August 7, 2021

by drplasticpicker

It’s Saturday morning at 630am, and I have a cup of green tea beside the computer as I’m clicking away. How I came to blogging at 630am with a cup of tea (no sugar and no cream) versus 4am with a cup of coffee (lots of sugar and non-diary creamer) has been a two year journey. It began with a bag of trash along the beach and starting this weird Dr. Plastic Picker journey of trying to save the earth. Wildfires are raging throughout the world including Greece and Europe, and near our own family farm in Oregon – but this is the reality of the warming world. I still have hope as we’ve been through this cycle before of wildfires and I committed to a decade of action two years ago. Yet I did not fully realize one of the serendipitous results of becoming an eco-avatar is that I simply came into spiritual and mental balance as a person. The writing, the trash art, and the freedom to explore new facets of my personality has been liberating.

Do you have dreams that are deferred? I never thought I would through climate and health activism reach for those dreams and form new ones. But when one faces the existential crisis of climate change and realize how bad it is but then realize how joyful it is to try to avert disaster, then that is the magic combination that helped me just reach for my dreams deferred. I decided to not compromise and waste time on middle-management nonsense but instead try to focus on the meaningful aspects of my work work. I’ve focused on the vaccine committee portion of my work-portfolio and brought my passion there, and have had local success. I bought with a family member a farm in Oregon and that 197 acres with the eagles soaring above and the view of the southern cascade slopes covered in Douglas Fir which I know will be sustainable harvest because we are stewards of the land- gives me so much joy. We are hoping to go up there is the air quality is okay in a week. If not, we will wait. I decided that as a physician I am enough, and to work on my own issues and explore my wellness journey and also Mr. Plastic Picker’s wellness journey. I rant and rave about middle-management, but he is middle-manager too. And he deserves a wife and life-partner that is present and there for him. And my just being happy and joyful and laughing with my family all day long, is something that spills over from our family to our siblings and our community.

Life is short but these days for me the days are gloriously long. I was watching Dawson’s Creek (yes I am still in my phase of loving Joey Potter and Pacey Witter and their romance) and Joey tells Dawson in one episode, that as a writer he gets to live life twice and how amazing is that. And in this blog, I get to live those dreams deferred not just once but twice.

August 6, 2021

by drplasticpicker

My sister is in town. We are finally catching up as a family and it’s good to spend time with my niece and nephew. Kids really do grow up too fast. But one of the wonderful things about being Dr. Plastic Picker and sleeping better, eating more vegetables, and generally living life in the moment – is that time has actually slowed down for me. My life is fundamentally different. My brain is rewiring back into a slower dimension. And when life is at a slower pace you can smell the parsley.

I took my sister on a tour of the front garden, back garden, balcony garden and my not as successful roofdeck garden. We ate tomatoes that were so sweet. I showed her the baby watermelons and tried to name all the plants. I pulled some parlsey and had her smell it. It was a very strong smell. Parsley is an herb and we probably have too much of it.

Now that I’m three weeks without coffee, I noticed that I generally snack less. I think it’s because I’m not always having something 2-4 times a day that has extra sugar in it, and Mr. Plastic Picker thought that added sugar probably spiked my insulin up and then that in turn would bring my blood sugar down – and then I would want to snack. This is absolutely true and I remember learning this in endocrine fellowship.

I’m saving a lot of money as well since coffee is not cheap. Even at the HMO coffee shop a soy latte would be $2-3 a piece, and then Dr. Dear Friend and I would alternate who would buy the coffee. I’m still collecting the coffee grounds from the HMO coffee shop.

And the other thing I notice is that there are so many different kinds of tea that are everywhere. My own house I have probably enough tea to last me at least two years. At the office, there is a line of different teas in the nurses room that is up for grabs when I need a bit. I tried matcha tea yesterday and put just one little packet of sugar and it was an interesting drink. I’m still drinking some caffeine but it’s nothing compared to the lattes before.

So life is slow and meaningful these days. I was afraid my creativity would wane without the coffee, but I made a little trash art friend yesterday from nerf gun bullets that had been reclaimed. We had a really great meeting with the HMO Green Team. And yesterday I just turned off work and spent time with my sister and niece and nephew. That was a big success for me. I just turned it off because I was OFF and I needed to reconnect with my life and family. I truly hope you do the same with yours. What is more important than family?

