If you've lived in one of the cities they've driven through...

This www.everyscape.com site will let you visit again. They drive a vehicle with a camera down most streets. You drag the view of the map over with your curser, click on where you want to drive, then hit an arrow. When you stop, you can pan all around and see the houses, buildings, well known places in detail. I lived in Boston for over six years and the last time I was back was in 1986. I was curious to see the places I'd lived. Where they still there? Had they changed?

This first photo is on Corey Road where I lived with my first husband while he attended law school. I commuted an hour out of the city to work. We lived on the bottom of this duplex. I'm loading two views. One shows the road leading up to it and it's the first duplex to the right of the photo. The second is a front on view as I panned the camera around. That door to the right was our entrance and the front windows were off of the living room.







From there, I located Upcrest Road where I lived in the commune. In 1986 it was still painted yellow with green shutters and a big tree out front. Now it's white. One view shows the commune to the leading right and the wall at the dead-end top of the street. The other views show the commune. The upstairs far right two windows were r's and my bedroom. The two in the middle were off of a common area. In warm weather we sat on that upstairs patio. I still have a photo taken on my birthday leaning against the railing. Those stairs were treacherous in winter!! And I won't even get into shoveling my VW Beetle out of the snow before dawn some mornings.







Boston, it was good to see you again!

My goodness...they let the animals out of the zoo!

I WENT OUT AGAIN TODAY!! I was on my last ream of paper and had put my last cartridges into my color printer so decided to go for it. Went to Office Depot.

I remembered they usually had one of those driving things at the door. My first time on one. The interesting thing is that I can never get anybody to answer questions in there. This time, a sales guy asked what was on my list and LED me to every single item. It was so nice because even tho I was riding, that store is big and I was swimmy dizzy halfway through following him around. Had a few near misses with some of the stacks of stuff in the aisles and one sales person moved pretty quickly to get out of the way when she spotted me weaving in her direction. :-) Left the paper in the car for the husband to bring in and got in the other stuff. Picked up a box of Christmas cards, envelopes and, of course, a candy bar.

Feel a bit limp now so I'm gonna crash. WHEW. The citizens of Lake Worth are safe again yet another day

American Poet Series by Didi Menendez

Didi Menendez, publisher of MiPo productions and gifted artist, is painting American poets who send her their photographs and whom she then chooses to paint. I was very fortunate to have a painting of myself done, since I love Didi's work. Click on American Poets (americanpoets.blogspot.com) to see her portrait of me.

This was painted from a younger photograph. I was 30 and sitting in a Harvard Square coffeehouse when my friend snapped the photo. I think this is one of the best earlier photos of myself that I have and Didi has turned it into a painting that will soon take an honored place in my home.

Thank you, Didi!

If the Times says it...

(When I first became ill with this disease after an energetic life, a busy career, I went from doctor to doctor, when able to drag myself to an office, terrified of the symptoms and hoping for help. For the most part, I received redicule instead. I was told:

1)I was crazy
2)I just needed a 'little rest' and it would go away
3)I must REALLY be depressed etc.

One doctor , a neurologist, ridiculed me and laughed at me to my face. An ENT I went to for inner ear testing, looked at the results, which said my inner ear was fine, and told me quite solemnly that I had a 'neurotic depression'. I told him I was a clinical psychologist who used to run treatment units and I'd never seen depression manifest this way and that this was no depression. He gave me a sorrowful look and said 'we never see it in ourselves'. Sigh.

The CDC said we were depressed and the world believed it, treating us this way. It also diverted research funds as did NIH until an investigative reporter discovered these diversions, a committee in Washington investigated, and things began to change. The CDC now has proclamied the illness as 'real'. Oh thank you , CDC, but no real funds go into research yet--more so into campaign ads.

We are truly the 'forgotten illness')

Please read the following article from The Times:

Frontline Report:
Chronic Fatigue No Longer Seen as 'Yuppie Flu'


By DAVID TULLER
Published: July 17, 2007


For decades, people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome have struggled to convince doctors, employers, friends and even family members that they were not imagining their debilitating symptoms. Skeptics called the illness “yuppie flu” and “shirker syndrome.

