Good times, Good times

I had a very fun week-end. The Kid and I repainted the bathroom to make it more cheerful. You can see the fruit of our labor in the pictures.


I have been wanting to do that for some time, but never got around to it, so when the Kid asked on Saturday, we rushed to the paint store and got started. The Hubby was hard at work with a Jazz band festival all day so the Kid and I got few interuptions wich was great. I must say I am very proud of the look. Now we have to get some white towels (Yikes! did that word get out of my keyboard? White as in white that needs bleach? In my less than pristine house?
We'll have to see about that.) to make it even better and a new little cabinet kinda thing to put above the toilet to put our various conconctions of "beautifying agents." We just have a mess of various stuff that we probably ought to chuck right into the trash, but all the women out there will know what I mean. Maybe I'll use this again, and hoo, this little container is so cool! I feel like Cathy of the comic strip, but we do get lots of stuff.


Also we had a blast going hot tubbing with Brown Girl. We talked for the longest time and could have spent three hours in that tub yakking and enjoying champagne. It was a lot of fun. She is such an uplifting woman that even when we kvetch, we laugh out loud about everything. I just love her. I was going to take pictures of us in the hot tub as it was raining and we brought our umbrellas in case we got a downpour, but we did not need them the tree canopy kept our heads dry.

Thursday I went to dinner and dancing with friends from work. We had sushi and a sushi virgin came with us, but really enjoyed the food. The whole town was frantic because of the "Tour de California" that stop in our town. It was a big cycling event and lots of folks were there to see the riders. They were showing the broadcast on this giant screen while we were dancing, it was sorta wild. This very cute young woman that dances with us was getting hit on by all kinds of weird guys as usual and we just shooed them away when they got too agressive. I always laugh when a twenty something guy tries to come on to me. The big surprise was that one of our co-worker who has been out on leave due to a knee surgery came out dancing with us. She is very much the shy christian girl, or at least that is what we all thought and thursday she was all out of control, dancing with all of these guys and shaking some serious booty! We all laughed so hard, it was lots of fun. I'll see if I can get the picture someone got from her on their cell phone and post it here. She always seem so shy, it was great to see this change of character for her.

Unfortunately, I go back to work tomorrow, I sorta got used to those three day week-ends! Right now it is raining and that is great. We are supposed to get some thunderstorm! I just love those!

Music, always Music!

I was treated to a great concert tonight. I went to see the Derek Trucks Band at our own local Auditorium, the Hubby's venue. They were out of this world. The singer has a smooth and sensual voice that was great, and Derek's guitar playing was spellbinding. I brought my friend who is getting a divorce and she really enjoyed having this time to get away from the stress the home front brings to her these days. The opening band was the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. They were great also, but in a completely different way. The had an Indiana backyard kinda band with a drummer, a washboard player and a guitar playing singer. They are made of the reverend (guitar and voice) his wife (washboard) and brother of the reverend (drummer). The wife and the reverend were both quite large and were a joy to see as they truly lost themselves in the music. She was wearing a sleeveless black dress, some fishnet stocking and bright redish-purplish hair. When the reverend was talking about how long ago they lived in the country in Indiana, she said "what are you talking about, your're 24! Can't have been that long ago!" They were a great way to start the concert. My friend, who also works with me said we should get their CD in play it at work, just to irk the christians, after all the music is played by a "reverend!" It was a great time. Check out the bands online see if you like them too.

Symantec-Shmymantec

I had my computer highjacked by my new download of virus protection program for the last few days and have not been able to keep up with everyone. Hope to do so tomorrow as I have a day off, thanks dead presidents!

I have been watching lots of the Olympics and have had ups and downs with the canadian athletes, and my week as also been full of ups and downs.

