Rainy day Oregon

Mr. Lee and his mom made it safely to Hong Kong. Actually, other than the shitheads at J & V Travel, I hear it was a great flight, great airline, great hotel, and the tours J & V booked have been outstanding, although yesterday's 12 hours odyssey was a bit much. And now they are having a great time in Beijing. Excellent.

As for me, it's odd being back in my old Southern Oregon stomping grounds, this trip in particular. It's my state of mind. I drove by the empty field that used to be the Medford A's stadium. Dixie and John owned them, bought the team after watching Field of Dreams... including some hot young rookie pitcher who was throwing balls about 100 miles an hour. She and I sat behind the catcher and timed him. But John's vision faded and with it his enthusiasm. They sold the team, left town. I don't know what happened to the kid. Or them. All gone. The team is gone. The stadium torn down, the field reverted to grass. If you didn't know, you wouldn't know. And the lumber mill that was in that part of town... long gone. Really long gone. Before John and Dixie came to town. But the old duplex in Ashland where I used to live... it's fixed up, white picket fence and all. Slugs used to crawl up through the hole in that bathroom floor and lounge around on the walls, probably why my daughter is so repulsed by them, even to this day, no matter how I plead their case, that it was not their fault, that they are just little ol' slow moving, don't mean nobody no harm fellows. Hates 'em. Anyway, it's gray and rainy here. I leave for Portland in the morning. Baby Thea's one year birthday is next Tuesday. That is soooomething.

Friday update

M. Lee left this afternoon for China. It's been a helluva week. Murphy's Law was in full force. When he left he still wasn't sure if he had a seat on the connecting flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong and I won't know for a couple days how it turned out. All this was the result of going through a funky ass Chinese travel agency in Oakland by the name of J & V Travel. NEVER USE THEM. He needed to make a slight change to his ticket but the wankers at J & V Travel were totally unwilling/ignorant/rude and or stupid to get it done. I needed to make a similar change on a ticket I bought recently directly through the airline. It took a one minute phone call. Anyway, I'm sad he's gone. It really changes the way I look at my surroundings. I'm glad I'm leaving in the morning. It won't be an epic trip but at least I won't be moping around here. When I was a kid I tried digging to China with a tablespoon. He seems that far away tonight.

Our day

Bad Mother's Day ~ May 10, 2010.

Yippee. Why can't everyday be Bad Mother's Day? Well, 364 days out of the year anyway. The goodie-two-shoesers can still have their one day.

Bad Mother's Day gift suggestion

Bad Mother's Day is right around the corner, Monday in case you've forgotten, and since I created Bad Mother's Day a few years ago, search engines have been directing people looking for bad mother's day cards my way. The keywords tell a sad tale:

"bad mother"
"bad mother's day"
"where do i find bad mothers day cards"
"mother's day message to mom + bad relationship with mom"
"mother's day cards for a bad mom"
"Mother's Day Cards-Awful mom's"
"mothers day cards for terrible mothers"
"you are a bad mother" mothers day cards"
"really bad mother day cards"
"mothers day card for a sucky mother"
"lousy mothers day cards"
"rotten mother mother's day card"
"shitty mother's day cards"
"shitty mother, mother's day card"

This year, to help our fledgling holiday along, I share with you a Language Barrier "Best Of" gift selection for The Day... the Better Marriage Blanket. Okay, I know it's a little last minute but I did it, didn't I?

Anyway..... yes, this gift might have saved your parent's marriage but all that is water under the bridge now, isn't it? The Better Marriage Blanket is a must have in any case, but especially if you are one of the many Good Children who has inherited their Bad Mom in her declining years (age 25 to 99). It contains a layer of activated carbon fabric, the same type of fabric used by the military to protect against chemical weapons. Perfect! Not only will you be obeying the Fifth Commandment to honor your Mother, it is a gift to your whole family. Even if you want to shirk your duties as a Good Child you owe it to them to purchase one for her. Her cat will thank you too.

Day in the life

This poor pigeon, his leg is swollen, red and inflamed. It probably throbs and hurts like crazy. He got tangled up in fishing line. That stuff is such a menace and it's everywhere, mountains of fishing line, abandoned nets, hooks and miscellaneous crap tossed or lost by thoughtless idiots worldwide. ARG!!!

Oakland resident

We are back in the Bay Area for the weekend dealing with the ongoing task of helping a family member transition to a new living situation. She got kicked out of the Royale.

I would love to have freed his foot.

It's a complicated story. The Royale is a great place but she's got problems they can't handle so it's all for the better. In any case, Charlita the Cat doesn't seem to mind so that's one in the plus column.

Lady at the bus stop.

Vegan soul food in Oakland.... how cool is that!

Lost horizon

WTF?! Let the poor fellow rest in peace.

Spring in Oakland

PETA protest

Christina, as the snake

It was a cold and windy night afternoon but PETA was in town yesterday so I joined in the fun. We were protesting the killing of snakes for their skins and our nearly nude snake, Christina Cho, gallantly shivered her way through the hour. Nothing new for her. She's one of many PETA volunteers who travel the world over promoting animal welfare willingly enduring bad weather, bad attitudes and occasionally being tossed in jail along the way.

In general, people in Reno were pretty friendly but in the last five minutes the cops showed up. Seems someone complained about a woman being inappropriately (un)dressed in public. What's wrong with pasties? Some people....

Brian, photographer and very excellent body paint artist

Afterward, the four of us had a a great vegetarian lunch at the Pneumatic Diner.

Ashley (organizer & driver) and Christina (snake)

Remembrance

Remembrance by Emily Bronte

Local news at 7:07

I took lots of photos of Thea during my recent trip to Portland but was too busy to post them at the time. In fact, they are still on the camera, which has a dead battery because the minute I got home I had to throw myself into the newsletter and now that I'm finished with that I have to clean this wreck of an office. My daughter wisely copies whatever she wants before I leave because I seldom get around to sending photos back to people after the fact. While I prefer to think of chaos as a subtle form of order, it has its drawbacks. Anyway, I am home and today I have to tackle my lair. The chaos here has reached critical mass one more time. Mr. Lee is threatening intervention again (let him try) but it's even too much for me. That's bad.

I am thinking about doing an Odyssey American Road Trip next month, the kind where you throw a mattress in the back of the wagon and go. Mr. Lee is going to China for the month which leaves me at loose ends. Well, it wouldn't be that much of an odyssey I suppose but I could go to Seattle for a week or two, base at my brother's house, and knock around the town for awhile, maybe read at an open mic or two, then head down to Portland and visit Baby Thea again. She is growing up way too fast.

On the other hand, I've been to Seattle and Portland recently but I generally fly. I am not much of a long distance driver. I could go west instead, to Sacramento and the Bay Area. It's way closer. Some Canadian friends we first met in Nicaragua are doing their own Odyssey American Road Trip next month and have been planning to visit us here in Nevada but, lately we've been talking about meeting along the way. If I stay closer to home, I could show them some of the wonders in our little corner of the world and the rest of the month, do esoteric things like make poetry videos that I'll never post. Well, off to wrestle chaos.

Thea in three

Yikes. What was I thinking? There's no time for anything else with a baby. Gotta go.

Baby T.

I'm in Portland for the week being gma. Clark is out of town and I get to help with Baby Thea. At the moment my camera batteries are charging but expect photos. Many photos.