Bubble Vum...

Has anyone tried the new Three Olives Bubble Vodka?

That sounds pretty frigging good.

I must be feeling better but I'll still refrain from the cocktails until at least Friday, but more likely Saturday.

Oh, I will be drinking on Halloween. For Sure!

Gag Me With a Spoon...

Ok, so I've been sick. So sick. The hubby is gonna stop taking me out of town for the wild weekends if I keep getting ill after them.

I actually thought I might be coming down with a cold last Thursday & I chose to ignore it. I had planned on donating blood that day but decided against it. I'm so glad I did because about half the time I get sick after I donate blood & if I had gotten this sick I think I would have quit donating in the fall & winter forever! Now I know it was just me.

Anyway, I started feeling bad on Sunday night, then by Monday I really started feeling bad. Sore throat, stuffy nose, so much sneezing it was ridiculous. I always think spicy food helps so I called in an order of Green Curry Chicken & Spicy Tom Yum soup to my favorite Thai restaurant.

They told me it would be ready in 15 minutes so I showed up in 20. The soup was not ready so I stood to the side & quietly observed the kitchen while waiting. I was already sick & crabby & slightly annoyed that I still had to wait for my soup but whatever, I knew their food was delicious & would make my nose run & clear my head.

I watched the cook pull my soup off the burner, toss in the ingredients & take a taste. Then he poured more coconut milk into the spoon he just took a taste from & stirred it into the pot & placed it back onto the burner.

I'm not naive. I worked in a hotel where I sat in the employee kitchen area & watched the guys cook. Gross shit happens. But I do not want to see it.

I turned to the waiter/owner & quietly hissed at him that if that was my soup I did not want it & whispered to him why. I could have made much more of a scene but I did not. There were all kinds of customers eating in my vicinity. He said he was so sorry, the guy was new & they would make me a new one. That was gonna add about 10 more minutes to my wait & I was over it.

I asked for a refund for the soup, which apparently was a problem & he said he would give me a discount the next time I came in. Uh-huh, I said, just refund the soup. I didn't say it to him & I'm still not convinced myself, but I'm not sure if I'm going back. Their Green Curry is so frigging good & I know the ladies work on that so I probably will, though.

Anyway, that's my story. I haven't told anyone this because I love this little restaurant & I don't want to give them a bad reputation but damn...do not reuse spoons ~ especially when you have an open kitchen.

Have a great day & feel well!

Buzzed & Blogging...

Alas, but it is not to be. At least not a lot. The hubby just cut me off.

I mean, let's be serious, I could keep drinking if I wanted, but it's all about how much of a hassle do I really want to deal with.

He said two is enough. Little does he know, I had three :)

Have a wonderful night & talk to you soon!

Must Pack, Need Cocktail...

I am so lazy sometimes.

I'm so excited for a little weekend getaway with the hubby & I can't even bring myself to pack.

Instead I'm goofing off on the computer, doing a little bit of actual work, checking Facebook & Perez & now here I am blogging.

I should really pack but my mind's not right.

I have to be in the mood to pick out what I need to take. Otherwise I end up with a huge suitcase of stuff I don't want to wear.

I think I'll just continue doing my laundry & laying it on the guest bed, which I really need to deal with, by the way. Then when the mood does strike me, after a couple of Vodka Diet Tonics, I can make a pile of stuff to consider taking.

I have to outfits for night & outfits for during the day. The days are easy. Tank tops & capri cargo pants & a hoody.

I don't know what to wear at night. I want to wear my black flat boots because we'll be walking a lot. And something low cut cuz you gotta work what you got.

It will be fun. Don't know if I'll write again before Sunday.

Although I say that now & I'll probably be buzzed blogging later tonight.

Good afternoon, good evening & good night!

The Competitive Spirit...

My son is sooooo competitive. He's not even 5 years old & I hear all the time how he's smarter than me, he faster than me, he's stronger than me.

Today I told him there were many things I could do that he & his Daddy couldn't do: I told him I could take one look at either of their faces & know when they're lying & a lot of the time I can even tell exactly what they're thinking just by looking at them. He thinks his Daddy knows a lot more about everything than I do & I try not to squash that belief either.

