Now Please

Dear Mr. Obama,

I have written you a letter before this one. Please pull all of our troops out of the mideast now. There are many reasons why, and I won't get into them again. They are not political, but just intellectual. I believe whole-heartedly, that this is "war" we cannot "win" and have always believed that. There are huge populations of our Earth that hold religious beliefs that are entirely incongruent with any of our Western ideals...whatever those are now. It doesn't matter what we believe those to be, because people who have Faith that strong are not ever going to submit to some type of imposed US state on their country. It has turned into guerrilla warfare, and has always been that way. In fact, I would compare it to the Japanese in WWII, who would rather commit suicide than meet in the middle on some type of imposed negotiations. I get that. Always have. What I want the US to remember is that it is ok to admit that things have to change in the way we talk to other cultures. However, terrorists are not to be talked to, but rather let's just pull out like everyone wants to do, and let them deal with their own issues. We do not need to a part of their civil wars, and their absolute belief that the sacrifice of human life is worth it, so that they may meet their redeemer one day. Christianity, some may argue, is similar, but not so. Mercy, humility and kindness are very much stressed in the New Testament, and I just dislike it so much that so many religious cultures that once shared this one truth are now relenting and letting their morality be controlled by extremist groups who are not thinking about their community's future, but rather their own heroic, suicidal and quickly forgotten terrorists acts.

Whew. I believe, most people when young, have very similar goals- be nice, be good, be peaceful, be true. somewhere along the way, our minds get alot of information to figure out and hold onto or let go. In some countries, there is not that choice. You cannot let go. It is a part of you, whatever the state says, it is. I do not believe that is freedom. I think we should bring our troops home now. Let these countries live out their historic lives just like the USA has done it's own, and is still doing. Every place on Earth has a story to tell, I just don't think we need to be in this chapter. It's like trying to help Martians. They know what they want, and it's not us. Let them be. And all will work itself out.

Thank you and have a nice evening, Jennifer Lynn

The Avett Brothers - Will You Return

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

check out www.dancingrabbit.org - an ecovillage in northeastern Missouri that promotes sustainable, reusable lifestyles including Earth friendly building materials. These type of projects have always interested me, because I believe that building materials should be a high priority (given the human population and growth) for using %100 recycled, reusable, sustainable materials. There is a great article in "Yes" magazine (Issue 55) named "A Hand-Built Home" by Sven Eberlein that includes great photos of what these type of villages and their dwellings look like. Most are made with straw-bale combined with mud and daub techniques and even have earthen floors that are oiled to a polish for sweeping. Creative and progressive methods of coping with our huge landfill and wasted materials is something I whole heartedly promote. One way to help support these type of ecovillages is to donate, check out their websites for wish lists, and go visit personally!

Dancing Rabbit also includes a bed and breakfast, where you can bring your children or just explore alone how it feels to live (for a few nights), like a permanent DR resident. I think this is wonderful, and would make for a great stop on our next family trip across the middle of our great country.

But why is it, when I used to frequent fast food places, that I always craved Chick-Fil-A on Sundays??

http://gawker.com/5747111/anti+gay-fast-food-chain-uproar-ignores-crucial-taste-issue

the worst movie ever made besides "Solarbabies"

I'm in the mood to rip on a film, and luckily I just saw one the last few days that fits the profile. "Valentine's Day" directed by Gary Marshall (of mushy, hazy, happy mediocre movie fame). It stars about two dozen actors including Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, on and on and on. It is a few years old, how old you ask? It doesn't matter. Let me write this review in a more creative, interpretive manner...such as bad poetry.

"Valentine's Day"

What was it?

That I thought I could see in you?

You saw my soul, used my time (two hours) and spit it back out in my face

like some heartless buffoon.

Wow.

Ashton in pink tee, Jennifer Garner always in red (get it?? love, red???)

Jessica Biel walking, talking, not acting

Anne Hathaway does sex talk but

Topher Grace loves her anyway..

anyway my eyes could not believe

the words you spoke

at times you made me

want to choke.

Choke on your dying death...

your dying death delivered on a platter of

bad writing, two minute scenes chopped up like the

pieces of my shriveling little heart.

You took my time which I can never get back

you worthless piece of toilet paper.

You- the AfterSchool Special,

You- the Lifetime Movie of the Week.

Still,

Everyone was so pretty

but like robots, clashing cheekbones, snarling teeth and puffy lips.

even Ashton and Bradley Cooper.

Weirdness, phoning in on the love line

HELLO? Are you there God, it's me Jennifer. I want my two hours back.

