Ranting and raving and heartaching....

So, because of Facebook, and a game I play on there, I am friends with a variety of different people. And sometimes, things they post REALLY scare me, really upset me. This was the case this morning... one of my Frontier friends posted about an 11 year-old girl who shot and KILLED two robbers. She posted it as her little pre-teen hero. I was horrified. Ok, yes, the girl was trained in guns, and that is admirable. But maybe, instead of having the child's first defense be a gun, and being aggressive towards home invaders, have the first reaction be to call 911 or get out of the house. If she had time enough to go get the gun from her parents room (and hypothetically take it out of the safe, load the bullets...because who keeps a loaded gun in their bedroom?) she would have had time to call 911. I cannot imagine the trauma to a child of killing two people...

Now granted, the same website also had a lovely little article saying that we need to profile in airports, because those darn Muslims are all terrorists and every mosque on American soil harbors them. Now, I know that the American government does do a certain amount of profiling. And they also have lists of Arabs in the country. (How do I know this? I have dual nationality, and had to renew my Egyptian passport in New York, and had to register with the American government). But the thing is, anyone can be a terrorist. Look at Tim McVeigh. He was not Muslim, he was not Arab. He pulled off one of the larger terrorist acts here in the States. Its my impression that the people who have pulled stunts like explosives in shoes and underwear have also been non-Arab. So please. Anyone can be a terrorist. And be smart, but don't assume someone is a terrorist based on their last name or their nationality.

And for the heartaching part...I want kids. Particularly this time of year. Christmas is for kids, not adults. And reading about my friends kids hurts. *sigh*

RIP Mr Mingus.

We all have people who touch our hearts, and Mr Minges was one of those for me. My coworker just called to inform me that he had passed on... You could tell that at one point he had been quite a rake, he had that twinkle in his eye... you know the one... He had a special chair at Barney, where he loved to sit, next to the Garden Club books... (We were just thankful he wasn't there when the globe for the overhead light fell and shattered!) He was lonely, and would come chat with us and then go nap in his chair...but as he got older and older we saw him less and less...every so often he would talk someone into driving him over from the retirement home, so he could visit... but for a while, he was a fixture.

He designed and built the Farmington Exchange, which runs on geothermal energy... He was ahead of his time in many ways, as well as being a character.

Mr Minges, we'll keep your seat warm for you... Rest In Peace. Mr Minges

Only if it has attachments....

Or will feed me grapes.

:)

Catherine's Cranium: Things I am grateful for....

Catherine's Cranium: Things I am grateful for....

Things I am grateful for....

I am grateful for a family that loves me. I am grateful for wonderful friends who invited me to share their Thanksgivings, even though I elected to pull a Miss Havisham and eat alone... (Already bought the turkey, after all). I am grateful for so many more gluten-free products on the market, even though they are all expensive and designed to make me fat. I am grateful for a beautiful home, and food on the table, and clothes on my back.

I am grateful to know so many wonderful people through the theater, through music, through church, and through work. I know I don't say thank you to people enough. I am grateful to Facebook for reconnecting me with folks I knew from my childhood, from college. These are people I never thought I'd see or hear from again.

Even though there will always be an unfilled place in my heart, I am grateful. And I am blessed.

I hope all of you who are reading this also feel blessed!

On friendships.

Right now, I don't really have any close friends. I have friends from college whom, when I see them, I'm right back with them in an instant. I have friends, I have aquaintances, but I don't have close friends. Everyone is busy with their own lives. And unless you have kids, or are a career woman, you are in limbo. Everyone at work has kids or grandkids. And everything just seems so superficial.

I've always had a hard time getting close to people. I'm open, what you see is what you get, basically, and a lot of folks seem to have trouble with that. I've always been liked, but never been popular.

*sigh*

On the Passing of my 40th Birthday.

Turning 40 really hits some mixed messages for me. I'm not in my 30s anymore. My biological clock has become so loudly deafening... I feel old in some ways, feeling like I'm over the hill, and that I'm really no longer going to be desirable. I still have a hard time treating myself with the love I try to show to others. In fighting that, I decided to try to set up some wishlists on Amazon, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Ten Thousand Villages, Gaiam... I really want to surround myself with beauty, with lovely, eclectic things. To be healthy, happy, and really have lovely things surrounding me in this next decade.

And for this next decade, I REALLY want to make a difference. I may end up adopting or fostering children, since it is very unlikely that I will have one on my own. I wish I had the courage to, but I don't. I think that has been my biggest regret. I have so much I could share with a kid, I would have loved to be a mother, but its just not in the cards.

I refuse to turn into the typical (if there is such a thing!) single, middle-aged, Farmington, lady. I will always try to be true to myself, to grow, to create art, beauty, and love. To support wonderful people and wonderful places...

But in some ways, turning 40 sucks. Because, in my heart, I am still 20. And I always will be....