I shared last week that a friend and co-worker lost his son, and there was a funeral for the little boy last wednesday. It was very emotional, and very christian. I was rather upset and angry leaving the service as the preacher or pastor or whatever he is used the death of the child as a "call to the altar" I guess is the term for it. He stated that you could react in only two ways to the death of this child: either you will go away from god or will come towards him. He then also talked about how empty a life without Jesus would be, and how all of our souls would be lost. Anyway, it felt very opportunistic and misguided to use the death of this child and the immense sorrow of his family to try and converts the few folks in the audience, including me, who do not belong to a christian church. I really liked what my friend said, that having this child had deepened his spirituality, because it was heartfelt. The pitch of the official sounded more like a car salesman approach to spirituality, one of the main reasons I stay away from religions. The crowd felt cultish and wierd as they sang some hymn and raised their hands. I guess I sing some Hip Hop song and raise my hands too, but it is not the only meaning to my life. To me, there was a third option that this death brought in relation to spirituality: it had no effect on my spirituality. Death is part of life, and while I feel sadness and sorrow that my friend lost his beloved son, I also have known death, and have grown to accept it. Not that I am in denial, and that I would not hurt immensely should my child died, but I would not blame god for it, nor attach this death to a pre-ordained wish from god designed to teach me and the world around me something in particular. The whole event brought some very strange emotions to the surface and the whole agency was buzzing with it. Lots of folks spoke of feeling guilty because of the sermon, and other wondered if they should reconsider their spiritual positions, it was draining.

The other draining phenomenon was that one of my client finally was arrested and brought to the Juvenile Hall as no-one could keep him safe. It was a month of trying to help him that just kept failing at different levels. So for now we have some respite. It was a sad event as this child is very much lost emotionally and takes care of himself through anger and defiance. It is always sad to see a young person that cannot be reached when so many folks are trying to do so.

There was a fantastic party at my friend Ponytail's house yesterday. Lots of good music played by many who attended; a delicious dinner, this huge salmon done on the grill; lots of good friends; kids running around; it was a blast. It was a housewarming party for him as he just bought his mother's home and moved in with his little son. It was cold and rainy, but it did not stop anyone from having a good time and gathering by the oudoors stove, chatting and laughing. I needed that.

The Olympics for the most part have been fun to watch, although I have just seen the poor canadian girl get thrown in the ice dancing and that was very scary! I am angry that the canadian men are not doing better in hockey, but overall canada is doing well. The woman hockey team from canada seems poised for a gold. One thing I do love from the winter games: not a US sweep. I just get really tired in the summer games of seeing all of these professional athletes blowing the competion away because other countries do not have the same resources. Although, there are many countries which are not represented in the winter games. Pakistany skaters? Not common.

Feels good to write. I feel like I have few opportunities to do so and I do enjoy it. I feel trapped by the "ought to" these days and as a result, I do none of them. I did shop a bit today, but did not find what I wanted. I am looking for some winter gloves as the sales prevail right now, but did not find what I wanted.

I go get my eyes examined on Tuesday and then will get new glasses. I will get a pic when I get them.

That's it for now.

Fried Chicken

Here I am cooking a whole mess of Southern Fried Chicken on this fine Monday evening. No, this is not a customary fare for the P'tit Loup household, but tomorrow we do have a Pot Luck at work and the theme is Soul Food. So I looked online and found an easy recipe of fried chicken and I am elbow deep in frying oil. I hope folks like it.

I know I complain about where I work, but the monthly pot luck is sorta fun and most of the folks that I work with are quite nice. So here I am, frying up a storm.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but here in California, it is summer! Today we took a long walk on the beach, and tons of folks were having pic-nics and enjoying the balmy weather. The house was immensely hot all day and it was great to enjoy the ocean breeze. It is crazy to think that most of the east coast is covered in snow, while we are enjoying better weather than ever. Usually summers here are foggy and cold, so this is just wonderful to feel some heat. Some folks say that unseasonnal heat is a sign of earthquakes, but I'm not sure I believe that myth after 25 years of living here.

Here is a shot of the rising moon I took last night.











And a shot of my new purse I bought with the Kid at Urban Oufitter which just opened this week in our town. I love the purse because it will hold my files when I have to take them and has some nifty compartments for pens! I am a penaholic and must have great places to put all of my pens. So this was a find and pretty affordable too!

Mixed Bag

I'll start by the worst and then get better from there. Two bad news yesterday, my friend's young son did pass away, but by now, had he survived, he would have had very little hope of being healthy or able to reach any normal milestones. So while I am sad, and can't even fathom what my friend, his wife and other two sons feel, I find solace that he will not suffer for years to come, with no hope of recovery.

Then I want to spew for a paragraph. We continue to have wierd run-in with our partner agency social services. If it was not so crazy, it would be funny. I provided a training in our program yesterday to the County Social Service Department. We were expecting 20 to 30 folks. Eight showed up and only three stayed for the whole training. I was so furious! My boss said: "Even if only two of them get it, it's better than none." But to me, all the prep time and presentation time for three folks, that's just crazy. About five person from my agency worked to prepare the presentation, and presented for four hours, isn't that crazy!

