--I HEARD YOU SAY, "I LOVE YOU."  YEAH, I DID.

…Last night it was sunny and clear, then there was thunder and lightning, then a slanted downpour during which time I saw a double rainbow.  An actual double rainbow.  It’s only the second time I’ve seen one in my life.

The last time was at my son’s soccer match.  He was around seven years old and he kept pointing at the sky in wonder, yelling, “Dad! Dad!  It’s a double rainbow.  For real it is.”

That experience taught me a good life lesson about retaining one’s sense of childlike wonder and now I enjoy sunrises and sunsets, the beauty of a thick snowfall, the shape and hue of the clouds as dusk settled around the treetops lining the lake.

I want to die young.

…This morning I woke to this fantastic message:

My wife violet and I is donating the sum of two million USD to you .Contact my wife's personal email [allen.large@rogers.com]

Isn’t it amazing how every day random people want to give me millions of their dollars?  Isn’t it funny how poorly crooks write?

…Here are some things I like for the middle of the week:

-"I think kids like me like the bad guy in a film.  I watch movies all the time and root for the bad guy and turn it off before it ends because the bad guy dies.  It's cinematic law, that the bad guy has to die.  But sometimes the bad guy gets a record deal and becomes a superstar." 50 Cent

-"The fact that I started it from absolutely nothing as a single mother of two during one of the hardest times of my life. I had a computer, an internet connection, and the balls of Annie Oakley. Not to mention some editing and graphic design know-how under my hat. So with that and little else, I made it work, and now, a lot of our books are being reviewed by Publishers Weekly and ForeWord Reviews. I couldn’t be prouder." Cynthia Reeser

-"Aspire, break bounds. Endeavor to be good, and better still, best." Robert Browning

-"Guilt is a luxury we can only afford when we have hope." Robert P. Kaye

-"I've been wondering lately what it is that makes us forget who we are?" Boyd Crowder, "Justified"

-"Well, we all have our eccentricities."

"Yeah, but they don't have to be medicated." Justified

--EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, MIRACLES HAPPEN

…Yesterday, I finished reading Jeanann Verlee’s, “Racing Hummingbirds”.

What a terrific collection.

It’s part poetry, part prose, altogether wonderful, unsettling and arresting.

If you think you’re a person who doesn’t fancy poetry, you should try this book. 

You’ll be glad you did.  I promise.

Here are two sample pieces:

Numerology

78           -   the number of cows slaughtered every minute in the U.S.

100        -   my score on every spelling test I’ve ever taken

4             -   the number of wedding rings my mother has pawned

16,200   -   the amount of money I’ve had to borrow from my father to pay your debt

113        -   my weight when I met you

245        -   your weight when you first purged a dinner

97           -   the number of times you told me I was fat

24           -   the number of beers you drank each day

136        -  my weight when you stopped touching me

135        -  the weight of your emaciated six-soot frame today

17           -  the number of times you refused to get help

21           -  the number of days since our divorce

76           -   the number of cows slaughtered since the beginning of this poem

SWARM

Learn how to say “no.”

Cram that word inside your mouth,

the whole thing, make sure all of it

gets in there.  Let it walk on your tongue.

Practice with it in the mirror, push it

out, make faces, learn to love the salt

and bitter of it.  Teach it to perch on your lip,

buzz, collect pollen from your sugary gloss.

make it swarm between your cheeks.

Then, when the days come (there will be

many) where he pushes too hard, speaks

too sweetly, when the hand at your thigh

draws a thump in your stomach, when

the bitch gremlin inside whispers, it’s not

worth the fight, says you can barter

for your worth tomorrow, when your ribs

shrink, when he unfurls his Almighty Smile,

when  four come at you at once, when

you love someone else, when the bar

is closing and your name becomes Take

What I Can Get, when the girls hate you

anyway, when you want him until the burn

if only he wore a different face—

pull back your lips, bare the teeth you have

sharpened to their perfect points, flick

your stinger tongue, set free your swarms.

--I'LL ADMIT I WAS DISAPPOINTED

 …Happy Friday

Today's going to be a good day.  I can just tell.

…I don't know about you, but I love NY.  It's my favorite place I the world.  So I found this funny:

10 Reasons NYC Isn't as Great as You Think It Is

New York City -- center of the universe. Every year, thousands of people move to the Big Apple to make all of their dreams come true. For the first year it's awesome -- you've made a ton of new best friends who love going out, having random sex and partying until the sun comes out. By year two, you've settled in a bit, gotten rid of the dead weight in the friends department and found a lovely 100 square foot apartment to call your own. Things in your third year are fun, but not as entertaining, and reality begins to set in because you haven't taken a day off of work in four weeks and still can't afford your rent. If you can make it here, you're told that you can make it anywhere, but "making it" consists of never having any money, not eating for days because you can't afford it and hoping that the mysterious rash on your leg that you got when you moved into your new apartment will magically go away because you don't have health insurance with your new job. Maybe New York isn't as great as we think it is. Here why:

The weather.
There are only two seasons in New York -- excruciating heat and bitter cold. Spring is fun for about three days, then it proceeds to rain for weeks on end and then the heat sets in and the streets smell of piss and vomit. Fall is even worse. You get about four nice days and begin to think: "Yeah, I love fall!" Then it rains, then it sleets, then it snows and then it's winter and you don't leave your apartment for four months. The next time I hear someone say: "Fall is my favorite season in New York," I'm not only going to remind them of the endless days of rain, but I am going to backhand them as well.

