"Are you Annie?"

Well here it is - Valentine's Day - and all I can think of is the Empire State Building in NYC... You know these chic flics set up these expectations that we want fulfilled!! It started with "An Affair to Remember" with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr who meet on a ship, while traveling across the Atlantic Ocean. Both engaged to other people, say goodbye, but agree to meet atop the Empire State Building in six months if their feelings remain the same. And then, of course, the follow up chic flic, "Sleepless in Seattle" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, where 'Annie' writes a letter to 'Sam' to meet her on top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day.
Sigh.
That sounds soooooo romantic. And having watched these movies my entire adult life, New York City was a gazillion times better than I had ever imagined. Again, it is so surreal to see the scenes I've seen for years and years. It's like they were movie sets in my head, and then, there they were!  In the 'City that never sleeps.' I think the only thing that I would change, which I cannot, is that I would love to have seen NYC decades ago, when everyone dressed up more and it would've looked more sophisticated. All I saw anyone in was black, and no one ever looked too dressed up.
Anyway.
It was still a great day. As I made my sales calls, I gave Hershey kisses to all of my clients, and they all seemed genuinely appreciative. And DD's high school does Valentine's right, and each kid gets a heart that they have to 'give away' when they talk to someone of the opposite sex, so it evidently made for great fun. Too, some of the clubs sold pre-ordered flowers, so it was a fun holiday feel.
Still wish I was in NYC though...

"Every liberal and leftist knows how to titter at such black-and-white moral absolutism." - Christopher Hitchens

My dad was a black and white guy -- good guys and bad guys, right and wrong, you're in or you're out,  do it or don't do it. There was no "gray" with him. And THAT'S what's wrong with Western civilization now. We've made everything "gray." What made me think about this is the Chris Dormer, former Los Angeles police officer, who has gone off the rails and started a killing spree. And then we hear about the people who feel sorry for him, and say that he was the victim of racism, and he actually had started making fans. Dormer fell into the liberal trap of 'victim' and then thought he was justified to go out and seek revenge on his (at least in his mind) perpetrators. Here was a man, who also was previously in the military, (who has been taught to follow the LAW, and then let the judicial system take it's course) yet decided to take 'justice' into his own hands.
The fact remains that we have laws. And one of them is that you cannot murder people. And it is not a 'gray' area. One is NEVER justified to go out and start killing people, no matter how angry they are. And it highlights how far off the course this country has gotten when people don't understand right and wrong any more. Laws were created for those that don't follow right and wrong. And we base laws on our moral beliefs, which in the West, is on the ten commandments in the Bible. "Thou shall not kill" is the sixth of the ten commandments that God gave Moses up on Mount Sinai. But this country has taken God and prayer out of schools, and allowed everything else to take it's place.
So you can feel as sorry as you want for Chris Dormer, and you can believe his story that he was misunderstood or taken advantage of or was a victim of racism, BUT IT NEVER GAVE HIM THE RIGHT TO START KILLING. EVER.
Where is John Wayne when you need him...

"Smoke on the water..."

After watching the Carnival cruise ship in the Gulf's problems, I have no desire to EVER go on one of those type of cruises... Yack. With the current crisis, the ship had an engine room fire, so the toilets are overflowing, there is limited cold water to shower with, no cell phone service, the food is going bad and with no power or air conditioning, they are sleeping in the halls on under tents on the deck which is the 'perfect storm' for crime or 'mutiny on the bounty.' And last year (or was it the year before) when that hotshot captain in Italy ran his cruise ship aground near that island, the ship was listing so far over that it must have been mayhem trying to get off. I don't know... They have never sounded fun to me anyway. It just seems like a recipe for disaster if something goes wrong. Seems like about ten years ago, there was Legionnaire's disease on one or more ships and people were dying. And then I've heard of rogue waves hitting them out in the open seas, which actually makes me panic when I think about that. I have a huge respect for the ocean. My parents had a large boat that they deepsea fished in on the summer weekends, and when you're 6-7 hours out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and you realize it takes that long to get back, well you just have to 'let go and let God,' as they say. One July weekend my parents were fishing way out, and some of their best friends on another large boat radio'd them, "Mayday, mayday" because their boat caught on fire. By the time my parents got there in just 10 minutes, their boat had already sunk and there were 3 men and a woman in a small life raft that wasn't working well. And this was a 60' boat! Hmmm, another time when they were getting gas at the dock, a man lit a cigarette and was blown to his death in the water. Sigh. Having grown up with boats, I have a million stories. But, as I say, I have a huge respect for the ocean, and actually all large bodies of water. But I digress.
There are cruise stories of people going missing, falling off the ship, rapes, theft, you name it. I mean, if you have a criminal way of thinking, there are endless ways on a ship in the middle of the ocean to commit your crime. So... Nothankyouverymuch. No cruises for me.
Have you seen the Poseidon Adventure??

