Don’t Read TIME Magazine!!
Or NewsWeek, or any of the other kind of magazines that make you think about the world and problems and issues and things that are important to life and living here in America and on Earth. If you do, you will only be sorry. Like me.
I feel bad because I did read the TIME magazine this morning, BB (Before Burrito’s) and before Bike Riding, and it makes the silly stuff I talk about all day seem kind of lame. I should have a point or a view and opinions and controversy. But I don’t. I have ideas. But then I see a colorful bird in a tree or a strange frog on the sidewalk and I forget all about deeper issues.
I really do have a master plan, and I do have some really good life improving ideas, but I need to get through school first so I can start earning the kind of money and hooking up with the right kind of connections to put things in place. Plus, I have to get my kids up and ready for high school. That’s their first step toward all of the rest of the education they are going to be required to have to make any kind of difference in this world.
I bring it up now, because I am going to be posting stuff that I get from the “smart” mags along with the usual crap I get from the internet and the gossip mags my brain absorbs like a dried up jellyfish. Plus, I may be suffering some kind of post-exercise-nature-beauty-world-love withdrawal, as the coffee and vodka (not together) courses back into my veins and displaces all the healthy-oxygen-clean-pure-blood, but it takes time!
And! I have some International New Features I want to post! The BF’s good friend from work just moved to Germany with her hubby and sent an e-mail and photo’s that are absolutely out of this world, funny and brilliant and real-world people perspective of other places on the globe. And she said I could post it all here!
For now though, here’s my stuff: We rode those bikes, in the rain (it stopped now and then) for 19.2 miles! Once we got out there the actual trail was a bit longer. Took us One hour and 45 minutes. Not bad for ups/downs/traffic/road crossings/the requisite work phone call (BF is on the job) and a stop to take a picture of an old cemetery that was there in the early 1900’s. The sign explains it, but the Forest Preserve acquired the land with the cemetery on it and chose to keep it as it was. History and all. Now you can say the site is educational and we can both feel better.
There were power lines too! Giant, humming, massive towers that were really crackling in the rain. I was so in awe of being that close and riding underneath all of them that I forgot to take any pictures. It’s probably good anyway. I would have pulled my phone out, aimed it up at the wires and got electrocuted when an arc of electricity shot out and grabbed the cell killing me on the spot. That would have sucked.
See? No sense of world. Ooooh…power lines. Electricity. Well, without it, we couldn’t type or read this, so….it needs to propped!
Anyway, if we go back tomorrow—which I’d like to—I will get those pics. It is pretty amazing. I know people that live by them don’t necessarily think so, but I don’t have my brains getting fried on a day-to-day basis…or…?? Just kidding. Seriously. I don’t really think brains are getting fried just because of power lines. You don’t need to live by the high wire to get the high if you know what I mean.
Also, in case you were wondering, I think I successfully burned off all the cals from those terrible, but delicious burrito’s. I checked the internet for an exercise calculator and it says I did. Now, what’s for dinner? Let me finish my vodka lemonade and think about it while you look at pictures of headstones and a sign.
Come On People! Help me break 3000 Hits! Tonight! July 30, 2009.
Tell your friends, call your family, leave it on at work, link me to something, hook me up, pass me around…I only need 50 plus people to click on my silly stories. You know there’s fifty of you out there who like to laugh! I’m pretty funny!
We have booty pictures, fancy cars, animals, life, death, love, joy, struggles, pain, triumph…it’s all here…for free!
Hang around. Keep coming back! There’s definitely something for everyone! My words are like bacon. Everybody loves bacon!
Can you say…loser?!?
Or winner?!? Hmmm…Despite the fact that I have no time to post anything that my loyal fans want to read…Sorry people…school HAS to come first. I need a job with a good future and a good paycheck and that gives me the feeling that I am actually making a difference in the world!
Beyond the new windows—pictures in a few!!!!!—and the laundry and the kids coming home, then leaving, then coming home again, then babysitting nieces and nephews, then cleaning up the window mess and re-painting…I still had time for some POCKET POKER!
Oh yeah. I am the queen of the hand-held video gamer. I pretend I am in Vegas, and I just go for broke!
Broke for me at the moment is 600 points! Please refer back to the previous post, weeks ago when I broke 500. I achieved this chance success with a few Four-of-a-Kinds and one Straight Flush.
I am on the trail of the elusive Royal Flush. 3000 points!
I have only gotten it one time in the history of my playing. Before the long break when I lost it.
I have to go take a shower now because we have to re-caulk the tub and it will be unavailable for 24 hours.
Enjoy the picture below and stay tuned for more later! I’m halfway done with the studying…reading a butt load of chapters is next but I can squeeze in computer time!
Day Quote
I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back anymore—the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to perils, to love, to vain effort—to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, that glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires—and expires, too soon, too soon—before life itself.
