In Search of Myself

I love Priscilla, 2.

Priscilla and the girls came over last night and stayed until just past 10:30.  Lou thinks it's irresponsible of me to stay up late and have friends over when I know I have to get up for work the next morning.  Men just don't get it.  To me, friendship is more important than sleep.  SANITY is more important than sleep, and spending a few hours talking and laughing with Priscilla is a life-line to me, dragging me just a little closer back to normal and ok.  The baby slept half the time, then acted like an angel once she woke up, and Jake and Lana amused themselves and we hardly remembered to had to watch them.

Ya know those days in the winter when you decide just to not do anything in the afternoon, just sit in a chair with a blanket wrapped around you, sip hot chocolate and read a good book?  That's what our friendship feels like to me.  I think the reason we always take forever getting up to leave and saying goodbye, is there's always something more to say and we kind of just want that comfortable feeling to linger.  Why get up from the chair when it's so comfy and cozy?

Dear Kelly . . .

I don't know why, but I am thinking of you this morning and I just wanted to tell you that I love you.  So there.

Jen

Half a year?

Yes, I'm posting a lot today.  I think I'm going for a personal record -- there will be 5 entries by the end of the day.  What can I say, it's a slow day at work and I have a lot on my mind.

Random thought:
With this being the first week in June, I've heard some people around here saying "I can't believe it's June already -- the year is half over!"  I have to admit I have had passing thoughts in the same vein.  I think a lot of people do when it hits June 1st.  But yesterday I was staring at a year-at-a-glance wall calender while I was waiting for my left-over pasta to heat up in the microwave (I have an exciting life . . . ) and it occurred to me that the year isn't TECHNICALLY half over until JULY 1st.  June is the 6th month, but you have to get all the way through the 6th month and start the 7th before the year is really half over.

Ok, glad I got that off my chest.  Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Dum dum da dum . . .

Lou is on vacation for the rest of the week.  Quick, can you guess why?

. . .

. . .

That's right, it's because of the Star Wars premiere.  He's going to the midnight show tonight (what, and YOU'RE not?  heh), and he will probably see it several times Thursday, then see it with me on Friday night.

I don't know if I've written lately about how much Star Wars stuff we have in our house.  It's more effective with pictures, which I just don't have right now.  Jake has two pairs of Star Wars shoes.  Two t-shirts (I really like the Yoda one.)  Oh, and let's not forget his handy dandy bedsheets (this is the best picture of them I could find online).  We honestly have most of the things listed on this page.  And we did end up getting Darth Tater.  Jake gets a kick out of the toys, although he doesn't really understand what Star Wars IS. We won't get into how many versions of each of the movies we own.   (Lou has his reasons for each of them, and I've finally learned with his movies and video games, I just don't ask questions.  And he's figured out the same about my scrapbooking supplies.  heh.)

(oh, and the title of this entry was supposed to imply the Darth Vader theme, not the wedding march . . . the Vader theme has been in my head ALL DAY LONG because I heard it on the radio this morning!)

May the force be with you.

Today's quote.

Sometimes I use this blog as a place to vent, but like Kelly I care about what's at the top.  I don't want the first thing to see when you open my blog to be something that will bring you down.  So as I leave for the day, I'm posting something beautiful and uplifting to be the welcome into my world.  I made it just for the purpose of choosing beauty and joy.  It's a nice something to think about.

A cell phone PSA

I hate telemarketers.  Almost as much as ice cream trucks.  heh.  Telemarketers waste our time and I honestly think you shouldn't call someone unless you KNOW them or they WANT you to call them.  Otherwise?  Leave me the fuck alone.  I got this e-mail today from the university telephone people and I thought I'd pass it along to you:

Within a few days the cell phone companies will be allowed by law to sell lists of cell phone numbers to Telemarkerters. If you do not want to be called on your cell phone by telemarketers, call this number and follow the menu:   888-382-1222

The call to the 888 number must be placed from the phone you want to put on the list. The Do-Not-Call registry can also be reached by going online to www.donotcall.gov if you prefer.

Or if they do call, give the phone to your kid like Lisa.  That's more fun anyway, right?

What I wish they understood

Republicans don't have a monopoly on God.  Neither do conservative "Christians."  You can be a Christian and be liberal.  You can be a Christian and be a Democrat.  You can be a Christian and believe deeply in gay rights.  You can be a Christian and be gay.  You can be an atheist and still be a good American.  It is ok to question some parts of the Bible and definitely ok to not want to base our government on its obscure passages.  You can question and even hate our president and still be a Christian and still be a loyal American. 

