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Thursday, December 28, 2006

A vote is like a rifle

"A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."
- U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt

It's shaping up to be a sugary holiday...

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Artificial and sort of proud of it.


It doesn’t remove air pollution, or provide a home for wildlife.
It doesn’t disguise a cell tower or offset my carbon footprint.
It doesn't even have that lovely Christmasy smell.

But it was easy to assemble, pre-lit, low maintenance and goes with my fake grass and my attempts at low maintenance lifestyle.
I sort of hate that I am in the majority on this one. 21 percent of U.S. households display real trees while 48 percent put up fake ones. The remaining three in 10 households do not take part in the tradition.

I hate the idea of cutting down a living breathing tree but I also hate contributing to the landfills when this one gets tossed.

I want to be carbon neutral. I try. I purchase power from alterate sources. I recycle. I changed my light bulbs. I hope to get solar panels next year.

Over the years I have tried: Cut trees but putting them up by myself is a pain in the ass. I love the smell but hate the trouble, scratches, doing the lights and the mess. It usually falls over at least once while I am trying to stuff it into the stand and make sure it is straight while I dig the screws into it's poor barky flesh... It's just too hard.

I have tried a live, potted tree that later was planted in my yard. It died in a few short months leaving a carcass to dispose of in May and a really guilty feeling in my hippie heart.

This year I decided for the first time ever, to try an artificial tree. The concept bugs me. But I think I like the final effect. It is bold. It is white. It does not look like a fake tree trying to be real. It is what it is. And I think I like that. This year anyway.

And since I have a fake tree and I care about the universe, I will donate to Tree People, and leave the planting and care and actual thriving to those who can properly take care of REAL trees. There are a lot of Global Releaf programs. Please donate to one this year. (It is a fact that the average American family needs to plant 30 trees to offset the CO2 produced by their daily energy use.)

Friday, December 01, 2006

The best thing for being sad, replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it.

That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.

T.H. White, "The Once and Future King"

Sunday, November 26, 2006

My interest in blogging has been overridden by my interest in eating and horsing around.





Reading books, eating lollipops and turkey...yummmm, playing chalk tag and game fish, watching Dora and Thomas... all seem way more important today, than the love affair I had been having with my computer. (I may participate in Cyber-Monday) but this is what I have been loving most over this holiday!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Our Lady of Charity might have been my mother.

I was adopted and today is 48th anniversary of the day that my mother (who was killed in a car crash before I could meet her) gave birth to me... She spent many months hidden safely away from society's scorn, in a home for unwed mothers (nicknamed Watermelon Hill) making rosaries, awaiting my arrival and the day she would surrender me.

Her very Catholic parents decided for her, that at 19 she was not fit to be a parent. I am not sure how she felt, except that I am pretty sure in the 50's, she didn't have the voice to decide otherwise.

I am going to play the Joni Mitchell album Magdalena Laundries today and think of her. Then I am going to eat cake and celebrate how many more choices we have as women today.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Ancient Chinese Secret.

(I am not drinking and my spelling isn't this bad... this is known as Chinglish.)

Three Snakes Wine
According to Chinese medicine major Dictionary , the fomer things have abvious functions to rheumatism.

This Liquor has been soaked for a year and a half,and it has been watered carefully. It is frqgant mellow tasty and no stench. Drinking reguraly can dispel the wind and Coldness, remove blood stasis, limber up muscles and joints, strengthen health, prevent from diseases and prolong life.

Just looking at it almost makes me not want to drink again.


Friday, November 03, 2006

Not trying to overdo the China blogs but...

I swear I am not trying to make this trip the beginning and end of the world. I do cool trips every year but this time:

1. I had a decent camera and took a lot of neat pictures.
2. I have been forced to switch to stupid ROADRUNNER
2a. When I get inspired to blog, my internet and email always seem to be down.
3. I just bought all brand new bedding. Beautiful soft down pillows, silky duvet, and 1000 thread count sheets. I am so happy to get in between them.
Oh and
3a. Cheri has taught me (in spite of a broken finger that made squeezing the limes ALMOST impossible) how to make the PERFECT GAY MARTINI and I have been drinking a few here and there. They do tend to make me want to go to bed even earlier than usual.

It can't still be jet lag that makes me want to crash early. Can it?

Sooo, if I am not boring you too much, here are a few more pictures. I am posting these for something different to look at, so you won't totally ditch my blog forever.







Thursday, October 26, 2006

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

We are back....

