Bush Vists Southern CA

'Nuff said. I won't even start in on FEMA and the staged press conference; I just don't have the strength for that soapbox today.

Seussical The Musical

Since my older sister and I practically raised my younger brother, we've agreed that we have some bragging rights here: our 23-year-old brother who just graduated college last April, who just moved to New York City barely 6 weeks ago, has already landed an amazing part in "Seussical the Musical", a production run by Theatre Works USA. He's going to be the Cat in the Hat! He's been acting since he was 5 years old and he is extremely talented (and no, I am not just biased). This is a lifelong goal and dream realized for him. Woo-hoo Scotty/Squirt/Prescott!

The company does other children's productions as well such as "Charlotte's Web" and "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." (two personal favorite children's books of mine). Check out the website for the shows they have, click on the show and enter your ZIP code and it will let you know when/if the tour gets close to your area.

We are all so proud of you Prescott!!

The Hills of L.A. Are Burning

It's that lovely time of year here known as fire season. The weather dries out, warms up, and the Santa Ana winds blow everything all over the place. The humidity drops really low and there is a sort of electricity in the air that makes you feel like you could spontaneously combust at any moment. The humidity at this time of year is usually below 15%, which is why people might be surprised to know that despite our non-existent winters and warm weather, L.A. residents are actually some of the first in the country to drag out the good old humidifier. Apparently bodies, computers and wildbrush need to be between 30-55% humidity or things dry out and blow up. This is nothing new to residents here; we get these winds every year and along with them come the seasonal wildfires.

The fires are usually bad every year in some way or another, but every few years it gets really bad in L.A. County and it looks like 2007 might be one of those years. Parts of the Malibu Hills began burning last night; the fire spread across about 1200 acres and today at 4 PM the fire was still described as zero percent contained. Flames were reportedly jumping the Pacific Coast Highway, which obviously had to be shut down. The Malibu Presbyterian Church and the Kashan Castle both burned to the ground (the 2nd picture is the church). Pepperdine and many other areas of Malibu were evacuated last night and many residents of Malibu are still wandering around in bathrobes trying to figure out what to do and where to go. In the northern hills of the San Fernando Valley, along I-5, there are more than 10,000 acres on fire in Agua Dulce and Canyon Country. I feel rather fortunate right now to live on along the southern hills of the valley right now...

The thing that most people don't know about wildfires is that they are actually very good for enriching soil and they also help prevent the brush overgrowth that can actually lead to stronger and less easily controlled fires. There's a delicate balance here of needing enough rain not to be at risk for fire without having so much rain that things overgrow, because then there is just that much more fodder to burn during the next fire season.

It's a weird balance to try to understand, and I'm not 100% certain that it's compatible with human life in this area. Los Angeles is after all a desert and the main reason people can live here is only thanks to the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River. People have hoped for decades that Los Angeles would burn and my husband and I have lately been joking that as long as we're out of town, we're OK with that. Thanks for being out of town tonight without me, honey :).

At any rate, I really feel for the unfortunate people who have lost their homes or who are in danger of having their homes burn...how scary to watch that happen, or worse - to come "home" and your home isn't there anymore. I'm grateful to have sat on my lazy bum in my home all day today!

Quote for the Day

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.

-Albert Einstein

Children's Writing

I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that I'm getting ready to begin children's literature writing program. The program is through the Institute of Children's Literature and they seem to have a very successful reputation. The program is done from home, and each student is paired with a published mentor writer for guidance and feedback throughout the whole process. There are different lessons/assignments that take you step by step through to publishing. Some authors were even able to sell stories before they had completed the course, but in any case all students have a published magazine and a published book piece by the end.


I've been putting off doing the course since Fall 2003...either I was too busy being stressed from teaching, or from sales, or from getting married - time does not stand around forever waiting for life to stop! I'm proud of myself for finally putting my foot through the door. I will eventually start posting some fictional writing samples on my blog but nothing is ready for anyone else's eyes! Or maybe my skin just isn't thick enough yet...:). Whatever the case, stay tuned if you're interested!

I Am the Moon

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Check this out! It only takes a minute and it's fun. Thanks to my stepmom for posting it on her blog.

Why I'm Starting to Dread Sundays in Fall

I realized today that I have become a football widow. No, this does not mean I lost my husband due to some unspeakable freak football injury (thank goodness). Nor does it mean that my husband belongs to a football team that travels all over, leaving me alone more often than not.

