Expensive Allergies

It's the most unpleasant time of the year.

It's allergy season.

Like clockwork, my allergies are killing me, and I'm in the allergy death valley known as southwest Ohio. I went to the doctor yesterday for allergies and he told me that I had been there on the exact same day for the past three years. I received my yearly cortizone shot, nabbed a prescription for eye drops, and went to the pharmacy to fill my prescription. (Un)lucky for me, Zyrtec is now over-the-counter, so I now have to pay roughly $0.85 per pill, which I take everyday. So here's the math breakdown:

4 months worth of pills @ $0.85 per pill -- $102.00
Eye drop prescription x 3 refills -- $90.00
Office visit -- $15.00
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Total $207.00

Pretty expensive, but as any allergy sufferer will tell you, it's well worth it.

It was also interesting to note that we had to go to four different pharmacies to get Zyrtec and eyedrops (both of which are extremely common) because there was such a run on allergy medicine in Oxford.

A Weekend with the Redlegs

Erica and I spent the weekend going to the Reds games on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Saturday we went with our friend Amy, and the Robles family. We sat in the all-you-can-eat seats on Saturday and were highly entertained with Eva and RJ Robles. RJ was the Reds #1 fan because he never stopped clapping (except for the nap he took from the fifth inning to the ninth). It was a beautiful day and a great game, although the Reds lost.





We returned to Great American Ballpark on Sunday for the third game in the series versus the Brewers. We went with a number of our friends who are in Erica's graduate school cohort. It was the best game I've ever seen live. The Reds came back to score three runs in the bottom of the 10th. The coolest thing that happened during the game was a homerun was landed right in front of us! It hit the guy's hands right in front of Erica, and it fell down. The guy next to him picked it up and kept it. If there had been no one in the ballpark, the ball would have landed in Erica's seat! It was pretty amazing. I've never been that close to a homerun.

Anyhow, here are some pictures from the weekend. Both games went into the 10th inning -- bonus baseball!

Arena Football

I'm an unapologetic sports fan. I love baseball and football and fantasy sports. However, I've never been very fond of the Arena Football League, but when given the chance to attend a game for free, I went. I met one of my chapter brothers (who we affectionately refer to as "Milhouse") in Columbus who happened to be there on business. We were met by a Sigma Pi from Grand Valley State who worked there (he gave us the tickets). He gave us official game balls and hats, which was awesome. The game was actually pretty good; it was worthwhile entertainment. It was more fun to reconnect with a chapter brother and meet another brother from a different chapter.

The older I get, the more I revel in the chances to get together to talk about the glory days. Depressing, I know. What I do not look forward to is staying out to 3 am, and sleeping on a futon in a fraternity house. Those days I can live without :)

Anyhow, here are a couple of pictures.

The Boss Endorses Barack

It's not often when two things in my life that I am very passionate about collide. Today, the best singer/songwriter of our generation, Bruce Springsteen, endorsed Barack Obama as a candidate for president. Springsteen said, “He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit.”

Awesome. That is exactly what this country needs.

Perhaps Bruce just knew that Barack was "born to run" for president. Or maybe he knew that the Pennsylvania primary was coming up next week and needed some help on the "streets of Philadelphia." Or maybe he realized that there was "trouble in paradise" and knew the country needed a change of direction. Or maybe... Ok, maybe he just knows he's the most influential politician since JFK and best choice for president. Either way, I'm happy.

Your Retarded Brother

Erica and I often have game nights with our friends, Tom & Amy. We play about once a week, and as you might guess, we get tired of playing the same old games all of the time. We were very bored one night, so Erica raided the RA closet in our building to see if they had any games to play. They had an old copy of "Scruples" -- a game of trying to predict how other players will respond to various ethical questions. Most of the questions were things like "If you found $200 in cash, would you return it?" and "If you knew that you could get away with a crime that would better your family, would you do it?" We had a lot of fun with the game, and then we came upon the following question:



We found the term "your retarded brother" quite out of date. We had to note the political incorrectness of the time (the game was made in 1986). It was nice to see that we've progressed a bit in terms of inclusion even in something as banal as board games.

My Brother in Afghanistan

Here a couple of pictures my brother passed along from Afghanistan. I've blogged about him before, but this is just an update to show you all what his "home" is like for the next year. More pictures to come!

Why I Do What I Do

We had a meeting today at KF of international scholars, community organizers, and ordinary citizens from over 30 different countries. It was part of our Multinational Workshop week. There were roughly 75 people in attendance. The topic of discussion was "Why Do You Do What You Do?" or as I like to affectionately call it "WDYDWYD." People told stories of great injustices in their countries -- being denied jobs because of their race or gender, watching someone die in the community, being denied basic human rights, and losing the right to vote. They then connected these traumatic experiences to their life's work, thus the the "WDYDWYD." This was used as a springboard to talk about how to improve our communities and our collective well-being.

I had the opportunity to share my story as well. I talked about an experience I had my first year of graduate school. I facilitated a six-week leadership program with about 20 undergraduate students that included a community service outing to a local food bank. After the day of service, I facilitated a discussion with the students to process their experience. I'll never forget the passionate reflection one of the young men offered. He said that his parents came to Miami University but didn't have the opportunity to do anything like work at a food bank, and how thankful he was to have worked at a food bank. He went on to say how good he felt about his two hours of volunteering, and how he hopes his son or daughter will come to Miami and volunteer at the food bank because it was so fulfilling! At the same time, I was reading the books Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, and When Hope & Fear Collide. They are books that talk about how the current generation of college students is the most hopeful and ambitious generation in many generations. I began to realize that if students are to change the world, I needed to work to encourage them, harness their ambition, and put their enthusiasm into a larger context of politics that would look to address society's biggest problems (in this case, why we are the richest nation in the world and have a need at all for food banks).

So, in short, that is WIDWID. WDYDWYD?