September 30

Happy Birthday to one Valerie Bejarano Carter Hamilton! If I had my choice of celebrations, you better believe that champagne & lobster by the fire would be the way to go as well! We hope you have a great day & weekend of celebrations.

Tomorrow I will wake up and it will be October 1, and all I want to know is where the hell all the time is going. I made the decision to go to school for 5 months, and the program starts at the end of November. This morning I realized that all time is accounted for between now and that start date. AHHHHH Pressure mounting!!!

Between Fer playing every friday night from now till Thanksgiving, a re-tile of KatoChanel's bathroom next weekend, my school orientation, friends coming for visits, Ellie's baptism (Finally! I know right, how could I let her be a heathen for so long!?!?) starting school for both me & El, well.... that takes us right up to Thanksgiving. Help Me.

And apparrently there are like, normal living moments that need to take place in that time frame as well... like diapers, food, Trick-or-Treat and 900 times to load or unload the dishwasher, and frankly, I do not see how I have any more time. I mean, I know I could cut back on all the TV watching, but seriously folks, is that really the way to go? I mean, lets get the priorities straight here! How could I leave GH when there are so many relationships currently at stake, and this is Oprah's 20th season! And did you see who is playing the new character on ER? Those bastards! I thought I was out with Noah Wyle.

Wait wait wait, i think i may need a TV intervention. Lets list whats in the TiVo menu:
Sunday: the 6 to 10 block on ABC. AFV, Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy. Woah, that may be enough in and of itself, but lets move on.
Monday-Friday daytime: Oprah, GH, Between the Lions (Ellie) Everyday Italian (i cut out 30 minute meals... I have seen them all now)
Evenings: Medium, Gilmore Girls, My Name is Earl, Everybody hates Chris, Americas next top model (thanks Markovicious!!! now I am trapped!) ER, and in Jan. the return of Scrubs! (My boyfriends back!)

I think that totals 24 1/2 hours of television per week (if you include commercial time). Oh my god, I think that's the same amount of time for my student assistantship in college. Looks like i am going to have to make some decisions about what is gonna have to go, but I'll tell you right now, its not gonna be Gilmore or GH so don't even think it!!!

In Other News:

I think I am the winner in the game of procrastination: Yesterday we finally received Elliott's birth certificate. How awesome are we, she's almost 14 months and finally official, and she'll be able to answer all the questions herself at her baptism. Rock on.

-over and out-

Recap

Dear Internet,

Sorry for leaving you alone for so long yet again. I hope you still love me. Elliott & I just returned from another extended Ohio trip. This one was not filled with fun and games however... no, this one turned into the "fix-it" trip. Which, by the way, is a-ok with me... I like being handy. But after fixing the in-laws screen door, my mom's lazy susan, and a general re-org on the guest bathroom, mom's bathroom closet, the upstairs and cleaning out the garage, Maynan was left with a volkswagen sized pile to load up out of the garage. Thats after she & K had already loaded their cars up to the brim. Yeah... busy busy. (sorry about that maynan ;-) )

BUT, this is not the point. The point is that the last few days we were there, we didn't drive around too much because of all the stuff I was doing. And I had noticed that it smelled a little of sour milk, quite possibly Ellie had spilled some milk in the car and we needed to get the car detailed upon our return to Chicago. But no... it could not be so simple. Being married for 6 years now, you would think I would recognize a Fer sabatoge when I smell one.

Right. Fer.... I go to pack up the car Monday morning, in the rain, and open the car to the smell of rotting flesh. Thats right folks, not a mild garbage smell... a dead carcass in the trunk kind of smell. So I am standing in the driveway, ripping everything out of the car while shouting "THIS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THAT DAMN FER, I KNOW IT!" After a few minutes of searching, I found it. Tupperware, under the front seat, FROM FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 16. It is now Monday September 26 when I locate it. 10 days. TEN DAYS! WTF i ask you. Who does things like this? FER, its always Fer.

So i pack the car, in the rain, with all the doors open, praying that the smell dissapates before I have to put Ellie in the car. I pray that the smell does not permiate our clothing while driving, so that at a rest stop someone does not call the State Highway Patrol and report that a mother and child smell like dead body... maybe she has the body of her husband in the trunk of the car! And possibly, if he would have been near me when i found "the gift" it could have been true.

I call Fer to lament this to him... the drive with a crying baby who won't sleep because IT FUCKING STINKS IN HERE! And he says (i truely can't believe he said this) "Ooohhh, riiiight. You know, when I got back to Chicago I thought about that... I just forgot to call you and tell you it was under there. Oh well." And then he laughed. LAUGHED! So I picked his ass up from work, 6 hours later, and he opended the car door and said "Oh my god, it stinks in here."

