End of month worries

So, here are my end of the month worries:

Will I still have my job for another month, six months, a year?
Will I have any money left in my IRA at the end of next month?
Will our country ever stop this economic free fall?

I voted for Obama with the hopes that once he got into office just the optimism of his new administration would ease things up, and it seems in the less than two weeks he’s been in office everything has gotten worse.

Yes, it’s all about the economy now, and it worries me that nobody out there knows how to fix it. Where do we go from here?

Well, at least I can drown myself in drink next month. My January alcohol fast is over after today.

The boyfriends

There's Ben on the right with two of his friends whom he's known since grade school. In fact, Andy in the middle and Ben go back to Kindergarten. We had dinner with them and their families -- one of the boys has five children and the other has two -- on Friday night. It was like going back in history. We caught up, we played with the little children, and told old, old stories. In fact, we looked at a video that they made while in middle school. So much violence and bad words for such a gentle bunch of boys.

The night was pure pleasure.

Curiously satisfying

We saw another one of the films nominated for an Academy Award yesterday – “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” I really wasn’t all that anxious to see this film until it was nominated for 13 Academy Awards. With those many awards there has to be some good things about it.

And actually, there are a lot of good things. Even though the story line is very weird – living a life backwards – the way it was portrayed was very beautiful. Plus a lot of the acting was superb – Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Tarajii P. Henson, Jared Harris.

However, I didn’t think Brad Pitt deserved an Academy Award nomination for his performance. He was really just being Brad Pitt kind of sleep walking through his lines whether he was portraying Benjamin as an old man or young. What deserves an Academy Award is the person who did the makeup. Not only did some of the characters need aging they needed to look younger than their years. And, that was pulled off brilliantly. I also think Blanchett very much deserved a nomination. She was excellent portraying Benjamin’s main love interest starting from her late teens until she was an old lady on her death bed.

True this movie was a long sit – over two hours and 45 minutes – and I highly recommend it. It was a perfect way to spend a late Sunday afternoon.

More about goddesses

A shopkeeper new in our area is all involved in goddesses and Buddhas -- a woman after my own heart. Every month she has a goddess night in her store -- a way to drum up business and to celebrate the goddess in all women. So, pushy person that I am, I told her about our book, The Emerging Goddess, and after seeing more information about it on the book's website, she agreed to take some to sell at her store. My book partner is researching self-publishing a few for the store, and who knows, maybe some other venues as well.

Here's another goddess poem:

Aging Goddesses

The crones – our mothers, grandmothers,
sisters, aunts, old friends, and teachers
walk arm in arm in pairs,
each one supporting the other
on the old cobble-stoned streets.
They are squat, stout
with veiny legs and thick ankles,
their bare feet in flat sandals
showing jagged toenails
or clothed in thick hose
and wide oxfords.
Some move slowly barely able to walk,
clutching each other for support.
They are perfectly coifed.
Their hair short and bleached
hide their age
but not too much.
They wear suits
with skirts always below the knees.
Jeans just don’t do.

They talk as they walk
closely together.
Almost in a whisper
they solve the world’s problems,
impart their age-old wisdom,
or decide what they’ll cook for dinner.
They wear their age
as an example.
Softly, simply, elegantly
they are our muse.
They don’t hide
but rejoice in their age.
They thrive in their togetherness.
That’s what counts.
They aren’t alone as they walk
They walk together
as we follow behind.

Book report

Well, I finally finished reading “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle,” and was I disappointed!

It’s a story about a boy and a dog – actually a lot of dogs – that has an ending that absolutely doesn’t make sense. Someone mentioned it was a takeoff on “Hamlet” in a review. Okay, that must be why so many folks died in the end – both good and bad – except the poor mother. One has to believe that she couldn’t have survived past the last page anyway, so she might as well have been killed off before the end too.

There was real evil in that book along with supernatural beings and ghosts. The human characters were less developed than the dog characters, and the reason for the murders was never really explained. I guess one brother was out to get the other and anything that came between him and his brother’s wife and business – like the son and the friendly old vet – were targets as well. I just smacked that book on the table when I finished it angry at myself for wasting so much time reading it. It’s not often that I feel that way at the end of a book. I knew I was reading something weird, something I really wasn’t interested in, and I kept at it. What a waste!

So, on to something else. My bookshelf runneth over.

