Two Dedicated Posts

For Mervyn - "where were they going without ever knowing the way?"



For Vox: I told you one time about an oasis in the desert - here's a pic of an actual Nevada desert oasis - they do exist outside of Bugs Bunny cartoons! We used to go swimming and bbq'ing here when I was a young lass...

Creepy Cool Ghost Town Pics - Moapa, Nevada

I've heard the mermaids singing...

And they did sing to me, unlike J. Alfred Prufrock http://www.uvm.edu/%7Esgutman/Eliot.htm - and they were beautiful… let me tell you how AWESOME the Mermaid Parade was! This is destined to become an annual event for me, it was so colorful and everyone was so full of energy and creativity, with lots of the cutest little girls dressed up as mermaids (as well as adults actually, male and female) and Chia Pet and I got some great ideas for things to do next year – I don’t know if we would do full out costumes, but face painting and some funky hair might be in order. I’ll be posting pictures later so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about, but this is really something special, something that you would only see in New York – sort of like a summer Mardi Gras on a smaller scale. Afterwards, we waded out onto the beach for awhile and got our legs and feet in the water and then headed back to have some Vietnamese food and a tea in the park. Ah the park – Union Square needs rescuing from the Rats of Unusual Size. The place is overrun with them, its really disgusting – as we sat on the bench, we kept jumping, thinking one had made it on to the bench to join our conversation or bite our heels. When I got home that night, I had to shower, I felt so creepycrawly. And a giant weirdo attacked as well. Ha. Well a tall strange man, anyhow. So we are happily sitting there peoplewatching and sipping our teas when this man walks by and he looked really sad and I just happened to catch his eye and so because he was so forlorn, I gave him a slight smile. Well, wouldn’t you know it, he comes and sits next to me and leans in and says, “I just really need a woman to help me take my mind off of another woman I met last night on a bench over there” and points to the other side of the park and goes off on this mumbled tangent that I can’t understand. I started laughing and slapped Ms. Chia on the leg and said “OK LETS GO!” and we had to find another place to sit. Such is my luck.

So tomorrow, hopefully, I will get some of the Mermaid Parade pics up, as well as some cool shots of when I was in Las Vegas – I got some great desert/mountain shots as well as spooky shots of a ghost town. Cool.

The Week of Bad Moods

Well I haven’t written here this week because…yes, it’s that time again…Bad Mood Week for June 2007. This week was TERRIBLE. Correction, I was TERRIBLE. And for no good reason. Nothing really created the Terribleness, so I’m completely responsible for it. I’m fighting it off left and right now and so far so good. Keep those fingers crossed for me. And after a good last weekend too. I went to the Sunburnt Cow on Saturday morning for a yummy brunch with La Cousine Megan – scrambled eggs, bacon and unlimited mimosas. Needless to say, this might be the first time I’ve been quite a bit tipsy before 1pm. Then off to a walk around – street fairs and other shopping and then to see the movie Waitress which was so cute and made me smile because it was “charming” – I think that’s the words the critics are using to describe it. The woman who wrote and directed and acted in it was murdered earlier this year – very strange, sad story – and I really wanted to see this because she was in one of my favorite all time movies, Trust (with the oh so cute Martin Donovan). Anyway, good film, I highly recommend it and it will make you want to make and then eat dessert, because the main character bakes all these awesome pies. Then Sunday, I was again up early early and this time to meet Floating Head at 9:45 am for yoga class at 10! Yay for Me! I made it…I was sitting on the bench outside Integral, eating my banana, and feeling very happy about myself – I don’t know how to explain to you how difficult it is to get me out of bed early enough so that’s why I was pleased with myself. But to come to yoga – at the same time we went to meditation class here – is so peaceful at this early weekend hour – its just you and the birds and the morning sun. It sure kicks the day off to a good start, you can’t help but be smiley. The teacher we had was real funky too, but I liked him and and wished he was there every week – alas, he was just visiting but he kind of had that zen-surfer-cool-dude vibe, you knew nothing could rattle him or shake him. Then Floating Head and I stuck with tradition and went out for our regular after Integral-feelgood macrobiotic lunch on Greenwich and walked around a bit afterwards before heading home and I felt fine.

