Ahhhhh! Fear the Demonic Candy!!

So apparently the Christian Broadcasting Network has decided that Halloween is a purely evil holiday. This isn't a particularly new belief for them, but their newest reason? Because witches pray over ALL Halloween candy, making it demonic!

So, now can you not only not go trick-or-treating because of the sheer terror associated with people who might be dressed as a witch or the devil, but you now also cannot purchase Halloween candy from the store because the demons don't know the difference!

Run for your lives! The Halloween candy is out to get you! It's sooo scary! Of course I have ALWAYS believed Halloween candy is scary -- but only because of the extra pounds that it tends to cause.

Don't believe me? Read the story here.

I'm a Believer

I'm a strong-minded, strong-willed (okay, stubborn), opinionated woman. I have a pretty strong belief system and think that my beliefs are right. I think that it's important for a person to have a strong belief system and that it's even more important for that person to stand up for his or her beliefs. However, I also think that standing firm in your beliefs does not have to mean that you belittle others if they believe differently than you.

Most people know that I'm extremely liberal: I believe in a woman's right to choose, do not believe in the death penalty, believe that gay marriage should be legalized, believe that our healthcare system needs some work, I believe in freedom of religion, and believe that immigrants have previously and can continue to make immense benefits on our country, among many other things.

Now, do I think that I'm right in my beliefs? Absolutely. To that end, I want others to believe the same way that I do, but I also know that it's not always going to happen. I enjoy a spirited debate about nearly any of these beliefs, so long as both sides can remain civil. But, as much as I believe that I'm right and want others to share in my belief system, I'm not going to stoop to making fun of people who believe differently than me and I'm not going to belittle someone because he or she may think that the death penalty is a great deterrent to potential criminals.

Yes, I may disagree with people on some things and it may frustrate me to no end (sometimes making me want to bash my head against a wall because I think that common sense is not prevailing), but I also love the fact that people can agree to disagree. In fact, several of my absolute closest friends and I have to agree to disagree on a variety of things. And that, my friends, is what makes life so spicy and great.

I Don't Wanna Grow Up!

I'm very fortunate to have grown up in a family that loves to celebrate holidays...all holidays! When I was a kid, there was Irish Soda Bread and a ceramic leprachaun sitting on the table for St. Patrick's Day, balloons and flowers for Valentine's Day, flags flying high for Flag Day, cracking and sparkling fireworks for Independence Day, and tons of ghosts, ghouls, pumpkins, and more for Halloween. So, as an adult, even though I have no children yet, I'm proud to carry on my family's holiday traditions.

I'm sure that there are many who would call me foolish, or even childish, for loving holidays so much, but, well, it doesn't really matter to me. I love to celebrate and will happily celebrate pretty much anything. The first night Jason got the Mustang started? I wanted to celebrate. The first time I successfully finished a major project at work? I celebrated. It doesn't really matter -- I just want to have a good time. My theory is that life can suck enough, so I want to find ways to make it fun and happy.

So, what's my favorite holiday? Well, it's probably a three-way tie between Christmas, Independence Day, and HALLOWEEN! I simply love Halloween! I usually have a big party, but this year, due to several factors, I decided not to have one, which makes me incredibly sad. I'm still celebrating, though -- I plan to carve pumpkins and am watching the best Halloween movie ever, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", as I type this blog.

I suppose that I should grow up and quit celebrating every single holiday, but, quite honestly, I don't wanna grow up! My mom still celebrates holidays and, while she's got two grandsons with whom she can enjoy the season, I'm relatively sure that she'd still celebrate, even without them. So, if she doesn't have to quit, then neither do I! And if you want to celebrate with me, just let me know. After all, the more the merrier!