Allright now for the fun stuff!
Yesterday, I had dinner with Brown Girls and Hot Stuff and I had a blast. Both of these women used to work with me and have since left my agency to open their own private practice and are both very upbeat and funny. We had a blast, gossiped about the insanity of my agency and all of the christians who lead it, the male/stepford wives relationship that most of the hyper christians share, and tons of other stuff. It was a blast. I found out that one friend we have, the Hairdresser, who is fairly flaming, just returned from having injections designed to make his penis grow larger, and Hot Stuff reported that it was very successful. We laughed a lot with that one. I guess that since so many females have their breast enlarge, I should not be surprized that males would find themselves subject to the desire of having larger penises. Hot Stuff also talked about her current flame, and how that is going. She is not called hot stuff for nothing, she is very curvaceous and lovely, and I guess I live vicariously through her as she attempts to find the right guy. She could rival with many reality TV show. Brown Girl is a latina woman who laughs easily and has the most bubbly personality I know. Her husband is currently writing a book that evaluates christian belief as a psychological phenomenon. I can't wait for the book to come out. We use to provide diversity training for our agency together and had loads of fun doing so. They have a small practice here in town that is growing and keep droping hints that I should join them, and I might do so at some point in time, especially if I can do so slowly. Sort of a transition.

The last highlight today is that due to something I bought online for christmas, I received this music magazine for free, complete with a free cd and a card for 50 songs that I can download from the e-music site. Isn't that a great way to end a week? And I get the next two mondays off, thanks to the american government. Over New Year, when I was at my friends in Val David, we discussed national holidays and found that the US has four more than Canada! Yes folks, not only do you freeze for six to eigth months, but you also work for more days a year. Sorry to rub it in. Oh yes, but we do have Bushie for a leader, I guess it all evens out somehow!

Tonight, the moon is gorgeous above my house, clear and bright, and letting us make out the ondulating lines of the surrounding hills. Simply beautiful.

Grossness!

I work with weird people. Now you may think that I mean my clients, but no, I mean the partner agencies that we work with: Social Services, Mental Health, Probation etc. Tonight I did an orientation for a potential new client. This was requested by our partners from the Social Services Department. The family, as all of our families, has a host of problem and a child that is very much out of control, sometimes at home, and other times at school. Mother did great and even acknowledged for the first time to anyone that her use of alcohol may be a factor in some of her difficulties and that she has entered sobriety as of last week. A great orientation you would say. I agree, when I think of the family. Two workers from Social Services were present. One of them, a woman, who has a strong reputation for poor judgement calls and shoddy work, slept through 3/4 of the meeting where I explain to the family what they can expect from our program and the family's responsibility if they choose to participate. In addition, while she drifted off into Morphe's inviting arms, her shirt crept up and exposed her whole stomach, which is quite large (for a long time I thougth she was pregnant, until I realized that it had been much more than nine months). I was so irrate, first that she slept through my presentation, but also at her lack of professionalism. We've all had fashion faux-pas where some article of cloting does not cooperate, but this was far more than I have ever encountered! Anyway, I consulted with my supervisor and will forward a depiction of the meeting to her supervisor. I believe the other person from Social Services will do the same as I saw him at times try to get her attention and wake her, to no avail.

I told you I work with weird folks!

Other things that have been on my mind lately is that there seem to be several distressing events in the lives of my co-workers. My office mate and close friend just had a miscarriage and is now filing for divorce, another woman's husband is having a heart infection which is causing his blood pressure to sky-rocket, another woman's son who has cerebral palsy had a severe bronchitis and the family had to decide whether or not to ressucitate should his heart or lungs fail, and another worker's young son (about 5) is fighting for his life with a brain tumor at Lucile Packard (Stanford) Hospital for children. I wonder what this convergence of unfortunate events means, if anything. It seems like too many bad stories all grouped into one and it is creating stress for all of us. I hope the stars move on and things mellow out.

Such nonsense

I continue to be frustrated by what I read on the news. Last week I found out that the next federal budget, while making tax cuts to the rich and corporations permanent, will cut deeply into entitlement services, health care and mental health programs. Yeah! So the california victory of 2004, the mental health services act which generates funds by taxing millionaires in california becomes inconsequent, since it will only replace funds lost to the hands of the federal budget. It feels like the more you row, the faster the current gets and you keep staying in the same place, or get further behind.

Pretty pictures: The wintry, windy skies on Sunday.