Common Courtesy... Not So Common

HeMan Hubby and I went to a surprise party last night.
We had a nice time.
We were headed home by 9pm.

Imagine my surprise when we pulled into our drive and saw that the rose bushes I had planted along the property line had been cut down.

Not trimmed or pruned...
Cut to the ground!

By the neighbor who owns the property on the other side of the property line.
The State Police Officer who destroyed my personal property.
The rose bushes that I had gotten from my grandfather's garden before my grandmother died.
The ones that cannot be replaced.

I guess I should be glad that I did not plant the peonies there too or I would have nothing left from my grandparents garden...
The one I spent so much time in...
Watching my grandfather prune and pinch back and weed...

The flowers he took such pride in.

Whatever happened to common courtesy?
To asking if one can cut your grass or your bushes or move your trash cans...

HeMan Hubby does not see the issue...
oh, he feels that it was wrong of them to cut down our bushes without asking...
and he even suggested we extend the fence all the way to the street to make sure they don't do it again...
but to him they are just that, bushes...
while to me...
They are a last little bit of my childhood memories with my grandparents that I could touch and see and smell...

Common courtesy... apparently not so common after all.

Procrastination... It's Making Me Wait!

Why is it that when you have a million things you need to do ...
You spend your time doing all those little things that are just busy work?

Yep, that is what I have been doing all morning.
Little tasks that needed done, but not emergently or anything.

Instead of writing
or doing dishes
or laundry
or getting all the tax documentation together...

I updated my Google calendar.
I took care of some bills... did you know that auto payments scheduled for the 30th of the month reschedule themselves for the 29th if there is no 30th?

Now you do... You are Welcome!

I finally got the sweater I knitted steam blocked.
And then I worked on the pleated skirt I'm crocheting until I ran out of yarn...
Now I have to add running to the store for more yarn to my list of things to do... yay?

And I watched, and subsequently deleted, about half the junk I had DVR'd the last few weeks.
And then I went through the pile of junk mail...
and found the Emissions Notice for the truck that is due...last Friday?
oops!

Then I updated my status on FaceBook and tweeted some links for my other blog (Color Me Thin)
and checked the tweets from TeenBoy's AP History teacher to make sure I know what his homework really is...

And I listened to SmartGirl's lungs to ascertain whether she is actually, really and truly dying...
not to worry it seems to be a sinus thing, not a lung thing.

I took a shower and actually did my hair.
I cleaned out my makeup basket and made note of the Covergirl  Outlast lipcolor numbers that I simply adore and seem to have run out of. They go under yarn on my new mental shopping list.

Placed my Melaleuca order ... almost out of the hair spray that keeps my hair from frizzing and the facial cleanser that gets rid of my wrinkles and fine lines...not to mention some nice moisturizing body wash... and all made to be environmentally friendly...

Yes, I have spent the morning doing busy work and now...

I'm ready for a nap.
Quick before BratChild and SIX get home from school and I have to take them to pick up a pair of LAX goggles for her and some socks for him.
And Outlast.
And yarn.

Or I could do the dishes or the laundry or...

Or I could just sit on the couch and look at TV...

Yeah... that sounds good.

Procrastination... the name of the game for today.

No Thank You Card Required... or how to turn your dad into an addict

I have just discovered that Jenny...
THE BLOGGESS...
Author of ( what I am sure will be) an amazingly detailed accounting of her (almost) true life...
Writer of satirical comments for several online publications...
And a sex toy company...


Has her own column on CafeMom!


I know! 
No one told me either.
It was a total, utterly shocking, and very nice, surprise.


For those of you who have never read Jenny's work...


And I can call her that because we are ( in my mind and if we actually lived next to each other we could be) friends... 
( just like Me and Paula Deen and Rachel Ray!)
and because it's her name.


Anyway, you should totally read what she has to say because, well...
there may actually come a day when you are facing annihilation by Zombies and...
if you had read what Jenny had to say you would, maybe, sort of, have a chance at survival.


