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Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Compassion for the Every-man
Sometimes, without even meaning to, I feel things for people I don't even know and for people who no one I know even knows.
A few weeks ago, I watched a good actress take on a very bad part. I couldn't help but cringe thinking, did she really think she was doing great? (And, as a horrible actress myself, I can tell you that, yes, we really do think we are that great when we are not. It took a very strong person to tell me, 'You know, maybe you weren't meant to be on a 50 foot screen.' I didn't listen until years - and many memorable stage messups - later. And I'm still trying to get back into it. I don't care if I'm not that good. It's a sickness!)
Today? I feel sorry for people who used to date the models used in picture frames.
Imagine this: falling in love, breaking up and working so hard to get past the spoon-stays-in-the-ice-cream-call-your-friends-at-four-am stage. Then, you're blissfully walking through Hobby Lobby, searching for that perfect frame for your nephew's second birthday party pictures and WHAM! There is your ex, staring at you from every frame (except the ones that say SISTERS or GRANDMA), his arms around some equally beautiful human being, smiling as if life has never been more grand.
That'll set you back months.
A few weeks ago, I watched a good actress take on a very bad part. I couldn't help but cringe thinking, did she really think she was doing great? (And, as a horrible actress myself, I can tell you that, yes, we really do think we are that great when we are not. It took a very strong person to tell me, 'You know, maybe you weren't meant to be on a 50 foot screen.' I didn't listen until years - and many memorable stage messups - later. And I'm still trying to get back into it. I don't care if I'm not that good. It's a sickness!)
Today? I feel sorry for people who used to date the models used in picture frames.
Imagine this: falling in love, breaking up and working so hard to get past the spoon-stays-in-the-ice-cream-call-your-friends-at-four-am stage. Then, you're blissfully walking through Hobby Lobby, searching for that perfect frame for your nephew's second birthday party pictures and WHAM! There is your ex, staring at you from every frame (except the ones that say SISTERS or GRANDMA), his arms around some equally beautiful human being, smiling as if life has never been more grand.
That'll set you back months.
Monday, September 29, 2008
My dog is killing me
Really, she is.
Yesterday, Hubby and I were cooking together. Sausage, red beans and rice on the stove, and biscuits waiting on the counter until it was time to go in the oven.
Then, Hubby and I went to the garage for a few minutes. When we came back, three of the eight unbaked biscuits were gone. Yeah, thats right. Three. And they were all squishy dough. Not very good for a dog's digestive system.
We kinda felt sorry for her. After punishing her, we rubbed her tummy and gave her some Pepto-Bismol to help with the tummyache she was sure to have.
And what thanks do I get?
I came home from work today to find two of our bowls broken on the living room floor. Why? Because we had ice cream last night and had not put the bowls in the dishwasher yet. Broken. To pieces. All so that she could have a few licks of day-old ice cream.
Yes, this is the same dog that ate fourteen homemade individually wrapped banana-nut muffins while I was in the shower. And was somehow able to carefully open - not tear - a Ziploc bag to get to $20-a-pound buffalo jerky. Twice. And for whom we had to buy a $150 trash can, because it was the only one that she couldn't figure out how to get into and was too heavy for her to tip. And who ate my gorgeous leather BCBG shoes and my never-worn-before leather jacket.
You would think she would learn after a while just how much it hurts to eat -and pass - certain things. But she doesn't learn. Exercise doesn't help. Punishing her doesn't help. Different food doesn't help. Toys don't help. Even gnawing bones don't help. There is no help for this dog.
And she is driving me crazy.
Yesterday, Hubby and I were cooking together. Sausage, red beans and rice on the stove, and biscuits waiting on the counter until it was time to go in the oven.
Then, Hubby and I went to the garage for a few minutes. When we came back, three of the eight unbaked biscuits were gone. Yeah, thats right. Three. And they were all squishy dough. Not very good for a dog's digestive system.
We kinda felt sorry for her. After punishing her, we rubbed her tummy and gave her some Pepto-Bismol to help with the tummyache she was sure to have.
And what thanks do I get?
