I didn't have time to write yesterday, sorry about that. Hope you had a great weekend though. We have been pretty productive around here, unpacking more stuff, (we've got SO MUCH STUFF it's ridiculous), and deciding what items to "Freecycle," (just got rid of an old crock pot today after we found our other, bigger one), and what items we're going to take to the Goodwill. The goal is, when Pete's kids arrive here for Thanksgiving week, we're going to put them to work!! Pete wants everything moved out of our 3 car garages and taken to storage in our barn out back...but ORGANIZED first. I think it's a great idea, but wow, his kids aren't gonna like it one bit!! hehehehe
So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about all kinds of stuff, and I thought you might like to know the kinds of things that go through my brain on a daily basis, to give you some idea of who I am. (Not that you really give a crap, of course, but I'll pretend that you do). These things are in no certain order of importance....just random stuff that goes through my head...
Some NASCAR dude named Wheeland died today in a fiery crash of 15 cars on the track-----I have been to only one of those races, down in Virginia, with a (then potential) boyfriend....but ya know, I'm NOT a big fan of that stuff...it was noisy, it stunk like oil and burning rubber, and I just didn't care for it one bit. I did get to see Dale Earnhardt though, before he died. I have a picture of him sitting on top of his race car at the beginning of the race, riding around waving at people. Other than that, I never watch that stuff. But I was reading today's headlines, and it makes me so sad to see the photo of this 33 year old guy, nice looking, with his beautiful blonde wife, and gorgeous babies...Sebastian and Oliver...they are too young to lose their daddy, and that makes me just horribly sad. I don't know anything about this guy, but it says he was from England, and he's won a few races. It just kills me to know that his kids will never know him. It breaks my heart.
This photo that my friend Lisa posted on Facebook earlier, really got me...
I'd like to buy about 50 million of these, all sizes, and ship them to every so-called "Christian" hate group, church and organization in the country. I really don't understand how these "holier than thou" people can sleep at night, when they have absolutely NO tolerance for anybody who isn't like they are. I mean, come on, do they REALLY want to be like Hitler??? I kinda thought he was the bad guy, y'know? Why would they go to such an extreme to hate other people, when the U.S. of A is a friggin' MELTING POT in the first place, full of every kind of immigrant in the world?! That was the whole POINT of starting this country!! We all have our differences, sure, but the whole experiment of America was the hope that we could SHARE this place, and live in PEACE......that's what our Founding Fathers hoped for at least. It makes me wonder seriously about Christianity. The meaning of that word, and that religion, has morphed into something evil. I mean, even Hitler's swastika started out as meaning a pagan symbol for success and happiness, ya know? Now, it means something completely opposite.
Oh, and this one too....just kills me....
I look around at this world we're living in, you and me, and I don't really understand how it got so skewed and messed up over the years. I kinda blame your generation, actually, to be honest. I mean, you're 10 years older than my husband Pete, but between the two of you guys, your entire "beatnik" and "hippy" society actually failed quite miserably, and now those same hippies and beatniks have truly fucked up everything for everybody else. (Yeah, you...you were most definitely a hippy type of guy back then, don't try and lie about it...if nothing else, you know DAMNED well that you believed in free love and rock and roll....I think I've read along the way somewhere that you've also done your share of drugs in the past too). So don't sit there and deny it, Mr. Perry. (Pete had long hair once too, he believes in polyamory, BDSM, kink, D/s, and though he calls himself "Libertarian," he still loves rock and roll).
I mean, hey, don't get me wrong, I'm an activist type of person too, I sign petitions all the time on Change.org, and I try to speak out whenever I feel the need to...I used to teach kids about tolerance, diversity, racism and the dangers of hatred, prejudice and stereotypes. That's my bag. (I love love love the word BAGISM, by the way, coined by John Lennon). I have a photo of myself sitting underneath a sign he drew with his own caricature and the word in capital letters, and of course, I'm giving the peace sign!!