But the syndrome is now finally gaining some official respect. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in 1999 acknowledged that it had diverted millions of dollars allocated by Congress for chronic fatigue syndrome research to other programs, has released studies that linked the condition to genetic mutations and abnormalities in gene expression involved in key physiological processes. The centers have also sponsored a $6 million public awareness campaign about the illness. And last month, the C.D.C. released survey data suggesting that the prevalence of the syndrome is far higher than previously thought, although these findings have stirred controversy among patients and scientists. Some scientists and many patients remain highly critical of the C.D.C.’s record on chronic fatigue syndrome, or C.F.S. But nearly everyone now agrees that the syndrome is real.

“People with C.F.S. are as sick and as functionally impaired as someone with AIDS, with breast cancer, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” said Dr. William Reeves, the lead expert on the illness at the C.D.C., who helped expose the centers’ misuse of chronic fatigue financing.

Finish this article at The New York Times Online/

Then and Now: My college friend visits.

Marilyn and I were friends throughout college. During our senior year, her brother who'd been in the service, came to Stetson, too. We hit it off and dated throughout my senior year. The top picture is Marilyn and me mugging for the cam yesterday. Below it is a picture taken the summmer after college when Marilyn and Dick came up to Pageland, my hometown, for a visit. You can see how much attention brothers pay to their sisters:-)

Anyway, I'm tired, but enjoying the visit. It's extra special when a friendship lasts this long.

Click to enlarge.

Oh, on the poetry front, I just had another poem accepted by Empowerment4Women and a couple of haiga accepted for Sketchbook. Life moves on.

Is Hiliary the new AntiChrist? The Republicans surely think so!

Isn't it wonderful being a female candidate for President? Irregardless of whether you're for her or against her, it seems odd to me that the Republican candidates seem to find that attacking her is the biggest assurance they have for gaining applause or laughter in a speech. Is it just Hiliary or is the thought of a woman running this country still too damn scary for men to even contemplate? Were her anatomy different, would she be subject to these attacks that grow daily? Wow, Hiliary, I'm so afraid. Let me act like a sixth grader again and call you names. Maybe you'll go hide behind mama's skirt and won't try to play with the big boys again.

Yes, this kind of behavior makes me furious. Mud-slinging in any campaign is campaigning at its lowest. Why should I expect any different from the party that brought us George Bush,though?

See today's Washington Post online article:



GOP Primary Story Stars a Democratic Antagonist

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

They mock her proposals, utter her name with a sneer and win standing ovations by ridiculing her ideas as un-American, even socialistic. She has become the one thing the Republican candidates for president can agree on.

Hillary Clinton.

Earlier this year, the senator from New York was the subject of an occasional laugh line from former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Now, the trickle has become a torrent as the leading GOP candidates seek to one-up one another in a Clinton-bashing contest aimed at energizing their party faithful.

"The competition inside the GOP for who's the most anti-Hillary is going to pay dividends," said Greg Strimple, a GOP pollster and consultant who is not working with any presidential campaign. "Looking for that piece of anti-Hillary energy is what you're seeing right now."

Read the rest of this Washington Post article HERE

Lee Herrick brought back some old memories...

...by posting a youtube video of this group. This is one of my all time favorites by them. Now, if you don't know these guys, you were born 'yesterday'.:-)

Keeper of the Heads

(In the movie, Coming Home, Jon Voight speaks of the other side of war the Vets have to carry...they have to live every day not only with what was done to them and their buddies, but with what they did, themselves. It's an awful burden to carry. My former brother-in-law was in the jungles. After, he came to visit us and laughed about the ears on belts, throwing Cong out of copters, but he wandered for three years, lost and stoned. I would never wish war on anyone on either side, but it goes on...and the orphaned children roam the streets , selling their bodies for food)

_____________________________


Nights, when the rain falls like bullets
and lightning shocks the ground
with bomb-white flashes,
the heads in my basement talk to me.

