Yes... a blog

Sincerely, L. Cohen

2009-04-05T22:30:00.001-05:00

I had listened to only the first couple of cuts off Leonard Cohen's "London Live" album (streamed by NPR online) before I was surfing the net to find out Cohen's tour dates and stops in the US. The closest location to me was in Grand Prairie, Texas (between Dallas and Ft. Worth) this last Friday, April 3rd. A modest three hour drive away. Within minutes I was on Ticketmaster. My ongoing unemployment and need to conserve cash nagged at me as I trolled for the best "cheap" seat available. There was one available in the center of the first row of the mezzanine. A respectable seat for $57. I...

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So How's It Going?

2009-03-03T18:27:00.002-06:00

As I sat in my corner of space in the back of the room, I longed for the once-held luxury of a private office. I fished a kleenex out of my drawer and feigned an allergy attack in a feeble effort to justify the tears that were creeping down my cheek. Why was I crying? Moments before I'd opened an e-mail from someone I've been at odds with of late. The e-mail was from me to me. A year ago today, I composed an e-mail via FutureMe.org and set it to arrive today. I'd forgotten I'd done that – as I well knew I would. The e-mail took me off guard – hence the tears. It asked about things that I'd...

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On This Day

2009-01-20T13:41:00.003-06:00

A few memories have popped to the surface today: I was embarassed when our cocker-spaniel would consistently bark at a black person. An evening, when my parents were out to dinner, when I turned on all the lights in the house and hid under the coffee table because the TV was reporting that blacks were marching into white neighborhoods and rioting. A Thanksgiving dinner when I was mad because my grandparent's black maid, Murphy, had to eat her Thanksgiving dinner alone in the kitchen. "Whites Only" signs above water fountains. Being horrified watching news reports of blacks being...

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Auld Lang Syne

2009-01-05T10:41:00.002-06:00

Ah. Well. Here I sit - and have been for a couple of minutes while listening to the first couple of spins off the last.fm wheel of fortune: John Hammond - Buzz Federline segued into Ludovico Einaudi - Fuori dalla notte... I don't think there's a better illustration of the flaky layers of my psyche... The joke was on me this morning when I rushed out the door and to school only to discover school does not start until tomorrow. My two week hiatus had a bonus day. And with that bonus day went any further excuse for avoiding this space and picking the lint out of my navel. So here I am. Pecking...

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Me - the disaster movie

2008-10-26T18:55:00.002-05:00

I shouldn't be allowed in a kitchen. If I had a mate, I'm sure I would be eternally banned from the vicinity of anything that is related to food preparation. But. I don't have a mate. I have cats. And they don't care. Most of the time. I am entering week four of my "new path." A path that is dictated by budget - a very tight budget. I've had to re-examine my spending habits, which included re-examining my eating habits. Being a complete kitchen idiot, ninety-nine percent of my meals manifested out of a to-go box, bag or, if I was feeling daring and adventurous, the micro-wave. Up until this...

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A walk in the woods

2008-10-21T18:05:00.004-05:00

I got to put some things in the ground Even with this season coming around It's green's last gasp And leaves brown And autumn days are winding down --Sara Hamer - Things to Forget It's not because I'm going dotty. It has happened twice a year, every year, for many years. So, it's not a symptom of old age creeping near. No, really, it's merely a symptom of the changing seasons. You see, every spring and every fall I experience a few brief moments when I'm not sure what season it is. It's a deja vu of sorts - when the weather mirrors where it was only a few months before. Are we moving from...

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Does Dan-Active Work for an Irregular Brain?

2008-10-12T14:34:00.007-05:00

Wow. It's been a while, hasn't it? I have to confess: I haven't written in so long because, well, I've been mentally constipated. Truly - with my life (and the times) doing a 180 in the last couple of months, I think the sphincter of my capacity for self expression contracted tighter than prairie dog's butt in a dust bowl (thank you, Dan Rather). In what I hope turns out not to be a pathetic effort, I'm just gonna get rambling here to see what I can jog loose and, at the very least, get caught up on the doings in my little speck of the universe. My Life and Welcome To It I'm a week into...

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Hard Day

2008-09-11T16:32:00.001-05:00

I haven't forgotten I have a blog here. It's just that life has stepped and taken my attention elsewhere for a bit. My planned post was going to be about my life changes waiting around the corner. About all those things, ups and downs, one faces when at the edge of the diving board ready to jump off. In spite of the upheaval of my personal life events, my outlook is positive and optimistic. But today.... I can't write about those things... yet. Right now, my life's quirks and quakes just aren't important. Today I was reminded how brutally fleeting life is. I was reminded how fragile we are....

