There's been a violent death in our family, and we've lost a very unique, quirky, colorful and generous man.
Death is always a difficult thing to deal with, an unexpected and suffering death is quite another story.
But that isn't what this post is about.
This is about the love that shines in the wake of tragedy.
I am always awed by genuine caring, it is shocking in its sincerity and never fails to force me into reality. You know? It's so easy to get caught in your own thoughts and emotions, and to dwell in the dark recesses of your mind when life is unfair. It taints you into cynicism and sometimes it is so hard to see any sort of light, but then you'll witness true heart and it somehow gives you hope. Hope is everything.
Today's post is one of love. It is a thank you to my children, all of them, both mine and Chrissy's, and the strays that have adopted us as their own.
As a parent, you can't always tell on a daily basis if you're doing a good enough job of raising your children. When crisis strikes a family, it's an incredible thing to experience gracious and selfless love from others, when it comes from children, it is amazing in its beauty.
We returned home from a cold, wet, grueling and horrific day filled with details the mind cannot comprehend in real time. We returned home to teenagers and young adults who had gone grocery shopping, made a buffet of quality food set with plates and accouterments, purchased with their own pooled funds. They cooked, they cleaned, they set up, they built a fire and readied the house for an onslaught of tired, stunned and grieving people, and they did it of their own volition. They took on the responsibility of forethought and practical details, attending to the needs of people filled with sorrow, and pitched in to help in a very real and thoughtful way.
I can try to express my feelings in more detail, but there aren't words for the pride and love I feel for them.
OK, first of all WARNING: I ripped this from a site with highly questionable content.
THERE IS A LOT OF PORN ON IT.
Second, the embed feature is fairly new for them, so the odds that it will work correctly can be reproduced in your own home by flipping a quarter.
Third, and this is important, if the odds of some nasty slut doing something nasty with her ass or some other sluts' ass are frightening enough for you that you have even a modicum of trepidation, then don't click this video.
You see, I posted this yesterday and it worked fine on my computer. My daughter went next door to her house to show her husband and the afore mentioned nasty slut with the ass problem popped up instead of the very aggravated black woman I intended to show. If the preview is of anything other than a woman FULLY CLOTHED and highly disgusted, then the fucking embed isn't working properly and you should just move along. Unless your into nasty slut ass problems, then be my guest. Whatever.
Proceed at your own discretion.
Now, as I so urgently need to share:
I have a new hero, I just love this woman.
You go girl.
Erm... If it IS the nasty ass slut, then the "You go girl" thing, albeit rather funny, doesn't apply.
Anna is practicing for a test this Friday. If she passes it, she will be at the Preliminary Level and if she passes that, she'll be allowed to apply to be an "ice sweeper" (which means she'd be one of those little girls that gets to run out on the ice and pick up all the toys and flowers people throw at skaters after their performance) at Quicken Loans Arena during the U S Figure Skating Championships being held in January next year. It makes me crazy to watch her at practice because she tends to be sloppy... Put the kid in a pressure situation like a competition or test though, and she brings her A-game every time. Anyway, this was taken at 6:30 this morning and you can at least see her progress. I'll video her this weekend and post her actual performance so you can see the difference.
She's such a cutie.
Ok, I just opened my blog and watched this thing. I don't know who all those other skaters are that pop up at the end. I'm an idiot with html, and I'm sure there's a way to edit my video to not have all that stuff come up, but yanno what? I don't care. Don't watch them if you don't want to see them. What ever. ...and obviously, I'll never have a career as a photographer.
I haven't truly ranted on here in a while. That is about to change.
*Warning: Poor language and obvious rambling will likely ensue from this point on.*
Ok. I admit that I watch television. I'm not proud of that! Who the hell is? I am an American Idol junkie, that god damned program is like crack, and don't even get me started on Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen, The Dog Whisperer (and I don't even like dogs) or Big Bang. Fuck you, sue me.
