outragenous consumption

What in god's name would a teen age boy need with a four thousand dollar computer. A thirty inch monitor. What an ass

Freecycle

I don't know who is aware of Freecycle, but it is a cool set of newsletters that offer (or request) stuff for free. Sometimes you can get computer parts and pieces. Sometime yarn and fabric. Sometimes junk, sometimes REALLY good stuff.
Sometimes the requests for stuff are legitimate NEEDS (someone's 14 year old's jacket got stolen, a family was burned out of their house, someone really just found themselves in a pickle).
Lately some of the "WANTED" emails have started to irritate me.

People want a newer car because theirs broke down and they can't afford payments right now. Okay, legit probably, but they don't couch it with... or even a ride to work if you are going my way... "I'm a stay at home mom and refuse to work because my job is more important than a job. We have six kids and our van broke down. We need a newer model van because my husband if really hard working and he needs it to go to work". Okay, they know what causes that now (the six kids part) and if you REALLY want to work towards being self sufficient, ask for a ride or a van if available or whatever it will take to get you where you need to be, but don't ask point blank for a big van that is newer than 200X (oh yeah, and green if you have it because it is his favorite color to drive to work).

"I want to start a business. I need power tools. I don't have anything so anything you give me would be great. I really want ... " and what follows is thirty things that are on this person's wish list. THIRTY things that they need to open their new business. If they don't have anything, how the heck do they know they can open the business?

"I need a new TV. Mine blew up and we need one for the holiday specials. Please only write if you have at least a 30 inch TV we can have" True it didn't ask for a PLASMA TV or an LCD one, but if you really are in need, how can you be that damn picky?

More and more I just want to send one in that says I want a big sack of money because I have some bills I want to pay off and it just isn't going fast enough for me right now.

When I was a kid, we did without EXACTLY what we wanted if we were able to get something that would suffice for a time. Maybe I'm getting jaded. Maybe the "holiday season" with all of the gimme that goes with it is starting to get to me. Maybe I should just unsub and forget it, but it says a lot about society today.

Dawn

Coffee (the peppermint creamer and sugar laced concoction that I tend towards in the early mornings this time of year) and I sit on the front porch. Fog creeps between my laptop screen and my eyeballs. There is a chill in the air and the traffic out on the main road (two miles away) sounds like it is 10 feet away. Fog is weird.
It doesn't get foggy like this often, here, but when it does, it is a rare treat. I can see to the end of the house and to the edge of the house across the street. The Mexican Sage bushes in the flower bed in front of me make decorative shadows against the neighbor's Christmas lights (on all night) and bring an interesting scent to the coffee and fog laden air.
A dew speckled car sits beneath the street light out front, entirely too close to the fire hydrant.
My breath adds to the fog (it is chilly this morning) as does the steam from my cooling coffee. The chill of the cement steals into my butt and my feet as I sit on the porch instead of a chair (go figure).
I wrap in my mexicana colored shawl (I love my shawl) and I enjoy the not quite dawn.

Lucky

House of Tiny Terrors is on TLC

I realize, sometimes, just how lucky I really am. I have two very good (if very odd) children. They have NEVER behaved the way these little monsters are behaving

Why I love my neighborhood

Oh yeah, LOVE my neighborhood

One neighbor parks his "extra" vehicles (the company bucket truck... his son's pickup... the people who go fishing with him) in front of our house (so the icky oil won't drip in front of HIS house, and so HIS driveway (complete with those attractive orange cones that keep people where they belong) and his curbs won't get tire tracks on them. He turns his holiday lights on only when the housing area people are liable to be around to give out the cherished 25 dollar gift certificates.

The family (12 people at least in the house) let their RAT dog (nasty little chihuahuas) run the neighborhood and poop in everyone's yard and rip holes in the blow up decorations.

Across the road they won't say hi to anyone but my husband

The "new" people won't decorate or wave or acknowledge that they don't live alone in the world...

and the Hispanic family at the end of the street plays their music at FULL BLAST all night and double parks on both sides of the street so no one can drive down the street.