It's the best place to be if you're having a good day...
But if you're having a bad day, watch the fuck out, because New York is going to make sure your day turns out 10 times worse than when it began. Got fired from your job? Have no fear, on your way home from work, New York will make sure it rains or snows on you en route to your place and now that you've lost your 400th umbrella this year and refuse to buy a new one -- you're soaked. It won't end there! The subway won't work, you'll get trapped behind several thousand tourists who have no idea where they're going on your way back to your apartment and no less than ten homeless people, who all own iPhones will ask you for a dollar.

There are too many gay people.
I love gay people, hell, I am one! However, every single gay person in America feels like they need to move to New York in order to be accepted. So what does that leave us with? Hundreds of thousands of sex-crazed men who are more interested in going out and partying than a relationship. So while you may have more items on the menu then, if you were to date in say, Fayetteville, Arkansas, navigating your way through the gay community in New York is harder than trying to sit through an entire episode of RuPaul's Drag Race.
Everyone is full of shit.
Everyone in New York has a story to tell, but most of those stories are contrived BS. Let's face, when you live on the island of Manhattan, you're special, there's no doubt about it, but the things people will say to get attention in this town is off the wall crazy and usually only half the truth. I know, because I'm one of those people.

Everyone works their asses off.
Everyone who moves to New York wants to shine in whatever field they pursue, however this is a city where literally only the cream rises to the top. You really have to work your ass off to make it and working is hard, time-consuming and takes away from the time that you could be conditioning your hair or sleeping with your hot neighbor.

There are a ton of great restaurants.
Which is awesome, unless you have severe undiagnosed ADD and it takes you too long to decide which one to go to, so instead of going somewhere fabulous, you end up eating at the Renaissance Diner on 54th St. and Ninth Avenue for the fourth time that week. Not that I've done that or anything.

It's the epicenter of culture.
New York has more to offer culturally than almost any other city in the world. However, I don't care what anyone says, no one really likes going to the ballet, the opera or museums. If you have actually gone to the opera this year, it was because your friend had a free ticket and it was: "A very New York thing to do and there wasn't a good party happening that night" so you took the ticket, but didn't pay for it because you're too broke to afford that shit, even though you're working three jobs. Deep down inside, you know that you'd rather be watching Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Don't front. You know you would. As bad as that crap is, people being flung from the rafters and nearly meeting their death in order to entertain you is much more thrilling that a fat woman singing a language you never bothered to learn. Come on, admit it, it's okay, no one will criticize you... except for your friend who invited you to the opera who thinks that "all theater is trash" but secretly listens to the cast recording of Starlight Express every night before he goes to bed so that he can make fun of you to your face and not look like a hypocrite.

People will do anything to get attention.
Including sleeping with anyone to gain popularity, creating a fake profession for themselves in order to feel special or monopolizing social media to gain followers in order to make it seem as though they are important. Guess what? Your Twitter followers aren't going to pay your rent, boo. Everyone in New York wants to feel important, but guess what: you're just as unimportant as the rest of us.

New York is the home to every mentally unstable girl in the country.
It's not uncommon to hear women walking down the street on any given day saying things like: "OMG, Tiffany! [They're always named Tiffany] Roger never called me back. I stood outside of his apartment for like two hours last night, saw the light was on and kept calling him, but he never picked up the phone. That's not creepy, that's me trying to play it coy." Or, "Margo, I think Peter got me pregnant last night but I'm too scared to go to the clinic to find out, so I am just going to say he got me pregnant, hope he puts a ring on it and move forward from there." I suggest the New York Department of Health starts monthly Valium drops for all of the single, desperate women who inhabit NYC's streets. And by women, I also mean gay men, and by gay men, I mean myself.

People are snobs for no reason.
If I hear one more person say: "Brooklyn? I'm not going to Brooklyn for love or money!" Oh really? Your mother didn't plop you out of her vagina on the island of Manhattan. In fact, she gave birth to you in a shit shack somewhere outside of Gary, Indiana, which is, by far, the nastiest place in the world. Stop throwing Brooklyn shade, bitch. It's a hell of a lot cooler than wherever you came from originally.
Yeah, New York sucks. But it's kind of like crystal meth. Once you get a taste of it, however bad it is for you, you never want to live without it

--THE RAIN ON THE SILL HAS STARTED DRIPPING AGAIN AND YOU ARE FAST ASLEEP

…Those people on Facebook sure are funny.

