May 2010 | Kate's Point of View

Month: May 2010

Bad Show for Bad Veins

On May 31, 2010

Last night we had people over for some tasty delights on the grill and some cold beverages. With the assistance of many cold beverages, I was able to brace myself for a street festival. (Note: I hate street festivals. I find them full of tacky, trashy, smelly, sticky people and the food is over-priced and not that good and the whole thing is just uck.) The carrot tempting me down there? A wonderful stage show by Bad Veins, a local up-and-coming band.

We parked downtown and made our way through crowds of people in the street festival attire I was expecting (muffins tops, lots of cleavage, man tanktops, jorts, etc.)but were able to get to our stage pretty quickly. And get more cold beverages to boot!

When the Bad Veins took the stage I was expecting a welcoming for these local boys. Shame on the crowd who didn’t make a single peep when they walked on stage. I don’t think that helped gear the boys up for anything spectacular. But then they made it worse by talking entirely too much. And not humorous banter – just self-depreciating rambling. Whatever. I wasn’t there for that. I wanted rock.

So the music starts and the Bad Veins are doing okay. Not great, but okay. Their schtick is they have a few songs where the singer sings into a telephone (you have to see that to believe it) or a megaphone. Too bad the sound guy never turned up the volume on those.

This post is as rambling and disjointed as the show last night but what I can say for sure is that if the original Bad Veins show I had seen was like last night, we would not have this hanging in our hallway.

Angry at Wonder Boy, In the Note of C

By Kate

On May 31, 2010

In family / friends

I am an asthmatic, a diagnosis that goes back to the fourth grade. As I’ve aged, the disease has presented itself in very odd ways so it’s taken a while to get it under control. But! With a myriad of medications things have been running really smoothly.

One of the more effective medications I am on is delivered via an inhaler and it gives me mild thrush and is hard for me to get deep into my lungs. My allergist prescribed a spacer to help out with this issue and it’s been working great so far. I take a puff of my inhaler and breathe in and out of the spacer repeatedly until all of the medication is used up. But, it looks like a bong.

Although this bong-like contraption has gotten raised eyebrows from the people to whom I have shown it, who cares. It works and I can breathe. Breathing is the sustenance of lie, people!

So why am I angry at Wonder Boy?

Well I recently had to get a new spacer and this one has one serious flaw. With every inhale I take, it makes a long warble as if I were playing one note on a harmonica. And this sends Wonder Boy into a fit of giggles, which makes me taking my LIFE SUSTAINING medication very difficult. So we had a talk and now he waits until I am done to laugh.

Until now.

Wonder Boy recently bought an accordion, which he doesn’t know how to play. Slowly he has been learning about the instrument and his newest discovery is which key plays C. So last night I am using my inhaler, you know, making it so I can breathe, and after every inhale he hits the note of C.

Summer of Reading, Here I Come!

By Kate

On May 28, 2010

In uncategorized

When I was a kid I joined a reading club every summer. Sometimes they were through my dad’s place of work, sometimes my school or maybe the local library. The setup was normally that you were encouraged to read about 30 minutes day for 1-2 months and if you did that you got a prize. It was all based on the honor system, or maybe parental sign off, and the prizes were usually mediocre. Regardless, I kicked butt in these things. If it was a two-month club, I always met the requirements for the prize within the first month and maybe even the first few weeks. I excelled at reading.

(As a side note, it is only fair that I point out that my parents were really concerned about my asocial skills. I would often sneak off for about 8 hours and read on our hammock and they had no idea where I was or how I could remain immobile for so long.)

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is doing a summer reading program this year and adults can participate. For prizes! Look out summer of 2010! And folks, if you don’t know where to find me, just know I will emerge in a matter of hours.

Du-Dun

By Kate

On May 26, 2010

In uncategorized

Many weeks ago I was out on a Sunday morning run (you know, training for the Elevating My Assets event). I turned a corner towards the end of the run and saw two men grappling with each other about a block away. That’s the only way I know how to describe it. But I saw something shiny. I started running a little further and could tell that one man was wailing on the other one with a metal object.

Excuse me?

I tried to look all around me and assess the situation. Just to the right of me was a man who had just left church and was in his Sunday best. He stood there watching the same scene as I and looking at his cell phone, seeming to ponder “Should I do something?” Apparently his answer was no because he made guilty eye contact with me, put the phone in pocket and got in his car. He didn’t even call the police!

Fortunately police happened to be driving by and just the mere sight of the police car broke up the fight. The man with the metal object object RAN AS FAST AS HE COULD away from the scene and the police drove after him. I ran over to a gas station to grab some napkins and then ran to the victim (and I use the word loosely since I don’t know what went down but I know he got the cr@p beat out of him) so I could assist him. I held napkins on his pulsing, bleeding forehead until paramedics could arrive.

While sitting there crouched over this bleeding man, this person who lives in my neighborhood, I learned that he was beat by a wrench and I saw blood splattered around in a five-foot radius.

When the police came and the man was being taken away by paramedics, I asked if they wanted my information. I recall clearly the policeman asking me, “You don’t want to show up in court?” Mind you, I offered my contact information. So I said I was fine with court and gave him details about how to reach me.

And they have. I have received two subpoenas for court to appear as a witness. This will be my personal tribute to Law & Order, which I loved. I’ve told a lot of people about this and people ask if I will appear in court. I keep my mouth shut but it makes me wonder:

Do you know that I have to show up since I got a subpoena???
If I didn’t show up, how am I any better than that man in his Sunday best who got in his car and drove away?