RIP
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
10 hours walking in NYC Video as seen from my front door
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Db1XGPvbWn0A&ei=HoNTVKrPIcGhyASmgIL4Bg&usg=AFQjCNE2W0KKqv2NX89BP1PsuW7z-xx1NQ&sig2=hpVcb62W3KU0wmyerbkEKA&bvm=bv.78677474,d.aWw
For any one who has seen this video, I know you have thoughts and feelings. In our culture there is nothing but controversy on how men deal with women. I am not excusing or agreeing with anything in this video but I do have my own comments to share.
Back a world away from here during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in 1991, America was riveted to out news media. Well, at least a group of local business men in a small town in New Mexico were. This group got together at a particular "coffee shop" restaurant at least once a day and several of them went to this place two or three times a day for coffee, conversation, lunch, male bonding. These were all mature men in their 50s and 60s. Most of them happily married men who as I say were all business owners and very upstanding men. As they watched the proceedings, their behavior in the coffee shop began to change. Each morning, they started making comments to their waitresses such as, Why did ya wear THAT to work today? or (remember this?) You are ugly and your mother dresses you funny. After a few weeks of this, one of the waitresses finally breaks down and asks them.. "What is going on?????" The answer from this group was... Well, we have realized thanks to all this stuff that if we come in here like we used to and tell you you look nice today, or you are pretty or even ask how you feel today, you could sue us for sexual harassment.. sooooooo We have no choice if we want to acknowledge you. Hummm gave me something to think about.
Further back in the land of the lost, when I was a teenager we go. I have to say with out bragging in any way, I was blonde, greeneyed, 110 lbs 5' 10" with the girl next door kind of cuteness, I was told.
I was kind of quiet, actually pretty much painfully shy but enjoyed life around me. I cant say that boys my age had a lot to do with me because I was also told that I conveyed an attitude to those my own age of superiority. (Really guys, I was just painfully shy and was trying to not run away from converstaions) But, out in public, I was on the receiving end of many of those kind of "catcalls" that this young woman was experiencing even in our small town. I was NOT the teenager who flirted, who wiggled her tushy to draw attention, who wore the shortest skirts possible, or most of the other popular clothing of the time. I did however have men who were old enough to know better, men in a service organization that my father and grandfather belonged to say inappropriate things to me and actually put their hands on me in inappropriate ways. One night at a party for this organization, one of the men looped his finger through the ring on the zipper to the jumpsuit I was wearing and asked me what would happen if he pulled the golden ring??? After I told him that he would find himself on the floor when that pull would bring my knee into his crotch, he got huffy and walked away.. Yes ladies this was in a crowed room full of upstanding people. My friend who was standing there with me told me that I should Never have said that to this man as he was a friend of our fathers and was in a position to cause my dad and my grandfather "trouble" and it was rude anyway... Ummm no ma'am my parents taught me that I have the right and responsibility to protect myself and what HE did was wrong. But I dindt need to run to my dad or grandfather as I could protect myself. The end of that story was that after several of these episodes with this man and a couple of others, when this organization started a Wives Auxillary to the organization, my mother, my grandmother and I were NOT extended the invitation to join. My mother was told that it was because several of the other wives considered ME TO BE TROUBLE!!!!!!! I was told that all I did was flirt with their husbands.
Watch tv, or movies. Construction workers are many times portrayed as the "type" who shouts rude things at women from up on the rafters as if they have nothing better to do that sit and watch for pretty women, instead of actually BUILDING THAT BUILDING. Then there is the flip side of those same shows.. where the women get upset when the men stop or they catcall at one of them and not another.. it elicits the what's wrong with me feeling in that woman.
For all this, just take a look around the internet, facebook, and other social media. I personally hate it when I am confronted with cartoons and jokes presented by men who have little or no respect for women (in my opinion) who think that those jokes and cartoons are hysterical, that present women as noisy, annoying, ugly, and should only be seen and not heard. Men, let me tell you, these jokes are not funny, they are not even mildly amusing and they do not make us want to be around you to cater to your every need and wish.
Now, that all said, I did not grow up in a city, I did not live as an adult in a city, I do not have a great deal of experience with "cat calls" out in public, I have never been a man, but I believe that this issue is much deeper than it seems. Women really do want to be acknowledged as attractive, even sometimes by a stranger it can make you feel just a little bit better about your world. Men, REAL MEN, want to be able to see an attractive woman and not feel like he is committing a crime.
