Sunday

I have a friend who is a devout atheist.  I know , that's an oxymoron, but it's true.  Her mission seems to be to  skewer try to change other people's beliefs.  This bothers me as much as someone of faith telling me what to believe.  It's really the same thing, when you get right down to it; someone saying "you should believe as I do" even when that means not believing in anything.  I can't imagine NOT believing in some greater power that holds us all together.  I think if you look at it, God is the same guy for all religions.  After all, each child sees their parent differently. Think about it.  Ask your siblings about your mother or your father and you will get a WHOLE different view than the one YOU have.  It's human nature.  Our interactions are different, so our experience are different.  Just my two cents on it. Now, I love my atheist friends,  and I have a few of them I do read a lot of what is posted as the science is interesting and they make valid points  in a number of places.  I don't take the Bible literally as some people do but my belief is MINE and I will talk to you about it but it is what I feel and it keeps me being who I am.  I don't feel the need to convince anyone to believe as I do.  Your faith ( like your mileage) will vary.

Friday with friends

It had been a LONG week.  What is Friday at work without that 4:30 OMG emergency?  I wound up staying a bit late until it was resolved.  Then Chris and I were going to meet up with friends for a possible dinner and a musical performance.  It was quite an evening!

We found this place across from the venue, Kulak's Woodshed in NoHo  Al Amir had good reviews on Yelp and the price was right so... My chicken kabob was SO full of flavor it burst in my mouth  YUM!  The Lebanese Pizza that came with it was nothing short of heavenly!  The waitstaff was helpful and friendly and recommened a fab dessert.  It was ALL SO VERY GOOD.  We will be going back.  Our friends arrived just in time to order something to go.  We trooped across the street to the venue.

I have never been here, but the place is decorated like someone's garage.  Funky and fun with a BIG fold out bed in the corner.  They have a live webcast and six cameras running during the set.  Interesting to watch.  Apparently you need to bring 15 paying guests with you or pay a total of 150 and you get a DVD of the show.  A nice deal actually.   The performer we saw played Scottish fiddle music, something I am not familiar enough with at this point.  She's a very young musician.  She has a lot of  passion for her art.  It did my heart good to see someone so young totally embrace music.

Afterward, we went to Mel's Diner in Sherman Oaks.  UGH.  I asked the waitress if they had any sugar free desserts. "Nothing here is sugar free" she responded.  Really?  I want a sugared cheese burger with a side sugar salad then....  I asked that my pie NOT be heated.  Something "special" happens to the crust when you do that and it makes a gummy mess. Icky.  She brought me a heated pie.  I touched it.  She said "ooops, I brought you the wrong pie" and proceeded to RETURN the pie I had TOUCHED to the window for pickup.  OH DOUBLE TRIPLE YUCK!  She was not a great waitress, she combined all our checks on one, apparently.  I won't be going back there any time soon-as in NEVER AGAIN!

I slept VERY late this morning and didn't get the things I wanted to done.  So, I am off to bed and an early morning to get some of the work that needs doing DONE!

Comedy, negativity and Friday night music

Ah Friday!  How I have looked forward to you!   It's been a long week.  I am on some new meds that are taking care of one problem, but have been creating another.  They adjusted them this week. SO  if you talked to me and I was in LALA Land , rest assured it was just the meds, I have not taken up drinking or recreational drugs ( tempting though it might be!)  Hopefully, this will make me a bit more "normal"  well.. MY version of "normal" anyway

I start out every day reading a series of comics that I have read for years, including "Funky Winkerbean"   Funky isn't all that funny most of the time, just thought provoking and sometimes amusing.  What gripes me is that on the page I go to there are a whole bunch of people who read it every day just to slam the cartoonist.  Really?  If the strip makes you so crazy, GET A LIFE.   If you feel you could do a better job then by all means DO IT.  It's like a switch on the old adage "those who can do"   These days it's "Those who can do and those who can't ,criticize."


Going to Kulak's Woodshed in NoHo this evening to hear a young girl who plays Celtic Fiddle. Her name is Ket Waters.  It should be fun.  I have never been there, but the place is local and struggling.  I think it's a folk venue more than anything else.  I will post a review of both the place and the evening in the next day or so.  I am not making any promises that I will be doing any writing this weekend.  I'm going to REST!

Saturday at McGroarty Arts Center, the Sunland Tujunga Poets are presenting a program including a guest poet from Ireland.  Should be fun and I plan on trying to make that one.

