Alright, I found out about this from Miss Laurie and I think it's a great way to get people reading interesting books this summer.
So here is my challenge to you...The British paper, The Guardian, has come up with a list of 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read Before They Die. So, the challenge is to read 10 (that's 1%) between May of 2009 and Jan 1st of 2010.Of these 10, you must read 1 from each category.
Hopefully, something you have not read before.
List is at this link.
http://www.listsofbests.com/list/62432
My list is as followed
Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Anita Loos
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
Tourist Season - Carl Hiassen
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Witches of Eastwick - John Updike
The Shipping News - E. Annie Prolux
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Art Spiegelman
If you want to put together a list of 10. Feel free to post what you are reading.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Article in honor of Take Back the Night
Is Rape Serious?
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
When a woman reports a rape, her body is a crime scene. She is typically asked to undress over a large sheet of white paper to collect hairs or fibers, and then her body is examined with an ultraviolet light, photographed and thoroughly swabbed for the rapist’s DNA.
It’s a grueling and invasive process that can last four to six hours and produces a “rape kit” — which, it turns out, often sits around for months or years, unopened and untested.
Stunningly often, the rape kit isn’t tested at all because it’s not deemed a priority. If it is tested, this happens at such a lackadaisical pace that it may be a year or more before there are results (if expedited, results are technically possible in a week).
So while we have breakthrough DNA technologies to find culprits and exculpate innocent suspects, we aren’t using them properly — and those who work in this field believe the reason is an underlying doubt about the seriousness of some rape cases. In short, this isn’t justice; it’s indifference.
Solomon Moore, a colleague of mine at The Times, last year wrote about a 43-year-old legal secretary who was raped repeatedly in her home in Los Angeles as her son slept in another room. The attacker forced the woman to clean herself in an attempt to destroy the evidence.
Tim Marcia, the detective on the case, thought this meant that the perpetrator was a habitual offender who would strike again. Mr. Marcia rushed the rape kit to the crime lab but was told to expect a delay of more than one year.
So Mr. Marcia personally drove the kit 350 miles to deliver it to the state lab in Sacramento. Even there, the backlog resulted in a four-month delay — but then it produced a “cold hit,” a match in a database of the DNA of previous offenders.
Yet in the months while the rape kit sat on a shelf, the suspect had allegedly struck twice more. Police said he broke into the homes of a pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl, sexually assaulting each of them.
“The criminal justice system is still ill equipped to deal with rape and not that good at moving rape cases forward,” notes Sarah Tofte, who just wrote a devastating report for Human Rights Watch about the rape-kit backlog. The report found that in Los Angeles County, there were at last count 12,669 rape kits sitting in police storage facilities. More than 450 of these kits had sat around for more than 10 years, and in many cases, the statute of limitations had expired.
There are no good national figures, and one measure of the indifference is that no one even bothers to count the number of rape kits sitting around untested.
Why don’t police departments treat rape kits with urgency? One reason is probably expense — each kit can cost up to $1,500 to test — but there also seems to be a broad distaste for rape cases as murky, ambiguous and difficult to prosecute, particularly when they involve (as they often do) alcohol or acquaintance rape.
“They talk about the victims’ credibility in a way that they don’t talk about the credibility of victims of other crimes,” Ms. Tofte said.
Charlie Beck, a deputy police chief of Los Angeles, said that there was no excuse for the failure to test rape kits, but he noted that integrating a new technology into police work is complex and involves a learning curve. Since Human Rights Watch began its investigation, he said, the department had resolved to test rape kits routinely — and as a result, cold hits have doubled.
While the backlog and desultory handling of rape kits are nationwide problems, there is one shining exception: New York City has made a concerted effort over the last decade to test every kit that comes in. The result has been at least 2,000 cold hits in rape cases, and the arrest rate for reported cases of rape in New York City rose from 40 percent to 70 percent, according to Human Rights Watch.
Some Americans used to argue that it was impossible to rape an unwilling woman. Few people say that today, or say publicly that a woman “asked for it” if she wore a short skirt. But the refusal to test rape kits seems a throwback to the same antediluvian skepticism about rape as a traumatic crime.
“If you’ve got stacks of physical evidence of a crime, and you’re not doing everything you can with the evidence, then you must be making a decision that this isn’t a very serious crime,” notes Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
It’s what we might expect in Afghanistan, not in the United States.
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
When a woman reports a rape, her body is a crime scene. She is typically asked to undress over a large sheet of white paper to collect hairs or fibers, and then her body is examined with an ultraviolet light, photographed and thoroughly swabbed for the rapist’s DNA.
It’s a grueling and invasive process that can last four to six hours and produces a “rape kit” — which, it turns out, often sits around for months or years, unopened and untested.
Stunningly often, the rape kit isn’t tested at all because it’s not deemed a priority. If it is tested, this happens at such a lackadaisical pace that it may be a year or more before there are results (if expedited, results are technically possible in a week).
So while we have breakthrough DNA technologies to find culprits and exculpate innocent suspects, we aren’t using them properly — and those who work in this field believe the reason is an underlying doubt about the seriousness of some rape cases. In short, this isn’t justice; it’s indifference.
Solomon Moore, a colleague of mine at The Times, last year wrote about a 43-year-old legal secretary who was raped repeatedly in her home in Los Angeles as her son slept in another room. The attacker forced the woman to clean herself in an attempt to destroy the evidence.
Tim Marcia, the detective on the case, thought this meant that the perpetrator was a habitual offender who would strike again. Mr. Marcia rushed the rape kit to the crime lab but was told to expect a delay of more than one year.
So Mr. Marcia personally drove the kit 350 miles to deliver it to the state lab in Sacramento. Even there, the backlog resulted in a four-month delay — but then it produced a “cold hit,” a match in a database of the DNA of previous offenders.
Yet in the months while the rape kit sat on a shelf, the suspect had allegedly struck twice more. Police said he broke into the homes of a pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl, sexually assaulting each of them.
“The criminal justice system is still ill equipped to deal with rape and not that good at moving rape cases forward,” notes Sarah Tofte, who just wrote a devastating report for Human Rights Watch about the rape-kit backlog. The report found that in Los Angeles County, there were at last count 12,669 rape kits sitting in police storage facilities. More than 450 of these kits had sat around for more than 10 years, and in many cases, the statute of limitations had expired.
There are no good national figures, and one measure of the indifference is that no one even bothers to count the number of rape kits sitting around untested.
Why don’t police departments treat rape kits with urgency? One reason is probably expense — each kit can cost up to $1,500 to test — but there also seems to be a broad distaste for rape cases as murky, ambiguous and difficult to prosecute, particularly when they involve (as they often do) alcohol or acquaintance rape.
