NOOOOO...Say It Isn't So!

"New York City, which banned trans fat, now wants to reduce sodium in foods!" First it was a ban on trans fat, now calories are posted in restaurants...they got rid of cigarette smoking in public places (love that one) and now the next battle is salt. I love salt. I am a salt addict. I even bought a salt grinder so I could buy a better quality of salt and look cool using it.

I already eat healthy, exercise...not processed or packaged foods...but salt! I can't! I won't!...what??? It will help lower my blood pressure? Just the thought makes my blood pressure go up.

OK I'll put my big girl panties on...I can do it...sobbbbbbb

Here Piggy Piggy

I have to say this swine flu thing is making me nervous. Not in the way they way a lot of people are nervous. They're worried about catching it...what makes me nervous is all the talk about Mexico and patient zero and closing the border. This is the kind of pre-hysterical news that gets people worked about about "them." It's the group, who ever they are... that are dangerous and should be kept out...this is the kind of thing that will kick that militia into a frenzy doing their border patrol thing!

I hope this little piggy will stay home.

Women

I spent the weekend with a group of women. They are my closest friends and fill a space I need for female companionship, mentoring, and support. Women are interesting. When you have spent time and developed a level of trust, they come together with everything exposed. Sure there are some things you will always keep hidden, but if there is a space in the world where I can let my guard down and expose my heart it is with these women.

Of course, they are human and so they bring their own judgement, anger, pain, love, kindness and they not only hear, but listen. They can make you pee your pants with laughter. You can tease each other without anger and you can hug those that need a hug. There is encouragement and truck load of advice, some of which you let go in one ear and out the other...but you are thankful that they have taken the time.

Black Butte

Yahoooo! It is the yearly spring quilting retreat for my quilt group. It is a 4 day feverish sewing fest that is like no other. We accomplish the most on this weekend because we do not have to drive very far.

This weekend is about:

girlfriends
giving
laughing
quilting
walking
laughing
sharing
talking
laughing

and....I acknowledge my dear father in law whose ashes are sprinkled on the top of Black Butte.

No Blog until Sunday or Monday.

Death

Death is a powerful event. More for the people left behind than for the person who died. There have been many movies made about people who died but were able to somehow view their family and friends. Some of the more popular movies depict a character being able to listen to his/her own eulogy and glow in the warmth of some of the best things ever said about them.

In reality it seems that death reorders the world and more precisely a family. Depending on where you reside in the family hierarchy changes the resultant hole. Some what like a building whose bricks are stacked giving it stability. A brick even on the bottom or corner when removed creates cracks and instability.

I wonder if we knew how are departure would effect the people left behind, both positively or negatively...would we have made different choices. I think the real message is there. Rather than live your life for others...you should live your life by your own code. That way it matters not what they say at the eulogy but what is said to you while you are alive.

Panhandling

It is a sad state of affairs that panhandling has increased. It is one of those issues that bring the righteous on both sides of the fence out. The city council is trying to figure out how to get a handle on the panhandling. They fear legal retribution but at the same time want to make the tourist feel better for coming here. When I first moved to Bend in 1988 there were no panhandlers....heck Frank wasn't even playing the coffee shop circuit back then. He might have still been in the military??? But in the last 10 years there has been an increase and in the last 2 years all manner of panhandlers have come out of the closet.

One of our councilmen says the panhandlers are not the working poor ,who in the recent economic downturn have been forced to it, but are people who have never worked. I am not sure he has his facts straight.

I do know that I rarely give money to panhandlers but use my extra cash for the guy who pumps gas or waitress. I'd rather buy a cup of coffee for the person holding a sign on a corner or tip the car wash kid...or my newspaper delivery person.

The panhandler has the right to be here as long as he or she is not endangering others. So the person who stands on the medium of Hwy 97 and Mt. Washington drive needs to be escorted to a different corner...too dangerous for them and the drivers. The city council doesn't want the tourists or locals to feel uncomfortable. I, on the other hand want to feel uncomfortable...and I want you to feel uncomfortable also. For it is this discomfort that bring in our visual field the hardship of others and although uncomfortable I like knowing that I have feelings for all kinds of people and that because of those feelings I extend my hand to people I see along my way. I support food banks and have in past times made sandwiches and served those whose only meal may come at a soup kitchen. I hope the discomfort makes people work to find a way to help one another that doesn't mean arresting the panhandler.

