The scathing headlines are ubiquitous. Blond bombshell found dead in hotel casino with no obvious cause of death while baby and lover are nowhere to be found. If it was any other woman, the headlines would end there and people would turn their attention to what Tom Cruise and his cohorts are planning for the Church of Scientology. Or what Beyonce is wearing, or where Madonna will adopt her latest accessory. This is not the case as it is the weight chameleon Anna Nicole Smith, spokesperson for the diet drink Trimspa.

The media outlets, from frivolous Entertainment Tonight to substantive NPR, have been exploring the mysterious circumstances surrounding her untimely demise. They speculated on the apparent drug abuse, haphazard dieting regimes, and interviewed scores of friends and family to get their take on what happened. Particularly interesting is the interview on Larry King Live with Chyna, the female wrestler proclaiming to be Smith’s confidante and best friend. Chyna was undermined by another woman on the show who claimed that Smith had despised Chyna and called her a stalker. It seems Smith has not spoken to Chyna in years and avoided any association with Chyna. The subject of Smith’s death became secondary to the brewing catfight between the two women. Television at its best on Larry King Live.

While any death is tragic, regardless of celebrity status, no death deserves this sort of blow by blow account of the whats, hows, and whys of the cause of death. The fact that Smith left behind a 5 month old baby is disheartening. She died in the same messy way that she lived is somewhat interesting, but 24 hour coverage on her death is neither entertaining nor newsworthy. Smith’s ultimate legacy is marrying a billionaire oil tycoon followed by a decade of litigation after his death. This is not worthy of 24 hour coverage.

The issue with the media is that everyone seems to gobble up the same sound bites hour after hour and as little sheep, the general public is transfixed in this ridiculous circus known as celebrity obsession. It seems everyone has an opinion about Smith’s death, whether they knew her or not. Confounding matters further, Smith’s own family seem to spearheading this media frenzy. What possesses people to tune in day in day out to find all the tidbits of this woman’s life? A deep concern for her family’s well-being? Probably not. An obsession with lifestyles of the rich and famous fueled by the vast arrays of entertainment news options? Probably so.

What became of our troubled astronaut, Lisa Novak? What became of Al Gore’s an Inconvenient Truth? Does global warming not have the same sex appeal as the the Church of Scientology’s quest for their latest celebrity couple? Apparently not. Until we start paying for the Discovery Channel and stop paying tribute to the glossy magazines at the checkout stand, the media will prevail in this battle between what we want to see versus what they think we should want see. The media will have us believe that the death of an irreverant celebrity has more significance than the fact that more Americans are medically obese then any other time in history, and the financial burden this has on our healthcare system. No, lets discuss how some shallow celebrities die and fall from fame, not issues such as global warming or healthcare, as that might provoke thought and action. Lets all say, “baaaahh!”

It’s come to that time where you have to face the music and do the inevitable “hasta la vista.” Like most average people, I dread the solemn emotions and the tortuous act of demonstrative affection. While deep in my heart I am heartbroken over the idea of not seeing these people for an extended period of time, I am quite distracted by the enormity of my upcoming travels. To be blunt, I have no time for trivial moments of pathetically inadequate goodbyes. There are places that I can’t even pronouced that I need to visit and pay homage to and have not done nearly enough research in preparation.

I truly love some of the friends I’m leaving behind, and will be greatly missed. I(Lets not count the people under 3 lbs. and named after a peanut.) Despite this radical change, it saddens me on a fundamental level to leave all this behind. I hate the fact my history has been stripped and on sale for trampling drunks to purchase. The clearance sale was up this weekend and I finally came closer to liquidating my precious car at a markedly reduced price. Depressed about the aspect of leaving my sister’s home (lets be honest, I moved out of my home weeks ago), and confounded about my future, I will venture into the predictable oblivion and sort out my next obscurity.  With all this on my mind, I have not been empathetic with the emotional turmoil of those staying behind.

I will try to continue to write on this journey while I transition to my new Pinky-esque world, I will need time to immerse in my new home: Thailand.

Of all the whacky news that I ingest daily, this astronaut angle has me confounded. Been mulling it over in my pinky head and cannot conclusively or satisfactorily digest what I’ve been reading. it boggles me that someone with such a stellar career and enviable success can be fallible on such a colossal level.

