A Step Forward For The Economy?

While searching for old D'Angelo videos for an impromptu lecture, I mistakenly clicked an ad. The pop-up took its time to load but for some reason, I didn't close the window. I was curious about what craziness I had signed onto. And boy was I in for a treat.

Introducing Latisse, the first FDA approved cosmetic treatment for eyelashes. I must say, I often worry about those with anemic eyelashes, an epidemic that seems to have risen with radiation exposure and recession driven stress. Finally an answer.

I must say this just speaks to the integrity of the American endeavor. According to this, the product is just the cosmetic formulation of a drug used to treat glaucoma. And bonus, it might reduce fat tissue too. This might be the cure all wonder drug. How do they figure this stuff out any way? Well I trust the good folks at Allergan. Go America!

I know there will be less people getting this product but you know there will be enough and then people will celebrate their recoveries with even more purchases of all the wonder derivatives of eye medicine. I know its radical, but this could be game changing.

Gun License

Necessary to waste the squawking birds who are waking me up. Things weill perish by my hand if I cannot get back to sleep. That is all.

This Morning

Our top story this morning is the appearance of a stray black dog on the porch this morning. As I was reading my book, I heard my roommate leave for her appoinment with the doctor. After her initial footsteps were gone, I heard some lesser footsteps. I assumed that it was just the particular way the wind was whistling through the trees and returned to my reading. But the glint of something moving caught my eye above the book, and there was a new stranger. He walked the length of the porch and came towards me. He stared me dead on, moved slightly towards me, then turned and went. He then went round the corner and was gone. I was so baffled by the chain of events, I stayed glued to my seat. I tried to resume reading, but needed to rise to make sure what I had viewed was not an illusion. I rose and rushed to see if I could catch at least a glimpse of the dog. Imagine my surprise when I saw nothing!

But he emerged from behind a neighbor's bush and normal breathing returned to my system. As homeostasis returned, my paranoia still did not relent. I thought somehow I viewed it as a sign. Should I get a dog like that? Does a black dog predict something more omnous? Sleep deprivation makes one silly. Maybe divine providence was guiding me along the path in some way.

So as I was talking to Doodlebug, my newest friend six hours away in a country where the young are so mighty they beat Brazil in football matches, I was searching for any symbolism regarding black dogs. Churchill once referred to his own depression as his "black dog." It also was a hit for Led Zeppelin in the early 70s. The Wikipedia article alleges that either the sexually suggestive anthem was titled for a loitering black dog in the studio or might be more of a secretive invocation to a divine being due to its similarities with a novel's name for a club of occult.

Yeah I'm starting to lose interest too, though I was feeling kind of spiritual at that moment. In my second trip to the porch once Doodlebug was kicked out, I viewed my neighbors playing catch in the street. They are in their mid 30s - early 40s yet in the middle of the day, they were in the middle of the street playing catch. While I admire the carefree attitude and playfulness at such an age, their regular dallaince with permanent transience is troubling. If I can somehow stack some paper so I can support my whims and fancies, that would be lovely. But I suppose I will hustle as hard as I have to so my wife and children can everything they need and lead the life I wish to have. If I can't live it for myself, at least I can live it through my family.

Okay I need to write my e-mail. I missed writing on this thing so I dropped something super quick.

And Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Program

Since the wee hours of Monday morning, I have not had internet service. This is something that has been annoying at worst and pretty tolerable overall. Every once in a while I did have the notion to check for an important e-mail or search for some random item on the internet, but they weren't life or death so things were cool.

(I did wish I could have blogged a conversation me and Mocha had the other night on our way home. We were trying to figure out why music, video games, and DVD's were released on Tuesdays. How did they come upon this arbitrary day? Wouldn't it make sense to move it to Thursday? You beat the bootleggers. People would like to have it for their weekends. Who wouldn't love to test out the new game over the weekend or play that new CD on your vacation up the coast? It just makes sense. And we would get to hear new stuff much earlier. Just a thought brought to you by Mocha Latte.)