August 5, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Last month I didn’t get my act together to post the June 2021 Plastic Picker Totals, but I was still cleaning our community and removing plastic. Despite my Star Trek tangents https://drplasticpicker.com/the-star-trek-enterprise-romance-of-tpol-and-trip-im-going-to-give-them-the-ending-they-deserve/ (which remains my most visited blog post!!!) and middle management ramblings, I started this blog to keep track of my efforts to try to save the earth through small but meaningful acts. It turned into an entire soon to be official non-profit https://sdpediatriciansforcleanair.com/ and a recently published journal article https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk/vol12/iss1/1/. But this blog is about me being an eco-avatar and picking up litter, and I have remained true despite not posting last month. So here are the June and July totals, plus a two month average for fun! In total I’ve collected now 511 bags of trash, and salvaged 1665 items from the ocean or landfill to be deployed into our not quite circular economy (mostly donations to Goodwill and recycling) https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/. My hobby doesn’t cost me much, gets me outside and exercising, and I’m helping the earth. It’s a win (wink) win situation.

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August 4, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I’m pretty pleased with myself this morning. I made our local AAP newsletter, the local news outlets, and also likely it will be publicized on the HMO internal news. I played the generic pediatrician accepting the plaque for California HPV Vaccine Week. The entire process was serendipitous and fun. I stood really still in the background and smiled, and I pretended I was on a TV show. Which I kind of was. I knew my place and my role. Really it was for the politician to shine. I was happy and smiling, and shook hands. I said my piece, I think well, but in a generic way. I was the generic pediatrician and I had a great time playing that role!

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August 3, 2021

by drplasticpicker

When you love someone or some place, you take a risk. You take a risk that that person or place – can be hurt or can be lost. Oregon is burning, and there are wildfires near the farm. My family member is up there and so far things are contained, but they are ready to leave if need be. We have insurance. We have money. We can rebuild if need be. But the threat of the forest fires caused by lightening strikes, is a stark reminder that no where is safe. We’ve lived through many wildfires in Southern California. And the Oregon farm, seeing pictures of the forest fires in the distance is numbingly familiar.

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August 1, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I love this town so fiercely it hurts. It’s the city that accepted a family of Vietnamese political refugees, and allowed a little girl who did not speak any English until kindergarten to attend Crimson University. It’s a town that is tolerant, diverse and open. It’s a town that is my home. It’s a town that has values, deep down military and family values to our core. I had to leave San Diego for over 15 years to fully appreciate the warmth of our climate and our people. The innate goodness of us. Especially the south bay, there is something special about the south bay.

Life has been absolutely crazy with the delta variant. My meager career as a middle-manager keeps on keeping on. Likely more from inertia from the organization than anything. I’m still here, doing my job but doing it in a more sustainable way. I’m able to weed through the HMO nonsense still, and focus on the core issues that should be addressed. It’s another COVID surge due to the delta variant, and it’s really all hands on deck right now. I worked this morning in our weekend clinic, and it was not as bad as I expected. Mostly because phenomenol nurses and MDs the day before pulled together and leaned in and blasted through messages.

The culture of taking care of each other, and watching out for each other – has 100% to do with just the people who work. Those of us who see patients, put in IVs, triage messages. It has nothing to do with middle-management or upper-management. Those that grab the glory, they are very rarely the cause of said glory. Just talking-heads, many of them.

I haven’t been blogging as much as life has been full and beautiful, and also worrisome with the delta variant. But I did have dinner with a good high school friend who I hadn’t seen in over 27 years. It was a lovely dinner with her family, and well behaved children. We went to a old downtown place that I’ve wanted to return to for decades, but wasn’t able to. But we ate there together and we all caught up on life.

But the best part of the evening was walking through the seeing our town. I remember when downtown was run down and dangerous. I hardly ever dared to drive in downtown during highschool except once to attend an opera at the Civic Center, the one-way streets were so intimidating. But now, I pulled into East Village via the 94W and glided into a parking spot that I own. Yes I own a piece of downtown, as I invested in a condo over a decade ago when the real estate market had dropped. The condo has two parking spots. I marveled that parking as there was a Padres game was $33! I parked for free. And I walks from the parking spot across the revelers, pass the stadium and all the beautiful people having fun. We had a wonderful dinner, and then I walked back. And every step and every sight was lovely.

July 29, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I had more middle-management nonsense yesterday to deal with. I usually don’t let minor personality issues bother me, as I can usually work with most people. But we heard a set of data yesterday and I tried to peel back the layers of things and figure out what went wrong and is going wrong. The set of data basically said that poor babies are not getting their vaccines. The issue is a set of people have not been hired, and another set of people who have been hired and recruited by me can’t work unless the first set are in the system. That is it. That’s the entire point. I know it’s a systemic issue and there are always excuses, but I needed to know the why. My questions may have bothered people, and sometimes it seems like we are asked to do impossible tasks in middle management. I was asked to do a seemingly impossible task almost five years ago, but I did it. This I felt was a safe meeting (at least I feel safe) but I guess I’m somehow intimidating. I had a long and exhausting conversation about middle-management nonsense afterwards and we moved forward somewhat. I’m still frustrated because in the end poor babies still aren’t getting their vaccines and my hands are tied in terms of pulling levers to fix that issue, and even if the team works well together and I somehow stop appearing intiminidating to folks – in the end we didn’t move forward.

