Two Large Crew

I must say, the Brits are a bit more advanced on the pop/rock music front.

Thanks for the smile James!

Looking Back

I have lots of photos to post and stories to tell....I just started putting together a book....my first book. I am having a difficult time realizing all we've done in the past year...where we've been, who we met...friends we missed. If I just send a link with all the photos, you might just skim through...I have to pick the best of the best and attach stories, then you'll see. This book is going to be awesome...

Back in the USA

Back! Back home! Oddly enough...nothing has changed. All of these little universes go on every day around the world without anyone knowing. People get older and sometimes younger....skinnier and fatter...less aware and more accepting...but in a week they will all be the same again.

Been so busy preparing for our cross country trip that my journal took the back seat. So much to write about, I have decided to finally start a book. When we return from our national park extravaganza, I will sit at the computer all day and all night and write. Maybe something for the kids...talking trees and organic soil with a personality disorder. Not too sure yet. Until then, we're headed west.

Congrats Joelle on the amazing progress at Planet Verge! I am inspired and so excited for you...KUDOS! Ms. Smith sounds amazing on your stage!

Dan Auerbach at 2:04

I didn't want to get into these quick posts...but I had to have this video here and I am too exhausted from shooting video with Rick since the sun came up(for his Backpacker Gear Tester submission!)to articulate. This song, it makes me stare off into the distance and reminds me of what other people are going through that I have no idea how to handle. Very grounding. Plus, Dan Auerbach embodies some serious bluesy, rock that I LOVE! Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch check it out!

I'm Pretty Far Behind on My Prayers

A Monk who prays so much he left his footprints ingrained in the floor.

Farewell to MRG

The best team to work with, in the universe! You will be missed!

I never thought I would have a petition drafted in my honor...But here it is...http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/theresamrg

My family makes wine!

It's true! Every year, we make wine together in Bloomfield, NJ at the Colasurdo garage, under the grape vines with 25 cups of coffee and lots of homemade baked goods. It's breathtaking, some of the greatest memories and one of the most delicious traditions! Each year, we dedicate the blend of love and grape juice to a Colasurdo who has passed. Our 2009 bottle will be dedicated to my grandfather Frank Coalsurdo Sr....who, I never had the pleasure of getting to know. My mother, who's passion is family and cooking, seems to think her and her brother (Uncle Frank) would not do the written dedication justice. I beg to differ, but jumped on the opportunity to help add some color and fun vocabulary words to their thoughts. Here is a sneak peak at the upcoming label:

Mia Cara Famiglia,

When we were children, we weren't able to spend as much time with our father as we would have liked. We learned a lot more about him as adults when we shared a kind of long-lost friendship. His clear, blue eyes were entrancing, that of statued saint. You could get lost when he looked at you, and his smile would bring you back while his laughter kept you warm. Our father, Frank Colasurdo Sr. was born July 1, 1922 in Jersey City to our beloved Modesto & Carmela Colasurdo who came from Italy in 1921 to create the foundation for the Colasurdo's in America. "Frank the Plumber" was a gentle, modest, neighborhood gumba, who cherished our family with all of his heart. After World War II, he was married and fathered 3 precious children.

Our father was sent to heaven on July 29, 1974 and we continue to celebrate his life through our tradition. With the right amount of wine and spaghetti, our family tree has continued to grow rich with love, revelry and virtue that we can lend to our ancestors...the rock on which we are built, the foundation of hope and faith where we stand proud!
The legacy continues!

Salute e Cent Anni
The Colasurdo Family

If these Polar Bears knew sign language...

Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper get dual climate fingers this week for a thoroughly disappointing meeting in Ottawa on Thursday. Rather than coming forward with fightin' words on climate change, the two promised to talk about talking about global warming a "clean energy dialog" that commits senior officials from both countries to collaboration. Lame. To make matters worse, the two leaders spent most of their post-meeting press conference hyping up their desire to drop billions of dollars on technologies to make dirty energy sources like coal and tars sands "clean." -Grist's Kate Sheppard

Friggin Genius!

