Visit (While You Still Can)!

Back in 2017 BC (Before Covid), my sister and I went to Washington, DC and visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture (AAHC). We had a great time, enjoyed a great lunch there, and checked that visit off of our respective bucket lists. Back then, Donny T was in office, but too busy causing chaos elsewhere to bother with worrying about local museums. Well, the tide has turned now with Donny's second term. Now he's grumbling that museums like the Museum of AAHC cause further divisions in society and he wants JD to look into them (i.e. cut their funding). Give me a break. My suggestion for anyone interested in seeing the Museum of AAHC (or any other of the Washington museums that focus on minorities) is that you do it ASAP before Donny/DOGE/JD/Whoever shuts them down.

I, personally, would like to visit Alaska and I'm hoping to do so before Donny decides to give it to his Russian BFF, Vlad. Am I being paranoid? Maybe, but like a guy told me at a job interview once, "The paranoid have enemies too!"

$5.97

Eggs were going for $5.97 a dozen at my local Aldi today. That's about .50 cents per egg. Thankfully, I didn't need any, but my grocery bill from Aldi and Mariano's combined was over $100...for one person. And it wasn't like I was buying lobster and pricey cheeses (no gouda for me today). Grocery prices are still out of control, yet our POTUS was at the White House earlier this week begging folks to buy Teslas to help his buddy Elon out. Poor Elon. His ugly, janky vehicles aren't selling so, according to Donny T,  Americans should pitch in to help the world's richest man out by purchasing his Swasticars or truck. How tone-deaf can you be? Extemely tone-deaf, apparently. People are losing jobs (including many people Elon fired from the government), grocery prices are off the chain, and housing costs are increasing (on top of everything else), yet Dumb Donny wants us to buy a new car from his rich friend? Yeah, right. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I wouldn't give a dime to that dude. Let him go back to his home country of South Africa and beg for money. Let his fellow Afrikaners help him out by buying his cars and Mad Max trucks. 

Just when I think things can't get any worse, they do! This country is going right into the shitter and it pains me to say that. It's hard to try and find some positivity in the world these days. I can only take comfort in the fact that I didn't vote for Donny. Yeah, he's hell-bent on destruction, but my response to that is, "Don't blame me!" It wasn't like he didn't warn folks that this was coming. I didn't choose chaos but, for those who did, you're certainly getting it now, aren't you? 

You Know What It's Like

I was sad to hear that Roberta Flack passed away earlier this week. I've always enjoyed her music. I was just listening to her song "You Know What It's Like" recently. It's such a great song and terribly underrated. RIP, Roberta! And even more celebrity deaths happened this week: Gene Hackman, Angie Stone, David Johansen. I remember when Johansen had a big hit in the 1980s with a song called "Hot Hot Hot" when he was going by the name Buster Poindexter. That song drove me crazy back in the day because it was over-played on the radio. "How you feeling? Hot hot hot!" Oy vey! 

I did my part to not shop or buy anything yesterday for the blackout protest. It kills me that some folks dismissed the one day protest claiming one day of refraining from buying stuff won't make a difference, but what about Black Friday? One day of shopping puts a lot of retailers in the black, but one day of staying home won't make a difference? Whatever. I'm also trying to curb my Amazon shopping habit and I canceled my subscription to the Washington Post (that ends this month anyway). Bezos needs to sell the paper to someone who will run it right. If that happens, I'll consider resubscribing, but as long as Bezos is at the helm, forget about it. I'd like to find another news source to replace WaPo. During the BC times (before Covid), my old boss used to get the Wall Street Journal delivered to the office and I'd read those (when he wasn't there). The paper had interesting articles. It's not something I'd pay to subscribe to because I don't want to help fund the Murdoch media machine, but I enjoyed being able to read the WSJ for free. 

Let's all consider ourselves lucky for surviving yet another week of Donny T and the Funky Bunch and their never-ending bag of bullshit. Every day it's something else. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does! All I can do is try not to lose my mind with this nonsense and focus on the positive things in life. 

A Vacation? Ha!

Someone I used to work with asked me last week if I was taking any vacations this year. I told her probably not! This time last year, I was gearing up to go to Portugal in May. This year, nothing. My family is trying to arrange a reunion in Florida later this year, but I don't know if that's really going to happen and I also don't know if I'll go if it does. I'd like to take a trip, but I just don't see it happening this year. If it does, I certainly won't be leaving the country. When I was in Portugal last year, the British folks in my tour group kept asking me how I felt about Biden and Trump. They were really interested in US politics and the last thing I wanted to talk about on vacation was US politics. I can't even imagine what it would be like for an American overseas this year. Oy vey and no thank you.

