The Lisa Life

End Of An Era

So yesterday, the business I have worked at for the last year and a half closed. 

It had been around Livingston County in various incantations for over 20 years.

I have so many mixed emotions about it.  When I was hired, I was hired by Boss The Son.  Boss The Father was for all intents and purposes retired and only came in a few hours a week while he was in town.  Boss The Son tragically passed away after a freak stupid accident and Boss The Father took the helm again.  It became a very different work environment but one I adapted to. 

Since we supplied the new housing market, and the economy here is so in the toilet, business wasn't going so well.  I did the books, it was no surprise to me that continuing would be a crap shoot, one we were likely to lose.  I really liked my co-workers and it was a very laid-back work environment, but still, depressing, knowing we weren't going to succeed.

I have sent out dozens of resumes, been on some interviews, and on Monday, I will head to the wonderful Michigan Works! office to sign up for unemployment and post my resume on their totally worthless website, which no one will look at and certainly no employer will respond to.   When I asked one of the Michigan Works! employees how many people were actually hired from their website, she hemmed and hawed and wouldn't answer.

I know that Michigan Works! does place a lot of ex-cons at Taco Bell and McDonald's.  How do I know this?  Because going through the drive through of the local Taco Bell, the dude working the window, who takes your money before you get your order, which may or may not be what you originally planned on eating, when I responded to his "How you doing?" query, told me, "I'm so glad to be out of prison and working! I got my job from Michigan Works!"

Sometimes, even I don't know what to say.

Light A Candle For Christina

I first wrote about Christina Castiglione's horrific rape and murder here. (It's a long entry, keep reading.) Yesterday marked the 24th anniversary of the discovery of her body and to date, her case remains unsolved.

Hat tip, by the way, to WHMI for reminding me of this unsolved case.  I may make fun of their play list, but I do appreciate their local news coverage.

Could Christina's murder be related to the other unsolved murders of young women in Livingston County from around the same time frame? 

Please take a moment to light a candle or say a prayer in remembrance of Christina Castiglione, who's life was brutally snatched from her much too soon.  She is not forgotten.

Conversation With The Husband

While watching a Friends rerun, which are mostly all new to me since I never watched it the first time around.  (Note: I never got Friends and I still pretty much don't.  It's totally unrealistic and not all that funny.  When it was in its heyday, women I worked with would talk about Rachel and Ross and Monica and Joey and Phoebe and Chandler and I thought they were talking about people they knew, they were that involved.)

Anyway.  That was the setting.

During the episode, they advertised the movie Fools Rush In, which starred one of the actors on Friends and Salma Hayek. 

Me: Awful movie.  Pure dreck.

Husband: Yeah, but Salma Hayek is in it, that's enough for me.

Me: She's pregnant, you know.

Husband: How would I know that?

Me: Good Lord, don't you ever read Perez Hilton?

Husband: No, why would I?

Me:  How do you know what the celebrities are up to?  Your world must be so empty.

Note: I don't know who over half of the people on the celeb sites are, but yeah, I'm pretty much an addict.

Housekeeping On The Blog

I've finally done a little bit of blog housekeeping.  I'm terrible about updating my links, I know this.  I added two new blogs that I enjoy, Bad News Blonde and Michigan In Pictures.  So, welcome to Aughra, who is very funny and Shannon, who takes beautiful pictures.  Both of these are under the new Michigan Blogs categories.  There are other Michigan blogs still in the other category.  What can I say, I can be a lazy bitch like that.

A few other blogs disappeared because they had gone defunct or for other reasons that have nothing to do with their readability.

Please take a moment to say hello to the new links.  I think you'll like them. 

Brighton

St. Paul's Chruch in downtown Brighton.  I used to attend this church and both Martin and I were married there, but not to each other.

The Mill Pond.  Still a bit of ice, but that doesn't deter the various water fowl.

The infamous Pink Hotel.  It's not pink anymore and it's not a hotel and it's for sale.  Hopefully whoever buys it will not demolish it and build something else on the site.  It's a Brighton Landmark.

Yaz

For further evidence that my life has come full circle, Yaz is now a birth control pill.

No No NO!  So wrong.

Yaz is a mid-eighties dance sort of synth group that I used to dance to.  Don't Go, Situation,  Only You.  How many times did I dance to those songs?  And yes, I might have needed birth control a couple times while dancing to those but really?  I had that Upstairs At Eric cassette in rotation in my car stereo for at least a couple years. 

Naming a birth control pill after an 80s band? 

So wrong.  So very wrong.  The saddest part is that all the young 20 somethings who are taking it won't have a clue that Yaz was a pretty good band to dance to and not just a non baby pill that also might help your zits go away.

In the meantime, here is a link to Yaz and you can listen to Situation, which sort of can relate to birth control.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Yaz/dp/B00000K3GI#moreAboutThisProduct

Note: I already know I have a kind of twisted sense of humor so really, you don't need to email me and tell me that.  Really.