And it woke the crazy, angry bag-lady in me... "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT I TOLD YOU IT F-ING STINKS IN HERE, I FREAKING CALLED YOU AND TOLD YOU WHAT YOU DID, DID YOU THINK I WAS LYING SHE'S BEEN CRYING ALL DAY BECAUSE IT STINKS IN HERE, I COULDN'T EAT BECAUSE IT STINKS IN HERE, IT FREAKING STINKS IN HERE AND I HAVE 1/2 A MIND TO MAKE YOU SLEEP IN THE CAR TONIGHT."

Other than that, Hi, and we're glad to be home.

In Other News:

We had Chetty & Debbie over for the first fall dinner last night, all from scratch... Turkey meatloaf, mashed red-skin potatoes, salad, pumpkin bread w/cream cheese frosting & granny smith apples with caramel sauce. Fer asked me if I picked up a coke habit while i was in Ohio... not so much. Just love fall.

I have almost 2 full weeks of TiVo to catch up on. Sing it with me... I love technology...

-over and out-

Sleepytime for Baby mouse

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

Auntie Maynan said it was time for a picture share, so here it is. I suppose it was a good way to get me off the politic front. Good job maynan.

In Other News:

Fer turned 30 and we celebrated all last weekend with one BBQ after another, and he is wondering how 2 whole weeks later he still can't rid himself of his cough. Huh.... I wonder. Could the ocean of beer have been keeping you from getting well? Naaaah. Alochol kills germs, right?

And, for his 30th b-day and new site design, I granted Ah Bartleby a spot on my links list... #5 with a bullet, Welcome. I'll give you a big, big, big, big hug in November. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on Longtorsolabs' site do not (always) reflect the views and opinions of one, No No, Bad Dao. Just thought I would mention it. ;-)

-over and out-

Not surprisingly, Barbara Bush is an asshole

So sorry, Dear Internet, to have gone so political in these past few posts, but some of the things that are going on in this country are not only completely appalling, but utterly shocking that more of our media outlets are not calling our leaders out on their shit. Seriously.

We've got Captain Yahoo & his cronies walkin' around with their sleeves rolled up for the cameras, acting as though it just proves to the 'Merican Public that 'We're werkin' hard to make this sititation right for ya'll', you've got documents starting to pile up that point to FEMA director Michael Brown (not surprisingly), as not only being an incompetent ass in general, but also just this side of crazy enough to wait on a call for action, delay the deployment of National Guard and other volunteers while only asking that 4,000 people be sent to hurricane stricken locations. WTF?!?! Oh, any by the way, if you could all portray a positive image of disaster to community organizations and the general public, it'd be apprecaited.

Then we have the Queen Bee of them all, Barbara Bush walking around the Houston Astrodome being quoted as saying "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," she said during a radio interview with the American Public Media program "Marketplace." "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

So, basically, since all these people were living in shit before, they should be happy and comfortable with living in a little less shit than they were! Who cares if they don't know where their families are! Who cares that they were walking over dead bodies and shitting on floors only 3 days ago! Living on cots in the middle of the Astrodome is FUCKING GREAT compared to what they had going on previously!

While we're at it, let's also talking about the term refugee since its being thrown around so much these days because, well, I don't know why really, just because the majority of the people happen to be Black? I mean, you tell me America, why the hell are we calling all these Americans, Survivors of a Natural Disaster, refugees when the meaning of the term is such:
Main Entry: ref·u·gee
Pronunciation: "re-fyu-'jE
Function: noun
: an individual seeking refuge or asylum; especially : an individual who has left his or her native country and is unwilling or unable to return to it because of persecution or fear of persecution (as because of race, religion, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion)

I just don't see it. I see only faces of mothers, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, aunts, uncles, grandparents, who have lost everything. Maybe I am fucking stupid for thinking in this day and age, if it could ever be, this is the time that race would not matter.

Why don't we talk about that for awhile.

-over and out-

Luck in small favors

Internet,

some of you may have already gotten an email from Fer that mentioned that our friends Joe, Sherry & Joe, their almost 1 year old (on 9/5!) baby boy, are ok in light of Hurricane Katrina. What some of you may not know is that Joe & Sherry moved back to New Orleans not too long ago to be closer to family after their son was born. Sound familiar? Well, only a few short weeks ago they moved into a new house, all their stuff was in place. So when the evacuation warnings started happening, they thought it wise to get outta dodge and wait out the storm with friends. A 2 hour drive took them 11+ hours with the number of cars on the road, but they made it safe and sound. Sounds like their new home may be no longer, and Sherry's new job may have literally washed away. Same with Joe's new landscaping company.

