Category: pondering

By contrast

Wednesday night, at Sears Fine Food, in the great city of San Francisco…

Over kick ass eats, starting with an avocado and crab salad, while discussing the day, life, so on, I say to my fiancée, “I think I’m a little bit in love with my new handbag.” I pick it up and show it to him.

He replies, “Yeah, you seem to be happy with it,” and turns back to the Giants baseball game playing over the bar.

Thursday afternoon, at Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, deep in the heart of Silicon Valley…

Over taquitos and spicy beans, I say to one of my closest girlfriends, “I think I’m a little bit in love with my new handbag.” I pick it up and show it to her.

She stretches out her arms and makes a “gimme gimme” gesture with her hands.

I hand it to her. “Kenneth Cole,” I say, “on *major* sale at Macy’s.”

She plunges her face into the supple leather and inhales deeply. “God, I love that smell,” she says.

And as she hands it back to me, she says, “THAT is a great bag.”

Moral of the story?

Know your audience.

Well hey, little lady…don’t get mad there…

Grr.

I got mad today. At work. Really mad. Justifiably mad, actually.

It happens, right? You can never expect to go through life, or least of all, work, without someone ticking you off.

What with everyone having their own *opinion* and everything.

I was mad at a representative from a perpetually maddening organization (*coff*legal*coff*) and was, uh, vocalizing my opinions toward my computer screen.

Being that I sit in a cubicle environment, of course, those seated around me can hear such…vocalizations.

So a couple of coworkers came over…people who are working on this same project and had reason to feel as emotional as me about the recent developments.

Then *it* happened.

“Oh…that’s too bad…calm down,” followed by a pat-pat on the arm.

Here’s a little hint to dealing with me. Never tell me to “calm down” when I’m anything but…and NEVER pat me condescendingly on the arm or head or shoulder.

Never.

And you know who are the worst offenders of this? Women.

Oh yeah. Most women just want to “keep the peace” and have everyone “get along” or whatever.

Would anyone pat-pat a man on the shoulder and tell him to “calm down?”

Not bloody likely.

Oh, I have to be a “good” girl, don’t get loud, don’t get emotional, don’t express feelings. No, just caaaaalm down, : pat pat : and go along to get along.

Working a theme here in my blog this week, I say F that!

Mind your spelling

This as a follow up to yesterday’s post.

Seems the f-bomb has become quite the expressive word!

News out of London….Ah the Brits.

quote:

“The Times newspaper on Monday quoted examiner Peter Buckroyd as saying he gave (a) student — who wrote an expletive starting with f, followed by the word “off” — two points out of a possible 27 for the English paper.

‘…it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like conveying some meaning and some spelling,’ Buckroyd was quoted as saying.

Buckroyd said the student would have received a higher mark if the phrase had been punctuated.”

end quote

Hey, at least it was spelled right! And heckMr. Censorship! brought the thunder with punctuation. Extra credit!

These days at my job, the f-bomb is just another overused adjective. It doesn’t even carry a punch anymore.

But yesterday and today, quite the media darling. A meme even!

Source

What’s in a name?

As spotted in the Albuquerque Journal…

quote:

“The state Court of Appeals has ruled against a Los Alamos man who wanted to change his name…to ‘F— Censorship!'”
________

Well all righty! Here, I’m freaking out trying to think of all the places I’ll have to go to make sure my new married name is on record. Meanwhile, there are people who do this kind of thing every day!

More:

“(The) law was clarified in a 2004 case in the same court that apparently involved the same petitioner. In that case, an Albuquerque man whose name was Snaphappy Fishsuit Mokiligon got the go-ahead from the appeals court to change his name to Variable.”
_____

And now Variable wants to be F— Censorship! Um. How do you put that on checks? Do people call you Mr. Censorship? Is the exclamation point part of the name?

This sends the creative juices a’flowing in my mind. I mean, the possibilities are ENDLESS. If I’m already in there mucking around with my legal name, are there other things I’d like to append on there?

Sockittome G Fingledangerburginstein?

Or maybe go with the one name in the vein of Cher, Madonna and Iman.

How about…

Cranky

Or…

Chartreuse

Or

Mood

Hmm.

Much to ponder………

Fuming

I’m still fuming a bit from something I encountered while in Albuquerque about a week ago.

Having been raised in New Mexico, I’ve always been a fan of beautifully crafted silver and turquoise jewelry.

I had the privilege of living near some of the finest Native American craftsmen who create works of art, and I’ve never taken that for granted.

Over the years, I’ve always been on my guard and tried to buy from reputable people where I know the jewelry was not only handmade by Native American people, but the gems were real and unique.

So while in Albuquerque near Old Town, I had occasion to visit one of my favorite stores where I know the pieces are always legitimate and beautiful. That place is called Casa de Avila and it’s been a place where a lot of my paychecks have gone over the years.

The real stuff, the good stuff, isn’t always the least expensive stuff.

So after buying a couple items there, we wandered out onto the plaza. I saw the row of people selling their wares on blankets laid out on the sidewalk and yes, it took me back a lot of years. Even as a kid I knew how to get in there, find something nice, and work with the artisan on a fair price.

Seeing this again, I was fired up to take a look.

For quite a while I’ve been looking for a particular necklace. A real turquoise graduated bead necklace, like this only longer and in blue turquoise.

That necklace, made by hand (meaning hand shaped round stones) with hand matched beads is VERY expensive, but really a masterpiece.

You can find some like it that are machine matched, shaped and strung, sure.

I’d like a handcrafted piece. Let me just say this….VERY expensive.

So as I strolled along the row of merchants there on the sidewalk, I spotted a really nice looking necklace. I looked at the gentleman who was selling the works, a Native American man, and thought “maybe this is the one”.

I walked past his stand to look at what else was out there, told The Good Man “I may be about to spend a very lot of money” and went back to place where’d I’d spotted that necklace.

I kneeled down and picked up the piece that had caught my eye.

Immediately, I knew something wasn’t right. For a long necklace made out of turquoise, it was really light. And it didn’t have that sleek cool-to-the-touch feel in my hands.

Hmm.

I remember over the years a lot of articles and conversations about how to tell if turquoise is fake.

Something I read once said hold a lighter up to the piece. If it’s plastic turquoise, obviously, it will melt.

Not having a lighter on me, I tried another trick. I took one of the beads in my fingers and pushed my thumbnail into it. On that warm Albuquerque day after sitting in the sun, it felt sort of…soft. My nail sunk in a bit, just the tiniest amount, but enough to tell me this was a genuine Native American-made piece crafted of incredibly fake stones.

I put the necklace down and walked away reeling. I told TGM what had happened and he gave the guy the benefit of the doubt, “Maybe he needs to sell a piece like that so he can buy real turquoise”. Maybe. Yeah.

But the tag on it said “genuine turquoise”. It’s a lie.

I didn’t actually price the item (it wasn’t on the tag) and maybe should have. If he’s selling it for $20, then fine. I have a feeling that’s not the case.

I’m not naïve, yes, I know this kind of thing still goes on, and the caveat “buyer beware” is still very much in effect.

I was just mad at first…then later sad. I’d hate to think that someone visiting my fair New Mexico would get swindled. But yes, I know it happens and I can’t save the world…

By the way…I support Southwest Indian Foundation. They work to help folks in trouble through sales and also via donations.

And they have a beautiful selection of genuine pieces at reasonable rates.