I’m getting old. I’m totally losing my memory all over the place. I used to have a memory like a steel trap.
I’ve had a lot of thoughts that I wanted to post about, but then when I’m in front of this page, I just forget what it was that I totally wanted to put down on here! This is frustrating for me, b/c this spot is 1st my place to keep track of my own thoughts & a place to put up things I thought were interesting.
I do have a voice recorder on my phone & a notepad on it. Somehow, I deleted all my notes. But I’m gonna visit this site more too, which I think will help. I have a lot of catching up to do on everyone else’s blogs!
But you know how in Moonstruck, Cher’s getting all gray around her face, & she gets that transformation before the opera? Well, I kinda feel like I’m going through what she did. I’ve been getting these grays around my face that I’ve been plucking out. I think it’s getting to the time for me to stop plucking, & just dive in & color it.
I’m going to research hair color before I do it, though. Cause my hair’s pretty long, & I like to keep it as healthy as possible so that I don’t have to cut it as often.
Spring has always been my fave season. It still is & prob always will be. About 5 years ago, I started an appreciation for Autumn. I’ve always liked that name – Autumn. Such a pretty name. I think it’s the “au” in it; words w/ “au” in them always seemed so warm. But 5 years ago, is when I started taking walks regularly in University Circle.
University Circle is 500 acres of a park atmosphere, w/ schools, museums, & the University Hospital system in it. One of the museums is the Natural History Museum & they have a bunch of dinosaurs all around it. I’ve never been into dinosaurs but for some reason, I just really loved walking over to that museum & being around the dinosaurs & trees in the park. That’s where I started to appreciate the colors of autumn. The colors are so vivid & perfect there.
Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the last 3 years, we’ve had no Spring OR Autumn. I’m sure it’s b/c of global warming (but I think my colleagues think I’m talking crazy when I go on about it). But seriously, I think we’ve missed out on Spring & Autumn the last 3 years b/c of Global Warming. We have green leaves on trees, then a couple storms blow through, & 2 or 3 days later, the tree limbs are bare.
This is the 1st year in a long time that we’ve had fall colors!!! I got so excited about all the colors & I’ve gone out this past month & taken so many pics of all the beautiful colors. B/c I’m so afraid that this may be the last time. I never expected to miss “Autumn” the last 3 years, but it never came around. Who knows if it will again?
Anyway, I love when you see all the oranges, & various shades of browns & greens. Then, BAM!, all of a sudden, in the middle of them all is a bright yellow or red tree. Love it. Here’s a pic taken on MLK Jr. Drive. Of course, I doctored it up, that’s half the fun! 😉
Yes, I know it’s Thurs. I’m trying the best I can, ppl. I still (just barely) made it though, eh?
So, you know how much I love Cleve. I almost posted a Photo Friday post last weekend of an NYC pic. It was pretty cool. I’m a big fan of architecture, asymmetry, urban planning, & such. Well, there’s a spot in the NYC that you’ll be walking down a street, skyscrapers on either side, cars (read: taxis) rushing down the roads. Then, BAM!, you’re in a tranquil garden area. I love the dichotomy. It’s form & function all together. There’s actually quite a few spots like this.
Anyway, I decided not to cause I had to post my beautiful city. You know how they say that if you wanna find the bad neighborhood in any city, find their MLK Jr. Dr. on the map? (Well, they do).
Our MLK Jr. Drive is breathtakingly beautiful. It’s lined w/ the Cultural Gardens, there’s 51 countries (I think). I saw them doing 2 new ones (Azerbaijan & something else), but I didn’t really “get” them.
Anyway, so here’s India’s:
As always, you can go to the Photo Friday link viewer to see other submissions. Of course, by the time you read this, it’ll be Friday, & you’ll have to check the Garden archives. Whatev.
So, I don’t really have a tv that I watch. Don’t have cable, & never really there to watch anything, so I didn’t know I missed the VMAs yesterday till I watched the news this morn. So, of course, I’ve been looking at pix online for the last hour.
And here’s how that’s been workin out for me:
————–
look at a pic.
do a search for Russell Brand
look at next pic.
do a search for “Fanny Pak” (seriously? Fanny Pak? ok.)
pic.
search Christopher Mintz-Plasse
see pic of Slash on stage.
google his wife to see what she wore (I really dig Slash’s wifey, she’s spunky-cute)
pic.
google Tocarra
Michael Phelps can wear whatever he wants cause he the golden boy at the moment. But I do wish his mom taught him how to pull his pants up & wear a belt properly. I really don’t like when boy’s pants aren’t pulled up. I’m not askin for Urkel here, but I just don’t like the low-riding pants. It’s a lil gay, don’t cha think? (I mean that in the best possible way.)
AUGH! I can NOT stand lil Wayne. He seriously makes me want to rip off my ears, & now my eyes. He’s wearing an MLK shirt? For reals?!?! I’m so sick of him. I would love to meet him so that I can smack him (seriously, right across the face) & tell him to never EVER compare himself to MLK Jr. EVER again. I’m not a hostile person, but I really can’t stand him. And pull your pants up, punk.
Chris Brown can wear whatever he wants. He’s a good, young, clean kid from the streets of Philly who stayed focused on his goals, & got to where he is with a bit of luck & a ton of hard work. The boy can dance his butt off. I hope he stays grounded & on top.
So, one of my fave bands/ppl are the Troubadours ofDivine Bliss. They come ’round these-here parts a couple times a year.
