MIA

i've been MIA, i know.
it's just that being a student has taken over my life
and i'm flipping obsessed with everything i'm learning!
...especially what i'm learning in my environmental health class this summer. the state of our environment/world and the effects on our health (where we're all headed) is unbelievably depressing,
but there's SO MUCH work to be done!
prevention, people! that's where it's at.

i almost wish i could keep the power point slides from this class in my purse so that i could nerdily pull them out in public and show everyone the stats...the cold, hard scientific data.
{public health school ruins everything. i'm saying goodbye to peanut butter, microwavable popcorn (not that i ever really ate it), and a bunch of other stuff...but more on that later.}

speaking of my school, let me tell you about someone i love who is my classmate. my new friend pamela is crazy brilliant. she's an ivy-league educated mathematician/statistician/epidemiology whiz who-you know, in her spare time-runs a school in india for untouchable caste children.

pamela has had cancer twice and has been left with a really awful blood disorder. she's constantly sick, has border-line scary white blood cell counts regularly, and has blood drawn every other day at the hospital.

none of us know how she does it. she rarely complains.
sometimes when we're all bemoaning our under-caffeinated, sleep-deprived states, she'll chime in too about her exhaustion...but we all know it's on a different level for her. she can't go to public places where germs abound (ie, movie theaters) and has to live with all kinds of unfair parameters.

a bone marrow transplant could save her. so become a bone marrow donor! please! it's the easiest procedure: rub some cotton swabs on the side of your mouth & you're done! completely painless. i just did it and it probably took about 1 minute. go here to register, fill out a short medical history, and you'll be sent a free kit (with thorough directions) that you can send back with pre-paid postage.

you can save a LIFE.