In order to improve on my blogging skills and try to get people starving for more posts at TrainToMexico, I've been frequenting other sites looking for things that turn me on. According to some study that Rick let me know about...geniuses are not born into genius. They spend time researching various experts in their field in order to achieve greatness. The Beatles, Einstein, Verdi, Beethoven, Little Debbie, etc. The average time spent studying....10,000 hours.

Recipe for Expert Status:

Ingredients:
10,000 hours of devotion
3 distracting ticks/habits
1 bottle of hair gel (substitute w/ hairspray, mousse, powdered wigs, etc.)
Pinch of your flesh
Cheese

Instruction:

1. While enveloping yourself in the art or trade you desire to perfect, develop 2-3 distracting ticks/habits. No more, no less. Similar to salt, wonderful to have a dash, but too much leads to funny faces at the taste test.
   
2. Devote 1 of the 10,000 hours to standing in front of a mirror (or into a spoon) searching for a hairstyle that will define your genius (make sure it works with a beard and/or hat). Feel free to use any hair styling products, but ensure success by being extreme. Do not settle for a healthy medium. Be either sickeningly dull or absolutely crazy.
   
3. Your characteristics will start to change in the 8,000th hour. Pinch yourself to make sure you haven't become a selfish, bastard who merely thinks they are a genius and is adored by all.
   
4. Cheese. Amount per serving is irrelevant, but I'm pretty sure cheese makes everything better...except Chinese food.


5. Be/Let cool. Serve to friends, family & estranged fans before growing a beard and/or wearing silly hats and retreating to an opposing island or country.

GENIUS!

A lot of the blogs I have been checking out are simply a collection of shocking videos and funny parodies embedded from Youtube. They are more of a critique and culmination of everything viral on the internet. They're entertaining. My hope is that I can come up with some engaging stories that take more than 30 seconds to read. Either way, I never thought of writing to live but rather, living to write (very cheesy, bit of a piss shiver, but it's true). I don't need a list of subscribers to read every post. If someone happens to read just one, perhaps have it accompany their coffee....If any one person remembers what I wrote and they pursue some kind of expression that they were putting off....If a complete stranger tells me they read one thing I wrote and just LIKED it...I will feel like a friggin genius.

A Weekend in Theresa

Spent the weekend upstate (Theresa, NY) in a lone cabin on the lake. Friends Jenny and Joe invited us to the simple estate that Jenny's poppa built by hand. I can list what we did on one hand but, like most of the greatest moments so far, it's quality not quantity.

Highlights include but are not limited to:
1. The cabin- Have you ever seen an unconventional, handmade log cabin? Inspiring to say the very least. I immediately wanted to build an ark, a bow, a rocking chair. I wanted to read classic novels and write poetry; sip coffee to warm up and squint at the sun; take a deep breathe and smell nothing. So I did...and I will.
2.The canoe- A belated wedding gift that had been waiting for us on a pile of logs outside of the cabin. One of the most outlandish and genuine gifts I have ever received. Thanks to our generous and thoughtful friends we are no longer land-locked for our adventures. Rick and I spent a great deal of time just glancing at each other and laughing at the awesomeness of it all.
3. Ice fishing- I caught my first Northern Pike! Well....I caught my first fish!
4. Not pooping- Not so much a highlight, but as an old-fashioned gal I respect the lady-like abstinence from pooping or performing a stealth poop. It was uncomfortable, but a triumph nonetheless.
5. Meeting the folks- Seeing where and what people come from is really promising. It's refreshing to know that you and your family are unique, but that where you came from is a big part of your definition. Almost like in the spelling bee. Your family is like your "country of origin." You don't really need to know it to spell the word, but it makes it a bit more obvious and easier to understand.
6. Friends- Couple rounds of "Is it Bigger than a bread box?," Not finishing Cranium (that game sucks anyway), Joe's rendition of a deaf man trying to communicate with Rick (who is not deaf), waiting for fire, heart-shaped cookies, drawing in the snow....
7. Hiking the Ridge....wait, I guess I can't list them all on one hand...

