Tater Tot Hot Dish Bleepin' Bjork Style

I had a wonderful surprise when my oldest son and his wife-to-be flew from Minneapolis/St. Paul to LAX to visit for a quick Saturday/Sunday visit.

The Viking Fan (and not a fair weather one either) and the Packer Princess (she has a Packer Favre jersey in pink) managed to talk my man and I into going to a bar in Hermosa Beach, Sharks Cove, which caters to Steeler Fans.  In case you don't know, when a football game starts at noon in Pittsburgh, that means it starts at 9 AM in Hermosa (the "h" is silent, means beautiful en espanol) Beach.

I don't know about you, but that time of morning is usually when I enjoy eating breakfast.  Breakfast at the bar.  Just may have been a first.  Here's what I found sort of exciting.  This bar serves tater tots with its breakfast instead of hash browns.

I mention all of this 'cuz...well...do you ever have some foods from your younger days that just seem like they will always be comfort food even though they may never be considered healthy or low-cal?  For me, tater tot hot dish is just one of those said dishes.

So, with this tater tot nudge I just had to make me some tater tot hot dish and see if I would still enjoy it.  You know, or is the memory better than the reality.  And as long as I was going to take this undertaking why not video it for posterity.

P.S.  Tater Tots are a registered trademark of the Ore-Ida company, first created in 1953 and first available in 1954.  Congratulations, Ore-Ida on 55 years of the tater tot.  Mahalo!

P.P.S.  I loaded the video to my Funny or Die page 'cuz I think it is at least a couple degrees of funny.  I decided I'd test seeing what happens if I embed the video from funnyordie.com.  What do you think?  Not so sure I love it compared to YouTube.  In case you would rather watch the video from YouTube instead, here's the link.

P.P.S.S.  To my Chicago, soul sister of the same name and the same light (yes, we will meet one day), I just want to say (1) thank you and (2) I believe this recipe is gluten-free.  I'm just sayin'!

All the Saints of the City of Los Angeles

If you didn't know, hallow is another word for saint.  Halloween intially was celebrated as the eve of All Saints Day (November 1).  You know, get your sinner on before you have to behave like a saint.

With this in mind, I decided to get my Google on and see what would come up if I searched, "saints in los angeles", assuming a list of saints would show up.  Then I could pick one to visit and write about for my blog, CaliforniVacation: SoCal Style and as the LA Sightseeing Examiner for examiner.com.

Okay, let's just take a side bar here to mention what the process for becoming a saint is.  This way you'll understand by definition a living person can't actually be a saint.

I was a little surprised to find what did show up in the top spots.  The wikipedia page for Motley Crue's Saints of Los Angeles, their ninth studio recording effort released on June 24, 2008 and a link to the official music video for the title song of said recording.

The first not Motley Crue listing was in position #28, the Home Page of All the Saints of the City of Los Angeles.  Finally!  Something I could work with...until I clicked on the link.

Even though I couldn't use this information to write my destination blog, I was so enthralled with what the author has created that I decided to BLEEPin' blog about it here.

I loved J. Michael Walker's paintings and his stories.  I found myself very easily seeing how someone might ponder the things Mr. Walker pondered and decided to document in this amazing way.

If you haven't heard about this Mr. Walker's work, I hope you just might give it a "look see".  It's my further hope you will be glad you did.

The Business of Death

I write another blog, CaliforniVacation: SoCal Style, and articles as examiner.com's, L.A. Sightseeing Examiner.  I am happy to have the opportunity to do both.  The examiner gig allows me to be more journalistic while the CaliforniVacation gig allows me to be more loose and conversationalistic.  Still, both are primarily about sharing destinations and events in Southern California (SoCal).

This blog fills my void of writing about stuff that's makes me go "hmmm".  Simply I wonder about this.  Are there answers.  This seems like it might be fun.  No rhyme.  No reason.

I have this friend, also a blogger.  She is a fine photographer and a recent ex-Minnesotan.  She finds cemeteries beautiful.  She enjoys pondering what someones life may have been like to have the headstone which marks their grave represent them.  I'd never really thought of cemeteries in quite this way before.

Truth is I never really thought much about cememteries at all for most of my life.  I'm not sure you can call it luck but very few people in my life seemed to die.  At least very few close enough that I might be included in attending their funeral or their final cemetery resting place.  Now that I live in L.A. that's changed.  My dad, grandma and grandpa (and some great grandparents I don't really even remember) all have their remains residing at the same cemetery, Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.  I know.  How convenient.

