Monthly Archives: March 2008

Mar 21 2008

Bill Clinton Photo with Jeremiah Wright

Okay, so call me a “typical white person.” I’m not one who usually gives a crap about politics, but I do loathe, despise, and abominate Barack Obama. Am I the only one who thinks this man is the Antichrist or what? His school yard antics of pushing the photo of his opponent’s husband shaking the hand of Jeremiah Wright is so childish. It’s like going home to Mommy and tattling on your brother for doing something you did as well. “No fair, Bill knows Jeremiah too.”

So here’s the photo in case you are one of those “typical white people” as Obama likes to call you who don’t pay attention to CNN, MSN, NBC, ABC, TODAY, and all those other news shows that have been airing the photo every ten minutes today…

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Um, yeah, so Clinton probably shook a thousand hands that day. It was at a prayer breakfast in ’98 in which he asked for prayers for sinning with Monica. Ahem! Jimmy Swaggert, anyone? “Forgiave mea, Lard, fer I have sinnned agaeisnt yoooou.”

But, seriously folks, it is true. Clinton shook a ton of hands that day. Does anyone else care about the other photos taken that day? Here he is with Charlie Manson…

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I don’t hear no crazies gettin’ all roweled up! Check out this next photo. Talk about crazies…

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Mel Gibson was there. Now that’s Passion! Look who else was hanging around…

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Bert would have come too but he knows how them Democrats feel about gays. Or is it the Republicans? Oh well….don’t ask…don’t tell.

And lastly…

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Yes, folks, Obama’s own white grandmother was there too! Now that’s newsworthy!!

Mar 18 2008

Inspiration

I’d be lying if I said our vacation didn’t inspire another idea for a book I want to write. But the trip inspired my painting, and obviously my photography interest, even more. I even bought a set of watercolor paints while visiting Sea Side, Florida. And so I’m torn between starting a new writing project or still working away on the old ones. In the meantime, I’ve been playing with my new paints and at least creating something.

Returning to work yesterday was quite stressful as expected. More people had to tell me how bad their week was with me gone than asking about my trip. But that’s okay. I don’t always like having to retell my adventures over and over again to multiple people. Half way through the day I slowed down and took a breather and refused to get stressed out over the amount of work that had piled up. It will all get done eventually and I’ll get caught up. No reason to put on the hard shell again that the vacation had already helped me to peel off.

Speaking of shells, we picked up lots of them. J gave a few to his coworkers. I put the rest in a glass vase for our bookshelf. I took lots of nice photos of shells too. Of the 1800 photos, I only got 300 of them developed. We put them into photo albums last night and they all turned out quite nice.

I’m getting rid of the “Cornfed” tab this weekend and turning it into a vacation tab to display more of my pics. Stay tuned!

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Mar 17 2008

I’m Back!

**YAWN**

Is it Monday already and time to go back to work?  …must…drink…coffee…

J and I returned from vacation at about 5:30pm on Saturday.  I took about 1800 pictures, some of which I will definitely share here.  I have to admit this was the nicest vacation I’ve ever taken, and the only “real” one we’ve ever taken since we’ve been together where we actually left the state.

I miss the sun and the sand already, and the 70 degree weather.  More about the trip later though.  It’s time to mentally prepare myself for going back to work this week.  COFFEE!

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Day 1: We drove for 11 and half hours to get to Dauphin Island, but made it just in time to watch the sun set across the water. Ahhhhhh…….

Mar 7 2008

One for the Road…

Well, this is going to be my last post for a whole week.  J and I are leaving at 6am in the morning for a 12 hour drive down South to the Gulf. In the 5 years we’ve been together, this is our first vacation out of state so we are looking forward to it.  We’ll be staying in Dauphin ,Alabama in a beach house with some of J’s family.  We are tentatively planning a road trip into New Orleans or over to Florida.  Who knows?  I’m planning on just spending some time on the beach with a book or my blank notebook.  Some drinking, some laughing, some good seafood…and hopefully that’s about it!  Have a good week all and we’ll catch up when I get back.  I’m sure I’ll have lots of stuff to write about then and lots of pics to post.

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Mar 7 2008

Sum You Up

I came across a very inspiring book today called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser.

