A few notes about my job working in an art gallery as a custom picture framer.

Now, once you get past the people who bring in their curtains so they can find some matching ‘art’... *shudders*

Anyhows, it has really been a blast these past twenty years. Stories like you would not believe, because for the most part, my job is to preserve memories for people; capturing moments of their lives as well as history.

The above was a favorite. A mother brought it in, belonged to her daughter, picked up on a trip to Egypt one time and then stored rolled up in a closet.

Along comes kitty and *munch, munch, munch*. Big holes throughout, papyrus is not that sturdy a material. However, with a lot of tweezer work, some gild paint and a couple hours with my own acrylic and paintbrush set, no one could find the damage. Felt pretty good about that.

Have seen a lot of things, had some wonderful laughs. Dealt with people, mind you, like the guy coming off the street with shit eatin' grin on his face because he is an ‘artist’.

“Look what I did in five minutes!”

(Yeah, no kidding, buddy. You can sort of tell it took that, uhm, long.)

"Sorry, we are not taking on any new artists just now. I recommend try to sell at some of the art and craft fairs going on."

"$400.00?"  "Well, we really leave pricing up to the artist. There are a lot of factors to consider. Materials, time, your...uhm, 'efforts'. Look around here, then go to some of the art weekend art festivals we mentioned. Get an idea of what others are selling their work for."

The lady who brought a fresh, still dripping bouquet of cut flowers and wanted them framed because she had just won an award with them at a country fair.

Me: “Uh, you realize they are not dried and are going to rot, right? Wilt? Fade?”

Nice, very proud lady: “Oh...”

Me: “Mm-hmm. How about we take a photo of them in their vase and frame that along with your ribbon?”

Nice, very proud lady: “Wonderful, thank you so much!” *Big smiles*

Christmas Eve Day, 2 in the afternoon (close at 3) and a phone call received (after several hard weeks of overtime crunching, during our Christmas party, booze flowing freely).

Customer on the phone: “Can you frame something for me for tomorrow?”

Me laughing my ass off, all but falling over.

Ursel, my boss grabbing the phone and shaking her head and frowning seriously, going: “Melissa, do not laugh at the customers.”

*Shrugs*

The butterfly from Brazil, a mummy in eight breath-fragile pieces which I Frankensteined with epoxy so it ‘flew’ suspended within a box an inch above a mirrored base; windows closed so nothing blew away during the operation.

The gallery where I work is located near Wesleyan University. Posh place, they are known for their art connections. Always holding auctions, and these hands of mine have touched pages from the Da Vinci Notebook, charcoals by Picasso, an original newspaper dealing with President Lincoln being shot at the theater and his struggle to hold onto life (a real one, not one of the later reprints).

I have held many faded letters penned by the founding fathers of this country, Hancock, Ben Franklin and others. Missives writ during the Revolution and Civil war, as well as military orders. Purple Hearts and Police badges; Fire fighter's honors.

I have helped framed antique family Bibles, setting them into veloured, glass topped boxes after surviving fires which have destroyed homes; old weapons used in wars to kill other human beings; Olympic medals; wedding announcements, more.

And then there are the other memories you touch, the ones which touch you back, like the small, slow walking woman who comes up to the counter with a simple shoe box in her hands, placed before you.

“These were my son’s sneakers. His photo. He was five years old and hit by a car. The funeral is tomorrow. We can not have an open coffin. Please, can you do something for us?”

“This was my daughter’s last drawing. She was just starting to stay within the lines of her coloring book. Could you please...”

“This was my mother.”

“My father.”

“My grandfather painted this and he just passed away; I was so lucky to inherit this. Please, can you...?”

“My brother’s...”

“My sister just...”

“The only photo we have of our baby and her footprints. She lived a day and a half...”

“My son was going to graduate next week. There was a car accident. Could you...?”

“This was...”

“They were only...”

“He was my...”

“She was...”

“Please?”

“Please?”

End of message.

Melissa

Good evening, folks. This is where I take a brief (okay, maybe not that brief) moment to say I TOLD YOU SO! in regards to all the propaganda BS you have been fed about smoking being ‘bad for your health’. Yeah, you ignored all the truth, the REAL research going on out there, how Nicotine has been named the Big Bad--by the people who were just sitting in the wings waiting to make a TON of MONEY.

So here it is, the latest news about the Biggest Evil of Our Time:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/nicotine

Nicotine acts on the acetylcholine receptors in the brain, stimulating and regulating the release of a slew of brain chemicals, including seratonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Not surprisingly, the first scientific work that identified these chemicals and how they affect the body came out of nicotine research -- much of it performed by tobacco companies.

Now drugs derived from nicotine and the research on nicotine receptors are in clinical trials for everything from helping to heal wounds, to depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, anger management and anxiety.

"Nicotine is highly stigmatized -- and for good reason, because the delivery system is so deadly," says Don deBethizy, CEO of Targacept. "But the drug itself and the research generated by studying its effects on the brain both show great promise for helping us improve our physical and mental health."

