Archive for December, 2010


>This Week

>Started out with a blizzard.

By the time the snow stopped falling we were left with this. We were in Newburgh for our assembly. They sent us home an hour early. Driving home across the bridge there was not a lot of snow falling, but the visibility was very bad. Monday morning Stitch sent me a text saying the car was buried and we weren’t going anywhere. So I went back to bed.

The next day I went to work. The train was extremely crowded and every time it stopped, it took about 5 minutes to start up. Or at least that what it seemed like. It took me two hours to get to Grand Central Terminal. So even though I was on the early train, I was still late to work. This is the turnstile coming out of the Vernon and Jackson subway station. This is two flights down from the door to the outside. Someone looked at it and saw an MTA fail, I was thinking it showed how hard the wind was blowing in the city. You can understand why snow kept blowing over the tracks.

These are the stairs, not the stairs that lead to the outside, this is the bottom flight of stairs, and they are at a right angle to the stairs that come down from the street. That was some snow we got.

MetroNorth was running a Saturday schedule, I got to GCT with about 20 minutes before the train and was wondering if I should get a snack and a drink, but decided I would go straight to the train. That turned out to be the best thing I could have done. I got a seat next to the wall with a man. As I watched I noticed the 3 seater were filling up, with 3 people in almost every seat. Then in the center area where the doors are, people were standing. It was so crowded, I couldn’t believe it. From what Bob said, the LIRR was worse, I heard “train from HELL” more then once.

Wednesday I was off work, but that wasn’t the end of the drama, Tuesday night Butterscotch’s ear started bleeding, like it had before, but this time the kids couldn’t get it to stop. So Em asked me if I would loan her the money to take him to the vet. The boys stayed up all night trying to keep the blood splatters down. In the morning it was Sarah and my turn. Sarah got tired of holding him and wondered if we could put him in the box, we didn’t have a cat carrier so we had to use a box. That was easier, but someone had to sit there and keep him in it. So yes there is a cat in the box.

Here is our kitty, who tried to bite and scratch the vet, so they put him under to examine him. $192 dollars later we found out he was fine. Just needs drops in his ears so they don’t get dry and itchy. Have you ever watched a cat coming out of anesthesia? It is so funny. He fell down the stairs and Tigger ran down to check him and the cat was looking at him like, “Dude, I’m fine, what’s your problem?”

So the cat was taken care of. I had to get prescriptions filled to the tune of $120 and the sidewalk is still not shoveled.

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>This is not a new blog I know, I have writing here for 4 years and I have made 1,160 entries. But if you look at my archives, which you don’t have to ’cause I’m going to tell you. Last year (2009) I had over 400 entries, this year I had less then 200. I don’t know why exactly. Maybe I have been spreading myself too thin with Facebook and Twitter etc.

It has got to stop, I like writing and the more I write the more I have to say. I always thought that if I wrote down everything I thought about, eventually I would run out of things to say. The exact opposite happens, as I write, more thoughts come to me. So I have come to the decision to get back to writing here. My goal is to try at least a post a day. I am trying to start today, because if I start tomorrow, that would make it a New Year’s Resolution and I don’t do those.

>This has been a stressful year. I am not sure I am ready to welcome 2011, but I am definitely ready to say goodbye to 2010.

On the surface things didn't look too bad, but the underlying stresses of the many things that happened have taken their toll and I am tired. My best friend's husband had surgery for prostate cancer. She's my best friend so what affects her affects me.

Plus she had her own health problems and possibility of surgery to remove a goiter. She didn't have to have it, but my sister-in-law did. Of course no one in my family could be bothered to tell me until after the fact.

Then the governor said he wanted to lay people off. Then he said he wouldn't, then he said 'surprise! I was just kidding we are going to fire people.' Does anybody wonder why I made the hashtag 'govdaveisanidiot'?

This year is over and I am more than ready to say goodbye to 2010. I only hope and pray that 2011 is kinder to us. By us I mean me and all my friends who suffered in 2010.

