Beautiful image only my daughter could have taken.
December 11, 2020
by drplasticpicker
Yesterday was kind of a mediocre day (or so I thought). I had done a lot of work in the morning when I was up at 430am, sending emails and sorting out the premed interns and their work. But no special baking projects in the morning. I went to work and tried to see patients, and spent time with them in a fundamentally real way and tackling issues about food and diabetes and true wellness. Trying to practice the way I think I ought to practice, and not what the modern heatlhcare infrastructure tells me how I should practice. I was also trying to dodge COVID-19 and was upset for one moment when Nurse L wasn’t wearing an N-95 for a patient that had a parent that was positive at home. It was a scary moment for me, as I really do care about him. He was masked and had a face-shield on, and it was for a very brief moment. I had made sure he was not in the room with high risk patients longer than necessary.
This blog has always been about helping us live a more sustainable life. I had a particularly creative day yesterday making four mini-figurines partially from gathered ocean plastic waste. I had made them during one of our middle management meetings, along with a tofu container turned soap dish, an iPhone cradle (actually two), and a robot with a plastic brain. I was really pleased with myself and sent pictures of my mini-figurines to everyone and posted in everywhere on Facebook. I got some reactions from folks, and hopefully raised some awareness about plastic waste. I was creative at breakfast and sauteed some bell peppers and placed it in a warmed pita bread with a bit of real mozarella cheese for our teen son. I used to give him so many Eggos, and it is satisfying to give him something wholesome, vegetable-filled and non-processed after all these years.
Lots of thoughts this morning. Figured out why I’ve had some long-standing thought patterns about working-mothers versus stay-at-home mothers, and it has nothing to do with my fellow mothers. Like most working mothers, I’ve had some resentment of stay-at-home mothers who is actuality don’t really exist. There are very few fully stay-at-home mothers. It has to do with a little bit of resentment I had when I was eight-years-old. I started working at my father’s accounting office at 8 years of age, helping in the family tax business. We all worked and helped from 8-14 years of age, and also at my uncle’s All-You-Can-Eat Chinese Buffet (eventhough we weren’t Chinese). Soon after that I began doing a lot of extracurriculars in high school and worked in research labs afterschool. The entire time one of my male cousin was living a more idyllic life and had piano lessons, surfing, and never really worked. I had really wanted to be on the soccer team, but who was going to drive me to soccer? But now I realize I am who I am because of those early experiences. Indeed I think my college or medical school essay was exactly on that topic of hard work. My cousin is now a cosmetic dental surgeon and has a younger former beauty-pagent wife with three kids who all sing. He is an upstanding citizen and who am I to judge his life? I am a pediatrician and Assistant Boss and married the college sweetheart who probably could have been in a beauty pagent if there had been one for men back then, and I am an environmental advocate who picks up litter. I have two kids, and that they are alive and healthy – as a pediatrician I know that is the greatest gift of all. But I resented him when I was eight years of age, and some of it was probably because he was a boy and in our culture boys got everything. Eventhough I was top of my highschool class, by mere virtue that he was a boy everything he did was oooh and aaahed about more. I’ve since set aside that resentment, as I realize it was a byproduct of a useless patriarchal cultural system that I no longer adhere to. Now I know why I didn’t marry someone of my own actual national identity. Wow.
Braided hair of the tween who goes to private school. She is a nice kid.
December 5, 2020
by drplasticpicker
Can I tell you a Dr. Plastic Picker secret? It’s not that our two children go to private school. Most of my patient families know that as I’m open about that when they ask me questions. I myself went to a stellar suburban public school, and had mixed feelings about sending them to private school. From my suburban public school I was probably better equipped then most of my prep school classmates at Crimson University. Dr. Plastic Picker’s secret is that I don’t really like many of the other parents who have also send their kids to our same private school. About a quarter I really like, but three-quarters I can’t stand. When I have to interact with those parents as a fellow parent, I sometimes question our choice. But it’s the price I pay to send my kids to private school. But now that I think about it, I’m sure every parent at any type of school probably feels the same way about our fellow parents. So maybe Dr. Plastic Picker’s secret isn’t much of a secret?
This is the second year we cooked on this National Holiday. Last year we cooked our first Thanksgiving Turkey and had the resulting yumminess of turkey broth and turkey soup afterwards https://drplasticpicker.com/cooking-a-turkey-saved-money-used-less-plastic-and-finally-felt-at-home/. The entire home-made feast cost us $22 with plenty of leftovers for my parents house and our large household of six.
