Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Soy Vey

So, here I have been happily buying soy candles and eating my Edamame and thinking it was all better for me and for the environment --- and then I read that the dramatic increase in soybean demand is decimating the tropical Rain Forests in Brazil.

What is a green-girl to do?

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Patrick Dempsey on Letterman

Grey's Anatomy is my guilty pleasure.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

18+ IKEA add

This was just too funny not to share. But it is only for the grown-ups.

(I will take it down in a day or two.)

Monday, January 22, 2007

I think this is still a brilliant solution

This was in my draft folder, so it is a bit dusty, but I think it still has merit.

What to do about the Grey's Anatomy homophobic remark.

Achoo-vu









I am having the head cold from hyperbaric hell deja-vu ... and the partial soundtrack in my head is the beginning of that old 80's song "Under Pressure" sung by Queen with David Bowie.

Mm ba ba de
Um bum ba de
Um bu bu bum da de
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you
no man ask for
Under pressure -


Those lyrics and these two 100+ temperature fever driven poem-lets I wrote during my last achoo-vu just keep playing on in my poor pressure cooker of a noggin.

#1 - Snotty Head
Is the plural of sinus, Sinai?
Is Mount Sinai just a big hill of snot?
Is that why I keep thinking "HELP me Jesus!"
with all this head pound pounding I've got?
Is that the nails in his hands boom thud thudding at my face?
Is that his crown of thorns causing this headache
in my upper inner space?
I wish this influenza
were of a nicer kind.........
and not severely causing
this stigmata of my mind.
~~~












~~~
#2 - Martyr Express
I'm so tired of achoo-chooing
all over the friggin' place.
No, that's not a damn steam whistle,
its this nasal horn on my face.
My train of thought is just this cold my blood is taking chase.
I fear the Illness Limited
is still laboring
in second place,
with the Martyr Express
hands-down
winning
today's race.

How come we don't have one of those little wobbly steam vents like my Rival pressure cooker has? Man oh man, do I need a release valve on my brain right now!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Respondability

I struggle with where to draw the line with responsibility -- where something is my responsibility and how far that obligation goes, but also I struggle with when I need to let others take responsibility. I struggle even more with what I call respondability. I swear that the organizers in every group I belong to have my number on speed dial. See, I have a hard time saying NO to requests, especially from casual friends, committee members, and teachers. I think I heard Oprah once call it the "Disease to Please".

If that is a disease, I definitely have a chronic case.

Take today for instance. I work once a week with the lunch program at my daughters private school. They don't have cafeteria workers, so if the parents don't volunteer, the hot lunch program will collapse. Most folks volunteer once a month, some volunteer twice a month. Me? I do it every week. Why? I saw that no one yet was working on Tuesday, so I offered without thinking. I like the job even though it can be hard work. I get to interact with a lot of the school I would never see otherwise. I also get to meet other parents and we usually have a ball for the three hours we are there.

I just got back from a lunch shift. Today you say? Today wasn't Tuesday, but the coordinator called me 15 minutes before lunchtime to see if I could substitute for a no-show. I was half way across town and not dressed for Lunch Duty so I said ... "Sure! No problem."

Sigh ... I give good respondability, so I get these kinds of calls more often than most.

Funny thing was, I got to school and my dear friend, Jeanette, was there. She is a Tuesday lunch lady. I work with her twice a month and she is one of my favorites. I see her and I say, "What are you doing here, Lady? Did you answer the SOS?" She looked at me, shook her head then grinned, "Yeah, I couldn't bear to think of no one here to serve lunch. My responsibility gene just wouldn't let me ignore the message." I laughed and agreed and then she said, "We might get taken advantage of because folks know we are the responsible kind, but I guess it is better than folks not knowing they can count on us."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Two Weeks


My New Years Resolution this year boils down to Two Weeks.

Every Two Weeks, I am going to do something or stop doing something that I feel I need to change. I mean, anyone can do something for two weeks, right? Then I can decide if I want to keep working on it, or let it go for now.

My first two weeks I quit smoking. It was hard, but I did it and I feel better already. The gain outweighs the loss. So I think I will stay a nonsmoker for two more weeks and then I will reevaluate again ... and again. This one looks pretty hopeful. On January 14, I started a low-carb diet. Nothing crazy, just nothing sweet or starchy. So far, so good.

I am feeling really good about this kind of New Year Resolution methodology. Two weeks isn't that daunting and fits in with my moving a mountain a pebble at a time focus. I also feel really charged because if I keep this up, it means in a year, I will have tackled 26 things about myself I want to improve.

Two weeks is fourteen days and so seven days doubled is two weeks. Hmmm ... seven is lucky ... so double seven should be doubly lucky.

Right?

;-)

Wish me double luck....

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Chili Beans

This is THE only good thing about the rare occasion in Texas when it gets below freezing - My beloved Human Beings enjoy turning into Chili Beans!










Sunday, January 14, 2007

Too much and not enough.

Here lately, I don't get the joke. I am not feeling Atlas Wink-ish at all. I am feeling more like Atlas Sleeps and Atlas Weeps and Atlas Stares Like A Zombie At The Wide Screen TV.

I am in that awful place where you feel too much and not enough. You know, when there is too much life you don't like and not enough life you love. Too much of nothing good and not enough of something great. Too much bullshit and not enough beauty.

Today at one point I was sitting in my easy chair, with my warmest blanket and my Uggs boots and not one but two boxes of Kleenex. I just started crying for no apparent reason really and I leaked sadness all day long. When I wasn't feeling sad, I was feeling a little scared. That uneasy almost anxious feeling decided it wanted to be my friend today and I couldn't shake it. It played tag team with sad little Mr. Blue Violet. (Mr. Neon Pea Green, meet Mr. Blue Violet....)

I should probably say something here about what is going on with me or I will get a dozen e-mails of worry and concern, so please don't worry. I am O.K. with feeling crappy. It is appropriate for where I am right now. See, I have a cold and a sinus infection and allergies running wild and a middle ear infection --- all that I just can't seem to shake. It is also cold outside and I dread and despise cold weather. Give me 100+ temps and I am fine. Maybe a bit moist, but a happy sweaty thing at least. Let the temp drop under 50 and I start worrying about hypothermia and having enough groceries in case it freezes and will my pets stay warm and will my kids get too cold. I really do start to have a bit of anxiety when it is getting chilly.

Oh and one other thing --- my Number One New Years Resolution is to quit smoking.

Which I have done so far.

Tomorrow will be the 2 week mark.

I am doing fine on the no smoking, I don't really crave the nicotine. What I do crave is the side effect of emotional anesthesia. I didn't realize how often I would smoke instead of feeling something I judged as negative. If smoking didn't work, then I would eat. Sometimes I did them both - repeatedly. I decided to try feeling the feelings for a while instead of smoking or eating them away. Instead, I declare them to myself. This past week I just let myself feel what I feel. When appropriate, I even announce them to my husband.

If you want to email Bob your concern and worry for him, I understand.