As Illinois lawmakers debate whether driving fees to fund to fund world-class transit would be "regressive," a quote from ex-Bogotá mayor Enrique Peñalosa comes to mind: “An advanced city is not one where the poor own a car but one where the rich use transit.” chi.streetsblog.org/2025/10/28/w...

Going out with friends? Usually carded Going out with my husband? 50-50 I get carded Going out with my 4 children? They assume I need alcohol, no card needed

Picture books > graphic novels > novels is the best way to get kids reading longer books. I don't understand why some parents discourage graphic novels. They help kids learn to follow a narrative even when they can't read all the words. And then they easily step up to picture-free narratives.

IDK what style of parenting it falls under, but I've taken to just letting my kids make up their own punishment. Like, "Awww, you know that was a really bad choice. What do you think is a good consequence?" And they'll be like, "No videogames tonight" and I go with it. It's worked quite well.

What if, hear me out, we just let this government stay shutdown forever and start a new one?

Hero

The allergist always reminds me not to itch the allergen injection sites, but I let myself have ONE ITCH every couple hours as a treat

Support your public library. Defend your public library. Slay the enemies of your public library.

There's 2 kinds of parents. Those who pick the names of their future children while they are still children themselves and those who name their baby after the hospital barista because he/she was really nice and made the best latte ever and they can't go home until they pick a name.

I've been playing WindWaker with my kids on Nintendo Online. They complain BITTERLY when I sail across the sea with calming beautiful music. But now that we have the cabana it's all "Moooooom, can you do all 16 slide puzzles again?" Because somehow that's not boring like sailing. 🙄😑

Had a patient today with anemia at the transfusion threshold. Her family was refusing blood from anyone COVID vaccinated. So we got them in touch with a company that will facilitate the family donating directly for $500. Which they don't want to pay. 🙄😠🤬 Frustrating because it's grandma who suffers.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."  -Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

Imagine being this miserable.

On Juneteenth, we celebrate Black freedom, resilience, culture, and the enduring strength of community across generations. We acknowledge our nation’s full history and the long, ongoing fight for freedom and justice for Black Americans.

It’s such a harmful Christian theology that looks at wars and famine and says, “this might be the fulfillment of End Times prophecies!” and “Jesus might be retuning soon!” instead of “look at how much people are suffering!” and “how can we stop this injustice?”

I was in the study on COVID vaccines while pregnant with my 4th child. They sent me the completed study report showing it is effective and safe. We had the same complications as my other 3 pregnancies and that child is now 4y/o and thriving. A perfect little boy in every way.

I've never seen clouds cast a shadow onto other clouds like this before. It was so beautiful.

I think we should collectively sue the mfs on YouTube that create children’s content that leads to weird scary shit.

I started coming to this camp as a counselor in 2005 and started overseeing their medical care in 2017. My kids have grown up spending at least 2-3 weeks every summer here. It's the first day with campers this year and I'm just loving the view of my kids running feral with a rainbow behind.

I’d rather a friend call me an asshole than an asshole call me a friend.

My favorite part of the night shift tonight is this sign saying the room is for day use only and the door is locked at night next to the very much open door.

A Woobles ad sucked me in back in November and I started learning to crochet. Which has now culminated in staying up all night to finish these end of year teacher gifts. The hardest part was getting my kids to tell me their teachers' favorite animals & colors. And the teachers LOVED them!! 🦄🦒🐸🦓

Made Kirby cupcakes for my youngest's birthday. The feet are halved raspberries. The frosting was strawberry buttercream made with condensed milk instead of powdered sugar with funfetti cake.

Feeling like a superior human for working out at 4am for once. Buuuuuut fully recognizing I'm in the middle of a night shift and just got some down time. Didn't actually get myself out of bed for my health.

Several weeks ago I thought, "I have nothing to do the Sunday before Spring Break week" and so I agreed to play an indoor soccer game. Then forgot about that and signed up for a cooking class. Then forgot again and signed up for an outdoor soccer game. So now this is my busiest day of break.

Volunteered at the local free clinic precepting first year med students today. I forgot how much I enjoy working with doclings. They're the very best young adults you can spend time with. I'm definitely going to keep volunteering.

