I'll call this one Nephew!

If he'll call me auntie Phaedra, I'll happily call him my nephew Wes. So big! Such a big boy! God is he gorgeous. Good job to my sistah Jen for cooking up this one!

I love you baby Wes!

Where is the empathy?

This was sent to me as an e-mail forward (all the way from England!). It is a sad state of affairs when people forward this garbage, this absolute shit around.

Newsflash: those on welfare will NEVER ever get "rich" from welfare benefits. They will barely be able to scrape by and live on them.

The real solution to funding programs (In the U.S. anyway) is not to cap how much the real "rich" pay. There are caps on how much the upper crust of the wealthy (I'm talking less than 1% of the population here, and probably not about anyone that you actually know) pay toward taxes, and Medicare, and Social Security, etc... The richest of the elite rich can AFFORD to contribute to all of our elderly grandmothers out there who can no longer afford their homes when their property taxes increase because their social security checks just got cut by the feds and their prescription drugs now cost them MORE under Medicare part D.

People need to get their facts straight. We were all once immigrants in the U.S. Immigrants and those on welfare are not the problem, the current administration and their ways of lining their rich friends' pockets is the problem! Let's not turn on each other people, FOCUS ON THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM!

Anyway, this little so-called poem enraged me. So I thought I'd share.

***WARNING! This poem does NOT express the viewpoint of Phaedra!***

Illegal Immigrants Poem I cross ocean, poor and broke, Take bus, see employment folk. Nice man treat me good in there, Say I need to see welfare. Welfare say, "You come no more, We send cash right to your door." Welfare cheque’s, they make you wealthy, Medicare it keep you healthy! By and by, I got plenty money, Thanks to you, British dummy. Write to friends in motherland, Tell them 'come fast as you can.' They come in turbans and Ford trucks, I buy big house with welfare bucks They come here, we live together, More welfare cheque’s, it gets better!
Fourteen families, they moving in, But neighbour's patience wearing thin. Finally, white guy moves away, Now I buy his house, and then I say, "Find more aliens for house to rent." And in the yard I put a tent. Send for family they just trash, But they, too, draw the welfare cash! Everything is very good, And soon we own the neighborhood. We have hobby it's called breeding, Welfare pay for baby feeding. Kids need dentist? Wife need pills? We get free! We got no bills! British crazy! He pay all year, To keep welfare running here. We think Britain darn good place! Too darn good for the white man race. If they no like us, they can scram, Got lots of room in Pakistan.

Holy bags of crap!

Apparently, when a closet is ignored for too long bad, scary things can happen.

My mom went out of town for her birthday, which gave my dad and I an opportunity to clean three decades of "stuff" from his closet. Mom gets weird about getting rid of things, so dad and I had to plan operation "closet purge" for when she wasn't home.

We started the fun at 7:00 PM and finished at 11:30. HOLY CRAP!

We filled a whole outdoor sized trash can (although it's a recycle can) with magazines and clothes catalogs from 1987-1995. Seriously.

We purged three large garbage bags of trash. Shoes that had been partially eaten by dogs, etc....
We collected 5 bags of items to sell on e-bay.

We found a large (15" x 25" ??) photo that my dad took of my mom WAAAAAAAAAAY before I was a glimmer in their eyes. We framed and hung it.

We collected and donated TWENTY SIX bags of clothes to GoodWill. Also to GoodWill: a bag of shoes, a bag of books, a briefcase, and a knee brace.

The whole process was amazing. Baby steps... we need to do this process ALL over my parents' house. But this was an impressive start!

Updating the Band

I'm in the process of totally updating my group's website. We're adding new and updated photos, and more audio clips from pieces we play.

During rehearsal last night for a wedding this weekend we recorded tons of Minidisc clips and took lots of photos (some of just the instruments, some of us playing, and some posed).

I love the group of girls I'm working with! I recently had to cut some dead weight from the group. The personalities I have now work so much better together, and we're all friends which really helps our group mentality.

The one I attached is one of my favorites. It reminds of something the Beatles would do. Or that painting of the guy with the hat and the large apple covering his face...

Trip Photos

From last weekend. There is the Kennywood park, Amish countryside of Ohio (complete with tourists), and goat kisses.


As always, click on the photo to enlarge it.

Dottie

My friend Jamie's new pug-puppy! She's sooooooooooo cute!

I have a new lead on a new little gal myself. Aldo, brace yourself!

Pittsburgh

My dad picked me up from work on Thursday night and we began the drive to Pittsburgh. We were headed to Kennywood, a park built in 1898 with roller coasters built in the 1920s.

