It's a Day to Clean Up a Few Things

Dear America,

"YOU HAD ME AT THE 

PROPER USE OF YOU'RE" 

T-Shirt Humor Strikes Again

now granted, this girl is not one to talk about proper grammar --- given the liberal use of run-on sentences, exclamation points! and dashes strewn about haphazardly, and just the all-round irreverence of the written word and its rules...

I am not ashamed...for I walk my talk, blog by bloody blog; my babbling brook -- nothing but a trickle, really -- has the honor to tap into the mainstream (via Google blogger xoxo), offering my little lowly perspective on the life and times in America.   It's MY blood, sweat, and tears meeting up in the channel of culture, politics, and religion, while emphasizing the timeless, exceptional, sound foundation from which ALL Good Things flow.

And if you are alive and living in America right now, today, then you and I have only God to thank, for this is the living Spirit inside each and every one of us; it is THIS CREATOR who our early settlers, our nation's founders, our first government under George Washington, honored, with all their hearts and minds.

Sadly, the ground underneath our feet must be wet, slippery, for in no uncertain terms, this nation has slipped into an abysmal state of states.  And we will all perish, unless we change our ways and get our heads back on straight.

See Kathy Griffin's beheading of a president, through the eyes of Melania, here.  And just this morning, S.E. Cupp offers an excellent response, here.  [All three courtesy of CNN]

My Iphone's news feed at 5:24 p.m. PDT, Monday, of Memorial Day weekend, lined up the stories this way:

• The Washington Post, 'catch up on the biggest news you might have missed over the Memorial Day weekend'  with an unflattering picture of Jared Kushner... misleading you to a story of "back channel discussions with the Russians..." Go HERE INSTEAD.
• Next, a Fox News post, 'Tiger Woods arrested for DUI, say police' with an unflattering mug shot to the right.  
• Next, CNN highlighting, 'Here's how the Clintons spent their Memorial Day'  -- kid you not -- with a picture of Hill and Bill walking in a parade.  
• And last, but not least, the news feed showed a HuffPost addition, 'People think Ivanka Trump's Memorial Day Popsicles are insensitive', with an unflattering picture of Ivanka (as if their ever could be one, right?)

I'm sorry, don't you think the top story by Monday Evening would be TRUMP and PENCE  AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, with the added bonus of their visit to the very private area of  section 60?

Slip sliding away...

Of course, not to be outdone for probably many moons from now, is the latest brouhaha on the president's twitter short cut.  After intending to express the word coverage and ending up with something author J.K. Rowling might be more inclined to invent -- covfefe -- Trump had the world abuzz, live streaming and re-streaming, tweeting and re-tweeting and posting and re-posting -- what did it even matter if the president was fresh off his very first and very successful foreign relations excursion ...one that even rocked a few boats in the Global Governance fleet.   Here and Here.  The media was finished with that, having mocked as much as they could; and besides, this prime slime is a whole lot more fun to talk about.

Indeed, between the beheading of the president and covfefe -- the mainstream media was awash with gutter level dribble about this shiny new word bobbing in a president's wake, alongside a washed-up comedian with a penchant to stir for celebrity sake.

Is Hillary really so full of herself that she is seriously marinating on the idea of running again in 2020???? What a blessing that would be, what a blessing that would be; run Hillary run!

So there you go.  We had a lot of house cleaning on the news front to muddle through; so consider yourself up to date, caught up until about noon, Pacific Daylight Time.  Oh my heaven's, just a girl's diary is never done....

About that time, the president will be in the Rose Garden, with a candlestick; hopefully, all clues are pointing due north --  true north America, that is -- and he will use that flame to burn out the last shred of evidence to an accord that does nothing times nothing, the Paris Climate Agreement.  That link there, will only bring you to a solid commentary NOT to do it.  And then it's free sailing with the winds at our back and galley stocked full of Maker's Mark, heigh ho heigh ho it's off to work we go.

ooooh wait. Before this girl goes...
Let's scroll back up the river to Merkel for one more thing, when she said this:

"The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days,” Merkel said Sunday at a campaign event in Bavaria. “And that is why I can only say: We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands.”

