Old lover. Google. Wow.

Last night, I Googled a man that I hadn't seen or spoken to in 30 years. A man that I remember once loving - so much that though he wouldn't believe this, he has been indelibly etched in my consciousness since the last day I saw him. In 1979. I still have one old photo of us together and after all these years I knew right where to find it too. Third footlocker to the left, under the Christmas decorations and old paint cans. I found it in 30 seconds.

A look at that photo brought back to memory a beautiful, soulful brilliant, BRILLIANT, older man whom I was so smitten with, I could hardly speak in his presence. I remember lying in his bed, behind french doors with billowy curtains and a handwritten sign that said: Impasse. I talked a good hello but she talked an even better goodbye, while he read beat poet Richard Brautigan books and kissed me and stroked my hair and totally got under my skin. He was so cool. And I recall he broke it off with me, because I got too old for him at the ancient age of 21.

By his recollection I was a skinny, neurotic, emotionally unavailable and real emotional girl whom he slept with a few times and who maybe typed a few letters in his office now and then. He did remember reading poetry books but he also remembered me as the girl who wouldn't go to Ohio for the holidays to meet his family and the girl who didn't appreciate the gorgeous expensive dresses he thoughtfully picked out 'specially for me. And he recalls that I was mean to him and broke it off, and maybe even hurt him a little.

How do I know this is what he recalls?

Because true to my investigative nature, I Googled him, found him, chucked all caution to the wind, picked up the phone at 9:30 PM (after midnight his time) and called Poling Music in Nashville TN.

I was just trying to see if I could find his voicemail, listen to his voice and see if it really was him. I thought I was calling his office but he answered! When he picked up live, all I could say (remember, I could hardly speak in his presence) was "Oh my gawd... Tom Poling! Oh my gawd, do you remember me? Oh my gawd..." I can't remember what else I said in those first few minutes, but I will tell you that we talked for 4 hours, maybe more and he told me stories and read poetry to me over the phone. Richard Brautigan, Rumi and Tom Poling, m.d. originals. My heart soared, I thanked him for making me really happy.

And he thanked me for calling him, and told me that somehow with my middle of the night phone call, I had snuck into his basement in Nashville TN. and relit his pilot light.

DO NOT SLEEP

...until you have listened to this young man Derrick Ashong. Please listen to both of these videos (first one first). I think the interviewer in the first link thought he was going to get a different kind of response from this young man. Was he ever surprised.


This made me weep.

Wordless Wednesday - posted on Thursday for the following reasons:

I am having the whole house painted and I couldn't find my computer.

Adventures in Taiwan or Why I Cherish My Blog Header Picture.

In 2002 when Henry's Grandmother died in England, his Dad took him away to the funeral and didn't "allow" me to go. We were separated at the time and I was just not included. I was really sad and could not stand staying uselessly home alone so I hastily planned a trip. My 1st ever to an Asian country. Actually I didn't plan. I bought a ticket. Packed in 20 minutes. Forgot my glasses (1 hour eyeglass places are cheap in Taipei). Didn't have time to get NT. (Taiwanese money) Didn't call my bank to let them know I was leaving the country and subsequently got cut off from all cash AND credit and had to panhandle while abroad. (A tale for another blog.) I had no idea what I was getting into food, language or culture-wise. But I AM a true wanderlust so I just got on the plane and went.

I landed in the People's Republic of China and the first thing I saw after exiting the huge metal can I had been flying in for 15 hours, was a sign that said: Drug trafficking is punishable by death in the R.O.C.

Luckily, I didn't even have so much as a sleeping pill on me (I forgot those too.)

After successfully clearing customs, I tried to hail a taxi to take me to the hotel I had hastily booked online. (There's that word again) The address, 70 Yong Kang Street, seemed simple enough, only I didn't know that no one in Taiwan speaks English and they don't understand Western letter characters. Do you see any anywhere?

I ended up finding the right bus bus to town (about an hour away) and finding my "place." I needed a bath, a bed and breakfast in that order.

Everything in Taiwan is crowded. Floor space is measured in "pings" there which is roughly the size of two tatami mats, or 3.5 square meters. The room was a super small 10 pings, and 8 flights of stairs up. It was about 110 degrees there with no air conditioning. The bathroom was a little room with a shower head sticking out of the wall, a sink and toilet but no tub enclosure or shower curtain. You just showered in the room and everything got wet. I hastily showered and went to bed.