Being an admitted television viewer, I feel qualified in stating my opinion that television commercials have become an anomaly that I haven't a clue what to do with.
When I was a younger soul, I watched television as well. Commercials were just as annoying then as they are now, but my youth prevented me from furthering my middle aged ass spread. That's right, I never stayed still long enough to actually watch them, I was more apt to get up and go pee or grab some cookies or something. Not now! It's an effort to haul myself out of the recliner. This means I'm forced to view this pandering bullshit on a fairly regular basis, like every 7 fucking minutes.
Commercials used to have a point. Some mousy housewife would come on screen wearing a linen dress and a frilly apron and tout the healthy benefits of a Swanson Frozen Dinner and its convenient foil tray, or a dusty, weathered cowboy would inform us of the smooth pleasure of a Marlboro Cigarette.
Things have changed quite a bit. Now we have Target making obscure references to products flashed on the screen between Dali-ish visuals and a cover of some classic song that has been "updated" to a mere shell of its former self, or a mostly naked chick creaming her panties over a chocolate square the size of a quarter from Ghirardelli, or a crack whore having an audible orgasm while using her shampoo. How about the sexually repressed bastard who breaks into song because he sits on a stupid sofa in a La-Z-boy furniture store? "I'm in love with this woooooooooman!" Don't they realize that there are impressionable people in the world? Did they stop to consider that from now until eternity, Jeffee will forever sing the same fucking song to me every time he sits down? I want to hit that man in the face with a shovel for causing me this grief. Know what Jeff does every time he thinks he's done something spectacular? He screams "Wizzzzzard!"Fuck youAlltel.
I'm sick of this abuse. I want the powers that be to suffer, as I have. I want each and every one of you to start a grassroots protest! I want these bastards punished!
The last straw, the commercial that has sent me over the edge belongs to AT&T's Go Phone. I was minding my own business, sitting there, staring at the TV while I tried desperately to tune out the commercial interlude that was abusing me, when I was was rudely interrupted by Meatloaf. MEATLOAF!
WHY?
What genius thought having Meatloaf and his son dramatize a re-worked version of Paradise By The Dashboard Lights would inspire someone to go buy their phone? Are these people insane? First of all, if you were to take a poll asking women to make a list of the most unattractive males on the planet, Meatloaf would place somewhere between Larry King and Dennis Rodman. Second, anyone who had a nerdy little sister lived the very real torture of hearing that god forsaken song played no less than 400 times a day, no shit. And finally, IT'S MEATLOAF!
Gah! I can't stand it!
Who is in charge here? Who do I complain to? The Attorney General's office has no department that handles these types of complaints. The FCC thinks I'm crazy. The church doesn't care, and AT&T doesn't answer their fucking phone, worse, the computer generated voice on their automated line is almost as horrific as the commercial itself - a body can only take so much after exposure.
We MUST put an end to this type of abuse! Isn't there a congressman out there willing to champion this cause? Can we get a filibuster?
I've just returned from Florida. Most of my kids have spent the winter in Naples and I was missing them. Easter Sunday was also Lily's first birthday and you KNOW I couldn't miss that so, Anna and I packed up and hit the road.
Now, the road between Cleveland and Naples, although very scenic, is 1200 miles of very long and brutal, trust me, this I know. My route was quite direct, I-71 to I-75 due South.
I happened to notice a few things...
*A four-star rated hotel in Kentucky is a relative designation.
*Tennessee is quite possibly one of the most beautiful states in the Union. Seriously, it really is.
*I'm pretty sure Tennessee is the world capital of Carnival people. I can't be positive and I have no proof, but I swear to God, the three gas stations I visited there had Carnies running all over the place. At one in particular, The Fat Lady, The Tattoo Lady, The Bearded Lady and The Lizard Boy all came out as I was going in. They all climbed into an El Camino. I didn't stick around to find out why.
*Once you cross the invisible yet very real boundary line just South of Knoxville, you will encounter a phenomenon unseen in the North; ordinary, everyday people who truly believe they are NASCAR drivers, who otherwise possess not a single NASCAR driver skill.