Isn't it funny how the world media didn't react with yelling and screaming, calling her out for leveling a certain, organically grown, European Nationalism gushing from a fountain in the middle of little Bavaria? Isn't this the very kind of leadership Trump ran on --  and ultimately, was elected for, courtesy of the American people? (And earth to the Hill&Bill Show, Russians had nothing to do with it, you sorry lying sack in a white trench coat and psychedelic sunglasses.)

Indeed.
But no, all's quiet on the murky Merkel water front; the media taking greater pleasure, and notice, to the international water boarding of our fine, daring, apprentice president, at the hands of a woman, no less.  [I say 'apprentice' only cuz he is the true outsider and  new at this stuff... wading through the trudge of deep politics against the strong winds of an establishment who believes it is bigger than life itself, be it domestic or abroad.  Oh, if Trump can't do it, maybe no one can.   ugh.]

Hey, here's a good song for everyone to sing -- in unison -- it's called the clean up song; it's sung to three year old's beginning in preschool and it's such a catchy jingle, it kinda sticks with you in your head for a long time.  Your welcome.    It goes like this:  "clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere, clean up, clean up, everybody do your share."
OK Nato, Merkel, Griffin, and the national press covfefe?

Clean it up!
Clean it up!

Make it a Good Day, G

make it good or shut you're mouth.   tee hee....yeah, that was just to bring us full circle on the day.

It's a Life-Changing Super Upsetting Blog Thing...

Dear America,

"Because your love 

is better than life, 

my lips will glorify you." 

Psalm 63:3

exactly.

when things get dicey politically, emotionally, internationally or domestic -- of course, after receiving delight and encouragement and inspiration and grace from the GOOD Book -- this girl cooks.

so picture me cooking everyday, right...

and in a perfect world, it would be all day long.

So it's no surprise that cookbooks bring me comfort and joy just by looking at them, and my favorite these days is something that jumped off the shelves, kicking and screaming, in an Urban Outfitters:  A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches, by Tyler Kord...famous for the No.7 Sub chain of restaurants.

[GET ONE of your own, for you will be most pleased.]

Kord speaks to the avid lover of real food and sauce, often served straight up and dirty, and filled with all kinds of remarkable and splendid flavors that are sure to tantalize each and every taste-bud. And it's not just about the food, either.  He gives us a running dialogue on the side that is funny, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes bordering  TMI, with a splash of humility and a certain self-reflection that is like none other -- simply speaking in terms of the universe of cookbooks, anyway.

So allow me to share parts of a page -- pg. 32 to be exact -- just for starters....

THIS IS A CHICKEN SANDWICH

and he says,

"I don't eat a ton of meat, and I've thought about becoming a vegetarian many times.  But I don't ever want to give up eating chicken.  Not because I hate chickens and want to prove my dominance over them or anything (because they already know), but because they are the most delicious animals of all time, and if God didn't want me to eat them, he probably would have made them that way.  That said, a lot of people believe that, if you eat the wrong thing or think the wrong thing, God will make you spend eternity bathing in a lake of fire.  I'm not sure if I believe in God or not, but I definitely don't believe that God cares about the details of what I eat.  Actually, if God really does care about what we eat, then it is probably because God isn't super stoked about all the animals we abuse in factory farms every day, even when we don't have to and there is plenty of broccoli lying around.  But I doubt that I will be denied entry into heaven just for eating a few chickens.  Right, God?"

[Kord loves his broccoli.]

So the recipe itself, is a combination of roasted chicken (pg. 26), fried eggplant (pg 148), fresh mozzarella, arugula, and "special sauce" (pg. 163)...all stacked up scrumptiously on a kaiser roll. But, like I said, you will just have to GET YOUR OWN copy, in order to for you, too, to know, what he knows, what I already know, that you wanna know. 

Often, it has been said that the writing of legislation is much like the making of sausage.  This phase is where most of us conservatives go absolutely bonkers.  We can't even bear to watch, it's so bad.

