June 2, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I’M STILL HERE!!! I’M STILL ASSISTANT BOSS!!! If that bothers you or you are wondering if I’m throwing in the towel and going back to clinic full time, then you are NOT MY FRIEND. If you encouraged me to step down when I was at a moment of weakness and frustrated, then you are NOT MY FRIEND. No you are not. And this art piece reflects how sometimes I feel. Battered by life, my eyes assymmetric and red due to blepharitis at 3pm every day but cleaned up and although clearly dented and not quite right – I HAVE MY KNIVES OUT and READY TO FIGHT! LOL. LOL. LOL.

Almost 500 bags of litter, and this is what I’ve become. Really strong. Really well. And with an entire new skillset I never knew I could possess! My right leg was very achy last night as I was trying to get to bed. I had spent the entire Tuesday very exhausted just emailing and trying to coordinate work projects and climate projects. But being fundamentally well and knowing that I’m not to blame for the world’s and department’s problems and we have to solve both together as collective communities had enabled me to google two simple “yoga for sleep” youtube videos. I did them both about 10 minutes total, and my leg felt better and I fell gloriously to sleep. What a wonderful and deep night’s sleep.

And so I will go to work today and I will think about the earth. Lots of amazing climate projects we are doing today. We have 30 MDs from healthcare organizations through San Diego meeting to do Eco-America training. Meeting scheduled with our Area Medical Director, the Area Assistant Medical Director for Physician Wellness and three impassioned climate activist ready to talk about what we as a healthcare organization need to do for climate change. Climate change and health rotation, and climate change and health /sustainability fellowship. It’s all kind of crazy.

Then in terms of fiscal health dovetailing with financial health, we are finishing our refinance of our primary home for a 15 year fixed at 2.75%. Finished the rental property finance already. In total saved about 400K in interest over the lifetime of both loans. At 58 I will reach pension and house is paid off, so I will at that point say good-bye to my workplace and I have decided that likely I’ll stay in pediatrics but probably volunteer to work in the Indian Health Services in Oregon or San Diego. That has been a longtime dream. Invested in two businesses, two commercial properties, and buying a farm in Oregon (home inspection due this week). It’s all kind of crazy and wonderful, and we have that money simply because I decided that due to the housing crisis, it seemed like I should sell one of the condos so that someone else could become a home-owner and I could buy with a family member this huge property as a vacation home and help be a steward for 90 acres of forest.

And that is my crazy life. Making funny trash art that made me laugh and put in context these minor work issues when someone supposedly didn’t come in for work but in actuality it was that people did not ask directly, and when it’s filtered by someone else’s preception of it – the entire situation gets completely garbled. It took me all day to figure it out, because I actually sent two text messages and talked to people. Most people want to do the right thing, and most people’s misunderstanding of other’s motives and words is due to their inability to listen to others. And this is Dr. Plastic Picker ready for a full day of clinic and climate work, and trying to be a better listener! I finally understand patello-femoral syndrome in adolescents too. Just took the time to fully read a consultants note. There is so much to learn in the world!

June 1, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Wow. How did it become June already? I think I’ll post my monthly bag totals later this week. I did make it to 20 bags and have in total collected 464 bags and salvaged 1617 items. I’ve added a new category called “organics” when I find fallen fruit or the odd banana peel, and if it inspires me – I’ll bring it home and throw it into the composter. Yesterday was a large bread bag full of plastic waste along Tourmaline to La Jolla, and mostly plastic bags that floated back onto shore. I noticed so many little crabs yesterday along the rocks. The cactus that sits framing the view of the cove along the outlook was blooming yesterday. I’ve never seen those cacti bloom. I wonder if it has to do with climate change?

It’s funny how the math works out, and how life has a rhythm to it. In about 2 months right at my 2 year blogging anniversary I’ll about reach bag 500. My goal is to blog for at least another 2 years, and get to bag 1000 while still working and living life. The plastic picking and ocean cleaning and the blogging, is about giving me time to reflect and write about silly things for fun. Often times the blogging has been painful but necessary, and I thank you for following along this journey. At some point I’ll take it all down from the internet and sort and choose what to put in a book. Then keep those special pieces just for myself. For now, I’m living this journey out loud in hopes that it helps my fellow physicians and also the earth.

It was another beautiful 20 bags. I have to believe each bag makes a difference. I saw someone yesterday also cleaning the beach in my remote corner in the early morning, and it was such a beautiful sight. I waved to him. He waved back and had a Gold Retriever with him. His bag was green.