My aunt's parents are also resting at Holy Cross as are her aunt, uncle and some celebrities too.  My aunt and uncle are quite dutiful about visiting all of them at least two or three times a year and bringing flowers or whatever. Bless them!  When I first moved back I admit I was a little excited and fascinated about visiting and being included in their ritual.  I was also amazed and most likely will blog about a future trip to the cemetery in about a month or so.

Why?

I guess I didn't actually ever think about it much, but the first time I saw the way Holy Cross gets decorated at Christmas time by those who visit their dearly departed, I found myself a bit in awe and a little amused.

Okay, so I can understand grief.  I can understand mourning.  But they are dead people, people.  What is left is inanimate dust more or less.  In my mind I have a better chance of connecting with my loved ones when I think of them than trekking to a cemetery to visit a slab of stone covering where their lifeless body is buried.

When you drive through the iron gate of Holy Cross Cemetery you are at the entrance of 200 acres of beautifully manicured grounds.  It really is a quiet and peaceful place.

I want to be very clear that I have nothing against Holy Cross Cemetery per se.  As far as places go, I am sort of proud to have my loved ones remains residing in such a beautiful place.

NOW!  Let's visit some of the things that make me go hmmm.....

A place for the dead.  Burying.  Won't we run out of room?

What would aliens from another planet think that we preserve a dead loved one in a coffin and bury them in the ground?  We go through all of this and yet we will never see them again with our physical eyes.  And the part of them we really remember most, isn't there anymore anyway.  Doesn't it seem silly?  And doesn't it make more of a case for simply torching our cold dead bodies to "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" then?  Or put them in an urn, which takes much less room?

About 60,000 people a year die in Los Angeles County.  Wouldn't we soon run out of room to bury them all?  If each dead person needs about 8' by 4' of real estate, how long before all the real estate is consumed by dead bodies?  I'd do the math, but I don't want to?  Might just be very, very depressing.

I also wondered about the business of all of this.  In 2006 it was estimated that the business of death was booming in at about $11 billion dollars.  Yes, that is with a B.  And the average funeral at about $6,500.

All that money.  Yet as I looked around Holy Cross Cemetery grounds I couldn't help thinking of the way they have things set up and how it seems like such a metaphor that whoever you thought you were in life; rich, poor, young, old, etc. death was a great equalizer.  None of all the this and that and crying or joy or fights with others...none of it made a lick of difference to the deceased now 'cuz they are dead.

I personally didn't want any of it and had always just assumed I would want to be creamated with my ashes thrown into the Pacific Ocean that I love so much.  Then through my visits and walks through Holy Cross Cemetery it got me thinking that at least with so much of my family already residing in the same place and with more slated to reside there as their time comes, maybe I could have my cake and eat it too.

I could still be creamated.  And perhaps like Gandhi some of my ashes could be ceremoniously strewn into the ocean and the rest could reside in an urn and placed in one of the urn spots at Holy Cross Cemetery.  I mean as long as a relative is visiting, they could stop by and visit me too.  Right?

I also muse at some of the things we think about.  I know someone who has a shared site with a spouse who is already deceased.  Now that it is over ten years later and she is ten times happier with her new man, she's not so sure she wants to spend eternity in the spot she's already secured.  Then there are those who loved each other so very, very much but the husband just didn't want to be buried in the dirt.  Too dark.  So he is in the masoleum and she is in the ground.

That was the other thing that struck me as I walked around.  How do you decide where on the grounds you would want to be buried assuming you want to be buried?  If you don't want to be buried, how do you decide where in the masoleum you want to spend eternity?  Do you want the stone that is big or do you want the small one.  How much do you want written on the stone?  Which color stone?  Do you want to be by the rest of your family or should you wait?  Would you rather have an urn spot?  Do you want one you can see in or one you can't?

This particular cemetery is catholic-based and opened in 1939.  Back in the day did you have to be catholic or they turned you away?  Did you have to be white?  Have the parameters changed over the years to "get in"? Does it matter now?

And the more I pondered and walked around, the more all of this seemed to make a case for reincarnation and the like.  Is this really all there is?  Is this really where my remains will stay for all eternity?

It seems like some of the things us humans come up with that eventually become acceptable and the norm, why don't we question them more?

And I don't really have any answers for you.  According to the article I found on the Business of Death, it would appear that much of what is driving the $11 billion industry is that individuals want to have lavish and personalized funerals as a sort of last hurrah.  So as silly as it all seems to me, who am I to say what is or is not silly to you.

