bed bugs repost ... still (not) biting after all these years

this is a repost. i get a bunch of people each day finding this post via searching for images of bed. i do want to say, that since this time, i have not had ANY bed bugs. i have sprayed with a synthetic pesticide, which made me feel really guilty, but no bed bugs. it cost $400 total. the exterminator, gary, told me about "Do Your Own Pest Control's" bed bug kit. it got it and more problems. but just in case ...

i do public health. the only way to end an epidemic is to talk about it ...

my parents used to say that to me when i was going to sleep. just like "sleep tight" (which is a reference to how people used to sleep on hay that they would bind and recently tightened beds were more comfy) i just thought it was something people said. it wasn't until i was in college that i realized that bed bugs were bugs that bit you when you were in bed.

i had never seen them nor heard of anyone having them until the night before i left for colombia. that's when i discovered that i had bed bugs and had been letting them bite me for awhile. this made for a few nights without sleep . . . i was just SO creeped out!

had i not journeyed into hardcore denialville, i would have known 3 weeks earlier when i first noticed little pin-head sized blood spots on my sheets and the odd, itchy string of bites on my arms.

during my denial phase, Aly (who is a fellow that worked with me for the last 6 months AND who study with a bed bug specialist at Harvard) said, "i wonder if you have bed bugs" after i showed her the strange set of bites on my arm. i just laughed. i thought, how could i have bed bugs, i'm clean . . . plus i didn't think that they existed anymore. i had seen a red bug the size of a pin head on my bed, but just figured it was some weird dc thing.

without denial, i would have look at photos of bed bugs and tried to figure out if i had them. instead i avoid the topic of bed bugs like the plague. i often do that. sometimes, when a task is daunting or it is new territory i can procrastinate or deny reality with the best of them. this is a testimony to me of the power of denial. it was so obvious that i had bed bugs, but i did not want to believe it, so i kept my head in the sand for a LONG time. once i actually saw the bugs crawling on my bed that night, the denial cracked open, and i realized i had them for a LONG time.

denial is powerful!

i figure i should share my bed bug epiphany with all of my readers (all 10 of you). . . there is a bed bug infestation taking place in the US. some are calling it an epidemic, but that word is for illnesses, bugs infest! NYC is super infested and it is moving throughout the eastern seaboard. all 50 states and the territories have reported bed bugs. calls to exterminators for bed bugs have increased about 70% across the US.

we are a people on the move, and we are taking our bed bugs with us. they travel in our clothes and suitcases and can hibernate for a really long time.

it is important to check any hotel bed you are going to sleep in for bed bugs before you lay down. i will explain how:

signs of bed bugs:

• pin head sized brown or red spots on your sheets. (they bite you at night and then they poop the rest of the day.
• brown spots or casings of bed bugs in the folds of your mattress, box springs or along the wooden walls near your bed.
  
• bites on uncovered parts of your body. the bites are usually in a string or circle of bites

bed bugs do bite but only at night, when you are asleep. they inject anesthetics and anticoagulants via their saliva under your skin that creates a numbness, many people can't feel when they are being bit. i never did. during one 10-minute feeding they will suck down 2-3 times their body weight in your blood.

some people won't react for 14 days or more. so check your sheets, that will be the best way to know if you have them.

during the day bed bugs hide themselves in the folds of your mattress. they need to feel hidden. they often will all glob together to hide (they aren't the smartest bugs). just so long as 2/3 of their body is covered they think they are hidden. they will usually be near where their food sleeps (you are their food), so look under your sheets, bed skirt, mattress, and box springs near the side of the bed you sleep on.

gary the exterminator took this photo
this is post-extermination
this is the underside of my box spring

each female bed bug will lay 6 eggs a day. this is not a typo. from an op-ed in the NYT last week:

Because the female bedbug has no genital opening, the male inseminates her by using his hardened, sharpened genitalia to punch a hole through her abdomen. With no elaborate courtship ritual, males in a frenzied pursuit of sexual congress often blunder into and puncture the bodies of other males, occasionally inflicting fatal wounds.