May 31, 2021

by drplasticpicker

The thoughts and dreams of Southwestern Oregon and our hopefully family farm sits in the back of my mind, and makes me so happy. There is not much for me to do right now. I’m sitting on our portion of the downpayment and ready to deploy whenever it’s time. The way some people love luxury purses, is the way I love real estate. It gives me this fuzzy and warm feeling, knowing it actually grows our networth if we do it the right way – but at the same time gives me so much enjoyment in other ways that actually doesn’t cost me any money.

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May 30, 2021

by drplasticpicker

There are school pictures of me from around the time I was going through a trauma. It’s of a little girl who had a smile that was not really a smile. Not comfortable with herself probably because of that trauma. It was brief and I have a loving family and loving set of parents who put a stop to it. I had forgotten completely about it, as young children are able to do. But I think it’s reflected in my smile from those school pictures. My mom has often mentioned my smile, how in that photo it’s a wonderful smile and in that photo it seems forced. In that I think the woman who created me in her womb and who tried the best that she could to protect and nurture me through my life, is right. I think if your mother is a true mother who loves and has tried to protect you, than that person is a good judge of whether that smile is a real smile.

I usually post a photo to go with each blog post. Indeed for me litter picking and trash art is a very visual process, and I’m often inspired by the photos. But today, I don’t need to show you the photo of the big smile I had. Maybe I should post it. I’m smiling from cheek to cheek. I’m proud of that photo because I took it with a friend I met for the first time who I’ve been working with for over a year. When you are in the company of good friends who know you and share a true and good purpose and are sharing good food, than that is when a smile of that magnitude comes out.

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May 28, 2021

Everything is moving full forward with the purchase. Inspections. Insurance estimates, Well inspections, We are forgoing the septic tank pumping since it’s supposed to be every 10 years, and it’s only been 2. I’m the second day back from the whirlwind 48 hour trip to our hopefully family farm in southwest Oregon tucked in the lower elevations of the Cascades and I’m still in disbelief. Was the sky that blue? Was the air that clean? The earth there was healthy. I remember being up in the Andes in Peru, and the deforested area that had been replaced by non-native Eucaluptus and thought – this place is not healthy. These trees are not supposed to be here. Some places were, but some places the earth felt sick. As I looked out at the sky off a fancy house in the fanciest neighborhoods in our area, I just noticed the sky. The blue was not as blue. The air was not as clean. Despite the expense of the house and the real estate value, you can’t buy that clean air, the clean water, the elevation that will protect against unprecedented rising mean global temperatures.

The Colorado River for the first time in history is expected to have shortgages. Arizona may be receiving a rationed portion of the water. We are soon to reach briefly the tipping point and the next five years will see one of the hottest on record. 0.8 degrees to 1.8 degrees? How high will we go? We are fighting to keep global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees. Still life altering but not as catastrophic.

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May 27, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I’m still processing it all. It was a whirlwind 48 hours. Someone mentioned to me on a work committee call that I was able to make because I was at the airport on a layover flying home, “I hope you enjoy your vacation.” I’m not sure why, but that kind of took me aback. Vacation? This trip was not a vacation. There is never a vacation from being Dr. Plastic Picker. This particular person didn’t mean anything by it and we have a complicated history between us, but it just shows no one knows your journey as well as you know your journey and I certainly do not know this colleagues – and the challenge is how and if to articulate it to folks. I’m not particularly close with the person who made this innocuous comment and it was meant as a pleasantry, so I didn’t feel the need to explain it further. I just said it was not a vacation and moved on to the next topic of the committee meeting.

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May 24, 2021

by drplasticpicker

It’s been a world-wind two years, especially the last year. While everyone was holed up and quarantining at home, our department went to the office every single day. We worked the entire time. With more time at home though because the kids were home and the rest of the world shut down, I further dived into climate advocacy work. I am proud of that work. Wrote a paper, spoke at what seemed like a gazillion virtual conferences, picked up almost 500 bags of trash, and kept up the blogging and climate advocacy recruiting, But the world is opening up and I’m resting right now. I still have projects coming up. Next weekend we have a PHAC dinner and need to socialize with the beautiful people in the slide. I’m actually looking forward to it. Going to make Mr. Plastic Picker come as well. It will be good for him. Our fearless leader Dr. Bruce Bekkar gave us a big shout out at the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health Conference, which I attended virtually with an HMO colleage. One of the UCSD medical students and the the two pharmacy student leaders from VCU Sustainable Pharmacay Project also attended. I didn’t check up on the three students, but I did nudge UCSD to pay for one’s registration and the other two students I paid for them to register. Technically we still have a day of meetings tonight. But I’ve lobbied already and there are enough people. At some point, you need to know as a climate advocate when you’ve done enough and let others help. Another pediatrician and the other premed student are going to help, as they’ve essentially planned and done everthing for the journal club on Clean Air that is upcoming. The social media ad that our premed intern made is really beautiful. I’m excited about that. Then there is the Eco-America training early June.

