Obsidianwords's Blog

When I think back to the easter Sundays of my childhood, a few things pop into my mind: family, ham, painted eggs and candy. I remember those Sundays as mostly enjoyable, filled with fun, smiles, and of course: chocolate. The easter bunny was pretty cool too ~ although I always found it strange that the bunny gave the same candy I would see in the grocery store ~I asked my parents: ‘who did the shopping for the easter bunny?’ – They answered that they were given a list by the easter bunny, that, since there were so many kids in the world, many parents had to buy the candy for the bunny-

…I smelled BS pretty early on.

My parents didn’t offer much in the way of explanation as to why people celebrate easter. From what I remember my dad would steer me over to my mom who would say ‘it has to do with jesus’ death and rising to heaven.’ Now, I remember this jesus character from a few attempts at making us kids sit through church and of course the Sundays my sister and I would walk to Sunday school: I couldn’t understand what all the hype was for, the guy was dead. Now my grandma, she understood what easter was really about! You dressed in your nicest dress (because jesus was watching), you were well behaved (because jesus was watching) and, you waited to eat your candy until after dinner (because jesus was watching). I remember becoming quite impatient at the candy rule once and letting my grandma know that jesus wouldn’t care and didn’t see because he is dead-

…no candy for me.

I remember the first easter we decided to skip grandmas house. Maybe I was 13 or 14? I don’t remember, but I DO remember getting no explanation other than: You kids are getting too old for the easter bunny. And I recall understanding that my parents thought I had finally stopped believing in the easter bunny, I guess they didn’t realize I had never believed in that damn bunny to begin with? Looking back I believe it was just another guise as my parents were done celebrating easter. My grandma didn’t take that well. She began a series of easter trips to my aunt’s house in St. Louis ~ they embraced the easter bunny and celebrated/mourned/exalted the main character in the story ~ jesus.

…I guess we were heathens.

Come to find out my parents didn’t want to expose us to just one specific way of thinking. The talks about god and jesus were becoming frequent from my grandma and my parents didn’t feel we should be exposed to her rants. I now believe that neither of them wanted to deny or admit what my grandma was saying so the best course of action~ eliminate it, ignore it! I am not at all bitter toward my parents for eliminating exposure to my grandmother’s rants. It freed me to ask my parents more questions and seek out answers on my own..and I still hold that curiosity about everything, thanks to my family-

…and thanks easter bunny!

I fond this quote while researching for a paper:

“Sell them their dreams. Sell them what they longed for and hoped for and almost despaired of having. Sell them hats by splashing sunlight across them. Sell them dreams – dreams of country clubs and proms and visions of what might happen if only. After all, people don’t buy things to have things. They buy things to work for them. They buy hope – hope of what your merchandise will do for them. Sell them this hope and you won’t have to worry about selling them goods”

-Helen Landon Cass

It has been about a month since I revisited this blog of mine. How do people have the time to keep their blogs up to date?! My next longer blog entry will be on the topic of gay marriage. Thank you to Gideon for asking these questions to get my thinking juices flowing :

“What are your thoughts about marriage (specifically gay marriage) and the right of the state to determine its definition? Should the gay community be seeking out simply the rights allotted with marriage rather than the title itself?- or – should the title be “expanded” to include same-sex couples?”

I will spend a lot of time focusing on how marriage has been defined and the role government and religion play in that definition. With access to my University Library…I have so many articles and sources … it is sick but I am going to have fun with this one!   😉

As for what life has been like in 2010 ~ Best month of the year so far!

-New block of classes:

I am carrying a 3.92 right now and I must admit, this school thing has been easier than I thought it would be. One of my classes in this 9-week block is challenging ~ Business 220 ~ funny, being ‘in business’ for over 20 years you would think I have a friggin’ clue about things like: Supply and Demand, Limited Liability Companies…

-My back :

Most of you already know, I have been plagued with daily back pain for years now. Well, the pain has been gone for the entire year of 2010!! (37 days to be exact): My record for painless existence is about a week, so this 37 day streak blows that old record out of the water!