Many times I've asked him to quit being so competitive with me but I have not been specific. I don't want to kill his competitive spirit.

I have, however, been specific on several occasions so he understands that competition is not always good.

He has a friend that's a few weeks older than he is but is quite a bit smaller than he is & he mentioned to me how he was bigger. I explained to him that was not a nice thing to say & that his friend would never tell him that he was older than my son is. My son is sensitive about the few weeks age difference & his friend is sensitive about the size difference.

My son was comparing the size of our house to my parents' house, saying ours' was bigger, & the hubby & I did not think that was appropriate either. We explained to him that the size of someones house does not matter & that is something we don't talk about.

He learned that lesson because my parents were bringing him home one day & my Mom said to him "what a beautiful house you have" as they were pulling into the driveway. My son said, "ssshhh, Grandma, we don't talk about that."

It's a competitive world. How do you keep them prepared but not obnoxiously competitive?

I am competitive to an extent. I don't care if I win, I just have to be satisfied with my results. If someone has more than me or does better, that's not enough to upset me, but if I'm not achieving what I think I am capable of compared to them, then I hunker down & get it handled. To me, it's not about winning, it's about being satisfied.

I'm sort of past competition. A few of my friends would tell you I'm competitive, but only about silly things. I'm happy for others' success as long as I'm having success, too, or their success is not interfering with mine. Like at work, if someone was selling in my territory, oh I'd come un-fricking-done.

How do you foster the competitive spirit in a child but not help it take over?

It's an interesting dilemma I struggle with myself. It's like a wild horse. You want to ride it cuz it gets you there fast & fun but you don't want it to get out of control.

Not my best simile, but you know what I mean.

Don't we all want our kids to be winners?

(That will be another blogspot about parents that don't want their kids doing better than they have. My parents always wanted, as do my hubby & I, more success for their children than they had.)

Feed Your Frenzy...

This has been percolating in my mind for years. The past couple of weeks have really brought it to the forefront. I'll bounce around, as I often do, but I hope you find it an interesting idea.

I saw a Saturday Night Live with Jon Stewart hosting years & years ago & it's close to Halloween so I'll not use an original example, but a relevant one:

So let's pretend you're a dude that likes to fuck pumpkins.

You like the squishy, slimy seeds & that is what gets you off & that's what you think about & that's what you fantasize about.

Well you probably think you're a pretty odd character & I would completely agree. You're a fucking freak & you should feel strange & odd because you are. If that's your thing then, whatever, it's not hurting anyone but it is bizarre.

But I bet, & I swear I haven't tried it, but I bet if I went to google right now & spent 10-15 minutes searching, I could find a whole community of freaks just like that dude that's into pumpkins. And if I could find them then so could he.

And he wouldn't feel alone & strange any longer because he'd find companionship. He'd find people that shared his interest & people to discuss which pumpkins felt the best & what time of year was the best time, etc.

He could feed his frenzy.

I love the Internet. How many people have I reconnected with? How many people have I met? Too many to count & I would not change any of it for anything but I honestly think it lends credence to things that are best kept private.

An anonymous on-line community sometimes leads to real life, real fucked up behavior.

My court case ~ how difficult would it have been for that back woods hillbilly to find kiddie porn without the Internet? He might have had an inkling that he was a pervert but he could have better kept a lid on it. He'd of had to stick to Barely Legal magazines & the like & the world would have been a better place.

I'm not saying things are wrong. I'm not saying they're right. I think the more freedoms we all have the better we are. But we have to control ourselves. And sometimes the Internet makes it too easy to feed your frenzy.

One of my favorite thoughts I've ever had. That & C.B.

Have a great night!

Facebook Breathalizer...

I had the funniest conversation with a friend this morning. She mentioned that she did a little hammered Facebooking last night & that she was feeling funny about it today.

I completely understand & have been there myself. I think there should be a breathalyzer attached to Facebook. Like have it set up next to your keyboard & if you blow too high you are locked out.

I'm not suggesting it be .08 like to drive a car, but there should be a standard. Depending on your alcohol tolerance, whether you're a regular drunk or just occasional, I believe it should be somewhere between .12 & .18. Beyond that .18, you're comments & conversations are just gonna cause you regrets.

