Category Archives: The Porch Swing

In 1977 I took a job at a local bookstore.  The store was a beloved local landmark, the owners were related to more famous media personalities.  The job, however, was awful.  Hours that felt like days dragged on between the occasional live customer.  The customers tended to ask if we “had that book, you know the one that’s been on TV?” The career employees/lifers at the store squabbled constantly about nothing.  Four ancient “jazz” tapes played over and over.

Worst of all was the incredibly stupid rule that, no matter how dead the store, we were forbidden to ever ever READ the books.

One day a woman came by and applied to work there.  She seemed nice, so I told her the “right” answers  to the questions on the application and she got the job.  So, then there were two of us who hated working there.  After a few months I wandered down the street and got a job at a hippie health-food cafe.  Another local landmark which, like the bookstore, has been gone for a few years.  But, anyway, my friend from the bookstore also moved down the street, and we both worked at the restaurant.

We stayed in touch through several decades of my going to school, her going to school, my moving and then moving back, her moving to New York City, my getting married and raising a couple of kids, her involvements with men, theatre, costuming, and the academic life.  But now — alas!!  I don’t know where she is.

Consider this a virtual milkbox.  Have you seen this woman?

Brina, where are you??  Whatcha up to, kiddo?

One question – why does anyone live anywhere else?
I took a million pictures, and will be posting them on a blog devoted exclusively to this trip.

Hello blog.  Long time, no see.   I wonder what language “long time no see” was taken from?
CYa later blog,
blogger

Dennis Kucinich is running for president again. He seems like a nice guy, and I agree with most of his positions and policies (although I’m a little annoyed that he’s running when he-doesn’t-have-a-chance, instead of supporting
Barak Obama, who is my choice at least for now.) So, nice guy and pretty good views.
But.
Kucinich is NOT a hunk, a hottie, a ladies’ man, or whatever this week’s label is. He’s about 60 years old, short, and kind of nerdy looking. Last week after the Democratic candidates debated, their families milled around onstage. I wandered into the kitchen and told my husband that they all looked predictably bland, “except one of the candidates has a beautiful daughter. She’s taller than all the men, and has the most beautiful waist-length red hair I’ve ever seen.”
Boy, was I wrong.
The beautiful redhead was actually 28 year old Elizabeth Kucinich, Dennis Kucinich’s wife.
Imagine that!
A few pictures of the happy couple –

I’ve always hated the word ‘diabetes’ so I’ve decided that, instead of saying I have “Type 2 Adult Onset Diabetes” I’ll put it the way old black ladies at church are wont to do – “I’ve got the sugar.”

I’ve always hated the word ‘diabetes’ so I’ve decided that, instead of saying I have “Type 2 Adult Onset Diabetes” I’ll put it the way old black ladies at church are wont to do – “I’ve got the sugar.”

Tuesday 24 April I learned that I had to immediately focus on weight, diet, sugar, and exercise or else I’d die sooner rather than later.  I was depressed and terrified for a day or two.  But, really, there are some good parts to this.
ACT ONE
Act I of my life was that I was born, I grew up, went to school, did stuff, got married, raised a couple of great kids.  Act I was over about the turn of the century.

INTERMISSION
Around 1999-2001 the curtain rose on Act I, and the lights went up for intermission.  Here’s what I mean by intermission: nothing further happened.  Imagine frozen.  Imagine deer in headlights; beached whale unable to turn over on deserted beach; drowning victim hoping someone else will save her; person trapped under large boulder; sleepwalker stuck in dreamscape; bug on back; dissociation; uncontrolled spending and consumption and eating; imagine the loneliness when all the actors from Act I leave the stage except me.  Dramatic enough?

Details: Between 1999 and 2006, the following occurred:
I passed 50 years old.
Both kids left home.
My husband and I passed through a marital crisis.
My mother died after a long illness and I still miss her.
My brother died after a long illness and I still miss him.
My sister had two different kinds of cancer and I still worry about her.
My father passed 80 years old and moved to the end of the block.
No one is left at my childhood home.

DIGRESSION:  This isn’t any old childhood home.  It’s beautiful, historic, it’s the site of a famous 1858 murder, it has fields, flowers, barns, it had a pool, my brother & sister & I all got married there, my mother & brother died there, it has a spring and a spring house, and I feel about it the way I imagine native Americans feel about sacred ground.  Here’s a picture:

First I have to finish housework and take a shower.
Then, I can start on the Things-I-Keep-Thinking-I’ll-Write-About, such as:
When did everyone start talking like nurses?
Why Navajo women weave a flaw into their rugs.
Cultural Literacy w/r/t Age, Class, Education.
The Democratic nominee for president for 2008.
Good new or newish music.

Someone ought to report me to the DBS or Department of Blog Services, for neglectful parenting.  Millions of ideas occur to me for good posts, but they haven’t made it onto the screen lately.  Maybe this weekend?

We really need a new word.  The new word would describe illnesses that – while not being the actual influenza virus flu – are much worse than the slight sniffle suggested by the word “cold.”  Whatever I’ve had the past week or two, it’s been meaner than a mere cold.
The good news is that I’ve survived, yay! Let the blogging begin.  MotherPie, thanks for writing!

Reckon my husband and I are the only two people in the known universe not watching the Super Bowl tonight.  I’m not even sure who’s playing.

After looking at it for several days, I’m adding a new photoblog link, to New York Daily Photo. Let me know what you think.

Confession: For the past week, I’ve paid way more attention to the way this blog looks than to anything I might have to say. For $10 I bought the right to tinker around with the “CSS” that dictates the colors and so on for the blog. Because I don’t know a thing about CSS, it took a lot of trial and error. I did look at one of the “support” forums, but left after seeing a comment from a “supporter” about how he hated “newbies messing around with CSS.” * hmmph *

Time to get out there and take some photos.

To be continued . . .
In 2007 I resolve to improve my physical health and fitness, by increasing my strength and aerobic capacity, and by losing excess weight.   will keep track of my progress here, to have a record and to keep myself honest.   Wish me luck!