Monday, June 21, 2010

On Getting Kicked Out...Part 2

After further reflection on this disturbing issue, did I mention that I tend to be obsessive? I have decided that I have a theory regarding why I was kicked out of the Psychedelic Furs show, I shouldn't be too upset though as I did get to see the whole show albeit from afar.

Here is my best theory thus far. We, meaning my immediate family and all of the grandparents, had spent the day downtown watching a long ballet performance in which my oldest daughter was involved. Afterwards we all went out for a two hour Italian dinner that was truly yummy. My husband had brought a change of clothes to head over to the show, I had not. We made a twenty minute stop at Nordstrom Rack and I grabbed jeans and a shirt so that I didn't have to wear the nice dress that I had spent the day in. Considering the time and money being spent I couldn't very well purchase new shoes and a new purse. Consequently I was stuck carrying my daytime purse into the show. I didn't want to remove only what I needed and leave the rest in the car because of the area that we were parked in. So my purse was cumbersome. I like to attend shows in Converse tennis shoes. Suffice it to say, for this show I had nicer shoes on with open toes, not great considering the venue. I had also been drinking water, probably too much water and alcohol and I had to use the restroom a lot.

My theory is that with my big purse and frequent trips to the bathroom I somehow looked suspicious. The security people probably just wanted me out so that I would stop doing whatever it was I was doing. If they had pursued any suspicions with me they would have had to call the police and then things get more messy and public and that is why I think that they wanted me out and wouldn't tell me why. Maybe they started to realize that they were wrong, but it was too late to go back. That is my best theory so far and one that I feel comfortable with, so maybe I can stop obsessing for now.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

On Getting Kicked Out....

Last night I went to see the Psychedelic Furs with my husband and a small group of friends. It was a great show and the band really sounds no different than they did in their heyday in the 1980's. Everything went fine until I got kicked out of the venue. I would love to know what I did to get kicked out, but I don't, and it looks like I probably never will and this annoys me greatly because I am obsessive and want to know the reason behind the injustice. Did I have too much to drink? Yes. But, I was done drinking and planning to meet my husband up near the stage in order to get a better view of the band.

Before meeting him, I had a quick stop-off to the bathroom. I was in the process of washing my hands in the bathroom sink when a female employee asked me to step out with her and I bewilderingly obliged. It looked like we were headed to the door and I began to feel a bit panicked and in my panic I stopped on the stairs to ask why we were going outside. At this point I saw a friend of mine from our group and frantically waved her over. She came and two male bouncers told her that I needed to get off of the stairs and that they had told me to get off of the stairs and number of times and I wouldn't. "Huh?" I was only on the stairs because I had been asked to leave the bathroom, without time to dry my hands I might add, and I seriously wanted to know what was going on. As the bouncers were threatening to "carry me out" I went out with my friend and she said that she would go and find my husband.

Now I am out on the street in front of the venue. Fortunately I could still hear the music and even see the band. The bouncer than proceeds to tell me that I need to leave and that he will call a cab for me. Again, "Huh? What the hell!" I have a designated driver, my husband, and I tell him that my friend is in the process of trying to locate him. By the time he comes I am seriously angry and belligerent. The bouncer then tells my husband that he won't answer any of my questions because I am being belligerent. I told myself that I would not swear at the bouncer and would not make any physical or verbal threats and I did not. The bouncer didn't want me there, but I had done nothing wrong and I was planning to "watch" the rest of the show come hell or high water. As I was not threatening in any way it would have had to be the bouncer who needed to make to first move and quite frankly I don't think that would look too great.

My husband went back inside for a bit and then came out to stand on the sidewalk with me which was nice, at least I had company. The bouncer remained quite upset that I wouldn't leave and kept barking things at me like "step away from the door" even though it was an exit, I wasn't in front of it, and no one was leaving. It seemeded as though these paper doll power plays on the part of the bouncer were misguided attempts to goad me into reacting. Whatever, by then I had lost interest and just decided to take what I could get from this evening gone south.

The venue was the Sodo Showbox in Seattle near the Mariners Stadium. I think that the bouncers must have been bored that evening. There were a number of them milling about on the sidewalk and no other member of the public was outside, not even smokers, except for me. Maybe they were lacking in excitement. I would still love to know why I was singled out though and why I was approached in the bathroom, that really boggles my mind. All in all a really bizarre evening and not the kind that I hope to repeat anytime soon.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Stealing Time

June has been my month for stealing time, for myself that is. I have purposely said 'no' to most things not already on my calendar unless it was something really, really desirable like going to see the Sex and the City 2 movie at 10:00pm last night. That may sound frivolous, but Sex and the City has always been a frivolous indulgence of mine. I got addicted to the series re-runs soon after the birth of my twins, frankly I needed to get lost in a reality that wasn't mine. Reviews aside, there were definitely some aspects of this second movie that I liked better than the first one, namely that the characters in version two were all at a place that I could relate to either presently or at some time in the not-so-distant past.