Here is a quick little recap and a few pictures...

This was the best trip I have taken so far. Henry was really excited about going and VERY happy and excited to be there. He kept an amazing journal! It may have been a little ambitious to take him because the schedule on these trips can be so grueling but he really, really loved it. And he was fantastic. He never once complained about anything... too hot, too cold, too tired, 10 days of carrying luggage, food with eyeballs and/or bones, up at 6AM most days, back to the hotel at midnight or later, trudging on and off 6 airplanes, 2 boats, a train and many, many busses!

In fact, each night he would shower and get in bed and while I took my long awaited shower he would put little notes written on the hotel stationary under the blankets of my bed saying things like… “Mummy, this was the best day of my life.” Or “Mummy, today was worth $400000000. I love you.“

It was AMAZING how much he LOVED it there! ME too! I want to go to Tibet now and Henry wants to go to Egypt.

All the Asians were FASCINATED by Henry and kept trying to touch him and take pictures of him. They were flocking around him constantly (He didn’t like that but he didn’t complain… he would just whisper “Muummmmy they’re doing it again”
Kids of all ages came up and said hello, hello. Business men begged to have a picture with him. Families pushed their children next to him and snapped away. Poor Henry, they all thought he was a girl, because his hair is so long, I guess.

One day we climbed the Great Wall which was harder to do than I expected. We set a goal for how far we were going to climb and when we got to our goal, there was a camel ON the wall. He got to ride a 2 humped camel ON the Great Wall.

We visited 4 cities in 10 days. We took the Maglev train in Shanghai ... went 268 mph to the airport! - World's fastest supposedly, although I do think the Shinkansen in Japan is the same. An hour ride to the airport on a bus took us only 7 minutes and 20 seconds!

In addition to all the other places we PLANNED to go, we also unexpectedly (luckily) got to add a few stops. Besides the many museums, tombs, temples, walls and soldiers, we toured a jade factory, a cloisonné factory, a pottery factory, a silk factory and a furniture factory and we went to a school where they demonstrated the art of ink drawing. We took a 4 hour cruise down the Li River in Guilin. It is supposed to be one of the prettiest places in the world, I think I agree.
Coming home our plane in Shanghai was WAY overbooked so we took a bump and went 1st class to Vancouver, then to LA and we got $500 bucks in compensation for "our trouble". It was fabulous. The only bad part was we got back about 4 hours later than we had planned to, so we couldn't get our dog from the kennel or go to bed as early as we wanted to.
The entire trip was REALLY fantastic and I was VERY proud of Henry. He was an angel and very interested in everything we went to see.
Here are a couple pictures.





Thursday, October 12, 2006

Where in the world is Henry San Diego?

Are you wondering where we are?

Read below to see where we will be based on our travel brochure. I had the best intentions of adding links to every sight mentioned but I am exhausted and need to go to bed. We have 6 planes, several buses and a high speed train to make in the next 10 days!

Friday the 13th we leave from LAX for Shangahi. We arrive in Shanghai, the largest city in China with and the 8th largest city in the world. We will have been on the plane for 14 hours or so and arrive on Saturday evening the 14th. Even though we will be carrying tooth brushes and no more than 3 oz. of toothpaste, I will look forward to a shower, dinner and a nice soft bed at our hotel.

Sunday the 15th - Tour of Shanghai including Old Town, The Bund, walk along the Huangpu River and top of the Tower of the Eastern Pearl.

Shanghai, once a tranquil but busy fishing village, and long known as a paradise for adventurers in the years before 1949, is now the largest commercial and financial center of China. Sightseeing includes the Old Town, a finely designed maze of elegant pavilions and ponds in the old part of this city. Then stroll along the Bund, China’s most famous waterfront stretching about one mile along the Huangpu River. Then ascend the Tower of the East Pearl (The highest TV Tower in Asia) in the newly developed Pudong District. In the evening we grab a flight to Bejing.

Monday the 16th - we will be in Beijing visiting the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.

Beijing served as the capital for 5 dynasties over a period of 800 years with each emperor identified as a dragon sent from heaven. Begin your city tour with a visit to the Summer Palace, whose construction was completed in 1750 as a royal recreational resort. Among its famous features are the nearly half-a-mile-long covered corridor with its painted ceiling gallery, the Marble Boat, and several magnificently painted pavilions and pagodas. The next stop is the Palace Museum, more commonly known as the Forbidden City. It used to be open only to the emperor’s family. This complex, the largest imperial palace ever built in the world, features more than 800 buildings with over 9,000 rooms, all with golden-glazed roofs, red lacquered pillars, and vermilion walls. See the high-walled “Inner City” with its government buildings. Sightseeing continues at the Temple of Heaven where the Ming and Qing emperors conducted the annual ceremony to pray to the Heaven for a good harvest. This evening you will enjoy a special imperial cuisine served at Fangshan Restaurant.

