. I just don’t play tennis, and I already live near the beach which I visit early in the mornings myself rather than being surrounding by others.
But we went to the neighborhood just north of us which is La Jolla. I’m forever grateful for that area because as their real estate values skyrocket and normal professionals like doctors cannot even afford to live there, our neighborhood which is just south which has larger lots and actually a home which I like more with normal neighbors (one who egged our house the night before – really people???!!!) increases in home value as well.
We went to what was for us a fancy restaurant to eat with the kids for our wedding anniversary. Mr. Plastic Picker and I have been together almost 25 years. Married for almost 20 years. That’s a very long time. We were laughing in the car as we were driving our two teenage progeny home from the dinner, and I clutched Mr. Plastic Picker’s right arm as he was driving with his left and we couldn’t help giggling at a joke. And then our 16 year old son said, “that’s what happens when you are married forever.” It was a funny and beautiful moment. And yes both teenage children were subject to our chatter because it was our anniversary and the entire point of said anniversary was to have them. And they are here now and teengaers, and we fed them fancy food. Fancy children. My parting comment as we left the fancy neighborhood, “I hope you guys get good jobs. But if you don’t, please marry a dentist.” And that is all. LOL.
