Stuff.........

French don't fail me now!!!!!

harridan — Tue, 20 May 2008 01:41:05 GMT

In what feels like another lifetime I was a College of Engineering drop out after having given it a couple of years at UIC - Differential Equations pushed me over the edge and after all that Math, French was the only thing that saved me. It was so strange having a subject that came so effortlessly. It was something that felt natural and something I didn't have to toil over. So when Lorraine Piroux, my French Professor suggested that I talk to someone in the French Department and change my major to French I refused - it was just too easy and I like things to be difficult and convoluted. I continued at UIC for a total of 6 years before I dropped out for what I thought at the time was forever - I went on to play/tour with a band, got married and had a couple of kids. Recently I 've made the decision to return to school and finally finish my undergrad degree - In French. Talk to me - I need to review my French - Anyone ? I'll even give you my # and we can talk on the phone........

Bye bye little gall bladder

harridan — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:20:11 GMT

So I'd been feeling incredibly ill for the past 5 days. Sharp stabbing pains in my abdomen. On Friday I actually checked myself into a hospital and writhed in pain in a bean bag chair on the floor of the emergency room while other's looked on for about an hour. Then they took me into another room to writhe in pain on a stretcher with the empty promise of drugs to relieve the pain. A few hours later they figured out that I had an enlarged gall bladder and an elevated white blood cell count. They gave me an injection of some heavy duty antibiotics and an anti-inflamatory that didn't kick in until they were doing an ultrasound on me exactly 4 hours from the time I arrived at the hospital. The next day I had to have my gall bladder and a stone the size of a marble removed. I have known about this problem for a while but the pain had never escalated to this level before. I had no choice other than to have this operation. It was a fun weekend but hey...I'm still alive...and I had some morphine. I never wish that kind of pain on anyone . It was WAY worse than natural childbirth. Eat your veggies and stay away from fatty foods people !!!

lil rockers

harridan — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 01:07:30 GMT

So my 11 year old son definitely has some drumming skills. He and his guitar playing friend Alex threw some songs together at the last minute and entered this battle of the bands thing. They have only been playing together for a few months and they totally pulled it off - I was so proud. They were the youngest kids competing and being a two-piece with no vocalist or bass player they of course had no chance of winning but they really enjoyed themselves and made some friends. The event was well organized and even had a panel of celebrity judges that included a former member of " Ministry". All the proceeds from the event went to an organization called "Rock For Kids". Rock For Kids is a non-profit organization that provides support, inspiration and assistance to children that are homeless or in need. They have a program called Youth Jam that provides free music lessons to these children.

The 4 week mark.

harridan — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 02:56:15 GMT

Well I actually did it. I lost about 10 pounds just by giving up coffee, refined sugar, and a mess of other vices that we need not mention here, COLD TURKEY. I feel ton's better, my muscles don't ache and my migraines are gone too. And believe me this is no small feat in my line of business. I really want a cheesburger but I'm trying not to think about it.

What's for dinner ?

harridan — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:41:34 GMT

Now that my life has settled down and I can actually pay attention to myself I 've noticed that I have been feeling extra stressed out, bitchy, tired, achy and sore even after a good night sleep. Some days I feel like I have a bad hangover even though I haven't touched a drink. I always have heartburn. I try to do yoga and get exercise but I always end up feeling too tired. I catch colds and flu's easily and have absolutely not been fulfilling my " social obligations " preferring to stay at home and read or hang out on tribe. There are many factors that have contributed to my state. I'm sick of feeling sick so I have decided that desperate times call for desperate measures. For the past 2 days I have been doing a lot of reading about the Ph of one's diet . I have read about it before and even have a book that I got somewhere sitting on my shelf. Basically, the premise is that if you consume a diet of mainly acid forming foods like coffee, chocolate, sugary stuff, cheese, and bread ( like I do) eventually it will trigger an imbalance in your body's pH - leading you to a state of Alkalosis. Symtoms of Alkalosis are : sore muscles, allergies, heartburn, circulation problems etc. Alkalizing foods such as organic spinach and other leafy greens, raw almonds, avocados, lemon water and sprouted stuff etc. should make up about 80 % of your diet the other 20 % should be foods that are "healthy" acid - forming foods like whole grains, nuts and seeds....sounds a lot like what the average raw foodist eats...or a candida cleanse...which is probably what I need right now I know this isn't news - however this kind of diet is hard to do for most of us living in Chicago, home of the juicy beef. And forget about trying to eat this way in a restaurant . There are no places that serve healthy raw foods unless you've got a lot of money to spend. Those of us who have access to this sort of thing should feel lucky because for some it is beyond reach. So I took a sick day today - Something I rarely do - but I had a migraine for 2 days and didn't get much sleep. Lemon water is kinda good and I love avocados.... In other news my son rocked the house at his school's talent show last Friday - playing the drum's like it's nobody's business and making us all proud.

