Category: Uncategorized

I’m not going to get into percentages because I am really not good at math, but I want to talk about Occupy Wall Street. 

Listen, I’m a big old Capitalist and Libertarian (thanks, Honey!) and I am far from being the person to say you should penalize the Haves to give to the Have-Nots.  I don’t think that is a healthy system, and I don’t think that solves any problems long-term.  I’m all about teaching the man to fish, though I don’t mind keeping him in sardines and bait until he learns.  I don’t think the Rich owe anything to the Poor, and I don’t think the Poor have a right to ask the Rich to fork over their goods.

What we do have a right to do is to question the ethics of the gamemakers, who are the Rich, and question how they stack decks in their own favors, and demand accountability for how their business dealings affect our economy, and our ability to work and provide for ourselves.

In recent years, big mistakes were made by the biggest players that affected the smallest workers.  In the housing industry alone, the banking breakdown meant thousands of lost jobs.  One of my dear friends lost her administrative position for a builder in the bust.  She was one of many who lost her job within that company, and was one of the lucky few who found work quickly.  I, along with a good quarter of my coworkers, lost my job within a luxury vehicle captive credit finance company when the bust affected the way we had to do business.  It took me months to find work, and then it was at a 40% pay cut.  Did I whine about it?  Heck yeah!

The downturn hit my family at a hard time.  We had just bought a house (well within our means–we live debt free outside of our mortgage, thank goodness!!) in a new, developing neighborhood, in a sector that was slated for major growth.  When the economy busted, it meant everything planned for that community was put on hold, including road improvements we’d been counting on for our commute.  We could not have predicted the bust, nor could we have predicted how it would affect us. 

I’m sure the scores of homeowners in our neighborhood who were foreclosed upon in the past couple of years couldn’t either.  And we certainly could not have predicted that the many short sales and foreclosures around us would force us to drive our asking price down so low, we could end up losing money when we finally do sell. 

Funny thing is, the guys in charge could have, should have, and need to be held accountable for their own avarice driven willful ignorance.  My understanding is that this is the basis for the Occupy Wall Street movement. 

It is a Catch-22.  If you bail out the individuals affected, you haven’t touched the source and the hemorrhaging  continues.  If you bail out the source, you reward bad behavior, but you stop the overflow.

Thing is, we’re all in this together.  The Rich will not remain so at the continued expense of the Poor.  You can only tell a guy to eat cake for so long before he breaks open your windows to have a bite of yours.  As a nation, we have to be the 100%.  There will always be the outliers of greed and sloth, but we have to hope that the ethical, responsible average works out to our combined benefit.

I have no answers, being a simple person and no economist.  I’m just glad to know that Thor’s school offers lessons in Mandarin, so he will be able to communicate with his new overlords when China buys us.

Here is what I wish someone would invent and develop nationally, though I realize the liability would make it nigh on impossible to do:

A sick bay for children with low-grade illnesses, where parents could drop them off with peace of mind that they would be cared for, still allowing the parent to go to work.

You would have to staff it with medical professionals, so it would be cost prohibitive to most working families anyway, but it’s a nice idea.  Maybe you could staff it with nuns?  Why do I think nuns=nurses?  Too many war movies is why.

I was thinking about it because dinner (at the Black-Eyed Pea in Richardson on Beltline–don’t go there!  Horrible service, cold food.) last night made me ill.  After a short, but very violent burst of my body rejecting the chicken fried steak, I feel better, but my stomach muscles hurt like someone has jumped on them.  I was thinking about how frequently I threw up as a child, and how I always felt better immediately after, but still wasn’t quite ready to move along.  A sick bay would have been a great thing for my working mother.

I just realized that as I am updating this blog with old blog entries, you might be getting spammed in your mailbox.    Bear with me!  I’ll figure this out.

First, a product I love:

You know I swim all the time now, and the Pool Chemicals + the Blow Dryer + the Flat Iron + the Maybe She’s Born With It = Hair Damage.  My hair is baby fine, so too much product leaves me looking like a greaseball, but lord knows I need conditioner. 

In the past, I have used Infusium’s leave in conditioner to combat my pool hair, but I wanted to try something new, so I picked up the Nexxus Humectress Luxe leave in conditioner and am IN LOVE.

I haven’t had hair this soft since the first time I colored it (i.e. sophomore year in high school–orange–accidentally–fortunately, it was a rinse.)  This leaves me shiny–shimmering even–and doesn’t weigh down my hair.  Also, it works with my washing routine.  I like to wash my hair every other day, and normally with a Leave-In I have to wash daily to keep from looking greasy.  This wears very well and does a good job keeping me tangle free.  Just to add to the excellence, I can’t smell a fragrance in it.  I recommend.

Speaking of swimming, I am getting nearer to my goal of 30 minutes of Crawl time.  Now, my 45 minute workout is about 60/40 Crawl/Other, and I am strong enough to go for long distances Crawling without stopping.  I am also swimming about half my workouts in naked feet.

Thor starts school next week, so I am changing up my schedule from 45 minutes in the pool MWF, to 60 minutes in the pool TTH.  I think I might be able to do 75 minutes if I can get my booty out of bed early enough.  MWF, I’ll be walking the boy to school, and might start running a bit.  Might.  I’m not making any kinds of promises to myself there because I hate running.  If B decides to join the gym with me, I will probably start swimming on Saturdays, too.

Today, it felt so good to be in the water that I didn’t want to get out.