Hold music, the "news" media and other things floating in my mind on Monday

Who chooses hold music?  I was stuck on hold with my bank the other day and the hold music was a Musak version of "I want it that way"  The song is BAD ENOUGH in the original form, but to have it beiged down to insipidity was just about all I could take.  It didn't help that after ten minutes of being on hold, I finally reached a live person who told me "I am having trouble with my phone.  Please call back"  and get in the holds queue again and MAYBE have to listen to something even worse.  No thanks.  Some places play  "smooth jazz" which I guess studies show calms people down. Not me.  Smooth jazz makes me edgy.  By the time someone comes on the line I am not in the happy mood they want me to be in.  DWP plays this poppy pseudo-techno stuff that sounds like a five year old programmed it.  It is interspersed with "Helpful tips"  "Did you know that you can recycle your Christmas tree?  YES INDEED"  ( seriously.  I got this message in March when I called and the man ACTUALLY SAYS Yes Indeed)  I think I prefer NO music to some of this stuff.  They can come on and tell me where I am in line- now THAT would be helpful!

Am I the only one who doesn't want to hear any more details about the suspect in the Boston bombing?  Cowardly pig, he doesn't deserve to become "famous" for this. Maybe that is what they wanted, to become famous for doing this horrible thing?  His family are of two camps, one says "He deserved to be killed" and the others are claiming America is framing them.  FRAMING THEM?   HUH?  They have them on camera dropping the bag that exploded.  They have a houseful of explosives and they had a shoot out with the cops.  Innocent people don't have an arsenal of exploding pressure cookers.  I for one wish the media would stop milking this story for every small detail.  The real story is in the survivors and what we are doing to help them.

 Dear Monday.  I am SO not ready for you!  What happened to the weekend?  I think we should have another day between Saturday and Sunday.

Boston and other ramblings

I am thinking about the Boston Marathon and the cowardly act of bombing innocent people.  The weasels haven't even come forward to claim credit.  It show what kind of scum would do this sort of thing.  Even the Pakistani Taliban went out of their way to say "it wasn't us!"  geez.  Don't these fools realize what this sort of thing does to the American character?  Do we hide and cower and say "oohh, I'm so afraid"  HELL NO!  It just pisses us off, makes us stronger and more determined.   I don't think this is the reaction the bombers were hoping for.  We move as a nation, when tragedy strikes.  Hit one of us, you hit all of us.  Get it?

I see Michelle Bachman might be in a bit of legal trouble.  DUH.  Illegal payments to someone?  Maybe she can take her Swiss citizenship and leave the country.  There's Presidential Material for you.  Seriously.  THAT WOMAN is the best the Republican Party can offer?  I think  not.  There are perfectly rational  and smart women who are conservative, this woman is just a nut job, wrapped in a "pretty face".

I see the Senate screwed up the tougher gun buying laws.   I am NOT in favor of total gun control ( surprised?)  My theory is that when you make something illegal, people who want it will still be able to get it. ( Drugs?  Remember Prohibition?)  It makes no sense.  I don't know what the answer to gun violence is.  Maybe if we were all armed?   just kidding. 

Thank you notes

I received a"thank you" note in the mail the other day; a sweet old-fashioned gesture that I really appreciated.  It got me to thinking about how I write MY thank yous and send them via email.  I remember being in a "Creative writing" class in college and a woman submitted a "thank you " note she had written as her project for the week.  It was two sentences, something like  "Lunch was lovely and the company more so"  I didn't think that actually qualified for the piece she was supposed to submit and she dropped the class soon after.  I always wondered why she took the class to begin with.  She didn't seem to get that the focus was stories or poetry.  She seemed more focused on letter writing,  she might have thought it would hone that skill.  I seem to recall she was in real estate.  These days I do  email my "Thank you" notes more for speed than anything else, although I have been thinking of writing a letter to a friend and see if she writes one back.  I miss the days of waiting for the mail to come to see if there is a long newsy letter in the mail.  These days it's either junk or bills, seldom something you really want.  One thing I will say is that writing letters can be a pain.  I have TERRIBLE handwriting, so I print.  I like to say "I don't have bad handwriting, I have my own font"  Do they even TEACH what we used to call cursive in school these days?  I had heard they had stopped doing that and I hope not.  It's been a long time since my daughter was in grade school, but they taught it then.  I wonder if, like art and music, handwriting is considered to be non-essential.  We seem to be raising a nation of test-takers, not thinkers, but I think I have talked about that before.  I really think we are doing our children a disservice by not including art in their education.  It's all about math and science, not BAD things, but we need balance.  If scientists can't appreciate art, how can they consider the wonder in the universe?