Couple videos and pictures to follow...

Catch up & Bathroom Stall Additions

1. Italian classes start this Wednesday, don't be late for class.
2. Start a rough draft of your will, but make sure you hide it to avoid confusion....
3. Do something illegal....ie: Defacing public property

Tim Tams- We were discussing this lovely treat in the office, as we discuss every thought that ever enters our minds, and I wanted to learn more about it. I love biscuits. Digestives in particular. The Wiki site gives this lovely description: A Tim Tam is composed of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit, separated by a light chocolate cream filling, and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate. (Yum!) It also follows with some very important information about the coming of age of these treats....The Tim Tam Slam is the practice of biting off the opposing corners of a Tim Tam, and using the modified biscuit as a 'straw' to suck up a hot beverage.

Adding "slam" to pretty much any chocolate covered treat is a surefire way to make me want to try it out. "The Snicker Slam!" Could you even imagine what that would be?!?!
Not sure why, but I also fell in love with the term "modified biscuit." It just made them seem so...important. I want to write it on a bathroom stall somewhere, maybe next to a gang sign or some sexual teen accusation, "Tara's got crabs and herpes...Joey hearts modified biscuits"...Wouldn't really make any sense though...? But graffiti is always very spirited and rebelious and we should return to it every so often...even encourage our kids to spread a little tasteful artwork in public places. It's human nature.

My crotch area is too tight now
(Again...possible bathroom stall? I gotta keep a Sharpie handy).
This little subject line is a spam email that I received at my work address. I could list all the vulgarity I have had to deal with, but this one...it really made me laugh out loud and I never want to forget it. They are really drawing at straws here. I remember back in 07' when spam email was just a list of prescription meds or a rhetorical (yet tasteful) question about your sex life. "Are you performing to her standards?" and "Viagra/Cialis at next to nothing!" But now, we're dealing with some borderline literary molestation. I mean, some of them are so graphic I find myself getting a little squirmy at work...(don't try and hide it, you've been there too). I say, tone down the spam...not because I won't be able to explain the term"hard cock" to my kids outside of barnyard context....but because I would rather indulge in my fantasies at home, in the car, maybe after tagging up a bathroom stall instead of embarassing myself at the office!

Of course, after stumbling upon these opportunities to shit up some stalls with grafitti, I had to research. Found a couple websites dedicated to the practice:
www.thewritingsonthestall.com/ AND www.graffitiproject.com/

Fun sites to frequent...there are countless, clever inspirations written and doodled...In a time where we are looking to define ourselves as a UNITED NATION, it's a treat to see who we all are in the bathroom. Fun find: Some come here to sit and think, some come here to shit and stink, but I come here to itch my balls, and read the writing on the walls.

Always Mismatch your Socks

matthewgraygubler.com

Turns out the nerd from Criminal Minds is quite the artist! His drawings are very real...but more like case sketches....if someone were to describe how someone looked (poetically) his drawings would be the result. My favorite is Abe Lincoln...

Homework for Italian class: Research Dino DeLaurentiis and present his life and works to the class in Italiano. Almost too easy.

Confessions of an EHM

Recently finished up Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. Great book. I found myself using it as Nyquil because political jargon makes me sleepy, but it really did change my life...for about a month...how books do. Poor timing I suppose, with thoughts of farming in the Pyrenees, making soap and living in the hills of Riccia with my family, I don't have the energy to change the world. Maybe when we get back.

Perkins tried several times to publish the book but was bribed and eventually threatened to put a lid on it. The copy that I read was borrowed. Covered in coffee, no sleeve, no title....just a brown, torn up, bound stack of papers which contributed to it's "secrecy." I planned on writing a review, but I found these two excerpts from the book that both define and summarize it entirely. Buying books these days is tough...decisions like "bread...milk...or paperback" are prominent....sooo, honestly, you don't have to go buy the book after checking this out...but I do hope you'll check out JohnPerkins.org (I plan on trying to get to one of his lectures) and reading the prologue next time your in the bookstore...let me know what the cover looks like.