Tuesday the 17th - Beijing, visit the Great Wall of China and Ming Tombs with an acrobatic performance at a dinner of Peking Duck.

Here is your chance to climb the Great Wall of China! This wonder of the world, built more than 2,000 years ago. Then visit the Ming Tombs, the burial place of thirteen emperors of the MingDynasty. Yearlong excavations have uncovered many rare treasures such as gold crowns and silk robes. Tonight’s special dinner gives you a real taste of Peking Duck. After dinner, you will enjoy an acrobatic performance.

Wednesday the 18th - Beijing’s Tiananmen Square Fly to Xi’an to see the Wild Goose Pagoda, Ancient City Walls and a Tang Dynasty Stage Show

In the morning, take a stroll around Tiananmen Square (the Gate of Heavenly Peace), the largest square in the world and also known for many historical and contemporary events in China.
Then fly to Xian. Visit the Wild Goose Pagoda and the Ancient City Walls. In the evening, you will see a wonderful stage show of the Tang Dynasty and stay in Xian.

Thursday the 19th - Xi’an, visiting Qing Tomb Park and The Terra Cotta Warriors. Dinner of Chinese dumplings.

Xian was the capital of China for 73 emperors in 11 dynasties extending over 1,100 years. Following a visit to the Qing Tomb Park, you will visit another wonder of the ancient China–the Terra Cotta Warriors. Concealed under earth, the thousands of life-size clay warriors, horses and chariots, were part of the tomb of Emperor Qinshihuang, the first emperor of China who initiated the Great Wall. They were accidentally discovered by a farmer in 1974 while he was digging a well. You might chance upon some archaeologists still working on site to uncover the rest of the vast tomb complex. For dinner, feast on numerous varieties of dumplings.

Friday the 20th - Leave Xi’an for Guilin to see the beautiful Reed Flute Caves and Elephant Trunk Hill. In the evening we will see an ethnic song and dance performance.

Take a morning flight to Guilin, a southwest city famous for its fabulous natural scenery. The features fantastic natural stalactite and stalagmite formations which are now artfully illuminated by multicolored lights. Another magnificent view is Elephant Trunk Hill which stands along Li River. This evening you will watch an ethnic song and dance performance.

Saturday the 21st - Guilin, taking a cruise down the Li River to see the most beautiful landscape in the world. Stop for shopping at a colorful local market then off to Shanghai to enjoy the night-life...with Henry!

Cruising down the Li River, you will be fascinated by a living gallery. Cormorant fishing on the Li River, limestone spires rising out of the flat ground in the distance, with some peaks rounds and others sharply pointed, with often perpendicular cliffs and trees sprouting from the cracks to bend skyward—definitely a surreal landscape you never see anywhere else in the world. Disembark at Yangshuo to experience a colorful local market. Return to Guilin. Then Fly to Shanghai Enjoy your night in Shanghai.

Sunday the 22nd - Shangahi Museum, Maglev speed train to the airport

Finally we will will visit Shanghai Museum, one of the best museums in China. Then it’s time to pack the mementos and memories, take the Maglev, a fast speed train to the airport and fly home.

We look forward to seeing you all when we return! XOXO

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

If I still have any readers after this long radio silence, I am writing to inform you that we are leaving Friday the 13th... on a Chinese adventure. Henry hopes to unite the fire nation and the earth nation and bring honor to his family. Maybe he has been watching too much Avatar the last Airbender and Mulan, but it seemed like a good way to get him jazzed about going on this trip.

I want to wallow in the history and culture and spiritualty of China with my new little travel buddy. And I hope to come back with a new view of being citizen of the world.

Come back after October 23rd if you will.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Avoiding bedtime...


Seriously?! What 6 year old kid (besides Laura) is THIS interested in math?
Henry is lying on the floor with his new "briefcase" open, doing MATH, voluntarily, at 9:30 at night to avoid going to bed. He says he is doing "IMPORTANT MATH" and he "can't go to bed now...this is big number math I am doing Mummy." "I am working on, like 56 x 2 = 112 or 99 x 33 = 3267 and 87 times a trillion = 87 trillion and that's the amount of our national debt under george w stink-bomb!" He got a new calculator today. And he might be a little brainwashed.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Brilliant Smack Down!

