Chronicles of The ITHL vol. II

So.  Very.  Sad.  The BoSox play on Saturday on FOX.  Josh Beckett (my second favorite Sox pitcher, of course, right under Curt) is pitching.  While it isn’t a critical game (it’s against the Orioles who are 17 games back), I’d still like to watch the Sox win to get another game ahead of the Yankees.  And here’s the sad part…IN THE MIDWEST, THE CUBS/ROCKIES GAME IS BROADCAST ON FOX.  Stupid Cubs.  Stupid network.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  I now believe FOX to be part of the ITHL.  They test me everytime they put a less-important game on in the Midwest because they assume that all Midwesterners like the Cubs.  And that, my friends, just couldn’t be further from the truth.  Stay tuned for more Chronicles of the ITHL…

LOVE IT!!

I am a huge fan of the Foo Fighters and this new song is OUTSTANDING!!

 

The Lesson of the Day

A few posts down, I wrote about being the change.  What I’ve learned in the past few days is that some people don’t WANT you to be the freakin’ change.  They want to continue to be the same way they’ve been for years causing your efforts to be wasted.  And yet, you keep wasting them…

I have a friend that I call often.  She works alot, so it’s difficult to catch her.  She does NOT work weekends usually, so getting together shouldn’t be that difficult, especially when she (says she) considers me a good friend and says that we should spend more time together.  She’ll say, “Well, this weekend is bad.  I’ve got this and that and what-have-you…but next weekend will be GREAT!”  And then, since she is difficult to catch her, I tell her that I’ll wait for her to call.  She doesn’t.  So I call her.  And then, and here’s the kicker, she’ll call back and say, “Oh, I didn’t realize I said THIS weekend.  I made plans.  I wish you’d have called earlier in the week.“  Yes, reader,  I AM thinking what you’re thinking.  I told her I would wait to hear from her since she frequently doesn’t answer the phone and isn’t home.  And the hell of it is that when I ask her how her weekend was, she says, “Oh, I went to the bar with my friends and we saw such-and-such band and…..”  I guess I’m not included in those friends she talks about.

We all have atleast one relationship like this.  I am a pretty strong-willed, brutally honest person.  I don’t usually take this kind of abuse.  Almost anyone else who tried to pull this shit with me would be written off yesterday.  But there’s just something that keeps me going back for more.  And, as with ALL relationships of this sort, there is always a rationalization why I don’t just STOP.  Maybe it’s because we’ve known one another for EVER.  Maybe it’s because when we are together, we have a hell of a time.  Maybe it’s simply because I don’t have many friends.  Maybe it’s because I just can’t get over the friendship that we HAD and I don’t want to move on.  Or maybe it’s because I’m a glutton for punishment.  Who knows?

It wasn’t always like this.  We used to hang out and visit one another and all sorts of things.  She would return my calls and we’d talk for hours, etc., etc.  But something has changed between us.  Not either of us getting married or growing up or having serious adult lives…it’s something deeper and more important than those things. 

I cannot count the number of times I’ve said, “That’s it!  I’m seriously over this.  And I mean it this time!!”  Yet, over and over again it happens.  I’m  unsure as to why I can’t be around her other friends very often.  I have some ideas, but I don’t have a concrete answer.  I’ve hung out with her and her other friends before and we all get along just lovely!  Maybe that’s the problem.  But when did I become a threat?  Is she that insecure?  We’re both happily married, so that isn’t an issue.  I just don’t get it.  And I’m tired of even trying.

I’m very sad about this.  There is so much potential there.  It’s difficult to let go of something that I’ve had counted on for lots of years, but I think it’s time.

Oh.My.Gawd.

I’m sooo happy (said in my best Maid Marian voice when she gets to marry Robin Hood in Robin Hood: Men In Tights).  I found a very good friend of mine through the internet yesterday!  She was a bridesmaid in our wedding and, well, she’s just an all-around GREAT person.  I had a dream about her a few months ago and tried to look her up in switchboard to no avail.  But I remembered a few facts about her from EONS ago and plugged it all into google and VOILA!  I am just so freakin’ happy!  I don’t have many friends and it is so refreshing to hear from someone from years ago that I miss dearly.  Anyhooya, I’m sending her an email soon to update her and hopefully hear some things about her too!  I absolutely LOVE to blog about good things.  Great.  Now I’m all warm and freakin’ fuzzy inside.  Gotta go…

I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, per se…

…but I do believe in “social experiments.”  I think reality TV (if it were REAL reality, not a television producer’s idea of reality which equals putting people together to create drama to then create great TV ratings) is a prime example of said “social experimentation.”  Big Brother puts people in a house together so they can’t leave and they must compete through a series of stupid games and backstabbing relationships to win money.  Survivor is the same idea, but let’s put them in the wilderness where they could die of snake bites or from eating some poisonous plant, because when there is the potential for sickness and death, the ratings will be even better.  People end up sleeping with one another, forming an unbreakable bond of “love,” and two episodes later they hate each other enough to vote the other off the island or out of the house or whatever.