In addition, June has also been the month for some get-up-and-go in the writing department. I would love dearly to share my recent writings on my blog, but I am currently helping a friend piece together a memoir about her crazy life this last year and the information is a wee bit too personal to throw out to the public at this point. Just today I thought of two writing exercises that would help me blow some more creativity into this project, now if I can just accomplish one of those, maybe I will post it.

Exercise is going well. I am on a new program and trying to quit snacking and eating things that shouldn't go into my mouth. Cutting down on alcohol consumption and getting more sleep (baring last night's adventure) have also been high on my list of "to dos" as part of this summer kick-off.

School is out. This means that mom's taxi service will be taking a break and maybe we can even spend some afternoons at home! How blessed is that proposition! I have some vacation time coming up and we are planning to go on a ramble with not clear destination in mind. Frankly I am tired of planning my life and managing schedules for everyone else in my household. It will be fun, at least that is what I keep telling myself.

The best thing of all-I finally completed all of the yard work that I had set out to do this spring. Now maybe, just maybe if the weather quits with this rain with sun breaks the weeds won't come back.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Wisdom from Maya Angelou...Again

I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they are gone from you life.

I've learned that "making a living" is not the same thing as "making a life."

I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back..."

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.

I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back..."

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

New Voices

The other night parents at my children's elementary school were treated to the annual talent show. The talent show has become something of legend in our school community. No act is turned away, as long as they get their permission form in on time, acts must be performed within the time limits of 30 seconds to 1 minute and 30 seconds, and best of all, no lip sync is allowed! My kids have been jumping in to perform dances, skits, class songs, etc. for several years now. Out of the 60 something acts presented, we can always be sure that at least 3 of them will present with some actual talent. The rest is all about getting up there and having the courage to perform on stage in front of your classmates and their parents.

This year, there was a surprise at the end of the talent show in the form of a new vocalist, Lucy Horton. A video clip was shown of Lucy singing at the school talent show 11 years ago when she was in first grade. After the clip, she came out and treated the audience to a performance of one of the singles on her new CD. Lucy graduates from high school this year. I don't know what her post-high school plans are, but I really like her voice, and what a great thing for the future generation to aspire to!

Check her out at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/LucyHorton

Thursday, June 3, 2010

It's the birthday of Allen Ginsberg, (books by this author) born Irwin Allen Ginsberg in Newark, New Jersey (1926). His parents were leftists, coming out of the 1920s New York Jewish counterculture. He grew up in Paterson, where his father Louis was a high school English teacher and also a poet, who encouraged his son to read and write poetry. His mother, Naomi, was a Communist and a nudist. Ginsberg said of his parents: "They were old-fashioned delicatessen philosophers. My father would go around the house either reciting Emily Dickinson and Longfellow under his breath or attacking T.S. Eliot for ruining poetry with his 'obscurantism.' My mother made up bedtime stories that all went something like: 'The good king rode forth from his castle, saw the suffering workers and healed them.' I grew suspicious of both sides.'' But Naomi also had some severe mental health problems. She was hospitalized on and off with what was probably paranoid schizophrenia.

In high school, his home life was difficult, as he tried to deal with his mother's strange episodes and with his own growing awareness that he was gay. But he loved poetry, especially Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe. He got a scholarship from the Young Men's Hebrew Association of Paterson to attend Columbia University in New York, where he met Jack Kerouac, William S. Boroughs, and Neal Cassady. Ginsberg got kicked out of Columbia for a year for drawing an obscene picture and writing obscene phrases in the dust on his dorm room window, to annoy the cleaning lady — he thought that she was being anti-Semitic and not cleaning his room.

During that year, Ginsberg read constantly, locking himself up in his apartment and not seeing any of his friends. He was upset by the hatred and anti-Semitism he perceived in the world, and he was at odds with what to do with himself. He had strange bouts of euphoria where he saw God and heard William Blake speaking to him. Finally, he got himself together, finished school, and took in his old friend Herbert Huncke, who was involved in all sorts of criminal activity. He stored stolen goods and lots of illegal drugs at their apartment, and was eventually arrested. Ginsberg too was arrested but pleaded psychological disability, so instead of going to jail he went to a psychiatric institution for eight months.

After Ginsberg left the hospital, he introduced himself to William Carlos Williams, a fellow New Jersey poet, who became his mentor. He worked at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue, but he couldn't stand the corporate world, so in 1954 he left for San Francisco with a letter of introduction to Kenneth Rexroth, written by Williams. He threw himself into writing, and in October of 1955 he read his new poem, "Howl," at the Six Gallery Reading — the poem that begins with the lines: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, / dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, / angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, / who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, / who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated."

And suddenly, Allen Ginsberg was famous.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Woman Work by, Maya Angelou

I've got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry

I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress
The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut

Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.
Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops

And cool my brow again.
Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky
'Til I can rest again.

Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.

Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You're all that I can call my own.

Maya Angelou