becky haycox

Tag: postaday2011

  • butter me up and all over

    I had a Groupon for a face treatment — facial, peel, sandpaper scrub, you know — the works.

    I had put it off till the last minute — past the last minute, in fact. It was only by the grace of (Skin By) Maria that I could use my expired Groupon.

    The reason for the procrastination: I dreaded the appointment. Every facial I have had has been administered by a sadistic lady who berated me by criticizing my skin, scolding me for picking, and generally making me feel hopeless and ugly. A lot of friends commiserated with me about this odd black hole of non-etiquette. Why was it okay for the humans of this particular service industry to be so fucking rude?

    This turned me off to getting professional skin care, though I’ve long had the desire and means to have someone tend to my face. My face that is not hopeless nor ugly, I’ll have you know. Yes, there are zits and sun damage and perhaps some picking. So what?

    Thankfully, Maria was wonderful. Oohing, aahing, and even cooing a little over the fact I had so few wrinkles! At my age! And my hands — so soft, like a teenager’s! Oh, yes, there was a little sun damage, but she could take care of that — otherwise, she didn’t recommend anything else! So wonderful!

    Okay, so she might have swung to the other extreme, but I much prefer slightly fake cheerleading over that other shit.

    And my skin is now amazing. And I’m going back. Fancy that — she was nice and did a good job, and I’m suddenly over all those other meanies.

  • gone, not forgotten

    I am participating in several World AIDS Day commemorations at the end of this week. I’m attending in the course of my job, but I’m glad to have the opportunity to reflect on all the deep complexity of HIV/AIDS and its impact on the world, and on my life.

    It’s an issue way, way too deep and personal for me to even begin to unpack here at length. Having lived in San Francisco from the early 80s to the mid 90s, I was impacted in many, many ways.

    Yes, I lost friends. Yes, the city was as horrifically affected as you may imagine. Yes, I lived under a heavy blanket of fear and grief for a long time.

    When I was in my early 20s, my mother once mused that I was one of the lucky members of my family — because of my age, I was not (at that point) directly affected by a war. I told her if the devastation wrought by AIDS wasn’t a war, I didn’t know what was. Soldiers fell all day, every day.

    Anyway. Let’s feast our eyes and ears upon one of our comrades, gone far too soon. We’ll always love you and your brothers and sisters, Sylvester!

    [link]

  • sister trip

    St Marys Lake

    I mentioned my sister Ann’s trip and accompanying blog briefly a few months ago, but the time has come to revisit this singular bit of beautiful cyberspace. She recently completed posting the journals, and I highly recommend taking a look. It’s a relatively swift read from beginning to end, and is just wonderful. It’s called Across the Great Divide.

    Bison in the parking lot

    Perhaps it’s extraspecially wonderful because the weather is upon us (some more than others; my area of SoCal has — we’re actually in the high-70s mode these days), and the holiday angst is making me (at least) feel like summer is a long way off. This travelogue is a perfect anecdote.

    Snowy peaks through the clouds

    The pictures and words are first rate, and the story of the Return of the Battle Ax is compelling.

    Ennis Hillside Garden

    There’s even a side trip to a major city, and a surprise ending that made my toes curl with pure nostalgia. Those from New England particularly will enjoy that bit.

    From our campsite at dawn

    If you like what you read, please comment on her blog!

    Annie’s looking for new things to write about; let’s try to help her! Let’s keep her writing and photographing and giving us her unique, magical perspective.

  • app talk

    My dear friend and crafty queen Polly recently got an iPhone and asked around as to people’s favorite apps. First off, welcome to the vortex, cowgirl … it’s inevitable that we all become pod people, so embrace it!

    I’ll list my essential apps, though it is a surprisingly meager list. I caught a quick look at the Boyf’s main screens last night and there were dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of apps on his phone. He’s got a 4S with lots of capacity, and he’s got a mind for lots of capacity, as well. Me, I run a little leaner since my phone is littler in the brain department, and I am around computers with nice big screens a whole lot — therefore, my phone perhaps is a little more business and less recreational screen timey. Except for the games!