I should have a breathalyzer for my keyboard period. I have no business drunk blogging but occasionally I do it. Thank goodness for spell check!

What do you think?

The Jury Is In...

So, the Jury came back. As I said, I was an Alternate so I did not participate in the end of the trial. The Clerk called me today & knew I wanted to know the verdicts. She said Guilty on one count & hung on the other three.

From my post yesterday, it probably seemed like a civil trial. It wasn't. It was two counts lewd & lascivious with a child under 14, showing child under 14 obscene material & possession &/or control of child pornography.

Mark Wayne Mosley was found guilty on the fourth count. I verify that. I saw many of the photos found on his computer.

The other counts were hung. As they should have been if he wasn't found not guilty for reasonable doubt.

This whole case was horrible. This family was horrible. These were the biggest bunch of dirt bags I have ever seen.

Mark was the step Grandfather to the young boy & the step father of his Mom & step father-in-law of his Dad. They all seem to have been in these relationships for 12 years, so they were long term. And Mark & Peggy obviously gave a lot of money & assistance to Eric & Mary & their kids.

And apparantly the house & property in Whitmore had belonged to Peggy & Mary's Dad, who had died, & there was a belief by Eric that if something happened to Peggy the house & property should go to Mary & himself rather than to Mark. That seemed to cloud everything in the entire situation.

I said yesterday that no one was completely innocent & no one was completely guilty. I actually should have said that the truth always seems to end up being between the stories told. It just depends on which side it's closer to help figure out what happened.

We had to listen to testimony from a 10 year old boy. I'm sure something inappropriate may have happened, but the story was so jumbled, so influenced by outside motives, so tainted that I couldn't believe it.

I know if I press my son to really tell me the truth, I had damn sure better know what the truth is because if I don't, his four year old mind can get confused & then neither of us is sure.

This kid would have been more believable if his Dad hadn't been on the stand before him. If his Dad hadn't gotten into an altercation with his common-law wife's Mom's common-law husband. Hadn't fired a gun at him while living in a camper trailer on the Mom's property. Hadn't been a prior felon & arrested & convicted because of that incident with the gun, ammunition & the cultivation & sale of marijuana. He was the king dirt bag.

I did feel terrible for this kid & his little sister. They have no chance.

But the kid may have started with the truth but after the two years time span, 8 months since they filed the charges & 2 years since they'd lived on the property when the events were said to have occurred, the story had gotten mixed up. It had even seriously changed since the first police interview.

This kid's family was on SSI, they never worked & they apparently did not make their kids go to school regularly based on all the SARB letters they received. But they did grow & sell pot & likely meth stemming from the Dad's conviction from 2001.

The prosecutor did a really good job making me try to look past the family & focus on the boy's bravery for testifying with Mark in the room. I had tears in my eyes when he was up there. But some of his story just sounded made up. And it's hard to know what to believe.

I'm glad I was an alternate. I would have been one of the hold-outs for Not Guilty. But Not Guilty does not mean Innocent. Because the adults in this case were not innocent. The 10 year old was innocent. But he was tainted.

By his Dad. By the venom between his parents & his "grandparents."

This family is fucked for life. How can it ever heal?

What I said about privacy is relevant to the pictures found on Mark's computer. There were photos of thumbnails blown up that Mark had looked at on his computer two years ago. He didn't click on most of them so they were just thumbnail pictures of websites he had visited. He had viewed some of them so there was no way to discount that but he hadn't downloaded them. He had looked at them.

They were found by a Detective that specialized in computer forensics. That part of the case was fascinating. All of the photos were seized just from what he had viewed. So he didn't really control the pornography in his possession because he couldn't get back to it unless he revisited those websites, but it was still on his computer. He had viewed it. He admitted it. He admitted he did it for sexual gratification. He's a sick s.o.b. I think he'll be in jail for a while, as he should be. I think kiddie porn charges will get your ass kicked in prison, too, which is as it should be. He's still getting less than he deserves but as much as could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

I'm rambling, I know, but I'm rattled.

Let me know what you think. It was very interesting & upsetting & I'm a little changed.

