Group Post: How to Alienate Chileans

After reading some of the hilarious responses of my fellow bloggers in Chile I thought I'd chime in w/my 2 cents worth.

So here it goes: things that alienate Chileans i.e. things you can do or say that will make your average Chileno raise an eyebrow.

1) If you're a chick, drinking a beer will alienate a Chilean...but if you really want to blow their minds tell them that you don't like pisco sour.

Whenever you go to a bar with Chilean women...or to a small group gathering...particularly with older Chilean women or w/sort of cuica Chileans and someone asks them what they would like to drink they will say.

Cualquier chilena no rota (any non ghetto Chilean woman ***): "Un pisco sour, no mas"

*** I say this bc if you go to any pulento (low class) part of town you'll see tons of Chilean women slurping on big old mugs of cristal and escudo (probably pared with chorrillana, 25 belmont cigarettes...and not long after topped off with congestive heart failure)

Not only will they ONLY order pisco sours, but they will always include the JUST a pisco sour. I think it's some machista crap where Chilean women try to pretend like they don't like to drink because it's not lady like or something. This is of course a huge load of crap because the first thing that's immediate to any person visitng Chile and trying a pisco sour is that GOD DAMN that's a strong drink. It's a straight glass of pisco with some lemon and simple syrup and MAYBE some egg white beaten in. With every sip of this drink you up your chances of slipping into a hyperglycemic coma.

Yet, to any dainty chilean woman they will have UN (one) pisco sour, NO MAS (that's all).

So if you really want to get the party started and draw lots of attention to yourself...you are sure to have everyone look at you like you're either a man dressed in drag OR a really really rota woman if you order a SCHOP! (draught beer that comes in a mug) and god forbid you should say SCHOP GRANDE (a BIG one!).

This will immediately send Chilean women at the table into a tizzy. They will scrunch up their noses and say "a mi no me gusta la cerveza" (i dont like beer)

Oh right, i think to myself...bc you've convincd yourselves that drinking a pisco sour has fewer calories than a beer. Well let me tell you sister, the pisco sour has like 400 million pounds of sugar in it. Sure, beer makes you bloated but let's face it, the reason you don't weight 5 trillion pounds isn't because you drink pisco sour, it's bc your idea of breakfast and lunch is nescafe with 5 puchos (cigarettes)

Whenever someone questions my ordering of beer i just want to say: Oh yea, She-lay-Nah, well I don't like pisco sours - it's like drinking moonshine with squeezed lemon and makes my teeth ache from the acid...and while we're on the subject i start to feel like i'm losing all touch with reality after i've had 2...that shit's like crack cocaine!

And then i chuckle to myself as i watch them slip into a hyper sugarized crazy pisco sour drunken state as their un pisco sour no mas turns into unos 5 pisco sours, no mas (ONLY 5 pisco sours) all the while talking louder and louder puffing cigarettes faster and faster.

Now THAT is lady like.

I'll stick to my brewsky, gracias.

2) Tell them that you went to any university that isn't Chi-ka-goh, ooo - klah (UCLA), estanfor (Stanford), har-vard, wharton, Coluuuuumbia

Watch their eyes roll into the back of their heads as Chileans try to contemplate that there are schools called weird things like Swarthmore, Emory, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Duke, Colby, Williams, Cal Tech, Northwestern (though there is a SLIGHT chance they'll know what Kellogg is)...the more saavy Chileans will have heard of Burk-a-lee but will refuse to listen when you explain that it's a public school that has anything to do with the UC system. OR that there are other schools in the UC system besides OOO-Klah....

if you really want to throw them through a ringer mention Penn and they will have no clue that Penn has anything to do with War-Ton. God forbid you say you went to Wash U...actually , i sorta get a kick out of telling people where i went to college...it usually goes something like this:

Chilean pretending like they care where I went to college (they don't because i didn't study engineering): Ah y donde fuiste? (oh so where did you go?)

Me: Washington U in St Louis-->


Chilean pretending they care and now trying to pretend that they know what I'm talking about: Como? Wah Ching ton? (add pensive look) ahhhhhhh EN WAH CHING TON!

Me: um, no


Chilean: No words, just looking at you with big weepy sorrowful eyes

Chilean to self: Dis poor gringa. Not only did she study somesing totally useless, but she went to community college. I feel very sad for her.


3) Tell them you majored in French literature

You know, this one is so good i'm just going to have you all try it.