    Communications

    • Facebook app is pretty wonky, but passable. The Boyf likes Facebook Messenger, since FB is his main communications center.
    • Of the Google family, I use Maps, Calendar, and Feed Reader all the time. I do not like nor recommend Google Voice nor the catchall Google app, which supposedly simplifies searches. Both are buggy and unreliable.
    • Moe’s Notes. I don’t use it a whole hell of a lot, but I’ve begun to store recipes there. It’s a way to create notes that you can keep or email or post, and you can merge photo, audio, video, and sketches into a tiny multimedia experience, or virtual sketchbook. It also plays nice with calendars and with GPS. I’m fascinated by it, and look forward to playing with it more.

    Keeping Track of Stuff

    • Nike+ GPS. My running app. I love it, though there are problems with it (you can’t correct or enter runs by hand, and the website interface is horrible). I can’t ding it too much, though, because I really believe it really helps me stay in shape.
    • My Fitness Pal, where I (sporadically) keep track of my nutritional intake and exercise. I like the fact that the data is loaded into a web interface (so I can input my info from my phone, iPod or computer), but I don’t really love the user-maintained food database. However, it does the trick, and it gives me a calorie countdown for the day, which works for my brain.
    • AAA Roadside Assistance, for obvious reasons.
    • Cozi, a shared calendar app (also with a good web interface). Some friends and I use it to keep a caregiving schedule. I can imagine it would work with lots of other things. The only thing is that it doesn’t really talk to other calendar interfaces, which limits its usefulness in some ways.

    Eyes and Ears

    • Netflix app. When I’m bored and have access to good wifi, I love to watch some movies.
    • Shazam. Magical!
    • WFMU Streaming app. Perfect.

    Time Suckers

    • Tiny Tower. Horrifyingly addictive and so so cute. I’m sorry in advance, Polly.
    • Plant vs. Zombies. Another crack-like suite of games.

    Not Recommended or Just Don’t Like

    • Scrabble (for the Facebook Scrabble games). Buggy horrible.
    • Google Voice and catchall app (mentioned above.) Ditto.
    • WordPress. No choice but to use it every once in a while, but it needs major improvements.
    • Groupon. It doesn’t always list my current active Groupons. I’ve been screwed twice when I’ve redeemed my Groupon, but have been unable to call it up on my app. Booooooo.

     

  • work it out there, subconscious

    Two real-life friends who are also improvisers sat me down and told me “for my own good” that the audiences have not been liking my performances lately. Two helpful criticisms: I’m getting old, and no one cares what I’m talking about.

    I caught a ride to San Diego in a friend’s friend’s SUV. She worked the gas while I steered. I drove us onto the Santa Monica Pier and asked “should I be driving here?” She answered “uh, not really” just as all four tires exploded and both axles snapped. As we waited for the cops and passersby noted ominously that I better have good insurance, I stood in the soggy air and thought “this would be a really good time to realize this is a dream.”

    The upshot? Waking up and being flooded with relief that these were, indeed, dreams. Puzzled and trying not to be mad at my real-life friends about that first one.

  • gratitude access denied

    It’s the Fourth Friday Challenge for November. My friend Paul and I, both posting daily in 2011, decided to give each other a job once a month to keep things spicy. In his words, “we want to push ourselves to do something more interesting than we might otherwise.”

    And here is his challenge to me:

    What are you thankful I didn’t ask you to write about?

    – – – – –

    I could go the easy route, Paul, and say that I’m thankful for you not to make me list things I’m thankful for — although I’m grateful for that for sure. Facebook has accelerated my growing distrust and dread of the Mandatory Gratitude Access Holiday, with all the, all the, so very much many lists of things people are grateful for, all day relentless posting blah blah.

    I could go another easy route and name something of a similar vein, that is, the Life List. I don’t want to provide a link, you can do the GooGoo if you want. I have a lot of issues with Life Lists, this treacherous meme on steroids. Again, I’m grateful you did not have me make a Life List, but this is too easy too.

    I guess I’ll zoom out and say THANK YOU for not making me think critically nor blue-skyingly. I don’t want to dig deep, form opinions,  pros,  cons nor analyze anything at depth. I also don’t want to think about things that make me feel good or bad or things I should do to make me feel better or things that I feel that I deserve. I want no what-ifs, dredging, nor dwelling.