I am very protective of my son already, but I will be even more so in the future.

Have a good night. Thanks for reading.

Had A Weird Week...

How do you spell weird? Is "i" before "e" or not?

I had jury duty this week.

It kind of rocked my world. Can't talk about it yet, but I will.

Made me realize that you have to be careful. That the things that you do are not private.

I had already realized other things. One of my very good friends, & a reader of this blog, will agree with me...she knows what I mean...

Her mother-in-law has sued several places & people for injuries, imagined or otherwise.

Has collected $75k or more for the effort.

I've told my friend her mother-in-law cannot come to my home for fear she will fling herself down on my driveway & sue me ~ point taken. Point agreed.

I'll write more of it next week.

I'm not taking sides.

As an alternate, I have no official opinion.

But I believe none of us are totally guilty. And none of us are truly innocent.

Baby Makin' Weather...

This kind of weather makes me want another baby. It always does. This time of year makes me want another baby. This is when babies should be born, in my opinion. My birthday's coming up, my brother's, my Mom's, my Mother-In-Law's, my son's.

I think it's because I was pregnant this time 5 years ago & my baby shower was on October 16th. I was really in the full swing of baby mode.

I don't think I'm going to have any more. I know my husband does not want any more. Although, let's face it, it isn't really up to him, now is it?! :)

I surprised him with the first one, which he absolutely adores & would not change for even a single second. But I don't think I'll surprise him again.

It will pass. I love our life now. The boy is so much fun & so wonderful to travel with. He plays really well by himself & he's so much fun to play with. His Grandparents love taking him whenever we want to travel or have a date night so...

Why rock the boat?

Because I loved being pregnant. I loved having a baby. I love seeing our child grow to represent the best & sometimes the worst in both of us.

But alas, one is enough. For the hubby anyway. For me, too, probably. I'm not sure how I would do with two. I feel like my hands are full enough right now & I still have plenty of time to keep them idle. What do they say about idle hands? Oh yes, they blog.

Time to schedule his procedure. Oh wait, I told him to handle it. That part is up to him so it probably won't happen. We'll see...

Monkey Write, Monkey Do...

I have to post a comment I made on Conquer the Monkey. The Monkey & I recognize that we have different readers so she doesn't mind when I copy her topics. I can't believe I haven't written about this one before!

She mentioned friendship break-ups ~ a topic I have endured personally many times. Happily one such break-up ended in reunification & the friendship is better than before. It's different, but the same. It's fantastic. We only needed 10 years to grow separately so we could grow back together.

My Monkey comment is below:

"I think with some friends you only have a certain time allotment with them & it just gets used up. Maybe you spend every waking moment with that person for 6 months & that's all the time that friendship was allowed.

I'm being glib but it is an interesting subject. I find that if a friend makes me feel bad again & again then eventually I have to conclude that there's something the matter with them, or that we don't bring out good things in each other & I gotta bounce.

These break-ups are sometimes more difficult than other break-ups because it's not always like a bandaid. You end it slow instead of just ripping it off & it's over. Can't wait to read what you write!"

Anyway, I liked the potential topic & my comment can count as a blog post. I use the time allotment reference quite seriously.

I lived with a friend in San Diego for 4 1/2 months. We were friends when we moved in together & by the end we were not. We didn't really have a falling out or anything & it didn't end badly. When we were moving out we just sort of nodded at each other & almost tipped our hats politely at each other & that was it. Finito. Best break-up I ever had.

We just used up our time allotment. No big deal.

Oh, & also, she suffered from C.B. It was a rather serious case.

She would become totally jealous if a mutual friend of ours called & wanted to talk to me instead of her, which always happened. And she would page her boyfriend & if he didn't call her back in 5 minutes she would page him 911 again & again. I don't think their break-up was quite as quick & clean.

In case you wondering, C.B. is a term I made up.

She suffers from Crazy Bitch.

Use it in a conversation to describe someone & it's the funniest thing ever. Nod your head, lower your voice & say "She suffers from C.B."

Only use it when absolutely appropriate though! Like, I don't know maybe for an example, umm let's see, perhaps if you're talking about your brother's ex-girlfriend/baby's mama.