Vintage clothing and accessories for sale.....

harridan — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:44:17 GMT

My Friends Erik and Mimi are having a sale here in Chicago.....they have lots of neat stuff for sale....12/9/06 from 9-4. Mod Ray-Ban sunglasses,costume jewelry, vintage hoserie, men's tuxedos/coats....women's dresses/coats and other fun stuff.. PM me for details and address.

My Dalai Lama story

harridan — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 04:32:53 GMT

When I was a 20 something I worked for Wholefoods Market. One of the many jobs I did there for about 3 years was in Marketing. I desperately hated parts of that job but the best part of it and the whole reason I took the job was because as the In-Store Marketing person you were in charge of donations. My official title was Marketing/Community Relations Coordinator. Back then in addition to quarterly 5% days where we would donate 5% of the store’s sales to an organization we had a monthly budget that we would use to donate items from any of the different departments. The only real criteria for choosing the organizations was that they had to be a not -for-profit and in return for goods received they had to advertise Wholefoods or acknowledge the donation in some way. Sometimes all that would entail would be to put up a dinky cardboard sign that said " Donated by Wholefoods Market " or something to that effect. I was able to choose organizations that I believed in and turn down organizations that I didn't believe in and nobody ever really questioned me. I had some organizations that were " regulars " who I gave small things to on a regular basis. We donated butcher paper to Red Moon Theatre so they could use it to make puppets. We donated the day old bakery bread to Food not Bombs who would distribute it to homeless people in Wicker Park. One of the bigger donations I coordinated was actually for the Dalai Lama's Chicago appearance in 1996. He was coming to town to do a talk at Medina Temple. Richard Gere and Philip Glass would also appear. The Tibetan Alliance was the organization through which I would be doing the donation and what they had asked for was 15 cases of red wine and 15 cases of white wine. In return they would hang up those cardboard signs on the table where they served the drinks and give us 4 VIP tickets to the reception and the event. I was already familiar with this particular organization through my friend Jason who in the late 80’s introduced me to Tibetan culture. Through them Jason used to sponsor Tibetan monks who came to the US. I was stoked at the chance to donate something to the Dalai Lama and even more stoked that I would probably be able to be in the same room with him at some point. If we decided to do the entire donation this would mean that I would have used up all the money that I had for that month on just one donation... I was not sure what to do so I talked it over with my boss who of course balked at me " What ?!!....Richard Gere will be there ! - You MUST do this ". We opted to give them 10 cases of each wine instead so that we could still have enough money in the budget to provide donations for our "regulars" And so it was. I coordinated the donation in my store with the wine buyer who teased me for being so gullible as to think that the Dalai Lama would really need 30 cases of wine....I called the Tibetan Alliance to let them know that I secured them a donation of 20 cases of wine that would be available for pick up at the customer service desk the Friday before the event. I was told that they would leave the 4 VIP tickets with the people at our customer service desk....I had already promised one ticket to Henry the wine buyer and the other 2 tickets would go to Gabby and Julie, who were just as excited as me to be able to attend this event. The morning before the event there were still no tickets at the service desk.....I called the woman from the Tibetan Alliance several times and she never answered ...finally she left me a voicemail letting us know she forgot to bring the tickets to the store and that she would leave the event tickets at the WIll Call. She must have forgotten our agreement about the reception..... I had a bad feeling. I wondered if she was pissed off that I could not get them all the wine that she had originally had asked for and that she had to do more work to secure the rest of the wine they needed...Shady and dare I say, very “un-Buddhist like” The Sunday of the event we all piled into Henry the Wine Buyer's truck....we sat in line for what seemed like hours to get into the Temple. When we were finally at the Will Call they told us that we were not on their list.....Henry threw a fit...showing them his business card explaining that "We have donated $ 1500 worth of wine to this event and God Dammit - you better let us in !!!" I was a little embarrassed at his bad behavior - at this point I was resigned to the fact that it just wasn’t going to work out. I knew for a fact that the event was sold out and I started to feel bad for dragging everyone down there with me even though I had nothing to do with it...and they did so willingly. Henry ‘s tantrum did get results - the Andy Frain ushers took pity on us and told us to go in and sit in any empty seats we could find. We ended up splitting up so that we could do this. The woman from the Tibetan Alliance never acknowledged the oversight and neither did I - I thought it would be pointless after the fact. I was just thankful that we got into the event..... The talk was something I will always remember and share with whoever is interested.....and all four of us felt like we really did get something out of it......but that is another long story in itself.

