I'm a liberal pagan living in West, Texas. Yes. That West, Texas.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

.......1993.......MOM AND MO ON THE ROAD.......




Wow, this is a very busy year.After some stutter starts I was a full time Field Operation Manager.Which means that I was moving to the West Coast to open and shut down temporary book stores...Since I would be working out of the coast I put all our stuff into storage, and left Bill and Honey will my son D.thinking once I got settled in one place..I would send for them or come and get them..cause I loved that dog and was not going to leave him forever...He was my best friend...MJ and I packed our suitcases, pillows and 'stuff' and off we went..First stop Long Beach to close down a store.Don't remember how long we were there, but was a 10am to when ever day every day..then we shipped those books off and went off to Reseda...the entire time we were there Laguana was burning and the fire was closing in on us...we arrived at Reseda and closed down the store and those books were going to our Burbank store where I would open it...this is back to back..no stops..just one job to the next...so far..no days off...MJ and I did have a 1/2 a day and I bought her a new bathing suit and we waved at the ocean...We closed the Reseda store and were off to Burbank..where the store is on a corner and the doors open weird...the jacks couldnt bring the 4x4's of books in..we had to park the truck in the middle of the road as there was no place to unload them..so we unload them in middle of the street, run the jacks with stacks of books up hill to the store where we had to unload them from flats and carry into store box by fucking box.(3 entire semi's full of books and office equipment)..I felt weird about the new store manager...he was...undependable and flaky, but the other field manager liked him (he had worked at another store) and blew off my concerns...(he ended up stealing all the money and leaving the store to the employees who stole what money was left...he had a large cocaine habit)This is about 6 weeks of straight work...hard work...heavy lifting..taking tables down..breaking down office, getting utilities turned on off what ever was needed...So finally they call and say they need us in San Francisco where Dan and Pat are..I'm sorta excited but MJ is having fits...her favorite city in the entire world...where she has wanted to live as far back as we could remember...we leave Burbank and I spend my 50th birthday cleaning the filitiest toilets I have ever seen in my entire life...The store used to be a post office sorting (?) place...was the spookiest place ever..right on 1 in the middle of San Francisco.They had to run off squatters before we could open up and I was pretty convinced they still knew how to get in and were upstairs in the peeking room...walk way all around the place with 2 way glass so people could spy on the employees and make sure they weren't stealing mail..or what ever they thought they were doing..there were empty bottles, syringes, discarded rubbers..pretty fucking gross..and we had an old dumb waiter elevator that went to the bottom where the mail trucks would come and go, which was dark dank and spooky and smelled of urine. The top floor only was the same only brighter..it was not fun...so naturally I got the S.F. store..Dan went to some other small town near by..MJ went with Pat to San Jose and worked with him as she couldn't work with me...Pat was supposed to have the S.F. store but he hated it there...Oh and before I started out on the coast trip with MJ I had to help with a store in Phoenix and while there my son calls and tells me about the Dividian fire...good ole F.B.I.(fart burp and itch)so every time I stopped at a motel..and put down Waco as my home town I got some weird ass looks...ok back to S.F.Dan calls me at 3am in the morning and says Los Angles had an earthquake..about 3 days after we left..broke the windows out of Burbank store and rattled it pretty good.plus it almost leved the Reseda store..So..so far we have been in front of a fire and now an earthquake.
.I'
m beginning to think I either have great luck or I bring bad luck...pretty scary.
Now
