I am a very good, if not excellent patron of the Big Y Supermarket in Groton. I figure I spend about $10,000 a year there on groceries. I used to enjoy the shopping experience there. I would go early in the morning, taking my time within the aisles planning my family's meal for the week. The produce selection is great, and so is the meat selection. The prices are very good and so are the weekly specials. Once I was finished shopping, I would proceed to the self check-out where I could put my groceries through at my leisure, separating cold items from shelf items, meats from veggies, and chemicals from food. I would bag my groceries in my reusable bags, being careful not to load them too heavily and not smushing my bread and eggs.
Then came the fateful morning when I finished my shopping and headed over to the self check-outs to find that someone had taken them away. I was crushed. How could they do this to me? Did they not know that my sanity was hanging on by a thread as it was? I could feel my face getting hot as my blood pressure started to climb. I asked one of the cashiers about the mayhem. She said that the contract with the company was up and that the self check-outs were more hassle than good. I was so upset that I thought for an instant I would have to start going up the hill to the Stop & Shop. I was devastated.
I lodged a formal complaint with the Big Y company, to no avail. My self check-outs were never returned to me. With a heavy heart, I returned faithfully to Big Y to do my weekly shopping. I would have to endure the cashiers and the baggers. I told myself that maybe it wouldn't be that bad...maybe I could find a pair that were able in their jobs. I'm still on the hunt, and it has been six long months.
This morning I went to Big Y as I normally do, with one child in tow. He was relatively well behaved this morning, so my blood pressure was still at a normal level. I finished my shopping with little aggravation, except for the fact that the only milk available to purchase was dated for Saturday. I ended up buying to half gallons, spending $1.50 more than what I should have if the gallons were fresh. But I digress. I made my way to the check out lines. Only one was open, so I pulled in the cart, got out my gnarled shopper's card, and handed over my green bags. After slamming them down on the table, the cashier preceded to ring me out. There was no bagger available at the time, so I figured once I had everything on the belt, I could bag myself. I was pushed out of the way by another idle cashier, claiming that she could handle the bagging. Fine...I said. The cashier ringing me out did not put the bread and hot dog rolls aside, so I had to reach over and rescue them before the 12 pack of soda crushed the life out of them. I could feel my face starting to get hot. Meanwhile, the bagging cashier is literally throwing my items into the bags, stuffing them in without rhyme or reason. Then she piled them into the cart, one on top of the other, without any regard for what was getting smashed underneath. My face was getting hotter. The ringing cashier asks for a silver coin, which I hand her. She threw it onto the adjoining table, gave me the total and then slammed the cash drawer. I held out my hand for a new coin and my receipt. She ignored my waiting hand and threw them down on the table in front of me. The whole time I'm watching this I'm wondering what I did to upset this woman this morning. I gathered up my purse and my son, and pulled out of the line, without so much as a "have a good day" from the cashier. I pulled over to inspect the carnage that were once my groceries. I had to repack everything. The cucumbers, that we eat raw, were in the meat bag, along with the onions and lettuce. The lettuce was on the bottom of the bag. The bread and hot dog rolls were in the same bag with the glass jars of tomato sauce and a half gallon of grape juice. The bottoms of the rolls were already flattened, and I hadn't even moved more than five feet from the check-out line. The eggs were jammed in to another bag, on their side, with a half gallon of milk adjacent. Michael's donut was flattened by another jar of tomato sauce. We went to the car, where I proceeded to heave $100 worth of groceries shoved into three bags into the trunk. I am amazed at the tensile strength of canvas, being able to hold fifty pounds of groceries in one bag. After I get them in, I check myself for hernias, knowing full well that I will probably have one after lugging these bags up the stairs. I now realize that housewives need to become Hercules to do the simplest chores: grocery shopping, laundering wet towels, getting the lids off of jars, etc.
By this time, my blood pressure was high enough that I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. I decided to just leave, because I could feel a meltdown coming on. One of these days, they are not going to be so lucky. Either I will have the meltdown in the store, and then the men with the white coats will come and collect me, or I will make the manager cry, one of the two.
The moral of the story is: if you don't want to work with the public on a daily basis, please don't become a cashier. Become a night janitor and clean toilets. You won't have to talk to anyone. And if you don't know the basics of packing a grocery bag, that milk + bread = mush, please don't become a bagger. Become a wine maker instead...all they do is smush things. Just please don't subject me to your bulls**t...I shovel enough of that when I go to the post office.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Rereading the Classics
I love reading. Usually I read James Patterson, but lately he hasn't been doing it for me. Everything has become predictable and repetitive. Most of the time, I reread some of my favorites like Jurassic Park, Lost World, Timeline, the Harry Potter Series, and the Twilight Saga. Lately, I've been haunting the Groton Public Library in order to find something new (or old) that I haven't read before. I read "The Shining" by Stephen King. Absolutely awesome book, maybe a new favorite. Then I dabbled in some non-fiction. I love Chelsea Handler's books, I've read them all except for the newest, "Chelsea, Chelsea Bang Bang." I can't seem to get my hands on that one. If you want a laugh, and don't mind a little raunchiness, her books would be your pick. Then I read all of Judge Judy Sheindlin's books. Those are good books if you are a woman and need a little empowering.
Wednesday, while loitering in the fiction section, I decided I would try reading Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River." The movie was really moving, so I thought the book might be even better. The "L" shelf also held Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." I remember this book from my teen years, being forced to read and scrutinize its pages during high school English class with Mrs. Lawton. I shiver at the thought of her class. Everything about it was a nightmare, including the books forced upon us by the school's curriculum. It totally ruined the reading experience for me. The reading was totally for business purposes, no pleasure involved. Therefore, just like everything I learned in Pre-Calculus, it turned into dust in the wind once the torture of junior year was over.