“They talk about the victims’ credibility in a way that they don’t talk about the credibility of victims of other crimes,” Ms. Tofte said.
Charlie Beck, a deputy police chief of Los Angeles, said that there was no excuse for the failure to test rape kits, but he noted that integrating a new technology into police work is complex and involves a learning curve. Since Human Rights Watch began its investigation, he said, the department had resolved to test rape kits routinely — and as a result, cold hits have doubled.
While the backlog and desultory handling of rape kits are nationwide problems, there is one shining exception: New York City has made a concerted effort over the last decade to test every kit that comes in. The result has been at least 2,000 cold hits in rape cases, and the arrest rate for reported cases of rape in New York City rose from 40 percent to 70 percent, according to Human Rights Watch.
Some Americans used to argue that it was impossible to rape an unwilling woman. Few people say that today, or say publicly that a woman “asked for it” if she wore a short skirt. But the refusal to test rape kits seems a throwback to the same antediluvian skepticism about rape as a traumatic crime.
“If you’ve got stacks of physical evidence of a crime, and you’re not doing everything you can with the evidence, then you must be making a decision that this isn’t a very serious crime,” notes Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
It’s what we might expect in Afghanistan, not in the United States.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Eat. Pray. Love.
My favorite quotes from Eat. Pray. Love.
"He was like catnip and kryptonite to me"
"He was powerful and I died of love in his shadow."
"Italians will tolerate hideously incompetent generals, presidents, tyrants, professors, bureaucrats, journalists, and captains of industry, but will never tolerate incompetent opera singers, conductors, ballerinas, courtesans, actors, film directors, cooks, tailors..."In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted."
"You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be."
"You can use this power -- pretty power! -- to get what you want in life."
"So what can we do about the craziness of the world? Nothing. This is nature of world. This is destiny. Worry about your craziness only - make you in peace."
"The universe is a circle. Heaven, you go up, through seven happy palces. Hell, you go down, through seven sad places. That is why it better for you to go up."
"Darling, I'm southern Brazilian. I can keep a broken heart going for ten years over a woman I never even kissed."
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Courage
When Hitler and his Nazis built the Warsaw Ghetto and herded 500,000 Polish Jews behind its walls to await liquidation, many Polish gentiles turned their backs or applauded. Not Irena Sendler. An unfamiliar name to most people, but this remarkable woman defied the Nazis and saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. As a health worker, she sneaked the children out between 1942 and 1943 to safe hiding places and found non-Jewish families to adopt them.
Today the old woman, gentle and courageous, is living a modest existence in her Warsaw apartment - an unsung heroine.
Her achievement went largely unnoticed for many years. Then the story was uncovered by four young students at Uniontown High School, in Kansas, who were the winners of the 2000 Kansas state National History Day competition by writing a play Life in a Jar about the heroic actions of Irena Sendler. The girls - Elizabeth Cambers, Megan Stewart, Sabrina Coons and Janice Underwood - have since gained international recognition, along with their teacher, Norman Conard. The presentation, seen in many venues in the United States and popularized by National Public Radio, C-SPAN and CBS, has brought Irena Sendler's story to a wider public.
The students continue their prize-winning dramatic presentation Life in a Jar. They have established an e-mail address isendler@hotmail.com.
Irena Sendler was born in 1910 in Otwock, a town some 15 miles southeast of Warsaw. She was greatly influenced by her father who was one of the first Polish Socialists. As a doctor his patients were mostly poor Jews.
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the brutality of the Nazis accelerated with murder, violence and terror.
At the time, Irena was a Senior Administrator in the Warsaw Social Welfare Department, which operated the canteens in every district of the city. Previously, the canteens provided meals, financial aid, and other services for orphans, the elderly, the poor and the destitute. Now, through Irena, the canteens also provided clothing, medicine and money for the Jews. They were registered under fictitious Christian names, and to prevent inspections, the Jewish families were reported as being afflicted with such highly infectious diseases as typhus and tuberculosis.
But in 1942, the Nazis herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into a 16-block area that came to be known as the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto was sealed and the Jewish families ended up behind its walls, only to await certain death.
Irena Sendler was so appalled by the conditions that she joined Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, organized by the Polish underground resistance movement, as one of its first recruits and directed the efforts to rescue Jewish children.
To be able to enter the Ghetto legally, Irena managed to be issued a pass from Warsaws Epidemic Control Department and she visited the Ghetto daily, reestablished contacts and brought food, medicines and clothing. But 5,000 people were dying a month from starvation and disease in the Ghetto, and she decided to help the Jewish children to get out.
For Irena Sendler, a young mother herself, persuading parents to part with their children was in itself a horrendous task. Finding families willing to shelter the children, and thereby willing to risk their life if the Nazis ever found out, was also not easy.
Irena Sendler, who wore a star armband as a sign of her solidarity to Jews, began smuggling children out in an ambulance. She recruited at least one person from each of the ten centers of the Social Welfare Department.
With their help, she issued hundreds of false documents with forged signatures. Irena Sendler successfully smuggled almost 2,500 Jewish children to safety and gave them temporary new identities.
Some children were taken out in gunnysacks or body bags. Some were buried inside loads of goods. A mechanic took a baby out in his toolbox. Some kids were carried out in potato sacks, others were placed in coffins, some entered a church in the Ghetto which had two entrances. One entrance opened into the Ghetto, the other opened into the Aryan side of Warsaw. They entered the church as Jews and exited as Christians. "Can you guarantee they will live?" Irena later recalled the distraught parents asking. But she could only guarantee they would die if they stayed. "In my dreams," she said, "I still hear the cries when they left their parents."
Irena Sendler accomplished her incredible deeds with the active assistance of the church. "I sent most of the children to religious establishments," she recalled. "I knew I could count on the Sisters." Irena also had a remarkable record of cooperation when placing the youngsters: "No one ever refused to take a child from me," she said.
The children were given false identities and placed in homes, orphanages and convents. Irena Sendler carefully noted, in coded form, the children's original names and their new identities. She kept the only record of their true identities in jars buried beneath an apple tree in a neighbor's back yard, across the street from German barracks, hoping she could someday dig up the jars, locate the children and inform them of their past.
Today the old woman, gentle and courageous, is living a modest existence in her Warsaw apartment - an unsung heroine.
