Back in February some chick named Corey called me from The Loading Dock, a really cool cafe bistro art gallery place. I had taken some funky little ladders to see if they wanted to sell them or show them or I don't know how to do stuff like that. Deep inside my delusions of grandeur, I thought I would impress them so much (plus I went to St. Mary's with one of the owners) they would give me my own show and I could invite my family for the cheese and the wine part of my dream. Well, Corey was putting on a "Spring Fair" and wanted to know if I was interested in participating. I paid $20 to set my artsy fartsy up in the fucking parking lot with a buncha other "crafters". Everytime people passed that little spot of my soul laid out on the table for sale (just $25!) they would read the above sign and a genuine smile would cross their face. Then they would walk on. I packed up Every item I came with. Not one thing sold. And I was Out twenty bucks.

The Bus! The BUS, the bus the bus the bus....

Yesterday, Pop-pops had wanderlust

so we left behind Nipomo's peaceful pastures

and we rode his beloved bus....

All the way to the seaside!

daytrippin'

Mister Poppity Pops under the Pier

Pop-pops
the Fearless Explorer
Makes a Discovery

Hey, you wanna know what's written @ The End of the Pismo Pier?

Just one more thing about G. & Scholarships

I want you guys to get Good And TIRED of congratulating him.
He got one from eQuality Scholarships.... The LGBQS que sabe que....His math teacher took him to San Francisco to the award ceremony. Her daughter goes to Berkley so she got to visit and Mrs. Kandel has gone to bat for G. so many times with letters and encouragements, he asked her to the dinner and ceremony. When he left for the weekend, Nana said, "Oh...mijo went to a Gay Thing? I didn't know that."
This award was for $5,000 - yes Five Thousand Smackers! Woo hoo.
It Pays to be Gay! To get it, he was interviewed over the phone by the scholarship judge givers of the monies. Me & Pop-pops kinda overheard most of the conversation as we were nodding off....G. was being sure to say, "Yes" instead of yeah and schmoozing without being schmoozy...plus he was talking very articulately about that thingie he did @ the Capitol. Evidently, some bills got passed committee ( not quite laws yet ) and G. was part of That Movement...hate crimes being prevented and such. Advocacy. I have a dream/rainbow flag flying/stand up stuff.
I think he deserved the scholarship, but then again I'm always very surprised (i mean pissed) when he doesn't get one. Plus I'm going to go ahead and come clean about something here. I think G. should run for President, that's how great I think he is. Call me delusional, I don't give a fuck. And so, with that: our Scholarship Tally is rising/up to $10,850.
Yay! Brother!!! And it's only $20,000 a year to go to San Francisco State University. Yay! Expensive Ass Higher Education!!!

Aahh My Happy College Bound Camper

Mo' Money Mo' Money

A toast to G.! He just called to tell me he won a $750 scholarship. Last week he called on his 10 o'clock brake to tell me he won the Nipomo High School Arts scholarship for $500. He's going to get there, Que la fregada!

addendum:

last night G. got home from his friend Bandrew's house (Andrew + he's in the band /not to be confused with Smart Ass Andrew) He TORE into a letter from SFSU....not only were these extremely perceptive staff/audition judges accepting G. into the classical music department but they enjoyed his "excellent performance audition" and offered him $4600 in scholarship money. I was expecting acceptance: the four THOUSAND six hundred dollars was puro icing on the cake.

I really like watching G. jump up & down and wave his arms all about & almost hit his head on the ceiling.

meanwhile Happy (in a different way) Tuesday carries on quietly kicking ass (still!) in her room. She was carefully spraying heavily diluted instant coffee onto her journal entries to give them an aged look. Calling out that she was Happy for her Brother.

Sometimes, when Pop-pops wakes up from a deep sleep, the first thing he says is, "Yay! Brother!"

Manifesting Happy

So Happy says to me, "Mom...manifest. Manifesting?" I knew exactly what she meant so I just nodded and smiled....She went on to explain to her classmate Tess that when she first got the assignment, she (Happy) had thought this photo shoot up in her head, First. Then decided on a location, went out and got the 1940's attire and so we were all there. Because she had manifested it. Since she was six she's known about the word and has since learned the very idea....It was at that point that I dropped all my notions of an anti-war agenda. And I felt deliciously grown-up...This wasn't about me. Happy's dad said Happy is just a girl learning about History.
But that didn't stop me from wearing my WAR SUX (because it does!) shirt to the military camp. No siree.