Common (Lack of) Sense

Sometimes, I swear that people just flat don't think in life. My proof? Two scenarios that I experienced today:

Last night, I got my hair cut...and I mean *really* cut. I wasn't planning on it being this short, but on the parts that are now the longest, my stylist cut off approximately eight inches, so it's pretty obvious that I got my hair cut. Well, this morning, I ran into someone that I typically see about five days a week. Her first comment to me? "Hey, Meg -- did you get your hair cut? It looks cute." I smiled, nodded, and told her that, indeed, I had gotten it cut last night, when I really wanted to say, "Really? Did I get my hair cut? Nope. It decided that it wanted to vacation somewhere warmer, so eight inches jumped off and ran away last night."

Mean of me? Kind of. I was nice to her, though, and she truly is a sweet person. It just kind of threw me for a loop.

Fast forward to this evening. I needed to get a few groceries, so ran up to Crest after stopping at the post office. To help the environment, I typically use the reusable shopping bags, but I didn't have mine with me because it was a spur of the moment trip. So, since I always can use more, I decided to buy another one. After the sacker bagged my groceries, he looked at the green bag, which was the first thing down the belt, and said, "Oh, did you want your groceries in this bag?" I smiled and told him that, yes, I did, when I really wanted to say, "Nope. Just thought it'd make an awesome new purse!" So, the kicker? He took the five things he'd already put in the paper bag and put them into the green bag -- paper bag and all. Boy, that really helped conserve our resources!

Thought for the Day

Sometimes, when you're making fun of something that you know virtually nothing about, you're better off just to keep your mouth shut.

Just What I Needed

Today wasn't the best day. I woke up this morning, after spending most of the night tossing, turning, and unable to sleep, to gray skies and a crabby dog. I slugged my way through my morning routine and got to work nearly on time, which was a plus, but my morning still wasn't anything spectacular.

As the day wore on, some of the major stressors that I'm dealing with right now decided to show their ugly heads. Early this afternoon I learned that Poppy (Yes, Sean, I call my grandpa Poppy; to borrow a phrase from you, if you don't like it, suck it!) was being transferred to a nursing home. It's very far from an ideal situation, but since he's remaining in Fredonia, my mom, aunt, and sister can check on him frequently. He's not doing at all well; at this point, it's still pretty much a waiting game.

This evening, as I was leaving work, my mood was about as gloomy as the sky. I was unlocking my car and heard my text message alert beep, so I pulled out my phone. One of my best friends, Misty, sent me a text that made me smile and made my day turn out to be a little brighter.

When I was first out of college and was offered my first professional job, I moved to a relatively small town in western Kansas, where I served as the public relations director for a community college. I soon learned that my job entailed *SO* much more than just PR, and while it wore on me at times, I loved it. I had lots of one-on-one interaction with students, and periodically, there was one who would worm his or her way into your everyday life. For me, it was usually the kids who were nice, but also had ornery streaks.

There was one student, in particular, who managed to work his way into all of our lives my first year there: Tex. He was continually doing things he shouldn't be doing and getting himself into trouble, but there was just something about him that made it nearly impossible for you to be angry at him. We pulled him out of numerous messes, but all worried that he would eventually end up in more trouble than we could repair. He left after one semester and, to the best of my knowledge, none of us heard from him again -- until today.

Misty texted me to say that he stopped to see her on his way out to Colorado and told her that he's now married to an amazing woman (a teacher!), has two children, owns and operates a successful welding business, and owns a good chunk of land oustide of Wichita. Wow!

It's awesome to know that, despite my concern, Tex managed to become successful in life. And what's even more awesome is to know that, in maybe a tiny party, his success can be attributed to some of the things that we all attempted to teach him.

An Abomination

This evening, as I was reading the news, I saw a headline that literally made me stop dead in my tracks: "Louisiana Judge Denies Marriage License to Interracial Couple." I was *positive* that I had misread the headline, so clicked on it to read the article. Sickeningly, I was not mistaken.

I cannot believe that, today, in 2009, a judge honestly had the temerity to deny a marriage license to an interracial couple! His reasons totally blew my mind: first, he believes that interracial couples have a higher incidence of divorce, and second, "the children will suffer."

Excuse me...WHAT?!?!