Her achievement went largely unnoticed for many years. Then the story was uncovered by four young students at Uniontown High School, in Kansas, who were the winners of the 2000 Kansas state National History Day competition by writing a play Life in a Jar about the heroic actions of Irena Sendler. The girls - Elizabeth Cambers, Megan Stewart, Sabrina Coons and Janice Underwood - have since gained international recognition, along with their teacher, Norman Conard. The presentation, seen in many venues in the United States and popularized by National Public Radio, C-SPAN and CBS, has brought Irena Sendler's story to a wider public.
The students continue their prize-winning dramatic presentation Life in a Jar. They have established an e-mail address isendler@hotmail.com.
Irena Sendler was born in 1910 in Otwock, a town some 15 miles southeast of Warsaw. She was greatly influenced by her father who was one of the first Polish Socialists. As a doctor his patients were mostly poor Jews.
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the brutality of the Nazis accelerated with murder, violence and terror.
At the time, Irena was a Senior Administrator in the Warsaw Social Welfare Department, which operated the canteens in every district of the city. Previously, the canteens provided meals, financial aid, and other services for orphans, the elderly, the poor and the destitute. Now, through Irena, the canteens also provided clothing, medicine and money for the Jews. They were registered under fictitious Christian names, and to prevent inspections, the Jewish families were reported as being afflicted with such highly infectious diseases as typhus and tuberculosis.
But in 1942, the Nazis herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into a 16-block area that came to be known as the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto was sealed and the Jewish families ended up behind its walls, only to await certain death.
Irena Sendler was so appalled by the conditions that she joined Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, organized by the Polish underground resistance movement, as one of its first recruits and directed the efforts to rescue Jewish children.
To be able to enter the Ghetto legally, Irena managed to be issued a pass from Warsaws Epidemic Control Department and she visited the Ghetto daily, reestablished contacts and brought food, medicines and clothing. But 5,000 people were dying a month from starvation and disease in the Ghetto, and she decided to help the Jewish children to get out.
For Irena Sendler, a young mother herself, persuading parents to part with their children was in itself a horrendous task. Finding families willing to shelter the children, and thereby willing to risk their life if the Nazis ever found out, was also not easy.
Irena Sendler, who wore a star armband as a sign of her solidarity to Jews, began smuggling children out in an ambulance. She recruited at least one person from each of the ten centers of the Social Welfare Department.
With their help, she issued hundreds of false documents with forged signatures. Irena Sendler successfully smuggled almost 2,500 Jewish children to safety and gave them temporary new identities.
Some children were taken out in gunnysacks or body bags. Some were buried inside loads of goods. A mechanic took a baby out in his toolbox. Some kids were carried out in potato sacks, others were placed in coffins, some entered a church in the Ghetto which had two entrances. One entrance opened into the Ghetto, the other opened into the Aryan side of Warsaw. They entered the church as Jews and exited as Christians. "Can you guarantee they will live?" Irena later recalled the distraught parents asking. But she could only guarantee they would die if they stayed. "In my dreams," she said, "I still hear the cries when they left their parents."
Irena Sendler accomplished her incredible deeds with the active assistance of the church. "I sent most of the children to religious establishments," she recalled. "I knew I could count on the Sisters." Irena also had a remarkable record of cooperation when placing the youngsters: "No one ever refused to take a child from me," she said.
The children were given false identities and placed in homes, orphanages and convents. Irena Sendler carefully noted, in coded form, the children's original names and their new identities. She kept the only record of their true identities in jars buried beneath an apple tree in a neighbor's back yard, across the street from German barracks, hoping she could someday dig up the jars, locate the children and inform them of their past.
In all, the jars contained the names of 2,500 children ...
But the Nazis became aware of Irena's activities, and on October 20, 1943 she was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo, who broke her feet and legs. She ended up in the Pawiak Prison, but no one could break her spirit. Though she was the only one who knew the names and addresses of the families sheltering the Jewish children, she withstood the torture, refusing to betray either her associates or any of the Jewish children in hiding.
Sentenced to death, Irena was saved at the last minute when Zegota members bribed one of the Germans to halt the execution. She escaped from prison but for the rest of the war she was pursued by the Gestapo.
After the war she dug up the jars and used the notes to track down the 2,500 children she placed with adoptive families and to reunite them with relatives scattered across Europe. But most lost their families during the Holocaust in Nazi death camps.
The children had known her only by her code name Jolanta. But years later, after she was honored for her wartime work, her picture appeared in a newspaper. "A man, a painter, telephoned me," said Sendler, "`I remember your face,' he said. `It was you who took me out of the ghetto.' I had many calls like that!"
Irena Sendler did not think of herself as a hero. She claimed no credit for her actions. "I could have done more," she said. "This regret will follow me to my death."
She has been honored by international Jewish organizations - in 1965 she accorded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem organization in Jerusalem and in 1991 she was made an honorary citizen of Israel.
Irena Sendler was awarded Poland's highest distinction, the Order of White Eagle in Warsaw Monday Nov. 10, 2003.
This lovely, courageous woman was one of the most dedicated and active workers in aiding Jews during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Her courage enabled not only the survival of 2,500 Jewish children but also of the generations of their descendants.
She passed away on May 12, 2008, at the age of 98.
Sentenced to death, Irena was saved at the last minute when Zegota members bribed one of the Germans to halt the execution. She escaped from prison but for the rest of the war she was pursued by the Gestapo.
After the war she dug up the jars and used the notes to track down the 2,500 children she placed with adoptive families and to reunite them with relatives scattered across Europe. But most lost their families during the Holocaust in Nazi death camps.
The children had known her only by her code name Jolanta. But years later, after she was honored for her wartime work, her picture appeared in a newspaper. "A man, a painter, telephoned me," said Sendler, "`I remember your face,' he said. `It was you who took me out of the ghetto.' I had many calls like that!"
Irena Sendler did not think of herself as a hero. She claimed no credit for her actions. "I could have done more," she said. "This regret will follow me to my death."
She has been honored by international Jewish organizations - in 1965 she accorded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem organization in Jerusalem and in 1991 she was made an honorary citizen of Israel.
Irena Sendler was awarded Poland's highest distinction, the Order of White Eagle in Warsaw Monday Nov. 10, 2003.
This lovely, courageous woman was one of the most dedicated and active workers in aiding Jews during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Her courage enabled not only the survival of 2,500 Jewish children but also of the generations of their descendants.
She passed away on May 12, 2008, at the age of 98.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wax Rant
Let me tell you a little about Hell. In my version of Hell they spend all day waxing you. I had my eyebrows done today. It has been about 9 months and dear lord did it hurt. What hurts more now is that is has been two hours and the sking surrounding my once bushy eyebrows are now bright pink. I know there are some people in the world that can do it themselves but I have never had the courage to do something like that. As Elle Woods would say "what hand off to to others what you can do yourself except for in the case of eyebrow maintenance."