This is appalling to Chileans on a variety of levels. Primarily: what the hell were you thinking studying something that was not medicine, engineering or law (don't bother telling them that medicine and law are graduate degrees, i'm not sure your average she-lay-no can deal with this information overload).

But more than that this is appalling because no Chilean can ever imagine reading that much.

Ok fine i'm exagerrating (a little bit)

Most educated people in this country are perfectly happy having ended their reading career w/some baldomero lillo short stories and perhaps some excerpts from the Quijote in middle and highschool.

Explaining that people actually study literature for 4 year periods makes Chileans very upset.

Upon telling them you studied this they usually smile timidly and walk away from you.

Oh come on. Just try it.


There are so many other things i can think of but would just rather leave it at those three for now.

Other posters:

Don't call me gringa
Cachando Chile
Annje
La Gringuita Diaries

Note to self

Do NOT listen to sad music on Thanksgiving when you're boss is out of town and you're the only gringo at work ... and no one gets that today is a big day in gringolandia...and it sucks to miss it


Seriously, i just got all misty eyed as my shuffle came across "Bridge Over Troubled Water"...this is a hard time to be so far from your culture as this holiday is about as American Fuck Yea as they get...

not to mention it's also my dad's birthday (well not really but we celebrate it every year on thanksgiving)

and just to just throw another twist into the depressing mix i just had my final goodbye lunch w/my good gringa friend and have no clue when i'm going to see her again : (


I mean, yes, i totes have a lot to be thankful for. See my thankful for chile post. I promise I'm not always this much of a Debbie Downer but for real i feel kinda sad at the moment.


WAAAAAA!

Happy dia de accion de gracias or whatever stupid thing they call it here.

I hate willie!

If you're confused by my title, don't worry, I'm not referring to my brother (who, since the age of 17 no longer goes by anything besides Will)...I'm referring to Willie the office shoe shiner.

Yes, that's right, there's some dude that comes around to everyone's desk offering to shine shoes...

...and I loathe him

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Willie BECAUSE he's a shoe shiner. Oh no.

I dislike him despite his shoe shining abilities ...I loathe him 100% for who he is. For his personality. The age old adage "just be yourself" really should not apply to the Will-meister in this gringa's book.

Willie should change who he is. I mean that.

...and though I do feel a little bit guilty admitting my extreme dislike for Willie particularly given the fact that he's probably somewhere in his 70s or 80s and shining my 27 year old shoes, I'd be lying if I said that,that alone was enough to make me like him.

Because it isn't.

Pity him, yes.

But not because he shines shoes but because it must suck to go through life being a pain in everyone's as$ and being seemingly oblivious to the fact that you are totally 100% hateable.

Because you can bet your bottom peso that i'm not the only one who thinks Willie needs to get on somewhere.

You see, ever since I started here (um + 7 months ago), Willie has taken an interest in me- lucky, lucky girl that I am.

At first I thought I made the mistake of thinking it was kind of cute.

Awww, I'd think, that little old man is so cute just stopping by my desk to say hello.

"hola Willie" I'd say "que tal?" - and then I'd chit chat with him.

Soon, however, it became abundantly clear that Willie is 'bueno para hablar' (talks a lot) ...and later it began to unfold that he was also a) a CLOSE TALKER, b) obsessed with staring and c) that this man has no social sense to realize that nobody wants to shoot the breeze with him when they're in the middle of work.

Example?

Oh I'll give you MULTIPE:

Like when I'm on my morning call and bent in trying to hear my speaker phone and he inevitably decides to come over and talk to me

"HOLA SENORITA"...

i look up at him w/a glare

....and he just sits there and stares.

Or when I'm on the phone talking to a client.

"BUENOS DIAS SENORITA" Willie yells (i think he's going deaf)

i glare putting finger on lips

you know, the universal sign for "please shut the F up"

...and he just sits there and he stares...


Or when I'm reading something....head in hands, trying to understand. Willie shuffles on over "QUE TAL SENORITA!?!"

i cringe and pretend i don't hear...

aware that someone is there, i cautiously look out of the corner of my eye

...Willie remains holding onto my desk


....staring

Or when I'm trying to update excel files. "SENORITA, HOLA!"

...i dip down as if i've dropped something... hoping that Willie will get the picture and leave

as I lift my head back up i see Willie... his face looking down over the little wall around my desk ...


staring...



It eventually got to the point where I was totally deseperada...if I would so much as hear him saludaring people I would recoil into my chair, trying to avoid any type of contact.

