Valerie Fern's Blog
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Dec.28.2011
If you end a year and begin a new one in a depressing voice, those around you may scatter.
My intentions are not to depress the masses; but I propose to you that unless we acknowledge, understand and accept darkness, we cannot truly resonate in light. So, I ask you to endure this New...
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Dec.23.2011
In a sleepy little town, just south of the big city of Salinas, one can drive an up climb and view Tommy Pinkston’s annual light extravaganza. Tommy’s called me (higher than a Chinese dragon kite) 3 times this season, with minute-by-...
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Dec.06.2011
The single thing I love most about life, is the people in it. I have this desire that lives deep down in my soul: to experience as many people as I possibly can while on this magic carpet ride.
Hell yes! You can't convince me of something more worthwhile. ...
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Dec.01.2011
“All those writers who write about their childhood! Gentle God, if I wrote about mine, you wouldn’t sit in the same room with me.” ~ Dorothy Parker
Tina Fey’s biography, Bossypants, isn’t a Pulitzer by any means, but it’s got meat.
Chapter 2 jogged a few magical childhood memories...
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Nov.26.2011
I guess I’m ‘outta-da-loop’ because I thought the latest craze this Thanksgiving is deep-frying the bird. My aunt informed me they’ve been sizzling the poor fowls in oil for years. Anyway, thank god it wasn’t the “in thing” when I managed the park or we could have very easily...
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Nov.17.2011
I wrote Cock in the Park in January of this year and it's being resurrected from the dead. Back by popular demand, several faithful readers recently emailed me and asked to have it re-posted. So here it is, unedited, unfiltered. Just like y'all like it!
I often go to Urban...
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Nov.16.2011
This week’s blog is dedicated to all who teach in the public school system in the United States of America; especially my close pals, who, if you’re still standing after a long day at school, kick your heels up and enjoy!
Let’s look at that career to end all careers; second only to the...
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Nov.10.2011
I quite possibly need a disclaimer for this blog:
I am in no way advocating the consumption of or over-indulgence in alcohol. Any conclusions of this sort, drawn from reading my words, are merely the little demonic thought mongers who live inside the...
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Nov.05.2011
When you’re a non-Texan trying to explain Texas and Texans to others, it’s awkward.
But leaving the “nation” of Austin and driving south on the 35, passing the interesting sights of cattle, cattle and more cattle, one realizes, like Dorothy, that you ain’t in paradise...
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Oct.30.2011
There are very few Austinites in Austin. Don’t know the statistics, but everyone except the dude at the used bookstore near the U of T campus, was born somewhere else, came to visit, seek luck and fortune and never left. I can see why.Austin’s cool....
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Oct.23.2011
I love getting up early and walking the streets of a city; any city. The sights you see and the sounds you hear are unique only to that time of day.This morning, camera in hand, I headed up South Congress rather than toward downtown and took some “people less” shots, which...
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Oct.21.2011
I’ve been in Austin almost 48 hours and I must admit I could get mighty comfortable here. The Ann Richards Bridge, the F@!*k Rick Perry graffiti, the greenery growing in between the high-rises, the Tex Mex, Cuban, and various food trucks along South Congress who...
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Oct.18.2011
I’ve always been frightened by “the south.” Even when I was a little girl, and we drove for hours on some hellacious back road from Southern California to Oklahoma;
my dad smoking cigarette after cigarette and driving like a bat out of a flame and my mom, turning around...
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Oct.17.2011
I walk down the same streets in my neighborhood most every morning, crossing Hartnell and heading down Carl’s Alley. My daily walk takes me through what is now known as Old Towne Monterey and a portion of my trek is part of the Path of History, which is both tranquil and tragic as life...
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Oct.17.2011
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast” ~Ernest Hemingway
Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen’s latest “moveable feast” is uniquely delightful and appealing, not only...
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About Valerie
VALERIE FERN is a former elementary school teacher and GATE teacher who taught in Monterey County for over 13 years. She has also managed and owned two coffeehouses, raised a teenage niece, dabbled in photography and skateboard art and facilitates art and...
Causes Valerie Fern Supports
AFRP (Animal Friends Rescue Project), POMDR (Peace of Mind Dog Rescue)
CWOB (Compassion Without Borders)
Equality California
Bead For Life...
Valerie’s Favorite Books
Bel Canto, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, She's Come Undone, To Kill a Mockingbird,
Tortilla Flats
Valerie is a fan of
