Thursday, December 16, 2010

France Trip Rembembered

After two months of sorting through photos and procrastination I've finally finished my scrapbook for France. This was such a special experience to be able to share with my Mom and I'm happy to be able to have created something for both of us to remember it by.

Thank you to everyone at Rick Steves for creating such a wonderful travel experience, especially our guide Mary who was amazing! And thank you Blurb for making this so easy and thank you roommates for supporting my late night bookmaking obsession, I promise we can be friends again now.

Here she be, hard copy is at the printers now and Lori will have her book by Christmas! YAY!


Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Ten things you should know....

I'm a firm believer in waiving ones freak flag, it's important and critical to knowing who you are as a person. If you don't have a freak flag or think that there are zero skeletons in your closet it's safe to say that you have zero idea of who you are. No one, and I mean NO ONE, is that perfect. I'm not saying you should go around telling your personal business to the world, just that it's OK to let people know some of your quirks.

That said, here's a little freak flag waiving of my own....

10 Freaky Things
  1. I love garden gnomes and I own at least 6. They have names too, because everything needs a name.
  2. I have issues with "M" foods. Mushrooms, Marshmallows, Meatloaf.......yucky!
  3. Taylor Swift, Downtown Joe's and Road Bikers send me into a blind rage.
  4. I only wear socks once and a "wearing" is one time on the foot and one time off. Once the sock is off the foot it's dirty. Good thing I live in flip flops.
  5. I have an irrational and paralizing fear of needles and the dentist. This is why I have no tattoos and floss regularly. Aren't my parent's lucky?
  6. If it starts between 2am and 10am I'm going to be late for it. There are few things that happen in the wee hours of the morning that I care enough about to get out of bed for.
  7. I can't stand a poorly made cocktail. That's just bad manners.
  8. I LOVE sleeping in.....I'm not so into taking naps. It's like buying a new car and only driving it to the mailbox, why bother.
  9. I love an old timey craft project. Knitting, crochet, sewing, making jam, I love it all!
  10. I can't respect you if you are ridiculous. Respect is earned, if you can't at least try to a normal, rational, person some of the time I just can't deal with you.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Dear Texas, You've gone too far.

They say everything is bigger in Texas, apparently this applies to the level of government stupidity as well. A Brittish newspaper, The Garudian, published the following headline this past weekend. I want you to read it and then ask yourself why Europe thinks Ameircans are a bunch of dillusional assholes. Freedoms have limits people, I draw mine a brain washing innocent school children.

Texas schools board rewrites US history with lessons promoting God and guns
US Christian conservatives drop references to
slave trade and sideline Thomas Jefferson who backed church-state separation

Consumed by a need to know more? Read the whole article>>
Be advised dear friend this may induce thoughts of running off to Canada, feelings of shame about your American citizenship and an overwhelming desire to sell Texas back to Mexico.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Dear Showtime....


You just made my intolerable day kind of worth it. Can't wait for Jackie & Tara tonight.


Tuesday, March 16, 2010

What’s next, Henry VIII for President?

I hear he’s a hell of a guy, not to mention deeply moral and religious…..

The "great" state of Texas recently decided to update its social studies curriculum for public schools. In my mind all they are doing is leaving a whole state full of children behind. Because you know Texas is known for being SO Liberal in the first place. I can't imagine their school system is teaching any kind of crazy leftist hippie shit. More likely it's a daily struggle to keep things from going 100% bible camp over there!

Wag of the finger Texas, wag of the finger.....

"AUSTIN, Tex. — After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light. "
March 12, 2010 - The New York Times
FULL ARTICLE

Shame on Texas for bending the law to their own religious right wing agenda and further limiting the constitutional freedoms of their youth. This recent curriculum change makes me so glad to be born and raised OUTSIDE of Texas!! Thank you parents for allowing me to be educated by books based on actual historical facts. I am so thankful that I was taught by teachers and parents whose chief interest was in giving me the knowledge and the confidence to make my own decisions. Giving me the building blocks of the type of an education our Founding Fathers intended when they put into words the ideals this country is founded on rather than leading me to blindly believe a romanticized fictional version fact spun by the selfish and single minded on either side of the political isle. History is not skewed to the left or to the right. It’s a collection of real life events that shape who and what we are as a society. Good, bad, or God-less, it is what it is and there’s no rewriting it. Is that just too much reality for those who can’t see outside of their stained glass windows?