Monday, April 13, 2009
Faith
Sometimes you just need something to brighten your day.
(sound needed)
Watching this clip, weirdly, made me realize how much I miss theatre. Mock Trial feeds my mind and my competitive edge, but theatre feeds my soul. My recent book club book does that as well. Eat. Pray. Love. Half feeds it and half starves it out of complete envy. One of the central themes revolves around faith.
I miss faith. When I was younger I felt an intense connection to God at all times. After my mom became sick I struggled, but still went on mission trips and stayed in youth group. After she died, my faith completely died. Recently, I am looking again to feel that connection. One problem I have had is it is hard for me to connect to any one religion. I automatically find what I disagree with and it keep me from fully signing on.
One of the best things about this book is it totally supports the idea of cherry picking your religion. What's wrong with picking and choosing as long as those choices help you personally connect to God. It doesn't matter how large or fast your river is; they all run into an ocean and all those oceans eventually connect.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
9 Ways to be Happier
Being happier doesn’t have to be a long-term ambition. You can start right now. In the next 30 minutes, tackle as many of the following suggestions as possible. Not only will these tasks themselves increase your happiness, but the mere fact that you’ve achieved some concrete goals will boost your mood.
1. Raise your activity level to pump up your energy. If you’re on the phone, stand up and pace. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Put more energy into your voice. Take a brisk 10-minute walk. Even better…
2. Take a walk outside. Research suggests that light stimulates brain chemicals that improve mood. For an extra boost, get your sunlight first thing in the morning.
3. Reach out. Send an e-mail to a friend you haven’t seen in a while, or reach out to someone new. Having close bonds with other people is one of the most important keys to happiness. When you act in a friendly way, not only will others feel more friendly toward you, but you’ll also strengthen your feelings of friendliness for other people.
4. Rid yourself of a nagging task. Deal with that insurance problem, purchase something you need, or make that long-postponed appointment with the dentist. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a big rush of elation.
5. Create a more serene environment. Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time cleaning off your desk and tackling the piles in the kitchen. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizable dent. Set the timer for 10 minutes and see what you can do.
6. Do a good deed. Introduce two people by e-mail, take a minute to pass along useful information, or deliver some gratifying praise. In fact, you can also…
7. Save someone’s life. Sign up to be an organ donor, and remember to tell your family about your decision. “Do good, feel good” — it really works!
8. Act happy. Fake it 'til you feel it. Research shows that even an artificially induced smile boosts your mood. And if you’re smiling, other people will perceive you as being friendlier and more approachable.
9. Learn something new. Think of a subject that you wish you knew more about and spend 15 minutes on the Internet reading about it, or go to a bookstore and buy a book about it. But be honest! Pick a topic that really interests you, not something you think you "should" or "need" to learn about.
Some people worry that wanting to be happier is a selfish goal, but in fact, research shows that happier people are more sociable, likable, healthy, and productive — and they’re more inclined to help other people. By working to boost your own happiness, you’re making other people happier, too.
--Gretchen Rubin blogs about happiness, among other topics, for Real Simple’s Simply Stated. Her book The Happiness Project (Harper Collins) is due out in 2009.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Can you help me remember how to smile?
I'm counting yesterday as the first official day of Spring. I was able to walk without a jacket for an hour and a half without getting cold. AP and I went to Dairy Queen and as I sit here writing my front door is wide open bringing in fresh air and sunlight. More important than that I am also coming out of hibernation.
I've had tunnel vision for such a long time. Monday night I got a nice wake up call and by wake up call I mean pretty much a slap in the face. Have you ever had a moment where you realize you've become someone you barely recognize. "You are what you love and not what loves you back." Sad quote, but poignant. I agree with this quote, but I also would like to add to it. Sometimes you change what you love so that what you love the most will love you back. I have completely lost who I am by spending a large majority of my life trying to make people, fate, and God love me back. January 13th, 2002 broke my heart, Jan 29th, 2007 froze it, and February 24th, 2008 shattered it.
In a last ditch effort to save the pieces I ran away to Minneapolis. That didn't help. Then I ran back to Superior. That didn't help. Then I found a beautiful distraction, but I have come to find that maybe that is all it was. Without it I don't think I would have been able to get through the last few months. I secretly hope I am wrong and it wasn't just a mirage. However, I believe I am finally at a place where I can let go and survive on my own if that is what it has to be.
So who am I? What do I need? What do I love? What loves me back?
I've had tunnel vision for such a long time. Monday night I got a nice wake up call and by wake up call I mean pretty much a slap in the face. Have you ever had a moment where you realize you've become someone you barely recognize. "You are what you love and not what loves you back." Sad quote, but poignant. I agree with this quote, but I also would like to add to it. Sometimes you change what you love so that what you love the most will love you back. I have completely lost who I am by spending a large majority of my life trying to make people, fate, and God love me back. January 13th, 2002 broke my heart, Jan 29th, 2007 froze it, and February 24th, 2008 shattered it.
In a last ditch effort to save the pieces I ran away to Minneapolis. That didn't help. Then I ran back to Superior. That didn't help. Then I found a beautiful distraction, but I have come to find that maybe that is all it was. Without it I don't think I would have been able to get through the last few months. I secretly hope I am wrong and it wasn't just a mirage. However, I believe I am finally at a place where I can let go and survive on my own if that is what it has to be.
So who am I? What do I need? What do I love? What loves me back?
- I love reading magazine backwards.
- I like leaving my door open and sitting on my porch smoking cigars and drinking wine.
- I absolutely love mock trial and law.
- I love my best friends.
- I'm afraid I have too much baggage at 23.
- My favorite feeling is when the lights go down before a show.
- My favorite smell is that of a musty theatre.
- I get sad when I think that my little sister is getting too big to cuddle with anymore.
- I clean when I am upset.
- I easily can turn vicious and vindictive, but I always regret it.
- I refuse to believe in Thomas Hobbs's theories of people.
- I talk too much when I'm uncomfortable.
- I make alterations on everything I order.
- I am much better at taking care of other people than myself.
- I like to argue.
- I have lost the ability to cry.
- I spent 18 years as a protector, and 1 year feeling as though I have failed in that respect.
- I am afraid of what standing on my own two feet will bring.
I love reading, writing, being outside, being with friends, deep conversations, law, movies, wine, walking, and becoming a better version of myself. I need to find my way back to that girl again.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Real Love Means Roughing It
"Each moment of a happy lover's hour is worth an age of dull and common life." - Aphra Behn
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."- Antoine de Saint-Exupert
Romance without finance is no good.
