On the Thirty-First Day of Christ*&^%$

On the Thirty-First Day of Christ*&^%$, TiZ reveals to you...

Thirty-one things I'd really dig in a deep manner in 2013...

Peace on earth.

Goodwill to all sentient beings.

A healthier economy for all.

A more cooperative government.

My Christmas present to arrive.

The world to discover the funny profundity of Wallflowers.tv when it arrives in March.

Great on-camera employment.

Great stage employment.

Ease.

Grace.

To perform and publish TOMB.

To publish THERE'S NO BUSINESS.

Volunteerism.

Love.

Dancing on the ceiling.

Recording. I love recording.

Health...physical, emotional and spiritual.

Yoga.

Meditation for all.

Honesty.

Clarity.

Increasing my income ten fold (though 2 fold would be not so bad either).

Laughter.

Singing my tits off.

Spam-free.

Reiki.

Nature.

Good baby habits becoming excellent grown-up habits that beget more excellent habits.

An integrated, socialized and happy Baxter.

Create things of great beauty and substance.

More days like today...filled with wonderful friends, delicious food, plenty, dog-walking, naps, work-outs, sauna, writing, laughter, appreciation, good wine, singing, acting, creativity, productivity and happy happy joy joy. Minus the head cold.

On the Thirtieth Day of Christ*&^%$

On the Thirtieth Day of Christ*&^%$, TiZ reveals to you...

30 Things Baxter didn’t tell you…

He doesn’t quite know what a puppy mill is but we think he came from one. No one else would be stupid enough to give a puppy away so young.

He’s racist.

He tries to jump Asian men.

He tries to jump Black men.

This is TREMENDOUSLY embarrassing to me.

He is reversed ageist. 

I walk him when school lets out and treat him every time he doesn’t try to jump a kid.

He’s allowed into the Gristedes if I carry him.

I love Gristedes.

He’s allowed into the bodega if no one else is there and I carry him.

I love the bodega.

He does not really like men except for a very special few.

He cries at the church door until Karen comes and pets him.

He thinks big dogs should be challenged at all times.

He likes to sit in my lap as I write.

I do some of my best writing when he is in my lap. 

He is not in my lap right now. Sorry.

He has made one “fuck you” poo.

He has made one “bite me” pee.

I’ve learned my lesson each time.

He insists on being in the bathroom with me.

We continue to work on the separation anxiety.

He gets to sleep with me the last hour of the morning.

After a walk, he runs around my apartment like a mad man, intermittently stopping and looking at me as if to say, “I don’t know why this is happening.  Make it stop.” Then he starts again.

He was so poorly behaved his first week, I wept, “You are the first being I’ve committed to…and it’s for at least a decade.  You have to be good.  You HAVE to be good.  No.  Don’t wag your tail at me.  I can’t even look at you.”

It’s been uphill since then.

He has killed my work ethic.  I would rather play with him.

He sits on my scripts when he’s done with my work.  His timing is in general good.

He has changed my life for the better in so many ways, you can’t imagine.

Maybe you can. I can only imagine you are sick and waaay overtired of me talking about my dog now.  I feel that way about people’s kids.  But you see, he’s mine.  Even though it’s taken a village and I love to share him, he is mine.  I’m the last of five kids.  I never really had much that was just mine.  The dog makes me real.  Or at least the dog makes me FEEL real.  And that’s important.

On the Twenty-Ninth Day of Christ*&^%$

On the Twenty-Ninth Day of Christ*&^%$, TiZ reveals to you...

Things I think it would be great if you all knew (if you don't already) ...

You are special.

So is the person next to you.

So is everybody.

In that we’re all special, we all have a lot in common.

My special is no more important than your special.

It would be great if we got along better.

We could make room a little better for everyone’s special.

There is enough room for everyone.

There is enough for everyone.

If everyone shares…just a little.

Don’t take things that don’t belong to you…be it props or someone’s significant other.

Don’t cheat.

Teach the important lessons in kindergarten…they will stay with you forever.

Even if it’s only “It’s okay to kick someone in the face if they’re looking under the bathroom door at you while you pee.”

Don’t look under bathroom doors at someone while they pee.

Unless they specifically request it.

Compliments are good.

But don’t let them define you…in the receiving OR the giving.

If people aren’t kind to you while they’re at the top, then you don’t want to know them…wherever they are.

If you can, give things away instead of just throwing them away. 

Don’t eat too much stinky meat and cheese.

Wine in moderation.

Puddle jumping is awesome.

Rain is better when there’s someone to share it with.

Alone time is good.

If you stop your inner monologue you can see and hear what’s going on around you.

Sometimes friends can hold each other back.

Fewer guns. More love.

When one door shuts, hundreds open…sometimes they're in the form of windows, portholes, cracks in the wall.    But they are there, if you open your eyes.  And they let in so much light.

On the Twenty-Eighth Day of Christ*&^%$

On the Twenty-Eighth Day of Christ*&^%$, TIZ reveals to you...

28 Pictures of 2012... (Believe you me, there are plenty of Baxter.  I will not apologize.  If he weren't so damn photogenic, there wouldn't be so many damn pictures.)

Victoria Soto's Sister (Photo by Jessica Hill)

No explanation needed (Thanks, Kieran)

Hipster Belle in a Little Town 16 years later (Wig courtesy of Elias John Ruperto)

David Finds a New Home 

David Prepares for Sandy

Sandy Baby Causes Misery (Photo by Gav)

Yes!

