Child's Play

Watching my niece and nephew play today took me back to the carefree years of my youth growing up. My brother and I were very close and we often played games together or a good old fashioned game of cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers together. Most kids today have way more toys than they need and more than I probably got all the time I was growing up. It was nice seeing my niece and nephew partake in a game today that required them to use their imagination. I know there are a large range of toys and lots of variety for kids to play with, but one thing that bothers me are that a lot of the toys out there these days think for the kids. They tell the kids what to do, and how to react. Where is the good in that? We need children who are able to be creative and think outside of the box. I remember playing with a can of water and some old bowls and pans my mother had given me and pretending it was a kitchen and mud was often what I served up. Another thing that bothers me about children today is that a lot of the parents let them stay glued to video games and the television set. My dad would call the television set an idiot box. There is no harm in them doing these things some, but children should be outside playing when the weather is nice. They should be creating and reading and growing. Not just stuck in front of a television full of advertisements and hooked up to a video game that may set unrealistic expectations on life for them. Not that I'm bashing video games. I actually think when played some and not in large quantities they can help broaden the mind. It's just if that is all they ever do, it's not cool in my opinion. Last night I was actually talking to a few people at the party about children and how I believe they should sit down and eat before play. We were also talking about kids that act like wild banshee's in public. I just don't get that. Never in a million years would I have ever even considered throwing a tantrum in public, but today's kids do it all the time. My niece and nephew do good most of the time, every once in a while though. Wow. But today they were children at play with a world laying at their feet full of promise and mystery. I'm scared for our children. Our government doesn't allow them to learn lessons I personally feel are an integral part of growing up. The schools are no longer allowed to let the children play tug of war, instead they call it tug of fun. When games are played at school everyone must get a ribbon, because heaven forbid little Johnny learn as he should that life isn't always fair and that you do lose sometimes. I had a friend in high school, actually two grades ahead of me. He was the golden child you might say. He got straight A's and was liked by all. He had looks too. Everything in school was handed to him on a silver platter and I doubt he ever heard a bad word at home. When he got out of school he couldn't handle life. It wasn't all being handed to him anymore. He hung himself in a motel in Florida the summer after graduation. So the schools are robbing our children of lessons I feel they need to learn. Life isn't always fair. We have to use our imaginations. We have to fight and push forward. After all it would be great if all of life were child's play, but those of us in the real world know it isn't.

Party Observations...

So tonight I attended a candle party hosted by a friend. I had met a couple of the people before, others I had read their blogs or heard about and some of them I had absolutely no knowledge of what so ever. As people sat around engaging in different conversations I found myself mainly listening and learning what I could. I also went back through my mind to the many parties I had either given or attended over the years. I thought about how much I had changed and in some ways how little I had changed. The old me of twenty years ago would have followed my friend around the house, not straying far from where he was. I would have done this for many reasons, mainly due to insecurities and somewhat for attention. The old me would have monopolized conversations instead of listening. The person who sat there tonight was mainly interested in listening and every so often partaking in the conversations that were going on. I looked around and thought about how there is always that person who is the center of attention at the party, whether they are attempting to be or not. There is always that one couple that looks like and acts like the perfect couple. There is always that one person who is odd man out if for no other reason than they just don't seem to fit the picture. Tonight I saw them all; however, the difference in this party and others I have given or attended was that each person did their best to make sure all were engaged in conversation and that no one was left out. The host took time for each person and showed great ability in making sure his guests needs were met whether it was food, game or conversation. So when I was driving home I got to thinking back through the years at the parties and I took two of the pictures from my favorite party I think I was ever involved in. I have them posted here on this blog. It was a Halloween Party that Joe and I gave together in 1989. He dressed up as Dead Marylin Monroe back from the grave. He signed autographed photos (To my sister in Sin, Marylin) and really did a good job of being in character. I was in goth attire. Either way you slice it there is nothing better than just sitting around and getting to know people or simply sitting back every once in a while at a good party and just enjoying the little observations that one might miss if they were to not listen ever so closely. Scavenger Hunt Anyone?

Hypertension The Silent Killer

Hypertension, high blood pressure, is a silent killer. One of three Americans has it and the thing is 1 out of that three of them probably don't even realize they have it. I didn't. As a matter of fact I'm lucky because I found it quickly. I donate blood about every six months to the American Red Cross. It helps out someone and I actually feel better for the next few days while my blood rebuilds. Plus there are all the test they run on your blood so it's like a free check up. I actually found out about an iron deficiency at one point from donating. Test like that would cost a lot of money if you went to your doctors office. So there is a lot of good for me and for someone else. I am O positive which is fairly common. Being fairly common means they need more of it though. And just because you have high blood pressure, doesn't mean you can't donate. As long as you have it under control with or without medication you can donate. Well in six months my blood pressure readings with them had changed and I don't mean a little. It went from 120/70 to being 156/85. I had a lot of stress and other factors so I ignored it for a while, thinking once the stress left I'd be back to normal. Thing is the stress didn't leave. I did see symptoms thinking back, but I pushed them off to other reasons. When I went to my doctor for a kidney infection my blood pressure was 198/92. That was a big red flag. So I am on a medication and I have a 2000 mg a day of salt diet that I try to stick with. Along with exercise. I had a check up a couple of weeks ago and my blood pressure was back to being normal. Of course who knows without the medication. Here are the common symptoms, that is when there are symptoms.