I think this video was very interesting and very informative in a number of ways that were not really obvious. Go back and watch it a few more times and see all the men who did NOT make this woman feel objectified. Go back and watch it a few more times and see the men who "looked but did not touch". Go back and watch the video a few more times and see the women who were NOT being perused by these "creepy men" And lets start a dialogue about those people.
Just a view from my front window.
For any one who has seen this video, I know you have thoughts and feelings. In our culture there is nothing but controversy on how men deal with women. I am not excusing or agreeing with anything in this video but I do have my own comments to share.
Back a world away from here during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in 1991, America was riveted to out news media. Well, at least a group of local business men in a small town in New Mexico were. This group got together at a particular "coffee shop" restaurant at least once a day and several of them went to this place two or three times a day for coffee, conversation, lunch, male bonding. These were all mature men in their 50s and 60s. Most of them happily married men who as I say were all business owners and very upstanding men. As they watched the proceedings, their behavior in the coffee shop began to change. Each morning, they started making comments to their waitresses such as, Why did ya wear THAT to work today? or (remember this?) You are ugly and your mother dresses you funny. After a few weeks of this, one of the waitresses finally breaks down and asks them.. "What is going on?????" The answer from this group was... Well, we have realized thanks to all this stuff that if we come in here like we used to and tell you you look nice today, or you are pretty or even ask how you feel today, you could sue us for sexual harassment.. sooooooo We have no choice if we want to acknowledge you. Hummm gave me something to think about.
Further back in the land of the lost, when I was a teenager we go. I have to say with out bragging in any way, I was blonde, greeneyed, 110 lbs 5' 10" with the girl next door kind of cuteness, I was told.
I was kind of quiet, actually pretty much painfully shy but enjoyed life around me. I cant say that boys my age had a lot to do with me because I was also told that I conveyed an attitude to those my own age of superiority. (Really guys, I was just painfully shy and was trying to not run away from converstaions) But, out in public, I was on the receiving end of many of those kind of "catcalls" that this young woman was experiencing even in our small town. I was NOT the teenager who flirted, who wiggled her tushy to draw attention, who wore the shortest skirts possible, or most of the other popular clothing of the time. I did however have men who were old enough to know better, men in a service organization that my father and grandfather belonged to say inappropriate things to me and actually put their hands on me in inappropriate ways. One night at a party for this organization, one of the men looped his finger through the ring on the zipper to the jumpsuit I was wearing and asked me what would happen if he pulled the golden ring??? After I told him that he would find himself on the floor when that pull would bring my knee into his crotch, he got huffy and walked away.. Yes ladies this was in a crowed room full of upstanding people. My friend who was standing there with me told me that I should Never have said that to this man as he was a friend of our fathers and was in a position to cause my dad and my grandfather "trouble" and it was rude anyway... Ummm no ma'am my parents taught me that I have the right and responsibility to protect myself and what HE did was wrong. But I dindt need to run to my dad or grandfather as I could protect myself. The end of that story was that after several of these episodes with this man and a couple of others, when this organization started a Wives Auxillary to the organization, my mother, my grandmother and I were NOT extended the invitation to join. My mother was told that it was because several of the other wives considered ME TO BE TROUBLE!!!!!!! I was told that all I did was flirt with their husbands.
Watch tv, or movies. Construction workers are many times portrayed as the "type" who shouts rude things at women from up on the rafters as if they have nothing better to do that sit and watch for pretty women, instead of actually BUILDING THAT BUILDING. Then there is the flip side of those same shows.. where the women get upset when the men stop or they catcall at one of them and not another.. it elicits the what's wrong with me feeling in that woman.
For all this, just take a look around the internet, facebook, and other social media. I personally hate it when I am confronted with cartoons and jokes presented by men who have little or no respect for women (in my opinion) who think that those jokes and cartoons are hysterical, that present women as noisy, annoying, ugly, and should only be seen and not heard. Men, let me tell you, these jokes are not funny, they are not even mildly amusing and they do not make us want to be around you to cater to your every need and wish.
Now, that all said, I did not grow up in a city, I did not live as an adult in a city, I do not have a great deal of experience with "cat calls" out in public, I have never been a man, but I believe that this issue is much deeper than it seems. Women really do want to be acknowledged as attractive, even sometimes by a stranger it can make you feel just a little bit better about your world. Men, REAL MEN, want to be able to see an attractive woman and not feel like he is committing a crime.
