May
17
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
I am not a dumb redhead!
First, redheads are not dumb! Second, ok, ok, I am cheating, but I have been cheating for so long that I have more the personality of a redhead than a brunette! And there is one thing I hate among almost everything is to be taken for stupid on a Sunday morning at 9:00 am! Wouldn’t you?
Some months ago, I received the form from the Census Bureau, and filled it out immediately and sent it back. I just don’t wait on those things otherwise they disappear in the fourth dimension that exists somewhere in my soon to be ex house. I am not even sad about it anymore, by the way. My ruthless landlord made sure that my heart was not broken anymore. He took me for stupid too, and the main result is that now I can’t wait to get out! So, ok, is it because I have an accent or because I am a redhead that people think I am dumb? I have news for everyone: I am not! From my sweetheart Landlord with the dollar signs in his eyes to the Charter House Restaurant in Alexandria and now the Census Bureau!
I answered the phone and that lady one the phone asked me if I were me. I said yes! And then, she asked me to state my name???? I told her you just said it! How many times do we have to acknowledge that I am who I am? I asked her if they were calling me because they did not receive the questionnaire back, and she told me no, they did receive it – Wow! I did something right! – but they were now checking the answers??????? Then, she started reading me all the articles related to this case, trying to demonstrate that if I don’t answer, basically I am good for Guantanamo Bay for the rest of my life!
I don’t know if you know that about me. I have a flaw, ok, I am not PATIENT! And I just cannot stand dumb people, I just can’t! And, then, she went on with her questions…. that I have already answered, but since the Census Bureau thinks that Americans are stupid, they call you to ask you the same questions to be sure that you will give them the same answers. As Judge Judy said: “it’s easier to say the truth, you don’t have to remember your lies!”. To give you a clear image of me, I was changing the filter for the A/C while talking with that Census agent. And she asked the whole nine yard again! “Yes, I live here. No, I did not have anyone with no visa here – WTF? – Where was I on April 1st? Are you freaking kidding me? I don’t remember what I was doing a week ago, and YOU want me to remember what I was doing on April 1st. Ok, Ok, I got it! It’s April’s Fool, right? Then, questions about my lovely daughter, Jessica?
“Is she living with you?” “What’s her address on the campus?” “Where was she on April 1st?” I let her answered that one! LOL! Then came far more complicated questions! I don’t know why, but my lady was focusing on the month of April. Dumb me! I sent back my Census form too early, and now they have no idea what I was doing in April? So, like a hammer, she was questioning me…. I mean, give me a break? What was her background? The KGB or something? “Last April, were you in jail?” WHAT???? “Were you in a shelter for abused women?” ????????? “In a psychiatric ward?” Gosh, I was not, but I might just end up there now! “Were you in a foreign country?” I WAS HOME, HOME, HOME! And while answering her, I was hammering my poor filter which did not need that kind of treatment! Sorry filter, I just got overwhelmed with the Census thing!
At one point, we were done. I mean, after I lost 15 lbs (I wish!), and was so exasperated that I almost needed a bag to breathe! Then, she asked me if I was willing to answer a few questions in order to judge her performance…. Are you kidding me? We have serious problems in this country, we are in the red: China almost owns us, and you want to tell me that my tax dollars are paying for thousands of people calling every head of family to ask the same questions that they have already answered in writing. Do they really thing at that Census thing that American people are so freaking dumb that they have to make sure that we understood the questions????
I am telling you, we are really screwed up, but screwed up or not, I am not a stupid redhead! You got that?
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
May
4
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
You know what I enjoy the most in the morning? Giving the mutts their vitamins with cream cheese and dropping a bit of cream cheese on their noses, then, they lick each other, and almost look normal! OK, ok, they are normal, they are just feisty between them!
I got so busy working on the sign that the mutts and I will hold at the intersection of streets “Will work for a roof above our heads!” that I almost forgot to write about Laura Bush!
Just saying her name makes me sigh…. Can’t they just go away, pleaaaase! No, I certainly won’t buy her book but I read excerpts of it, and it just hit me: besides trying to rewrite History, and wanted to show another George than the one she is stuck with, she talks about her car accident at 17 when she killed another 17 year old boy. I just couldn’t believe it when I read it. I mean if you write about something as traumatic, can’t you at least be honest about it! A 17 year old died because she went through a stop sign. PERIOD! And now at 60 something, can’t she take RESPONSIBILITY for what she did? I know it’s not a word that the Bushes seem to know, but still! If she goes public at her age, NOW, about it, do not blame it on the dark road, or on the fact she was driving a big car, or for Zeus’ sake on the fact that the boy had a very dangerous car. Are you kidding me? Maybe she should have sued the boy’s family for it! Why can’t she just say just a few words like: I ran a stop sign and killed a boy. End of the story. It would be a much better way to show to the youngest generations that it happens – I am not sure that 17 year old imagine they can get killed or kill someone – and that it’s a trauma for the rest of the life of the surviving one. That would be a good thing to write, not the crap she hides behind.