Symptoms listed at MEDCO: headaches, getting tired easily, dizziness, nosebleeds, chest pain, & shortness of breath.

I always have headaches so for me that isn't unusual and didn't signal a thing. The second one on the list though. Wow! I had gotten in the last year to where I always felt tired no matter what. I couldn't get enough sleep and never felt good. I also had six, count them six kidney infections last year and a bladder infection and a throat infection that took four different antibiotics to get rid of. Don't expect you will feel any symptoms though. This is why it's called the silent killer. A good majority of people with high blood pressure never have any symptoms. They are healthy looking and in shape. Yet they have this killer just waiting to take them out.

High Blood pressure can Cause, Strokes, Heart Disease, & Kidney disease to name a few.

American Heart Association recommended blood pressure levels
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=2112


Blood Pressure Category Systolic/ Diastolic

Normal less than 120 & less than 80
Prehypertension 120–139 or 80–89

High:

Stage 1 140–159 or 90–99
Stage 2 160 or higher or 100 or higher Blood Pressure Category

The Systolic rate is the top number in your reading and is the number that shows the force of your heart pumping, while the bottom rate, diastolic, is the rate of your heart at rest. If you are a person who doesn't go for regular checkups, I know most Walmarts, Meijers, Kmart's, and Walgreen's have machines where you can check your blood pressure. Along with most firehouses offer days where they will take your blood pressure. You would want to check on when that is available in your area. But if you're brave and you want to help someone out I really do recommend donating blood at the red cross.

http://www.redcross.org/

Mothers Do Know Everything

I was having a conversation with my mother today regarding how I don't want the election to come down to voting White or Black. How I was tired of hearing about anything that distinguished us all as anything but part of the human race. I don't see people in shades of color or who they sleep with or what religion they want to worship. I see them simply as my friends and loved ones. I'm sure my thought process would upset some, but I'm tired of black pride, women's pride, gay pride, Jewish pride and any other kind of pride you can think of. I have gotten to a point where I hate the topic pretty much of such things as we are discriminated against because we are women. Yeah well join the world. Some are discriminated against for being too vocal. Some for being too fat. Some for too skinny. I guess I was just having one of those days in my mind where it struck a nerve, mainly due probably to sleep deprivation. I said to my mother why do they have to have these pride days. I don't go around celebrating straight, 3/4 white, 1/4 Indian woman's pride day. Mothers wisdom once again prevailed. She said: Because it's their way of fighting for their rights. Now she wasn't taking a stand or even giving an opinion. But those simple little words put my mind in a better frame, with a better perspective. I don't need to fight for my rights for the female, straight thing I mentioned, but these parades, these days of expectation that I don't seem to get made perfect sense to my mother. They are simply fighting for their rights. How simple and yet my mind had never wrapped around it so profoundly as to help me understand it so completely.

An Overwhelmingly Disappointing Day

Let me start by saying that I am thankful to the good Lord in heaven for every day I am alive, so although today was disappointing I'm still grateful I got to live this day. With that said. My day started off with my dog deciding I didn't need to sleep past 9:30am. She wanted me up and out of bed. I thought if I turned her out I could go back to bed, but guess again. Then I had a partnership meeting I had to attend, so I had to be to work an hour earlier than usual. I came out of that meeting feeling less than enthused. It sort of seemed like to me that the people we came to partner with came with their minds all ready firmly set on what their opinions were. Maybe that was just my misconception though. One can pray. Then I got the worlds worst headache. After all of that I thought wow, tomorrow I can go by Chris Young's new CD. Guess again. Another disappointing blow. They have moved the release date of his new album "Voices" and it is now on TBD. UGH! How can they do that? Well, I don't know why cause you can't find anything out there that will tell you, which makes it even more frustrating. I do have my sneaking suspicions though that it has a lot to do with the fact that they are currently trying to peddle his first two albums that he made prior to being known for winning Nashville Star two years ago. I listened to one of the songs on you tube off one of his albums. It sounds promising and I must admit when I have the money I would like to buy the albums he has out there. Right now the financial drain isn't going to allow for that though. Plates, insurance all due in the next month. I'll be quiet broke until after the first of the year. Anyway I have listed his albums here below for you, along with a web address to a song I recommend you check out off his I wish I Was Lying CD.


***Picture Courtesy of AllMusic.Com***

First Album: I Wish I was Lying
Second Album: A Little At a Time
Christmas Album: An Acoustic Country Christmas


Devils Thumbprint - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcdeqOebqDs

So the day was disappointing but as they say: There is always tomorrow!

September 11, 2001 Liberty Has Never Meant so Much.

