Ponderings and Musings

I’ve often mentioned that I am a *huge* fan of Rosie O’Donnell. She gives a lot to the world, especially children, she’s concerned about our country, she does positive things with her celebrity status and I believe in much the same way she does on many topics.

I often visit her site and occasionally submit a question. Imagine my surprise today:

While I am quite content in submitting a question to Rosie and getting it answered, I really wish that Earl and I could sit down and with Rosie and Kelli for lunch someday, just for lunch with no gushing, no pictures, no autographs and have a simple conversation.

“What can we do to help further your charitable causes?”

As a full-time college student for nearly a semester, I’ve been noticing something on campus that is relatively disturbing.

Some of the staff here are just downright rude to students.

Now I have not observed any instructors being rude to their students, however, it seems that there are some support staff that are just plain cranky.

When I first registered for classes in January, I had a few questions that needed to be answered. After all, I had not been to college in 20 years and I wanted to make sure that everything was in order so that I would start the semester on the right track.

When I went to the registration desk, the attendant there acted like I had just stepped off of a garbage truck and I had hunks of wilted lettuce hanging from my ears. I consider myself to be a fairly nice person, but this woman wasn’t buying into my pleasantries, she didn’t smile back, she didn’t say “please” or “thank you” and quite frankly it seemed that she just didn’t care to be there.

I chalked it up to a bad day on her behalf.

Unfortunately, I have noticed this trend continuing with various people on campus. For example, today I went to the library to finish up some research for one of my class projects. One would think that the person at the “Information” desk would be a helpful person, full of friendly advice and tips on the Dewey decimal system. No. I was wrong. When I asked a question about one of the research databases she threw a tattered piece of paper in my direction and said in an exasperated, “you’re a moron” voice, “It’s all right here.” Of course I kicked into Sarcasmo mode and said, “You’re absolutely right. Would you like to read it to me?”

She was not amused.

So I politely thanked her and walked away.

It seems that some of the support staff on this campus are bothered by the fact that there are students milling around here in these halls. I find this disheartening. If I’m feeling this much disrespect as a 38 year old student, I can’t imagine to think how the younger students are being treated.

We scream that the younger generation has no class or respect for their elders. It’s a shame that there are many that choose not to lead by example.

Today is April 22 and that means it’s Earth Day. Always trying to do my part to make the world a better place and to humbly respect our Universe, I replaced all of our table and desk lamp incandescent bulbs with the compact fluorescent variety. These types of lightbulbs are more expensive to purchase, however, they last much longer than regular bulbs and they use considerably less electricity. They also generate less heat. I intend on replacing all our lightbulbs with this variety as our budget permits.

I do worry that I’m starting to show my age by doing this lightbulb replacement routine, as I distinctly remember my maternal grandmother replacing all her table lamp lightbulbs with these odd mini-ring type fluorescent bulbs that flickered a little bit and made a barely perceptible high-frequency whine. She did this several years before slipping into dementia and I’m pretty certain the two weren’t related.

She was just ahead of her time when it came to saving the Universe.

Kitty Carlisle Hart, well-known as a panelist on the game show “To Tell The Truth”, passed on last night. She was 96.

Still touring and performing right up until the end of her life, Kitty was an accomplished performer on the stage, both as an opera singer and actor. She also was the only person to appear on *all* incarnations of “To Tell The Truth”, her last appearance on that show was at age 92.

Here’s a link to the best remembered version of the theme song for “To Tell The Truth”.

This weekend Earl and I were talking with Rick and Helen about cell phones. I mentioned to them that I’ve been pondering ditching my cell phone for the past year or so and that I thought I was ready to take the plunge and just do it. Both Rick and Helen thought it was a great idea and they wished they could do the same.

I have to admit that I don’t talk on my cell phone very much. I haven’t even charged it in the past week as it’s just been sitting on the kitchen counter. I didn’t take it to Pennsylvania. There could be messages waiting for me. Who knows.

My sister gets hysterical when I mentioned getting rid of the cell phone. I’ve never been one for talking on the cell phone. I can chat online until the cows come home, but I’m not one for actually talking. If I’m going to talk with someone I’d rather talk with them face to face. I don’t like having meals/movies/visits to the laundromat interrupted with the jingle of my cell phone, so why even bother carrying it. I can keep the older phone I have in the car and dial 911 if the emergency ever arises. Truth be known I’d rather text chat with emergency personnel (provided I still had all my fingers). I’m just more coherent that way.

So I think I’m going to take the plunge and get rid of the phone, finally, at the end of this month.

If you want me, e-mail me. I always have my PowerBook in tow.

I am working out as I type. Can you hear me panting and sweating and grunting? That’s what I’m doing, as the sweat falls and the calories burn. I’m sitting on the exercise bike and just pedaling and pedaling and pedaling.

I had to do something to make this interesting. Normally I’d be out on my road bike by this time of the year, enjoying the smell of the flowers and watching the grass turn green, as I ride along country roads with the sun in my eyes and the wind at my back. But you see, my road bike does not have skiis (I opted out of that accessory), and since the weather is whacked out and I don’t have a boat to pull me, I can’t water ski or snow ski on my bike so I’m stuck on the exercise bike in the cellar.

