I love my friends RAVE

Since I moved out to the desert I have not seen my friends nor have I been back to my old haunts in Hollywood. Although we were not able to hook up for my 60th ( rant below on the 28th ) my two buds Bridget and Jeff drove all the way out from L.A. just to take me to lunch and celebrate my birthday. We went to a Mexican restaurant around the corner and then to Coco's for pie ( I had boysenberry which is my all time favorite ). We then hit a few thrift stores and they came over for a few minutes to my place before tackling the traffic of New Years Eve. Now is that friendship or what? What sweetie pies they are! I love my friends. They are the BEST. And I know they are gonna face the horror of L.A. traffic for New Years Eve ( Big major EEEEKKKKK!!! ). So this year, which has pretty much been a wash, ended on a high note thanks for my wonderful buddies. Thank you thank you Bridge and Jeff for driving the extra mile and cheering me up. Thank God for wonderful friends who are such a blessing. 

Video Revived The Radio Star RAVE

I just recently got a computer. Prior to that I had been on a Webtv ( which I still have ). And on the computer there are many thing one can do and see that they do not get with the high rent low memory browser of Webtv. Such as youtube.. I am an addict!  I have youtubeitis! I have discovered the music of my youth and so much more! It is great looking at old clips from Shindig and Hullabaloo. I have watched Pavlova and Little Egypt dance! And then there was Rudolph Valentino doing the tango. Not to mention the most violent dance of them all, the Apache -- which not only led to the Tango but also to the Lindy! I have discovered new bands to enjoy and new singers  -- more of older ones from the 50s or before on through the 80s. The other night I spent watching clips of "hair bands" from the 80s. That singer from Banshee is really cute -- and I am not into blonds! And that singer from Baton Rouge... now there is another cutie! It is fun watching all of this old footage. Garage bands of the 60s. Current girl goth punk bands of today. Mod and psychedelic fashions of the 60s --- check out Julie Driscoll doing Season Of The Witch. Tres cool!  Or seeing videos once seen in the 80s --- or from tv shows of the 60s. And wayyyy before that. Wild jazz music from the 20s and look at the flappers and their fashions. Wooohooohoo!!! Love em! Some of the music does not have video footage but people have put up an album cover and then played the music. And I am loving it. Of course some of the singers or bands are REALLY AWFUL. But there are also some great bands and singers to hear and enjoy. I hope to be able to do some rants raves and reviews here or on youtube in future months to comment on some of the really good and really horrible music I find. Part of the fun is reading the comments of others --- such as someone thanking the person who put up the music or video clip because it is something they had not heard in 40 years! While everyone talks of ipods and of various music channels and stations who would have known that my favorite "radio station" would turn out to be youtube? In this instance it is a case of  "video revived the radio star" --- including so many radio stars I either had never heard of or had heard of but had never heard. Here are just a few I have heard or seen in the last month or so: Sophie Tucker, Libby Holman, Helen Kane ( whom Betty Boop was inspired by ), Helen Morgan, Ruth Brown, Big Mama Thorton.  The original Shake Rattle and Roll ( it wasn't Bill Hailey and the Comets ). What a treasure! I have just started to explore rockabilly ( love anything Wanda Jackson does, what an amazing voice! ) and wait until I get to some of those old blues clips! SAC

Happy big 6-0 ( wanna drink ) Big rant

1. I am not happy today. It is my 60th birthday ansd I SHOULD be happy but it has been miserable from the git go. I was supposed to be celebrating it with family and friends and that basically did not happen. I have yet to figure out what the hell it is about me that makes my family treat me as if my life and celebrating it do not matter. Maybe because I am single never married. Maybe it is because I am the poor relation. Who knows? They have never accepted my disability as being a disability. So maybe it is their contempt of me for being disabled and they only consider me to be a deadbeat. I love my mom but no matter how I have tried she will constantly harp on the fact that heaven forbid I was a hippie chick back in the 60s. I tell her NOT to bring this up anymore, especially in light of a family member who has substance abuse problems. She can make excuses for his behavior and will then say "You did drugs blah blah blah. GET OVER IT, MOM!!!! I took up the straight and narrow half a life time ago or more and yet you go on and on and on and all I get is kicked to the curb over this issue. NO praise for who I am now and have been for DECADES. All I get is criticism because of a few short years in my turbulent youth. And today I got more of it. Excuses for the deadbeats or those who not only do not try but who will con and lie to keep up their bad behavior. I am sick of being your whipping girl. And do you make allowances for my birthday concerning this? NO. I was not responsible for the bombing on 9-11. I did not cause the Northridge quake or the L.A. riots. I am not responsible for the drug wars in Mexico. I am not the scapegoat of the universe. Nor, because I am the oldest sister of my siblings am I going to be the surrogate of the older sister of YOURS who beat up on you. I have more than bent over backwards to love you and try and please you and not one damn thing seems to make you do anything but see me as some little hippie who formerly used drugs recreationally. Last year I made a New Years resolution to not drink as there are family members who have problems with substance abuse including alcohol. This year I will make no such resolution as I definitely would have LOVED to have had a drink today... I could have used one.  Athol Brose would have been nice ( maybe for New Years day.. ). And next year my resolutions will include not to believe ( with the exception of one brother who has never flaked on me or been anything less than honest with me, a great guy; you know who you are ) anything someone in my family promises me --- especially as my mother will then find some excuse to make an excuse for them flaking on me and then will criticize me. 
   
