to the No Names who trawl my space:

I see you Dr. & Mrs. T! I know you are there! Quietly sitting there, wondering what I have to say about things! And yet no comment from the peanut gallery (Mrs. T, this is not directed to you, but to your house ogre who likes to fall asleep on the kitchen couch after dinner)!

Dear readers (and Dr. T.), I have discovered that Meegan’s parents are reading my blog. They asked me just last night how Weird Beard is doing (he has backed off) and Emilie’s car jacking (still pending). Who needs to stop by for a cup of coffee and catching up when we now have blogs to do that for us.

While I am flattered that they do drop in, I am a little sad that I no longer chat with them (and by “them” I mean Mrs. T.) in person.

When my mother was an adult in her 20’s and 30’s, her mother (my Nonna) was the favorite mom who developed real relationships with my mom’s best friends. Nonna and my “aunt” Peggy could sit for hours and talk with each other, not needing my mother in the room. I feel that Mrs. T is that person for me. I love talking with her, and I like to drop by and talk to when I can have her to myself. (As she is originally southern, she is very embarrassed at this moment that she is the subject of my writing). I got a good hour and a half to myself with Mrs. T last night on the way to pick up Meegan, which was great. We talked about everything from families to politics. I love talking to her. She is a wealth of experience and knowledge. She doesn’t expect me to be an obedient daughter, and I do not expect her to be motherly. In fact, she has come into some wild oats lately. The racy postcard she sent to me recently from Florence made me blush. After the shock wore off, I was so proud of her.

Ok, Mrs. T, stop being modest and say hello to our friends.

Is that clicking I hear?

Well, we all knew he was slime. We all knew he was despicable, wicked, shameful, vile and loathsome.

But this is disgraceful. The prez is tapping our phones without any legal justification.

And he is mad at the “liberal” press? Just how liberal are they? The New York Times sat on the story for a year! How is that a liberal media?

He calls it “shameful”. Well, since he is on my phone, he is on my internet, too. If you all don’t mind, I would like to address the President:

“No sir, you are shameful. How dare you erode what this country was built on. 229 years of history, a democracy that was never perfect, but always strove to be better, and you demolish this in four short years. You are the reason we are in harms way. You are the reason Iraq is now full of terrorists. You are the reason people now loose not only sleep at night, but loved ones in an unlawful act of aggression for oil! Shame on you, Mr. President.”

the blah, blah, blahs

I am in a major funk. This time of year is the hardest. There is too much to do, and not enough time to do it. It leaves me frazzled with no time for my treadmill. I know, there should be no excuse when it comes to my health, but I am just worn out.

The catch 22 is that I would feel much better emotionally if I got my ass on that treadmill and ran all my stress out. I need to make time for it. It is my personal Prozac. I was going to run this morning, but when the alarm went off at 5 something, I was not having it. My body needed sleep. I would love to take a day this week and catch up on all my shit, but the boss is gone for 2 weeks, and that leaves me in charge. EEK! Talk about another stress factor!

So, I have only half of my shopping done, I am quickly running out of money to shop with, and I am short on time.

So, how are the rest of you coping?

what the F*CK is that supposed to mean?

Well, it has been over a week since I last posted. I have been so swamped at work and busy with Christmas, that I have had no time or brain power to dedicate to the blog. But something did happen this morning:

Last night I got a hair cut, which I think is very flattering. My stylist was excited (she and I are friends, so I don’t get any false praise, trust me) and then I had dinner with my family, and they loved it. Especially my husband.

I get to work this morning, and a coworker looks at me and says “what happened to your hair?”

So I tell her “I got it cut”

And she replies “oh, well, turn around and let me see it”

So I do.

“Oh, I guess I see it.”

See what? What the style is supposed to be? I know this is a girl thing, but if you do not like what someone has done with their hair, make up, outfit, etc., keep it to yourself! I did not ask for her opinion. I did not care about her opinion, until she spouted off. Now, I am wondering if all my coworkers think my hair is ugly.

