Saturday, January 01, 2005 :::
 

All of the sparkles of the Universe to all. May we ascend to a higher enlightenment. Glow with wisdom & charity & graciousness. Become what we are meant to be.
Happy New Year!

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 3:57 PM

Friday, December 31, 2004 :::
 

As I look back upon the year 2004 that is rapidly coming to a close, only one thing of major proportions pops up.
We, as a country, had the opportunity to correct a mistake that happened at the turn of the century. George W. Bush played out his political cards in four years of despair. He started a war to appease his father and make his money-grubbing friends richer. He offered innocent soldiers up to the God of War…into the arms of a permanent Morpheus. He falsely touted family values when he is anything but moral. With Karl Rove, the personification of all that is wrong with this country, by his side, he, by nefarious means, won for a second term.
If anyone had forecasted such an event earlier in the year I would have thought they were totally insane.
The media, which at one time was a respected segment of our world and could be counted on to bring forth ideas from all sectors (or at least the main two sectors) of the political world dropped the mirrorball. Judith Miller did little more than rewrite press releases from the State Department. She is just one of many that did the wrong thing. BTW, for those still looking for WMD’s, the Easter Bunny is delivering them in April.
There is the old war tactic of saying something over and over until the people believe it is true. Rove and Company were specialists at that. After the election both sides were applauding Karl Roe’s efforts. That made me want to puke. To bestow honor on someone who is willing to do ANYTHING to get his man elected is worthy of no respect in my opinion.
And for George W. Bush to be selected as Man of the Year…well I must be living in the wrong country.
NO. That is untrue. I ADORE my country from sea to shining sea. I have taken extensive road trips crisscrossing the country back and forth and up and down. It is a magnificent country this United States of Ours.
It is our political system that has run amok. As I write this people are dying in a war that is hopeless. Whenever we leave Iraq will revert to something of what it is already was. It will never become a democracy. It is another Vietnam. And all of the lives that were lost, all of the soldiers returning without limbs, will be for nothing except war profits for the already rich.
In 2004, everyone had the opportunity to make a change. You didn’t have to go out and protest in the cold and take a chance at being handcuffed. You didn’t have to do anything that took a lot of effort. All you had to do was to make the right choice in some warm building by voting not to condone the actions of the madman in the White House. The majority said, “Please keep lying to me. Put more restrictions on my rights so I feel safe. And please give more to the billionaires.”
I had hoped I could remove the two large silver bracelets I wear on each wrist to remind me of the prison created for all Americans by this administration, but no, they will stay in place for another presidential term.
We have given up on freedom for a false sense of security. In my opinion, we have turned our backs to what this country was about in the first place.

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 2:08 PM

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 :::
 

My friend has made me the greatest offer...a vacation to tour the Oregon coast...all of the beaches...and he will read poetry to me while I drive (he is legally blind)...and we will stay in cheap, dumpy motels...to happen in June. Wheeeeeew! It is an overwhelming thought!
So why am I hestitating to say YES?
I like this man. He is illuminating to spend a day with BUT he is a bit of a vampire and I feel sucked dry after say about 8 hours with im and the trip would be 10 days. I might return dessicated, burnt back into dust. So it would be a challenge and beautiful at the same time.

Where is CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT???????????? I feel holey, something is missing. Everyday during the Christmas season, I watched for C in C, but no. Someone (Ted Turner?) stole all of the old movies. I so adore the really old version with Barbara Stanwyk. She plays a writer, who is a fake Martha Stewart-type, who actually has to cook on a teevee show. It is funny. There also is a remake done in the 80s, I think, starring Dyan Cannon. I like that one too. If you have an extra copy of the BS one send it to me. Thank you.

Tomorrow is pool day so I need to leave and wash out my paintbrushes, read a review, and shave the fur off my legs. Tata.

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 1:12 AM

Monday, December 27, 2004 :::
 

Life is beautiful!

My friend just called to thank me for the Italian cookbook I bought him for Christmas. He has spent the last two hours drooling over the recipes for authentic Italian feasts. And now we spent an hour on the food and I am HUNGRY! Ha! It is late and if I prepare that frittata I will have to stay up until dawn or my stomach will go insane. Take leftover pasta, break in a few whipped-up eggs, sauté it in olive oil until browned, flip, and sauté on the other side. OOOOOOOOOOOOH! Doesn’t that sound marvelous? That’s from one of my Goodwill finds. I told all of my gift recipients where I bought their presents and they thought it was a cool idea.

Since J stirred me up for food, I decided to BLOG instead, so here I am…saving myself.