this rate of reproduction is staggering when you consider just how long it could take to be completely infested. when they are young they are so small they just look like little red dots moving. below is the life cycle of a bed bug:


the adults are about the size of a lady bug, but flat and not cute at all!

this is just a photo from the internet, but should help you get a feel for their size
if you want more info on this, check out this bed bug site
i can't look at it for long without getting the creeps and feeling itchy all over.

you can also tell that you have bed bugs by the "sweet musky" smell of their oderants -- which is how they communicate. if you are smelling this sweet musky smell, you probably have a bunch of bed bugs.

bed bugs mutate incredibly fast, which makes complete eradication tricky. NYC has been battling bed bugs for over 5 years. the city, they believe, is infested. fancy hotels and shops along park avenue have been shut down because of bed bugs. some believe that NYC's environmental policies are making it impossible to kill the bed bugs off. because they mutate so quickly, it is important that if you use pesticide, you do at least two treatments and change the mixture of insecticide so that they don't become immune.

having bed bugs doesn't mean anything about the cleanliness of your house or office. though bed bugs do like to hide in clutter and prefer paper and other wood products to any other substance. so i had a bunch of books next to my bed and some bookbinding papers under my bed. they were living in them. in a raging fit of lazy i had also shoved my winter down comforter under my bed -- i didn't want to have to find a bag to put it in before storing it in the attic -- they were in it too.

bed bugs can't survive extreme temperatures. the best way to kill them is to expose them to really cold or hot. i ended up washing just about every piece of cloth i owned in a extra hot cycle in my washing machine.

you can also freeze them to death, which might be a cool way of killing them in the winter.

i put all my books in a garbage bag and sprayed insecticide on the books and in the bag and sealed it. gary, my exterminator, said that would for sure kill all of them.

you can also suffocate/starve them. this is time consuming. a bed bug can live for up to a year without food. so, the stuff that wasn't super important is in the attic waiting for a year to come back down. i may end up just throwing it away, because if i don't need it for a full year, i probably don't need it.

michigan has provide its citizens with this super helpful guide: don't let the bed bugs bite if you are looking for more information.

I am a 99% Mormon!

I am a 99% Mormon!

Tonight, as we prepare for our first nationwide general assembly, I write to clarify a few things.

First, I want to explain my reasons for standing with the Occupy Wall Street movement. I only stand with them, in as much as they continue to working to RESTORE our nation to its indivisible state (we are pretty divided) and preserve "liberty and justice for all.”

The bible asks us to “love one another”. To me that translates into making sure that everyone has what they need for safety, nourishment, and love. I believe that when people have what they need, they then have the freedom to make themselves happy and then that happiness spreads. The Mormon church teaches people to “remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support[1]”

Mormons also believe that America was a divinely inspired idea, with the purpose of becoming a hub of the softening of our hearts towards each other. He saw an America devoid of want. He recognized that this was a really awesome place and that it would be able to give us all so much, if we helped each other we will want for nothing.

He had a vision of Earth will be restored to its most beautiful, abundant, and "celestial" state. He taught that the “the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare.” Mormon theology teaches that there is no reason for anyone to want when the community rids itself of pride/ego.

The key to this is modernistic Zion-utopia is “helping people/help themselves”. In times of disaster, in widespread economic depressions and recessions, preparation is key. Due to the nature of living in a temporal world, many don’t have the resources to be properly prepared.

Early Mormons lived the “Law of Consecration”. A 'principle whereby men and women volunteer their time, talents, and material wealth’ to the improvement of community and to demonstrate God's love vicariously through ourselves. Basically, the law of consecration is supposed to teach us to be as generous as God while simultaneously teaching us to disconnect from the concepts of "possession" or "ownership".

This goal of helping people achieve their highest potential is key to the doctrine of the Mormon church. We work hard to help everyone "fulfill the measure of their creation". Which is part of the reason “the Lord has established some type of welfare program in every dispensation. In the early days, the Saints (Mormons) were given opportunities to live the law of consecration. They were unable to live this higher law, which caused the Lord to suspend it until his people prepared themselves properly. It was not repealed.^[i]”

I joined the Church in large part because of King Benjamin's discourse (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 2-5). I feel like it is often misinterpreted. I felt like it was the most equanimous economic theory ever. He tells us simply to heal the hurt, feed the hungry, don't let people beg in vain.

