new bedmate

i'm sleeping with a Giant Carolina Wolf Spider. I thought he was a hallucination or a tarantula but my good friend the internet made me doubt it because tarantulas don't usually live near here. last night for the 3rd time (at least) in the past few weeks i've woken up in the middle of the night to see a tarantula somewhere on the bed & i scream & or suck in air & jump out of bed & turn on the light & grab for something flat & heavy to kill him/shield myself & he flashes away somewhere so fast & when i work up courage to follow him where he sprinted to, he's vanished.


the dogs are no help, they don't even seem to notice. he's huge, like 4 inches wide looks like a serious tarantula in the dark. he can live for 3 years. if i die of mysterious causes like a heart attack in my bed sometime soon, this is why.

kittens & bears

i went down to the garage yesterday and there was a cat in there! it ran inside the basement when i opened the garage door & i didn't have time to find it or deal with it right then so i left the garage door open hoping it would find its way out while i was gone.

somebody's been dancing on my windshield

i'd heard noises down there the night before but just kind of ignored them thinking it was people banging around in the garbage cans out front because it was garbage night.

when i got back i heard it meowing from somewhere in the tower of cardboard boxes i have in the basement so i got a broom & got holden & nacho to go down with me to try to sniff the bugger out. they were pretty useless until they heard it meowing & then they went nuts barking and jumping towards it so i had to send them upstairs. it had a collar on saying its name was JIMICA but the phone number listed was out of service.

i called my landlady/neighbor to see if she knew anybody who had a gray & brown kitten with white feet but she didn't. she told me that she just got a call from another neighbor that a BEAR was seen walking down my street the night before. there's a lot of development going on in the area and you're not allowed to shoot bears in the city of asheville so i guess it's kind of a problem with bears coming into neighborhoods and eating dogs that bark and run up to them. so i need to find a way to make holden & nacho afraid of bears.

anyway i took the kitten jimica squirming in my hands door to door through my neighborhood & found his home across the street. the guy who lives there said he'd been missing for a couple days.

greetings from animal planet.

one saturday

here's one from my brother -

throw it in the ocean

piss it away

ny weekend recap

brett dennen + ALO @ the bowery


quisty & phess got pockets full of kryptonite


LIRR


lenny's indianhead in branford, CT


mom, bro & aunt jojo


drez, uncle tom & yours truly



bobby huntington & brother henry scout squirrels



the rascally scalawag

wet on arrival

JFK new york sat on the runway
2 hours waiting to take off
arrive in Cincinnati 30 minutes after
my flight the last flight
to asheville left. got hotel
voucher took Marriott shuttle
with 10 other people Delta screwed
one girl about 25 years old
trying to get to Memphis for a funeral
mother and daughter to Louisville
calling for substitute teacher for tomorrow
everybody trying to get home
check into hotel elevator to second floor
turn left to room card out ready to swipe
turn corner & there's the girl going to funeral
outside her room next to mine
with her rolling suitcase next to her
pants around her ankles
squatting in front of her door
peeing
i said 'oh!'
she said 'sorry' & scooted back closer to her door
i said 'that's okay'
she kept peeing
i swiped my door key card
& went in my room

love your mother this weekend

going to NY for mother's day & some ALO.

don't worry little brother henry, i'll be home soon

photos recentos 2

eight ball acid pocket

nasty

golf bags on the side of the road

bad nanny

i gleeked on a kid i babysat for and told him it was raining.

choc'laty chip cookies

subarus

asheville, north carolina =

more subaru wagons per capita than anywhere on the planet

hearts & rainbows & unicorns

TO: EVERYBODY

from: Little loveable Lella

hey buds

flip

to do a flip you have to
trust yourself that you'll
see the horizon again
on the other side
the flip side
because
you can't do a flip
staring at the horizon

heather must slow down and check her work

does this seem a little rough for a 7-8 year old?


i think things took a turn for the worse with my "social development" when i found out we'd be moving that summer from rhode island to new york.

the last quarter, she enjoyed having me in class because i got 99% on all their stupid standardized tests. i mean give me a break.

the red stamps up top are from chuck e. cheese which gave half off dinner to kids who brought their report cards & had some G's or E's or something like that. the grease marks are from there too.

woke up this morning...

i hopped out of bed able to BREATHE and without retching, life is grand, the birds are singing, they're singing james brown

roses & clover

the pumpkin that nobody wanted

second grade, i think miss hodgkinson was a little harsh on me

ache throb pound

it's the nicest day of the year and i have a fever, stuffed head, painful ear buzzing, burning throat, my skin aches, shooting pains through my head and i just want to be outside. i just ventured out to the store for gallons of OJ and lemons and more throat drops. the dogs are bored. i hate sympathy, if you're feeling good go out & do something fun on this glorious earth day weekend. i have tickets for toubab krewe tonight that are going to waste like my tickets for last night did. ginger ale sounds good, loud music and/or standing up doesn't. sick feels extra sick on weekends. appreciate your good health!