Keith Olbermann pulled no punches and launched a brilliant smack down on Bush and FOX News

Sunday, September 24, 2006

When a 6 year-old is excited to go to China...






This is what he spends his Sunday afternoon doing...(these are just a few of his pages...Check out Tank Man!)
Would you say, this is the beginning of a future blogger?

Monday, September 18, 2006

Voted off the Island... and so early in the season.

Yesterday was a big day.
Henry got home from dad's just in time to rush off to a birthday party. A truly fabulous all boy birthday party that included combat gear, green hair, obstacle courses, zip lines over piranah infested swamps, and a dusty secret mission ...followed by cupcakes, cold stone ice cream, M&Ms, gummy bears, sprinkles, chocolate sauce and no protein what so ever.

Not being an ice cream eater, I was starving when we left, so I dragged my famished body, and Henry's stuffed one to Cheri's house, unannounced, to beg her and Laura to go to dinner with us. I was thrilled that she answered the door with "Please say you are starving and you are here because you want to go to dinner". I love her. She can read my mind! Laura and Henry however had other ideas. Henry wanted to take his shoes off and stay awhile and in doing so, dumped about a 1/2 cup of dirt from his previous secret mission onto Cheri's clean stairs. I cringed but knew nothing of the cringing that was to come.

We finally got the kids out of the house, and headed to Islands®, one of our favorite weekly dinner haunts. It just doesn't feel like a proper week if Henry and I haven't had dinner with Laura, Cheri and Tom, at least once or twice. We went together in Cheri's car, the Lexus fondly known for causing unexplained projectile puking. (Back in August Henry and I got a Good Sport Award when on the way to church, Laura threw up on her Dad and I helped clean it up a little. It really was no big deal at all. I have cleaned up plenty of puke in my time and think nothing of it really. Until tonight.

The kids were a little cranky so after counseling them in the parking lot on how to treat each other with consideration and love, we went in to eat. I sat with Laura on my side of the booth and Cheri sat with Henry. Later Tom even joined us. We had lots of protein at the table and tried our best to get our kids to eat some. Towards the end, Henry started saying the he wanted to go to the bathroom. Last time we went to the toilet at Islands®, he took 20 minutes in the men's room while I paced outside the door shouting every time the door opened - "Hurry up Henry or I'm coming in there" making a spectacle of myself while my margarita sat at the table getting diluted by the melting ice. This time I was determined to wait as long as possible to take him, so as to minimize the wait in hall outside the bathroom door. This turned out to be an unwise gamble, and I saw it coming way too late. Henry's face turned pasty white, his eyes got a glassy look and his little head started going in tiny circles. He projectile puked more birthday party colors than I have ever seen... and he did it in Cheri's lap.. 3 times before our shock wore off and we all jumped to action.

Chaos ensued as we gathered napkins and towels, rushed Laura out the door, wiped the puke off everything and everyone and tried to take care of Henry. We ended up hustling out the door leaving double tip, lots of barf and disgruntled, nauseated patrons. And poor Cheri. She helped me strip Henry down in the parking lot, put a pair of Laura's ballet underpants on him before even attempting to attend to herself and her puking wet, clotty jeans. Talk about a good sport. I felt so bad, I was wiping puke off her bum and legs and practically wanted to cry. Then Cheri did something that I haven't seen a grown woman do since my 21st birthday. She stripped off her jeans, right there in the parking lot, wadded them up matter-of-factly, got in the car and drove home in her undies! What a problem solver. When we arrived at the house Tom was waiting in the driveway with a towel for Cheri and a tablecloth for Henry and even though I feel absolutely awful for both of them, I have never laughed so hard in my life. Man I owe her.

Bless you Cheri! I do just love you and I hope you don't mind if we find a new place to have dinner next week. I think the Island has probably voted us off for good!

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Then and now...

Time sure flys...

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Beginnings are important...


And this looks like it might be the beginning of a good year.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

My Three Sons...



...an influential domestic comedy of 1960 and a BIG lesson for me in 2006.

My son's have been snowmakers a very important job according to Henry, in Nederland Colorado, population 1,394, for over 3 years now. In spite of numerous requests, Henry and I had never been to visit until last week.