Sunrise for Christianne (photo courtesy of Jeanie)

Titanic...so proud of this (photo and partner, Philip Hoffman)

Pain Free Misery removal

Nana circa 1942

Poppy the Morning After His First Date with Nana

Yes! (courtesy of someone...can't remember)

The Dog I Met

Saying Goodbye to the Humane Society

The Dog I Got

And the Lion shall lie down with the Lamb (Photo by DKA)

Love story (Photo by DKA  

The Original...Blackie Tisdale

Baxter Crosses the Hammonasset (Photo courtesy of Brother Bob)

Don't Should on Me

Broadway Debut and Broadway Rebut

Enough Said

Baxter to Queen's Bishop 4

Enough Said

Baxter Photobomber (Photo Courtesy of AS)

Motoring

Old Habits Die Hard (photo on right by Ron Rinaldi)

On the Twenty-Seventh Day of Christ*&^%$, TiZ reveals to you...

Twenty-seven quotes from 2012...

Gifted doesn't mean giving it away for free. --Christianne Tisdale

Everyone deserves a second chance...maybe.  Third and fourth chances...rarely. --Christianne Tisdale

For people like us sometimes the only thing we really own is our dignity, and when I grow old I would like to have as much as Mrs. Matthew Murphy across the street.  --Neil Simon

i imagine that yes is the only living thing.--e. e. cummings

Grace, It's Christmas, for goodness sake.  Think about the Baby Jesus: up there in that tower, letting his hair down so that the three wise men can climb up and spin the dreidel and see if there are six more weeks of winter.
--Karen Walker from Will and Grace

The first step towards the solution of any problem is optimism.- John Baines

Mary Magdalene, where you at, bitch? --Galileroy...on Key and Peele

wherever you are, be all there.--Jim Elliot

Courtesy is the one coin you can never have too much of or be stingy with.--John Wanamaker

...and a writer without confidence is like a metaphor without something to compare itself to.--Neil Simon

It's all about people, people!--Christianne Tisdale

For the first time in the history of media, those that are able to consume the  media are also able to create it. That's a powerful (and thus frightening) choice.--Seth Godin

Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.--Gail Sheehy

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The artist is not a special kind of person; rather each person is a special kind of artist.--Ananda Coomaraswamy

Last night as I lay sleeping I dreamt that there was a beehive here inside my heart and the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from all my failures.--Machado de Assis

Don't be defeatist, dear.  It's very middle class.--The Dowager Countess

Always associate yourself with those that know more than you do, who do it better than you, who see more clearly than you.--Dwight D. Eisenhower 
A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.--Pioneer Girls Leaders' Handbook

Self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth.--Joan Didion

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.--Oscar Wilde 

If the angel deigns to come, it will be because you have convinced him, not by tears, but by your humble resolve to be always beginning: to be a beginner.--Rainer Maria Rilke

There is no room for should.  There is and is not.  There's doing or not doing. Commitment or none at all.  There is no room for anything in between. Definitely not should.--Christianne Tisdale

We are here on earth to help others.  What the others are here for, I have no idea.--W.H. Auden

We believe as much as we can. We would believe everything if we could.--William James

The more you complain, the more you complain.--Christianne Tisdale

Do less...allow more.--Anonymous (but heard from Julie Reiber Bennett)

Twenty-Sixth Day of Christ*&^%$

Bonus Question:

Why do so many of you, to my eternal gratitude and appreciation,  read these?

On the Twenty-Sixth Day of Christ*&^%$

On the Twenty-Sixth Day of Christ*&^%$, TiZ reveals to you...

Twenty-Six questions of 2012...

Why has mental health care stayed in the Reagan administration?

Why do people want to bring the economy back to the Reagan administration?

Why does it take a tragedy like Newtown for people to rise up?  (Not like the shepherds and follow.   But lead.)

Why does it take two hurricanes in little more than a year for some people to at least consider global weirdening?

Why does the word "weird" not follow the "i before e" rule?

Where's my other sock?

Where's my other sock?

For Christmas, why did we choose a tree that is shaped like a triangle?

What keeps me from selling a stock when it increases in value 1500%?

How did the national debt get to .(It ain't me...I ain't gots the debt.)

How did the federal deficit reach $1.1 trillion?

Why do Apple products crash just far enough before a new product comes out that one is incapable of waiting?

Why did Christmas become about consumerism?

When did Christmas become about consumerism?

Why is Baxter paper trained outside but not inside?

Why is there always one crazy ass bitch in a church choir?

Why can't people get along?

Why do people take things so personally?

Why do summer colds happen?  Especially to me?  

Why didn't some people get that the second half of the above question is a joke?

Why does hair look like crap for months and then GORGEOUS the day before you get it chopped off?

How can people abuse and abandon animals?

Why can't there be a church service where no one has sinned and no one is dependent on GoD to forgive and wash them clean of that sinning?

Why does Baxter pee and poop on all Houses of Worship? (First answer is that I let him but I don't encourage or "good boy" him for it.  Yet he insists.)

Why are so many people not so swell at apologizing?

Where's my other sock?

On the Twenty-Fifth Day of Christ&^%$

My
Expression
Runs
Round
You,

Clawing
Happily,
Running
Inward,
Shouting
Tiz
My
Ass,
Sunshine.

How
Are
Pen
Pals,
Year-end?

Now
Enter
World.

Your
Everything
Aims
Rightly.