tapes haiku & two more for four twenty

red scotch masking duct
mix packing electrical
measuring cassette

disease forces heroism from
those around it
brings out the best
takes the best

how long
will a sore throat
nag before it
screams & hits
or shuts the hell up

virginia tech

weeks like this i'm glad i don't have a tv. i'm sure the virginia tech tragedy has been on air 24/7. i've read many articles on it, and don't need to hear and see every detail hashed and rehashed every 10 minutes. a lot of people are in despair, crying WHY why why? and while my heart aches for everyone involved, this shooting doesn't make me feel like the apocalypse is any closer. one person acted insanely on monday, hundreds of people reacted bravely, intelligently, normally, heroically, with incredible compassion and genuine care for their fellow man -- friend or stranger. the stories i read of professors trying to protect their classes, authorities doing all they could, students helping each other, if only by maintaining silent eye contact with another student under desks while the shooting was happening - that's what i am left with. the lives of 32 innocent people were senselessly snuffed, their friends and families will never stop grieving, and it's not fair or right, but it doesn't scare me and i don't think we're closer to the end of the world. it makes me want to work harder for peace everywhere. so take that, gunman.

disconnected

photos recentos

local widespread panic

i got to see widespread panic at the asheville civic center on friday.

it was amazingly great.
there was supposed to be a big security crackdown based on councilman carl mumpower's likening a recent ratdog show to an amsterdam hash bar, but i didn't see one.

Peek-a-Do, Jill's salon for kids in Durham!

remember jill?

check out her salon for kids in Durham, NC - Peek-A-Do!


Children the mane clientele at this salon Child-friendly Peek-a-Do! hair salon caters to the kid in all of us ... and they do it with style

Elizabeth Shestak, Correspondent

Noah Triplett sat on his mother's lap Wednesday morning, tears streaming as he yelped and fussed, squirming away from the woman who kept coming at him with those shiny things that made little hairs flutter around his face.

A few minutes later, the 21-month-old had calmed down and was sporting a dapper look, his thick, dark brown hair parted to the side, still damp from being spritzed down in the momentary mayhem that had just passed.

His mother, Karen Triplett, literally jumped for joy -- her toddler had finally gotten his hair cut.

It had been six months since his last (and first) trim, and it was just as bad when his grandfather, a retired barber, had a go at it, but he lived too far away to cut it again. Triplett said her husband just couldn't handle watching the fits Noah would throw when she tried to cut it herself.

Her last hope was Peek-a-Do!, a kid-friendly salon at 7011 Fayetteville Road. It's not just for kids-cuts - children are supervised and entertained while their parents get cuts too.

Owner Jill Simpson, a 31-year-old mother of two, opened the boutique -- the first of its kind in Durham -- in October 2005 with fellow mom Jan Sebway; business has been booming.

Simpson's original plans did not include owning a business. She wanted to be a kindergarten teacher and earned a liberal arts degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. She loved being a stay-at-home mom, too. But once the idea got rolling, she embraced the creative outlet.

"We can't do that, we're just moms!" is what they said to themselves at first. But as the logistics became clearer, "there was that moment of just like why not?" Simpson said. "We know what moms want and we know what kids want, and we'll figure out the rest."

The salon offers more than a barber's chair and a pair of scissors. The walls are decorated in an earthy green, blue, yellow and orange palette, and there are rounded edges on everything in the room. The mirrors look like puddles on the walls, and the receptionist's desk is an island.

In front of every seat (some are shaped like cars and planes.) there is an LCD screen with a choice of four animated movies playing at all times. Wednesday featured "Dora the Explorer," "Elmo," "Thomas the Tank Engine" and "Cars."

Katherine Hirsh brought her son, Alexander, 5, to Peek-a-Do! to have his hair repaired -- he had given himself a haircut a week earlier and it needed some touching up. They all seem to do that to themselves when they turn five, she joked.

Simpson only hires stylists who have at least five years' experience outside of beauty school.

"You can't learn to cut hair on a moving target," she said.

Patience and the kind of personality that makes the children comfortable are also job requirements.

Janice Glass cut Alexander's hair and said she relies on lots of distractions for the children. Anything that makes them hold their heads still and look down helps, Glass said.

Simpson even sells toys in the salon, making sure they are educational, fun and not apt to drive parents nuts.

"I don't think toys have to have lights and make sounds to be fun," Simpson said.

Simpson said they made sure furnishings would be low enough so that parents could visually keep track of their children no matter where they were in the salon.

There is a play area for siblings and friends waiting their turn, and when the children are finished, they get to choose a toy out of the "treasure chest" and also receive a balloon.

Little girls get a "signature twist" where a front piece of their hair is twisted back and tied with a ribbon in the color of their choice.

Simpson won't allow Duke blue on the premises.

The Colorado native said children's salons are all the rage in Denver, but there were none in the Triangle.

"It is such a need -- this is such a growing area with so many young families and there are just so many children and you know, they need haircuts," Simpson said.

