Dr. Cecilia Thompson

Dr. Cecilia Thompson was born in Jeff Davis County, died in Brewster County, lived and expertly wrote about Presidio County. She called her youngish friends like me new pioneers for West Texas. If that is the case, Cecilia blazed a beautiful trail for us all. Thank you, Cecilia, for sharing with me an ounce of your courage to write about the Chinati Mountains and all those who live beneath their grace.

Handmade vs Machine Made

I am in awe of Mike Daisy's piece on This American Life about Shen Jian, China: the birth of all our plastic junk (including the I Phone). The entire piece is worth the 20 minute listen but especially the very end, the demi monde. We all wish for a simpler life with hand made products. Well, everything at those insufferable sweat shops in China, is put together by thousands of HANDS. Human hands, not machines, some working 34 hour shift. Think about that the next time you proudly chose handmade over machinery production.

This is the most important bit of radio you'll hear this year:

www.thisamericanlife.org

Dead on arrival: Christmas, 2011

Peggy Orenstein writes a brilliant Op Ed piece for the New York Times on gender neutral toys. Hamley's Department store in London (the FAO Schwartz of England) has recently remodeled their children's toy department in to a red and white decor separating inside/ soft toys from outdoor ones. No pink and purple for girls, gray or camo color for boys. I am thrilled. After days of present opening, dozens of batteries and the realization that nearly ALL the presents were made in China, I revel in the small advancement towards toy sanity. Here's hoping that next Christmas/ Hannukah, no one will buy Mateo a cheap, plastic remote anything, or a Disney product that talks, just because he's a boy. By the way, toy industry, both remote cars were dead on arrival. No amount of batteries could revive either one. Happy New Year!

Mr. XXX at the IRS

On the 23rd of December, 9PM central time, I received a phone call from the IRS. Wow, I said to this stammering guy who identified himself as my examiner, this seems awfully late to be calling us citizens. I work until 1 in the morning. Where are you, I asked, thinking, India? Holtsville, NY.

In what seems like a never ending circle dance to file my taxes since adopting Mateo, Mr. XXX at the IRS, questioned everything about my expenses. Meanwhile, Mateo is in the car backseat, overtired and insistent on hearing Frog Story one more time. Mr. XXX has to listen to me implore Mateo to be quiet for 5 more minutes while I speak on the phone. It doesn't work. Mateo doesn't understand what the heck the IRS could possibly be and why I am looking panicked.

3 minutes into this insane phone conversation while driving through holiday traffic at night, I realize that there's nothing I can intelligently say without my accountant's advice. In a moment of uncharacteristic IRS sympathy, Mr. XXX tells me that's probably a good idea. If you get me a copy of the boy's VISA faxed, I will see what I can do to stall proceedings. And then, I adopted a child in 2008, too. Wow, what candor from a bureaucrat, I thought. Is this the true meaning of a religious holiday?

Etsy.com short video on Marfa, Texas

To watch a funny piece for Etsy.com, created over one of the most chilly weeks in Marfa history, double click on this link:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/read/no-place-like-here-marfa-texas-12655/

why I may vote for a Republican Senator

After close to two years of wrangling with the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), one wonderfully helpful soul at Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's district office in Dallas is breaking through the bureaucratic entanglement for Mateo. I can't tell you how difficult it has been for us and we speak English! I can't even imagine how difficult it must be for those with less command of the English language.

Carolyn Kobe is my heroine of the day. I've all new respect for Sen. Hutchison. The most aggravating part of this process has been the refusal on behalf of USCIS to accept that there's NO door-to-door postal delivery in Marfa. That pretty much constitutes the extent of our conflict.

Working Hard In Poverty (WHIP) July 19, 2010

Mateo emptied out the entire mud and branch contents of his Crocs sandal in the fragile bathroom sink. I swear that this sink is designed for prissy 6 year old girls. I've already used an organic drain cleaning made from sage and rosemary which cost way too much money but appealed to my sense of environmental responsibility. Then, when it made not one iota of difference, I tried my best to drain the water myself. What is a pea trap anyway? It is clean now, whatever it is. In desperation yesterday I went out and bought generic Dollar Store drain cleaner which must be what they make abortificients in 3rd world countries. Still not working. If I had skipped the drain cleaners completely and just hired Barmore plumbing to come from Alpine, it would have been about the same amount of money. Sigh.

The only other interesting aspect of this experience is its parallel to the mud cap procedure in the Gulf. They filled that hole with mud and it seems to be working. Perhaps they should have hired Mateo.