Mondegreens, Classic rock radio and bad songs

I have been driving my husband's car this week and listening to the radio ( I  don't want to start listening to a book on tape or drag half my cd collection into his car)  His car has the feature on the radio that tells you the name of the song.  For some reason I was suffering thru the Scorpions and glanced at the radio.  DANG  I always thought the guy was saying "Here I am .. RAUNCHY like a hurricane."  My bad.  It reminded me of one of my daughter's friends, when they were little, in the backseat of the car singing along with the Dixie Cups "going to the jack-o-lantern, gonna get married"  I guess when we miss hear, we try to find something that makes sense.  How you get MARRIED at the jack-o-lantern is anyone's guess.
 
Listening to stations that play Classic Rock (even K-Earth doesn't play "Oldies" anymore- they play way to much 70's crummy disco tinged  music for my taste)  I realize that the media believe all Baby Boomers are successful with a lot of disposable income.  In the few miles I was listening to the radio, I heard commercials for BMW, Cadillac and a golf tournament.  I was also offered "unique investment opportunities"  Sorry, I just "invested"  in a tank of gas.  That was all the "disposable income" I had for the week.

A friend asked me my opinion of the classic song by Leonard Cohen, "Suzanne"  I remember liking the song, so I asked my husband about it.  He said it was slow, boring and depressing.  He's right of course, but I like the song anyway.  My friend said that the discussion she was listening to about the song asserted that every man has his "Suzanne" and that the song touches a core in them.  I tried to remember why I liked the song.  I think it's because it evokes a pleasant memory in me, where I was when I first heard it, not the song itself.  I wonder if that is the case with music.  Do we like it for itself, or does it serve as a touchstone to another memory? Both, I suppose. There are songs I love that are really awful on their own, but because of the memory that comes with them I continue to love them.

Disney Girls, Beatle Boys...

Two things happened yesterday that made me feel my age is creeping up on me.  Annette Funicello died and Julian Lennon turned 50.  Annette was an icon of my childhood, I was just a bit too young to really remember watching her on the Mickey Mouse Club, I think I watched re-runs as a kid. She was the perfect Disney "Princess" before they started talking about Disney Princesses.  I never knew her, just her public personae of a sweet and talented "girl"  She was a "girl" long after she was a woman, you know?  I wonder if she thought those "Frankie and Annette" movies were silly?  Probably not.  One of the things I remember thinking about her as a child is how she pronounced her name in the Disney roll-call  " Anne-ette" not "AH-net"  I wonder if it bugged her to have her name mispronounced all those years.

I did not realize that I am just a few years older than Julian Lennon.  To me he was always a little boy.  I like Julian's music.  I saw him in concert once and he was very good.  The shame is, that after John was murdered, everyone wanted him to be John.  The record label pushed him into headlining, when at the time he should have been brought along as an opener.  I think they put an awful lot of pressure for him to be John. I saw George's son Dhani on the cover of a guitar magazine my husband  had.  He is playing music too.  I will have to Google him and see what he is doing musically. Julian is a talented musician and photographer.  I read something very telling from Julian , that because his father was not a photographer that his work in that art form can be judged on it's own merit.  How sad.  We lost a musical icon when John died.  Julian lost his father. 

Internet Thoughts

As someone who is always curious about things, I find the Internet to be a wonderful resource.  You know, you have people in your home for dinner and you begin to talk about a book or a movie and just CAN'T remember something ( and the library is closed).  Having the answer at your fingertips is amazing.  Sure, you have to double check the answer sometimes as not everything you find is right, but still in all it is amazing.

One of the things that is NOT amazing is how what starts as an off-the-cuff comment or a meme you find funny leads to a mother of a blowout and loss of friendships.  I have several people who blocked me on Facebook- yes BLOCKED me, because I voted Democrat.  Those people whose political views raised my blood pressure were placed on  "unsee" until after the election- and some beyond, as they could not get over the election and move on.  But we remain "friends" and I do pop over to their page from time to time to "see" how they are doing.  Their political posts just don't come in my "feed"  Healthier that way.  I can't contact the people who blocked me to discuss the problem, which makes me sad.  Some of them I truly miss ( one or two I BLOCKED because they attacked me in such nasty ways online and I just don't have time for truly toxic people.) I am fairly sure I will lose a few more as we begin the debate over "same sex marriage"   Now, some people will accuse me of "Cherry picking" in the Bible, but here is my take on it (credit to a story about a rabbi asked to explain the Talmud while standing on one foot)  "What is hateful to you, do not do to others.  The rest is commentary."  I remember learning somewhere that the Bible has three parts; History Philosophy and poetry. I like the poetry parts best.  I always say that the winners write the history books and if you look at how many versions there are of the Bible, well, the "History " is up for debate.  I know there are people who argue that the Bible was written by God, but for my money the only thing we can say for certain was written by God is the Ten Commandments, so pretty much I am going to stick with those as a guidepost and leave Leviticus out of it.  There is so much that applies to the time it was written and probably for good reason, but if you have had a haircut recently or wear wool blend socks or have a tattoo, you are not sticking to the Bible ( according to Leviticus)  