About friends

One of my favorite writing friends sent me this poem. I don't know who the author is, but it definitely resonates with how I live my life -- friends for all occasions and interests with some fitting the bill for multiple roles, others for only one. It's all good.

Girls in My Circle

When I was little,
I used to believe in the concept of one best friend,
And then I started to become a woman.
And then I found out that if you allow your heart to open up,
God would show you the best in many friends.

One friend is needed when you're going through things with your man.
Another friend is needed when you're going through things with your mom.
Another will sit beside you in the bleachers as you delight in your >children
and their activities.
Another when you want to shop, share, heal, hurt, joke, or just be.
One friend will say, 'Let's cry together,'
Another , 'Let's fight together,'
Another , 'Let's walk away together.'

One friend will meet your spiritual need,
Another your shoe fetish,
Another you’ll love for movies,
Another will be with you in your season of confusion,
Another will be your clarifier,
Another the wind beneath your wings.

But whatever their assignment in your life,
On whatever the occasion,
On whatever the day,
Or wherever you need them to meet you with their gym shoes on and hair
pulled back,
Or to hold you back from making a complete fool of yourself ..
Those are your best friends.

It may all be wrapped up in one woman,
But for many, it's wrapped up in several.
One from 7th grade,
One from high school,
Several from the college years,
A couple from old jobs,
On some days your mother,
On some days your neighbor,
On others, your sisters,
And on some days, your daughters.

Ranting about Manhattan Beach -- is that a no-no?

Okay it’s time to rant about walking in Manhattan Beach. Every time I take a walk from my house to the beach I always feel this way. It’s about time to write it down and be done with it. And depending how this turns out I’ll put the contents in a letter to City Hall and the Beach Reporter.

Now first off, I should have absolutely nothing to complain about. I live in Manhattan Beach – there is nothing to complain about that. And I live within blocks to the beach. I’m out my door and within minutes I can see the Pacific Ocean from the rise – all blue and beautiful with the sun gleaming down on it, and then I walk down that little hill and I’m on the Strand just off the sand and I can see Santa Monica and Malibu to the north and Palos Verdes to the south and sometimes even Catalina is out. This morning there was full sun, it was warm but not too warm for a vigorous walk, and a little bit of haze over the ocean. Almost paradise, but not quite. The haze took just a little bit of the paradise away.

So what’s the problem? Well, the problem is when you walk in Manhattan Beach you really take your life in your hands. Drivers have no respect for walkers whatsoever. Manhattan Beach is not a walker friendly town, and with all the walkers that I saw out on the Strand this morning and all the walkers on the pier and Manhattan Beach Boulevard, one would think we’d get a little more attention paid to us.

People don’t stop for stop signs, they roll through them. They don’t look both ways when they leave their driveways or leave a stop sign – if they do stop at all. Usually they’ll only look in the direction of oncoming cars, not taking into consideration that there may be a pedestrian trying to cross in the crosswalk. And, as long as I’ve lived in California, I’ve heard the law is to stop for pedestrians. Well, I can’t tell you how many people ignore that rule.

And the worst part of all they don’t obey the clean up after your dog rule. Almost everywhere I walk on the Strand there is dog debris to look out for. We have lots of trash bins along the Strand, and lots of plastic bags available just in case a dog owner has forgotten to bring along, so there should be no excuse. This is absolutely inexcusable this attitude that my dog’s poop is better than yours so it’s okay for me leave its poop on the foot paths. Get out of here. These people who ignore this rule are pigs.

Another rule that’s getting ignored more and more is the no bike riding on the Strand walking path rule. In Manhattan Beach we’ve always had a separate bike path. That’s the beauty of Manhattan Beach – we don’t have to share the path like they do in Hermosa Beach. So what is it with these people who think they are so special that they can ride on the walking path in Manhattan Beach? Maybe they come from Hermosa. And if that’s the case they should go back there.

Enough already. Just thinking about all these things takes away from what I love so much about where I live. I’d love for these things to get fixed, but I don’t have high hopes about that happening anytime soon. I’m sure these lawbreakers are not top priorities of our local police – they probably have more important things to do – like give out as many parking tickets as they possibly can so they can earn their bonuses every year. Parking tickets vs cleaning up dog poop – now there’s a simple choice. I certainly wouldn’t take the dog detail if I were a Manhattan Beach police officer. Again, enough already!