Did she realize what a pitiful character she shows in that book? Saying that she never contacted the parents of the dead boy (it’s never too late, maybe it is now though), or that she lost her faith in God (another good one! Did she think she was Carrie Underwood asking God to take the wheel, and HE did not do it?” Pitiful!) That’s what it is, and I would have hoped that they knew when to stop! Are we supposed to be the Dr. Phil of the Bushes and we are not done yet! George is coming with his own thing, and let me tell you, I do not want to know what’s going to be in it. I don’t even want to mention that she thought that the US delegation was poisoned in Germany…
There was another book written by a First Lady, Danielle Mitterrand. Don’t trust her look, she is the mousey type a bit like Laura Bush, but the comparison stops right there! She is an incredible woman with a great sense of humor who did not hide (but hey this is France!) that after marrying Francois Mitterrand for love, and being miserable since he started cheating on her right away, she took a lover too at the suggestion of her sister who couldn’t take it that she was staying crying night after night.
I would have loved to be a tiny mouse the day Mitterrand came home early to find his wife ready to leave. He was so disappointed not to be able to spend that special evening with her, and asked her where she was going. “A night out with my lover, see you later!”). No, Mitterrand did not go to the French Dr. Phil (am not sure he exists anyway!), he just took the blow! Years later, when she become the First Lady of France, she had to let go of her lover at the instance of her husband, but for Francois, like many powerful people, rules don’t apply to them, so he went on with his affairs, fathered a child with the last companion he had, and everyone was there at the cemetery when he died! This is the French way of Life!
This part is just a tiny one of the book who showed her as a “little girl who got wrinkles but did not forget her dreams”, and has a strong personality. She mentioned at one point that she did not lose her identity when she married Francois. He never called her his wife. Her being was hers not who fathered her or whom she married. It is just called Respect.
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
April
27
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WARNING: MY WRITINGS ARE COPYRIGHTED. IF YOU WANT TO COPY PART OF IT, YOU HAVE TO ASK ME PERMISSION FIRST. TELL ME THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A FINE!
I spent my weekend with Richard Clarke and his latest book “Cyber war” which now makes crystal clear why the Mayas Calendar stops in December 2012. By then, we will be back to Stone Age if the whole world starts to play war through cyber space. Isn’t that cool? And, I mean talk about collateral damage if you screwed up our cyber space: planes colliding with each other, trains derailing (not that it’s so uncommon unfortunately!), no more money, electricity, water. I am telling you, we have to go solar at home and be totally independent of all that BS!
Funny how the world is. If I had read that book 30 years ago, I would have thought it was a great science-fiction story. Now, I am helpless! I don’t even have a red phone, like moronic Glen Beck to call the White House and ask why we don’t have any plan to keep our cyber space safe. Yes, I know all the federal sites are safe or supposedly safe, but what about what makes this country live: Wall Street (Ok, maybe not so much a great example!) banks, utilities companies, and the list is almost endless. Richard Clarke said so, and I have a tendency to believe him. Yes, I know he needs to sell his book, but mostly he wants to send the message that we will be helpless if this attacks happen. 9/11 would be nothing compared to this. China started that crap not long ago! And a general at the Pentagon was saying that he just did not care if people who enrolled in the Armed Forces are overweight as long as they are the meanest hackers on the earth! Great! So now, it’s not even the crappy policy “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, but add to that The stuffing policy: “Stuff yourself as long as you can hack”, who cares about your health!
I think we are becoming more decadent by the minute these days. Bill Maher had a good point last week. He was showing an old poster of “the biggest man on the earth” showed in a circus in the1900’s, saying that now, the same guy would be a size Medium at Wall mart, and would go to the circus to see what? The only teenager on earth who doesn’t text, and communicates only with her mouth moving?
So, after seeing the end of the world coming soon, I decided to go for a lighter book “A good dog” by Susan Wilson (not the Marley’s type book but still on a lighter note than “Cyber war”). And, as I said in the beginning, the Mutts have spoken. They ate the last four chapters of the book. I don’t know what’s going on with the Mutts these days, they feel like rebellious teenagers, and five of them at the same time, it’s quite something! I wonder if I can take insurance on my books, you know, like on the cell phones that Zeus was swallowing like Reagan with his jelly-beans? All things considered, I will probably take it if it existed. But I am positive, Amazon got it before anyone else, and buried it somewhere. Like that, poor me and I am sure thousands of others have to order the darn book twice!
