Saturday, December 02, 2000
I've been geeking out learning about how to tweek my web page. I've found the PageTutor.com - HTML Tutorials, Javascript and Web Design: pagetutor.com to be the most helpful. We're leaving La Joya today headed for Albuquerque, NM via San Antonio, TX and Las Cruces, NM. It's a long drive, but now we can get back to reading Skinny Legs & All which was put on hold for a week. Ack, ciro's back from the job fair, so i need to head 'em up and move 'em out. More later, but due to requests from family i'll try to post it before i should be asleep.~w
wendi's 11:26 AM ravings
Friday, December 01, 2000
About Day Without Weblogs
Okay, okay...i know, I already posted a blog last night, but hey check this out it's important. Are you busy but would like to do something quick and easy to help immediately? Visit the Kids AIDS site to donate free care to a child with AIDS. For more information visit these sites: Children with AIDS Charity, United Nations Development Programme's Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children, Families & Communities, United Methodist Church's World AIDS day site, UNAIDS World AIDS day 2000, AVERT a leading UK AIDS Education and Medical Research charity, in Seattle RISE N' SHINE provides emotional support and stability to children and teens whose lives are affected by HIV and AIDS, The Disney Channel "PremEAR" Friends for Life: Living With AIDS, or call the National AIDS hotline 1-800-342-2437 to see how you can help. ~w
wendi's 8:21 AM ravings
Ever have one of those days where you don't really wake up until it's time to go to sleep? I mean i was up and about and "functioning," but i felt like i was still sleeping. It's usually rainy weather that does it to me and today was one of those days. I actually got up when my alarm went off today despite my body's urge to fall back in bed, but i think i left a part of myself asleep there. Maybe i should go back to panic mode trying to get myself ready in 5 minutes. Nah, that's not much fun either.
We had a longer lunch break today, and after i ate i couldn't keep my eyes open. The shows went swimmingly though. Maybe cuz i felt like i was swimming through them. It's kind of a dream like feeling where the whole day just slides past you before you know it and you're trying to grasp a glimpse of memory about what just happened. We did have a particularly tough show at the Alternative Center for Education. They weren't quite expecting us, but they were ready anyway and the students were kinda half there themselves. Ciro asked them after the show: "How many of you are awake?" no response "How many of you are asleep?" no response "How many of you are just brain dead?" most of them raise their hands. Maybe that was just the mode of the day, a vacuum of brain deadness. Hopefully a little poetry slipped silently into them sort of like a post-hypnotic suggestion. Strangely enough the woman who talked to me the most and was utterly glowing about the show was a woman preacher who slipped in to catch what we were doing. I guess on a good day poetry is a lot like church to some people. Soul cleansing.
That reminds me of the time we did a show at a nursing home in Louisiana and one of the women asked us "Which religion are you?" I kinda wanted to say "We're from the Cult of Poetry. We split infinitives and sacrifice grammar while burning incense and beating drums. We're hear to convert you all and save your souls from an eternity of trite phrases." But, i didn't. It would be bad to give an audience member a heart attack. Instead we smiled and just muttered something about being unaffiliated with any religious order. That just left her confused.
Just a warning, if you're having a sleepy day and try drinking Sleepy Time Tea your eyelids will start drooping before you finish the tea. ~w
wendi's 12:46 AM ravings
Thursday, November 30, 2000
I was channel surfing in my hotel room and came across C-Span showing the Select Joint Cmte. on Presidential Elections listening to the voters of Florida speak. I am very worried about what they are saying. First of all the committee switched the agenda on these people while they were enroute to the meeting from voting irregularities to the constitutionality of the legislature pre-selecting the electors for the state. This switch seems to show a blatant disregard for these people's effort to get their vote and voice heard. However, they did listen to all that most of these people had to say. The range and magnitude of the frustrations that these voters experienced on election day exceed anything i would even have dreamed of experiencing. It was hard enough for me to get a hold of my ballot, but that is nothing compared to the run around many of these people had. These were not ignorant whiney people who just had problems reading a ballot. These were people who were refused ballots to fix mistakes they had made or were simply refused the ability to vote because the Florida Board of Elections did not have them listed correctly as voters. These people have documented evidence of their due process in registering for the election in a timely matter, had read the voter's pamplet, and yet there votes will not be counted in this election. Why couldn't these registered voters vote when the absentee voters didn't even need to correctly fill out the witness and affidavit portion of their ballot in order for their votes to count? This seems rather hypocritical.
Okay, that said, today was another long day. We performed two elementary and two middle school shows today. The last show was a bear. We were in a gym with over 400 middle school student and very poor acoustics. The lights and air conditioning (yes we needed the ac in the hot humid weather of the valley) both made lots of white noise while the sound of our voices had a tendency to disappear into the rafters. There was a mic we could have used, but it was one and we were two and so one person would have been tied to the back of the stage area and basically "out of play." We made it through though and the students were very attentive and enthusiastic about the show. We also had a most amazing Jabberwocky there though played by one hysterical teacher. The "umpire" for Casey at the Bat helped me out with his stunning vocal ability in calling the plays of the poem. They made the show for us! This evening i bought some tasty lemon zinger tea to soothe my poor throat. Ciro's worse off than me though i think. I may have given him my cold....ugh. Well with that...i'm off.~w
wendi's 2:47 AM ravings
Wednesday, November 29, 2000
We got to visit the high school students we worked with this summer over at Leo Elementary. Why at the Elementary? Well, because they're teaching 2nd graders how to do what we taught them to do. It was, as ciro put it, like having grandchildren to see those kids. All of the students that we worked with were doing really well and had done a super job so far of teaching those kids. The high school kids were part of a special drop-out prevention program to get them actively involved with school by giving them job training as teachers and mentors to the younger kids. It made me feel really proud to see them doing so well. It made up for the fact that i was totally exhausted by the time we finished our shows today. One of our shows ended up being outside which just made it harder since we were battling with the wind the whole show and had to try to project sans mics or acoustic walls. I'm hoping my voice will last tomorrow. Must rest now. ~w
wendi's 1:33 AM ravings
Tuesday, November 28, 2000
I am so MAD!!! I clicked on this link: Florida State Courts from an email and the stupid thing used my pop up blog frame instead of the open browser and destroyed an hour's worth of writing. I should know better! I had just copied the whole post and then copied another link to add (thereby destroying the clipboard copy and only copy of that blog). URRGG! Well, that's the way this day has gone. From now on i'm using notepad as backup when writing these silly things.