I came home from work today to find two of our bowls broken on the living room floor. Why? Because we had ice cream last night and had not put the bowls in the dishwasher yet. Broken. To pieces. All so that she could have a few licks of day-old ice cream.
Yes, this is the same dog that ate fourteen homemade individually wrapped banana-nut muffins while I was in the shower. And was somehow able to carefully open - not tear - a Ziploc bag to get to $20-a-pound buffalo jerky. Twice. And for whom we had to buy a $150 trash can, because it was the only one that she couldn't figure out how to get into and was too heavy for her to tip. And who ate my gorgeous leather BCBG shoes and my never-worn-before leather jacket.
You would think she would learn after a while just how much it hurts to eat -and pass - certain things. But she doesn't learn. Exercise doesn't help. Punishing her doesn't help. Different food doesn't help. Toys don't help. Even gnawing bones don't help. There is no help for this dog.
And she is driving me crazy.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Eat Pray Love Read
You HAVE to read this book. It is a DEFINITE.
Eat Pray Love.
You've probably heard of it. It's been out for almost 2 years. Long enough for word to get around how great it is.
But, me being the cheap bastard that I am, had to wait until my turn came up on the waiting list at the library. I should have just bought it.
Just to give a short (very short, because I am not actually done with the book yet, so I don't want to waste more time writing about it before I can get back to reading it) summary of the book:
Woman goes through horrible divorce. Finds herself at the brink of destruction from the battles of life and love. Tries to find herself, God and a higher meaning from all the madness, only to find that a book publisher wants to buy her idea for a book before its even written. The idea? To spend 4 months in the three countries that she feels she needs to go to. Italy, India and Indonesia. The first is spent eating, playing and recovering. (Hence the first word of the title, Eat.) The second is spent in an Yogi's Ashram, praying, meditating and knowing the inner pieces (and maybe, inner peace). And that is the second word in the title, Pray. I am halfway through her time in Indonesia, and I think this may be about love. She writes things you have thought, and never wanted to express, and things you have thought and never knew you had until now. At many times throughout this book, I think, 'Yeah, I've been there. Right on!' (I know, seriously - who says 'Right on' anymore?? Thats right, I do!)
All I want to do now is finish this book and then embark on my own adventure. New Zealand for surfing lessons and safari. Paris for art museums and architecture. And Rome, just to attend mass every morning with The Pope. (Not that I am going to any of these places, but I don't think that it hurts at all to have dream destinations in mind. In fact, I think its necessary.)
Here is an excerpt from the book. So far, my favorite:
"People think a solemate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true sole mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, the come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it."
Eat Pray Love.
You've probably heard of it. It's been out for almost 2 years. Long enough for word to get around how great it is.
But, me being the cheap bastard that I am, had to wait until my turn came up on the waiting list at the library. I should have just bought it.
Just to give a short (very short, because I am not actually done with the book yet, so I don't want to waste more time writing about it before I can get back to reading it) summary of the book:
Woman goes through horrible divorce. Finds herself at the brink of destruction from the battles of life and love. Tries to find herself, God and a higher meaning from all the madness, only to find that a book publisher wants to buy her idea for a book before its even written. The idea? To spend 4 months in the three countries that she feels she needs to go to. Italy, India and Indonesia. The first is spent eating, playing and recovering. (Hence the first word of the title, Eat.) The second is spent in an Yogi's Ashram, praying, meditating and knowing the inner pieces (and maybe, inner peace). And that is the second word in the title, Pray. I am halfway through her time in Indonesia, and I think this may be about love. She writes things you have thought, and never wanted to express, and things you have thought and never knew you had until now. At many times throughout this book, I think, 'Yeah, I've been there. Right on!' (I know, seriously - who says 'Right on' anymore?? Thats right, I do!)
All I want to do now is finish this book and then embark on my own adventure. New Zealand for surfing lessons and safari. Paris for art museums and architecture. And Rome, just to attend mass every morning with The Pope. (Not that I am going to any of these places, but I don't think that it hurts at all to have dream destinations in mind. In fact, I think its necessary.)
