Organ Donor
I keep meaning to get my license changed so that I'm listed as an organ donor. Hey, it's not like I'll be needing them anymore, but others will.

I was a flower girl at my cousin Renie's wedding when I was around 7-years-old. She married her childhood sweetheart and neighbor. She was really beautiful and the wedding was huge, I still remember how grand it was. My dress was more like a poofy gown you'd see in Cinderella, I really felt like a princess and was in awe of my cousin during all the wedding preparations. Probably more so because everyone said she looked so much like my sister Serina. And unfortunately like Serina, she'd also die young. A year or so after her wedding, she began to have liver problems. She was only in her late 20s. I remember visiting her at St. Vincents hospital in the city, she was so pale and extremely skinny in her hospital dressing gown. It was shocking, but she was laughing and joking with my dad out in one of the waiting rooms despite having an IV attached to her. She needed a new liver but they couldn't find her one. During that same time Mickey Mantle who abused his liver by drinking most of his life, was also going through the same thing, but being who he was, he got a new liver within the week. My cousin sadly did not.

A friend at work alerted me to the following press release, he's worked with the woman mentioned before and her situation seems very similar. I of course hope her story ends better.

NEW YORK (July 20, 2005) Shari Kurzrok is two months away from her wedding. The 31-year-old PR executive recently spearheaded the largest-ever national blood drive. Today, she is fighting for her life. Her doctors say she will not live if she doesn't receive a complete liver transplant within days, and her colleagues in the PR industry are urgently mobilizing to help her.

Potential donors must be Type A or Type O blood. Anyone wanting to help Shari with a liver transplant referral should call: 877-223-3386 or email: liverforalife@yahoo.com
---

Jeff Jarvis' blog Buzz Machine was voted the best media blog by Forbes Magazine. Read about how I met Jarvis last Fall here

News: 'Worthless' gifts get the good girls

Back again
to the oppressive 95 degree heat and oven like subways.

Anyway, I had a wonderful time in San Francisco. I had never been, and wish that I had more than 3 days to explore. But while part of our group chose to go shopping a couple of us rented a car and went to the Muir Woods, over the Golden Gate, and to Sonoma for a wine tour of Sebastiani winery. We also went for martinis at Top of the Mark sky-bar, went on a dinner cruise, danced at the St. Francis Drake, made friends with two drag queens, ate in Chinatown, bought Ghiradelli chocolate and went to Alcatraz.

Here's some things that I learned about SanFran:

It takes four years to paint the Golden Gate Bridge, and they never stop painting it, they go in one direction and by the time the finish, they have to repaint the beginning and start over again.

After going up and down the very very steep hills in the city in numerous taxis, I had to ask one cabby how often they had to change their breaks. Literally they have to ride down the hills on their breaks and sometimes stop mid incline due to traffic. It was like when you slowly edge to the top of a roller coaster, I just don't get how the cars don't simply fall backwards. Anyway, the driver laughed and said they have to change their breaks at least once a month. Yikes!

Redwood's are part of the pine family and are really freakin huge. (I daringly ignored the "Do not walk beyond trail" sign to get a better look and to be among the trees. It was amazing)

SanFran doesn't like Air Conditioners, even Macy's in Union Square didn't have AC and the first day we were there it was really hot and could use it. And typically to me malls=AC. Even our elegant hotel room also came without an AC unit, just a fan.

The Birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud, was no Burt Lancaster! He has been compared to the intelligent psychopath Hannibal Lectar. Also Stroud really should be known as the "Birdman of Leavenworth," since it was at that prison that he kept his birds and did his research. He was not actually allowed any birds during his time at Alcatraz and spent most of his time in a hospital wing cell. (Besides the audio tour, a ranger gave us a free private tour because she said, "you guys are fun." We got to go into the prison's hospital wing, where we saw fake blood on the walls from the filming of The Rock, took photos in Al Capone's cell, oh and I got to lock up when we left).

In San Fran from Sat to Tuesday!
I've been to California several times now, but never to San Francisco. And everyone keeps telling me that I'll love it, since it's like the New York City of the west coast.

I'm staying in the downtown area at the Warwick Regis, which looks really old fashioned and pretty.

While there I'm going to see Alcatraz and go to a wine tour in Sonoma, all the fun touristy stuff.

For a cool SanFran blog check out Just Another Week.

No Warning, No Reason
Because he left her, she must make him
someone she doesn't love, rescripting as
deception their hand-clasped walks at dusk
It must have been lies:
each touching word, all thoughtfulness,
his shows of pleasure putting her first,
his endearing sex talk that first
amused her then got to her
(his hot moist breath the poison in her ear)
as he learned with seemingly selfless patience
how to move inside her as no one ever had before.
How can she change memories like these?
He must have been lying
because the man who did these things
could not leave her with no warning or reason.
But she knows he wasn't,
and, because she knows he wasn't,
she is stuck. No one can help her.
No one can enter the sacred circle they made together
she now wears as a necklace of fire.
How can she obliterate the person he is?
What is she to do? She has to live.
--Michael Ryan (The New Yorker, March 28, 2005)

I had saved this poem because I thought it was powerful, and could relate to parts of it. Granted I've never been IN love, but I know from my previous relationships/flings, how easily it is to start painting someone you once cared about in a bad light just so you can move on, even when you're the one who did the breaking up. I posted the poem for a friend though. Be strong Polar Bear!

If you can't stand the heat
STAY OFF THE NYC SUBWAYS!!

It was 84 degrees today on my way to work, this is the early morning mind you, and now it's going to go up to 96. I actually don't mind the heat or the humidity, having grown up in New York i'm used to it. However, I can't take waiting on the subway platforms in this heat. It's almost double the temperature. Women wave hand fans, blowing hot stale air on their faces for some sort of breeze, and nobody wants to sit on the benches, in fear they'll stick to them. Also the smell of BO on the trains are at an all time high as well as the occasional sweaty arm brush-by.

I usually take the express train to my office, but after waiting for 5 minutes in the oven slash underground, I jumped on the next local train that came my way, knowing it would at least be Air Conditioned. Which made the additional stops to Times Square worth it in order to just escape the temporary hell that is the subway platforms. Plus the local trains are usually less packed during rush hour, so I was able to get a seat instead of stretching up on my tiptoes to grab the overhead handle bars, while a guys backpack is rammed against my back.

Thank you Heidi for cabbing me home after dinner! You life saver you!

PS: You gotta love unexpected but desired phone calls! :)

PPS: Tom Cruise attacks Oprah lol, I guess Scientology is some pretty powerful stuff.