I don't know if all the instant access to one another is a good thing or a bad thing.  Sometimes we need to step away from the keyboard and cool our jets before we destroy relationships with a careless reply, tossed off in anger.  I have a policy about angry email replies.  I write one and save it as a draft. I sleep on it and in the morning revisit it.  Usually, I don't send it, or I edit it so it is more rational and MUCH less emotional.  I keep more friends that way.

The Warrior

I was reading in bed last nigh, a "Guilty pleasure" as they say that you should not either read, eat or watch tv in bed.  I find that reading in bed relaxes a knot in my brain and allows me to sleep.  I am reading "Side Jobs" by Jim Butcher; a collection of short stories that happen in and around his Dresden files books, often exploring other characters rather than focusing on Harry.  He talks a bit before each of the stories, explaining why he wrote it ( for an anthology or some sort of challenge)  The story "The Warrior" was written after he had the realization that something he had said to someone five years earlier had had a major impact on someone else's life and it  got him thinking about a character that was injured badly in another novel.  It's a good story.  I do like Butcher's style.  The story got ME thinking about things as well.  Sometimes we say something or do something that impacts people in ways we cannot know; after all aren't WE all here as a result of a random collection of encounters and decisions made by people we never knew?  If my parents hadn't each decided to go swimming at the St George Hotel in July of 1949 I wouldn't be here.  I know I have had people say to me that something I said made them think about doing something  differently and it changed their lives.  It's a shock to think that some random comment by someone can make such a vast difference, or that deciding to go right rather than left can be a difference between life and death.  My Dad was at the Battle of the Bulge.  His unit split up, the medics going one way , the rest of the unit going the other. The medics got away, but the rest of the unit was captured by the Germans.  My Dad was in the medics.

I am in the midst of making a decision about a change that must be made in my life.  I am listening to people as they talk to me about the choice I must make, but ultimately it will be that little voice inside me that will guide me.  I will be still and try to let that voice grow stronger.  I always say that when the time comes to make the decision the choice will be clear and there will be no other choice.  I am struggling with it right now, but should know for certain very soon which path I will choose.

Behave yourself?

I love Gordon Ramsay.  I know it's a guilty pleasure to watch either "Kitchen Nightmares" or "Hell's Kitchen". The way he alternately yells at staff and then talks to them in a fatherly tone is interesting.  Maybe after the initial seasons, people told him that being a git was bad form and he needed to show a bit of humanity.   It makes me realize that I could never work in a big restaurant kitchen.  I'm a cook, not a chef.  In my OWN kitchen I am a chef, maybe, but turning out all those meals like they do on Hell's Kitchen?  It doesn't look like fun to me.  This season they keep ending on "cliffhangers"  STOP THAT.  Just tell us if you gave Nedra the boot.  I think he did, especially when she blamed the spatula for her inability to turn pancakes.  What's the expression?  "It's a poor worker who blames his tools" So I have to be sure to watch next week to see what happened.

I had a bit of a flashback on something recently, so tell me what you think.  I went to an event and did not know anyone there to start with.  I saw someone I had been introduced to and went over to say hello, as she was by herself.  We chatted , nicely I thought, for a bit until her friends showed up.  She then turned and walked away, mumbling something that sounded like "excuse me" and went to sit all the way across the room from me.  It reminded me of when the Head Cheerleader is nice to the Nerds until the Football Team shows up.  I wonder if I should again, should we be in another social situation?  I will be polite, I suppose, but not seek her out, even if she is by herself again.

I don't watch College hoops, I don't live for March Madness, but you couldn't miss the Kevin Ware story if you tried.  Wow.  I did NOT watch the video of the injury, but I have to say this.  Even if he never plays basketball again ( and somehow I believe he will) that kid has something that will take him places in life.  He showed grace and courage. I would have been screaming and whining like a baby. He called his teammates over to ask them- no to TELL them- to win the game.  He gave them more motivation in that one act than a whole year's worth of locker room half time yelling could have done.  I wish the kid a speedy recovery.   Does anyone want to bet he will be court-side for the end of the series?