We all ride alone

Except Twinkie, who turns the world on with her smile.

Happy Birthday, Girlfriend!!!

Snack is just a funny word

As I sit here eating these tasty Rainbow Iso Peanuts, it occurs to me that the Chinese like to take peanuts and wrap them in other stuff to make new peanut snacks. I admire that. Love me some peanuts.

It also occurs to me that these Rainbow Iso Peanuts are well-traveled, having been manufactured in China, distributed to Hawaii, and then sent by my parents to me in the Ville.

And now it occurs to me that they may be poison. Aw, shit.

Winged visitor

A little beauty came to visit. Actually, it was a big beauty. You can't tell very well from the picture, but this moth was a good five inches across. It was about to die (you can see how the edges of its wings are drying). I'd never seen such a large moth live (just in museums and on TV and whatnot). I watched it in the doorway, then shooed it out, figuring it would die there and then maybe I could keep it? But the next morning when I went to look, it was gone. Either crawled off to die somewhere else or was eaten by something else.

What made you laugh today?

Here's what set me off:

One of the breakers in the breaker box in my new house is labeled "Furnis."

I have to fax some papers to Mary Midget. (Actually, I was given the name over the phone, so maybe her name is Merry Midget. Let's go with that. And, yes, I kept asking the guy to repeat her name as if I couldn't understand him because it was so hilarious.)

And remember Black Gold?



Ahahahahahahaha

Words, words, words

Recent commentary on the GEG:

Your middle name is vice.
I go away for two weeks and you change your entire life!
You're so ... specific.
You're such a pain.
Thanks. Now I'm gonna have to go home and beat it like it stole from me.
You always smell good.
You take good care of me.
I thought about it and you're wrong.
I think your smile could sell cars.
I never thought I'd meet someone more argumentative than me.
You don't bug me as much as you think you do.
You bug me.
You sure do get bitchy when you're hungry or tired.

And the sweetest:

I missed you.

Stuff I didn't know until quite recently

1. If I take a turn too fast and my SUV thinks it's about to tip over, it makes a frantic beeping sound. Isn't that cute?




2. I am able to resist the urge to pick a fight.

3. Kathy Griffin is dating Steve Wozniak? Color me jealous.

That's what HE said

Ladies, they're on to us being on to them. Pilot tells me that dudes are now all well aware that we don't need them and that they have to keep coming up with reasons for us to WANT them around. Oh, and they're okay with it.

Wherever you go, there you are

I'll soon be leaving my little apartment and moving into the beautiful house I've bought. I'll miss this place. I really will. This is where I got myself back together and started to make things happen: emotionally, mentally, socially, professionally, sexually, physically, just about every way. The beginning of my new life has been a wild ride and I can't believe it's gone by so quickly. Now me and my fuzzy little best guy are going to have lots more room to roam, but wherever I end up, it's still me that I'll be spending all my time with, and I like it that way.

You've either got it or you don't

I'm talking about strength. Inner strength. You can't look at someone and know if they have it. But pretty much as soon as they start talking, you'll know. Or if you read their writing. Browsing through blogs and such every once in awhile, it's easy to see who has inner strength and will never give up. As opposed to who has let the world get the best of them and will never figure out how to shake it off and move forward. So often, the strong ones make reference to the mistakes their parents made, but their matter-of-fact tone highlights the contrast between the strong and the weak. They simply don't let it destroy them. The weak do, blaming everything that happens on their parents, as if there's some middle life road between destiny and self-determination called "it's all my parents' fault."

I saw an ugly scene this weekend. Pilot's mother is going through a divorce, her second. After his parents had him, they realized they never should have been parents; they just didn't know how. Pretty much left him to create himself. Build himself. And he's done a hell of a job. An unbelievable job. I'm in awe of what he's made himself into, out of sheer inner strength and power. Not because of his parents, but independent of them, with inner strength and a fire in his belly.

And so it goes... This weekend, Pilot's mother and stepfather were fighting, after he didn't show to pick up the two 11-year-old kids they adopted (yup, stepfather decided he wanted kids and talked the mom into it, and now three adults who never should have been parents are parents), and she'd tried to drop them off two times. They were yelling, cursing, hanging up on each other, badmouthing each other, causing a horrible scene. Who was hurting and crying and shaking and memorizing every word? The kids. The kids who are going to have to build themselves into decent human beings because they sure as hell aren't getting any help from their parents. Their parents are tearing them down (and these are two little kids who've been through terrible drama already in their young lives). I think they'll be able to do it. I hope they will. It was a blessing that Pilot and I happened to be there and were able to defuse the situation by taking the kids where they needed to go so neither parent had to "lose." Neither parent wanted to let us do it; isn't that mature? So they could both sit there and feel victorious, in addition to angry. It was just one afternoon, though, one altercation and one ride across town. The rest is up to that little boy and that little girl.

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

Best...PSA...EVER

Hate flying? You don't know the half of it

I knew we were all getting screwed seven ways from Sunday when flying, but I've learned so much more about the operation from Pilot, and it isn't pretty. This example can be used as another reason for you to hate flying or for you to hate me. Take your pick; I don't really care.

Pilot set me up to fly out of the Ville a few days ago, to LaGuardia, where I would get on the plane he was flying into Providence, for a few days of R&R. I had a very short layover to get to that second flight, so just to make sure that I wouldn't miss it, Pilot and his co-pilot agreed/arranged that if my flight into LaGuardia was delayed or I had some other problem getting there on time, they would "find" something wrong with the plane and call in maintenance to check it out. They would keep doing so until I made the flight.

As it turned out, his flight into NY was delayed more than mine was, I made the flight on time, no fake delays were needed this time, and we had a fabulous vacation. But there will come a day when he'll need to do that for me.

Just thought you should know this kind of thing goes on all the time -- Enjoy!

Purr, purr, grumble

I keep losing my voice. Not all the way, but I get that low, gravelly sound going on a regular basis. It's definitely sexy (I hear), but I can't figure out why. I don't smoke anymore and I'm not sick. My throat doesn't hurt. Do people's voices just change sometimes? Am I turning into a teenage boy? What the hell are they putting in the water these days???