DeBethizy worked for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for 15 years -- he was one of the first to publicly declare that tobacco is addictive -- before he spun Targacept off as a separate company. RJR retains a 4 percent share of the Winston Salem biotech, which has one mission: to develop drugs that target the so-called "nicotinic receptors" in the human central-nervous system.

Nicotine performs that function to an unhealthy extreme. "Nicotine itself is hugely potent and not specific enough," says Linda Gretton, Targacept's director of communications. "But the research we have allows us to take the best therapeutic qualities of nicotine and develop treatments that target receptors."

With funding from pharma giant AstraZeneca, Targacept is headed into Phase II clinical trials for a compound that could help overcome cognitive deficits in people who have Alzheimer's or schizophrenia. The company is also in Phase I trials for a compound that treats pain from molar extractions. The drugs both resemble nicotine in their molecular makeup, but are missing nicotine's addictive properties and toxicity.

Research into the medicinal qualities of nicotine was spurred in the 1990s by the availability of nicotine skin patches. For the first time clinical researchers had a form of nicotine that would deliver a reliable dose for study, and could be paired with placebos in blind trials.

Patients suffering from ulcerative colitis -- a bowel disease -- were subjects of some of the first studies, following observations of unusually low rates of smoking among those with the condition. A 1982 article in the British medical journal The Lancet was titled, "Non-smoking: a feature of ulcerative colitis." Researchers subsequently found that the nicotine in cigarette smoke reduced occurrences of ulcerative colitis, though the drug wasn't an ideal treatment.

"It was somewhat effective, but as a long-term treatment it has its drawbacks, systematic side effects and difficulty administering effective doses," says Dr. William Sandborn, of the Mayo Clinic. "Still, there was a time that we had patients using nicotine patches as off-label therapy."

More nicotine surprises followed. In 2000, Stanford researchers who set out to prove that nicotine damages blood vessels found just the opposite: it prompts the growth of new blood vessels. "It may be the reason smokers' cancers are so aggressive, says Dr. Scott Harkonen, CEO of drugmaker CoMentis. "But it also raises the question: where would you want to promote new blood-vessel growth?"

The answer, it turns out, was found in diabetes patients, who too often lose a lower extremity to amputation after a wound becomes gangrenous -- a result of poor blood circulation. Rates of amputations have steadily increased, Harkonen says, and nicotine could be a key to reversing that trend. Now CoMentis is in Phase II studies for "a gel that contains nicotine that's applied directly to the wound site," says Harkonen.

CoMentis is also working with a European company to study the effects of nicotine on the immune system, where it seems to quiet immune responses that go haywire with certain immune disorders.

None of the nicotine-based drugs and molecular siblings have yet come to market, and the stigma attached to nicotine may cause patients to recoil. But "the idea of nicotine-based drugs is alive and well," says the Mayo Clinic's Sandborn, a gastroenterologist who's watching from the wings. "There aren't any approved drugs yet, but I believe they're coming."

"There will be a variety of nicotine-based drugs coming out," agrees Ed Levin, a nicotine researcher at Duke University, who's done groundbreaking research on improving mental function in schizophrenia, Alzheimer's patients and people with ADHA. Levin believes the drugs are something to look forward to.

"There will be great progress when the nicotine sister drugs come to market," he says. "About half the cigarettes in this country are bought by people with psychiatric problems -- high percentages of people with depression and schizophrenia smoke, for example.

"When we can give people their medicine in a form that doesn't kill them, it will be real progress."

NOW if you ignore all the BS they are still throwing at you about smoking, what they are REALLY saying is: “We will make more pills for you to buy at outrageous prices to make us all more filthy rich--at cost of your health, suckers!”

Again, all these health benefits have been known for years -- same as they know smoking does not cause lung cancer -- only the media has been refusing to cover the doctors and scientists who have been trying to tell you otherwise. People who have had their grants pulled soon as they tried to publish finding, have lost their jobs and suffered other barriers in trying to reach you.

Peruse a whole bunch of articles if you don’t believe me:

ARE YOU A VICTIM OF PROPAGANDA?

http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/447177

Hell, even the researcher who caused the whole smoking and mouth cancer had his research PROVEN IN COURT to be A COMPLETE WORK OF FICTION (he didn’t even cover it up that hard, all his ‘test subjects’ having social security numbers in order like: 0001, 0002, 0003 etc. Same with their damn ‘birth days’) published in all the major medical journals around the world...and they never rescinded it. (I did post his name as well as the court articles, etc several years back when this came out. No longer have the files available, all of them since having disappeared of the web, otherwise I would re-post now to let you know this was not hear-say, but documented fact. Sorry, that’s Big Brother and the Pharmaceutical companies for you.)

By the way, guess who controls the media?

$$$$$$$$$

LOL just got to love the language the use in the article: “Deadly; toxicity; addictive; unhealthy extreme...” but, hey, it is good for you!

Man, they are still trying to control you. *Shakes head sadly...*

Got to love the time line in all this. The more benefits they found, the stronger the media was 'pressed' to denouce the stuff.

Hmmm...

Now, a fun fact for you, it is the other items in cigarette which causes addiction. Additives. Ask most any pipe smoker and you will discover this is not the case. Put the briar down for a week, a month, several of them and no effects. Simple tobacco is cool, relieves stress, instills a sense of contemplativeness...list goes on.

