People Watching

Hey there! Well I'm out of town for a few days. I flew to NC and let me tell you about some of things I've seen...

#1 The most severe mullet I've seen (ever). Not only was it a mullet, but it obviously had product in it to make it spikey on top, and she had blond highlights in her dark brown hair. I think she curled under the ends of the long part ("the party"). That made my eyes finally pop open at 6:45am the other morning, as I sat in the airport.

#2 The most beautiful angelic little girl I have ever seen. She was on the 2nd and shorter leg of her travels from Las Vegas. I asked her parents when they started; they left Las Vegas at midnight and were on the 8am flight to NC. That explaines all the tangles in this little 4 year old beauty's hair. It was so weird, I couldn't stop looking over at her. (It's not a bio-clock thing...she didn't make me want to have one. The little girl was just captivating.)

#3 A womens basketball team was on the plane with me. When I use to travel for team sports we had to dress up. I guess not anymore. The women were all in sweats (sporting the school logo). They were all frumpy looking and kind of rude. If I were the school, I'd rip my logo off of those sweats. I must say, one girl looked ridiculous. I know it's a "fashion" thing and it's in, for some guys, and if I saw this on a young male athlete, I wouldn't have mentally chuckled, just yawned. This girl had pulled the right leg of her sweats up to her knee and the left down. It just looked so out of place on a chick, especially as she met her man at baggage claim.

#4 An airport policeman; you know the ones that tell you to move your car along? At Raleigh the policeman are like vultures (in a good way), as soon as your brake lights come on, they are walking towards your car to tell you to go around again. Anyway... There was a man in his 40s who pulled up in a minivan, he quickly ran inside and back out. He walked up to the police officer and explained his situation. He was there to pick up his 80 something year old wheelchair bound father, who he saw an airport attendant take back inside the airport. The police officer told him, he could go look inside. Then the man said, but my baby is in the van. The officer went inside to find the elderly father and came back out and then watched the van/baby while the man went in to ID himself and pick up his dad. (The entire time, you should have seen all the cars build up around the curb...there were cars parallel parked 2-3 deep from the curb.)

#5 The backs of my eyelids, finally. After only sleeping 2.5 hours the night before I left (a nap according to my ride), I got here and at some point slept.

#6 Oh, how could I overlook this one. I saw a friend of mine at 6AM pull up in front of our house to give me a ride to the airport....I didn't think he existed until at least noon! Thanks, man.

Chaos: Strike the Match

Tonight Aaron and I went out for a movie. We went to see Syriana. I highly recommend it for adult audiences. I'll warn you there are some graphic scenes (this adult chose to turn her head for a moment or two).

I think I started pondering the relationship between energy and chaos sometime during the first Gulf War. Maybe it was all the news clips showing us the burning oil fields. Mind you I'm not talking about physics. Well maybe it applies somehow, but I took physics 101, a.k.a. Physics for Poets, so I wouldn't know if it does somehow apply to physics. No, I'm talking about people.

I wonder what it will look like if our energy resources are depleted. I have a sickening feeling that the world as we know it will turn into chaos. Think back to how people responded after Katrina, after they were left stranded for awhile. Then there is always the scene with the minivan near the ferry in the recent movie War of the Worlds. The thought of such chaos has been a bit disturbing to me, and so I choose to safely push it back into my mind as something that could happen, but hopefully won't in my lifetime.

Tonight I thought a little more about this potential chaos. I realized that it is not so much a matter of if the match will be struck, as it is when will the match strike. As I pushed that thought around in my head for a bit, I realized something far more realistic. The match has already been struck, and for us, in the Western hemisphere, the chaos seems contained to "over there." It is only a matter of time before the flame of chaos spreads and engulfs society as we know it.

So, I don't know. Some people think it would be wrong to fight a war for the control of oil. What would you do one winter, if your baby's lips are a little blue and she's crying, there's no more electric or gas to heat the house, and you've burnt the last of your furniture? What if a war broke out for the control of water, or food?

I don't have the answers, and I think it's all pretty frightening. Really, I'm just thinking out loud tonight.

Can You Smell the Smoke?

Thanks to an email from a friend, I'm just thinking about this and a little bit of this and that.

Now do you have any smoldering thoughts?

Last Minute Christmas Shopping?

Last Minute Christmas Shopping?

Are you still scrambling to find gifts for everyone on your list? Check out The Steves' Store for truly....umh....truly....well let's just say, unique (?) gifts for that twisted someone on your Christmas list.

Hurry! Only one day left for the 2 day shipping discount.

Name Game

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and street name)
Lady Tangley

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on mother's side first name, favorite candy)
Jinx (I think I’d be a one name star….I mean really what do you follow up Jinx with?)

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
CMAX

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite animal, name of high school mascot)
Tiger Fighting Cardinal (Sounds more like a cool Asian movie, or my Native American name)

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Leigh Houston

6. YOUR OPPOSITE SEX NAME: (name of dad/mom, cell phone Company you use)
Keith C Bell

7. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden, first 3 letters of your pet's name)
Maxianelr

**Thanks for the fun, Kitty Red Devil!**

Drinking Martinis with My Pastor's Wife

I went to Baba Budan's in Clifton and enjoyed their signature drink with a very cool chick. Yes, she happens to be my pastor's wife.

Now, the pastors' wives that I watched growing up wore the long floral dresses, and either wore their hair in a bun and no make up, their hair was 3 feet X 3 feet and their make up rubbed off on you as you stepped foot into the church. I don't remember hearing a pastor's wife talk about the challenges of marriage, motherhood, career, family holidays, or The Role of The Pastor's Wife. Everything was always so wonderful, so nice, so perfect, so full of content, so unachievable.

