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I have had the pleasure of writing an article for The Daily Irish News.

Thanks TJ!

That's it's logo up there. I'll be writing more articles for them and if you want to be sure not to miss any future blonde blatherings I post there, you can subscribe to the publication by sending an e-mail to the following address:


This is the article that's in the DIN today.


NBC has a hit with; My Name is Earl, which debuted in the 2005 fall line-up and they recently showed their faith in it by moving it to the famed Thursday night line up. Famed yes, but hasn’t had any meat in it since the departure of such iconic shows as, Seinfeld and Friends.

It’s smart, quirky and funny. Much like myself.

The Earl website describes the show thusly:

Earl (Jason Lee, "Almost Famous," "Chasing Amy") has taken one too many wrong turns on the highway of life. However, a twist of fate turns his life into a tailspin of life-renewing events. Earl wins a small lottery, and, after an epiphany, he is determined to transform his good fortune into a life-changing event as he sets out to right all the wrongs from his past.
Before Earl can begin his journey, his inevitable attraction to misfortune surfaces once again. Seconds after winning the lottery, he is hit by a car and while unconscious; the winning lottery ticket blows away. While in the hospital, Earl watches "Last Call with Carson Daly" where Carson says that his success is a direct result of doing good things for other people. It is at that moment Earl discovers karma- and in hope of a better life, he sets out to correct every bad thing he's ever done starting with a grade school geek, Kenny (guest star, Gregg Binkley), who Earl used to pick on.

The Boy Wonder and I are loving the Crab Man and if you don’t know who I mean, watch the show.

Karma hasn’t received this much airtime in ages. Unless of course, you are The Dali Lama and company or Richard Gere.

My G4’s handy little dictionary widget thingy defines karma as:


Or at least it did after it politely informed me that my spelling of, k h a r m a, was quaint but erroneous.

I’ve long been a fan and believer in karma although I don’t always remember to keep the karma ball in play.

You see karma, is very much like a woman. If you want to be able to get what you want when you want it, you need to be paying it/her some attention or you just might get what you need. A not so pleasant wake-up call, which can be subtle or slamming, depending on how long you’ve been ignoring it/her.

But if you truly are remorseful and get your attention focused on it/her again you will be rewarded.

Back in 2001 I was a struggling single mom and never seemed to have enough time, money or peace. I was constantly pushing forward in order to stay one step ahead of the bills and keep my son healthy and happy.

I was operating in a state of total fear. Fear of everything that could happen to us and all that was stable and good was becoming completely lost on me.

The, not yet, Hubster made the move from London to the US in June and we were married August 11th. Do to IRS rules he could not yet legally work in the states so I was still supporting the household. So even though life was taking real positive turns I was still so bogged down by the fear factor and missing the big picture.

Until our one-month anniversary, September 11th, the day that forever changed everything for everyone everywhere.

My fear factor shifted from my own little corner of the world to the world in general and what small bit of control I thought I had over my life was shattered.

Which turned out to be a good thing. Nothing like the world as you know it collapsing to put things into perspective.

A couple days after 9/11 the local radio station was doing a remote outside of Dunkin Donuts------

Hold on.

Why is Dunkin Donuts trying to take over the world?

In my little NH town and the surrounding 3 miles just beyond I have 5 locations to choose from. Two of those are less than ½ a mile apart.

Just curious.

So I divert to Dunkin Donuts while heading to work that morning and empty my wallet into their jar. It amounted to less than $50, but for someone who was wondering how to pay the mortgage that month after killing her savings account for a VERY modest wedding the month before, it might as well been $5,000.

The DJ’s made a big deal over me as I emptied my wallet all the while I am feeling bad that I don’t have more to give.

Driving to work after that I felt so content. It was odd because every penny counted but it no longer seemed to matter to me. Doing that small gesture had become more important.

I knew that if I lost the house that I would still have The Boy Wonder and The Hubster and that was all I really needed.

During the next two weeks I received a promotion with an increase in pay and was included in my departments bonus allocation program for the first time.

Sometimes you have to actually do a karma circle dance with yourself.

When The Hubster could legally pursue work here he found little in his field, production sound, in New England. In the space of 3 years; one independent movie and local, on location, day gigs for A&E, Discovery, History Channel and a failed David E Kelley show.

Brotherhood of Poland--- anyone?

During this time, The Boy Wonder found his home life so safe and secure that he finally let his suppressed anger towards his father out and began to self-destruct. He needed stability and someone at home. I left my job and the 37,000 we counted on to pay bills.

Surely there would be more films shot in New England. There was, all head of depts. were flown in from LA or NY because of old under-handed crap that happened with the Boston local in the 70’s/80’s that we were cleverly not made aware of when Hubster joined.

The Hubster was reduced to pushing boxes and building stages for an insulting wage to barely get the bills paid. He refused to let me go back to work. Nothing was more important than getting The Boy Wonder back on steady ground.

Occasionally he would do a gig for a music production company over the border in Massachusetts. The money was slightly less insulting, and he enjoyed being behind a mixer at live performances again but the gigs were far and few between.

December of 2003 that company needed a management position filled. Hubster had been out of the music business and into film/TV for the 10 years and his own boss but the stability of a weekly paycheck and health benefits was very tempting.

The picture they painted at the two interviews and the offer they made him were thousands of dollars apart and not in our direction but he was still determined that the stability would be for the best.

I hated that he was willing to settle and compromise everything he had worked the last 15 years building his reputation in a business he loved. Even if it was for all the right reasons.

While I was hacking out the taxes for the previous year I discovered something and ran to tell him.

His gross income for the past year came to just slightly more than the yearly salary they were offering him and he had only actually worked 34 weeks as opposed to the 50 he would have to for them.

The owner of that company was shocked when Hubster called him to say he couldn’t take the position and explained why.

We knew we might be facing the same struggle in the year ahead but our still new family would have the bonus of all that extra time together through it.

Within 3 months he was offered a chance to work on American Chopper as the sound supervisor for a contracted 3 months.

That was 20 months ago and it looks like the boys will be doing at least one more season for Discovery.

While it means that Hubster works and lives in NY six days a week and The Boy Wonder and I live in NH even that is sorting itself out and you read about that here.

Even the smallest karmic gestures circle back on you and my most recent is what inspired this piece.

I belong to a website community for people like me who are obsessed with their cars.

They have this feature on the boards where you can add to a member’s reputation. It’s a point system where you receive points if they give you positive rep and take away points if they give you negative rep. It happens privately between you and them and not on the public boards.

I’m really not sure what the whole reputation thing is supposed to do for us but I play along.

Last week I received negative feedback from someone on the site because he didn’t care for the way I wouldn’t rise to an argument he had tried to establish with me on a past thread.

My first instinct was to react and call him out publicly on the boards and vindicate myself.

For some reason, good place in my hormonic cycle perhaps; I instead gave him positive feedback with the comment that I preferred to spread good karma regardless.

Within 24 hours I received enough positive reputation from other members to make up for the points his subtracted three times over.

All karma, big or small, inward or outward circles right on back to you.

You all might consider giving karma some well-deserved attention today.

After all, if karma ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.

Just ask Earl.