So today I had the dreaded job of taking the recycle cans to the store. I hadn't done it in months and had at least $15 worth of cans. I normally go to the Safeway on the westside because their recycle area is clean....but for some reason I pulled into the old Albertsons. I wasn't even sure where their recycle area was. I backed in and when I got out of the car a man approached me. He said, "I am sorry my life has come to this, where I have to ask for help. But if you could let me have your cans I can recycle them for you and you can help me." SWEET! I told him deal! He helped me unload the 3 big bags and as he thanked me, I in turn thanked him. Thank god I decided to stop at Albertsons because in helping him I saved myself from sticky hands, hot recycle area and an hour of time. Panhandlers can be saviors.

There Heeerrre!!!

It is amazing what happens when the pollen arrives. Suddenly in the course of a 24 hour period you are reduced to snot. You know it has arrived when every where you go people are sneezing, no makeup, no contact lenses and lots of tissue paper!

Thursday Greg and I rode our bikes to our new favorite lunch place, Jackson Corner. We then went to the library with the wind blowing in our faces. It was glorious. Friday I ride my bike to a staff meeting and by the time I arrive I am sneezing and sneezing and sneezing some more. It is hard to believe the amount of mucous that is produced in a person with allergies. Highly medicated I spent Friday inside feeling pretty miserable. Saturday I hear the disc jockey complaining about her allergies and how much her sinuses hurt. I venture out to a coffee shop with my book bound and determined to spend a little bit of time in the sun.

Today I medicate up, pills, eye drops and inhaler so that I can enjoy the glorious 80 degree day. What ever was blooming yesterday is not bothering me so much today. Pollen is definitely got Bend in a vice grip. I can't complain though...because I got sun tea brewing on the front porch, I put my orchid plant outside and she is feeling mighty fine...and I only just sneezed for the first time today and it is 4:00PM!

We Are Hardwired To Care

The media in its constant bombardment of "fact" keeps us in a state of insecurity. They would like us to believe it is only through competitiveness, material success and the strength of our leaders that we can survive. Military force is required in order that we may live. This serves to keep us in a state of uncertainty and dependent on others to lead us.

In truth we are hardwired to care. Scientist using imaging technology have studied brain function which shows we are actually wired to reward service, cooperation and caring. Instinctively we want to protect the group, even it's weakest and is the reason humans have survived for so many years. Without the sense of community we would have become extinct. Helping others, triggers those parts of our body that boost our immune system. Conversely, negative emotions suppress our immune system, increase our heart rate and negatively affect our health.


We have a complex 3 part brain. The base is the "reptilian" which coordinates breathing, hunting, eating, reproducing, protecting home and flight or fight responses. On top of the reptilian brain is the "mammalian" brain, the center of emotional intelligence. This gives mammals a distinctive capacity to experience emotion, understand the emotional states of other mammals, bond socially and care for our children. The third and largest layer is the neocortical brain, the center of our capacity for cognitive reasoning, symbolic thought, awareness and self-aware volition. Most modern societies neglect or suppress the development of the neocortical and limbic brain. With a depersonalized economic system with no attachment to place it negates the importance of the family and community bond. Our educational system that focuses on rote learning without placing equal importance on the emotional and holistic thought process lays the ground work for a fragmented youth dependent only on peer group without the benefit of a wider community.

As author David Korten states, "We must unleash the creative potentials of the human consciousness, and create the world we want. It is an extraordinary convergence between our reptilian interest in survival, our mammalian interest in bonding, and our human interest in cultivating the potentials of our self-reflective consciousness."

Monkey Brain

I found out last night in Tai Chi that I suffer from Monkey Brain. It is a malady that keeps you from relaxing and enjoying the moment. The symptoms are the inability to sit still, performing several tasks at the same time, and flight of thought. You lack a certain gene that allows you to day dream.

I always wondered what it was that caused me to eat, watch TV and read a book at the same time. Now I know! They say once you discover that you have Monkey Brain there is a chance for survival.

The amazing thing is for one hour last night during Tai Chi class the symptoms were suppressed. Of course as soon as I got in my car a monkey was sitting in the passenger seat.

Now that Greg and I are starting our "staycation" I am going to try and do one thing at a time and see if I can make the monkey move out!

Chi

I started a Tai Chi class last week in the desire for a new experience, exercise and meditation. Being a newbie I know it will take time to get my Chi in line, extending out my body not my mouth.