So, hey, I have some hippiness and beatnikness in me too... BUT...what the hell HAPPENED to all that activism in the 60's?? I am well aware that it turned into greed in the 80's (that was my decade finishing high school)....and I guess it was smoked out in the 70's with all the drugs...and the 90's were just a mess all over the place, with grunge music and twisted logic and overspending like there's no tomorrow....so now, 20 years AFTER the 90's, we're all living in a shithole, and nobody seems all that riled up or angry about it........I just don't get it. "If you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention." That's one of my favorite bumper stickers....along with this one, which had me cracking up...."Feed the Hungry...to the homeless." I mean HEYYYYY, I'm surprised that the government hasn't made THAT into a law yet. It solves both problems, won't cost much, and eliminates the "undesirable" people in our society too.
Here's what I don't get....the rich people bitch and moan about paying more taxes....but they didn't GET rich by themselves---they used the same ROADS we all paid for....the same EDUCATION system....all that stuff that the DC politician Elizabeth what's-her-name said in her speech about it...WE ALL PAID FOR THOSE THINGS that helped them GET rich in the first place. So, quitcher-bitchin', and pay up. Hey, here's the irony.....I grew up poor, in a lower-middle-class household all my life....I had to do without a lot of things....I had only THREE t.v. channels as a kid, until the age of 19. I have made thrift store shopping an art form. I'm addicted to them, even now. I never pay full price for ANYTHING.
In fact, Mr. Perry-my-sexy-Troubadour-that-I-love, I couldn't even afford to get a Tiger Beat magazine as a junior high kid, to get that poster of you and Journey that I just HAD TO HAVE, so I scraped together my allowance for 2 weeks, and paid my friend Kelly $2.00 for that ONE PAGE, just to have that poster of YOU on my wall. Seriously. I don't know how much the whole magazine cost at that point, but $2.00 was NOT an easy thing to scrape together when I was a kid, I had to work HARD for that!! We only got $1 every week, IF we did all our chores around the house, AND brought home good grades too.
But now, Pete tells me that WE are among those 1% rich people....though I really don't FEEL rich by any stretch of the imagination....but last year alone, he raked in over...well...I really shouldn't say...and he's already past that mark this year....(doesn't the President make like $200,000)?! But compared to everybody else in my life, we are "rich." But if he didn't have Apple stocks handed to him left and right from his boss, we wouldn't be rolling in it all that much. One share of Apple stock just went up to $420 already, since the death of Steve Jobs. Rather morbid, but okay, keep it going folks. I guess that's one way to honor the guy.
And of course, Pete doesn't like having to pay more taxes, but I say, "I AM HONORED TO MAKE THIS COUNTRY BETTER BY DOING MY PART TO SACRIFICE FOR AWHILE, AND PAY A LITTLE MORE TO HELP THOSE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T." I am NOT a Socialist, Stephen, but I do believe in sharing the wealth whenever it is possible to do so in a logical, mature way. Why don't the rich people want to make this country a better place, just by forking over a little extra green?? They can BUY a politician, but they don't want to help the guy out when he asks them to?! I don't get it.
Ya know, I can't even go out and get a JOB---not even part-time----because every dime I would make would be totally eaten up as taxes. (Most women would be like, "YAY! I don't have to work anymore!" but I am NOT most women. I actually miss having a job. I've always had two jobs at one time, all my life, so I feel like a lazy bum). Pete says I should go volunteer at some place around here, and that's cool with me, BUT, until his mom passes away, I really can't leave her here with my mom all the time, that's not fair to either one of them at all.
So....let's see....other things on my mind....how many shoe boxes do I want to fill with kids' toys for Samaritan's Purse this Christmas?? I also like to send shoe boxes full of stuff to the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq too. I like to find miniature Christmas trees, and decorate them with mini ornaments, and write a letter of thanks to them, with candy and toiletries, stuff they need, etc. It's the very least I can do, and I feel like a bum because I only do it once a year. I just go to any shoe store, and ask if they have any extra boxes in their back rooms, (they always do), and I take some home with me. Then I go to the Dollar store, get some candy and little things for kids, and then I go to a department store and buy a Barbie doll or something, (for girls), and a truck or something for boys. I try to add a coloring book and crayons, too, but that doesn't always fit in the box very well. Then I ship them to Samaritan's Purse (after wrapping them in Xmas paper and then brown paper over it), and I send a check along with them so they can pay for postage to wherever they ship the boxes to.
