ok, so can I just say that I have the most interesting nights every time I go into downtown ? I went out a lil coworker's 21st...midnight at Black Sheep, with stops at ( I think the order is as follows ) Frog & Peach, The Library, Mother's, DTB oh yeah that was the end for me...it WAS closing time after all?
My night however did not end there.
Oh no the fun had just begun!
See I had parked in front of Black Sheep, so went to go home, doing a lovely 3 point turn no less, and some guy chases after my car saying you're leaking fluid...oh wait it gets even better!
When I look back someone has thrown a match or cig down into said fluid...and it is gas...so big ass flames are up in the street...from MY F@&*N CAR!!!!!
So I drive about a block until I can pull over and try to figure out what the chatta I am going to do? All I can say is thank goodness I had driven far enough away that the flames didn't go into my car
; )
Looking for some small bright spot at this point, ok?
So then the nice bright light of Mr. Policeman is in my mirror!
He pulls up and asks to see my I.D.
Then I got to give my very first ever breathalyzer...good thing I only had a drink while out downtown is all I gots to say! woohoo, that is one test I wanna get a LOW ASS score on.
I also had to blow into it twice as I didn't have my silly inhaler and could get a deep enough breath the first time...haha. love that asthma don'tcha?
So then the fire truck pulls up to clean up the gas that has leaked from my car. Oh yes, this was a BIG event for the good people of SLO police & fire man. teehee. Plus I provided entertainment for the drunken people outside of Mother's who were sitting and waiting for a taxi! Got a tow truck to come get me before their cab ever came too. So it appears after all was said and done that some silly piece of clamp came loose on my gas line and that is what caused all this major drama at 2 am!
It did make for an interesting way to end my night...and a funny lil story for you all to read, eh?
xoxox
laugh, love, LIVE
interesting article....
The American Dream
Actors, authors, astronauts and others ponder the national promise.
By David M. Ewalt Michael Noer
What is the American Dream?
An excerpt from Forbes magazine on-line
Robert B. Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of 11 books, including the forthcoming Supercapitalism .
What is the American Dream?
The American dream is the determination to continue dreaming even when reality keeps threatening to wake you up.
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Harry Shearer may be best known as an actor in films like This Is Spinal Tap and for his voice work on The Simpsons . But he is also the author of a novel, Not Enough Indians, and host of satirical radio program, Le Show, which is produced and distributed by public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica.
What is the American Dream?
The American Dream is to take anything difficult and labor intensive and make it easy and convenient. Whether it's cooking or war, the version we all crave is the one that's easy and convenient. It's working well, don't you think?
Oliver Stone is an Academy Award-winning film director whose credits include Platoon, Wall Street, Born On The Fourth Of July, World Trade Center and others.
What is the American Dream?
The American Dream is, despite its personal tragedies, a great experiment in the concept that freedom for the self can benefit the freedom of others.
Actor John Leguizamo won an Emmy Award for the Spike Lee-directed presentation of his Tony-nominated Broadway solo show "Freak," and has received accolades for his performance in movies including Moulin Rouge. He recently penned an autobiographical memoir, Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends.
What is the American Dream?
The American Dream is full of loopholes and contradictions, but America is still the only place where you can start with nothing and end up having everything ... however, there are some rules. Be sure to be self-made, but come from a good family. Or, it's even better if you come from humble beginnings and make it huge; but then let us knock you down so we can build ya up again. It's anything goes--as long as you are successful. And you can't be too successful as long as you are humble and make everyone feel you are equal.
Mel Brooks is a director, producer, writer, actor and the creator of such comedy film classics as Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Brooks is one of only seven artists/entertainers to earn all four major entertainment prizes--the Tony, the Emmy, the Grammy and the Oscar.
What is the American Dream?
When I was a little kid 50 years ago, in 1946, I had just got out of the Army after two years fighting in the war. The American Dream was a house and a car.
Today, the American Dream is winning American Idol. It's changed slightly.
In another 50 years from now, when the economy collapses and everything is in threads and torn, the American Dream then, in 20-whatever, will be a house and a car.