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May 23, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Yesterday was just a wonderful Saturday. Absolutely wonderful. I’m now looking at the trash art peice “Foxy Lady” that I made in the early morning, and she really looks how I feel. Eyes closed. Gliding through life. Wine cork limbs made from wine-corks friends sent me. But that is how I felt yesterday, how she looked. My mother said she was beautiful. Foxy Lady is body positive because her body does not conform to conventional ideals of beauty, yet her eyes are closed and she is looking inward. And that heart of hers and that soul or hers is happy, and deep down happiness is beautiful. She worked really hard to get back to that peace.

I’m sitting at 6am, later than my usual 3-4am blogging. I had ideas of several blog posts and as the readership knows, Dr. Plastic Picker is passionate about writing/blogging. But Mr. Plastic Picker had a hard day yesterday, and I decided to crawl back into bed with my lawfully wed husband and our 12-pound puppy and hug him and puppy. And I was blessed with another full sleep cycle. I woke up refreshed albeit a bit later than usual. I usually go to bed pretty early these days.

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May 22, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I’m here with the you. Not over in Oregon. I will be in Oregon on Tuesday. On Tuesday I will be in Oregon with my family member. But today this morning at 539AM I am here at home at my kitchen table. I will be on earth every day, for now. What I mean to say, is that I am present. I am fully present.

When we had been looking at the Big Island Property, it was the frentic dizzying journey up and down different Lava zones thinking about coffee farms, lychee orchards and all the different possibilities of agricultural farms we could have. Now that we are “Under Contract” and “Pending” on the 193.5 Acres (yes I forgot the 1/2 acre) in Southwestern Oregon, I feel a quiet sense of contentment and imagining what the real future of retirement will look like. But I’m not racing toward thinking about retirement. I’m planning, but I’m enjoying the wonderful present tense that is having two teenagers under my roof and a crazy 12 pound black poodle and two bunnies, a Mr. Plastic Picker that loves said children fiercely and still overworks, and the sense of rightness that I have now about life. Despite my dental issues, I think I’m on the right path albeit requires a bit more flossing and maybe calcium rich foods.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m still enjoying the whole process of Oregon. But I am still committed to work work and climate work. It’s just nice knowing that there is another place that will be home with lots of things to do that make me happy. And I think that is the key to life really. At least the key to our first world existence life where we are all prone to ennui. Have some sort of purpose, and hopefully a purpose that will help the world and your fellow earthlings.

It’s funny ennui, which is a wonderful word, I haven’t had that sense in two years. Truly. I used to get it all the time. That sense of aimlessly. What is my purpose in life? Where am I going? Is this is? Now I am just happy. And thank you everyone for laughing with me and listening to my crazy plans. I realized how lucky I am because I bother our pediatric nurses a lot with my laughter and climate musings. They are busy. Finally one of the nurses who usually listens all the time said, “Dr. P I do need to work.” Yes. I know. And I appreciate everyone listening. I did clean out the clinic fridge yesterday and took out all the old fruit and took it home to compost. Oh and we are having a party next week in clinic to celebrate our great two UCSD residents who we have really bonded with, and I need to remember to invite our new friend Mr. Tony the succulent artists from optometry. His creations are whimsical and thoughtful, and use of color is beautiful. We will need to include him in our party and our climate plans at work. Also Rosie, our friend we met on the top of the HMO parking lot. She is also planting in the dead planters, independent of Dr. Dear Friend and I. We’ve divided the top of the HMO parking lot up and we all for our planting plans for the spring. I just need to concentrate on topping the planters with compost.

May 21, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I think the reason a certain family does not understand why another family member and I are in contract to buy an Oregon Ranch, is that he does not understand that Dr. Plastic Picker is an introvert. I could not understand why this senior family member did not approve of my joy in this property. But now being in my mid 40s and a student of human nature, I know that even I did not not truly know myself before embarking on this eco-avatar journey. The writing/blogging. The walks in nature. The time I’ve spent doing things because it felt right and I wanted something new. I know myself. I know what makes me happy. I know to listen to the earth. And mother earth told me to buy this 193 acre ranch on Southwestern Oregon https://drplasticpicker.com/i-found-it-193-acres-in-southwest-oregon/. I think mother nature gave me that cavity I mentioned yesterday that required the root canal that required me being incapacitated in bed, and then allowed me time to stumble upon this property searching on my iPhone. I’m totally serious.

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