I was reading an article on slate about air quality and now have yet another reason to never drive on California’s route 5 ever again (this is referencing my rant about route 5 from my birthday post in February). According to data from the WHO (World Health Organization) which covers more than 1,000 cities in 91 countries, the most polluted region in the United State is California’s Central Valley. To quote the piece, “Industrial and exhaust pollution gets trapped inside an expansive bowl of rock that’s home to farms, heavy industry, and millions of people.”
Apparently Bakersfield, CA, a town that Matt and I have now driven through or near twice, is America’s number one pollution hot spot, lying smack dab in the middle of this smelly mess. Besides the utter lack of scenery and depression inducing factory farms, the terrifying health consequences of breathing that all in for miles upon miles mean I’m declaring the whole area a dead zone and avoiding it like the plague.
Still, we’re doing much better than Asia. Bakersfield might be the pits, but it still only ranks 276th on the list. The most polluted air in the world lies in southwestern Iran in a city called Ahwaz. Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, comes in second.
Generally, the most dangerous places to breathe can be found in the developing Asian world which does seem mighty far away. Yet, the Earth is round and windy, and apparently up to 1/3 of all the soot in the San Fransisco Bay Area alone blew there from Asia. And of course, there are cities on other continents that are contributing to the mire as well.
All of this is making me very aware that I can take as many deep, clean breaths as I want today. Luckily I don’t have to live in, or drive through, Bakersfield.
I got food poisoning on Tuesday which I think is a pretty raw deal. I’ve just started a new job and there I was on my 3rd day, noshing on some tomato and basil hummus from the good people at Trader Joe’s for lunch. Seemed totally harmless. Then about 3ish hours later when it was time to close the store and clean up I started getting nauseated and dizzy and my palms tingled. All worrying so I sat down to get myself together. This is when I realized that I seemed like a crazy baby who couldn’t help sweep up stuff so I thought “get it together, Chase” and finish work.
Now is when my tummy totally broke team and decided to, ummm, “toss it’s cookies”, shall we say? How awesome is that???
I’m now the girl who gets sick at work For NO Reason!!! And can’t help clean up! And seems like a delicate flower who can’t take care of herself!!!
UGHHHHHH!
Needless to say I was mortified. For those who are wondering, I was very ladylike and had my episode in the privacy of the staff bathroom - but I did have to run there mid-sentence with my hand over my mouth. Class all the way, folks.
They were so incredibly sweet and didn’t make me feel bad about it. I ended up missing a day of work because I’ve been out of commission for days, but they scheduled me two more half days to make up for it which is very kind.
The worst part of this, besides the weird impression I’m now making on new co-workers, is that Matt had the day off and had made an elaborate, beautiful, complicated dinner for me and I couldn’t eat ANY OF IT. This was just the icing on my cake.
While I wasn’t able to enjoy the gloriousness he created I want to let you all know what he did because it deserves a parade for thoughtfulness and (I have no doubt) tastiness:
He poached Maine lobsters in just a touch of oil having concocted a sous vide contraption on our stove top with a sauce pan of water, ziplock bags and a thermometer. Then he used the left over shells to make a lobster stock which he reduced for hours til it was a rich, thick sauce. He browned and then braised slices of fennel bulb in a separate liquid he had made, seasoned specially for this purpose. Last, he took some of the gnocchi I had made and froze and browned it in a frying pan. The pasta was then tossed with the stock sauce, and layered on a plate over the braised fennel and topped with that lovely lobster.
I have never wanted to eat something so bad. My dinner? Half a saltine :(
While this is tragic, I know it is not the last time he makes something amazing . . .
So what did I do while I was sick in bed for days you ask?
To be honest, I was bored out of my gourd, so after the first day I started looking up things on the internet to entertain myself, or try and learn something. Topics included:
Higgs boson
Scientific classifications
Numerical prefixes (WHY is October the 10th month and not the 8th???)
Recipes for food I missed
Date horses were domesticated
Release dates for new books from my favorite authors
And I randomly stumbled across all sorts of things - one of which is this next link, which I just thought was kinda cool:
So I’m sure you’re all wondering where are the pictures? I usually have to restrain myself from posting too many, but this wasn’t a very photogenic week (if you know what I mean . . .).
However -
On the day before I was stricken with the plague - last Monday - Matt and I were both off together and decided to do something fun and touristy. We headed into the heart of the beast Hollywood to see the walk of fame and the hand prints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. This didn’t end up happening because when we got there it was awful. The sidewalks were crowded with people trying to talk to you and sell you things and give you CDs of their music for a “donation” of $5 and generally harass you until you wished you were in the middle of Kansas.
Not being anywhere near a Kansas escape hatch we ducked into Madama Toussaud’s wax museum instead. I will level with you all here and say that this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I just think the idea is cool and they let you take all the PICTURES you want. Matt, however, had no clue what he was getting himself in for.
In case you aren’t familiar, Madame T’s is a museum full of life sized wax figures of famous people - here in LA the people are mainly actors. There are other museums in the world but LA has a branch and I wanted to visit so I was thrilled. Also I have no shame and was excited to pose with the statues - you can Touch them!! - but this isn’t really Matt’s thing. Of the two of us I’m definitely the crazy “used to be in theater in high school and therefore will act out an entire emotion or scenario in public” one. He is NOT.
When we first got there they had us stand in front a green screen and a guy told us briefly what we were supposedly standing in front of so we knew how to react. I went for it, and I’ve got to say Matt did too (in a sort of ironic, cute, I’m doing this for her way). I didn’t know this until the very end of the tour because they don’t show you the photos til you’re leaving. This is the one we bought. Our “stage direction” was - it’s Jurassic park:
I think his expression is priceless!!!
After the green screen, you get on an elevator and go to the 3rd floor to start the tour. As soon as the doors open there are wax figures of paparazzi with cameras aimed at you as you exit. This is when Matt was not so entertained. He thought they were more alive people trying to get you to pose, and he isn’t a fan of that even when it’s me doing it. Also, you look past them and realize you’re in a room full of real people and fake figures. I can completely understand this being disconcerting - especially because he didn’t know that was the concept of the museum.
Suffice it to say he didn’t want to interact with anything for the first few rooms. Can’t you tell?
That was ok, I was busy hamming it up with my pals Bette and Ingrid and Vivienne.
But, when we got to the room with Tom Hanks, Matt took one look and said “I’ll sit with Forest”.
WEEEEEEE!
I love when we both enjoy something.
Heck, we both even got to meet the president!
And, my hero, Iron Man.
til next time . . .