every body knows I am a cowboy fan and I was there when the cowboys were playing the niner's for the playoff and Jimmy Johnson is in the S.F. papers saying 'We Will Kick Their Ass'....so me running around in store and on street with my Dallas Cowboy T-shirts didn't make me very popular,but I gave as good as I got..when they would scream out "fuck you, you Cowboy Bitch", I would scream back "Same to you, you fucking 'losers'."...The only time I ever covered my t-shirt was when MJ and I were waiting at our bus stop and a bus load of niner fans got off and they were pissed..I think the eagles had beat them..I thought it best not to stir the pot any...MJ the instigator is going'show em your t-shirt Mom, show 'em your t-shirt.'little wench..
At the S.F. store the employees were, well, how do I put this..?The biggest bunch of lazy, no working, late for work, early to leave,gotta have my cigarette break every 2 fucking hours, thievingest bunch of low lifes I have ever seen in my life...The were actually backing up their cars and trucks to the back door(which was always supposed to be locked, but they made a key for it) and loading up books and taking them out of there faster than I could unload them out of our trucks...I would leave to take money to the bank,two blocks away and by the time I got back they had stole everything that wasn't nailed down...registers were always off $20 to $100 off...just horrible working conditions...the store hours were longer than any store we had open..opened at 8am and closed at 10pm then it was 11pm..then it was midnight..we had the business..but since I couln't leave anyone in charge I was there from 7am to 1am...every single fucking day...by the time I took the bus to the little resturant where I would grab a late dinner and get to motel and shower etc..it was 3am...I was running on empty...from the first store to Thanksgiving (we were closed)..I had worked from August till Thanksgiving with no days off...then from then till Christmas I had no days off...so I had Thanksgiving and Christmas..I came down with the flu and was able to get Pat or Dan, can't remember now who came down(think I was in a coma)...for 2 days...I left in Feb.So from August to Feb. I had 4 days off..they actually send some one in to close the store so I could go home...which I didn't have any more as I had given it up and was supposed to have time off to find me a place on the West Coast...I said fuck it, I'm going home to Texas.I also want to say that I did have some very good and hard workers...I had 4..out of 14 that I could trust and rely on, and they were very hard workers..
I was
pretty sure I wasn't going to continue to work for them..It was just too fucking hard...I missed my kids..my grandkids..While I was gone my beloved best friend Bill died of cancer of the tongue..MJ came to the room and told me and I was just hysterical...can't explain the pain I felt..just knew he thought I had deserted him..wow, can't go there..
But I
also was blessed with another beautiful grandaughter..H. was born on Dec.6th...a tiny little dark haired beauty..and I wasn't there for her birth..had been there for all of them..that killed me...so..was going home to Texas...but that was in '94..and we're still in 1993..where the Cowboys are going to the Super Bowl..Jimmy Johnson was right ...we kicked their asses..and boy was that a great feeling...the rest of the world was trudging along...President Clinton wussied out and made the "Don't Ask Don't Tell' comprise for the ban on homosexual's in the military.U.S. begins airlifting supplies to besieged Bosnia towns.The Feds stormed the Davidian Compound near Mr. Calm,Texas and six are killed..Five arrested 6th sought in bombing the World Trade Center in NY.Two police officers are convicted and sentenced in the Rodney King beating.Fire kills 72 as the cult stand off in Texas ends with federal assault. Twenty-two UN troops killed in Somalia. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court. Iraq accepts UN weapon monitoring. Vincent W. Foster,Jr.,senior White House lawyer, commits suicide.Midwest flood damages expected to exceed $10billion.U.S. Agents blamed in the Waco, Texas siege...It was NOT AT WACO...It just read better in the paper..Whakko's from Waco...fuck..Canada elects a woman prime minister,Jean Chritien.House and Senate approves the North American Free Trade Agreement.Clinton signs Brady Bill regulating fire arms purchase....and we had some fairly good music..but rap and hip hop were really coming into it's own and I was not fucking happy about 'the noise'...I was becoming an old fart when it came to this new music...which was:'Nuttin' but a 'G'thang'by De.Dre,'Just Kickin'it'by Xcape,'What is love'by Haddaway,'Come Baby Come'by X7,'Hero and Dream Lover'by Miriah Carey,'In the still of the night'by Boys II Men,'Can't help falling in love'by UB40,'Have I told you lately'by Rod Stewart,'Supermodel'by RuPaul,'Cryin''by Aerosmith,'Shoop'by Salt N Pepa,'A Whole New World'by Peobo Byson and Regina Bell,'Hip Hop Horay'by Naughty by Nature,'All that she wants'by Ace of Base,'Bad Girl'by Madonna,'That's the way love goes'by Janet Jackson,'When I fall in love' by Celine Dion and Clive Griffin,'Please forgive me'by Bryan Adams,No ordinary love'by Sade,'I get around'by 2pac,'Whoot, there it is'by 95South and also put out by Tag Team,'Will you be there'by Michael Jackson,'I'll do anything for love(but I won't do that)'by Meatloaf(I love that song),'I'm gonna be(500 miles)'by the Proclaimers,'Knockin' da boots'by H-Town,'Passionate kisses'by Mary Chapin-Carpenter,'Bam!Shake the room'by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince,'Baby i'm yours'by Shai,'Heart Shaped Box'by Nirvana and who could forget that great singer and his 'great'hit 'I Know I Got Skills'by Shaquille O'Neal? fuckity fuck fuck fuck..
Oh folks.
.it just keeps getting better..'Freak Me'by Silk,
'Human Beh
avior'by Bjork and 'Sex Me'by R Kelly.sigh*
'Again'by Janet Jackson,'Amazin'by Aerosmith,'No Rain'by Blin
d Mellon,'Rubberband Girl'by Kate Bush,'River of Dreams'by Billy Joel,'Kiss of Life'by Sade,'Everybody Hurts'by R.E.M.,'Candy everybody wants'by 10,000 Maniacs,'Into Your Arms'by Lemonheads,'Creep'by Radio Head,
'Ohh
Child'by Dino,'I'll Sleep when I'm dead and Bed of Roses'by Bon Jovi,'Hey Jealousy'by Gin Blossoms,'Another Sad Love Song'by Toni Braxton,'Reason to belive'by Rod Stewart and Ronnie Woods,'Deeper and Deeper'by Madonna.'Living on the edge'by Aerosmith,'Keep ya' head up'by 2pac,'No Mistake'by Patty Symth,'Oh, the quiet'by Nirvana,'Pits'by Porno For Pyro,'Plush'by Stone Temple Pilots,'Rain'by Madonna,'Rooster'
by Alice In Chains,'Soul To Squeeze'by Red Hot Chili Peppers,
'U.N.I.T.Y.'by Queen Latifa,'Said I loved you but I lied'by Mich
ael Bolton,'Sober'by Tool,Somebody to love'by George Michael and Queen. I will leave the music on a high note..I was driving back from Arizona on route to Texas and I had bought a few cassetts to play when I couldn't get the radio..So I am jamming,getting down, bobbing my head like a rabid parrot to Three Little Pigs by Green Jelly(weren't they Green Jello first?) and I am really rocking..I am on a 2 lane in the middle of bumfuck New Mecico and there isn't a car or truck for fucking miles.so who is to know I am acting 'the fool'..I happen to glance out of my window and next to me is a New Mexico State Trooper...staring at me like he is observing a crime in progress...He had on the regulated mirrored shades, but I am sure behind them were two bugged eyes popping out of his head.I just keep right on a bobbing...to caught up in the music to really care...after what seemed like an eternity..he slowly shook his head and sped off...I never missed a beat...
Normally I would ease into country music right about now..but you know what? it sucked...pop comes to country and it sucked...so fuckit...no country...But there were some great mov
ies like Schlindler's List,The Fugitive,Sleepless in Seattle,Philadelphia,The Piano(stupid stupid movie..I have seen Harvey Keitel's dick more than I have my 2nd husbands),Wayne's World II and a movie that reminds me so much of my two sons when they were teens that I made the granddaughters watch the movie and tell me which one they thought was like their Daddy. They guessed right)Dazed and Confused...and a movie that made me feel like I was back at the Texan Theater in Mesquite,Texas getting the 'ahhhhh factor'...Jurassic Park....damn that was excellent..Bad year for us as we lost some greats:Audrey Hepburn,George'Sparky'McFarland,Vincent Price, River Phoenix and the great Frank Zappa...
So....
all in all year 1993 was a very busy year..I had some wild times..met some great people..saw some beautiful county and made some great and not so great memories with my daughter...But really? 1993 was pretty fucking cool...THE COWBOYS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL.....