2. Now on to the lemonade birthdays --- this birthday, which I had been so looking towards, was a big lemon as far as my family was concerned. I ranted on that enough so let me talk about my friends. I have great friends. Sure there have been false ones and turncoats along the way. But I have been blessed both with what I refer to as face to face friends and also my cyber buddies ( some call face to face friends real life friends but the truth is that many of my cyber buds as are real and more real in my life than those I have met face to face ). So my family handed me a big fat lemon for my birthday. They don't GET that my 60th birthday is on the day I was BORN 60 years ago. What is it? This is not a week day but for some freakin' reason they could not deal with actually celebrating it TODAY. And NO, the day BEFORE and the day AFTER are not THE BIRTHDAY when it is a milestone such as 60. However, while I was by my lonesome when it came to anyone being there to help me celebrate on this day in person I did get a lovely cyber party over at Prof H's newsgroup on Webtv. And I got emails from a couple of friends, was able to talk to Bridget and her hubby Johnny, got a lovely voice mail from my friend Jeff Copeland and had a nice chat with my friend David in New Mexico. So that made some lemonade of a weeping not too happy turning 60 and feeling 90 birthday... one last thing on this, it seems as if my "celebrating the 60s" theme is going to have to apply to the entire decade as it will take me at least that long to get over how my family continues to blow me off regardless of the day. 
3. Post script to my rainy day comment on suicides. One of my sisters pointed out that many suicides are committed by mentally ill, especially bi-polars. Depression sucks ( been there, had the pity party ) but I still stand by what I wrote --- for those who are not mentally ill. It does not apply to those with a mental illness. I would advise someone who is suicidal to first see if something worthwhile can help you get out of your funk. If not try and contact a mental health clinic about your problem BUT insist on being tested to see if you have a chemical imbalance as bi-polars should not take certain medications for depressives. I will be talking more on the subject of mental illness at another time. Ok, enough of this. Time to sign off on this lemonade birthday...   SAC

YOUR Wonderful Life

Over a decade ago I was in my hometown of Seattle. I had returned from visiting with an elderly great aunt who lived in Yakima. I had been in Seattle before and after that visit and while there I had enjoyed the  beauty of autumn and the blazing colors that were such a visual joy. But when I returned from my visit to my aunt I found that Seattle was dismal and gray. It was not just that it was rainy. Seattle is legendary for its rain. It rains year round, though it is not so much of a constant deluge, more of the ever present drizzle. Seattle winters are brutal when it comes to cold, wet and wind. The city that has been so vibrant in autumn's glorious gown of sunshine yellows, antique golds, flaming reds and warm browns was now leeched of color. The city was now shaded in the despairing shadows of gray gloom. This was the melancholy gray of the most sinister of depressions --- a suicide gray. According to statistics, more people commit suicide in that barren limb dreariness of winter in Seattle then in any other time of the year.

So let us talk of this time of the year. It is not only Seattle but it is the holidays of Christmas and New Years that also finds people deciding to exit this life by their own hand. Depression brings thoughts that life is no longer worth living, that life is something that a person need no longer hold on to as if it were a hoard of dragon's gold.  "No one loves me. Who will care if I am no longer here? My life does not matter." But those who kill themselves are wrong. Life IS worth living. and their lives might have made a difference if they had not selfishly decide to kill themselves. "Selfishly?" You might ask. How can one say that some poor soul who had decided to end their life is selfish? But killing oneself is a selfish and a cowardly act. It is a craven act against God and against life itself. 

What are the odds that one will be born in the first place?  It is chance and circumstance that has written much of that tale. What were the odds your parents would meet, that you would be conceived and then be born? Pretty astronomical, if one stops to think about it. And now you want to toss it all away. Why? Because your life is as gray as the weather outside. Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I think I will eat worms and die. Oh boohoo! I am not accepting an invitation to your pity party. Nor would I show up at your funeral to mourn one who tossed away this great gift that was given to them.  

