Police Mopeds - exception to the rule!

I spotted this on my way to work and had to pull over, stand in the street during morning rush hour and take a picture. It looked like some nerd version of a biker gang, but then I realized they were Police mopeds AND they were parked illegally. (See the 'no parking to corner' sign that they are ALL on the wrong side of?) Hilarious!

Near drownings on the Harpeth!

OK. So the title was for shock value. I went canoing on the Harpeth River this last week with my friend and her 4 kids (age 10-4) and we had a few tip overs, but all it all it was fun and no one drowned. The geek and I planed to go again on Monday, but we woke up to storms. Boo. Happy Memorial Day all! I am thinking of my little brother who is still in Marine training out in California. He's bound to be shipped off soon and I hope I don't have to remember him on Memorial Day, just Veterans day.

electric skin

Everything is irritating me today, even the clothes I have on! I suppose this is just another one of those mysterious side effects of being pregnant, but I do not like it! It makes everything green (this is the color I've always associated with prickly feelings on my skin - like when I'd wake up in the night with a dead hand from sleeping on it.)

I am wiggly

i am: wiggly
i think: like I am in a fog – thanks little one!
i know: I am loved, but don’t always remember. (kinda like times tables)
i want: to go get in the pool
i have: work to do, but don’t remember to do
i wish: i had no more debt and didn’t have to worry about bills.
i hate: the smell of humanity, the unwashed version.
i miss: being able to work harder
i fear: being left alone forever
i feel: physically refreshed, but mentally tired. I also feel content and happy
i hear: the white noise of the office AC unit
i smell: cubicles
i crave: sunshine
i search: for my water bottles, I have three and still they elude me
i wonder: what my baby’s face will look like
i regret: not being a better friend over the years
i love: so much it hurts sometimes
i ache: because my blood pressure is a little elevated today
i care: about my neighborhood
i always: loud
i am not: shy anymore
i believe: that Jesus is the best thing that happened to this world
i dance: to Sixpence when I wash dishes and to Jazzy favorites with children
i sing: without knowing I am
i don't always: pick my clothes up off the bathroom floor
i fight: to protect the helpless and innocent and for the ones I love
i write: because I cannot help but write. It comes out on whatever is handy
i win: radio station drawings for uncool prizes and become ineligible for the cool ones 2 days later!
i lose: my keys
i never: have returned to my birth country
i confuse: others around me, at work apparently.
i listen: to the sound of summer
i can usually be found: never in the same place for longer than a few hours
i am scared: sharks, for no good reason. I wish I could stop being scared.
i need: time, affection and attention (not the bad kind)
i am happy about: the bean being as big as a fig and the geek coming back from ‘Man Camp’ excited!

you?

First Mother's Day!

Sunday morning I woke to a sweet 'Happy Mother's Day' from the geek, who then rolled out of bed to make me bacon and eggs - except we were out of bacon AND eggs. So cereal...out of milk. This whole making breakfast for me for Mother's day was starting to look grim, but then, I remembered the $20 in tips I got from the ice-cream shop the night before! We quickly dressed and headed to Noshville (our favorite Sunday morning restaurant) for ham and eggs and griddle cakes! We didn't get to sit at the bar with Linda (our favorite waitress) but it was good all the same and we enjoyed the food immensely (until I ate the silver dollar potato latkes, which were fried, but I've never had trouble with them before - guess babe doesn't like grease in the tummy)plus I got a little corsage to wear! Happy Mom's day to all you moms and moms to be!

Ummm...I gotta go practice.

Yuto Miyazawa - 8-Year Old Japanese Guitar Phenom! from Metal Edge TV on Vimeo.

Remembering the light - Dawn at Miami Beach

It’s dawn on Miami Beach. The sun is rising without much pomp or circumstance, much as it does every day around here. The sand, still littered with last night’s seaweed from high tide and last night’s trash from high life, stands nearly empty of people, cool under my feet in the gray light.

There is an older woman, stocky and large of bosom, dressed in what must only be called a bathing ‘costume’, for she wears what appears to be a shapeless green and blue dress, thick black stockings, and a turban. Her movements are awkward in the shifting sand close to the constant rhythm of the waves. She sits down at the water’s edge and is surprised by a larger wave, a herald of the high tide that is coming.

Aside from the seagulls, there is one other person, a young guy, dressed in a black tank top with close cropped hair, who keeps, like me, taking snapshots of the horizon and gazing back at the boardwalk as if waiting for someone.