I devour every bit of published information on the web as to attempt to comprehend what would push a highly intelligent person to commit such a violent and despicable act. Some people inferred that she was perhaps momentarily insane, possible alcohol or drug induced, and caved to the intense pressure of her emotions. Some experts claim that she suffered from mental anguish, that pressure from her career and livelihood was unbearable and inexplicably destroyed her sense of rationale. While only Lisa Nowak can really attest to her mental state, it’s plausible that she was not prepared for pressure from her emotions - as we’ve all seen with OJ Simpson.

Shaking my head as I cannot imagine the rage or thought process Nowak must have experienced to cause her to risk her entire life, liberty, and family to pepper spray a woman that was interested in a fellow astronaut she allegedly was infatuated with. It’s deeply disturbing that someome as accomplished as Nowak can fall off the sanity wagon, as it signals to the rest of us that we’re screwed. If rationale did not prevail for Nowak, an engineer selected by NASA to fly in the space mission and to join their elite club of space incorps, then what hope does the rest of us have when our emotions strike us. Lets just hope we have a good criminal defense attorney, or is one.

This peculiar situation has created a media frenzy which leaves many with the mind-boggling, head scratching question; what was she thinking?

Lisa Novak is no ordinary individual. She has an accomplished, stellar career in the elite club of the U.S. astronaut corps, a predominantly male club that she ingratiated herself into. Not only has she beaten the odds by being one of the few women who have been on a space mission, she has accomplished this before age 50 and simultaneously managed to raise three kids at the same time. After extensive psychological testing and rigorous training, Novak was selected to venture on the July 2006 space mission where she was in charge of one of the robotic arms of international space shuttle. Since the United States chose the first seven astronauts for its Mercury manned space program in 1959, only 321 U.S. citizens have been admitted to the elite ranks of those with the elusive “right stuff” to fly in space.

Considering the level of scrutiny and security clearance that Novak underwent, it evidently did not registered that she might be emotionally unstable when it comes to her personal love life. Evidently she took meaningful measures to ensure that every detail was calculated for prime execution, an attribute of her NASA training. While she appears to be a successful professional woman, personally she may have been obsessed with gaining the affection of another fellow.

What would drive a brilliant astronaut to take calculated measures to harm another person? While these are allegations in the early stages of a criminal investigation, it’s analogous to the OJ Simpson freeway chase; innocent people do not carry weapons or a large amount of cash with them any time during or after the suspicious act. As incredulous as the revelation that OJ Simpson has written a book about what if he had killed his ex-wife and her male friend, it’s fascinating to watch the events unfold in Novak’s love triangle story. Perhaps she was driven to the point of insanity and allowed her emotions overcome her good sense. Perhaps she thought that with NASA’s backing she could get away with murder. More likely than not it was probably an exaggerated account of what is a colossal miscommunication.

What the ???

After reading the latest news on events occurring in Thailand, it gave me pause on my questionable decision to move to Thailand. The lost woman and I have much in common; neither speak the local language, traveling alone, and dark enough to be mistaken for a native in the remote tribal village. Upon hearing the dismal news of her years of confusion and bizarre mishaps, I was filled with doubts of my luck if I were stranded in Thailand. How long would it take Hubby to realize I was missing, and how long would he search before calling off the rescue? Definitely before 25 years.

It took the lady 25 years before she was “discovered” by three students who were training in the area and spoke her dialect. Only then was she able to explain her obtuse predicament. What does not reconcile in my mind is how she was unable to learn the language after that many years in Thailand. After a year or two she should have been able to converse on a basic level whether verbally or physically, that she was lost. While it’s true that uneducated people may not have the organized structure to learn another language later in life, it would appear plausible that after a decade that she would find a way to communicate to the authorities that she has 8 kids at home and was hopelessly lost. What happened in that time? Why was the jungle woman in Vietnam found after 18 years and it took this woman 25? Why does it only happen to women?? Are women that inept at direction?

Was in London a few months ago and saw the most obscure and thought provoking documentary in as many years, called “Tax the Fat” by Giles Coren. The young, slim fellow on the TV was charismatic and articulate, he had an important point to make and made no bones about couching it in a comedic fashion. His point was succinct and direct, fat people should be taxed accordingly. Coren advanced his argument on the controversial issue on the Daily Mail.