Learning to be quiet within yourself is harder than you would think. Especially in meetings when you swear someone in put in your path just to test you chi and you just want to beat the chi out of them....not very chi like.

A very nice surprise is how Tai Chi is affecting me physically. I can feel those underlining muscles, tendons and ligaments getting challenged. As for the mind...now there is another chapter. First day of class I wanted to scream because the instructor was taking too damm long to explain the inner peace of Tai Chi.

Today I am faced with another all day meeting in which one of the participates really chaps my chi. Since my Tai chi class is this evening it will be a good practice for class to remain in my space...breathing in...breathing out

Never Waste A Crisis Or Become A Frugalista

It is humbling that as much as I have dissed my mother's frugal ways in the past that several times lately I could have sworn she has possessed my body! I found myself reusing a plastic sandwich baggy the other day...after all I only had a hand full of granola in it and it came clean with a couple of shakes! Also I have found a cupboard where I have been saving glass jars, I don't remember washing them but they have taken over the cupboard.

Millions of people are being forced to trim their expenses but what social scientist have noticed it that even the ones who don't need to trim are trimming. I myself cut up all my credit cards last year and I swear if I could get Clyde Purcell to let me grow some veggies in a green house next to the 5th tee, I would be in heaven.

Now the new chic is being cheap...and proud of it! Of course it was 2 years ago that I made 60 cloth napkins out of my fabric stash (I suffer from STABLE, stash beyond life expectancy). Now I would like to say I made those napkins 2 years ago because I saw the bubble about to burst, but in reality I wanted to decrease my old stash of fabrics so I could buy a new one.

I have trimmed the fat (not physically) around here but the fact of the matter is we live in a schizo society. If every one did this, including those who could afford anything they wanted, the economy would tank. Our economy is based on spending. Finding that right balance where you spend but it won't cause you to lose your house if challenging.

As for me, I continue to practice, practice, practice but in between I will reuse my sandwich baggies as long as they are clean....I refuse to actually wash them out and have them sitting all over my counter drying...like my mom...bless her cheap, cheap heart. After all I am lucky to have a mom like her.

You Scammers...Be Careful About Bugging Me On A Monday!!

It could be as simple as it being Monday...or maybe I am just PO'd about people preying on others worries and fears...or maybe I just wanted to find out the truth. Whatever the reason when my phone rang this morning the ID didn't tell me who was calling and the phone number didn't appear to be a telemarketer. So I answered...damm...a computer voice told me that this was the final call I was going to receive about lowering the interest rate on my credit cards. In between the lines I heard, "you will lose everything if you do not take this call and it is going to be the last time we try to help you"...NOT!

I pressed #1 to speak to a person who was going to save my life and finances. I actually kind of felt sorry for the person who was going to get me as a customer. After a couple of transfers a real cordial person answered the phone. I paid attention to the back ground noise which told me that he was calling from a huge room of other telemarketers. Now sure, they need to work and earn a living...but making a living taking advantage of those who are fearful is no way to make a living, I'd rather hold a sign on the corner stating Gottshalk's is going out to business.

As soon as he took a breath in his speech I asked who he was. He stated he was from some credit card help company that wanted to help me lower the interest rates on my credit cards.
I asked, "Which cards?"
He said, "your credit cards."
I said, "exactly which cards are you talking about" (he didn't even have a clue what cards I had or didn't have)
He said, (in a snotty tone) "ALL YOUR MAJOR CREDIT CARDS!"
I said, (equally snotty tone) "I ONLY HAVE ONE CARD, SO YOU TELL ME WHICH ONE IT IS!
At which point he hung up on me. Felt slightly sorry that this is the way he had to make a living but calling me with a B*&^ Sh!*& line like that on a Monday. He deserved picking me.

To Give Is Really To Receive More

It is amazing how life will present you with an opportunity and only if you are quick on your feet can you reap reward. April is a hard month for every one whether you have to pay taxes or not, you still have to file. This year Greg and I decided to cut back on our daily living and pay our taxes without withdrawing from our savings. This has meant tight purse strings.

