It’s that time again

It’s almost time for local elections and may I stress that local elections are much more important than national ones.  When I was a bartender, I had a regular customer that told me that the local elections will affect my life directly and the national one would not.  My response was “You’re exactly right!!  The guy I voted for in 2000 won the election but is not the president.”, and I have voted in local elections ever since.  In case you’re not registered, you still have a couple of weeks to do so.  Here are some links to register online:

govote.org

rockthevote.org

Lindsey and Kim

Today’s post is dedicated to two friends of mine.  One who has reached the end of her journey and the other beginning a new one.

Lindsey:

Though I didn’t know her well, I met her after moving to LA and was instantly stricken by how gorgeous she was.  It was so hard to believe that she was very ill.  This person, a couple of years older than myself had been fighting a serious type of brain tumor for over eight years.  On the outside she looked healthy but on the inside she was dying.  As the months went by and I was around her a little more, she began to deteriorate.  First her hair was gone again, then paralysis on one side of her body.  The last time I saw her she didn’t even resemble the person I had met just over a year ago.  She was completely bedridden and unable to feed herself or even change positions.  Because of the positioning of her tumor, she had become paralyzed on her left side which also made it very difficult to swallow and speak but she still spoke and made us laugh.  Even though her body was no longer hers, it belonged to the cancer, her personality was unchanged.  It is hard to explain how it feels to see a person 36 years young in this type of state.  I left with an overwhelming feeling of both sadness and gratitude for my own health.  Three days later, Lindsey passed on to her next life, and although it was very sad, it was probably a relief to her loved ones that she did not have to live this way anymore.  She had lived with this disease for almost 9 years.  Longer than anyone ever has!! She went through many types of experimental treatments and beat the odds.  Now, her brain and other organs are at UCLA medical center being studied so that maybe someone else can live longer or maybe can even be cured. The memorial service was just the other day and I have to say that it was the most beautiful funeral that I have ever attended.  No sad music, no sad sermon.  Just family members saying wonderful things about her and making us laugh with fond memories.  I have to say that I left happy and feeling fortunate that I got the opportunity to meet this person, I only wish I could have known her better.

Kim:

I met Kim on a movie a few years back and instantly I knew I wanted to be her friend.  She is just so great with people, it seems we hit it off immediatley.  I had never worked on a feature before and she kind of let me know what to expect.  I didn’t get to work right next to her often but I knew that even when she was super busy, overworked, stressed out, and had twenty things going on at once, I could radio her and she would say “Hi Lovey” like her only priority for the day was to help me.  After the movie was over we kept in touch and then she called me to be her assistant on another movie in which we worked side by side everyday, all day long.  We had a great time.  I learned so much from her and about her.  She is one of the most giving and thoughtful people I know and although I knew that she was a Gemini and changed her mind at least twice a day I didn’t realize that she was also bipolar.  It wasn’t until I moved away that I realized some of the pain that she had experienced in her life. She has ups and downs and is medicated daily but she is all about making people aware of the importance of mental health and hoping that maybe there will be a cure for what she hassomeday. She has always felt alone and feared that she would be forever but  a few months back, she became involved with a good friend that she has known for eight years.  It just hit them both that they belong together.  She is truly happy for the first time in her life. They were married this past weekend and even though Kim is still bipolar and will still probably have some bad times ahead, she will not be alone.  She has found someone to help her through when life gets difficult and for this I am very happy because she deserves it.

Lies

I can’t even comment on this!!

US excluded car bombs in murder toll

Tanner

I just learned about Mattel’s newest addition to the Barbie line.  It is Barbie’s dog Tanner.  Of course it comes with all the accessories including chew toys, dog biscuits and a pooper scooper.  Yes, a pooper scooper!  Tanner’s mouth opens so that Barbie can feed him the little brown biscuits that go through his body and come out the other end.  Barbie then scoops it up with a special magnetic pooper scooper (she is so lucky that she doesn’t have to use a plastic bag like the people here in LA do).  Now obviously those folks at Mattel have never had to pick up after a dog.  They have also added the Teresa doll to the Barbie line.  She comes with a cat named Mika who pees water into her special litterbox so that Teresa can scoop it out.  So I don’t really understand what the point is.  Cleaning up dog poo and cat piss is definitely not the highlight of pet owenrship so I can’t understand why this is the focal point of these particular toys.  Maybe next they will come up with drunk Barbie that comes with her own personal toilet to puke in.

 

Paris? or Nicole?

We all indulge in guilty pleasures.  These are things you enjoy that you tend to hide from other people because most of the time it’s really embarrassing.  I have a few and I’ve decided to admit to one of them right here on my blog.  Reality shows!! I generally never watch them but on the few occasions when I have it’s because I was absolulutely bored stiff and got sucked into a really bad reality show marathon.  Now this happens to all of us, that’s why they have marathons.  They wanna keep you hooked on something so they take advantage of our weakness; the pleasure we get from instant gratification.  We get to see in one day what would generally take 12 weeks to see.  Once you spend a whole day watching the cast you also develop a love or hate for them.  I am so glad they did that show My Fair Brady because after watching that season (all in one day) of the Surreal Life where Christopher Knight and Adrian Curry got together, I really longed to know what would happen with them.  Now, I did not watch My Fair Brady but did manage to catch the wedding episode one day after work and I imagine that will be the last one.  So the other day , it was the Simple Life: Till Death Do Us Part.  This show has got to be the most mindless one on the air but it still left me wondering: Paris? Or Nicole? I think Paris.  I really think Nicole is such a bitch and is really a little over the top with some of her antics and Paris is more tactful and tries a little more.  I work in TV so obviously I know that reality shows are not reality but I still prefer Paris.  I didn’t get to watch the entire season of this one.  I missed the confrontation and you know I still wonder what happened with that. Did they make up?  Did they fight?  Was there tears or bloodshed? 

 

Since I’m getting it all out here, I have to admit one other guilty pleasure possibly more embarrassing than the last. The television shows I like to watch normally are very witty, quirky, and intelligent with excellent writing.  Examples of these shows are Gilmore Girls, Arrested Development, Six Feet Under, House MD, Desperate Housewives, Entourage, Scrubs, Sex and the City, and Weeds. But I also love teeny-bopper shows.

 

 

My teeny-bopper show phase started of course with BH 90210 which is totally acceptable given that I was a teenager when it came out.  Then, many years later Felecity was syndicated and somehow I got hooked, then it was Dawson’s Creek in syndication also and now, this is really hard for me to write.  It’s One Tree Hill.  It is pathetic, unrealistic, stupid, and just plain insane but I love to watch it. Every Wednesday.  I used to hide it from my boyfriend but he figured out my dirty little secret.  I told him that in order to be good in my career field (remember I work in TV) I need to know what the kids are into which is true but I also watch it because I truly love it.  I am sure when this show ends there will just be another one for me to get hooked on.  Ya gotta love the WB or now the CW.

 

                      

 

 

We should all be so lucky

There is only one thing in life that is certain and that is death.  Today’s post is dedicated to the late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.  He died doing what he loved the most and we should all be so lucky!!