Whew, that’s it for now folks. Just going to sit back and grin at you smugly for a while before I get to a nicer post in regards to my works. Just really, really whipped from work.

Toodles!

Melissa

Well, doing my best.

Note, this is NOT a yowzer entry. Might as well skip down to something more interesting below it. Cheers.

 So, it is quarter of 6 and I've been awake since 3a.m., this is what happened when I crash onto my face at 9:30 in the evening, sends everything al out of what. Ah well, needed to get some more work done anyways; real work, not my writing. *Sighs*

Mm, listening to "The Wings" on my media player. Man, I love that piece, has a lump rise in the throat every time. Swear, that Brokeback Mountain was phenomenal. Whatever you think of it, fact that it causes thoughts is proof that it was a good movie. ‘Nough said.

Now, yesterday was some fun, I tell ya. Read my last post fully? If so, understand I was not in my body much till early evening. Zonked and zoned, moving about like underwater all day.

Poor Emile freaked a bit when I told him what had gone down. He is like we have to smudge you--and your room! (I.E. my art room.)

Well, possibly. I am rather open psychically right now. Exhaustion working hand-in-hand with those 52 little readings I did last Saturday. Yeah, it is not just taking photos of people’s chakras, bunch of times one needs to go ‘inside’ a bit.

As for my Room of Creation here, well it might be getting a touch clogged, have to admit it. It is the room which serves as ‘buffer’ between the building and the front street of troubles. Also, Mrs. Russo, the elderly lady from whom we bought the house and then she passed away soon after has left. Her smiling ghost was oft here, my room her base. She liked Emile and myself a LOT, as well as the house where her family was raised. Fact that she has left...well, guess it is just time. Really feel the difference though, the lack of protection. Well, such is life...

Now, as if yesterday wasn’t bad enough, I discovered something horrible in the mirror.

I have crow’s feet.

*Takes moment to run around the room pulling hair and screaming*

“AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

( Pause for deep breath. )

“AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

*Resumes chair*

Ahem. Well then, call them ‘laugh lines’ if you want, because hey, I do tend to grin and laugh a lot. Oft cynical and sarcastic, sure, but what the hell, right?

Oh, the tragedy! *Tests out corby wings* Note, I do so enjoy black. “Caw! caw!”

Guess I should not be surprised. Other day, was telling you how much weight I had lost, down to under 120 pounds. Was saying to Emile that I still had a little bit of a gut though.

He goes, “Well, you are almost forty.”

Yes, I say, but do I look like I am almost forty?

His thoughtful response?

“It’s hard to tell...”

Oooooooo! *Snarls, hiss, claws!*

Ah well, F it! Just too gosh darn tired to run around the room again. Jumping over all these boxes, f’ing obstacle course in here. be perfect to post a vid of a clip from Al H's THE BIRDS, only I am just too gosh darn tired to find one.

Photo of me, the Bio shot I use on back of my books:

(Awe, wasn't I so cute? Dreamy and all that? Well, a quick snap when just getting out of the bathtub will do it to you. Chuckles!)

By the way, No, Kevin, you still can not have the un-cropped picture, so behave yourself! Expectant father and all that, though do keep your promise not to grow up. I think that baby T-shirt you saw, you know, one that says “Mother Sucker” on it will be cool.

Just imagining Baby’s First Halloween costume for a pair like you two. All I can think of is Pinhead. ROFL! Far easier than one of your gamer models. Those Rat warriors are the coolest! Man, I love the humor of the English! Just stop laughing at my accent, you, Brit. No fair, you guys got the best. Jerk, miss ya, buddy. (Hugs)

Yah, I am just rambling...oh wonderful, the birds just woke up, and it is a damn CROW cawing! Give me a break already, ROFL! Geesh, the Universe does have a sense of humor!

To finish this rather boring entry of the quiet zonkered, just finished some edits on the TEMPLE SOUNDS JOURNAL as well as my own DRAGON VINE JOURNAL. Like I said, had to have an officiously official one. Emile’s cell phone is what did it. Cell and sell-out, but hey, got to start making money somehow.

Sighs, I am so depressed. :'( I like my STEVEN’S STORY a lot, yet seems I am the only one. No one reading, not even my best friend. Oh, I understand, it is cool, NP. Emile is too busy, and as for ‘you know who you are’ Rednight ((hugs)) I also understand you are busy and the stories are not your type.

Guess there is not much call for gay fiction/human interest stories out there. Ah well. Will still write for myself, yet unless I hear, or find that anyone is even visiting the site, I am not going to further kill myself working so hard during the few moments I have available to me.

Sighs...

Oh, speaking to Ken, (not Kev) look what I found!

Yes, it is me swimming in the river through the forest of Cybertown!

Ah, the memories...

Guelf, if you are out there, say hello. TY. and *POKE!* Hehe!

And on that note, guess I’ll just float around some more, possibly write, or surf the web as I try not to think of friends past and gone.

Guess I am just feeling lonely. NP, just part of the life trip. Am well used to it. Lot of the manic artist and all.

Cheers folks,

Melissa