What "cage-free," "fertile" and other egg labels mean

Great article (below link) via Salon.com. The "organic" and "whole foods" marketing labels are being closely looked at finally by the USDA for accuracy. There are alot of people making a ton of money off of careful parents and people who want sincerely to eat healthier. Like any trendy and/or growing niche market, people take advantage of the media frenzy over "natural" foods and charge too much to the consumer. Hopefully, this won't be a niche industry in the future, but the norm when shopping for our meals. As with most things in our society (for example, the internet) it takes a few years before the government agencies who are made to protect us from harm start turning the big brother eye towards a certain trend. In the meanwhile, it is up to you the consumer to educate yourself and be responsible for your own purchasing. Sometime soon, after the usual legal and moral bumps in the road, the gov't requirements for market labeling and the cost of producing free range eggs, organic veggies and steroid free meat might meet in the middle to benefit us all. Perhaps...in a decade or two.

What "cage-free," "fertile" and other egg labels mean

New Beginnings

I don't have alot of time tonight to write...so let's begin with some basics. How are you? really? Are you happy tonight, all snug as a bug in a rug, are you restless, are you making plans for big things in your life, or concentrating on the just as important small things. I hope you all are doing very well. I have made a list (easy cheesy blog fun but still fun) of things I have been grateful for lately. After this post, I have stacks of stuff I want to write about, when I can find the time. I am also starting a book I am writing for my sons titled "Book of Saints, A Field Guide for Guys from Mom". No I am not joking. I have been working on this since Nashville, but lost alot of my notes this week when our pc DIED and one of Phillips friends loaded us up with a new drive, but I lost all my docs, etc. UGG. It was like a tiny death in the family. I will tell you more about this crazy month next weekend when it is safe to do so....no no, no conspiracy theories please, just some private info that I'll share later when appropriate.

The List:

• "True Grit" - great movie. loved the stubborn moral compass of the heroine and how the other characters bounce off of her like noble but less bright satellites.
• Music from Band of Horses. - Can I play "My way back home" at my funeral? Yes, I can. I will be there, will you? Come, if only to listen to the good music and drink some tequila and throw my ashes in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Winter in FL. - I know we think it sucks sometimes, tornadic activity due to warm air and cold water (like yesterday), but I LOVE the cold blasts for 2-3 days after such long hot summers. I enjoy drinking the hot afternoon beverages, curling up with blankets, and driving along our shoreline in winter- the water is clear, icy and very pretty.
• Humble people who do not act like they know what is best for you, for me, or for our country. The past few years, I have noticed a troubling trend in "know it alls". If you "know it all", please answer all my questions about life and let me know.
• Thai Food.
• Seafood. Scallops and oysters from Panhandle especially.
• Good live local music- at Crickateers in Dunedin, old Hawk's Nest in PC, and many others. Bands that are not on a label just yet.
• My sons- each so different and unique, each trying so hard to grow up. Each an eternal heartache for a mother. And a joy.
• Sunsets. - I notice Every Single Day the sun setting. From our dining room. it sets on one side of the yard, bright pink, orange and yellow this winter. In the summer, it will light up more of our living room, heating it up and reminding us to be grateful for longer hours. Most days, I try to be on the Gulf of Mexico to watch it set, almost daily with our sons. They may be just sitting in their carseats or may be walking with me, but we see it, just the same. Calming, before the dinner and bathtime and bedtime hours.
• Owls.
• Ferns. - I just acquired some new ferns, my favorite plant. I love them, but they are hard to grow here due to drought, unless under alot of shade and get alot of rain. My parents have a ton growing all the way down to their saltwater canal and it is like a little piece of heaven.
• Sardines in a can with saltine crackers.
• Old friends who know you well even after you have family, kids, etc. They still know you. Even older acquaintances know you better, i would guess, than more recently made friends. This is comforting, I think.
• Hemingway. I still read his books and think DAMN I wish I could write like that. Romance without the Romance, love without the extra words.....

Duty calls, I have a child who just woke up probably due to the fact his lullaby CD has stopped and I need to turn that old stereo off. The same one Phillip and I took to Honduras with us when we sat on the balcony and turned on the soundtrack to "O Brother Where Art Thou" as the crowds partied on New Year's the year we were engaged. Memories. And Present. Life is good, it must be...the alternative quite sucks. no?

theme song for today is....suburbs by Rush. Hope to be writing more real soon!poss tonight.

Hang in there friends,i am waiting on a new pc and cannot write from a phone...

Anthony bourdain...the difference between corked wine and screw top...one will get you sexy time

stay with me folks, having technical difficulties...be back soon..see Up In the air if u have not. ,love and great thoughts to you all, juju mcc

Hello...hope u all r doing good!

