Welcome back.My latest articles posted include two on the continuing saga of life in the valley:Joetopia 8, which discusses the reshuffling and celebration that occurred surrounding the completion of six hundred more square feet of living space.Joetopia 9, Making Lemonade, discusses the lesser redeeming qualities of valley life (the cultural vortex), as well as the better side — early morning country bike-rides and the smell of roses, lilacs, and strawberry fields.
Sometime in March, my nephew wrote a poem about his dad and I liked it so much I published it. It’s called An Ode to Joe and made us realize that the divorce still hovers over the shoulders of the children.
The last three articles I wrote include Divorce, American Style, where I talk about how we spot broken relationships by measuring the presence or absence of contempt between the partners; Pondering the i-Yente, which talks about internet dating and why I’m not there anymore, and finally, a piece on Defending the Catholic church, inspired by Bill Maher.My lastest, released May 1st, is on the Swine Flu, which I have re-named, the Hi-ni flu and the article explains why.Thanks for coming back here to visit me.Do leave your comments, good, bad, or ugly, it’s nice hearing from my readers.
As a fiftieth birthday gift, one of my friends enrolled me in a one-month trial of match.com.Truthfully, I have no time for this kind of thing and I’m a bit lacking in motivation, as well.I live with five men, so it’s not like I’m hungry for the company of testosterone-tilted beings, but sigh, I couldn’t argue with the ‘you’re not getting any younger’ position my friend took.So I tried match.com for a month and I can report that I learned something about myself.I began to pay attention to what made me hit the ‘next’ button and what made me wink back.There were few of the latter. In conclusion, the top ten things about a man’s dating profile that make me click the ‘next’ button are:
#1Geographically Unavailable - I appreciate the winks and emails from abroad, from Canada, from the Himalayas, but seriously folks . . .
#2Birth Sign is Leo - I don’t date Leo’s and for the small sector of the population who aren’t demented, yet do share that sign, I won’t say more on the subject for risk of offending someone who doesn’t deserve it.
There is something I am doing today that you will have to do one day, not too far in the future.Because I am a responsible older sister (and because I have no choice), I am going first.And I will give you an honest account of the journey.And you will be thankful, as I was when you went first and shared your journey with me.
You went first into the world of parenting, remember?And for many years, while I was single, I sucked up everything you had to say on the subject of motherhood.I remember the time you described to me a chaotic, demanding household, a young woman with a gaggle of small children and a partner whose job kept him away most of the time.I remember the part where you, that young woman, needed a break.Mid-morning you poured a bath, you got undressed and in the tub, praying the whole while that the children didn’t notice your absence.And right when you thought you had gotten away with it, a pair of clean and rolled socks came flying over the stall and landed like a bomb in the water . . . followed by the giggles of the culprits who launched it.
We act like a people who have been pushed over the edge and now, hoping for some peace and quiet, we just want to recover.Nerves are shattered.Ability to take emotional stress at an all time low.Like someone who has already fought and beaten cancer or war or divorce — alive, all pieces and parts, still walking, but tired.The skip in the step is gone.The cocky laugh is gone.That’s how America seems to me now.
The swine flu is a case in point.Or rather, the H1N1 influenza A — is a case in point.Panic first — think later.
First off, don’t you think the CDC could have done a bit better job at renaming the swine flu?The old name paints a picture, albeit one that has no relationship to the flu, but the new name, in addition to the fact that it doesn’t roll off the tongue, sounds like R2D2 — the name of an android.
Welcome back. My latest articles posted include two on the continuing saga of life in the valley: Joetopia 8, which discusses the reshuffling and celebration that occurred surrounding the completion of six hundred more square feet of living space. Joetopia 9, Making Lemonade, discusses the lesser redeeming qualities of valley life (the cultural vortex), as well as the better side — early morning country bike-rides and the smell of roses, lilacs, and strawberry fields.