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Snews that's fit to print

2008-07-30T11:04:00.004-05:00

I have to confess. When it comes to local news, I am an ostrich - my head is firmly planted in the sand. Yeah, I know - it's irresponsible, but I have a responsibility to my health to keep my blood pressure down! Years ago, I gave up on the local TV news. The competition to outdo each other on "Live-Late Breaking," if it bleeds, it leads, so called news wore me out. Rarely was there a story or "late-breaking" news that I felt carried any relevance to my life in general, informed me of something that was compelling or that I needed to know. However, there are exceptions. During tornado...

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Discovery of the Century

2008-07-26T22:11:00.001-05:00

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Happily ever after - surving PC abuse

2008-07-06T16:16:00.002-05:00

It's a funny thing about relationships. For some, they fall into a relationship as easily and gently as snowflake falls from the sky. For others - falling into a relationship is like falling down a rocky slope - thrilling, scary and leaving them black and blue at the bottom. That rocky slope aptly describes my relationships. With computers, that is. From the day I abandoned my first computer - a Mac - for the increasingly ubiquitous PC, I've nursed the wounds and bruises those relationships evinced. What would start as a seemingly happy union would end in a bitterly contested and painful...

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Spinster for Hire

2008-06-27T20:01:00.004-05:00

I've enjoyed a small variety of jobs in my working lifetime. I've been a liquor store cashier, a candy store attendant, a file clerk for a tuna company, a psychiatric attendant in a mental hospital, an assistant stage manager for a summer musical theatre company, a union election monitor, a customer service rep for the water department, an actor, artistic director, sandwich shop minion, waitress, employment counselor, performing arts center director and then employment counselor again - my current job. Of course, the most satisfying and longest periods of employment were as an actor and then...

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The One Where I Play Around with Live Writer

2008-06-11T12:01:00.004-05:00

I'm all about geeky stuff. I'm like a mosquito to bare skin when it comes to new internet thingamabobs and tools - I just can't get enough. So, when I read this post from internet neighbor Otis, it was incumbent upon me to check out Live Writer as well. After a few moments of frustration with install (lovely, lovely Microsoft - still hasn't got the user-friendly part down), I was underway with this post. This blog uses the Blogger API to publish to my domain. I'm pleased to report that the first test - the blog set-up - was a breeze. Score one! Currently, I am using the Web Layout to...

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With apologies to Mr. Obama

2008-06-05T18:01:00.004-05:00

This blog doesn't get many visitors. I'm completely OK with that. I come here to write, ramble, drone on about stuff and to, occassionally, attempt to write something worthy of being read. I had a very unhappy reader today. He/She left a comment on an old post which, bluntly, called me "a pathetic, jerk-off, time-wasting jack ass". The commenter didn't find what she/he was expecting and just couldn't withhold her/his wrath. What was the commenter in search of? Dirt. Dirt on the (now) Democrat nominee for the President of the United States, Barack Obama. You see, that particular post was...

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And the Wind Comes Sweeping

2008-06-05T12:10:00.002-05:00

Nearly a week of wind, wind, wind! Forty MPH gusts - almost knocked me on my butt at lunch today. The the tree above caught my eye as I left the building - all the trees are in a perpetual northward lean.

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Faces in the Wind

2008-06-01T21:39:00.001-05:00

The iPicture above was taken with my iPhone while enjoying a perfect iEvening with friends and music in the park. Karla Bonoff was singing and the sky took on that lazy summer turquoise and orange color. This was just a damn good day.

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I rhy got thm

2008-05-14T11:34:00.005-05:00

Heart watch update: Two hours yesterday were spent sitting and lying at the doctors office. Mostly sitting. During that time, I had a rush on iPhone blackjack that earned me a thousand fake dollars and then the battery pooped out. My battery (read - heart) was kicking along. Another ECG revealed the anomaly which turned out to be premature PVCs (not related to premature ejaculation or premature gray or premature birth or....). Nothing to be concerned about unless it just refuses to subside. Stress is most likely the cause. So, I'm beating out a syncopated rhythm that sometimes...

