Michel and Sarah's Excellent Adventures

It's the holidays so its common to feel like shit. I have compiled some quotes that I think are funny. I got stuck on Mark Twain obviously. I often have dragged through the holidays crying and annoying my family. This year, only the ghost of sad Christmases past floated by. I mean I only felt a passing sadness and a fraction of what I had felt before.  Major emotions used to hit and wouldn't leave for days, like unwelcome family.  I would like to remind any one that has trouble with holidays that you are not alone. Or at least distract yourselves with these fun quotes. Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. Benjamin Franklin If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. Mahatma Gandhi We have the best government that money can buy. Mark Twain I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. Mark Twain Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no ...

Hi. I just disembarked from a trip to Munich Germany. Despite anxiety about the long plane trip as well as anxiety about trains and automobile rides.  Amazingly, I did just fine. I can thank my mom for taking me and my brother and his wife Caroline for the best hospitality I have ever experienced. But I used one Valium and a lot of alcohol throughout. I was unable to procure anti anxiety drugs. My Dr. prescribed me six lorazepam in case of emergency. But they expired and I was too afraid to take them.  My dad told me he was able to get me Valium. When he finally handed it over, it was one pill. He had no info on the amount of mg. I looked it up and it looked like 5mgs. I split it in half brought it in case.  I did take a half upon sitting in the plane seat and two glasses of wine. This I was told would be an ok combo.  Plus I watched the most questionable movie on my own monitor, Entourage.  I continually had to block the sex scenes with a book I b...

This Saturday the Chicago Humanities festival hosted Salman Rushdie. He won this year's Chicago Tribune Literary Award . Rushdie was interviewed by Bruce Dold of the Chicago Tribune .  His new book is titled Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Days , a reference to the story Scheherazade , the name of a woman who had to tell stories for 1001 nights or she would be killed.  Rushdie explained that his father, Anis, changed his last name a long time ago to the name of a 12th century philosopher because he admired his progressive views.  Ironically that philosopher pissed off the powers that were. I used to think his name sounded like he was in a rush to die. Rushdie also talked about the years he had to travel under heavy security. In 1989 the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a Fatwa condemning Rushdie for writings deemed anti-Muslim. He talked about how he was once going to be picked up in New York by a long motorcade and stretch bulletproof limo. He thought that this just d...

A stylist came over to look into my closet and sort the good, the bad, and the ugly. It has been said that this stylist makes fun of clothes if it is necessary. Michel needs no help. He is perfect. See pic. Only thing is he was dressed like that when we went camping. Once, not that long ago, I was standing on the corner of Milwaukee and Wolcott, in Chicago, waiting for a taco to go. These two ladies approached me and asked, "Do you work here?" I said yes, because I worked on that block. They said, "So do we. Aren't they cracking down lately?" I almost fainted. They told me I could walk with them and work with them. They told me that customers often liked a black girl and a white girl. (They were black.) It was popular, they said, the combo pack. I excused myself after our five minute meeting that included a lot of terminology that I was not familiar with. I ran home, crying and laughing at the same time. So if that is not a reason to have a stylist, w...

The plot of our first adventure featured people cheating on each other, or trying to.  Some young teenaged boy reading a letter of his rude feelings to a grown-ass woman. The woman disrobes him, dresses him in drag, disrobes him again. Her husband knocks, so the teenager jumps out a window. Here is the link of the teenager singing about his gross teenage feelings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfxiEhFust4 The role of the teenaged boy is traditionally played by a woman, for the higher voice and smaller size. But at first I thought Mozart was very progressive and that it was a woman that kept sneaking in to women's rooms and professing her feelings. I accept that Mozart is a genius after seeing "The Marriage of Figaro" On Sunday, Grace, her mom, a friend and I saw Patti Smith talk about her new book.

Michel and I volunteered at a homeless shelter. It was our first time. We signed up for the dinner shift. It was in the basement of a church in Berwyn. Almost every person I told after had already done it and PADS has it down to every detail. I am not sure how its funded. I will ask. We got there at the appointed time and were introduced to a woman who was the "site captain" I said "Cool" she said "No it really isn't. She told us to sit down and relax as the doors would not open for some time. She sat next to us and played "candy crush saga" as we watched from around her shoulder. Someone had already laid out mattresses with sheets folded on top of them. And taken out all the plastic serving utensils. I thought we would cook but someone shows up with a hot tray of Mostaccioli at just the right time. When the doors opened ten people immediately came in. It was hard to tell the homeless from just more volunteers. The homeless all knew what to d...

We went to a wedding on Saturday night 9-19-15. Kary and Tony, at Fitzgerald's a couple blocks from my home. The invitation said to dress country casual. I didn't read that till a couple hours before. But this is the country taste of people who announce in their wedding that they believe that marriage is a universal right and they are happy to marry in a world where all l.g.b.q. t. (and I felt I heard some new letters) can get married. This was said by the minister and I felt I could hear Kary clearly in the things that were said. I love that Kary is always thinking of the world around her. She was in the peace corps as a young adult and is now a counselor. She has read about the different world religions and likes to talk about any topic. The minister also said that the couple met here at this bar, several years ago (Both are country music fans and now are in a band together called Lonesome Still). The night they met, Tony saw Kary give her gloves to a homeless person. Ye...