Or, if you were in a second hand shop and saw the most awesome stuffed groundhog on earth...
we'll call him Orville...
You would know the correct technique needed to haggle a good price for him from the shop owner (or how to get the owner to give Orville to you just to get you out of his shop- whichever).


I showed HeMan Hubby some of The Bloggesses posts and...
He is hooked on Jenny like an addict on Crack!


Come to think of it...
I think I heard them call it Jenny instead of Crack on Ellen just the other day... 


And what does a good addict do?
Hmmm?
He puts the RSS feed on the desk of his FATHER's laptop so HE can become a Jenny addict too! 


Yes, I have shared a little Jenny with my family ...
And I have created a monster... or an addict...
Or a Jenny fan.


Whichever...
You Are Welcome Jenny...
No Thank You card required.

Anti-Social Media...yeah

Twitter.
Tweets.
Hashtags.
Mentions.
Pins.
Pinning.

Does anyone know what I am talking about?
Does anyone understand how these things are supposed to work?

Yes, I have a Twitter account.
Yes, I tweet.

Sometimes.

Not because I have nothing to say but because I don't know how to do it correctly.

When do you use a hashtag? And why?
And a mini-url? I know what it is but where does it come from?

I am not Twittering with Sophistication or Savvy and am fully expecting to be cut from Twitter any day now...
Bratchild says they will do that if you don't have any followers...
how about if you don't have anything for your followers to read?

And that Pinterest?
Okay... I have requested to be invited to join...
because I keep getting links to really cool things ...
like photos of idea rooms, recipes, art work and so much more...
pinned to their boards...
from online friends and bloggers for me to check out, find inspiration in and just enjoy.

The problem?

Yeah, Pinterest says I will be getting an invitation to join soon...
Apparently there is a waiting list there...
and I doubt that I will make the cut.

It's like that really cool club you used to just walk right into...
when you were 22 and looked hot and sexy in a mini-skirt and ankle boots ...
it was the 80's people...stay with me here...

but if you tried to walk in now?
That hottie at the door would have you at the curb and into a cab on your way to anywhere else before you could blink an eye!

At least that's how it feels.

I could be wrong.
I could get that Pinterest invite any second now...
And I could go to a club and walk right in and dance all night...

What?
If I'm gonna dream I may as well Dream Big!

It's a Wide, Wide, Wide... Web?

There are tons of things available on the internet that just 10 years ago were unavailable to the public at large.

There was no Facebook.
There was no Twitter.
There was no Skype or YouTube or Xbox Live.

There was AOL and chat rooms.
There was online news forums.
There was email and online shopping and research sites.

With the innovations that have grown the world wide web into a truly WORLD WIDE WEB of information and accessibility it seems that the world in general has gotten smaller, more restricted and more impersonal.

Where GoodMom and SmartGirl and ManBoy used to spend hours on the phone getting dating advice, giving dating advice, sharing wardrobe secrets and the private thoughts and dreams of the American teen...
spent hours with friends doing their hair and makeup, playing ball in the street and just hanging out and having fun...

Where I once had to shout " Hang up now!" and " It's time to come home!"...

Everything is different.
Everything is changed.


TeenBoy and SIX and, yes, even BratChild communicate with friends online...
.
BratChild Skypes with friends from her soccer team...

SIX plays video games with the kid down the street...

TeenBoy hangs out with Anime enthusiasts...

And none of them leave the house!

All of these social activities...
the ones that used to require actually getting dressed and going outside...
That required one to have an understanding of at least a modicum of personal interacting skills...
like how to meet a person with a handshake or quick hug or air kiss or knuckle thump...
how close to stand to a person before it gets to be too close...
how to make eye contact and appear interested in what another person is saying...
how to actually be in the same room with a person without being rude or offensive or inappropriate...

All of these activities and interactions can be carried on from the comfort of your own home using your home computer or laptop or personal tablet.

