Suicide Blonde

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Happy Holidays! (Wish they were over...)


"Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in an old man's hat...

Well, the holidays are almost here, and since I've been MIA due to my pursuit of a penny or a ha'penny, I sneaked in to wish all of you a wonderful end of the year/winter solstice/christmas/hannukah/kwanzaa/whatchamacallit to you and your family. This is a joyful time of the year, but I think that it's also a tough time of the year for many. It's a time of stress, of anticipation, of missing those dear to us who passed away, of not having enough money to give the presents we want to give, of stretching ourselves thin in every way, of trying to get everything done and wanting to have everything come out lovely. It is a stressful damn time of the year. All you have to do is look at those around you.

Some people become traffic nazis, cutting you off, honking at you for any real or imagined thing, giving you all of .005 of a second to get going when the light changes to green before they flip you the bird through your rearview mirror, or scream at you because you took the parking space they wanted even though you had your blinker on for half an hour waiting for the other car to pull out. Other people become aggressive in stores or in shopping malls, stepping all over your cute "Vixen Red" polished toenails to get to the stuff that's on sale or to be the next person in line. Still others, while humming "Silent Night" under their breath, will treat you rudely in an office, or ignore you. Yes, those things happen during the rest of the year, but it is important to realize that at the end of the year it gets worse, and people are stretched out emotionally, financially and physically to the end of their ropes.

People, people let's remember that at least during this time of the year we should be more tolerant, more giving, more smiley-faced. It's like that email that I'm sure has gone around the world a quazillion times, the one that says that when someone cuts you off you don't know what catastrophe they are speeding from or to. Keep in mind that we are all human beings, we are all busy, overworked, (grossly) underpaid, and unless you are Donald Trump, Ted Turner or Bill Gates, we are all being exploited. Every person is someone's darling child, or someone's sweet mom or aunt or granma or dad or uncle or grandpa. And if they are orphans it's even more of a reason to treat them nicely because they have no one that they are special to. I know I'm ending a lot of sentences with prepositions but grammar be damned!

My thrust (that word always increases my readership for some weird reason) is this: Let's be nice to each other, or if you can't do nice then at least be polite. And let's keep doing this after the holidays and after New Year's Day. Let's do it all the time.

I hope you enjoy my sappy little Christmas post. I really do miss you all and am looking forward to reading you in 2007! Big Blogger Kisses to You, One and All!


Thursday, December 07, 2006

Dear Readers (All three of you)...

I'm ok, we're ok, sorry I haven't written. On top of having the added responsibilities that my new title (Assistant Director, did I mention that?) brought to my full time job, I am working 20+ hours a week at my part time job at a department store of Thanksgiving Parade fame, and in my spare 15 minutes a week I'm trying to keep up with cleaning my house, paying bills, grocery shopping, getting a Christmas tree and shopping for gifts. Needless to say, mentally and emotionally I am a basket case and my 52-1/2 year old body is coming apart at the seams (well, more so now).

My sons: My Marine is ok, he has been able to call us a few times in the last month. He is homesick, he is tired of sand (that's what he said to me during his last call), and he asked me again to pray for him for his upcoming missions. That call was responsible for me not sleeping for two nights. On the third night I managed to sleep because I was exhausted. I would have slept even if Bigfoot came into my bedroom and started chewing on my leg. Honestly.

My younger son: "Big D," the one that is driving-challenged as you may recall, is doing well. His finals are next week and he has "everything under control" as he likes to tell me. I hope he has more control of his studying than of his car while driving. To his credit, it has been a whole month since he crashed anything, had any accidents or got a traffic ticket. Anyway, last night we went to get a Christmas tree and a car passed us doing 75 mph in a 40mph zone. My boy actually "tsk tsked" and said "People like that are the ones that cause accidents." I started laughing (still laughing about it as I type) and he said "Yeah, I guess I shouldn't talk." Maybe he's been in traffic school and seen those gory accident movies way too many times. I guess they do work in the long run.

Proof that men have strange DNA-related behavior patterns: Last night when we had finished picking out our Christmas tree (which by the way, involved picking up each and every blue spruce pine tree and analyzing it in detail from every angle, we spent way too much time there), we dragged it to the cash register, I plunked down the appropriate cash for it, then we dragged it to where the guy cuts it with a power saw. We sat there watching the guy work on the four trees before us and then he did ours. My son had brought the car to the front of the store to pick up the tree and had then gotten down and was watching the Power Saw Guy next to me. I had to drag him away from watching the guy lobbing off the bottom branches of the next 10 trees! He was mesmerized! When I pulled him away, saying "Hey D, we gotta go, we're in everyone's way," he giggled self-consciously and said "Thanks, Mom, I was kinda hypnotized." Sheeesh, men.

Anyway, I miss you all, I miss catching up on what's going on in your lives. I'll be back for good probably in January since this month is just bonkers. I give up trying to have a normal life in December. Love yous all!!!