Simple things

First of all, let me say that I was TOTALLY shocked to hear that Heath Ledger died.  I’m sad about it, really.  He was so young, talented… and well, I feel bad for his little girl, Matilda.  What is going ON with young Hollywood that TWO young actors die (supposedly from drugs) in the past week or two?  Yikes, people.  Someone needs to get a reign on this problem before we loose EVERYONE… like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and the rest of them.  Actually, I would’ve expected to hear that Britney died before Heath.  (But, personally, I think Britney is bringing this firestorm of attention on herself, intentionally, for attention and popularity votes or something.)

Anyway… my sympathies to his family. 

I’ve been spending the past few days lounging like a lazy-ass.  Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling well and the day before I was recovering from having my two young nieces here (in which, #3 son AND the two girls were up extremely late… because my son was SO excited that they slept over, BUT I’m so freaking exhausted because every hour ON the hour, I had to go into his room, where they were all supposedly sleeping, and tell them to GO TO SLEEP.  Eventually, I took #3 out of his room and put him in #2’s bed since #2 was sleeping at his aunt’s house –we traded kids).

Needless to say, I’ve been watching the political arena VERY VERY closely.  Do you know what I’ve discovered?  Hillary AND Obama are pushing fascist ideas… universal healthcare, for starters.  Think about it, they are not going to get anything like that pushed through.  Hillary had EIGHT years to do that and failed.  What makes you think she’ll get it done in four?

Besides the fact, let’s talk about “Changes.”

How can we, the American populace, expect a politican to bring about “changes” if they are NOT new to the presidential realm?  Hillary is the wife of a FORMER president.  If you think she’ll bring about new and improved changes, then you’re kidding yourself.  She’ll fall into the “Clinton way” and probably talk a big talk but end up involving us in military/political strife elsewhere in the world… like Bill did: Serbia, Mogadishu, Haiti just to name a few.

But, that’s not what I wanted to write about.  I’m not really sure what I want to say, I just know that today I need to say something about something.  I guess after a few days of sitting on the couch, mezmerized by my son’s Nintendo DS (I LOVE Age of Empires)… I realized that I just let two or three days go by where I did nothing but conquer the French and the Mongols (the damn Japanese still give me a run for the money).

So, what do I say?  What words should I shape into an opinion that will influence (good or bad) people around me?  Should I be nice?  Or jump up and down, yelling about something that irritates me?

I dunno.  I guess it will come to me as I write. 

My son, after having an at-length conversation with SD, decided that he is going to take off Sundays (in addition to having taken off Saturdays this semester for his class).  I said no.  I have a sneaking suspicion that SD told my son that if he takes off Sundays, he’ll take him skiing (or something else).  Not that the guy has ever kept more than one promise in a row.  In fact, there have been weeks in a row that he blantantly lied to my son about doing whatever it was he promised he’d do, only for him to make up an excuse and cancel (not the weekend, but the “activity” they were going to do).

I remember when we first went to court over the visitation thing.  #1 son was a few months old and SD and his crazy mother wanted to take him 4 days a week.  I may not be a math genius, but I do know that it would have left me with 3 days.  I said no.  Besides, *I* had custody, he even signed the paperwork giving me physical custody. (He isn’t very smart, hence the need for his parents and his father’s divorce attorney.)

So, in order to try to get me to give up my son, or have him ripped from me, they tried to make me look like Britney… by calling me a slut, a drug addict, and an alcoholic IN COURT.

First of all, before SD, I never slept with anyone. And, not that it’s anyone’s business, but I was not the sleep-around kinda girl.  I was a prude, moreso because I grew up in a strict Italian/Catholic house where you would be chastised, beaten, and made to work in the kitchen if you so much as kissed a boy on the mouth.  Secondly, I never tried recreational drugs, nor have ever abused prescription.  If I take ONE advil when I get a horrific headache, it’s only out of despiration.  The only drugs I’ve been known to take are antibiotics when I’m sick (and that’s because I hate being sick).  Third, I rarely, if ever, drink.  As a matter of fact, the LAST time I had a drink was at my friend’s wedding in December.  Before that, um… maybe when I went out to dinner with my friends from high school in October.  Other than that, not a big drinker, never really was.