She met Sebway, who they refer to as the "behind-the-scenes partner," as first-time mothers in birthing class.

Raising their children together (Simpson's daughter Lande and Sebway's son Zack were born just five days apart) brought them very close, and they started coming up with ideas from noticing things that would make the lives of mothers easier.

A pacifier that actually stayed in mouths was one fledgling concept, but it never moved beyond speculation. When their children were the age where they needed haircuts, it occurred to Simpson that there was no place that specialized in children's cuts.

It took two years, but after doing tons of research, hiring an ad agency for six months and an architecture firm to make her vision of a stimulating but not Chuck E. Cheese-esque environment, Peek-a-Do! opened and was a hit from the start.

Basic haircuts are more expensive than in most salons -- Peek-a-Do! prices start at $19, $22 for a wash and cut, and $9 for a bang/over the ear trim. They even offer manicures, which start at $15. Children's haircuts run around $12 at other places.

But Simpson strives to make the boutique a positive experience for children and parents alike, and she loves it when the children walk in the door crying from fear, and leave crying because they don't want to leave.

Published: Jan 27, 2007 The Durham News

OTC

peace haiku 37-43

get to get green with
deepest inhale let it out
push reset button

fog puddles cloud road
wipers distract more than clear
proceed via gut

bold enough to ask
play cute pry my deepest cut
you'll get my gross truth

don't cheat on someone
you care about when it's so
easy to break up

problem method do
adapt repeat ritual
solvent solution

my religion is
realism try to see
things as they are now

transcend every
minute perspective & be
all the connections

easter

in the easter egg hunt
of life some of the
chocolate eggs are
bunny turds

hippity hoppity

ray of apollo sunshine

i saw the band apollo sunshine open for toots & the maytals last night and i was completely blown away. they were excellent. they do what they want. they put out enormous energy. i would highly recommend listening to their music & going out to hear them play anytime you have a chance.

myspace/apollosunshine

"phyliss"

"today is your day"

bittersweet advice

make traps of
baking powder
&
powdered sugar

what i was doing when i was 6

happy not birthday jim reilly

today jim reilly should have turned 31. here's a picture i found yesterday in my old desk from when he & his friend rob (i think) came down to UNC from william & mary for a night to see his brother and i'm not sure why else. i remember i didn't go out with them because i had an english exam the next day. stupid.

here's a link to what i posted last year with some drawings he worked on. let's all work on peace this year, whaddya say?

new gig

i joined a band as a clarinet player!

best box ever

i found a box full of old vintage vantage shirts that i'd ironed furry buffaloes onto a few years ago. it's like a bonanza. the buffalo is in a different spot for every shirt, so it's the fro on the dodgeball kid's head, it's like a tattoo on the compton cupcakes one, gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the buffalo, caucasia knows how to party with a dead buffalo with its legs up, you get the idea.

spare prayers

my friends from high school, Lauren & Ralph Bove (bo-vay) and their son Matthew could use some positive healing thoughts & prayers right about now.


(from Matthew's CarePage): "A little after his first birthday, Matthew was diagnosed with Hepatoblastoma, a very rare form of liver cancer. Although they lived in New York, his parents, Lauren and Ralph, decided to bring him up to Boston where he split time between Children’s Hospital Boston and the Jimmy Fund Clinic at Dana Farber Cancer Institute starting in February of ’06 until he was finally discharged this past November. In that time, Matthew underwent six rounds of chemotherapy and had 65% of his liver removed in order to fully eradicate the tumor in his body."


unfortunately they just learned through blood tests that Matthew is not really cancer-free, they're not sure where the cancer is now or how to fight it, they're in a waiting game until it gets more developed and doctors can do something about it, OR until there is a healing miracle and their little boy is rid of the cancer for good.


so if you're feeling lucky or have some extra prayers to give, please include Matthew Bove on your list of good vibe recipients, i know they would really appreciate it.

licensed to drive

i went to the dmv bright & early this morning to get a NC drivers license, all prepared to take the 25 question written test but they still had me on file from 4 years ago so all i had to do was read the top line on the vision chart & identify 8 road signs by their color and shape & take a new photo and 20 minutes later i left with my new license. sometimes things just work out.
and i am all the wiser for knowing things like
"Secondary roads" are roads where... hills are more likley to be more steep and curves are likely to be more sharp than on primary roads.

Unless otherwise posted, the speed limit in cities and towns is... 35 miles per hour.

If a vehicle sways freely, leans heavily to one side during a turn or seems to bounce continuously, there may be a problem with the... suspension system.

faithless samaritan

i don't believe in god or everlasting love
she can't save you, you can't save me, no peace comes from up above
doomed from day one
to lie in dirt graves
all we have is all we make
& all we do all night & day
do good. do well. make it work.

3 from 3-23

on the road

people who flash their brights coming from the other direction to tell you a cop is waiting in the grass = awesome

people who drive the same cars as cops = assholes