They should not be that bad though because they are becoming the “Tasters Mutts”. I had that idea for a while to create organic treats for mutts. I know it was done before, but my idea comes with an edge that others don’t have but shhhhhhhh it’s still a secret. The Mutts should be careful though because I can go right to my neighbor and ask their dog to be my treats taster! I discovered one thing today: Jackson doesn’t like oatmeal. I was eating my breakfast and he was around, and I guess you might know if you had followed me, that he is absolutely nut crazy about cream of wheat. I gave him my last spoonful of oatmeal, and he SPAT IT back at me, then with a disgusted look, went to sleep on the couch.
Spring is here today, and I do intend to enjoy it as much as I can. These last few days have been so hectic that I thought maybe Nature should give some lithium to Spring. Its behavior was so erratic, but who knows, maybe it did since today is just a perfect Spring day!
I used to be a taxi driver for my two girls, now I am just the Concierge of the Mutts. Open the door, close the door, open, close, open, close…. STOP! Getting dizzy here in Mutts country!
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
April
23
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WARNING: MY WRITINGS ARE COPYRIGHTED. IF YOU WANT TO COPY PART OF IT, YOU HAVE TO ASK ME PERMISSION FIRST. TELL ME THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A FINE!
Don’t ask me how my brain works but this morning, I was thinking about Emile Zola. More than a writer, I always saw him as a journalist because that’s what he really was. He just gave us the most accurate vision of the 19th Century in France from the eyes for the wealthy as well as the poor.
Emile Zola, it was the famous “J’accuse!”. I mean, I don’t think anyone did better that this! Why on earth did I go to Zola from eating my apple this morning, and giving a piece to Lola after peeling it. Was I the only one not to know that except if you buy organic apples, never ever eat the skin which contains all the poisoned stuff. We don’t even need the bad witch to become Snow White, or maybe the bad witches have invaded us, poor mortals who still believe that if it looks good, it has to be good! Sometimes, I just take a chance and eat it. It feels so healthy to devour an apple with its skin. Myth! Like being tanned is a healthy symbol, but that one, I really don’t care about it. It was written in my genes that I have to be tanned. Did you see that glorious NASA picture of the sun by the way? I fell in love with His Majesty the Sun so long ago! So, just be quiet, I don’t care: even if it’s bad, it feels too darn good. My vice, and I intend to keep it.
I used to be interested in keeping up to date with what’s good for you, and you know what? Forget it! A glass of red wine is good! Best news ever, and then cold shower, red wine might not be that good for women and might have a role in breast cancer! And it might even be true since it’s not coming from the Vatican. Barbecue is bad, cheese is poison, meat… I don’t care, never really liked it anyway! And you know that in France they eat horses and rabbits? My mother was taking me for an idiot when I was a kid trying to make me eat horse meat. The thing is the regular butcher was closed an Monday but not the Horse one! So, every Monday, she was trying to fool me by getting, out of the fridge, horse crap wrapped in the regular butcher’s paper. Now, I realize on top of it that there must have been so many germs from that paper that she kept from another day! Yuck! And it did not matter for her that it did not work, weeks after weeks, she was trying and trying. Sigh.
A girlfriend of mine has just been diagnosed with uterine cancer, and apparently that specific cancer happens a lot in women who love sugar. So, I guess I am safe on that one, but what kind of cancer do you get if you like cheese? Give me any day of the month a crispy baguette with cheese and a glass of red wine, and I am a happy camper! Are we getting paranoid with cancer though? I wonder how Zola would have written about us if he had been living now. I am sure he will have found a way to write his “J’accuse” and maybe still for the same reasons…. The French are still very much anti-Semitic. There are always been some taboos when I talk to French people. For instance, that Palestinian terrorist playing president at the end, no matter what, that guy was a freaking terrorist. Yes, Yasser Arafat? The Nobel Prize, give me a break please!!!! But the French loved him, hey he was married to a French woman, and you know, he couldn’t be that wrong if he married French. Really? Talk to my ex-husband about it!
And then, this movie I just saw, and I have to apologize! I used to say that I couldn’t stand Audrey Tatou. The real truth was that I couldn’t stand the movie “Amelie”. I know, I know it has been a hit here! So refreshing…. so cute! Are you kidding me? The most boring and pompous movie I have ever seen, or almost. And that movie was her! How did you want me to like her after that? But then she is just amazing in “Coco before Chanel”. She became Coco instead of that stupid Amelie. Edgy, sassy, desperate, just an amazing character. She became Coco as Marion Cotillard became Piaf in “La vie en rose”.
