Now that’s a good song!

Summertime is fun time!  Framing Grey is booking gigs for this summer in Houston.

Can I just say how excited I am?  They sound good!

Nick on vocals ——->>>>>>>  https://soundcloud.com/framing-grey/the-widow-the-mars-volta-cover

“The Widow” by Mars Volta

Nick Blevins – Vocals, Guitar
Jake Blevins – Drums
Herb Ochoa – Bass

A Personal Message

I wrote this about a year ago.  This is not my usual tone, but my raw feelings.  Unfortunately, the person(s) to whom it is directed will probably not receive the message.  It was cathartic to write, and very personal to share.

A Personal Message

Webster’s Definition

Cathartic: a medicine that causes the bowels to be purged. (Ain’t that the truth?)

What is this gem I have found?!

(This needs a sub-headline because it takes me a while to get to the point.)

Henry Valentine Miller (1891-1980)  American Writer and Painter

Best known writings are  “Tropic of Cancer,” “Tropic of Capricorn,” and “Black Spring.”  His works were banned from the U.S. until 1964 because of lewd content.

http://www.henrymiller.info/bio/bio.html

Yesterday Frogger had a friend over.  Among the parade of teenagers that run in and out of the house, this kid is one of my favorites.  He’s a reader.  He’s cerebral.  A 16 year-old that reads Neitzsche!  He’s the kind of kid that likes to blurt out politically incorrect statements — with a gleamy, little side-eye to see the reaction.  He’ll say just what’s on his mind and damned the consequences.  Dark rebel, that one is.

Frogger likes everybody, but he worried if this particular friend would offend me and I’d throw him to the curb. He says, “Mom, he just says whatever is on his mind, don’t get offended.”   On the contrary!

Friend walks in once and says, “Hey, your house is not as messy as it usually is.”  I could have been offended by that statement, but I was impressed that someone actually noticed that I cleaned up.  Score one for friend.  I offered him some rice that I was making for dinner.  He says, “That was really good, but I didn’t like the bean in it.”  You found a bean it your rice?  One bean?  Weird because I didn’t put beans in it.  One random bean fell from the Heavens and ended up in the pot.  Funny.

So you get the gist of the ongoing, odd conversations that we have with this kid.  (Wow, it’s taking me a while to get to the point of things this morning.)

When this kid comes over, I always like to show him my new “finds” from the used bookstores I frequent.  My kids will listen when I blather on about a cool book I found, but it is similar to a hand-patting, “Oh, that’s interesting, Mom.”  Moving on… Point is, this kid likes my collection of books and I like to ask him what he’s currently reading.  I’ll lend him a book or two from my “special” bookshelf of all my favorites because I know that he will appreciate and take care with them.

Last night, he found one of my copies of Dante, “The Inferno,” and asked me if I had another printing because he wasn’t crazy about version he found.  Which lead me on a hunt to find my other copy of  “The Inferno,” which is where I found my gem.

There was a biography on my shelf that I had never gotten around to reading, so naturally, I got distracted from my original mission to check it out.  Inside the cover of the book was a handwritten letter from Henry Miller to a Dr. Glassell, who is the founder of Glassell School of Art and part of the Museum District here in Houston.

Now I am really curious.  Dr. Glassell is an important figure here in Houston, and Mr. Miller is an important literary figure; how in the world did this letter get into this book and into my grubby little hands?

I looked online and found letters similar to this one valued at $5,000!!  Holy crap!  My first thought was, “Nobody touch it!!”  My fun project today is to see if I can figure out how to authenticate it.

The last line reads, “I don’t observe any of the damn holidays nor do I vote ever.”   Charming.

If y’all have any feedback or information about something like this, let me know.

My girls being cute

Who needs to work anyway?

Me. *sigh*

I guess the kids have to eat.  Considering their ginormous appetites, they might have turned to crime or cannibalism if I hadn’t of stepped in.

I actually love to work.  It gives me a purpose, goals, and much inspiration.  So what’s with all the *big sigh* drama, you say?

I started freelancing, which has taken me away from the fun-nery of blogging and leisurely blog reading.  I’ve been getting some decent work and steady pay, but mostly, have lost the desire to run into oncoming traffic to give myself a bona fide excuse for severely neglected house projects.

