Living it up

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner for "Show us your Life Fridays". This week is living rooms. I'm doing my Auburn one, since it's where I live now (but stay on the lookout for my Birmingham mantle!). Keep in mind the room is mostly finished, but I still have a little more to do.

The Auburn condo is really small, and considering I love to entertain, I have to make the best of my space.

People ask me all the time about my furniture and "things" around the place. So, I'm going to fill in some of my decorating tips and where I got the things, as much as I can remember.

I think the best way to describe the theme of this room is "things I LOVE." I originally wanted to do an animal print theme, but it turned into a room that defines me. (By the way, I am going to have to SEARCH to see if I have anything from Pottery Barn in here. I haven't noticed it yet, and you all know how much Girl Sunday loves her Pottery Barn!)

This is the living room from the front door. My "studio" (not quite complete) is to the left, my bedroom to the right, and, duh!, the "kitchen" (te-niny!) is in the back. Also in this picture, in the bottom left, is the rabbit cage.

This is the view from my "studio". To the right is the entertainment center.

Here is the view from my bedroom. Obviously, the entertainment center has some work to be done on it. I got it at Lowes, but you can find wire shelves almost anywhere - Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, KMart, Wal-Mart, etc. Be sure the shelves can hold at least 350 pounds each, and that it is wide enough for your TV. (Back when TVs were square we didn't have to worry about that!)

To the left of the sofa are my beloved books. I found the "Peace" and "Dream" wall art at Target this summer. The bookcase is from Pier One, about six years ago. It's their "Dakota" bookcase, back when "Dakota" was black iron with copper undertones. 

This is the detail on the table and chairs under the pink flower (from Ross). I LOVE this furniture set. The copper color is beautiful and really helps tie the room together (I broke a rule and mixed metals, as well as black and brown). The result is actually better than I ever would have thought. I think the key is using tonal browns, so the colors blend and complement with the black.

All Most of my books. I love to read! I haven't read all of them yet, but I have read most of them. The top shelf is philosophy, books to read, and Christian. The second shelf is humor and literature (the picture has a cute litte frame story ... maybe I will share later). Third shelf is history and reproductive health. Fourth shelf is lifestyle and reference. And, finally, the bottom shelf is yearbooks, and miscellaneous.

Also in this picture is the best glimpse at the sofa's color and texture. As with most things in this room, I also love my sofa. It's brown velvet, but it has gray undertones, which help tie the brown into the black accents the developers used. I got the sofa last year at Auburn Furniture and I think it's by Broyhill.

Here is my favorite chair. I got it last year from Pier One. On clearance! And I saved a good bit extra by opening a credit card with them. The chair is purple velvet, and when I got the picture of the pink flower, I had originally intended to put it in my bedroom, but I saw it sitting in the den, next to the chair, and realized it went really well in the room. The chair pulls out the purple used in the painting, so it's not so intense in the room.

I mentioned earlier about using browns that are tonal. The best example of that is this trunk (in the bottom of the picture) I got from Target. It was originally a bedroom linen trunk in Birmingham, but now it is my "coffee table". Notice how some of the "reeds" (is that what they are?) are black and some brown and there are varying shades in between? That's what I mean by tonal.

Onto my console. I got the shelves at Hobby Lobby on clearance, and the table at Target. The glass candle holders are from TJ Maxx, and I put coffee beans and tea lights in them. I ALWAYS keep fresh flowers. Just because :) The turquoise/blue/teal vase in the back has dried roses from my old resident manager. (The vase is also from Pier One, about six years ago and I believe is called the "Peacock Vase". Again, it has some copper in it to help tie the room together.) I used to have a bulletin board covering the fuse box, but it fell and I need to work on that some more. :(  The peace sign is a Girl Sunday original. It can be found at my upcoming craft business' website.

When I have parties, I clear the console table and use it to display food or paperwares.

"There was an old bunny who lived in a cage under the TV ..."

Yea! Feffer is back in Auburn! Sweet Bunny Boy is almost eight years old (i.e. really old for a rabbit).

Thank you for visiting! I look forward to seeing what everyone else has done with their living areas. And, thank you, Kelly, for hosting!

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

On Healthcare, part I

Last week, I was telling my mother about my latest healthcare woes. She suggested I write about it, become an advocate for those who are adversely affected by our current system. I've touched on this topic before, as it affects my life more than I would like it to. And let's be real: it affects everyone, some more than others. I have tried before to write about it, to vent my frustrations, but I've always gotten so upset before I can concisely make my point that I just save the draft and table it for the time being. Obviously, being liberally minded, venting my opinions isn't going to get me far, being a big, blue Southern dot in a sea of red. Let me say this, though: I'm a little more purple than blue. I'm going to stick to the facts the best I can, but I am still going to throw in opinion, in order to maintain the passion of this issue. So, if you disagree with my opinion, that is totally fine with me. I believe diversity is what makes this world so awesome. Just hear me out, and consider what I have to say. I'm not trying to change anyone's core belief system or anything like that. My goal is to raise awareness. I also want to acknowledge that I am not a debater by nature. I don't like conflict. It stresses me out, and in doing so, raises my blood pressure, which is not a pleasant feeling. So, I'm going to channel my inner Ralph Nader (as a consumer activist), Julia Sugarbaker (as a great orator, and "diatribe-r"), Political Scientist (as a commentator on the state of affairs) and Chris Rock in Head of State ("That ain't right!"), and just go for it. This is going to get deep and unpleasant and very long. Please note: I will boldface my main points as a way to ease skimming.
The state of affairs relating to healthcare really hits home for me. In 2004, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome. In 2007, I began experiencing chronic nausea, fatigue, and abdominal pain (a.k.a. my mystery illness). In 2008, still experiencing the mystery illness, I was denied health insurance (due to pre-existing conditions). In 2009, I found a health insurance plan that was more expensive to pay for than to go with private pay (paying out of pocket, without insurance). In 2010, my health insurance company was ordered to cease and desist operation because it was, at this point, only an insurance card, and not actually covering anything. I am still sick. I pay out of pocket to my healthcare providers. I deal with discrimination in doctors' offices because of my lack of insurance. Thankfully, for now at least, I am able to afford to "do private pay" (as the office staff calls it). But what about those who can't afford it? Just because I can afford it, doesn't mean everyone else can. (And that, to all those sociologists calling me an individualist, is what sets me apart from the individualists.)