This is one of those weeks, much like the editors of Cooking Light glorify the re-do of something that never should have made it our bellies, let alone the printer and 3000 pages later -- Obamacare wasn't, and still isn't, worth the paper it is written on, and hardly deserving to see the light of one more day. 

If memory serves me -- and it usually does with gusto and perfect timing -- good ole Joe called it a "big f@%&ing deal" --- and oh my how tasteful that little morsel is, right?  What a moment.  What a scam.  What a lie; for just look at us now.

While if I see one more re-run of Barack Obama telling us we can keep our doctor, keep our plan.....

surely, how could anyone on the left be satisfied with this?  It's vile.  

From pork butt to snout, it is a nauseating abomination against the health, wealth and happiness of the American people and OUR health care system; it's a purely reprehensible act, a corruption from the ground up, from root to tip.  In other words, it is a big f$@%*ing pile of slop underneath wispy curls of meringue and in the every day, it is being thrown in the face of all Americans through the wayward and wanton and weaselly acts of Congress.  A pie chart of disastrous proportions.

Considering this girl is celebrating a birthday this week -- and a f@%&ing big one at that -- it seems to run like clockwork with an annual mental health check...asking things like, how was your last year, G?  What are your goals for the brand new one on the horizon?  Is there anything you need to work on, anything you wish you did, but didn't...what were your favorite things you ate, who were you with, and what's on your wish list for next year?

And given it has coincided with another good read, a little book on keeping neat, by Mari Kondo:  "the life-changing magic of tidying up."    [title was written in all lowercase, just fyi]....

....you throw these two reads together amidst the ghastly state of the Union, and what do you get?

exactly.

It WAS an age of eating what we sow; but NOW,  it's the age of clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up, clean up, everybody do your share...And if you sing that last bit, it not only helps the medicine go down, we might actually sit back at the end of the day feeling suddenly free!

Over the weekend, twenty two bags of clothes, housewares, odds and ends were sent on their way to Goodwill.  And talk about a big f$%^^ing deal, oh man....there are not words.  Liberation and freedom live inside and outside and everywhere I go.  I breathe better; sleep better; love better; and give better....and it feels good.  [You should try it, too.] [just sayin']

Just take a little bit off to chew at first, and then, you will know.

Suddenly the understanding of less is more, cries out for seconds, and the realization that we just might have way too much -- more or less -- brings us to our knees.   When we have too much, we have no idea of the value of anything.  Naturally, our perspective gets twisted like little garlic knots with shrimp phyllo purses; spring rolls, cinnamon rolls, lobster rolls, and profiteroles all roll into one. [think Nancy Pelosi when she said, we have to pass to pass the bill so that you can know what is in it....right...]   [yum, love that kind of sausage]

It's time to clean up our mess -- throw out what doesn't belong, keep only the things we can honestly proclaim our love for, and do no further harm.  And suddenly, this isn't about Obamacare at all, it's about ALL of government.   At twenty trillion dollars in debt, that luxury -- of growing fat, in body and mind and bureaucracy that doesn't serve us well -- is not ours to have to hold any longer.

No amount of secret sauce will fix what WE have allowed to happen to ourselves; nor can we throw on a muumuu and think we look good.

Stop.
Pick things up one at a time and ask yourself, do you LOVE it?  Like LOVE it love it love it? Or is it just a thing that has come to the end of it's day, with you?  Give it away, give it away.

And if it's something nobody deserves -- broken, worn, full of holes, etc. -- throw it away, throw it away.

First, The Holy Bible; then, the life-changing magic of tidying up belongs on the desks of every civil servant and countryman; and to lay it beside A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches, we got ourselves a perfect combo; both offering plenty of manna for thought, food for living and loving what we put in our mouth, and pure sustenance for creating a brand new day tomorrow and thereby leading to a tidy, meaningful, delightful future.   Ah lass, sometimes things can be so simple to solve.

Bone Appetit, every one.

Make it a Good Day, G