My sparrow came back. I just saw her this morning. Smart and resilient little bird which builds the same nest at the same place under the porch every year. Why is she still playing the game when the last year baby died in the pond while trying to learn how to be a bird? Yes, life sucks the same for sparrows or humans even when they are surrounded by mutts’ love. This year, no one will have to tiptoe out of the house to respect the sparrow’s peace, and witness another Nature’s miracle. This year, the door will stay closed on a soulless and lifeless house.
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
April
22
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WARNING: MY WRITINGS ARE COPYRIGHTED. IF YOU WANT TO COPY PART OF IT, YOU HAVE TO ASK ME PERMISSION FIRST. TELL ME THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A FINE!
I already adopted a penguin, a polar bear, a wolf (sorry Sarah! ) and today, I adopted a coral reef. Why? Haven’t you read the news? This is Earth Day today. What does it mean? Today, you don’t litter. You can start doing it tomorrow again. Just keep the stuff in your car in a plastic bag for instance, and tomorrow, it will be ready to go!
Am I getting cynical? Hey maybe a bit! But honestly, with the way our planet is going, there should not be ONE earth day. The whole year should be dedicated to our good old planet, as well as the following ones! Is it just a commercial thing like Mother’s Day, Bunny’s Day? Do I really look stupid now that I have attached a coral reef to my already extended family? How am I going to fill out an application for a house – hey I can dream! – with the mutts and then the endangered species that I am dragging behind me as well?
Does it really sound cheesy to say: Open your eyes, and look at our planet, the blue sky – ok today it rains again, and now I am even afraid to walk in my backyard and kill my new born baby grass – the trees, the meadows – there is one near where I live, and it is so so beautiful: green pasture, and a pond partially hidden by trees. Then to go back to reality, there is a big sign by my meadow saying “Request for Zoning change: Development”. The D word again. It is Earth Day today? Can we just remove that sign just for one day? For one more day, I want to believe that the owner is giving the finger at all the developers and decided to nag them by keeping the place as it is, and allow the wild geese to live there happily ever after.
By the way, since I am trying to keep my new baby healthy, I am talking about my coral reef, one tip I give you…. If you like gardening, flowers or vegetables, or anything between, it would make sense anyway to stay green. What’s the point of growing stuff that would be as unearthly that what you buy at your grocery store? If you go green, without all the crappy chemicals, then at the same time that you are doing a favor to your body, you are doing one to my coral reef. Did you know that all the chemicals used in gardening get washed away and at one point will reach the ocean, and will hurt my coral reef or any little fishy still around?
And this one is for the guy with the black BWM who opened his door at a red light on Shady Grove Road yesterday to spill out his ashtray, and tens of cigarettes butts landed there, silent witnesses of a not so cool human being, in one word, a jerk!
My Earth Day did not start a very earthly way though… As soon as I got up, matter of speaking since I did not sleep at all last night, and watched “Lovely Bones”. Then, I stayed awake, trying to understand why I did not like it. I love the book which is probably the main reason I did not like the movie. Books allow you to go as far as you want with your imagination when the movie censors it or kills it. Then, I was busy trying to recognize Stanley Tucci through his heavy make-up. And, honest, he cannot be a bad guy, I just don’t buy it! Maybe that’s why they hided his face so well. What a night!
I had a thing with water this morning. My mission this morning was to dry out every floor close to a faucet! I started by letting the water run free in the kitchen to fill up the huge dogs’ bowl. It got filled up all right, as well as the counter, and the floor. At the same time, Pouch was having an attitude problem and was looking at me with that stubborn look that he has sometimes “I won’t eat that crap!” I don’t know what’s wrong with him these days, he is like a belligerent teenager but at 90 something years old, he should know better! Or course, George rushed over the kitchen gate to devour Pouch’s food who left with a degusted look like “Only a stupid lab like George can eat that crap!”.
But it got better! I turned on the shower in my bathroom and left for a minute since it always takes sometimes to get hot water. But you see, I forgot about it and when I came back, my bathroom had decided to get a Spring cleaning. Of course, during that time, the mutts decided to go back to their last passion: reading! They were the last witnesses of my book “The last Witness” which has been shredded by sharp teeth in thousands pieces. That’s when I decided to adopt a coral reef! Mutts, watch out!