One of the residents at Holy Cross Cemetery is Bela Lugosi, the original movie Dracula, who was buried in his Dracula cape.  We have to take this on faith 'cuz we can't see into his coffin or tell from his quite plain grave marker whether this is really true or folk legend.  If that is how he wanted to go or if you want to be buried with your golf clubs, who am I to say?

And with that, that is all the BLEEP I wish to blog about today.

Oh yeah!  Happy Halloween.

Would Chuck upchuck?

I write another blog, CaliforniVacation: SoCal Style.  Currently I am doing a series of posts about Manhattan Beach, California.

Manhattan Beach is considered the corporate headquarters for Skechers Footwear.  Perhaps you have heard of it. Skechers has an amazing retail store on the corner of Manhattan Beach Boulevard that I passed on my way to the Manhattan Beach Pier.  Below is a photo.

As I walked past their display window I found myself doing a double take.  What caught my eye are shoes that looked to me like Converse Chuck Taylor's with Ed Hardy designs on them.  Below is a photo of said window.

Now I don't know what would pop in your mind as you walked past this window, but this is what popped in mine.  "I wonder what Chuck Taylor thinks or would think if he knew his chosen shoes are now the phenomenon they are and available in so many colors and patterns, etc."

I made a decision right then to see if I could find out and then write a blog about it.  Behold!  Said Blog!

What I found out was so much "mo' betta" than I expected.

According to the Chuck Taylor All-Stars Wikipedia Page, you get a sense Mr. Taylor loved these shoes.  Although, having left his physical body in 1969 I feel it would be a stretch to definitively determine if the current situation would make him want to upchuck, be fine with it or giddy with delight.

I didn't know Converse is owned by Nike.  Nike bought Converse in 2003.  What I imagine got me thinking about all of this is that I love these shoes.  "Hello!  My name is Lori and I love Chuck Taylor All-Star Shoes."

So, you can imagine how thrilled I was when I found out you can go to Converse.com and create your own signature pair.  I won't even attempt to explain the details since you can simply jump to the converse web site and it is very easy to follow the instructions.  Also, if you are a fan of their "One Star '74" shoe style, it is now only available online from the converse web site.

Hmmmm!  Guess who just may be getting a new pair of shoes.  Anybody got some dice?

The end of an era

So, my VCR died last night.  Taping House and Lie To Me must have just put it over the edge.

I know.  Some of you are probably thinking, "she still has a VCR!"  If you are under 10, you may just be wondering, "what the BLEEP is a VCR?"

I feel good.  I didn't ponder buying another one.  What I did ponder was all the VHS tapes I still have.  Some of movies I really enjoy.  Can I just throw them away?

And the answer came.  I haven't watched one of those tapes in over two to three years.  What am I saving them for?  Plus, let me tell you I've already survived albums, 8-tracks and cassettes.  Oh my!  I can still remember the day I decided to simply toss all my vinyl albums into a dumpster 'cuz I was tired of moving them.

So, in the garbage they go.

Makes me wonder, "What's next!"

Google Search

When last I posted, I mentioned instead of using google to see if I could find an answer to something I wanted to know, I'd let the Universe bring me an answer like it did with Borders Books having free wi fi.

So, I'm just going to put it out there.  I Google.  "Hello!  My name is Lori and I Google myself."

Wow!  When I put it like that it does sound a little naughty.

The first time I did it was a little sad 'cuz I was no where to be found for pages and pages and a little fun 'cuz I hadn't realized there were so many of me out there in the disguise of prominent women's college basketball players, attorneys, Northrop employees, Chicago residents and more.

Months, a couple of web sites, Facebook presence, Twitter presence, YouTube presence, Funny or Die presence, blogs and more; I realize that I am much more competitive than I thought.  I mean it is great that I now am listed multiple times on the first page, but it sucks that I can't seem to crack the top 5.  And the top 5 are what you see without having to scroll down to the other 5 listings on the first page.  Those spots seem to be permanently reserved for the me that is a prominent women's college basketball player.  Damn me! I mean her!

What's a girl to do just to crack the top 5?  Strip and go naked?  I bet that wouldn't even help unless I wrote a press release about it and it was picked up by all the major press like CNN and GMA and some other initials.  And is that really what I want to be remembered for?

There will come a day
You will hear me say
Hip Hip Hooray
I cracked the top 5 of Google today.

