So, I've been using my Typepad account instead of VOX, and whenever I come back over this way I have shit loads of spam comments to delete. Surely, VOX, if you delete a spam account, it should automatically delete all of the spam comments they've left as well?
I believe when people die, that their spirit is absorbed into the universe, just as god intended*. My mom, my best friend, my grand dad....
On a nightly basis, (usually when I take the dogs out) I look up at the sky, see all of those stars and realize that the number of familiar spirits is increasing. It makes me sad, but it also makes me incredibly curious.
I say hello to them all, say a little prayer and wonder what it's like for them out there....
(*not really the catholic way, but consider this yet another example of why I am not a good catholic.)
- My tooth hurts. Again.
- Gotta get some dental insurance, or maybe just some magically found money in an old purse.
- Just over half a stack of papers done; two and a half stacks to go.
- Shouldn't have spent so much time on the phone, but I got to catch up with friends, which I should always spend more time doing.
- Mostly clean house, which is nice. Did tons of dishes and microwave cleaning and whatnot today.
- New pajama pants, very softy nice.
- Cat peace continues to hold.
- Almost all of tomorrow off to play more catch-up.
- And SLP will be home. :)
pho with flank steak from a place by my house. Dessert will be at Puka bar.
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after her performance of Strip Search at S Factor's LA studio.
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This is "astronomy month" for me. I didn't mean for it to turn out that way. Sometimes these things just happen. Today I completed setup of a display inside a glass case in the lobby of Westlake's library. The display features modern telescopes loaned to me by Astrozap --a local company-- and antique instruments from an astronomy club friend who is a collector and restorer. I created all of the signs and labels in the case and all of those books on the floor are mine! My only regret is that I couldn't get a banner or big sign to "title" the display. I think people will get the idea anyway. Oh yeah, "astronomy month"... so, there's the display case, then next week I do a public sidewalk astronomy event at that same library. On the 18th, I help commemorate the 70th anniversary of the college observatory, unveil a mural-sized astro-image granted to the observatory by NASA as part of the IYA finale, and offer early evening views of Jupiter -- there's prep involved in those things, as well. Next, on the 21st, I'll be doing a presentation on The Pleiades at a metropark nature center with a brief star party to follow. Finally, on the 28th, it's back to the observatory where we'll be featuring views of the Moon through the grand old telescope -- stunning viewing, actually! Whew. All that AND going to work every day. Yup, for me it's Astronomy Month!
Our nephew Shane and his girlfriend Maggie eloped yesterday in Atlanta. We are very happy for them and will see them on Thanksgiving at Charlotte and Randy's house.
A year ago tomorrow Kevin's brother Shawn married Kim in San Jose. Kevin arrived in California the day Proposition 8 passed to celebrate his brother's happiness. This week we got to watch people a thousand miles away vote on the civil rights of their fellow citizens in the state of Maine.
So, since we have lived in Nashville we have celebrated our nephew Billy's wedding, Shawn's, Shane's, and in June next year Megan and Ryan will be married. My sister and her boyfriend Bob eloped also.
If, suppose, I died tomorrow Kevin would be left alone, lose his Medical Insurance, forfeit my pension, and have to ask my family's permission to bury me.
Each time we celebrate the union of those we love we quietly get to reflect on just what the implications are for us. We have only been together for 18 years. Collectively more than all our newly married loved ones combined as far as the time they have been together prior to getting married. There has been no party or anniversary wishes. No invitations to send out or thank you notes to write.
But we have each other for as long as we are alive and perhaps one day somebody will "allow" us the same basic civil rights as the people in our lives have.
As you know we love our families dearly and support them all and share in their joy each time a milestone occurs. It would be nice to invite them all to share in our joy but we have decided that we will wait until we can do it legally rather than do something symbolic. They all treat us as though we are married so it would really just be a technicality anyhow. Oh, and then there are the 1,200 legal rights we would enjoy in addition to a new toaster and a few gift cards.
Today I celebrate my independence from the British...
Whilst tossing away pretty much everything I own (CDs and DVDs... you're next!) I found a box full of stuff pertaining to that Guy-Who-I-Hope-Chokes-on-an-English-Muffin. Pictures, gifts he'd given me (including a pair of shoes that were not my style), etc. I went through the pictures and laughed as I went along... he really was a goofy dude... but it was sort of surreal, because while I know I dated this guy, it was like looking at someone I never even knew. Even looking at me was weird, because I really don't recognize that person. I pulled out a few pictures that had some other friends in them and tossed the Brit into the trash bag. I found another stack of stuff from the Blood Seller and tossed most of that as well.
Shaniqua came in and said she never would be able to toss pictures. I told her that these people are in my past, and frankly I don't care or think about them any more, so why hold onto these things? To me, they're just taking up space.
Maybe that makes me cold hearted. I don't know. But I do know that hanging onto items from the past has never meant much to me. Whether good or bad, the experiences I had with these people have shaped who I have become now, and really, that's all the reminding I need.
So, goodbye to the Brit, and goodbye to the Bloodseller. You've been cleared out.
I do kind of wonder, though, wherever you are, do you somehow know you've been tossed?
I guess that's a question to which I will never know the answer.
-K.
Finished Gone by Michael Grant.
This is a pretty fitting series to start right after reading Life as We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone (and right before Under the Dome), because there are similar themes.
In this one, everyone over the age of 14 disappears, all at once. (So kids 14 and younger are now responsible for themselves/each other.)
To make matters more interesting, some of these kids start developing powers. (Think X-Men style mutations.)
Not surprisingly, they start to break into two camps--Team Sam (good) and Team Caine (awful).
This is an interesting series. (I'll be starting book 2 tonight or tomorrow; Gone ended with no real sense of resolution.)