January 22, 2009

A morning......bath?


Maintenance is re-caulking & repainting our bathroom this week in sections which apparently requires them to steal our shower knob for 3 days. I will just state for the record, that there is a reason in movies, commercials, and real life that we wake up and take a SHOWER and not a bath. Nothing against baths in general, it just proves to be an epic undertaking in the a.m. hours when joints are achy and there isn't enough hot water formulated in the tank to constitute a "tub."

January 20, 2009

Where were you?


I was a little sad to miss out on MLK weekend. I had to work this year, my new company doesn’t get the day off, and my car is up to it’s usual antics again. (That’s a long story but I’ve vowed my next vehicle with either be a brand new American vehicle or a used excellent foreign one.) Yesterday I worked through the day and stayed really late last night. It was supposed to snow today. I know better. It NEVER snows in Norfolk. I went to bed last night resting assured I’d be off to watch the inauguration and that karma would restore the wrong (me working Monday) that had occurred this year.

I went to sleep envisioning me spinning around like Winona Ryder in the flurries when Edward Scissorhands was carving the sculpture (music and all). I woke up to a completely sunny, dry road. I guess I was happy about not having to slide and dredge through snow, but seriously..all that talk and not even a glimpse of a flurry? WAVY needs to get their doplar weather gear rechecked.

It’s a bit overwhelming at work, since the persons I was completing presentations for called in sick. I surmised that they had envisioned a blustery wintery day and when they woke up to find none went with a respectable plan B. My direct supervisors never take a day off and would have rode in on snow dogs if required. M.I.A. coworkers just make an overflow of work for the people left behind. Yeah, I’ve heard that whole “piss poor planning on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on mine schpeel”..but declaring you won’t or can’t do work in these times results in unemployment. I’m proud, but sometimes you gotta sock your ego away in a drawer and handle your business.

I worked pretty hastily all morning and then ran off to the print shop/break room right when the violins stopped playing and watched the president-elect get sworn in with some coworkers. He stumbled a bit at first, but then gave a pretty flawless speech in front of the entire world. No note cards, no teleprompter-just one man and the masses.

I thought about my disbelief, regret, and frustration with the last 8 years. I’ll admit I teared up a little bit because here is someone finally saying what I WANTED to hear.

I know he can’t fix everything, but America cared enough to let him TRY.

I wish I would have made it to DC. I was needed someplace else though. I seen him in October here in Norfolk, and I’ll remember that night. I’ll remember standing in line to vote. I’ll remember election day when he won easily. I’ll be old one day and think of a few moments when I was younger and seen something grand and hopeful.

January 19, 2009

Sundays






I was going to write a blog about the start of my January. Early into it I realized - that basically I was complaining how one person's state the obvious outlook had made me grouchy with their bad vibes gamma rays. A happy hour, two weeks, and a phone call from G later and I think I know what I gotta do to resurrect my 2009 from the garbage.

So with this simple blog (that probably should've went to lavaponyland) thus begins my foray into sequential art.

The journey of a thousand pages will begin with a simple recap of my 2nd Favorite Day of the week.

January 16, 2009

Well, here's what the cats are doing.


Rufus blissfully suns while Pancakes ponders ruining it.



And he does.



Then he retreats to his fortress of solitude, AKA the inside of Uma's food stand.


Lil loves the smell of my mom's head. Here, she savors it.

January 15, 2009

Norfolk

I was futzing around on the internet today, and got to perusing the LIFE Magazine images hosted on Google. I marvelled at the pictures of Atlantic City, what it looked like before the garish & imposing casinos showed up. As a six year-old, My mom would ride a train with her grandmother from Philadelphia to spend the day in this version of Atlantic City. It's hard not to get totally consumed by nostalgia.

When I'd gone through all of Atlantic City, and any boardwalk they had on film, and anything in New Jersey, I turned my attention to a place I lived in and explored for some 6 years; Norfolk. Some of these made me laugh, some made me cringe, and some were just shocking. I'll refrain from commentary so as not to unwittingly offend anyone or myself (with naivete').




The ferry to Portsmouth, 1944.




Emergency wartime housing, 1944.






The slums, 1944.













Granby Street, 1944.







Airman wearing light suit on the deck of an aircraft carrier, 1953.












Sailors cleaning up after a fancy party, 1957.




















Cheerleading practice, 1958.





Queen of the Azalea Festival & her father, 1958.





















Creativity, 1958.



Lewis Cousins' first day at a desegregated Maury High, 1959.

Bettie Jean Reed completes her first day of school at newly desegregated Granby High, 1959.

January 13, 2009

Uma In four shirts

Laundry day is always a good time. I like to dump all of my dirty clothes on the floor, sit in the middle of them and conduct an hourly NBA draft of sorts---deciding which clothes get washed in what order and grouping.


Uma likes to help; though she mostly just lays on top of all the clothes and shoves her head into the pile making goofy bark/growl noises in an attempt to get me to play.


When this doesn't work she starts taking socks & underwear & towels and banishing them into my sister's bedroom in retaliation. At top speed as if it were an Olympic event.