The (P)attitude

I'm Paying Attention

And, like the bumper sticker says, "I'm Outraged."   

How much longer can any of us ignore what's going on here on Earth?  God knows I've tried for most of my life to be a good person.  That's not enough anymore.

It's time to stand in my goodness.  Time for all of us good people to stand in our goodness. 

It's time for a Department of Peace.  It's time to wage peace.  It's time to democratically overthrow our "regime" and elect men and women of peace.   Humans who are determined to administer peaceful solutions to even the most heinous of deeds -- Like the bombings of September 11.

Write your congresspersons.  Tell them to stand in their goodness.  Do this for the sake of yourself, your children and the planet.

Do it Now!

How many SoulMates?

I always scoffed at friends who told me they were waiting for their "soulmate" to come along.   Until I found one of my own.  It was an unbelievable experience.  Here was this stranger, yet I felt as though I'd come home everytime I was with him.

While we probably were (are) soulmates, we could not manage to live together very peaceably and are now just friends. 

So I've gone from not believing in the whole soulmate concept to believing that, at our core, we are all of us soulmates.  All connected.  All part of the One.

This is not good news for my love life.  If we're all soulmates, how much work must one go through to manage to live in peace with the one we choose? 

Summer in the City

This is my first summer living in a small town.  I'm not enjoying it.  Of course, it's better than a big town or even a city.

The thing is, I'm used to living in the rural countryside.  And so are my dogs.   

They don't understand that they can't bark for two hours or more at strangers walking by .... or my neighbors hanging out in front of their house.  (These neighbors, by the way, have a HUGE backyard that they should be hanging in.)  AND, of course, the dogs only bark when I'm not home.  Are you getting the picture?

It has been beastly hot and humid for days now and I've put off buying an air conditioner.  Meaning, of course, that my windows are wide open and *everyone* can hear my dogs.   Of course, no one tells me they can hear them.

Our little town has a dog ordinance that states something like "you can't harbor barking dogs or your neighbors will call the police and the police will come to your house, but refuse to come in.  They'll make you stand there in your pajamas, with your screen door open.  When your cat gets out and runs away they will not be happy when you ask them to get it for you, but they will oblige you because, after all, you are in your pajamas.  Once they catch the cat they'll still refuse to come in but they will politely leave, telling you there's nothing they can do really, since the dogs aren't barking now."

I'm determined to be a Good Neighbor.   I'm distressed over having caused my neighbors upset.  I promptly change into street clothes and go from door to door checking to see who called the police.  I wanted to give them my cell phone number and my home phone number so they could call me next time my dogs barked.  After all, as the policeman said, there's nothing they can do about it when the dogs aren't barking.  They don't bark when I'm home.  They only bark when I'm away (and the stupid neighbors tease them) and what will the police do?  Shoot them with a tranquilizer gun through my window?

As I was chatting with the neighbor who 'fessed up to calling the cops, who should pull up, but another cop!  Imagine my surprise when she said the police had been called again ... this time because I was allegedly "threatening" my neighbors by asking them if they had called the police. 

She decided not to arrest me when I explained that I was simply trying to hand out my contact information so that my neighbors could call me when the dogs barked, rather than the police ... who couldn't do anything about it anyway.   (yes, I was being a bit passively agressive here, but fortunately the cop didn't notice.)

I was at Walmart at 7 am this morning buying 3 air conditioners.   I've installed all 3 in strategic windows.  Placed so that the dogs can't see the front sidewalk, the side driveway or the backyard.  Then I cranked them up.   I'm really proud of the way I trouble shot this problem.  I could've bought bark inhibitors, around $80 each.  This way, I bought an extra a/c unit for the same price.  Now (hopefully) my neighbors can't hear my dogs if they do bark, I can't hear my neighbors (!) and, most importantly, I'm no longer sitting in a puddle of sweat!

As for being a Good Neighbor?  Maybe I'll try again this fall.....

I'm only stopping by to say that I can't believe my last entry was April 18.  Of course, looking at my wall calendar I see I'm still on May. 

Which begs the question:  Does anybody really know what time it is?

What the he**, It's my birthday

And in case you're wondering, I'm 39 ... again.

When I bought this blogging ability, I was on a roll.  You know, experiencing what passes for manic in those of us who don't qualify for the serious medicine.

Since then, as they say, the fire's burned out.   This is like work.  I don't do well with have-tos and shoulds.   And I know why, I just won't bore you with the details of my agonizing, soul-searching journey.   I don't need therapy, I get an 8-minute cure every day with Dr. Phil.

But I digress.

I fell for a scheme to buy into a copywriting course.  Usually, I only fall for pitches that have something to do with spiritual development.  Before that, I only fell for pitches that had to do with personal development.   And before that, well, let's just say I've never renewed my insurance sales license....  Damn that Sandy Weil.

So, I'm finally getting around to writing my first assignment -- writing a persuasive letter to Michael Masterson.   One that will simply make him drop everything he's doing to visit my favorite restaurant.

Already I have a problem.  I mean -- Michael Masterson --  THE GUY, THE Million Dollar Guy.  He's heard it all, because he's probably written it all. 

So now I'm researching.  Not just to find a favorite restaurant, but for words, phrases, magic spells, incantations to get HIM to come to my favorite restaurant.  It's not working. 

