I Got the Power!

No, I’m not a super hero. Unfortunately I can’t fly like Superman, I still have to drive my car to get places. I cannot bust through walls like Kool-Aid man, I have to use the door and I can’t change my clothes faster than Wonder Woman, but 7 out of 10 times, I can change a red light to green. I’ll tell you how later, but first let me tell you about my week. Since you already know what I’m blogging about, I thought I’d give you a behind the scene of how I’m living, well partially.

So, I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on with my daughter’s stomach (btw, she came home with a new word for underwear: “tighty whities”…apparently the teacher’s aid doesn’t wear a belt and her “tighty whities” have been showing and she’s the talk of the 2nd grade)….anywho, I called the doctor’s office for an appointment and receptionist asked for the patient’s date of birth.

I said, “10-6-99″.

She said, “Is the appointment for a child?” Silence.

Now I’m looking at the receiver thinking: It’s too early for this. I wanted to say, “No, the patient is actually a leap year baby and she’s a lot older than her birth date indicates.” Yes it’s for a child! 1999, do the math or not do the math. How many of your adult friends were born 8 years ago? Instead of delivering my facetious remark I replied “Yes”.

I try not to be a smart-aleck, okay that’s not true, I try not to say everything I’m thinking but sometimes people make you. Like one morning I’m walking from the parking lot into the office building and here comes Exhibit A. I have manners so I say: “Good Morning”. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not a word. It happens a lot and today was going to be different. I turn and say real loud: GOOD MORNING! Now I get a response and I’m back to feeling cheery again. What’s wrong with saying good morning, some people act like you stole something when…..

The only person I’m really trying to avoid right now is the PoPo (police) because my left brake light is out. Cops in my area don’t have too much to do and will pull you over in a minute for a blown out bulb, so every time I see a cop car I have a mini stroke and rethink my decision to never wear Depends. Either I try to slow down without having to press the brake pedal or I speed up to put some distance between us. I don’t know why I think the cops are after me, but if anyone is to be pulled over for something like this, it would be me. It will get taken care of soon or…..

Maybe I could just use my super powers to turn all the lights green and not have to stop at all. I’m not advocating this, it’s just something that I do and not often. I’m a trained professional driver*, so do not attempt this while driving. If you have an accident while trying to change traffic lights, I will deny knowing you and this blog three times. Seriously though, have you ever noticed that when you’re in a hurry to get somewhere, that every traffic light is red. It’s like the lights know and turn red on purpose.

For reasons I’ll explain in another post, most times I like to keep something to read with me so when I am stopped at a red light or in traffic, I can read it. I’ve noticed that every time I go to pick up a book, the red light would turn green. Even when I see a red light and think: goodie I get to read, it turns green. Call me crazy, but I think I can change lights. You can’t fake the feeling though, you have to really want to read the book, it works. I do catch a few of them, but on my daily route, not as many as I normally would. I guess you can call it positive thinking, I’m sure people who follow the law of attraction would agree with me. There is power is positive thinking and……

I used some of that power at the charity bowl early this week which was aired on TV. Nobody asked me for a press release, but we had a lot of fun. There was someone there from the NY Giants who didn’t look any bigger than the water boy and a ESPN Sportscaster who could have been a center for the NJ Nets. They raffled off signed memorabilia I thought was going to the high bowler, which happened to be me. I was all ready to put my goodies on eBay…I guess I counted my chickens before they hatched. I thought I did enough bowling to at least win a tube of Ben-Gay because I was all tuckered out and….

Just so you know, I really don’t have the power. Actually the firemen, cops and the electric company had the power last night. My neighborhood lost power 3 times while I was writing this post.

*no I’m not.

Sentimental Value

Is there anything in your home that you absolutely would not get rid of because it has sentimental value? I’m not talking about irreplaceable family heirlooms, but about stuff that can be replaced with a similar item or not at all. Why am I asking?

I love to watch Clean House, that’s the show that cleans up a cluttered home by getting rid of stuff people don’t use or need. What surprises me about the people on the show is how attached they are to their stuff. Stuff they are not using and that’s buried under more stuff. The clean house crew literally has to pry items from their hands. People cry. I’m thinking what’s the problem, get rid of it! Now it’s possible I could be missing my sentimental gene, so I tested out my theory by walking around my place to see if there was anything I could not part with…….

The result?

I ended up putting mental price tags on everything! I don’t feel any emotional or sentimental attachment to this stuff. I have furniture, possible antiques, given to me from a relative, but if I had to sell it, without a second thought, it would be soooo gone.

So to tap into my sentimental gene, I have my daughter making a patchwork quilt with clothing from me, her dad and some of her old clothing. We’ll be collecting patches of clothing from other family members as well. Maybe when she’s done, I’ll start feeling sentimental about something, but for right now, my sentimental gene is MIA. I probably sold it at a garage sale. Just recently I asked my mother to bequeath her china that belonged to my father’s aunt to me because it’s a beautiful set and I would use it, but everything can’t have sentimental value, can it?

Please tell me I’m not the only one, are you the sentimental type? Is there anything in your home you would not part with because of its sentimental value?