Tom Brokaw was the sole anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw for 21 years, and won every major award in broadcast journalism, including two DuPonts, a Peabody award and several Emmys. He is the author of three best sellers: The Greatest Generation, The Greatest Generation Speaks and An Album of Memories .
What is the American Dream?
To me, the American Dream is the freedom to choose to live how and where you want, to determine how you'll be governed and to provide your children with even more choices than you had.
Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, a news and blog site. She is also a nationally syndicated columnist, author of 11 books and co-host of Left, Right & Center, public radio's popular political roundtable program.
What is the American Dream?
The American Dream used to be a house with a picket fence, a good job, the thought that the next generation will always be better off than the last, and the idea that anyone can grow up to be president of the U.S. (unless they were born in Greece. Or Austria). But that's all changed.
The American Dream 2007 is a fevered hope that the health insurance premium doesn't double again, the factory doesn't relocate to China, Congress doesn't slash Pell grants again (making it even harder for your kid to go to college), the shiver-up-your-spine thought that the next generation will have a rude awakening when the national debt and Social Security bills come due, and the idea that anyone can grow up to be president of the U.S.--so long as their last name is Bush or Clinton.
Dr. Stephen R. Covey is the author of several acclaimed books, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , which has sold more than 15 million copies in 38 languages throughout the world. He is co-founder and vice chairman of FranklinCovey, a global professional services firm with offices in 123 countries.
What is the American Dream?
For me the essence of the great American Dream is spiritual. I believe that our Constitution is inspired and that it is based on principles that are timeless and universal. This is the reason why 95% of all written constitutions throughout the world are modeled after our Constitution.
Not only does our country represent the liberty and freedom of people to live and think and speak as they choose, it also is a country governed by the rule of law and has a Supreme Court, which is commissioned to interpret all laws within the constitutional context. Even though history books talk about the compromises that were made in Philadelphia, I personally believe that the Constitution is the most synergistic, magnificent document produced by the hand of man, and it has institutionalized the values contained in the Declaration of Independence, even though they are not yet fully enculturated.
Some of the marvelous fruits, which have been produced through our founding, include the most safe and prosperous country in the world. A little over 5% of the world's population produces almost 29% of the world's goods and services. It's also the most generous country in the world, and the unleashing of human potential has created, however imperfectly, a volunteering civil society that in some way focuses on most every flaw, defect and problem. The spirit of America has nurtured responsibility and community unlike any other country.
Our challenge is to celebrate our diversity, to use our freedoms more responsibly and to subordinate selfishness, hedonism and materialism to the higher spiritual values of faith, family and community partnering in enabling everyone to share in these roots and fruits.
every so often you have a moment when you lay yourself bare to another person. not thru the act of actually being physically naked, but thru sharing something so deeply personal of yourself. you give of your deepest thoughts and emotions...and all you want from them is to listen. perhaps give you some response, but not any validation. you are looking for them to see this piece of you, to know you better than they had before that moment. to be more aware of the you that is under the shell that hides and protects you from the world. perhaps to gain more respect for your ability to be honest of your feelings & willingness to share them.
i will
dance naked
when i first
learn
to walk...
and there
will be
a rainbow of light
colors
to blind
the binding minds
the closed hearts
of the men and women
who said
"never"
i will not
simply walk
but
fly
with wings of gold
woman
warrior
feeling with a heart
the fineness of the journey
and dancing naked
at the edge of dawn
is the gate
that moves my soul
into the endless
realm
of possibility
-ChesnaySusanThomas
Chicago
From:Passing the Light-Women in Transition-1968
I love this poem, it speaks of the ability of women to just be open to what the world can hold for them. Just the imagery in it gets to me...I hope that others enjoy it also!
So, I am sure we all have them, those days where we are just not up to being "perky" or "happy" , we just want to simply "be". I am glad that today was my day off from work. I responded to a post on myspace ( yes it is an evil lil addiction that I give into ) earlier and I guess my poor mood came thru in my writing! One of my friends wrote to ask if I was ok? I did think it was sweet, but it made me wonder if we are all as poor at hiding things in our communications. We think that if we write rather than talk we can hide how we might feel. I think though, we manage to use words or phrasing which shows the true way in which we feel and lets that other person know what we really feel. Even if we might not wish for them to. The written word is every bit as powerful as the spoken one, sometimes I think it can be more so as there is no one to respond to. My mood has actually gotten better since I put my post up, but I see no point in making any changes or comments to it, it is how I felt at the very moment that I wrote it. Life is about the moment and the action as they happen...breath and let them happen!