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
April
21
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WARNING: MY WRITINGS ARE COPYRIGHTED. IF YOU WANT TO COPY PART OF IT, YOU HAVE TO ASK ME PERMISSION FIRST. TELL ME THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A FINE!
The fish have died. It was the moment I have been waiting for the last 10 years, and now I am not that sure I like it. Go figure. But to balance the now irrelevant fish tank, I went outside and noticed that the orange tree – it was supposed to be a lime tree when I bought it in the Keys – that I thought was dead and abandoned on my porch, is having second thoughts about it, and is showing tiny green leaves all over! Lucky orange tree, since yesterday, I was thinking about dumping it in my woods, yes, I know, soon to be my ex-woods! Another surprise too, my blueberry thing (I don’t know what I can call it, it’s not a bush, and certainly not a tree!). That poor thing doesn’t get much love from me. Maybe it will the day I will be settled somewhere with the mutts, but for the time being, it stays in its pot and every Spring, I am surprised to see it coming to life again. I gave it a Spring haircut this morning, and its looks almost decent!
So, what a day! On top of it, the planes are flying again now over Europe, so everyone should be smiley smiley today! That was until I noticed how dusty the door of my fridge was! I have all these little magnets and they are plain dirty! Many of them are just reminders of places where we went, so here again I am on Memory lane!
And then, there are the ones which screamed at me every morning like:
“It is never too late to be what you might have been”
“Do one thing every day that scares you”
“What are you waiting for?”
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself”
No wonder that sometimes just opening the fridge in the morning makes me want to run back to bed! Why does my fridge is expecting so much of me?
And while I am typing this, the mutts are walking in the hallway smoking cigars. No, not really, don’t start calling Humane Society on me! I gave them bones shaped as cigars and they hold them in their mouth the way you hold a cigar! My funny mutts!
Then, there is that magnet which always reminds me of Liz, my girlfriend who died 3 years ago. “We do not remember days…. we remember moments”. I gave her a similar one. I remember how she stood in front of my fridge realizing how wise my fridge was!
When you think about moments from your past, what comes into your mind?
Flashes of moments just hit my brain. Good thing I guess, I think therefore I am!
A winter afternoon in Paris where my mother and I took my girls and my niece to a park, and then in a splitting second, I turned around, and Jessica was gone from the swing set. How could a two year old vanish that fast? My whole body instantly froze. For a minute, fear became me. This is the moment I will remember forever: that animal fear of having lost my girl. Then, I saw her 200 feet away on a slide. This is also the day I regretted not to have put the girls on leashes, no matter what anyone could think. I still think it’s a good idea with toddlers, and maybe even more with teenagers, just kidding for the teenagers!
That day at the hospital where I was visiting my father who was dying of eating candies when he was a kid! Not even kidding that much. How can you trust an 8 year old boy to go once a week by himself to get a shot to get one of his testicles down? Hey, my Dad was like every kid, and the money for the shot, went for candies, then 26 years later, he got testicle cancer, and died. I remember that white hallway (Up to now, I still don’t understand why hospitals have to be so dreary. Isn’t it enough to die there? Why can’t they be a bit more colorful? Dying in a rainbow room, wouldn’t it be easier?). To go back to that hallway, I was walking, passing barely living beings in their rooms, and I passed my father’s room too. He was just one more patient sitting in his bed his knees against his chin, and crying. It couldn’t be my father, my hero, that broken human being, and up to this day, this is one of the moments I remember.
It might be the reason I tried to build so many moments to remember for the girls and I. I always wonder which ones will be with them forever, and no, I won’t talk about my recipes book! Because isn’t it just that at the end of the journey? Moments you remember? Happy or sad. These are your moments, just yours, and the ones you remember are the ones who made you who you are.
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
April
16
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WARNING: MY WRITINGS ARE COPYRIGHTED. IF YOU WANT TO COPY PART OF IT, YOU HAVE TO ASK ME PERMISSION FIRST. TELL ME THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A FINE!
What is that commotion on the President’s candidates to replace Justice Stevens? One of the names is Elena Kagan and it seems that just talking about her created a storm in a glass of water! She is supposedly gay, yes? So what? Are we restarting the whole nine yards or what?
A blogger who managed to make his way to CBS News (How did he do that? Please Ben tell me!) mentioned that it would really please Obama’s base if he chose Elena Kagan who is apparently openly gay. OK, the girl has some credentials you know like Harvard, and a few others. She is, according to many, amazingly brilliant with a strong personality. So, what’s wrong in the picture?
