Friday Night Lemon Vodka Buzz. I need you. All of you.

[Aristus]

I just want to jump off a ledge sometimes...

I won't.

But, God, I hate what's going on...

I love you all...

You give me hope...

[Ohiogal]

1. Hi Aristus!

Here’s a hug....



I am actually encouraged after seeing ten totally awesome, intelligent, and compassionate Democratic candidates on stage in last night’s debate. Really, any one of them would be light-years ahead of the morons running the country right now. I hope most of them garner top spots in our new Democratic administration.

[Eko]

2. It cant rain all of the time.

Eko.

[42bambi]

3. Hang in there...we've come this

far - we can do this. We're stronger together!

[democratisphere]

4. Tonight I wish I had some lemon vodka with a GIGANTIC lemon twist!

Each day is worse than the last!

[Aristus]

7. I'd share with you.

[democratisphere]

17. Like the label on your bottle.

Thanks. Appreciate the offer!

[Aristus]

19. Distilled in Texas, the state of my birth.

Consumed in Washington State, my adopted home...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear Aristus!

I'm so sorry to hear that you're going through an awful time. I wish like anything that I could help.

All I have are my words and a virtual hug:

[Aristus]

10. That's the sad thing: I'm fine. My life is fine.

My career is going well, I have a roof over my head, I'm not living paycheck to paycheck, and I'm going on a vacation in a week.

I'm fine.

It's my country! We've become a nightmare.

Why can't the Republicans think about someone other than themselves?

When are they going to acknowledge that we're the Nazis this time?

And I'm Dietrich Bonhoeffer around here...

[AJT]

22. I'm in the same situation. No debt, nice house, decent retirement income.

It's the daily horror of watching our country tear itself apart.

[virgogal]

6. This too shall pass.

[applegrove]

8. It will feel so great when Trump is gone. It will be so worth it. We'll be wiser. Deeper.

Kinder. Keep your eye on that. Bad times don't last forever.

[Aristus]

11. I'm holding out for that moment.

Election 2008 was one of the happiest days of my life. It was a tonic for eight years of horror starting in 2000.

Let it be so again. (Only after four years this time, not eight...)

[applegrove]

14. I'll virtually drink to that!

[Aristus]

15. ...

[pbmus]

9. Any calories in vodka...?

Asking for a friend who’s fasting...

[Aristus]

13. Vodka is nothing but calories.

Alcohol is fermented sugar.

But I don't give a shit...

[pbmus]

20. K, jusaskin....jeez

[Aristus]

32. S'ok.

Nothing but love...

[Haggis for Breakfast]

12. America

We used to laugh, we used to cry
We used to bow our heads then wonder why
And now you're gone, I guess I'll carry on
And make the best of what you've left to me
Left to me, left to me

I need you like the flower needs the rain
You know I need you, guess I'll start it all again
You know I need you like the winter needs the spring
You know I need you, I need you.

And every day, I'd laugh the hours away
Just knowing you were thinking of me
And then it came that I was put to blame
For every story told about me
About me, about me.

[woodsprite]

16. Even with all our differences of opinion, etc. on DU, this is where I find my sanity and hope. nt

[Aristus]

18. Yeah.

This is why I post while in despair...

[AJT]

21. Well that sucks.....you were the one giving ME hope....

We're all here for each other.

[Aristus]

33. Thank you. I didn't know I was giving you hope.

See? This is how much we need each other...

[sprinkleeninow]

23. Ya gotta know you are 🤩.

[Aristus]

34. Thank you...

[sprinkleeninow]

49. I posted from my new Samsung (house phone) and the smilie thingy shows on this my HTC phone as x'ed

out. This is what I sent you, Ari:

😍

[sprinkleeninow]

50. You add something something for us here, doncha know, bro in humanity!

[Aristus]

56. Aw...

[Aristus]

35. I will...

Thank you...

[backtoblue]

25. Hiya

[Aristus]

36. What are you listening to?

[A HERETIC I AM]

26. Food. You can make food that will take you across the globe.

Search YouTube for Lebanese cuisine, Ethiopian, Chilean, .....find something you have never tasted before, go get the stuff and make it!