Ever stop to think about how the people in your life all see just pieces of you. Honestly think on it for a minute. Each person in your life sees you in a different way. Your parents see you as the child they raised, always seeing a piece of the child you were in their eyes when they look at you, no matter what age you are now. Your friends know you in a way that is miles away from how your boyfriend or husband does. Each person in your life has this tiny glimpse of you. Are their people in your life that are actually lucky enough to get the whole you? If so do they really get and accept all of you? The goofy, silly, quirky bits that sometimes don't even make sense to you? I was thinking about this the other day when my best friend was here as we go back to when we were 11. For 2 girls friendships, that is a long time to remain friends and have lifestyles as diverse as we do. She is happily married to her HS sweetheart while I am single. She has 3 children ranging in age from 15- 8 while have none. Yet we make time for each other, sharing all our important details of out lives with each other. Though I am sure there are things that as close as we are, her husband knows that I do not. Does this bother me? No, not really. The reason why is that while I might not see that piece of my best friend I know her as a whole, and that whole is part of the person that makes me whole...and that is enough for me. I know that at this point in time there is no one in my life that has the whole me down, but someday there might be....and the idea of that makes me smile.
So, I went shopping yesterday for groceries and was bombarded by the display of Easter candy. Now I am a major chocolate lover, so of course I stopped to browse at the selection. Wow, did you know that your kid or sweetheart can now have the choice of a caramel, marshmallow, peanut butter or plain chocolate bunny? Too many choices in something that used to be as simple as grabbing a little bunny and running! Then there are the eggs, and jelly beans, and grass in colors that will NEVER be seen in nature. Now having said all of this, I did buy a couple of items. My poor brother and his roomie would just be sad if they did not get a lil something for Easter and Christmas...and it has become my job somehow to be that girl who does it. I however seem to get the short end of the stick as I don't get any of it. So I decided this year I was buying myself some good stuff.
Something more along the lines of this....
Now, doesn't that chocolate look yummy? Off to See's I will go and get a treat of some sort just for me as it gets closer. I have been cutting out all of this junk food, but I refuse to give up my dark chocolate. They say it is quite good for you too! That is my story & I am SO sticking to it : )
Did a sweet road trip with my out of the area friends last Sat. up the coast from my town to Big Sur on HWY 1. The weather could not have been better, clear as a bell and 75. We stopped along the way just past San Simeon to see the elephant seals.
Also along the way are some gorgeous spots that honsetly just take your breath away. You come around a corner to a view like this...
Not too bad, eh? I was lucky enough to be the passeneger in the front seat for the whole trip up and back. Usually I am driving : ) So I loved it!! We went to one of my favorite restaurants near Big Sur, a place called Nepenthe. If you get the chance to come out here and do the drive, try to stop there...they have an amazing view, great food too. Anyways I promised to share the best of my pictures with my friends on here so I hope you all enjoyed looking at them as much as I did taking them!
xoxox
So, my friends came to visit me this weekend from out of the area, one from So. Ca, one from Las Vegas. It was nice to be able to show off what I feel is the special place in which I live. My town is a small beach town, there are not too many of these left here in Ca. The population is about 500 or so in the actual town itself. We have no gas station, bank or police. We have a small grocery store, one restaurant/bar ( where I work! ) and # hotels. The fire dept. is handled by CDF just outside of town. It is in some ways a blast from the past and in others moving rapidly towards the future in the amount of building and change that is happening. We were blessed with some beutifulweather this weekend though and I have a couple older pics of where I live that since I have finally figured out how to put pics in posts, I thought I would share!
When I get the others from our road trip up to Big Sur done I'll post those too....
this is a boat from the harbor that broke lose and crashed into the rocks winter of 2005.
view from the north end of the beach looking back towards the town.
sunset at night from my front porch....yes I do know that I am blessed!
