Palo Duro

Lost and Found

This weekend I lost: my car key
I believe Jerry left it on the table, nevertheless it is no longer there. No worries, I found the spare. But Adam had to take me to the airport, and Jerry had to stress all weekend.

This weekend I found: my ability to breathe.
We took a good long hike in the Palo Duro Canyon, Mark and I. The wildflowers were like a carpet. I haven't felt that calm in a long time. Also found an unopened bottle of water which came in handy during the last mile.





This weekend I lost: my job.
Sadly my run at the Alamo is over, as there was some sort of deal with my request off. It sucks, and I'll miss it a little (and I'm sorry to anyone I might have screwed over by being out of town this weekend, I really am. It wasn't my fault, honest). It's cool, I was thinking about quitting anyway.

This weekend I found: an old friend in the produce aisle.
I ran in my favorite Danager (Regs) at HEB. I am kinda sad about losing my job (although I don't really need it) because it's only the second time I've ever been fired, and I've had a faffilion different jobs, from graveyard shift at a refrigerator factory to nuclear power plant janitor to teacher to you name it. Seeing Dan made me feel better.

This weekend I lost: my new cell phone battery.
Either that or it didn't come with one. I found myself in the airport this morning with two cell phones, one with a dead battery, one with no battery. I bought a ten dollar emergency phone charger. It didn't fit my phone. I returned said charger. I also had a car charger in my purse, which was no help at all.

This weekend I found: a bit of faith in humanity.
Thanks to the kindness of strangers with Nokia phones with batteries, Samgsung chargers, and laptops, I was able to contact Dana to get me from the airport, despite my dead phones.

Listen to Ivy--sexy shit.

Windy Shitty

real eyes realize real lies

Hey kids.
I'm still in Chicago, but don't feel like talking about it. The Shining's on Sci-Fi and I have cool pictures from my night out...

On an unrelated note, I've noticed that in addition to becoming more claustrophic the older I get, the more conspiracy theories I develop. For your perusal:
1. Birth control is supplied by the government and designed to keep womankind down. Yeah we don't get preggers, but we also get crazy-hormonal, thereby unable to accomplish the shit we really need to address to stand on an equal footing.

2. America has screwy priorities because we don't have royalty but instead celebrity. Unlike royalty, celebrities don't have any obligation to act in a noble or decent way, nor to give/plan/help anything or anyone. They just make excessive amounts of money and act like assholes, because all we care about is what they look like on the red carpet or who they're dating.

3. The public school system (by and large) doesn't give much of a shit about minority education--we only care when we need a systematic form of training minorities like for the army or the Industrial Revolution. Public school culture is white middle class culture--other forms of literacy or knowledge aren't accepted. That's really too bad, as we could learn a lot from other people.

4. There's no such thing as "the one." It's statistically impossible given the number of people on this planet, a dumb white-dress fantasy perpetuated by romantic comedies. There is, though, love. Not to be mushy, but I think it is the driving force behind everything truly good, and occasionally for some unlucky people, bad. See #8.

5. The moon landing happened. It did. Get over it. And there are UFO's. There might not be aliens (or ghosts for that matter) but to assume we're alone in the universe is naive. To assume ANYTHING is naive.

6. Recidivism rates for educated (while incarcerated) prisoners vs. non-educated is much, much lower, but our current attitude towards prison reforms is one of retribution and punishment. Which I agree with--do the crime, do the time. But why not educate people while they're locked up and give them some skills for when they get out? Not just vocational but personal too. It would take time, money, organization, and a lot of research and devotion, but would pay off big time--we spend a shitton of money on incarcerating and releasing people, many of whom end up right back in the slammer cause they can't cope when they get out.

7. Karma is real. It makes sense, and it happens. Organized religion on the other hand have served as a vehicle for some of the worst crimes on humanity, primarily at the hands of rich white men. There is a God, and He is not pleased with that shit.

8. This isn't really a conspiracy theory: there are precious few things that really matter in life. Money, status, looks, etc are not among them. And to be honest, no one ever guaranteed you'd be happy--you gotta make your own happy. You were never promised a rose garden. As time itself is a waste of time, only dumb people waste it on the unimportant shit, and the even dumber people don't even know what the unimportant shit is.

So suck on that.

Be back soon.

baby don't you wanna go...

Dear Blogg,

Greetings from the Windy City. I stepped off the plane Thursday with a sense of purpose, of gladness. The air felt and smelt crisp, absent of Texan humidity. 8 days of training or no 8 days of training, I was happy to get the fuck out of Dodge for a while. I haven't been here for over 10 years, and I wanna to go walk down the streets, look at the buildings, sit by the lake. Be alone.

The first night was a comedy of errors. The shuttle driver who took us from Midway to O'Hare (not far distance-wise but worlds apart) was a crusty old bastard who didn't say a word. Neither did anyone in the van. He rode the edge of the lane like a drunk prom queen, and I tried to ignore the flagrant finger I was receiving on the passenger's side. I was rapt with wonder over being in a new old city, loving the neighborhoods, the houses, both ghetto and fabulous, the billboards, the graffiti, the promise, the people. I've always been attuned to cities' personalities. Suddenly I burst out with "BROOKFIELD ZOO!" like some sort of Tourrette's victim. I had seen a sign and immediately thought of elephants. Still no one spoke.