I'm so grateful to have a pastor's wife that I can sit down with and have a drink with and really get to know. She occasionally gives us vignettes into her person, her heart. I want to know my pastor's wife is real, you know? It's so great to know that she understands the challenges of life; to know when you share with her, it's OK. She isn't taking you off of the church Christmas party list, because you aren't the perfect, put together, everything's wonderful woman. No, you are on the Christmas party list, because God blessed her with a big warm heart, a laid back easy way, and desire to occassionally have a round of martini's with the (not so perfect) girls.

Cheers, Brooke!

Up Against the Wall

Tonight I met up with a great group of girlfriends. Ahhh, this is always a treasured treat. We get together about one Friday a month for dinner and a movie. This evening it was BaBa's and then the Esquire.

As you may have guessed we went to Shopgirl, not a movie that I was particularly interested in watching. In the spirit of going out together I sucked it up and joined the crowd. (I was even provided with a 1/2 price ticket...thanks girls!)

Now, that being said, let me explain something. A few years ago I was in an airport, bored. I wondered into those cleverly placed bookshops and purchased Shopgirl. The cover photo reminded me of someone, and I liked the title. I actually thought that the author must have been someone else who happened to share a name with the actor. It took awhile to get into, but all books do that for me. I sat in the airport and read a little. I read a little more on the plane until I fell asleep; something I always do very easily in flight. On my trip I read a little each evening, and occasionally during the day while I drank ice tea outside under the trees. I read and I read and I read, but I could never get into it. I believe, I read it about 2/3s through before giving up. It was so depressing and just seemed to be wallowing in it with no change in sight. At the time, I felt that life has enough drama of it's own, I don't really need to read about some fictitious brokenness.

OK, so that is the complaint with the book, and I really must move on to the story of our movie night. So I purchased my 1/2 priced ticket, and then stepped inline for a little popcorn. Heck, if I was going to this movie, I was at least going to have a rare little treat. I was the first one down the isle and lead our group into an empty row. I don't care to step over people who are already seated. I sat next to Candyce and up against the wall.

Because I do remember a little bit of the book, the beginning was very predictable. Lonely, sort of wall flower girl is, well lonely. She reluctantly but desperately hooks up with goofy looser dude, Jeremy. He's the kind of guy that if you hook up with him, you never tell your your girls about, and you hope no one ever finds out. As it would turn out (funny, it almost always works this way), "Mr. Wonderful,"or Ray now steps into the scene, and our Shopgirl finds herself trying to shrug off goofy looser dude, who has suddenly become puppy-love affectionate, in order to pursue something with Ray. Soon the looser leaves the scene and she is free to enjoy Ray. Early in the relationship, Ray makes it clear that he is emotionally unavailable, but would like to continue to see our Shopgirl. There are many seemingly wonderful things that happen for the Shopgirl, and she seems to overlook the "emotionally unavailable" speech. It would seem that Ray has, too. Eventually things start to fall apart and Ray breaks her heart, but then drags it around for awhile, and Shopgirl tries to continue with this relationship. Finally, the point comes when Shopgirl decides to trade the fake romance in and take on the hurt of love lost. She enters into a new relationship with a young and eager to love guy (formerly known as goofy looser dude). They have each been broken, and this time around they slowly extend more of their hearts to on another, and this is the relationship that eclipses Ray. "Yeah," for the Shopgirl and "Yeah," for Jeremy. So sad for Ray.

So there I sat, up against the wall. I felt myself pressing closer to the wall at times. I had a Ray (funny, most Ray's turn out to be the one that you don't want anyone to know about)...he wasn't 50 something, but he was older and "emotionally unavailable." I was young and waiting to be noticed and wanted. He noticed and he wanted. I decided that was enough; better than nothing at all, right? Don't feel sorry for me. I don't feel sorry for Shopgirl. I was an adult, I was young, but I did have some choices. I just chose to ignore some issues.

At this point, if you are a girl reading this, don't respond out of loneliness and desperation, by settling on a relationship. When you are desperate and lonely, call on your true friends. The people who love you and would fight tooth and nail for you. You shouldn't have to settle for ANYTHING. There is a man out there that will "leap tall buildings in a single bound" for you. OK, that might be impossible, but there is a man that will rise to the occassion because of you and only for you. He will protect your heart.

For all you fellas out there, well I hope you never become a Ray. It was quite sad to watch how much Ray really did want to emotionally connect, but instead to protect himself, kept this beauty at a distance, thus hurting her and losing out on something wonderful for himself. You should know that there is a Beauty out there for you. Do you want anyone else hurting her right now? Further more, do you really want a girl to settle for you because she's desperate, and then lies to her friends about you? Don't you want to be the man that eclipses all other lovers?

Strangely enough I appreciated the movie (obviously). It didn't make me feel that hot, but there were somethings for me to consider and I think to share with you.

Please Pass The Glue Stick: Artistic Interpretations on Mommy-hood

The women's small group I've been a part of for about 2 years has been growing. Three of the 8 (and now 10) members had four little girls this past year. Recently I found a quote on line from The Kite Runner and sent it to them (being the "clever" non-mommy that I am). They decided to share their interpretations with me (suddenly realizing that I don't have a clue). Anyway, I thought you too might enjoy them (and possibly identify with them).

"Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them in with your favorite colors."
--The Kite Runner

"I think they are more free hand because you don't have a guide, most of the time you can see the apples on the table but you have to figure out how to get that image on the paper."
--Sharon, mommy of the precious twins (aka she who never sleeps)


"I think they are more of a collage, where you have all the pieces to work with, they have all been cut out for you and some of them are even glued in place for you, but you get to decide where to glue some of the pieces. "
--Marnie, mommy of the dinosaur fanatic, the princess in pink, and most recently, the third sweat pea in the pod.