Here's what they had to say last week:

-I need sun also some cat ears.

-Hallelujah! Today on Sinked In (sister company to Linked In) I was endorsed for my wondrous and rugged understanding toward bio-friendly toilet paper.

-Just saw a 12-year old kid on the subway carrying a book bag that said FART WANDERER in white out.

-Yesterday I saw a guy wearing a clown nose at the grocery store. Today I saw a car with a mustache. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

-This weather makes me feel like I'm in a horror story

-Anyone have a unicorn I can rent?

-I may have accidentally had text sex with my catsitter.

-The oldest they let you be, on Facebook, is 107. Where is the fairness here?

-Omg!! I just saw a hot pink airplane!!!!!!

-But seriously, what is the issue with people getting a little dirtier?  Fucking is a good thing.  Get over yourselves.Fucking is a good thing. Get over yourselves.t's some exclusive right to use a whip because you're "actually into BDSM" versus the lady who just wants to feel a little pain and hasn't made into an academic t's some exclusive right to use a whip because you're "actually into BDSM" versus the lady who just wants to feel a little pain and hasn't made into an academic philosophy or life-defining practice? If I want to get tied up and hit, I'm not going to apologize for it, not if I was inspired by a trashy novel, not if I don't understand the 'community.' Fucking is a good thing. Get over yourselves.

-Almost headbutted some crazy drunk jumping in front of everyone at the bus stop and yelling in our faces, "DIE!," but then I saw he had pink-eye and decided to keep my head to myself.

-I wanna taste your insides.  Is your blood thick, and warm, and salty enough ... for me?

-One of my dreams is to someday open a motor court called Inn of The Rainbow. Only gay couples are allowed to rent rooms at Inn of The Rainbow. There will be a disco lounge/karaoke bar with diablo wings and waffle fries and all the rest. Imagine an eclectic jukebox. Imagine me as the lounge singer in a purple wig, red sequin dress, pink fishnets and platform goldfish bowl disco heels. I will be the High Priestess of Gay Fuck. I will marry gay couples at my inn for free. There will be a honeymoon suite called The Proverbial Pot of Gold. Original artwork by my friends will be displayed in the rooms and in lieu of Gideon Bibles small press books (poetry and fiction) will be found in every goddamn room.

-Facebook is full of sheeple. Sometimes I'm not sure why I look at it.

--YOU NEED A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP

…It's a new week and there's plenty to be happy about.

What makes you happy?

…Here are some things that probably won't make you happy, but will be interesting, hopefully:

…(this is actually true) A bill passed the Montana state Senate Thursday would allow cops to issue permits for the salvage of such road kill as deer, elk, moose and antelope. It’s hoped that it would help to feed the poor.  The state House has already passed it, so it’s on to the governor.

…(this is true, too, and sad) Every day, 7,000 kids drop out of high school.  That's one every 26 seconds.

…(this is also sad, and no one really seems to be doing anything about it) 70,000 people have been killed in Syria since that country's uprising, and that rate continues to climb at a rate of 5,000 more per month.

…(changing topics now, and going very random) 49% of all Americans favor legalizing Gay marriage versus 33% ten years ago.

…Former President Bill Clinton has earned more than $89 million dollars from speaking fees since leaving office.

…You can get $500,000 from the tabloids if you have a photo of Blue Ivy, daughter of Beyonce and Jay Z.

…284,000 college graduates had minimum wage jobs last year.

…In the week following the Newtown school massacre, more than 100 Americans were killed by gunfire.  In the seven weeks since, 1,285 people have been killed by guns in the US.

…Each day 4,000,000 tweets are sent.

…The first cell phone was used on this month 40 years ago.

…China uses 20% of the world's energy.  The US 19%.  Russia 6%.  India 4%.

…Cheese cake is the most-ordered dessert item, followed by chocolate cake, followed by Tiramisu, Baklava, and Cannoli.

…It costs two cents to make a penny.

…The percentage of one-earner families in which the wife works full-time is now over 23% compared with 6% in 1976.

…3.1 million people work at home compared with 1.8 million six years earlier.

…One in three elderly in the U.S. die with dementia.

…The average cost of an engagement ring is $5,229.

…Average age of a first time groom is 29 years old.

…Average amount spent on a couple's wedding is $27,000.

…20,000 -the number of cancer cases that could be prevented annually if half of all Americans ate one extra serving of produce daily.

…75 -number of minutes of moderate exercise you need weekly to add nearly 2 years to your life.

…25.5% of all fires start in the kitchen; 15.7% in the bedroom; 8.6% in the living room; 8.2% in the chimney.

…13 out of every million people will die in a house fire this year.  The leading causes, in order, are cooking, arson, heating, and careless smoking.