Preaching isn't DOING>

I think, after viewing all the wonderful MLK footage on FB, that we should rename this holiday "Respect Day". Equality is a great ideal, but let's face it...while humans are still on this Earth, there will always be classes, ranks, division of power, racial discrimination. Whatever. I wish people would live in the present. I wish people would be realistic, it would really take a load off of their minds to realize that humans have brains, for better and for sometimes, worse. We use our intelligence to get ahead, to deal, to strive for ourselves and our families, to gain satisfaction. What bugs me ALOT are the people that PRETEND that they don't live that way. They see themselves a certain way, but that's not how they really are. Be how you are. Accept it. Most folks I am friends with, are very good people, with good hearts and are intelligent. Trust me, this doesn't mean that Intelligence equals a second degree. It may, or may not. Living in a vacuum and denying that you are just as elite, WHITE, and pretty well off does make you any more "smart" as any of the rest of the world. I have been around these people throughout college and after, and they used to amuse me, now they just annoy.
Respect to your fellow man is the best we can do. It is a great thing to do, not a lowly acceptance. Respect to anyone, regardless of race, religion, background, etc. This is hard for alot of people. I for example, find it hard to respect people who hate on Christianity, then I usually find that they are fighting a personal war with family members who happen to be religious, and it's something they have fought against since their teens. Rebellion, since there is no Woodstock...
I am guilty of being suspiciuos of well to do white people who live in a non black town (DUNEDIN, where we currently live) that constantly preach about racial issues. I think...when have you ever been involved in a racial issue? Ever? Sometimes, I think there are some who just wish they had lived during Woodstock, and that's fun to think about, but I am glad that era is over. Thank God that my parent's generation did so much civil rights work for us so that my high school days were not so nasty and full of hatred due to skin color.
Respect Day, accepting that we are all different. And not one of you is better than the other.
THAT is a hard one, isn't it??

Facebook Diet

On January 31, I am going on a Facebook Diet, so would love for any of you who I am in contact with on FB to please send me an inbox message with any super secret BatCave contact information if you would like to continue any kind of "how are you doing" sortof contact via email or texting (all confidential of course). I am going to do this again on FB this month because I have alot of people who I would love to hear from time to time, and see how they and their family or lives are going. The FB Diet will consist of...no Facebook. Not for any one reason, but for many. And maybe just for a few months, maybe longer. The problem i come across while doing this, is that now, I barely contact anyone using my email account and vice versa, and FB has gathered most of my social eggs in one basket so to speak. Soo.

That's that. I just saw a tiny fat owl in our back yard jacaranda tree. It's awesome, it looked at me and flew down to our mulchy yard looking for some grub.

Staples, printer cartridges, and You

Staples gives you store credit if you bring in any empty printer cartridges (as of this posting date, and best of my knowledge). You may get $5-20 depending. Anyway, a great way to recycle and get rid of the type of stuff that sits in landfills for...ever.

A Grumpy Heart

The post about Jon Stewart excluded, it has all in all been a great weekend so far. I hope you all are enjoying the more positive things in life (sushi! massages! Band of Horses! Children! Big Blue Sky!), and are not stuck in the funk. I did not by the way, have any Chard last night, so that is not to blame for any writing. Tonight, the air was clear, cold, full of stars and a growing moon and my son just needed me to sit with him for a while to get to sleep. He goes to bed at 7, but we give some extra time for reading him some books, talking, cuddling and saying a prayer...all in his own room. It never began, so we never had our kids hang with us much in our bed when it's their bedtime. It doesn't work, because then they think we are all going to sleep, and they don't get that in fact, after they go to sleep, we have our own time together. Very Necessary. They get snuggled, attention, etc all in their rooms, sometimes we all get in our bed for an afternoon jumping session and I love the spontaneious fun we have doing that, but at night...it's bedtime. I am here full time, so they get tons of attention, reading, play-dough, drawing, writing, singing, tickling, etc.
I hope you had a very happy week. The news is always full of bad news, and it affects our country's general mood. However, it's best to go beyond that, and focus on your own life, your friends and family who need you, and anything else you can do to affect our world positively.
I have found, the past decade or so, that the happiness I get personally, is from the things I do personally for either charities, volunteer work and direct influence type work that I know is helpng someone help themselves become more successful in life, even if it's in a small way. Usually, this type of work ends up making you realize that you also needed "help" in a soulful way, and that giving is a two way street.
Despite what the pundits say, or the crap you see on FB, life is still going on, just like before. Bad and good people. Most of of us finding peace when we can, some of us trying to share it, some of us finding ways to give back and showing our children or friends how to change lives.

