Monday, October 17, 2005

I Choke On Jesus… but it’s for charity!

Like every other parent in America, I do my part to raise funds for school groups and programs the Princess belongs to.  Wrapping paper, candy, restaurant nights, the whole shebang.  In these parent booster groups, it’s inevitable that there’s one or more exuberant follower of Christ who gives not a moment’s pause before going on a tirade about what’s “right” or what “shouldn’t be allowed.” By law, I’d presume… and according to “God’s Law,” of course.

It took every ounce of will I had not to get in this one lady’s face when she started ranting about how horrifying it was to go into Costco and have “one whole huge section of nothing but Harry Potter and all sorts of things relating to sorcery… it’s awful that they can sell that to kids!” Rather than goad her by asking just what the fuck you’d call turning water into wine; or walking on water, if not some sort of sorcery, I simply said, “It’s harmless fantasy… make-believe, y’know?” I restrained myself from adding like your God, and devils and demons.  But it was right on the tip of my tongue, I tell ya!

Why is it ok for HER to push her own myths and invisible magical beings without someone like me laughing in her face, or calling her a superstitious and delusional twit; yet beyond the bounds of social grace for ME to exercise MY right as an American and say I think HER fairy tales have every reason to be in the Wal-Mart, but NOT anywhere NEAR my kid’s school?  I don’t want my kid to have any repercussions due to my outspoken nature, and it’s so difficult within the context of the whole “booster” scenario that I’ll be really surprised if I make it through four years without being branded a heretic and ostracized.

I guess I just have to sell lots of candy, and wrapping paper, and ad space, and car washes, and rummage sales…

The irony of it all was that her hysterics and lamentations were delivered while wearing a perfectly satanic little smock covered in Hallowe’en ghosts and those Agents of Satan himself, black kitties.

My Vacation

I’ve already been home for weeks, and I haven’t even finished uploading pictures from my vacation… never mind blogging (which I should have been doing every night, dammit!).  Unfortunately, it would seem that the bill for my absolutely wonderful time visiting my family came due upon my return and required a payment in the form of stressful events, one after the other.  Kee-rist, a bitch doesn’t have time to get a breath these days!

Spending time in CT is always nice, yet surreal in many ways.  This trip, I learned that there aren’t nearly as many street signs in Watertown as there are corners on which they should be displayed!  It’s a damned good thing I’ve got a pretty keen sense of direction, or I’d probably be driving around somewhere in Rhode Island today, heh.  It’s a pretty clear picture of the state of my home state, in that the “suburbs” where the upper middle class people live doesn’t seem to have enough money to put up street signs for fuck’s sake.  There are plenty of signs in Waterbury… but man, the place is pretty damned bleak overall.  Those people need JOBS, and badly.  If I had millions of dollars, I’d buy up some of those beautiful old houses and find a way to help my town come back to life.

Being able to see all my brothers in one trip, and visiting with other family and friends made me wish I’d taken a longer vacation.  Everything and everyone are so close together compared to here in SoCal, that I got to spend most of my time actually being with the people I love, rather than on the freeway on the way there or back.  I’ve always loved having lots of family around, and even when I didn’t have blood relatives nearby, I’ve always had my “tribe,” or the family of friends that we’ve chosen for ourselves.  These days many of those people are living farther away from us than the farthest distance between one of my brothers’ houses to another, so there’s no “family” to speak of within, say, 10 minutes of us.  It was amazing to me that I was able to go from Waterbury to Watertown, and back, in half an hour in order to get my niece to work and then get back for a surprise birthday cake for my friend’s dad.

Speaking of nieces, I finally got to meet two of mine that I’ve only chatted with online, or maybe by phone for a few minutes… and they’re both wonderful young ladies, beautiful and smart (but they’re Colellas, so why wouldn’t they be? Ha!).  But one of the shitty things about traveling alone is that there’s no one to help take pictures… so I didn’t get pictures with 3 of my nieces, my brother, Tom or the closest thing to a stepmom I ever had, Cathy - which sucks.  Oh well, I guess that just means I have to go back again pretty soon.

There were quite a few times over the 9 days of my visit when I was emotionally overwhelmed, and even now I get a little choked up thinking about just how good it felt to be with people I love in such an absolutely beautiful part of the world.

[more later...]

It’s later—by 12 days!  The vacation glow’s worn off, I still don’t have those goddamned pictures up, because life goes on with all its hectic and often insane daily dramas.  Work is work, and home life is in a bit of a turmoil (what else is new?) due to a death in my husband’s family.  In a perfect illustration of the sheer distance between relatives here, the decedent lived over an hour away, and since that’s where most of the family is, that’s where everything’s happening.  There’ll also be an out-of-town relative who needs accomodations… logistics, feh.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

The Den’s Nearly Done!

Click to go to the gallery

We were hoping the Den Makeover would be completed by Rob’s birthday this Friday, but the custom built-in desks can’t be installed until next week.  I’m kinda bummed about that, because it’d sure be nice to get the computers out of their temporary location in the living room, and to have all of my office supplies neatly stored rather than in the fuckillion storage tubs we’ve got all over the house.  In any case, what’s finished looks absolutely awesome thanks to the design skills of Cyndi Seidler and the execution of her team, Marty & Amanda from Splendid Space Makeovers.

I had a great time going shopping with Cyndi to find furniture and decorations for the room.  It was nice to have someone to go to thrift stores, antique shops and swap meets with, since I’m pretty much alone in my fondness for such things unless my mom, one of my sisters or Sha happens to visit.  I decided to hire a designer because although I know what I like, I just have no skill at putting things together, nor of planning and designing a room.  Cyndi sees a room and can envision something beautiful; I see a room and can’t imagine it any way but its current state.  It was also extremely helpful to have Cyndi point out what would and wouldn’t work in the room when I was shopping.  It’s not uncommon for me to buy something just because I like it, and then I get it home and it either doesn’t fit or isn’t quite right in the room somehow, in spite of my good intentions.  Cyndi, with her designer’s eye, could tell me right away if something I’d take an interest in was the right style but wrong in scale, or if the color or pattern was OK for the room.  She’s been wonderful to work with, and I’m glad she’ll be helping me get the kitchen finished soon, too!

Sunday, July 17, 2005

The Word’s Out

Apparently the neighborhood wildlife have their own grapevine… and word’s out that anyone and everyone will get food at water at Casa Moreno!

I was outside watering the front yard this morning, when from behind me I heard some wing flappage and saw some movement in the jacaranda tree / giant birds-of-paradise cluster.  I figured it was one of the doves that hang out, so I went to say Hello.  I looked up into the foliage and got a view that looked rather like this:

And it took me several seconds to figure out… what the hell?

So, evidently now I’m not just the Crazy Cat Lady, but I’m apparently the Bird Woman, too!  We rigged up a way to give him (?) some seed, and I set up a bird bath nearby for water… but I also used the hose to create a nice misty shower, which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy, preening and making funny noises.  He talks a little (in English and Spanish), so he must be an escaped pet.  Guess I’ll have to look in the Lost & Found ads to see if anyone’s listed him.  Meanwhile, he’s been in my tree up front for about 7 hours now.  As long as he’s there, I’ll make sure he’s fed!

Check out this whole gallery of shots, which I took with my brand new digital camera!  I took some video with it, too, and as soon as I can get a short clip encoded, I’ll get that uploaded.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Who’s Yer Daddy?

Happy Father’s Day!  Even though it’s been 18 years since The Rock got off this rock, I miss him still.  Maybe there IS a heaven, and if so, Dad’s probably wooing Ava Gardner at this very moment!