The night still hides in the hollows of all of yesterday’s footprints, purple and fighting the dawn, while the crests of the hollows become tinged with orange. The sky is painted the same color, as the sun plays coy for a few moments. At the horizon the clouds make cities with peak and towers against a blood red sky. In a moment, the blaze of the sun peeks over the edge and in a moment more, it sends its light in a fiery band across the waves to me, here with crossed legs and squinted eyes, trying to capture the beauty of something so mundane, but so exquisite.

How many sunrises must the world have seen by now, yet each one seems miraculous in and of itself, as if, in our hearts, we forget what the day is in the dark hours. But soon the dark will have nowhere to hide, not even in the hollows of footprints, as the sun makes it’s daily sojourn to the top of the dome of heaven.

Way to deal with the BIG issues...

This was my letter to the editor of the Nashville Scene:

"In the face of city-wide hearings to possibly cut multiple bus routes and limit AccessRide (disability services with MTA ), and with MTA facing a budget shortfall of over 2 million dollars due to the price of fuel, I pick up a copy of the scene to fine the riveting headline story of...a Burger Contest?

Come ON! How is this news? Maybe the Scene got big advertising bucks for this story, or some food critic got to eat burgers at a ton of cushy joints, but with gas prices rising this summer and the city in DESPERATE need of a greener and cheaper alternative to everyone driving individual cars, one would think that the Scene, usually the champion of the these 'big bad city plans to screw the little guy' type of articles, would pick up on this. No, it’s not the typical Scene reader that will be affected by these cuts, but it should be. What better way to encourage all of those environmentally concerned, carbon footprint reducing readers to help both the city’s growing smog and transportation issues than to make an appeal to the readers to show up at those hearings, make their opinion know, perhaps get ON the bus themselves and see what they can do for their city.

If that’s of no concern to you, how about the City council’s plans to close the only public pool in the Cleveland Park neighborhood that sits between Dickerson and Ellington Pkwy? Plus the removal of the ONE bus route that could actually bus the children of the neighborhood to the closest pool (East Park), the # 30 line, which is on the docket to be cut. Hmm. These issues seem way more important than whose burger tastes the best and which of your employees got to clog their arteries by feasting on ground beef. How about paying a little attention and not sitting silently by while the city’s children, disabled and people of lower socioeconomic status get the shaft?"

OOOOooo. It burns me up sometimes! If you have an opinion, please attend these public hearings:

*NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING*

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) will be holding four Public
Hearings on the following issues:

* Fare adjustment for MTA regular and AccessRide services. The
Metropolitan Transit Authority is currently considering five possible
scenarios for fare adjustment ranging from a 5 cent to 25 cent increase to
the base fare as well as associated increases in other fare media and
passes.

*Possible removal or reduction of some or all of the following routes:

· Route 13 – Sylvan Park

· Route 31X – Harpeth Valley Express

· Route 1 – Vine Hill

· Route 45X – Oak Hill Express

· Route 16 – Madison – Old Hickory

· Route 30 – McFerrin

· Route 37X – Tusculum Express

· Route 8 – 8th Ave. South

· Route 41X – Golden Valley

· Route 18 – Airport Express – Elm Hill Pike

· Route 2 - Belmont

* Possible reductions in service on all MTA routes, including the
elimination of night service, Saturday, Sunday, and Holiday service, as well
as the Night Owl service.

* Possible reduction of the ADA AccessRide service to areas within 1.5
miles of regular service routes.

The public hearings will occur at:

6:00 PM, Monday, May 5th, 2008 at the Rochelle Center – Building-A
Conference Room, located at 1020 Southside Ct.

12:00 (noon), Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at the Downtown Library,
Conference Center, located at 615 Church Street.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at the Downtown Library, Conference
Center, located at 615 Church Street.

6:00 PM, Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at the Madison Branch Library,
located at 610 Gallatin Pike.

* *

Additional meetings may be held and will be announced at a later date.

* *

Please note that attendance at these meetings is not required for comment.
You may also mail your comments to MTA Planning Department, attn: Public
Hearing Comments, 130 Nestor St., Nashville, TN 37210, or fax your comments
to 862-6208, or email them to mta.publichearings@nashville.gov. Comments
will be received until May 14th, 2008.

For ADA accessibility information contact:
ADA Coordinator
130 Nestor Street
Nashville, TN 37210
(615) 862-5950