I decided to check out "To Kill a Mockingbird." This book is a Pulitzer Prize winner, for goodness sake. It should be pretty good, I thought. That was Wednesday, and this is Friday, and I'm already done with it. I love this book, definitely named correctly as a classic. Moving, comical, dramatic...just a few words to describle this masterpiece. But what was really sad was that I had read this book before, and I got absolutely nothing out of it. Now I think of all the books that I was forced to read and dissect in English class; "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, "Moll Flanders" by Daniel DeFoe, "Of Mice and Men" and "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway, the list goes on and on. What did I miss when I read these books? How much of the emotion was lost when reading these books and writing boring symbolism essays?
Now I have my fall and winter reading list set up. I know now that I must reread these classics in order to truly appreciate and understand them. Now looking back, I get the feeling that I came away from high school without an education. I try to remember the actual learning part of the school day, but am distracted by the bullcrap that I participated in daily. The gossip and the boyfriend, worrying about if my outfit looks okay, wondering if my mom knew that I stayed up all night doing homework with a flashlight in my room because I was too lazy to get it done when I was supposed to, or how I was going to tell her that I was getting a C in pre-calculus. The only education I received in high school was the woes of a typcial teenager. I received my real education in college. Thank goodness for college.
So please, when you get some extra time, or feel like curling up with a good book, please consider one of the classics from your teenage torture...you will be pleasantly surprised at how much you missed and the classics will be classics once more.
Wednesday, while loitering in the fiction section, I decided I would try reading Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River." The movie was really moving, so I thought the book might be even better. The "L" shelf also held Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." I remember this book from my teen years, being forced to read and scrutinize its pages during high school English class with Mrs. Lawton. I shiver at the thought of her class. Everything about it was a nightmare, including the books forced upon us by the school's curriculum. It totally ruined the reading experience for me. The reading was totally for business purposes, no pleasure involved. Therefore, just like everything I learned in Pre-Calculus, it turned into dust in the wind once the torture of junior year was over.
I decided to check out "To Kill a Mockingbird." This book is a Pulitzer Prize winner, for goodness sake. It should be pretty good, I thought. That was Wednesday, and this is Friday, and I'm already done with it. I love this book, definitely named correctly as a classic. Moving, comical, dramatic...just a few words to describle this masterpiece. But what was really sad was that I had read this book before, and I got absolutely nothing out of it. Now I think of all the books that I was forced to read and dissect in English class; "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, "Moll Flanders" by Daniel DeFoe, "Of Mice and Men" and "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway, the list goes on and on. What did I miss when I read these books? How much of the emotion was lost when reading these books and writing boring symbolism essays?
Now I have my fall and winter reading list set up. I know now that I must reread these classics in order to truly appreciate and understand them. Now looking back, I get the feeling that I came away from high school without an education. I try to remember the actual learning part of the school day, but am distracted by the bullcrap that I participated in daily. The gossip and the boyfriend, worrying about if my outfit looks okay, wondering if my mom knew that I stayed up all night doing homework with a flashlight in my room because I was too lazy to get it done when I was supposed to, or how I was going to tell her that I was getting a C in pre-calculus. The only education I received in high school was the woes of a typcial teenager. I received my real education in college. Thank goodness for college.
So please, when you get some extra time, or feel like curling up with a good book, please consider one of the classics from your teenage torture...you will be pleasantly surprised at how much you missed and the classics will be classics once more.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Rotary Phone??? You Must Be OLD!
Beginning September 20th through the 26th we are supposed to turn off our electronic devices for "Turn Off Week." This campaign was started by the do-gooders of America to try and save kids from being couch potatoes, computer geeks, videogame hounds, and cellphone addicts. Instead, they are supposed to play board games, read books, and play outside. While the idea on the whole I guess is a good idea, I find some flaws.
We, as humans, are evolutionary creatures. We respond well to environmental stimulus, adapting to changes in our surroundings. Or, at least some of us do. Over five thousand years ago, humans created written language, carved into clay tablets. We adapted well to this new idea, and hand written language can still be seen in some cultures today. (This means language written by pen on paper by a human hand.) Over the next thousand years or so, people used written language to communicate over distances, forming the first rudimentary postal system. It was probably as dysfunctional and unreliable as today's postal system. Hundreds of years later, The Pony Express carried letters and correspondence across the Great Plains and the Frontier through the Rockies to the Gold Coast in the 1860's. Hand-written communication evolved again through the use of typewriters, telegraphs, computers and cell phones over the next 150 years. Who knew that the room-sized computers of the 1940's would make way for the tiny computers in our cell phones and Ipods of today. We even have computers in our cars, telling us that we need to change the oil, inflate the tires, and even computers that locate our position on Planet Earth and tell us how to get home.
My point of this little history lesson is that as a species, humans need to communicate with other humans on a daily basis, and humans also need to create better methods for communication. Hence the evolution from pen and paper to laptops and texting. Therefore, by taking away our means of communication that we've come to know, trust, love and depend on, we can become a danger to ourselves and to others. Have you ever heard of cabin fever?