Of course, none of it means anything if others aren't googling me too.  And what's next?  My own wiki page.  When does it end?  Can we never truly be satisfied?  Is there or can there ever truly be a final frontier?  And what the BLEEP, maybe that's something to be thankful for.  You know, like free wi fi.

Breaking News! Part Duex!

OMG!  (aaaagggggghhhhhhhhh did I really just write that?)

Okay, I am a little excited 'cuz duex blogs ago I mentioned I currently (given the choice) will choose Barnes and Noble over Borders because Barnes and Noble has free wi fi.

Only to have a little gem of information sent directly to my email inbox that alerted me that Borders offers free wi fi too.

"Yes!" And in the same breath, "Damn them!"  Yes, Borders has wi fi.  Damn them 'cuz what am I going to use to decide now?  Rock? Paper? Scissors?

Okay if that is my biggest dilema of the month, I have nothing to complain about.

So, if you didn't know...now you know too.  Isn't it swell news?  That means you can read my blog at Barnes and Noble AND Borders now.

I wonder if they make more money selling books or more money on their cafe portion.  And instead of going to Google to see if I can find out the answer, I'm going to put it out there to the Universe (like this Borders wi fi thing) and see what shows up.

Breaking News! This just in!

Apparently, the wild things are at a theater near you and have raked in over $32 million their first weekend.

Now before I get to the meat of this blog post, here's a little side helpin' of some smashed taters with butter and gravy on the side.  After openings for movies like Transformers and Iron Man, am I jaded if my first thought was, "Is that it...only $32 mil?"

Now to the meat wherein I follow up with my last blog now that I have spoken to my son.  The one who inspired me to write about all this wild thing stuff in the first place.

Yes!  He did see it.  Yes!  He was not disappointed and did love it.  Yes!  He was thrilled the film was more about using Muppet-style filming than CGI.  Yes!  He was in shock that I had never read the book before since it truly is one of his most beloved.

And finally, YES! Doesn't it sort of beg the question, "Where the hell was I during his childhood?"  Could be worse.  Could be porn.  Although...

He genre'd the movie as fantasy and reiterated that it is the sort of story he wants to tell with his movies.  The kind of movie where the boundaries of the real are blurred, so anything goes without being questioned. 

It made me think, "what if we are actually asleep when we think we are awake and more awake and alive when we are actually asleep?"  At least in the context of being so much more rigid in the real world about how things are supposed to be or they are not real.  What is real anyway?

Perhaps for a child reading the book "Where the Wild Things Are" for the first time, it is the described and brilliantly illustrated journey that feels like it took years to this place of fantasy that seems so real...so true to the child and child-like experience that ensures this story will hold a perpetually fond place in their heart.

And maybe it's pure fantasy and writer's drivel to believe such a thing.  For me, my appreciation and love will always be extended to anything that allows me to share moments of joy with my boy.

Where the Wild Things Are

I know.  What an original title. 

I find it interesting sometimes...when I allow myself to ponder such things...what ends up in our awareness and why.  Today is the opening day for the movie, Where the Wild Things Are.  My youngest son (soon to be 25 years young) is psyched and I am sure has probably already seen it.  I will call him and ask him soon if this is true.

He's been psyched for months.  He loves this book.  Loves with a capital "L" and not just 'cuz it is at the beginning of this sentence.  I'd never read the book once.  Still wasn't even motivated to read it, although I will see the movie so I can better share my son's experience with him.

Part of me thinks, what's all the fuss?  I mean if it was that big of a deal wouldn't I have already read it.  I'm a reader.  And this book and its being brought to the silver screen seems to have a lot of buzz and a lot of love behind it.  Still, would I care if my son wasn't so in love with it?

While I can't with 100% certainty say that I would care without his excitement about it, I feel in my gut that I just wouldn't.  I mean I don't care about Hanna Montana, but if I had a young daughter who did...I just might.

Even with how much I love, love, love my son and am thrilled always to have ways to share his love, like this movie, it wasn't until I read the review today, which clued me in that the book is less than 400 words that I felt like I just may want to read it. 

I was going to Barnes and Noble today anyway.  So this was an extra bonus.  And if anyone at Borders is reading or Barnes and Noble, for that matter, I'm giving you a heads up why I have been choosing Barnes and Noble lately over Borders (for quite a while either was equally beloved by me).  Barnes and Noble has free wi fi access.  All else being equal...

So I enter Barnes and Noble and assume my best bet for finding the book is heading straight back to the children's section, which in the Manhattan Beach Barnes and Noble is where the children's section is.  And I'm looking and looking for the book and finally think I've spied it.  I pick it up and it is some sort of thinly veiled spoof of the book. Not actually what I am looking for.  So I take a second look around and if it had been a wild thing, it would have bit me.  That's how close I was. 