She came back for round 2 and the conversation went the same way, only this time she asked if I was wearing makeup too. I wear makeup every day.

Some times I think people just look for ways to be mean.

The winter of my discontent

I feel the way the country has been handled the last four years, it is possible we are on the tipping point of a slide into the Christian equivalent of an Islamic republic.

All civil liberties are being eroded. The religious right and self serving elite who have hijacked the republican party start with the weakest members of society, the elderly and the children, and rip away all social support to enable billions in tax breaks for all their friends. They then chip away at programs like Planned Parenthood, not with a withdrawal of funding (which hardly existed to begin with) but by revoking the basic rights and privacies of the patient. After this is done, and the women, elderly and children become second class citizens, they attack affirmative action and naturalization laws. Soon, we will return to a country where men like Chief Justice Taney can once again rule the Supreme Court (1836 – 1664).

My thoughts are drawn to this because of what is happening right now in our country. The religious shift is unprecedented in American culture, and (as President Jimmy Carter, a born-again Christian, mentions in his new book) this type of swing has had catastrophic effects on all powerful nations that try to combine “their” god and their government.

I am not speaking of “In God We Trust”, I am speaking of:
No rights (freedom of religion)
No privacy (freedom of choice)
No melting pot ( one religion = persecution of others)

As Americans, I firmly believe that what makes us great as a nation is our ability (until recently) to say “We don’t do that. We don’t torture, persecute or destroy personal liberties. That is why we are the best.”

This administration has changed everything. I used to be proud to be an American. This administration took that away from me. Men like Cheney, Libby, and Rove have stripped me of my national pride. I am the granddaughter of an Iwo Jima Purple Heart WWII vet, and I see almost no dignity left in the America of today.

I can only pray (yes I am someone who believes in God and prayer) that our system is not so corrupt that is may still work in the 2006 and 2008 elections. To continue to have faith that the democratic process will take its course and work out the fallibilities.

As a true American, I have faith in the people of my country, even if I don’t trust the leaders.

Jesus is gonna be pissed!

I cannot say that I feel sorry for the Bushes. This is what happens when you align yourself with an extremist group like the Religious Right. The Bush Family issued Holiday Cards instead of Christmas cards, and every RR supporter Bush has is up in arms about it. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10355980/)All over Fox “News” Network, O’Reilly and Hannity and the like have declared that there is a liberal war on Christmas; that we, as liberals, are trying to stamp it out of the American public culture. Being a liberal and celebrating Christmas myself, I find this odd. But, considering that they have their heads up their collective ass on most issues, I let it pass. I see enough around me to know that as long as we live in a capitalist society, Christmas will never die. Up until three days ago, Bill O’Reilly himself was hocking “holiday” ornaments, as opposed to Christmas ornaments on his “No Spin Zone” web site.

My entire problem with the RR is that they are shoving not just religion, but their personal interpretation of Christianity down our throats. Who are they to tell us not to shop in a store because it doesn’t advertise Christmas, but holiday sales? Who are they to demand of the companies operating in a free market how they can and cannot merchandise the season? This time of year, there are many reasons people are celebrating: Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and both secular and non-secular Christmas. If you feel that this is a time of year to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus (who, if I am remembering correctly, was actually born closer to June than December) then have at it. But in America, we are supposed to be free of religious oppression. This means two things: practice any religion you want, and be free of the influence of the ones you do not.

Like it or not, not every American is Christian. Bush is the president for all Americans, and for once in his miserable career, someone on his staff made the right decision by choosing to include everyone by using the word “Holiday” over “Christmas”.

(As a side note, does anyone else find it odd that the RR never get mad about using a Pagan symbol like a tree for this most sacred holiday?)

More Like “Galaxy Sucks”

Warning: I know this post is too long. Sorry, I didn’t see an obvious place to edit anymore of the story. This is the short version.

My mom treated me to a movie yesterday. The movie was ok.

