Category Archives: Blah Blah Blah
I think the sun is a flower, that blooms for just one hour
All it does is rain anymore. I am so tired of it. Today I had a speaking engagement. I prepared a prezi and was ready to deliver when I was thrown to the audience and told, “Oh, we can’t seem to get connected to the Internet, so just go on without it.” I looked out, smiled, and pulled a speech from out of my ass.
Last night I watched The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. This may sound odd but I never thought of Kurt Douglas and Barbara Stanwyck as contemporaries much less imagined them ever portraying man and wife. Turns out she is only 9 years older than him. I guess I just think of him from the 50’s and 60’s and her from the 30’s and 40’s. Of course to me she will always be Sugarpuss O’Shea from Ball of Fire with Gary Cooper. They don’t make movies like that anymore!
Last year this time I visited Quebec City. Gosh how things have changed since then. Never in a million years would I have thought my life would change so drastically. Craziness.
37 ain’t that bad
I survived.
Friday was the big day. Mom and Lisa took me to my favorite restaurant, DeLorenzo’s for pizza. We haven’t been there since my mom’s birthday. That last visit was so memorable and fantastic. It was our last time out as a family. John Beck brought out a pie with a candle on it and everyone sang Happy Birthday to my mom. Rick even came out and said hello to us! My father was so happy! I remember he kept joking with John Beck about silly Roller Derby names. Lisa kept clicking pictures with her cell phone which annoyed me… and now I am so grateful that we have photos of it.
It was just a couple weeks later that my dad died.
We wanted to go back to DeLorenzo’s but there was just something stopping us. I know that I was worried I’d walk in there and collapse in a heap of tears. Gosh, I remember going to DeLo’s with my dad back when I was 10 years old! How could I walk in there with out him?
At any rate, we went and no one cried. Instead we laughed and had a wonderful time. Thank you, John and Rick!
The next day I went to NYC to see Gainsbourg. I’ve been wanting to see it for ages. It was crazy and I loved it. Unfortunately they left out the whole Whitney Houston scandal. I also went to UNIQLO and bought some long sleeve t-shirts. The rest of the day was spent trying to get back home. I have no idea how people can live in NYC. There’s too many people and they all smell like urine and body odor.
I spent Sunday visiting mom and sitting out on the deck. We went to Home Depot and bought a lamp for the kitchen. We also stopped at Marshall’s and I bought two dresses, a shirt and a wrap sweater.
Monday was spent writing and listening to Peter Wolf songs.
I think 37 is going to be just fine.
I am 37-years-old
Normally a few months before I turn another year older, I start to adopt my new age in my thoughts. Rather than think of my current age, I think, “I’m almost #.”
Not this time.
37 just blows my mind. Of course, 27 blew my mind. I had less trouble turning 30 than I did 27.
It’s that 7. It’s the official end of the “mid.” I am now in my “late thirties”
WOWSERS!
I am really working on staying positive. My brain says, “You are 37 and unmarried, without children: you are a loser.” But then I counter with, “Yes, but I started a business, wrote a book, bought a house on my own, live a fulfilling life and ANSWER TO NO ONE! So there!”
And honestly, if marriage and children were so important to me, I’d have them. Clearly, deep inside, I don’t care that much.
It’s not worth fretting over age. The only alternative to aging is death.
I am 36-years-old
I am 36. Tomorrow I will be 37. My life is in some ways better than I ever dreamed and in other ways not quite living up to my dreams.
All I know right now is that I miss my dad so very very much. And it is killing me that he’s not here.
I think of him taking me to Great Adventure for my birthday two years ago. We went on one ride because that’s all he could handle… but what a ride we went on, El Toro!
Thirty f-ing seven.
Happy Birthday, Donnaville!
My birthday is tomorrow but there’s an even more significant birthday coming up the day after. On September 3, 2001, I purchased the domain Donnaville.com.
YEP! 10 years folks! Amazing longevity for a girl with nothing to say!
Let’s take a look back at all the different incarnations of Donnaville.
Here is a screenshot of the very first post… note how it is dated September 2… I have no clue why the dates don’t match up. I am 99.9% sure I placed the order on September 2 because I distinctly remember it was a birthday present for myself. Whatever.