The “social experimentation” comes into play in these cases because these TV shows place certain personalities together that would never, under normal circumstances, come into contact and then place them in high stress situations (like vying to win a million smackeroos).  I don’t like sissy, whiny frat boys.  I don’t like how they act or dress or talk or, well, I don’t like them.  So I don’t associate with them unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.  So, why then, would I want to be placed on a deserted island with any and then put in a high stress situation, like, say NO FOOD?  Ahh…for the chance to win a million dollars and to humiliate myself on national TV.

And now I’ll use my college education…there HAVE been social experiments done in real life.  They have shown us just what humans are capable of when subjected to certain thoughts and roles and to what lengths they will go to.  You can do your own, too.  Here’s how.  Get into an elevator in a busy building when it is empty.  Face the back of the elevator.  Let the elevator go to the lobby to pick up a jillion people.  See how many face the back because you are facing the back.  And as for famous social experiments, check out Jane Elliott’s Blue-Eyed Experiment and The Stanford Prison Experiment.  This is some awesomely interesting reading material, so, REALLY, click on the links!

I also think these experiments exist in the real everyday world.  Like I said, I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, per se, but I do believe that there is some sort of organization, perhaps named The Institute for Testing Human Limits, or ITHL, that conducts these experiments on unsuspecting people at any given time.  Like that 87 year-old man driving in front of me going 20 mph in a 40 mph zone…HE works for the ITHL.  The creators of the voice-automated phone systems…THEY work for ITHL.  George W. Bush…you guessed it-ITHL.   And my very own brother…HE works for them too!

And, worst of all, I believe Sam Walton to be the president of the ITHL.*  For the love of all that’s sacred, can I please, just ONE time, go to Walmart and NOT have my patience tested?  Please?  Is this really too much to ask?  Why, yes, Charlie it is…because Walmart is the SUPREME SOCIAL EXPERIMENT…the big kahuna…the experiment to beat all experiments.

Last time I went to WallyWorld, I was walking down the main aisle withOUT a cart (I try like hell to NOT have a cart in Walmart…talk about a nervous breakdown) in front of the pharmacy and HBC section.  A woman in front of me, probably in her late 50’s or early 60’s, was pushing a cart and talking on her cell phone.  We see thi everyday, so big deal, right?  WRONG!  She was apparently checking her voicemail, so everytime she had to push a number to put in passcode, erase, save, or whatever, she had to STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AISLE, put her glasses on, find the number and push it.  WHAT THE HELL?!?!?  I ran into her one time because I was looking down other aisles for an alternative route to the “oil for a 2-cylce engine” section.  Then I stopped behind her for her to erase or whatever and the guy behind me hit the back of my ankles with his cart and bitched at ME for stopping in the middle.  I’m sure that BOTH of those people work for Mr. Walton himself. 

So, why then, do I continue to go to Walmart?  Do I have a chance to win a million dollars?  Hell no!  It’s because I save $1.00 on laundry detergent and $.89 on dishwashing detergent and $2.00 on vitamins, etc.  I suppose all in all I save approximately $5.00 on various what-have-you’s everytime I visit that hellhole.  Is it worth it?  Must be, because I keep going back.  Stay tuned for more Chronicles of the ITHL…

*For the gullible readers…there is no such thing as the ITHL and no famous people work for it.  These are just the ramblings of an annoyed, educated over-analyzer.  Just thought I’d clarify for all of you who don’t understand sarcasm and a good work of fiction.

ScrapHappy II

So…finished this “Beautiful Soul” page last night.  Giving it and the one below it as gifts to the mom of these girls.  She’ll like them, I’m sure. 

 

“Beautiful Soul” - time consuming, but I absolutely LOVE the outcome.  This child is incredibly difficult to take pics of.  She is always on the go!

 

“For Future Reference” - LOVE this page.  These colors remind me of this little girl.  She’s so bright and fun.

So that’s it for ScrapHappy today.  Peace out…