So, if you want to participate in National Turn Off Week, by all means, do. However, don't be surprised when you begin to go through withdrawals from your emotional dependency on technology. We have evolved to form a dependency on our televisions, cell phones, desktops, laptops, Iphones, Ipads, Ipods, Blackberries, Wii's, Playstations, Tivos, DVRs, and DVDs. Its like taking away sunshine, or ice cream. People can get hurt, even killed. Have you ever gotten in the way of a pregnant woman in the frozen foods section? I'm the same way with my computer. If you take it away from me, the situation can get very ugly, very fast. I was not born to live in the pioneer age with outhouses and horses. I was born to live in the information age, with the whole world at my fingertips. I am a creature of evolution.
We, as humans, are evolutionary creatures. We respond well to environmental stimulus, adapting to changes in our surroundings. Or, at least some of us do. Over five thousand years ago, humans created written language, carved into clay tablets. We adapted well to this new idea, and hand written language can still be seen in some cultures today. (This means language written by pen on paper by a human hand.) Over the next thousand years or so, people used written language to communicate over distances, forming the first rudimentary postal system. It was probably as dysfunctional and unreliable as today's postal system. Hundreds of years later, The Pony Express carried letters and correspondence across the Great Plains and the Frontier through the Rockies to the Gold Coast in the 1860's. Hand-written communication evolved again through the use of typewriters, telegraphs, computers and cell phones over the next 150 years. Who knew that the room-sized computers of the 1940's would make way for the tiny computers in our cell phones and Ipods of today. We even have computers in our cars, telling us that we need to change the oil, inflate the tires, and even computers that locate our position on Planet Earth and tell us how to get home.
My point of this little history lesson is that as a species, humans need to communicate with other humans on a daily basis, and humans also need to create better methods for communication. Hence the evolution from pen and paper to laptops and texting. Therefore, by taking away our means of communication that we've come to know, trust, love and depend on, we can become a danger to ourselves and to others. Have you ever heard of cabin fever?
So, if you want to participate in National Turn Off Week, by all means, do. However, don't be surprised when you begin to go through withdrawals from your emotional dependency on technology. We have evolved to form a dependency on our televisions, cell phones, desktops, laptops, Iphones, Ipads, Ipods, Blackberries, Wii's, Playstations, Tivos, DVRs, and DVDs. Its like taking away sunshine, or ice cream. People can get hurt, even killed. Have you ever gotten in the way of a pregnant woman in the frozen foods section? I'm the same way with my computer. If you take it away from me, the situation can get very ugly, very fast. I was not born to live in the pioneer age with outhouses and horses. I was born to live in the information age, with the whole world at my fingertips. I am a creature of evolution.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Bring Back Bess Eaton
I remember when my sister and I were little, our mom would take us to The Whole Donut in Glastonbury every Saturday morning. Every week we would get the same thing; a glazed and Boston creme for me, and two sprinkle donuts for my sister, and double dutch chocolate milk for both. We didn't mind that the donuts smelled and tasted like cigarettes, that was our special treat for the week and we looked forward to it.
Then there was the sad day that The Whole Donut closed, and we started going to the Dunkin Donuts in the Zaire's parking lot. We didn't like their donuts as much, but we persevered. We kept on ordering the usual, but we were not big fans of this new-fangled Dunkin Donuts.
When we got older, we stopped going to work with our mother on Saturday, we had friend and job obligations. By that time, Glastonbury had two Dunkin Donut stores, neither of which we visited. I preferred bagels at Bagel Boys. When I started college, I started going to Bess Eaton on Prospect Avenue in Hartford every morning. Those donuts and pastries were great, loads better than that rinky-dink Dunkin Donuts in Glastonbury. I loved the coffee rolls, and my freshman 10 turned into the sophmore 20. Then there was another sad day in pastry history when Bess Eaton closed, and magically turned into rubble one day. I was devastated. Thank goodness for Lox, Stock and Bagels at Bishop's Corner. I nursed my Bess Eaton wounds there for the rest of my undergrad career.
In any case, that one rinky-dink Dunkin Donuts turned into a huge drive-thru across the street, followed by the addition of another Dunkin Donuts near the Hebron Ave/New London Tnpk intersection. I didn't notice as much until the Bess Eaton in Salem died. By then I was frequenting the shoreline. Up the street from my boyfriend's house was another Bess Eaton. How did this one find a way to survive? I was overjoyed. I would have to marry this guy, I thought, so I could have an endless supply of coffee rolls right up the road from his house. So I married him and moved in. And then about a year after, my sacred mecca closed. I was robbed!!
I realized that I needed to find another pastry shop. I was forced to return to Dunkin Donuts after all those years. At first, their coffee was good and so were their pastries. Then they introduced their bagel line, which were okay, except they were very doughy--definitely not a Bagel Boys bagel. We had one Dunkin Donuts on Route 1. Then a couple of years passed, suddenly we had three in a mile span. Mystic went from having no Dunkin Donuts to having four in a mile radius. You could walk to all four stores. Something was wrong here. Dunkin Donuts seemed to have been taking over the world. Their coffee started sucking and their donuts got smaller. The bagels got doughier, and their pastry selection disappeared.
Now I hate Dunkin Donuts and everything they stand for. My America doesn't run on Dunkin, never has. I would rather pay through the nose at Starbucks for a coffee than go there. I would go every Thursday morning to get donuts for my son and my grandmother, now I will not go back there anymore. It wasn't enough that they had to take over the world and force my cherished Bess Eaton out of business, they had to steal my credit card number while they were at it! So I'm sorry Mikey and Gram, I'm going to have to find another place to get your donuts. I refuse to take part in their communist regime.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Freedom of Speech?????
