stranger danger

i had a couple of encounters with strangers this week that not only left a bittersweet taste in my mouth but has me seriously considering that old adage- don't talk to strangers. Just don't.

i was minding my own business whilst walking my dog Ace through our neighborhood the other day. Or shall i say a funny thing happened while walking my dog Ace? we were in our hood and observed a hetero couple and their dog leaving their home to get into a car. their dog was off leash and spotted Ace and made its way over. the dogs do the sniff dance and then stranger dog commences to attack Ace.

by the time the k9's mama got control of their attack dog, Ace and i had made our way across the street and i offered up this obvious advice:

"if your dog is unfriendly it should be on leash"

to which the k9 dad wearing a lanyard with a corporate id around his neck responded:

"fuck off" like he was in a watermelon seed spitting contest.

that's nice i said, i'm just walking through my neighborhood minding my own business when my dog is attacked by your dog and you have the nerve to tell ME to fuck off? to which the k9's mama said:

"can't we all just get along?"

i continued walking and was a bit flustered so we walked to our friend johnny b"s house nearby and regaled him with this tale of the nasty neighbors. A half hour after we get home I receive a text from johnny b with a name (rob) and a phone number. turns out neighbor "fuck off" rob, watched us go to johnny b's so in an effort to clean up his karma he made his way to johnny b's who was outside, and asked if a girl with a big black dog lived there, johnny b said no but i think you are looking for my friend nicole. so i call "fuck off" rob, and he says:

"humans shouldn't treat other humans like that" and apologized. then he said next time you are walking by we will have you in for some iced tea. uh yeah, thanks but no thanks.

a couple of days later i am at the farmers market and visit my friend cail at his honey booth. he is with a customer so i make myself comfortable in a chair next to him inside the booth. the customer, a 60 year old nosey nellie says to me:

"are you a pollinated bee?" cail and i exchange glances of wtf? i say:

"what does that mean?" she rubs her belly and says:

"pregnant?" i say:

"good god no, but thanks for pointing out that i'm fat". she too apologized.

now i don't know if it is possible to not talk with strangers, but it is possible to a) be kind and b) not stick your foot in your mouth.

birfday partay

dunno what year this was but likely 2012. posting it cuz i found it in my drafts. it's my birthday today, i wish i had it in me to wax poetic about it, like my fellow march seconder theodore geisel could. but what's poetic about waiting for test results? perhaps a hailku-

sunshine blew my mind
public enemy for me
but not the kimchi

there you have it. "don't quit your day job"

39th Street and Stage 4

i drank like a fish last night. i don't really know how i'm functioning. i've been paralyzed by my life for the past year and find myself in the bottom of a bottle almost daily. it doesn't help. it's not even interesting. i am interested in writing and so am making the effort to do so by continuing what i started 5 years ago with this blog. i'm not sure what it will be other than an exercise to curtail this insatiable thirst to numb my head through drink. so welcome back nic, let's hoist one up and celebrate. wink.

wow

my last entry was about two months before michael jackson od'd, and i was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma. what a difference 3 years makes.

or not.

here's the difference: i got married. i married the man i fell in love with upon first introduction about 7 or 8 years ago. we just married last month.

here's what's unfortunately the same: fast forward 3 years and i'm once again unemployed AND a couple of weeks ago the docs found melainmynoda. which means melanoma is once again detected in my lymph nodes, albeit a single node.

oh and here's another similarity: another black pop star od'd, whitney. everytime a black pop star dies, i get melanoma. so if stevie wonder ends up in the hospital, i'm goin' to get a check up.

fast forward to today: recovering from surgical removal of melanoma-node, which apparently is/was the size of a marble. good news? there is ned (no evidence of disease) anywhere else in my body. and on the same good news note, i think i'm gonna start blahging again. i don't think i could handle writing about cancer 24/7, that's what therapy is for, so please don't worry all 3 readers, i will try to make this semi-entertaining although stage 3 melanoma is just 1 stage away from stage 4 and there are no more stages.

oh and one other difference is that i live on 36th st now, not 26th st. life is in the details. but i intend to keep the same title.

Bridal Wreath is blooming, chickadees are screwing and I'm 10 lbs lighter, tho still HAPPILY unemployed. Which gives me time to read and remain semi-up-to-date with current events. So as you may or may not know this Obama speech at catholic Notre Dame has incensed the anti-choicers, and being a pro-choicer I found the whole thing somewhat newsworthy and felt compelled to share a quote from a NY Times report about it. The mortarboard is the same thing I would call a placard, I have included a link to the article where you will also find you can watch the speech-

'With mortarboard in hand, graduating senior Robert Kessler, 22, wandered among the protesters and shook his head.
“Some of these pictures are grotesque, and I don’t want them to be part of my graduation,” said Mr. Kessler, an Obama supporter. “If these groups wanted to make a difference, they could have better used their money on homes for unwed mothers.”

word

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/us/politics/18obama.html?_r=1&hp

x

Queer Eye for the Hawkeye

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=222798&title=Queer-Eye-for-the-Hawkeye

TV on the radiostar

So I applied to work part-time at Blockbuster and also for a position with the city as Sidewalk Coordinator. My main qualification being that I walk the cities sidewalks daily, and wish for them to be safe and accessible to all. Pretty sure I will get an interview.

I listen to a lot of NPR being unemployed and all, I consider it a perk. Today Ira Glass is doing a promo for his show being broadcast "live?"at local theatres and I thought to myself the reason the show resonates with me is because it is an aural medium. My guess is that's why Garrison Keillor is so popular, if you had to look at him you wouldn't. I mean I have no desire to watch Terry Gross interview guests and I should clarify that I have no desire to listen to Garrison Keillor either. Perhaps Ira's show is as good televised as it can be on the radio, so be it or not to be it.

I dated this guy once and we would watch CBS Sunday Morning in bed, and after the end bit of "and we leave you now in Glacier Park Montana" Charles Osgood would say something like "thanks for watching and I will see you on the radio" and my boyfriend would start screaming to turn it off before Osgood could utter those last words about seeing him on the radio. Something about the phrase really irritated him.