Love sickness is an "oasis of horror" .....

harridan — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 04:13:16 GMT

A Sick, Sick Thing by Stephany Aulenback September 1, 2000 Love isn't heaven, or unerring light - it is a sickness. And not just one illness, but many. The best metaphor for love is that it is a sickness. A sick person has an excuse for being distracted, for being dazed, and for paying too much attention to how he or she looks and feels. A sick person, like the newly love-struck, is excused for being whiny and dramatic and for doing nothing but lounging around in pajamas. Sure, there are lots of prettier clichés about love, like Sir Walter Scott's 'love is heaven' or Wordsworth's 'love is an unerring light,' but I'm with Shakespeare on this one: 'My love is as a fever.' This view of love as illness isn't a cynical one, it's romantic. The Romantics were always dying of consumption, which they blamed on their feelings of passion. (If you're looking for a cynical metaphor try Baudelaire, who claimed that love is 'an oasis of horror in a desert of boredom.') But to compare love to a simple disease is to oversimplify. Love-sickness is not just Shakespeare's fever or the Romantics' consumption; it is not one illness, but many. Sometimes love-sickness is a rash, perhaps like the chicken pox. A childish, almost foolish illness, it shows all over the victim's face and body. It makes her want to scratch where it itches. The rash lasts only a few weeks though, and if scratched, it will leave scars. My cousin had that kind of love-sickness once; he was driven mad by his rash of a love for his very first girl-friend, a blonde beauty whose image graced small-town billboards. They made love feverishly all over the campus of their boarding school. One day, while scratching their itch on the stage of the school's abandoned auditorium, they were discovered by a teacher's wife, expelled from the school, and sent back to distant and different hometowns. Ten years later, when he met her by accident in a restaurant, he told me their meeting felt like ripping the skin off a scab. Love-sickness can be like a migraine headache - a painful sort of blinding by light, gone in a day or two. I felt that way about a boy I knew for two days when I was fourteen. We met on a weekend camping trip and passed the time doing little more than staring at each other. His gaze made my head ache; my hand felt huge and swollen when he held it the night before we parted. I can still conjure up his expression, all hazy and golden like the aura migraine sufferers sometimes see. Love-sickness can also feel like a broken limb, a pain that keeps you up at night for months and hinders your progress. During college my formerly confident and assertive roommate was crippled for more than a year by a crush on someone she barely knew: a prim looking, reserved boy in her English class who charmed her when he said he thought the word 'thwart' sounded like a 'knife thrust into wood.' She spent her sleepless nights planning ways to get his attention - dropping her books at his feet, writing poetry about him and reciting it in front of the class, inviting him to parties he didn't turn up for - and yet he never seemed to register her presence in any romantic way. As the weeks passed she grew withdrawn and quiet, spending her evenings alone at home, nursing her crippling love until, many months later, she healed. There are more serious forms of love-sickness, of course. The love-sickness that leads to marriage is a terminal illness. It takes over your whole being and eats away at it until it ends in the death of your former life. If we stretch that metaphor and turn it on its head, then the love-sickness that leads to marriage is a proof of the afterlife. Some people go to heaven, others to hell, while most subsist in a kind of purgatory. Perhaps that is too cynical a view. Maybe it's more romantic to say that the love that leads to marriage is a chronic illness, like asthma or diabetes. Many people who have learned to live with a chronic illness rarely think of themselves as sick. And many people who have learned to live with marriage rarely think of themselves as in love. But every so often, in just the way an asthmatic gets breathless or a diabetic gets dizzy from her blood sugar levels, the symptoms recur. We don't yet understand what causes love-sickness. Just as we have endless lists of the possible causes of cancer - faulty genes, perhaps, or radiation from our microwaves or hormones in the meat supply - we all have our own beliefs about what causes love-sickness. One is that it is caused by hormones in the meat supply. There are many others - almost as many as we see cases of love-sickness. It's clear that a person who becomes love-sick is infected by another. A strange feature of the illness is that a person whose love-sickness is only as mild as a cold, can infect someone with an acute case as dire as pneumonia. And sometimes, even while the infectious person doesn't display any symptoms of his own, the afflicted one will point an insistent finger at him, waiting for evidence that he is love-sick too. Some may argue that love-sickness is a sexually transmitted disease like syphilis or herpes, but often a person's love-sickness is caused by not having sex with the person who infects them. Indeed, love-sickness is sometimes cured by sex. So what should people do when they become love-sick? They should go to bed at once, of course, and luxuriate in their symptoms. After all, it is when you are sick that you are most conscious of your physical existence and of the impermanence of your mortal state. So it is with love. For when you are suffering from love-sickness, you become wonderfully aware of how alive you are - even if it is in an oasis of horror.