    Perhaps you knew yesterday’s feeding frenzy would render me useless to think too hard, or care too much. If so, good call. I’m thankful to you for not making me work!

    – – – – –

    Read Paul’s response to my challenge here. You’ll see on his blog my challenge was in the same vein. And I love his response (particularly about bananas) and his discovery of why I gave him this particular challenge.

  • thank you, food

    I’m preloading this post on Wednesday night, after a surprisingly ambitious and well-executed pre-attack on Thanksgiving.

    I made these things:

    • Carrot-ginger soup, my famous recipe
    • Yam salad that did not come out at all the way my mouth wanted it to
    • Mashed yams that are incredibly tasty and I should’ve made all the yams into this instead of that weird salad
    • Apple pie made with apples from Lamar — still! There are so many apples! These are not pie apples but I have a good feeling about the filling — I tarted it up with lime juice and there MAY be delicious afoot
    • Three flower arrangements that are a little avantgarde but who the hell is gonna care

    I did these things:

    • I parked at the supermarket and then ran a mile loop before braving the insanity of the crowds
    • I cleaned all the crystal last week
    • I had a brief makeout session with the boyf as thanks for letting me borrow his immersion blender
    • I got a blister from all the chopping
    • I got a little drunk on orange juice and whiskey while I cooked

    This is more work and care than I’ve done … ever? for Thanksgiving. I’m actually looking forward to setting the table and making things look nice, and put some effort into it all. I’m grateful for that, indeed I am. So will be my nephew and the Elderly Relative, who have endured absolute minimum effort on my part for the past few years.

    Things I did not do:

    • Polish the silver. Even though Evany sent me the link to an easy-peasy polishing method, I couldn’t face it. Maybe tomorrow? Poor mom, I’m sorry that you bore five silver-indifferent offspring. A whole lotta tarnish is going down around here.
    • Make the Hasty Pudding (retraining myself not to say “Indian Pudding”). Tomorrow for sure. I might make it early enough so that I can have it for breakfast. I’m excited to exhibit a little gauche Yankee pride with this dish — ah hell, I’m lying, actually it’s all about the butter and sugar.
    • Find the tablecloths and runners. Where are they? Are they with the pants?

    Anyway, have fun, eat lots, squeeze babies, do your part, behave yourself.

     

     

  • already a warm holiday memory

    After the DMV I decided to head to the Police Department because I just needed my fill of bureaucratic nonsense today.

    I was doing some business at the PD, which sounds a little shady, but I work with the police in the course of my job, really I do. While I was waiting to get some information from the nice officer behind the bulletproof glass, I heard a lady in the waiting area starting a call on her cell phone:

    Lady: Hey, what’s up? How are you? Me, oh, well. Not much. Going to jail.

    On that note, have a wonderful holiday and count those damn blessings!

  • rich gentlemen have it, boys — in-di-gestion!

    I have been trying to get the Thanksgiving shopping done on off-hours so I don’t drive my car into the harbor with frustration at the crowds/the cars/the stressical atmosphere. I’ve been doing it in phases, too; I leave when I can’t take it anymore*.

    I can feel my Taurus-horns dig deeper and deeper into forced curmudgeonry the closer these holidays get.

    However, I had a glimmer of change of attitude today. I was chatting with the morning’s barista at my local coffee shop as I waited for my Red Eye and oatmeal. He said that he likes being busy, because boredom leads to snacking, and this coffee shop sells a variety of baked goods as well as gelato. He described filling a latte cup with pistacho gelato, drizzling it with warm caramel, topping it with whipped cream and sea salt. He got actually glassy-eyed recounting this, and how the sea salt enhanced the nuttiness of the pistachios, and the cold-warm combo was … was …

    Oh dear lord. It was in that moment that the reality of the week thundered down — I get to eat and eat! Delicious things! Hooray for Thanksgiving and bless us every one!

    * And I am not even having to buy anything but booze and ingredients for a couple side dishes. I am lazy and hostile!

    [food, glorious food]

  • reason for the season

    IMG_0837

    Seen on a main street in Ventura. If there’s anything that encapsulates the ka-razy of this area, it’s this sign.