Okay.... I will admit that when BratChild said she was talking to D on the Xbox Live while SIX was playing a game with him I thought it was nice that the kids were finding a way to hang out together with their friends...

And then... I found out that D was not the one that lives around the corner but D, a boy SIX found online who lives in Minnesota!

The conversation went something like this...
BratChild- It's pretty warm today. It's that cold?  That's a lot of snow! What grade are you in? Do you go to school? I'm looking you up on FaceBook now...

WHAT?

Okay that is the side I heard so... it being 60 degrees out and having had no snow lately... I had to ask..
Me- Where did D get snow?  You know what grade he's in, he's in your class!

Which led to...
Bratchild- Not D that you know, this is D. He's a boy my age and he lives in Minnesota. It's really cold there. And they get tons of snow.

And then...
Me- Do you even know where MINNESOTA is?

BratChild- I know it's far away... and cold?

And then... she looked up D on facebook and then looked up Minnesota on Google Earth and then checked out the average temps and snow accumulation and... Voila!

She actually learned something... and made a new friend in the process.
But I won't tell her she learned something... that might ruin the whole experience.

I still don't like that the things that used to be done face to face...
that life lessons and life skills needed to be able to succeed are being over looked and forgotten...

But perhaps this World Wide Web isn't all bad...
maybe it's power can be used for good, not evil...
and maybe, just maybe, the skills being learned are the skills that they will need to succeed in this new world where boundaries do not seem to exist and distances no longer seem to matter...

And as long as those personal interactions and skills are learned and developed...
I guess there are good things to come of all this technology...

Sometimes I just have to look real hard to find them

Motivate Me...

I have fallen into a funk.

That place where my thoughts run rampant but my body just doesn't seem to have the energy to keep up...
That place where I find myself in the cold, dead of winter...
That place that makes me doubt my purpose in life...
and feel helpless and listless and drained.

I have been in this place more times in my life than I'd like to admit.
I always come out of it, but each time it feels like a piece of me is forever gone...
Unretrievable... although I am sure that is NOT a real word...
it is what I feel happens to me with each episode of this funk that I encounter.

I know that life is what you make of it...
I put on a happy face...
I do what needs to be done...
but my motivation to do more....
to be more....
seems to have left me.

I know that it will get better.
When the sun shines brighter...
and the earth warms in the spring....
my outlook on life will improve.

Until then, I will continue to do what I must...
to take care of those I love...
and who love me...

Because that is what a good wife...
a good mother...
a good daughter...
does...

I'm an Aunt... or is it Ant???

Yes, I became an Aunt for the ... well, whatever time on Monday.

And NO, his name is not Martin or Luther or King...
although he may be treated like one, a King that is...

Which is wonderful and awful for several reasons.

First, it's wonderful because, well a new life has come into the world and has the most amazing parents...
Secondly. it's wonderful because it is a HE ... which is what the sonograms said it would be so ...

Kudos to modern medicine on getting it right...
because, let's face it, they don't always, you know?

And it's absolutely awful because... they live 1200 miles away from The Busy Family.
It's awful because we won't get to see him, and his adorable big sister and brother, until, well, who knows when!

I am thrilled about the new baby.
He came a little early, and a little late.

He was due around the beginning of February but... well he came in January... which makes him early...
and yet...
my birthday was the 11th and I so very much wanted a birthday twin ... they run rampant in our family...
so coming on the 16th makes him just a little bit late...
but then, he is a boy and you know how independent and strong-willed THEY can be!
Okay, girls, especially the ones in THIS family, can be that way too.

So, it's a little bit awful and a whole lot wonderful at the same time ...
The being an Aunt again... or is it Ant...
You know the English language can be so hard to figure out...
Is simply wonderful...

Well, I'm off to read, or is it reed, or perhaps it's reid... oh, never mind...
I think I'll just go write, or right, or maybe rite???

Oh forget it!
Think I'll just go watch some TV...