~ What Made Me Me ~

I received this from a dear friend/Sister In Law. It's all too real. Yup, I'm old enough to remember all of this stuff, except Kennedy was my president. And yes, I got the AARP invitation this last year. It sort of offended me.
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What Made Me Me

Long ago and far away,
In a land that time forgot,
Before the days of Dylan,
Or the dawn of Camelot.
There lived a race of innocents,
And they were you and me,
Long ago and far away
In the Land That Made Me Me.
Oh, there was truth and goodness
In that land where we were born,
Where navels were for oranges,
And Peyton Place was porn.
For Ike was in the White House,
And Hoss was on TV,
And God was in His heaven
In the Land That Made Me Me.
We learned to gut a muffler,
We washed our hair at dawn,
We spread our crinolines to dry
In circles on the lawn.
And they could hear us coming
All the way to Tennessee,
All starched and sprayed and rumbling
in the Land That Made Me Me.
We longed for love and romance,
And waited for the prince,
And Eddie Fisher married Liz,
And no one's seen him since.
We danced to "Little Darlin'",
And Sang to "Stagger Lee"
And cried for Buddy Holly
In the Land That Made Me Me.
Only girls wore earrings then,
And three was one too many,
And only boys wore flat-top cuts,
Except for Jean McKinney.
And only in our wildest dreams
Did we expect to see
A boy named George, with Lipstick
In the Land That Made Me Me.
We fell for Frankie Avalon,
Annette was oh, so nice,
And when they made a movie,
They never made it twice.
We didn't have a Star Trek Five,
Or Psycho Two and Three,
Or Rockey-Rambo Twenty
In the Land That Made Me Me.
Miss Kitty had a heart of gold,
And Chester had a limp,
And Reagan was a Democrat
Whose co-star was a chimp.
We had a Mr Wizard,
But not a Mr T,
And Oprah couldn't talk, yet
In the Land That Made Me Me.
We had our share of heroes,
We never thought they'd go,
At least not Bobby Darin,
Or Marilyn Monroe.
For youth was still eternal,
And life was yet to be,
And Elvis was forever,
In the Land That Made Me Me.
We'd never seen the rock band
That was Grateful to be Dead,
And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson,
And Zeppelins weren't Led.
And Beatles lived in gardens then,
And Monkees in a tree,
Madonna was a virgin
In the Land That Made Me Me.
We'd never heard of Microwaves,
Or telephones in cars,
And babies might be bottle-fed,
But they weren't grown in jars.
And pumping iron got wrinkles out,
And "gay" meant fancy-free,
And dorms were never coed
In the Land That Made Me Me.
We hadn't seen enough of jets
To talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left at
The bottom of the bag.
And Hardware was a box of nails,
And bytes came from a flea,
And rocket ships were fiction
In the Land That Made Me Me.
Buicks came with portholes,
And side show came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough
To cover both your cheeks.
And Coke came just in bottles,
And skirts came to the knee,
And Castro came to power
In the Land That Made Me Me.
We had no Crest with Fluoride,
We had no Hill Street Blues,
We all wore superstructure bras
Designed by Howard Hughes.
We had no patterned pantyhose
Or Lipton herbal tea
Or prime-time ads for condoms
In the Land That Made Me Me.
There were no golden arches,
No Perriers to chill,
And fish were not called Wanda,
And cats were not called Bill.
And middle-aged was thirty-five
And old was forty-three,
And ancient was our parents
In the Land That Made Me Me.
But all things have a season,
Or so we've heard them say,
And now instead of Maybelline
We swear by Retin-A.
And they send us invitations
To join AARP,
We've come a long way, baby,
From the Land That Made Me Me.
So now we face a brave new world
In slightly larger jeans,
And wonder why they're using
Smaller print in magazines.
And we tell our children's children
of the way it used to be,
Long ago, and far away
In the Land That Made Me Me.

-- Author Unknown

~ Sweet Sixteen ~

And Then There Was Light.....

What a fun weekend this was. Steph turned 16 on Sunday, May 6th. I asked her many times what she wanted to do and got the same sad melancholy reply... "I dunno".

Well enough of that! She experienced her first suprise party and oh was it fun. Within 24 hours we lined up 10 friends to show up at 1:00 Sunday afternoon. Saturday evening I secretly ran to Zurchers and got decorations, then to the store for chips and drinks. Everything was carefully hidden in the back of my car. She got up on Sunday morning to an uneventful opening of birthday cards and hanging out. She thought it was weird but never really suspected anything when her Dad announced that he would be taking her out in his car for driving practice. She needs some parking lot work. I told her we would have cake and ice cream when they got home.

As soon as they left we hit the ground running. Decorations went up. Balloons came out. Pizzas were ordered with delivery time set for 1:15 (Pizza Hut of course thanks to Ryan). Friends arrived perfectly as planned. And Steph and Gary walked in at 1:35. All of the friends hid in the family room and jumped out as she came in. Oh What FUN!!!

First Reaction.... A Full Blush :)

Do you think there's enough food and chips?

No party would be complete without Ryan trying to light something on fire or blow it up. I wonder if this was genetic..

Some smiles just have to be preserved on a blog.... :)

And yes, silly string can make it clear to the ceiling... and clear across a kitchen in 2 seconds.. Observe blue splatter on picture #1...

And what do I do with this?

Mom playing with lighting and focus stuff.... but a pretty good picture of the goings on...

Fun was had by all..... and yes that is silly string hanging off of everything...

Happy Birthday Dear Stephanie...

~ The Black Hole ~

Just Words?

Raged, Full of Fury, Cynical, Embarrassed, Fearful, Rejected, Betrayed, Pained, Hurt, Resentful, Full of Anger, Just Plain Downright Pissed Off. Fooled. Foolish.

Or:

Forgiving, Loving, Nurturing, Healing, Tender, Calm, Patient, Filled with Mercy, Grace, Willing to Help, And Again Forgiving.

Living in those moments can be dangerous. It could probably be said that the first set of words and feelings come from the dark side and the second set comes from the opposite. Sometimes a bit of a shake up makes you realize where your spirit lies. It's way too easy to get there. It’s easy to get caught in rage and fury. It takes a strong person to wake up and move through it into the light.

I heard a talk in church a few weeks ago on forgiveness. Of course we listen and file those things away thinking they are all good words that are really just words. Then one day something comes along and hits us over the head. Suddenly it’s apparent that we should have listened a little more carefully. Life lessons sure suck.

I knew someone once very close to me that seemed to be able to move into that state of rage and fury so easily. It was frustrating to watch. I didn’t understand why. She alienated so many. I never wanted to be that. My life has been very blessed. This I know.

I found this picture of a black hole. It seems like rather an appropriate picture for the day. It’s time to move away from the vortex. This won’t last forever. The opposite of dark is light. There will be light. It will be alright.