forward for the pigpen book and such...

As long as I can remember, my father had our garage filled with posters from all over the world, record of his travels and adventures all over the globe. There was one poster that always seemed to capture my attention.

It was brightly colored with neons and a large, gruff figure in the middle wearing a San Francisco Fire Department hat. I knew this man was no firefighter what with his large toothed necklace, long hair and big mustache. Something about him always appealed to me and I could never figure out just what it was.

Years later I would listen to the radio with my mom in the car and sing along, the Beatles, Momma’s and the Poppa’s, Bob Dylan, and the Grateful Dead. I would sift through my mother’s albums, especially loving the Beatles Yellow Submarine and Sgt. Pepper’s fold out covers with their bright images and colorful characters.

When I was about 11 years old “Santa” gave me a gift in my Christmas stocking that stuck with me for the rest of my life, a handful of cassettes to go with my new boombox he had also given me. The Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill, Bob Marley Legend, the Beatles Abbey Road, and the Grateful Dead American Beauty. It was love at first listen. My own little library of influential music, and boy did it influence me.

I loved that music and still do to this day, but there was just something about the Grateful Dead that stuck to my soul. I loved the Grateful Dead music so much so that I hopped on tour for 5 years.

During that time, I was not close with my parents and it was not until years later when I was home one day talking with my father about how I got into the Dead that I explained to him the story behind that poster he had. How I had found out that it was Pigpen from the Grateful Dead and how he always had this mysterious aura to me. He has no idea how he even had gotten the poster anymore. The poster was a silk-screened one, made in San Francisco in 1967. it had a typo that was silk-screened over and declared Pigpen to be the “Psychedelic Child”.

My father was never a fan of the Dead. He was a Jefferson Airplane and Doors kind of guy (no need to try and explain the Jerry/Surrealistic Pillow, I know, and he could not care less, it was the music of the Dead he did not get) who refused to go to Woodstock because Jim Morrison was banned from it.

I tried to explain to my dad how Pigpen was not a “druggie” as he assumed. I had to explain how the poster was so ironic because Pigpen really did not care of LSD or mushrooms, or really many drugs, but liked his in a bottle, Southern Comfort and the like was much more his style. For Pigpen do be the “Psychedelic Child” was like saying his beloved Jim Morrison was the poster boy for celibacy and sobriety!

It was during this interesting discussion years ago that I realized as much as I love to read about the things I love, music, nature, historical figures, so much has been written about Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead before and after his passing, that Pigpen really has no historical record amongst those volumes of books.

Sure, he is covered in the early goings on, I mean he is Pigpen after all, but nothing was for Pigpen, who in his short life of 27 years, contributed so much to the Dead. His contributions still influence their music to this day as they prepare for their 2009 Spring Tour as The Dead.

This book is to bring him back to life, if only for a little while, to see who he was, what brought about his and Jerry Garcia’s meeting and give Pigpen more then just a few chapters and archival music. This is for Pigpen…..

PIGPEN WAS
AND IS NOW FOREVER
ONE OF THE
GRATEFUL DEAD

sugar detox and such...

i am participating in a sugar detox....it is for 7 days and today is mid way through day 6!
tomorrow is the last full day...thought i am going ot keep going, just not as hard!

the group i am doing it with is controlled some what....we have a conference call before during and the monday after. we also have an online forum for us to chat, share recipes and what else has been going on with us!


i just wanted to share what has been going on with me so far.

i really was nervous and scared as to what to expect out of this little project.

i bought a bunch of food and almost got overwhelmed trying to prepare items i never had, long grain brown rice form scratch, quinoa, and much more....

i cooked the rice and quinoa and made big batches so i could simply reheat them this week.
everyday i prepare a breakfast, lunch (leftovers fromt he dinner) and dinner every night.

they are not huge fancy meals and i am terribly picky.
i went and purchased frozen organic veggies and a bag of stirfry veggies with nothing added.
we have had stir fry twice, once with lean pork loin and the second with chicken (the prepared stirfry veggies have the tiny corn, edamame beans, snow peas, carrots, broccolli, water chestnuts and mushrooms. i add extra water chestnuts and bamboo shoots)

i have one to two smoothies a day, though not huge ones...

also i nibble on grapes at work and after dinner grapes and almonds...

today i bought cashews and more almonds and more grapes.

i like the finger foods, i like being able to nibble...that is my one habit i love and having shredded coconut, nuts and seeds and grapes, makes my life easy

i am totally surprised by what i have been eating for breakfast, usually a half smoothy and an italian sausage patty on two slices of ezekial bread, though it is a bit much, so i eat half one day, half the other...

the other morning i was really hungry so i had an egg scrambled with a bit of seasoning and nothing else in it, hash browns which are just shredded potato cooked with a little butter till browned in a pan and a smoothie and WOW was it great and filling!

tonight i am making the slow cooker sweet potato and black bean soup/stew, i will make some brown rice to go along with it and my daughter thinks it smells yummy too! I added some sliced organic carrots, and since i had no cumin some other spices!

