OK, I thought since the last few days (really two weeks) have been utterly serious and somber for my family and I have been pretty stressed, I would do a blog on all of the funny things that come up when you are traveling and are trying to keep your healthy life style.

Well, of course, the very first thing is that it is quite difficult is security. They have those scary MRI machines you need to go through. I always ask to got through the metal detector instead. I was anticipating that conversation when one of the security people took me off guard and asked me to place my palms up and out and before I could say anything she rubbed all this (probably toxic) stuff all over my hands. I didn't even want to know what on earth it was. Clearly, it was to determine if I had been handling anything explosive. So, quandry- make myself look like a closet terrorist in the spirit of trying to honor my need to protect my body from god know what toxic chemical. I opted to keep my mouth shut and take my chances. Gladly they put it on me and not my daughter. Then when when it did come time for that MRI conversation, the securtiy person told me its the MRI machine or being patted down. Next quandry-how bad a mother am I if I let my ten year old be patted down vs exposed to completely unneccessary radiation. I opted for being patted down. Then just at that last minute after waiting for a woman security person to pat down me and my ten year old, a man asked why don't we just go through the metal detector. I said, that other many said we weren't allowed to, that it was the MRI machine or pat down. He said that's ridiculous. Go through the metal detector, your child is ten for god's sake. So, we escaped unscathed, and I was neither a bad mother for exposing my child to excess radiation nor a boderline inappropriate pat down. Phew.

When we got to the hotel (my sister's house was full of all our other relatives, we were starving. The only restaurant open was this tiny place that was a sports bar. The floors were sticky from spilled beer and OMG if you had sports A.D.D. this place would have been great. There was adifferent sports channel on for every event. You could watch them interchangeably and simultaneously. Sorry, I thought that was a comical side note. Of course, unlike California, there were absolutely no organic choices on the menu let alone grass fed options, and the vegetables looked like they once may have had something in common with something grown on a farm. The brocolli I had tastes more like some kind of burned plastic substance than anything grown in the ground. OR, maybe that was the left over residue of the pesticides I was surely ingesting.

So then we get to our room. My only real need traveling is having my one cup of coffee int he morning before I emerge into the world. So, I looked to make sure there was a coffee machine. There was. But, then I realized, there was no water. Uh oh. So, I called down to the front desk. The man asked how he could help. He was nice enough. I said, well, I am so happy there is a coffee maker in the room, but, there is no water to make it with. There was dead silence. So, I repeated the same question. Then after a longer silence he said, ma'am, umm...there is a faucet in your bathroom, there is water there! After I hung up the phone, I couldnt stop laughing to myself. I had nothing to say or do,but come to terms, I was going to have to ingest faucet water from the bathroom yet. Yuck! And, so admittedly, that is what I did.

The next day, I told Boaz the story. He couldn't stop laughing either. He enjoyed the joke. Later in the day- I told some of my relatives who liver there locally. They didn't laugh. Lesson learned-know your audience.

The next day, my sister and I went out on a water hunt late at night. We found the one last store open at that hour and they had some kind of spring water that looked like something we used to to put in my fathers engine when the water level was low when I was a child. But, ok, I bought it. My daughter said she wanted to bring some "healthy" snacks to the hotel (other than the huge array of nuts and organic carrots I stowed away in my suitcase). She wanted bananas. She noticed I was hesitating as I was scanning the selection. She said, Mommy, don't bother looking for organic and eating them once isn't going to kill me. Another quandry-will it? Ok, so I bought the bananas and the gasoline looking spring water and off we went.

All the while through the weekend, I repeatedly reminded myself none of the things that were critical to me on a daily basis were important. I just needed to be there for my sister and my family. And, I was. That was what was important. Never mind the sheets that wreaked of chlorine and the indoor swimming pool I let my daughter go into that had enough chlorine to kill all the bacteria in the pool and anything that came within about a football field's distance from it-I needed to be with my family, and I was.

This whole experience really reminds me of how different people are and places are in the world. And, depending on where you live or where you go, having the resources to serve your style of living can be really tricky. The conciousness of the environement is so completely different-like foreign countries. We speak different languages almost.

I try to be a really good role model for my daughters. They know me and my heart and my my mind. They didn't focus on any of this. My ten year old was happy to be with me and the rest of the family during this time of need for support and love-that is what she took away from these few days, and of course, the magic of the snow as it silently fell to the ground reminding us how magical life is and that life goes on depsite having unbearable pain in one's heart.

Dr.M

(sorry for any spelling mistakes-no spell check at the moment)