Damn Fools

Do you know what bothers me about smoking? Well I supposed I have, obviously, many reasons. The first one is that I saw my mother bleed to death, out of her mouth, becuase the lung cancer ate through her aorta and it exploded. Code blue, lights flashing, people running, and blood everywhere. The last look on my mother's face to me that of helpless, scared confusion. I guess that would be the number one reason why I hate it. I have to live with that image forever. Oh, and now you do too. Good! Maybe it will make you stop smoking. But that's just it. All the idiots that I care about, who knew and cared for my mother are still smoking. (With one exception of Sonja, apparantly the smartest person I know.) But seriously, what is it with the escapism?!?!?! Life gets stressful, and people drop everything to smoke. Oh man the kids are driving me crazy...I'm going to smoke. I'm having such a hard day at work...I'm going to smoke. But you know what the rest of us have to do when life gets stressful? DEAL WITH IT! Through hard times and bad days and death and crisis. The rest of us just have to cope and handle it and carry on with nothing more than the mental capacity we were given at birth. I'm so sick of people taking a break from their lives to do something that will certainly kill them but will also, NOT REDUCE THEIR STRESS. It just makes you a more edgey, stressed out kind of a person. Hello?? What is there not to get. Why is this so freaking hard?!?!?!

I know I'm on a Harry Potter binge and all right now but if I could just take the memory and the vision of that night and the days that followed of sleeplessness and wretching and feeling more alone than I ever knew possible and put it into Dumbledore's Pensieve for others to watch and experience I'm pretty sure we'd have solved the smoking problem in this country.

Queen Latifah

The one thing Chris and I didn't mention about the trip was that Queen Latifah was staying in our hotel just 3 rooms down. Chris thought he might have seen her a few times, but then again maybe not. She stayed the same days we did. The kid in the hotel told us she was coming there the night we arrived. And as we left we saw the Cover Girl truck with her picture on it driving away too. Pretty cool.

Dada

My kid starts talking and he won't stop. Who'd have guessed?!
Yes, that's right. He said Dada in the same day! At least he said Mama first. Now he won't stop: "Mamamamamama Dadadadadaddadada Mamamamamama Dadadadadada"

Mama

Joshy said "Mama!" He had been close to it for a few days now, maybe a week or so actually. Saying "amah" and things like that. But today while waiting for his waffles in his high chair he said it twice, very clearly. Mama, Mama. The sweetest sound in the world!