Sleeping on the Job

Sleeping On The Job

Nicaragua

Spring 2011

It was a hot, hot spring day and while other children were in school, this little girl was at her family shoe store.  She, like too many girls in the world, don't go to school.  She is destined to spend the rest of her life in this crowded cubicle, fixing shoes.

21st Century Songs

21st Century Songs

Someone just posted on Facebook that she is stuck in the songs from the 90's.  That got me thinking: I don't know any songs from the 90's. I can rattle off hundreds, thousands of songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's.  But my music library begins to fade somewhere in the 90's.  And there is next to nothing that I recognize from the 21st century. I had to think long and hard to come up with this measly list of top songs of this century:

• Someone That I Used To Know- Gotye- By the time i finally heard this song, it already had 50,000,000 hits on Youtube.  Where was I during this time?
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• I Try- Macy Gray- I heard this powerful voice and ran to Border's to get the CD. I got to the store and couldn't find it so i waited in the check-out line to get some assistance.  the clerk told me the CD sold out.  I was disappointed and so was the guy in line behind me because we both came to the store just to buy that song.
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• Honey and the Moon- Joseph Arthur- I obsessed over this song.  I was still listening to CDs at the time of this release and I would play this song over and over and over.
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• Red Light- Johnnie Lang- I think the lyrics in this song are brilliant. I would hear this song, on the radio, going to work, sitting at a red light and examining my life.
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• Little Talks- Of Monsters and Men- I like their sound and male/female duets.
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• What The Water Gave Me- Florence and The Machine- She has a powerful, full, loud voice.
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• Sophia- I can't find the artist but I love this song.

         Hello- Adele- I like all of her songs even though they are so sad.  She gets dumped a lot.

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• Video Games- Lana Del Ray- I heard this song on the radio and loved it.  Then a few weeks later, LDR appeared on SNL and bombed her performance (so I am told).  That really surprised me because I think her voice is haunting and mesmerizing.
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• Little Liar Man- Mumford and Sons- I loved this song so I decided to buy the CD but when I heard the other songs, they all sounded the same.  SO I am going to view them as a "One Hit Wonder" even though their record sales would dispute my claim.

UPDATE: January 2019- I joined Amazon Prime and now make a hugh effort to listen to music in the 21st century.

The Year of the Dragon

The Year of the Dragon

Sias University

2012

Henan Province, China

I am at a sports event at Sias University.  The afternoon is a bit dull.  The students are attempting to emulate American sports but they aren't getting it. Then the dragon comes charging through the gates. It runs through the field and everyone goes wild. It winds in and around the crowd and we all cheer.  Then it runs out of the stadium and we go back to our dull sports event.

Sitting Shiva

Sitting Shiva
Wilmington, DE
August 2017


I never went to sit Shiva so I didn't know what to expect.  A few people were already there when I arrived so I joined them on the couch.  We talked of the pending solar eclipse, the political unrest, the Camino de Santiago, upcoming road trips and lox and bagels.

I asked Lynn where her father was buried.

"I don't know right now," she tells me.

"What do you mean? I thought I read in the paper that he was going to be buried with your mother".

"Yea, that's what we thought but when we got to the cemetery, we found out we only had a plot for four people.  My mother and two brothers and my grandmother are buried there. So the rabbi made an arrangement with the people who have the family plot beside ours and apparently, we were allowed to bury him there.  So we did that on Wednesday.  But yesterday, the rabbi called me and told me he screwed up and we couldn't bury my dad there.  So he wanted me to sign a legal paper to exhume the body and bury him elsewhere.  But I don't know where.  And then he wanted me to sign a paper that said I wouldn't sue him for this big mix up.

"How did the rabbi screw up so much," I asked?

"He was very apologetic.  He felt terrible. He didn't have a final approval when we buried my dad and the people got mad and now we have to dig him up.  The rabbi feels bad.  But I'm in mourning.  I can't be thinking of these things now."

"So, where does it stand?"

"I don't know.  Hey, did you eat yet?  I have tons of food.  Do you like lox and bagels?"

A Mighty Girl

A Mighty Girl

Ullan Battar, Mongolia

July 2006

In honor of the International Day of the Girl (October 11),  I  posted this photo on Facebook. I took the photo years ago in Mongolia. This little girl was about 6 years old and she sent this arrow across the field. She was impressive.