Traffic on the way there was nutty. We got stuck in a traffic jam for about 2 hours that slowed us down for where we ended up staying that night. It also slowed down our arrival by 2 hours the following day.

I thought about stopping to see Musevia around 2 AM, but didn't do it (you're welcome Musevia!).

Apparently my dad has been to this park about 4 times before and has a tradition of never being able to follow the directions to find it. We continued this tradition on our trip. In all fairness, the mapquest directions are great until we got on the city streets of Pittsburgh. We stopped and asked a postman and he straightened us out.

The park was fabulous and even contains a steel roller coaster that is continually ranked as the "best" in the nation. The hilly terrain makes for great rides, the architects really used the landscape to their advantage.

There was an attraction where a guy dove from a height similar to the cliffs of Acapulco. I guess it's about 9 stories high. He hit the water at 60 mph and it was a 10 ft deep pool. It was freaking amazing!

We also continued dad's tradition of always ending up at the stadium on the way out of town. Luckily we asked a limo driver for directions, and he steered us toward our destination.


Lately, when I go out of state I like to incorporate looking at rescue dogs to adopt into my trip. I found a place on petfinder.com that had schnoodles (schnauzer-poodle mixes that don't shed). Ideally I would like a 30-40 lb little girl dog. The lady told me these girls (three of them!) were about 20 lbs. So we drove through part of West Virginia and to the middle of nowhere Ohio to see them. Her facilities were a thousand times better than the place I went to in Indiana a month ago, but the doggies were way too small. My dad thought that their "fighting weight" might be 15 lbs on a good day. =(

Aldo dodged another bullet, no new dog this weekend.

On our way back on track to the way home from the dog excursion, we drove through even MORE of the middle of nowhere Ohio. It turns out that's hardcore Amish country. Horses and buggies and bicycles a-plenty!

We stopped at a little farm that had goats and sheep to pet and feed, as well as goods to purchase (cash only!). We bought a fabulous black raspberry pie (and it was DELISH!).

After we left we saw some maniac pass THREE cars at once on the little country roads. It was a no passing zone, up a hill, on a curve. RIGHT after he finished there was a chain of 3 cars led by a couple on a motorcycle. The whole thing could have been really, really bad. What the hell was he thinking? I'm so glad there wasn't an accident.

Apparently Amish country is a destination for lots of folks. The area was super busy! We continued through miles of Amish country and shops before making our way back to anything that resembled a 4 lane highway.

While still on the 2 lane highway my dad saw a heron on the side of the road, which was huge and pretty cool. We talked about loading him into the car (we had room!) since we hadn't gotten a dog.

My dad thought he would be funny and play a trick where he held the map out the window and pretended the wind took it. But the joke was on him when the wind DID take it and he littered/lost our map. I called him an f-ing tard for losing the map (we were still trying to make it back to the interstate). But he felt SO DUMB about it that I figured that was punishment enough so I took back the "f-ing" part of my insult.

Closer to home I saw two deer right on the side of the interstate. That always freaks me out, like after I see deer, then clearly deer will jump in front of my car later on down the road. Luckily, it didn't happen.

My odometer rolled to over 100,000 miles on the trip. =( Have I mentioned that I want a new car? Need a new job and more funds first though.

All in all we had a great 3-day trip. I cherish the fact that I take these trips with my dad and that we travel so well together. We're planning a trip to France next summer.

Booty Call

Oh dear.

Every now and then, someone from my past decides it's a good idea to send me some total shite. Exhibit A: yesterday's e-mail message.

Subject: (it was blank)

Hi Phaedra,

Would you be interested in pursuing a casual relationship?



Is he kidding me? He HAS to be kidding! We had one date in December, and one date in January. I really liked him but HE blew me off. This is SUCH a booty call. Can we have casual SEX is what it should have said.

He knows I'm 31 and not looking for anything casual. We could have been together for almost a year if he hadn't fucked it all up in the first place.

Grr! I'm trying to focus my energy on new guys and don't need this jackhole sending me crap like this.

Too Old to Lose My Mommy

There's something about shopping with my mom. She's old, she's slow, but I almost always manage to lose track of her somehow!

I had to return some dresses I bought for the wedding (rehearsal dinner contenders as well as what was almost my bridesmaid dress) at the mall last night. I need some sandals, and it's sandal sale time, so I thought I'd look at some of those too.

Upon leaving Boston Store and heading to JC Penny to see if they had any shoes (save yourself a trip, the answer is THEY DON'T!!) my mom wanted to go upstairs in JC Penny to buy some shirts for my dad. I said, "HURRY UP and meet me in shoes."

