Tag: rants

Do you keep your visions to yourself?

Every single day, you’ll see a reminder. Whether it’s on social media, or in the unfinished project on the table in a room of your house or on your laptop or legal pad or journal, or in a note from a friend who asks, or in the work of someone else, or in the lyrics of a song.

The message is, “Do it. Do that thing you want to do. Create that thing. Believe in yourself. Do it because you have to/need to/want to/love to. DO IT.”

Why don’t you? Yeah, sure, sometimes it’s the voices in your head of self-doubt. Thinking it doesn’t matter, anyway. Persuading yourself other priorities are more important.

You weren’t born with those voices in your head. You were born with the urge and the gift to create. Creation is the natural order of things. Birth. Rebirth. Struggling. Achieving. Struggling again. It’s in the rise of the sun and its setting, the shimmer of the changing moon, the turn of the earth on its axis, the movement of tides, the change of seasons, the paths of all the planets and brilliance of all the stars that we can see and that we can’t see.

No. Those voices came from others and took hold in your brain, and they will continue all your life, whatever you accomplish, whatever drives you to create, whatever reasons you find to keep going. Whether they were meant to be practical or reasonable. Whether they were meant to tear you down or keep you in a place that was comfortable for them. Whether they were voices of indifference, disbelief, disapproval, mockery, jealousy, or fear. Whether they measured success only by the money you didn’t make and the acclaim you didn’t receive. They’ll always be in your head. You can’t silence them.

Make them part of what you create. And keep creating. Keep creating.

Tiny Tuesday!


Tiny leaf dish, with tiny stone hearts: carnelian for empowerment and amazonite for authenticity, plus a tiny cone of nag champa incense. All of these are from my favorite Houston store, Body Mind and Soul. Crystals and stones, incense, aromatherapy and candles, the right music–these are helping keep me focused on writing and positive things.

I’ve found that I can’t read right now. It’s frustrating, and yesterday for an Instagram post, I counted 31(derful) books in my to-be-read pile. Since I’m not routinely a TV viewer, I do that in only limited doses. As much as I love other people’s creativity, for some reason during this time, reading and viewing has become harder. Music is still fantastic, especially some of the musicians I’ve met via social media.

I’ll talk a bit more about stress at the end of this post.

I’m not much of a shopper. I usually go to stores only with a specific purpose, and I’m in and out quickly. But the stores I love most take more time: record stores, bookstores, antique stores, and especially Body Mind and Soul. We are able now to book in-store shopping appointments there in thirty-minute increments. I’ll be glad to shop that way if it helps keep this Houston treasure open.

So many businesses have closed, especially restaurants. Even franchises of chain restaurants. I think so far our favorite locally-owned eateries are hanging in there, and we do get takeout a couple of times a week to be supportive. We have to budget that wisely since I’ve been laid off.

I try to imagine when I can travel again. I didn’t go many places for so long because of work. This past weekend, we Zoomed with the Tom side of the family for his mother’s birthday. It was my first Zoom meeting and was a lot of fun. We got to see people and kids (shit, they’re all almost grown now) and dogs.

One day when the pandemic is under control, I won’t have the income for travel. I try not to think about the future a lot. It makes the present situation seem bleak. I can say that staying home for seven months during a pandemic while the worst administration I’ve experienced in my lifetime is so dishonest and dangerously inept is not something I ever anticipated or want to repeat.

So… stress. There are topics I.don’t.want.to.talk.about. Ever. Has nothing to do with the current situation we’re in. One time someone who knows me well called me a finely-tuned instrument who strongly reacts to the vibrations put off by the planet, events, and humans. She taught me many ways to protect myself, and I still use those. I caution people that when I say, “Stop,” it’s a good idea to stop. It’s not personal. It’s the topic + me. When I get frustrated or reactive, it’s no longer the topic. It’s personal. This is one of my least favorite ways to be. Why would anyone want to provoke it?