i find i shop more for fresh ingredients and what i need. i don't buy and keep stuff in the house like i used to, which is great..there is tons of junk here, but i don't touch it!
i really have no desire to!!!

today, my daughter had a ham and cheese with lettuce on potato bread (she loves that and brings it to school everyday and i had a slice of ezekial bread with garlic organic hummus on one side and lemon hummus on the other cut in half with organic romain in the middle! some cashews and a cocoa banana smoothy (unsweetened COCOA almond milk, half nana, shredded coconut, ice and coconut milk! so yummy)

i drink water, but today i found a bottle of unsweetened tea i will try with dinner

i honestly thought i was going to cheat. the worse thing i have done so far is tuesday and wed after breakfast i had a piece of sugarfree (but still had the fake stuff) gum.
i started a new job (9-2 m-f) on tuesday, so since i was going to be so close to folks learning their system in the office, i justified the two pieces of gum!

at work after lunch i nibble on some grapes or almonds

i have not had time to work out, but the eating healthy has given me so much energy....
this week i plan on adding some wii fit into my life that i can do with my daughter after her homework is done

i am totally surprised at how much i am enjoying this. my first day at work was hard because they bought pizza and i wanted a piece so badly, but i was good and ate my left over shepards pie sans potato (seasoned ground beef, carrots and corn served over brown rice)

i do have to say monday and tuesday really and truly felt like a detox day...i had a really bad headache, i was in so much pain, i felt awful...

since then i have felt great, i wake up refreshed, i am actually going to sleep at a decent time (between 10:30-12) when i used to have awful insomnia and go to sleep between 1-3am.

i have to get up with my daughter at 7am and before it was so hard....now i wake up refreshed!

i really do feel so much better.

i read labels now...and boy do i read them close! there is so much cane sugar, fructose and so on in everything!

i have not tried to eliminate sugar from my daughters diet, but i have reduced it.

i am sorry, this is huge and rambeling but i am just so happy to have made these changes in my life....

i don't really miss the chocolate or candy, but i do really want a glass or two of wine from time to time!

i really want to try and keep this going for a while..i plan on trying to keep up with it as much as i can for as long as i can...maybe allow myself some treats, but honestly, i really like how i feel and making myself stick to it...

there were so many times i almost broke down and had a glass of juice or something with sugar, or even junk food like potato chips, but i did not.

i feel for the folks who have "given" in, and it is nothing to feel bad about because this is just for us, to try it...
i figured i would simply cheat at some point and then maybe not totally break my sugar habit, but break it down so i don't eat as much when the week is over.

i cannot tell you how awful i felt tuesday night, it was so bad...but i was able to make i through, but i can see why some folks don't and that is cool too!

this is not life or death, like the first day, i thought of it like a sentence rather than a chance to try new stuff...

anyway, if you managed to read this far, thanks for letting me spew forth my view of this week so far! and my next week to come!

President Obama's Speech and such...

"speech time....my fellow citizens...i stand here today humbled by the task before us, mindful of the sacrifices born by our ancestors, i thanks pres bush for his service..."

"our nation is at war....our economy is badly weakened"

"nagging fear that americas decline is enevitable....today i say to you the challenges we face a re real.....BUT know tis america, they will be met"

"on this day we gather because we have chosen hope over fear"

"we remain a young nation...'the time has come to set aside childish things'...all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their true happiness"

"greatness is never a given, it must be earned"

"men and women obsucre in their labor....for us they...traveled across oceans....they fought and died...time and again these men and women struggled and sacrified...they saw a nation..."

"starting today we must pick ourselves us dust our selves off and begin the remaking of america"

"we will harness the sun and the winds and the soil"

"they have forgotten what this country has already done....what the cynics fail to understand is the ground has shifted beneath them"

"we are ready to lead once more"

"our power alone does not protect us"

"we will defeat you"

"our patchwork heritage is our strength, not weakness"

"God Bless America"

thanksgiving, christmas and such

i have been sick so many times since thanksgiving, it is really sad.

strep a few times, sinus infections, you name it, and today and going back to the doctor for a possible strep. there has just been too much going on for me to truly get better, so while the medications make me feel better, they are not able to truly work properly.

juju has been amazing! santa treated her so well due to her being so nice and donating instead of getting presents for her birthday!

she got a blue electra bike, the impossible to find mia american girl doll, and many MANY more things she wanted.

i am ready for my parents to go back to florida. in one day my mother fell and smacked her eye so badly she should have gotten stitches, but before that could be dealt with, my father announced he thought he was having a stroke.

a ride to the ER and tests later, he had a TIA, or a mini stroke, not really a stroke, but no damage done. just way to much stress for me to handle anymore.

i need a break from them, really.

much more to fill in, but i am going to relax and read and catch up a bit on the real world...

birthday's, donation's and such

whew...it has been a busy few weeks!

juju had her joint birthday party with maria. they raised a lot of pet and people food for donation. it was so touching. honestly, i think that lil 8 year old gal managed to get about 300 dollars worth of pet items donated, including a 10 dollar check, a 20 dollar gift card to shop rite, and another to target for a surprise amount!

