25 and Counting

Ahhh, 25 years old. An age of excitement, change, direction and grounding. Or, at least I think it has been. If I've learned one thing in my 25 years on this earth, it is that you cannot, and should not pass your experiences off on anyone else. They are yours for a reason. So don't tell so and so they need to get on board and live life like you, because they don't want to hear it and you shouldn't want to tell anyone else how to live. Okay, enough ranting. I have no reason to be negative nancy, because a lot of exciting things have happened and are happening in my life; but I just thought by 25 I'd be someone, or somewhere in particular. I feel as if I'm still finding out who I am at times and it is a bit disconcerting. I never thought I'd be edging towards 26 and still be trying to figure out what my "perfect" career is, yes, "perfect" is in quotations because I know there is no such thing, but a girl can dream, right? Hmm, so much to think about....anyone have any thoughts on why life always seems to turn out the opposite from the way you've imagined?

Ciao
~S

I just made a Twitter account!

Alright, I did it. Shira officially tweeted! I chose my pseudo name RainbowGlide, (well it's actually my fake stripper name haha). I'm not really sure how I feel about Twitter, but I want to get back into the pr, marketing, advertising world, so I need to be tuned in to more than just facebook, youtube and blogs (okay, well I'm tuned in to more than just those sites, but you know, I can't list them all). So go find me on Twitter and lets tweet together! ~S

How To Eat At A Steakhouse When You're A Vegan

About a week ago I found myself at a prominent steakhouse in New York's lower east side called Strip House. I wasn't aware we were going there, but I also wasn't paying since it was on my friends company buck, so in the cab ride over I kept my mouth shut.

I went with a large party, all of whom were eager to try one of the many meat and dairy options on the menu. I only knew two in the group previously, and didn't feel like waving my vegan flag loud and proud right at first. Drink orders entered, I began to peruse the menu. I thought I would have to order 2-3 sides, consisting of flavorless boiled veges or dry lettuce doused with the olive oil I eagerly ask if they have; like I usually do at American style restaurants where the fare is more carnivore friendly. Instead, I see that the menu had not one, but two delicious sounding salads, one vegan friendly from the get-go, and one that could be sans the cheese. There was also a baked potato option, which I was hoping wasn't drenched in butter.

The waiter comes back and I'm the first to order. Luckily the restaurant's noise level is on full volume so no one at the table can hear me order, or so I think. I ask the waiter for the already vegan friendly salad, and inquire about the baked potato. Finding that it isn't cooked in a vat of butter, I order that as well. "This will be your appetiser madam?" the waiter asks me, eyebrows raised, disapproving frown starting to creep up on his lips. "No, that will be my main dish, I'm vegan," I state matter of factly. He gave what I'm not sure was a quick nod of approval or disdain and went to the next person to take their order. Seconds later the neighbor on my right says, "So you're a vegan?" Ahh, the volume in the restaurant must not have been turned up as loud as I thought. "Yes," I proclaim, eyes strait ahead, no shame now that it's out in the open. "Wow," he says with a quizzical look on his face, "how do you do it?" I then spend the remainder of the time waiting for my food engaged in a conversation about veganism, with him telling me how he tried to be vegetarian for a year, and then going on to tell me a really funny story about a band he traveled the world with whose fans all thought they were vegetarians.

Food comes out, I survey every ones steaks and start to dig into my salad. "Where's your steak," someone yells from across the table. "Oh, I'm not having any, just salad and a baked potato for me," I say all to cheerily, smile plastered on my face. The same someone yells, "Okay, well try some of this bacon I have, it's delicious." Not wanting this charade to go on any longer I explain that I'm a vegan, holding my breath thinking the lights were going to get turned up, volume lowered and everyone would be staring at me crazy-eyed screeching, "Vegan, why would you come to a steak house if you're a vegan?" I, thinking the same thing would agree with them, but then I would go on to explain that I didn't know where I was going for dinner and on top of that it was a free meal. Avoiding the steak knives thrown at my head, I would bolt for the door, never looking back. Of course, there was no riot or even outrage, instead my table mate just smiled and said, "Oh, cool, okay."

I did make one rooky mistake when ordering. Over excited by my options in a true to form steakhouse, I didn't ask for a vegan friendly side for my baked potato. Instead of salsa or chives and olive oil, out comes four sides, all consisting of meat or dairy. Not wanting to send them back, I start to eat my potato dry. Just then, my neighbor to my left offers me the sumptuous grilled garlic drenched in olive oil she doesn't want. I all to happily agree to take it off her hands and precede to stuff every last clove into my opened baked potato. Problem solved.