He then addresses our human tendencies around charitable giving: "Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—" As if the guy knew Calvin was coming ...

His solution: "O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God."

i love that he says that the selfish "hath no interest in the kingdom of God". i think it is actually because, the way heaven works is all about sharing and not having ego or a need to have more than another. so the person who doesn't learn to share in this life, is not going to want to share in the next. (more on post-mortality in another post)

"For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?" He goes on to explain that if someone is hungry and you condemn them for their want, you will end up having to suffer those karmic consequences.

We are all beggars. we all have begged, and we all will beg again, until we end greed and selfishness. King Benjamin reminds us, that when we feel want, we have got to check our own hearts and see if we honestly can say "if i had, i would give". i feel like this is key. most of the time giving and feeling my own abundance, keeps me grounded in all that i have rather than getting thrown off by all that i don't have. there will always be things i don't have ... but giving helps me get over it.

the "occupy" movement is rebelling against greed, and i love it. i love civil disobedience and when directed at something i hate as much as greed, its really hard not to be swooped up in the excitement. good thing i love my job ...

it sure feels to me like "a day dawn is breaking. the world is awaking. the clouds of nights darkness are fleeing away. the worldwide commotion from ocean to ocean, now heralds the time of the beautiful day". i do hope it is one of peace and rest ;)

16 And also, ye yourselves will ^asuccor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the ^bbeggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

17 Perhaps thou shalt ^asay: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—

18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

19 For behold, are we not all ^abeggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a ^aremission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his^bSpirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with ^cjoy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to ^aimpart of the substance that ye have one to another.

22 And if ye ^ajudge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your ^bcondemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life ^cbelongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.

23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are^arich as pertaining to the things of this world.

24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I ^agive not because I ^bhave not, but if I had I would^cgive.

25 And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are ^acondemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.

---

[1] History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints, 1805-1890, Volume 1

---

[i] Brown, Victor; An Overview of Church Welfare Services ; Oct 1975 Ensign

[ii] UCHTDORF, DF; Providing in the Lord’s Way; Oct 2011; Ensign /Liahona

[iii] Hales, R. D.; Tithing: A Test of Faith with Eternal Blessings; Ensign

[iv] The Day Dawn Is Breaking,” Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 52

mormon gender theology

i talk alot about gender and gender based violence at work.  i also talk about homosexuality, non-linear gender constructions, the kinsey scale, and a host of other things that reframe traditional concepts of gender and force us to see ourselves less as labels and more as magnificent creations of loving heavenly parents!

i spend lots of time trying to reconcile this with the rigid gender roles in the church i adopted when i left Catholicism and its weird thoughts of gender.  so i've been doing some research, but i know i'm missing tons.  can yall help me know what is out there about mormon gender theology?

also, do i have this right?

its seems like there is a movement in the blogernacle to challenge the traditional gender roles and move to a post-heterosexual theology.  The "church members believe in marriage equality, food storage, being prepared for disaster, responding to disasters, education, healthy diets including eschewing tobacco and alcohol and only eating foods that are local and in season."

Wiki page on “Mormon Women”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_Mormonism

Here is a quick bibliography of some of the most scholarly Gender/Mormon work:

• Mormonism Gender and Sexuality
• LDS in the USA: Its Theology of Gender and the Problem of Same-Sex Marriage
• Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology
• The Sources of Gender Role Attitudes among Christian and Muslim Arab-American Women

Scolars:

• Taylor G. Petrey (ThD, MTS Harvard Divinity School) is Assistant Professor of Religion at Kalamazoo College, specializing in New Testament and Early Christianity. He also teaches in the Jewish Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality programs.
• A. Lee Beckstead University of Utah Mormon Clients’ Experiences of Conversion Therapy: The Need for a New Treatment Approach 
• “Perspectives were gathered of 50 Mormon individuals who had undergone counseling to change their sexual orientation. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method and participant verification, thereby developing a grounded theory. A model emerged that depicted participants’ intrapersonal and interpersonal motivations for seeking conversion or “reparative” therapy, their perceived benefits and harms of such interventions, and the factors that facilitated self-acceptance and consolidation of a positive self-identity. Based on these descriptions, this study provides the foundation for a broader-based treatment approach (besides one focused solely on changing sexual orientation or adopting a lesbian, gay, or bisexual identity), which is designed to produce individualized congruent solutions for religiously conflicted, same-sex-attracted clients.

