Category: Personal Blog

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I had a bad experience with deviantArt because so much of the art I saw wasn’t as good as mine and I wanted to be in good company-not a bunch of 7th grade level notebook scribblerdoodlers.
Snobbish? hell yeah.
Yes, sure everyone’s an artist/writer/painter/musician.Fine go ahead but suck is still suck and ignorance is still ignorance and it pains me when I see someone who has no respect for the ones who’ve gone before and have no respect for the titles they so easily give themselves.I guess it’s always been this way.
A friend of my dad told me about the Saatchi online gallery that lets anyone upload their work and have their own mini gallery hosted by them.
And so I saw that it’s the same kind of unmoderated/democratic system as deviantart’s…but a brief browse turned up some decent work, which allowed my snobby self to think that I wouldn’t be so ashamed to show my face there.

And when i tried to go the moderated route I just ran into a scam…ok maybe it wasn’t a scam but they did want me to pay 150 bucks to get signed up.And I wouldn’t do it.

I took the dog for a walk that turned into a walk across the Manhattan Bridge.This spirit of adventurousness took us to Chinatown where we picked up a few things for the kitchen.
Bozzio was beside himself amongst so many of his best friends (anyone and anybody)and I was happy to find deals like 6 oranges for 2 dollars.

But the rain and the cold got to us and we wanted to go home.I realised I’d gotten us into a pickle because if cabs are hard enough to get when it’s raining, try adding a dog to the equation…sure enough not even standing right in front of the off ramp of the Brooklyn Bridge(where vacant cabs were off loading by the dozens)
was doing the trick.One genius stopped just to tell me that he’d let us in his cab if Bozzio was wearing a box(muzzle) over his face.

This seemed funny to me- cabs have plexi glass dividers between the front and back-so who was Bozzio going to bite?Me? And was I then going to sue the cab company? Because my dog bit me in their cab?

I don’t think he had the slightest idea that he was implying so many insane scenarios with that one remark.But when I accused him of making up stories he rolled up his window and became much less forthcoming with bs theories.

I’ve lived in the NY area since 1989-you’d think I would’ve seen a sign in one of the billion cabs I’ve ridden in about their policy about dogs…

I thought about trying to take Bozzio on the subway but I didn’t know the MTA’s policy about this.Bozzio is a 65 pound pitbull boxer mix.I’ve seen little doodad dogs in purses on the subway…but no one Bozzios size.I called 311 to ask.
311 didn’t know and they also didn’t know if there was a standardized rule about taxis and dogs.
311 was transferring me to the MTA when a cab did stop for us!
Our hero was 24.

He thought I was funny because I was telling him the trouble I’d been having.
He asked about Bozzio’s name and didn’t know who Frank Zappa or the Mother’s of Invention were!?
Anyway we got home and I think I tipped him the cost of the ride itself but it was worth it.

I was in the pet shop to pick up a rubber ball for the Booj, or Bozzio if we are being formal.
This was the small Pet land branch on Willoughby and Jay.Whenever I am on this street I can’t not think of the bounder in Jane Austen’s book.
Anyway I’d been in this store many times but never went to the back where they keep live fish,birds and furry things ..even salamanders…for me to see these is dangerous as I instantly become 8 years old and want to take them all home with me.
Especially the guinea pigs.I love them so.Here I am,36 and I have always wanted a guinea pig and it has never occurred to me that I could actually have one.I used to have cats and after they died I really really meant to go get another.But logic took over.I had a cat and the other came to me because she was left behind by a roommate.As they grew to be pretty old,they got sick.I was very poor at the time and wasn’t up to the vet bill costs.I know that if I had had the resources to ensure their health I would have done so.But I didn’t and they got sick and I couldn’t afford the 15,000.00 cost for a kidney operation for Lily.Alex was diagnosed with feline diabetes which meant I had to hydrate her with lactated ringer via syringe 2x a day.Lily died then Alex died and it was a painful experience and I went through it totally alone.
Lily was on her practical last day when I knew she was suffering and decided I had to take her to the vet, astronomic bill or not. I packed her into her carrier and was almost out the door when all the lights went off.This was the start of the blackout of 2003 in NYC.
I was more concerned with Lily,though so I decided to walk her up to the vet anyway,blackout or no blackout. 9th avenue was completely jammed.There were more people out on the streets then I had ever seen and I lived near Times Square…it took 4 times as long to walk the few blocks as it normally did.But I finally did make it to The West side Animal Hospital
The vet took Lily in. I signed the forms.I paid about 800 dollars in the end and that wasn’t the entire bill.
I was foolishly under the impression that this being a hospital meant that someone would be around to take care of the animals after business hours. This was not the case.Lily and I had been together for over 10 years and with hardly any time spent apart and certainly never her left all alone.They kept her for 2 days before they told me it would take the kidney operation to save her life but that of course wouldn’t guarantee she would still live.
I had adopted Lily from an art school acquaintance who told me she was 2 years old.Those 2 years plus the 10 I’d had her put her at 12,I thought.The vet said no, she was not a day under 18. 18! Healthy as a horse until the last 6 months…not bad.Lily had had only one previous hospitalization: When I’d only had her for a year or so I came home from school and found her almost dead from being poisoned…But afterwards she came right back and for 9 more years was illness free.
I have always loved animals but it pained me so much to think that my pets wouldn’t get proper health care because I was poor.And this was why I never got another cat.
My boyfriend got me a dog for my 35th birthday and he is the sweetest dog.But he is such a people whore! Just like Lily was.She loved everyone and jumped on any one’s lap.She had none of those weird kitty “rules” such as biting you if you pet her in a certain place–like a lot of cats I’ve met.She never scratched,she never hissed.She was a total dear.And of course really good at catching mice.
So at the pet store I did go to the back.I saw the guinea pigs, and the birds. I called my boyfriend and asked him if he minded if I bought one.They had a pair of Diamond doves,so beautiful.And they don’t make the incessant bird chatter that my boyfriend thinks would be prohibitive to having a bird in the home.I am determined.

I used to live in Texas which would be humid and awful in the summer and icy cold in the winter.
I’m sad for the people in the midwest who are without power and heat during an ice storm…but c’mon guys. Just because you aren’t used to weather like this shouldn’t mean your infrastructure collapses like a tree branch covered in ice.
Oh poetic.
I do care. It’s just that I’m 36 years old so when I read comments from the man on the street on CNN.com about how they’ve lived in the area for 50 years and can’t remember it ever being this bad–how is that I can ? I lived there in the 80’s and we had ice storms and they were bad.
Ok, it sounds like they never really did have it that bad, so bad that over 300,000 are without power.I sure don’t remember that ever happening while I was living there.
But I still think there should be some kind of system for disaterous weather handling.
Now I have to call G. my old roommie because she’s from OK. and she’s got loads of pals back home.