Make Love Not War

Happy Representz

On My Yahoo page, I have an NPR Sunday edition hooked up as a favorite. I don't even bother with the old newspaper anymore....So there's this article about how Latino Veterans of WWII don't get any national attention. They got the Windtalkers and the Japanese being put in camps and for some reason Mexicans aren't in any PBS specials. Well, here is Happy, in a photo of what I think might have really happened. If her dad was going off to war for real, I'm sure this is the picture I would get. Only Happy would be crying.

In her myspace (Happy sometimes deigns to share with me) she wrote


"My Dad, my soldier, my HERO...."

Happy Tuesday in Peril!!! Beautiful young American Girls in Danger!!!

Changapeluda to the RESCUE!!!

Will the TANK

PULVERIZE OUR GIRL HAPPY & HER LITTLE FRIEND TESS?

or

will Changa
just tell them to

GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE!!!

Happy Is - Diving In

Happy is kicking serious ass in her History Class! by doing a photo shoot dressed as a girl from the 1940's who becomes a nurse during WWII. Happy has also coerced her dad to dress in period costume and appear in said photo shoot as a soldier stationed in Pearl Harbor circa 1941.

For me, happy is having a babydaddy who is not only willing to do this for his daughter, but who also happens to be a fantastic history buff. He gobbles up big books of it...knows dates and shit....timelines by heart.

Happy is doing the extra credit, even. Inviting her classmate named Tess (isn't that a sweet name?) along for the photo shoot. Also providing her with a costume Happy herself put together. Location: Camp San Luis where they have wartime planes and other military crap.

And again for me, besides the momming of it all...I get to take the pictures! How much fun is that going to be?!? A month of Happy Tuesdays, let me tell you. We get to be a part of history...all black & white con todo gray areas. As I am plotting on making this an anti-war experience for my little girl....Think I can do it? Can it even be done? Seriously, I'm a little worried about glorifying war, here. And we can't have that. War sucks.

Random Deliciousness

My mom knows how to cook white people food, too. A potroast to die for. She was sitting at the table telling me, "Oh mija, come and eat....this is Sooo good, mmmmm! even if I do say so myself."

It used to be a cathouse but nobody lives here anymore

I built this a long time ago from scrap lumber. It was for Happy and one of her kittens only she didn't really like it so it ended up outside. I really do love arches. And a good pivotal jigsaw...See those scratch marks? Zoe the pearliest dog did that. But only because Pop-pops put her tennis ball in there.

Back In The Saddle and/or Don't Fence Me In

Gimme land lotsa land and the sunny skies above...I love sunny California! Nipomo or Nipas (as the cholos say) in particular. I think it's the prettiest little town wherein my family and I could ever live. For real, aye.

Cheeky Pop-Pops & the streets of San Francisco

San Francisco takes a lot navigationally. And that is an understatement.
So we're @ that stage where we can only hope that we will soon learn our way around. It's going to take something better than the dome light & mapquest....A GPS system would have been so futuristically bitchen. Only we rented the economy car. I think it cost more to park it overnight ($33!) than to rent it. The hotel was fun, especially the 16 trips on the elevator. G.'s audition went very well, especially the first song, so he said. G. also said the second song coulda went better but it sounded a lot smoother than the guy who went before him. Which is about as competitive as it gets around here. Anyway I look @ it, my kid's a success. Already.

Here's G. Lookin' All Citified

When we stopped at the Embarcadero I had a bi-polar experience. And Happy Earthday to you, too.

I saw the happiest homeless guy I've ever seen in my life! He was wrapped in a baby blue blanket, sitting Indian style, smiling to beat the band. He just seemed so happy, looking up at somebody and talking (only nobody was there). His whole being was exuberantly childlike & he was rocking really fast, back and forth, full of some crazy ass glee. Then the light turned green and we got a few blocks further down. This poor guy had a sign that said he wanted to get a job and could you please help him out. He looked so uncomfortable and ashamed, like he wished he was anyplace but there. His head was down and his face looked hot & sweaty even though it was San Francisco cold and windy. It was painful to watch. And in a frustratingly-futile-symbolic way, I wanted to give him some money only he was two cars away and the light wasn't red anymore.