After polishing off my salad and most of my baked potato, I am happy, full and glad that I was able to hold my own around all the meat eaters. Looking around I see half-eaten animal carcasses, with everyone pushing them aside, proclaiming to the waiter that they just can't eat another bite. Sending the remains of the animal, who rest his soul, has been dead probably for months now to his second grave. Am I supporting this by eating at the restaurant? Probably. Would I go back on my own, definitely not. But when you're young and your pocket book is empty, a free meal is hard to pass up. Just take the vegan route like I did, except ask for the good sides for the baked potato and don't be afraid to show your dinner compadres your true colors from the start.

Cali Girl in the Big Apple

A feeling of accomplishment settled over me last night as I set down the last of the Sunday New York Times. My first New York Times, read almost in entirety as an official New Yorker (emphasis on the New). It is this accomplishment that brought me to write on the morning of my sixth day in the big apple. I am enthralled, enamored and enthusiastic (sorry for the triple 'E' adjective streak, I was on a roll) with the city and about the city. It is a mad, mad world, and I am happy to be apart of it.

Leaving California, I received an overwhelming combination of well-wishes and warnings from family and friends. "You'll do great" "Enjoy yourself, be safe" "Don't walk around late at night" "Keep mace and a flashlight with you" "Avoid the subways at night" "Be wary of Central Park at night" "You'll be back here in no time, so enjoy it while you can"- well, that would be enough to send the most seasoned traveler running for the airport check-in, but I, a very unseasoned traveler, took the good with the bad. On moving day, I had a smile on my face and my carry-on in hand (and more in tow...I did move across the country) and headed for Manhattan with all the excitement and jitters of a middle school girl on the eve of ninth grade.

Once in the city that never sleeps, I reflected on what my co-traveler and insightful friend Chelsea says, "It is what it is," meaning, take things a day at a time, live your life the way you want to live it and enjoy life for what it is--the final destination. While that may seem a bit morbid to some, like someone with more life experience than me said once, "You have to live your life ever day with the appreciation that it is not guaranteed--or you are not living." I can admit, amidst my looming job hunt, all-hours social scene and exhaustive, but yummy quest for vegan food, I am living my life with the most zeal that I can, and I am also looking for something. What, I'm not really sure. Experience: Yes. Adventure: Definitely. Love: Eh. I am a believer in fate and serendipity (not to be confused with the John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale movie, even though I'm a beleiver in that as well), so whatever comes my way I will take it in and (hopefully) be better for the experience.

Of course, there are those that view my optimistic and care free personality (with no job to speak of yet and only enough moolah in the bank to get me through another month or two) as downright crazy. I, however, like to live life on the wild side. I feel that you have to roll the dice of fate, and win it all or lose it all, take the risk and at least try. Call me naive, crazy, or an amazing forward thinking strong-willed adventurer (that last mouthful was just for my own ego), but I am what I am. I want life experience, adventure, great stories to tell, plus so much more-- and you know what? I think I can have my (egg and dairy free) cake and eat it too.

Spoken Word

The kids inspired me to write some spoken word poems today. They're doing a section on slam/spoken word poetry and I am hooked! More to come....

You like me

Curly or strait

Strait or curly

Why do you care

It just ain’t fair

Curly and I’m too black

Strait and I’m too white

Who made these rules

Why do I gotta fight

For who I am

Or who I want to be

Can’t I just be me

Why’s there all this hypocrisy

Rain on my strait hair

And curl it for the world to see

It shouldn’t matter

Can’t matter

Does matter

What’s the matter

With me

I’m torn I’m confused

I’m angry I feel used

Can’t make up my mind

Didn’t think I had to

But societies telling me something different

The looks from boys make me think one thing

Curly hair and I’m exotic

Strait and I’m unique

Whose version of pretty do I have to be

I thought hair was on my head

Because it belonged to me

But the girl in the theater turned around and said

You got a nice head of hair on your pretty head

Bet you don’t know how to work it

Bet you don’t know what to do

I just smile and say ummm

Thank you

Why I don’t know

To confused to be mad

To hip to be rad

To square to be sad

Just let me live my life

Get out my head

Get off my hair

Mess with me some more

I’ll shave it all off I swear

 ***********************

See me

Tease me

Try to please me

Up down

Round and round

Like me

Hate me

Want to date me

Naw

That’s cool

I play by my own rules

Judge begrudge sludge

Hammer

Into my heart and brain

Drive me insane

Make me wanna be tame

Never

I’m free

Wild and crazy

Up in the heavens is not where I want to be

Down in hell

Nothings there as well

I belong here

Mother Nature save me

Keep me here

Be it in misery or prosperity

I want to breath you in

I need you, feed off you

Live for you

Copyright © 2009 www.shirahowerton.blogspot.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Road Not Taken

By: Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

How The Economic Stimulus Plan Could Affect You

An examination of how the economic stimulus plan will affect Americans. It may sound a little scary and a little risky--but I think it is a risk we as American's should not shun. Obama is giving us a ray of hope, and I think it's a ray we should grasp with both hands and hold onto tight.
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Taxes:
The recovery package has tax breaks for families that send a child to college, purchase a new car, buy a first home or make the ones they own more energy efficient.
Millions of workers can expect to see about $13 extra in their weekly paychecks, starting around June, from a new $400 tax credit to be doled out through the rest of the year. Couples would get up to $800. In 2010, the credit would be about $7.70 a week, if it is spread over the entire year.
The $1,000 child tax credit would be extended to more low-income families that don't make enough money to pay income taxes, and poor families with three or more children will get an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.

