So I am driving to the grocery store today when I notice a nice looking fella walking his black lab. The dog stops, poops and they keep walking. A woman runs from the other side of the street, pulls a plastic bag out of her pocket, picks up the poo and flings it at the guys back. It makes enough contact to make him turn and she yells something to the effect of "pick up your f*king sh*t, assh*le!" and I have to pull my car over for a second so I do not crash for laughing. CGrolund dubbed her the "Poo Patrol" when I posted this to Facebook. Some stories are so good you have to post them everywhere.

I am so thankful that it is Friday. Too many bad things happened this week.

Well, I am back in the game a little bit. I have a new design client and what looks to be a pretty steady copy-writing client. I have not heard from Protective Services yet, but you know how it goes with government applications.

With the writing, I feel more like writing for myself again. It is amazing how when you write cheesy marketing stuff, you feel like you must purge yourself with real words from yourself. I feel another poem coming on.

Everyone seems really grumpy lately. I usually find that when other people seem impossible to deal with, I am probably getting a migraine.

I am enjoying swimming quite a bit and I have become a Facebook addict which is why I am not on LJ much anymore. It is really exciting that MFelps is published and I really wish I was close enough to go to Write Club. I am getting really excited for the Wicke's as WickeDeli is revving up. PBoone is about to release his second CD. I am so impressed with my friends.

I have finally overcome most of the pain of the back injury. My pelvis is officially only 5% off now which is great news and I am back to 5'8" which makes me happy.

I finally have a pretty good job lead with Protective Services. I have volunteered with them and worked with CASA before, so I think I have a pretty good shot at this one. The bad part of the job is that I would not get holidays off as domestic violence happens all the time. The job is in intake for abusive situations. It would be a bit like working for 9-1-1. It is actually a position in which I would flourish as I enjoy really feeling as if I am serving the greater good. So, wish me luck.

I gave away the last of the baby clothes that I had been saving today. Since hitting 40, I have decided that it is time to stop thinking about what could have been and focus on what is great in life right now. Still, it was difficult to pack up the last of the lot.

I am walking Relay for Life Saturday. I just remembered and I have no donations!!! HELP!

Just $5 would be great.

http://bit.ly/76bX8

Blue pixel glow wakes me.
Lightning strikes behind my eye.
The room breathes.
I retreat into the solace of my mind.
I want to run in the night like I have done before
-wild and unencumbered.
Instead, I wait and sniff the air from my back porch.
This is why the wolf howls.

For my 40th birthday, I went to Burningman Flipside. It was amazing. I danced until I could not dance no mo. I saw things that I did not know were humanly possible. I showered in a public shower. I made a sock individual who does not want to be tied down by species. He has a toe sock mowhawk. I danced to the sound of tesla coils. I became part of a black light art installation. I fired a flame thrower!!! I won a trophy for singing like Snow White. Tonight, I am celebrating at Mangia Pizza on Gracy Farms. If you are in Austin, come on by. Tomorrow, I will celebrate turning 40 by lying in bed all day and aching. But for now, party on!

Thanks to a combined effort of several United Methodist Churches in Austin, my friends are no longer being hounded by a certain catholic church I cannot name. Yay!

The kids should be with them by the end of May.

It all works out all right in the end. If it is not all right, it is just not the end. :D

Let's all boogie now.

Quite often I hear good parents express fear that someone will call Child Protective Services on them for administering corporal punishment to their children. I would like to assure every parent out there that clothed, open-handed spankings are not considered child abuse by the state. In fact, in order for a child to be removed from the home, the situation has to be critical and immediate danger must be documented. The laws are so protective of parental rights, that it is sometimes a very tedious process to help the children who really are in danger. Of course, there is no shortness of bad parenting out there. All you need do to reassure yourself is to visit a local Wal-Mart on a Saturday morning. If you love them, feed them, shelter them and educate them then relax. You may be overwhelmed, but you are doing fine.

As a trained CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocate), I have been in homes that would shock most people. One of the first things you learn about site visits is to only sit in wooden or hard chairs that you can clearly see. This is because many IV drug users will hide their needles in a couch or cushion when they see you coming for a home visit. I have also been in homes where running water has not been present for months and buckets were used as toilet facilities. I have held shaking babies born addicted to crack and I have witnessed the unintentional murder of a child by it's mentally challenged mother. These are, of course, the extremes. However, they are more frequent than you might think and our foster care system is overloaded with children in need of safe homes.

Recently, two of my good friends were approved as foster parents. They have been together for 18 years. They are both college educated, have a big, clean house and have a substantial combined income. They are willing to take older children who are next to impossible to place. However, they are undergoing some ridicule from a local church group because they are homosexual and one of them is HIV positive. In spite of the many homosexual couples doing a fantastic job in the system, the number of HIV positive drugs users who are allowed to keep their children, this pair is being hounded and pressured not to foster.

For legal reasons, I cannot publish any names. However, this attitude is doing nothing but aggravating two very nice men and punishing a couple of children that could have the opportunity to leave a group home. Legal measures are being taken to prevent the religious group from contacting the men.