Go to Google Earth, find a remote road on the South Island of New Zealand, enter the street view feature and drive yourself around.

I drive for a living, I travel all the time, but when I am home I sit here and explore even more.

YouTube can take you anywhere.

Ride with a guy flying a Pilatus from Europe to North America. Drive with a guy driving a 200 ' long road train delivering fuel in Western Australia to remote outback towns.

Walk the side streets in Venice. Climb a verdant green hill in the Faroe Islands.

Learn how to make authentic Pasta Carbonara from the restaurant that invented it.

No lamenting allowed. No depression too great that can't be overcome.

Dream. Think. Allow yourself to be inspired. Seek new things, new tastes, new sights.

Never stop.

Never.

[Aristus]

38. Wonderful...

Thank you...

[A HERETIC I AM]

43. ...

[drray23]

78. great ideas.

I use google earth often. It is amazing with today's technology that you can visit a place on the other side of the planet and feel like you are there. Sometimes when I miss my hometown in France, I use google earth to walk its streets.

[MontanaMama]

27. I toast you tonight Aristus.

I have a bourbon on the rocks and I hate where we are too....so goddam much. I too am so grateful for this DU community.

Is there a clear sky where you are? The Harvest Moon is out tonight. Enjoy.

[Aristus]

39. It's quiet.

No rain...

[emulatorloo]

28. ...

[tclambert]

29. Just remember even if it doesn't happen in this universe, in some universe,

Donald Trump will die in prison.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

62. I would like to visit that universe, even if just for a few minutes.

I want to see him in a jumpsuit that matches his face. Though I don't think they let you fake-tan in prison.

[Phoenix61]

30. Hang in there.

I just focus on Twitler’s head exploding when he loses. And all those repubs retiring “ to spend more time with their families.”

[diva77]

31. "Hope" is the thing with feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

-----------------------
You're probably familiar with this poem.

[Aristus]

42. Want to have some fun?

Try singing Emily Dickenson's poems to the tune of "Gilligan's Island".

You'll never read any of them the same way again...

Because I could not stop for death
He kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just ourselves
And imortaliteeeeeeeeeee...

[diva77]

45. Oh noes!!! Not this!!! Now I shall have to abandon Ms. Dickinson's poetry in favor of

something more like this...

Free Verse by Robert Graves

I now delight

In spite

Of the might

And the right

Of classic tradition,

In writing

And reciting

Straight ahead,

Without let or omission,

Just any little rhyme

In any little time

That runs in my head;

Because, I've said,

My rhymes no longer shall stand arrayed

Like Prussian soldiers on parade

That march,

Stiff as starch,

Foot to foot,

Boot to boot,

Blade to blade,

Button to button,

Cheeks and chops and chins like mutton.

No! No!

My rhymes must go

Turn 'ee, twist 'ee,

Twinkling, frosty,

Will-o'-the-wisp-like, misty;

---------------

[Aristus]

46. Robert Graves' prose was better than his poetry, I think.

n/t

[proud patriot]

37. been a real rough one

for my son too

Hang tough we need you

[Aristus]

41. Is your son all right?

I hope so...

[proud patriot]

61. he has always struggled

with his bi polar ... yesterday was especially hard .. he is much calmer today ..

Hope you are feeling a bit better today

[Aristus]

63. I'm much better, thank you.

I'm glad your son is, as well.

We often talk about people who 'suffer' from mental illness, but one often has to see it up close, as I do with many of my homeless patients, in order to realize how heartbreakingly accurate the term suffer actually is.

[proud patriot]

65. Good

I'm glad you are feeling better .

it's really hard to watch someone you love struggle and suffer.

[Toorich]

40. Always remember...

.... If this shit was easy anybody could do it.

[JohnnyRingo]

44. Perspective

Look at what this country bounced back from. A civil war, almost another one a hundred years later, McCarthyism, Dick Cheney, Obama's tan suit.

Politics is like a pendulum. The harder it's pushed in one direction, the faster it swings back as it seeks the gravity of the center. Bush pushed it hard one way and 8 years later it swung back to a black president. That it traveled so far to the right again should be no surprise. That gravity is pulling it back hard now after the sad American experiment that is DJT.