Do you do anything like that? I'm sure you give to your favorite charities, probably, and that's very cool. There was a recent radio drive for the Children's Hospital here in Pittsburgh on WDVE fm, and they said that they had 72 kids in ICU at that point.....so Pete donated $10 to each of those kids...a total of $720 bucks, and they were freaking out all over the place! I kinda goofed and said, "We want to donate $10 to every kid in the hospital," but before I could say, "who is in ICU," the chick squealed and said, "OH MY GOD! There are over 3,200 beds in the Children's Hospital!! THAT IS SO UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME!" And she got the DJ to come over to me, as I was stammering, "But...but....wait....no....um....hey....wait...." and the DJ comes on the phone (Michelle), to say to me, "THANK YOU SO MUCH!! THAT IS SO TOTALLY AWESOME OF YOU!!" (AND we were on the air at the same time, mind you).....so I was rather embarrassed, to say the least.....but they were very happy with the $720 anyway, it just wasn't the $32,000.00 they originally thought....sigh.
The cool thing about working for Apple---well ONE of the cool things----is that Pete can donate money up to $10,000 a year to any charities he wants to, and the company will MATCH that donation. I love that. I would love to work for Apple myself, actually, and I keep telling Pete to train ME on software development and coding, and all the stuff HE does, so that when HE retires, I can take over and continue to work there 10-15 more years!! We've got time!! We could do that!! I'm a fast learner!! But alas, he's not convinced that I'd be a very good computer geek. I told him, "then fire the damned Admin person and I'll take over HER job then...sheesh."
Well anyway, those are just some of my thoughts for today. I had a hard time earlier, at the Costco, (which is like a Sam's Club, only better), because I wanted to get Pete a new toaster oven, and they had one on sale, a Cuisinart, with a $20 coupon---however, when I got there, I discovered those are $80 bucks!!! THAT IS HIGHWAY ROBBERY!! For a friggin' TOASTER OVEN??! Seriously?! They had 2 other brands there, but the least expensive one was apparently "sold out," (bait and switch), so I debated on if Pete would kill me for spending $80 bucks on a stupid toaster...damn you Cuisinart!! But instead, it took me 20 minutes to find a stupid employee there, to come over and look around to see if I was missing the location of these inexpensive brand toaster ovens, but alas, I was told that it was the "last one," the demonstration item on the shelf was all they had left---AND they had NO BOX for it either. I said, "Ya know what, that sucks, it's a Christmas gift for my husband...but $35 compared to $80?! I'll take it and buy a box for it at the UPS store. It'll still be cheaper than $80 bucks." And it doesn't take up HALF the amount of space on the counter-top either...the Cuisinart was a monster. Sure it had digital controls on it, buttons to push, etc., and it probably launched fireworks on occasion for all I know....but, I figure, if the $35 dollar brand toaster oven lasts us one full year, we got our money's worth out of it. By then, Cuisinart will be out of business, because their shit is too damned expensive.
Okay, well, Pete is home now, so I'm going downstairs to watch some Batman and Robin on the t.v....he has this DVR thing, where he records only the shows he loves the most....Daily Show with John Stewart...(I love that man and what he does, with a passion)...and the Colbert Report too....and then the original series of Batman and Robin (which is a friggin' HOOT, did you know that TALLULAH BANKHEAD was on that show as the Black Widow?! How awesome is THAT?!) They've even had Sammy Davis Jr. poke his head out of a window....what a hilarious show....I love it. We met Adam West at a Comicbook Convention here in Pittsburgh this past spring, and had our photo taken with him. Then Pete was recently filmed as an extra in the new Batman film coming out soon, he had to wear winter clothes in the July heat, but he did it!! I hope they won't edit his appearance out of it though.
Well, I hope I've entertained you a bit, with all the silly bizarre things in my head today.
I love ya....oh, and hey, they just unveiled the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial today in Washington DC, and I have GOT to go there, so I'm going to talk Pete into taking a weekend to go away there.....I miss it sometimes.....because I remember when they were only talking about the idea, and now it's actually THERE, and DONE, and I really love everything MLK stood for, and tried to accomplish in his lifetime. I was born only 5 days after his burial you know. What a world we live in.
I hope for the sake of your grandkids, Stephen, this world will get better for all of us.
Bye for now.
Love, Rebecca
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