- Willie The Lion' Smith
- Willie The Lion' Smith
Love is the fulfilling of the law.
- Romans
- Romans
To love her was a liberal education.
- Richard Steele
- Richard Steele
Love is the most complicated and simple emotion, yet strangely differently interpreted. One thing is clear. Love means compromising not with another, but with yourself. One of my friends fiercely agrues that you shouldn't change for another person. To some extent she is right, but it is also important to morph and change when a person challenges you. My friend Nevada firmly believes that changing is a natural part of life and when you are in love with someone you are more willing to try different things. She is proving this theory the hard way. She has agreed to go camping for four nights with a boy. In my opinion, this blows Shakespeare's feelings on true love to bits. True love means risking the elements, lyme disease, and not showering.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
High Maintenance?
Are you low maintenance or high maintenance? Maybe even the worse kind...girls who think they are low maintenance, but are actually high maintenance.
Self-evaluation.
Low Maintenance
1) will often leave the house in only sweats and a ponytail
2) spontaneous
3) shops at Wal-Mart and Payless
4) I frequent trashy bars
High Maintenance
1) must alter anything I order at a restaurant
2) my handbags often cost more than the contents within
3) I expect boys to know when I'm upset and how to fix it without telling them
4) I prefer someone else to kill spiders for me
Now I have been attacked by half the men on the mock trial team for being too picky in restaurants. Even told that my orders drive them nuts because I cannot just order a number 3. Let's be honest here. Is there anything wrong with wanting what you want and asking for it. I think not. According to askmen.com I am not high maintenance. Well, maybe a little, but not a total drama queen. Now, you maybe asking why is she on askmen.com. Actually my brilliant friend Dr. A.P., a future psychologist, once told me that her boyfriend glances at her cosmo from time to time. Brilliant behavior on behalf of said boy. Besides learning tips to keep her happy, he also gets an idea of what she is learning. So why shouldn't I do the reverse and see what boys are learning in order to better position myself.
Apparently, men find somewhat high maintenance women attractive. It goes to their manly hormonal protector zone or something. So with this in mind I am going to keep ordering my ranch on the side.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Sweet Wood Work
The home show is this weekend. I do not own a home, but I love, wait, LOVE the home show. I like to walk around and pretend I could buy a hot tub. My two goals are as followed 1) buy praline pecan ice cream and 2) have my ring cleaned by the weird jewelry cleaning guy.
This year I am taking midget me with and exposing her to DECC ice cream for the first time. P.S. It is not organic.
More importantly, I have VP passes to the Home Show Reception Party. Free food, free booze, and the smell of veneer. Bring on the have been celebrities performing, mini donuts, and cabinentry. I'm getting hooked up.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
A Worthy Cause
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29981699/?gt1=43001
WASHINGTON - The Special Olympics launched a campaign Tuesday to banish the word "retard," a casual insult that derives from an out-of-favor medical term and has long been considered inappropriate.
People signed pledges not to use the word and students gathered to denounce its use at rallies from Florida to Alaska. Over the long-term, organizers hope to change attitudes about people with mental disabilities, who number more than 190 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
"It's insulting, it's painful and it hurts people," said actor Eddie Barbanell, who has Down syndrome and appeared in the movie "The Ringer." "Get that word out! End the word! Bury it!"
While "retard" itself was never a medical term, it derives from the phrase "mental retardation," which by around 1900 was commonly used by scientists and doctors, said Peter Berns, executive director of The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit advocate for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Even though Berns said its pejorative connotation was established in the 1960s, the phrase "mental retardation" is still used in many state and federal laws, much to the dismay of those trying to stamp out its use.
"People with intellectual disabilities themselves really mounted a movement that they did not want to be referred to with the word 'retarded,'" he said.
As such, the American Association of Mental Retardation changed its name in 2007 to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities after its members pleaded for the organization to do so. In another sign that the formal use of the term "mentally retarded" had lost currency, The Associated Press replaced it in its stylebook in 2008 with "mentally disabled."
Governors sign on
Still, those seeking to end the term's use face a difficult battle.
"This word is deeply ingrained in our psyche. It comes up in a lot of different contexts," said Andrew Imparato, president and chief executive officer of the American Association of People With Disabilities. "We have to kind of call it out and start a conversation about why it's not OK to use the word."
Among the signatures collected Tuesday were several that belonged to governors: In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — whose mother-in-law founded Special Olympics — signed a proclamation to stop using the word, as did Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver issued a certificate of recognition in support of the campaign.
But the manpower behind the "Spread the Word to End the Word" campaign comes from the students who devised the campaign last month during a Special Olympics youth summit in Idaho and organized rallies around the country.
In Florida, 16-year-old Noah Gray organized a rally for some 600 students at Miami Palmetto Senior High School that featured a rap performance and a speech by Barbanell about his experiences of being called a "retard."
"Like many other high school students and adults, I used to use the word 'retarded' all the time," said Gray, who was invited to speak at last month's youth summit. "Since coming down from the Special Olympics, I have not used that word once ... and I'm discouraging other people" from using it.
'The R-word'At Bowie High School in Maryland, 18-year-old Shannan Barksdale helped gather 861 pledges that will be sent to the Special Olympics organization. During the school's lunch periods, Barksdale yelled, "Say no to the R-word!" and urged students to sign pledges.
"The word should be eliminated from everyone's vocabulary," she said.
Special Olympics has enlisted actor John C. McGinley of the TV show "Scrubs" as a spokesman for the campaign. McGinley, whose 11-year-old son has Down syndrome, said many people don't realize the word is hateful.
"It is saturated in the vernacular, and this will take a while. And it's OK," he said Tuesday. "But it's important to get under way."
WASHINGTON - The Special Olympics launched a campaign Tuesday to banish the word "retard," a casual insult that derives from an out-of-favor medical term and has long been considered inappropriate.
People signed pledges not to use the word and students gathered to denounce its use at rallies from Florida to Alaska. Over the long-term, organizers hope to change attitudes about people with mental disabilities, who number more than 190 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
"It's insulting, it's painful and it hurts people," said actor Eddie Barbanell, who has Down syndrome and appeared in the movie "The Ringer." "Get that word out! End the word! Bury it!"
While "retard" itself was never a medical term, it derives from the phrase "mental retardation," which by around 1900 was commonly used by scientists and doctors, said Peter Berns, executive director of The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit advocate for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Even though Berns said its pejorative connotation was established in the 1960s, the phrase "mental retardation" is still used in many state and federal laws, much to the dismay of those trying to stamp out its use.
"People with intellectual disabilities themselves really mounted a movement that they did not want to be referred to with the word 'retarded,'" he said.