So I go into Albertson's to purchase an individual sized carton of milk for a cake I am taking to Easter Brunch and a bag of apples and pears to dry. I choose a carry cart so I won't be tempted to just pick up a few more things. The store is packed, so after getting my 3 things I stand in line behind a woman who looks to be in her 30's. She has a 2-3 yr old in a carry pack on her back and a son about 8 beside her. As I wait for her to finish checking out her 4 items I am literally daydreaming about people and wondering how people would respond if the person behind you paid for your groceries. Next thing....I hear her pushing aside her carton of milk and eggs telling the clerk she forgot her food card and can only afford the other 2 items. I immediately said, I'll pay for them. Both she and the clerk looked at me. She said, really??? I said you don't want to have to come back with the kids for 2 items...I'll pay for them. She thanked me profusely and left. Now I am feeling a slight glow of having helped someone and the young clerk told me I did a really nice thing and to which I replied that we have to play it forward when we can.

Now you think that this is the story and how great it is of me to extend myself...nice to give...but it is I who received the gift. After I walked out to my car got in and told a waiting Greg that I have a story to tell him. The woman runs up to my window with her daughter on her back and helmeted son riding his bike and says thank you again. She said, it has been amazing to her the gifts that have come into her life lately...that her husband had just shipped out to Iraq and she is truly thankful for my kindness...and as they went away the boy said Happy Easter. Now you tell me...who received a gift...I was teary and thankful after this encounter.

PC Paradigm...Plus Morally, Who Are You?

A couple of news items have sparked my thought juices.

It seems that being PC (political correct) is the height of intelligence, breeding and education. That in and of itself cuts out most of the population. Which gives the PC gurus the power (in their own mind) to pass judgement on the world. It is a confusing world...take case in point...the author of "Marley and Me" has been lamblasted for being the world lousiest dog owner. There are groups who are stating it is the owner who is untrainable not the dog ( this is a fact) but why do we have to pass public judgement on a guy who turned his story into a million dollar movie. Would Hollywood have made a successful movie with a perfectly behaved dog whose owner is equally behaved...totally not a blockbuster. Then there is the woman who breeds German Shepards...she made the mistake of selling one of her puppies to Biden. Now she get hate mail, death threats and protesters outside her home for choosing to breed purebred dogs instead of sending Biden to the pound. What business is it of anyone what kind of dog the Biden's purchase. Are public figures supposed to the the PC poster children??? Are they all required to only buy or live by PC rules. If one of them is caught on camera drinking water out of a plastic bottle will they be flogged by environmentalist.

Don't get me wrong, I spend a fare portion of my life trying to figure out what works for me, whether it be food, car, pet, job, house but, too use a totally un PC term...jesus h. christ...it is a free country and if you are following the law everything else is free choice.

Morality is ever evolving. Your behavior and who you are can change. So, if you are functioning under the moral radar on certain choices in your life and you recognize them as immoral like choices and you do not change...that is when you are on a slippery slope. We are not perfect but it is when we choose to change our behavior because we recognize it as default that we make progress to evolving to a better person. Case in point...a family goes to a restaurant and one member orders an all you can eat salad bar and shares the one plate with each family member. Is this wrong? Yes. You did not order an all you and your family can eat salad bar, only for yourself. It is these little bits of stealing that do not help in a marginally teetering economy. I am faced with little choices that I might have overlooked before, but once I decided to live a "clean" life...I am faced with moral choices left and right. What I do know is I want to be that person I believe I am.

Someone's Gotta Go

I am totally disgusted! The Fox Network is in the process of making a new reality show. Trying to make a buck off a troubled economy. The upcoming series titled "Someone's Gotta Go" lets employees of a small business decide which one of their colleagues will be laid off. WHAT THE HEY???? Why not create entertainment out of other's pain???? Heck we can start using the coliseums for gladiator challenges between co-workers...who will survive, to keep their job.

In a time when you see your neighbor lose their job or house...where people you know are having to travel out of town for work, leaving their lives behind...Where every day your co-workers are losing hours of work...and this is how FOX helps us get through this...I am never watching the FOX Network again!!!!!!!!!

Holy Smokes....

The health care news is out of control!!!!!!! People must want to know this stuff because they are sick and tired of reading the business doom section.

Now the tobacco companies are starting a new campaign against the truthism that cigarette are responsible for increases in health care cost. Instead the new campaign says that if you smoke you die younger, so you don't use health insurance as long as those "healthy non smokers" who are living too long and abusing the health insurance.

Also found out that some of my fat is good fat!!!!!! whooo whooo!!!!! Turns out that the fat, babies are born with is what sustains them until they can figure out how to get the milk out of the bottle or the boobie. This fat still exists within an adult body but in smaller amounts. If scientist can figure out how to jump start this good fat, it will eat the bad fat!!!! I am donating money to this research!