So thanks to my friends on here I was able to get a pic in my post I hope...
this was the picture I was ATTEMPTING to post before! it is the view from under my pier 3 blocks from my home. the water was so clear and green that morning. it was just so peaceful and beautiful to experience that I wanted to share it with you guys!
ok so I give...I tried twice and it didn't work to show you so I poted it as my image for now. Maybe someone who is more tech savvy on this site can tell me how to post the pics in the post?
thanks!!!
princess
So my best friend came this past weekend, which is why I was MIA.
This picture is from the pier in my adorable lil town. We took a lil walk out on it after breakfast, going down under to the buddy dock and looked at all the gorgeous starfish on the pilings. It is amazing to see this whole other living world that exists beneath the surface of the sea. we then took a drive up the coast along HWY 1 to Big Sur. I will post more pics from this tomorrow when I pull them off of my camera. The weather could not have been better, clear, sunny and 75! Gosh I love Ca.
Hope you all had a nice weekend!
This weekend after a long stretch of 11 days of work I get to have 4 days off. The best part of it is that my very best friend in the whole wide world is coming to visit me! Do you have a friend that just gets you? Knows all your good, bad and everything and likes you anyway? Yeah she is that kind of friend. We have known each other since we were 11...that makes 24 years of solid friendship now and I don't see it changing anytime soon. I love my girl so much. We could not be more different though in how our lives turned out. She got married right out of High school, had three kids with her HS honey. I am single with no kids and went to college, but left just shy of my degree. We talk every week, sometimes everyday. About big stuff, little stuff and sometimes nothing at all. She is the first to hear all the things in my life...I just simply adore her. I hope everyone is blessed enough to have such a fabulous friend in their lives : )
Have I mentioned how excited I am to get to see her?
Teehee
Ok...so I am trying very hard to stay in a positive mind frame here. Got a call from my mechanic in regards to my car. It seems that the $1000 I just spent to get it up and running again will do only that. It makes it go, but alas only barely. There is some damage of sorts to the cylander? Yes you can tell my long ago class in HS of auto shop taught me the very basics of auto ownership. I can tell you where the major engine parts are and can my own oil & tires thank you very much! However this bit of mumbo jumbo in relation to the rest of what had been wrong...replacing my water pump, radiator, resurfacing the heads and replacing various hoses & gaskets means very little to me. All I know is the car may run rough, but it runs. Now how long it will run is the big picture. See I need it to last me thru this year. Just for my local get around driving, groceries, to the gym, etc. So that I can save up for the car I really want. Do I know even what this is yet you ask? Heck no, but I know it will be newer and less likely to spend hours upon hours visiting my favorite mechanic! Hope your car is snug in it's garage and not your mechanic's like mine is at the moment : )
princess
Ever feel like there are times in your life were you need to decide if you should just continue to float or if it is time to start paddling? In many ways I have an ideal life, live within blocks to the beach, my job and many of my friends. Yet in many ways I am not challenaged at all in my daily life. I have no need to paddle as it were. I can simply drift along, floating happily on the course my life is taking. Many would say what is wrong with this? Most of the time I think there is nothing at all, then every once in a while I wonder. Should I be pushing myself harder to do more? Is there something I might be missing by nature of simply floating versus paddling? Do any of you every feel like this about your path in life or are you happy with your choice of either the paddle or float of which you have chosen!
Wow, get sick and don't post for a few days and you drop completely off the radar! Thanks to the people who missed me, it is always nice to be missed.
I am not sure if anyone else has experienced the joy of getting this lovely cough, cold or flu bug that is making the rounds? Let me tell you it is super fun! You can lose your voice, cough for days, have your nose be completely stuffed, but then start running like mad at the drop of a hat. Do you see how fun this all could be? I actually was sent away from my job as working with food this type of illness is less than desirable as you can imagine ( teehee ). This gave me 3 whole days off, which would be the most I have had in about 3 months. Now that I am back to work I will have 11 days before a day off. Hopefully I slept my way thru the worst of the bug : )
Glad to be back blogging with everyone.