Dishes?  What?!  How can I be expected to do the dishes when I have this big, important, high-paying job I’m trying to do here?  Did I mention that I’m still in my PJs?  There are deadlines, but — me being me — I make things more difficult than necessary.

For instance, I bid on a transcription job that was for this guy who had recorded a “reading” with a spiritual guide.  It was pretty entertaining because… Wow!  I got a front-row seat to cah-razy!  Our spiritual guide was telling poor sap that he actually didn’t belong in this world.  He was from the Fifth Dimension, and worked best in the Eleventh Dimension.  His Teachers, speaking all scary-like through the spiritual guide, told him that he had a special [insert vague, other-worldly] job here on Earth.

Yes, our alien friends are coming to save you from the mundane, sir, don’t you worry.

Easy-peasy, right?  It wasn’t going to be published anywhere important.  The guy basically just wanted it, in writing, so that he could feed his ego. Ya know, re-read how special he was. He was uber importante’ in relation to the rest of us peons that weren’t from the Fifth Dimension, but solidly ground in reality.  The rest of us are stuck in perpetual servitude, that is, making the actual world go ’round.  I don’t know, maybe he wanted to pass it around, show his mama or friends or whoever.

Point being, I complete the audio portion, all giggles, and move on to editing.  *GROAN*  I realized that I was not consistent with some capitalization and punctuation, etc. and spent twice as much time agonizing over details than I should have.  My husband would call that a waste of money.  You know, that “time equals money” blather.

Apparently, that does not compute in my teeny, little hyper-focused brain of mine.   It is much more important for me to not miss that punctuation error that nobody cares about.  Curse you punctuation gods!

I am currently plugging away on an elephant of a job, that… It’s just too painful to talk about right now.  Just… no.  We can’t go there yet.

Tell The Truth Tuesday

Tomorrow is “Tell the Truth Tuesday”.   All the froglets were shamed, shamed I tell you!  It’s going to be fun.

Check out all the other stuff I added to my blog (to the left and bottom.)

What fun this is!  I should have started a blog earlier.  By Thursday I should have all the froglet’s profiles up along with their super-powers.  Feels good, man.

Linda

Howdy from Houston!

Not sure how this blog is going to develop so I’ll start with telling you a little about me.  I am a 41 year old southern lady who’s been attached to a fantastic fella for over 20 years. I have four great kids (AKA The Froglets.)  I have a son in college, a son in high school, a daughter in junior high and a daughter in the Elementary school.  I have all the flavors of the parenting experience and I love it.  More on them later… much more!

Being a Mom is my most important job, but it is only part of who I am.

I like to write and I like to talk, A LOT.  I expect that I will be long-winded and belabor most any point I need to make.  I know all the grammar rules and like to break them on purpose.  I love to use sentence fragments and put commas where I damned well please.  I’m a rebel that way.  So no need to call foul on my flagrant abuse of grammar rules.  (See there?  I just fragmented a sentence.)  I will alliterate, use clichés and end sentences with prepositions, bank on it.

I am a voracious reader and I love it when I come across a writer who has a talent for writing in a way that is unique and interesting.  Dean Koontz is so quirky in his Odd Thomas series that it just makes me laugh.  I enjoy him so much.  As this blog develops, I am going to figure out an interesting way to share what I’m reading and find out what everybody else is reading.  (Might be fun to have an online book club or discussion.)

Since I find myself with “free” time in between shuttling kids around, I decided to familiarize myself with social networking, blogging and how to build a better website.  I love independent study!  The only pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself.

I’m a curious person.  I like to know things about my world.  I like to have a question and answer that question with multiple angles.  I am interested in the dynamics of our society, what makes people tick, my children; their issues and the issues of their friends.

And I’m annoyingly thorough.  Ask my kids.  If you are a friend of one of my kids on facebook, I will know your business.  Don’t post something and then be all bent out of shape because I read it.  Honestly, that’s what the filters are for.  If you don’t want every joe-schmoe reading your personal business, either add security or don’t post stupid shit!

I have a strong mind and I am not looking for child-rearing or relationship advice.  And it is a bad, bad idea to try to convert me to some religion or share an opinion about my spiritual life or percepted lack thereof.   I have a brain and I use it, end of story.

So there’s enough about me for now.

Howdy from Houston!

Linda

(I had a different introduction prepared but Super Frog read it and was less than enthused.  Guess that means it was boring?)