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missroseroseFeeling vaguely bloated and cramp-ish this morning. Hardly anything severe (I've had severe cramps before and they suck), but not particularly conducive to a sense of general well-being.
Most folk who know me are aware that I've been on one hormonal contraceptive plan or another pretty much steadily since I was 19 - contraceptive benefits aside, they help a lot with keeping my moods more centered. Additionally, I've had excellent luck inducing near-amenorrhea by taking super-low-dose pills, which is a great benefit. Not having to mess with pads and such each month makes Rose happy in her girly bits.
Anyway, this year I got a prescription for the NuvaRing, which has an ease-of-use advantage - you mess with it once at the beginning of the month, then forget about it for three weeks until it's time to take it out. I tried it for three months this year, and I'll say this for it: it's definitely less trouble to remember than the pill, especially if you're traveling or doing theatre or otherwise in a non-standard daily routine. Plus, the extra security is a nice feeling, especially if you're as paranoid about getting pregnant as I am. However, I don't think I'll be using it regularly. For one thing, while it does fine for my moods while I'm on it, during the off-week I do have this tendency to feel bloated and cramp-ish (though fortunately not too severely). For another, it's just plain expensive - without insurance, it's about $45 per month, and even with insurance it's $25. Cheaper than having a kid, true, but that's more than what it costs to go down to the Public Health Center and get three months' worth of pills, plus a chat with a nurse if you have any questions. And since the NuvaRing only came out in 2001, it'll be another four to six years before the patent expires and there'll be generics on the market. Color me unimpressed - while I suppose I can understand needing to recoup R&D costs, there's so much money going into BS publicity campaigns for pharmaceuticals that it makes me want to buy generics just to avoid subsidizing another set of TV ads. (Not that I even watch TV, but...y'know.)
In other news, Monica and I rented The Painted Veil last night. It was an enjoyable movie with some really lovely cinematography, but it felt hampered by a floundering script. The core story that they were telling was really a quiet love story about two British people in 1928 Britain-occupied China learning about each other during a self-imposed exile, and on that level it worked really well - Edward Norton and Naomi Watts are both excellent actors, and even though the script felt limited, they really managed to convey an excellent emotional arc for their characters. Unfortunately, it seemed like the writers felt like that wasn't *enough* story for this movie, so they kept throwing in pieces of all the standards of movies in similar settings - local political struggles, nationalists vs. occupiers, the question of cultural assimilation - and none of it really felt like it was necessary or even wanted. We'd seen it all before, and it was only tangentially related to the story at hand, so the only real purpose it served was to get in the way of the story and kept us from forming emotional connections with the characters. Still, it was a beautiful movie (is it just me, or does Naomi Watts have one of the most striking faces in Hollywood?), so I don't feel like my four bucks were wasted.
Most folk who know me are aware that I've been on one hormonal contraceptive plan or another pretty much steadily since I was 19 - contraceptive benefits aside, they help a lot with keeping my moods more centered. Additionally, I've had excellent luck inducing near-amenorrhea by taking super-low-dose pills, which is a great benefit. Not having to mess with pads and such each month makes Rose happy in her girly bits.
Anyway, this year I got a prescription for the NuvaRing, which has an ease-of-use advantage - you mess with it once at the beginning of the month, then forget about it for three weeks until it's time to take it out. I tried it for three months this year, and I'll say this for it: it's definitely less trouble to remember than the pill, especially if you're traveling or doing theatre or otherwise in a non-standard daily routine. Plus, the extra security is a nice feeling, especially if you're as paranoid about getting pregnant as I am. However, I don't think I'll be using it regularly. For one thing, while it does fine for my moods while I'm on it, during the off-week I do have this tendency to feel bloated and cramp-ish (though fortunately not too severely). For another, it's just plain expensive - without insurance, it's about $45 per month, and even with insurance it's $25. Cheaper than having a kid, true, but that's more than what it costs to go down to the Public Health Center and get three months' worth of pills, plus a chat with a nurse if you have any questions. And since the NuvaRing only came out in 2001, it'll be another four to six years before the patent expires and there'll be generics on the market. Color me unimpressed - while I suppose I can understand needing to recoup R&D costs, there's so much money going into BS publicity campaigns for pharmaceuticals that it makes me want to buy generics just to avoid subsidizing another set of TV ads. (Not that I even watch TV, but...y'know.)
In other news, Monica and I rented The Painted Veil last night. It was an enjoyable movie with some really lovely cinematography, but it felt hampered by a floundering script. The core story that they were telling was really a quiet love story about two British people in 1928 Britain-occupied China learning about each other during a self-imposed exile, and on that level it worked really well - Edward Norton and Naomi Watts are both excellent actors, and even though the script felt limited, they really managed to convey an excellent emotional arc for their characters. Unfortunately, it seemed like the writers felt like that wasn't *enough* story for this movie, so they kept throwing in pieces of all the standards of movies in similar settings - local political struggles, nationalists vs. occupiers, the question of cultural assimilation - and none of it really felt like it was necessary or even wanted. We'd seen it all before, and it was only tangentially related to the story at hand, so the only real purpose it served was to get in the way of the story and kept us from forming emotional connections with the characters. Still, it was a beautiful movie (is it just me, or does Naomi Watts have one of the most striking faces in Hollywood?), so I don't feel like my four bucks were wasted.
