The fungus in me greets the fungus in you.

I decided today that I am tired of solitary paralysis.  Just because I'm single and can't always recruit people to do things with me doesn't mean I have to stay at home.  No!  So I decided to give myself the gift of freedom.  First in the form of a GPS.  Besides the fact that I get horribly lost going to places that I've been to several times before, I think having a GPS will also make me bolder about exploring places I have not been to  without fear of not making it home if I haven't mapped the location beforehand.  Well, the GPS comes in the mail on Tuesday so those adventures are yet to come.  But I decided to venture out for my first solitary hike today at Huckleberry Botanical Preserve.  All by myself!  I worried a bit about needing to tell people where I was in case I slipped off a cliff or something, but I needn't have stressed out so much.

The preserve is a quick drive away and very close to the urban bits of Oakland.  The nice thing about the Bay Area is that everything is so concentrated, meaning nature is right next to the big city.  (Or I guess in the case of Oakland, the mid-sized city.)  I picked a short and easy loop that took only an hour in total, but how refreshing it was to be walking on dirt.  Every time I go hiking now I always think about foster kids and wonder if they've ever walked in the woods, every walked on pure forest dirt rather than concrete.  I always start to wonder if maybe my body knows that I'm someplace different and if it responds differently to the unevenness of the ground and the moistness of the air.

The paths were green and shady--my favorite kind.  Today was a rare sunny day in what has been a series of rainy days, so along with a little mud there were colorful mushrooms along the paths.  Reds and yellows.  And I couldn't help feeling like maybe the fungus on my neck felt some kind of affinity with the cute fungus all around us.  My neck.  Moist woods.  We are all of us ecosystems!

I also spotted two huge hawk-like birds in the sky circling higher and higher and kind of swooping near each other, which reminded me of Avatar pterodactyls.  That's funky that for me nature is imitating art.  Hm...

So yes, I feel like I am reclaiming my independence, or rather exercising it.  I'm also taking some free writing classes through the Oakland Library.  If I write anything worthwhile, I'll be sure to post it.  And did I mention, my ringworm is clearing up?  What a splendid Sunday.  I think I'll go take a nap.

Like a burning ring

A while back I got this itchy spot on my neck like a mosquito bite.  I put some insect creams on it but it kept growing.  Finally it got to be about a centimeter in diameter and I got to poking around at pictures of rashes on the internet.  So I self-diagnosed myself as having psoriasis, nummular eczema, or ringworm.  I called an advice nurse who said she couldn't tell what it was over the phone and suggested I try an antifungal cream for a week and see if that worked out.  She asked how that sounded to me.  I was not impressed and asked to see my doctor.  So my doctor takes a peek and says it doesn't really look like ringworm and I should try a topical steroid cream and see if it gets better.  Or worse.  I was like, this is the best plan out there?  So I tried the steroid cream for a few days and yep, my little rash turned into a clear red ring.  Ringworm!  Guh.  So I sent my doctor a picture and she got me an appointment with a dermatologist likety split.  The dermatologist took a skin scrapping, peeked at it under a microscope and confirmed what I had originally thought.  Fungus ring!  The dermatologist was really helpful, though, and reassuring.  Of all the rashes to get, this one is not so bad because it is so easily treatable.  Likely source of contagion: children and animals.  Oh you look so cute, but you are incubators of ringworm spores!  So eww.  I'll be slathering myself with jock itch cream for the next three weeks.  FUN FACT: ringworm (misnomered as it is not a worm at all) is the same fungus that causes jock itch and athlete's foot.  Fancy.

Urgent Need! Must kill computer hackers!

I never thought it could happen to me.  I mean, I didn't even think of myself as a particularly good target for identity theft.  I don't make huge amounts of money.  I don't visit porn sights or do a bunch of illegal downloading.  But i had a gmail account.  And a facebook account.  With the same username and password.  I know!  Stupid.  So here's what a bunch of my contacts in gmail received:

I'm sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too urgent but it's just the situation of things right now, we are presently stuck in Wales,United Kingdom. we came down here on vacation. we were robbed, worse of it is that bags, cash and credit cards was stolen at GUN POINT, it's such a crazy experience for us and we need help with flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive but the good thing is we still have our passports but don't have enough money to get on a plane back home, please we need you to loan us some money till we are back home to refund it back.



And here's what a friend alerted me to at 4am (I've placed where I got online and began typing in brackets):

4:03 AM j: hm
 ?
4:04 AM me: how have you been?
4:05 AM j: i've been good ... what are you dreaming?
4:06 AM me: did you got my msg?
 j: mmm... no.. what message?
4:07 AM me: am not good at the moment  am stuck in Wales
4:09 AM I came here to visit a resort and got robbed at a gun point,my money and stuffs was stolen,am lucky i still have my passport here with me
4:11 AM j: :S ... what a mess
 but are you ok?
 me: yeah
4:12 AM i have been to the embassy and consulate they are just delaying  all i need now is a financial help with getting on plane back home 
 can i ask for a favor?
4:13 AM j: sure, what do you need?
 me: can you pls loan me some cash to complete my ticket fee till am back home to return it to you
 ?
4:14 AM $600 is all i need more
4:16 AM j: no problem, or i can pay the ticket for you
4:17 AM me: you can get it to me here using western union,all you need is just my name as written on my passport and the location here
 Name:Jennifer
 Location:Wales,United Kingdom
4:18 AM am glad you can help
  [eh?]
  [was that you?]
4:19 AM It's me Jennifer
  [did you just send me a text message about my gmail account?]
4:20 AM [?]
4:21 AM How long will you get it done?
4:23 AM you there?
 j: yes i'm here ...
 me: [is someone using my acount]
4:24 AM j: eh?
 me: [something strange is going on]
4:25 AM j: you are confusing me, are you ok?
 me: the network sucks here
4:26 AM [i didn't just type that]
  [i think someone hacked my gmail account]
 j: ?


So, yes, I was online typing while the hacker was typing too!  I can understand someone spamming with my email, as evil as that is, but impresonating me to chat up my friends?!  That is like a whole different level of insidiousness.  I later found my facebook account was closed, probably because someone alerted them about someone using it.  I heard from a friend that the hacker was also impersonating me on facebook, chatting with friends and trying to convince them I was in Wales.  Oi.  I mean, not super sophisticated, but opportunistic I suppose.  My close friends caught on very quickly that this was a scam, but some people I haven't talked to in a while where confused and freaked out for me.  It's nice to know people still care about me after so much time, but not ok that they had to go through with that kind of emotional trauma.  Grr!  I was so mad that someone would do that to my friend.  Thankfully none of my finance had been tampered with, but I did an overhaul of all my passwords to be safe.  I'm done with my old buggy laptop.  Considering getting a Mac.  Taking a break from facebook until I don't feel like a walking victim.  Or so violated.  Ugh.