So…crystals and stones. Aromatherapy. Candles. Music. Social media avoidance. Coloring. Writing scenes in my head and then into my manuscript. Everybody has their ways to cope and minimize stress. I hope. If not, there’s an entire Internet filled with ideas. Find what works, and know I wish you peace.

Mood: Monday


I think every Monday I should steal borrow someone’s photo from the Internet and give it this caption.

Came back to add the below thread, because damn. This is roughly what my brain yells daily.

‘For years during Obama/Biden, you Trumpers claimed “AMERICA!” like you were cowboys or had stormed the beach at Normandy. You screamed that Obama, the constitutional law attorney, was violating the constitution. You claimed to be patriots, constantly. You bitched about…

‘Executive orders, Benghazi where four Americans died in a terrorist attack but then mocked a president who shed tears after 22 little kids died at Sandy Hook. You called these kids parents “crisis actors” while they grieved for their children. When 600 were shot in Vegas…

’58 killed, you just pounded out excuses why we need MORE GUNS! Our country is about freedom of religion, yet You wanted to ban Muslims. You hold up the flag like it’s a deity, but wear it as a shirt, or size 48 cargo shorts so your armpit sweat and ball-cheese desecrate it…

‘We are all watching the unraveling of this wild experiment, America. Trump has cheated, lied, stolen, does it daily. He’s gotten people killed, pulling the troops out of Syria got Kurds, our allies slaughtered. The Russian army has a base WE BUILT. You don’t care. From day one..

‘..with that crazy ass Edgar Allen Poe inaugural speech, to lying about the crowd size. He’s lied 22000 times, your leader. He’s lied about the wall, taxes, infrastructure, job numbers, Epstein, Cohen, Parness, so many have come forward and told you who this failure really is…

‘You shrug it off, he’s killed our free press, at least to you. You think you’re “American?” Seriously? The same people you believed about Obama/Biden, Nixon, whenever they fukd up, you call “fake news.” About a 7 time bankrupt multiple business failure who paid off a pornstar

‘he raw dogged while his illegal immigrant wife was raising their newborn. You claim to follow Christ?! He was sued for raping a 13 year old. Case got dropped 16 days before the election. Wonder what that check looked like. Russian Bounties on our troops, you still have his back..

‘You think you’re Patriots? You make me gag. 200 thousand of your countrymen are dead because he wouldn’t do anything, and Dr. Fauci, a man that was instrumental in stopping AIDS, gets death threats for telling the truth. You pick a man WHO CANT READ, over a genius virologist. Wow.

‘You like him because as many of you say “he’s like me!” Is he? A man who was handed 400 million dollars when daddy died? That sound like you? He’s like you in some ways, he’s not smart, he’s out of shape, he doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. Like you. That’s not US…

‘at all. The greatest generation worked together to beat Germany, and Japan and all who tried to roll over and kill democracy and freedom. We were liberators of concentration camps, now we have concentration camps. And you are fine with it, obedient cult members. With nothing to

‘…show WHY you believe in him. WHY you’re okay with his racism, misogyny, lying, incompetence and destroying an economy that Obama and Biden built back after W’s and Cheney’s destruction of it. No evidence, unless you own stock in coffins and eviction notices. You give reasons…

‘…why it’s okay for our black brothers and sisters to be shot by some asshole teenager wilding with a AR-15. You back him up while a man gets shot seven times. in front of his three kids. “HE HAD A KNIFE!” Bullshit. Or a woman, a nurse, just sleeping, cops bust in, kill her…

‘…against everything this country stands for. It’s unbelievable, unconscionable, unGodly and like you Trump supporters, UnAmerican.
You’re okay with him breaking the post office, filling his pockets with your tax dollars, saying he’d date his daughter. Cuz U wanna date yours?