As such, the American Association of Mental Retardation changed its name in 2007 to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities after its members pleaded for the organization to do so. In another sign that the formal use of the term "mentally retarded" had lost currency, The Associated Press replaced it in its stylebook in 2008 with "mentally disabled."
Governors sign on
Still, those seeking to end the term's use face a difficult battle.
"This word is deeply ingrained in our psyche. It comes up in a lot of different contexts," said Andrew Imparato, president and chief executive officer of the American Association of People With Disabilities. "We have to kind of call it out and start a conversation about why it's not OK to use the word."
Among the signatures collected Tuesday were several that belonged to governors: In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — whose mother-in-law founded Special Olympics — signed a proclamation to stop using the word, as did Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver issued a certificate of recognition in support of the campaign.
But the manpower behind the "Spread the Word to End the Word" campaign comes from the students who devised the campaign last month during a Special Olympics youth summit in Idaho and organized rallies around the country.
In Florida, 16-year-old Noah Gray organized a rally for some 600 students at Miami Palmetto Senior High School that featured a rap performance and a speech by Barbanell about his experiences of being called a "retard."
"Like many other high school students and adults, I used to use the word 'retarded' all the time," said Gray, who was invited to speak at last month's youth summit. "Since coming down from the Special Olympics, I have not used that word once ... and I'm discouraging other people" from using it.
'The R-word'At Bowie High School in Maryland, 18-year-old Shannan Barksdale helped gather 861 pledges that will be sent to the Special Olympics organization. During the school's lunch periods, Barksdale yelled, "Say no to the R-word!" and urged students to sign pledges.
"The word should be eliminated from everyone's vocabulary," she said.
Special Olympics has enlisted actor John C. McGinley of the TV show "Scrubs" as a spokesman for the campaign. McGinley, whose 11-year-old son has Down syndrome, said many people don't realize the word is hateful.
"It is saturated in the vernacular, and this will take a while. And it's OK," he said Tuesday. "But it's important to get under way."
5 Steps to being a Goddess
I baked today. Bringing my inner baker out from deep within. So here I am with my boxed cake mix watching Legally Blonde. I can argue case law, yet I can't make a simple cake. - I open the cake mix and a nice portion of the powder goes flying.
- I realize the recipe calls for 3 eggs and I only have 2. So I do what any normal 20 some year old girl would do and look up on wikihow what to substitute. Apparently, you can put in applesauce. I don't have applesauce. I put in half a thing of yogurt. Pomegranate yogurt. I have yet to taste.
- I mix everything together and it is not gooey at all. It's like making bread. So I mush it together and throw it in the pan. Two minutes later I realize I forgot to add water. So I grab it out of the oven and scoop it back into the bowl to stir in water.
- Thankfully, 34 minutes it comes out looking like cake.
- Add chocolate frosting and sprinkles. I am now a domestic goddess.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Clear and Present Danger
Running in heels. Alright, I'll admit it most days I love being a girl. I like pink, fluffy pillows, handbags, and having the door held open for me. Yet, I agree that there are moments that I believe, nay, know that it is easier to be a guy.
Example - Love life. Even though women and do anything a man can do and in heels I may add. We are still expected to act like submissive 1950's poodle skirt girls when it comes to courting. We may throw out all the signs, but most men will admit that they want to be the one chasing. Which means that women are forced to be manipulative by men. Yet, then men claim that we are manipulative. A vicious cycle. If women put out too much they are dirty sluts, yet if they keep their legs closed they are prudes. Men only want women to sleep around if it is with them.
I have to pay the same bills, pay rent, work the same amount of hours, take the same classes, etc. Yet, realistically in ten years I am somehow expected to also do all the house cleaning, cooking, and child raising. Granted, if you want to pay me to stay at home, fine. The fact that men nowadays also expect their wife to work 40 hours a week and bring home a sizable paychecks makes me wonder...how did feminism backfire so that now we have to do more work?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Trial and Favor
Alright. I am committing. Law School, I want it. Time to study for the stupid placement test and prepare some letters of recommendation. What I need to do is make sure I can at least maintain a score in the mid 150's and what I will try to do is raise my average by a few points. It's weird to think that I will be 27 by the time I graduate. Hopefully by then we will be out of this stupid recession and I can get a job.
So it's time to tap into my inner Elle Woods. Study, study, study. Killer essay. Maybe a recommendation from Oprah or the Pope. I'm actually a little disappointed that I won't be able to start next September. I have the wait a whole year and half. Boo. Whatever way it works out, at least I have something to work towards.
So it's time to tap into my inner Elle Woods. Study, study, study. Killer essay. Maybe a recommendation from Oprah or the Pope. I'm actually a little disappointed that I won't be able to start next September. I have the wait a whole year and half. Boo. Whatever way it works out, at least I have something to work towards.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Trial and Error
I don't understand this silly test and what it has to do with becoming an attorney. So Jose, Roberts, Claude, Lila, and Ping are on a boat. If Paul is on the left side of Lila, but only if Lila is driving the boat...... First, why are these random people on a boat so damn picky about where they are sitting? Second, why do I care?
Honestly, I can read a law book, brief a case, and argue in front of people. What else do you want from me Harvard!
I took the LSAT's for the first time back in October of 2007. I didn't study...scratch that...I studied once. I took a practice test while watching Legally Blonde at 2am. I didn't do well. So I retook the test this morning. It doesn't count officially, but it was a practice test taken under the real conditions at the U of M. I haven't looked at my LSAT book in a year and a half. While taking the test, I thought this is not going well. I am going to end up a stripper in Siren, WI. Then strangely enough I did 10 pts better than I did when I took it the first time.
Excited, yes. Confused, yes. I hate this stupid test.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Phobia
Commitmentphobia is often most strongly apparent in romantic life. Generally, commitmentphobic people claim that they are eager to find a lasting romantic attachment and get married, yet they fail to find appropriate partners and maintain longlasting connections. Ironically, in these romantic relationships, the commitmentphobic partner craves what he/she fears most: love and connection. This paradoxical craving for a frightening reality leads to a confusing and destructive pattern of seduction and rejection. The results are emotionally devastating.
Commitmentphobia is often most strongly apparent in romantic life. Generally, commitmentphobic people claim that they are eager to find a lasting romantic attachment and get married, yet they fail to find appropriate partners and maintain longlasting connections. Ironically, in these romantic relationships, the commitmentphobic partner craves what he/she fears most: love and connection. This paradoxical craving for a frightening reality leads to a confusing and destructive pattern of seduction and rejection. The results are emotionally devastating. - Wikipedia
Examination on this topic has made me begun to wonder whether the idea of commitment is a genetic trait. Take for example my extended family.