Wide awake at 5:00AM the next morning (it's tomorrow there today) I decided to take a walk down the street and look for food I could actually EAT and maybe a real cup of java. I had no idea that the food in Taiwan consisted of stuff that we Americans would NOT want to put in our trash, let alone our mouths. Anyone for some nice juicy chicken testicles with a swig of cobra blood to wash it down?
Or how 'bout a freshly beheaded chicken. White or dark meat? (Skin sold separately)




I came upon a 7 Eleven, but nothing looked familiar inside. I bought a carton of something that looked like iced green tea (give me caffeine please) and took it outside in the already sweltering morning. As I was walking and drinking my "tea" I realized I was getting a buzz, and not the caffeine kind.

Anyway, I know my limitations few as they are. I was definitely in a world I had not anticipated or prepared for, yet I found myself here and needed to make the best of it.

I found a good cup of tea here. Well actually the tea tasted like an ashtray but it was better than anything I had discovered so far. They also had good cold noodles that tasted like peanut butter. I probably walked about 2 miles before I saw... a COFFEE SHOP! WITH WESTERN COFFEE! And a menu WITH PICTURES that I could point to. Hurray.

Walking to that coffee shop every morning, for the 7 days I was there, became my morning ritual. So did slowing down a bit and planning future trips better.

I have been back to Taiwan twice more since then. And I have learned to LOVE the food and culture a lot. But I made sure to go to my Chinese Barista each time.

There are Starbucks on every other corner now but I still love my coffee shop the best.

It was 4 stories tall so I took my camera and my coffee to the top floor and set it up on the timer to capture the moment. THAT cup of coffee WAS good to the last drop.

And 6 years later it's the header of my blog.

How creative are you?

67%

This is a little embarassing since I depend on creativity for a living. Oh and my 8 year old son is 3% more creative than me. Hello new partner in PMW! Design.

Wordless Wednesday

Gran and the Airbag

A lady was video taping her son riding a skateboard when her attention switched to an old woman trying to cross the street. You might need to watch it twice to get the full effect on the driver. If you turn the volume up, you can hear the photographer giggling as she records the event.
Go granny go!....

Sharktank Redemption

Red: [narrating] "These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized."

"Forty years I been asking permission to piss. I can't squeeze a drop without say-so."

-Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding

I watched Shawshank Redemption for the 16th time the other night and it made me quite sad to think about the many days I have spent behind a desk, in a cubicle, working for someone else. I have spent about 31 years x 50 weeks a year x 40 hours a week in a cardboard box, behind a desk that didn't belong to me. 31 years doing my best most vibrant work for some f#ck-stick big corporation that just thanklessly swallowed me up and asked for more.

62,000 hours of my life that I didn't spend with my kids or friends or traveling, reading, dancing or doing things that I really wanted to do.

Now I have my own business and I shuffle to my computer every morning and sit down in front of it and create stuff. Yet I don't seem to be able to give myself permission to go grocery shopping, take a bath, go to the gym, walk the dog around the block or squeeze a drop during "normal working hours."

That’s institutionalized, isn't it?

Guess I better shake that cubicle mindset and get busy living... or get busy faxing.

Just Say No.

I wonder why when a man says no, that is the end of the conversation but when a woman says no, it is the beginning of a negotiation?

Little Temple of Heaven...

<<< Henry and I in China in front of the Temple of Heaven.

Henry and I were recently looking through a photo album of our trip to China and fondly remembering our visit to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It took 14 years to build this temple and it has been rebuilt, moved and reconstructed many times. This temple served as the place where the emperor, as the 'Son of Heaven', directly beseeched Heaven to provide a bountiful harvest throughout the land.

Last night we built our own little Temple of Heaven. It is a 301 piece 3-D wooden puzzle that took us about 3 hours to number and build on the dining room table. This puzzle will now (just like the original) need to be moved and reconstructed by my little 'Son of Heaven' in order for us to have a bountiful harvest and room to eat by dinner-time.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

Check out: Henry's thing-ama-jig.
Inspired by his sister's new blog, Henry set up his own blog all by himself and added posts, pictures and a SLIDESHOW with zero help from me. I don't even know how to add slideshows and music. Now I will have to star wearing My son is blogging this t-shirts instead of the other way around.

While we are on the subject of killer theater (below) and oppressed teenagers...

Henry and I are going to see THIS on Friday night!!!

I HEART TED NEELY FOREVER!!!!

I was raised in a VERY strict Catholic home that did not allow rock music, bell bottom blue jeans or gawd forbid bikini underwear among other things. As teenagers do, I always managed to find ways of getting around these oppressive "rules." I would hide my jeans in the garage, wear my bikini's under my big girl underwear and listen to rock opera under the guise that it was "all about Jesus, mom. How can that be bad?"