—Joseph Conrad
Yo Soy el Pan de Vida
I am the bread of life…uh huh.
What are you doing today??
Saturday. Happy Weekend! Just trying to get in a few posts and cracks at the church, so that I can be struck by lightning later at the party we are having for my niece after it turns into a thunder-tornado-rain disaster. It’s sunny and 68 at 9 am in the city. It’s supposed to storm but let’s all ask God to hold it off. One of his devoted graduates is having a party! Come on! Please?? Pray with me now….
Anyway, the above pic is from the church song book. I thought it was kind of funny. All the songs, excuse me, hymns, were about eating and food of life and drinking the blood…and I was SO hungry. My niece’s school uses Wednesday masses to have major celebratory type events. This is from the “ribbon” ceremony. (All 8th graders get a ribbon to take with them into high school. It symbolizes a bunch of things but I was busy taking the pictures and missed the explanation.) Who does an entire Mass, with extras, on a Wednesday morning, at 9 am, during my Regis, Kelly, and Breakfast Burrito time anyway?? Selfish.
Then, one week later, on Wednesday, (again) we are back in the Church, having another Mass, but this time, the actual Graduation Ceremony is attached to it. It was long and it didn’t start until 7 pm. Morning. Night. These people are all over the place.
But she made it! Got a few awards and a diploma, so it’s on to High School! She’s doing the Public School for this round of edumacation.
All jokes aside, the party is today. Hopefully it stays nice! Come out and have a drink—you might see a one-in-a-million lightning strike! You can stand next to me!
Congratulations Jesse!
Below is a pic of Jesse, in action, walking out of the church, from the ribbon ceremony. You can see the blue ribbon in the right of the pic. I like it better than the “formal” pictures.
And then there should be a graduation picture, and one with the sign. Proof! See you all at the par-tay!
Obviously, we have a few problems in our family.
Day Quote
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
—Shakespeare
Day Quote
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.
—Isaac Asimov
A Heartbreaking Loss…
Last night was the trophy winning game breaker for my son’s basketball team. After a crushing 2-point loss last week, they were fired up and ready to win.
They came on strong and played well, leading the game for the first 3 quarters. The other team couldn’t catch up no matter what they did. Unfortunately, our team just couldn’t hold onto the lead. The other team came back bigger and bolder and made their moves.
Again, just like last week, it came down to the final 15 seconds. No score. Foul to us. 4 seconds on the clock—only 1 point behind. We put it in bounds and took the shot. Missed. Buzzer sound. The game was over.
Chaos from the other side—they all ran out and cheered. Our team was devastated, standing there. Even the cheerleaders were upset.
As a parent, you try and remember back to when you were that age. Think about the first time you lost something that you really, really wanted to win; more than anything else in your life. They were trying to win for themselves, the coaches, the principal, their teachers and the school. It was overwhelming.
But only after. They played their butts off and they looked good. It was a real team, with real rules and real consequences. They ran and sweat and got pushed down and got right back up. Not one of them quit or played any less than great. They wanted that trophy bad. The other school has it though. For now. There’s always next year.
Not to get too mushy-gush, my kids hate it, but…
This is fourth and fifth grade, right on the edge of a whole new experience about to come. They are moving into the teens, and every hormone-laden, awkward, moody, mixed-up emotional, physical change that all those years are going to bring down on them. This was good practice because most of the team is moving into the junior high and it is going to be much harder. Disappointment doesn’t get any easier to take the older you get. But I think we’ll save that lesson for another time. Watching from the stands and looking down onto the floor, you can see clearly, they’re still just kids. Let them have this last year. And leave it to the fourth graders to get that trophy back.
Despite the outcome, I am so proud of my son. I swear I felt every emotion that team was going through. It’s exciting for me to see him be so excited about anything. To know how hard they worked in practice, running and jumping and sweating and crying until they wanted to give up but didn’t. It was awesome.
When I was in school I never went to events or games, so I never understood. I am not missing my opportunity this time. My kids love sports and school and all the events that go along with it. And I plan on being right there, encouraging, pushing, and driving them on, until they can stand on their own and do it for themselves.
Last night was crummy, but today is better. There’s another lesson for you. Time heals all wounds. What a cliché, but what the hell.
Here’s another: Things always look better in the morning. Life just keeps moving despite the things that happen to you personally. No one gets a day off.
Things do look better today, although it’s still raining. That’s kind of depressing. Pretty soon that will be over too and it will be just one, long, hot, summer day, after another and we’ll be praying for rain.
So for my boy and his team, and his first, non-romantic heartbreak, the Music List will be all about…Heartbreak. What else?
Grab a tissue and settle in. The “Heartbreakers” Music List. Just below.
just shy of pretty 