Tonight seeing Captain Phil in the hospital was very sad.  Okay, I know he smokes, gets stressed out, drinks caffeine instead of meals - but the guy loves crab fishing.  I still am not sure what is going on with him.  The bond that his son, Josh, feels for him is so real and touching.  I felt Josh’s pain in talking with Phil tonight.  It just won’t be the same ship without Phil.  But maybe it’s time Josh gets his chance to show his dad what he is made of - a chance for Phil to be proud.  I think he is anyway.  I like Josh a lot.

On the Time Bandit (okay, my favorite ship), the waves were really tossing the boat around.  I didn’t realize I was holding my breath as the greenhorn nephew was working the hydraulics for the first time.  His uncles made him stick it out - cut the kid some slack. 

It’s a dangerous occupation and full of surprises and weird superstitions - like not shaking someone’s hand until he proves himself to the crew or having a Cup-o-Noodles on board.  I think the ultimate goal here is teamwork - you can’t be worried about people - you all need to concentrate on the dangers the work poses - from blown pipes, to boat rolls in heavy seas, freezing ice on the deck, losses of electricity and being swept off the boat.  How do you get people to bond in a short amount of time?  I’ve seen bickering among software development teams run a project into the ground.  I’ve heard of people killing themselves over the stress of a corporate project.  On these boats, men risk their lives to bring us king crab for our dinner plates.  Pretty high price, I think.

I don’t know if I can look at a king crab the same way again knowing what these guys go through to bring them in.  It’s a strange world in the Bering Sea.  I don’t see how they do it.  I freak out when it gets 20 degrees outside - I’d die up there - and I couldn’t stand on that deck for any amount of money.  Those waves tonight were high - way too high.  How the heck do they make it through those storms?  I guess that’s why I watch the Deadliest Catch - because it is.

photo is from NASA

I had some documents I wrote on vacation last month and I left them on my laptop.  I kept meaning to transfer them over to my desktop, so I could write my blog about Deadliest Catch episodes, Battlestar Galactica and whole bunch of creative stuff - poems, thoughts for stories, sunset thoughts, etc.   I did manage to trasnfer the photos.  So last night I figured I’d better get started writing the blogs for Wednesday morning - I’ve been home for two weeks.

Mike and I were watching the PBS China special. He left the room and came back saying, “Well, I completely wiped the laptop - I’m starting over.”  It took a second to sink that my work might be lost.  I had to ask the fatal question if he saved the Word files - his stare was all I needed as an answer.  For the last couple of days, I’d been telling myself to go get those files - but something always came up to distract me.  And now they were gone.  I knew he wanted to wipe the laptop - we had done our desktops - what was I thinking?  I should have grabbed those files right away.

I am sure I was brilliant.

I found them.  I had a box of mail that I picked up from the post office in one of their cardboard boxes with handles.  During the “house sweep,” I put the box in my bedroom closet as it was too big for my art room closet.  I never put anything in the bedroom closet, so I didn’t look there.  On my forage, I remember I did put something in the bedroom closet.  There they were - right on top of the non-essential mai(join the history book club, join the one spirit book club, we need money for polar bears letter, etc.) I need to go through - ok, you never know when someone might send you something that is interesting.

Phew - I feel as if I’ve gone throught the whole day in 45 minutes.  I hate looking for something I knew I had at one time.  Yesterday, it was my keys.  When I went away on vacation, I hid my keys for the car, house, mailbox, etc.   I was gone a month - no, I didn’t write it down - and blam - I was on the hunt yet again.  I found them after about an hour with a 10-minute visualization excercise.

I don’t know whether is a sign of a creative mind or I am getting older, but I can’t remember where I put things.  Add to the fact that I am doing some rapid cleaning for showing the house, I am a tucker-awayer.  Sliding things here and there in an attempt to get out of the house, I have a number of spaces that end up holding the weirdest of items.

Like today, for the past half an hour, I’ve been hunting some cards I prepared on Friday - I knew they needed just one more cent postage (thank you post office), but I planned to go on Saturday.  I put them on the dining room table.  On the table there was another pile of bills and letters that were ready to go - no postage needed.

I didn’t get out on Saturday.  I did go out on Sunday and I needed to get the house ready in case a realtor called while we were away.  So, I looked at the pile of letters and I remember saying, well, I could take the ones that didn’t need postage and mail them.  So I took the ones that needed postage and I had them in my hand…

That’s all I remember.  I can’t find them anywhere.  The ones that didn’t need postage are sitting on the table (no, I forgot them when I left on Sunday too.)  My mental notes are failing me.  I can see those brightly-colored envelopes as plain as day and then poof!  Gone.  I’ve looked in my usual places - the catch-all kitchen drawer - my art room - I expanded to the bedroom - nothing. 

So I am faced with writing new cards - all thank you’s for the great hospitality shown to us in California on special-bought-for-the-occasion-specialty-die-cut -city-series-skyline-of-San Francisco-EXPENSIVE-cards.  I wanted to get them out as close to my visit as possible.  If I do find them, they would be worthless if I wrote the new cards and sent them - and I’d wouldn’t have any of the die-cut cards left.  I don’t know what gets into and out of my brain these days.  I can make lists - then I lose the lists.  I need more organization - a total clean-out of all hidey places.  That’s another stress I don’t need right now.    AAAgggghhhhhh!