.......MY NEPHEWS.......

















I have one nephew that is in Iraq. D. works for Haliburton...I have to be nice when I email him and not mention that I think they are crooks and Bush is a dipshit.It is hard...but he sent these two pictures to P.his brother who is a leftwing yellowdog like his Aunt Jackie and he is the artist....The cartoons from P.are just stuff he has done and the art work is something he learned today...he has never done computer art before and these are his first attempts..I think he's terrific..but then I love him...
ok, so I don't know how to turn the cartoons around correctly..sue me...

Monday, October 02, 2006

1992.......BOOZE? I DON'T NEED NO STINKING BOOZE..I HAVE A NEW FRIEND





Who woulda thunk it..I not only quit drinking I have a new job and a new friend...I met Dan and Pa when I applied for the job of Book Store manager for a temporary Book Store in Waco.They come in set up a book store...sell books for about 4-6 weeks, dismanted and move on..I had worked for them before but just as a worker, this time I was applying for the Managers position and thanks to my interview with Dan and Pat, I got the job..Dan and I became instant friends and are still friends today.Holy shit..that's fourteen years...I liked Pat and he liked me, but we weren't close like Dan and I were..Dan was(and is)one of the funniest people I know.. He would regale us with his stories about Hollywood and his travels..I even fudged and got a job for my daughter..let her use my maiden name as they didn't want anyone related to work at same store.Glad I did as she not only was one of my best workers, she went with me when I went on the road and that was a great thing..So..I'm sober...working at a job that I really did like and I made a life long friend.Things were starting to look up for me..and I wasn't doing it from the floor.
Things weren't doing so well for the Prince and Princess of Wales...We all know that story...we all thought it was a fairy tale come true..boy..were we wrong..Even the Yugoslav's were breaking up..Bush and Yeltsin proclaim formal end of the cold war.U.S. lifts trade sanctions against China..yeah, that worked out well for us...now everything is made in china.General Noriega gets convicted and sentenced to 40 years for drug charges.Four police officers were acquitted in beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles,California.Riots erupted in South Central LA and things got really nasty there for awhile.Casper W. Weinberger indicted in Iran-Contral affair.Last Western hostage freed in Lebanon.Supreme Court reaffirms right to abortion.Democrats nominate William Clinton and Al Gore for President and Vice President of the United fucking States of America.Court clears Exxon Valdez skipper...well, that sucked then...still sucks now.Police officers acquited in the Rodney King beating are indicted on Federal civil rights charges.The republicans nominate George dickhead Bush and Dan Imastupidasshole Quayle for President and Vice President..Thank the sweet Goddess them fuckers lost..but the republicans managed to divert most of the Clinton-Gore terms by locking them into Watergate and Monicagate..They seemed to think getting a blow job on duty was the worse thing that ever happened..yeah, well at least his blow job came from a consenting adult..not a bunch of unwilling children...fuckity fuck fuck fuck!
U.S. forces leave Phillippines, ending nearly a
century of American military presence.Right before Bush left the White House he pardoned all of the former Reagan administration officials in the Iran-Contra affairs...double fuck. But there was a shit load of songs that year...some good...some not so good...and they were..in honor of the Prince and Princess of Wales 'Beauty and The Beast'by Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion.
'Jump
'by Kris Kros,'57 Channels and Nothin'on TV'by Bruce Springsteen,'Galileo'by Indigo Girls,'Take a chance on me'by Erasure,'This used to be my playground'by Madonna,'Symphony of Destruction'by Megadeath,'Just Another Day'by Jon Secada,'Give it away and Under the Bridge'by Red Hot Chili Peppers,'Life is a highway'by Tom Cochrane,'Baby Got Back'by Sir Mixx A-Lot,'I'm Too Sexy'by Right Said Fred,'End of the Road'by Boys II Men,'Move this'by Technotronics,'Bohemian Rhapsody(re release)'by Queen,'Save the best for last'by Vanessa Williams,'Lithium and Come as you are'by Nirvana,'Jump around'by House of Pain,'I will always love you'by Whitney Houston,'Twilight'by 2 Unlimited,'November Rain'by Guns and Roses,'I'll be there'by Mariah Carey,'Rump Shaker'by Wreckx-n-Effect,'Masterpiece'by Atlantic Starr,'Caribbean Blue'by Inya,'Baby Baby Baby and Ain't 2 roud 2 beg'by TLC,'Finally'by CC Peniston,'Sometimes love jus ain't enough'by Patty Smyth and Don Henley,'Don't let the sun go down on me'by Elton John and George Michael,'Always Tomorrow'by Gloria Estefan,'Tear in Heaven'by Eric Clapton,'Even Better than the real thing'by U2,'These Are Days'by 10,000 Maniacs,'Layla'by Eric Clapton,'Sexy MF'by Prince and the New Power Generation,'Remember the time'by Michael Jackson,'Bang Bang'by David Sandborn,'Friday I'm In Love'by The Cure,'Little Miss can't be wrong'by the Spin Doctors,'Make it happen'by Miarah Carey.Is it music yet????
'Erotica
'by Madonna,'God Gave Rock and Roll To You II'by Kiss,'I Can't Dance'by Geneses,'In Bloom and Silver'by Nirvana,'It's Only Natural'by Crowded House,'Jimmy Olsen's
Blues and Two Princes by Spin Doctors,'Keep the Faith'by Bon Jovi,'K
nocking on Heaven's Door'by Guns & Roses,'Let's Get Rocked'by Def Leppard,'Man on the Moon'by R.E.M.,'Mrs.Robinson'by Lemonheads,'No Ordinary Love'by Sade,'Real Love'by Mary J.Blige,'Remedy'by Black Crowes,'Green Jelly'by Green Jelly,'Why and Walking on broken Glass'by Annie Lennox and 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses'by U2.
Country
music bred some real strange music this year..Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus, The River by Garth Brooks and Boot Scooting Boogie by Brooks and Dunn.
Oh man...o
n 10-25-1992 Roger Miller died. one of the funiest smartest men ever..also Roy Acuff...and unless you're a country and western fan..you won't know who Roy is..but he was a giant in Country Music..
1992 had some great movies:A Few Good Men, Basic
Instinct,Wayne's World,Scent Of A Woman,A League Of Their Own(there's no crying in baseball) adn Unforgiven...
Stars that blinked out were Jose Ferrer(married to Rosemary Clooney..
.daddy of all the Ferrer's and Uncle to George Clooney),Marlene Dietrich,Shirley Booth(Hazel) and Cleavon Little from Blazzing Saddles..one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
So...all in all..1992 was a pretty good year...was it good for you?