And instead of just taking what went from a suddle hints to down right barely looking up at him blantantly obvious don't talk to me hint, what has Willie decided to do?

GIVE ME A NICKNAME!

So now, whenever he makes his way to my desk - PARTICULARLY when I'm concentrating on something- he rests his chin on the little wall around my desk and says loudly (disrupting any hope i had of concentration on the job)

"HOLA SENORITA TIMIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (Hello Misses Shy)

then he laughs...

and does he leave it at that?

Oh no.

Willie NEVER leaves it at that.

He continues. To look at me.

STARING!

Because god forbid Willie actually get it through his thick scull that, no, I'm not shy, I'm just AVOIDING you...

So i tried reverse psychology:

Hola Willie, I respond begrungingly

What happens next?

Oh you got it: A CONVERSATION!

MY PLAN HAS BEEN FOILED!

Willie: "Ah que bueno...y que cuenta la senorita timida hoy?" (and what does misses shy have to say for herself today)

Senorita Timida (to self): "IT'S NOT that I'm SHY, Willie, it's that I HATE YOU and your creepster stares and your STUPID (and inaccurate) nickname for me...now, DEJAME TRANQUILA POR LA PUTA MADRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

yet another reason why i believe in gun control

For those who read the NY Times you couldn't help but see the front page article "A Bullet Takes a Toll in the Bronx" - a tragic story about some beef between a couple of kids (the oldest involved was 19) - which, had they not all had guns, would have probably ended in someone getting their ass kicked. Instead it ended in a 15 year old girl hit in the head with a stray bullet and the target of the ass whooping having his lung punctured by another bullet.

Mayor Bloomberg was quoted as saying that this was just another example of how carrying a gun is "one of the dumbest and most dangerous things that you can do"

Amen Mayor Bloomberg.

Can someone tell me how the supposed "right to bear arms" has been perverted into "the right for any young kid in the Bronx to get a hold of an automatic weapon"

Is this "right" more important than the REALITY that guns do a helluva lot more harm than good?

I'm disgusted.

Thankful for Chile

I had a long day at work yesterday. It wasn't like so awful or anything, just long and a lot of sitting and no real social interaction. I got out of work and I thought: I want to complain to someone. I immediately started chatting with a couple of girlfriends and instantly felt better.

Ahhh.

But really it was walking home that made me happy. Walking around my neighborhood would make ANYONE happy. You see I work and live off of one of the most beautiful streets: Sanchez Fontecilla. It's parallel to Tobalaba but smaller and quieter. Something about walking down that street calms me...maybe it's the sound of the river that runs between S. Fontecilla and Tobalaba, or the birds chirping in the many trees that pepper the street, maybe it's all of the people jogging and walking - couples, dads with babies on their bikes, old ladies with their poodles... everyone out enjoying the street. It's walking past Sake and La Chakra and seeing the hippies enjoying their food....there's an old man who sits on the corner of S Fontecilla and Presidente Errazuriz (another gorgeous santiago street) who always says hello to me in the mornings on my way to work ...and it always makes my day.

I love passing Yogashala and seeing the calmness in the faces of those heading in and out of classes....I love the little bridges that go back and forth from Tobalaba to Sanchez Fontecilla over the river and often cross them a copule of times on my way home...I love that I can see the Andes when I walk home and I can see the sparkling buildings of El Golf as I walk to work.


And let's not forget: Part of my good mood was inevitably caused by the fact that though I was leaving the office at 8:15 there was still light out. It was warm. I could smell all the flowers popping up on the street. Much better than leaving work when it's pitch black.

This brings me to another point: the weather in Chile (which I've talked about a million times) is truly wonderful. Having lived in Normandy, St. Louis, NY and NJ I've gotta say that Chile has LEJOS (by far) the best weather. Yes, sure, it's rainly and gray in the winter and smoggy...but at least you're not covered in snow...and at least it doesn't rain every day...and yes, it's hot here in the summer. But it's not that opressive humidity that you get in NYC and StL. (though I secretly love the horrible humidity - it reminds me of summer vacation as a kid - going to the pool at Shaw Park, hanging out by Kaldis, going to Forest Park - these are all references to StL, so forgive me if you have no clue what I'm talking about)

Anyways, long story short, by the time I got home I was perfectly content.