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July 28, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I really really want a coffee right now. It’s been exactly 10 days since I stopped drinking coffee and I’ve finally weaned my body from the caffeine. But right now the COVID-19 delta variant really is making life difficult, and I want a coffee. I won’t drink a coffee but I really want it. What I really want is the sugar, cream and the caffeine to make me feel super-human and bring me joy. I want the aroma to mask the true stinkiness that is life right now.

But what one wants, one should not have. I really want to go to Montana to stay at a close friends lake cabin and go hiking at Glacier National Park. I really want to have the beach cleanup for my high school class. But I struggled last night and read up on the recommendations, and I have to make a decision. This decision does not come lightly. The delta variant is here. Kids are getting sick and in about 1-2 months, many are going to come in with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. We have to cancel. I need to tell people now. [PAUSE] It is done. That was very painful. So painful. But best to let people know asap, so that people can get flight refunds and change plans.

Now I have to talk to my sister about this amazing trip we had planned for Montana. I honestly think we have to cancel this as well. It’s just not worth the risk as we have two under 12 year old children who are unvaccinated. There is a risk to everything. But we can be together and not necessarily at a national park – albeit an amazing one. I need to talk to my sister today and talk to my good friend who has graciously offered us to stay at his place. We’ll probably just drive up to our farm in Oregon instead.

These decisions are hard. But just like giving up coffee and all that sugar, sometimes one is strong enought to make these decisions. Prevention is such a better strategy. I went in for hopefully was my last filling for a few decades. I’m determined to keep my teeth healthy and that is a large part of why I gave up coffee with all that cream and sugar I used to put. As my very young dentist was starting, I told her that I had given up coffee. It’s nothing she asked of me, but she said it was a good idea in general. Hey, the upside is that I can whiten my teeth with those rinses and they’ll stay pearly white since there is no more coffee to stain them!!! See, there is always an upside.

The upside of cancelling the flights to Montana, is that our son was resistent to doing a summer creative writing program Mr. Plastic Picker wanted him to do. But now since he’ll be home an extra week, I think we’ll be able to convince him to do it. It’s important for his career development and a great opportunity.

But it just really is painful today. Not drinking coffee this morning. Not be able to go on the vacations that we planned. But the reality of the delta variant is here, and I chose to reduce risks to loved ones rather than these other things that I really really really really really really want to do. So today for Dr. Plastic Picker, ten days ago was still the last coffee. And the reality is the delta variant is here – so please get vaccinated if you can and wear a mask.

July 26, 2021

by drplasticpicker

LOL. That’s an awfully witty blog title Dr. Plastic Picker. How many clicks do you think it will garner? As this blog is non-monetized and completely for my own amusement and to keep me on track on my environmental advocacy, it does somewhat matter. The HMO Family Practice residents are descending upon pediatrics today and I am making vegan banana beer bread with coconut oil and extra dash of cinnamon and extra splash of vanilla extract. I even added in some coarsely chopped walnuts, I was feeling so fancy. I used one of Mr. Plastic Picker’s fancy IPA beers for the recipe. It essentially cost me nothing as I had all the ingredients already and a lot of overripe bananas.

I referred back to this recipe on this blog but used just bananas and not mangos. https://drplasticpicker.com/banana-mango-beer-bread-re-imagining-a-bad-costco-mango/ I also bought a bag of fancy granola from Costco. Otherwise these days instead of spending $150 on meat-filled breakfast sandwhich box from Einstein Bagels, I just made it simple. I just contribute when asked and do what brings me joy which was grabbing something simple at Costco and averting foodwaste and doubling a recipe. Half of this bananas beer bread will stay home, and half will come to clinic for the residents.

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July 23, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I really need to knock out the bags this weekend. I’m at 12 bags I think, so hopefully will do solo beach cleanups Saturday and Sunday. Today is a full week coffee-free mornings! My wake-time has shifted later so I’m up at 530 rather than 4am. I think this is healthier. My sleep is deeper and I’m going to bed earlier. My muscles are achy at night though which was an unexpected withdrawal symptom. This makes sense because when I was running half marathons, I fueled myself on coffee. I would drink one before the races and on long-run days would need more. This is not sustainable nor healthy. I’ve heard of older runners former pediatricians who needed knee replacements early on because they kept on running more than they should have. After my myalgias resolve, I’ll restart running again but maybe just 2-3 times a week 3 miles or so. Right now I’m working on getting through the days without coffee, and that is it. Things feel a peaceful sort of good. Yesterday I ate tomatoes, argula salad (thank you Dr. Dear Friend!), vegetarian burrito, lots of plums (thank you dear patient family), and a banana. I think it was a plant-forward type of day!!! I did eat other foods but those were the plants I ate.

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