Here’s what Publisher Weekly had to say about it:

Can you describe your life in six words? That’s what the editors of storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers in 2006; the results, though decidedly uneven, make for compulsive reading and prove arguably as insightful as any 300+ page biography. Taken as a whole, this cascade of quotes from contributors famous and unknown creates a dizzying snowball effect of perspectives and feelings. Highlights from professional writers and artists include journalist Chuck Klosterman wondering, “Nobody cared, then they did. Why?”; pop singer-songwriter Adam Schlesinger lamenting, “We still don’t hear a single”; and comic strip artist Keith Knight illustrating “I was a Michael Jackson impersonator.” At their best, these nano-memoirs evoke the same kind of rich emotional responses as a good story: 9 year old Hannah Davies considers herself “Cursed with cancer. Blessed by friends”; Zak Nelson says “I still make coffee for two”; Scott Birch claims “Most successful accomplishments based on spite.” Some entries read like bumper stickers (Rip Riley: “No wife. No kids. No problems”), and others are just plain weird (Amy Sedaris: “Mushrooms. Clowns. Wands. Five. Wig. Thatched”), but this compelling little book will have readers and their friends hunting for favorites and inventing six-word self-definitions of their own. This review in six words? Read. Enjoy. Pass it on. Repeat.

So, let’s hear it. Can you write your bio or sum up your life in six words? Here’s a few of my own…

1. Hey, I am not done yet.

2. This is my take on apathy.

3. When do I get paid again?

4. My reckless eyes are a mystery.

5. Waiting in the wings is tiresome.

6. Not the path I would’ve taken.

Mar 5 2008

Tales of the City

So, today I finished reading Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. Since the sixth book, Michael Tolliver Lives just came out last year I decided to read the whole series.  I love Maupin.  I love the short chapters.  And I love how he really conveys a story in so few words.  Literally, some chapters are just conversation between characters, but he gives you just a few small details to keep you on track, really all you need to know.  It’s nice fluffy beach reading for sure, and I plan to start reading the second book, More Tales of the City, next week at the Gulf.  Thanks to Book Mooch I was able to get four of the first five books for free.
Did I mention I signed up for Quality Paperback Books?  It’s like Columbia House for readers.  Six books, six bucks and you only have to buy two more at regular price within a year.  I only did it to get a dollar copy of Michael Tolliver Lives.  ;-)

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Mar 4 2008

Snow Day

Ahhh, the good ole days when you were forced to go home cause school was closing.  I made it to work just fine today because there was just some rain and sleet happening.  But by noon, you couldn’t even see outside because it was snowing so hard.  The cars in the parking lot were quickly buried.  I left 2 and half hours early.  It took an hour and a half to get home (just over 2 miles).  And here’s what I got home to…

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Mar 4 2008

More Watercooler Weather Talk

Thank Gaawd we don’t have water coolers at work.  But there is one person everyone tries to avoid during their morning trips to the lunchroom for coffee or a breakfast snack.  He’s always in there making oatmeal around that time.  Lucky for me, I’ve usually come and gone from warming my hot tea, but I have walked in and been given sad puppy dog eyes from some poor spirit he’s cornered.  “Help me,” they are saying on the inside.

He’s the guy that no one wants to talk to because they will never escape.  If you don’t speak to him first, he usually brings up some oddball topic just so he can speak to you.  Here’s an example of a conversation I had with him one Christmas.  I was sitting in the lunchroom on my lunch break and balancing my checkbook when he approached me.

“You writing out your Christmas cards there?”

“Nope, just paying some bills.”

“You know they don’t even think Jesus was born on Christmas.  Because of certain things mentioned in the Bible and things that were going on around that time concerning Joseph and Mary having to go back to their homeland and pay their taxes, they speculate Jesus was probably born in the springtime.”

Silence.

“I’m just paying my bills.”

He turns and walks away.

All this comes to mind because it’s snowing and sleeting here again today.  It started at about 4am and the roads are a mess.  Yes, we had 70 degree weather just two days ago!  But when I walk into work, everyone will pop up from their cubicles and want to know what it’s doing outside, even after they’ve just asked the last person who came in before me ten minutes ago.

About every other phone call will also ask what the weather is like where I am.  Then, they will feel the need to tell me it’s 80 degrees today in Hawaii where they are.  Or they’ve got snow in Chicago too.  The truth is I really don’t care.  I hate talking about the weather.  When did we, as humans, get so boring?  Tell me what you watched on TV last night or something.  Tell me about the book you are reading.  I don’t want minute play-by-play of frozen water fragments from the sky.  If I did, I’d have become a meteorologist.

Oh, and I have vacation in four days, so screw this weather!  I don’t really care.  Thanks to global warming, Spring will hopefully get here whenever it gets here.  If you want to talk about weather, let’s talk about that.  Let’s talk about trips to the lake, and cheaper energy bills, and swimming trunks, and backyard barbecues.  How bout that?!?

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