I had lots of choices.  Small version.  Paperback.  Hard cover.  I chose the hard cover.  Does that say something about me?  Does it matter?

I sat down at one of the kids table on the kids bench and proceeded to read the book.  My first thought...what's the big whoop.  I wanted to like it more.  I want to 'cuz of my son and his love for it.  So, I continued sitting there and thinking about that article in today's newspaper about how the book was controversial because it seemed to somehow show this boy's desire to bite his mother as not being a bad thing. 

The more I thought about the book and the article and my son's love for it; it morphed me to a place of "What if part of our suffering as human's is we are trying to get it right and police everyone else as to what is right, when in the perception of Divine Love right or wrong doesn't actually exist?"  And in under 400 words, (and yes, I have to admit I can certainly respect the artistic nature of the illustrations) the author was able to portray opposite views of what biting someone may mean and what punishment has to mean.  Or technically if we can actually punish someone if they aren't willing to see it that way.  And in that I can certainly respect a brilliance for writing something that can be seen in so many different ways.

I was so lost in thought that it took one of Barnes and Noble's employees asking me if I needed help to snap me out of it.  If she only knew.

It's a Secret. Not!

Do I have any fans of "The Secret"?  If so, perhaps you remember the part where Jack Canfield talks about not having to see the entire journey in front of you, just the next 200 feet or so.  I feel a little like that right now.  I guess you could almost call it being in the moment.

From one of the related YouTube videos I've been doing a lot of viewing of the last couple of days, Craig Kilborn's name came into my consciousness.  I didn't actually watch him on the Daily Show that often or on the Late Late Show for that matter.  In those days I had to get up much earlier.  Still,  I personally loved his smarmy charm and really enjoyed his part in the movie, "Old School".  What is it about those bad boys?  Okay, I didn't say I wanted to date him.

Having his name show up on my radar inspired me to ask the question, "What the BLEEP happened to Craig Kilborn?"  Seriously, dude, last I heard about him that has any significance in my consciousness was his stint in "Old School".  That was 2003.

What's a girl to do?  That's right!  Get her GOOGLE on. 

What do you know?  I'm not the only one who has been pondering this very thing.

First, though, I had to check out his wiki page.  What?  He's only three years younger than me and when I was a senior in high school in New Hope, MN (a NW suburb of Minneapolis) he was just starting high school in Hastings, MN.  Hastings is one of what I refer to as a highway town.  It is sort of the official stopping place between the Twin Cities and Duluth on I-35.  They have the best cinnamon rolls (at least they use to).  I lived in Duluth in 1979 and 1980, when he was most likely a senior in High School.  I traveled frequently between the Twin Cities and Duluth that year stopping in Hastings.  It is in the realm of possibility that we could have actually stood in line for the bathroom at the same time...at the same place in Hastings at some point during his senior year.  I'll never know.  Any whoooooo...

Who knows?  Maybe I simply was picking up something going around in the ethers.  It seems Talk Show News put the matter to rest Tuesday, September 29, 2009.  As not to rain on their parade, check out the story.  Isn't the photo on their site awesome?

Question asked.  Question answered.  Next!

P.S.  Below is the video that inspired my quest.  Enjoy!

What's a girl to do on a rainy day when there's no cat with a hat to play with?

That's right!  Think up a new game.  A game I name,

Six Degrees of Separation: YouTube Style

Here's how you play. Input something in the search box after going to http://www.youtube.com. Find a video you like. Play it. Then from the related videos, pick another video to play until you have done this six times. Now how related does video one seem like from video six?

So, I have to (okay, I don't have to but I am) dedicate this to Daniel Sandercock.  First indulge me by allowing me to rethank him for agreeing to help me with my twitter photo way back in the day (that was so 7 months ago) when I couldn't even figure out then how to get my twitter photo to show up.  I've come a long way baby!

Then today, he posted a video from way back in the day with Eric Clapton in it.  Once I finished listening he had uploaded it with the option to watch related videos.  One of those videos was Eric Clapton and B B King performing Rock Me Baby.  Man that song mooooooooves me and moves me to mooooooove my body.

And now some three hours later I have gone from related video to related video and have ended up watching a fake Ron Burgundy interview with Jim Caviezel, which I never knew existed.  And it made me wonder what other joys I might come up with if I considered it a game.  And maybe even a new blog.