I'm totally blocked.  Yes, this is what led me to the Dr. Phil analysis sessions.  Grappling with my ethics -- do I have any?   Yes.   Can I wiggle around them to write this larger than life persuasion to get a Million Dollar Copywriter to drop everything and come to the Midwest to eat at my favorite restaurant?   The task, dear readers, has brought me face to face with the eternal question ---

What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up?

I always panicked when asked this as a child.  I suffered from test anxiety.  I took the easy way out "I want to be a wife and a mother."  After all, that's what my only role model was.  Seemed to work for her.

It didn't work for me.

At least not the wife part.  After 25 years of being a mother, I'd had enough.  After all, my birth children had grown.   There's something creepy about mothering anyone over the age of 21 or so.

Again, I digress.  Probably the second glass of wine ....

So, back to my birthday dilemma.  39 again, got a great gig going right now.  So good, I'm not going to mention the details except to say that I keep body and soul together very comfortably and I'm the boss.  Okay, Val, so I'm half-boss.

But it might not last forever.  Hence, my copywriting foray.  Hence to the second power my current dilemma.

I'm just not believing the hype I read about making a million bucks, etc., etc.  When I do the research it seems like a bunch of hyped up affiliate marketing crap fills my screen.  On the other hand, it's the next best thing I seem to have going.  Wonder if there's a home for destitute copywriters, you know like the Screen Actors Guild has for their folks.

PS   In honor of my birthday, I am not going to proofread this document.  That's right, I'm just gonna post it.  And, I'll bet you $25.00 that my unedited post has fewer grammer, typographical and spelling mistakes that most of the direct mail I get!

Pie Gate

• First of all, the pie missed her (Anne Coulter).   
• Second of all, what great publicity she's getting!  I'm thinking the whole pie thing is a vast conservative plot to steal media attention away from liberals.   
• Third of all, Al Franken should step up and take a pie for the liberals!  Come on, Al, you know you like pie!

How often can I reinvent myself?

I wonder.  Can I have an identity for each of my facets?  See, I think people can be thought about like mirror balls.  You know, the disco ball covered in mirrors that spins over the dance floor.

We're like that.  So I'm thinking, if I develop an identify around each of those little mirrors, could I stop reinventing? 

Take this morning.  I'm taking a copywriting course and decided I want a website.  Well, first I thought (P)atitude (some friends call me that)!  What a great site name (and it is) so I bought it.  Then I thought, but (P)atitude has nothing to do with copywriting.  But, and here's the thing, (P)atitude has now become an official web identity for me -- I'll never let it go.

I liked the name Keywords, but of course, that domain name was taken but I found one just as good --- Words That Sell.  Now that has something to do with copywriting, yes?  Of course. 

But, what do I do with (P)atitude? 

How do they know?

A local utility has a proposal before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.

The utility claims (and they're probably right) that many otherwise honest upstanding citizens are taking advantage of the winter disconnect rules.  See, here in Wisconsin it gets cold in the winter.  Oldtimers say not as cold as it used to, but still, most would agree, anything below 40 degrees f.  is chilly.

So right now utilities in Wisconsin aren't allowed to shut off energy from Nov to April -- no matter how much you owe them.  That's to prevent us from being on the front page of the New York Times -- Wisconsin Widows and Orphans Frozen To Death in the Dark.  Very bad press for a tourist state.

I don't have any problem with shutting energy off to folks who can pay, but won't.  Sort of like getting an interest free loan from the utility over the winter months.  Helps to pay for those spring break vacations, you know?  That's not right.

On the other hand, how does my utility know if I make more than $31k?  (That's the proposed floor for turning you off.)  Is there a loophole in the Homeland Security Act that allows utilities to investigate the solvency of their customers in great detail?  Get their tax returns?  Probe their bank accounts?  Analyze my credit card spending. . .

Ms Green, we see you've spent $82.65 this month on groceries that are clearly frivolous -- no one needs to have that many cookies.  AND you haven't paid your utility bill. 

That just scares me.  It's too easy to fall through the cracks.  And who gets your heat turned back on at midnight Friday night? 

I'll be most interested to see what the Wisconsin PSC has to say on this matter on Feb 3, 2005.

Am I Just a Schmuck?

I'm a sucker for mail order, internet order, tv order -- anything that saves me from going to the MALL.  Somebody should add that 4 letter word to the naughty list.

It's true, I don't live near a good mall, so maybe if I did, I'd be more likely to go?

-------------------------unh uh 

Overpriced, underimaginative, crowded, did I mention overpriced already?  These are the superlatives I think of when I think MALL.   

I must be getting old.  Although I prefer wise, discriminating, a valuer of my precious time.

So, call me a schmuck.   I prefer goods and services to come looking for me, not the other way around!

It's a bad day for Wisconsin, 4 feet of snow everywhere, the Packers down and out and now Michael Powell has resigned from the FCC. 

Not that we cared so much about him -- although he was controversial and what's not to like about that? 

No, we're worried about losing Dr. Pepper.  No, not the drink, Powell's assistant.  He was special to us.  He went to school here. He earned his PhD at UW-Madison.  He's one of US. 

Having Pepper in the upper ranks of the FCC gave us bragging rights - not to mention great insights into what the h*ll was going on there. 

So, while others may be lamenting or applauding the demise of Powell,  well, we'll just be drowning our sorrows with Dr. Pepper.