Here is an excerpt from the book. So far, my favorite:
"People think a solemate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true sole mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, the come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it."
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Feminist rights and a little bit of ranting
When did 'feminist rights' become synonomous with 'right to have an abortion'? Am I missing something here? I know that I did not grow up in the Roe v. Wade era. Many women have told me that I cna't understand what the women in those times fought for, and what it meant to get the decision that Roe v. Wade did.
But let me tell you something.
I didn't ask you to fight for me on that. I didn't ask you to make it okay for me to kill my unborn child. I didn't ask it and I didn't want it. So, thank you for fighting for my right to vote, earn a good wage and not have to put up with sexual harrassment and biases in the workplace. But I never asked you to fight for my right to kill my child, and I will not thank you for that.
Because, as I see it, it is not my right. It is not my right because it is NOT my body. It is happening in my own body. But it is not the right of my body. The right of my body was to have sex or not to have sex. The right to choose an action that has two different outcomes - pregnant or not pregnant. We all know you can get pregnant by having sex. If I choose to have sex, that is my right. That is the right I have by using my body as I want to.
I do NOT have the right to abort a child because it is inconvenient/a distraction/not intended/an accident/thought I was ok or any of the other hundreds of reasons that are thrown around.
You would not think it was right for a woman to kill her baby after she gave birth to it. Remember the mother in 2000 that was sentenced to prison after killing her newborn baby in a microwave? We all agree that that is not right. So what makes it ok to kill the child before it is born, but not after? The baby was only a month old. It had - according to some - no personality outside of its need to sleep, poop and eat. But it is still wrong. What makes it right to take the life of a child at all, outside or inside your body?
Lately I have been reading alot of editorial comments in different newspapers regarding Sarah Palin. Many of the comments say that she will set the women's movement back dozens of years by trying to ban abortion. They say that she is the opposite of what a woman should be; she's a woman who lives and plays only in a man's world: hunting, playing with guns, a politician and a pro-lifer. I say that she is my kind of woman. She doesn't appeal just to the hunting/gatherer men. She appeals to me, also. Women who don't need the right to have an abortion to feel like a feminist. Women who think that if you don't want to have a baby, then don't have sex.
I don't know yet if I will vote for her. I don't have enough information on any of the candidates yet to make an informed decision. And I probably won't share how I vote with you. But I do know that on this topic, I cannot agree with Sarah Palin more.
From the website www.ontheissues.org:
Palin said last month that no woman should have to choose between her career, education and her child. She is pro-contraception and said she's a member of a pro-woman but anti-abortion group called Feminists for Life. "I believe in the strength and the power of women, and the potential of every human life," she said.
Amen, sister. Amen.
But let me tell you something.
I didn't ask you to fight for me on that. I didn't ask you to make it okay for me to kill my unborn child. I didn't ask it and I didn't want it. So, thank you for fighting for my right to vote, earn a good wage and not have to put up with sexual harrassment and biases in the workplace. But I never asked you to fight for my right to kill my child, and I will not thank you for that.
Because, as I see it, it is not my right. It is not my right because it is NOT my body. It is happening in my own body. But it is not the right of my body. The right of my body was to have sex or not to have sex. The right to choose an action that has two different outcomes - pregnant or not pregnant. We all know you can get pregnant by having sex. If I choose to have sex, that is my right. That is the right I have by using my body as I want to.
I do NOT have the right to abort a child because it is inconvenient/a distraction/not intended/an accident/thought I was ok or any of the other hundreds of reasons that are thrown around.
You would not think it was right for a woman to kill her baby after she gave birth to it. Remember the mother in 2000 that was sentenced to prison after killing her newborn baby in a microwave? We all agree that that is not right. So what makes it ok to kill the child before it is born, but not after? The baby was only a month old. It had - according to some - no personality outside of its need to sleep, poop and eat. But it is still wrong. What makes it right to take the life of a child at all, outside or inside your body?