I have been working in the yard this morning and I started to wonder why the human ego derives such pleasure from containing and directing nature. It was very satisfying to turn a fluffy bush into a square today. There are many cubes in nature-salt being just one but bushes just don't look that way without our influence. I think it might have to do with the comfort of symmetry. Yet while symmetry is comforting, it is not that interesting.

Perhaps, I have just been by myself too long.

It has been so wonderful getting back in touch with some of my old friends. MFelps and I chatted for hours today as if we had not been apart and it has been outstanding to hear from Weldon again. If you guys see me on Facebook, send me an IM. For the life of me, I cannot remember everyone's rude nicknames from high school. I remember Coitus, Throb and Weenie. Who am I forgetting?

Has anyone else received a box from their parent that had all their school pictures, report cards, baby books and childhood memories? This includes drawings made especially for mom...

Does anyone remember jams? One summer in Junior High, my mom sewed me and like 12 friends a pair of them. She found the swatches from them this weekend and it inspired me to make PJ pants and shorts out of nice materials so I can get away with wearing jammies everywhere. I am also going to do some in Halloween print for my goth pals.

THE 80s ARE BACK AND BIGGER THAN EVAR!

My mother brought my childhood kimono to me yesterday from when my father was stationed in Japan. It has a few stains on it from me being a kid, but it is still lovely. I am planning on hanging it on my wall. It won't take up much space as I was just a little kiddo then. Once I get it dry cleaned, I will post pics. I wish I still had my tabi and zouri too.

My greatest challenge of late is becoming more tolerant of intolerance. I find it very difficult to deal with groups that rely on exclusion or judgment of others to build themselves up. I want to develop more compassion for people who spend more time trying to limit the choices and actions of others than to really understand their own choices and actions. I also realize that this is a contradiction because I am spending time right now concentrating on the actions of others instead of finding peace in this moment.

Western society encourages fear-based living. Most commercials are formulated "product x" is here to save you from "enemy y". Even feminine hygiene products are referred to as protection. Protection from what? Embarrassment over our own bodies? Ruining a very expensive pair of designer pants? Why did you spend that much on those pants? Are they really THAT much better or was it a purchase based on fear of being uncool? Recently, I heard a girl say "I feel sorry for people who don't understand how important this Louis Vuitton handbag is." I believe that attitude is where my compassion must originate. It must be very frightening to live with that kind of fear. I hope that I can transform myself to become more accepting of the unaccepting. I hope I can find more tolerance for the intolerant. Most of all, I hope to find more love for all creatures and know that we are, none of us, better than the other.

Well, I went in and while they love my design work, they failed to mention that they require SMS and Java. No, not JavaScript...Java. How many graphic designers do you know that do Java? GAH!

I am going to go into my Self-Pity capsule TM right now. It won't take long as I tend to bore myself when I pout.

So, I have been interviewing and interviewing. There was a really frustrating situation lately where my would-be boss called to tell me to post my resume and promised me an interview...and then I found out they had hired the position without even calling me. arrrrgh. Apparently, HR got my resume and stamped it overqualified. Which is a shame because I was really interested in the position.

However, I have 2 solid leads this week so here we go again. What helps me right now is knowing how many other people are having the same issues finding work. I think we should start a support group.

Well, I have had a really good week in spite of the rain and the insomnia. I got back in touch with three old friends. I did some volunteer work which is always good for the soul and I got a funny story to tell.

Here is the story:
Let me preface this by saying that I have this friend that works at a Condoms to Go and he thought it would be funny to put me on some fetish mailing lists. In his defense, I have played some pretty odd pranks on him from time to time. Ever since then, I have received some mail that made even me look twice and I am a published adult writer.

I went to JiffyLube to get Chad's car inspected. If you don't know Chad, he NEVER throws anything away. His car is usually full of trash and mail. So, I was sitting in the waiting room and I start to hear the mechanics giggling. Well, you don't hear that very often so I had to peek. I looked out the window to see the gentlemen having a nice laugh over some special adult material that apparently came in the mail to us and was not thrown away. I sat back down and tried to pretend I did not see it. When the guy came to ring up my total, he gave me a Viagra pen to sign the credit card slip with. What's more, it would not stay clicked. Now, that irony started me laughing which got him laughing and he said "I guess it is asking for Viagra not advertising it."

- a box of drawer pulls from my friend's bathroom.
- my own watch, given back to me after senior year.
- a sunset from the roof of LD Bell High School.
- the vision of my Monte Carlos re-parked for me by friends wayyyy over in the football practice field.
- a homecoming mum given to me from someone who knew I wanted one even though I was too punk to wear it to school.
- a picture of Imogene Stubbs with a reminder of my ego.
- a calendar from a friend's dorm that had tracked my menstruation for an entire year.
- a trip to go to a swingset in the middle of the night.
- a pizza bought for me after I ran off the stage of a talent show crying.
- a Goofy button from a friend's childhood.
- a cut up credit card with a note inviting me to get myself something nice with it.
- a plastic pair of plastic frogs raced in the fountain at the Kimball Art Museum.
- a bowling trophy with the word "potato" written on it.
- any number of mix music.
- a ticket to see James Taylor.
- a medical slip with the word "remission" on it.
- a simple, gold ring.