Evolution of Beauty...

I think this video speaks for itself. It's from Dove. I'm so pleased I already use their Deoderant because I am loving their new campaign!

http://www.dove.us/?dl=/features/videos/default.aspx%7Ccp-documentid=7049579%7Cvideo-id=1&source=shareBlogger

Up, Over & Out...

Sometimes I have so many ideas in my head that I need to get down here that I jump all over the place. It's the way I work. Hell, it's the way I think.

Secretia's comment made me think of something which led to a great many other thoughts. I'll share.

Some people always seem old & some people always seem young.

Like my Great Aunt. I called my Mom tonight & asked her how old my Great Aunt was when I was born & she said she was about 48. So basically by the time I really start remembering her & putting characteristics to her she was almost 60. She's 86 now.

She has always seemed old to me. Whenever you ask how she's doing she kind of holds her back & groans "oh, I'm okay" or "as good as can be expected." That's what she's always said.

This is good in one respect because she's 86 & she seems exactly the same to me as she has for the past 20 years. This is bad because she has seemed like she was 86 for the last 20 years.

I asked my Mom if my Aunt had always been "crotchety." My Mom said oh you never saw her crotchety. She was always soft & kind with you. Now I don't know what my Mom thought I meant by the word, but I meant old & grumpy & crotchety. I think my Mom took the crotch word to infer something else.

I have always heard stories of this Aunt & her legendary fierceness & anger. She caught her husband in bed with her best friend early in their marriage & she made him pay for it his whole life. She was mean. Everyone was terrified of her.

I always stare in disbelief at this tiny little woman with the gruff voice, the cig hanging out of her mouth & marvel at how she ruled two generations of her siblings & her parents with an iron fist. Things got away from her with her own kid & his family. That's kinda when she needed it, too.

I asked my Mom if she used to be scared of her & my Mom said she was scared out of her mind. I asked my Mom if her Grandmother, who raised my Mom, had been scared of her & she said absolutely.

I mused that it was amazing to me that you could be afraid of your own child. She said it happens more often than you think so I asked her if she was scared of me.

She said "Hell No!" I love my Mom.

I'm just thinking that we all change on the outside & some of us change on the inside as we grow older. I hope I do both but I'll hope for more on the inside. I have room to improve.

I know I still feel like a teenager happy my parents are out of the house & will keep an ear bent for the garage door to open for the rest of my life. It keeps me in line. Now it's my husband's arrival I'm listening for but the idea's the same. I still feel like a kid.

Rambling I know but thanks for reading.

Have a great night!

Am I Old Yet?

Exactly when do the early thirties become the mid thirties become the late thirties?

I realize that at 36 I am in the mid & that in about three minutes I'm gonna be 37 & hope that's still the mid. I think 38 & 39 are the late thirties but I also think that 31-34 are the early.

Perhaps my calculations seem a bit off but I have never been the best at math & I don't want to smart it up now!

I am pondering this issue because I was watching Juno a few nights ago & found myself identifying with Juno more than anyone else. I am certainly more in the time frame of Jennifer Garner's character & closer in age & parenting experience to Juno's stepmom but I think of myself as a kid.

It's funny. I'm not immature. I'm quite mature. I run a household, am a semi-successful parent & wife & a decent employee.

I still feel like a kid. I can watch American Pie, 16 Candles, Breakfast Club, any classic high school movie & identify with the teenagers.

Am I strange? Am I the only one?

I will never understand Brenda's role as Samantha's Mom in 16 Candles. She had kids not much older than mine & kids much, much older than mine but I can't identify. I think she was older than 36 in that movie but she could have been younger. Who knows? I still feel eternally younger.

Maybe I don't want to grow up. Or maybe I just don't want to feel old.

So I won't.

In Case You Didn't Know...

I fucking love your comments. Secretia, Monkey, Anonyomouses. Please keep them coming.

I hate to admit it because it makes me feel weak, but your comments make me change my opinions.

Make me reconsider things.

I love it.

It's so easy to get stuck in your own way of thinking & not see beyond.

Thank you to each of you for making me see more.

Hugs & kisses to you all!

Have a great night!