I think this video was very interesting and very informative in a number of ways that were not really obvious. Go back and watch it a few more times and see all the men who did NOT make this woman feel objectified. Go back and watch it a few more times and see the men who "looked but did not touch". Go back and watch the video a few more times and see the women who were NOT being perused by these "creepy men" And lets start a dialogue about those people.
Just a view from my front window.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
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I love to watch people.
Friday, August 15, 2014
My Own Front Door, leads to the County Fair
Thursday, August 14, 2014
To dream or not to dream..... that is the question.
I have been having a very hard time in the last few months with my night time activities. For all of my life I have experienced terrible nightmares. We wont go in to the reasons why at this point, just suffice to say that the earliest recollections I have started somewhere before I was 2 years old.
I have always gone through cycles of time. For a few months up to a year I might not have any trouble with sleeping, not many dreams at all, good or bad. Then, WHAM, they hit and I go through a cycle of time that is pretty awful and I get to the point that I am almost afraid to go to sleep because I don't know what my subconscious is going to do to me. Which we all know, only makes me more tired which drives my need for REM sleep to correct the balance in my head. And on and on we go.
Well, at the moment I have been in my longest cycle to date I would wager a guess. This has been going on for several months. The good news is that the dreams are unsettling but not the murderously horrific fodder that horror movies are made of that has been my normal. However, along with the milder but more frequent dreams, comes just NOT sleeping. I go to sleep pretty well, some nights my mind is more full and it takes me a little longer to empty it but I would say that I am not awake more than 30 minutes to start with before I go to sleep, and I may sleep for 2-3 hours pretty soundly, but then I am awake either in a cold sweat, shaking and trying to catch my breath from what ever was inside my head, or... just awake with my brain going 90 miles a minute thinking about what is going on around me in my world. I may be awake for 45 minutes to an hour, or that may be the end of sleep for the night.
The last 2 nights have been interesting. Tuesday night, after a long and stressful day which isn't anything out of the norm for me, I went to bed... went pretty much straight to sleep and woke at 3am in that cold sweat, realized that the dog was laying on top of the blankets so I couldn't get warmed up with out waking my husband, and he has been missing enough sleep, so that wasn't an option. So, I laid there trying to sort out the dream that had woken me. Being called in to a room much like the questioning rooms in police drama shows, sat down in front of a computer to take notes on the conversation going on at the table... however, every time I began to type, the letters that were on the keyboard were NOT the letters that were being typed. ( I am old enough that I was taught "touch typing" in school, by the way) But if I typed a B... the letter might be an H. If I typed an H, the letter might be a J. Everything that was coming up on the screen was gibberish. The dream went on from there involving all the people in the room.
Don't worry about analyzing my dream, I pretty much know what it is about. I'm just giving an example about how this particular dream on my scale was not horrible, just unsettling but the truth is, now my brain would not shut off enough for me to go back to sleep so after about 45 minutes of trying and realizing that I was just making it more difficult for my husband to sleep, I got up and went to the living room to read. The good news there is that I almost finished the book that I have been reading on since the end of May that I kept complaining that I didn't have time to read. See, I DO have time, if I use those hours from 4 am till 7, I can get a LOT of reading done.
So, you would think that last night I would be tired enough to sleep pretty well, right?
Well, I honestly did stay asleep more hours, so that was good, after it taking me longer to GO to sleep, but this morning I can honestly tell you that the place my brain went in my sleep was very interesting. I believe that if I were told today that I was moving, I could pack everything I had the desire to take with me into a maximum of a 6 x 12 uhaul trailer behind my pickup truck with room to spare. Yep, that was where my brain spent the night, or the 45 seconds that dreams take in fast forward, which ever is the truth. I went through my entire house, room by room, and picked up my flute out of my closet, enough clothes to get through a week, the knickknacks off my dresser that mean something to me, my grandmothers jewelry, the pictures off my walls, I sorted through the probably several hundred books in my house to narrow them down to about 6 boxes of books. I took my 2 cedar chests, my china that has memories attached, all of my scrapbooking materials and the boxes of memorabilia that I still want to do something with, my grandmothers cookbook, and a few other items, and I was ready to be out the door. Then, I believe that I woke up in the process of deciding whether or not to torch the rest, I'm not really sure what my decision was.
So, if my eyes look a little tired today, I seem a little quieter than normal, or I am moving slower than usual, maybe you can cut me some slack, I have worked very hard in the last few nights.
