Who You Gonna Vote For?

So I caught two minutes of the DNC tonight and just about puked – wait, wait, wait before the RNC, ‘cause I will have similar bilious responses.

I saw Hillary, is it Rodham or isn’t it, Clinton’s introduction narrated by Chelsea Clinton, a Stanford graduate – is that true? What happened to the ‘hood in Paly?

First of all, props to Christopher Titus who pimped me with the “wait, wait, wait” mantra, and I think it is brilliant, and I should take his advice...I’m a little disgusted and should “wait, wait, wait” before I write. But, I have never been one to take advice, and I write under a pseudonym, so, wtf?

First, what the f**k is her name? Is it Hillary Clinton or Hillary Rodham Clinton? It always changes. It was Rodham until it effected Bill’s election, then it wasn’t, then he was elected, and it was Rodham again, until he ran again, then it wasn’t, then it was, then it wasn’t. I guess it’s Rodham unless it’s electoral, then it isn’t.

Second, are we really that interested in someone who is willing to stand by a man who “never had sex with that woman.” I like his definition of sex, maybe it would be valuable in defining our relationships with Israel and Iraq?

But, to use your daughter, who clearly shuns the public, to announce that you have shattered the glass ceiling, by ignoring your husband’s clear infidelities, to further your power grubbing desires, is there no shame?

Well, I see the apocalypse coming. McCain will now use his prostitute to proclaim he is a good man, “he always tipped me well.” Biden will claim to have tipped his hooker better than McCain. McCain will then claim to have stood by his wife while she was double penetrated by Democratic insiders, to which Obama will claim to have watched his wife have sex with sheep.

Where does it stop? Pick a name, stick to it, leave your kids out of it. I know this is a ridiculous rant – it’s called satire. If you hate it, call Senator Clinton, but leave me out of it. Sorry, call Senator Rodham Clinton...or is it just Senator Rodham now? Well, call Chelsea’s mom, wtf?

But don’t call Stanford – and don’t send your kids there – they might end up condoning shtuff you don’t want them to, like Chelsea. Too much liberal thought does not make Chelsea a smart girl.

Tardy.

Spike

Travels and Travails

I just got back from the Pocono’s (no I didn’t pick my nose) and am off to Cali for a few weeks. My family has a place in the mountains of Northern California that I have visited since I was born and it feels like home to me. I have a lot of friends that I met as a young child who return every summer, now with their own children, and I am looking forward to seeing them again. There is a small river that runs through the development and my kids will have a ball splashing in it, catching crawdads and building sandcastles.

They say you can never go home, but this place seems to be the exception. It never changes. My dad calls it a trailer park, but it really isn’t. Towering Redwoods, Douglas Firs, the dank and verdant smell of a river valley close by the Pacific Ocean; all contribute to a sensory experience that is overwhelmingly welcoming.

I will be a little silent, dial up is my only option, but don’t take it personally. I’ll return fresh, philosophical and less frenetic.

Peace!

Spike

Summer Update

Who doesn’t believe in karma? My son has ear tubes and his language has blossomed; my mother recovered fine, and I found employment in a better district for more money.

Unfortunately, I had to buy a new liner for my pool and my fridge and washer gave up the proverbial ghost. Of course, this happens after I have booked vacation travel arrangements. Needless to say, finances should be interesting this summer.

It is what it is.

Spike

Changes

Things just seem to be blowing up for me. My mom is in the early stages of pneumonia, my son needs surgery to insert ear tubes, I need to complete a video for my teaching certificate, I am in massive debt and shit just blew up for me in my job so I am looking for a new one.

Can’t a guy catch a break?

I did tonight. I went upstairs to check the temperature in my kids’ rooms and to shut windows as needed. My daughter was in her bed, hugging the ubiquitous pink bunny named Bunny, sleeping like an angel. I shut her window and kissed her forehead. As I did, I was overcome with emotion. She is a pistol, averaging four goals a game in soccer, kicking butt in karate and giving her pre-k teachers a run for their money by throwing some monumental temper tantrums, but to see her asleep is to see the face of God!