Woohoo, love this neighborhood and my neighbors...

Company

Have you ever noticed how you look forward to some company and you dread other company showing up?

There is the company that you look forward to. You rush to the window to see if their car is in the driveway every time the dog passes gas. You watch the clock. You deliberately don't go even to the mail box in case you miss something. You prepare for dinner and make fresh coffee and prance around like a little one learning to control their bladder.

Then there is the the other end of the spectrum. There is the company that you dread. You creep to the window and fear what you will see there. You leave home as many time as you can just so you might not be there when they get there and you can avoid having to deal with them for a little while longer.

I'm "looking forward" the the latter kind right now. This company makes a point of proving that he is better than we are as providers. We provide heat, light, food, medical, clothes and many of the extras that they want. Our company comes bringing high end gaming computers and showering money on everyone. It doesn't help that this person has a house that was paid off by parents years ago... a car paid off... a good job... oh, and no spouse or kids. Even the things that we buy the kids, they take credit for. "You remember when I bought you your Ipod"... You remember when I took you to the wonderful festival"... "These kids wouldn't go anywhere or do anything if it weren't for me".

This time we get a call (oh yeah, after the arrival time was supposed to be passed). "Hello can you tell the kids that I didn't leave on time. There was a horrible horrible ice storm and all of the interstates were closed and they are only just now getting cleared and I am leaving in a little bit and won't be there till tomorrow night?

Funny... people seem to forget that internet connections and family in the area can prove differently. It was forty degrees and the roads were clear and dry. GRRRR

Why just not tell them you didn't want to come
why not just tell them that you had to work
why not just tell them that something came up

Not that even they are disappointed

AND we get to go see the christmas lights that we wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise (since we never take the kids ANYWHERE and you can't stand to walk through the park or sit in our car for the 30 min to get there).

Ah the holidays, company and stress

ajw

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa

I know I haven't written is a while (okay, quite a while).

This year I feel like I need to write to you, I could use a little help with making the season better.

My wish for Christmas this year?

Please help bring peace to the world. Bring all of the soldiers home safely. All of us have family and friends out there and they all need to come home safely. For those who didn't make it home, make sure that they know that we love them and that they are not forgotten and that they are our heros. For those that came home broken, help them heal in any way that they can heal.

Help my family overcome the depression, the fear, the insecurities that we have. This is a rough time in all of our lives. Help us to become the people that we are.

Help the people who don't have enough. The ones that don't have enough love, the ones who don't have enough heat, the ones that don't have enough to eat. Keep the people who live under the bridges warm and safe. Keep the little ones who live in fear safe. Help the ones who cause the fear to see what they are doing.

Bring hope to all of us and help our dreams come true.

I know this is a big list. I know that this isn't the kind of list that you are used to getting. I hope that it isn't too big of a request.

Thank you for being there for all of us to believe in. We all need something to believe in.

Signed
Me

Stress

Stress

Okay, so the holidays are supposed to be a magical time of year

Why is it that midterms are CRITICAL (tests that didn't exist until high school) to the 9^th grade passing? Lackadaisical 14 year old boys who have never put much store in grades are now sweating everything from Orchestra to algebra. That means parents are sweating the same thing... and more (because one is not the only one in the family)

Kids get sick this time of year (that means doctor visits and more stress)

Orchestra (two DIFFERENT ones because they are in two different schools) has concerts... right after work.. traffic doesn't take into account my need to get my butt home so I can get back into a car and back out into traffic.

And Traffic? Lord... what is it with drivers. People trying to merge into the highway can't just merge in... they have to SPEED to the LAST POSSIBLE min to try to get in... then aggressively push their way in to a gap that rollerblades wouldn't be able to squeeze into... they are apparently WAY more important than anyone else who has just spent an hour going 15 miles. THEY have a GOOD reason for getting on the highway and the rest of us morons are just out there to make their lives miserable. Okay, so I take that as a personal challenge and I MAKE their lives (or at least my personal corner of their lives) as horrible as I can.

I hate stress at a time when all is supposed to be right with the world.