MEDITATIO

harridan — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 02:52:29 GMT

When I carefully consider the curious habits of dogs I am compelled to conclude That man is the superior animal. When I consider the curious habits of man I confess, my friend, I am puzzled. Ezra Pound

Letter writing....

harridan — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 02:17:10 GMT

People just don't do it very much anymore ...... I have a huge box - a few actually...... of old letters / cards that I keep from old boyfriends as well as old friends from different times in my life. They are really funny to read. I'm glad I kept them......Some of these are pretty juicy......I hope my mother never found these here - because they're mostly about sex. As I read these it's funny how many boys told me things like " You're the only one I can talk to " ( please!!!) The more creative ones are from my train hoppin' friends like Zoe & Brad who would send post cards made of all kinds of things decorated with whatever materials they could find/steal on their travels.....

A natural wonder ....right on the outside of my bedroom window......

harridan — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:43:48 GMT

I came home and saw this heart on my window the other day.....yes.... it appears to be merely a heart-shaped bird shit stain. You can't see it in the picture but it is of a light , opaque shade of Rose....or at least it was when I first noticed it ....it faded a little in the sun But how did it get there so perfectly shaped?...I am on the third floor......Do you think I should call someone ? This could be the next "Underpass Mary " in Chicago....It could be a message from above....telling us to start loving our brothers and sisters....or maybe all it was only a message from a spurned lover....telling me I'm full of shit....that my heart is.

Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table

harridan — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 01:19:25 GMT

It's F'n hot here on the third floor. I can't stand cooking when it get's hot.....So I've been eating out a lot..... Yesterday afternoon it had to be Vietnamese..... With the children I went to Argyle St. for some yummy grilled beef. (Yeah, I know I don't really eat beef too much but I've been feeling a bit ungrounded as of late...lame.) Served with the customary table salad : Holy Basil, Mint, Cilantro and Red Parilla, Mung bean sprouts as well as some pickled shreds of Carrot and Daikon w/ rice paper for tableside rolling. We also had the Ban Beo, (Steamed rice cakes with shrimp). It was all really delicious.....So good that I would eat it again right now and then again tomorrow and still love it. My Dad's girlfriend is Vietnamese and she's been cooking a lot of her food for me and my family whenever we visit my Dad. She was pleasantly suprised at Shane and Violet's knowledge and love of all the most popular Vietnamese foods. (Hi Bubble tea !) I love Vietnamese cuisine because it combines salty, hot, sour, and sweet in a way that is really satisfying. I also love anything that has fresh herbs and veggies. She showed me a little thing she likes to do with pineapple. She takes a Thai red pepper and grinds it up in a little bowl w/ salt. She lightly dips the edge of the piece of pineapple in the spicy salt before eating it.....I know this salty fruit thing is nothing new and exciting for the true food geeks but it's really good......Try it sometime. It's good w/ watermelon too.

Meet "Joe the Bengal Cat. "......

harridan — Sun, 28 May 2006 01:40:33 GMT

This is my new roomate.....He weighs about 14 lbs and has the most beautiful clear green eyes. I found him on Craig's List....Joe was living with 2 ultra revvvved up Jack Russell Terriers in a small apartment in Boys' Town....His previous owner was moving out of state and couldn't take him with....Joe's previous owner did take really good care of him and even took him to the vet for shots and a check up before I came to pick him up....He's an amazing creature... Strong yet very affectionate and calm.....and he talks.