The only thing wrong in the picture is the response from the White House! Why couldn’t they keep quiet? Do they ever call the moronic Glenn Beck on his red phone? I don’t think so! So why being so upset that someone mentioned she was gay? I don’t get it. The White House should have remembered how Colin Powell discarded the attacks against Obama that some wanted to paint as a Muslim by saying: “So what if he is a Muslim? A Christian? Or a Jew?” He, then told the story of one America’s fallen soldiers who was Muslim. They should have remembered this before going into that denial of the gay thing. Because, honestly, who cares?
I don’t care if she is gay, Jewish, fat, blonde, bald or if she wears thongs. I just don’t care. The only thing which should matter (and I know it’s like opening already open doors than saying this, but maybe not for everyone!), it’s what’s INSIDE HER BRAIN, not the color of her underwear! And besides her brain, I like the fact that she is young, but can’t we see how amazing this woman is instead of going for the cheap stuff which is none of anyone’s business anyway.
Of course, my Georgetown girlfriend told me” “yes she seems nice but gays, it’s just against Nature.” Then, she started to get lost in the middle of her explanations, telling me that two lesbians can’t make a kid because it’s two vaginas….. Gosh, I learned something today! Honestly, I am not sure that Nature is so great when I got to any store and can hear tens of kids screaming bloody hell if they did not get the candy or toy that they want. You know what, gal, if this is Nature, I think I am gonna go the other way. Even Jessica, not long ago, was horrified in a store and asked me if she and her sister were the same way when they were kids, and the answer was NO!
I don’t know what’s wrong with parents these days but seeing a toddler hitting his Mom and screaming at her doesn’t sound too good to me. Or my ex vet – before he became ex – who asked me how often it happened that my daughters hit me. You should have seen my face. Then, he explained to me that his 16 year old just beat up her Mom because she wanted to go out, He then concluded by saying that she slapped him twice but he deserved it since he was harsh on her! Sounded a lot to me like abused women who think they are the guilty ones to have provoked their other half one way or another and then deserved being beaten up. Hello? Are we living on the same planet?
So, to reply to my Georgetown girlfriend, I DON’T CARE! Not like that good Huckabee who believes that legalizing marriage between gays and lesbians is just the same thing that legalizing incest, polygamy or drug use. I am just waiting for the day where that bigot will be found roaming around some restrooms in some airports like in Minneapolis for instance! Wait a minute, maybe I can hook him up with my girlfriend from Georgetown!
So are we straight now? Matter of speaking but I will applaude if Kagan is the candidate or any other woman with the same qualifications. I think we need another woman just to try to have a balance with all those old guys. Let’s bring some fresh air and who cares what happens in her bedroom. The only thing which matters is what will happen with her at the Supreme Court of the United States by adding her brain to the other ones. Simple, isn’t it?
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
April
16
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WARNING: MY WRITINGS ARE COPYRIGHTED. IF YOU WANT TO COPY PART OF IT, YOU HAVE TO ASK ME PERMISSION FIRST. TELL ME THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A FINE!
Yes, I know, I read the news, and for the first time, I am hopeful: Larry King is going to be single again, and yes the volcano in Iceland needs to get straighten out, and the foreclosures are getting out of hand again. Yes, I know. But for once, let’s get narcissistic, I am more worried about a roof over the mutts’ heads and mine as well. I have been thinking about advertising in the Post, something along the lines of: “Starving writer and starving Maryland student with lots of mutts are looking for a place to live somewhere in Maryland,” or even better someone to buy our house for us and we can live there happily ever after! Not that I am getting antsy but time is flying.
On top of it, my smoke detector is screaming again, starving for a new battery, and I can’t find the darn thing! It has to be on the ceiling, right? And it’s almost as bad as my cellular phone episode some years ago. I was calling it, and it seemed to come from all over the place in the house, until I finally realized that my beloved Zeus had swallowed it. For the smoke detector thing, I thought I was done with it. I stalked all my ceilings unsuccessfully, and a few days ago, it just stopped whining until today!
This morning, I took Max and we went to see the house which needs a male figure. I just wanted to be sure that it was not for me. Max did not like it, and I did not either. If you live in the middle of nowhere, then there is no reason to have a neighbor next door, right? That’s why I love so much “my” house. The drive was nice though, a small country road wild and peaceful. Max was getting antsy so we stopped by the C&O Canal, but where did all the water go? In a way it was a good thing since the bugs were missing as well! A great walk, with a very well behaved Max. I couldn’t stop thinking though about the previous walks in the past. Please do not think I am crazy or something, am I? And no, I am not hearing voices but I always had the feeling that the other me walking the same path in the past are still there, and that I am just one shadow among others. I don’t see them but maybe it wouldn’t take much to see them like a science-fiction movie, we just don’t know how to go back yet. I always have that feeling that we are missing a link to see us in the past. Curiously, I always had that feeling related to happy moments.