My grandfather tells me I'm such a good girl.
My mother asks if I want rice.
My grandmother offers to brush my hair.
My father grunts in his sleep.

They speak for hours about the old days;
days before Ho Chi Minh wielded his fist.
Before the French. Before the Americans.
Days when our land rose in green stair-steps
to kiss the morning heat, and flowers
formed a rainbow along the jungle's edge.

My brother yanked their bleeding heads
off the posts surrounding our slaughtered village,
ears sheared clean for the Americans' belts.
He and I had been sent searching for roots.

I brought them here, well hidden,
even from my G.I. husband, the man
I seduced, married, and ultimately killed,
the man whose house I still inhabit.

Blood taken for blood given.

He never knew I killed many before him
during my days first as orphan, then bar girl.

My looks saved me.
I'm still beautiful, though silver threads through
my hair like tears.

Tears for our trampled rice paddies.
Tears for our streams bubbling with blood.
Tears for the slain water buffalo and barren trees
leaning into a sky burned orange by Napalm.

Tears, too, for lost innocence and
hands that will never again wash clean.



Pris Campbell
(c)2005

Shameless Lion's Writing Circle

Pepe the assassin just gifted me with this award. Thank you Pepe!

First a description of the award:

The Shameless Lion's Writing Circle says : Those people I've given this award to are encouraged to post it on their own blogs; list three things they believe are necessary for good, powerful writing; and then pass the award on to the five blogs they want to honour, who in turn pass it on to five others, etc etc. Let's send a roar through the blogosphere! The image above can be copied and pasted onto other blogs. Also, a small size of the award for sidebars can be found over at the writing circle site.

I would list these three things:
-solid knowledge of the craft
-courage to write honestly
-unusual approach to ordinary subjects

I would pass this on to the following:

Collin Kelley
Burning Moon
Lee Herrick
Colleen: Loose Leaf Notes
Arlene Ang

*These represent only a handful of the very fine poets on my links list, btw.

Featuring David Caddy: A wonderful video and a new book out!

David Caddy reads 'Stag' from his forthcoming collection Man in Black, available from www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk Filmed in Salisbury by Christopher Milner. Go to the site to order.

David Caddy is editor/publisher of Tears in the Fence, an excellent print U.K. journal, and is active both teaching poetry and doing readings throughout England.

My own book is on order. I'm looking forward.

Pris

Amy Winehouse and her F Me Pumps (youtube)

My friend, Jim Knowles sent me this note and the youtube link on Facebook this morning after reading my Jimmy Choo poem in Women4Empowerment (link two posts down). Thanks, Jim. This is a fun song and I love her style.

Your shoes poem
reminds me of some
early Amy Winehouse




(If you want to watch this full screen on youtube, the URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EGk8nI9fvg)



I looked up the lyrics to F Me Pumps:

When you walk in the bar,
And you dressed like a star,
Rockin' your F me pumps.

And the men notice you,
With your Gucci bag crew,
Can't tell who he's lookin' to.

Cuz you all look the same,
Everyone knows your name,
And that's you whole claim to fame.

Never miss a night,
Cuz your dream in life,
Is to be a footballers wife
You don't like players,
That's what you say-a,
But you really wouldn't mind a millionaire.

You don't like ballers,
They don't do nothing for ya,
But you'd love a rich man six foot two or taller.

You're more than a fan,
Lookin' for a man,
But you end up with one-nights-stands.

He could be your whole life,
If you got past one night,
But that part never goes right.

In the morning you're vexed,
He's onto the next,
And you didn't even get no taste.

Don't be too upset,
If they call you a skank,
Cuz like the news everyday you get pressed.

You don't like players,
That's what you say-a,
But you really wouldn't mind a millionaire.

Or them big ballers,
Don't do nothing for ya.
But you'd love a rich man six foot two or taller,

You can't sit down right,
Cuz you jeans are too tight,
And your lucky its ladies night.