Lately I have been reading alot of editorial comments in different newspapers regarding Sarah Palin. Many of the comments say that she will set the women's movement back dozens of years by trying to ban abortion. They say that she is the opposite of what a woman should be; she's a woman who lives and plays only in a man's world: hunting, playing with guns, a politician and a pro-lifer. I say that she is my kind of woman. She doesn't appeal just to the hunting/gatherer men. She appeals to me, also. Women who don't need the right to have an abortion to feel like a feminist. Women who think that if you don't want to have a baby, then don't have sex.
I don't know yet if I will vote for her. I don't have enough information on any of the candidates yet to make an informed decision. And I probably won't share how I vote with you. But I do know that on this topic, I cannot agree with Sarah Palin more.
From the website www.ontheissues.org:
Palin said last month that no woman should have to choose between her career, education and her child. She is pro-contraception and said she's a member of a pro-woman but anti-abortion group called Feminists for Life. "I believe in the strength and the power of women, and the potential of every human life," she said.
Amen, sister. Amen.
A new look, a new 'tude
So, I finally updated my old and out-of-date look here on Once Upon a Girl. I feel like I should get a haircut and some new clothes, too. If I'm updating my blogger look, it's only right I should update my 'real' look, too, right??
Thanks to:
Leelou blogs
for making FREE blog backgrounds. And cute ones, too!!
And to my good (and often-missed) friend Katie at www.ritchinlove.blogspot.com. I may not blog as much as she does, but I never miss a chance to read hers!
I'm trying to blog more, but it seems that everytime I have some good ideas - things everyone wants to discuss, I'm sure - I forget them as soon as I touch the keyboard. . . but I'll try to keep it up! Enjoy the new look!
Thanks to:
Leelou blogs
for making FREE blog backgrounds. And cute ones, too!!And to my good (and often-missed) friend Katie at www.ritchinlove.blogspot.com. I may not blog as much as she does, but I never miss a chance to read hers!
I'm trying to blog more, but it seems that everytime I have some good ideas - things everyone wants to discuss, I'm sure - I forget them as soon as I touch the keyboard. . . but I'll try to keep it up! Enjoy the new look!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A sad goodbye
It's hard to look around you, and think that someday, all of this will be gone. Or, more specifically, you will be gone. It's hard to see the people you care about left without you, or you left without the ones who had to go first.
And we can't see our lives like that. If we did, every goodbye would be filled with uncontrollable tears (for who knew not when - but if - we would see them again), every hello would be like the end-of-the-toothpaste squeeze, and all day would be spent wondering if we had done everything we could with the people we wanted to.
But, still, in the back of my mind, I always have to remember that anything could happen. To me. To my family. And, although I am very careful not to become maudlin or weepy, I do try to do things specifically for that reason. I try not to leave town for work in the middle of a fight. I try to talk to my Grandma whenever I can. And I try to say 'I love you' - whether with words or actions.
Sometimes people leave us, and for whatever reason, it was their time. Whatever I may think about it (they were too young, had too much living left, was really starting their life), it is not my choice. He has a bigger plan and although I don't understand it sometimes, maybe I just wasn't meant to. I have to believe that everyone was meant for something, and everyone has an hourglass that is not supposed to be turned over again.
God bless you Uncle Chuck. You will be missed and loved.
And we can't see our lives like that. If we did, every goodbye would be filled with uncontrollable tears (for who knew not when - but if - we would see them again), every hello would be like the end-of-the-toothpaste squeeze, and all day would be spent wondering if we had done everything we could with the people we wanted to.
But, still, in the back of my mind, I always have to remember that anything could happen. To me. To my family. And, although I am very careful not to become maudlin or weepy, I do try to do things specifically for that reason. I try not to leave town for work in the middle of a fight. I try to talk to my Grandma whenever I can. And I try to say 'I love you' - whether with words or actions.
Sometimes people leave us, and for whatever reason, it was their time. Whatever I may think about it (they were too young, had too much living left, was really starting their life), it is not my choice. He has a bigger plan and although I don't understand it sometimes, maybe I just wasn't meant to. I have to believe that everyone was meant for something, and everyone has an hourglass that is not supposed to be turned over again.
God bless you Uncle Chuck. You will be missed and loved.
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