think about it

i recently had a conversation with one of my most favorite skeptics. my dad. i was talking about psychics, and how i believe in life after death....something which i have been fascinated with for as long as i can remember.

im a very open-minded person. being an open-minded person, also includes being open-minded to the fact that not everybody is open-minded. and i get that. i do! if someone believes in something, and it doesnt hurt anybody...then why not? if someone doesnt believe in something that i do believe in...what do i care? i dont! but its still fun to chat about stuff.

my dad is very straight forward. simple. realistic. what you see is what you get. me? not so much. im a libra. im an air sign. and most of the time...my head is stuck up there in the rose colored clouds. thats ok. i like it up there. but i totally understand and im very thankful that not everybody is like me. ugh....can you even imagine? a world full of loris? scary!

so...where am i going with all of this. well, i was thinking. (yup...sometimes i do that!) i completely understand why people are skeptical of an afterlife. after all...it is a weird concept. something many people cant really comprehend in the realm of the world, as we know it.

BUT....isnt it also kind of a weird, mind blowing concept of how we even got here in the first place? adam and eve? hatching from tadpoles and turning into frogs. or toads. or whatever. apes as our ancestors? whatever your belief....is fine with me. but we are here!

so, if you are a skeptic about life after death, but you do acknowledge that we are indeed here, on earth, right now....i have a question. is the afterlife any crazier of a concept than the concept of the creation of life? angels with wings? shiny lights and tunnels? frogs? adams rib? isnt it all kind of freaky?

what do you think? anyone? bueller? bueller? dad?

prison. the new bar scene

im always amazed to hear stories about how and where couples meet. ive heard some crazy stories. and im also amazed to see friends who are single, and regardless of actively trying to find a partner; just cant! and im talking about great, normal, intelligent people with so much to offer and so much love to give. so i find it ironic that these friends have such a difficult time finding their soulmate, when there are inmates incarcerated for life....who meet and marry people on "the outside." talk about geographically undesirable!

recently, susan atkins passed away in prison from cancer. she was involved in the manson murders and responsible for killing actress sharon tate and her friends. yeah...a bad seed anyway you look at it. but she got married while she was in prison. and you want to say, "well yeah....how intelligent can he be to want to marry someone serving a life sentence in prison for murder!?" well....apparently hes no dummy. he was an honor student at univ of california irvine. hes a lawyer. he went to harvard law school. not bad! and they were married for more than 20 years. thats longer than most marriages last. shes apparently no dummy either. what a great way to get free legal counsel!

then theres the menendez brothers. total dumbasses. but despite brutally murdering their parents, they were a hot commodity in the singles scene. both serving life sentences in prison...both managed to get married. while in prison. lyle married twice. i dont know anything about them, but the first one, (shown on the left), is really pretty! the marriage

lasted less than a year. wanna know why? he cheated on her! in jail!!!!! yup....she caught him corresponding with another pen pal. and then he married the other one! apparently shes a magazine editor. i suppose it takes some sort of brains to be a magazine editor. and then theres erik. he got married too. and shes also a cute girl. what i think is funny, is that she once said about erik, "hes always there for me." um yeah! hes in shackles. of course hes always there.... where the hell do you think hes going?

scott peterson. yeah...hes a hottie. but he killed his wife and unborn baby. despite that minor glitch...dozens of women wanted to marry him. while hes on death row! on one hand....why the hell would anyone want to marry a man, who is on death row? for killing their wife no less?! on the other hand, with scott behind bars, at least they know they are safe from suffering the same fate.

so to all of my single friends looking for their soulmate....

im sorry if i suggested social gatherings, art openings, libraries, bars or dating services. i should have told you to take up a pen pal.

time to play "the price is right"

how much do you think that it costs for one treatment of the chemo drug, doxil? yup...that little bottle pictured above.

(music playing in background while contestants write their answers down)

BUZZZZZZ.....time up!

so...whaddya think?

BEEEEEEP...YOURE WRONG!

granted; i have no idea what answer you wrote down. but im pretty sure that you still got it wrong.

heres the thing. im one of those totally lame people who pays a bill without checking out the total. i know....lame. dont tell my husband. or my dad, for that matter; cuz he sure didnt raise me to do things like that. (yes dad...i still remember the lobster i ordered at "market price" at gladstones in malibu. and yes....now i know to always ask what the "market price" is before i order it!)

so, you can imagine my surprise when my husband opened up our insurance bill, and informed me that blue cross was billed $40,000 for ONE treatment of doxil. (ive had 5 so far). and no...i didnt make a mistake and add to many zeros. jeez frickin louise! wtf? its an hour infusion of a liquid. and of course my life is worth waaaaay more than $40,000. BUT. it makes you wonder, huh?! what the fuck can actually be in there that would justify a $40,000 price tag? and then my mind wanders to all of the other things id rather spend 40 grand on.

other observations...

1- seriously....what is actually in that medicine? liquid gold? i cant imagine ANYTHING that could be in there that would actually cost that amount of money. i understand the concept of "mark up." (neiman marcus? fred segal? yeah...i get it.) there needs to be some sort of profit. but c'mon!

2- umm....could this be one of the reasons why our health system is just so fucked up? (intentional rhetorical question)

3- is this just one of the reasons why so many people cant afford health care?

4- am i reeeeeally supposed to believe the FDA and the drug companies have our best interest in mind?

5- for this price, does it clean your house? do your dishes? include some sort of "happy ending?"

6- for $40,000, shouldnt it just cure the damn cancer!? and oh yeah....world peace!?