And lastly, Sitting is a disease! (so many exclamation points...this stuff is exciting) Some doctors now believe that sitting is unhealthy and should be considered a disease. It is contrary to what the human body was designed to do and we burn a 1000 less calories now than a generation ago because of the disease of sitting! I am going to go to my employer and apply for disability!!!!!!!! I sit way too much and although the article states you should get up regularly and pace the hallways, I believe that if you get up and pace the hallways while swinging your fists at the injustice that is being heaped on us poor nurses you will burn a few more calories. Although you risk that your boss might call a Dr. Strong.

Mom? Dad?...I'm Home!

I found out that in the United States 6.2 million adults are living with their parent or parents. This is a huge number and is expected to continue to rise over the next couple of years. With job loss and the housing crunch there is little else that families can do than huddle together and try to hand on...

It sounds like a simple solution to a temporary money crisis. The real problem is that the average American family does not have the social background for multi generational co-habitation. When people I know send their children off to college they expect that someday in the not to distant future those children will have morphed into adults and then Sunday dinner will be at their house. What happens over the course of this transition is the realization that when children come home they revert to their former "at home behavior." They usually are not adults coming home for a visit, who pick up their laundry, do their dishes and share the remote...they are adults who when they pass the door way of their parents home revert to their former child state. This has been a complaint I have heard over and over again.

Now, from my elderly surgery patients I am hearing that living with their children has added worry to the equation. So on top of worrying about your aches and pains, how you can stretch your social security you are also worrying about your adult children day in and day out.

There has too be a solution that is workable. This economy will take several years to turn around and after all most of the world doesn't have an issue with multi generational households...this is an American dilemma. We have to take care of each other with respect and love...it can be done.

True Enough

I am reading a fascinating book titled, "True Enough:Learning To Live In A Post Fact Society." Basically with the deluge of information coming from a million origins, very little of it is die hard fact. In fact a majority of information we hear has treads of truth woven with a bunch of opinions and total falsehoods.

Even in our little community we have persistent truthisms that do not seem to die...such as who funds the round a bout art. There are still people who believe that the city is spending our tax money. No matter how many times it is explained to us there are some who let their blood pressure go up because they continue to ignore the facts but choose to believe the story.

The web is filled with people who still believe we did not land on the moon, that Osama Bin Ladin had weapons of mass destruction and handing out birth control to high school kids will cause pregnancy....

We really don't want the truth, we want the information that is going to line up with our own particular fundamental beliefs. Whether it be politics, religion, the economy or the boss...we read and talk about only the information that lines up with what we want it to be.

I have succumbed to this process myself...as much as I am a skeptic the path of least resistance is the one that tells you what you want to hear. But, my little skeptic voice inside my brain will not allow me to stay there long...I walk with my eyes, ears, and brain wide open and I am not going to believe everything I hear...including that the economy will turn around this year...

Here Comes The Sunshine

Well, my black hole has passed. See...I knew if I let myself be quiet and just accept that I could see from the ground things in the sky that others could not...it would move on. Of course a good dose of sunshine only seems to feed the soul.

Yesterday was just what the doctor ordered. A beautiful day! Greg and I biked to our favorite coffee place in the Old Mill, sat outside and soaked up even more sun. Between the fresh air and pumping our legs, it was a perfect ride. Stopped at Rising Star, very sad...but when I went in a saw what the sale prices were...no wonder they are going out of business...who buys this stuff???

And of course, hitting a couple of quilt shops for last minute items to complete some projects at my quilt retreat this month was the cherry on the sundae. Flying down the parkway...good thing no cops were around...with the roof window open, the sun streaming in and Paul DeLay full blast...well that was heaven.

What was really funny is sitting out on the deck, partaking of "Happy Hour" and listening to the golfers...golfing is a full contact sport and the FU$%# was yelled several times. For some the first game of the season is a reality check...lol

The Basics

In a variety of conversations I have heard that we need to take care of our own. The basic thought sounds reasonable. If everyone just took care of their own business and solved their own family problems then we would be OK. What I think is missing in this piece of reasoning is that we are humans.