Middle-income and wealthy taxpayers will be spared from paying the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was designed 40 years ago to make sure wealthy taxpayers pay at least some tax, but was never indexed for inflation. Congress fixes it each year, usually in the fall.

First-time homebuyers who purchase their homes before Dec. 1 would be eligible for an $8,000 tax credit, and people who buy new cars before the end of the year can write off the sales taxes.
Homeowners who add energy-efficient windows, furnaces and air conditioners can get a tax credit to cover 30 percent of the costs, up to a total of $1,500. College students — or their parents — are eligible for tax credits of up to $2,500 to help pay tuition and related expenses in 2009 and 2010.

Those receiving unemployment benefits this year wouldn't pay any federal income taxes on the first $2,400 they receive.
___
Health insurance:
Many workers who lose their health insurance when they lose their jobs will find it cheaper to keep that coverage while they look for work.

Right now, most people working for medium and large employers can continue their coverage for 18 months under the COBRA program when they lose their job. It's expensive, often over $1,000 a month, because they pay the share of premiums once covered by their employer as well as their own share from the old group plan.
Under the stimulus package, the government will pick up 65 percent of the total cost of that premium for the first nine months.

Lawmakers initially proposed to help workers from small companies, too, who don't generally qualify for COBRA coverage. But that fell through. The idea was to have Washington pay to extend Medicaid to them.

COBRA applies to group plans at companies employing at least 20 people. The subsidies will be offered to those who lost their jobs from Sept. 1 to the end of this year.
Those who were put out of work after September but didn't elect to have COBRA coverage at the time will have 60 days to sign up.

The plan offers $87 billion to help states administer Medicaid. That could slow or reverse some of the steps states have taken to cut the program.
___
Infrastructure:
Highways repaved for the first time in decades. Century-old waterlines dug up and replaced with new pipes. Aging bridges, stressed under the weight of today's SUVs, reinforced with fresh steel and concrete.

But the $90 billion is a mere down payment on what's needed to repair and improve the country's physical backbone. And not all economists agree it's an effective way to add jobs in the long term, or stimulate the economy.
___
Energy:
Homeowners looking to save energy, makers of solar panels and wind turbines and companies hoping to bring the electric grid into the computer age all stand to reap major benefits.
The package contains more than $42 billion in energy-related investments from tax credits to homeowners to loan guarantees for renewable energy projects and direct government grants for makers of wind turbines and next-generation batteries.

There's a 30 percent tax credit of up to $1,500 for the purchase of a highly efficient residential air conditioners, heat pumps or furnaces. The credit also can be used by homeowners to replace leaky windows or put more insulation into the attic. About $300 million would go for rebates to get people to buy efficient appliances.

The package includes $20 billion aimed at "green" jobs to make wind turbines, solar panels and improve energy efficiency in schools and federal buildings. It includes $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy projects as well as tax breaks or direct grants covering 30 percent of wind and solar energy investments. Another $5 billion is marked to help low-income homeowners make energy improvements.

About $11 billion goes to modernize and expand the nation's electric power grid and $2 billion to spur research into batteries for future electric cars.
___
Schools:
A main goal of education spending in the stimulus bill is to help keep teachers on the job.
Nearly 600,000 jobs in elementary and secondary schools could be eliminated by state budget cuts over the next three years, according to a study released this past week by the University of Washington. Fewer teachers means higher class sizes, something that districts are scrambling to prevent.

The stimulus sets up a $54 billion fund to help prevent or restore state budget cuts, of which $39 billion must go toward kindergarten through 12th grade and higher education. In addition, about $8 billion of the fund could be used for other priorities, including modernization and renovation of schools and colleges, though how much is unclear, because Congress decided not to specify a dollar figure.

The Education Department will distribute the money as quickly as it can over the next couple of years. And it adds $25 billion extra to No Child Left Behind and special education programs, which help pay teacher salaries, among other things. This money may go out much more slowly; states have five years to spend the dollars, and they have a history of spending them slowly. In fact, states don't spend all the money; they return nearly $100 million to the federal treasury every year.