Just a few days later, planes crashed into the Twin Towers and so much changed.
A few months later I ditched the default blogger template and came up with my own design. This may also signal the end of my usage of Blogger and the beginning of Movable Type. I simply can’t remember.
The next design that I have evidence of is from 2004:
What I LOVED about this design are the pictures on the left hand side. I would take pictures with my cell phone and upload them to BUZZNET which would then update on Donnaville. You can see an archive of all those pictures, if you want.
I am pretty sure I must have changed the design between 2004 and 2007 but I never took any screenshots. I recall a very 60’s looking design with a fish eye background that my father HATED! Sadly, I can’t find any screenshots of it. I think it was probably around 2007 that I made the move to WordPress. Here’s the 2007 design:
In 2009, I updated my theme to Thesis. It looked like this:
A year or so later, I played around with it a bit:
Now it looks like this:
Prior to September 3, 2001, I had a Website on Geocities. If memory serves me, I started the Geocities page sometime in November of 1996. This is how it looked back in those old days:
And here’s a recreation of the old page.
Ten years with Donnaville, 15 years total. That’s a lot of words.
Looking back, it’s been a fun ride. You’ve been there with me as a I’ve had fun, traveled, lost pets, got dumped, dated, bought a house, fell in love, got fired, hired, fired, hired, started a business, had my heart shattered, lost my dad, and who knows what else is in store ahead. I have no intention of stopping. And I have no intention of getting interesting. In the immortal words of Popeye (words my father would often say as well), I am what I am.
Law of Attraction Works Again
I love when this happens! I just looked at my vision board and realized I had crossed off all the items off one of my lists…. and I wasn’t even actively trying!
1. Radio
2. iPad/Tablet
3. Hardwood Floors
4. New Smart Phone
5. New Glasses
This means I need a NEW LIST!
Since I am doing so well achieving my product desires… maybe it’s time to start delving more into CONCEPTS. Here’s the issue with concepts… you can’t check them off. It’s not a Have or Have Not situation. I may have it now but will it continue? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I should just start dreaming BIGGER with my list
1. New carpeting for loft and stairs
2. Re-do outside patio
3. New Laptop
4. Regularly sell 500 copies of my book a month on Amazon
5. Write & Publish a NEW Book
6. Perform 5 – 8 LIMs a week
7. Love
With all that said, I created a map of all the places I’d like to visit in the US. What am I missing?
View Places to Visit in a larger map
I feel the earth move under my feet
There was an earthquake but I didn’t feel it. Too busy bopping to Professor Ouch’s Rockabilly Roadhouse show on the radio.
Watched Possessed on TCM last night. What an awesome movie. I wish I had caught it from the beginning.
Joan Crawford plays the kept woman of Clark Gable. Afterward TCM aired a documentary about Joan. Her daughter still hates her. Crazy.
There’s a scent in the air. It’s autumn. I just feel it.
And life just keeps on going…
I can’t say my 3 bean salad went over well. I didn’t see anyone take a heaping spoonful or even a meager spoonful. My mother assured me that it was 1/3 full when we left but I don’t believe her. My Watergate Salad always disappears.
People simply like eating artificial-looking food stuff, I think. Of course, maybe people were worried about tooting? That is entirely possible. And it makes sense considering I got the recipe from my favorite cookbook, The Natural Laxative Cookbook
The pig roast was fun. It was great seeing my cousins. It seems like I am seeing them so often anymore, which is not a bad thing. It’s nice knowing family.
What else? What else? I believe my mojo is still working but I haven’t been out testing it of late. I feel the approach of autumn. It’s early, I know, but I just feel it creeping up. Considering all the crap that has happened this summer, I feel oddly happy. How do I know? I am not spending evenings gulping wine and watching La Femme Nikita episodes. Rather than feeling damned, I feel hopeful.
3 Bean Goodness
I am writing this entry on my newest gadget… A Samsung galaxy tablet. I love it. I just made a three bean salad for my cousin’s pig roast this afternoon. When asked to bring a dish, I normally opt for Watergate Salad. Hopefully it will go over okay.