[Aristus]

47. I'm so sick and tired of the Republicans' revenge elections.

If we elect in 2020 a brilliant leader, the pukes will just double-down all the harder to find a squalid, feckless loser to vote for in 2024. I'm sick of it...

[smirkymonkey]

48. Hey Aristus, don't jump off a ledge.

I know how you feel, but what would we do without you here?

Here is something to cheer you up...





Did it work?

[Hekate]

51. There are days I turn off the news. I mute Trump 100% when there's a clip. I focus on the beauty of

Last edited Sat Sep 14, 2019, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)

...Nature -- I'm fortunate to live in a beautiful part of the planet. Even when the hills are crispy brown, I have learned to see how beautiful the bones of the Earth are. She has beautiful bones, and will outlast us.

My SIL walks the beach collecting colored glass that she uses in collages and jewelry. She calls the beach "my happy place." I joined her a few times, not knowing the beach here is really rocky. It made my balance bad, so after the last time I got a hiking staff. Then my knee went kablooie and an MRI showed really advanced arthritis and shredded meniscus (in other words, nothing at all to do with rocky beaches). Still, living on the coast is the best of all possible worlds.

This summer I decided to reread books with happy endings. Seriously. I re-read Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman, then signed up for Prime just to binge-watch the series that was made of it. Then I read the book again. If you want intelligent humor, Pratchett is your man. (Note to those who aren't familiar with it: it is NOT a Christian end-times book.) Then I pulled Harry Potter off my bookshelf and plowed through all 7 volumes. Spoiler: Voldemort is defeated and killed in Book 7.

Someday soon I'm getting Blazing Saddles out and gonna watch that again.

To you and all my friends: like my SIL, try to find your happy place. For me it's books and selected films, since long walks are no longer in the offing. I know some of you are masterly photographers, cooks, art critics, just really creative people. Don't forget that part of yourselves.

These are dark and terrible times. So remind yourselves that self-destructing will go completely unnoticed by the monsters in DC, and will only serve to deprive those who care about you of your presence. Take time to refresh, so you have the strength to get back in the fight later.

Sorry if I nattered on too long. Just don't go jumping off any cliffs.

[Skittles]

52. America is stronger than Donald Fucking Trump

yes we are

[empedocles]

53. 'Keep calm and carry on'

[brewens]

54. My buddies and I call getting really drunk, "being below the label". One of my buddies called

me up one night and he was hammered! Just bullshitting, nothing bad going on but I had to ask how much he'd had to drink? There was this pause and he slurs, "I'm below the label." So he was close to killing off the fifth he was working on whether it was all that night or not. That became legend among us when I blabbed to everyone about it the next day, and will forever be our way of saying really, really drunk!

[snowybirdie]

55. Sometimes

we all need a break from the incessant barage of trumpism. I've learned to turn off the tv, put aside the political blogs and download a fictional audio book It helps. Hang in there. Life is good!

[CTyankee]

57. Non alcoholic drinks for me but oh, so worth it! Good news on my latest blood test!

My liver enzymes are normal. My gastroenterologist just called with the results. He is very pleased and so am I!

[Aristus]

58. That's wonderful! I'm happy for you!

The liver is just mind-bogglingly good at recovering from disease...

[CTyankee]

59. I had a much loved sister in law die of cirrhosis and I saw what ravages it brought her and her

loved ones. I grieved a LONG time for her and still wish she were here...

[Brainfodder]

60. The crack up is feeling near, be there for it!

That is what keeps me going....

/cheers

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

64. It's terrible. Sometimes I have to step away from the news

and do something else. I have music and art and gardening and I can't think about Fat Nixon when I'm doing those things but when I come back he's still there. I desperately hope that someday I'll turn on the TV or the computer and discover that he's gone. I don't care how he's gone - resigned, dead, abducted by aliens, but gone. And I will run to the liquor store, buy a bottle of champagne and drink it all, and play Beethoven's Ninth out my windows as loud as it will go, and I'll dance in the street and not care if I look stupid or crazy.