Per the Declaration of Independence, I believe that healthcare is a right. I believe this right falls under "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". While the "pursuit of happiness" clause is a weak argument (the key word being pursuit), I will state that it's hard to be happy when you are sick. But you still have the right to pursue healthcare in order to heal and, therefore, be happy. The "right to life" clause is what I prefer to argue. Life can be thought of in two ways. One of which is the ability to live in the figurative sense, as in "living life to the fullest." It's hard to do that when you're sick, but given the wording, you can always live as full a life as possible, given the circumstances. The other way I look at life, and the way I prefer to look at this clause for my argument, is the right to live. It's kind of hard to live when you're dead, isn't it? And it's pretty hard to get the treatment you need when you don't have appropriate healthcare. These rights were deemed unalienable by our founding fathers. That means, according to the intention of the Declaration, we have the right to alter or abolish the government when these rights are violated. (I am aware this way of thinking opens up a whole related can of worms, but I'm going to save my thoughts on that for another day. A day when I don't feel the need to advocate for the nation as a whole.)

Sometimes my deep down isn't very deep

I always thought it would be cool to be a Philosophy major.

In high school, I took Miss J's Philosophy and Human Behavior class my senior year. College philosophy and high school philosophy are two different things. BC, before college, the myth of philosophy still existed.

The myth of philosophy is more about image than philosophy. Bohemians sit around contemplating history and current events, and when that gets boring, bring on the theoretical. That's essentially what Philosophy and Human Behavior was all about. Everyday, I bugged the guy who sat behind me, and everyday we would listen to Miss J for 15 or 20 minutes, and everyday we would get in about 10 minutes of content. Or not. Or maybe that's what really happened. It just depends on if you are me or the guy who sat behind me. Likely, it's a combination of the two.

In college, philosophy is much different. First, you have these theories that guide you in creating your argument. Many times I heard, "It's the [blah blah blah] conductor [blah] train [blah] people [blah]. And do you save the people on the train or the people [not on the train]?"

I kind of just sat back in Philosophy classes at Auburn. Not because I was bored to tears, but because it was taking all of me to comprehend what was going on.

When the socially awkward guy catty-corner from me started in on Star Trek, I lost all concentration.

I completed my first Philosophy class at Auburn, and my second attempt ended in a W.

Philosophy of War and Terror was very similar to Philosophy of the [blah blah blah], for this purpose it will be known as Medical Philosophy. I felt like I was drowning in Philosophy of War and Terror. My free time was spent reading these big books over and over to try to understand (we had to submit discussion questions to prove we had read) and I kept hearing things about trains and people and which one do you save. I did have a friend in the class and the other people were pretty nice, but a few weeks into the semester, when I heard someone on the other side of the room say, "It's like this one time. On Star Trek," it was over. (BTW, this was the same semester my Great Books class ended up being a Philosophy class, as well. Only more enjoyed. I was also taking a statistics class disguised as "Research Methods". Also, much enjoyed, but a lot of work. Oh! And how could I forget Public Personnel Administration. I'll have to tell you about that later.)

Philosophy at UAB was a whole different story. My two attempts at actual Philosophy classes there both ended in W's as well. I think one was Philosophy of Law (or something like that) and it was just too legal for me. History of Philosophy, where we study Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, that is a whole different story. It wasn't too deep, it wasn't too boring, it wasn't too new to me. Seeing as how all of my non-Philosophy Philosphy classes (Great Books II, Intro to Political Thought, Classical Political Thought, as well as any chance a miscellaneous teacher had to throw in some Plato and Aristotle or Machiavelli), I figured this class would be my fun class. After all, I rocked Classical Political Thought and I rocked History. There was no way I could mess this up. My last fun class of undergrad years. I figured it would be a freebie, and I would love it at the same time.

I sat in between buddies from Classical Political Thought, who were both Philosophy majors. I read my Plato with joy, looking even deeper into it for the umpteenth time. And when I got my test back and the teacher bared down so hard with her red pen while marking through an answer and writing "NO!" across it she put a whole in my paper, that was the final straw. I kind of wanted to cry. Not because I failed a test, but because a teacher, who comes to class seemingly stoned, and doesn't have any logical flow to her "teaching", failed me, a seasoned Plato scholar, a senior in college, who was taking this class for fun because I liked the subject matter.

Ouch!

I guess I was too logical for her.

(In my defense, in all other academic Plato encounters, I passed, with at least a B, in all classes. And I never made below a C on any test.)

A year or so ago, when I was a bartender, one of my regulars would come in to read and smoke cigarettes and drink Diet Coke. We would talk about what all he was reading. At one point, I decided I would read The Republic with him and we could have a book club of sorts.

Fail.

And then I discovered Celia Rivenbark. Philosophy for the people who would rather laugh at all the wack-o people of the world (I'm talking to you, Star Trek guy ... and History of Philosophy Professor) than make themselves miserable contemplating the end of the world (ahem, Philosophy of War and Terror). And the bright side of it, you don't have to dig very deep to bust a gut (as opposed to History of Philosophy).