Gray Ghosts: November 2006

50 random things meme...for your viewing pleasure.

1. Where is your dad right now?
It's 12:am, he is in bed at his house SNORING. God damn that man can saw some logs!

2. Last time you kissed someone?
Tonight I kissed 4 people, NONE of which were my husband! My mom, my step mom, my mother-in-law and my Gramma.

3. What is something you've learned about yourself recently?
This disease is going to kill me if I don't lose 50lbs so I can get a transplant. It is not going to just "wait" for me either....

4. what color is your watch?
Silver COACH braclet w/ 12 diamonds and mother of pearl face...it was a surprise! I am spoiled rotten I know.

5. do you like anyone?
I like ALOT of peeps, I LOVE my husband though, he takes good care of me.

6. Are you close to your mom?
HELLS YEAH! HELLO!

7. Where does your best friend work?
One @ trucking dispatch co. and the other at A BAR I WON'T NAME (but hopefully not for long!)

8. What are you listening to right now?
KKK members on the History Channel light a cross and spew hate-speach. Lovely....The will burn in hell I am sure...at least I hope.

9. What do you smell like?
L'Occitane Lemon Verbena Baby! It's my new favorite scent. Crispy and clean and fresh, I just love it

10. What color are your pants?
I am wearing a baby blue flowered long john outfit someone got me for my bridal shower last year. I just discoved it. Super warm & soft!

11. Have you ever done a chinese fire drill?
Oh yeah, once I remember on Kane Drive by the college on the way to a footbal game! GO RAIDERS! It involved my truck and Scott H.'s Mustang and we all got out and ran around and switched cars and shit! Those were the good old days!!!

12. What color is your bedroom flooring?
Tan, except for the dog bed, that is sage.

13. Do you have a chair in your room?
No, my bed takes up the whole room pretty much.

14. What time of day were you born?
In the evening. Mom had been in labor going on 24 hrs. and the Dr. said she was not ready yet so he went out to dinner. Thankfully another Dr. came by and checked on her and said this baby is over due and they are going to die if she doesn't come out NOW. So he took me cesarian and my dad almost went to jail that night because of what he was going to do to the Dr. that went to dinner!

15. Do you know anyone who is engaged?
No but I wish my sister was....HINTHINT

16. What's your favorite number?
7 I guess.

17. Do you know someone named Lori?
Lori Degan used to share a fence with me and her mom was my babysitter back when I was 5.

18. What color is your mom's hair?
S & P and dark brown.

19. Do you have a dog?
HELLO! HAVE WE MET?! My furbaby is Fisher P. Lovebone, she is a 3 year old Weimaraner and the love of my life!

20. Do you remember singing any songs as a kid?
TONS and now I teach them to Rhiannon my niece. She loves to sing!

21. When was the last time you went swimming?
Late 2003 before I was put on o2. We have a hot tub though and I can go in there.

22. When was the last time you talked to one of your siblings?
Today we had a brunch for Potpourri, he turned 30, and I talked to Hoo Ha there.

23. Did you ever go to camp as a kid?
Yeah, just outdoor school.

24. Do you play an instrument?
Does the skin flute count? I KID! I'm married, now, I don't need to do that.

25. Do you like fire?
Yes I am a fire bug. I have a fire pit on the deck for the summer and a woodstove we use in the winter.

26. Are you allergic to anything?
Bullshit and Republicans, but they are basicly made with the same ingredients...

27. When was the last time you cried?
Tuesday when my boy and I talked about my breathing getting worse...we both broke down.

29. Have you ever been to a spa?
Yes, when I stay in fancy hotels with my boy and he makes me go get my hair and nails did.

30. Did you take science all four years of high school?
Yes I love science. Earth Science, Marine Biology, Oceanography, Anatomy and Physiology

31. Do you like butterflies?
Yes, C-man released them at my wedding and Jim tattooed a big one on my leg with my sister! They are infinity symbol butterflies!

33. What is one thing you miss about your past?
OMG....everything. Breathing normaly, walking at a normal pace, too much stuff to list I tell ya. Some of it funny, most of it is kinda sad so I won't go there.

34. Have you ever seen a counsler?
Yes indeedy. Everybody should.

35. Have you ever wanted to be a teacher?
Yeah I used to teach the kids at my mother-in-laws daycare little lessons, but my RA got too bad and I had to quit.

36. What is one thing you've learned about life?
It's short, and unfair but beautiful, wonderful and special and I want to live it the best I can for as long as I can!

37. Are you jealous of anyone?
No, not really. I wish I was thin, I wish I was healthy and could have babies of my own and do all the things I want to do, but I wouldn't say I am jealous of those kinds of folks.

38. Is anyone jealous of you?
Gosh I hope not, thats crazy.

39. Ever been stuck in an elevator?
Yes, at the Oregonian with Rick H.!

40. What does your dad call you?
My Girl, other nicknames that are just abbreviations of my given name.

41. What does your mom call you?
Esther, other silly names she can make out of my name. She can make a silly song out of anything, she is whack!

42. What was the last movie you saw in theaters?
An Inconvenient Truth....It's the truth about Global Warming. It will rock your world. YOU MUST SEE IT.

43. Has a friend ever used you?
Oh maybe, but that was years ago. Who cares.

44. Has anyone recently told you that they like you
Oh I'm sure they have.

45. What have you eaten today?
A hot cake, a sausage, some red taters at breakfast. Then at Dinner I had the Weightwatchers steak & chicken skewer dinner at Applebees and a bowl of French onion soup. It was delish! I was full.

46. Is your hair naturally curly or straight?
Curly

48. Who was the last person you drove with?
My mommy, home from the play we saw.

49. What are you looking forward to?
Getting new lungs and living a full life!

50. How are you today?
Well, I hate to say it because I hate to worry my peeps, but the last few weeks I have changed. I hope it is just a flare up, but my breathing has gotten worse. It is tough to do things I used to do and I am worried. I go to see my transplant Dr.s on the 17th. I hope and pray that he sees I am going to loose the weight and get to the place where they can give me the lung transplant if/when I need it!

He has earned the right to speak...hear him out.
(Got this one from Stewbert.)

After Pat's Birthday
Kevin Tillman Honors Late Brother's Birthday with Plea to Speak up for Democracy

by Kevin Tillman

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.

Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.

Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin was discharged in 2005.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Random Spew...

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

A helluva man...One helluvan American.