Obviously, from one of my previous posts, I still strongly believe in our Constitutional Rights as Americans. Freedom of religion, of speech and of expression are biggies with me. On occasion, I feel so strongly about something that I feel the need to share my opinion with others, hence the blog. Last week, I decided that one of my blogs--Bad Apples--was worthy to send into the New London Day as a Letter to the Editor. Much to my surprise, I was called this past Thursday by someone at The Day, letting me know that my letter would be printed in its entirety, not as a letter to the editor, but as a guest commentary. She told me that it would be in Monday's edition. I was thrilled, and happy that an objective mind thought my writing worthy to print as such.
This morning I found my commentary. The editors had changed the title. "Okay", I told myself, "don't overreact." Then I started reading. Some sentences were changed and some were omitted. Some of the words were changed. I was shocked. None of these sentences nor the words were offensive or hurtful to anyone. It has bothered me all day and I keep going over it and over it in my mind. Did we suddenly submit to a socialist regime, maybe become communist overnight? Maybe just the newspapers have...
"Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging freedom of speech..." Does anyone recognize this quote? Its the first amendment to the Bill of Rights. The Day had no right, in my opinion, to alter my commentary to suit their needs. They shoud have told me that some parts will have to be altered or omitted, and then maybe they would have had to find another guest commentator. As long as I'm still an American, I will endulge in the freedoms that others have instilled and fought for.
This morning I found my commentary. The editors had changed the title. "Okay", I told myself, "don't overreact." Then I started reading. Some sentences were changed and some were omitted. Some of the words were changed. I was shocked. None of these sentences nor the words were offensive or hurtful to anyone. It has bothered me all day and I keep going over it and over it in my mind. Did we suddenly submit to a socialist regime, maybe become communist overnight? Maybe just the newspapers have...
"Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging freedom of speech..." Does anyone recognize this quote? Its the first amendment to the Bill of Rights. The Day had no right, in my opinion, to alter my commentary to suit their needs. They shoud have told me that some parts will have to be altered or omitted, and then maybe they would have had to find another guest commentator. As long as I'm still an American, I will endulge in the freedoms that others have instilled and fought for.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Colossal Collection of Crap
I just spent the morning hauling out my craphole dungeon of an office. Why do we, as humans, feel the need to keep every piece of crap that we come across? You don't see this behavior in nature. Animals hoard food in order to make it through the winter, birds collect junk to build their nests. Why do humans collect?
My office has become the joke of the family. I guess its because I am constantly telling the husband and the children to pick up after themselves. Then they look in my office and then look at me with that you-are-a-hippocrit look in their eyes. My answer to the look is that I'm the mother and the queen and just do as you are told. Of course, that works with the kids, not so much with the husband. We won't even start to discuss the basement and the garage...those are areas that we have deemed condemned, therefore we do not frequent those places.
I began at one corner of my desk and diligently worked through the mess. I came across magazines from two years ago, junkmail, scraps of paper, old post-it notes, bill statements, dust, debris, dead insects, cob webs, money, and about a hundred USB cables that I have no idea to what they belong. It was the most haunted of all haunted desks. Through the corpses and cobwebs, I did find my paper shredder, which was buried alive under a pile of mail and statements waiting patiently to be turned into paper fodder. After shredding the pile, I had enough confetti to celebrate the end of a world war. I hauled out the file shelf and actually put files on the shelf. I found a slew of old birthday cards, pictures, more damn bill statements, batteries, empty frames, calendars, and a date book from 2006. That can't be good...that may mean that I haven't cleaned since 2006??? Yikes.
Everytime we buy a new electronic device, we not only save the old electronic device that we are replacing, we also save the box that the new device came in. Just in case. Our house is filled with "just in case" crap. We have two old tube computer monitors. You know the ones that weighed about 75 pounds and took up half a block's worth of space. We have three old printers...yes, three. One is staring at me with sad eyes as I sit here and type. It hasn't been used since probably 2007, and it just wants to be euthanized. We have the box the Wii came in, all of the accessory boxes, the Wii Fit box, and the Hitachi T.V. box. We've had these devices for over a year, so I don't think anyone is going to take them back. We have the Super Soaker boxes still from the kids birthdays, and shoeboxes with grown-out shoes in them. We even save the toys that the dog destroyed because maybe they will somehow magically patch themselves and we will be able to give them back to her.
So now I'm sitting in a clean office. I still have the four bags of garbage sitting here. As I sit here, I wonder how long it will actually take me to take those four bags of garbage over to the basement door. Then I wonder how long they will sit in the basement before they make their final journey to the curbside pickup. I'm thinking it will probably be at least another five years before they go to trash heaven.
My office has become the joke of the family. I guess its because I am constantly telling the husband and the children to pick up after themselves. Then they look in my office and then look at me with that you-are-a-hippocrit look in their eyes. My answer to the look is that I'm the mother and the queen and just do as you are told. Of course, that works with the kids, not so much with the husband. We won't even start to discuss the basement and the garage...those are areas that we have deemed condemned, therefore we do not frequent those places.
I began at one corner of my desk and diligently worked through the mess. I came across magazines from two years ago, junkmail, scraps of paper, old post-it notes, bill statements, dust, debris, dead insects, cob webs, money, and about a hundred USB cables that I have no idea to what they belong. It was the most haunted of all haunted desks. Through the corpses and cobwebs, I did find my paper shredder, which was buried alive under a pile of mail and statements waiting patiently to be turned into paper fodder. After shredding the pile, I had enough confetti to celebrate the end of a world war. I hauled out the file shelf and actually put files on the shelf. I found a slew of old birthday cards, pictures, more damn bill statements, batteries, empty frames, calendars, and a date book from 2006. That can't be good...that may mean that I haven't cleaned since 2006??? Yikes.
