Voting day or Dia de Votante?

The polls closed at 8, we weren't finished counting ballots and cleaning up the poll site till 11:30. That is crazy....Wow. If only you were there you would understand. Have pity on your poll clerks next time you go to the polls. We are just regular people following the orders of the federal government. Some of us not even by our own choice!

Here is an example of the craziness. I was a poll clerk in a small community with 410 registered voters. Of the 410 over 75% are Spanish speaking individuals. Of the 4 poll workers only one of us signed that we were bilingual. I never sign bilingual, because I am not fluent and have grammatical construction problems. But our bilingual clerk...was a nightmare she was confusing the voters with weird words that don't even exist. So I had to take over translations. Yet, How do you do you explain to an illiterate Spanish speaking individual how to use an audio touch screen ballot machine with 4 years of conversational High School Spanish?

Or even more confusing how do you say what Republican and Democrat or American Independent political parties are? They don't translate straight across. I take my hat of to all of you that have the golden tongue of language…bilinguals, trilinguals, English 2nd language speakers...etc. But don't worry your votes are safe...I think…just because I started the day not know how to say “Would you like to vote in Spanish?” doesn’t mean I can’t count…uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis,….Goodnight Cyberspace…Good dreams, Good Health and Good Hearts!

Have you ever felt...Have you ever...wait

I sometimes feel as though I live in a constant state of deja vu...and not the good kind. Each day I live seems to resemble the one before...until they mesh into an intricate pattern of mediocrity. I use to question why people spent weekend after weekend getting drunk or high even more I wondered why they got tattoos, piercings or dyed their hair wild colors. Yet, not anymore, I find I understand in some remote fashion it might be an attempt to break the endless cycle of mediocre life hood. We are on a journey in life. With the same end death...yet where we can be creative is in life. So we seek out options of creativity changing our bodies, minds and consciousness to find something other than the daily grind. The cheapest ways to elevate the self away from our box lives of ant machinery is to tattoo, dye, pierce, drink, smoke, and shop. Although they tend to be quite expensively materially and eventually there is no more space to tattoo, no more areas to wear jewelry and no more space in the closet. The Hardest and Most Expensive ways are through making friendships, helping others, and discovering the world. I wonder, how far am I willing to go so that I can look back on my life and say each day I learned something new, I did something different and I am an individual because I lived.
Goodnight Cyberspace, Be Kind, Be Gentle, and Be Softhearted!

Sleep is Overated

Last night, for once I felt tired. Can you imagine? Usually I am up for hours till 2 or 3 am...fighting the battle of inconsistent insominia. Yet, last night I thought ...lets try to go to sleep early. Explore the unknown realm of sleep. Allow the Sandman an easy trick this time. It was a terrible experience I woke up every hour on the hour. Exhausting...finally I turned the light on and opened Popular Science. I think the Sandman slipped a little bit of nightterror into to that dust. There is something traumatic about moving from sleeping to waking over and over all night long. Anxiety, frustration, sour stomach...accompany the experience. Its one long game of cloak and dagger where I am running from something I can't see. Have you ever been there?
I've made the decision, never to again. Tonight I am staying awake til at least 2, then I should sleep like a dream. I find it curious to think that this system should work. During this night; of on and off consciousness I didn't dream. I never fell into REM sleep to dream. Dreaming seems to be an important part of my ability to rest. Freud asserts dreams are wish-fulfillments, of those wishes that are the result of repressed or frustrated sexual desires. THANK GOD, such assertions are no longer accepted as true. Others like my dear Mother insist it isn't the dreams we should worry about, but the absence of dreams.We have all had a few wierd dreams. I had a dream about a chess board that recurred throughout my youth. After mastering a mediorce ability to play chess, I never experience this plague of chess again. Wierd? Any one out there want to guess what frustrated sexual desire that is? No...please don't! Foolishness ruled the roost in my childhood, I had nightmares by the dozen. Know anyone who doesn't dream? I think they are lying...everyone dreams in some fashion...Don't they?

Hope, Joy...Financial Woe?