Next was my son’s room. He was in his new big boy bed, butt up in the air and breathing contentedly. He has had seven or eight ear infections since September and his speech ain’t right because of it, but he is a peach, one of the sweetest little boys you will ever find. I took him to the Pediatrician today and to the ENT tonight and he made many new friends. He has such a sweet disposition that he collects adults like I collect bad habits.

I just pray that my transgressions aren’t visited upon my kids, although in several ways that has already happened. I always thought that being a parent would make me a better person, but it doesn’t; it just makes you more compliant, which sometimes means compromising your morals and values. You become more compliant so that you can provide for your kids. I know from doing the opposite; I wasn’t compliant, I spoke my opinion and held strong to my beliefs and now I am out of a job. C’est la vie.

Don’t get me wrong, I made mistakes. However, my transgressions did not warrant the treatment I received. Luckily, as a teacher, I am employed through June and paid through August, so I have a few months to make a soft landing. I feel more blessed than persecuted and eventually, this was the right move for me – I just wish I had a little more control over the situation. The moral is, if you work with snakes, know you will get bitten and have a plan. My plan wasn’t in place before I reached into the snake pit and now I am scrambling.

So Pilgrims, keep writing, be true to what you believe, but always be prepared because luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

Peace!

Spike

A Slice of Life

Well, I am thrilled that my second book is now out and available from Red Rose Publishing, www.RedRosePublishing.com. It should soon be available from all of the usual suspects, FictionWise, MobiPocket, Amazon, Crescent and Diesel. I just wish I had time to publicize and market it! I am so busy with the day job, the kids, the second job, that I just cannot find the time to promote it. So, do me a favor and help me out – tell your friends about it.

Hopefully it will get reviewed in the next six months, which is how long it took for “Pickup Lines From a Pickup Truck” to get reviewed, but hey, I am not on the top of the food chain...but if I was...well, I will leave that for another post.

For now, just know that I am inordinately busy with the daily detritus of demeaning demands of employment, parenting and paying the bills.

Spike

Ambiguity

It is a concept that defines and clarifies without being specific. One of my interests is New Criticism which is a critical analysis of literature based on its organic unity as demonstrated by the use of ambiguity and the intentional fallacy. It is interesting that Romanticism is also concerned with ambiguity, primarily the moral ambiguity of man and a focus on the beauty of nature as opposed to the imposed beauty of neo-classicism.

I guess beauty is where you find it. Beauty can be the perfectly constructed sentence and, it can be the appreciation of a perfectly formed Rose. These concepts have been exhaustively explored by philosophers much smarter than I and so I won’t be so presumptuous to attempt a philosophical enquiry, but I will give my take.

Beauty is selling a book, novel or short. Beauty is going through the process; submitting, editing and cover art. Beauty is seeing the process coalesce into a product for sale. For me, beauty is seeing my book for sale.

Don’t confuse my enamoration with seeing my book for sale with the joy and pleasure I get from seeing my child score a goal or seeing my child smile and laugh. It’s a narrow application of the concept of the sublime. My book for sale at www.RedRosePublishing.com is sublime. Watching my child smile or laugh is sublime.

Webster’s describes sublime as “supreme or outstanding.” I think all of the above qualifies, as does having you read my blog. Therefore, since I have a second book being published, I have kids scoring goals and you are reading my blog, I am living the sublime life.

Peace.

Reflections of a Green Monday

St. Paddy’s day has always fascinated me. I have memories of quaffing pints of green beer and gluttonous consumption of corned beef and cabbage. My heritage is Saxon, but on St. Paddy’s, everyone is Irish. I worked on Monday so I wasn’t able to engage in the festivities. My brother in law goes into the city every year for the parade and I am jealous. I have only lived in New York for a few years and I have yet to make the pilgrimage for drunken debauchery – my bad.

I have had a bit of an epiphany of late. I don’t want to jinx it by speaking about it yet, but I am more motivated, more inspired, more energetic and more committed than I have been in years. I feel as if a dark cloud has been lifted and the jovial visage of jocund day is smiling at me. The timing is fortuitous – I have a new book coming out soon, March 27th to be exact – and things at work are reaching critical mass requiring an inordinate amount of my time and energy. C’est la vie.

Not much else is going on right now.

Peace!

Spike