Friday Frenzy

I know. I have been a lazy blogger of late.  But I'll use my Friday post to try to fill it the gaps.

Monday:  Summoned to appear fro jury duty, but was released after nearly 6 hours of selection processing.  That and I noted on my questionnaire that serving on a jury would be a hardship.  The judge brought me back into her chambers, where the attorneys for both sides as well as the defendant were in on the interview.  The judge, who was delightful to be honest, asked me about my answer.  I told her that I was the primary breadwinners in our family at the moment, and while I wasn't worried about LOOSING my job, I did worry about the money.  Since I was an hourly employee the hours I'm not there I don't get paid.

Good thing I was released.  It ended up being a trail with charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault and domestic violence int he presence of a child. I think I'd have had a hard time being fair on that one.

Tuesday: Work was crazy, but that is normal anymore.  then Iran right from work home to pick up The Boy and we ran to the swim team parent's meeting.  Same old, same ole.  But it felt weird to be there with The Girl.  Then one of her friends--now a senior--said how much she was missing The Girl too anytime the "team" was together.  There were a LOT of new freshman swimmers though.  I hope that is a good sign of things to come.

Wednesday: I got a lot of stuff done at work.  whew.  That is always a relief.  I got out of there earlier too--things were slow, thus the feeling of progress!  It is amazing what I can accomplish at home when I'm not at work.

Thursday:  I had another crazy day at work, but it all worked out in the end.  Just some people make you crazy!  I had a call from a patient's daughter who is coming from out of state to pick up her hospice-serviced patient to drive him to Las Vegas where they are supposed to catch a plane to Samoa, where the father would like to die.  Did I mention he is on oxygen full time?  Oh, and you can't get on an airplane with O2 tanks, and there aren't any portable oxygen concentrators that can be used on a pressurized plane with an output of more than 3 liters per minute?  Her father is at 4.5 LPM.  She's booked their flights and paid for everything but it will be illegal (and unethical to whomever she rents the O2 equipment from there) to get him on a plane?

Thank heavens it is Friday.  Even it today gets crazy, I know it is the weekend....and a holiday one at that!

Reserved Seating

I heard about this on the news last night.  Can you believe people?!? Church Pew Fight

I know that in our congregation there are the regulars who seem to sit in the same place week after week.  And we jokingly talk about it being their assigned seating arrangement, but I certainly would hope that no one would come to blows over it.  That is just ridiculous!

People are CRAZY!

If I Ruled The World

I had several moments this past week where I thought "If I ran the world, _________ would not be allowed."  Now most of these are directly applied to visitors at Disneyland, but see if these aren't just what the world needs.

If I Ran the World...at least at Disneyland....

1) No one would stop right in the walkway to do anything.  Pull over to the side of the walkway if you need to talk with your friend, change the baby's diaper. find your phone, eat your lunch, or find a bathroom on the map.

2) Having only half/part of your party actually wait in the line and then at the last moment have everyone join you would get you thrown out of the park.  Yes, the line wait sign says "45 minutes".  That is the gauge for those in the line, right now.  Not the dozens of extras you are smuggling in on the last turn before boarding.

3) If your baby/child/teen/spouse is crying--it is time to go home.  Take a time out.  The park isn't going anywhere.  You can get your hand stamped and come back later--after a nap.

4) You would understand that the park's food, while convenient, is expensive. Please don't try to haggle about it and PLEASE don't complain to the wait staff/food service employee about the prices.  It wasn't their decision.  You choose to get in the line, so order already and remember where you are!

5) If you travel with a family reunion group, and are probably from Utah, make sure you know who had your kids.  It isn't fair to the kids when you yell at them because they were standing in line, waiting patiently--and very calmly--with Uncle Fred and you just didn't see the hand-off.

6) Just because the fabric of the clothing you thing makes you look so good is stretchy doesn't mean it actually fits you.  Pouring yourself into a stretchy lace undershirt and topping it with a halter bikini top doesn't keep all your bits out of sight...if anything it makes them MORE obvious and glaring.  Yikes.  Just put some clothes on.