It’s not that I don’t like my exercise bike. I like it very much. The problem is, the only thing I have to look at while riding this bike is the clock. And painted cinder block walls. And that can be very boring. I sit there waiting for the clock to advance to the point where I can say, “I’m done!”.

I’ve tried listening to the iPod while working out, but the time thing still creeps into my head. I think, “This song is four minutes long. In five songs it’ll be 20 minutes. Perhaps that’s long enough.”

So here I am, trying to type and surf while working out. It’s not an easy thing to do, but at least it makes the ride more interesting.

I was delighted to wake up this morning and find that it hadn’t snowed overnight. We had a lot of rain and some sleet but none of the white stuff.

There was no need for an Excalibur moment this morning. I have calmed down.

I really don’t know why meteorologists bother trying to predict the weather. Just for fun, I recorded their forecast for the next week. Today it was suppose to be sunny and 55 degrees. It’s pouring rain at 36 degrees.

It’s obvious that you can’t fool Mother Nature. She knows best.

In other news, I started messing around with Podcasting today. I enjoyed the experience and will be doing it again in the future. I didn’t plan any of the content and just rambled and threw on a new and old dance track. If you want to listen to me ramble, you can subscribe here.

Sunshine.

Originally uploaded by jp2.0.

Get out and enjoy the sunshine while you can. That’s what I always say.

For the past several years, Earl and I have celebrated the Easter holiday by going on our first picnic of the year. We normally make ham sandwiches, bring along some salads, chips and iced tea, and go to a state park to enjoy the springtime sunshine and perhaps walk around a little bit.

Today we woke up to over an inch of snow and temperatures in the mid 20s. While we are both quite adventurous, we really didn’t feel up to a picnic in that sort of weather.

Instead we invited my Mom to the local casino where they were having a wonderful brunch for thousands of their closest friends. We ran into my cousin and her family and chatted with them for a few moments and ended up having a wonderful meal and leaving some of our hard earned money in the process.

I guess Mother Nature isn’t quite ready to bless us with full-time spring yet, as it looks like it’ll be late February like for the next couple of days. Earl thinks our first picnic of the year will be to celebrate Independence Day.

I’ve been mentioning to Earl on and off for the past couple of weeks that I was thinking of ramping back considerably on my blogging habits. I don’t know whether it’s a case of finding interests elsewhere or just sheer boredom, but I thought that reading my blog had become as interesting as watching paint dry.

That was until today.

One of my reasons for having a blog is to show the world, through my experiences, a different perspective on life. I don’t really see “the big picture” as many see it. I don’t think I’m even looking at the same wall as most. Sometimes it seems like I’m looking at the back of the big picture. Sometimes it seems I’m out in the bathroom while everyone is gazing at this big picture. Perhaps it’s educational to some that there’s these whacky people out there that look at the world a little differently and maybe any given topic can’t be pigeon-holed into black or white.

In addition, I don’t believe that Earl and I fit the stereotypical image of a gay couple, and by sharing our experiences and viewpoints on here, it shows the world the diversity that exists in this little subculture with sparkles.

Anyway, after a lively sociology class at school today I decided that I need to hang around in the blogosphere a bit and keep doing what I’m doing. Today’s topic in class was “Education and Religion”. We started off by being asked to draw a person, much like they do to screen students for kindergarten. I apparently would have been sent to summer school if I was to attend kindergarten today because I drew a stick figure. I was generous enough to include hair, ears, shoes and a smiley face. I guess I haven’t changed much since kindergarten age, because my kindergarten teacher told my mother that I was learning disabled and should be in special ed because I couldn’t color between the lines. They later decided that I was “beyond” coloring between the lines and had more important things to do. I guess that still applies.

Anyways, the conversations started up during the lecture. I enjoy this class because about half the class (the sleeping half) has pretty much dropped out and now people actually participate. Since returning from spring break I’ve become increasingly participatory in class and today I was running at full tilt.

The 20s-something woman two rows back, the one happily married with four kids, was giving her viewpoint on the separation of church and state in the schools and how it was just awful that there was discussion about taking the Pledge of Allegiance out of the schools because of the words “under God”. Several of our classmates agreed with her, saying that our Founding Fathers put “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance for a reason.

“Whammy! Thanks for playing, here’s your lifetime supply of bleach.”

Before the instructor had a chance to jump in, she looked at me, smiling knowingly as she read the expression on my face as I said, “Actually, the Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t around until 1892 and the ‘under God’ part wasn’t added until 1952. I think the Founding Fathers were long dead by then.” I don’t know what it is about adding a little zinger to the end of my arguments. Perhaps too much Golden Girls or something.

“Well I don’t know why people have to come into our country and force us to endure their religious beliefs. This is a Christian nation.”, another student said.

“I’m sure the Native Americans loved us forcing Christianity upon them when we arrived in North America”, was my reply.

I guess I was a little worked up today.

The discussion continued, including my defense of people who need to take time off from their jobs for religious purposes (Jewish holidays, Pagan celebrations, etc) and how they shouldn’t have to bring in a note from the coven. I think the Pagan part spooked some.

Perhaps I should wear all black on Tuesday or something.

Anyway, the paint has finally dried and I’m still here.

* addendum, I was wrong in class, “under God” was added in 1954 per Wikipedia.