"Where are you from?" asked the guard at the Getty Center.
Juliana, Newton, and I were at the Getty Center doing a scavenger hunt, and I was searching for a clock that was one of the clues.
"Um... Los Angeles," I responded. I could see where this conversation was going and did not like it at all.
"Well, what nationality or ethnicity are you?"
"My nationality is American."
He was getting to see that this was probably a bad idea.
"I mean, what ethnicity?"
I finally fessed up. "Chinese."
"Ni hao!"
Seriously? "Hello...." I said back.
He then told me that he knew how to say hello in 60 languages so he could greet visitors in their native language. Maybe I was being unfair, but I said, "That's great, but you can greet me in English because, you know, American!"
Hadn't encountered something like that in a while, but situations like that tend to bring up the nasty Asian American activist side of me. Boils up to the surface. Maybe I should have responded in Swahili (the guard was of obvious African decent, so it's completely reasonable to assume he speaks Swahili, right?).
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Thursday, August 07, 2008
When you learn how to COPE
You know, when something is such a staple part of your life, for better or worse, it's always going to hurt at least just a little bit when it's gone.
Tomorrow's my last day at COPE. When I started working for COPE almost 4 years ago, it was a completely temporary thing. I was on the set of "Religiously Incorrect", a film I ADed (Assistant Directed) in 2004, when I received a call from a temp agency asking if I was available to meet with a Manager at COPE Partners (COPE's former name) on so and so date. I was actually offered another paid position ADing for a feature film about a bunch of wanna-be celebrities who end up dressed as Superman or other such movie characters on Hollywood Blvd in front of the Chinese Theatre. But I ended up driving around to different post-secondary educational institutions in Ventura County and the surrounding areas, recruiting students to participate in our hospital-based internship at St. John's Regional Medical Center.
Since, I've made lots of friends at COPE, and a few enemies. I've overseen programs in hospitals spanning 90 miles, which sometimes required me to leave home at the crack of dawn to make it to my farthest hospital on time for an 8am meeting. I've laughed, cried, been sleep deprived, fed myself possibly the unhealthiest things known to humans. I've sat in traffic for 4 hours straight, with my bladder about to explode, and that's a typical day. I've had my decisions praised, questioned, ignored, and told to be downright wrong. I've had periods of time where I've worked 16-hr days for an entire month straight (then was berated by my boss for not taking care of myself and told to take a 3-day vacation). I've sat in 3-hour meetings in the morning, then 3-hour meetings the same day in the evening. I've sat in meetings where I didn't know what the point of the meeting was. I've learned a lot...usually from making huge mistakes.
I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna miss the students I've worked with, the hospital executives and my COPE family who have been nothing but supportive to myself, and to the programs. Sure, I'm going to miss the paycheck too (after all, being a grad student doesn't spell "affluence"), but that's not really the point here is it?
I'm going to have to cut this short for now, because, in true COPE style, I have an 8am meeting tomorrow morning, which means I need to be up in about...oh...5 hours.
Tomorrow's my last day at COPE. When I started working for COPE almost 4 years ago, it was a completely temporary thing. I was on the set of "Religiously Incorrect", a film I ADed (Assistant Directed) in 2004, when I received a call from a temp agency asking if I was available to meet with a Manager at COPE Partners (COPE's former name) on so and so date. I was actually offered another paid position ADing for a feature film about a bunch of wanna-be celebrities who end up dressed as Superman or other such movie characters on Hollywood Blvd in front of the Chinese Theatre. But I ended up driving around to different post-secondary educational institutions in Ventura County and the surrounding areas, recruiting students to participate in our hospital-based internship at St. John's Regional Medical Center.
Since, I've made lots of friends at COPE, and a few enemies. I've overseen programs in hospitals spanning 90 miles, which sometimes required me to leave home at the crack of dawn to make it to my farthest hospital on time for an 8am meeting. I've laughed, cried, been sleep deprived, fed myself possibly the unhealthiest things known to humans. I've sat in traffic for 4 hours straight, with my bladder about to explode, and that's a typical day. I've had my decisions praised, questioned, ignored, and told to be downright wrong. I've had periods of time where I've worked 16-hr days for an entire month straight (then was berated by my boss for not taking care of myself and told to take a 3-day vacation). I've sat in 3-hour meetings in the morning, then 3-hour meetings the same day in the evening. I've sat in meetings where I didn't know what the point of the meeting was. I've learned a lot...usually from making huge mistakes.
I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna miss the students I've worked with, the hospital executives and my COPE family who have been nothing but supportive to myself, and to the programs. Sure, I'm going to miss the paycheck too (after all, being a grad student doesn't spell "affluence"), but that's not really the point here is it?
I'm going to have to cut this short for now, because, in true COPE style, I have an 8am meeting tomorrow morning, which means I need to be up in about...oh...5 hours.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Detour?
My mom's an accountant for her company, and it's month-end closing time, so the department has been doing a lot of expense audits. There was one that my mom ran across that just had to win the inefficiency award of the decade. (Note, you may need Google maps, or just know Southern CA geography to understand the absurdity of this)
An employee of the company, who lives in Ventura County, had a meeting in Orange County. Rather than simply driving there (which is all of, oh, 90 miles), he booked a flight from LAX to John Wayne...... with a layover in San Francisco. Think about what he had to do, though. He had to drive to LAX from Ventura County, check in, go through security, wait for his flight, hop on a plane, taxi around, take off, fly to San Fran-freakin'-cisco, wait around for the next flight, hop on the next flight, taxi, take off, etc etc, fly BACK down to John Wayne, and rent a car for the duration of his flight.
His journey back is even better. His flight back to LAX mirrored his flight to John Wayne (with the oh-so-convenient layover in San Francisco). However, his flight out of John Wayne got CANCELED.
So. He returned his rental car, rented ANOTHER car, drove it to LAX, returned that car, picked up HIS car, and drove all the way back to Ventura County.
I don't know about you, but I'm impressed.
An employee of the company, who lives in Ventura County, had a meeting in Orange County. Rather than simply driving there (which is all of, oh, 90 miles), he booked a flight from LAX to John Wayne...... with a layover in San Francisco. Think about what he had to do, though. He had to drive to LAX from Ventura County, check in, go through security, wait for his flight, hop on a plane, taxi around, take off, fly to San Fran-freakin'-cisco, wait around for the next flight, hop on the next flight, taxi, take off, etc etc, fly BACK down to John Wayne, and rent a car for the duration of his flight.
His journey back is even better. His flight back to LAX mirrored his flight to John Wayne (with the oh-so-convenient layover in San Francisco). However, his flight out of John Wayne got CANCELED.
So. He returned his rental car, rented ANOTHER car, drove it to LAX, returned that car, picked up HIS car, and drove all the way back to Ventura County.
I don't know about you, but I'm impressed.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Elitist much?
This was an ad I found on facebook:
Join Ozmosis - the exclusive physician only network that allows you to share knowledge with the people you trust - your peers.
Because the rest of us are just schmucks. And physicians are ALWAYS right, and no other health care professional knows what the hell they're doing. This elitist attitude certainly doesn't drive a rift in a patient health care team.
Join Ozmosis - the exclusive physician only network that allows you to share knowledge with the people you trust - your peers.
Because the rest of us are just schmucks. And physicians are ALWAYS right, and no other health care professional knows what the hell they're doing. This elitist attitude certainly doesn't drive a rift in a patient health care team.
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