"Sugar and spice and all that's nice..."

Yes, I know... I usually have a snarky red carpet review after an award show but we celebrated my youngest daughter's 16th birthday this weekend (whew!) so I only caught part of the Grammy's last night. I think the pictures I've chosen pretty much say it all... yet I'm going to comment anyway, because - well, I just want to.
Here is the same Gucci dress - guess which one is the American?!? That's right. It's the top one, Katy Perry at Grammys, looking almost like a caricature - sort of like Jessica Rabbit - whereas the Chinese actress, Bingbing (hmmm, loving that name, who was in the same dress earlier this year) looks petite and demure (and okay, let's just say it) she doesn't look slutty. She looks beautiful and feminine.
Sigh.
As I've been driving around lately (and in sales, there's a lot of driving around) I was thinking that in the United States, men are becoming more like women and women are becoming more like men. Women are now allowed to be on the FRONTLINES in a war...  which I am, as a woman, totally against. WE ARE WIRED DIFFERENTLY. WE WANT TO BE TAKEN CARE OF. We want our knights in shining armour.  We are emotional. We have periods. We have babies. We are not emotionally programmed to shoot at the enemy and deal with those consequences. We play house and babies and dress up as little girls. Boys play with toy guns and toy grenades - it's how they are wired. As I watch all these high school (and college) sports, I can see that these girls are getting masculinized. I'm not saying I'm against girl sports, but they start acting like guys - they lower their voice and start calling each other 'dude' and sweat and lift weights and, well, act more like guys. Not so much in track,  tennis and golf but definitely in volleyball, basketball and soccer.
Yet men still want the beautiful, sweet and feminine girls so they gravitate to where ever those girls are, even if it's overseas (see above.) Too, American women are so over-sexualized that it becomes a turn off to men. Ask any high school boy in America and they will tell you that it's the girls that are the aggressors these days and not the boys - at least in the public schools. In my Baby Boomer high school years, it was the boys who were the aggressors and girls tried to remain chaste and save their virginity. In my small Texas town's high school, it is the exact opposite. The girls are the only aggressors and beg the boys to have sex - yet the "good" boys tell the girls they want to wait. Their dads have told them not to ruin their lives by having a child too young and they are listening. I'm wondering if it's the same elsewhere, and when I ask people from other states, they confirm the same situation.
It's all backasswards...

Freaky Friday - Grammys

Ugh. I'm having a hard time lately narrowing down what I want to post about. I actually wrote 2 different pieces yesterday but just saved them for another day. I usually wait for something to inspire me, but nothing was jumping out.
But today the article that catches my attention has been talked about a few days. Evidently the Grammy's sent out a 'private' notice that is calling for these dress code restrictions on Sunday night -- "Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack. Please be sure the genital region is adequately covered so that there is no visible "puffy" bare skin exposure. Avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast nipples. Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic."
While I am in TOTAL agreement that these "costumes" are nastier and more revealing than what actual prostitutes wear, I am not sure how the Grammy's intends to 'police' what the celebrities are going to wear. Will it be like my daughter's high school when they deem something inappropriate, so they have to put on an ugly, thick, man's painter shirt over said outfit? Who will be the person(s) policing this? And if no one is policing the outfits, what actually is the point? Was it the smartest marketing ploy ever so that more will watch the show to see if anyone breaks dress code?? I mean I DO agree that the Grammys in particular has gotten really raunchy in the stars' one-upmanship to see who can top the last. I think Jennifer Lopez set the bar with that green dress cut down to her navel that everyone still talks about.
Sigh.
Don't we all just figure these days that you have to choose your battles and this probably isn't one of them, given the dire circumstances this country is in financially? But... it is a start. So, yeah. You go Grammy's.
I'll be watching...

This is a pic I took with my iPhone on the way home from work today - no filter.
It looks apocalyptic...

I didn't realize how much I love clouds until I got an Instagram. It's God's canvas that changes by the minute...

(Will post tomorrow.)

Last danceteam performance at basketball this year.
Time is flying...