I started off talking about wolves because i watched a cool Animal Planet show on a wolf family. Isn't that neat? (can you tell i'm mad? i'm using words like cool and neat) There was this wolf family where the alpha male had left and in his absence the beta female tried to give the boot to the alpha female. When daddy wolf got back she was strutting around trying to get his attention, but he sent her packing and waited for his wounded wifey to return. She came back and they were a happy family again (until the bear tried to eat them and their new cubs for dinner, but they got away). I never realized that wolves were so complex. I mean i knew they were smart, and were picky about bonding with humans, but i didn't realized they were such faithful mates. They followed with a show on tigers. Now i love big cats, but this was more about dumb human tourists trying to look at big cats, so i turned it off.
Then, i read an email from a friend, and fellow poetry alive performer, about the passing of his grandfather this thanksgiving. It brought me down to earth again and reminded me how there's this aura of sadness hanging over people lately. For me it started this morning waking up when ciro called to see if i was ready to leave. Then, i hacked my way through the shows still not over my cold. It's hard to speak for 45 minutes poetically when your lungs are rebelling. The shows were okay, but not our best and we had to do 4 of them. Ciro seemed really disappointed in them too. Then, i came back to my room to hear the pundits being all stupid over the latest lawsuits race for the presidency. I did manage to get my work done though. I woke ciro up for an almost too quiet dinner at a local chinese restaurant. Decent food, nothing special so i spent 50 cents on a jumbo super ball to cheer myself up. It's big clear rubbery fun with purple sparkles inside. Kinda looks like a bouncy magic crystal ball. Ciro wasn't impressed, but i set it in the car and it rolled into spot where it looked like ciro's stuffed frog was consulting it for wisdom. (Hey, you've gotta keep the car entertaining when you spend as much time in it as we do.) Anyway, it was a quiet evening. So, i called my buddy Matthew and listened to him relay the doings of his toddler. I think it's easier to see the "magic" of the holidays through the eyes of a child. Matthew and his wife Erin are the essence of marital bliss and an inspiration to all that love is possible. I find that the best cure for the holiday blues is a story from the mouth of a child. I recently learned about Snow Fairies from 4 year old Simon Wolf and was much better for it. The other thing i plan to do is avoid getting caught up in all the pundit nastiness over the lawsuit race for the presidency (which led me to the link that destroyed my blog...see what it'll do to ya?) - That's (i think) where i got to before i lost all that i'd written before. I'm sure the first version was much more witty and off the cuff...but oh well. - Also, watch out for those crazy holiday shoppers. Kim has a great account of her day-after-thanksgiving shopping experience (see the 11/27 entry if you can get to "previous life and stuff") at the newly revised lioness den.
And now that i've rewritten (sort of) what i wrote i must be off to bed. ~w
wendi's 2:20 AM ravings
Monday, November 27, 2000
Tired of the same old news coverage of the elections? Check out the Bush - Gore Dance for a chuckle. Other than that all i'll say is i'm glad i wasn't the one who stayed up all night counting votes only to have them discounted 10 minutes before i was done.
My fever is gone, which is good. Ciro made me sleep in the car today. I tried hard to stay awake and read, but he kept the car toasty warm and kept telling me to stop reading cuz i wasn't making sense. He's so sweet. Anyway, by the time we got to la joya i was rested and felt much better. It's also warm down here, which is a nice change. I wasn't quite ready for winter yet. I don't recommend getting sick but if you do, a hot shower followed by lots of sleep is the best thing i've found to get rid of it. (or check out what webmd advises if you wish)
Speaking of sleep, i think i'll try to get some more of it...~w
wendi's 1:47 AM ravings
Sunday, November 26, 2000
Do you ever get those chain emails encouraging you to "respond to this now, send it to all your friends?" I find that my best friend when it comes to those is the Urban Legends Reference Pages. On this handy little site you can search their database for more information on whatever petition you've just received. Unfortunately, most are false alarms. Even worse are those that contain some truth, but sending 50 emails isn't going to do anything about it. I received this one about Aghanistan today which is particularly disturbing. The cool thing about this site is that when it is real it gives you alternatives for doing something other than just sending more emails.
Other than that, i slept a good portion of today. We hit the road at 9am and i had a stuffy chest. By the time we arrived in Rosenburg, TX i was definitely running a fever. Not a good way to start a 20 show week. I've been in bed since we got here and will be asleep shortly. Suddenly the song "Touch Me I'm Sick" floated through my head (mudhoney?). I'm hoping all the liquids i drank today and a good night's rest will cure it. If it doesn't i'm in for a long week...
On a happy note, i did fill my tummy today with oysters from Acme in new orleans along with some gumbo, shrimp po-boy, and bread pudding. Mmmmm Mmmmmm good! Unfortunately, we played phone tag with our poet pal and didn't get to see him (i thought cell phones were supposed to make it easier to get in touch). Oh well, maybe next weekend....now my brain is m e l t i n g . . .~w
wendi's 1:20 AM ravings
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