Thursday, June 9, 2016

Like Gumbo YaYa.....A Totally Random Wine Musings Post

I have no idea what i am going to say and will just let her rip, like i did in the old days back when Gumbo YaYa was running hot!

1. First on the list: let's talk about Brock (Turner) the Rapist. I love so much that this story is getting traction. And because of that traction i think i have a better appreciation for Facebook. There was no real justice for Brock's victim ....but the posts on Facebook have leveled the field and i read every word of her letter. It was powerful. Like i said on Facebook, this case could be the one that finally puts the spotlight on rape and women's rights. AND not only that, the discrepancy about how white men are charged and sentenced and African American men are charged. I have never been raped. But someone close to me has been this kind of victim:where she thought she was so drunk it was her fault for going with the guy in the first place, so she didn't report it.

2. Hillary and Bernie: I actually surprise myself that i am not all over the Bernie Bandwagon, because i was so into Howard Dean and the anti-Iraq war movement. But my thing with Bernie is i don't buy into idealism. Bernie feels like the grandparent who promised you on your 4th birthday to take you to Disneyland when you got a little bit older, and they never did. And you remembered when you turned 9. I like having a president who is qualified and who knows how to stand the fuck up when the hits keep coming. And that is Hillary. She may be the toughest candidate to ever run for President when you think about it.

3. And i don't buy into Bernie's free college for all. First off...not everyone needs to go to college. And too many will go and fuck around because it's free. And then what happens to our military if everyone is going to college? (Actually, that might be a good thing, now that i think about it, because we can't declare wars without a strong military)   I never had the chance to go to college though i had very good grades all through high school. And as a pragmatic personality, i like starting big things small. I think Bernie should start with free community college for any high school student who has the grades before he declares free college for all.

 4. Grace and Frankie! I love this Netflix series with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin! I wish there were more episodes to binge watch. I think i sailed through them in about four mornings. Jane Fonda looks amazing. And Lily Tomlin looks great too. She has inspired me to just let my hair just do the fuck what it wants to do.  I cancelled my haircut appointment after watching and decided to just let it grow like Lily's and pull it back. I will still color it for awhile because it's such a sickly dishwater gray, but i already know i'm not ready for the work of cutting it short and trying to make it not look like the gal on Murder She Wrote because it's so curly and frizzy when short.

5. I told a lie. I wrote on Facebook that inferred that i turned 60 years old. I didn't exactly come out and say that i was 60, but i made it sound like that....because i am trying it on for size. Turning 50 wasn't that bad because i am still middle age. But 60 is different. I am older than the age my mom was when Brian and i first got together in 1992 and my mom was old! Yet she was only 57 years old. I am starting to not like how i look and how i feel when i wake up. But i know it's not terrible. After all i can still run a 10K if i want to. So that's something. But there is not doubt. This is the beginning of old age. I don't like beginnings. I think i will like the middle better!

6. When i turned 40 i cut off all of my hair and bought a one piece bathing suit, which was really stupid when i look back on it, because i actually was probably in my best physical shape at the time. And everything was firm and not lost to gravity. And i had a libido. And i didn't hurt when i woke up in the morning. And i didn't worry about being on top! hahahha... That's sort of why i want to grow my hair out like Lily's. Don't want to make that mistake again. But i am aware.

7. Family. I do not know where i would be without my brothers and their kids. My niece Kylee gets married a week from Saturday. My favorite nephew Brian's daughter will be born in July (we jokingly refer to her as Clementine now because i texted the name to Brian as a joke and he loved it, though his wife , Adrienne, understandably did not) and i love his little boy Brady so much already. (The grandkids i always wanted without having kids myself.)  My brother Troy just got a great job that took two months of hoops to jump through, with Garrette Construction. My niece Ashley and her husband (who my husband Brian who officiated their marriage ceremony last August) are such a great couple who i truly believe will be married for life are in touch often. My parents are both stlll kicking though i worry for how long. Brian's mom is a special lady too and i worry though about her the most. But all in all. This is a good time for family. Weddings and babies.

8. Retirement. I didn't think i would love it this much. I keep thinking i can probably go off of my blood pressure medication now. I am as busy as i want to be and sometimes busier. Still not bored at all.

10 comments:

jojo cucina cucina said...

I forgot to add, that I am actually 59 years old. Not 60.

amulbunny's random thoughts said...

1 THE RAPIST- I have signed petitions to have him removed from the court. I think there was a lot of backstage manipulation and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that filthy lucre is involved. I read and cried when I read Joe Biden's reponse to the victim. Too had Joe didn't run, I would support him. He's got that wild streak that we need.

2. I voted for Hilary. No matter what indiscretions she has committed, she's no where near the crook that Trump is.

3. Free college would have been nice. Lower prices would be just as appreciated and some kind of negotiation on student loan debt. I'd love to have mine halfed. That way it wouldn't hurt as much.

4. I've watched a few episodes of Grace and Frankie. Will try to catch up when Outlander is over.

5. I don't lie about my age. I turn 63 this month. I am proud of that. I'm not in the greatest shape but I'm above ground. ...... On that note, Dixie Peach (aka Kim) lost her beloved Burkhardt last month. She was here for Mollie O'donnell's wedding and now is back in Germany to stay.