And, perhaps most importantly, 7) I don't care if you are celebrating your 50th anniversary, your weekend wedding, or your coming out to your parents as a junior high lesbian couple, the PDA has got to stop.  I don't want to see it from ANYONE.  This is an amusement park, not some kind of cheap motel lobby!  Enough, I say.


From these basics, you can see why no one has asked me to be the General Manager of the World.

Bad Dream or Telling Premonition?

This week I had a tremendously frightening dream/nightmare in which I was in a law office or library setting with half a dozen or so other educated women discussing the local politics swirling around us.  These women were wearing dresses, pantyhose, and heels.  They looked professional, albeit circa 1990.  Their hair was done and they wore conservative jewelry and makeup.

I could recall a lot more detail from this dream, for whatever reason.  Maybe becasue I woke fro it in such a sudden way.

The conversation of the dream was unsettling at best, but these women were sharing their ideas about the candidates running for office--not just the presidential race, but even down to our local school board race.  Normally, this is a good thing, but thees women were spreading half truths and outright lies about people I either know (the school board candidate) and support.  I tried, in the dream, to reason with them and tried sharing my understanding of the position each of these candidates held on public education, sex ed, and educational funding.  All the things that make me crazy--one way or another--that have been in the news regularly during election cycles.

The next thing I know I went completely postal--like, I snapped and was simultaneously beating them with my fists and shooting them with guns and hacking at them with really big knives.  As horrifying as that is, the really odd part is that slowly, as I was taking each of them out, each woman's face morphed into the face of a woman in my stake who is serving on one of the local School Community Councils yet disagrees with nearly everything the public schools are doing.  She believes the Common Core standards are part of a federal government conspiracy theory to brainwash our children into believing President Obama's every whim. She supports every candidate I detest and I disagree with her on point after point politically.  Yet, I have to deal with her on an ecclesiastical level.

Anyway, as soon as the blood and gore began I startled myself awake.  A little appalled by what I just dreamed.  And yet, on a more irrational level, I was strangely satisfied.  That makes me a little bit scared of myself.

It also makes me wish this whole election process was long over!  Now, that would be a dream.

Say, WHAT?!

This is a photo of a horse--an really, really, expensive race horse--in a compression suit.  Under Armor, if you will, for horses.  Is this not the silliest thing you have ever seen?  Crazy.

The article I read online talked about how thee horses are real athletes and they deserve the same kind of benefits for their tired muscles that people do. (Well, that was the gist of the story...I may have paraphrased that.)

Sure, I believe these animals are athletic and bred and trained to do exactly what they do, really well.  But they are still horses.  And I don't care HOW fabulous this animal is, when he comes back to the barn wearing this the other horses are laughing at him.  How could they not?!

Crazy.

"Special" Friends

You know you have one or two (or more) friends like this...the ones you love in spite of them being more than a little weird.  They are special...like, short-bus special.  But we love them just as well.  And really, they make our lives a little bit better--even if that better comes in the form of recognition that at least our life isn't as messed up as theirs.

What IS It With People?!?

After my post yesterday, once you read this, you may be tempted to think that I really don't like people.

You'd be right.

Why do otherwise rational adults turn into self centered, narrow minded monsters who refuse to let go of their own personal, selfish, competitive drives in favor of a positive, uplifting, and challenging, learning experiences for their kids?  Kids need to have some positive experiences in order to learn how the world works, but it is dang hard to give them that when other adults are too busy watching the world rotate around them to let it happen.  If they never see that, how can they ever learn to manage the world they must deal with in a positive manner?

It is a really good thing I believe in life after death; a life where things are bound to be better off for all of us, otherwise I'd be so depressed in the world we live in I just wouldn't take it.  I know that all things will be made known, and made fair.  I just hope I can hang on long enough to see it happen for these boneheads that mess things up for their kids.

Hunkering Down

Maybe you have heard:  We have a BIG snow storm headed right for us.  All day long we have been hearing this warning.  Well, we are just outside the storm's path currently.  And people are freaking out!!

Really, people.  We've been warned for years to "be prepared".  What about all you former boy scouts?!  Isn't that the motto you followed?!  Come on! 

Even a couple of days with out power--should that happen--won't kill you.  It might make you really really uncomfortable, but with a little ingenuity and canned soup over your camp stove or outdoor grill you can stay alive.

