Tis the Season

At this time of year, I look around and am grateful for all that I have.  No, I’m not talking about material items, although they do make life a bit more comfortable.  What I mean is the friendships that make my days fuller.  The family gatherings that make me laugh and cry.  The feeling of love I get every evening when I welcome Norm home.  The way our dogs jump up and wait for hugs when I come home from work.  These are all the things that make up my life and make me happy to be here.

You Must Wash Your Hands

My husband seems to have become obsessed with hand washing.  Since the H1N1 (the flu formerly known as swine) became an issue, he’s obsessively posted hand washing articles to his Facebook page.  There are articles about how to wash your hands, now people tend not to wash their hands, pictures of cats washing their paws, and of course, the hand washing dance video.  Is this something I should worry about?  Has he suddenly become a clean freak?   Wait, strike that, I’m pretty sure this hand washing cleanliness trend has not transferred into his everyday life.  So why the obsession?

Want to Save Money? Go Green!

A few weeks ago, an organization I belong to announced that it was “Going Green” by ending the publication of a couple of their standard quarterly magazines.  Although I’m all for the “Green” revolution, I question the use of the term when it is used simply to save money for organizations.  Yes, having written marketing materials for large corporations, I’m quite aware of the spinning of bad news.  In this case, the correspondence welcomed us to feel good about sacrifice, and informed us that, if you really, really, really needed a paper copy, it would cost us extra.  In an email immediately following this announcement, we were informed that our membership fees would increase by 100%.

At the Mall

It’s the talk of the office lately.  Have you been to the new mall?  Wow, it’s all bright and shiny!  There’s a Best Buy and Target over there!

If you’ve ever worked in an office, you realize that there’s very little to talk about with fellow workers after the initial “meet and greet” is over.  Kids are ok?  Wife is fine? Dog just finished his training huh?  Every once in a while, like manna from heaven, a new topic arises that engages everyone in the office.  For us, it’s the “New Mall.”

Ballad of the Balloon Boy

I love this song.  My friend Joe Will wrote it and it’s very funny. Well Done Balloon Boy!

Happy Birthday Norm!

This weekend was Norm’s birthday weekend.  I know I’m insane, but I do tend to make a big deal about birthdays.  Personally, I think I’m overcompensating for the time my Mom forgot my birthday…for 3 days.  Ok, granted, my mom was kind of busy at the time. She had 5 kids, a house to run and a part-time job to go to.  But when you’re 8, stuff like that matters.  So I’ve been scarred for life, to the benefit of my friends and family.

At the very least, I like to send a card congratulating the individual on another year of life.  These days, however, my memory isn’t as good as it should be.  This year I’ve been especially remiss passing out the birthday congratulations.  I wonder if that means I’m cured?  Probably not.  What it really means is that my record keeping isn’t as good as it should be.

Anyway, for those of you whose birthdays I’ve missed over the past 10 months, Happy Birthday and many happy returns!  The card is in the mail.

Does Barack Obama Deserve a Nobel Prize?

Early on Friday morning, October 2, 2009, the Nobel Committee surprised the world by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize on a relatively young, relatively green, President of the United State. To say that the world was shocked is an understatement. I saw the news at about 4:30am PDT. I too was shocked. My first response was “Why?”. President Obama has been in office about 9 months. Prior to that, he did good works in his community, was a U.S. Senator for a while and an Illinois legislator for a while. Yes, it is an amazing thing for an African American man to rise in politics to the highest office in the land. But does he deserve a Nobel Peace Prize?

My Quarterly Black Infusion

Today, I experienced my quarterly infusion of Black movies. You might be familiar with them. These days, the majority of them are created, directed, and produced by Tyler Perry. Honestly, I enjoy most of his movies, even though they tend to be peopled by actors that are not quite as skilled at acting as I would like. This quarterly dose of culture is provided to me by mom. I’m sure she’s not consciously aware of it, but subconsciously, I suspect that she thinks that I’m not as fully immersed in the culture of my people as I should be. This is her way of reminding me of who I am and where I came from. For this, I thank her.

A Day at the Fair

Each year, Norm and I head off dutifully to the fair.  The fairs in the greater Los Angeles area are a bit different than those that I attended in Proctorville, Ohio.  In Proctorville, the Lawrence County Fair was held at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds, right outside of town.  There were booths, of course, and rides, but not quite on the scale as the big city fairs we attend here.  Back when I attended the Lawrence County Fair, the closest we got to fried Twinkies was a homemade apple turnover.  There were pigs, horses, and chickens.  They had 4-H activities. The locals made jams and home art items like quilts.  And there were tons of yummy apple products, Rome being the home of the Rome Beauty apple.

The Worst Movies Ever…

According to Rotten Tomatoes, these are the 100 worst movies of the past 10 years. I just had to include this link on the blog. I love bad movies, but I can honestly say that I’ve never seen any of the movies on this list. Yeah for me .

My favorite “Worst of the Worst movie titles are:

• The Adventures of Pluto Nash
• The Hottie and the Nottie
• Fear Dot Com
• Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2

Rotten Tomatoes: Worst Of the Worst