Allow me to tell you a little about what my public school education taught me about our Founding Fathers.

My education taught me that the Founding Fathers were pretty smart guys. Unlike political leaders of today they could look at what was best for the country as a whole and not just what best suits the party line. And yes, the Founding Fathers were religious, deeply so in fact. The majority of them were members of a church that recognized the King of England as their supreme governor. That’s right, for them God spoke directly through the governing body of another country. Another fair chunk of the gang believed that government authority came from and should be in the hands of the Church. Are you seeing the big connection here? All of these men come from a religious background where Church and State are not just entwined but are one. So why then when creating a new government would them choose to go against their own religious beliefs? The Founding Fathers were so passionate about freedom they realized to truely have it called for a separation of Church and State. To have a country truly formed on the ideals of liberty and freedom for all the two most influential powers in American daily life must be separate. They put aside religious beliefs to allow an entire country the right to worship or not worship whoever they want that government would not be involved other than to provide a place to do so. It’s right there in the good ole’ First Amendment next to things like free speech and freedom of assembly.

The First Amendment calls for, along with freedom of speech, the freedom of religion and there in the separation of church and state in that it states; all people are entitled to practice or not practice whatever religion they like without government interference. Public schools (that would be included in the term “State” or “government”) should be teaching children accurate historical facts free from any religious (that would be the “Church” or “religion”) slant and have been since the signing of the Constitution. It is NOT an excess of books that lean to the political left OR the right that’s ruining America’s education system, it’s this insistence by the older generations in cramming a dated agenda filled with diluted religion bad politics down their throats. Bottom line, children are smart and have a better moral compass than most adults; we just need to challenge them to actually think for a change and they will come up with the right solution for them. Most of the time it will even be the same or pretty darn close to the same ideals their parents have. You want your children to have God interwoven with their education, that’s more than fine with me, enroll them in private school that’s your choice for your child as their parent and I respect that. As for everyone else, allow them the same respect by keeping public schools neutral to either side and focused on what kids are there for LEARNING.

That said, my point is this; if these guys were smart enough to write not one but several documents that our country still uses to this day to shape our daily lives. Then maybe they knew what they were doing by leaving religion out of public schools. You can bend the Founding Fathers personal religious beliefs any way you want but they left them out of the Constitution for the good of the country as a whole as should lawmakers today.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Life is a little less shiney....

When you find out the one that got away is ridiculously successful and happy......Yeah, that one stings just the tiniest bit. I mean yes there's pain and jealousy issues there and over the years they have slowly faded to only mildly annoying pin pricks, but you always "want the best" for that person despite it all. Getting the "Life is Wonderful" bomb thrown on you will turn those annoying little pins into jabs of a switchblade in no time.

In my world, however, there's a limit to what "best" gets to entail. "Best" should be that they are an 9 out of 10 when it comes to really taking a hard look at their life. Things are good (aside from the tiny pin pricks, it's only fair they have them too), but not perfect and they can live with that. For example, best does not mean the other person winning the lotto, but winning a few scheckles in your weekly pocker game is cool. This does not mean I hope they get to ride off into the sunset with the girl of their dreams and it most certainly does not mean I hope they stumble into an amazing career and be all successful and happy.

Am I bitter? Maybe. Do I feel like being over or above it all? Not really. Should I not Google when I can't handle all possible results? Probably. These are all realizations one comes to when attempting to live life like an adult.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I bow to your marketing prowess....

This is the single best marketing ploy I've seen from a winery in a long time. Hive fives to you Firestone Vineyards, high fives to you!! I'm super jealous I didn't think of this first. I hope they do lots more trips to cool spots around the globe, I'll go ahead and volunteer for blogging from Bora Bora.....

By the way I'm going to win this so watch for my Inca-rrrific blog posts this April!!