I spent Christmas Eve day with my family. I love the way a house smells with all of that yummy food cooking. That is GOOD PART #1. Then you have all of the hugging. That is GOOD PART #2. GOODPART #3 is opening presents, which we do right away at 10 a.m., then brunch, then appetizers, then dinner, then desserts, then nosh, then a bunch of food is packed for you to take home. In 10 hours of eating I think I gained at least 20 pounds!
One of my cousins took me aside. He is having a desperate time dealing with the war. He works at a moving company that primarily moves peeps that live in high rises in the city. His company also contracts to the military. He is the last person to see a lot of the soldiers right before they leave for duty in Iraq. He said they hug him and he can feel their fear. He also does BLUE BARK. That is the code name for soldiers that died in the war. Each item has to be inventoried, 3 white socks… My cousin needs relief. He said he needs to find a church to go to, to lift the weight. In times of stress people turn to drugs or religion, both have pitfalls, IMO. I offered to start going to church with him. He needs me.
The unfortunate folks in Indiana got slugged with 20” of snow, even the Interstate is closed. Here I’m lucky and the 2-hour drive hour was uneventful. (I was supposed to stay
the night but I have a Christmas Eve party at my neighbors that I want to go to.)
I arrived home around 9:30, decompressed for half an hour, then walked over to the neighbors. They were happy to see me. I had some terrific homemade eggnog…raw eggs, rum, ice cream. (I know you are thinking salmonella, but no. Booze kills creepy things like that.) So all of these people are chatting and drinking and noshing when an older man says he needs to go outside because it is too warm. Outside it is 5 below zero, windy, he has no jacket on. After a few minutes he walks back in, sits on one of the couches, and his head falls back. Now he could be a narcoleptic, but when the people that know him are asking him if he is all right and his skin is pale, his mouth is wide open, and his eyes are rolled back in his head, I said CALL 911! Which they did. I stood out in the street and flagged down the ambulance that was flying by. (I knew they wouldn’t find us because of an event I had summer before last when I called the rescue peeps.)
They did arrive fast and took the man to the hospital and he is doing fine but undergoing some tests.
I walked home for some quiet and there I was checking emails, which I have been too busy to bother with, and WHEEHOO! an editor is very interested in my book! The letter was dated December 10th…Yikes! Good thing he said that he would be out-of-town until the 2nd of January so he won’t think I am a slug for not replying sooner. Editors like things NOW. And I am usually very good at making every single deadline. I will make this one too.
So there it is. One of the strangest, fullest Christmases I ever had. I hope you was fun and perhaps a little less eventful.

K gave me a pair of snappy jeans for Xmas. Only thing was that when we ran off to her room and tried on our new stuff, the jeans were too low for me in the back. I am not into showing my asscrack all over town. So today, Sunday, (nothing is open on Christmas!) I took them back to make an exchange because I really wanted a new pair of jeans. Guess what? There were only 6 people in line for returns, and in the regular checkout section there were at least 30 peeps in each line! YOW! That’s a LOT of shopping after the holiday. I wasn’t aware of this because I USUALLY never go to stores between Christmas and New Year’s. It was eye-popping.
Anyway I found the most amazing pair of jeans I have ever had in my entire life. They are like 1950s Marilyn Monroe stripper jeans! HEE! The 1950s part is the wide rolled up bottom cuffs. The belt is made out of a handful of ribbons the same color as my flesh, which happens to be my favorite color right now. (My abstracts have a lot of high-power color in them, they are rather hard and aggressive, but I sneak in a bit of flesh color to remind the viewer of human. I don’t want to lose the softness of people in my paintings, even though we live in a tough world.) On the ribbon sash are to flower made of silk. One is a BIG flesh-colored rose; the other, smaller flower, is made of layers of pink lace, both have stamens! Wrapped around one of the front belt loops is a tussie-mussie of perfect red rose buds surrounded by dark green leaves. On one of the back belt loops is a criss-crossed yellow ribbon that says DOLLHOUSE (that reminds me of a stripper place. I think someone once told me a story regarding a men’s club called Dollhouse, or I am making it up…. not sure.) Then the label says “Blue Jeans Rock & Roll.”
As I was driving home, I was stopped at a light and I grabbed the bag and was admiring the jeans when I flipped the waistband and on the inside (where no one except me can see it) are the words YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL done in red embroidery, and the “O” is a heart. How much better can this get!!!????
When I got home and tried them on BINGOMANIA! They fit perfectly…Well, maybe not. They feel good and are a bit stretchy so I can devour Italian frittata and be okay, but they have that low back thing and everyone will see my underpants UNLESS I wear black leotard tops that are body suits and have snaps in the crotch. So that will work.
I know it is silly to get sooooooo excited about jeans, but these have all of the surprise elements that I didn’t even know I needed in my life. They make me feel like I could go to a bar, sing off-key karaoke and win the grand prize! Yep, that good.

Geez, everyone is up late tonight. D just called. I read the jean story to him. I was a bit timid because he is a really smart fellow and my story was just about jeans, nothing earth-shattering. He liked it. And when I told him about my feeling a bit lame he said, “A story can be about anything. Henry Miller said, “All a writer needs to create an interesting story is an opinion and a lust for life.” And you have both.”
Thanks D!!!!!

HA! I just finished writing that and the drone of the teevee turns into Wilco singing “Kidsmoke.” The news peeps are doing a piece on the band. Got a good look at the studio they work out of on the NW side. A fine 3-minute piece. I am really lucky tonight. If anything else happens I am going to explode.

One of my BLOG readers gave me the heads up regarding a teeth-whitening site that uses teethaswhiteasstars, all run together, as keywords to draw my readers in. Damn piggybackers!
I have never explained what teethaswhiteasstars means. It is not what some of you may think. It has nothing to do with my teeth or teeth-whitening products.
Back in 2002, during that horrible summer when there was a rash of little girl’s being abducted and sometimes (actually often) murdered, I saw one news story where a grandmotherly neighbor of one of the children said “She was a precious child with teeth as white as stars.” The vivid description allowed me to see this little girl. She was cheery and smiled a lot, otherwise you wouldn’t know about the look of her teeth. Some monster destroyed a happy, innocent child. I don’t want to forget this girl or the others or forget the horror evil men make on this earth. Life is fragile…and short. Extremely short for some.

Julia Child, the famous chef who drank wine while she did he on-air food shows, died this year at age 91. She was a spygirl when she was younger. When asked, in an interview a few years ago, what her favorite meat would be she replied, “Red meat and a bottle of gin.”

Okay I will confess…I just did the frittata I added green peppers and onions. It was excellent! Try it! I will be up until dawn. Ugh!

Oh one more quickie...check outroadtripnation I need to start a list of groovy links here SOON!

::: posted by bite me, kick me, make me scream at 1:40 AM