Sent from my iPod

>December 8, 1980

>

Detail of the Dakota

30 years ago most of the USA heard the announcement by one of the most famous sports announcer on what to some was the most popular sports show, Monday Night Football on ABC. It’s still playing. Frank Gifford had just offered a bit of color commentary on the play that had just been run when Howard Cosell interrupted him…

“Yes, we have to say it. Remember, this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City… John Lennon, outside his apartment building on the west side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which in duty bound, we have to take.”

Link to Howard Cosell announcement

Lennon’s death lingers for those who were there

Em and I were going to go to Strawberry Fields. D was going to be out of town and she was going to take the day off. His plans changed, so ours did. I have to settle for this tribute on my blog.

>Pictures this time

>Saturday Em and I were back in the city for our bi-weekly trip. This time I remembered my camera so I have pictures to post.

First we wandered through Bryant Park’s Holiday shops. Lots of cool and pretty stuff.

There was a sign that said, “Snap a pic and post on Facebook.” So I did, if you look on my Facebook you’ll see it. Then I realized they meant for you to post on THEIR Facebook. Oops.

Then we went to Sabrina’s so Em could get her nails done, we were surprised, the scaffolding around their building is gone. Amy said it had been up for two years. Looks so different, but you can see the sign in their window now.

The trees have lost their leaves.

Ashley said this place has some amazing artists. It is on St. Marks Place which is where the restaurant we were going to is.

Our next stop was Kaia House, ‘organic skin, body, baby, men, hair, make-up, pet. Click on the picture to go to their website. I bought some eye cream. It is fabulous.

Then we went to see Ashley at Maria Tash on Broadway in NoHo. If you click on the picture and then zoom it, you can see the sign for her store at the very bottom. After stopping at Starbucks and waiting ‘forevah’ for a latte, I was there. Of course Em was already there, waiting and pissed cause my phone battery was dead so she couldn’t yell at me.

Then we headed up Broadway to GCT. Did some shopping on the way, we both had coupons. She got a skirt and I got a pair of jeans at the Gap.

It was a long tiring but fun day.

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment does not always mean the death penalty. In New York capital punishment is life in prison. In Connecticut capital punishment is death. I have always been, and will always be opposed to the death penalty. This is my personal opinion, it is not a political stand or a religious belief. My religion states that a government has the right to put a citizen to death.

Every once in while a case comes along that tests some people’s opposition to the death penalty. Such as the home invasion of the Petit family in Cheshire, Conn., on the morning of July 23, 2007, which left Dr. William A. Petit Jr. severely beaten. His wife and daughters were brutally murdered.

Steven J. Hayes is one of the men apprehended by police for this crime, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. But he will not die for years, if ever. Death penalty convictions carry with them automatic appeals. This is one of the reasons I am not in favor of them.

An article in the NYT talks about a new thing that is being included in the appeals. A service I not only know and love but some say am seriously addicted to. Twitter.

Cheshire Appeal Will Point to Twitter Here is a sentence from the article:

“One of the most provocative is that the intense reporting on the trial — including mainstream reporters’ extensive use of Twitter — created a “circus atmosphere” and such widespread, instant saturation with inflammatory details that the jury was improperly swayed by public passions.”

This sentence led me to tweet the following:

Steven J. Hayes is a child-raping murdering dirtbag scum of the earth that deserves to be tortured. Is that provocative enough for you?

It was provocative, it generated this response: “woah .. tell us how you really feel !!! ~ @blair33185

@blair33185 I think they should put him in a jail cell with hardened criminals that are fathers of 11 year old girls.

What I didn’t say is I would really like him to have “Child Rapist” tattooed on his forehead and then have him put in General Population at Sing Sing. But he wasn’t convicted in New York, so he’ll be in some sissified Connecticut jail until he gets a needle in his arm, if that ever happens.

Yes that is a little harsh. But will Dr. Petit really get closure from Mr. Hayes death? Will it bring back his wife and daughters? Will it make the pain of losing them any less intense? I think not. The only thing that will heal his pain to get his wife and girls back.

