Black is the color...

I have went back to black. Long gone (not exactly, it was just last night) is the pink hair or even the yellow hair (I will never refer to it as blonde).

Syd was not as crazy yesterday or last night. Bob and I got to unwind a bit last night and hang out with Nikki. Even the dog was chill. Today is rather relaxed as well. I hope this new thing continues.

I am attempting to put off the Mountain City trip until tomorrow so I can make the potluck and first gathering of the Johnson City Vaudevillains. It will be nice to chat up some creative folks and instigate some performance.

Spoken Word Seen isn't launching yet. When school starts we will have a greater base to jump off, so I will wait. It would be hard to launch a separate thing right now when so many people will be focusing on the Vaudevillains. So many who I would like to see on my stage, too. Road blocks are no big deal. It has waited this long.

Bob's B-day is on July 29th. He will be 27. My baby is growin up. lol

Earplugs

Today, she threw such a fit that I cried on the porch after. Her screams were so loud that they bounced off the walls and made my ears do that funny hiss-thing that they do on roller coasters. She is trying to torture me into craziness.

Mean

Syd is being mean. She is refusing toilet training, very vocally. She will NOT be quiet when we tell her to. I'm going out of my mind. She makes me so anxious, constantly. She is always screaming or whining...or both!

Valium, Calgon, gallon of vodka. Something, please. I cannot quit smoking now. The way this feels, I won't be able to until she graduates college.

Oh, the migraine is back.

Sunsets in the city

Sorry if the title of this post fooled you. There will be no adoration of nature's splendor here. There will be no staring into the sky. Instead there were tears and much grumbling about my hair. As yeaterdays post shows. I am now blonde. Wait, I was blonde.

Let me reverse time momentarily. Bobby adored my pink buzzcut I had when Syd was a baby. When it grew out he was dissapointed. I recently began to feel a bit low about my body again so I went for the blonde with the plan for pink. After I saw the blonde, I really liked it. (The last time I attempted a change. I went red and LOVED it. Bobby didn't so it went away fairly quickly.) Bob and Syd wanted me to go ahead and do the pink. Bobby misses the old days I guess and Syd just wanted her mom to have pink hair!

So today after fighting Syd for an hour to take a nap, Bobby approached my hair with pink dye in hand. I was excited perched there on my toilet-throne of hair majesty. The bottle kept clogging. The dye wouldn't cover well. OH, the horror. I am left with pink bits and some still blonde bits and, in the case of the not quite lightened front bits, I have orange streaks. It is a quite a "sunset" of colors really. I am not amused of course and have spent the remainder of the day either moping on the couch or napping. Syd has been a mean little girl all day yelling and screaming at us. She is a mood-swinging booger-head really. It hasn't helped my depression over this hair-disaster that I have had to fuss at her most of the day.

Blah. Sorry, no pics yet. I refuse to allow the camera to be turned on. Gotta go now. It is 11 oclock and Syd has been in bed for two hours! She is now yelling "HUNGRY" at the top of her lungs. I might go out of my mind.....

Yellow

I now have what Sydney calls "Yellow Hair" and will have until I finish the process tomorrow and go pink as Bobby has requested.

Poetry news

Found something funny just now: http://www.poetry.com/dotnet/P7107567/999/1/display.aspx
The copywright should be 2005 but I guess Poetry.com turned into Lulu.Poetry and they updated. I don't know what difference it makes really.

Oh, I placed third in the 2009 Mockingbird (poetry category, of course) and I was just awarded 1st place in the 2nd Annual Johnson City Public Library Poetry Contest (adults category).

Bob is proud of me and Sydney loves to applaud for the poet's at contests. She often tells me that she is writing her poetry when she scribbles on paper. I wonder what she will be when she grows up. I wonder it all the time.

I am working on a project which is currently up on blocks. It will involve my new space www.myspace.com/SpokenWordSeen.