To read more stories, check out:   bkmemoirs.blogspot.com

 or  bkmemoirs.wordpress.com

Feral Cats

Feral Cats

Elkton, MD

“I feed the feral cats. I spend about $150 a week of my own money. But sometimes the homeless people in the tent city eat this food.”

Tom, Elkton, MD

I met him at a convenience store. He was just leaving and on his way to a nearby park to feed some cats. Up until this point, I didn't realize we had feral cats or a tent city for the homeless.

BIKE RACE

West Chester, PA

August 2017

I'd never been to a bike race before and I love it.  I preferred watching the women's race better because the athletes weren't all limped together and they all wore brightly colored bike suits.  So when they zipped passed me, I could identify them by their clothing.  The men all wore black and I couldn't distinguish one athlete from the other.

The women completed 40 laps and the men competed 60 laps and just watching the races exhausted me.

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones


I like the Stones but I have never been a huge fan.  I liked them a lot in college and then a friend of mine told me she never listens to them because they are sexists.  I never thought of them until she started quoting "Under My Thumb" and "Let's Spend The Night Together" and other verses of varies songs.  I had to concluded that she had a point, a very good point.

I don't know the members of this band as I know other bands.  Of course, I know the ever-ugly Mick Jagger and the notorious Keith Richards (and yes, I do believe he actually attempted to snort his deceased father's ashes), But I don't know any other band member.

I quote Mick Jagger as if he is some great philosopher.  I constantly tell people, "You can't always get what you want but if you try real hard, you get what you need".

I'd like to see them in concert.  But I am not willing to spend big bucks to see them.  But, the older they get, the more expensive the concert tickets get.  I think the producers always take in to account that this could be their last concert due to their age and drug habits.  But I am not spending $200 to sit int he nose bleed section of a concert hall.  So, in reality, I am never going to see the Rolling Stones.

But there are some Stones songs that I just love to hear, again and again and again:

• Rudy Tuesday
• Show Some Emotion
• Angie
• Satisfaction
• You can't Always Get What You Want
• Time is On My Side  It’s All Over Now 
• Under My Thumb 
• It’s Only Rock ’N Roll (But I Like It)
• Mother’s Little Helper 
• Paint It, Black 
• Miss You 
• Play With Fire
• Get Off Of My Cloud
• Beast of Burden  
• Dancing In The Streets (With David Bowie)
• (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction 
• You Can’t Always Get What You Want 

From A Garden

FROM THE GARDEN

Now that I am living in an apartment, I don't have my garden and I feel lost without it. And I think my garden knew I was abandoning it because it didn't bloom much at all this summer.  Nothing was spectacular. So now, I have resorted to catching bits and pieces of other people's gardens. I was at a friend's house in Colorado when I took these photos.

I want my garden back.

Podcast Junkie

Podcast Junkie

I am a podcast junkie. It has probably been five years that I have been listening to podcasts. I started with A Prairie Home Companion and then moved on to Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me. It was so nice to listen to these shows at my convenience. And after this became a routine, I expanded my repertoire of shows. I moved on to The Moth, This American Life and The Writer’s Almanac.

I used to listen to these podcasts in the middle of the day. But then I discovered that Garrison Keillor’s voice lured me to sleep. So, I would put his show on and nod off peacefully to sleep at night. Sometimes he would play all night long and I would be in and out of sleep and hear bits and pieces of the gossip of Lake Wobegon.

In the morning, I would remember hearing something about Pastor Liz. I would then go back to the podcast to pick up the missing pieces. This habit led me to listening to podcast early in the morning. I listen to stories for about an hour before I finally get out of bed in the morning.

With this new routine, I had to find more podcasts. Now I listen to 20 a week and so many of them fascinate me that I spend the rest of the week telling everybody what I learned. No one seems as interested in this as me. But that does not deter me from running on the mouth about all these fascinating stories from other people around the world.

A Prairie Home Companion

Fresh Air

Heavyweight

How I Built This

Lore

On This Day podcast

Outside Podcast

Radio Diaries

Radio Lab

Risk

S-town

Second Story

Serial

She Explores

Snap Judgment

State of Human

Story Corpse

Story Worthy

TED Radio Hour

The Heart

The Kitchen Sisters

The Lapse Story Telling Podcast

The Mortify podcasts

The Moth

The Writer’s Almanac

This American Life

True Story

Unfictional
Up and Vanished

Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me