*The ENTIRE state of Georgia is filled with the aforementioned people. In fact, I am positive that Atlanta is merely an acronym for All TrafficLanesAllowNASCARTraining Asswipes, and if you've ever had the misfortune to be stuck driving through that fine city on a weekday between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., you obviously know exactly what I mean. You see, traffic comes to a complete stop for no apparent reason, and when you do finally get to move a foot and a half, some hot Southern boy will yank a quick left followed by a quick right in what he believes to be an expertly executed lane shift that leaves a sane person shaking their head in complete and utter wonder. And then you get to sit there for another ten minutes until some other fine Southern boy does the same shit. I managed to make it from the very top of Atlanta to the bottom in under two hours, which based on the information I managed to glean from a very patient bartender just after the experience, was a monumental feat.
*In Georgia, while you are traveling at 85+ miles per hour it is perfectly acceptable for some women to "veer" out of their own fucking lanes and encroach into yours on a rather sharp curve with no shoulder.
*In Georgia, the sun can be shining, the winds calm, the roadways empty of all orange construction barrels, no vehicle accidents anywhere to be seen, no state troopers aiming radar guns, no lane interchanges and no bloody naked people standing on the side of the road, and traffic will still come to a complete stop suddenly. For no fucking reason whatsoever.
*Gainsville, Florida has a McDonald's with what has to be the worst staff of all time. I'm no expert on this, as I've never actually worked in a McDonald's, but I think that 25 minutes in the drive-thru is a fairly good indicator of this opinion.
*Southerners are for the most part polite to an extreme. I'm never quite sure how to respond to all the "Yes Ma'am" and "Thank you, all y'all", "Good Mornin'!" and "After you, Ma'am"s I encountered. I'm from Ohio, Northern Ohio. We don't make eye contact with people, much less speak to them simply because they are there. When I stumble out of my hotel room at 5:30 in the morning in my pajamas in search of coffee, I am seriously startled and rather dismayed at having to respond to niceties with other humans. Jesus, I haven't even had coffee yet!
*I'm not sure I'm spelling the "y'all" thing correctly. Is there a dictionary for that language? I'm guessing it's correct because I saw a water tower painted with "Come Back Y'all!"
*I hate Naples. In fact, You will have to bind me, gag me, blindfold me, drug me and drag me back there in a coma, and even then, I'll figure out a way to delay my arrival.
In theory, this trip was a great idea. In reality, save for seeing the kiddos and getting a mini-tan, it wasn't such a good one. I DID manage to find some freakin' awesome peanut butter fudge though, so it wasn't a complete loss.
I got a job cooking. I'm dead tired when I get home, this old chick isn't as wirey as she used to be...
My darling Anna knew exactly what I needed, "A hot Jacuzzi Tub Mom", so she promptly went and started one for me. Anna's into everything girly, so simply getting into the bath was out of the question. No, she needed me to have a "spa experience" replete with candles, fluffy towels, ridiculouslyover sized sponges, and soothing music - which I might add is completely subjective as it appears that soothing music to her involves ocean sounds and some chick moaning "ahhh-AHH-ahhh" over and over again, and absolutely nothing from my Beatles library.
Anyway, I have to admit that soaking does a body good, but something seemed to be missing.
Aroma.
So I added a drop or two of cucumber melon scented body wash to the bath water.
BIG mistake!
I had no idea that crap was Mr. Bubble in disguise, in about two and a half minutes I was frantically directing Anna to dump armloads of bubbles into the stationary tub while she laughed at me. Who the hell knew?
Just goes to show ya, you're never too old to learn.
This blog is intended for entertainment purposes only.
Statements made within may or may not be accurate and/or factual,
except for when I say that child molesters make me sick and I hate them...That part is true.
This blog is not intended for children.
Find me anytime at
http://my10kidfamily.blogspot.com
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
- Albert Einstein
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