War in Europe

My dad outside of Berlin, May 1945.

The great Dodgers baseball announcer Vin Scully took the media to task yesterday for not remembering the anniversary of D-day:

Normally on the telecast we talk about "This Day in Baseball." I don't mean to sound grumpy or grouchy, but I can't believe what I didn't hear. I listened to the news on the radio for about an hour and fifteen minutes today—did not hear one word about what this day really means. June the 6th, 1944. Do the names Omaha, or Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword, do they mean anything? They're the beaches at Normandy. Sure, today was D-Day, the invasion of Europe, when thousands of soldiers gave their lives so that we could be free. I'll be darned if I saw any real publicity about it at all. Please don't let that happen again next year. Please? Yeah, this day.

Ok, Vin. I'll try to do better next year.

Anyway, I love this photo of Dad looking young and skinny and serious. He was a country boy who loved to hunt and fish and this was the grand adventure of his life. A year later he would be married with a baby on the way - on a whole different kind of adventure.

Will I ever shut up about "The Secret"?

I have an associate who is a big believer in "The Secret" and "The Law of Attraction." I have mentioned before how much I hate the idea that you always get what you focus on.

She said "I don't want to think about [something] because I don't want to attract that into my life."

Suddenly I had a Revelation. I realized something and I almost started dancing, I was so happy.

"Sherry," I said. "The reason that you don't want to dwell on negative things in NOT because of what will happen in the future. The reason you shouldn't focus on the bad is that, when you do that, you ruin your life RIGHT NOW."

I don't think she got it. But I did.

Fear and worry corrupt the present, which is the only time we ever truly have. Isn't that enough reason to try and banish them?

(Because this is the internetz where people tend to pick everything apart, I must disclaim: yes, I know there are legitimate fears and things to be careful of. Etc etc etc).

Painted Ponies

Things I did today that you probably didn't:

• Spilled a cone-shaped filter of coffee and almost-boiling water on myself, the sink, the counter, the cabinets, the floor and the throw rug.


• Reviewed notes from an interview I did a week ago. An interview in which I both got some fantastic quotes and information AND neglected to take down the subject's name. Which I have forgotten, having done a dozen interviews in the intervening time period.


• Covered a high school graduation at which none of the graduates had anything remotely interesting to say. I sidled over to my fabulous photographer Karen and said "I got nothin'."
  
  She snorted, gestured to her camera and said "I got nothin'." I can't hardly wait for tomorrow's paper, can you?

Ok, the day got a whole lot better

President Barack Obama. I like the sound of that. I am fantastically proud to have a Democratic candidate who is...Hawaiian!

And I still get chills from this video.



It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots;
A President who chose the moon as our new frontier;
And a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

(We want change.)


We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant.

We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA;
We will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests;
That we are one people;
We are one nation;
and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast;
From sea to shining sea:
Yes We Can.

A crap day

I don't have crap days very often but this is beginning to qualify.

I drove across the county, 40 miles, to my teeth cleaning appointment, missing work to do so, and conveniently scheduling the appt on the day I work furthest from the dentist instead of just 10 miles away.

I forgot, however, to take the antibiotics for my EXTREMELY MILD ALMOST CERTAINLY NOT A PROBLEM heart condition. I only found out about the condition about a year ago, so this would have been my second cleaning with the antibiotics...and I just forgot. Yay.

Then I came back to Ventura and found one of two cute tiny little diamonds in a lovely ring my mom gave me is missing, two weeks after I got it. I feel like I have a jewelry curse because every time I get something I truly love, it gets lost/broken/damaged in some way. And yet the jewelry I don't really like persists forever!

I am just going to put my head down and sob. Bye.