OK, not completely happy moments. I remember that time a few years ago where I was walking the mutts by the canal early every morning. I only had 3 at that time: Zeus, Pouch the golden, and Sammie the lion! I loved to start my day that way and the earliest the better since the dogs were off leash, getting nuts at every piece of grass or a duck in the canal or geese flying over us – they are so organized, I always wondered if they had any German blood in them! – Pouch was always flying with the wind, Zeus was consciously marking his territory by peeing on every piece of grass he met with, and Sammie was playing search and recovery all by himself in the bushes.
That January morning, the air was crispy with a beautiful blue sky. So beautiful that I did not even think about taking a jacket, and just had a sweater on. I was behind Zeus when suddenly, he collapsed, and stayed there on the path wagging his tail – he wagged that darn tail until he dropped dead – and looking at me with his beautiful warm brown eyes. But, no matter what, he was adamant about not going back on his feet, and I was there in the middle of nowhere again, alone, maybe a mile away from the car with my 100 lbs dog on the ground, and the two others roaming around. For once, I wished that someone was going to show up, anyone, I was not picky, but even the park police car did not show up. Yes, I know you were going to tell me to use my cell. Cells don’t work by the canal, and I was there, looking at Zeus, the path, the path, Zeus, and I just couldn’t leave him there alone to get some help. The only way was to remove my sweater and to put it under his tummy and try to carry him as much as I could by the sleeves. We made it to the car, half frozen for half of me, but we made it. It turned out that he had a torn ligament in his knee and had to have surgery. I guess he would not have been able to go through security at the airports anymore since he got a metallic plaque with six screws. That was my boy! Never doing anything half way…. going for the gold each time!
Each time I walk there, I always have the weirdest feeling that it would not take much to be able to see all the Dominique’s walks by the canal and becoming one of them, like clones and clones of me through all the seasons… if only I knew which link is missing. Maybe I just read too many science-fiction books…. Let’s blame my deviations on Heinlein or Asimov!
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
April
15
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WARNING: MY WRITINGS ARE COPYRIGHTED. IF YOU WANT TO COPY PART OF IT, YOU HAVE TO ASK ME PERMISSION FIRST. TELL ME THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A FINE!
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the sign. They are repaving that road AGAIN! Is it a yearly thing? Does the county have so much money right now that, not knowing what to do with it, they decided “Let’s do Travilah again!”.
It has not always been that case. It took the life of a boy to have that road taken care of. So, should I complain about it now? Am I becoming too “French” for my own good?
Travilah has been for a long time a small country road, no sidewalks, just a country road with not too much traffic, and small houses. I can’t say that it’s a pretty road, it’s not, but more and more it became a very convenient road and the traffic increased…. Then, came the developers and some neighborhoods started to rise in what was not so long ago the middle of nowhere. I don’t know about you but I like the middle of nowhere. There is a comforting feeling about it. You think: nature, freedom, trees, peace, quiet…. The list is long, at least in my mind.
So, the middle of nowhere was no more. Instead came from right and left of my little country road huge developments with houses close to each other, immaculate yards, and sidewalks within each community. Hey if you want to walk Rover, you need a sidewalk, don’t you? And a little bag too, do not forget the darn little bag! Still, Travilah stayed the same except for the traffic, cars coming out of their immaculate garages and suddenly having a life of their own, and speeding along the little country road. That’s one thing I don’t get, and if anyone has a good explanation for it, let me know. People speed, let’s not blame the cars here, rushing to work, forgetting their manners and certainly not giving any slack to any cars stuck at stop signs who wanted to use my little country road as well. Country road? You gotta be kidding. But then, when the same speedy nuts (Yes I do speed, but on highways, ok? So don’t blame me for it!) get stuck at a red light, I don’t know if they go back to sleep but it takes anyone a good 10 seconds to react to the green light. (Don’t blame me for that one, I don’t speed there, but I don’t sleep at green lights either!).
With that rat race going on, it was the door open for an accident to happen. In the middle of it, there were still – I know, it’s an endangered specie: the pedestrians. One rainy evening, some kids were just walking on the side of the road, remember no sidewalks on the little country road, and a boy got killed by a hit and run. As of today, I do believe that the driver has never been found. Lives shattered, a future lost in that rainy night, he was one of Jessica’s classmates.
I don’t know about you, but so many times when I was dropping off Jessica at her high school or picking her up, I was watching all those kids goofing around and was always wondering how they would be in 20 years. This particular boy never had a chance to go to college, or to get bald or getting a belly. Nothing. Life stopped right there on that wet black asphalt. It’s a jungle there, or it was at that time.