My dad's family has commitment down pact. 6 out of 7 of them are married and minus my father all of them have been in stable 30 plus year relationships. Divorce is just not an option. Everyone gets married and weirdly everyone seems pretty happy being committed to only one person.
My mom's family finds commitment impossible for the most part. My great uncles could only settle down when there was something in it for them e.g. cash. My uncles avoid committed relationships with anything but cigarettes. Then there is my generation.
Case Study #1. Female, mid twenties. "Dana" Dana can commit intensly for the first month or so. Men are almost seemed as shoes or at least a means to shoes. Dana may wear the pair of shoes for the first month exclusively, but then she will get bored. She will store the shoes for later use, but will make sure her closet is always populated.
Case Study #2. Male, mid twenties. "George" George desperatly wants to be in love and complains about how it never happens. Yet, George is regulary presented with opportunities. He is able to commit for about one night, then when the suitor begins pursuing a relationship George starts feeling pressured. He will keep them around for the occasional ego boost, yet refuses to consider them actual potentials.
Case Study #3. Female, early twenties. "Elle" Elle wouldn't consider herself a commitment phobe, but upon further examination it is clear she has many issues in regards to men. She will typically find a boy she is attracted to and befriend him immediatly. She will start building what if scenerios in her head and annoy all her friends with this information constantly. Yet, she will never pursue. In fact, she almost prefers the perfect relationship in her head and becomes irritated if the boy actual shows interest and starts wreaking her mental relationship.
Commitmentphobia is often most strongly apparent in romantic life. Generally, commitmentphobic people claim that they are eager to find a lasting romantic attachment and get married, yet they fail to find appropriate partners and maintain longlasting connections. Ironically, in these romantic relationships, the commitmentphobic partner craves what he/she fears most: love and connection. This paradoxical craving for a frightening reality leads to a confusing and destructive pattern of seduction and rejection. The results are emotionally devastating. - Wikipedia
Examination on this topic has made me begun to wonder whether the idea of commitment is a genetic trait. Take for example my extended family.
My dad's family has commitment down pact. 6 out of 7 of them are married and minus my father all of them have been in stable 30 plus year relationships. Divorce is just not an option. Everyone gets married and weirdly everyone seems pretty happy being committed to only one person.
My mom's family finds commitment impossible for the most part. My great uncles could only settle down when there was something in it for them e.g. cash. My uncles avoid committed relationships with anything but cigarettes. Then there is my generation.
Case Study #1. Female, mid twenties. "Dana" Dana can commit intensly for the first month or so. Men are almost seemed as shoes or at least a means to shoes. Dana may wear the pair of shoes for the first month exclusively, but then she will get bored. She will store the shoes for later use, but will make sure her closet is always populated.
Case Study #2. Male, mid twenties. "George" George desperatly wants to be in love and complains about how it never happens. Yet, George is regulary presented with opportunities. He is able to commit for about one night, then when the suitor begins pursuing a relationship George starts feeling pressured. He will keep them around for the occasional ego boost, yet refuses to consider them actual potentials.
Case Study #3. Female, early twenties. "Elle" Elle wouldn't consider herself a commitment phobe, but upon further examination it is clear she has many issues in regards to men. She will typically find a boy she is attracted to and befriend him immediatly. She will start building what if scenerios in her head and annoy all her friends with this information constantly. Yet, she will never pursue. In fact, she almost prefers the perfect relationship in her head and becomes irritated if the boy actual shows interest and starts wreaking her mental relationship.
Hmmm? Healthy.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Pride
His curse.
The scent of lamp oil.
Lacking the praise of a Golden Grecian God,
a weak chin.
Wanting the worship,
undue to him.
Eating away at his heart.
A scorpion that tails stings itself.
His curse, his end
Forgotten
Has the moon forgoten her child?
She has disappeared with the fall.
Withered leaves collect at my feet.
The stale dark stills,
while the streetlight flickers toward dawn.
Waiting for the sunrise,
past the aches of fall,
the death of winter,
and the budding spring.
There the summer moon waits for me.
Her shadow lighting my path.
My nightly hours,
where I walk with her as my guide.
*photo courtesy of the amazing Kellie
3 Glimpses
Broken glass lies behind me.
Here I stand bleeding and limping.
Shards of glass dig in with every step,
but with every step I get farther away.
My walk becomes easier.
The glass will eventually work its way out.
sweet champange intoxicating delicatly poured within the crystal men reach for the goblet ready to drink of the pure silk thirsting but left diappointed by the quick soberness
run
run so the your feet never touch the ground
leave before they realize you are gone
disappear before you become stuck
touch something
anything
before your senses die
Here I stand bleeding and limping.
Shards of glass dig in with every step,
but with every step I get farther away.
My walk becomes easier.
The glass will eventually work its way out.
sweet champange intoxicating delicatly poured within the crystal men reach for the goblet ready to drink of the pure silk thirsting but left diappointed by the quick soberness
run
run so the your feet never touch the ground
leave before they realize you are gone
disappear before you become stuck
touch something
anything
before your senses die
Age
She left me standing on the corner.
Between an old fence,
more for holding people out than in.
Dusty gravel lumped in piles on the side of the road.
Most likely crafted by a child,
with proof of messy hands to be washed.
The child had long since disappeared
with only artifacts of dust mountains
leaving any trace.
I spied a place on the fence for me.
Should I sit on the road
and let these clean
hands darken with dirt?
Or sit on the splintering fence
in the shadows?
Thief
To steal back what was once yours.
To destroy what was built from your wreckage.
Take my name.
My face.
Love those I love.
Hate those I hate.
Build your live around me,
then throw me away.
Steal my thoughts.
Steal my ideas.
Steal my heart.
Do what I did to you.
Reality
I woke up and for a moment still thought you were here.I called home expecting to hear your voice,
expected advice or a laugh.
I woke up happy and wanted to share with you my nothings.
I wanted to tell you about today,
just mindless chatter.
Then her voice came on the answering machine
and I remembered.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
I'll have what she's having....
"When Harry Met Sally set the potential for male-female friendship back about 25 years," said Michael Monsour, assistant professor of communications at the University of Colorado at Denver.
Uh-oh, again I find myself setting back feminism single handily. Back to the basic question of whether men and women can just be friends. Let's start at the beginning. My first male friend was in 1st grade, a cute little Jewish boy who lived three blocks away and he also became my first boyfriend. It didn't last that long. Naturally, I began avoiding male friends at the age of 7 because of my first failed attempt. I stuck to being a girly girl and surrounding myself with female and gay male friends. My inexperience with the other sex caused some undesired reactions. Every time, I befriended a male up until college I automatically started having feelings for him.
