As usual, the opponents to legalizing medicinal marijuana say that there is the potential for abuse, use would set a “bad example” to children, and that the bill wasn’t restrictive enough.

Medicinal marijuana has been found to help some people manage chronic pain, nausea due to illness or treatment, and help with other types of side effects or symptoms. Considering that it is possible to receive morphine, a much more powerful medication that marijuana could ever be, the fear of abuse for what would be a controlled substance, is almost laughable.

On the bright (?) side, according to news reports, U.S. Attorney John Kacavas has indicated that his office would be targeting drug dealers and not those individuals who have small amounts of marijuana intended to help deal with their pain or other effects from illness or treatment.

~~~

Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Blisstree

No Medicinal Pot in New Hampshire

Last evening, we headed over to my husband’s TV station. He and his co-anchor Janice have been hosting the fireworks show during the 9 o’clock news for the past several years. They broadcast from the roof of the station, which is atop Red Mountain. Two doors down is the might Vulcan statute, where the fireworks are lit.

This is the fourth year we’ve taken Truman and each year he enjoys it more and more. This year he was old enough to idolize Janice’s 9-year-old son, Noah. The two of them had a ball watching the fireworks, playing with the mics after the show, and walking like Frankenstein around the station after the festivities.

It’s a far cry from the first time we took Truman, when he was 2 ½. Back then, he sat through most of the show but demanded I hold my hands over his ears. Toward the end he wanted to go inside, so we walked down to the lobby and sat in a chair next to the entry doors. Truman sat patiently in my lap as the crowed passed out the door just in front of us. Just as I looked up and saw Rick walking down the curved stairway to meet us, Truman’s belly went concave, and he projectile vomited across the lobby, into the path of passersby. Children shouted, “Oh gross,” some gagged. Truman cried, and I sat there with my mouth open, holding a drenched and smelly toddler, not knowing what to do.

Cynthia, who has four children and now works for another station, rushed over and put paper towels down over the brown mess. She said, “It’s OK. Really. It’s OK.” After staring at me as blankly as I did him, Rick carefully picked up our soggy son, carried him to the bathroom and stripped him down to his diaper. We carried him outside as he wailed, “I want my clothes back.” What a pleasant memory.

I’d say our departures from the July 4th fireworks celebration (Thunder on the Mountain) have since been far more tame, but not this year. Truman wandered off with Noah and stumbled, slamming his lips onto the marble countertop in the lobby. Blood gushed, Truman cried, and I calmly carried my little boy to the bathroom, washed off the blood, and surveyed the damage. He busted both the upper and lower lips, but no teeth were lost and no stitches required. He found comfort in sucking a paper towel and drifted off gently on the slow ride home through traffic. And we took comfort in knowing we were finally getting this parenting thing.

Photos, JWJourney

Post from: Blisstree

Having a Blast on the Fourth of July

Here’s a weight-loss competition that goes across the whole of Morris County, New Jersey. For three months, members from 14 different towns have competed in a “Toxic Waistlines” contest to see who can lose the most weight. The winning town will “get bragging rights as the healthiest town in the county” and the “top three people to lose weight and inches in a countywide contest will each win $1,000.”

I think competitions like this can be a great way to get started on a weight-loss goal, especially because you have other people around you to support and encourage your progress. I hope anyone participating in this contest can also keep the weight off, and most importantly, start a brand new healthy lifestyle that will stick.

Image: sxc.hu

Post from: Blisstree

Morris County Weight Loss

If the thought of even speaking to another human, gives you the office version of road rage, you might need a vacation. And if you get weepy at the thought of your neighbors having spent the whole summer at their beach condo, while the farthest you’ve gotten has been to the water fountain at the local dog park…you definitely need a vacation.

I know I do. Our last trip was to Las Vegas back in May, and it seems like centuries ago. Las Vegas is everything they say it is, but mostly over-the-top.

I want the kind of vacation where the most taxing thing you have to think about is how to work the coffee maker in your rented beach house. And that is our plan….in freaking September!

Why Fall for a summer get-away? That’s when our beach destination is its most glorious…no kids, no crowds…and no jellyfish in the ocean. (Sometimes that means no restaurants either, the waiters have all left for college.)

But I don’t care…and I don’t care that we’re only headed 2 hours south on the parkway to Long Beach Island, New Jersey.

Because our state lives with the stigma of being a big refinery (no thanks to Bruce Springsteen) visitors steer clear, and miss some of the most pristine beaches, and cleanest waters in the country.

So, only a few more weeks of work, worry and endless dog hair to clean–and then I’m off with hubby and Trotter– to our house by the sea, clams on the half shell, the last of the Jersey tomatoes, dinner at sunset–and the pure, white sand of LBI.

I think I just heard a seagull…maybe not, that was just the swivel of my office chair.

…meet me tonight in Atlantic City.

Post from: Blisstree

If You Smell Sand At The Store…

Or my favorite,”mornings around our house are nuts” I just don’t understand why that is. Sadly, often the mom is shown dancing around the house while cleaning. (still, in the year 2006…sigh!)

While that may be the case: jobs, kids, house, social committments, etc. I can’t help asking, ‘when, throughout history, has a woman’s life not been busy and demanding’?

But friends…it is to freaking hot here in the North East to elaborate on that topic…so, rather, I’m going to tell you about the cutest and most refreshing gift you can send someone: Edible Arrangements’ fresh fruit bouquet! Isn’t that a unique entertaining or gift idea? And I love their phone number: 1-877-DO-FRUIT.

And speaking of fruit, there is nothing more luscious and fresh tasting than a tomato salad…especially if the tomatos hail from my home state, New Jersey.

As soon as it cools off a bit, I’ll be back with more on our busy lives.

Post from: Blisstree

Cleopatra was a multi-tasker.