Pick a Size & Stick It...

I just spent an hour in my closet. Hanging up all the clothes that were on the floor. Refolding the shirts & sweaters on the shelves. Putting the purses back into their silk pouches & shoving them up on the top shelf for later use.

My 3/4 of the decent sized walk-in closet is packed full & I haven't even put my laundry away yet, which is all the stuff I actually wear.

What the hell???

I just hung up all the shit I try on & don't wear because it's too small or too big or I don't like the way it looks that day. I should hang it up right after I try it on but I don't. I leave it on the floor. Lovely.

I also fluctuate with my weight quite a bit. I have wardrobes in about six different sizes. And I have lots of boxes in the garage with small clothes that are just not gonna happen, probably EVER again, & really big clothes which had better not happen, EVER again. I need to have a garage sale. (Please refer to previous blog post about helpful Mother-In-Law tips.)

My husband just has what he needs. It's so odd.

I keep all my clothes that are basic in style no matter how many years it's been since I fit into them. Of course if they're worn I toss them. If they're nice & they just don't fit any more then that's not their fault & they deserve to stick around until I am able to wear them again.

Someday I'm gonna be back to one of my ideal sizes. My first trip to Hawaii size or when I met my hubby size. Either two or three sizes smaller than I am now. Ok, maybe four, dammit.

I'm totally gonna put on a fashion show of high waisted red guess shorts & body suits. Of torn 501 Levi jeans & cutoffs. I can't wait.

And then I'll wonder why, oh why, have I packed this shit from one house to the next, year after year filling my garage & stuffing my closet.

I guess we all need to set goals :)

Have a great day!

Ask A Crack Ho...

No serious shit today. Today is a fun day. Oh & I should be working & cleaning my house but I am spending/wasting time on You Tube instead.

I'm posting two links that are seriously frigging funny & seriously frigging offensive. I stumbled on the Crack Ho series which led me to the other & totally laughed out loud a whole bunch!

They're offensive so don't tell me they're offensive. I already know it. If you don't like it, don't look. Skip the post if you don't like it. I just wanted to laugh.

I know my Fallon Friend will like them.

Lindsay Lohan at the end of the second video is fantastic.

Have a great day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IcoJXJKKdc&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf6n6ChLsp0&NR=1

I Am Woman Hear Me Roar...

I just saw something on Facebook that made me stop to think about stuff.

I am guilty of the following stereotyping so I'm being critical of myself just as much, probably even more, than I'm being critical of others.

It was a Chinese Restaurant sign called "Young Dong Garden" and a comment made was "Is that where the Cougars hang out?"

It made me smile. Until I thought about it.

Why are there all these definitions for women & not such distinct & definite terms for men?

I know I have at least two male readers, sorry guys, I'm not blaming you. We do it to ourselves & each other just as much, if not more, than you do it to us.

An older woman dating a younger man is a cougar. A younger woman dating an older rich guy is a gold digger. I know there's lots of other references but these two are coming to mind.

I saw an SNL with a Cougar sketch & they used the term cub for the younger men dating the older women ~ but that term has not really caught on to the best of my knowledge.

Do we have a definition for older rich men dating younger gold diggers? I know a lot of things we could call them, & do call them behind their backs. But I don't believe there's an official term.

And a ten, fifteen, even twenty year age difference between a man & a woman is nothing if it's the man that's older. But switch those ages & it becomes something.

I don't watch the View. I have nothing against it. I just don't watch any daytime tv besides travel & food shows or discovery health. But once in a while I will pause Good Morning America too long & the View is on after it. And I'm lazy so if I'm in the office I don't change it.

This happened a few weeks ago & Michelle Pfeiffer was a guest. She just came out with a movie that was apparently about an older woman dating a younger man. She was asked about the cougar phenomenon & she explained that she did not approve of the term because it was derogatory to women. I liked her point of view when she was presenting it & it's sort of been ponging around in my mind.

Again, I'm quite guilty of using the cougar term. I have used it twice in the last two weeks. Both times I was using it admiringly toward older females with hot, younger men.

I meant it as a compliment. But I don't want to say it anymore. I'm not saying I won't use it, but I'll not be happy with myself when I do.