So for my first playing of the game, I am going to start with seeing if there is a video on YouTube of Don Henley doing this sort of fun version of Hotel California that I remember fondly him performing when I saw him in concert in 2000.  And then lets see what I end up with.


Here goes.  Let's play Six Degrees of Separation: YouTube Style.

Yeah!  They had one.

Here's video #2.




Here's video #3:



Here's video #4.  I think I know now why I didn't know this existed.  I stopped watching MTV a while ago.  Where have all the music videos gone?

Video #5

 And I know no one likes a cheater, which I am technically doing by having the my video #6 be my video #6 since it is not one of the suggested related videos from the iPod video.  I am using my supreme ruler power to include as video #6 a video my son is in that was a school project.  It is a spoof on the Mac v. PC commercials.  So it sort of fits.

Enjoy!

P.S.  I didn't know video #6 would end up being what it is when I started.  That's the fun of it.  And my son's never had one acting lesson nor has he ever lived in the south.  Nice cowboy hat, though, don't you think?

And that's how it's done!

Funny, but the blues don't make me blue.

Right now as I write this, and the only reason I write this I will share in a moment, I am in pure bliss listening to the video I am attaching to this blog post.  If you love the blues, you will love the video too.

Okay, two things it made me think about.  Wait!  Three.

1.  In my love of Dave Mathews Band and Prince music and everything else that happens in my life, I almost forgot about my love, love, love for Eric Clapton and his music when I was delightfully reminded by a post one of my Facebook Friends made.  As I watched the "Rock Me Baby" video, I was delighted to say the least.  Then as I couldn't get enough and moved on to watch the "Sweet Home Chicago" video, I wondered how much time in the totality or what percentage of Eric Clapton's life he has spent playing guitar or on stage.  And in a way as we know, I don't like the word "spent" here 'cuz I'm sure he'd hardly refer to it as spending.  I bet he'd refer to it as enjoyed, loved, etc.  Plus, can I just say I love seeing him rock the shorts and shirt, even though it doesn't really matter what he wears...it's about the music.

2.  How great YouTube is.  I can search for just about anything and find not only one video but many on the same subject.  It's almost as if I can in an instant be transported from a rainy afternoon in the South Bay of L.A., CA, USA to the Crossroads Festival in Texas in 2004.  Now how is that for some time travel?  And as I morphed from the video of Rock Me Baby to Sweet Home Chicago, the related videos listed so many different and well respected artists singing Sweet Home Chicago, it made me think how great an idea to put together something (they don't really call them records anymore, do they?) that was the same song, in this case Sweet Home Chicago, yet many different artists and versions.  Now that's some jazz.

Okay, now I can't recall what the third thing is.  I think it may have something to do with how blues music has never put me in a blue mood.  Quite the opposite.  Not only does it almost instantaneously transport me into a blissful mood, but it moov-es me as well.  I love it!  I love it!  BTW, did I say I love it yet?  I LOVE IT!

Now, as they say, "please enjoy the show."

P.S.  If you wait for it, I embedded the video with the option to include related videos.  So when Sweet Home Chicago is finished, you can choose to watch "Rock Me Baby", as well.

Do The Math

I know I have the choice.  If I don't wish to watch TV news, I can change the channel or shut off the TV.

I know I am not here to save anyone.  Each of us has the right to think and feel whatever we desire, smart or dumb, love or hate, right or wrong...you get the drift.

You know a "but" is imminent?

BUT...as I watched a newscaster report (and I don't blame the newscaster so much 'cuz they read what they are told to) the most current unemployment stat, I couldn't help but think about the math.

If (to use round numbers) 9% of our nation is unemployed, that means 91% are employed.

If through the natural rhythm of life, "normal" (whatever that is) unemployment is 4% (rounding, again) then unemployment has only increased 5% out of a possible 96% increase.  Now I don't know what percentage of increase that actually is because I don't wish to do the math.  I'm just thinking it is probably not a big number.

Let's also say that with 300 million people in our country and let's say half could be employed (150 million...that math I can do easy), 4% unemployment means six million people at any given time are normally unemployed and now 13.5 million people are unemployed.

It also means that over 130 million people still have jobs.

What if they reported that math, too? 

I think of it the way I used to think it must only be good to give because that is what all the spirituality people talk about...giving.  No mention of receiving.  What if we were only a world of givers?  Who would we give to?  No one would want what you have to give, as they only can give but can't receive.   It's sort of like saying inhaling is good.  Exhaling, not so much!  What if we only inhaled?

