Resolutions

My resolutions for 2009:

1) Learn to drink bourbon
2) Get a fish for a pet
3) Play, laugh and dance
4) Take pictures
5) Read, write and create
6) Celebrate the small things
7) Trust
8) Plant a garden
9) Say "thank you" a lot
10) Stop waiting

My new girlfriend is named Olga

I'm sorry Victoria (Secret), but you'll never caress my breasts again. Despite wooing me with your models (Tyra and Heidi) and the names of your products (Body and Ipex), I've found someone new. Her name is Olga.

I love her because she is so ... available. She's just where I want her, in all the major department stores, and is frequently, umm, marked down. You know what that means. That I'll be able to enjoy more of her.

Victoria, you broke my heart more than once. Your styles and colors were lacking in my size. Oh, I know I'm not 34B and I don't need pushing up but is that any reason NOT to offer me the excitement I crave?

Don't hate me. We'll still be friends. It's just that I love Olga now.

100 Things

Picked this up from some other blog. The items in BOLD are ones I've done. What about you?

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo (you don't want me to sing)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (does a calf count?)
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (depends on whether this means baseball or not)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (spoken word version of "House of the Rising Sun")
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant

It still screams

I woke up this morning to learn that Tom Gish, former editor and publisher of my hometown newspaper, The Mountain Eagle, had died at age 82.

Tom and Pat Gish were among the adults whom I admired growing up in Whitesburg. They were journalists and business owners and the parents of high school classmates of mine. Pat, in particular, was a role model for girls at the time. She and Tom were partners in the true sense of that word.

They allowed us on the high school newspaper staff to use their offices and darkroom and their typesetting and layout equipment -- as long as we were out of the way when it was deadline time for them. Later, when Appalshop moved in next door to their office and I was there almost everyday taking myself too seriously while learning to make documentary films, I would learn by observation how authentic and serious professionals worked day-in and day-out putting out a weekly community paper that would later become famous, almost legendary.

I was living in Whitesburg and working at Appalshop in 1974 when the paper was firebombed. I showed up at the Gishes' home with dozens of others to help get the paper out that week. There WAS a paper that week -- and the masthead had been changed to "It STILL Screams."

Rest in peace, Tom Gish. You're a legend.