I made dinner and sat w/my hubby and for wahtever reason I decided to open my yap and say something about how I wished I haven't been at work so late. You see I love R, but he's not the best at comforting people. He has a low tolerance for complaining. EXTREMELY low. So of course my comment caused my husband to give me a lecture about being thankful for what I have.

Which was so annoying because i AM VERY thankful for what I have...not in terms of material things, though those are great too, but in terms of my friends here...i have made and am continuing to make some wonderful friends here in Santiago...and even people I'm not that close too are pleasant to be around...i mean I really just find that everyone has something to bring to the table, everyone has something sorta funny or quirky about them that I like, even if they're not my BFF.

In terms of my job, I am also very thankful- i mean sure, it's a little frustrating that i went to grad school and busted my butt for +3 years to make less money (substantially) than my husband but, then again, i'm working in a totally new and interesting field where i'm learning a ton and which will set me apart from other lawyers should i go back into law and in which i am already different becasue of my legal background...and no, i dont have an amazing salary right now but then again, my loans are deferred and i don't have any kids or other big expenses so really i make more than enough to live very comfortably...and, not to mention, the nice thing about salaries is that they tend to go up, not down (well, not always, but as a general trend)...and living in chile, well, i'm also thankful for that. it was NOT what i had planned whne i came down here to do my semester abroad in law school but once the economy took a nose dive, i realized it wasn't such a bad place to be...

Sure, it's hard not knowing how long we're actually going to be here...and sure, i miss my parents and my brother and all my friends...but it's not a horrible sense of loss...maybe partially because i know that this is not permanent.

Though actually the fact that i know it's not permanent is also frustrating. It's hard to know that there will be another huge change again sometime in the not-so-near future. But I'm not going to DWELL on it. I'm going to keep on keeping on and living in the here and now becuase my reality now is Chile.

As an aside, I've noticed a trend that i, in light on my own experiences living here, don't really understand.

I have talked to SO many gringos who have been here 5-10-20 years who always talk about how they are going to leave Chile for sure. Maybe they don't want to admit they're staying cuz it's like uncool or something? The reason I don't understand this mind set is because i dont know how you can EVER be happy in a place that you refuse to call home after years and years.

Though we're heading back to the US (99.9% NYC) at some point in the not that far future, Chile is my home (i can have more than one home if i want to!) even though i've been here less than 2 years (well, this time around)...

I'm thankful that I have a home here. I'm glad that i chose to come here to study abroad...I mean after all it's the place where I learned Spanish, where i traveled for the first time for a long time by myself without my family/friends, where i met my husband, where i got my first job post grad school, etc etc...

Anyways, this post is just another rant but maybe it can inspire you all to take a moment out of your days and remember to be thankful for what you have now. The little that you have or all that you have. Why be thankful? Because it's a choice you make - either be thankful or be resentful -and i say be thankful bc really it's the best option in terms of happiness. and nobody likes a complainer. (especially not R, so ojo)

And with that I'll just finish my it's-almost-thanksgiving-and-i-get-very-sentimental-around-this-time-of-year post : ) and say HAPPY TUESDAY!

I'm a rota de mierda, apparently

For those who haven't yet seen it, I highly recommend getting your paws on a recent special edition of The Clinic (and for those who live in Chile and don't know what The Clinic is A) you need to get out from under the rock you apparently live under and B) take a look here ) dedicated to Chilean cuicos.

FYI, Cuico = snob in Chilean español.

The Clinic is a highly political and muy left-leaning paper that is famous for it's hilarious and highly offensive headlines usually poking fun at political figures - mainly right-leaning ones. Pinochet has been ridiculed more than you can ever imagine and then some.

But back to the point: Chilean cuicos. This brilliant piece of work lays out what it means to be high class in Chile. This paper includes various interviews with Chilean cuicos reflecting on their snottiness, interviews of chefs at famously snooty restaurants, a blurb by a psychiatrist who explains the cuico psyche and, finally, a quiz to measure just how cuico (or roto) you are.

As you can probably guess by the title of this post, I didn't do so hot on the quiz. Based on my score, The Clinic says that I am a roto de mierda with at least 6 generations of middle class ahead of me.

JAJAJAJAJAJA

What is a roto? Well the literal translation would be "broken" but in Chile it refers to someone low class but who is also very rude- rough around the edges - but a very negative conotation. For those interested in learning more about rotos you can read Joaquin Edwards Bello's famous book "El Roto"....

Of course the Clinic tells me that no true cuico would ever refer to anyone as a roto. They might call them humilde (humble) but NEVER roto...even though they're definitely thinking it on the inside.