-Pet insurance:

Tracy and I decided to sign the dogs up for pet insurance. Max has issues with regurgitation and with that comes aspiration pneumonia.

We are trying to figure out how to manipulate the system so it isn’t seen as a “pre-existing condition”. Max’s issues have gone on for a few years and have recently been exacerbated with the pneumonia.

-Work:

Both of my jobs are fine. I enjoy having the flexibility that two jobs offer for completing schoolwork ~ but I do see a change coming in 2010. One job I am on my feet for up to 8 hours, which with back problems, can be … well a pain in the back!

A few questions to ponder:

-Is the chair you are sitting on really there or just a perceived item that suits your current condition?

-Is anyone sick of hearing about the miracle on the Hudson? It has been a year now and the media is still using that catchy word “miracle” and sully is still saying that he just did his job.

-Will American Idol be the same next year with Simon Cowell leaving?

Thanks to MaryJo for today’s topic !!

It is Christmas time again! And as we all know, with that come many fun traditions ~ including the visit from Santa Claus!

I was outraged to imagine, as it was brought up to me on Facebook, that Santa may have all male reindeer in his herd. I would report that to the EEOC however, I have come to find out that Santa’s reindeer are likely not all male. No, they didn’t go through ‘a change’. Apparently, due to some breed characteristics, the antler-brandished flight crew should be correctly categorized as mixed gender. Let me share with you some wisdom from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game:

“while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer, however, retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to every historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, every single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen..... had to be a female. We should have known this.... Only women would be able to drag a fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night, and not get lost."

Now, notice this snippet attempts to make it a fact that male reindeer couldn’t possibly be pulling Santa’s sleigh because they lose their antlers before Santa takes to the skies. Of course this makes sense as his reindeer, depicted in all of those ‘proof photos’, have antlers  ;-).

SO, since I can never trust just one side of anything I hear or read, I did a bit more research and came up with some more information on Santa’s hiring choices. Apparently, there is some truth behind the male reindeer losing their antlers sometime in November through mid-December. While the female retains hers through the winter, I found that there are exceptions to the male rule ~ if the male is ‘young’ or neutered, he may not lose his antlers on the same cycle.

With the information I have come across, I have concluded that Santa may well be in the desired limits for diverse hiring ~ way to go Santa.

*PS* Did  you guys know that reindeer are domesticated caribou? Of course I am simplifying it but check out the groovy links below for more information:

http://www.doi.gov/

http://www.taiga.net/yourYukon/col061.html

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer

So I spent a good two hours over the past few days writing down a variety of topics to challenge myself in maintaining this blog. The topics I listed were : Pet ownership, married with no kids, living life without a god… there are several more.

These are all things I have written about before, I want a challenge, I want to write about things I don’t know about, I want to learn … SO,  I am asking you guys (all nine of you) 🙂  to throw some topics out there that you would like me to write about. Maybe something you want to stump me with or a topic you want to get another viewpoint on…

Thanks in advance, I can’t wait to see what happens with this!

I will open with something cliche: “this is my first blog entry!”

For years I have thought about maintaining a blog but couldn’t get myself to create one; hesitating for a few reasons ~ Lack of time, privacy, and second guessing my writing skills. No more excuses, or as the title of this post implies: I can’t share my ideas about life with people, if I don’t share my ideas about life with people.

A caveat regarding the writing you will find on this page:

• I tend to use words in the wrong context ~ correct me if I am wrong.
• Critical thinking and logical reasoning sometime escapes me, please be forgiving.
• My grammar can be fantastic and horrible.
• Spelling has always been my strong suit.
• If I offend you then please ask yourself why you are so offended before responding.

All in all I intend for this to be a journal of sorts~one that I can dump my thoughts into and hopefully elicit some thought sharing. Now, with that out of the way I shall try to enlighten, delight, or maybe disgust you…stay tuned  😉