Cooler than You: Stupid Things I Say and Do

I can't sleep so I'm watching crappy late night movies, and as you would guess the commercials are just as bad. Aside from the standard offenders for Booty Call Dot Com, personal vibes, penis enlargement, and breast enhancement my favorites are for drugs. Aciphex, with it's orange colored branding, is for belching and intestinal issues. Guess what it sounds like when said? Ass effects. Yes, yes, I am forever the jackass.

Fifty years is a long time to wait. Fifty years ago Eisenhower was still president, the internet didn't exist, the US hadn't gone to the moon, and Lupus patients didn't have a good prognosis. Well . . . as of July 20th serious progress has been made for Lupus patients. See the following for the full press statement from the Lupus Foundation of America: http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/new_empty.aspx?articleid=2657&zoneid=99 But, while this is some seriously wonderful news, it does have it's fall backs. The drug (Benlysta) still has the third round of testing to complete, and if you noticed in the article it has only met "most" of its secondary criteria. Honestly, that is no big deal as most drugs do not hit all criteria at once. Eh, it's called a combination of drugs to hit full parameters of 90 percent or more (you should not that not all drugs need extra help, but those for specialized frameworks usually do). So . . . Th...

Okay, so over the weekend "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" was on HBO, so I watched it while writing the piece on American women and family. Somewhat of an irony, I know, but read on . . . In the midst of this ushy, gushy tale of four girlfriends who always work things out and stick together, while their world always stays connected, Bridget goes to Turkey (Cappadocia to be precise) for an archeology dig during the summer. Lena, who originally starts in NYC at an art program, ends up in Greece at her Grandmother's. Eventually, all of the girls end up there to help Lena reunite with her love (cue my groaning here). But, what is my beef (aside from ushy, gushy romantic type comedy or weird proportions?)? Um, the Turks and the Greeks have a very long non love affair. Most briefly, and recently, it concerns the Greek-Turk War, the question of Cyprus, and Turkey's denial in the European Union while the Greeks are treated differently. Yea, I'll shut up my ...

This morning I awoke to an email from an old friend asking me sewing advice. She plans on making Christmas stockings for her nieces and nephews from her father's old clothes. Very touching indeed. As I smiled that asked me for advice, I couldn't help but think about the time I spend at a sewing machine, the hours I spend sculpting projects, and the moments I have sitting with members of my Mother's quilting guild. My Mom has been part of a guild for about a decade now, and I've been going the past few months. In February she asked me to go to the Hampton Quilt Show (Mid-Atlantic), and since one of her friends was sick I took a Curve Master class. All that is a special foot for the sewing machine made to make sewing curves easier (see my entry with Mellie Bellie's baby quilt). I don't know if it really makes sewing the curves easier, as I just made a Vogue pattern with princess curves on a regular foot. I like my regular foot . . . None-the-less, my favor...

There's about ten people who I have an email link on here, and then some followers . . . the last blog post should be read on here. It published before I was done, and I have corrected errors now. Yes, I am still a klutz. A.

Sometimes when you walk into a classroom you can feel the tension in the air. The students are nervous, unsure of their abilities, and hesitant to even try. This is my world in a Pre College Writing class. But . . . As with just about everything I do, I get creative and try my best to have fun. I truly believe that if you have fun your students will too. Hence, grammar lessons are mandatory in my class, but no one ever said I had to teach them in the traditional manner. So no overheads for this grammar diva. Instead, we are using a May edition of the Richmond Sunday paper to hunt for what we need. Essentially, I've got them hunting for usages of grammar each class, in a new section of the paper, and then they have to tell me how that part of speech or punctuation is used. Oh, and don't forget, they have to find and label these things on the their papers too. Seriously, on the day papers are due we go through some grammar lessons and hunt and peck before turning in. G...

My Las Cruces days seem like a million miles away, yet on days like today they appear so damned close that I almost think I can blink my eyes and I will be right back there. Cruces wasn't exactly my favorite place to live, but New Mexico is most certainly a "land of enchantment" in my mind. To this day, some of my favorite memories and sights are the early morning sunrises, sunsets, and vistas found there. I can still close my eyes and smell chilies roasting, smell streetside and roadside stands selling burritos and tamales, and I can still feel the dust in the air coating my skin and laying on me like a forgotten blanket. Those are the good points. Good memories. And then, there are days like today that bring back memories for different reasons. My old roommate sent me a message on the handy dandy Facebook system (that once again put us in touch--cliche, I know). Anywho . . . her message wasn't as humorous as yesterday when we giggled over a drunken photo of u...