please feel free to comment or email me at teabelly@gmail.com

any help would be greatly appreciated.  i'm trying to pitch a cool idea, but i want to be sure i don't step on any toes!!!

field2city -- easiest organic foood in DC

in march of 2008 i met kim wee. i saw this building as a drove from community folklift to d's house. he owned timor.

this meeting/discovery made me feel safer about my spontaneous and not very thought thru decision to buy my house ... this and a little cafe called big bear were the anchors of promise both that i hadn't just bankrupted myself and that i might actually really love living here, despite signs that this was not the best time to buy a house...

kim is an awesome guy, dedicated to making our neighbor both hip and healthy. i introduced him to the spiritual food csa that lindsay, dianna, & i were in and he became a pick-up place; told friends to go to his store, etc ... obviously, we were instantly friends.

his little shop has weathered the down turn of the economy. thru partnering with farmers and from around the region, kim is creating a ordering and delivery system that brings people same day organic food delivery 7 days a week: field2city (twitter is @fieldtocity where you get updates of fresh yummy foods). he keeps the store open if you need to walk in and browse or just wanna say hi and stuff. plus, those who are part of is ordering club can still get the good food: just he doesn't take credit cards anymore.

as a late adopter, i wasn't really keeping up with all of this. i had a CSA and i'd do farmers markets and costco. then i ditched the CSA for my garden and did farmers markets and arganica ... arganica turned out to be a disappointment. then i ditched costco b/c seemed crazy with one person. then my relationship with my car ended, and i had to start getting more creative about getting my food. reading about this, i think that field2city is like the perfect blend of them all.

now, in full discloser, i have yet to order a thing from kim. i wouldn't even be writing this, but i got an email from him reminding me that i owe him money. that prompted me to check out his site, which i'd been meaning to do since i went in and learned that they weren't taking credit cards anymore b/c he is hoping all of his business happens via this delivery system.

so i can't speak from experience that the system is flawless, but i know the guy ... its like i have faith in kim wee. "i'd like to bear my testimony of the dependability of kim wee." if its not working, he will fix it and you will not ever loose money.

in his own words:

Polyface Farm eggs. Wildflower Honey from Manassas. Trickling Springs Creamery milkin glass bottles. Produce picked to order from a 20-acre Montrose farm. These are the types of products that we deliver daily to any residence in the District of Columbia.* We have what CSAs, buying clubs and farmers' markets have to offer, but we'll get local food to your doorstep without memberships, subscriptions or time spent wandering around markets. We are based within DC, which allows us to turn around orders on the same day that they are made.

HOW TO ORDER ONLINE FOR HOME DELIVERY:

Browse our products on our online shopping cart, send your order in by 5PM on weekdays or 3PM on weekends. We deliver from 6PM-8:30PM weekdays, and from 4PM-6:30PM on Saturday and Sunday. Minimum orders are $75. Payment is due in cash or check on delivery, $10 delivery fee.

When your order is made, we email you with a specific delivery time. Then we handpick your products and carefully package them for maximum freshness. You will receive a confirmation call 10 minutes before we arrive. Our drivers also pick up empty milk bottles.

HOW TO ORDER ONLINE FOR IN-STORE PICKUP:

Please see our Brick & Mortar Info page for in-store pickup details.

* depending on seasonal availability

Below is the seasonal calendar. For more information on our products and the full seasonal calendar, see our Product Sources page. For up-to-date information on what's in stock, please see our price list, available as a GoogleDoc.

ABOUT

FieldtoCity is the first District of Columbia-based business to present a selection of locally and seasonally sourced products on a user-friendly website and combines a simple ordering process with a highly professional, same-day delivery service.

Shopping for locally-produced food has become increasingly important to urban Washingtonians. Recent years have seen a proliferation of regional farmers markets, CSA's, and buying clubs, which reflect a profound shift in our expectations of how and where our food is grown.