The Best News is.. that now I am only hours away from Rocket Dogs.. and other "Fair Food" and that will cure all ills for a few hours at least.
I have always gone through cycles of time. For a few months up to a year I might not have any trouble with sleeping, not many dreams at all, good or bad. Then, WHAM, they hit and I go through a cycle of time that is pretty awful and I get to the point that I am almost afraid to go to sleep because I don't know what my subconscious is going to do to me. Which we all know, only makes me more tired which drives my need for REM sleep to correct the balance in my head. And on and on we go.
Well, at the moment I have been in my longest cycle to date I would wager a guess. This has been going on for several months. The good news is that the dreams are unsettling but not the murderously horrific fodder that horror movies are made of that has been my normal. However, along with the milder but more frequent dreams, comes just NOT sleeping. I go to sleep pretty well, some nights my mind is more full and it takes me a little longer to empty it but I would say that I am not awake more than 30 minutes to start with before I go to sleep, and I may sleep for 2-3 hours pretty soundly, but then I am awake either in a cold sweat, shaking and trying to catch my breath from what ever was inside my head, or... just awake with my brain going 90 miles a minute thinking about what is going on around me in my world. I may be awake for 45 minutes to an hour, or that may be the end of sleep for the night.
The last 2 nights have been interesting. Tuesday night, after a long and stressful day which isn't anything out of the norm for me, I went to bed... went pretty much straight to sleep and woke at 3am in that cold sweat, realized that the dog was laying on top of the blankets so I couldn't get warmed up with out waking my husband, and he has been missing enough sleep, so that wasn't an option. So, I laid there trying to sort out the dream that had woken me. Being called in to a room much like the questioning rooms in police drama shows, sat down in front of a computer to take notes on the conversation going on at the table... however, every time I began to type, the letters that were on the keyboard were NOT the letters that were being typed. ( I am old enough that I was taught "touch typing" in school, by the way) But if I typed a B... the letter might be an H. If I typed an H, the letter might be a J. Everything that was coming up on the screen was gibberish. The dream went on from there involving all the people in the room.
Don't worry about analyzing my dream, I pretty much know what it is about. I'm just giving an example about how this particular dream on my scale was not horrible, just unsettling but the truth is, now my brain would not shut off enough for me to go back to sleep so after about 45 minutes of trying and realizing that I was just making it more difficult for my husband to sleep, I got up and went to the living room to read. The good news there is that I almost finished the book that I have been reading on since the end of May that I kept complaining that I didn't have time to read. See, I DO have time, if I use those hours from 4 am till 7, I can get a LOT of reading done.
So, you would think that last night I would be tired enough to sleep pretty well, right?
Well, I honestly did stay asleep more hours, so that was good, after it taking me longer to GO to sleep, but this morning I can honestly tell you that the place my brain went in my sleep was very interesting. I believe that if I were told today that I was moving, I could pack everything I had the desire to take with me into a maximum of a 6 x 12 uhaul trailer behind my pickup truck with room to spare. Yep, that was where my brain spent the night, or the 45 seconds that dreams take in fast forward, which ever is the truth. I went through my entire house, room by room, and picked up my flute out of my closet, enough clothes to get through a week, the knickknacks off my dresser that mean something to me, my grandmothers jewelry, the pictures off my walls, I sorted through the probably several hundred books in my house to narrow them down to about 6 boxes of books. I took my 2 cedar chests, my china that has memories attached, all of my scrapbooking materials and the boxes of memorabilia that I still want to do something with, my grandmothers cookbook, and a few other items, and I was ready to be out the door. Then, I believe that I woke up in the process of deciding whether or not to torch the rest, I'm not really sure what my decision was.
So, if my eyes look a little tired today, I seem a little quieter than normal, or I am moving slower than usual, maybe you can cut me some slack, I have worked very hard in the last few nights.
The Best News is.. that now I am only hours away from Rocket Dogs.. and other "Fair Food" and that will cure all ills for a few hours at least.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Faces
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From the 75th annual fair parade. I am not sure how I am going to choose which ones to display here. I don't want to bore anyone with too much.. but the emotion and expression and everything else that was part of yesterday is too interesting not to capture. A friend of mine commented on her facebook page with some of the pictures that she had from the parade...."Its never JUST a parade"
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I think each face speaks for itself, but what a community this county is. And this week the fair starts on Wednesday. Just to be able to walk around and see the choices our community offers to each of us to give a little back into our community is amazing every year. Our county fair is unlike any other I have been to.
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