End of Suffering

We received terrible news this morning that Boo’s step-mother is terminally ill with colon cancer that has spread to her brain. My mother-in-law has always had strained relationships with her blood relatives, Boo and me so it was both shocking and dismaying thinking about navigating the mine field that is their relationship.

When Boo last visited during summer MIL was still onerous and irritated by everything and everyone. I deeply want for Boo to reach some closure with her so that Boo can begin to heal. The prognosis is three to six months and I’ve been praying that my MIL, realizing that she’s reaching her end, will make an effort to release any anger and resentment in hopes of finding peace and love.

It’s terrible that she’s alone because she’s driven everyone away. Her own sister won’t visit and her nephew who lives less than three miles from her doesn’t visit. She should be surrounded by supportive family members during this time.

She’s hospitalized now but will likely be discharged and sent home with 24 hour care either Sunday or Monday. The doctor has recommended hospice care but she prefers to be in her own home.

I pray that this will be a time for healing; for releasing animosity and forgiving. A time to appreciate how precious life is and that God has given everyone an opportunity to make amends and dispense of petty grievances.

Dia De Los Muertos / Day of the Dead

Is celebrated by the Latin community on November 2nd All Souls Day, it’s a day for celebrating the lives of our dearly departed. I have never participated by making an altar, I’m just not that creative, however, I love viewing the creativity of others and appreciate a glimpse into the lives of the deceased.

The traditional altar is how most people commemorate loved ones by including their favorite foods, beverages and hobbies. If I created an altar for my sister I would include miniature 45 rpm vinyl records, a phone (she was always on it!), a dancing calavera (skeleton) dressed in pink, yellow and red my sister’s favorite colors, a blue car (she loved driving), a can of 7-Up and a steak (she would eat steak to celebrate achieving a goal).

This artist’s oil painting tells of  his father being a Pachuco (a pre-cursor to today’s gang member) who dressed very well, was a boxer, liked to gamble and restored cars – he successfully conveys this, right?

These individual artists used mosaic and quilt to commemorate their grandmother and mother, respectively.

The mosaic illustrates the grandmother’s love of gambling with the use of dominoes, a watch from her era and a favorite doll.

The quilt illustrates that the artist’s mother was very ill, the black bird represents that death is imminent and the green trees encircling the bed that her mother was not afraid of dying and has faith she’s going to a better place.

Halloween 2009

I spent Halloween at Disneyland and wow, did we have a fantastic time. The park was crowded with children in costume (sadly for some, adults are not allowed to be in costume at Disneyland), which didn’t bother me since I think it minimizes the risk of mischief. It seems anyone over age 12 was not allowed to wear wigs or costume.

As always Disneyland was festively decorated and the evening was topped off with a Spooktacular pyrotechnic display to rival the Superbowl intermission. Oogie Boogie MC’d the fireworks and Zero glided overhead across Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

We closed the night by happening upon the Opera House, formerly Guest Services, and discovering the recently opened Disney Gallery, a wonderful retrospective of Walt Disney himself, as well as the beginnings of Disneyland as archived through photos, models, paintings, drawings, artist conceptions, countless books, etc.

It is worth a visit and worthy of an ‘E’ ticket!

As immature as this may sound Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I do consider it a holiday. I like scaring myself silly by watching scary movies, I enjoy playing pranks on and scaring my friends, I love decorating in ghoulish purple, black, orange, red and blue and I get very happy and excited when I see houses / businesses fabulously decorated for Halloween.

Fewer houses / businesses are decorated this year in deference to the recession and the lousy economy, but there are still plenty of folks who have the halloween spirit. We went to Stats (a decoration emporium) to see the latest in decorations and they had some outlandish decorations that I wished I could afford. If I’d only win the lottery!

Where there is faith…

Sometime past I tweeted:

Couple expecting / After four miscarriages / First baby for them / Second child for mother / Husband just laid off 1:32 PM Aug 14th from Ping.fm

and I received a very reassuring tweet from @baczo about our Lord providing for those with faith.

Well I thought I should update everyone that the expectant mother is doing just fine on complete bed rest. She’s unbelievably cranky but she and her husband are so hopeful that this baby will reach full term.

Her husband begins new employment next Monday in the same industry, working closer to home and the new company understands and is supportive of the pregnancy and how delicate it is.

So with the Lord’s blessing, this couples desire to do their part (the footwork) it is very likely everything will turn out favorably and a new life shall enter this world!

