Speaker Boehner working to solve financial crisis?

Last night I went over to the only place in Southwest DC where you can get a drink and dinner on the water, Cantina Marina.  It is a lovely neighborhood place where a everyone gathers and bring dogs, kids, and parents to socialize, eat, and unwind.  All types come there and when you walk down that ramp, rank and fame are usually left behind.  Last night all of that was blown out of the water.

About 8:45, the manager of the Gangplank marina and his assistant came in and said that Speaker Boehner was on his way.  No big deal, he came often when a certain bartender was on duty and sat down with the rest of us around the big square bar.  I thought it was kind of odd he would be coming last night when all the leaders were supposed to be working day and night on the debt ceiling.  Then it turned out that it was not just the Speaker on his way.  It was a whole boatload (literally) who docked on the Celebrity after nearly running into the crowded dining deck.   In the meantime, a couple of secret service looking guys came in a swept the place looking very official.

 Then all of a sudden it was just crazy.  Everyone who had been upstairs were told they had to vacate immediately, even if they were in the middle of a meal. They started coming down and were trying to get a table or space at the bar and service.  Then crowds of people started coming in off the boat and down the ramp.  They were mostly old goats and youngish girls and where shown upstairs.  At some point, Boehner arrived surrounded by a phalanx of suited men and a couple of women.  The guards then withdrew to the front of the building.  After the crowd arrived, no one downstairs could get service to save their souls until everyone upstairs had been fully covered. The staff at Cantina did yeoman service to try and cover the influx of people and the now less than satisfied regulars.

To add insult to injury, when I left about 45 minutes later, out front there was his large SUV suburban parked blocking the handicapped access from the restaurant.  The engine had obviously been running the entire time because there was quite a puddle of water from the condenser. The six goons just laughed when asked to turn off the motor.  "The no idling law does not apply to the Speaker of the House," I was told.

So I guess, it was bad enough that they played that little baseball game last night. I guess the reason they couldn't make it to meetings this morning with the President is because they all had heavy heads from their big party last night after the game.  I live right above Cantina.  They were there well past midnight. The speaker is really taking things seriously.  He really takes DC law seriously. Maybe he was just prematurely celebrating what he is anticipating to be a victory.

I am now the other woman

I have now become the other woman in my own marriage.  It seems kind of funny only it isn't. I'm not laughing.

Sold down the river by the National Capitol Planning Commission and Commission on Fine Arts

According to our Friends at the National Planning Commission and the US Commission on Fine Arts, nothing in SW  Washington is important enough to save from their great vision.On 2 April 2009 they adopted a plan that will, among other things, make the SW Waterfront the means to "transform federal precincts surrounding the National Mall into vibrant destinations and to improve the physical and visual connections between the city,the National Mall,and the waterfront while achieving the highest levels of livability and sustainability incentral Washington" all at the expense of the SW Waterfront.

The plan is to "transform the Southwest Rectangle into a distinguished and pedestrian friendly workplace, a cultural hub,and an exciting and welcoming visitor destination." I kind of think that already discribes the SW neighborhood that I live in. I can walk by the water, watch the boats, see and talk with my neighbors and people from all over the world.  We have recently reopened Arena Stage and several thousand workers come to Fort McNair and city offices on 4th St SW each day.  According to the plan they would like to add tens of thousands of workers, thousands of residents and unknown numbers of visitors that would arrive on enhanced streets and bridges to form "multiple linkages" that would span the channel from P and N streets"that improve access" to Potomac Park.

This plan is being used as the basis for the PUD filed on 10 Feb 2011by PN Hoffman et all for their plan to develope the SW Waterfront with their wall of 11 and 12 story buildings and the elimination of Water Street,even though NCPC has just begun the first of their 10 planned studies on the Monumental Core Framework Plan.  The Washington Canal and Channel Study was deemed to be number 4 in priority.

I think this raises enough questions that the closing of Water Street should be put on hold until the Washington Canal and Channel Study has been completed. This plan's first objective is to celebrate the city as a symbol.  "Washington's iconic urban form and skyline are recognized around the world as symbols of American democracy."  If Water Street is closed and 10 tall buildings are built there, our skyline will be unrecognizable fom the water, from the land, or from the air.

I want my Mommy back

I just got off the phone with the lady who says she is my Mama but that isn't her.  That is a whisper of my mother in a body that used to look like her.  That was a sick complaining old woman who can't remember from minute to minute who is coming with me for Christmas or most days when Christmas is.  That woman was whining about nobody helping her do the housework when everyone does everything for her.  Where has my Mama gone?  Even last year at this time, Mama would apologize and say, "I'm just not myself today."  We could then kind of laugh and I'd repeat what I had said and she would get the idea into her mind and we could go on with a conversation.  In the last year though, she has failed to the point that we can't do that any more and any reference to the fact that she might not be perfectly all right infuriates her.