I was afraid that if I actually saw the way young bachelor guys in a hippie mountain town lived, my eyeballs might bleed. I pictured burned out couches, moldy refrigerators full of nothing but beer, bathrooms full of pee, toothpaste splatters and hairballs, half eaten burritos and dirty magazines under the bed, covered up by endless laundry, ferret poop, dog hair and bongs. I was afraid to expose Henry's eyeballs too, at their tender age. He idolizes his big brothers and I pictured him coming home hooked on cheese fries with ranch dressing and Top Ramen and beer and a whole new vocabulary to ask for them.

What I found, was enough to make me bust my buttons. My sons live in a darling little duplex, designed and built by a Swiss master craftsman right on the main road leading to the snowboard park. The neighbor, a 65 year old lady, loves them so much she frequently makes big pots of pasta and meatballs and leaves it on the doorsteps to thank them for the various favors they do for her. Last week, they dug a hole and put up a tetherball pole so her grandson can play when he is over. They actually had a GARDEN, with actual FLOWERS in it, that they had actually PLANTED themselves. The refrigerator actually had chicken, rather than beer or mold and a homemade carrot cake intended for us! (OK where is Uncle Charley? I know he's here somewhere)

Everywhere we went, I heard people calling out to them like they were famous or something. The lady that owned the cabin we rented, said they had stopped by, to help her unload a truck of wood - just because she looked like she could use a hand. The landlord said they were the most respectful, wonderful tenants she had ever had. Their boss said they were incredibly responsible, hard workers and that he hoped never to lose them. Seriously!?

This was a huge lesson for me on what happens when your FORMER; smart mouthed, lazy-assed, drop-out, surfer boys, grow up and get a job and a life and THRIVE. They are happy and proud of themselves and I am still high on pride and love. See more pictures here.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Off to a land of frozen dead guys...



We are on vacation this week in the land of frozen dead guys and burned out hippies that have been kicked out of Boulder (this according to the Urban Dictionary). Why you may ask? I planned on blogging about that very subject while I was there, but when I called the owner of the cabin we are renting, to ask if they "by any chance (fingers crossed) had WIRELESS internet connectivity in the cabin?" The manager laughed at me and said... "Honey we don't even have TVs in the cabins. If you are coming HERE, we want you reading books, hiking, fishing and reconnecting with your family. If you need to use the internet THAT bad, you can march your butt down to the library and use the one there, like everyone else."

I guess you won't hear from us until we get back from fishin' and skinning bears or whatever.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Interview with a fish

CARLSBAD - Deb Betta, is the happiest anyone has seen her in a while. In her betta world, where men are usually the pretty, happy ones, Deb is a truly colorful, cheery little dish lately. She has good reason now that she is rambling around in her Mac-mansion completely unharassed and male-free. Don't get this girl wrong, she likes boys, it's just that her former betrothed was starting to take her for granted and even chase her around a bit too much. He was promptly put into time-out to think about his recent behaviour. She loves him, but with all this time to think, she has made a big decision.

In an interview today, Ms. Betta had this to say. "I realized that I wasn't really the marrying type," said Deb. "I'm very independent. I just had too many things I wanted to do. Call me happily unmarried, that suits me just fine. Now, I don't feel the tug of having to pay attention to somebody else and meet their needs when I would frankly, rather just watch TV. I may let him come back someday, if he promises to stop chasing me around like a 2 dollar you-know-what."

A visit to Napolean's temporary new digs found him cheerily working away on a bubble nest. A big one too. Mr. Betta, aka Napoleon the Randy, seems to have a knack for blowing big foamy bubble nests which are used to support betta eggs during the breeding process. A bubble nest is a sign of good health and also that the male betta desires to spawn. Napoleon declined to comment but his agent released this statement "Mr. Betta is fully expecting a reunion with Deb, and a good foamy bubble nest is always a good move. Whether Deb comes back or not he is happy to have found a fulfilling new calling."

Monday, August 21, 2006

Nope, not a blue apple pie.

Last night in Cheri's blog I was actually called a SAINT, just for taking care of Laura's 2 betta fish (Napoleon and Deb) and 2 butterfly's while they are on holiday. I am fairly certain that I will never be called a saint again (although my mother would have liked for me to be called a NUN) so I feel a strong desire to live up to the saint moniker for once in my life.

Some saint. One of the little butterfly's has already passed away (I am going straight to hell) and the darned betta fish were not getting along with each other. Seems, the male was a bit randy and would not leave poor little Deb alone. He chased her behind the pump and there she stayed protecting her chastity until I could rescue her. Far be it for me, to be responsible for Deb becoming an unwed mother so I sent her to a nunnery and Napoleon the Randy, to an Apple pie.



