h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, BB. It's Jeff S, still in Great Lakes Limbo. Checking to see how things are with you. Thought I saw you while I was watching the Hurricane Jeanne show on MSNBC... they switched over to local coverage and the camera man showed a woman in the distance stumbling through the wind on the A1A last night near a certain familiar area in a long white sweater/coat that I had a sense could have been you.... Wasn't sure you were still here at H2G2. Everything holding up? (I got up to speed a little glancing through some conversations here.)

Contact me and let me know how you're doing:

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subversive ramblings at http://dangeroustimes.blogspot.com

Dahlink!

So good to hear from you! I was working in Mississippi during Jeanne, ended up having to extend the stay for a couple extra days while the weather cleared a path for me to return home tonight.

That woman in white wouldn't be me-- hurricane fashion does *not* dictate wearing white, as everything which splats upon it in the gusts would show and look decidedly sloppy. It's best to wear dark colors, just in case you spill your or the mascara runs and you have to wipe your face with a sleeve.

I'm too tired to compose a coherent email right now, but will lurk your blog and contact you as soon as my life returns to what passes for normal in my world.

Oh, good. I was hoping that it wasn't you but there's always the possibility that you had run out of cosmicpolitans and ran out into the storm in a panic. Sorry for doubting your sense of appropriate disaster-related apparel. In my defense, it did look to be a block or two from where you lived and everything in the block or so between the woman and the camera was all hurricane-y.

By the way, I like the latest painting you have posted... "Terrorized". From a non-artistic know-nothing but going to comment anyway perspective, it seems as though you're more focused on the subject of your work and using the rest of the space to draw attention to it.

Confession: I only read a little because I don't like to drop eaves... breaks my toes too often. Is E the one who was to be/did get married?

Don't worry about eavesdropping, honey. If something were too sensitive for random lurkers I'd not put it on this place.

'Terrorized' was the first painting that has moved fast and sure, felt incredible to make it without the usual doubt that stalls me every time I do something and then don't know where to go with it. I started it the night I saw Farenheit 911, had a head full of emotion about who really *is* the terrorist and the terrorized, the connectedness of everything, and that amidst all the horror we humans create for ourselves we're all basically the same, at heart. I think I've finally found my 'style' for the time being. Right now I'm working on something with a mother and baby figure, again about connectedness to everything else. This one has creation and love colors in it, much more calming to work on.

It was E. Fortunately, she'd already been legally married for a couple weeks and that was to be the spiritual ceremony. She's decided against doing that.

What's been happening with you? Looks as if you're quite involved in Ohio's politics.

Not Ohio so much as politics in general. I still don't watch the local news in Ohio, and I'm much more likely to know about an article in the Moscow Times or the Guardian UK than one in my local newspaper. I know the axiom is supposed to be "all politics is local" but it's just so painfully boring. I recently had a couple of posts about Ohio politics, one because I learned of the SecState's manipulations from other bloggers and I'm right here, so I should be just as outraged and talkative about it as someone in DC. The other because if I'm going to be stuck here a while longer I want a goddamn Senator of my own to complain to (our Republicans really suck, they're not quite the neocons but 'Scruples' is just a board game to them) and and send e-mails to so that everyone else's senators can get some rest.

Right around 2000 I started delving deeper into what was going on in government, I was always a liberal but didn't know *how* liberal at that point (apparently to the left of Ted Kennedy and... Ghandi, according to a political compass, although I don't see how that's possible.) I started recognizing patterns and tactics, learning about things like PNAC and some of the circumstances of 9/11 once that happened, and knew that we were at the precipice of a very serious threat.

Back in school - again - first at Kent for Journalism and when that started turning into a joke (the one hour commute was a pain as well) I just wanted to finish any degree so back to crummy, local YSU to major in whatever I had the most credits in, and try to focus in an area where I can work with public policy... so that meant going back to Criminal Justice, but this time focusing on Legal Process with a minor in political science.

I'm glad to hear you're back in school. What happened with journalism, besides the commute? Seems to me as if you'd be perfectly suited for it.

Also, how's your mom doing? Hope she's in good health. Are you still maintaining the house and pets?

I'll be 42 this Saturday. Hard to believe I'm sooooo middle-aged. I've settled down substancially during the past couple of years, don't party as often or as long as I once did, but I don't miss it much either. Right now I'm doing free-lance makeup work, having a ball. It's the right balance, self-employed with an agent who handles all the sordid details that I don't want to deal with. I just get to color people and make 'em feel good, which was always what I liked about it. In 'my' time I'm mostly content to be a hermit, read, paint, play with my garden, take photos, go off on an occasional wild-ass adventure and see what I can stir up when the mood strikes. I think next week since I'm off and am leery of making the planned camping trip after all these hurricanes, I'll stay home and get a fall garden started, do some gonzo painting and bike to the old stomping grounds for beer and random human interaction. That ought to fluff my aura before jumping into Season. All this quietness and introspection during the past year or so has left me feeling as if I'm brewing a great burst of creative energy. Now I just have to figure out how to channel it productively.

Don't see much of E any more. We had a bit of a falling out when I finally told her in no uncertain terms that I just *can't* bear the brunt of her emotional instability, venting and anger any longer. It was beginning to make me physically ill every time I spent time with her. Shortly thereafter she hooked up with her now-husband and decided that it was easier to find new friends than a new boyfriend, and her husband has very limited tolerance for people who aren't *his* friends. He's the highest-maintenance guy I've ever run across, has some decent qualities which (in my mind) are totally overshadowed by his limitations. He's one of those people who is defined by what he can't/won't/doesn't do, rather than by what he does. E and I still maintain limited contact. She's been desperately miserable all year without respite, and I worry about her.