While he claims that fat people place more of a financial burden on healthcare, he neglected to provide creditable sources to back his position. (Making statements regarding the low discipline and morals of those with categorical morbid obesity may trigger explicable backlash unless supported by a renown institution of medical science.) Nonetheless, he made some valid points. Fat people are treated alike and respond similarly regardless of where they live. They require special accommodation, and usually at the expense of the populace, and unabashed about requesting special treatment due to their weight. The problem is most obvious when you’re on a 10 hour flight and the person next to you is spilling over to your seat and making it nearly impossible for you to sit comfortably. Less obvious is how your medical insurance seems to increase every year when your visits to the doctor has not increased in the last five years. What have you done to deserve the increase?

Fat people have excuses for their weight that ranges from slower metabolism to thyroid problems. The documentary guy dispelled these myths by interviewing a nurse practitioner to explain whether these excuses were just that, excuses. She concurred that the inherent problem with overweight people is that they simply eat too much. No one person has a faster or slower metabolism than another. Discipline and exercise eliminate the majority of health risks associated with weight gain. Simply put, fat people need to eat less and exercise more.

There were more said in this documentary, but I was preoccupied with the uncontrollable laughter emanating from the pit of my stomach. After picking myself up from the floor, I discussed the matter further with Hubby, who was adamant that legislation should be passed to execute this forward thinking business of curbing healthcare costs. It’s fundamentally unfair to require moderately slim people who rarely utilize the medical system to have to bear the burden of paying more because some people do not have the same discipline to curb their appetite. We blame the media for promoting super size meals, conventional science for not creating a slim fast pill, and sore joints for not exercising - but we rarely blame ourselves for not controlling our food intake.

The documentary guy was not jesting about this fact, he persuasively demonstrated the danger of not exercising and the need for a quick fix. So the only solution is to tax the fatties. We charge smokers more, polluters are fined, speeders are jailed, so why not tax those that burden our healthcare system? While I was not completely against this novel idea, a part of me prefers to have the option of becoming fat one day and not having to pay taxes for my bonus self. Why should I have to pay taxes twice, first when I purchase that extra pound of Krispy Kreme donut, and again when it transforms itself onto my thighs? That’s simply unfair, I should only be charged once for the pleasure of injecting myself with glucose. Lets tax the skinnies because they make the fatties look healthy.

As of today, we are technically homeless. No meaningful humble abode to declare our own, and no desirable land to claim as our future home either. So now that we’ve relinquished our permanent residence so to venture into the oblivion world of Southeast Asia, we’re experiencing bittersweet emotions and deep doubts deriving from our questionable decision.

Today we turned in the keys to our home, tighten the knot on our suitcase, and confirmed our Asia bound flight. It is the inevitable time where we must bid farewell to our few friends and far too many family members so that we must commence our journey into what our little hearts have been beckoning us to do. As I leave this little town that I have grown to love and endure, I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if we canceled our tickets and terminate our immediate plans to abandon mother and our personal history. While it would conceivably be much the same as it was the week prior, it would most definitely confine our exotic expectations of our future. It would prematurely hinder our plans to litter our personal belongings in Europe and Thailand, nevermind the havoc it would wreak on our family and friends who have found new companions to replace us. What would you do with the replacement set if the originals are still hovering about??

While I jest about canceling my plans, I do realize that leaving this little town is not only inevitable, but is mandatory. If we were to stay we would never truly experience or realize our dreams of living abroad, we would never discover the innate traveling bugs, and we would never fully recover the costs of canceling the tickets. What will be most regrettably will be the profoundly priceless moments we will miss many sense. We’ll miss the secret jokes that friends share on intimate drinking occasions, the profound discussions regarding the weather, and the dinners with friends and family that will continue to occur without us. Those things are beyond what money can buy and for that, we wish someone had come up with a method wherein we can insert special moments of our lives into little glass bottles so that we can keep it sacred in our kitchen pantry.

At this juncture we can only fiercely, albeit questionably, forge ahead. As pinkies, we truly appreciate that courage is doing the thing we fear the most. It’s either that or foolishness, but at the end of the day, who cares?