Despite my grumpy occasional posts, I am always secure in knowing I have such good people in my life who are doing very very good things. From the west coast (Portland!) to Europe and Africa, it's the people who are trying to fit in that extra time with strangers or some known person in need who deserve a moment of respect. We don't give that enough in our country. Respect.

Jon Stewart, I used to love him, but!

Could someone please tell Jon Stewart that he does not speak for all of his "generation" or whoever he thinks he is always speaking to? Not all of us want to totally pick apart John McCain's rep, or make fun of every single conservative politician. Some of us would like a comedian who gets that alot of Americans are not Obama lovers, or Palin lovers, but that we would like to be represented. Do not lump us all into one group, do not further your cause. I am so sick of people like him (who I liked very much in his MTV days, while Viacom was still paying for him, they hadn't yet figured out there was much more pay to "hate the conservatives" via his Daily Show updates.)
Kilborn was great, but the whole show just reeks of smart ass college kids writing senseless trash. If you want to do something good, Stewart, be the smart man I knew in college and be intelligent, not brown nose to some political side, but say your true feelings. Don't bow down to the right/left bullcrap that has invaded our news, but make light of the fact that alot of us do not live in a right/left world, and that we are not in a black/white culture but one that is more complicated than that. Write that, comedian! Or is that too complicated for you? It is too easy to simplify today, we are all either on one side or the other, and making money for the networks in the end by our divided worlds.
And, no more paychecks, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, Etc YOU SUCK at representing our country right now, and you only gain power and get richer the more you antagonize our public.

Jon, please stop your child like ways and start really telling the youngsters what's going on.
Please, before they start beating on my door asking for diapers, food or handouts because they don't know how to work and they blame everything on Bush, even though they weren't "born then."

Thank you,

Jennifer McC.

Hemingway- thanks for the advice

Never go on a trip with anyone you don't love.

Man is not made for defeat.

I know now that there is not one thing that is true - it is all true.

All of our words from loose using have lost their edge. (love this!)

All modern American fiction comes from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

The shortest answer is doing the thing.

- Thank you Papa Hemingway, for the re-inspiration. I have started and finished a few short stories and hope to make them actually bound and "out" some time the next year, even if by my own doing. Writing is the best form of expression still. It's less crass as texting, facebooking, less filtered as blogging, and just as honorable as any respectable art form.

A Day in the Life of Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals the Plight of the Working Mother

A Day in the Life of Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals the Plight of the Working Mother

The Lazy Post

As they say in "Throw Mama from the Train" - "Writers Write!" but, today this blogger is just posting. I am waiting for my student to come over so I can tutor her while dreaming of my nice cold Chard in the fridge while we discuss various English slang, pronounciation, and general ways to be more professional in her work place. She is awesome, unfortunately she could not meet until 8 pm and that is kindof late for me since my two children have leeched out every last bit of mental and physical energy out of my ever lasting soul today.

So, to fill the time I am posting a funny thing on Gynnie Paltrow, and her naive, upper crust, elite self and her comments on motherhood. Feel free to read the comments that follow, and although I do totally understand she just cannot see out of the vacuum she lives in, it does make me realize that being a parent without nannies, help, cooks, maids, drivers, managers, etc is really really hard work. This makes me proud. Maybe I can write a decent post or two tonight...and i hope you all are doing well on this frigid night. Think of me what you will, I've got a little space to fill...see there goes my mind!

Everything is good personally and privately, however...

I am quitting Fb in a matter of days, due to several reasons, none of which are too dramatic or worthy of some big explanation. The only reason I am sticking around it for another month will be explained- in about a month:) In the meantime, please find ways to keep in touch if you like, some of you who read this (about 70 or so last summer) I already have given you my digits etc. Fb has gotten a little weird lately, and I am not talking about any "friends" who I communicate most with on it, but rather other circumstances that I cannot talk about here (but nothing about any of you that I have friended on Fb, on the contrary). It is not a big deal, and I hope to see most of the people I reconnected with sometime in our lives- you all rock! And have done such great things, and I am so proud of you! Also, there are some of you that I just always wondered about over the past 20 years and was simply glad to know you were still around, making the world a better place with you just being there. The funny thing is, some of those people are just as private as myself, and I would like to get back to that. Others, I found strong connections with that are there forever, new ties and trust in people that I never was great friends with, but now have a strong emotional tie to. This is all good. And they are my friends, as I hope to be theirs if they ever need me. Facebook has reconnected me to many people I loved very much in my life, you know who you are, some I have just simply missed so much, and some I have built new bonds with who I never knew before that are just as important.
But, it will be time to cut the ties, if only for half a year, or so. No big deal. Just time to not feel so compulsive about sharing, and about debating. Lots of people out there want to argue, and I just don't have the time for that anymore, something I cannot keep myself from answering :)My blog will be open to any comments at any time though, and I welcome it!