No Money, No Problem

Often times, I hear people say that they can’t go anywhere because they don’t have any money to do anything. Truth is (according to me) you don’t need a lot of money to have a good time, it helps, but it’s not necessary. Today many people are either on a budget or simply don’t have the funds to do what they want to in the form of recreation. So what do you do, stay home? Nope! You look for alternative, free or low cost activities you can enjoy without breaking the bank. Below is a list of the few places I take advantage of when my bank account is on life support.

Library. This is one of my favorite places to hang out. Many people are unaware of the free activities offered through the library. Some libraries have writing clubs where writers get together to discuss their work and have it critiqued by other writers. There are book and poetry clubs, free walking tours around town, parenting classes, story time for young kids and teen book groups. Check out the event page on your local library’s website, you might be surprised at the activities or the entertainment you can find there for free.

Park. Take the family, or yourself, to the park and have lunch there instead of at home. Bring some board games, ride your bike, go fly a kite or sit on the park bench and read a book or relax. Little league has also started in many areas, even if your kid isn’t playing, you can still watch the game for free.

Community Bulletin Board. Sign up for your community’s online newsletter to stay current on the events happening around town. Some of them are free or only require a small fee. Also don’t limit signing up just for the newsletter in your neighborhood. In the summertime in a nearby town in my area there’s a free jazz concert every Thursday. The list of entertainers can be emailed to you for future planning or trips. Don’t forget to check out what’s going on at your local schools. Every Friday at my daughter’s school is Movie Night for $2.00 per person or $5.00 for a family, the money is then donated to the PTA and put back into the kids.

Museum. The museum in some areas is free to all visitors. Some do suggest a dollar amount donation, but it’s not required to enter. Often times I pay the suggested amount, but if I don’t plan on being there long, I pay something I can afford. It’s a great place to hang out in the summer, air conditioning included.

Friends and Family. I love entertaining, but after several dinner parties, it adds up! Instead, why not invite just a few friends or family over at a time and make a small meal, order a foot long sub or a pizza. Play board games or cards (any Bid Whisk players), or watch a DVD you already own. Next month, someone else can host a small gathering. Remember the focus is not the meal, but on being together.

It may require a little work on your part, but there are plenty of things to do, many of them free, you just have to know where to look. Not having money to do something doesn’t always mean that something can’t be done. Do you have a favorite free or low cost activity that you can share that doesn’t require breaking the bank?

Malicious Comment

What would prompt you to leave a mean comment on someone’s blog? Did they make you mad? Maybe something they wrote upset you and you wanted to set them straight? Okay I get it….I have left some passionate comments on a blog before, but never have I personally attacked the writer or left a nasty comment.

I was reading an interesting article in the WSJ about a mommy blogger, Heather Armstrong, who “sought therapy to cope with vitriolic posts.” She goes on to say: “The hate mail will invariably happen, and when it does your entire world will crumble around your ears,” she says. In one example, she says a person she thought was a friend posted a comment saying she “wanted to punch me in the face because she hated me so much.” She adds she can understand why “famous people turn to drugs or commit suicide.”

Why the hatred? I think it’s because hurting people, hurt people. We get offended quickly and our defense is to make people feel our pain by trying to hurt them back. So cursing at them or calling them names somehow makes us feel better so we leave our nasty comment, after all we are right and they are wrong. Hurting people hurt people.

I checked out Heather’s blog and unfortunately her posts are closed to comments. I like interacting with bloggers and not being able to just makes the blog seem like a book. I have plenty of books to read…I do think it takes away from the total experience of blogging, but sometimes because of other people, it’s necessary. If you get a chance, read the article….I thought it was interesting.

Do you leave nasty comments on people’s blogs? Has anyone left a mean comment on your blog? What did you do? I haven’t had too many problems, maybe some misunderstandings, but I’ll blog about that later.

Mindboggling

Amazing! These pictures give you a different perspective seeing them side by side. I thought they were cool, then I started looking up the plants/stars and I got carried away. Well you learn something new everyday and who knows, these facts could be final Jeopardy answers. Of course, we recently learned that Pluto is no longer a planet, but a dwarf planet….not to be considered a true planet. So when it comes to planets, size does matter. Happy Thursday! I do not own the copyright to these photos.

Distance from the Earth to the Sun: 93,020,000 miles (149,669,180 km)
Earth distance to the Moon: 238,857 miles (384,403.1 km)

One hundred and nine Earths would be required to fit across the Sun’s disk.
The suns interior could hold over 1.3 million Earths.

Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes. It’s the fourth brightest star in the night sky.
Pollux is the brightest star in the constellation Gemini and one of the brightest in the nighttime sky.
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Intrinsically, Sirius is over 20 times brighter than our Sun and over twice as massive. ~Wikipedia

Jupiter is the most massive planet in our solar system. In 2003 alone, astronomers discovered 23 new moons orbiting the giant planet, giving Jupiter a total moon count of 49 officially named — the most in the solar system. Read more…

Who ever heard of these stars? They look like bowling balls, actually they all do. I’ve seen some balls that resemble plants, maybe that’s where ball makers get their designs.

While Betelgeuse is cooler than the Sun, it is more massive and over 1000 times larger….more

Antares is a huge star. In a class called red supergiant, Antares is about 700 times the diameter of our own Sun, 15 times more massive, and 10,000 times brighter. Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius and one of the brighter stars in all the night sky….more