How To Know When It's Time To Step Away From The True Crime

Ed. Note: At least for a few days.

The more I read about the Tara Grant case, the disturbed I become.  The Laci Peterson case affected me very much, as do Jessica Fear and Paige Renkoski.  Things I think about and turn over and over in my mind, and just don't make any real sense.  These are women that could have been me.

The Raven Jeffries case has been much on mind as well.  She has haunting eyes.  Whoever murdered her and set her on fire and dumped her in a field is still walking amongst us.  And why isn't there more news about her and the presumed search for her killer? 

Is it because she is a little biracial girl with braids from a not so great neighborhood?  Not a little blond haired blued eyed girl from a nicer area not filled with questionable characters? 

She bears a resemblance to my daughter Mia.

If Mia went missing and turned up dead and burned in a field, would she receive the same treatment and lack of attention Raven apparently has?

It not only enrages me, it scares me and disappoints me. 

How do I know it's time to take a true crime break for a few days?

I think of dreams as your subconscious taking a dump.  I very rarely remember my dreams.  Snatches that mean little that I don't dwell on.

Last night, I had a horrible dream.  More like a nightmare.  My dear friend Tammy and I were in some sort of combination train station/mall in Germany.  It had casinos, wine bars, restaurants, stores.  Mia was with us and about seven.  It was enormous and I somehow became separated from Tammy and Mia.  I eventually found Tammy but Mia wasn't with her and she thought Mia had been with me.  We searched for her and security was involved and they searched for Mia.  At some point I saw notes they had taken that said "Dump" and I lost it, thinking my daughter was in a dump.

I was crying in my sleep, grinding my teeth (my jaw hurts today) and it was really vivid and really terrifying and completely unreal but it has disturbed me all day.

And that's how I know I need to take a few steps back from the crime and mayhem and my death hag thing for a bit.  The trial for Jessica Fear's murder starts on April 19 and I plan on attending it.  I think Jessica's story needs to be told.  I've never been to a trial other than divorce court (my own) and I need to prepare emotionally.

If I didn't care, I couldn't write about it.  But I also don't want to be a total bowl of jello through the whole thing.  I need to be able to give Jessica the dignity she deserves and not blubber.

In Other News

I'm a big Christopher Guest fan.  Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting For Guffman.  I was eagerly anticipating the release of For Your Consideration, his spoof on the Oscars.  I was terribly disappointed when we watched it.  A couple of one liners that were mildly amusing, but really, not funny at all.

We're watching Bubble right now, an obscure B List type of movie that so far is pretty entertaining.

While I was busy not blogging about the Tara Grant case, I finished knitting one scarf I'd been working on sporadically for months and knit three others, all of which I'm quite chuffed about.  I especially hope Harriett loves hers.  I almost kept it for myself.

The business I work  for will be closing at the end of March.  I need another job so if anyone hears about anything, let me know, okay?

It was very warm out today and I had the back door open for a while to let some fresh air in. 

What have you been up to?

Raven Jeffries

An Amber Alert was issued for Raven Jeffries the first week of August, 2005.  The shy seven year old was last seen on the front porch of her Southwest Detroit home.  One of five siblings, Raven's family had lived in the diverse working class neighborhood over 18 years.  She lived with her mother and two siblings while two adult siblings lived down the block. 

Raven's brother last saw her on the front porch at eight in the evening and told her to stay there while he went down the block for a moment.  Her mother had gone to the corner store to buy charcoal and lighter fluid for a barbecue and thought Raven had gone to the neighbor's house to play.

Instead, she had disappeared.

On August 7, a badly burned body of a little girl was found in a field owned by a radio station in Southfield by a worker doing routine maintenance.  DNA identified the remains as Raven.

On August 11, search warrants were served in Taylor at Metro Storage.  Technicians left with evidence, but it has not been disclosed what that evidence was. 

Several registered sex offenders live in Raven's neighborhood and the police have questioned them and administered lie detector tests.  Although many failed, police believe that has more to do with the drug traffic in the neighborhood rather than with Raven's kidnapping and murder.

After the initial flurry of media, this case hasn't rated a mention in months.  I can find nothing indicating that anyone was arrested for Raven's kidnap or murder.  I even emailed the Detroit Police Department to ask for any information they would be willing to share but received no reply (big surprise).

Light a candle for Raven so she is not forgotten and hope her killer is brought to justice.

More On Tara Grant

Where, you may ask, dear and gentle readers, have I been and why haven't I commented on the latest developments on the Tara Lynn Grant case?

Mainly because although I knew in my heart her husband had killed her, I never imagined the details would be so horrifying and evil.  I was essentially rendered speechless.

I'm not going to recap the details as I am sure unless you were living in a cave, you already know them.

Hopefully Stephen Grant will go the way of Mark Hacking and accept a guilty plea and head off to prison quietly and not put the families through a trial.  I think he's enough of an attention whore, though, that they may not happen, even though he confessed and there is not much to defend.

In the meantime, I send white light and prayers to Tara's family.