Of course, I realize that there are girls who have platonic friendships with males. I wonder though if those friendship delve into the close friend territory. The all night, soul baring, secret sharing friendship. Apparently 62 percent of all subjects reported that sexual tension was present in their cross-sex friendships. That does not help my case.
Granted I have male friends, but it seems like I need to keep them in a certain list of check-offs to make it work.
Mockergirl's rules to maintaining cross-sex friendships.
1) Befriend those whom you have no physical attraction for what-s0-ever.
2) Befriend males with bad habits you couldn't stand in a boyfriend -e.g. poor dental hygiene, gamers, stupidity.
3) Do not marry your male friends in your head. (TRUST ME)
4) Wear a lot of sweaters, sweatpants, and ponytails.
5) Do not let them come over drunk at 4am to talk.
6) Befriend boys who like they could be your brother.
7) Start telling yourself how they are exactly like your dad or brother therefore eliminating any sexual urges.
8) Do not tell all your mutual friends when you start to slip up and find one of them attractive.
9) Deny, deny, deny.
10) When you fail, and you will. Repeat step 1-9 until desired results.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Cross Examination
The first thing they teach you about cross examination is that you should never ask a question unless you already know the answer.
This tip can come in pretty handy for life. Learn as much about the situation as possible before diving in. Know exactly what you are going to say and be ready for what you expect their answer to be. Of course, if they stray from the answer you have multiple options including impeaching them and making them stick to the original information you were presented with before.
Unfortunately, there isn't always a judge to keep a witness in line in real life.
The more I learn about the given situation the more I learn that more information pretty much only leads to more confusion. More questions and too many answers to fathom.
My entire case relies upon one stupid question. It doesn't matter how many witnesses I call, how much evidence I present, or if I am able to convince everyone else in the room I am right. If my cross doesn't go as planned the best I can do is try to settle.
I Don't Need Rhinestones
But Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.....
Suspend reality for all practical purposes and let's pretend that I actually had enough money to start saving anything significant. What are we taught? Trust your money to stocks, mutual bonds, and banks. As recent history has shown us this is trusting in fool's gold. With this in mind I have planned my future financial happiness. Real gold. The price of gold is at a all time high with an ounce topping 1000 dollars. Yet, even when the price of gold goes down it is always worth something because unlike a piece of paper it's glittery and shiny gold. Plus, if worse comes to worse I'll melt it down and make a tennis bracelet. In the middle ages one ounce gold coin could buy a suit, today one ounce gold coin could still buy you a nice suit.
Maybe it's time to take the Marilyn Monroe's approach to life. I'm going to wear my savings - in diamonds. 'Cause square cut or pear shaped these rocks don't lose their shapes.
Steel Death Trap
Buffy, my 97 Honda Accord, little and sassy, able to power through Mesaba to Perkins during a raging Blizzard has officially hit teenage hormones. One day she will be just fine, the next she will refuse to start.
Everything in my life seems to fall apart leaving me in the position of damsel in distress more often than I would like to admit. It's hard to pretend to be an assertive independent women when you depend on a pack of boys to fix your life. At least I only depend on 3 of them opposed to 7 and I'm not lying around paleface in some glass coffin. Dopey, my mechanic regularly informs me of what is wrong with my car. Bashful, fixes my cupboards and furniture on a regular basis. Grumpy, he has resorted to fixing my plumbing. Hopefully, Prince Charming makes an appearance here pretty soon.
Prince Charming? Huh? Ever noticed that Prince Charming lacks personality or any deep characterization. At least dwarfs get a defining adjective besides charming. I don't know if I could spend 80 years with Mister Perfect . A weekend in Connecticut might be nice, but nothing beyond that. Dorian Gray was suppose to be "Prince Charming" but he drove a woman to suicide. Fitting considering what the guy would be now adays. Tall, dark, and handsome? I think I'd rather have short, scrawny, and pale. At least his deep seated complexes from middle school will keep him around rather than the hot, charming, narcissistic jerk.
Sometimes it would be easier if we all could just stick to one defining adjective. I could get Sleepy a pillow and Sneezy some Claritan and be good to go. Maybe that's where fairy tales lead us astray. We "princesses in trainings" learn that date worthy men are either villains or heroes. Sidekicks are the flawed. The nerdy, silly, goofy, and geeky personified by poor eyesight and high ACT scores who are good at teaching you how to fix your computer. Too bad my Grimm fables didn't let on that those boys would eventually be heading off to law or med school and that the cute boys would be community college dropouts with beer guts working at Taco John's.
Maybe Sleeping Beauty needs to wake up, fix her Honda, and take a look around at her dwarfs instead of waiting on some knight with a white Mustang.
Everything in my life seems to fall apart leaving me in the position of damsel in distress more often than I would like to admit. It's hard to pretend to be an assertive independent women when you depend on a pack of boys to fix your life. At least I only depend on 3 of them opposed to 7 and I'm not lying around paleface in some glass coffin. Dopey, my mechanic regularly informs me of what is wrong with my car. Bashful, fixes my cupboards and furniture on a regular basis. Grumpy, he has resorted to fixing my plumbing. Hopefully, Prince Charming makes an appearance here pretty soon.
Prince Charming? Huh? Ever noticed that Prince Charming lacks personality or any deep characterization. At least dwarfs get a defining adjective besides charming. I don't know if I could spend 80 years with Mister Perfect . A weekend in Connecticut might be nice, but nothing beyond that. Dorian Gray was suppose to be "Prince Charming" but he drove a woman to suicide. Fitting considering what the guy would be now adays. Tall, dark, and handsome? I think I'd rather have short, scrawny, and pale. At least his deep seated complexes from middle school will keep him around rather than the hot, charming, narcissistic jerk.
Sometimes it would be easier if we all could just stick to one defining adjective. I could get Sleepy a pillow and Sneezy some Claritan and be good to go. Maybe that's where fairy tales lead us astray. We "princesses in trainings" learn that date worthy men are either villains or heroes. Sidekicks are the flawed. The nerdy, silly, goofy, and geeky personified by poor eyesight and high ACT scores who are good at teaching you how to fix your computer. Too bad my Grimm fables didn't let on that those boys would eventually be heading off to law or med school and that the cute boys would be community college dropouts with beer guts working at Taco John's.
Maybe Sleeping Beauty needs to wake up, fix her Honda, and take a look around at her dwarfs instead of waiting on some knight with a white Mustang.
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