Category: Uncategorized

I wrote for 80 minutes this morning. I got through 70 minutes of cleaning house. Since I’ve been exhausted, sleep-deprived, and just plain not home all week, 70 minutes didn’t get me very far: unloading and loading the dishwasher, most of the laundry, putting accumulated crap away. That kind of thing.

So I’m looking at a home that still looks filthy to me–a layer of dust on the furniture, grime on the counters, and cat litter on the floor. (How does it end up absolutely everywhere? But I guess that’s what happens when your cat has kidney failure and uses the box 4-5 times per day…)

At least I have clean dishes to eat off of, and clean clothes to wear come Monday. Meanwhile, to catch you up (if you haven’t been following up), I endured two and half hours of the activities that still distress me more than anything.

In light of my post the other day – Do I sound like that? Really? – I have to say I did good this morning. One of my daughters has been pushing my buttons as of late. I know, she knows she is doing it too, which of course pushes my buttons…. sigh. What the reasoning behind it is, I have no idea. Why she would want to push me at every turn is beyond me. You know the old adage “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar” well she is testing out the vinegar. (why do we want to catch flies? I certainly know that I don’t – flies are gross and annoying…) What was my point here? OK let’s get back on track. She wants to have her cake and eat it too. (OK there’s another one… hhmmmm maybe I will have to do a post pondering…

So I’m sitting here, post panic attack, snacking on a big bag of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  This isn’t something I normally do on a Tuesday afternoon,  but since I’ve spent the past couple hours frantically seeking and finding cancerous lumps to attach my run away anxiety to, I need a good comforting distraction.  And nothing says comforting distraction like eating crispy, sugary nutrition-less kid’s cereal straight out of the bag, without milk.

I’ve been, I don’t quite know how to describe it, humbled I suppose, by some of the blogs I’ve been reading lately.  People talking openly, insightfully, humanly, about the things that have messed them up and how they’re making their way through them.   It takes a great deal of courage to stand  symbolically naked, telling your story.  I know that, because I don’t do it very often.  But when I chance upon someone brave enough to tell theirs and who braver still, is trying to make life better in spite of…

I have a seven year old boxer named Frodo.  Boxers are awesome family dogs; smart, friendly, goofy and for the most part, non aggressive.  Frodo anyways. He’s the kind of dog who will happily welcome in a burglar for tea then invite him to dinner.  But Frodo has two pet peeves, mailmen and moving vehicles – both of which he loves to hate.  There’s little that has the power to distract him from the chase of either.  Not obedience school, not his age, not reward, not the local animal control lady.

The local animal control lady showed up last summer after Frodo got hold of the paperboy’s pant leg.  She’d visited once before with probation papers so I cringed upon seeing her official looking truck pull into the cul-de-sac again.    Frodo, of course greeted her like his long-lost sister which I wasn’t sure whether aided or impeded his case.   But despite her official business, the animal control lady was more of a dog defense attorney than dog prosecutor and explained to me…

Woke up feeling kind of hung over this morning, though I didn’t even enjoy any drinks last night.  Along with this new, improved internal heating system and hair that magically streaks itself, that’s another new thing about 50 – drink free hangovers.  Who’d have thought 50 came with so much new and free awesome-ness?

Years ago, my then 70-year-old mother in law enthusiastically told me, ‘my 30’s and 40’s, they were okay.  but let me tell you,  my 50’s, 60’s and 70’s – now that’s really living’.  I looked at her greying hair and softening body from my 30 something perspective and was to be honest, a little grossed out and afraid.  Those years came with visions of polyester leisure suits, support hose,  musty perfume,  and  50 shades of bitterness.

Aging isn’t something many of us accept easily.  Entire industries are built on our inability to let go of the us we were at 20.  And there are few examples of how to grow older well, and god…

back in 1929, hungarian author frigyes karinthy penned his short story ‘chain links’.  chain links isn’t a story i’m  very familiar with but i’m certainly familiar with the theory proposed in it, ‘6 degrees of separation’.    perhaps you are also.

in a nutshell, 6 degrees of separation proposes that any two people in the world can be connected through the relationships of 6 other people.  it’s basically a formula for figuring out the distance of social networks.

though it circulated as an urban myth for almost a quarter century, in the 60’s it  gained credibility through research at MIT  and harvard then later was popularized by psychology today.  in 2007,  microsoft finally  provided proof of its validity in analyzing 39 billion instant messenger conversations, confirming the path distance between any two people to be 6.6 degrees.

that may or may not be entirely accurate if you’re trying to connect yourself to some unknown rainforest tribe.  but if you ask me, it’s a pretty amazing discovery originally founded…

From Dad… One day I’ll make you proud…

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‘Today You are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.’   Dr. Suess

In all cultures and in all time periods there are/were good honest people (men and women) who care/d about other people and there are/were nasty ones. Societies with a high level of misogyny usually also have a very high level of misandry, gender-based prejudices and violence. That’s why we need to be very careful in the way we address such issues and write about them to make sure that good, honest, caring men and women don’t get insulted or upset; that traditions that protect people in a certain environment do not get broken by notions, evolved in a totally different environment.

Unfortunately there is a lot of violence in some places on this planet where streets are not safe for either women or men.  Unfortunately, police in some places is totally useless and justice system is totally dysfunctional – and it might be outside of our control to get that changed…