Thank goodness, there are very few times in my life when I can look back and say my family forgot their holiday spirit. We are not the Lampoons or the Family down the block that use 2,000,000 Christmas lights to cover the house with holiday cheer. We are usually the family who waits to mid-December before putting up a string of lights down the fence, around the bay window and up the banister of the back steps. We are the family who must schedule the tree pick up because we are all running 3 separate ways, but we are also the family that always trims the tree together. Unfortunately this year, the house seems to be covered with a haze of the Scrooges and Ba humbugs. Its been a hard year financially for all of us, but it seems that is all anyone can think about. Sorrow becomes me, because I can't figure out a way to pull them from the depths of despair to hot cocoa and cookies. I've come out with an idea. That is truly revolutionary, well...at least in my family. The idea...to have a Christmas with no presents. I want to invite our entire family for a meal, coffee, a yule log and some festive music. At this Christmas party the only gift to be exchanged will be Christmas cards, kind words, hugs, kisses and smiles. I'm tired of feeling as though the world has been turned upside down because of gifts. What do you think Masters and Geniuses of Cyberspace? Do you find this idea invigorating and enlivening for the true Christmas season or do you find it a drag?

Tis The Season For Thought...

Have any of you watched the American sitcom Golden Girls? It's what the younger generation refers to as an old show. (Golden Girls: re-runs on daytime and late night TV) Tonight I watched an episode. It really made me think. The episode was about the girls going to a homeless center to look for a lottery ticket. Disturbingly, it really made me think about how much we ignore the needy. IN the USA we think of homelessness as a problem that is at the root of it a personal problem. Our answer is to prescribe 'pull yourself up by your boot straps' or occasional charity. Really, How dare we sleep in our warm houses every night and shrug off helping those who need it. The least we could to is give our time in volunteering or donating money for shelters, medicines, hosing, job training, life enrichment programs. The majority of homeless in the US is Mentally ill and Veterans of the armed forces. How dare we turn our backs on them? During this holiday season...give more than just one glance when you see a chance to help. No matter how small the act, everything counts. A warm blanket, a cup of coffee, a few cents or just a small smile, Give dignity and respect to all. You think your so different, that just in one minute you could be sharing their circumstances. We are all fellow servants on the journey of life.

Juiced Up Life

I admit it, I am a lover of fresh carrot juice. At one time I would spend 4 dollars every chance I got for a glass from a juice bar. I know the money should have been spent in many better ways, but I am weak. One look at a glass of neon orange juice and my mouth waters. One more confession, I have family that holds membership in a wholesale bulk store, Costco. Forgive me, as I confess I am weak. I enjoy walking down those huge aisles and looking at pounds and pounds of usless foods and products. Products ranging from Frozen lasagna to Pencil lead from crates of apples to boxes of zucchini. 29 different varieties of snack food, 14 brands of olives, 9 different kinds of toothpicks, 25 different types of chocolate bar, 10 colors of roses, clothes, bicycles, appliances, mountainous cookies, pies and cakes. You can spend the whole day looking for a box of Kleenex, but in the process find every soda known to man or woman. Yet, the Costco marketing team is full of evil intelligence. Along the entrance of the store they pack from floor to ceiling the newest and greatest appliances. One fateful day, right there under the glow of fluorescent light to my left was a Jack Lalanne Power juicer for 80 dollars.....have you had one of their moments when lightening strikes. I realized I could make fresh carrot juice for pennies rather buying it. I had no idea what doors a juicer opened. I have juiced nearly every fruit and vegetable sold in the grocery store. THEY ARE DELICIOUS. I spent the first month I owned my juicer on a liquid vegetarian diet, Juice morning, afternoon and evening. My diet was nearly 85% liquid. I've juiced watermelons, honeydews, apples, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, oranges, peaches, nectarines, apricots, mangoes, papaya, carrots, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers....much more. I think I am addicted. I love my juicer. I love juice. That is until I nearly passed out, due to anemia and protein deficiency. Well, that might be a little bit of an overstatement, but juice isn't and normally shouldn't be ones whole diet. Juice is a good way to get precious vitamens, minerals, and antioxidants. Listen to the wisdom of your Mother: Everything in moderation. No matter how good something is: Juice or chocolate. You learn fast that a little is good, a lot is great, but too much is always too much.