How have our values been twisted so much that in the "Christian" nation of America:
* No child should be aborted but who cares what happens to them after they are born.  We would rather judge poor people for having sex than to help them prevent pregnancies.
* Petty robbery is horrible but corporate greed is ok.
* Poor drug users deserve jail and not rehab, even though rehab is cheaper and more effective.
* Our culture of life gives the death penalty overwhelmingly to the poor, mentally incompetent, and innocent while the ones who deserve it are free.
* Although we are the richest nation in the world,  35.9 million people live in poverty.  How is that ok?
* It's better for a child to be in danger and never have a home than to be with a loving stable gay couple.
* Viagra is automatically covered by insurance companies but women had to fight long and hard to get birth control pills covered.
* There's a severe lack of affordable housing for the poor, but instead of trying to help them, we refuse to raise the minimum wage and then pass legislation to make it harder for people to declare bankruptcy.
* Public schools are severely under-funded, dangerous, the teachers are overworked, and we put the blame on the teachers instead of the government and our culture that perpetuates the problem.
* We demand freedom of religion but only if it's our religion, our way.
* We're so busy being judgmental and self-centered, we can't see truth even when it's right in front of us.  We refuse to even entertain the thought that it's ok to be disagree and to try to find the common ground.
* We flood the market of poor countries with our cheap grain, creating huge debt for them, de-valuing the work of indigenous farmers, all the while ignoring the poor and hungry of our own country.
* We demand that all other countries destroy any nuclear weapons, but we alone are allowed to keep a stockpile.
* America completely ignores countries that truly need help (Rwanda? Sudan?) but will sacrifice our generation's money and lives in countries where we stand to gain something.
* We allow employers who CLEARLY can afford it to refuse to give their workers health insurance by keeping them "part-time" (working 38 hours a week -- WALMART) or hiring them as temps (DELL) and never giving them full-time status.
* Religion and faith are wielded as a political tool.  Do you really think God wants people (politicians and ministers primarily) using His name to scare and manipulate the impressionable population?

These things have really been pissing me off lately.  These and a million other things.  And every time I watch the news, I feel worse.

*Sneeze*

Ok, so I spoke too soon about the allergy thing.  I'm in pain.  For those of you who don't know, on Wednesdays after work I pick Evie up from school, go to church, we have a piano lesson there, then I do baby-sitting/have dinner with whole church/babysitting again.  I've done the paid childcare on Wednesday nights for like 7 years now.  Jake stays with my mom all day and I don't see him until like 8 p.m. (which sucks, but it's extra money and just part of the weekly routine.)

Anyway, the person who usually does the children's choir after dinner (while I watch the toddlers/preschoolers) was gone, so we decided we would do a nature hike at a church member's house.  They asked if I could go with them to help supervise the kids, and I said "Sure, that'll be fun."  What part of NATURE HIKE did I not understand?  We were outside for over an hour, trudged through a narrow trail through TONS of trees, bushes, flowers, whatever.  Very pretty, yes.  Fun for the kids, yes.  But damn, by the end of the hike my nose and throat felt like they were COVERED in gook.  I took a lot of cute pictures of the kids and it was fun to hang out with the older ones when I'm usually just with the little ones . . . but even now my eyes itch and are watering, my nose itches and is stuffy and running at the same time, my throat hurts and tickles, my LUNGS hurt a little, and I have a headache.  Yeah, good times.  (Kate?  Let's say we drove EACH OTHER to the doctor's office and we can both get a demerol shot!  That may not help relieve my allergy issues, but at least I'd stop caring.  heh.)

Allergies

My seasonal allergies are making me crazy.  I used to take Zyrtec for allergies, but I stopped two years ago -- (a) because I think we over-medicate ourselves and I don't want to be 40 years old and on 6 prescriptions a day.  If I don't absolutely need it to live, I'm not taking it, and (b) dude, $20 a month for 1 prescription is $240 a year I can use for something else.  So I deal with the inconvenience and slight irritation of the dry, itchy, sneezy nose for a few months out of the year and I let it be.  It's only REALLY bad for a few weeks, just mildly annoying the rest of the time, which to me is totally worth having that extra $20 in my pocket.  (What the hell did people do BEFORE all the prescriptions?  They dealt with it.  Oh, and Vick's medicated nasal spray works wonders.  As do Puffs plus tissues.)

Anyway, I sneezed so hard a minute ago that a manager -- whose office is down the hallway and separated from me by two closed doors -- called me and said "Bless you."  I said "Thanks.  What do you need?"  He said "Nothing.  That was just a big sneeze, I thought I'd say Bless you."  Gee, thanks.

Dogwoods

The dogwood trees are a-bloomin' here in Tennessee.  They are SO pretty.  Every time I walk or drive by one, I just want to stop and stare.  This is a tree outside the school where my piano student Margie attends.  I was picking her up on Tuesday and after telling her I was there, I went back to my car and got my camera to take a few quick pictures.  She was embarassed (hey, she's 11, I can understand), but I just had to get this on camera.  The pink ones are what's really beautiful, but these white ones will have to do for now.