Apparently it's roto to use the word roto in Chile.

Who knew?

Oh She-lay-in cuicos, how silly you all are.

But it's not just the cuicos- Chile - or at least Santiago - is a class-obsessed place(I'm not sayin' that the USA isn't, I'm just saying that bc Chile is smaller and more homogenous there seems to be, in my opinion, more of a set idea of exactly what a high class person is/should be...whereas in the US there are more varied opinions...like, for example, in the US you have quite a few "new money" people who belong to the upper echelons of society. That is less the case here...but I'll get back to that later).

People talk about class constantly- this guy is "ordinario" (ordinary or dirty) - or this thing is so "rasca" (ghetto) ...

in fact the very first convo I ever had with my now hubby was at a party at the Prince of Wales Country Club (of all cuico places) where we chatted about this very issue.

R won my heart ranting and raving about what he perceived as the pathetic obsession with class amongst his countrymen (and women)...

as so many "cuico" kids like to do, that night R was dressed to impress...meaning that he looked somewhere between a pauper a hippie and a crazy person topped off with a long and probably not-so-recently-washed mullet (unfortunately this was the preferred look for the typical male Chilean college student at the type - i don't get it)

R pointed to the sea of other party-goers and, in between sips of what was surely not his first piscola, tried to explain to me that most of them (not his friends in attendence of course) were all a bunch of homogeneous big fish in the small Chilean cuico pond, another brick in the wall, blah blah blah

He went on and on about this Chilean (hey, these were his words, not mine) need to feel superior...better

(um, have you seen the # of country clubs in Santiago? It's gotta be some sort of a record...mind you, we were having this discussion at an evil country club and got married at an evil Chilean country club...but, hey, i still felt what he was sayin')

It's all about class in Chile. X person belongs in X place. EVERYONE who lives in La Florida is middle class and sorta rasca...EVERYONE in Vitacura is a cuico....EVERYONE in Puente Alto is ghetto and poor. There are these BIG BRIGHT lines dividing neighborhoods...seriously it's like this more in Santiago (in my opinion) than any other place I've lived in for long enough to get a feel for the people and place (New Brunswick, NJ, NYC, St. Louis MO, Caen, France)

People are DEAD SET in their stereo types about class here. Actually, when I first brought R to meet my middle class (lived in Nunoa) host family the first thing my Chilean mom asked was where he went to college (la catolica), what he studied (industrial and electrical engineering) and where he lived (providencia) ...the FIRST thing she said after that was "you don't want to date this guy, he's just a 'nino lindo' cuico" (nino lindo or in the case of a young woman nina linda is a name for Chilean spoiled brats...essentially kids who have it all) She went on to tell me how he's part of a social sphere of overly privileged fancy pants Chilean right wing Pinochetistas....

mind you he's not...but i wasn't about to point that out to my old Chilean mom in the middle of her exasperated statements and puffs of her cigarette while wheezing from her asthma.

I mean, I'm not going to kid myself or you and say that R's background is some tragic impoverished story...bc it's not...but nino lindo he ain't.

nor was he ever.

yet in chile if you live in a certain place...if go to a good school - especially la catolica - and more specifically if you study or studied industrial/civil engineering, medicine or law - you are, in the eyes of MANY, a spoiled cuico brat...and probably a pinochet sympathizer.

Maybe it's all just my perception but it sure feels like there's a LOT of this black and white thinking about class floating around Chilean societ....Of course not ALL chileans think like this...it's just a general sense that i get.

There just seem to be certain truths about Chilean class.

As The Clinic noted one thing that seems to hold true among the CHilean upper class is the belief that anything that has garlic is ABHORRENT....this spice is horrific to the finer sensitivities of the Chilean elite.

Garlic kills vampires and cuicos, the article said...

jajjajajajaj

But seriously, if you want to do a social experiement try mentioning garlic ....see what people say...

and I can bet you that if you ever have the (dis?)pleasure of going to a truly cuico meal, you are loathe to bring up the issue of garlic (ajo) ...

The mean word will illicit moans and groans from the cuico dinner-goers ..."QUE ASCO" (how disgusting) "NO SUPORTO EL AJO" (i do not tolerate garlic) etc etc... you can discuss how much you love garlic bread and watch the cuicos writhe in digust.

in fact, now that i think about it, i wonder if this has anything to do with the saying "como el ajo" (like garlic) i.e. shitty i.e.