It’s not a perfect world, if it was a perfect world, men like Steven Hayes wouldn’t exist. Women and girls wouldn’t have to worry about being raped and murdered. So we have to settle for hoping that he and his partner never walk the streets of any state again whether in prison for the rest of their lives or with their lives snuffed out by the state of Connecticut.

>A Social Network

>In case you’ve been living under a rock, “A Social Network” is a movie about Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, the founders/creators of Facebook. No this is not a review of the movie.

I went to see A Social Network with my best friend’s (who I have been living with for the last 20+ years) 3 boys. The opening scene is Mark Zuckerberg in a bar with the girl he was dating, less then 5 minutes into this scene, Nick leans over and says, “This guy (Mark Zuckerberg) is an asshole.” I replied, “No, he has Asperger’s Syndrome.” Nick replies, “Yes he does, he’s worse than dad and Andrew.” Pauses “But he’s still a dick.”

How much of an Aspie is Mark Zuckerberg? He’s a billionaire and he still can’t get a date, of course I would date him, but I love aspies(my friend pointed that wasn’t the only thing, he’s also a billionaire and I have no ethics, maybe so, but because I understand aspies, I would last more than one date). I just saw it again with the friend whose children I took the first time. The whole way through the movie she kept saying, “That’s my husband.”

When I first thought of doing this post, it was because I read a tweet about a man (referred to as an autism father, I assume that means he is a father with a child with autism) who said, “Let me tell you how it is.” Even though I am not a parent, I know there is a fallacy in that statement. Even in the exact same situation there are differences in persons with the same disorder. The friend I mentioned above has 4 children, her husband has Asperger’s Syndrome. Her oldest son and daughter have Asperger’s Syndrome combined with Bi-polar disorder. Her middle son has ADHD and the youngest has ADHD with Bi-polar disorder. It’s a fun house to live in. All are different even though all have the same home situation.

Her oldest was talking at 10 months old. He would line up his cars in a ruler straight line. At 18 months old his favorite video was a documentary about whales, he would watch it every day. He would tell people facts about whales. Such as what they ate, the fact they don’t have teeth, which whale is the largest in the world. Even today as an adult he has trouble with colloquial expressions. My friend told him to run the vacuum. He stood there wondering, where she wanted him to run the vacuum to. We were watching a T.V. show and one of the characters ordered food with extra raw onions. He asked how to get onions to be extra raw? I explained to him, he means an extra amount of onions.

Her daughter on the other hand, didn’t speak, wouldn’t make eye contact and didn’t like to be touched. She still doesn’t. Unless she was obsessed and fixated on something, we had no idea if she liked something.

All growing up with identical situations, all different. So you should never say, “I’ll tell you what’s it’s like.” or judge someone else based on your life experiences. We are all different.

>Yes this is my regular every other Wednesday off. And I really accomplished nothing. So I figured I should write a blog post and here I am.

I did pick the four winners for my blog contest. They have been contacted and will be receiving their gifts soon.

There is a site called blogger.com where you can register your blog. You can see the button in my right sidebar. To verify your blog, they ask you to put this button on your blog with the link. Well my blogs are still saying need verification. I am trying to exercise patience with this.

The reason I registered was because of the disappointing number of responses to my blog contest. Not just this one. I had one earlier and had one person enter. So I sit here trying to get inspiration to write, and it doesn’t come. Why should I write when I don’t have anyone reading?

So I tell myself, you didn’t start this blog to get readers, you started it to put your thoughts down, like you’ve been doing since you were 10 and bought your first diary. This way you are not using up tons of notepaper on stuff that just gets filed away. Along the way people have come and become interested. Then I got greedy, I wanted more people to listen to my.

Anyway, on another blog someone wrote that the way to get more followers was to register with some sites and then participate. I think that is where I have the most problems. Yes I joined bookblogs.com and get joined discussion groups and get e-mails, which I delete. I think I know the problem now.

Anyway, the blog I read it on is Nurse’s Notes, go check it out and read for yourself. I wrote a guest post for her, she hasn’t posted it, I guess she’s afraid her blog will end up as popular as mine!