Thursday, March 28, 2013

A Pill for Everything

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I'll be straight about this one - it didn't take me long to realize folks in the states loooove all kinds of pills, drugs, medicines, remedies, herbs and such. There's hardly a comprehensive and all-inclusive directory of drugs that can be found and bought here.

Honestly, I feel like there a pill for everything, and the choices are limitless. Does your eye twitching or you hear a buzz in your left ear? Go see a doctor, I am sure he/she will think of something to prescribe you. Most likely there will be more than one even.

When I had a headache as a teen my mom would tell me to take a nap and have some warm milk. Ok, may be an aspirin, in case both of the methods didn't work. If I have a headache here, I am afraid to go to the drugstore - the decision making process over which one of two dozens painkillers I should choose only worsens it. For Realz.

The scariest of all to me is when I hear of youngsters being "on meds", like that's no big deal, and everybody does that. I grew up hating cough syrup, and these teenagers take all kinds of colorful stuff on a daily basis and don't think much of it. This sounds harsh, I know, but putting a kid on medication when they are going through puberty seems just as helpful to me as spanking a child that's already crying. That's just my {very} biased opinion anyways. Who am I to tell, after all? I am no MD.

Speaking of which, just from my observation and relatively limited experience dealing with doctors, hospitals and pharmacies, medical must be one of the most lucrative industries in the USA. Am I wrong?

Stay healthy, my friends, take naps and drink milk, it's good for you!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

"Party We Will Throw Now"

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This post is inspired by an impending birthday of a certain girl who is turning 27 tomorrow (pointing at self)... I started thinking about the ways people arrange parties here in the states and back home, and these ways turned out to differ enough for me to share about it.

To make things more clear and easier to  picture, let's write out 2 scenarios of how the parties are arranged in the USA and how I would have done it where my friends and family are.

How to throw a party "American Way":
pick a place and make a reservation
come up with a more or less defined theme
make a list people and send or mail invitations
the invitations give all the details: when, where and what to wear
share a wishlist/registry if there's one
now the fun part: pick the decorations, utensils, napkins and about anything else that matches the theme and the mood of the party
most unexpected: the party favors! the beautiful of saying "thank you for coming" which has been perhaps the most surprising to me

How to throw a party my way:
call, send a text to those who I think I will invite a month in advance and tell them about my plan to have a party to celebrate XYZ
I don't know the details, but I'll get back to you later
a week before the party call or send a message to half of the people from the first time and tell them "So you're coming, right?"
be mad and annoyed with those that end up now showing up
figure out what I am going to wear and what my guests are going to eat and drink
dislike half the presents I get because I was too modest to actually say what I wanted/needed and was hoping the guess will somehow figure it out
oh, and when it comes to decorations, party favors etc, it's easy - who needs those?!

That is not to say that I don't miss the parties done "my way", but I rather keep them as my dear memories than the way to do.