I Pledge Allegiance

Below is an e-mail I received from our neighbors next door at work. I'm all for patriotism; and I'm all about supporting our troops 100%. But, I feel his tone was completly inappropriate and down-right rude. He makes us out to be heathens!!!

To Whom It May Concern:

I know things get real busy in life and business, and I work next door at Haldex brake corp. I just wanted to ask if you have noticed your American Flag on display in front of your business.

I am a veteran, a U.S. MARINE, and when I come in to work and see your SHREDDED American flag on display I just wanted to let you know in case you just haven’t noticed.

Any Boy Scout Troop when given the old flag you replace with a new one, have a ceremony (Retiring the Colors) and will make sure it is properly disposed of!

Sure don’t mean to offend anyone, it just I have seen American flags in better shape in Beirut.

I have changed the one here at Haldex a few times!! Our American Flag was always the back bone of the Marine Corp, I WILL PROUDLY GIVE MY LIFE TO DEFEND IT!!

Your friend and neighbor!
Gary Park

1. We have tried on more than one occasion to change out flag because we know it's in dire need of changing. 2. We are women with lack of the strength neccessary (because the last male who helped us change the damn flag tightened the rope beyond loosening). 3. We employed the assistance of another male neighbor and they had no success w/ the rope either. 4. We have the utmost respect for Veterans.... MAN!

I guess there's apparently no excuse to fly a mangled flag, even if said flag is stuck on the pole. I was offended by the tone. There's something to the tone in e-mail controversy. I don't know this man, and if he wants us to be "friends" and "neighbors" in the future, he needs to take a nicer tone when correcting us.

Collective Thoughts

Well since I've been having some problems with inspiration for this blog here, I've discovered a neat tool. It's a prompt generator. It randomly tells me a prompt and then I respond. It seems it could be very useful to keep the brain working. Some of the prompts are ludicrious but, hey what's wrong with a little madness once in awhile, right?! I'm a big literacy advocate and a big part of literacy is the art of writing in itself. I used to write poetry and prose in my free time. I used to write quite a lot. I think I need to do more of it. It's a skill that needs to be practiced and since I'm not in school this semester, I can't have my writing abilities go all to hec. So I've decided to respond to a prompt or two from time to time when I can't think of something blog-worthy. It may make for a lot of prompt entries but oh well, as long as I can continue to write. Whether this blog is ever read or not, it's something I will always have to look at and enjoy. I think reflection can be revealing and interesting...

The prompt today is: "What did you collect? Describe in as much detail as possible a collection of something you had when you were younger."

I've learned a lot about collectors and collections at my current job. There's a big difference between collecting something as a child and collecting as an adult. Especially when, as an adult, you collect child play-things... That's a blog for another day but this prompt intrigued me. I was an odd child. I did have a small collection of Barbies and stuffed animals like a normal child but it seems that most of my most prized collections were odd, in one way or another.

1. Dinosaurs: This is odd only because I'm a girl. I wouldn't label myself as a tom-boy by any means but my girl friends found my fascination with these masculine animals strange. I had quite the collection of plastic dinosaurs which accompanied me in the bathtub, sandbox, driveway. They were cool... I wish I still had them! I also studied a lot about dinosaurs. I could spout all kinds of dino-stats !
2. Rocks: Many kids probably have a rock collection. Mine however, was a bit more high-class than the typical childhood rock collection. I did not accept your average off-the-street rock into my collection. None of this "pet" rock mentality allowed. In fact, I saved my allowance and purchased awesome, beautiful rocks for my collection. I kept them in shoe boxes and coveted them. I labeled them and knew what type they were and what they were composed of. I wanted to be a geologist for a time. I remember begging my dad to take me to the Geological building on the MU campus as a child. There were a lot of neat rocks to look at and read about.
3. Stamps: I realize this probably wins the "nerdiest collection" award. Yes, as a second grader I actually had a stamp collection and a huge monument of a book to put them in. There was a neat old hole-in-the-wall store run by an old man with thick round glasses where my dad and I used to go on Saturdays. It was amazing how expensive some stamps were, but I saved my allowance and looked forward to these trips!! Friends of my parents would send stamps they received from people all over the world and I was very proud of the collection. At some point I realized my friends weren't collecting stamps, they were collecting nail polish and other girly such items and something happened to the collection. I stopped working on it and eventually misplaced my book. I know this is so silly but I've actually thought recently of starting it up again. I see a variety of cool stamps since I open hundreds of pieces of mail as part of my job. I saw an Edgar Allen Poe stamp the other day and it jogged my memory. Maybe it's a hobby I'll dabble in in the near future... who knows.

Anyway, those are a few of the things I collected in my childhood. I currently have a doll collection but by no ambition of my own. They've been aquired and hopefully I can sell them and make some bones. I collect books and postcards now as well. Good stuff.

What did you collect? I know Brian collected baseball cards :) How American?!

blog to do about nothing...

man, i need to find myself some real, meaty subjects to write on. idk where my inspiration lies but it's nowhere to be found. maybe when i clean out my closet next i will find it...it's gotta be around here somewhere.

Stuuupid people

Are there REALLY this many stupid people in the world? Or am I just really, really intelligent? I run into the most idiotic of human beings on a daily basis and I'm starting to get really concerned about our country. I know that's a really, really mean thing to say but I can't believe some of the things that come out of peoples' mouths!

The best time for raining is when it's sleeping

I started this morning by spilling 1/4 of my Americano all over my lap. I was wearing my new pencil skirt. It's Thursday. Coffee-spilliage is for Mondays only. So, I don't know what happened tonight. Boo. It made me want to go back home and go to bed. Not such luck though. Life is so busy. I am trying to get in a groove and used to this crazy work schedule. Monday and Tuesday I work from 8 AM - 9 PM, Wednesdays are church nights so don't get home until 9 PM either. Thursdays are my only nights home. I guess I prefer being incredibly busy because it makes time pass much faster, which means me and Brian's weekends come more quickly.

I'm trying to create a new pasta dish tonight. It will consist of onion, bell peppers, mushrooms and may incorporate some pesto into the cream sauce... I'm not sure how it will go. We shall see. I love to cook, Thursdays are my only night!

Looking forward to an adventure tomorrow!
That's all that's new....
I love you Cynthia. Thanks for reading ;) Life is dull w/o you near me. We had too much fun together. If I only got one good thing out of NW it was you and our friendship!

If you're happy and you know it, post a blog!

I'm excited that today is FRIDAY! I'm excited that the sun is shining (sort of). I'm thrilled that I get to go see my man today when I get off work! I'm stoked that I'm caught up at work after missing two days!!! I'm totally satisfied with what my pandora radio has been playing today: "Your Woman" by White Town, "Music is my hot, hot sex" by CSS, "Brimful of Asha" by Cornershop, "Around the World" by Daft Punk, "Punjabi Girl" by D.J. A.P.S., "Where's your head at" by Basement Jaxx, "Get your Freak on" by M. Elliot, "Flower" by Moby... Ahh the list goes on. It's been kick-ass.

I'm SO GLAD I FEEL BETTER! Being sick is the worst! I love the people I work with! This is just one of those days wher everything ROCKS!!!

Let's keep it that way!!

loss of words

I'm at a loss for words lately. Also, I kind of get the feeling no one is reading my blog anymore. I guess there isn't a lot going on besides the usual in my life.

Channel 9 was out here doing a story on Barbie this morning. It never ends... from April-June last year that's all I heard and now it's starting again. It's an epidemic. It was fun to have the news here though.

Maybe I'll get my blog motivation back. Haven't had enough time lately for anything, reading, movies, blogging.... nothing.

<3 hrf