Within walking distance from the Extended Stay Deluxe on Touhy Street was a Chili's, an Office Max, a Krispy Kreme, a Target, and some other crap. I walked a half mile to buy a bottle of wine only to find that Percy, the clueless front desk dick with whom I would have many frustrated conversations that ended with me saying "fantastic" and walking away, had no wine opener and no idea where they went. I would have walked back to the store to get one too, if they weren't closed. More pressing, he had no idea how to get my shit online, and there's no way I can go a week without internet. Despite his name Percy is neither gay nor black (maybe gay but definitely not black), and he is most certainly not helpful. After 20 minutes of tech support guidance from a patient Paki (and a patient Wentlandt), I got it together. Meanwhile, I learned I am not missing much with no cable tv. I did learn that Posh Spice (Posh, right? the one married to Beckham?) is starting a reality show, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 8 months til they're divorced. Any takers? I'm also pleased that Day After Tomorrow was on yesterday and Deep Impact is on tomorrow--I dig disaster flicks. Oh, and it's nice to not have Texas brought into commercials, such as "that's what I like about Texas," or "it's bigger in Texas and better in a Dodge." Other states don't have this weird obsession with their name that they have to bring it into their television programming.

Morning came too damn soon.

Training was pretty boring, I won't get into it. I've met some cool people, most of them fairly young and in grad school. I thought it was funny that the people in my group thought I was really intellectual and blah blah after our week of phone conferences. I was usually stoned. After 8 hours of that nonsense, some of us hoofed it to the Chili's to get some margarita in us, and it became clear that a few people were pretty pumped to get away from their kids and spouses. Not in a sleazy kinda way, but just excited to make a liquor store trip and trying to get everyone to hang out in random rooms together and drink. I did that in college, so after Chili's and another trip to Target to buy a swimsuit (a horrible experience but necessary as my sister and her kids are coming tomorrow and staying a night at another hotel with a pool) I retreated to my room. That pretty much brings us up to now.

more pics, the last of a nearby bank whose name baffles me:








Wouldn't that be the 15th bank?
Ma n' Pa are swinging through on Sunday, David on Monday. I was hoping to get my sister by herself so we could go cut a rug, but I love her and her husband and kids and can't wait to see them too, even if it means stuffing my out-of-control boobs into a Target swimsuit and swimming in a gross hotel pool.

UFOs over O'Hare, y'all.


Note the Texas dude. Arizona or something.


So, Blogg, if you want any Chicago souvenirs, let me know. Be home in a week!

what I learned on my vacation

I usually post something after a trip back home. Where you grew up has a good deal of bearing on who you are, so I think it's important to reflect. Plus each trip home brings a lot of emotions to the surface for me. I'm extremely thankful for my family, and for my childhood. Compared to what's happening around us to kids everyday, I was and am blessed.

So, things I learned (and relearned) while home:

1. 8 year olds are made of questions.
2. Hanna Montana is not cool.
3. Nothing brings out the mullets like a town festival.
4. In Holland, the mayor is called the burgermeister. I thought that meant Mr. Burger, but what do I know?
4. There are a lot of fatties at fairs.
5. I might be the baby of the family, but I'm a grownass woman, and I can do what I want.
6. 12 year olds don't talk much, and that's a good thing.
7. One of the burgermeister's jobs is to make sure the streets are clean enough to have the parade. Usually they're not, so people (in their Dutch costumes complete with wooden shoes) scrub the streets as part of the tradition. Hey, your ancestors did weird stuff too.
8. My nuclear family (numbering 11) eats exactly 3 large pizzas from Happy Joe's
9. My sister and I sound exactly the same, and flip our hair out of our eyes with the same frequency.
10. Night at the Museum is kind of a crappy movie.
11. My brother rules at kickball.
12. Parades in my hometown consist of mostly tractors and firetrucks, the Shriners, a piddly but well-meaning band, and a float or two.

13. It's hard to get along with your family when you're the only non-Republican/Conservative.
14. Five year olds are rad.
15. It's nice to not run into old classmates, unless they've gotten fat and have a few googly-looking kids.
16. My great-grandparents were immigrants from the province of Groningen, as was most of our hometown before the war. They lost three kids to the flu on the voyage, continued on to Illinois and had three more including my grandfather.
17. Dutch food is not good, unless you like pickled meats.
18. This is a cool place.

19. Congregations of 10,000 plus cause people to forget how to walk. This is exponential whenever you actually have some place to go.
20. Margaritas in O'Hare airport cost $8.50. That's highway, er, airport robbery.
21. I can totally quit smoking. I went four days without so much as some second-hand smoke and I was fine.
22. Not all church-going folk are hypocritical assholes.
23. Barbeque is much better in Texas.
24. Wind plusu funnel cake equals disaster.
25. I always sorta felt like my brother and sister must be the happier ones with their spouses and cute kids, but they really have zero personal time, little sex, and have to listen to a lot of whining all day.
26. Airplanes have a narcoleptic effect on me.