What I'm getting at is before you allow yourself to get into fear about losing your job, think about the math (or get caught up in the next "flu" virus the press seems so thrilled to report and spread).  If you have a 9% chance of losing with a 91% chance of keeping your job, in Vegas I believe those are odds most betting people would be thrilled about.

Save the Boobs: ReThink Breast Cancer

It's October.  These days October seems to include rolling out the pink to make everyone aware of breast cancer.

So, I'm probably not going to be too popular because it appears to make a lot of people feel good and helpful when they participate in a cause, like breast cancer awareness.

Still, it makes me wonder.  What if all the awareness is the very thing that keeps it alive.  There is a saying in spirituality circles, where we talk about stuff like Universal Laws (the Law of Attraction is a Universal Law), "what you look for you find".

I can't speak for other cultures or for everyone, I don't know everyone.  Let me be clear I only speak for my self.  My observation is that we have been schooled over time to believe the caring and best thing we can do for our friends, loved ones and any one who will listen is to warn them about something bad that has happened to us so that it won't happen to them.

What if in the realm of Universal Law this type of behavior is actually so counter-intuitive and counter-productive as to almost be considered insane.  What if just because you have breast cancer and this experience is perfect for you (even though from the level of soul you may not understand why), while you sharing with me and warning me about it plants a suggestion seed in me turning that probability into a manifestation?  Now I end up with breast cancer too.

What if in the realm of Universal Law the sane behavior is women wearing pink and lots of people and companies jumping on the bandwagon, but to promote Women's Well-Being Awareness.  Then we have all of these women and people looking for all the reasons why they are well instead of looking to see if they have something wrong with them.  Our natural state is well-being.  The intelligence in each cell of our physical body (when left to its perfection) is perfection.  The intelligence is designed to attack viruses to bring us as back to our natural state of well-being.

What if illness is simply our body saying right now it's detected something that has thrown it out of whack, much like a stone thrown into a still pond, which sends the intelligence into action to do what it is programmed to do to bring it back to stillness (to extend the metaphor)?

Truth is I may be totally off base with all of this.  It just seems that it may be wise to not always blindly jump onto any bandwagon or for that matter jump off the bridge 'cuz all my friends are doing it.

We also have a saying in spirituality about deciding whether you want to serve a person's ego or their soul.

No amount of feeling bad can help anything get better.

If you want a reason to feel good, remember the truth about your whole self.  It's all energy.  All energy is Divine Love Intelligence.  This is first and foremost who you are.  Energy.  So you are already good.  You are already spiritual.  The intellegence in every cell of your body was designed perfectly for perfect well-being.  And since this is true about you, it is true about everyone.  Thus, it doesn't make you wrong or bad to decide you will not put your attention on breast cancer awareness because you choose to keep your awareness on well-being.

And what if this choice is actually the best thing you could do to eradicate breast cancer.  What if no more attention on breast cancer doesn't mean it's not still possible, but it does mean the likelihood is so remote that why would you put your attention on it?

P.S.  According to Susan G Komen website stats less than .15% (150 out of 100,000) of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and less than .04% (40 out of 100,000) will die from it.  I understand it must be heart wrenching to experience and the loving part of us wishes no one ever had to.  It's just that I may not (nor may you) understand that there may be a perfectly good reason at the level of soul why the women who experience breast cancer do.  I'm just saying.

Also, in writing this it made me wonder if anyone keeps statistics on well-being.  This is the closest I came to finding something on Google.  As I write this in less than 7 days Deepak Chopra's new book, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul will become available October 13, 2009.  With the new FTC guidelines, I disclose that I have not read the book yet (it's not available yet as I write this) and if you buy one after clicking on the link, as an Amazon affiliate I will receive some sort of compensation.  Thank you.  The reason I will be reading it however is because ever since he came into my conscious attention in 1996, I've felt we have so much more control over our well-being than we are led to believe.  I also want to read more about what he has to say in regard to how up to now we have treated our physical bodies more like they are buildings (I believe he uses structure) than the intelligent replenishing entities they are.

"Health and disease often begin in our consciousness, so awareness is the first step in healing. In Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul, Deepak Chopra eloquently and beautifully describes how to enhance our awareness and transform our health more dynamically and powerfully than had once been thought possible."
—Dean Ornish, M.D., founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute; clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco; and author of The Spectrum

I Bet He's One of Your Favorite Doctors Too!