Sunday, October 01, 2006

.......DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS.......



Would like to thank all of you that voted for Don't Mess With Texas in the advertising poll..'cause we won...over 400,000 votes...mostly people that messed with Texas and got their asses canned...like David Crosby and Ozzie Osbourne.This was for the Advertising Week's 2006 Walk of Fame contest.The "Don't Mess With Texas campaign began 20 years ago to combat roadside liter and its pickup cost.. Our slogan beat out 25 other well-known slogans including 'Just Do It'by Nike, the California Milk Processors Board's 'Got Milk'and 'Have It Your Way'by Burger King.It also beat out Campbell's Soup's 'M'M M'M Good,'Dunkin Donuts 'It's Time To Make The Donut's,'and Wheaties'Breakfast Of Campions.'
To celebrate our big win, "Don't Mess With Texas" victory banners lined New York's Madison Avenue on Friday, and the slogan will receive permanent recognition in the Advertising Icon Museum in Kansas City, Mo., wh
ich opens in spring of 2008.
See, you guys...it's not just me you don't wanna mess with...it's the entire state.Something the Tennessee Titan's and the Miami Dolphin's found out today too..at scores of 45-14(Dalla )and 17-15 (Houston)...Ahhhhh life is good...
Ya'll come down and see us..ya'hea?
But don't fucking liter..