"Try never get drunk outside your own house." Jack Keronac

This is a no brainer. One factor, no one should hit the road after having a few but the cost of buying a few cocktails has gone up so high that you need to take out a loan to get a good buzz on at a bar these days! Even at a dive bar, a martini can be as high as $10 a drink, at most bars in LA it's up to $12! There has always been a 100% mark up on liquor but these days I think it has gone up to 150%! Damn! For the cost of three drinks I can buy a full 1.75 liter bottle of fine booze for the same cost and I can make my drinks stringer!

There is a classic 1940 movie titled
The Lost Weekend" where a man with a major drinking problem take $10 and with that he buys five drinks at a bar and buys two bottles of booze! Now that was the good old days!

So here to mixing your own and cheers!

"What we have here, is a lack of communication"

"Submission to everything, open, listening" - Jack Keronac

I once heard a New Age female preacher state, that listening is one of the greatest act of love. There is so much truth in that statement, for how often have you been fighting with a love one and you found yourself shouting at them:"You're not listening to me!" ?

Why do you think people are so willing to dish out $100 dollars an hour to an therapist, just so they can talk to a person , who will just sit back an LISTEN!

One of the most frustrating things a person can do to me, that makes me want to stick a fork in their neck, is to cut me off before I finish a sentence, so they can jump in with their opinion! It's maddening!

The art of listening is also a sign of great intelligence! Any fool can have an opinion but an intelligent person, sits back, observes and listens!

Last night, while having dinner with my friend Steve, at a little cafe in Old Towne Pasadena, there was a very young,attractive, Japanese couple sitting next to us. It was Friday night, Date Night, but these two young people were more involved with their Smart Phones than they were with each other! She was on her Face Book page-heaven only knows what she was texting on it, and he was playing some game on his Apple IPhone! They spoke only a few words to each other, even when their food arrived they barely spoke a word to each other!

I turned to my friend and said:"If they are so involved with their cell phones now, when they are young and in love, can you imagine what they are going to be like 20 years from now, when the mystery of love has faded and they are all too familiar with each other? Most women don't bitch about being neglected until two years after marriage. But the norm of ignoring one another has already been set! What is the bridge that brings these two lovely people together? Sex? And after sex, do they pick up their Smart Phones and text about it?

Has this new technology taken away the art of true communication?

"Winter is coming"

Anyone who is a fan of "The Game of Thrones" will get that jest. Summer is just a few days away from ending and with it begins my favorite season of the year, Autumn! I love Fall, the period of harvest and weather change, shorter days and cooler nights. Indian Summer with it's hot afternoons and it cold evenings But most of all, I love the brilliant colors of the season. Even in California we have some trees that leaves change color of bright orange, deep red and dark browns.

I find myself harvesting memories of my departed, beloved mother and the beautiful road trips we would take up the coast, as soon as the long Labor Day weekend had passed.

Now I must also, harvest ideas for my new life alone and harvest the dreams of my past and plan seeds of a new future. I once heard on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, that sometimes we should treat our lives like a school year, give ourselves a goal and give ourself the time a school year takes to reach that goal.

So, I enter a new school year for my life and put into action becoming the woman my dearly departed parents would be proud of!