In the movie classic "It's A Wonderful Life" Jimmy Stewart plays a distraught banker of a small town who is facing ruin. He decides he will kill himself. Instead he "saves" his guardian angel who grants him his wish when he exclaims "I wish I had never been born." It turns out that he had lived a wonderful life that had saved others from poverty and even from death. His life had been a life worth living and at the end of the movie he realizes this. 

So what about your own wonderful life? Isn't it worth living? One can wallow in self-pity and depression to the point of considering or attempting suicide. Or they can do the best to find a way to make themselves feel good. Sometimes this can be a personal thing such as reading  an uplifting book or tackling some job around the house that needs doing and will make one feel satisfied once it is done. But there are other things one can do. Get off your duff and put aside your personal misery. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or a local homeless shelter. If you know of elderly or disabled neighbors, check on them and ask if you might help them in some way. It is YOUR wonderful life and you can use it to make others live better lives just because you are living and have chosen to give of yourself. 

Do not let the gray or the drear keep you down. Uplift the spirits of others and find out just how much your own life is really worth. You might be pleasantly surprised. 

Snooty Aunt Cynthia 

Counting Blessings

It would be so easy to spend my time here ranting. There is a lot to rant about but that is to for today's post. Sometimes life seems a bit much and yet.. what are the odds that a person would be born in the first place? The beauty of a sunset or a sunrise, the soft fluff of kitten's purr along with a purr as loud as an airplane, these are blessings. The soft brown gaze of a playful puppy, the laughter of a friend. We so often take blessings for granted. But we do need to stop and count our blessings. Smelling roses and enjoying their radiant colors. Rainbows after rain, the fresh smell after the storm when the world seems new. The sighting of wildlife in a mountain forest, the roar of surf and the feeling one gets of restlessness and a wild peace, on the shoreline of an ocean. The smile of your aged parent. The thanksgiving blessing of a brother, eating till we take our fill. Wide eyes bright with wonder on Christmas morning. Greetings of strangers when your eyes meet in public and they say "Have a nice day" and you reply "The same to you.". Light those candles in the darkness of despair, light them with the blessings you can find in memory or in the reality of the now. 

I Want My Grandma Shoes

As I became older my legs decided that rather than dancing around like a graceful faery at twilight, thy would adopt a third leg known as a cane. So I am not quite so spry as I was in my 20s. And yet, in my late teens and 20s there was something I would have been able to get my grubby young hands on that I do not have access to today: grandma shoes. My girlfriend Ann and I had "granny shoes" ( as we called them then ) to go dancing it. They were wonderful! These were black leather or kidskin oxfords with cuban heels that were usually 1 1/2 to 2 inches, maybe 2 1/2 inches on the outside. They had stitching on the sides, often of flowers. They were usually black. They had wonderful arch support. When the heels would wear down you could take them to a shoe repair and voila they were good again. These were the sort of shoes that young adults could wear out dancing all night and then walk 10 miles in ( and probably 10 miles in the snow, providing one wore some plastic galoshes over them ). These lovely shoes were the usual dress or going to market shoes of little old ladies such as my grandma Lalia. 

So WHERE are my grandma shoes now that I am grandma age and can use them? In the last few months I have seen "grandma shoes" in the fashion magazines. Sort of. They are lace up black oxfords but there is one major problem with these shoes. THEY HAVE SIX INCH HEELS!!!!!!!! I am sorry but those are not grandma shoes. They are break your body shoes. The young women growing up right now who wear these shoes with such high heels have no clue as to the problems they will have as they age. But then the young are invincible, aren't they? I know I certainly thought so when I was younger. 

I want my grandma shoes. I want the same sort of wonderful shoes that my grandma wore when she was a little old lady. I do not want a pair of pseudo-grandma shoes. I want the real thing. I want a well made pair of black oxfords with cuban heels that are 2 inches and under. I want good arch support. Athletic shoes are lovely but they are dressy shoes that are all occasion like grandma shoes were. So could some manufacturer get a clue? I discussed this with other women my age and yes, they also remember their grandmothers wearing "grandma shoes." There would be a huge market for these shoes. Our aging feet, our tired legs, would thank you. You could make a bundle of money off of baby boomer women! There are millions of us! And we do not want 6 inch heels. We do not want 4 inch heels. We want lower heels because then we can walk and dance and skip down a street for joy because we have stylish shoes that make our feet feel good and that make us feel good because we would look great. So give me my grandma shoes. And if you can, could you make them in scarlet red?

Shoddy and Restock {RANT}

Back in the good old days ( horse and buggy days and all that ) things to buy at stores were MADE IN AMERICA. These items were usually made in union shops and there would be a union tag on them. Nowadays finding a Made In USA label is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Almost everything is made in China or somewhere else. Even made in USA can be misleading. The union labels are gone and if it is "Made In USA" it is usually made by illegals under sweatshop conditions. I plan to rant more on this at another time. But the fact is that a lot of poorly made items from clothing to electronic goods, are shipped here for this nation of consumers ( aka chump, sucker, the mark ). Shoddy merchandise. 