Then Monday happened. I hated work, I hated the world, I was mad at everything and FOR NO GOOD REASON. The next day was no better. I just felt angry, like I wanted to kick anyone who entered my presence in the shins. I think I just needed to get it out – I haven’t had that kind of feeling for awhile and maybe I was holding in some bad emotions and see, this is what happens when you do that – they explode out of you and onto people who don’t deserve it. My boss was kind enough to notice the bad mood and kept a safe distance – he just asked me if all was okay and I said yes and I guess that’s all it took for him to see the warning signs! I’m telling you, I do not have a poker face – every thing going on inside this head of mine shows on my face. I went home that night and did some “internal kickboxing”, had a nice chat with myself, and started to feel better. So that being said, today’s status is: so far, so good. It’s helpful in times like these to repeat this Albert Einstein quote:

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.The other is as though everything is a miracle."

So may today you try – like me – to see the everyday miracles. And not get caught up in the phantom fears and worries of things that haven’t happened yet or that your own dumb head has created.

Now, tomorrow: I’m going to the Coney Island Mermaid Festival - http://www.coneyisland.com/mermaid.shtml - I’ve been wanting and wanting to go to this for years and finally, I’ve remembered and I’ve roped in Chia Pet to accompany me and I intend to have a wonderful time of it – should be a funky and freaky good time.

So thats my story and I’m sticking to it.

Instant Karma is going to get you...

So I'm back from my weeklong Pre Father's Day Lovefest with Charlie Chuckles in Las Vegas. Yes, I managed to surprise my dad by showing up at the airport unannounced and had a lovely, most restful, week off from NYC and life in general. So want to hear about how what goes around comes around? On my JetBlue flight to Las Vegas, this icky man next to me kept falling asleep and attempting to rest his head on my shoulder and I had to keep shoving him and he IRRITATED me to no end. I did my best to ignore him. When he was awake, he kept struggling with his tv - he couldn't figure out how to turn it on and guess what? Out of pure spite and meanspiritedness, I didn't help him. I went on happily watching the Top Chef marathon and VH1 Classic while he had to sit there and - GASP! - talk to his wife and keep himself amused with his book.

My flight back - karma bit me in the ass! Guess who's tv didn't work? If you guessed Meany Me, you would be correct. So I missed all three episodes of Ghost Hunters, I missed the Mets game, I missed the Top Chef season premiere. Sigh. Lesson learned? From now on, don't be such a toad!

I'm over it, but that is one of the joys of flying JetBlue. Anyhoo, I'm still a bit off-kilter from getting back so late and my sleep is a bit off so I think this weekend will be mostly spent trying to clean the household, unpack, regroup, all that good stuff, as well as possibly seeing Waitress with Cousin Megan before she trips off to Ireland - lucky duck!

This is quite the boring post, I know! But I just wanted all to know - I'M BACK!!

"Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
On and on and on on and on"

The Weekend Fun is Upon Us..Let Us Rejoice!

I don't have too much planned - cuz folks, I'm worn out. I'm depleted. I can't do no more - Merv, I need to borrow the Cape Ability! I was exhausted last night when I got home and I just couldn't rouse myself to do much about it. I have nothing left to give. Sigh. Poor Pitiful Pearl.

So I'm desperate for a vacation at this point (see my "I hate the Yankees" rant yesterday for an example of how this manifests itself -what a grumpus I am)! But tomorrow, I'm heading up to La Bronx for The Vox Family Baby Shower - that's right, we are counting down the days until the Grand Birthing of The Vox Child! It will be Voxmas ... Howie, can you take the pressure of this? Baby Suri is squirming in her little diapers right now, she knows her match is on its way.

And that's about it. Maybe a little shopping on Sunday ... maybe ... provided there are no America's Next Top Model marathon traps for me to fall into...

I shall now leave you with a quote:

Here is my secret. It's quite simple: one sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, from The Little Prince