In 1973 the movie Jesus Christ Superstar came out and I got to go with a girlfriend, unaccompanied by a parent. A rare treat for me. My mother clearly had not heard the music or lyrics and would never have let me go if she had seen King Herod's song. She was just pleased that I was interested in a musical about the Crucifiction of Jesus Christ.

At this movie/musical I fell madly in LOVE, LOVE with Ted Neely who plays Jesus in the movie. He is burned in my brain and my heart forever. Seriously!

Yesterday Henry and I went to see the live version of JCSS at the Civic theater and TED NEELY is still playing Jesus all these 35 long years later. I have to say the performance is as powerful as I remembered and if you don't believe me... watch these. I urge you to watch them until the very end. That's when they give me the chills.

Jesus has a little arm flab these days, but he still blows my mind. What a killer performance! (no pun intended.)


1973 movie version


2008 live stage version


Oh and this one is for you MOM!

Don't even bother....

looking here anymore. I am done blogging for a while. I apologize to my 3 loyal readers.

Please DO look here though, and follow the story of George in Confessions of a Corporate Groveler...One Mans Guide To Navigating the Corporate World.

And please pass it on if you find it interesting.

Henry's Recipe for the Perfect Christmas

Ingredients:

• Ornaments
• Decorations
  
• Presents
• Family
• Fun
• Happiness
• Grateful
• Memories
  

Directions:

1. First mix the happiness with the family.
2. Second mix presents with the ornaments
3. Third mix the fun with the grateful
4. Bake everything in a cupcake pan
5. Cook it at 6 1/2 degrees
6. Take it out of the oven
7. That is how you make Christmas into a wonderful day!

Love, Henry

12 Days of Christmas! I love this.

Thanks for the link Wendy.

Separated at birth? I ask you.

Actress Helen Hunt and Georgia Head Coach, Mark Richt

Big Brother winner Chantelle Houghton and Paris Hilton

Jar Jar Binks and South Carolina quarterback Blake Mitchell

Evangeline Lilly and Jessica Biel

The Apple iPhone, and the LG KE850

This guy and me

134 facts I didn't check.

1- Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

2- Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

3- There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

4- The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

5- A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
6- There are more chickens than people in the world.

7- The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

8- On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag. (I guess that's why we use 2 dollar coins now)

9- All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

10- No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

11- "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

12- Almonds are a member of the peach family.

13- There are only 4 words in the English language which end in "dous":tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

14- A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

15- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

16- Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

17- In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

18- Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

19- The characters Bert & Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."

20- A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

21- A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds.

22- It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

23- The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

24- In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

25- The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

26- The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

27- There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

28- The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

29- A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

30- A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.

31- Elvis had a twin brother named Aaron, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron: in honor of his brother. It is also misspelled on his tomb stone.

32- Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

33- More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

34- Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

35- Shakespeare invented the words "assassination" and "bump."

36- Marilyn Monroe had 6 toes on one foot.

37- If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.

38- Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

39- Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.

40- The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.

41- The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start.

42- TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.

43- The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

44- A snail can sleep for 3 years.

45- American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

46- The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

47- Vatican City is the smallest country in the world with a population of 1,000 and a size of 108.7 acres.

48- "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

49- No president of the United states was an only child.

50- The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.

51- A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

52- Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks

or it will digest itself. YUCK!

53- The dot over the letter " i " is called a tittle.

54- A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

55- A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

56- A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

57. A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2 by 3-1/2.

58. During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur", a small red car can be seen in the distance.

59. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily!

60. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

61. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

62. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

63. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and silver.

64. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan". There was never a recorded Wendy before.

65. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

66. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

Who was the sadist who discovered this??

67. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w the film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the normal.....today.

68. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".

69. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

70. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

71. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

72. Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.

73. By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand. GOOD FACT TO REMEMBER?? Maybe next time...

74. Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

75. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

76. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

77. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said "Elementary, my dear Watson".

78. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.

79. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.

80. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

81. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go out into space because passing wind in spacesuits damages them. Not to mention the other drawback to farting in such a confined space....

82. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!!

83. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

84. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

85. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.

86. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.

87. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.

88. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

89. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.

90. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

91. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.

92. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.

93. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.

94. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

95. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

96. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

97. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.

98. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.

99. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

100. Marilyn Monroe had six toes.

101. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.

102. Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

103. Pearls melt in vinegar.

104. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

105. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

106. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.

107. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. Hey, that is in here twice....

108. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

109. Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." The second was William Jefferson Clinton.

110. Turtles can breathe through their butts. Heee heee thats Henry's favorite.

111. Butterflies taste with their feet.

112. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.

113. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.

114. On average people fear spiders more than death.

115. Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.

116. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

117. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116
or older.

118. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

119. It's physically impossible for you to lick your
elbow. (Coco can!)

120. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

121. A snail can sleep for three years.

122. No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH."

123. Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

124. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!!

125. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

126. All polar bears are left handed.

127. In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.

128. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

129. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

130. "Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.


131. If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

132. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

133. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

134. Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

135. Almost everyone who reads this email will try to lick their elbow.

Funny Quote of the Day

Art Quote of the Day

A Shameless Plug for Preserving Priceless Memories (with my help of course.)

After the recent wildfires and all the evacuations, it occurred to me that many people had to make some fast decisions about what they had room for, and time to grab, in an emergency. It is really sad that if you forget about something and your house is lost, so are those memories. Forever.

I know how this feels, because my first house burned down and I lost everything we had. All my furniture, clothes, pictures,all of my daughters macaroni art, my grandma's scarves. (At age 20 you haven't accumulated that much good stuff, but I remember long after the fire, going to look for something precious and sadly reminding myself, it was not there anymore and I was not going to get it back. (My daughter just reminded me that her fish "Marsh" and "Tooshie" met an untimely death by boiling in their aquarium - which I can not remedy.)

What I learned in that crisis is that things can be replaced by insurance; even collectibles can be replaced, and now-a-days family pictures can be backed up on computers. But heirlooms, once gone, can never be restored or replaced. I could never replace the finger paintings my kids made me for Mother's Day or the needlepoint pillow my Grandma made for my reading chair.

THIS (see below) isn't easy to grab in an emergency.
And it isn't even easy to enjoy or share when you want to.



























But these books are. Photo books are an amazing way to capture a treasure or remember an event (and they are perfect gifts as well.)

You CAN preserve your precious memories and treasures and I can help you do it.

Call or email me and I can make your boxes of "stuff", into books that can be enjoyed and that will be treasured and safe for a lifetime, or more.

100% unprompted kid advice on how to win the IronMan World Championship

Henry's teacher is competing in a World IronMan competition this week. She has won 2 World Championships already so she obviously knows what she is doing but Henry wanted to make her a card before she left to wish her good luck.

I absolutely swear, I had NOTHING to do with the content of this card but I sure think it's sweet. See pictures and translations below. I took these pictures on my iPhone because of course whenever I need my camera the battery is dead.

SWIM.
"Here's some advice SWIM as hard as you can and you just might beat everyone!"


















BIKE.
"Biking Advice: If everybody has a street bike, get a dirt bike."


















RUN.
"Running advice: Always keep your hands flat because the air goes past it so you can run faster



















HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOURSELF.
"Never give up no matter what it is, just DO NOT give up." Good Luck!


















AND A VISUAL 1st place cup with the words "Here take it!"

I sure hope she does! Go Molly!

Putting a Billion into perspective.

I am really cranky today. I just read this.

A billion seconds ago it was 1975. War in Vietnam, Watergate scandal, VHS and Betamax video, Margaret Thatcher becomes the British Prime Minister, Queen releases 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and the world's population breaks the four billion mark
A billion minutes ago was not long after Jesus was crucified
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age
A billion dollars ago was 17 hours, at the rate Washington spends taxpayers' money to kill people

The US Military budget for 2007 is $532.8bn. This excludes nuclear weapons research and production, and also exludes the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ($120bn for 2007). Who gets this money?

Are you prickly or goo?

Thank you so much Jamie, for turning me on to Alan Watts!!!!

Our Night at The San Diego Film Festival

Last night was the final festival showing before the release of The Pacific and Eddy, a movie written and directed by Matthew Nourse. The film, starred Ryan Donowho, Dominique Swain, Mark Gregg, Susan Highsmith, James Duval with cameo appearances by British rocker Nikki Sudden and yep... my Henry.

Here are some pictures from the festival last night. Henry was a little shy. An NBC affiliate approached him for an interview but ran and hid behind me. The Director asked him to join the Q and A after the movie, but he just wanted to watch from his seat. The packed theater cheered and chanted for him to go up but he hid under my wrap. Still, it was a fun night. We were on our way to the after-party at the W Hotel (at Henry's insistence) but he fell asleep in the car on the way there. Ahhh bless him. He was wiped out from his reluctant little moment in the spotlight, behind my dress.