Everytime we buy a new electronic device, we not only save the old electronic device that we are replacing, we also save the box that the new device came in. Just in case. Our house is filled with "just in case" crap. We have two old tube computer monitors. You know the ones that weighed about 75 pounds and took up half a block's worth of space. We have three old printers...yes, three. One is staring at me with sad eyes as I sit here and type. It hasn't been used since probably 2007, and it just wants to be euthanized. We have the box the Wii came in, all of the accessory boxes, the Wii Fit box, and the Hitachi T.V. box. We've had these devices for over a year, so I don't think anyone is going to take them back. We have the Super Soaker boxes still from the kids birthdays, and shoeboxes with grown-out shoes in them. We even save the toys that the dog destroyed because maybe they will somehow magically patch themselves and we will be able to give them back to her.
So now I'm sitting in a clean office. I still have the four bags of garbage sitting here. As I sit here, I wonder how long it will actually take me to take those four bags of garbage over to the basement door. Then I wonder how long they will sit in the basement before they make their final journey to the curbside pickup. I'm thinking it will probably be at least another five years before they go to trash heaven.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Bad Apples--Fascism in Florida
The Dalai Lama said last year that human suffering and troubles are a result of human ignorance. His wisdom in these simple words is unbounding. He also said, "One religious tradition in a world of six billion people, is not enough."
If you agree with these ideas, then maybe there is some hope for you. You are holding onto a lifeline in a churning sea of ignorance that is drowning America. Is the ignorance based on sheer stupidity and hatred, or is it based on fear alone? Fear of the unknown, fear of difference and of diversity? Please don't be afraid.
Terry Jones, a fascist--I'm sorry, a pastor in Florida is hosting a Quran burning on September 11th. He believes that Islam is the gateway to the devil, and that all of the Quran's teachings are evil and satanic. This reminds me of another event in history, involving someone by the name of Adolf Hitler, who led the burning of more than 25,000 books and teachings by Jewish and Catholic scholars (as well as others) in 1933. He fueled this fire by saying that these books preached anti-German teachings. Terry Jones says that the Quran preaches anti-Christian teachings. Has he ever studied Islam and its main ideas? Did he ever come across the similarities between some Biblical stories and Quran stories? He claims, "{the Quran} is evil because it espouses something other than the Christian biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims."
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Terry, but the Bible has also incited radical, violent behavior among Christians. Have you ever heard of the Klu Klux Klan? They use the Bible to defend their cowardly acts towards African Americans and Jewish Americans all the time. How about the Christian Fundamentalists, who use rape, incest, and sexual abuse of young girls to further their abuse of Biblical teachings.
I am not trying to downplay what happened on September 11th, 2001. I still can't watch the footage because I still can't deal with the senseless deaths of more than three thousand people. But I will always honor those innocent lives and I will always refuse to use their sacrifices as a reason to hate. Burning the Quran or hating Muslims will not bring them back. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." (Mohandas Gandhi)
As with any religion, there are people that take their beliefs to the next level, which often proves to be one of hatred, revenge, violence and sadistic, senseless murder. Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism all have their own sects of fundamentalists, who translate sacred teachings and creeds into the basis of violent acts against others. Didn't your grandmother ever tell you "don't let a few bad apples ruin the whole bushel?" Please don't let a few zealots place hatred in your heart. 9 out of 10 Muslims are non-violent, and the Muslim you know at the corner store actually came to this country with the same hopes and dreams that your ancestors came here with.
Please don't let a person like Terry Jones infect your mind with the poison he claims in the name of God and Christianity. Don't let this bad apple ruin the whole bushel.
If you agree with these ideas, then maybe there is some hope for you. You are holding onto a lifeline in a churning sea of ignorance that is drowning America. Is the ignorance based on sheer stupidity and hatred, or is it based on fear alone? Fear of the unknown, fear of difference and of diversity? Please don't be afraid.
Terry Jones, a fascist--I'm sorry, a pastor in Florida is hosting a Quran burning on September 11th. He believes that Islam is the gateway to the devil, and that all of the Quran's teachings are evil and satanic. This reminds me of another event in history, involving someone by the name of Adolf Hitler, who led the burning of more than 25,000 books and teachings by Jewish and Catholic scholars (as well as others) in 1933. He fueled this fire by saying that these books preached anti-German teachings. Terry Jones says that the Quran preaches anti-Christian teachings. Has he ever studied Islam and its main ideas? Did he ever come across the similarities between some Biblical stories and Quran stories? He claims, "{the Quran} is evil because it espouses something other than the Christian biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims."
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Terry, but the Bible has also incited radical, violent behavior among Christians. Have you ever heard of the Klu Klux Klan? They use the Bible to defend their cowardly acts towards African Americans and Jewish Americans all the time. How about the Christian Fundamentalists, who use rape, incest, and sexual abuse of young girls to further their abuse of Biblical teachings.