CTA stories

harridan — Sat, 06 May 2006 00:56:38 GMT

THERE'S SOMETHING IN MY SEAT A few years ago I was working at a recording studio and keeping strange hours. Every now and then I would finish or start work around 5PM, and I would dread having to deal with the sardine can train cars chock full of investment bankers, advertising people, art students, and all other sorts. I got on the Blue Line at Clark and Lake around 5:30PM. It was around Christmas, so there was an extra load of people with disgusting amounts of shopping bags labeled accordingly. I had had a long day. Equipment malfunction had led the session to the bar at some point, which is never productive. We decided to just scrap the day and go home. Upon getting into the packed-tight train, I noticed a pocket of open space near the back of the car. Being socially retarded, introverted, and having issues with people crowding me, this was like a shining paradise island to me. I excused my way toward the spot, and when I got there I just started laughing. There was a dead rooster on the seat. Not like a Perdue bought at jewel tasty thing; a dead bird feathers and all. It was dead and strewn across the only two open seats in the entire car. It didn't really faze me, because it's the CTA, and this sort of thing is almost expected, sometimes welcomed. I made my way back toward the doors because if I was going to be uncomfortably crushed by strangers, at least some fresh air would be nice. I saw an acquaintance and we started in on the whole "What the heck?!? That's crazy stuff! Dead birds!" routine. As the car started to thin out nearing O'Hare, we were stood facing each other, leaning on the partitions in front of the doors. There was plenty of space for entrance and exit. Around Montrose, a CTA guy got on and it went something like this: CTA: "Are you getting off here?" Me: "No, Harlem." CTA: "Well, you can't stand here. You're blocking the exit, and that's dangerous." Me: "I'll move when you scrape up that dead fucking cock in the back of the car. Then you can tell me all about dangerous." He looked puzzled, so I pointed to the seat where the carcass was lounging. He walked back and looked at it in disbelief for about 10 seconds, then just walked through the door to the other car. By Peter Throws Found on : www.thisisgrand.org

Conjunctivitis...

harridan — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:53:22 GMT

Bummer...I have it....I stayed home from work....I went to the Emergengy Care Facility near my place despite my sometimes pathological fear of doctors...They were nice...I was calm. ....They gave me a note that says I can return to work on Monday and a prescription for these eye drops....and the nice lady doctor said " Do something good for yourself today ! " The Pharmacist spelled my name wrong on the label.....It says " VICTORIA SUCKETT" "That's not my name....Suck -it ?" I said to the phamacist as I snickered....I made him fix it in the computer. He was embarassed and wasn't laughing.

pearls before swine

harridan — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:04:05 GMT

http://www.transience.com.au/pearl.html

OWL PELLETS

harridan — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 01:28:37 GMT

Saturday my daughter Violet approached me whilst holding these two baggies in her hands.....At first glance I thought she had found someody's stash......I soon learned that what was in the baggies was something she called "Owl Pellets".....The undigested excretion from an owl that she, her brother and Grandma picked up on one of their "nature walks". These are the bones and what have you of some poor squirrel or rodent that the owl pooped out . Grandma surreptitiously scooped these remains up and placed them in these baggies for my children to take home with them. Thanks Grandma.

Manhattan

harridan — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 00:15:05 GMT

Last weekend I went to New York for a few days. I hopped on a plane and met my friend who is also from Chicago. He was there on business showing some of his work to a gallery owner from France. We walked around..went to a few bars.....ate a lot of good food... checked out the Edvard Munch exhibit etc at the MOMA and the show at the Armory. Most suprisingly, I saw 2 people that I knew from Chicago.

Recipe for Vegan Paté

harridan — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 05:48:43 GMT

I got this healthy recipe from some vegan Québécois kids when I was on tour. I lived off this stuff for a while. I am not vegan anymore but this stuff is yummy. It's great on baguette w/ some good mustard if you like that. 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup crushed sunflower seeds 2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice 1/3 cup of vegetable oil ( canola or anything that is light in flavor) 2 cloves of garlic , crushed 2/3 cup nutritional yeast 4 tablespoons Tamari or Shoyu 1 teaspoon dried Basil 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 1/4 teaspoon dried sage 1/4 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg 4 dried bay leaves 1 cup of hot, boiled water 1 small onion, 1 carrot, 1 stalk of celery, and 1 small potato, all of these shredded. ( I use a food processor for this and also to smoosh my sunflower seeds) Preheat oven to 350 ° F. Combine the flour, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, vegetable oil, garlic and nutritional yeast in a large bowl. Add shredded veggies and stir to combine. Add the Tamari and dried herbs and stir. Add hot water and stir till well combined. Pour into a 9X9 baking dish and gently place the four bay leaves on the surface of the pate. Bake for 1 hour. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Perhaps Strange by Kurt Schwitters

harridan — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 03:24:16 GMT

The world is full of goods trains The passengers are cows And milk and butter. And cheese and lovely marmelade And bulls and horses, And cocks and hens. The cow is mother to the milk, And grandma both to cheese and butter. The cheese is cousin to the marmelade. The horse is cousin to the cock The hen lays eggs. The egg is cousin to the cheese and butter, The son and daughter of the milk. Isn't it strange? It is.

Adam Ant

harridan — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 02:30:14 GMT

"Goodie Two Shoes " is now being used in a Diet Coke commercial.