Today I got to go to the girls' program because they needed a male staff just in case this one particularly big girl had an issue. At first I was reluctant, but I eventually warmed to it after the lovely reception from the program coordinator and some of the girls I've worked with over there. Even though I played with Bratz dolls for most of the evening, it was a wonderful change of pace. I got to dance. I got to sing. I had fun. And the girls are more appreciative. I'm not sure if it's something that's natural or learned, but they are. They are just more expressive too. I think what would grind on me if I worked there regularly would be how often they are emotional, which is nightly. My boys aren't emotional that often and we usually respond to their physical outbursts. The emotions might come much later and with a whole other staff. But like Wu-Tang, I'm for the children and I'll work with either set.

The cool part of tonight was realizing how awesome music is. Banana skipped ahead on the Robin Thicke she was pumping on the way home to hear just one section of the song "Complicated." Just the simple way he sang this half bar of music tickles Banana just so. After it was over, it was on to the next track. Abrupt as it may seem, I am totally the same way. There's a bass lick at the end of the chorus in The Spinners "I'll Be Around" that always gets me.

Anyway that's all for now. More postings to follow since I am celebrating early Friday this week.

WIWUTS 5/06/07

I did not celebrate Cinco De Mayo with an officially sanctioned celebration, but today working, it sure felt like it. Most Saturday nights, I am quite awake. But I'm usually home and not expending energy so when I do got to bed at 1:30 or 2, it's really not that deep. Once I get past 10, I'm straight. Today though, I felt tired. Most times I can stave it off, but I was hurting. And so were my supervisor. And a former supervisor who came to help out since we had an open spot in the morning. It was a pretty good day though. We had acouple of incidents, including losing a kid for two minutes, but it was all pretty manageable. For once, we weren't scrambling at the end of the night to finish paperwork and chores. If the night shift was actually on time, we might have left early.

Today's justification is brought ot you by one of our most heartbreaking cases. He's a seven year old who operates at a toddler-preschool level cognitively. Cute as a button, but so troubled inside his head. Can't really stick with something for too long before he gets bored. He learns negative behaviors from his peers and replicates it without really understanding what's happening. No one can stay mad at him for too long. He's just helpless. At bedtime, someone usually has to be outside his doorway to make sure he does go to sleep or else he's up every 30 seconds running out and trying to see what's happening in the hallway. Of course since he is so young, he likes being tucked in from time to time. When I do it, I kind of wrap him so he resembles a taco or a wrap or something. So I've gotten in the practice of calling him "Chalupa."

Bedtime rolls around and tonight I have fallen in the role of making sure little Chalupa is asleep. First he's jumping on the bed, but once we got him an orange, he started to settle down. He peeked down the hallway one more time and then dove into bed. Faintly I heard "Would you tuck me in?" I walk in the room where he is chewing his blanket and he looks up at me and says, "Like a chalupa."

That's why I woke up this Sunday.

The Parallels Are Unsettling

If you're wondering why I am up at this hour reserved for medical professionals, morning show hosts, teachers, and crack addicts, its because I took the supervisor's keys home last night by accident and I was up early in the hopes of calling the morning supervisor who actually lives in my neighborhood to come pick them up on his way in. Sadly the one number they had for him at work led me to a young woman's voice mail. I'll be in early anyway.

But being up has obviously thrown a wrench in my sleep pattern and as I try to lull myself to sleep, I'm noticing that my methods of returning to Slumberland eerily resemble our boys. There are certain sleep patterns that I never shed from childhood. To this day, if I'm sedentary for long enough and my body senses the need to slep, I involuntarily start sucking my tongue. Other people actually had to point it out to me. And I can't do it on my own. It really just happens and most times I don't notice it until its transpired for a while. I also sometimes end up sleeping with my ass up high and my legs crossed together exactly as I did as a ababy (I've seen the pictures).

Right now though, I have my DVD on, which one of my boys was asking for last night. That's not so peculiar. Lots of people fall asleep to some noise. But as I turnedit on and I was still having trouble I really started to rock slighly which is something I used to do with more frequency even in adulthood. But one of my boys is notorious for that. It's like his calling card. Maybe I'm just up too early.