and i think 300 is the low side. there were so many bags of food, huge 10 lb boxes of dog bones, shampoos, cases of wet cat and dog food, toys beds and so much more AND we got more yesterday after school!

we dropped the food off the other day and i have to say i was a bit bummed at their lack of wow from the shelter folks of this 7 year old who got them all this stuff. i even called earlier int he day to let them know she was coming and thought maybe they would be nice and make her a thank you card or a birthday card, even a paper computer generated one, but nothing...they claimed they are naming a kitty after her (we saw no no-named kitty anywhere as we walked around on our own), and i think she was kind of bummed. there was a HUGE pile of goods there and they were like, oh that was so sweet, thanks, do you want to go look at the dogs and kitties? and then we walked in by ourselves...

really, it was such a non event to them, and i can tell she was a bit bummed they were not even enthusiastic at all...rather, blah about it really....i mean a 7 year old gave up getting prezzies for this shelter and they were so blah about it.

if she decides to do it next yeat, we will go to another shelter to donate....


yesterday was the lil girls real birthday. she was allowed to wear her regular clothes to school, and was that fun picking out! she also had munchkins for the birthday snack for everyone.

dinner was at the club with my parents and she wanted a hot dog! and then proceeded to eat my dad's caesar salad and my sweet potato fries!

it was a great night and when she opened my gifts of the mini horse barn and horses and my mom's gift of the wii, she preferred to play with my gifts and put off us hooking up the wii til this weekend! how awesome is that, really?

oh, a little aside not...got to meet mike gordon the other day outside the phil show. he was freezing, had to wait a while for his pass, AND when he and i were talking about old shows and all good where he almost ran me over with the golf cart (not only did he remember it, apparently there is video), some guy with a finger in the air looking for that phil ticket, asked," what band are you in?", mike sheepishly looked at him and said, "i am in a band called phish"...very odd moment for me since i have been going to phish shows since 1987...my friends older sister was friends with trey and jon, i raged with them at amy's farm (though we were all drinking the big igloo kool aid that weekend!!! in 1991)...seeing him feezing outside waiting for his lammie and folks asking who he is was so strange!

and watch, that kid will be at the show in march trying to get in there to and if mike ran him over with a golf cart he would have no idea who he was, he only asked because he was listening to us talk hoping to get in or a ticket!

ah well, tour kids, what are you gonna do with them?

live to tour, no matter who or what it is, no longer really about any band, just being on tour is all they seem to care about anymore...

winning stuff , giving away stuff and such

just wanted to make note of this and a few other things i missed when ranting earlier....

juju and i attended a halloween party at her gymnastics gym on sunday and they gave every family that attended a ticket for a raffle of full tuition.
my lil girlfriend put our last name on it and stuck it in the bowl...well she won!
it is a full semester tuition which we were going to pay next week to get the discount rate of $390!

yay for saving money and being lucky...well my lil girl is pretty lucky in that respect as this fall she attended a car show in town with my dad and myself. there you entered a form to vote on what car you want to win and from those, they draw raffle winners. well she won a $50 gift certificate to a hair salon! she has yet to use it as she is currently growing out her hair to donate to locks of love, but she also wants to grow out enough so when she does donate it, she still has longish hair (past shoulders), so currently her hair is almost to her bum!
when she does go to donate it, it does not cost anything to get it cut! so that gift certificate will have to wait!

my lil girlie is such a sweet kid, aside from the locks of love thing, her birthday party is coming up in two weeks. she is having a joint birthday party with a good friend from school, maria. they are having a skating party and juju had decided that instead of getting gifts from her friends at school, she wanted them to bring food to be donated to the local animal shelter.

maria thought that was so cool, she is asking for food to be donated to the food pantry!

yay for 7 year olds being socially responsible!

i also sent a request to senator lautenberg from nj requesting two tickets to the inauguration. i highly doubt we will get them, but hey, it is worth a try no? i think juju would enjoy a trip to dc and see history before her eyes. she was so excited to go vote with me yesterday.

obama, race and such

it has been less then 12 hours since they declared obama our president elect obama, and already something about this is really pissing me off....

not him getting elected, please, if that is where you think this is going, close your ignorant eyes and move away from my blog...i don't handle stupid or ignorant well at all...

what is really bugging me so soon is the sheer ignorance of the media and all of these so called supporters promoting the shit out of the "First African American President".

what are you doing? why must you label him in such a way...what about first hawaiian president? what about just calling him president? why must we make him a novelty ack, like william hung?

can we as a people move past the fact he is HALF black?

how about we call him what he really is African/European American?

what about me? i never ever feel the urge to call myself eurpoean american....do you know why?

because i am an american!

A.M.E.R.I.C.A.N.

and so is barak, president elect obama...

i have been tossing around a little thing where i paraphrased a famous recent quote from president elect obama and it goes a little something like this...

we are not african americans or eurpoean americans, we are just americans!!!!!