I am not trying to downplay what happened on September 11th, 2001. I still can't watch the footage because I still can't deal with the senseless deaths of more than three thousand people. But I will always honor those innocent lives and I will always refuse to use their sacrifices as a reason to hate. Burning the Quran or hating Muslims will not bring them back. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." (Mohandas Gandhi)
As with any religion, there are people that take their beliefs to the next level, which often proves to be one of hatred, revenge, violence and sadistic, senseless murder. Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism all have their own sects of fundamentalists, who translate sacred teachings and creeds into the basis of violent acts against others. Didn't your grandmother ever tell you "don't let a few bad apples ruin the whole bushel?" Please don't let a few zealots place hatred in your heart. 9 out of 10 Muslims are non-violent, and the Muslim you know at the corner store actually came to this country with the same hopes and dreams that your ancestors came here with.
Please don't let a person like Terry Jones infect your mind with the poison he claims in the name of God and Christianity. Don't let this bad apple ruin the whole bushel.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Complications
We must make our lives as complicated as possible. I just bought a new cell phone, my first "smart" phone...an LG Rumor Touch. I should have just changed my number...new phone, new number. But no, I had to make a complication. I wanted my old phone number so that I wouldn't have to change it with all three of my contacts. Because of my laziness, now I have to wait until AT&T releases my old phone number so that VirginMobile can get it. So now I'm carrying around two cell phones, complication number 2.
We are putting in an invisible dog fence. Complication number 3. We have our own wire, because I married a wire and cable guru (complication number 572, just joking honey). However, all of the fencing kits come with wire. So now complication number 4 is finding a kit with no wire, or buying a receiver and collar separately, in order to save money.
Our dog has a bit of irritable bowel syndrome and needs daily doses of Acidophilus and a bland diet, complication number 5. Complication number 6 is when you boil hamburger meat in a pot of water and don't watch it closely, it overboils fat all over the stove. Complication 7 comes when you have to scrap off the cooled fat with a razor blade.
Complication number 8 comes in the form of taking several trips to the supermarket because you keep forgetting the one vital ingredient in the dinner that you are making.
In all, I guess some complications we bring upon ourselves are necessary and then others are bonuses. I should listen to my mother more when she says, "Why do you want to complicate your life more? I'm never getting a cell phone." I can't help it Mom, I'm a complicated person. :)
We are putting in an invisible dog fence. Complication number 3. We have our own wire, because I married a wire and cable guru (complication number 572, just joking honey). However, all of the fencing kits come with wire. So now complication number 4 is finding a kit with no wire, or buying a receiver and collar separately, in order to save money.
Our dog has a bit of irritable bowel syndrome and needs daily doses of Acidophilus and a bland diet, complication number 5. Complication number 6 is when you boil hamburger meat in a pot of water and don't watch it closely, it overboils fat all over the stove. Complication 7 comes when you have to scrap off the cooled fat with a razor blade.
Complication number 8 comes in the form of taking several trips to the supermarket because you keep forgetting the one vital ingredient in the dinner that you are making.
In all, I guess some complications we bring upon ourselves are necessary and then others are bonuses. I should listen to my mother more when she says, "Why do you want to complicate your life more? I'm never getting a cell phone." I can't help it Mom, I'm a complicated person. :)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Tourist = Terrorist
Being Labor Day Weekend, we still have some stragglers around that weren't scared off by the so-called hurricane. Enough stragglers, however, to raise your blood pressure. So we prepared ourselves mentally for the barrage of tourists that we might find when visiting the village. At first, it wasn't so bad. We thought that we might get away with a little relaxation while shopping. And we were successful for a while. Then we made the mistake of getting back into the car to make our way home. First, we go to pull out of the parking lot and a huge bus full of tourists holds up traffic because it is trying to squeeze something the size of two elephants into an opening the size of a smartcar. Somehow, probably by the mercy of Heaven, the driver missed all of the fences and parked cars. Taking a deep breath, we proceed to pull out of the parking lot and out onto the road. Here, we are almost broadsided by a shiny white Mercedes. We somehow come out of that unscathed, pull up to the intersection, and witness another huge tour bus blow through the intersection at full speed. My husband looks at me and says, "I just want to go home." We proceed to get onto the highway, only to be slowed by another terrorist who is traveling on the highway at 40 mph. After avoiding this, we make it back to our house, okay physically but exhausted mentally.
This is just one experience in a cluster. Daily we have close calls near our house with people looking for the entrance to the hotel. They will get on the highway and either drive in reverse down the on-ramp, or turn around and drive in the wrong direction down the on-ramp. Other times, we see them invent their own lanes of traffic. For some reason, where these people come from, they don't have stoplights. A red light means nothing to them. And then there are the really bold terrorists that will turn around in our driveway. Not just at the top of the driveway, but come all the way down, turn around in our yard, and then proceed back to the road.
My question is this: Are there really that many terrible drivers on the road, or do they just become terrors when the visit towns and cities outside of their home turf? Are there places in America that maybe don't have stoplights, on-ramps, lane dividers, stop signs, yield signs, highway signs, wrong way signs, private driveways, four-way intersections, and speed limits?
In light of all this negativity, there is a positive note. We love the looks on their faces when we drive right at them when they disregard the rules of the road. Maybe we can inflict a little terror in the terrorists.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Too many thoughts, not enough finger energy...
Tonight my mind is a mish-mosh of ideas, thoughts, opinions, and just general crap I can't get a hold on any one thing. Our storm of the century became a piddle in the toilet, however, I got out most of frustrations in yesterday's blog. Today my mind is loud, but my mouth is silent. Maybe its just plain old exhaustion, or I have ADHD.
Here is the insight into my mind--
1) Is Hollywood and our young up-and-coming actors and actresses glamorizing domestic abuse? This comes on the heels of the Rhianna and Enimem video, showing a couple being abusive to each other. Domestic abuse is not cool, is not a fad, but is a dangerous trend in teen couples.