When I took this photo on a business trip to New Jersey in 1993 I never realized how profound it would be or how cherished it would become among my personal photos. Thing is I'm sure thousands of people have taken pictures just like this. The picture meant a lot to me then, but after that awful day in September 2001 I could not help but stop and think of the image of the twin towers behind this soldier and how they have since fallen like the man this soldier is carrying. Does anyone but me find it so hard to believe that it's almost been seven years since that day? I remember that day like it was yesterday. I had started off to work and realized I left my id badge at home, so I turned around and went back home to get it. This put me later than normal in my car. I always like to show up to work about a half hour early so that I can get settled you might say. Anyway, since I was running late I was in the car right as 97 FM came on and announced the first plan hitting the tower. I thought they were joking. I know that would be an awful joke, but it just didn't seem like it could be real and then the second plane hit the second tower. I felt like I stopped breathing for a moment. I remember I logged my phone for break and went out in the hallway to use the phones to call my mom and dad. The urgency to talk to my family was so strong it was driving my every instinct, although I was no where near New York and neither was anyone in my family. I remember telling them. I remember wondering if it was the start of a war here on the U.S. soil. The thought petrified me. TVs were rolled out where we could all watch as we worked. My job does communications and we had employees in those buildings. Everything that was to be that day had changed. All employees were told all attention needed to be on making sure the communications in that fateful city were restored and working. Supervisors checked to see how we were doing. Break rooms were filled with people glued to the TVs. Everyone wanting to know what was going on. We all watched in horror as the first tower fell. Numb doesn't even begin to cover it. I remember one customer who called in the late afternoon who had not been watching TV or listening to the radio. I remember telling him and him being panic stricken as his children were on a trip for their school to New York and he needed to find them and find them right then. I wonder if his children were OK. I remember how empty the skies were for the next week or two and how odd it seemed not to see a plane in the sky. I remember everyone including me watching all the news and hoping beyond hope that they would find survivors. I remember when a local news channel aired coverage of people jumping and how they had to pull that feed really fast as people were horrified that they would show such an image. I remember it all. How does one really forget that. Yet somehow it seems most people have locked it away and pushed it to the back. I don't hear that much about it anymore, but I personally for one don't want to forget. It was the worst and the best of times. People came together and showed how strong we can really be. As scary as it was for me, I can't even imagine how it was for those who lived in New Jersey and New York. I just pray that nothing that awful ever happens again. I know though life as it is, it more than likely will at some point. So, it seems to me that we are now living in times when liberty has never meant so much.

Did I Blink?

OK, I had a very enjoyable two days off, but I swear I think I must have blinked because they are completely done and tomorrow, although it may be your Sunday, is my Monday. What a couple of days I had though. I loved it, but I was busy. Got off work at 4am on Friday, came home fed the pets, walked the dog and went to bed. Got up at 10:55AM and met a friend at Sam's club to start a early afternoon of shopping. We did an early lunch and talked. I can't help but admire her strength and courage. She has been having problems for almost a year now with her eyes with a disease I had never heard of until she got it. It's called Blepharospasm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blepharospasm This disease causes a persons eyes to get to a point where they have problems keeping their eyes open. They for all intensive purposes have moments of blindness. There is absolutely nothing they can do to keep this from occurring. They simply can't keep their eyes open. They have problems with bright light and sun too. My friend has taken to wearing dark shaded glasses even at night for her problem. Yet she finds a way to be a mother of three boys. I watched her the other day making them lunch by feeling her way around the refrigerator and kitchen. She really is a remarkable human being. She's even found a way to hold down a job and help her family stay afloat. I don't know that I could do that if I were her. After dropping her off I went about going to the bank and running errands. Late evening consisted of dinner with friends and then shopping for a birthday gift for another friend. To say the least I was exhausted. Did that stop me from doing it again today. No. Not quiet as busy, but somewhat. Lunch with mom and dad. Watched my niece and nephew for a while. Shopping. When I met my mom and dad at Golden Corral today I got there ahead of them. I watched a young couple in the parking lot. They couldn't have been over twenty years old and it was very apparent that one she was really really really pregnant and two they had been fighting. I felt more for him than her though. He kept stroking her hair and hugging her. He even pulled her face to his and kissed her. Nothing from her. Her arms hung at her side and she turned away from him and wiped tears away. Then they got in their car and drove away. I know my friend Joe says he often wonders what the story behind is of people. A part of me indulged in that same thought process. Then after all my store shopping for two weeks worth of groceries I realized I had lost my work ID card off my purse. Sheer panic struck every nerve and I spent the next two hours going to every place I had been and retracing my steps. Of course it was the last place I had to go. Which makes one wonder why would one say: "It was the last place I looked?" I mean who looks for something after they have found it? But in my case it was the last place that it could have possibly been because it was the last place I had been today. Thank goodness it was there. They had it. Hallelujah! Then it was home to pay bills and be depressed at how poor I am and how I really should have taken the over time offered tonight to pay off some debt, but I really do need rest too. Now laundry has been getting my attention in the late hours of my night. Exciting weekend? No. Busy? Yes. In case you are wondering... Yes that is my eye and the dog below is my dog Princess. So let me ask you again since it's now time for bed and the work week is beginning. Did I blink?