My man doesn't wear a flak jacket!

Barack Obama is having an awesome trip overseas! I'm so proud of him! I say we just skip the vote in November and just move him into the White House today! Did anyone catch his speach in Berlin? The crowd was ginormous! McCain is not looking quite as presidential riding around in a golf cart....

The right way to use the phone

There are two kinds of phone people in the world: those who use the phone primarily for communication purposes and those who use it for entertainment purposes.

If you are a communication based phone user you never call someone without a known purpose. You call to set dates, obtain information, or coordinate plans. It never occurs to you to pick up the phone “just to talk.”

Those of you who use it for entertainment also use it for communication, but that’s secondary. You types have a phone on your ear for extended periods of time and, if you don’t believe in call waiting, you can never be reached because your phone is always busy. You call when you’re in the car or bored at home with your kids or shopping.

I’m a communication phone person, and entertainment phone users drive me crazy! When I first realize that a person is calling and that they don’t really have anything to say, I try to be polite. I tell myself they just want some company. Actually, if this is the case and we’re face-to-face versus on the phone, I love spending time with them. I just have no tolerance when it’s over the phone. First of all, it makes my ear sore. Second of all, if they call when I’m in the house I have to stop what I’m doing or else get a crick in my neck from holding the phone with my shoulder so I can continue doing laundry, picking up, or feeding the dog. Today, someone called to “shoot the shit” and I was halfway through blowing up this giant beach ball sprinkler that my kids were anxiously awaiting. I had to put it down and they had to wait an extra twenty minutes until I could graciously get off the line.

The thing that’s the worst about entertainment phone users is, if you try to explain to them that you’re not like them, they get their feelings hurt. They think you just don’t want to talk to them. They can’t comprehend a person that doesn’t enjoy just killing some time talking about the outrageous price of avocados or what happened on American Gladiator yesterday. A lot of them don’t get the clue either when you say, “I really need to hang up now. I have so much to do.” They just keep talking and won’t say goodbye.

I'm trying to teach this concept to my daughter now. She wants to call her best friend all the time and I ask her why. Most of the time she can't tell me so I don't let her call. I'm more than happy to let her invite her friends over or let her go to their houses, though. I will do my best to steer her away from using the phone for entertainment. This is probably not practical with the teenage years looming. I myself was a horrible entertainment phone user in high school. I'm going to keep up the lecturing, though.

I have a number of friends and family who are entertainment phone users. Most of the time, when they call, I just don’t pick up. I figure it’s better to do this than to hurt their feelings and tell them I don’t have time to talk to them right now. I push it as far as I can. Eventually, I have to pick up because they never leave messages (how can they when they’re calling with nothing to say!) and they’ll start to think I’m avoiding them. When I finally pick up I get myself in the mindset that I’m going to have to listen to their purposeless babbling and be patient. They’ll complain and say, “Didn’t you see on your caller id that I’ve been trying to reach you for the past week?” I’ll counter with, “I figured, if it were something important, you’d leave a message. I don’t really look at my calling log.”

They probably think I’m cold and rude but I’m not. Like I said, if I meet them for lunch or a visit at their house or mine, I love to talk about nothing and everything. That’s a time that I’ve blocked out and dedicated to them. I value the relationships I have with them and truly enjoy their company. I just can’t do it on the phone and have no desire to waste entire blocks of my day this way.

Blogging and checking out other’s blogs, on the other hand, is a different story......

My Facebook Flair

Wanted to post my "flair" from Facebook. I think it tells a lot about me - interests, beliefs, passions. I know it's a silly thing to waste time on but I can't help myself! Tell me if there are any you especially like! :)

Another poem

My son just came in as I was surfing my favorite blogs and thinking about a post for the day. He had on a ninja mask and a baseball cap and told me he wanted to recite a poem for me. I said OK wondering why he was dressed like one of Michael Jackson's children and thinking he'd tell me a poem he had heard in school or something. He proceeded to recite this:

My bed is made of money.

My mom is made out of metal.

And my soul is rotten dirty.

And who cares about the mayor!

It's his own creation although I suspect that it was inspired by something. I probably will never find out the source or why it was necessary to say it with a ninja mask. He is really into earning money at the moment to fuel his obsession of playing Wii. I'm guessing the metal mom reference probably originated from watching Transformers. He really has not demonstrated any curiosity about God or religion in general so the third line has me baffled. I'm pretty sure he is not concerned with the purity of his soul. The last line sounds like it was just inserted for rythmic/rhyming purposes. Interestingly though, he corrected me when I typed the last word "mare" and he wanted to be sure that I typed the word for a "rich guy."

It was definitely entertaining enough for a post, though, don't cha think?

I have a wonderfully strange son!

My son's new best friend....

The other day, my seven year old son was listing his best friends and, halfway down the list, he mentioned one of his friend's dad. This initially surprised me and later freaked me out. Am I overreacting? My husband says I need to go with my gut feelings. My gut feeling says there is something sinister about a man who is that "fun" to a child and the potential for predatory sexual advances is there. Here's what I know about him:

1. If he works at all, his hours are such that he is at school drop off and pick up most of the time.
2. His wife is very shy and quiet.
3. He likes to gather groups of boys and invite them to do things with him and his two sons.
4. He lives in a clean, well kept house in a lower income area of town.
5. He speaks with an accent and might be Indian or from somewhere in the Middle East.
6. He is personable and outgoing.
7. When my son goes to play, he always comes back saying he and his friends played fun games with him.
8. His son is very mischievous and doesn't listen to me when he comes to play but seems otherwise, well adjusted.

None of the things above bothered me until my son listed him as a best friend. Now I'm torn between not wanting to make something out of nothing, and the fear that I could be right and allow something to happen.

What does everyone think and what would you do?

Let's party!!!!!!

We were invited to an 80's party in the neighborhood. You can't believe the excitement and preparation it has evoked in me and my husband. It's bordering on pathetic the extent to which we are preparing for it. What am I saying?! There's no bordering! We're way BEYOND pathetic. Regardless. We are assembling our "outfits" (my husband just modeled his and I must say he looked hotter than I've seen him in ages - not joking), and we have put together our top eight song lists, as requested. What's really funny is how different our lists are and how much we despise each other's! Here they are (guess which one is mine and which one is my husband's - it's not hard):

List One (hit play at the bottom of my blog to hear some of them)

1. Def Leppard - Another Hit and Run
   
2. Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
3. AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long
4. Judas Priest - Living After Midnight
5. Guns N’ Roses - Sweet Child o’ Mine
6. Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock (full version – with Neidermeyer at the beginning)
7. The Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane
8. Sammy Hagar - I Can’t Drive 55

List Two

1. The Smiths - Girlfriend in a Coma
   
2. Talk Talk - Such a Shame
3. Erasure - Hideaway
4. New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
5. Depeche Mode - Everything Counts
6. Violent Femmes - Add It Up
7. Wham! - Freedom
8. Traci Ullman - They Don't Know

I have also pulled out my talking Pee Wee Herman doll to use as a party decoration and have some bodacious Tiger Beat posters that I'm loaning the hosts. I have 100+ 45's that I'm considering bringing over but am afraid might get trashed in the exuberance of the evening. I don't know about the rest of 'em but I'm "going to party like it's 1999!"

My Husband's in a video!

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