I took a Women's Health class at Chico State & the instructor told us about all kinds of terms in our language that had historical references denigrating women. The one that I always remember was "the rule of thumb." She told us that saying came from a law in 19th century England allowing a husband to beat his wife with a switch no wider than his thumb.

If you look it up now, there is question as to whether that is really true or a myth. But it's something that I was taught, that I remember, that I don't say.

What do you think?

Livin' on Fast Forward...

Is it strange that it's only Tuesday evening but I have my next few days so mapped out in my mind that I feel like tomorrow is practically over. That I'm actually all the way thru to Thursday evening & the next day's Friday?

Could this mean I need to focus more on work & not my weekends?

Nope.

You do what you have to do & right now it's thinking about the weekends.

Or as I've mentioned before, upcoming trips.

In fact, I just discovered that a great Hilton property is on Paradise Island in the Bahamas & we've already played on the beach right in front of it & it was wonderful. The hubby has a whole bunch of Hilton points so I feel another vacay coming up soon.

Hope you're having a great night!

My Big Dreams...

My life is pretty much in order. I struggle with my weight & with all sorts of various addictions, but pretty much I have it together these days ~ these years, really.

Next year, 2010, I am going to play in the World Series of Poker No Limit Women's Tournament. I've been thinking of it for years & I've made that decision & I'm pretty excited about it.

It'll cost about $1000 to enter & of course we'll have to stay in Las Vegas for a few days, but it falls around our anniversary so we usually take a trip anyway.

I must diet. There's a chance I may be on ESPN.

And I'll hopefully get to meet Jennifer Tilly, whom I adore. Loved her in Bound, The Getaway & as Gary Shandling's girlfriend in It's the Gary Shandling Show a long, long time ago.

I try to post something every day, although I know I don't always make it, & this is what I'm thinking of today.

Oh, & Food & Sex & Booze & Money :)

Have a great night!

Not a Personal Best, But Close...

In case anyone is interested, I did not quite make it the two weeks I had hoped for. I did quit drinking for 5 days & then eased back into it on Thursday evening. Oh well.

That's why I only share my goals here & not with the hubby because he doesn't believe in failure & would not let me fall off the wagon if he knew I was trying to stay on.

I'm still successfully cutting back though. It's not so much an alcoholic concern as it is a calorie concern. I'll keep updating on that front.

The Other California...

I'd like to do a White Trash California Episode of No Reservations.

There's an entire other California that people from all around the country don't know about. They think we're surfers & blondes with fake boobs & tans ~ and a few of us are but we're so much more.

We're from Oroville & Red Bluff & Yreka ~ oh my.

My hubby & I have sat outside the Circle K on 273 at Westwood Village & longed for a video camera just to record the humanity that wanders in & out of that store. The Moms spending $2.13 for gas & the rest of that hard earned 5 dollar bill on a pack of generic ciggies.

Nobody knows the trouble we've seen.

I dated a guy from San Francisco when I was 19. My family was way better off than his so the judgement was not passed on me, but when we went up 273 toward Gene's he said, yeah, this is what you expect from Redding ~ total white trash.

I didn't get it then. I get it now.

Be proud. Own it. Ignore it.

I ignore it. But I still plan on taking a video camera & making a documentary to send in to A & E called "The Other California."

Please recommend where else I should set up my data collection.

Have a great night!

What's Really on My Mind, FB?

Food, Sex, Booze & Money.

In no particular order, except Food is most always first.

I have wanted to use that as a status update but I'll refrain & put it here instead.

Have a great day!

Creative Reading & Creative Writing Spawn Creative Thinking...

The Philosopher was in my head tonight. I've included many of my favorites. All of which I can recite.

Hope you like them. If not, please ignore them. I'll talk more shit tomorrow, I promise.

I did leave out Poe but The Raven is way too long as is Annabelle Lee. I can recite a lot of both of them but not all of either of them. Eldorado will have to do:

Eldorado by Edgar Allan Poe

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old-
This knight so bold-
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow-
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be-
This land of Eldorado?"

"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied-
"If you seek for Eldorado!"

Good Evening, friends.

And One More...

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.