Better check yourself

What the heck is going on in the world?  People are getting up and turning on the TV at 4-5am to watch a wedding of people they don't even know or will ever meet.  There is total devastation in the South and the MidWest with people dead and people who have lost all of their worldly possessions and we are tuning in to the NFL draft -as if they are even going to have the NFL this year????  There is flooding and tornadoes and good grief we are more concerned about who lost out on Dancing with Idols or what ever the heck it is??

I'll be honest, I don't watch much media and I rarely pick up a paper, I get most of my news second hand or by interweb.  -cause it's all true, read it on the computer today.  Seriously, Japan is one shake away from being a glow-stick and we are done with that because some football players are not getting paid enough money.  Yeah I can see that you need to have priorities.  "....better get Japan up and running so that they can make parts for my car, and them there footballer players better get things ironed out so I will have something to watch on TV come Sunday."

I don't like going to weddings of people I know, why would I want to watch an out-of-date-monarchy-figure-head mix blood with a commoner on world wide live TV?  I'm not even going to get cake, much less open bar.  I know I am not the sharpest bulb in the shed and this is not rocket surgery, but would someone please explain why this has any relevance to my life?  Or yours?  Watching paint dry would be more relevant -at least I would know that it was safe to touch.

Take away whatever you want from this, but think of all the people who have lost loved-ones, possessions, and homes.  Think of our fellow countrymen, and those in Japan who are suffering hardships that I pray that we never have to face.  Nancy Regan said NO to drugs, I'm asking you to say NO to stupidity.  Stop the madness, vote by turning off that glowing mind-numbing 1080p HD piece of furniture. 

Absence makes

Where do I start?  I was able to take some time off last week, Ok I'm not employed so... I went to see my Mom and Dad in Texas, really I needed to spend some time with the fam.  We even ventured over to ABQ to see my sister.  The four of us were able to hang out and have "family time".  We actually like each other and can stand to be around one another for longer than the usual cordial words.  Not to say we don't have family disagreements and the occasional hair pulling or stabbing with a ball-point-pen.  That was a few years ago.  Buy me a pint and you might get the story, buy my sister a pint and you will get the other side.

I have my sister to thank for my taste in music, movies and the love of the weird.  She was a "cool" big sister and took care of me in my early years, even when she was not at school anymore her friends took me under their wing out of respect for her.  Yeah, she had that kind of pull -kind of like a Robert Smith crossed with Frank Sinatra.  She had no incentive to be nice to me, secretly, I think she liked having me around.  Either that or she thought of me as her project.  Whatever the motivation I was the one who profited.

I say her friends respected her, I respect her.  Most times family is just family and you are stuck with them because they are your Mom's sisters' husband's cousin.  I say respect, because it is not just about blood and the fact that she is my parent's daughter -aka my sister.  Growing up she was a friend, enemy, confidant, informant, accomplice, teacher, tutor, bully and roll model.  Don't forget hair stylist, I drew the line at make-up artist. 

Sometimes you have to remember the things that you forgot, and time together is a remedy for what ales you -and a few beers together doesn't hurt.