‘His buddies have been convicted of felonies, he pardons them, you paid for the trial, you paid the cops, the investigators, the judges, and he let em go. Our rule of law, just a history lesson. You’re not American, you don’t give a fuck about America. You’re ready to go into the

‘…street and shoot, pepper spray and run over your countrymen, people who are protesting injustice FOR THIS ASSHOLE? A man that let 200k die, wants you to inject disinfectant and thinks that because he can remember Person Woman Man Camera TV. He’s a genius. Do me a favor because

‘I love this country, what it stands for, the free speech it affords, the opportunity it presents, the freedom it provides, I’ve only done well because of the promise that is America. You say you’re Americans, but you just live here. You don’t cherish it, you sold out cheap

‘to a bankrupt used car salesman who smiles and says “you’re getting the best deal” but the car breaks down on the ride home. Call yourselves what you like, Trumpers, Magats, Deplorables. I don’t give a shit but NEVER call yourselves “AMERICANS” you don’t know what the word means.’

Christopher Titus

Mood: Monday


Near sunset recently: That’s a POW-MIA flag flying beneath the American flag at a Houston post office.

Never say to me that you support the troops or the military or veterans if you are not screaming at your representatives right now to stop the administration’s attack on the USPS so they can commit voter suppression.

  • Do you know how many veterans work for the USPS and depend on that income while hours and jobs are being slashed?
  • Do you know how many veterans count on the US mail to get the prescriptions that save their lives and keep them healthy or treat the PTSD they got serving this country?
  • Do you know how many people, civic groups, churches, and other organizations use the US mail to help families and supporters communicate with those currently serving in the military?

Go ahead and be blindly loyal or believe the lies or pretend it’s not real. Your choice. But never do that and say to me that you support our troops or our vets. That makes you a liar, too.

Caveat emptor

Because I have done almost no local retail shopping during quarantine (grocery store, drug store, and maybe three times anywhere else), I have ordered a few things online. Most were fine, even the ones that took a long, long, long, long time to get here.

But I was completely misled on two of those purchases. One was finally fully refunded after my complaint. The other complaint is in progress, so I shall see.

No more buying online unless I absolutely know and trust the source. Caveat emptor: Let the buyer beware, indeed.

If you are looking for rare or collectible books; or need trustworthy sources for face masks; or want to indulge your metaphysical needs/wants (books, jewelry, music, stones and crystals); or would like home-canned jellies and jams; or organically grown herbs and products made from them; as well as reputable independent book dealers; or art suppliers local to Houston who will ship to you–I can totally hook you up with contact info/websites.

Tough Talk

I need y’all to brace yourselves because I’m about to tell you some hard truths AND YOU SHOULD HEED THEM.


1. Pinterest is the research cockblocker of the Internet. If you are a writer, and you want to research something from some distant year like, say, 1937 or 1969 or 1958 or 2019, about the most arcane, random shit, for which you are willing to spend a goodly portion of your time for ONE SINGLE SENTENCE in your work-in-progress, the truth is out there, but good luck getting past Pinterest, especially if you want a damn image with your information. Do you need to know if there were phone booths on the streets of Niagara Falls (Canadian side) in a certain year? And what they looked like? Hafuckingha. No matter what your key words are for a search, you are going to pull up thousands of pictures from Pinterest users of “my favorite phone booths ever” or “people crammed in phone booths” or “serial killers and phone booths” or “my top ten sexiest phone booth scenes from the movies” or “every picture since Alexander Graham Bell of every dog who hiked his leg on a phone booth.” There is no subject this does not apply to, and the Pinterest users won’t give you any actual information that’s of use to you.

2. BLESS YouTube. I don’t care about your issues with it, every song since dinosaurs bit it is on there. You can identify that obscure band from 1962 and that one song you sort of remember by putting one single snippet of a lyric (sometimes even mis-remembered) in a search engine, and YouTube WILL HAVE IT. And you can HEAR it. You will no longer wish you still had your albums that were drowned in the flood or that your one roommate or possibly bitter, vindictive ex stole. THE SONG IS THERE. But here is the warning you must heed. Somewhere in the comments, someone will say, “BEST SONG FROM BEST ALBUM EVER*.” And you’re thinking (but NOT REPLYING, FFS), Dude, I loved this song and most of the album it was on, but it isn’t even the 1032nd best album ever. Then you remember the mantra we’ve all learned the hard way and yet ignore and that’s probably why 2020 happened to us: DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS. No good can come of it.

