The night the neurologist threw a tantrum and stormed out of the hospital with me crying after her to come back was one of the worst experiences of my life. Until my husband almost stopped breathing due to too much narcotic pain medication and almost pulled a "Michael Jackson" as the… Read full post »

Almost 30 years ago I worked full-time at an alternative newspaper in Santa Barbara. I wrote articles and helped keep the community events section organized as well. Men and women worked there, there was smoking inside while working, pot smoking in the back, beer drinking at night while working late… Read full post »

In 2004 Theo Van Gogh was murdered in the street of his beloved Amsterdam by an Islamic man furious at the movie "Submission" Van Gogh had produced with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim woman from Somalia. The movie was about defiance, about Muslim women and the oppression and abuse they… Read full post »

When my teenage son wanted to get a lip pierced we went around and around until it was decided, yes, he could do this but it would be the only one. End of subject. And that lasted for one month. The lip piercing almost got infected, got complicated, rings went… Read full post »

The first clue that we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto, is that all of my co-workers are 20-somethings. I'm a baby boomer. I took this job as Assistant Manager for Starbucks when my Corporate gig got unendurable, see: [http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=74808] I took this gig because:

1. I… Read full post »

Holly Hunter gave birth to twins at the age of 48. When they are 10 she will be 58. When they are 20, she will be 68...if she lives that long. Ditto actress Geena Davis and her twin boys. There's a long list of Hollywood women who put off having children… Read full post »

What to you do if your nemesis dies? Besides feel the appropriate grief and conflict?

I worked for D. for 5 years. For 5 years she was my supervisor. At the risk of sounding cranky and bitter, she came in with no qualifications, because it's a who-you-know Corporation. Perhaps they all… Read full post »

Dear Floyd Elliot (if that is your real name),

Regarding your post on whether you should have raised children vs. chinchilla's? Raising chinchilla's win hands down! And I'm not saying that because they wouldn't look pained to be seen with me when I dropped them off at school. My son is… Read full post »

Lately I've been snorting forgiveness. Literally.

I buy essential oils that come in single oils or blends. The blends are named things like "Peace and Calming", "Joy", "Trauma Life" [there's a popular one] and "Forgiveness."

I've been snorting Forgiveness. Daily.

During my husbands fight for his life… Read full post »

I saw someone wearing that on a T-shirt last week and thought, "Thank God."

Che Guevara was Fidel Castro's executioner.

How did he, a monstrous mass murderer, responsible for the blood curdling murders of thousands of teenagers, women and men, become a popular cultural figure embrace… Read full post »

Pierce Brosnan, besides having a terrible singing voice a la Mamma Mia! is the father of 5 kids, is a talented painter, is married to Keely Shaye Smith who is neither lipo'd nor anorexic as so many of her hollywood peers. And he is a generous philanthropist.

He came from simple… Read full post »

21st Century Teenage-hood. I wonder what they were like in caveman days? 800 B.C.? 14th century? Before they had a cellphone, a computer, a pierced lip [or is that just mine?], an ipod and lots of fresh air, free food and a room of their own? Never in the history of… Read full post »

I know. When you're sick it's all about you, you, you. I get that. When I'm sick it's all about me [unless my child or spouse is sick at the same time, then suddenly it's not about me.]

How do I cross this great divide? How do I maneuver over this… Read full post »

I went to church this morning. A big, welcoming, friendly, music-playing, hip-swaying, hands-on laying church. You just don't realize how uptight you are until you're in a crowd of Christians feeling the spirit. And in Hawaii, the church is filled with Portuguese, Hawaiian, Vietnamese, Filipino, Chin… Read full post »

UPDATE 9/11: He started B-12 injections but they want to give him one a week which isn't enough [we're begging for B-12] so we have to supplement with a naturopath. He is still having breakthrough face pain even with the maximum amount of meds. We've applied to the Mayo clinic for… Read full post »

[This is a re-post in remembrance of my former boss, who left us a year ago today.]

What to you do if your nemesis dies? Besides feel the appropriate grief and conflict?

I worked for D. for 5 years. For 5 years she was my supervisor. At the risk of sounding… Read full post »

It took 10 male nurses to restrain my husband and tie him to his bed like a scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. There was blood everywhere.

Two nights ago my husband looked at me wild-eyed. It was day 7 of being in the hospital which has no… Read full post »

I asked for a defibrillator for Christmas.

I wanted to hang it in the kitchen so when I go into cardiac arrest somebody could grab it, apply it to my chest and shock me back into life so I can live to enjoy another New Years. Unfortunately I just read that… Read full post »

"Okay Mr. Young. Today we'll be preparing you for your Gamma Knife. We'll be doing a CT scan and an MRI. There will be injections, very similar to the ones you receive at the dentist, to the 4 spots on your head where we will screw on the head cage. I… Read full post »

"Life is suffering." Gautama Siddharta (Buddha)

Okay, we all walk a similar path. I don't care how different we are.

We will age, get sick and die. Some of us will die violent deaths - car accidents, murders - while others will die quickly - massive heart attacks, aneurysms.… Read full post »

Well we cut off Joes balls.

Don't judge me.

Joe had turned into a frantic, hysterical, adolescent male animal when our 7 year old heeler who we thought was menopausal went into heat.

Oh my God.

Our little guy who had been doing so well in his training, who… Read full post »

"A nation can survive it's fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the… Read full post »

                              Throwing bible creeds

               … Read full post »

Bad judgement. Poor choices. Delusions of grandeur.

Annie and Goldman Sachs are two peas in a pod.

Spending above your means. Throwing good money after bad. Arrogance in the face of poor financial choices. Asking to be bailed out.

As the bible says: "What has been is what will be, and… Read full post »

In India and Tibet, some lama's meditate for years next to the funeral pyres of the dead being burned. It is to remind them of how fleeting this life is and to focus on what we cannot see, instead of the material world.

Farrah Fawcett is my burning funeral pyre. She… Read full post »