My shoe dept trip was very short. I saw two pairs that were possibilities. The English as a second language sales guy said, "No ten." for one pair and brought me the second. The second pair was not dressy enough for work skirts and dresses (what I need them for) so I was finished. And.... no mom. Where was she? I told her to hurry!

I asked the sales guy if he could page my mom for me (god, I'm too old to be so pathetic) and the store was closing in 10 minutes and we had to walk down the mall to leave through Boston Store. So complicated!

I said her name like 4 times and then I heard the page, "Cash, please return to the shoe department. Customer Cash, please return to the shoe department."

Ha ha ha! Close enough.

She finally found me (after I bought 5 work shirts instead of shoes). She told me she knew the page was for her when she heard the word "shoe" and we left without further incident. =)

Sushi and Truffles

Sunday's e-harmony date included; non-stop conversation, sushi, a gift bag of hand made chocolates for me, a walk to a roof-top garden, jokes, tattoo showing, hugs, and future offers.

All in all it went quite well.

I'm supposed to have a date with another e-harmony guy next week, and a match guy this week. I had a slow period for a while, but things are picking up again.

Zoned Out

I saw an educational program on the television a few years ago where the scientists told me that basically to avoid going crazy at the grocery store, your brain basically "zones out" so you aren't overloaded with stimuli.

Think about it, the grocery store (in the US anyway) is packed with rows and rows of stuff. You can't POSSIBLY look at and read and process everything. It would take all day, or it would fry your brain.

In fact, they did an experiment where they placed a 6-pack of beer in the cereal aisle. It was kind of blocking a box of cereal and about 10 people had to slide it over to be able to grab their cereal. After they all left the aisle, they were interviewed and asked if they noticed anything out of the ordinary while getting their cereal and NO ONE could remember the beer.

Yesterday, I had to return some items purchased in a panic the day before the wedding (2 weeks ago already?) at the mall. I also wanted to try on some strappy high-heeled sandals and a few SUPER on-sale dresses. Before I knew it, I had been there for about 3 hours. I had NO sense of having lost the time either.

But wait! There's more!

I then had to run off to Target (one more return from that day). While at Target, I full on lost my mind. I was a brain-dead shopping zombie. I began to have waking dreams and was hallucinating a little and was also having a hard time SEPARATING this shit from reality.

Like a cartoon character would do, I eventually shook my head side to side (sans the sound effect though) and thought to myself, "I've got to get out of here!"

Who knew shopping could take such a toll on the brain?

Quelle Coincidence!

I've been on e-harmony for a week or two now and am corresponding with two gentlemen. They both live about 2 hours away, but both are saying they'll gladly come to me to meet. I like that plan already!

I know the point of e-harmony is to meet people you are SUPER compatible with (on 29 levels!) but there are SO many coincidences with one of these guys, it almost seems unreal:

- Although he lives somewhat far away, he plays in my city's orchestra. And my season tickets are so close to him I could throw popcorn at him (if the symphony had popcorn).

- We not only went to the same University, but we went at the SAME time and played in the SAME orchestra. Neither of us remembers each other, but I was pretty bass-centric then (and also in a relationship).

- His second language is French and he grew up in France for 10 years. He's a Francophile too and still loves to visit.

I was telling my dad about this and he said, "Are you making this shit up? Is he?" But it's all true. He's also an animal lover, liberal, and teaches music to kids.

We're supposed to meet on Sunday, and I'm excited to meet him. Wish me luck!

Stolen ID

I saw this on CNN today:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/01/bar.id.ap/index.html and the headline is, "Waitress checks customer's ID ... discovers self"

Which reminds me of a little tale from when I was 21.

I had been dating this dude who was a little questionable. Like he went to my ex and ASKED HIS PERMISSION to date me. What? Anyway, he stole my license to sell as a fake ID to someone. He also made out with one of my friends at a party. I stopped seeing him right around that time.

I was working retail and a customer looked at me for a few seconds and then told me, "Hey, my friend has your ID!"

I said, "Really? It's stolen. I'll pay her whatever it cost her to get it back." and I never heard from that girl again.....

My world is MUCH less ghetto these days. Maybe I should thank wisdom, age and experience. =)

The Good News Is...

I went to the gym last night and did about an hour of cardio. I'm felling a little sore this morning, which is a good thing really.

Even since my mom hit me with the car in January and I had bruised ribs for months on end I didn't go to the gym. I've gained about 10-15 lbs from that disaster.

I simply HAVE to get back into a regular routine at the gym, there's no other option. I'm on it though!