Maye Rain

Unless it was a very bad dream, in the debate last night I heard Republican presidential candidate McCain say he and his wife Cindy would adopt America’s unwanted babies.   There was a smirky odd smile following the remark, but I think he meant it.   So far, I’ve been unable to find this quote in newspapers or the internet today so maybe it’s one of those things I dreamed and thought I heard.  I did drink almost a whole quart of grapefruit juice yesterday.  

McCain’s pledge followed a discussion of Roe v. Wade and seems to be McCain’s solution to the abortion issue.  I for one am relieved that I won’t be seeing any more pro-choice bumper stickers in the world.  No more angry assaults on distraught women at Planned Parenthood.  No more bombs or little fetus babies in jars passed in Home Ec.  I am also relieved to finally have a solution to such a serious issue.  Thank you, Senator McCain, your ideas make me feel safer.  I certainly don’t want to worry my pretty little head about this stuff.

 I have a couple of questions about how all these babies will fit in only 7 houses though I guess the houses are fairly large.  I suppose also with McCain and Cindy being so busy taking care of babies, they won’t have much time for running the country.  I say we might want to elect that other guy.  

But, I have heard from reliable sources to invest your money in baby spittle.  It’s being touted as our new alternative fuel source.  So don’t panic and don’t worry.  Remember this: For every problem, our elected officials have a solution.

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Here’s something pretty I made:

So there’s a blog called Cake Wrecks.  Please go there now.

Every morning we follow the same path to walk the baby puppies.  Here’s a list of items found in the street or on the sidewalk:

 - Three large chicken bones at various points. (One I had to pull from Hero’s mouth.  Especially not pleasant at 7 am)

- A pair of red silky underpants that had been run over and rained on.  (Sad and symbolic, somehow.)

- A bag of weed and a ten dollar bill.  (Money was beside the bag, not in it.  Didn’t touch it.)

- A huge cabinet piece my neighbors pulled out of their house.  (Somebody tried to take it but it wouldn’t fit in their car)

- Anna Karenina mutliated paperback.  (Also rained on) 

- Dead Roses still in the plastic wrapping.  (With Kroger sticker on them)

- A cool stick that looks like an old woman with crazy hair.  (Kept that)

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Okay, the pictures of Sarah Palin in a bikini might be photoshopped, but this picture of her is real: 

Here’s the offical word, copied directly from their website:

The 29th annual Arts Around the Lake show will be held Sunday, September 21, 2008. The show will run from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. around Westhampton Lake on the University of Richmond campus. Approximately 100 Richmond, Virginia area artists will be displaying and selling their juried artwork in various mediums. Arts Around the Lake is sponsored by the Greater Richmond Alumni Chapter. Admission and parking are free.

There will be TONS of cool artists so bring your flowery pocket book and wear your pinkest Izod.  You will like it. Promise.

 In case you’ve been living in a cave and have come out only to read my blog (which I’ve long suspected has only been read by cave people and a few friends), you may not be aware of this week’s controvery.  No, I’m not talking about rights for guns but not women, cracking glass on your ceiling or power vaginas in the White House though that has certainly been interesting.  I’m speaking of the new high fructose corn syrup commercials. 

Maybe you don’t know that I will sometimes indulge in television.  (Sometimes means a lot. Sssh!)  So here’s the scene: This lovely, calm woman wearing a hippie shirt is pouring some sort of kool-aid drink while kids are screaming and running wild in the background.  Another woman, okay the know-it-all, says something to the effect of “Hey! Don’t give my kids that crap.  It’s high fructose corn syrup.”  To which the calm woman says  “It’s made of corn which is natural. Duh!”  I took some liberties with that dialogue, but you get the gist. 

So, here’s the problem: first of all, it’s debatable whether corn is even natural anymore.  I mean considering the chemicals, etc.  But, the real issue has always been not that you don’t want to have this in your body, but how MUCH you want in there.  When you see it as the first ingredient in your cereal, your bread, your bright pink beverage, you got a problem.  Nice try high fructose corn syrup industry though if I were you, I think I’d just come out with a big jug of the stuff.  Your commercials could then say, “Yeah, it’ll rot your teeth and your gut and your kids will act like banshees all day before collapsing in a heap on the floor, but darn! it tastes good!”    