2) A Connecticut State trooper was tragically killed yesterday afternoon in Enfield, however, that was number three or four on the list of stories tonight on the evening news. First and foremost was the sorry excuse of a tropical storm that the media still insists on calling a hurricane, even though it lost its hurricane status over 24 hours ago.
3) Will the gutter outside our east bedroom wall hold out through the night, or will we wake up to our new indoor swimming pool?
4) There's also a flicker of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan and their impact on impressionable teenage minds, but I think I'm too tired to put those thoughts together tonight.
5) What type of personality disorder leads to hoarding and should I worry? (If you have seen my office, you would know what I'm talking about.)
6) Does American Movie Classics (AMC) actually think that "The Mummy" is an American movie classic?
All of these thoughts are swimming around in there, but everytime I cast out the line, I can't get one hooked. So I apologize for tonight's rambling, maybe tomorrow I will be more successful.
Here is the insight into my mind--
1) Is Hollywood and our young up-and-coming actors and actresses glamorizing domestic abuse? This comes on the heels of the Rhianna and Enimem video, showing a couple being abusive to each other. Domestic abuse is not cool, is not a fad, but is a dangerous trend in teen couples.
2) A Connecticut State trooper was tragically killed yesterday afternoon in Enfield, however, that was number three or four on the list of stories tonight on the evening news. First and foremost was the sorry excuse of a tropical storm that the media still insists on calling a hurricane, even though it lost its hurricane status over 24 hours ago.
3) Will the gutter outside our east bedroom wall hold out through the night, or will we wake up to our new indoor swimming pool?
4) There's also a flicker of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan and their impact on impressionable teenage minds, but I think I'm too tired to put those thoughts together tonight.
5) What type of personality disorder leads to hoarding and should I worry? (If you have seen my office, you would know what I'm talking about.)
6) Does American Movie Classics (AMC) actually think that "The Mummy" is an American movie classic?
All of these thoughts are swimming around in there, but everytime I cast out the line, I can't get one hooked. So I apologize for tonight's rambling, maybe tomorrow I will be more successful.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
It's a Nor' Easter! Oh sorry, just a hurricane...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgkZjOMTAMM
This one is definitely for my mother. Hopefully the above link will give her a laugh.
Living in Connecticut certainly has its advantages. Besides having one of the top five highest gas taxes, and the second highest per capita income (not sure if this is good or bad). We also are sheltered from most of the severe weather that the rest of the country encounters on a daily basis. And yet, we have the highest concentration of drama queens for weathermen. One of the greatest of all time is the man featured in the above video clip, Hilton Kaderli. Other great drama queens include Art Horn, Dr. Mel Goldstein, Scott Haney, and Geoff Fox.
Somewhere during their schooling on how to become weathermen, they must have taken the following courses: Shouting 101, Basics in Fear Mongering, Fundamental Principles of Scare Tactics. Seriously, do they have to shout? Whenever we get the slightest whisper of wind or a flake of snow, suddenly we are thrust into the middle of Tornado Alley or Fargo, North Dakota. All I think of when I see these embarrassing displays is how we know nothing about severe weather.
In 2008, 125 people were killed by tornados in the United States. Over 1800 people were killed and over 80 billion dollars in damage was done by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The tornado that hit Bridgeport in late June caused under five million dollars in damage and no one lost their lives. My point is, no matter how severe the weather is here, others are getting hit ten times harder in other parts of the country. We have no inkling of the destruction that Mother Nature can inflict in a matter of mere seconds. We are the lucky ones, even if Mr. Weatherman makes you think that we are facing devastation.
So please, don't buy into the fear mongering. Use your own gut instincts...you'll live a longer and happier life without worrying if you have enough toilet paper to make it through the storm.
This one is definitely for my mother. Hopefully the above link will give her a laugh.
Living in Connecticut certainly has its advantages. Besides having one of the top five highest gas taxes, and the second highest per capita income (not sure if this is good or bad). We also are sheltered from most of the severe weather that the rest of the country encounters on a daily basis. And yet, we have the highest concentration of drama queens for weathermen. One of the greatest of all time is the man featured in the above video clip, Hilton Kaderli. Other great drama queens include Art Horn, Dr. Mel Goldstein, Scott Haney, and Geoff Fox.
Somewhere during their schooling on how to become weathermen, they must have taken the following courses: Shouting 101, Basics in Fear Mongering, Fundamental Principles of Scare Tactics. Seriously, do they have to shout? Whenever we get the slightest whisper of wind or a flake of snow, suddenly we are thrust into the middle of Tornado Alley or Fargo, North Dakota. All I think of when I see these embarrassing displays is how we know nothing about severe weather.
In 2008, 125 people were killed by tornados in the United States. Over 1800 people were killed and over 80 billion dollars in damage was done by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The tornado that hit Bridgeport in late June caused under five million dollars in damage and no one lost their lives. My point is, no matter how severe the weather is here, others are getting hit ten times harder in other parts of the country. We have no inkling of the destruction that Mother Nature can inflict in a matter of mere seconds. We are the lucky ones, even if Mr. Weatherman makes you think that we are facing devastation.
So please, don't buy into the fear mongering. Use your own gut instincts...you'll live a longer and happier life without worrying if you have enough toilet paper to make it through the storm.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Making Babies
Our society is obsessed with babies. Fertility and prenatal care are the best they have ever been. Baby supply stores make a mint off of our search for unwavering unconditional love. Heck, I've had two of them, and I love them more than my own life. However, those babies must grow into toddlers, who must grow into adolescents, who grow into teenagers. This is the pathway to adulthood, and it has happened to all of us. Some of us have come out okay, some of us haven't. The point here is that we must all grow up, sooner or later.