Humans cannot be, by their very nature only about me. We are connected in ways we don't have a clue about. So although taking care of your own is just smart business, reaching out and helping another is even more vital to the survivability of the human race. Whether you donate food to a local bank, give a tip to the person pumping your gas or take a moment to not only listen but hear a person's story...you are connecting and by that connection you are creating a chain...and by that chain we can move forward. If your touch has the need to reach a little further than your own backyard finding charities where a majority of your help goes directly to the end user rather than the machine that drives the charities can be daunting. Here are couple...

https://www.ikat.org/

http://www.oursoil.org/

You Got Some Change Mister???

"The moment you realize that life can, and does, change in an instant is a profound moment in the journey of life." Sometimes you make it all the way to adulthood before you get the message. For some you find out way too young.

In this recessional/depressional times....depending on what article you are reading, change is occurring every single moment. People are losing their jobs, retirement nest eggs, homes...and families. These changes are ones that are not of our own making. If they were, they would be considered a life plan. Instead it is a perfect economic storm and as with all storms it will pass.

Understanding that the profound shifting of our world is happening, excepting that each day is going to be entirely different than the day before and putting one foot in front of the other with the right pair of shoes is going to be the rest of our lives....welcome to the rest of your life...it is going to be an adventure.

Black Hole

In astronomy, an object so massive that nothing, not even light, can escape its gravitation. Black holes were given their name because they absorb all the light that falls on them. The existence of black holes was first predicted by the general theory of relativity. Super massive black holes have been found in the centers of many galaxies. Stellar black holes are thought to arise from the death of very massive stars. Astronomers expect to find many stellar black holes in the Milky Way.

Every so often when I would run out in the forest I would come upon a pile of garbage some one had dumped. It used to anger me to see such a blatant disregard for the environment. What kind of person would do this, it takes effort to get out here, why not just take it to the dump that is on Knott Rd? But in reality some people can't afford the cost to dump or need the money for something else like, food, housing or drugs. I think they must have been standing at the edge of their black hole to make this OK.

I have always used the analogy of the black hole and depression. In the past when I became depressed, I walk to the edge of the hole. Sometimes the edge would be soft and crumbly and I would get anxious about falling in...would I ever make it out? Now, when I feel depressed I let it happen. I no longer fight it, but relax into it. I find doing this makes it pass quickly, the fighting and worrying about it just feeds the hole. I do things that occupy my time and brain...I let my heart and soul be quiet. This tool has actually made depression OK, it is a part of life. It makes me a more grateful person. Now when I view my black hole it is from the ground viewing into space and I no longer feel its gravitational pull.

Horoscopes

I read the daily horoscopes in the paper. Sometimes I feel like the paper is talking to me and sometimes I think they must have someone else's life in view. Although I believe in the power of people, intuition and love. I do not believe the person who writes the horoscope knows a darn thing. Yet, I am driven to check it out each morning. Chuckling to myself that I don't really believe what it suggests. But the power of suggestion is huge, even if it is off by a day.

If I read something positive, I want it to be about me...negative I want it to be about the other Libras out there. What I do know is, that sometimes I just want to have a little message that is just about me. That sometimes I feel the weight of all that I feel and think and I don't know what to do with it...so if the horoscope tells me to take care of myself, I gonna do it...so much for laughing it off.

Thoughts on Drugs...The Recreational kind...

I had to snort when I read the article about the Taco Stand at both locations getting busted for dealing drugs out of their locations. Both have been popular for the food and are reported to have the best carnitas in town. Now, we know that they were also the location where one could get meth as a side dish. It goes to show you that people of the criminal mind especially if they are having a side dish every day, just are not smart.

It kinda stands out when the taco stands are open 24 hrs a day. We pass the one on Hwy 97 at 4:15 in the morning on our way to the gym...and it makes no legal economic sense to remain open 24 hours a day! BIG SIGN...when no one is buying tacos at 3:00 am but you are open.

Now we have a new drug in town called, "Sunshine." Nice name for a drug in a place that longs for sunshine to arrive. It is a relative to the drug Ecstasy. Some known risks of the drug include increases in heart rate and blood pressure, a special risk for people with circulatory problems or heart disease. Other symptoms include muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision, faintness and chills or sweating. This sounds like the same side effects of intercourse....maybe they need to post different side effects. After all in one city they stopped teens from loitering by hanging pink florescent lights over the area they were congregating in because it made pimples show up better and the teens don't like it...(who thinks up this stuff). So, with that premise if you released that using Sunshine causes you too look 20 pounds heavier, fart and burp...I thinking no one would take it because of the potential killer to the moment.