I'm too young to be this rickety...

My feet hurt. And so does my neck. And when I sit for more than ten minutes at a time, I actually hear a sound that is not dissimilar to the sound my Grandfather's knees make when he walks down the stairs. All I can say is that I'm WAY too young to feel this old. I mean, what happens when I actually AM old? Will I even be able to move?

Last night found me literally shuffling around my apartment because my feet hurt too much to actually flex and lift them off of the floor.

Something must, and will, be done.

Fighting For Our Right To Choose.

Please read this post, and then, if you agree even the slightest bit with what we're trying to do, please send a letter (there is an example at the bottom, that you can use if you like). It doesn't matter where you're from: What the government of New Brunswick is doing will have an affect on everyone, and if they are allowed to take away our right to choose, what's next?

I would also ask that if you do send a letter, you ensure that your name is legible and that you include where you're from (just the city, and if you're from outside NB, the province or state.) Thank-you all in advance for your support of this action.

Action Alert! Right to Choose Under Attack in New Brunswick

Once again our right to choose has come under direct attack in New Brunswick. As of July 1st, 2006, the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton is no longer performing publicly funded abortions. Financial reasons were cited for terminating this service; because the hospital is short-staffed. The Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital was the last publicly funded institution to provide abortion services for the entire province of New Brunswick. Our provincial government has been quick to promise us that abortion services will be performed in at least one other publicly funded institution in the province, but they will not release the names of the doctors who have volunteered to fill this gap in our health care services, nor the location where this service will be provided.

Concerned New Brunswickers are spearheading a campaign to let the Government of New Brunswick know that denying a woman’s right to choose and consequently endangering her reproductive health is unacceptable, and to demand that the government immediately begin a publicly funded program to provide abortion services in all hospitals across the province. We would like to begin by organizing a campaign, with the goal of having at least 400 letters sent to our provincial Health Minister, Brad Green, who approved the cancellation of abortion services at the Fredericton Dr.Everett Chalmers Hospital. We are suggesting that each letter contain a coat hanger to remind our public health representative of one of the most disturbing dangers of restricting a woman’s right to choose: self-induced abortion.

We would like these letters to clearly express the danger of the current situation, as well as suggest positive improvements that our government can make to bring us closer to having access to adequate public health care. We encourage the inclusion of statistics from reliable sources,personal statements of the dangers of not providing abortion services, and the changes that you deem to be most urgent. This campaign will continue for an entire month, ending with a Pro-Choice Rally in Fredericton, NB, on the 19th of August. Please find listed below the various addresses of the Honourable Brad Green’s offices, to which you should address your letters. We have also provided some suggestions of demands you may wish to include in your letters to Mr. Green, as well as a form letter and several online resources which you should feel free to use.

Recommended improvements to our public system:

* A return to publicly funded abortions at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton.
* Provision of provincial funding for all abortions.
* Inclusion of all public health facilities in New Brunswick to perform abortions, so that families who cannot afford to travel will have equal access.
* Elimination of the necessity of having two doctors confirm that an abortion is “medically necessary” before the procedure will be funded by the province. This is the only medical procedure that needs two equally qualified medical professionals to approve, and its sole purpose seems to be the limiting of access.
* Removal of politically motivated categorization of abortions such as “medically necessary”, and “therapeutic”.
* Improved education and access to birth control options.
* Improved education and access to the morning after pill.
* Comprehensive sexual education program in schools.
* Sexual education programs in schools starting earlier in the school curriculum.

Mailing Addresses:

Brad Green, QC
Minister of Health
Attorney General
MLA Fredericton South

1. Constituency Office: Fredericton South
83 Regent Street
Fredericton NB E3B 3W3

2. Carleton Place
P.O. Box 5100
Fredericton NB E3B 5G8

3. Carleton Place
520 King Street
Fredericton NB E3B 6G3

4. Fax: (506) 453-5243

5. E-Mail Address: brad.green@gnb.ca

If you choose to write an e-mail, please CC, or BCC all correspondence to accesstooptions@gmail.com


For more information, please have a look at the following links:

1. Lack of abortion access may violate health act: analyst
http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb

2. Backgrounder - Abortion Access Issues
http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/backgrounders/access.htm

3. Five Basic Principles Not Met
http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/healthact.shtml

4. Women To Be Denied Funded Abortions in New Brunswick
http://www.womennet.ca/news.php?show&4366

Example Letter

Date

Dear Hon. Brad Green,

I am writing to express my great dismay over the New Brunswick government's recent decision to terminate publicly funded abortions at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton. The government's proposal to further erode an already inaccessible abortion service system in this province is an irresponsible move in the wrong direction that needs to be reversed.

Given that 400 of the 404 publicly funded abortions performed in New Brunswick last year were done at the Chalmers Hospital and that there has yet to be an announcement by the government of where women can go to obtain a publicly funded abortion, the government is infringing on the rights of women to choose, and seriously jeopardizing public health.

Historically, women in our area, like elsewhere in the world, have tried to end unintended pregnancies when abortion services were inaccessible. Sadly, healthcare professionals in this province are still witnessing the effects of self-induced abortions and dangerous illegal procedures caused by a system that does not provide access for women to obtain a publicly funded and accessible abortion. This tragic scenario is only expected to continue and worsen with the further backward measures to make abortion services even more inaccessible.

I call on your government to return publicly funded abortion services to the Chalmers Hospital as well as enhanced publicly funded abortion services throughout the province so that women seeking abortions throughout the province have access to this necessary health service. The fact that the only abortion providers in this province are located in urban centres means that many women seeking abortions must travel varying distances from their homes and some do not have the means to do so. Also, many women who need abortions simply cannot afford them. For this reason, it is important that publicly funded abortion services be extended throughout the province.