 She has no concept of time or travel and that makes living across the country quite difficult. Mama doesn't understand why I can't just pack up and come over every time she needs me and then go home again like my brother Dean does.  Dean lives 26 miles away. Poor Dean.  He is hounded daily to come over and do things that people in Russell are perfectly capable of doing.  He does hold his own pretty well and manages to keep it to one or two trips a week.

My son is getting married a few days after Christmas but I dread the entire process.  My mother has become so self-centric that I fear she will be terribly uncomfortable in the crowd of new people.  Even though there will not be many there (about 50), she will need someone by her side at all times.  I won't be able to watch out for her as I usually do.  She is going to get her feelings hurt and will end up withdrawing and lying down. If she could just come back for a bit and follow the proceedings and join in the fun and be Mama.

Everyday I think of things I would like to talk over with my mother.  I have been fortunate to have the kind of relationship that allowed me to talk to her about nearly anything.  When we talk now she still wants to have that sort of intimacy but when she can't even remember that my husband and I are separated some days, it is kind of hard.  I try but I always come away with a crushed heart. The conversations are like talking to someone else in a Mama costume.

So sometimes I just cry. And since this is Christmastime and I do believe in miracles, maybe I ought to ask Santa...."Could I please have my Mommy back?"

I have been a bad girl

I have been a bad girl so I am not looking for any presents from Santa.  I haven't been blogging and I haven't felt the least bit guilty.  I have been out there living life and getting through each day as it comes.  There have been some fantastic ones and some really terrible ones but we are all still here.  Well, nearly everyone is.

Elizabeth Edwards has lost her battle with cancer.  She has long been a role model for me in how she has gone on picking up the pieces of her life after each time she has been knocked down.  She was the true power behind the politician and glue that held that family together.  I'm sure she has stayed alive by sheer will for this long.  I know there are those that thought because she was strong willed and may have shown her temper on occasion, that it somehow diminished her life.  In my estimation, it did not.  It made me admire her more.  She gave up everything for John Edwards.  She bought into his dream and all she asked was that he stay true to their family and dream.  He couldn't even do that. My heart breaks for their children with a father like that. (No, I won't talk about the scum sucking, etc. things that I feel about him.) This is a tribute to one of us.  Those of us who stay and try to live the dream until we have it thrown back into our faces just one too many times.

Speaking of which, my son and his lovely fiancée are getting married in a lovely destination wedding on 30 December 2010. I still believe in true love and family.  I just think that it takes work and a lot of outside counseling.  After all my parents have been married for 59 years and they love each other deeply and without reserve. I know there is someone, somewhere like that for me.  I just wish I could find him before I dry up into a prune.

I have been plagued by learning to use my new and improved phone.  I was supposed to be able to blog, write emails, post pictures, post to facebook and twitter and text more easily.  I have so far gotten the texting down and can retrieve emails.  The blogging and other interactive things are beyond me. Maybe after the wedding when I have more time to figure it out. I just feel so stupid that everyone else knows how to do these things and I can't figure it out.

Meeting of ANC tonight so I need to get going.  Last one with the defeated and retiring commissioners.

9th anniversary of 9/11

This is the ninth year we have had to remember the awful day that literally changed all of our lives.  It ripped my life apart and threw it in the ash can even though I didn't know it at the time. In addition to our whole way of life being stolen from us by increased security and vague threats, my marriage has been stolen and my son's college experience forever scarred by the loss of friends.  I don't just blame the terrorists who planned and flew those planes that day.  I blame the way our namby pamby country reacted and showed their yellow undies to the world and continue to do so to this day.  They think that by being the biggest bully on the earth, that they will scare the terrorists into staying away from the U.S. No attempt has been made to understand or carry on.  We have just put our heads down and charged forth like an angry bull stung by a wasp on the snout.  We have punished ourselves far more than any terrorists ever could have.  What a sad, sad, commentary on all the loss of life and sacrifice.

You can't always get what you need

What is it that they say about deprived people?  That most of the time they don't know they are deprived until they get the thing they have been deprived of?  I have recently been given back an activity that has been withheld from me for the past five years.  It is a pleasurable activity that makes me feel attractive and young.  It makes me feel things that I had forgotten existed on this earth and now all I want to do is this activity.  All I think about is this activity. I could care less about anything else.  I could care less about anyone else than the ones in my life who can help or facilitate this activity.  I dream about it and I fantasize about it.  When I leave, I come home and wish I will find a purveyor of it in my apartment.

Since I did completely without for five years and practiced it sporadically about five or ten years before that, I feel like I need to make up for wasted time.  After all, at 57, I don't have that much time left to practice this with optimum participants.  Somehow I feel cheated out of all that time when I could have been enjoying myself with the right people. Instead I was miserable and sad...in retrospect that is.  At the time I guess I thought I was fine.  I thought I was just fine and dandy and fulfilled and all the time there was a huge hole inside of me waiting to be filled.  Yearning to be filled. Screaming to be filled.

Maybe that is why in all the old westerns they used to say, "Hold it, Partner...don't drink it all at once. Save some for later."  Maybe this is just the beginning of something wonderful and I need to relax and save some for later.