"esa pelicula es como el ajo"

=

"that movie is horrible"

Speaking of words and class, let me just list a few words for low class that come to mind in Chilean Spanish:

pulento

rasca

ordinario

picante

chulo

cuma

flaite

peliento

charcha

...

and the list goes ON and ON

....

and ON ...

Class is totally ingrained in how Chileans talk...(though i realize this is an issue in other cultures as well...hello pymalian)

But god FORBID you EVER pronounce the "sh" sound... President Bashilay (as in the president with the French last name Bachilet...i wrote a post about this earlier which you can see here)...let ALONE pronounce Chile as "she-lay" - then you're super duper ordinario.

I'd also suggest saying these things at a cuico meal...someone's eardrums might just burst

Anyways all has this has led me to the conclusion that the new name for my blog really ought to be "an ordinaria/ghetto/low class ajo eating roto de mierda (piece of shit) gringa's thoughts about ex-pat living in Santiago"

I think that has a nice ring to it

And with that, buenas noches and I'll leave you with a picture of some "pelo lais" i.e. straight haired i.e. cuica Chilean girls for your viewing pleasure...

Please share class stories!!!...i think they're muy interesante/pathetic/sad/hilarious all rolled up into one...obviously some more sad and other way funnier (um, garlic? REALLY?)

US news is so depressing recently

What is wrong in the US today?

Well, a lot of things apparently.

I mean it's getting to the point where I brace myself before opening up nytimes.com. The shooting in Fort Hood yesterday, for example.

What a horrible thing: a member of the U.S. military going into a U.S. base on U.S. soil and killing/wounding multiple U.S. military personel and 2 civilians.

To be honest, the first thing that came to my mind was to wonder how truly horrible/terrifying/awful must the wars that the US is engaged in must be to cause a U.S. citizen (who is also a trained M.D. psychiatrist who COUNSELED U.S. military members with post traumatic stress disorder) who apparently just found out he was going to be deployedto basically lose his mind.

I mean, he lost his mind right?

I mean, how else does one walk into a base with a bunch of people just minding their own business and start shooting?

Or maybe he was crazy to begin with. It's possible and I'm sure that's how Republicans will spin it. Oops, did i just say that?

To be honest, i HOPE he was crazy to begin with and that it wasn't something that came about slowly as a result of the harassment he received for being a muslim in the military and the fact that he heard the horrible stories of soldiers who had been to iraq and had basically lost it (um post traumatic stress disorder) as a result.

This situation is lamentable on so many levels. One obvious level is that it's just another symbol to the world that the US is full of crazy mass murderers. I used to defend my country on this point but i mean what with how easy it is for every tom dick and sally to become a gun wielding cowboy i'm starting to wonder if we aren't just a country full of trigger happy vigilantes.

The fact that the shooter was muslim was of course also additionally really unneeded bad press for the US muslim community.

Not to mention this little shooting is also (yet another) blaring sign that the wars we've been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are largely failures and that war is horrible in general and should be avoided at all costs. (and Mr. Obama could you please actually DO something about it? you said you would, so stop yapping and ACT)

Though please do let me know if you have other feelings on this issue. Any war sympathizers out there?

Anyways just to make my morning news read worse i stumbled across nicolas kristoff's op/ed piece about how f-ed up our health care system is - and it is.

In this article he mentions a woman with cancer whose private health insurer stopped covering her right when she needed chemo.

Of course i was immediately reminded of my dear friend Jason who passed away in September of last year after a lengthy and agonizing fight with various types of horrifying cancer, mainly brain cancer (his struggle was recently written up in the Wall St Journal) ...

I was reminded of how much his family struggled to pay for his treatment.

And please note: J was from what most would consider an upper middle class family from a wealthy suburb in St Louis....he had highly educated professional parents who had what I am sure was among the best of available private healthcare insurance policies...

Anyways reading this article put an even more depressing cloud over my news morning.

Don't you just hate that?

Why aren't there every any headlines that read the following: AIDS cured! Same sex marriage legal! Universal healtcare achieved! War in Iraq OVER!

Seriously.

If you would like to read more about Jason and his struggle with cancer- and with health care insurance - I urge you to take a look at his blog.

Ugh anyways anymore thinking about J and I'm going to start crying at my desk.

I just hope that our country gets its act together. How we treat each other. How we treat our sick. How we treat the poor (see: who fights our wars for us?)

Ok back to work. Sorry for the depressing post.