Our constantly expanding menu of products includes summertime produce from a 20 acre Virginia farm that is picked per our order, glass bottled milk from a Pennsylvania coop, and eggs from the celebrated Polyface farm. Other farmers market type products include honey, jams, sauces, coffee and handmade soaps and lotions.

For added variety and convenience, we carry dry goods such as quinoa, flour, noodles and rice, nonfood items such as eco-friendly dish soap and paper products, as well as quality pet supplies. Our beer and wine sections feature popular American craft brews and wine varietals from around the world.

Our use of the internet enables rapid delivery of local food products, meaning ultimate freshness. Our online shopping cart can be navigated within a matter of minutes-- a few clicks, basic contact info, and your order is on the way! We update our product offerings daily, so during the Mid Atlantic growing season, it's possible for our produce to be sold the same day that it leaves the farm. That is the essence of FtC.

CONTACT US:
200 Rhode Island Ave NWWashington, DC 20001202-588-5612Kim Weekim@fieldtocity.com

WaPo editorial: The FBI comes calling on Harry Thomas Jr.

The FBI comes calling on Harry Thomas Jr.

By Editorial, Published: December 2

FEDERAL AGENTS swarmed the house of D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) on Friday morning. It was unsettling to watch officers haul vehicles and bags of material away from the home of an elected city official in the nation’s capital. But it was also reassuring to see that law enforcement takes seriously allegations about an official misusing his office and abusing the public trust.

Officers from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service spent all day and into the night searching Mr. Thomas’s house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Northeast Washington. Yellow police tape cordoned off media and bystanders. A Chevy Tahoe truck and a red motorcycle were confiscated; bags and boxes of papers and other material were taken away. Said the U.S. Attorney’s Office: “Today’s law enforcement action is in conjunction with an ongoing investigation. Because the investigation is continuing, there will be no further comment at this time.”

Questions surfaced about Mr. Thomas more than a year ago. Tim Day, the Republican challenging Mr. Thomas in his bid for reelection last fall, charged that Team Thomas, a nonprofit run by the council member, ostensibly to help D.C. youth, was a “slush fund” that was neither registered with the IRS nor in good standing with the city government. Mr. Thomas’s repeated promises to fully account for the funds were never kept. So we started looking into Team Thomas’s activities.

What we found was troubling. His claim that the nonprofit had been dormant since he joined the council in 2007 was not true. Equally false was his denial that council office staffers were involved in raising funds. We found instances in which companies with business before the council contributed to Team Thomas. Mr. Thomas did not recuse himself or disclose the relationship.

Most disturbing were discoveries about the use of the funds. Some $2,600 of Team Thomas money went to the publication and distribution of an annual report that essentially extolled Mr. ­Thomas’s work as a council member. An unusual sequence of events resulted in the purchase of a luxury Audi sport-utility vehicle that ended up in Mr. Thomas’s possession.

An investigation by then-D.C. attorney general Peter Nickles and his successor, Irvin B. Nathan, uncovered evidence of taxpayer dollars being misused. In addition to the more than $80,000 in private funds that were solicited, the attorney general alleged that Mr. Thomas used his office to funnel $316,000 of public money, earmarked by the council in 2007 for youth baseball, to entities he controlled for his personal and political benefit, including luxury travel such as a golfing vacation at Pebble Beach, Calif.

“Willful, intentional and knowing” were Mr. Nathan’s words in June when he filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Thomas. A month later, Mr. Thomas — without admitting any liability and continuing to deny he did anything wrong — agreed to repay the city $300,000; $50,000 was paid at the time of the settlement, and another $50,000 is due at the end of this month.

No charges have been brought against Mr. Thomas, and he has remained on the council, albeit shorn of his committee chairmanship. He was reported to be inside his house during Friday’s search, along with two attorneys. One of them issued a brief statement that Mr. Thomas is cooperating with authorities and that “we sincerely believe that there will be no finding of any criminal violations.” No other explanation was forthcoming, which is in keeping with Mr. Thomas’s refusal these many months to provide any accounting of his actions. We hope these events augur a time when the public gets the answers it deserves.