Why Tradeshows Are Bad For Your Health and Other Odds and Ends

It's like clockwork...every year I put on some sort of tradeshow, and every year I get deathly ill. Not one to break with tradition, I decided to one-up my previous personal best, tradeshow-induced walking pneumonia, with a tradeshow-induced meningitis scare this week.

Luckily, I think I'm out of the woods with the meningitis, and settling for some awful sort of virus that has rendered me useless for the past three days. I've had 36-hours of a pounding headache, a stiff neck, swollen glands, sore throat, achy joints, and the pièce de résistance, vomiting.

Awesome.

Then again, compared to having meningitis, this virus seems like a walk in the park.

So although I vowed to write more this week, I've literally been dead to the world, sleeping my free hours away. So here's a mini-update of sorts now that I'm coming out of my zombie state.

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I met John Edwards on Monday, which rendered me a little starstruck. I can't say I've ever met a presidential candidate before, and getting to hear him speak and shaking hands with him was pretty darn cool. Edwards seems to be a truly genuine guy. I've been following his political career for quite some time, and when Tim's firm became a sponsor of a fundraiser for Edwards current run for the 2008 election, I knew I wanted to attend.

This event was all the more timely as last week, the news came out about Elizabeth Edwards being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The media has created a shitstorm around this and I for one cannot understand why people are up in arms about him continuing to run for president. I would encourage anyone who questions their choice to read John Edwards book Four Trials in which he writes about his blue-collar upbringing, meeting his wife, making a name for himself in the legal community, and overcoming the death of their teenage son. I think you'd find this couple is truly dedicated to everything they do. This is hardly a publicity stunt - this couple supports each other through and through. And while yes, Elizabeth will die one day from the cancer, she is still alive now. What does the media want her to do? Start digging her own grave? This run for president is something to keep her focused on living, not dying. Almost everyone I've known who has been diagnosed with cancer and given a small window of time to live has outlasted their original diagnosis. I'd like to think it was their will to continue living as normal a life as possible, and the determination to fight the disease off as much as possible. If this run for president gives Elizabeth a sense of purpose and encourages her will to live, who are we to judge. Only two people are entitled to make a decision on this, and that is John and Elizabeth Edwards. I will support both of them wholeheartedly in whatever may come their way in the months to come.

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Sunny days in San Francisco are the best times to be in the city. Wednesday was absolutely gorgeous, 70 degrees, and it felt like the entire city decided to go out and take advantage of it. My office is right across the street from the Ferry Building, and on days like these, the Embarcadero just explodes with life and energy. My coworkers and I walked over to Taylor's Refresher at the Ferry Building Plaza to splurge on overpriced chicken club sandwiches and tasty sweet potato fries, drowned in ketchup and a dusting of chili powder. My question to you is, if you deep fry a sweet potato, which is normally good for you, does that make these healthy fries?

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My home is beginning to feel a bit like Wild Kingdom. There is still plenty of grass growing in the open space around my house, so we have daily visitors in the form of deer, birds, and my new favorite, a jackrabbit. The backyard is overrun with lizards, who use the warm pavers as a place to soak up the heat. All this activity is almost too much for my two furballs, Max and Angel, who we refer to as "The Mighty Hunters." They stalk the lizards from behind the sliding glass door, licking their lips and wagging their tails. I can sit for hours with the cats, soaking in the sun, and watching the spectacle of nature. We are truly just visitors on their land around these parts.

Well, exhaustion is setting in for now and I must rest. More to come soon, I promise.

Thin Mints...a Diet Cookie, Right?

It seems fitting that only three weeks after posting my resolution to live healthier and get my fit body back that the Girl Scouts would start selling cookies. If this isn't proof that the universe is constantly f*cking with me, I'm not sure what is.

Months ago when an enterprising neighborhood Girl Scout dropped an order form off in my mailbox, I'm sure pre-ordering FIVE boxes of cookies made sense. You know, because four boxes of cookies is hardly enough and six is obviously too much.

FIVE BOXES. What the hell am I going to do with five boxes of delicious, mouth-watering fattening cookies when I'm supposed to be eating healthy?

It isn't just the temptation waiting for me at home. Is it just me or are the Girl Scouts suddenly everywhere this year? Whoever is running their marketing program should be congratulated. I run to the store to buy milk, and there they are with a table in front of the store. Parents are selling them at work. Some troop moms were even selling cookies out on Market Street in downtown San Francisco this afternoon. There is no escape.

These cookies are tradition and only come once a year. I've tried convincing myself I'm only buying cookies out of charity and goodwill to Girl Scouts, but let's get real. We all know my purchases have less to do with philanthropy and everything to do with my weakness for all things Thin Mint.

I have been forcing myself to eat healthy treats in an effort to avoid the sugary goodness in my cupboard. Try as I may, lowfat yogurt just isn't a Tagalong, no matter how hard I attempt to spin it. Bananas, protein bars, carrot sticks - all lousy substitutions. When faced with the option of snacking on a Thin Mint (straight from the freezer...because they're better cold) or an apple, what would you pick?

For now, I'm opting for the moderation route. Only two cookies a day, until they're gone. That sounds somewhat reasonable and adult until you factor in my possession of FIVE boxes of cookies.

Whoops.

Can I maintain that much willpower? Your guess is as good as mine. It is a fine line between self-control and morphing into a manic cookie-inhaling furry blue monster.

Good thing Girl Scout cookies only come once a year.