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How to Enjoy Being a Lazy Ass

2008-05-11T15:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Saturday, I took an intentional holiday from responsibility. I say intentional only to delineate from the weekend days in the last few months I've slothed due to health - mental and physical. No, yesterday I made the conscious decision to let the bills go unpaid, the laundry unwashed, the cat-box ungroomed, the dishes remain in the sink and curled up with a book. It just felt like the thing to do. At brunch I brought up that I'd finally seen The Golden Compass (Netflix). I was the last of my group to see it. All of us agreed the movie left us wanting. I felt it moved at such a...

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Of hiccups, zombies & mint chocolate chip

2008-05-06T15:18:00.009-05:00

I took in my surroundings, although a bit difficult since my surroundings wouldn't stop spinning. The signs on the door admonished me to keep my cell phone off, keep the door closed, and to not dare leave before Nurse Ratchet gave her permission. On my left was a wall chart depicting various stages of eye disease. Staring back at me was a line of progressively worsening red and festering eyeballs. I wondered what zombie volunteered for the photo shoot. That had to be a creepy casting call. Classic rock boomed from the overhead. "Sugar (ba-da-bum-bum bump-bum) oooohh honey, honey...

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Another year....

2008-04-28T16:12:00.003-05:00

It is such a cliche, but I am at a loss for any other way to express it. Time is moving way too fast. In a few hours from now, around 12:30 am, April 29, the clock will be at the hour of my birth, which happened fifty-seven years ago. It is not possible that it has been an entire year since I posted that picture to the right. That's my favorite picture of me. She's a goofy kid who turned into a goofy adult and is now a goofy geezer. I found it in my father's things when we cleaned out his apartment last year. This past year's been kind of a tough one. A year I don't want to repeat - ever....

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I can haz muziks

2008-04-27T12:30:00.005-05:00

My home town launched a free music festival last night that is hoped to become an annual event. With three blocks of our downtown closed off, two main stages flanked the east and west end with several mini-venues sprinkled within various store-fronts and one larger indoor venue. The festival ran from noon to 11:00 pm - I'd tell you who the artist's were, but it's website has already erased that info - a list of the artists can be found via this link. But I do know there was a healthy mix of genre's from indie to bluegrass. Word has it that it wants to grow up and emulate the massive SXSW...

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Can you hear me now?

2008-04-25T15:39:00.003-05:00

Communication. It’s been on my mind of late and especially in the last couple of days. Due to a couple of friends’ recent discovery and subsequent blogging about Twitter, I’d thought I’d chime in and ramble on a bit about it today. Since the dawn of the internet and the ubiquitous chat-box, I’ve been fascinated by the ever-increasing facility of instant communication with just about anyone, anywhere, anytime. I remember just how out of the world cool it was to type a sentence on my Mac and for it to appear - one letter at a time - on the screen of my friend's Mac instantaneously. And I...

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Politics - scattered, smothered, covered and chunked

2008-04-20T11:42:00.006-05:00

Enough of the gloom and doom, dear readers. The sun is out and I've let some light in. I just may be back to my usual self. In fact, I'm darn near perky, if you can believe that. My appetite seems to have returned in spades. To satisfy it, I paid a visit this morning to one of my favorite breakfast spots in town. It'd been a few months since my last visit due to the initiation of a new diet - one for health, more than for losing weight. I, therefore, had banned myself from... Waffle House Yeah. Crazy of me, I know. Who in their right mind would do a thing like that? Well, it's fairly...

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Dancing with the devil

2008-04-16T14:50:00.005-05:00

I am posting the following more for my own benefit than for any other reason. If any one reads this and gains some positive use from it, then so much the better. This is how it went down: Tues. 4/08: Last Tramadol takenWed. 4/09: Withdrawal symptoms start trickling in - restlessness, insomnia..;Thurs.4/10: Leave work at 1:00 due to inability to concentrate, put together a coherent sentence and to sit still;The next 24 hours are somewhat of a blur. Very little sleep and any sleep that did happen was out of utter exhaustion; Fri. 4/11: 6:30-ish pm - felt better after a few hours of sofa...

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How not to buy a Wii

2008-04-13T17:02:00.002-05:00

It's been a rough few days in the land of Yesablog. I only thought I was kidding about the withdrawal thing. Last week was just a warm-up for the real thing this week. I will never - and I mean never - put myself willingly through anything like that again. I'm about 85% out of the woods. Thanks to a ten day prescription of Ambien, I was finally able to get some real sleep - 16 hours worth - (you read that right) after two and a half days of mind-fucking agony. During the past three days, I gained $600 via the hobby that will not be named here, ordered a pizza and cheese sticks - but don't...

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