Did this man truly just deny this couple a marriage license? When did it become appropriate for a judge to decide who should or should not be married? Just because he's a bigoted, racist, (and I'm guessing here, but a year's salary says I'm right) right wing Republican freak, does NOT give him the right to make this decision! You may not agree with interracial marriages (although I'm not sure why people would disagree), but it is NOT up to you, as a judge, to make the decision to deny a couple a marriage license.

Thankfully, the Louisiana ACLU already is all over the case and is investigating. I'm relatively sure that this judge will essentially be forced from office, which is more than appropriate.

Personally, his claims and his actions make me want to force him to be submitted to a DNA test that will show his entire background and lineage, much like they can do for dogs to determine their ancestry. If his bloodlines include anything, other than one particular race, then I believe that, not only should he be forced from office, but that he also should be forced to divorce his wife, as it then would be deemed an interracial marriage.

Things like this incense me to an extreme degree. Truly, I believe that there is only one race: mankind. We are all so much more than the color of our skin, the shade of our hair, the hue of our eyes. There is no reason that we still continue to judge one another based on anything, other than who and what we are inside.

If you want to read more about this sickening idiot, click here to go to a news site that has an article.

Lending a Helping Hand

I had an encounter with someone this afternoon that proved to be less than stellar.

To be honest, I don't want to go into a ton of details, but I had to humble myself to ask someone for assistance -- I needed to borrow an air bubble to attempt to air up a half-flat tire on my car (I was on my way to go buy new tires). So, I asked someone who I thought had access to one. To make it clear, I did NOT ask this person to help me with my tire, rather, just asked if I could borrow an air bubble. Well, muttering under his breath, he reluctantly retrieved an air bubble and assisted me in airing up my tire.

As soon as he was finished, I thanked him for his time and assistance, because, to be honest, I truly appreciated the help -- and it helped me out of a major bind. I didn't expect him to actually air up my tire, but rather, had just wanted to borrow the air bubble and was extremely pleased when he actually helped me. Instead of telling me that I was welcome, however, when he was done, he began muttering under his breath about idiot drivers who don't take care of their cars.

To his credit, I *did* need new tires and have known this for a while, but had been putting the purchase off for a bit longer. So, yes, I suppose that you could say I was acting like an idiot driver by not replacing my tires sooner, but still, was it necessary to point out that fact? I felt appropriately chastised and promptly drove off to Hibdon, where, nearly $250 later, I became the proud owner of two brand new tires.

An Oddly Comforting Thought

Early this morning, I received a message from my mom, telling me that Grandpa Abe is back in the hospital with a serious brain bleed. Sadly, things look pretty grim at this point. I was, for the most part, not freaking out too much over the knowledge that things are this way, but I had a mini breakdown at work. One of my co-workers saw me and asked me what was wrong. I explained and she offered a platitude that, at the outset, seemed a little odd, but yet was very comforting.

As I explained to her, Poppy will turn 90 years old on Monday of next week. He's lived an amazing life and has seen so many things, both good and bad, happen throughout the course of his life. His life has been filled with love and happiness and, until the past couple of years, he hasn't dealt with much in the way of health problems.

That being said, we were discussing suffering and pain. And, as crass as it may sound, I told her that, if and when it's his time to go, then I'm ready for him to go. I don't want to see him suffer and I don't want to see him waste away to nothing. She didn't think that odd at all and, in fact, reassured me that she would feel the same way.

As she was leaving my office, she said to me, "Well, Meg, I'd tell you that I hope that your grandpa is alright, but if things are bad for him, I don't know that that's what I want. Instead, I'm going to just tell you that I hope that you're alright." She went on to tell me that she'll do anything within her power to help me, when the time comes, and offered a shoulder for crying, should I need it.

The day wore on and I thought more and more about what she said to me. You know, there are people who would think her wrong, but I don't -- not at all. I understand that she's wishing the very best, whatever that outcome may be, for my family.

When the day inevitably comes, my heart will break. I know that I've said it many times before and I'll say it again: I love my Poppy with all of my heart and I'll miss him more than the mind can possibly fathom. He's always been there for me and no one, no matter how hard he or she may try, will ever take his place.