Unfortunately, almost everyone you know is going to have a story like this, or hear a story like this based on the lives lost and uprooted by this natural disaster. Normally, things like this don't affect me. I remember last year when Fer was watching all the coverage for the tsunami in Thailand, I couldn't relate to why it was so upsetting for him. But now I understand. He had memories there, he related. Apparrently, my memories of New Orleans is making me relate now, and its devestating.

I remember as a little girl, and through my growing up, anytime there was a hurricane headed for the Outer Banks, NC our family would watch, terrified that this would be "The One" to take, what my dad referred to as "the edge of the world" away from us. And when the Herbert C Bonner bridge was knocked into by a barge in a storm, and a chunk of it was knocked out (http://www.outerbanks.com/oregoninlet/bridgedown.htm) I remember my sister crying and asking if we would ever get to go there again. But not even the worst of the hurricanes to hit NC over the last 20 years has done anything like this.

Well, what I am getting at, is for the first time in my lifetime, an entire city, let alone whole parts of states, have been washed away or demolished. There are officials calling for the demolition of whole sections of the French Quarter once the water receeds... which could never be rebuilt the same. History and a landscape will be forever changed.

So, even if its only $10... how about we all donate, www.redcross.org or 1-800-help-now, or through the tribune: http://www.rrmtf.org/mtf/hurricanerelief.htm or even through google. The 2000 census listed the Greater New Orleans population at 1,337,726. I am sure in 5 year time that number has grown, and all those people need our help.

Peace.

-over and out-

Voodoo

Voodoo, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

Sin City

Sin City, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

Riiight?

panhandling

panhandling, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

Just before Meeting Jim, panhandling & happy. Thank god I did not have to do this on a regular basis, i think we only made like $4.

Afghan Whigs Tix

whigs tix, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

New Orleans, 1996

4ofus, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

Watching the news these past few days on hurricane Katrina and the damage and destruction left in its path, I was compelled to find all the old photos of the trip with Yucca in May, 1996 to see the Afghan Whigs at the House of Blues in New Orleans.

Yucca had just graduated from High School, and being done with my 1st year in college, we decided to take her graduation present (a round trip ticket to anywhere in the continental US) and turn it into a party for the 2 of us. Being the insane kids that we were, what better than to find a Whigs show and go there. By the time we were getting this half-baked plan into action, we had already missed the Seattle and San Francisco shows, and New Orleans was next on the list. So we ordered tix to the House of Blues, got our flights, and with $50 each we were off. I wish there would have been more photos of the youth hostel we stayed in, although... maybe some things are best remembered in the minds eye.

We spent a total of 4 days in New Orleans, just off the French Quarter. I had my Tarot read by a certified Witch of the Wiccan Witches Guild of America, we went to the Voodoo Museum, and in general wandered around trying to stay alfoat in the real city of Sin. I swear the air there was electric.

And after seeing one of the most amazing Whigs shows of our lives, and having just spent the next days food money on Red Stripes (the HOB was built as a compound, and the drinking age inside was 18) we sat down outside to panhandle for some food money. A guy walked by, and I was like, "Hey, I know you. You're in Howlin' Maggie. You guys are from Columbus right? We're from OHIO, and we flew down here to see you!" Alright Bad Dao! 1 way ticket into party central. Jim was his name (the orange one in the photo behind Yucca, that man needed to quit with the tan), and he took us backstage to hang. Enter Greg Dulli, and our fate was sealed. 2 packs of Camel Wide Lights later, at 5am, we took a ride from a drunk cab driver because we figured it was safer than waiting for the trolly next to the crack-head that was eyeing our backpacks. I love you, New Orleans.

We spent the rest of that summer following the Whigs around the country, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinatti, Washington DC, among others..... with a group of friends, or just the 2 of us. If we were not solid best friends before New Orleans, well, i think that trip did it. Its an amazing city, and its just so sad to see it falling apart.

Yucca, if the Whigs ever get back together, or some incantation of Greg's Twilight Singers plays a show there again, you best believe we have to go.

-over and out-

Editor's note: yucca pointed out today (9/2) that I cannot even read, the Tix clearly state that it was 1996, not 1995 as previously stated. Tahnks Yucca for taking yet another opportunity to point out when I am wrong. Love ya. ;-)