Tonite I will lay my head down in San Francisco

We are headed up North for G. to toot his horn and carve himself out a place in San Francisco State's music department. He's already been accepted, much to his relief and my I knew he would. He auditioned for the Conservatory (we went up there a month ago, pre-camera losing/getting back which made the losing part so jacked because that pic of my Poppity was in there!!) and while they don't even Know what they are missing out on ( he got a dratted rejection letter), it's SFU's turn to get to know my G. Who, as a matter of fact called me on his lunch break to tell me he Won Nipomo High School's $500 arts scholarship! We'll get him there, come hell or high water. I have been looking for hotels just today because I am a fly by the seat of my pants kinda girl....and I do believe we will be staying at the Hotel Milan....they had the funnest reviews and it seems like it will be the quietest place for us to get a good night's sleep so G. can be nice and fresh for his musicality manana. I must say I really enjoyed reading hotel reviews and/or I am easily amused today. I liked the ones that said the hotel was in a "ruff neighborhood, the wife and I were scared to go out at night." Hee heee. Scaredy cats. I stayed at an old army barracks in SF, Fort Mason turned into a youth hostel, when I was in high school. It was such a good experience that I encourage G. to do groovy stuff like that all the time. Get on the train. Destination: Hot Springs Ark. or even just a local Pismo Beach. He's a good traveler....and I'm going to keep on urging him to go. Even though I'm scared of something happening to him. Even though we live in a world where innocent students get mowed down in their classrooms. I cannot let the mentally ill dictate where my son can and cannot go. So today I am going with him...on a trip he will soon be making alone....San Francisco, here we come!

You've been a good ole wagon, Daddy but ya done broke down.

Did you know this famous picture was taken in Nipomo? Well it was. By Dorothea Lange. A huge version of it hangs at our library and there's even an elementary school up on the mesa named after Ms. Lange. I've seen this picture a gazillion times. Only the other day, it hit me like a ton of bricks. She was a migrant farm worker w/7 kids and a husband dead of tuberculosis. Nobody knows what happened to her after this picture was taken. I used to feel really bad when I looked at this picture. In a detached historical kinda way. Upon closer inspection, I got all weepy and shit. I fully recognized that look on her face. That look of "What the fuck am I gonna do now???" because it's all up to her. So I looked a little closer. At her baby's full and rounded cheek. At her older children's sweet hairline with their sturdy, clean necks.
I think I know what happened to her. I like to think she went on to kick some ass.

Alive & Kicking!

While I haven't gotten to the point where I am fulfilling any of my busking fantasies....mi vida loca has been fallin to pieces. The First to fall was the computer, then the washing machine, the cheap-ass DVD player joined the dump pile, then in an amazing sequence of breakage, the front of our Jalopolicious Blazer got smashed & is non-operable. Oh, it was just a little accident and nobody got hurt except for our dear old workhorse with the droopy headliner and the passenger door that won't open from the inside. A goner. Oh well, it had a good life.... Pop-pops really digs public transportation, namely: the bus, the Bus, the BUS the Bus the Bus! We got a new washer and now the damn dryer won't get hot. At all. The jogger stroller has a flat. Right in the front. G. lost my camera in Sacramento at the Queer Youth thinger he went to. He became an activist. And a vocally gay student at his highschool. And the president of the GSA (gay straight alliance) club. But I don't want that getting lumped into things that are breaking down 'round here. The opposite is true. This is what fixes me: my son G. came out w/calm bravery and forthrightness. He is like a shiney new star going all the way to our state's capitol, staying in a youth hostel. Standing up so early for what he is and what he believes in. G. and his little sister and brother are what keeps me out of complete Loserville. Where I really missed my camera the most. I missed it something awful. Oh, it was a Good thing I put a little piece of blue masking tape on the bottom w/G,'s name and number....So yesterday, I got it back. I can take all the pictures I want. Hah! What do you think about that?? And I can hang the clothes out on the line I strung from tree to tree. And anyways, I'm back. And I missed you all very much. I hadn't realized how much this here blog is a part of my swing of things.

And I feels like swangin'!