Not knowing what else to do, but I had to do something, I started to write to all my representatives from the Senate to the delegate of this part of the block, asking for sidewalks, pointing out that the new developments were safe, but not Travilah. Nobody cared about it. Once the houses were bought, the developers did not give a damn what could happen as a consequence of the transformation of the road from nowhere.
Maybe I am too logic but wouldn’t it be normal when developers get their approvals from the county or the state, that the surroundings should be taken into consideration, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the “Travilah settlers” should be as safe as the newcomers. But, no it doesn’t work that way in this world!
The great part was that no one was responsible. I mean, there has to be someone, right? Nope! The only person who replied to me was my Delegate, the others? I am still waiting for their reply. Hey you over there, yes my congressman, I voted for YOU! And in response, I got the silence. My delegate? She was a good woman but she gave me all the reasons why sidewalks were still MIA, even saying that the people living on Travilah did not want any sidewalks because of the snow that they wouldn’t want to plow in front of their house. Are you kidding me? OK, except this year, but if I could plow my 150 feet driveway with Jessica, I guess they could plow 20 feet of sidewalk, right?
Then, I learned that developers gave money to the county for that kind of stuff, but the county probably decided to do something else with it. It took the life of a boy, do you hear me? The life of a boy, and several years later, the sidewalks were born.
On rainy nights, it almost seems sometimes like the black asphalt is whispering his name. How many layers of asphalt should be applied to have that little country road forget his name: Solomon? He was just 16.
April
14
2010
Iconoclasticallly yours by www.iconoclasticallyyours.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WARNING: MY WRITINGS ARE COPYRIGHTED. IF YOU WANT TO COPY PART OF IT, YOU HAVE TO ASK ME PERMISSION FIRST. TELL ME THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A FINE!
Paging my jeans, paging my jeans…. It’s always when you need them that they disappear. I swear my house – soon to be my ex house – has a 4th dimension and everything I need went to hide there! While I was looking for them, Jackson decided to chew on my brand new flip flops (they were supposed to be Jessica’s but I saw her face, and they were not her thing, and maybe I knew it when I bought them. It was just a good excuse!). I need those jeans…. Have a haircut appointment this morning with a new old hairdresser.
I always said that the only person I am faithful to is my hairdresser, except that he just stood me up, kind of, anyway. He moved to Peru with his family and hopefully will be back once he realized that children have a better future here…. Do they? Anyway, I had to go back to my new and ex hairdresser, and I am scared. I left him at some point because he lost his touch with me, so …. big question does he still have it in him to make me happy with my haircut 10 years later?
Gosh, it has been a busy 10 days…. Looking for a house is even more tiring than being on the dating scene. I am not on the dating scene, but have been some 10 years ago too, and let it go fast. Just did not have the time or the patience. But there are a lot of similarities between the research for a house or a “boyfriend”. Lies, lies, lies… Pictures lie and description too! You see how similar it is? The good thing for the house though is that you don’t have to sit in front of it for an hour at lunch and see it chewing noisily with open mouth and manage to see its stomach! So, to answer your silent question: NO, I did not find the house. I am sure I will, eventually. My other option will be to crash at my Georgetown girlfriend’s townhouse with my mutts! That would be a good one!
I am extremely happy to report that now the mutts have an interest in reading. They absolutely devoured the book I was reading “Happiness sold separately” by Lolly Winston. They were so proud of themselves. You should have seen them on my bed with thousands and thousands of pieces of happiness gone to the wind. Of course, I was just in the middle of it, and it had just started at the last page I read to spark my attention. I was disappointed by her last book. The first one was SO good “Good grief”. Most of what made that book great was lacking in the second one: her sense of dry humor! I mean these days a story of a husband having an affair is not that funny anyway, but I think her problem was that she knows how being hysterically funny when it’s the woman’s side, but she has no idea how to do it with a guy. So, the wife’s side was ok, but the husband’s side just sucked!
I am now waiting for the postman to bring me my 2nd book, and hopefully sneak around long enough to be able to finish it! But shhhhh….. it’s a secret, don’t tell the mutts!
Otherwise the grass is growing in the backyard. Jessica did an awesome job with the leaves from last year, and with water, seeds and a lot of love, some tiny little baby grass is showing, and it is so cute! I am in love with every piece of grass which shows its tiny face hoping not to be torn away by the mutts. And yes, it will stay safe. I gave them my word, or I will get those mutts!
Iconoclastically yours,
Dominique