With your big empty purse,
Every week it gets worse,
At least your breasts cost more than hers.

So you did Miami,
Cuz you got there for free,
But somehow you missed the plane.

You did too much E,
Met somebody,
And spent the night getting caned.

Without girls like you,
There'd be no fun,
We'd go to the club and not see anyone.

Without girls like you,
There's no nightlife,
All those men just go home to their wives.

Don't be mad at me,
Cuz you're pushing thirty,
And your old tricks no longer work.

You should have known from the jump,
That you always get dumped,
So dust off your fuck me pumps


Amy Winehouse Lyrics from http://www.lyricsmania.com

Publication in Sketchbook Journal.

I just discovered that my halloween haiga has already been published in Sketchbook and two poems will be in their December issue. How very nice. Another journal I like. Those of you who are interested in this publication need to join the Outlaw Yahoo group. The journal publishes short forms AND free verse poetry.

My WHOO HOO Jimmy Choo Shoes in Empowerment4Women

You'll find the poem under the link, Expressions, in Empowerment4Women, a fantastic journal well worth checking out.



Cover art by Lidia Simeonova. You'll find a link to her work in the journal.

Well, I'm back in one piece. (click to enlarge the photos)

I was super dizzy after the car ride up, but rested while my husband scouted out some places to visit the next two days. It turned out this timeshare was in the hub of what has to be the biggest center of tourist attractions in most of the U.S. I'm a quiet vacation sort and seeing fast food places every other building, tourists racing to get to DisneyWorld, SeaWorld, Younameit World, to stand in long lines and buy overpriced junk...well, it can blow your mind.

The timeshare layout was very nice, but we discovered to our horror that the approximately 100 A/c units on the roof directly above us(with no insulation) came down into the rooms day and night. No, there was no quiet to be had there. In fact, we were due to check out this morning, but agreed after two nights of the deafening noise and on a sagging mattress (so much for opulence lol) that we would drive that night and get home to sleep in peace and quiet on a firm mattress.



This is me lounging on the (sagging) bed:-)



steve making call in the sitting area of one of the two joined units





Me, vamping on the balcony

On the very positive side, despite the noise, the confusion, the tourists, I DID get away for my very first trip and did okay. I was dead tired by the second day, but we saw a few things both days. Day one we went to a place called Old Town. It was out to sell stuff, too, but it was pretty and relatively quiet. We even found a blouse I liked and then, in a head shop that had just opened, I got a really net black tee shirt with the cover for Abbey Road on it. I really wanted Janis Joplin, too, but not in my size. On the way home we found a chinese bouffet with really good food for an astounding six dollars a person.






me in Old Town on my Harley, cleverly disguised as a wheelchair.



steve not wanting his pic taken at the restaurant

Day two we went to Disney City (NOT Disneyland). It was loud and not worth the trip, in my opinion , but my husband's friends had said there was a good sandwich lunch place...only if you wanted to stand in line for an hour (or in my case, sit). We left and went to this eerie place Steve had seen that he said reminded him of The Stepford Wives, a place called Celebration City. It's a 'perfect little town' with houses and stores made to look like old fashioned towns, but nobody was going in and out of the post office, the drugstore, nowhere. The pool was deserted, as was the playgound and tennis court. The sidewalk restaurants on the parallel streets overlooked a small lake and so we had lunch there. The breeze was cool and birds were everywhere. I googled Celebration when home and found out that it belongs to Disney and is an experiment in community living. That explains a lot about why it looked so surreal.



Over by the water in a quieter section of Disney Town



...and a bird scavenging for food in Celebration city where we ate



map of the general area. you can see all the tourist places

That was it for me. If I go anyplace like that again, if it's top floor I'm not going. The wife of my husband's friend told us she wished she'd gotten a sleeping pill to take (she told steve this by phone after we were already there...gads).


I need to rest today, so you may not hear much more than grunts for even a couple of days in response to any comments.