You’re welcome.

*”Freebird” excluded is always implied.

Whatever Wednesday

Just a few things I’ve seen here and there over the past couple of weeks or so and thought I’d share.


I don’t have kids, but I have this bizarre notion that parents aren’t willing to offer their children as part of that .02%. Not once, since she was appointed, has Betsy Devos ever let me down in my initial belief that she would be education’s worst nightmare. I never thought she’d advocate murdering children, though.

Dear Diary, Tiny Tuesday Edition:

My friend Steve C posted this on Facebook, and I don’t know who originated this tiny summary, but hey, 2020, we see you.

Dear Diary 2020 Edition,

In ❄️ January, 🔥 Australia caught on fire. I don’t even know if that fire was put out, because we straight up almost went to war with Iran 🇮🇷 . We might actually still be almost at war with them 🤔. I don’t know, because 👩 Jen Aniston and 👨🏻 Brad Pitt spoke to one another at an awards 🏆 show and everyone flipped the crap out 😲, but then there was this thing happening in 🦇 🇨🇳 China, then 👑 Prince Harry and Megan ✌🏼 peaced out of the Royal family, and there was the whole impeachment trial 👩‍⚖️ , and then corona virus 🦠 showed up in the US ✔️“officially,” but then 🏀 Kobe died 😭and UK 🇬🇧 peaced out of the European Union.

In February, 🌽 Iowa crapped 💩 itself with the caucus results and the president was acquitted and the 👩🏼‍💼Speaker of the House took ten. whole. years. to rip up a speech, but then The👨‍🔬 🌎WHO decided to give this virus a name COVID-19, which confused 🤔some really important people 👔 in charge of, like, our lives, into thinking there were 18 other versions before it, but then Harvey Weinstein was found guilty👨🏻‍⚖️, and 🇺🇸 Americans started asking if Corona beer 🍺 was safe to drink🤦🏻‍♀️, and everyone on Facebook became a doctor 👨‍⚕️ who just knew the 🤒flu like killed way more people than COVID 1 through 18.

In March, stuff hit the fan👿. Warren dropped out of the presidential race and Sanders was like Bernie or bust 💥, but then Italy 🇮🇹 shut its whole country down 🚷, and then COVID Not 1 through 18 officially become what everyone already realized, a 😱pandemic and then a nationwide state of emergency 🆘 was declared in the US 🇺🇸 , but it didn’t really change anything, so everyone was confused or thought it was still just a flu 💁🏻‍♀️, but then COVID Not 18 was like y’all not taking me seriously? 💡 I’m gonna infect the one celebrity everyone loves and totally infected Tom Hanks 👨🏻, get y’all to close all of the schools so y’all can 🙏🏼 appreciate teachers 👩‍🏫 for once (because you can’t teach them anything other than how to use a touch screen 🤦🏻‍♀️) close down all of salons so you can’t get your 💇‍♂️ hair or your nails done 💅, everyone had to work from home and attend Zoom meetings in their underwear. The 📉 DOW took a crap 💩 on itself, and most of us still don’t understand why the stock market is so important or even a thing 🤔 (I still don’t), We were then all introduced to 🐅 Tiger King and the ONE thing we can all agree on this year, 👍🏼Carol totally killed her husband ⚰️ ….. whacked him! And then Netflix was like you’re welcome, and we all realized there was no way we were washing our hands enough in the first place because all of our hands are now dry and gross and we’re all searching for lotion now. Oh and during all this there was an earthquake with multiple after shocks.