And it’s so much fun. They came back in May for like 2 weeks, & they’re here now for about 2 weeks now. It’s great b/c you can either see them multiple times, or if you’ve got too much going on, you can at least sneak in a show into your calendar.
Bet’cha didn’t know NE Ohio had a bunch of wineries, did’ja? I’m really excited about going to Harpersfield, cause I’ve never been there before. They’ve played there many times, but I never made it to those shows.
Here’s a clip from Wed night’s show. They played through their new cd (which I bought), & then their older stuff. The played 2 of my fave older songs, so that was cool. Most of their stuff is original, but they do have a couple covers. This is Somewhere Over the Rainbow:
Oh, & the person you see at the bottom there that pops up a couple of times is Bernie. Bernie is like their “unofficial Cleveland photographer”. Either that, or he is official. What you see going up is his flash thingie. Anyway, Bernie takes real pictures w/ a real camera. That is to say that he takes very precise photographs, takes the FILM (yes, film), & produces print photographs. Fancy.
It’s Drunken Strawberry Rhubarb Jelly Squares with Dark Chocolate. Yeah. The pic links to the recipe.
While we’re talkin alcohol & food together, I should mention one of my dear friends. She makes the most amazing rum cake. You should know this before I go into one of my Real-life conversations.
We’re at Lucky’s, a bit early to meet friends for Sunday Brunch. We went earlier to stop at the farmer’s market prior to Brunch. So, while ordering coffee to sip until the other gals got there…..
moi:you know I had some Jamaican coffee recently, it was de-li-cious! I wonder if they have any here?
mon amie:Jamaican coffee? Does it have rum in it?
moi: [giggling] no, it’s just imported from there.
mon amie:oh… cause if it had rum in it, I’d probably like it too.
I do love my friends. They make me smile.
btw, the Jamaican coffee I had was from Arabica (I think that’s a national chain) & it was called “Jamaican Me Crazy”. heehee.
Is it just me? Is your spam getting really, really specific?
I kinda freaked when I saw this in my spam folder…I im’d my bff (freaking out) about it, & she said (jokingly, I hope) that they’re watching me.
If they are watching me, does that mean that I LOOK over 30? I take care of my skin. I still get carded. Ppl in real life always think I’m younger. I even know someone who celebrated my 30th b-day w/ me, cake & all. And a few weeks ago, told me I had nothing to worry about b/c I wasn’t even 30 yet (we were talking about me, Mr. T, & the prospect of any motherhood for me, like ever).
Few weeks ago, over $4.00.
Last week, $3.77.
Yesterday, $3.55.
My mom said it’s supposed to go down to $3.41 soon.
I feel like this is the gov’t.’s way of giving me blood money. My heart sinks everytime I see the prices go down. The lower we fall, I know the more we’re going to pay for it later. It’s gonna hit us in the gut & I’m afraid some of us won’t be able to rise back up.
I knew this would happen. I wanted to blog about this on July 14th. The day Bush overturned that ban on offshore drilling, I felt punched in the stomach. I just felt so sick to my stomach. Like seriously nauseous. I just hoped that we’ve elected a Congress smart enough to not make his executive order come to fruition.
The very next day, the price of oil per barrel dropped. It’s been dropping since. I know it’s only dropping cause ppl think that we’re gonna be drowning in all the crude oil our lil hearts can take real soon. But that ain’t happenin, Charlie.
What’s gonna happen when ppl realize that this isn’t the solution? It’s just gonna skyrocket way past what we thought was high before. The truth is, this country’s been spoiled as far as gas prices go for decades now. If ppl think they can’t afford gas now, they’re gonna be in for a rude awakening when it hits over $8.00 a gallon. That’s what I think will happen when ppl realize that offshore drilling’s not the end-all to this prob.
Please don’t let this congress let us down.
Here’s the long & short of it (mostly long, cause c’mon, you know I ramble):
– if (if) there’s oil to be found, it will be decades (decades) before we actually got that oil & the price drop from it would be minimal. It would come out to a 2¢ drop, 20 years from now.
– 80% of US produced oil (from US reserves) is from 4 states: LA, TX, AK, & CA. If we wanted to find more, our best best would be the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
– Um… do you know what “National Wildlife Refuge” even means? It means, you told those animals that you weren’t going to destroy their home for your own evil means.
– If they spent a decade looking/finding/drilling for oil, there’s only realistically a year’s worth up there. You’re gonna destroy the sanctuary for that? Really? Really?
– It is very (very) likely that any oil drilled from ANWR will never be sold in the US. It will be sold off to the highest International bidder (most likely China). (C’mon, ppl, didja forget we’re a capitalist society?)
– Currently, we have 500 oil spills in Alaska every year. Yeah, they don’t exactly advertise that. You don’t think that’s gonna decrease when they have more new drilling monstrosities?
– Seismic testing to locate oil creates decibel levels of 260 – twice as loud as an ambulance – underwater. Exposure to these levels of noise underwater can cause disorientation, brain hemorrhaging, or even beaching for whales and dolphins. Only last week over 100 melon-head whales beached off of Madagascar close to where ExxonMobil was conducting seismic testing. (6/19/2008, from Greenpeace website)
Here’s a video of a guy who spent 3 months hiking across Alaska, & spent a LOT of time in the ANWR (it’s 3½ mins ppl):
What we need is an alternate solution. My main concern is that we will lose track of what’s imp: trying to develop alternative renewable energies.
Like this Pickens Plan that this guy T. Boone has.
Sweet Sunshower 