Lately, I've been thinking about trips in the US, like to one of the national parks or to Alaska, places I've never been before. But with Donny and Elon's government cuts, will the national parks even have enough personnel to run them? As usual, the people in power making decisions about personnel cuts don't care or don't understand what their employees do to keep things up and running. All they're concerned with is doing more with less people. 

Tomorrow is the Presidents' Day holiday. I sure won't be celebrating our current POTUS, but I'm glad I have the day off from my day job to relax. I can remember Portugal even if I'm not taking any big vacations this year!

Serenity Now!

Serenity now, insanity later! Rarely do I quote Seinfeld, but with the nonsense going on in the US right now, I feel I have to. Trying to maintain serenity now is very hard. As if Donny T's second term as POTUS wasn't bad enough, now we have to deal with Co-POTUS, Elon. Ugh. He's not even qualified to be POTUS since he wasn't even born here, yet he's certainly acting like he has the authority to run the government. Why doesn't he go back to his home country of South Africa and run that government? (They probably don't want him back.) I never thought I'd see the day where a private citizen, and one who's not even from the United States, would be in position to oversee the country's financial systems. How is this not a coup? Why is this being allowed to happen? Our government has really gone into the shitter with a swiftness. It hasn't even been a month since Donny's return, but the country has already descended in chaos. DEI is being blamed for airline crashes, a dude with drinking and anger problems is running the military, a foreigner (who also seems to have some substance abuse issues) is taking over the government's financial systems, some nut job wants to run Health and Human Services, and POTUS is talking about making Canada the 51st state and turning Gaza into a vacation destination. Oh, and eggs are $8+ a dozen around here. Every day, it's more insanity in the United States. Don't blame me. I didn't vote for Donny, but now I'm forced to deal with him and every stupid decision he and his sychophants come up with. Another kick in the crotch. 

I can't figure out what this administration thinks will happen if the majority of our federal employees are gone. Where are these people supposed to work now? It's not like the job market is on fire right now. And what about the economy? If people don't have jobs and aren't making money, they can't buy things like homes and goods and keep the economy going. But no one wants to talk about that. Members of Congress and the Senate just sit on their hands, close their eyes, and let Donny do whatever he wants to do. Useless.

Love Is Free Anthology

JMS Books has published a new anthology called Love Is Free and all proceeds go to the ACLU. I have a short story in the anthology called "Whenever, Wherever, Whatever" and it's a Covid love story about two Chicago guys, Aaron Bailey and Jonathan Phillips who, after meeting on a hookup app, start a relationship. Things are good, at first, but then problems arise: Jonathan is closeted and Aaron isn't, Covid strikes, and family problems loom. Can love save the day? 

The anthology is available for sale now and there's a link in the sidebar to buy a copy. Check it out! I got my comp copy last week and I'm looking forward to reading it and enjoying the stories my fellow authors contributed (in addition to my own work). This book is coming at a great time with a great purpose, so I hope readers support our efforts and help us help the ACLU!

Escape from New York

I took a little trip to New York this holiday weekend and had a great time seeing some friends and seeing some shows. I just made it out before bad weather was moving in yesterday afternoon. When I was getting my checked bag tag at the United terminal yesterday afternoon, the airline had the nerve to ask if I wanted a voucher to take a later flight. Uh, no! Although I enjoyed my weekend trip to NY, I was ready to head home and sleep in my own bed last night. I also worried that I'd end up getting stuck in Newark if the weather really turned out there and I couldn't fly out.

During my brief visit, I went to see Wynton Marsalis for one of his Jazz at Lincoln Center shows titled "Cool School and Hard Bop." The show was excellent and I highly recommend checking out Jazz at Lincoln Center if you're into that kind of music while you're in NY. I also went to see MJ the Musical while I was in town. Excellent also. I love a good jukebox musical and the songs and dancing in MJ did not disappoint. 

I had not visited New York since 2023, so it was nice to get back to the city for a visit this year. I used to go frequently when I had to travel there for work, but those days are over now that we're mostly working from home these days. I miss New York sometimes, but I don't miss the high rent, the speed walking, and the crowds. I don't know how regular people can afford to live there now. I couldn't afford to live there now! I couldn't afford the apartment where I used to live in Brooklyn. It's too expensive for me now. I seriously downgraded my housing costs when I left New York and I'd glad I made the decision to leave back in 2013. It was the right choice at the time and I don't regret it. I had my New York experience and it was great, but I knew I would be leaving eventually. I wasn't in it for the long-haul, that's for sure. 

Happy MLK, Jr. Day! (I'm ignoring the return of Donny T.)