6. I keep my hair short and curly. I'm not going to dye it because i like the grey.

7. My brother only communicates with me when it's about my mom. They live 1800 miles away and dont' have to deal with the day to day stuff that goes on with a very independent 92 year old woman. Late night calls for help. Drives to the eye doctor for shots. In between I go to a DOL mandated class, and apprenticeship one night a week teaching English.

8. I thought I would be retired but the department of labor decided on the word of a quack that I could work 40 hours a week. Bum shoulder, pain meds and all. Plus I have 2 bulged discs between c5-7 that are aggravating my industrial injury.

9 I hope you have an awesome summer. It's 68 and overcast here.

amulbunny's random thoughts said...

In the first comment I meant the judge.

jojo cucina cucina said...

Oh amulbunny, so good to see you here!

I understood you meant the judge. Pretty sure he won't get re-elected, but then we are a nation who has allowed Trump to be a real candidate for President, so you never know!

I didn't hear about Dixie's husband because I am out of touch with so many yayas (which is fine actually, I am in touch with the ones I want to be) but I do remember her husband Burkhardt who was in the wheelchair.

Yeah, student loan breaks and some forgiveness makes more sense than free college tuition for all. It just sounds too pie in the sky for me. I do hope that HIllary chooses Bernie for her VP. That seems very unbeatable to me.

Re: your #8. Nothing can be done for you for your bulging disc issues???

Anyway, thanks for being here amulbunny! Happy summertime!

jojo cucina cucina said...

I like Joe Biden too!

jojo cucina cucina said...

I was going to put up a new blog about the Orlando mass shooting of 50 people at the gay club. But then I truly don't have any words to say. After Sandy Hook there really isn't anything else and I am so tired of the arguments about the Second Amendment and I can't stand the hear anything from the NRA. I watched Anderson Cooper try very hard to hold it together when he gave the names of the people who were killed and shared some information about each one. That was very poignant. He also added they will no longer put up the shooter's photo or speak his name anymore. I would only add one thing: I wish they would quit putting up the number of fatalities and injured with the headline the Largest Mass Shooting in History because I am afraid that it will only make someone try and beat that number, a terrorist trying to go for a personal best... :(

amanda said...

I do the same with my birthday. I always advance a year mentally before I make it physically. By the time my actual birthday hits, the number doesn't sting so badly.

Any big plans for the summer?

jojo cucina cucina said...

No plans this summer Amanda. Brady's sister (we refer to her as 'Clementine' though that is not going to be her name, just one I threw out there as a joke awhile back and it kind of stuck for now) will be born July 11, so I imagine I will be babysitting. I would like to organize a flyfishing trip sometime but then again it's not always great fishing in summer anyway. We go to Manzanita Oregon in the early fall so that's it. Sometimes I like staying home in the summer anyway. Summer seems to last longer that way! How about you?

pearl said...

I stopped caring about birthday numbers when I had cancer. That opened the door for me to be grateful for every single year I get, and determined to enjoy each one for what it is. I'm 65 and I don't feel it, really. It bugs me a little that my husband, who's 72, has embraced old age to the extent that he's not at all interested in a healthy diet or any exercise at all.

Cancer also made it way easy to stop dying about my hair and become the silver fox I was born to be. I just wish that the payment for all this freedom was 2 boobs and my libido...

That rapist whose name I refuse to utter deserves to have his smarmy little life ruined, as I'm sure it now will be. Nothing about that story inspired anything in me but rage and nausea.

Bernie's fairy tales held no interest for me at all. I think too much emphasis is placed on college being the be-all and end-all. I'm a big fan of Mike Rowe and trade schools. The world doesn't need another liberal arts major living in his parent's basement, but we could sure us more plumbers and electricians!

Family matters most – even when they might feel like a pain in the butt. I was the one who was 4500 miles away from my mom and my brother (who just lived ½ hour away) had to deal with all the ER runs and other stuff. She was in a nursing home for the last 4 years of her life, after the stroke that kicked off her dementia. I am still wracked with guilt that I didn’t bring her out here to be with me, but if I had, she’d not have been able to see her grandkids and my brother. It’s just too far and expensive for them to travel, and she was in no shape for that 14 hour trip at that point. I saw her several times a year, thanks to my job sending me back east so often, but it was not enough to ease my guilt-plagued heart. Do everything that you can, while you can. You can’t get those chances back.

I can’t bring myself to think about the election. The choices are dismal – a crook and a nutcase – with the country already wracked by a leadership vacuum and the rest of the world in chaos. We need someone with both strength and principle. But needing ain’t getting, it appears.

And on that dismal note, I must go finish cooking dinner. I'm recovering from surgery and my face hurts when I chew, so I'm pretty uninspired in the kitchen right now.

jojo cucina cucina said...

Pearl! So good to see you here! I haven't checked in much after a couple of days since so many folks left blogging. Re: dyeing hair. If I had your color hair o would stop dyeing mine too! My gray is the drab best dirty dishwater gray.

I hope you don't keep beating yourself up the guilt over your mom. Seems like you traveled there a lot, given that you are still working fulltime too.

As I write I am watching the Trump Convention. Ackkkk! His wife is very pretty and did ok in her speech I though. She dies speak many languages I heard. I didn't know she was 46 years old, I thought she was in her early 30's.

Totally agree about trade schools and Mike Rowe!!! Also what happens to our military if Betnie offers free college tuition for all? And what are consequences if they flunk out? I have way too many questions about accountability and that pie on the sky free tuition.

Thanks y'all for punching in!!! Maybe I will change this tomorrow!