Speaking of drugs, if you are looking for crack, drop me a line.  The white shirt gang is out in full force for the change of seasons.  I always think of an episode of The Sunny Side of Philly where the brother and sister get addicted to crack and pull into the bad neighborhood, roll down the window and say to the dealer, “Can we have two cracks, please?”

(Stop thinking I need to get out and interact and stop watching so much television!  Stop it!)

These were just featured from my Etsy shop cause they are pretty. So there!

I have to admit that I was initially attracted to the Greasy Waitress Vintage because of the name.  As one greasy waitress to another, no one else can feel your pain.  But alas! there’s just not a lot of pain going on there.  Unless you think really cool vintage dresses and tees are painful.  Okay, maybe I’ll allow you pain for the REO Speedwagon shirt, but for me that’s only because when I lived in Oregon Hill there was this drunk guy I called REO.  I called him this for one very good reason: when he got drunk, he liked to walk down the street singing “Take it On the Run, baby. If that’s the way you want it, baby.  Then, I don’t want you around.”  VERY LOUDLY.   I always saw him around 8 in the morning when I was on my way to teach a class at VCU, so I would pass him and say, “Hey, REO!” real cheerfully and annoying.  He would stop singing, look at me and say, “Hey.”  Then go back into song mid sentence.  That, I suppose, is the true definition of pain for him and everyone else around.

Speaking of pain, Greasy Waitress has this item:

That’s a notebook made of a Rod Stewart album of him walking in the snow in all white, in case you need some explaining. Ah the beauty! of white on white on white with white.   The even deeper pain though is our dirty little family secret.  (Todd likes Rod Stewart. Old Rod Stewart but nonetheless. There I told everybody!)  Maybe if I got him this notebook, he would write about his love rather than listen to Mr. Stewart’s records.  I’m willing to give it a shot. 

So check out her other notebooks, the t-shirts and go by her Etsy shop and you’ll see some great dresses too. 

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

PBS is back with another round of this American Masters documentary on Pete Seeger so if you missed the original airing, you are so very lucky.   Seeger’s songs are the important part, but his life story is the fascinating part.  There are still many folks out in the world who are critical of Ole Pete - I suppose even after all these years, he’s controversial.  Psst, he used to be a communist.  (Oh wait! I used to be a Baptist…)

He also wrote a bunch of silly songs, some really cool songs and also revised the major anthem ”We Shall Overcome”of the Civil Rights Movement and made it popular.  He started the folk song movement, a movement to clean up the Hudson River and built his own house.  All in all, it looks like the man is living a pretty good life.

But, here’s what’s so scary about Pete Seeger:  He stands up for what he believes, peacefully.  And, it’s that little word - peace - that makes all the difference.  Well, really what that’s called is integrity.  Martin Luther King, Jr. had it, this major little thing that can change the world.   And nothing will get you demonized faster or scare the pants off those who don’t agree with you.  (See this guy.) Standing up for what you believe, peacefully is like water running over rocks:  it will forever change a landscape.  Isn’t it interesting that one little ole person can make governments so fighting mad?  (Whereas big corporations get tax breaks!)  It’s the combo meal you can’t get at your corporate Mickey Dee’s drive-thru:  I’ll have the Stand Up for my Beliefs with a side order of Respect for other Beings and the Peace Pie.  Super Sized, please.

I’m not saying Pete Seeger is the Dalai Lama or even Martin Luther King, Jr, but these traits are in every one of us and something we can all learn to do better.  What these guys have in common is a sincere attempt to make the world a better place and not just for themselves.  But it isn’t an easy thing.  Pete Seeger was ostracized for it; the Dalai Lama lost an entire country; Martin Luther King Jr was killed.  

Ohh, have I made it sound fun?  Perhaps we can start by rewarding those who do stand up for what they believe.  (Sorry, you probably won’t get a tax break though.) If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m suggesting the very opposite of bullying and threatening and generally evoking fear all over the land.   Isn’t that how this America thing got started in the first place?  All of our differences were put into a pot and certain tenants were declared true for all people.  Maybe if we as individuals just start sharing our healthy ideas for making this world better with our neighbor, it will spread.  And one day, those folks we’ve elected to office whose salaries are carried on our backs will also get the fever. 