So, there is a lesson in calling people names and assigning falsities to them.

Like, with the recent demise of Heath Ledger.  We are a “looking at a train wreck and can’t turn away” society.  We revel in it.  If that weren’t true, then why is there traffic when someone is pulled over by the police or when there is a minor fender-bender?  Because we’re all hoping to SEE something that probably won’t happen.  We’re looking at car accidents so that we can say we saw dead people, mashed cars, or whatever.  When a celebrity falls off her rocker, most people do not turn the channel when the news dedicates a FULL hour to what’s wrong with Britney. (Really? Are we kidding ourselves?)  The list goes on.

We need to stop being so damned fatalistic and start being more compassionate.  The media should know better considering there is STILL an inquiry into whether or not the paparazzi is responsible for Princess Diana’s death.

But, I’d be a liar if I did this self-righteous rant about not buying the magazines, watching the news programs, or staring at car accidents… because I do that, too.  I look, watch, observe, peek, and peer.  I guess it’s because I want to know, first hand, what’s up.  Maybe it’s because I don’t trust the media to give me the full scoop, or that I trust them too much that they can dictate what I see.

That brings me to this: Why am I so fixated by the “Real Housewives of Orange County?”  I don’t have a desire to pump up my boobies for my husband (they’re ample enough, thank you), or push Botox into my forehead (ouch).  I don’t have thousands to spend on a BMW for my child, or go to the spa weekly for massages and facial peels.  In fact, when I watch them, it’s as though I’m seeing the small percentage of American society revel in excesses when the rest of us are struggling to survive.  Perhaps I’m waiting for one to break her nail and her husband to say, “Sorry, babe, you can’t get them fixed because we’re broke.”  Maybe I’m waiting for the next train-wreck to emerge as I watch this show.  Or, secretly envy their wealth.

What I think we need to be seeing on commercials, instead of hot skinny girls in micro-mini cotour with hair extensions and fake boobs, are middle class people who a) aren’t showing America how utterly evil their children are, in hopes that some Nanny will fix them, b) swapping their wives, c) or being the rich people’s bitches.  I said to my husband last night, after seeing some commercial that irritated me that there needs to be more “normal” looking people in commercials. Not goofy-looking psycho people, but a woman who isn’t 5′10″ and 100 lbs, a man with rippled abs, or gorgeous Stepford children.  These people do not accurately reflect us, do they? Maybe they represent what corporate America wants us to become… a robotic, anorexic, hot chick with plastic ta-tas whose five kids sit orderly in the back of an expensive minivan with DVD screens throughout, with a husband who is gorgeous but doesn’t speak.

Wait. Aside from the five kids, and the plastic boobies, I’d go for that.  It’s the ideal life, isn’t it?  It’s what people come to America for… the excesses of life that only .5% of the entire nation can enjoy while the rest of us watch about it on television, drooling for the day when we, too, can leave our kids with the nanny while we jet off to some ritzy place with our friends for a week.

If that is what our society is becoming or has become, then we definitely need a change… which brings me back to Hillary.  Again, if you think she’ll bring the change we’re looking for, then I’m sorry but you’ve chosen the wrong candidate.  Will McCain? Probably not.  What about Guiliani?  Not so much. 

So, what will it take?  Who will it take?

I wish I knew that answer. I just know that when people jump up on their soapboxes, crying that we NEED change and that they are the ones to BRING it, the questions that remains are…

What are they going to change?
Is it reasonable to think that we can change that?
Would we benefit from that type of change?
And, what would happen as a result of that change?

That’s all for now, friends.  I’ll probably be back later.
Have a good one…