The stimulus bill also includes more than $4 billion for the Head Start and Early Head Start early education programs and for child care programs.
___
National debt:
One thing about the president's $790 billion stimulus package is certain: It will jack up the federal debt. Whether or not it succeeds in producing jobs and taming the recession, tomorrow's taxpayers will end up footing the bill. Forecasters expect the 2009 deficit — for the budget year that began last Oct 1 — to hit $1.6 trillion including new stimulus and bank-bailout spending. That's about three times last year's shortfall.

The torrents of red ink are being fed by rising federal spending and falling tax revenues from hard-hit businesses and individuals. The national debt — the sum of all annual budget deficits — stands at $10.7 trillion. Or about $36,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
Interest payments alone on the national debt will near $500 billion this year. It's already the fourth-largest federal expenditure, after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense.
This will affect us all directly for years, as well as our children and possibly grandchildren, in higher taxes and probably reduced government services. It will also force continued government borrowing, increasingly from China, Japan, Britain, Saudi Arabia and other foreign creditors.
___
Environment:
The package includes $9.2 billion for environmental projects at the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. The money would be used to shutter abandoned mines on public lands, to help local governments protect drinking water supplies, and to erect energy-efficient visitor centers at wildlife refuges and national parks.

The Interior Department estimates that its portion of the work would generate about 100,000 jobs over the next two years. Yet the plan will only make a dent in the backlog of cleanups facing the EPA and the long list of chores at the country's national parks, refuges and other public lands. It would be more like a down payment.

When it comes to national parks, the plan sets aside $735 million for road repairs and maintenance. But that's a fraction of the $9 billion worth of work waiting for funding.
At EPA, the payout is $7.2 billion. The bulk of the money will help local communities and states repair and improve drinking water systems and fund projects that protect bays, rivers and other waterways used as sources of drinking water.

The rest of EPA's cut — $800 million — will be used to clean up leaky gasoline storage tanks and the nation's hazardous waste sites.
___
Police:
The stimulus bill includes plenty of green for those wearing blue.
The compromise bill doles out more than $3.7 billion for police programs, much of which is set aside for hiring new officers.

The law allocates $2 billion for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, a program that has funded drug task forces and things such as prisoner rehabilitation and after-school programs.
An additional $1 billion is set aside to hire local police under the Community Oriented Policing Services program. The program, known as COPS grants, paid the salaries of many local police officers and was a "modest contributor" to the decline in crime in the 1990s, according to a 2005 government oversight report.

Both programs had all been eliminated during the Bush administration.
The bill also includes $225 million for general criminal justice grants for things such as youth mentoring programs, $225 million for Indian tribe law enforcement, $125 million for police in rural areas, $100 million for victims of crimes, $50 million to fight Internet crimes against children and $40 million in grants for law enforcement along the Mexican border.
___
Higher Education:
The maximum Pell Grant, which helps the lowest-income students attend college, would increase from $4,731 currently to $5,350 starting July 1 and $5,550 in 2010-2011. That would cover three-quarters of the average cost of a four-year college. An extra 800,000 students, or about 7 million, would now get Pell funding.

The stimulus also increases the tuition tax credit to $2,500 and makes it 40 percent refundable, so families who don't earn enough to pay income tax could still get up to $1,000 in extra tuition help.

Computer expenses will now be an allowable expense for 529 college savings plans.
The final package cut $6 billion the House wanted to spend to kick-start building projects on college campuses. But parts of the $54 billion state stabilization fund — with $39 billion set aside for education — can be used for modernizing facilities.

There's also an estimated $15 billion for scientific research, much of which will go to universities. Funding for the National Institutes of Health includes $1.5 billion set aside for university research facilities.
Altogether, the package spends an estimated $32 billion on higher education.
___
The Poor:
More than 37 million Americans live in poverty, and the vast majority of them are in line for extra help under the giant stimulus package. Millions more could be kept from slipping into poverty by the economic lifeline.

People who get food stamps — 30 million and growing — will get more. People drawing unemployment checks — nearly 5 million and growing — would get an extra $25, and keep those checks coming longer. People who get Supplemental Security Income — 7 million poor Americans who are elderly, blind or disabled — would get one-time extra payments of $250.
Many low-income Americans also are likely to benefit from a trifecta of tax credits: expansions to the existing Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, and a new refundable tax credit for workers. Taken together, the three credits are expected to keep more than 2 million Americans from falling into poverty, including more than 800,000 children, according to the private Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The package also includes a $3 billion emergency fund to provide temporary assistance to needy families. In addition, cash-strapped states will get an infusion of $87 billion for Medicaid, the government health program for poor people, and that should help them avoid cutting off benefits to the needy.

Can I get a hallelujah!!!