No, what I've got is even sadder than those circumstances, mostly since I suspect I am not the only one out there living in these conditions. My husband is a die-hard, swear-at-the-TV, read-the-sports-pages-online-till-his-eyeballs-hurt Chicago Bears fan. In short, he's an FBA (football addict), or you could even go so far as to call him a BFGW (Bears Fan Gone Wrong). The man can't remember where we store key household items but he can tell you the scores, players, plays, yards rushing, whatever the hell that means - about games played 20 years ago.

He's the most even-keeled, reasonable, levelheaded person I know except when the damn Bears don't run the ball and they don't give it to Hester (last year it was Benson). I don't know these people's names from their accomplishments or contributions toward the team. I know their names because Bryon so often supplies them for me from yelling at them what to do.

You would think that the Bears winning a game would put him in a happy mood, and for the first Bears season that I knew him it did seem to be like that. Then the next season I noticed the "yeah-buts" started. For those of you who don't speak game-ese, a yeah-but means "Yeah, they won the game, but they played sloppy" or "Yeah, they got the touchdown, but they're playing not to lose, they're not playing to win ". Well, OK....but did they win? "Yeah, but...". You get the idea. So now I can't even guarantee anymore that Bears win = Bryon good mood. Now it has to be that they win AND play flawlessly. And considering what a rough start their season has gotten off to, my hopes of having a cheerful Sunday dinner with my husband are slowly fading away.

And just a note of warning to those of you football widows who don't know the game rules or anything about the players: don't even dare ask a question unless you own Tivo, and even then I would be careful. Sometimes the FBA's are in the mood to explain something, but that can go in two equally dangerous but different directions. Sometimes a simple football question can turn into a 20-minute spin into why they lost a game in 1986 for the exact same reason. Or you get a snappy, how-could-you-not-know-that answer: "No, Grossman is not playing this week. He hasn't played for three weeks and I tell you that every week - he's done!". Right...sorry about that, honey. Must have slipped my mind.

C'mon, Bears. Help me out - please start playing better so I can have my husband back! Any support groups for this out there??

P.S. Check out the wristbands. They crack me up but I admit I do love 'em. At least he's nothing if not loyal!!

Welcome back Kotter

Well, sorry it's been so long, for those few of you who actually check my blog from time to time :). It's been a crazy whirlwind these last two and a half months. I went straight from getting a new job to getting married to training for the new job to the honeymoon to losing the new job. Sigh. I know it is all for the best, I was not happy with the new job in the least, but the old bruised ego is now recovering from not one but two job losses in a 4-month period. Not exactly feeling on top of my game these days, but I guess some periods in life are like that. I'm just such a control freak that I actually disillusion myself into thinking I should always be on top of everything.

The only good thing that's cropping up from losing the job is that I am finally allowing myself to do things that make me happy, not just money. The money with Dynavox would have been terrific but is it worth crying every day from stress? I, along with my husband Bryon, can assure you it is not. So I've been writing more often these days and it's starting to make me feel a lot better. It's something I have always been good at but always told myself it wasn't a practical job. Now I don't care anymore, I just want to be happy and the bills will get paid somehow.

So I joined a children's literature writing program where I will get mentored through a publication process to have both a magazine and a book publication at the end. I'm really excited about it; I submitted a test sample to this group about 3 years ago and they've been bugging me ever since to do their program. I guess they liked my sample...I wrote a true story called "Pest Control". For those of you who know me I think you know the story but the basic gist is when I was about 9 or 10 years old my mom got mad at me for hurting my little brother by accident and she called me a pest. I went through the whole school day with the word "pest" echoing through my head only to come home to find a "Pest Control" car in the driveway, which sent me running into the house promising that I would never be a pest again.

I'm also applying for jobs other than straightforward sales or teaching. One position in particular is for Planned Parenthood; they need a Teen Pregnancy Program Manager and I would love to be it. They closed the app process on Sunday and I haven't heard anything after submitting a resume and cover letter, so we'll see. I also decided to join the LA Unified School District sub list - their day rate is excellent and it would be a great way to get some teaching time (and money, ha ha) without dealing with the bureaucracy of meetings, etc. I've applied to various other positions as well, like a trade show coordinator, and an infant behavioral specialist, but after my horrible experience with Dynavox, I'm trying to be a little pickier about what I take.

The job I really want is motherhood, but Bryon's trying his best to fight me off with the stick of reason. And I know he's right. But my poor body is just screaming for it. And while I am so joyful to see all my friends and family start to have babies (the amount of people that I know who have given birth or who are about to give birth this year is just too long to list), it is getting harder and harder to see it happening all around me and still have to wait. I feel like I have been waiting forever! Having a baby is something I have wanted since I was a child, so every month now feels like a struggle. We'll see how long Bryon can fight me off :).

Thanks for reading! :) I'll try to be better about posting on a regular basis.