Oh and did I mention my cat is utterly fascinated with the 2 new "aquariums". Last night I used a combination of water gun technology and primitive throwing shit technology to keep her away from them. Tonight I have a better plan. Blue tape is really handy for so many things but I think I may have found the cat-proofing-my- former-trifle-bowl-for-the-sake-of-the-fish cure. Got the idea from the apple pie I consumed at a friends birthday party Sunday. Do you think I went overboard?

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Definitely Metro!


And I am just fine with that, except he is using MY Aveda mask.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Thanking a higher power

Monday, August 14, 2006
Thanking a higher power
Well, I negotiated the best I could and got a raise and promotion...and 5 phone calls from Daddy, crying about how much he misses HER (see previous post) and saying that he went to one of HER friends houses at 4 AM today and tried to talk him into flying a helicopter into where ever she is in Arizona to get her back. (She is with a biker guy named CHET!) Thankfully the friend has been sober for 30 years and talked him out of it.

He also wants to quit his job and start a business he asked me to help him do it. He is going to sell his house in London, go to Al-Anon and start this business, get his life together so SHE will have something good to come back to. Then he is going to go get her and do whatever it takes to support her and keep her here and away from CHET the biker/druggie who has guns. He talked to her ex-husband who informed her that he was just about to agree to some visitation of her kids but now, there is no way in hell she is seeing them again.

Luckily he seems to recognize that he is not very stable right now and he let me take Henry home with me in spite of it being a "Daddy Day". I will thank a higher power for small miracles. I can sleep tonight.

P.S. In case you don't read the comments - here is what my brilliant daughter said:

Whoa!

Here's how I see it, no matter how screwed up he is YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN BE MARRIED TO HIM. Therefore, you need not be married to his ideology, or lack thereof. You're sorry he has relationship problems, sorrier for yourself that he came to you with them, but you don't owe him the right to use you as a springboard for his emotions. Not for free at least, that's what shrinks are for.

You once loved him, and in a way you always will, but DIFFERENTLY. You love him because he's fathering your child, not tending to YOUR heart. Your snot and tear wiping partnership ended when the marriage did. It's up to the adults now to navigate a healthy path for Henry.

Having said that...we know he's not much of an adult. So as usual, the burden falls he heavily upon you. But you're no stranger to that and, in fact, burn brighter when someone tries to throw water on you.

Keep burning Demi!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Doing the best I can to channel Demi Moore!

Sunday, August 13, 2006
Doing the best I can to channel Demi Moore!

Apparently my ex, Henry's Dad has fallen in love with a girl who is an alchoholic/drug addict (recovering?).

Saturday he called me numerous times asking me to come over right away When I got there, my normally well-groomed ex husband was standing in his driveway legless, greasy and unshaven and quaking. He scared the shit out of me because I thought someone had died or something had happened to Henry. He was nearly having a breakdown. He got in my car and was WAILING, snot and tears streaming down his face, hysterical (for 45 minutes) that she had left him, screaming that he loves her and he was not gonna be able to survive without her. He was crying so hard he almost couldn't talk. The story flushed out that he had fallen for a girl 9 months ago who had a lot of "problems" including losing custody and visitation of her 3 kids her job and her car and had no place other than a couch at a friends to sleep. Frank took her in and helped her go to school to learn massage therapy. He picked her up and dropped her off and took care of her, and was apparently happy to have someone to come home to. He said that she had changed him and that he had become a better person and that he loved her gentle, spiritual side (he is an atheist) and could not go on with out her.

"Frank the Butcher" nicknamed partly because he has a reputation as a cold, mostly emotionless man. A product of a crappy childhood in which his mother left him at a tender age.

Long story short, SHE (previously referred to as Meth-faced in earlier blogs) had been sober for a year but has apparently and suddenly fallen off-the-wagon, left him and gone to be with an old (drinking and drugging) boyfriend in Arizona. HE was absolutely beside himself. He hasn't eaten or slept for 4 days. He is such a mess as I have NEVER seen. Channeling my best Demi Moore (because she and Bruce Willis get along so well for the sake of the kids) I tried my best to comfort him and reasure him while also telling him to get himself to Al-Anon ASAP. I am pretty sure she will be back and I want him to be prepared for the inevitable roller coaster and MOST OF ALL NOT involve Henry in it. I feel weird (and really hurt) that I am the one he came to tell about how hopelessly besotten he is with HER. I want to RIP on her right now but in the interest of my Karma my lips are semi-sealed.