I ran out earlier tonight to go pick up a pizza--because it sounded fun--and the grocery store parking lot os packed....apparently everyone was trying to get their Thanksgiving stuff all purchased before the storm got here.  But I am sure some panicky folks were also hanging out at Macey's.  One of the news channels was there stirring up that sense of panic, so it MUST be a deadly storm?!  Right!!

It isn't like this is a Hurricane Katrina situation.  It is a snow storm.  We live in the mountains, so this happens every winter.  This storm, however, just has some fantastic media attention, and it is making people crazy!

I'll let you know if we "survive"...so stay tuned for the next few days, just in case it goes bad.  Good crud, crazy people.

I'm Losing It!

Just last night I made an appointment to visit with a nearby friend.   It was to be early in the morning...but this morning, I couldn't recall if I was supposed to meet her today or tomorrow.  This bothers me a great deal--not only for just missing (or maybe showing early) our appointment, but that I cannot seem to remember things so simple.  What is the matter with me?!

What are the first sings of Alzheimer's disease?  Dementia?  Mental Illness?

Wait. Don't answer that last one.  I already know the answer to that one, and it is, sadly, too familiar.

Why?!

Why do people feel the need to gossip? 

I am asking a serious question here.

What makes human beings feel the need to talk about others behind their backs and tell each other disparaging remarks about someone whom they may or may not know the whole story.

Why?

When I hear things like this it makes me sad.  When what I hear involves my own character, integrity, and reputation it makes me discouraged.  And mad.  And wanting to crawl into a hole somewhere.

There are days when I feel like I have been beating my head against the wall, for fun.  Well, it is not fun.  And now my head hurts.

I hate when that happens.

To Panic or Not to Panic?

I keep getting startled by this whole Swine Flu panic. I am not panicking. Should I be panicking? Maybe I missed something. I don't think it is too big a deal, to be honest.

These sorts of things, though unpleasant, happen a lot more often than people seem to notice. What gets the attention of the nation, or the world in this case, is the media outlets that run three or four stories right off the top of the news broadcast about this new strain of flu and how it is infecting so many, so quickly. Maybe it feels like a cause for panic because we keep hearing so much about it.

I don't know for sure, but maybe if we all take a deep breath and calm down we might be able to think about it rationally and see that washing our hands and not sharing drinks and being responsible for ourselves and our loved ones would only help this situation.

It doesn't have anything to do with EATING pork products. Yet people only hear the words "swine flu" and seem to think the pigs were sick and therefore the meat is the transferring agent. Wrong.

Maybe I am just ignorant here, and that is OK. So, if I get this blasted illness, let's hope it kills me quick. The directions for funeral arrangements are in a document file on my computer--marked "Shauna's funeral"--in case anyone comes looking for it. Just don't sing "Love At Home" at the service. I will haunt you if you do--with my friends, the pigs.

Birthday Season in Full Swing

I have written several posts now that have been far too serious or sentimental. Today I would like to leave you with a bit more light hearted fare. At our house, we are midway through our season of birthday celebrations. The season begins in February, and like all good sporting seasons, seems to last forever. Ours ends in early August. So here are some photos from years passed wherein we look our best (not) and turn another year older--like it or not. Enjoy!

When Genius Golfer turned 40, we threw him an Old Man in the Neighborhood party. One set of neighbors gave him the appropriate Old Man outfit. Nice..Now you can see why I love this guy!
I am not sure what happened in this one, but I do know that I generally belong BEHIND the camera, as witnessed by this photo. But this was my birthday and I was probably making faces at one of the kids who was commandeering the camera.

The Girl still, to this day, likes to put her bows and ribbons from her gifts on her head--in some highly fashionable way, as seen here at her birthday party a few years ago. Cindy Crawford, eat your heart out!

Here was The Boy a couple years ago, full on in the middle of his Eddie Van Halen--wanna be phase. Being a child of the 80s, I have taught my youngling well, have I not?! Rock on, brother!

Just in case you go out into a public place and start looking for any of the crazies posted above, just remember that we CAN put on a "normal family" look too. The really scary part is that this unassuming normal family is really made up of the lunatics posted singly above. Beware. You HAVE been warned.