Occupy Wall Street moves across the U.S.

Occupy Wall Street or OWS is no longer confined to NY; we are occupying LA, and Washington and San Francisco and now even Phoenix. Yes, Phoenix, home of the dysfunctional Republican tea partiers and haters of all things liberal. This Saturday, Oct. 15, in Cesar Chavez plaza downtown, Moveon.org is having a "Jobs not cuts" rally in connection with the OWS. And I''m taking my kids and myself down there to show them what direct political action means. It is so important to make sure that our next generation knows that they can still make a difference--before it's too late--to get the money out of politics and make it count for people again.

Time

There is not enough time to do anything. Today I baked bread and cookies and did 3 loads of laundry but I want to just sit down and read and it's not going to happen because I have to fold those 3 loads of laundry. I would so welcome some time during the day when it is quiet, when I can sit out on the back patio and read books and think and write.

My life has become what I didn't want: the corporate job, the 8 to 5 job (okay, I like my work but it's still in the corporate mold, even if we are a casual office and don't have to wear suits or work in cubicles). I have become the writer at night. The writer who writes when all the cooking and cleaning and laundry is done, when the children are taken care of, when I'm so exhausted that I can barely write.

I have let Virginia Woolf's "angel in the house" swallow me. And I want some time back.

That's really enough complaining. I have to just make the time. No excuses.

Another book on food, different take

I have been deep into food and cooking and reading about this topic lately, from new vegetarian cookbooks to new vegetarian gluten free cookbooks to books about healthy food and creating healthier people and communities.

So into all this health, I had to inject some good, fun, venomous gossip with a lot of really bad language. I was reading Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw and it's definitely worth reading. I'm only halfway through but it's tons of fun and lots of cursing with Bourdain's very pointed and informed views about the world he has inhabited for more than 25 years.

More thoughts when I finish the book. In the meantime, go get this one. It's easy to read and really skewers the foodies and food stars that have taken over the airwaves.

Do you eat? Great book to read

Silly question, huh? Do you eat? But not so silly if you ask if this way: Do you eat to live or do you live to eat? The answer should be "both." You should certainly eat to live, i.e., get fuel to keep you alive from your food. But it should also be that you enjoy your food, taste your food, cook your own food, even grow a lot of your own food (or at least make friends with the people that grow it).

The idea behind a very short, simple book that everyone who eats should read is that we should do both: fuel our bodies but on healthy, "real" food, and enjoy that food, in smaller amounts of better quality so that we do not "overfuel" and continue the obesity epidemic that is engulfing the Western world, really due to our overeating and inactivity.

The book? Michael Pollan's Food Rules. It really is short, a couple of years old (2009, I believe), and consists of 64 food rules that will help you appreciate your food and eat better.

I would love it if people joined me, especially people with children, and tried to drive more than a few fast food restaurants out of business. I'm sure we could find better jobs for our unemployed than ruining the health of our overall population.

Can pain result in creativity?

My experience is a negative. I'm not suffering from any chronic pain but the kind of surgical recovery pain that is pretty intense from time to time. And I find I cannot concentrate enough to finish reading chapters in a book, let alone creating a poem or writing even a page or two. It's easier to write short bursts in a blog like this but the pain seems to interfere with the contemplation and imagination necessary to put words, any words, on paper (or virtually).

Interestingly, the pain has made it difficult for me to remember words. I will start speaking and cannot grasp in my mind the word I need. The pain takes over and I just stutter, "uh, um, um, it's...". For someone who lives by words, this is extremely disturbing.

But I'm going to try and keep reading at least and getting my mind to recover as well as my body. Perhaps the blog will help.

Welcome to the post-divorce world

Here it is, the end of a marriage. It actually formally occurred on Feb. 3, 2011 but he just moved out a couple of weeks ago and it seems to have finally sunk in. I don't want to spend any more time thinking about it. It was not a "failure"; we have three gorgeous, intelligent, loving children and I find that I am not unhappy, unlike I was last year when he first told me he wanted a divorce.

Now I want to move on. Not just in the same old groove, but really move on. Join up and become more politically active like I used to be. Do more volunteer work. Do good things for others and be a real role model for my kids. Get back to writing regularly in the evenings, putting in a couple of hours every night on my poetry and fiction. Maybe even getting back to photography to capture something of my dad in my life.

Even though we are in the dead heat of an Arizona desert summer, I feel I am welcoming the burgeoning green growth of spring, the spring of the heart.

Progressive talk radio fan

Just for those who stumble upon this blog: listen to some intelligent talk radio like Thom Hartmann. He has written some fantastic books as well. You can find them on his website. His two latest books are free here and here. Worth reading and talking about. Introduce them to a conservative today.

Many moons have passed

Much time has gone by since I posted here. I have a new job, as an instructional designer writing corporate training courses in ethics. I love it, amazingly. It's interesting, the people I work with are great, I am engaged, and the pay is comparable to what I was earning before I was laid off.

I don't have a husband anymore though. We ended up selling our "dream house" in a short sale. We rented a house in Scottsdale and within a few days of signing a 12-month lease and moving in, Shawn said he wanted a divorce. After 10 years of marriage, nearly 13 years together, that was it. He wasn't happy. I have pretty much been miserable since that time although I can't say I wasn't miserable for some time before that.

Our divorce was final on Feb. 3 of this year. And I can handle it except I want my kids full time and all of a sudden he wants to split the time equally (one week with him, one week with me). I don't want that; I want them to live with me and visit with him on weekends.

I am depressed but I'm getting by. The job helps. Now, if I could start writing fiction and poetry again, perhaps write the scholarly book on paradox, sell some non-fiction pieces--that would also help a lot.