I have met her a few times and did not like her from the start... but I tried VERY hard to be polite and decent to her. I am doing the best to channel Demi while also being protective of my son and my feelings. I am not liking this right now. I think I need to channel the Dali Lama.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Friday's Child just turned the big 3-0!

My Friday's child IS loving and giving and she just turned 30! My one and only daughter. Born in 1976 - the bicentennial year, when I was barely on the edge of being able to sign a legally binding contract. 18 was a pivotal year for me. I had a tiny, beautiful, Leo daughter on a Friday in a military hospital in Lawton, Oklahoma. None of my family was there (whine, whine - not!) as they did not approve of my tender maternal age. I wouldn't sucumb to family pressure to put her up for adoption and they made sure I felt a little extra sting for my choice. What no one planned on (except me of course, I knew she would be perfect) was jamie becoming the prized child (and grandchild) in the family. She is the one who grew up and did every single thing right. She is Rory and I am Lorelai. We are almost the Gilmore girls. She is amazing and now she is 30.

My 30th brought me some incredible gifts that I will blog about later. To keep you (hopefully) coming back for more, I will start a little drip campaign beginning with the fact that I was adopted and finally found my biological family at 30. But there is much to tell before that.

Anyway, my amazing daughter has a great husband, a beautiful daughter of her own and a handsome son - yep, twins. One of each. Perfect again! And a butt that could stop a 747 according to her husband. We saw the play "Wicked" for her Birthday.

I want to say Happy Birthday jamie. (She spells it with a lower case j, lest you think it is a typo twice.) There are 3,789,800 Americans turning the big 3-0 this year but you are the strongest, most honest, loving, incredible one of them all, and a great mother in spite of your young role model. I want you to know that you make me proud. You have a heart, brains and courage. (and a wicked butt or did I already mention that?)

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Thursday's Child has far to go.

In popular culture, there is a little rhyme that says:
Monday's child is fair of face;
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe;
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving;
and so on....

My M, T, W Thursdays and F for the past 30 years have been filled with working at least one and sometimes 2 jobs, going to school finally getting my degree the same year my daughter did, raising my 4 kids by myself and trying to keep my head above water. My last 3 years, my Thursdays have been filled with one precious day a week of sleeping in past 6:30, having a proper cup of coffee instead of that office crap they call coffee, reading the paper and hanging out with my very lovely young son even if it just means having a real breakfast instead of a Balance bar in the car. During the school year it gives me time to help out in Henry's class and keep up with what is going on with him. I try to do my errands, get my haircut, go to the dentist, clean, do laundry and grocery shop. Much as I hate all the later, it never seems that bad because I am doing it while everyone else is hunched over their computers and phones and spreadsheets. Then in the evenings Henry goes to Dad's. Every Thursday night. And I get to top off my night with a good book, bubble baths, facials and glasses of wine if I want to. I feel like I have earned this guilty pleasure and I have even taken the pay cut and tightened my belt accordingly. Today I was informed that I am about to lose my Thursday's off. Someone in my department quit and we have a hiring freeze and I have to come back to work on Thursday or RESIGN. After 9 years with this company. A company that employs over 153,000. A company that just announced they are going to open a technology facility in India. Today, this Thursday, I am grieving. I am going to have 3 glasses of wine instead of 2. I am going to try to gracefully embrace my new fucking work week. But THIS Thursday I have far to go!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

On religious FREEDOM at any age

I was raised in a militantly Catholic family who NEVER missed a Sunday or Holy Day for all of my years living at home. EVER. We even found a church to go to when we were on vacation. I always thought that was especially awful - because what I prayed for was that vacation meant vacation from CHURCH too. I also went to an all-girl Catholic school my whole life, getting kicked out when I told a priest that if I wanted to talk to God, I surely didn't need him to do it for me. (Well.... that and I was pregnant) Anyway, my Mother was very religious, and it struck me as ironic even as a little kid that we would go to church, then get the crap beat out of us, usually later the same day while being called god-damned shit faces on every downstroke. I digress. But I did mostly stop going to church at 18.

Last night I had a dream that Henry snuck off to a Catholic School without telling me and I didn't find out until he was about to graduate. His graduation finery was 3 hand drawn crayon crosses on a piece of paper, taped to the front of his t-shirt .... and I was mostly mad that I had forgotten my camera.