Identity Theft

Being a victim of identity theft has left me in full appreciation of how much havoc in my life this crime has caused. Its tentacles are far reaching, insidious and, I fear, never ending.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I read the article Missing Laptop Contains Data on 800,000 Doctors. No mention is made about the data being encrypted so it likely is not which makes me wonder why hasn’t a law been enacted demanding that corporations, data firms, analyst, etc. encrypt their data or face fines? Once the information’s out there is too damned late to close the doors!

If the data is encrypted it provides one more level of security that may deter and frustrate the thieves from trying to access the data. The data should be encrypted at the database level even when sitting on servers, how many times has data been stolen after being hacked?

Why are people traveling with laptops loaded with sensitive information that is unencrypted and laptops that do not have strong passwords for logon? Can’t the person simply login to the network from home via a VPN and access the necessary information? Do they really need to go around town toting 800,000 records?

Instances like this just give me a migraine and until harsh fines are accessed for loss of information or compromised access these instances will continue and you and I will sustain the consequences.

They’re coming to get you!

Nothing like enjoying a scare now and then or, as the gals at work like to say, again and again and again! We’re in horror flick mode as we average three movies weekly during lunch. It takes  1-1/2 days to view one flick of 90 minutes to tw0 hours and we don’t mind that the film must be split.

The purpose of tolerating the interruption is so that we can enjoy viewing the movie together, getting scared together, teasing each other, screaming like geese when we’re frightened revealing our vulnerable side and then living with the embarrassment!

I’m listening to Halloween-themed mash ups that help me absorb the spirit even more as I search for more scary flicks to rent. We try to never repeat a viewing and happily there’s no shortage of slasher movies. As it is, flicks from the eighties are being remade and for the most part, they’re not bad.

Happy Haunting!

L.A. County Fair Redux

I went to the fair on Friday and was surprised at how empty it was, I know people were at work and school’s in session but still, I’ve gone to the fair on a Friday in previous years and it is crowded. I patronize certain vendors and inquired how things were shaping in this economy? Bad.

Even when attendance is good sales are bad, vendors have had to slash prices to move product. The fairgrounds is aware of the vendors plight and has decided to do the $1 admission promo this weekend – closing weekend – until 1 p.m. each day.

The fact the fairgrounds is repeating the $1 promotion closing weekend is a telltale sign of how bad this season’s been. It used to be the fair would remain in town a full four weeks and open 7 days a week. The past four years has seen the fair in town for three weeks and closed on Mondays. This year they’ve returned for four weeks and are closed Monday and Tuesday.

So even with two days closure attendance is still low and sales bleak. The vendors I spoke with do not believe the recession is improving, they feel it’s continuing a downward spiral and my shopping experience confirms this. The stores have folks in them but they’re not buying – they’re not carrying shopping bags. My co-workers are shopping less and sticking to their grocery list, what’s not on the list remains at the store.

What’s your experience?

Netbook Fever

I often frequent coffeehouses and tea cafes since my community has many independently owned & operated, it’s also my way of stimulating and contributing to the local economy.

Until recently I didn’t pay attention to which ones offered wifi, whether it was free or not and what amount of purchase, if any, was required. Now that I have the HP Netbook which is uber convenient to carry with me and set up my eyes have opened!

I see plenty of people surfing the web, doing homework, viewing YouTube videos, blogging and researching from their netbooks. Occasionally I glimpse a Macbook or full sized Windows notebook, but lately they’re netbooks that line the table tops.

Cha for Tea is a cafe that I truly enjoy frequenting because it not only offers free wifi but also has an open fun atmosphere for folks who like playing card and board games. On any given night you’ll see two or more groups engaged in a competitive game seated side by side the screen zombies.

The screen zombies preferred choice of equipment these days is the netbook. They don’t seem to mind that they lack an optical drive since all are engaged in activity that requires Net access. I haven’t become a screen zombie yet, preferring to use my time engage in healthy, competitive game warfare!

Hospital Essentials

Recently a co-worker’s mother spent hours & days at the hospital in support of her husband, I wondered how she was surviving the long days in between treatments. I anticipated what essentials I’d need under similar circumstances and decided my netbook with USB flash drive and games and iPod would be the items.

As of last Wednesday my nephew was hospitalized for four days and did nothing but climb the walls for two of them. I suggested my sister take her son a deck of cards, sketch pad with color pencils (he’s artistic) and the current musician magazine.

Again I wondered what I would want if I were hospitalized? I came up with a deck of cards, iPod with latest podcasts, the word game Bananagrams and my netbook with flash drive of games. These things would keep me mentally occupied and out of trouble!

What would you want?