Sometimes i have to remind myself that I am 36, not 3 years old like my son, and that I need to ACT like it.

Previous Josh Groban post

The reason why I posted this was not just because it included Josh Groban, who I am irrationally bothered by but also find super talented, but the comments that follow the post are worthy of discussion and reading. Is it the new way for racists -using "black music" to be acceptable to pop culture as some commenters are saying, or is it that West is deserving of so much mockery across the media board? Is it about the color of his skin that makes his music and ego so much easier to make fun of (to get away with, some might say) or is it that he is just as easy to make fun of like any other celebrity of eccentric, flamboyant and made for comedy fame? If are you confused by my topic, please watch the vid and read the discussions that follow on Jezebel/Gawker.com regarding the skit. Nobody is calling Groban a racist, but some are asking if it has not become more acceptable to be "racist" by using white singers (Ben Folds is used as an example) ironic/ wry/ silly remakes to allow sly racial mockery slide through the cracks. I have wondered about this also, the past decade. If someone takes himself seriously as an artist, and is not knowingly making music to make fun of, and they are "black", then is it ok to mock their music without being called a racist, or without anyone questioning your moral backbone?
Interesting thoughts, as racial divides are always there, created by most to make money or policy, but kept alive by those who project their own insecurities about the topic...which may not be a bad thing. As we all know, once we are told something is equivicated in our society, we know it's really under the surface, waiting to boil over (LA riots)...

I have to agree with several comments...I think West is talented to a degree. But his ego has made him a target just like Angelina, Tom Cruise, Lohan....their names are bigger than their talent at some point- they will be a SNL skit. It's showbiz.

Josh Groban Sings Kanye West Tweets

Retired community gets Jim Morrison concert

Every so often in our senior citizen retired beach town of Dunedin, and in our little quiet code enforced neighborhood, someone gets loose. It's happening right now, and no, it's not me. I was just outside picking up stuff from the backporch, looking for our tiny owl friend, when the noise drifted across the hood- Jim Morrison singing "let it roll, baby roll..." along with some leftover fireworks and very loud drunken conversations. My elderly neighbors popped on their back light and investigated ( I could tell through our privacy fence) and I had to chuckle to myself. You can try to keep the lively ones out- but they always rise to the top on any given Tuesday night. It is Florida, it is only 65 degrees outside in January, and there are people under 80 who feel the need to party or annoy every one else in the hood, depending on your mood.
For now, it's fine. As long as I don't hear it at around 11 when I am trying to sleep. I am, after all, middle aged and need my beauty rest- yeah right!

four weddings and a Funereal

Special invite to my own soon to be purchased island.

How was your New Year's Eve and more importantly, your first day of 2011? I usually don't like odd numbered years, but 2010 was a doozy and although it started off uneventful, quickly turned into an oil covered, evil mess of a year. I enjoy making resolutions, and I don't stress about checking them off at the end of the year, just enjoy measuring any success and appreciating any discipline I used to help keep some of them.
Here's to a more positive New Year, and a true new decade.

Resolutions:

1. Wear perfurme every day. I LOVE good fragrances, and have a ton, just need to wear them more often.
2. To find even more ways to help local people in need, and to help international causes in some way.
3. Pick up more trash when I go to the beach, and to go to the ocean as much as possible.
4. To visit my grandparents more than just a few times a month. They need me, I need them.
5. Speak more softly to my children, and set bigger and better examples for them to learn from.
6. To stop ending sentences with prepositions.
7. Continue tutoring and strengthen the bond I have with my current student.
8. Be more "huggy" and "touchy"and stuff...I'm not a real cuddly type person, but I do feel so much better when I am in more physical contact with anyone! A real health booster.
9. To finally watch "Inception". I don't love Leo De Caprio...but like Christopher Nolan the director, so intend to watch this soon.
10. Buy an island, invite any friends and family who would like to come and live with me in a society that uses capitalism to it's best ability- you build, I buy, I create, you buy, it all works out. Included in this package will be a large fresh seafood dinner every night, live music by Band of Horses, and free wheeling/willing love to anyone who enters. It will be named "Margaux Key" and clothing is optional. During a full moon, there will be kaoroke wars and lots of umbrella drinks, sand castle contests, and jello wrestling.

That's enough resolutions for one year.
Have a good one, fellow Margauxians.