Hey, I’m a dreamer.

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Here’s something in my shop as of today:

Okay, so I’m not curled in a ball sweating and shaking, but I am wearing a dirty t-shirt and standing by the front door waiting for my SO to get home so we can begin our newest addiction.  Let me just confess it now.  I’m completely smitten with Mad Men.  Oh, I resisted.  I didn’t want to fall in love, but just like the loner kid in the school yard, one whiff of the pretty girl, and I am a goner.  Speaking of pretty girls:  this show is all about it.  It makes you so sad for your mother that you can hardly breathe.  My, how the world has changed!  If I lived during that time, I probably would have been executed with the Rosenbergs, not for being communist, but for not cooking dinner on time.  (Secretary or wife?  These are your options.  Thank God, I can type.)   The sets are so so great that I almost scream everytime they enter a restaurant.  Check out the wallpaper.  Honestly, I would lick the TV if Todd wasn’t watching me.  And, the clothes and jewelry make me want to knock over a bank to afford that sort of opulence.  Some people say it’s better than the Sopranos.  I won’t go that far, but I will tell you that no one has been shot in the eye yet.  And, it has to be the smokingist show ever made.  Makes your lungs hurt just watching.

Here’s my vintage tip of the week: If you love 50’s vintage, you too can become just like me - drooling, dirty shirt wearing, hopping around on one foot, waiting for night, so I can FINALLY get to watching TV.  I hear my brain cells hitting the floor and I don’t even care.

Here’s something pretty I made this week: 

This is my first installment of many, I hope, that show you, my dear readers, some of my favorite stores and people.  I’m going to focus mostly on vintage items with a few unresistable others.  Mostly, I want you to dream of  the many amazing things that can be yours for oh so little money.  So, let’s start with a bang, with Ramona West. 

What I love about her is the variety of clothes and shoes she has in her store.  From 40’s to 80’s.  And all of it is so so charming.  She seems to have a lot of dresses which is my favorite thing anyway and in a range of sizes.  And, I have to say, her pictures are so darn cute. (Love her sunglasses.) I suppose that’s her in the photos, but if not, it sure looks like someone who should be named Ramona.   It’s that presentation of the clothes that makes me love them even more, and when you are selling online, that might be the most important thing.  I will say though that things go fast.  If you are loving something, buy it up.  But if you miss it, something just as great is probably coming up in her store soon. 

Here’s one of my favorites:

Hey, Ramona! Richmond Virginia is coming to see you.

I try and ignore the headlines of the newspaper, but yesterday they put the triple whammy on me: recession, food costs & something I’ve obviously blanked out.  I understand that the more a reader panics, the more copies of newspapers get sold, but I have to admit to feeling that twinge of “What’s going to happen?” which only leads to hiding under the bed and eventually having to be lifted out of the house by crane.  In other words, I don’t want go down this path. 

So the truth is, in some ways, we’re in a place we have very little control.  Unfortunately, we can’t control the cost of gas. (Though it might help to impeach a certain somebody just to make use feel better.)  We can’t control the floods.  We can’t control Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ( Who in my head look like little freckled, gap toothed, redhaired twins who like to throw rotten apples at people’s front door.)

So, everybody’s got some list of things that will help you get through this financial crunch.  (I’m still not calling it a recession.)  You know them all: recycle, spend your vacation in your backyard, don’t charge on your credit cards, don’t eat out.  All good and practical solutions for people who actually get to go on vacation and don’t already recycle.  I don’t know these people though.

I’ve got my own bunch of cards up my sleeve to save us from this financial malady.  First, eat a lot of watermelon (hey, I’m from the south) which I am convinced can solve most summertime problems including hunger, heat (turn your ac off while ingesting) and anger (I challenge you to be mad while eating fruit).  Give half of it away and you’ve also helped your fellow neighbor.  Buy vintage clothes because if you have to get a horse (and how great would that be!), you’ll just look cooler in a vintage outfit than in flip flops from Old Navy.  But here’s the most important tip: make somebody laugh, including yourself.  It’s the small things that keep your sane.   The trick to survival really isn’t in your bank account or in your recycling container.  It is about keeping the fear from spreading, and in doing so, countering all the uncertainity that’s spreading like a bad case of junior high mono.