In 🌧 April, Bernie finally busted✌🏼 himself out of the presidential race 🏃 , but then NYC 🗽became the set of The Walking Dead 💀 and we learned that no one has face masks 😷, ventilators, or toilet paper, or THE FREAKING SWIFFER WET JET LIQUID, and by now our 🦁 outgrowth is showing, so there’s a shortage on 📦 box hair dye and all of our hairdressers are like, 😱 NO DON’T DO IT!!! But, then Kim Jong-Un died, but then he came back to life … or did he? Who knows, because then the Pentagon released 🎥 videos of UFOs and nobody cared, and we were like man, it’s only April….

In 💐 May, the biblical end times kicked off, historical locust swarms, we learned of murder hornets 🐝 and realized that 2020 was the start of the Hunger Games 🙈 however people forgot to let us know. people legit started to protest lockdown measures with 🔫 AR-15s, 🏀⚾️ Sports events were cancelled everywhere. But then people all over America finally reached a breaking point with race issues and violence. There were 🗣protests in every city 🌃 ,which was confusing to some of us because people were definitely gathering in 👫crowds of more than 🖐🏼🤚🏼10 and for sure closer than 6 feet away ⬅️➡️from each other. Those people must have forgotten about the 😖pandemic called COVID Not One Through 18. Media 📺 🗞 struggled with how to 🤬focus on two important things at once, people in general struggle to focus on more than one important thing. A dead whale 🐋 was found in the middle of the Amazon rain forest 🌳 after monkeys 🐒 stole COVID 1 Through 19 from a lab 🔬 and ran off with them, and either in May or April (no one is keeping track of time now) that a giant asteroid ☄️ narrowly missed the Earth🌍.

In ☀️ June, science and common sense just got thrown 🤾🏼 straight out the window and somehow 😷 wearing masks became a 🏛political thing, but then everyone sort of remembered there was a pandemic, but then decided that not wearing a mask was somehow a ✝️God given right (still haven’t found that part in the bible or even in the constitution). then 👨‍🔬scientists announced they found a mysterious undiscovered mass at the center of the earth, and everyone was like 🙅🏽‍♂️🙅🏻‍♀️🚧DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH IT, but then everyone took a pause to realize that people actually believed Gone With The Wind 💨 was like non-fiction, but then it was also announced that there is a strange 🛰radio signal coming from somewhere in the universe 🌌 that repeats itself every so many days 🗓 , and everyone was like 👽 DON’T YOU DARE ATTEMPT TO COMMUNICATE WITH IT‼️ 🚫 But then America reopened 🙌🏼from the shut down that actually wasn’t even a shut down, and so far, things have gone spectacularly …. not that great 👎🏼. All of the Karens came out at once, and people started tearing down 🔨 statues. Everyone is on Facebook arguing 🤼‍♀️ that masks kill because no one knows how breathing works 👃🏼, but then Florida 🏖 was like hold my beer 🍺 and let me show you how we’re number one 🥇 in all things, including new Not Corona Beer Coronavirus. Trump 👱🏻‍♂️decides now is a good time to ask the Supreme Court 🏛 to shut down ❌Obama Care because what better time to do so than in the middle of a pandemic 💁🏻‍♀️, but then we learned there was a massive dust cloud ☁️ coming straight at us 📍from the Sahara Desert 🐫 , which is totally normal, but this is 2020, so the 👻 ghost mummy thing is most likely in that dust cloud. We then 📚 learned of meth-gators 🐊, and I’m like that is so not on my flipping 2020 Bingo card 😡 can we use it as the free space?? 🤷🏻 Then we learned that the Congo’s worst ever Ebola 🚨 outbreak is over 😓, and we were all like, there was an Ebola outbreak that was the worst ever? 👀 ……. And don’t forget we just discovered FLYING SNAKES! 🐍, seriously! FLYING SNAKES!!!!

So here comes July…. at this point we are over it , just tell us what’s next …. 👽 Aliens? 🔱Zeus? ☄️ Asteroids? Artificial Intelligence becomes self aware? Can it just be something cool 😎 or fun for once? Maybe even a good laugh, like hahaha 😂 April Fools! We all actually wouldn’t mind that joke at this point!