Monitoring vinegar is like monitoring GPAs and Networth.
November 21, 2020
by drplasticpicker
We watched Ocean’s Eleven yesterday. It was the Friday night after finishing the trimester, and the kids wanted a typical Friday movie night which we hadn’t done in a while. I didn’t take any photos or post on Facebook and Instagram, which made my tween daughter happy. She’s suspicious of my social media postings. We had her 2nd pizza from the dough she made last week, and again it was so fluffy! It had been a busy clinic day. I haven’t been monitoring most people’s schedules which I need to do sometimes as Assistant Boss, but gosh I’ve been busy. I wasn’t able to get to my 330pm virtual appointment until well after 5pm because I had lots of teen physicals and put in an implantable birth control in a patient. When I got home at 615pm or so, which is not bad but it’s so dark these days, the family had just started eating. So I got to have a slice of homemade pizza which was simply the most fluffy piece of pizza deliciousness and some salad. We moved onto movie and bagged carmel and chedder Costco popcorn we had purchased in bulk. The movie was really good with only a couple of scenes where Mr. Plastic Picker had to stand in front of the TV waving his arms at inappropriate parts. I actually did watch the whole movie and didn’t fall asleep. It was fun to see Brad Pitt and George Clooney is their hey-day.
Spices that make up the Philly Cheesesteak Sirloin Rub
Novemeber 8, 2020
by drplasticpicker
We watched President-Elect Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris yesterday as a family. We made it an event. Before the actual speech and dinner, we had been inspired by real friends on my personal Facebook that suggested Philly Cheesesteak and Arizona Ice Tea in celebration of the swing states that brought the electoral collage home. The entire day had been happy with smiles and CNN playing in the background. Everyone seemed to be smiling, even the political pundits. Trump has really aged Jake Tapper. We were low on kitchen staples anyway so needed to go to a grocer.
Halloween ended with Beyond Beef Nachos with a Sour Cream web (so vegetarian?), and Turkey Mummy Dogs (Pollotarian?). Anyway, it was delicious and homemade.
November 1, 2020
by drplasticpicker
I will never forget this Quarantine Halloween 2020. It was the Saturday before an historic election where so much is on the line. I am as anxious as everyone and sometimes I want to empty the contents of my stomach when the images of what ifs crosses my mind – especially if this election does not go our way. It’s also the last weekend before we venture into the third wave of COVID-19 infections, and pediatricians are worried about children becoming secondary victims of FLU-VID (when flu and covid clash). No matter how much one debates COVID-19 impacting children, influenza’s disproportionate effect on children is as much accepted truth as anything in the world. Influenzae kills kids especially babies and asthmatics. So this fall is a frightening moment for us all, including your local litter-picking pediatrician. Vaccine rates are plummeting nation-wide.
Eco-Avatar of Maggie P, one of our AAP Climate Change and Health Childrens’ Art Council Members. Eco-Avatar, my son. What the heck? What do those horns mean? Is that yellow halo? I’m so confused.
September 22, 2020
by Dr. Plastic Picker
The first picture is the Eco-Avatar of Maggie P. She is one of the members of our AAP Climate Change and Health Children’s Art Council. She drew a super cute and colorful Yoda. The second drawing is the Eco-Avatar of my teen son. He had to apply to our council also. We are gathering Eco-Avatars from all 11 of our volunteers for a group project. It’s really being organized by our premedical intern #1 who is doing a very professional and fantastic job. It’s hard not to compare your children to other people’s children. It’s a fault of probably 100% of parents out there, even your local litter-picking pediatrician. This morning I’m looking at both avatars and immediately comparing my son’s avatar to Maggie P’s who is still in elementary school and one of my patients. Is my son okay? His avatar has two red horns and a yellow halo? Is he trying to tell me something? Or is it that he’s a sophomore in high school.
I take these pictures from the back without them knowing all the time.
August 24, 2020
by drplasticpicker
It’s our last morning here in Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Forest to mark our small escape from the COVID-19 quarantine. It has been six months and we went for a short 3-day 2-night reprieve to renew ourselves yet at the same time trying to keep safe with social distancing, masked and plenty of hand washing. The desert was pretty empty – Mr. Plastic Picker and I agreed that we unlikely caught COVID-19 here.