Here is the transcript of Hillary Clinton’s concession speech.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04text-clinton.html

She may have made mistakes in the campaign - she clung to the old way of doing politics - you can give any one of numerous explanations.  She did get the popular vote - she did crack that glass (now reinforced with plastic armor) - but the way she was treated was an atrocity.  She endured manipulated photogrpahs of herself, her image being bandided about in nutcrackers, South Park (unforgivable), SNL, and cartoons.  Men and women alike - I can’t say it was just male ego - made fun of her, trivialized her accomplishments, ridiculed her voice - quoted from a column by Judith Warner from the NY Times - (“When Hillary Clinton speaks, men hear, ‘Take out the garbage’ ” Fox News regular Marc Rudov, author of “Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables,” said in January)” - consider the source is all I have to say and it is FOX after all. 

I don’t care who you favor - our country is in trouble and we need a collaborative leader to bring us all together.  We need some hope.  She was a good choice. 

I’ve been sorting through my feelings about the Democratic campaign - Clinton and Obama.  I guess it’s no secret that I supported Clinton more than Obama.  I witnessed a foaming at the mouth attitude from the public that a woman would run for the highest office of our country.  I stopped watching South Park for their inane episode attacking Clinton - and the “talking heads” such as Chris Matthews quoted - “The reason she’s a U.S. Senator, the reason she’s a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around.” 

It’s woman-hating at its best in America.  I realize she made some mistakes (hello, male candidates?), but this entire time - even women were cutting her down - I always said that women will never be united as even one of us sees the prize as being held by men for men and parceled out to us like water in a desert.

I saw a link in an article about the new Sex in the City movie and the ending of Clinton’s campaign.  The link is sad to watch and the light came on.  As women, we are in a big pile of shit.  This will show you that you DO NOT rely on these people for news or anything else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-IrhRSwF9U

I fought for Women’s Rights in the 60s - I never thought I’d have to do it all over again.

And the whole premise of Sex in the City sucks, by the way. 

A friend on Flickr sent me her mosaic that she made by answering 12 questions.   Pretty cool.  

Here are the questions - with my answers provided.

(Created with fd’s Flickr Toys)

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions: (With my answers)

1. What is your first name?–Janice
2. What is your favorite food?–Dagoba Chocolate
3. What high school did you go to?–Ursuline Academy
4. What is your favorite color?–Purple
5. Who is your celebrity crush?–Viggo Mortensen
6. Favorite drink?–Coke
7. Dream vacation?–Hawaii
8. Favorite dessert?–Cherry pie
9. What you want to be when you grow up?–Timeless
10. What do you love most in life?–beads
11. One Word to describe you.–Activist
12. Your flickr name–dagoba tracker

 

What can I say?  I didn’t realize how much I missed California.  The weather has been wonderful - sunny with a gentle breeze - emphasis on gentle.  We went home shopping and saw some great properties - more to come I think.  We are staying with friends - they have a small rental property and we’re in it for the month - surrounded by trees.  We are having a good time helping them with their “chores.”  Mike helped Kirk put in electricity for their spa and I did art.  Seems like a fair trade, huh?  I am busy working on my ATC SAC quota - I’m doing the diary schedule I did last time - I take an interesting thing I did that day and draw it - then I color it in later that night.

We are visting some other friends today hopping on their internet connection - we could not make the Borders connection last for very long - it kept disconnecting us.  So we still need to travel to use the computer.  I didn’t go on the computer all day yesterday!  I was jonesing…spelling???

We went to the Whole Earth Festival in Davis, CA.  It was a lot of fun - as it was every year.  I loved the drum circle and the booths.  I bought a nice journal and a magnet (art).  I had a falafel wrap and some hibiscus tea.  I go some great pictures.  I will try to load them on flickr, but I need a strong and seady connection - which I might not get any time soon.  The festival buys back the plates and glasses when you buy food.  They charge a dollar for each and reimburse you at a booth in the vendor area.  They do a constant recycle, so it is a truly a reduce-recycle-reuse event.  I love the spirit of the festival - we went one day - it goes on for three days.  I’d love to stay there all three days sometime.  Maybe when I move back - of course I’d have to get very rich first.

I am heading out tomorrow on a trip - so writing might be a tad sporadic.  I need some time away - some time with friends - some time in a place I like.

Happy (I have a salt shaker - a cat - from the kitchen table)

My sister sent me some pictures my Mom wanted me to have - pictures of my childhood - a very early childhood - six weeks and on up to what looks like 8 years old or so.  In some of those pictures, I have on a dress.  A dress.  A frilly dress.  I think I have blocked out any memory of my wearing a dress - ever.  I remember I used to love pants and shorts - I only remember one dress I really liked - it had a pale pink top with embrodiered sleeves and neck and layers of white thin crepe on something skirt.  I wore it at a photo sitting when I was 10 years old or so.

Another photo shows me with a big smile at 15 months - the dress - and a shot that followed shows me with a look that says - “What the heck is going on here - what are you looking at me like that - who is this person?”  It seems like I was estatically happy one minute and not the next.  I saw Easter pictures - a dress AND a bonnet - a straw bonnet and I don’t look happy - neither does my brother.  Wonder what happened - we probably had to go to Church before the easter egg hunt.

I have two photos that I am in wonderment at the Christmas tree.  Eyes wide and in my pajamas, I guess I just woke up - We were allowed to open one present on Xmas Eve and then we went to bed.  We were awakened at midnight and we got to stay up to play with everything - then came Mass and home again.  We had a lot of people over during the day - lots of aunts, uncles and cousins.  Xmas was the best holiday for me.

Paranoid - who took the cat??