Dog Days

Roswell November 2008

Roswell December 2008

Roswell January 2009... note the glow of evil beginning in the eyes and the smirk she was already practicing at 6 months old.

Love her little heart, but our dog is driving us nuts. She barks like mad the minute anyone buzzes our apartment (think Seinfeld's building) and has a ferocious snarling fit when we have a visitor come in. She barks in the "hey, somebody is out there and I want you to know" tone everytime our neighbor goes in or out their door. This barking doesn't quiet quickly, though, and we worry about how that will fly with the office. Bobby and I have taken turns saying "we just need to get rid of her" while the other says "no, just a little more time". Sydney says we can't because she wants to keep her and "she is the best dog in the entire world." She says she would miss her and, damn it, that kid has a boo-hoo voice that will make you want to take on the world for her. We talked to the trainer at Petsmart today. I am going to try to scrape together the astronomical amoutn for the 8 week class. The trainer says that socialization will help her most of all and maybe we can get a 20.00 coupon. But it is still a hundred bucks...FOR DOG SCHOOL.

(Sidenote: ugh, I have heartburn. jambalaya with chicken, no shrimp, for dinner)

The money wouldn't be too hard to come by if we were getting our deposit back for our old place($415 plus $200 pet). Total B.S there. I cleaned the hell out of the place only to be told, "We still have to clean. The refrigerator is nasty (Uh, no it isn't. The freezer is not wiped out, because I concussed myself while cleaning the fridge and had to borrow ice from the neighbor because my head hurt so bad...and I forgot to clean the freezer) and the carpet is ruined with dog pee (um, another nope)." He says it smells like pee something terrible and the carpet is awful. No, the carpet is awful because it is from the 90s. I know the living room carpet doesn't stink because I laid on it after knocking the crap out of my head in the fridge a week ago while cleaning said dirty apartment. I felt like squatting and taking a leak right there so he would have a reason to complain about pee.

Ah, who am I kidding. I knew we wouldn't get the deposit back. You can just tell some things, you know? There were some scuffs on the wall that had to be painted over and the freezer was dirty (well, not dirty really, just some Popsicle residue and crumbs from some errant chicken nuggets I found when moving out). But, I would eat off the toilet seat, if I were asked to prove my cleaning skills. That house didn't "stink of pee" and if it did, the smell was in the upstairs bedroom where she had a couple of accidents. OH, my question is why did we pay a pet deposit? Wasn't it just for such a situation? And, hell, they charge the tenants a carpet cleaning fee when they move anyway. (which, btw, they never cleaned the guy next door's carpets before renting his place out and he still got charged) The nice lady living there now says she found a few pieces of dried dog poo here and there in a corner. Now what is up with that?? I never saw the landlord agonize over fixing up the place next door as he appeared to be today. The thing is, my carpet is that flat brown stuff. Every neighbor who came in at some point or another in 2 years said "Wow, your carpet looks older than mine. You should ask if they are going to put in the ... " was it Berber, they mentioned? Anyway. I think it was crappy to act like we left a pigsty when I am one of the most clean-freak folks breathing today. Hello! I was in therapy for years for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder! Freaking stress induced cleaning obsession! Argh. Well, water under the bridge and money in their pockets, I guess.

Roswell is sleeping beside Bobby on the bed right now. Bob is doing to work on his laptop and Tiny Trouble is curled up cozy beside him. Oh, how I wish for a big ol' mutt sometimes, but now isn't one if them. She is adorable. We spent some time in the big dog field (its huge!!) training today. Usually she won't respond to food treats outside of the house, but I have found her weakness. Bits of smoked pork from Red Pig BBQ. One small chuck got me through 30 mins of training today. Walk, turn, walk, stop, sit. Focusing on me the whole time. She did great. It was quite warm and when we got back inside, she flopped and napped in the patch of sun in front of the balcony. She has one more walk tonight before it is bedtime and I hope she can do it without threatening to eat one of the neighbors. Cross your fingers.