Finally, New Brunswick is the only province in Canada that refuses to pay for abortions performed in private clinics. I call on the government to stop violating the Canada Health Act and make abortion services more accessible by paying for these clinical abortions.

Sincerely,

(Your Name)

Do you think I could just mainline some endorphins?

Seriously in need of something to spark a good ol' fashioned belly-laugh here, people.

Seriously.

What have you got for me?

Really, anything, even a serious groaner, would be appreciated at this point.

Welcome back!

Today is a day for celebration!

After months of groping in the dark void left by the absence of my favourite food/gardening/OBGYN info site, The Blog That Ate Manhattan has reappeared in the blogosphere!

I can't tell you how excited that makes me.

I'm going to go home tonight and make me some blueberry cake with lemon sauce.

Welcome back, TBTAM. We missed you.

...and I'm still sporting the red sparkles to prove it!

Saturday night was Girls' Night. At my house. The theme was Hawaiian (which was appropriate given that it was ~35 degrees- with the humidex- at 8 o'clock at night) and the drink was a massive vat of Sangria. Much fun was had by all (how could it not??), and there was narry a drop of Sangria to be found by the end... only sodden orange wheels and a few stray lime wedges ;)

There is, I have come to discern, a need for the time-honoured tradition of Girls' Night. It gets women out of their worlds of coupledom, and allows them to reconnect with other women... Being a virtual singelton myself, it never ceases to amaze me the sheer joy that many of my 'coupled' female friends take in an evening with just 'the girls'...

There is certainly a connection that women feel with one another (and I assume men feel with other men)- the unity that is bred of shared experience perhaps? Wherever it comes from, it is highly comforting to indulge oneself in an evening of it every now and again... to let loose and just talk about things that can't be properly discussed in the presence of the traditionally more vocal men... I can't say exactly what though, as this would be breaking one of the primary codes of Girls' Night conduct: What happens at Girls' Night stays at Girls' Night...

The best part of Girls' Night though?? The deepening (and creating) of great friendships, and the fact that all you men miss us SO much, even though we're only gone for a few hours. That makes us feel needed, and that's a nice feeling :D

construction season...

It's summer; that time of the year when everything is in bloom, birds sing, and soft, warm breezes play across your face as you enjoy a leisurely stroll along the riverbank. It is most people's favorite season, but in my neck of the woods, we have another name for summer: Construction.

Everything that could bloom has been dug up, and I have a headache that has nothing to do with the damn birds...

It might have something to do with the fact that a jack-hammer has been going almost non-stop just down the street from my office for the last three days, or that yesterday a truck seemed to be backing up interminably, thus exposing us all to that insipid "beeeeeeeeep- beeeeeeeeeep- beeeeeeeeeeep" for the ENTIRE day. Oh joy. There it is again.

*sigh*

When is the snow coming??

women can't change water jugs

Or so it seems in my office.

Let me explain: In our office there resides a watercooler, just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill model, that will be permitted to sit empty, with its refill sitting on the floor, just waiting for a big strong male to happen by and make the switch. None of the women in our office (which comprises the majority of the office population) will attempt the operation.

As this has been the source of no small amount of curiosity on my part for some time now, I have observed the phenomenon carefully: Only in cases of extreme dehydration or some other form of desperation will one of them even approach making the switch herself. AND although I myself have performed the switch many times without incident and in the presence of my co-workers, they would all rather wait for a man (some of whom are arguably much less spry and able than me) to perform the task.

So what is this? Why, even in the presence of at least one able-bodied person (who happens to be female) do we have to wait for a man to grant us access to our water?

It seems so melodramatic- so damsel-in-distress... it drives me nuts. The scary part is that they just plain don't even think to ask another woman to help them out... it's just assumed that a man, regardless of his physical ability, is needed to do the job. Oi.

Just another illustration of the maddening ideas that persist concerning the abilities of people based on nothing more than gender.

Feel the burrrn!

It's a good day. I am functioning on approximately three-and-one-half-hours sleep, but my early morning trip to the gym and that glorious post-workout cup of coffee were SO worth foregoing that extra hour of snooze.

A friend and I have decided to challenge ourselves to improve our overall wellness. We've given ourselves 50 days to shape up, and hopefully this will lead to a permanent overall lifestyle change. Thus far we have gotten off our sedentary butts and into the pool three times per week and are currently working on getting said butts to the gym at least twice per week (I like to go early early early because there are no 'beautiful people' there to make me feel like a self-conscious idiot, which has always been the starting point of my downfall in the past...).

We have also upped our H2O intake to a minimum of 2 litres per day. It's amazing how much better I feel just because I'm now properly hydrated! (for the first time in a decade, I suspect...)

Our plan took a bit of a hit over the weekend, as the camping was not overly conducive to our typical regimen... that's not 'virgin' watermelon there... let's just put it that way. BUT I think we managed to keep up at least our cardio, and we did so in the following ways:

1. Walking for miles along crowded streets and beaches on Canada Day.
2. Running around chopping down trees and constructing emergency rain shelters with holey tarps (note how proud Chuck looks of our design! We bled for that sucker... BLED!).
3. Evading a pool-side 'terrorist cell' of ten year old girls who decided it was their mission in life to expel our group from the pool by jumping on us... little @%&*!@ darlings...
4. Sprinting to and from afore-mentioned shelter during occasional torrential downpours.

Also, we have Bocce ball to thank for the addition of a bit of weight training... hmmmmm... all in all, it appears that we didn't really slip all that much...

Needless to say, camping was a blast, rain and all. We even had green and blue fire!!!