It's Not So Charming When You Live Here

I still hate yuppie tourists and people who take pictures of cows when they come "upstate." I hate every single person who belongs to a Sullivan County or a Hudson Valley group on Flickr who lives in New York City, Long Island and Westchester county and posts their fantastic finds and accounts of their upstate weekend. Yeah, how was roughin' it up in the country? Some some wildlife, livestock and quaint villages? That's swell.
I love when they go back, take a nice look at their pictures, and label everything to let their less privileged friends what and where everything is, so that they too can get a glimpse at how lovely and rustic all of this is.
You'd love a nice rural life in the woods, wouldn't you? A nice summer place, somewhere to spend weekends, a good place to raise the kids! Life is real great for us in our charming little towns with our adorable shops!

It's Alright

Little darling -
It's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling -
It seems like years since it's been here

Little darling -
The smiles returning to the faces
Little darling -
It seems like years since it's been here

Little darling -
I see the ice is slowly melting
Little darling -
It seems like years since it's been clear

I still love the smell.

I can recognize foreshadowing when I see it.

Just a note -

I am so sick of all this rain. The power has gone out here three times in the past two weeks, and it sucks pretty badly. I'm worldly and I know that the Midwest is getting real really badly, but I am still going to whine for a moment. If these storms keep up, there are not going to be any more trees in the Hudson Valley by the end of summer.

Signs of Summer

My sister, Memorial Day.

On: Small Learning Communities

J: it's because they're trying to raise all their test scores so they don't get ridiculed for being dumb shits and thus introduce all this bogus teaching shit that hasn't been proven or works but only in schools with completely different demographics
R: I just don't get how any of it is supposed to raise test scores
J: It doesn't which is why it isn't working. haha.
R: but what's the theory behind it?
R: "In fact, smaller learning environments positively affect grades, test scores, attendance rates, graduation rates, drug and alcohol use, and school safety. Moreover, smaller, more personalized learning structures seem to provide the setting for other high school reforms, perhaps because change is easier to implement in a smaller setting."
R: ... so what?
R: I can see how that MIGHT make sense for really big schools
R: but they're talking about schools with more than 1000 kids, and we barely ever have graduating classes top 200
J: OOPS
R: it doesn't make sense...
R: what they're saying is BLAHBLAHBLAH SMALLER, INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION
R: but we GET THAT already
R: PS - the attendance, drug use and "school safety" thing is all bullshit
J: uh huh.
R: you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who DOESN'T do drugs
J: like, i understand it would be better if more kids graduate
J: but it's not the school infrastructure that's the problem
R: most kids don't graduate because they drop out
J: it's the poverty levels, it's the crime rate, it's the drug circuits- it's outside influence that forces these kids to lose interest
R: it's fucking Sullivan County.
R: Everything here is going to shit
R: there are no jobs
R: no businesses can stay open for more than a year
R: gas prices are up
R: poverty is WAY up
J: yeah, Wurtsboro's a ghost town
R: kids are dropping out to work, which they can't find, so they're doing drugs and trying to make money illegally and going to prison or getting killed
R: maybe if somebody noticed that and GAVE a shit


If I ever felt something was a worthy cause, I think it's only right that it would be home.

This

Something new? Something old?
Maybe just something different.
Another outlet. Something that I don't need, really.