Ebay your emotional baggage!

So, eBay continues to evolve as the World’s Largest Group Therapy Meeting. Latest case in point: Some Australian lady is auctioning off her emotional baggage in the form of some other lady’s underpants

My favorite part:
the winning bidder also receives a used, empty condom package, "size small."

opening ceremonies

So I was watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. And they were, indeed, amazing. But hearing the price tag for one evenings entertainment was depressing - 300 million dollars.

300 million dollars, that if just half of that had been spent building schools that met building codes for earthquake-prone areas would have saved the very youth they lifted up during the ceremony.

But then, that wouldn't have gotten Matt Lauer and Bob Costas to go into raptures on 8.08.08 for three hours.

The Chinese are not the only ones at fault. All countries do it. It is just a shame that it is stuff like this, that while entertaining to watch, are put ahead of human lives. Who knows the full potential of those children that were killed because money had to be spent to impress wealthy people.

Wouldn't it be a better sign of this "emerging new China" if they just went back to playing the Olympic anthem, the host country anthem, introduce the athletes and clap.... then they could spend 300 million on something that lasts longer than a few hours. O.K., you can throw a few fireworks in there too....

The number of performers in the extravaganza was 15,000 (all with costumes as well) - more than the number of athletes. The number of people confirmed dead in the earthquake (mostly due to faulty building construction): 69,197.

But let's just talk about the cool LED screen, people on wires, and costumes of last night. Wasn't all that worth the death of some children? I mean, how were the Chinese to know that an earthquake would happen? They were going to get to the schools that had been condemned for over five years! Eventually.... Terrible bad luck and all that....

A Bra's Tale

Wow, I have been humiliated. But nothing like this!

As a young woman, Betty Jenkins received a gift from her mother that was meant to attract the attention of young men. But as Jenkins tells her niece, the attention she got wasn't the kind she was expecting. The gift was an inflatable bra designed to enhance its wearer's figure. It worked well — until she got on a plane....

DO listen to 94-year-old Betty Jenkins tell the story. It is far better in her own voice!

Doe

Some evenings I sit and watch a herd of deer on my parent's land. It is a solitary thing, but I enjoy watching their habits and have come to recognize the individual does and the buck. Last year one of the does had twins, this year she had one fawn. Tonight, I noticed she and her fawn were lying at the edge of a wood. It was a strange place to lie down. They usually are so sensitive to any disturbance and I have walked almost upon them before noticing them. The doe got up and I saw the reason for the strange behavior. One of her front legs is lame. I don't know if it is broken or she has just pulled a tendon but she definately hobbles. The fawn followed her along. And then I saw it, another doe shadowing the injured one. As if she was watching out for the doe and her fawn ready to help care for the fawn should the injured mother fall prey to dogs or whatever. Did they mutually agree to raise this fawn? Or did the mother doe solicite the other? Or was it the other way around? I wish I could help the hurt doe. I am not too much of a sentimentalist. Deer are like mice around here and they need culling, but this is my small herd that I enjoy watching and studying. Of course, they are not mine, but they have made my heart glad watching them these past years. And now she is hurt. And I can do nothing but watch and hope it is just a strained tendon that will repair itself.

We have to hold everything so loosely on this earth. We never know when or how it will be snatched from our hand but we have to be ready for it and willing to let it go. Fighting for it is futile; the pull is stronger than our grasp. And yet, we have to believe that it is for a purpose that things are taken from us before due time and we must must always remember to be thankful for each precious day we are given with something we care for or someone we love.

Tonight, I continue to wait and I hurt with a longing that is indescribable. And I curse my silly hand for grasping after three years of patiently teaching it to relax and keep its palm open. And yet what did I do but grasped as soon as I was in my love's presence. Grasped like some wild, deranged, starved thing. Even while doing it my soul cried out for me to stop, but something so animal overtakes us when we are in the presence of something we have desired for so long and tried to teach ourselves that we did not really want. It overpowers us. Or is it only the weaker ones it overpowers? Or the ones who closed off their hearts?

I sit here in the fading light of the porch and I fear that he is gone from me. How can men do that? How can they compartmentalize and move on so well? Why is it that women love, even long after all hope is gone? Why this cruel trick? Keep putting one foot in front of the other I tell myself. But this salty fear in my mouth chokes me with worry and longing. Were there some way to train my hand to stay permanently open. Only God can unclasp these fingers now.

Frustration

So I have waited for three years, why should a few more days matter? But they do. This is an eternity and I am sick to my stomach, elated, edgy, pensive, hopeful, and restless all in a span of a day.

Does he prefer life without me? How, how can he wait and be so slow to respond? Does he not think of me as I do him? I wish he would write or call...something, anything, to help cut these cords of tense hope that bind my chest to where I feel I cannot breathe.

Continuing to wait in hope

To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The Delinquent Equine & Hunting Pie

Too bad they are both going for over $100 on Ebay. Sheesh!

How to Beat the Claw Game

It's like a corgi in a manure pile! And the child's owners cannot get to it to pull it out! I love how you can tell the mother is saying, "Get out of there NOW!" and the child is just rolling about in all that stuffed animal ecstasy.

Hope

Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark. —George Iles

I have renewed hope today and things are so much brighter everywhere, even at work! Though I have never wanted to receive a letter so much. Guster's Amsterdam chorus keeps roaring through my mind.

Here is stag boy photo of the day:

Stag boy picture of the day

This guy hasn't quite gotten the knack yet of laying all his rights back so they don't tower over the ferns...

Chattanunich

H's mother would be so proud of her old city to hear that they will be the American headquarters for Volkswagon. German restaurants and signs of welcome are springing up all over 'nooga. Too bad she's dead.

I noticed signs when I was there a few weeks ago so I looked online to find out why there was such a warm and fuzzy German feeling permeating Chattanooga:

One reason is that the planned Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga won’t just make new cars but will be Volkswagen Group of America’s head office for manufacturing.

“There will be a well-educated and high-powered work force,” said Tom Edd Wilson, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive.

O.K. so did Tom Edd Wilson catch any flack for saying that Chattanooga will FINALLY have a "well-educated and high-powered work force"?