I'm on a rare swing shift instead of my usual night shift. And I just turned the wrong way off an elevator at a hospital I know very well because I didn't recognize the hallway with the lights turned on. Nocturnist problems. 🫠

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." —FDR, 1937

Today I took a cooking class I booked a while back at a local bakery, read the rest of a book from the library, put away the farm-to-fork local produce we get delivered on Fridays, and now will hang out at home with the kids for the night. A perfect day. And I didn't spend any money.

I was just telling my husband that our grandkids will probably see Millenials as the greatest generation who defeated the Nazis, lived through a depression, and created an era of prosperity for them.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker: "What comes next?" #3E [1]

I was raised deeply entrenched in Christian values and always worried when the time came, if I would be easily fooled by false prophets. But it turns out they came to tell me I'm better than everyone else and all I had to do was not believe them.

A random person in the ED came up and asked to borrow a pen and I said I didn't have one. THEN I walk into my patient's room and it's their family member so I had to stuff my pen down in my pocket really fast and couldn't take any notes. 😭

I don’t have to fend off the desire to comply in advance. Anyone who knows me knows that, fortunately or unfortunately, I would rather die than let someone I don’t respect tell me what to do.

I've always enjoyed this song and listened to it when I was stressy. But it feels especially poignant at the moment. Acknowledging the craziness, but somehow thinking "odds are we're gonna be alright for another night" while an atomic bomb goes off behind me while I work. youtu.be/7Sw9Fh6uk4Q?...

This civil unrest has been great for my fitness. I need long workouts to keep my anxiety from manifesting physically. If I skip a workout the anxiety makes me too nauseous for snacking. AND BONUS it's prepping me to be able to run my kids over the Swiss Alps.

For every 10 shifts that I don't have time to hardly breathe between admits there's always one where the workflow is easy. I can take time to watch the city come alive in the morning while I wait to handoff the phone and head home. Listen to music and just pause to enjoy where life has brought me.

I love this cat's love for my oldest. I made her let him go only to watch him jump right back into her lap to get wrapped up again. ❤️ And it was love at first sight. We walked into the rescue and he ran over to wind between her ankles while we pretended as if any other kitten there had a chance.

This week in the world of American "healthcare" I admitted respiratory failure for blood clots in the lungs because insurance wouldn't cover blood thinners, repeat fall at home after insurance denied rehab stay after prior fall, and a stroke who couldn't afford blood pressure or diabetes meds.

Today my 8y/o son wanted to help my 3y/o son be more fashionable. So he put a bunch of paperclips on the top of his socks and that little boy strutted around like a peacock putting his feet in eeeeveryone's face..

I went outside at 1am to cool off and look at the planets in alignment. But in the eerie snowy quiet looking up at the oddly bright planets I started to have an existential crisis. So I ran back into the hospital and the comfort of sickness and death.

My 11y/o was absolutely disgusted today when the cashier at the grocery store asked me for dating advice. "Why would anyone ever ask YOU? You have no idea about romance. 🤮" says the child who has never been in a relationship to the adult in a very happy 14 year marriage.

I downloaded the Finch app because I desperately need a little buddy who harasses me to get my chores done. But he begs me to drink water and go to bed at night and I'm a night shift worker who only drinks coffee and literally no other beverages for days at a time. Our love isn't meant to be.

As a kid Highlights magazine had crafts, many of which used toilet paper tubes. My dad would NEVER leave trash in the house so we never had toilet paper tubes lying around and thus, I never could do those crafts. Anywho, I'm sure that childhood disappointment is why my bathroom looks like this now.

Watching the final run of #AGDQ2025 as they go into it just shy of $2.5 MILLION dollars raised for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. I know they'll get well above that, but I'm excited to see by how much! www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

Reminds me of the patient I admitted with multiple PEs (blood clots in the lung) the other day. He said he'd had clots in his legs 3 times in the last 3 years. I asked why he wasn't on a blood thinner, he said his health insurance denied them and he only just got approval to pick them up.

Other people- I wish my kids got along better. My kids- Hey, we clogged the toilet because we wanted to see what would happen if we all pooped on each other's poop. Like, I'm glad they get along, but I wish they just played board games or other normal things.