You know what sucked? The movie theater. The Galaxy Six, to be exact.

As we walked in the front door, one employee was using a jig saw to do construction of some sign. Um, excuse me? Power tools in that path of children? Isn’t that what the off hours are for? Or even the other end of the parking lot? We make it past the idiot with the saw, and inside. The weird red lighting and musty smell was offsetting. The punk rock kid taking our tickets (how anti-establishment of him, especially in that little uniform) said nothing other than “screen one” directing us to the correct room. Mom and I were deciding on popcorn when we looked over at the concession counter. There was more construction going on behind the register. One of the kids behind the counter was leaning against the popcorn maker. She was scratching her head over what was clearly yesterday’s batch of popcorn. I wanted to turn around and go home, but I knew how badly mom wanted to see the movie.

So, we skip the over priced stale popcorn with the complementary coating of employee dander, and walk into the show room. There are multiple seats that are covered with black plastic garbage sacks. The rest of the seats have ripped and worn fabric. There is gum and filth everywhere. Plastic is peeling off of the seats in front of us. You can see where customers have thrown soda on the screen. It smells worse than the lobby, and is freezing.

Mom had to use the bathroom, and not only was there no paper of any kind in any of the stalls; there was nothing to dry your hands with. I wonder how the employees who are serving food are supposed to wash their hands?

The movie starts. I thought the director had done something clever: the movie was absolutely silent, as if to emphasize the quiet of the English country side. I was wrong. After a good 2 minutes, we realized the stoner upstairs never flipped the audio on (I feel that this may just be the explanation for the soda on the screen). The 12 of us in the audience wanted then to start the movie over. I was so pissed at this point, I had no problem being the one to convey that message to the usher.

I will not bore you with the idiocy of the conversation I had with him, but it boiled down to “they couldn’t restart the film”. I assured him he could, so the owner intervened. He also confirmed they have no rewind button (odd, due to the fact that they would be showing the same film later the same day). I demanded complete refunds of the money for all customers, and was guaranteed by the owner this would happen.

The film ends, and we leave the theater. That is when the assistant tried to pass out “re-admits” to us. I was not having it. I handed mine back to her and explained:

“No, no; you don’t seem to understand. We do not want re-admits. We had a miserable experience at your theater and have no intentions of returning. The owner promised us our money and that is what we want.”

She looked like she wanted to hit me, but the owner told her to refund us all.

The shame of it is that 10 years ago, it was a great theater. I will never set foot in that dump again.

Debate Issue 1

Earlier, I had a post up regarding a purebred dog that is living in my home. This dog, which belongs to a friend of mine, is not fixed, as he is meant to be a breeding dog as well as a pet.

This was a point of contention with some of my bloggers. They felt that owning a dog that is not fixed for purposeful breeding was wrong.

I myself have a black lab. Maggie was inherited from my grandfather. While my family has always owned purebred hunting dogs, they have always been fixed. They have never had a problem with inbreeding, as they have always gone to reputable breeders, and not puppy mills. Not that their dogs are free from problems: Ice, a golden retriever, has a few health problems do to lineage. She also is too aggressive for the breed.

The point the bloggers were making is this: with the threat of puppy mills and the rampant killing of pound animals, why would anyone buy a purebred or designer dog? And beyond that, why would they not fix them once they become pets? Is it perpetuating breeding problems, or is it responsible breeding?

This is a contentious issue with many, and highly personal. I have close friends who are on both sides of the issue. Please be firm in your beliefs, but do not attack other bloggers. I would like all to feel comfortable stating their opinions with out feeling personally targeted.

Thanks.

Silence Kills

Today is World AIDS Day. I have no words, other than it is a thought that fills me with grief and fear. I hope to see a cure in my lifetime, but I know the chances are slim to none. This is not an “us v. them” situation. We are all in this together. Remember: be aware, be safe and be proactive. Wear your ribbons and donate money. We have to win this one.