[Karadeniz]

66. Aristus, I must refer you to an important line from the song Try to Remember"

Deep in December
It's nice to remember...
Without a hurt,
The heart is hollow...

When I started animal rescue, for the first decade I totally lost it if one of my fosters didn't make it. Tears. Depression. Frustration. Friends and family would tell me that I couldn't do it, it was too trying. I never listened to the naysayers for a second and I told them why. Rescue (of an animal or a country) should only be done by people who care enough, enough to be depressed, in tears, frustrated during the process. Only people who care will be hurt by disappointment. "Without a hurt, the heart is hollow."

Be glad you have a big enough heart for it to hurt. Ride it out. Then, snap out of it and join the fight! ❤❤

Love, Lucia

[Aristus]

68. Thank you, Lucia.

When you said that, I immediately heard Jerry Orbach's voice as El Gallo singing the lyrics.

I first saw "The Fantastiks" when I was about six (My father played the Old Actor in a local production), and "Try To Remember" has always given me a warm nostalgic glow.

Animal rescue is a truly noble avocation...

[3catwoman3]

79. I played The Mute...

...in a community theater production of The Fantasticks while I was stationed in Japan during my second tour of duty with the Air Force nurse corps. We had a very active amateur theater group on base.

[Aristus]

80. At least when I was a kid, the Army took recreation and morale very seriously.

On-post theatricals could be very elaborate.

[3catwoman3]

82. MWR (Morale, Welfare and...

...Recreation for those not familiar with military acronyms) was big at Yokota Air Base. I danced in Fiddler On The Roof, did stage crew for 10 Little Indians, and choreographed for Once Upon A Mattress. Totally outside the box for me, and I had a blast.

[Aristus]

83. My mother played Hodel in a production of "Fiddler On The Roof" on Fort Knox.

The woman playing Golde, her mother, was three years younger.

My father played John Adams in "1776" on Fort Huachuca, Arizona in 1974. The costumes for the play were rented from Hollywood and were the ones used in the movie.

[mopinko]

67. hey, you just never know what the future will bring.

5 years ago, at the end of a 30 year marriage, i didnt even think about finding someone new for a couple years.
but i found someone who makes me crazy happy.
65, and he makes me feel like a kid.

so, love still happens in strange places.
life goes on.

[Aristus]

69. That's true.

Thank you...

[mopinko]

70. i feel ya. i weep for my country.

but i cant let that take over my whole damn life.
neither can you.

hang tight.

[Aristus]

71. I will.

You and our fellow DU-ers have been very encouraging. It helps...

[love_katz]

72. You are LOVED, sir.

Please, no ledges. Sending many hugs!

[Aristus]

73. Aw, that's nice, thank you, love_katz!

[imavoter]

74. this won't last forever

Have some more vodka

Just make sure you're not tomorrow

[DFW]

75. I can empathize, and I live on the far side of the Atlantic

I'll have to pass on the vodka, though. I don't do alcohol.

However, a bottle of Tastl Marillennektar, and I'd walk miles (though not off a ledge if it can be avoided).

[samnsara]

76. anyone in the mental health/health field these days is overwhelmed...

.....take care of yourself first.

Lemon vodka? Heres something yummier. Three shots vodka.. mix it with grapefruit, pineapple and mango juice.. top it off with sugar free peach flavoring...squeeze a wedge of lime. Serve in a tall glass of ice with a paper straw.. I call it "Careful". If you want less carbs cut the juice by half fill glass with Cascade Ice of some flavor..at this point it doesnt even matter...

Tequila works just a well






hang in there...

[Aristus]

81. Sounds delicious!

I'll have to give that a try...

[vlyons]

77. Impermanance!

Nothing lasts forever. Eventually, even the sun will use its hydrogen and go red giant, which will probably vaporize earth. As dreadful as these times seem - and we do live in degenerate times - Such times offer ample opportunity to practice loving kindness and compassion. Since we can't change other people, let's change ourselves. Remove every last bit of anger and despair from our own minds.

[Hotler]

84. Have you evr made this?

https://anitalianinmykitchen.com/limoncello/

since you like lemons. I'm going to try it.