Tonight we are laying in bed eating Otter pops and watching The Simpson's. In this episode teaching evolution was banned in Springfield schools, after Flanders visited a museum evolution exhibit and pushed Mayor Quimby to outlaw Darwinism. After holding secret evolution classes, Lisa is arrested and retains a lawyer to help defend her beliefs in front of a judge. While Flanders is on the stand in court, Marge gave Homer a beer in the courtroom, and when he couldn't open it he began acting like an ape. The judge was swayed to believe that Homer in fact could have descended from an ape, case closed. Nelson called Flanders a "God-wad. Brilliant.

After it was over, Henry sat quietly contemplating for a moment or two and then said "Mummy, I think there IS a God and I think he is good. Can I start going to church with Laura"? I might have been silent a moment too long, pondering this religious freedom thing because he finally said "They have donuts there." "Coffee too?" I asked. "Probably!" Ahhh sold.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

HEY stop doing this shit...

Bombs are exploding and innocents are dying and Bush vetoed his first piece of legislation – a stem cell research bill that could lead to treatments that save millions of lives and improve the quality-of-life for millions saying, ''This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others''

“Were I to invoke logic, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
Spock Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Friday, July 14, 2006

Precious Former Chiclets®


I still have every single little tooth the kids have ever lost and I admit this is probably gross - unless you are a Mum, in which case you probably understand that sentimentality occasionally overrides sanity. I wouldn't click to zoom the picture, these are not the sweet little Chiclets® (little square shaped white gum candies) they once were.

Inspired by Cheri's tale of Laura's first tooth loss - River Deep, Mountain High I share this:

I too remember the days of tending forty little baby teeth and watching all the permanent teeth grow in - straight thank gawd. The paying for and schlepping to, all the dental appointments x 3 kids. 120 baby teeth, coming and going. I have paid for each of them in some way or another so I figure I own them. Right? Some were lost at the bottom of pools or in accidents at summer camp, but most of them are here, in a red velvet-lined mahogany box... a mini-monument to what it was like to take care of three sets of Chiclets® and representative of the weird - some may say disgusting sentimentality a Mum has anyway. And now embarrassing blog material.

Do I think the kids will one day ask for them???

Chaaaa. They laugh at me for the stuff I save.

Oh yeah? Someday they may WANT these teeth. They just don't know it yet.

Anyway, one of my son's lost a tooth (18 years ago) and to test whether the Tooth Fairy REALLY existed (oh he of little faith) he slipped it under his pillow after I went to bed - not letting me know ...on purpose.

He put it in a little envelope (that I also still have) and wrote in his best 6 1/2 year old hand writing, "Tooth Fairy IF you are REAL, please leave me $5.00." LUCKILY I went to look at him in the middle of the night - one of those things I used to do when they were little and finally, peacefully SLEEPING - and I slipped my hand under his pillow to give him a midnight hug - thankfully discovering his TEST.

He found his $5.00 in the morning and all faith was restored!

A later college conversation...

A: Hey Mum, I REALLY need those little teeth that you have been saving for 20 years.
M: OK, Anthony. I am sure glad I saved them for you. Should I Fed Ex them?

Yeah right.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Waiting to be discovered for all his life....

Wednesday night Henry and I ran across the new Simon Cowell show, America has Talent. The show features a colorful array of hopeful future "stars" from across the country as they compete for a one million dollar cash prize. The greatest and oddest characters strut and perform in front of the judges who can send them to the next round or give them the big red flourecent X, Gong Show style.

One guy balanced a stove on his face, another one balanced a bowling ball on his head while it was on fire and had knives sticking out of it. But first he dropped a scorpion down his pants. You get the picture.

We landed on the channel just in time to watch Leonid the Magnificent balance and then drop his swords, get Xed and slink off stage with his lovely wings between his legs. He had been waiting for this moment for all of his life. And I am not making fun of him. He was beautiful and he cried. I am a sucker for a beautiful man crying. I am so glad they gave him another chance!

While I was riveted to this spectacle, Henry ran into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water and a towel (we have new hardwood floors, bless his heart) and sauntered back into the living room saying. Hey Mummy, look. I have talent too. Watch me while I gargle "Happy Birthday... No, no wait...even better... watch me while I gargle the song You're a Grand Old Flag." Which he did, water spilling out of his mouth and running down his neck. Nice of him to catch the torrents with his towel. Gawd bless America 2 times. Sugie would be so proud!