We have all experienced the feelings associated with the first day of kindergarten, either through our own memories or through our children. This day is both heartbreaking and liberating, a proud moment for most parents. We have put our love and nurturing into this child, and we send him or her off into the world for the next step in their lives. At this moment, we are cutting the umbilical cord for the second time, and letting someone else shape and teach our child.
Yet, through the progression of elementary school, our child becomes more independent, and more knowledgeable of the world and community. He or she begins to form their own ideas, beliefs, and opinions. Their bodies and their minds grow and mature. Finally comes the day that they must leave the safety of elementary school and go onto bigger and better things...middle school. Today, most middle schools consist of the sixth, seventh, and eigth grades. Middle schools are supposed to ready them for high school and college by introducing more complex principles and encouraging independent thinking.
Taking these ideas into consideration, what is a parent to think when a seventh grader, who is twelve going on thirty, comes home with a name sticker with a big yellow bus on it? Additionally, what is the same parent thinking when the seventh grader tells her that they had assemblies all day, teaching them about how they need to behave in school, and what happens if they are bad little boys and girls? The parent also learns that her child must carry a student passport, in which she gets stamps for good behavior. Once she has a certain number of stamps, she gets a reward. I'm sorry, I thought I was talking about middle school, not a sandwich shop, or a pet obedience class.
So, in conclusion to this rambling, I'm thinking that society is still not ready to cut the umbilical. They want to hold onto the baby days as long as they possibly can. They want to hold their hands when they cross the street, want to hold the spoons to their mouths so they can eat. They don't want them to be responsible for their actions and behavior, so they make excuses for them. Soon those twelve year olds are going to be seventeen year olds, teetering on the edge of adulthood. Some will make the leap, steady on their landing. Others will lose their balance and fall through the crack. And some may get wedged in-between.
We have all experienced the feelings associated with the first day of kindergarten, either through our own memories or through our children. This day is both heartbreaking and liberating, a proud moment for most parents. We have put our love and nurturing into this child, and we send him or her off into the world for the next step in their lives. At this moment, we are cutting the umbilical cord for the second time, and letting someone else shape and teach our child.
Yet, through the progression of elementary school, our child becomes more independent, and more knowledgeable of the world and community. He or she begins to form their own ideas, beliefs, and opinions. Their bodies and their minds grow and mature. Finally comes the day that they must leave the safety of elementary school and go onto bigger and better things...middle school. Today, most middle schools consist of the sixth, seventh, and eigth grades. Middle schools are supposed to ready them for high school and college by introducing more complex principles and encouraging independent thinking.
Taking these ideas into consideration, what is a parent to think when a seventh grader, who is twelve going on thirty, comes home with a name sticker with a big yellow bus on it? Additionally, what is the same parent thinking when the seventh grader tells her that they had assemblies all day, teaching them about how they need to behave in school, and what happens if they are bad little boys and girls? The parent also learns that her child must carry a student passport, in which she gets stamps for good behavior. Once she has a certain number of stamps, she gets a reward. I'm sorry, I thought I was talking about middle school, not a sandwich shop, or a pet obedience class.
So, in conclusion to this rambling, I'm thinking that society is still not ready to cut the umbilical. They want to hold onto the baby days as long as they possibly can. They want to hold their hands when they cross the street, want to hold the spoons to their mouths so they can eat. They don't want them to be responsible for their actions and behavior, so they make excuses for them. Soon those twelve year olds are going to be seventeen year olds, teetering on the edge of adulthood. Some will make the leap, steady on their landing. Others will lose their balance and fall through the crack. And some may get wedged in-between.
In the Beginning...
Today is the first day of school here in Groton, and the first day of the blog. I was waiting for some sort of hitch in the goings-on this morning, like the bus driving by our stop at seventy, but it stopped right on time. Have the planets aligned creating some sort of paradox? This has never happened, since the first day of kindergarten. Amazing...now we'll see if I get the usual reports of the bus driver texting while driving the bus. If this doesn't occur, then I will really start to wonder about the soundness of the earth.
In continuance of first days, I will begin an exercise regiment. I will begin with walking laps at the track, followed by weaving the cart through the senior citizens at Big Y. Then I will heave the grocery bags into the trunk and then try to carry all of the bags in at the same time. That should burn some calories. Once I get the groceres in, I can commence cleaning up pee from an excited puppy that thinks she hasn't seen me in days, even though it has only been an hour since I left. Around that time, she'll find a paper towel, or a hair scrunchie, and begin to run around the house while I proceed to chase her and tackle her before she chokes on the contraband. When all of this is said and done, I will decide that walking laps is overrated, and the exercise regiment will die before it even had a chance to live.
In continuance of first days, I will begin an exercise regiment. I will begin with walking laps at the track, followed by weaving the cart through the senior citizens at Big Y. Then I will heave the grocery bags into the trunk and then try to carry all of the bags in at the same time. That should burn some calories. Once I get the groceres in, I can commence cleaning up pee from an excited puppy that thinks she hasn't seen me in days, even though it has only been an hour since I left. Around that time, she'll find a paper towel, or a hair scrunchie, and begin to run around the house while I proceed to chase her and tackle her before she chokes on the contraband. When all of this is said and done, I will decide that walking laps is overrated, and the exercise regiment will die before it even had a chance to live.
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