"This is what we EHMs, (Economic Hitmen), do best: we build a global empire. We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our government and our banks. Like our counterparts in the Mafia, EHMs provide favors. These take the form of loans to develop infrastructure, electric generating plants, highways, ports, airports, or industrial parks. A condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston or San Francisco."

"Despite the fact that the money is returned almost immediately to corporations who are members of the corporatocracy (the creditor), the recipient country is required to pay it all back, principle plus interest. If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, then like the Mafia, we demand our own pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to precious resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor still owes us the money and another country is added to our global empire."

Ahhhhh....good ol' USA!

Vera De Milo

You walk on the moon float like a balloon
You see it's never too late and it's never too soon
Take it from me what it's like to be...
In Living Color!

-The Overweight Lovah Heavy D

The violent sting of regret....

I always promised myself I would never regret anything in my life. It all happens for a reason... if you think it's regret, let it linger for a few minutes and you'll see it's just fate with a creepy mask on. Surprise! That was supposed to happen!

Oh...turns out 4 years of your commuter life is down the drain because Lit majors don't make any money...No regrets here. I got to read 800 books from the canon and write some earth shattering thesis statements on Alexander Pope's love letters. Get that dirt off your shoulder and hang up your diploma!

Oh...turns out your bladder is far weaker in your sleep than you'd imagine after an excessive night of drinking...No regrets here, we invested in that mattress cover at Sleepy's so things really worked out...plus it's a great story for the kids.

Nope...never let regret get a hold of me. Until that fateful day. The day I won tickets to see My Morning Jacket...and shamelessly sold them to a girl on Craigslist who was far less into the band than I (clearly exhibited in her lack of SHOUTING in our emails, use of smiley faces, exclamation points and desperation). I felt used. I wanted to light her money on fire.

I have watched Youtube video after YouTube video...and the mask gets creepier and creepier. Ugh, regret....you merciless foe. They covered "All I Need" by Tammy Terrell & Marvin Gaye!! The humanity.





Whatever....Along the same lines (not really)
A couple sad Mondays ago we were set to check out Vampire Weekend at the new Wellmont Theatre in Montclair (which I must say has a wonderful view from the veranda...we were never in the "veranda" I have just always wanted to say something like that). I, with all my greed and spite on a Monday morning, attempted selling the tickets on Craigslist with a plea to readers "I hate Mondays, as they have continued to ruin my life, and can't make it to the show...please buy 2 tix face value." My very first response came an hour later and the conversation read as follows:

Evan: Dude, if you want to cheer up and get out of the shit mood you're in then the best thing you can do for yourself is go see Vampire Weekend. I would offer to buy them but honestly, I think you need them more than me (and i'm broke). Go to the show, man. Don't sell those tickets.

Me: Dude....
thanks....
I'm going. =) **note the smiley face (aforementioned in showing excitement and gratitude)

Evan: Well played, friend.

Me: ...and I plan on writing about you on my rad blogspot (that is read by the world) about how you salvaged my Monday and reassured me that there are fair people in this world that really care about our well-being. ....you are kind and good...and no one will read about it.

Evan: Glad I could help. I logged onto craigslist to find a job and ended up making your day and getting cast as an extra for a matzoh ball soup cooking show demo. The internet is a craaaazy place.... Have fun at the show and let me know if they play any new jams that aren't on the album.

Me: Hahaha!
So strange...Congrats on your matzoh ball gig!
I'll keep you posted and send some video of the show.

K...so the ending gets pretty weird, boring, typical....but the boy stepped in and changed a whole work day for me with a simple response to a Craigslist posting. I would never go out of my way to do that...changed my whole perspective on mankind....and I never sent him any video.