I dedicate this blog post to my friend, Jennifer.  For my birthday last year she bought me Timothy Ferriss' book, The 4-hour Workweek.  I am grateful because it was the push that led me to becoming a professional blogger.  Getting paid for something I love to do...rocks!!!  The downside: instead of finding myself at my laptop only 4-hours a week, I seem to find myself in front of my laptop 444 hours.  Yes! I do know there are less than 444 actual hours in a week.

Wow!  I am getting ready to spill this and I'm having a hard time getting the words out.  Spending that much time at my laptop in the comfort of my home, there are many days I am unmotivated to get "dressed".

That's right!  I stay in my PJs all day.  AND, I may not take a shower that day either.

If I allow myself, sometimes I ponder this behavior.  This usually leads me sliding down that slippery slope to guilt and self loathing.  Insert the sound of me screaming here.

Why?  Why?  Why would I allow myself to do this to myself?

I mean when sanity starts to set back in again, I've been known to prop myself up with what I've found to be my most effective stand-by pep talk, "Hugh Hefner does it!"

Hef made wearing PJs all day cool.  Is he only able to get away with it 'cuz he created the Playboy empire and has oodles of cash?  I say, "BLEEP NO!"  In this land of the free and home of the brave, I feel I also possess and happily embrace my inalienable right to wear PJs all day long if I want to.  Na na na boo boo!

These seems like the perfect place to insert this quote from one of my favorite Doctor's, Dr. Suess, "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

I've long felt that one truly MUST be brave in our country to be free to...how does it go? "To thine own self be true."  Guess much hasn't changed in over 500 years since Shakespeare.

As for not taking a shower.  Just so I don't gross out too many of you, I never go more than 48 hours without one. (Is that TMI, too much information?)

Haven't you heard, Southern California is in the midst of an extreme water shortage.  That's how I comfort myself.  That's how I sleep at night.  How many gallons of water did I just save by missing that shower?  See? I am just being an altruistic conservationist.

To close, I leave you with another little water conservation tip I think you'll like (especially if you practice it): shower with a friend.

Better still: shower with a friend while playing doctor.  Then you, too, can be a favorite doctor.

My tongue just doesn't want to seem to work that way!

I'm a Cali Girl, born in Inglewood, city of Champions (even though the champion Lakers have since moved uptown to the Staples Center).  Moving back to Hawthorne, the original Cougar Town (thank you very much), has been a sheer delight after spending many years in Massachusetts, Minnesota and North Dakota.  I know, how jealous are you of me right now?

Especially compared to Minnesota (where most of those many years were spent...hmmm...I love how my first inclination to describe living there is to refer to it as spent, as opposed to enjoyed or lived or any other number of describer-type words) where us white folks, many with "ski" at the end of their last name, appear to be the majority; California can be likened to the way I used to view some places in Canada.  You know the ones I used to think were weird because English and French competed for control in most spoken language in that area.

In other words, I never thought I would see the day when I felt that I was at a loss because I only spoke English in my native land.  You know, 'cuz I don't habla espanol.  (Don't cry for me Argentina, I'm doing just fine with English only.  This isn't meant to be a debate about the rightness of southern California's bilingual nature.)

I feel I was fortunate enough to almost immediately bond with my still best friend, Ericka, over our love for Prince's music.  Having lived for a while practically across the street from Prince's Paisley Park, I immediately was welcomed into Ericka's world.  She's a much more loyal fan than I.  Ericka is the youngest and only sibling in her Nicaraugan family to be born in the USA.  So, she's BI.  She speaks English and "hablas" fluently.

My being immersed and merging my world with Ericka's family's world for over five years, I thought I'd be a little farther along with the "habla" myself.  I even bought a "learn a new spanish word a day" calendar hoping I'd somehow become more fluent.  Let me put it to you this way.  I may not be Albert Einstein, but I am teachable.  I passed the CA Realtors Exam first try.  I passed the Series 7 test to sell securities first try.  So what's up?

Today, I think I figured it out.  One of Ericka's brothers, Tomas, sometimes purposely hablas espanol...bless his heart...with me.  I think he feels like he is doing me a favor to help me learn Spanish.  He will then wait for me either to respond to him en espanol or repeat what he is saying.

I'll listen.  And I want to repeat it.  I really do.  Yet as my brain is gearing up to command my tongue and lips and mouth and all to get into formation so I can say what he said, there just seems to be some sort of revolt that takes place.  And I tell you, part of me honestly believes, "My tongue just doesn't want to seem to work that way!" You know what?  I'm okay with it.