Are you sick of it yet, American consumer? I sure as heck am! Which brings me to restocking fees... The merchandiser has found yet another way to sock it to the consumer.  Bad enough we have gone from "lifetime guarantee" to big ticket items that only are have a 30 to 90 day up to a year warranty on the outside, bad enough the stores try and sell us worthless warranties on top of the purchase price of whatever item we purchase. The stores ( both on and offline ) now want us to pay a "restocking fee."Anywhere from 10 to 15% for returning something that doesn't work right. The excuse is people will buy items and then return them, having only wanted to use them for a short while. This is an insult to the consumer and says we are all con artists out to rip off the local store. How about the stores and the big manufacturers who have been ripping off the consumer with shoving shoddy merchandise down our throats for decades now? Whether I am a yuppie ( which I certainly am not ) or some working class joe or jane who saved up for a long time to buy some big ticket item, do not insult me as a customer if I bring it back because it didn't work right and you tell me that you need to deduct a restocking fee from the total. I do not care if you tell me that you will give me a gift certificate for your store ( if the item I bought is no longer available ) or if you want to give me a duplicate of what I just purchased. Treatment like this is going to mean you have lost a customer. And in these uncertain economic times do you really want to do that? 

I have also heard that the stores are planning to charge restocking fees for returned gifts after Christmas. BAH HUMBUG! Stores need to start treating their customers with some respect. Or they will find their little empires crumbling into the sand. And how about putting America back to work at decent wages with good health care that does not cost an arm and a leg, decent pensions. Put America back to work so that when we, the consumer, go in to buy something, there is less of a chance that we will need to return it because it was shoddy in the first place. 

They should warn us {RANT}

Menopause is not fun. This is pretty much common knowledge. HOWEVER. What they do NOT tell you is that things can be worse AFTER rather than before you go through menopause. So let me explain all of this to you. Menopause is the term for when a woman no longer has the "curse."We stop having our monthly periods. YIPPIE!  Ahhh... sort of. The time before we stop our periods, for around 5 years, on average, when we have wacky cycles, a period every 3 weeks or none for 3 months, is known as peri menopause. Menopause is when one has not had a period for a year. The time after that is known as post menopause. Most of what one reads tells how hellish it is during peri menopause. And then life is the life of Riley. My peri menopause was relatively painless. but the post menopause has been horrible. During peri I had heat flushes ( these are different from hot flashes as they are a feeling of being slightly flushed with a warm feeling and might last all of 15 seconds or so ). I had mood swings, mostly mild though a few episodes were 10 minutes of bitchiness, 10 minutes of depression, things like that. And then I went through menopause and thought cool, no more periods, no more of menopause. It is OVER. Yeehaw! Little did I know... About 6 months ago or so things happened. Depression, anxiety, rage and flat out being antsy and restless. Pacing the floor sort of antsy. GRRRRRRRRR. NO FUN. And then there are the hot flashes...EEK. I turn 60 soon and thought all of this nonsense was OVER. It was done, kaput. Except it wasn't. So here I am with the mood swings from hell, with hot flashes, brain fogs... and when I checked it out on line, guess what? It turned out to be NORMAL! Why then, when they talk about menopause do they always mention menopause as if the years prior to it are the worst of it? Who knows? Maybe it is because for most women it is the worst. But we should be warned that menopause is not only peri. It is also post. And for some of us it it is worse after than before. And we need to know that when we think all of this nonsense is over it might only be beginning. How bad is it? How about having PMS plus hot flashes all month long? I just want to be normal again...I just want to be normal again. I just want to be normal again.... 

Snooty ( and often depressed, ornery and flat out cantankerous ) Aunt Cynthia

my new little blog

11-0-08

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I finally get myself a loverly little blog. Yippie....

My wonderful brother Hal has been so very helpful in helping the tech dummy get set up 

here. As I was typing Hal came on for my first video chat. Mom was over at his house and he had her on as well. What fun! Shades of video phones and the Jetsons!    Now about this little blog of mine... about that so cute ( I am hahahaha ) so hot (hotter than can be and fabulously cool besides... ) and so old ( I turn 60 in December so I am getting to the old part ).My name is Cynthia and I am an aunt and I am snooty upon the occasion. So I shall be known here as Snooty Aunt Cynthia or SAC. But I am not a sad sac (k)  but rather I m a glad SAC ( usually ). That is a half full glass of lemonade. And the glad is like the Pollyanna Glad Game. I do have rants and raves and reviews. The rants might be about anything under the sun but then again the raves could also be about anything either.

Ok, that is enough for this virgin voyage. Ta ta 4 now duckies, 

Snooty Aunt Cynthia