Kim Kardashian (why is she famous again?) is getting divorced after 72 days of marriage and a wedding that cost, allegedly, over ten million dollars. The filing of divorce occurred on the one-year anniversary of the joyful meeting of the bride and groom. So we have, to recap, a one-year relationship that includes meeting, marriage, and filing for divorce.

A different story of marriage is that of Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd of New York. They were married in July after the state of New York legalized gay marriage. They had been together for 12 years before the law allowed them to marry.

 Who is really destroying the sanctity of marriage? It sure isn’t the same sex couples…

How would you feel if there were a chance that you could lose your job in the next few days? How would you feel if your boss talked to the media about you potentially losing your job in the next few days? Now…how would you feel if your job was to respond to questions from the media about your own potential layoff? If you want to know you should ask Alma Brown, Peoria’s Communications Director. City Manager Patrick Urich said that the Communications Director position is one he was looking at cutting and as communications director Alma Brown got the calls from the media asking for more information.

I don’t know Alma Brown and I don’t know exactly what her job entails but how sad to have this information out to the public before she knows for sure what is happening to her job. If it were me, I would prefer to be told and have a day or two to deal with it before having to answer questions from my friends and family,or even worse, the news media.

On a related note, there is talk of laying off employees from the police and fire departments. It is a good thing that crime in Peoria is down. (sarcasm)

If the Repuplican nominee for President is one of the participants in last night’s FAUX News/Google debate they had better not dare campaign on their support for the troops. None of the candidates said a word to when a member of the audience booed an active duty servicemen…and Iraq veteran, no less.

Audience members in the last three debates have cheered at the execution of over 200 people in Texas, cheered at the suggestion that a person without insurance should be allowed to die, and booed a member of the miltary…and all of this is without one protest from any candidate on the stage.  Stay classy Republicans, stay classy…

It seems like it is a requirement to write something about 9-11 since it is the 10 year anniversary. I have thought about what to write and what I would like to say…here is what I came up with.

…

Nothing…everthing I want to say seems trivial and trite. Hopefully someday I will be able to express how heartbroken I was that day and the days that followed, how confused I was, and how proud I was of my country and the world. Until then I will say nothing.

Question: How long did it take for the Peoria Journal Star to report on a bank robbery that occured on Wednesday.

Way to be timely…I am willing to bet that the yellow bandana has been tossed in the garbage by now.

I am the mother to a 5 year-old daughter and the Ti-Ti (aunt) to a 3 year-old nephew who both have good manners. They say please, thank you, no thank you, bless you, and all sorts of other polite words. Don’t get me wrong, they can both be total boogers but for the most part they use good manners.

I am noticing that when I am out shopping or out at a restaurant that thank you is not used at all by employees and it is starting to get on my nerves. I went to the McDonald’s on Knoxville to get a Diet Coke (yum!!) on Monday placed my order, paid for my order,  got my order and at no time did I hear a ‘thank-you’…and actually other than telling me the cost of my order I wasn’t  spoken to at all. When the girl handed me my soda I said ‘thank-you’ and she just looked at me with a blank look on her face and didn’t utter a word. I went to the McDonald’s on University yesterday, another Diet Coke,  and the same thing happened.

Am I really expecting too much? Is saying thank you to a customer no longer expected? Regardless of how employees act it will always be required from my daughter and nephew.

*Edit* In the name of research, and a spicy chicken sandwhich, I went to Wendy’s for lunch today…and again I didn’t get a thank you from the drive through person.

Anthony Weiner is going to resign today for sexting with several women over the last few years. At first I thought he should resist calls to resign since what he did wasn’t illegal and should really be an issue between him and his wife. I changed my mind over the last few days, though, as this issue has become a distraction to real issues that need the attention of the media…like Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan and the wars we are fighting.

Now I wonder if we will hear Reince Priebus, Republican Party Chairman, call for David Vitter to resign. In case you don’t know, and there are some people who claim to be aware of politics who don’t know this, David Vitter is a Republican Senator from Louisiana who hired prostitutes, which is a crime. I have never heard a Republican call for him to resign and in recent days, even when asked directly, they have not asked him to resign. Gee…hypocritical much?

I don’t consider myself to be the mushiest person on the planet but I do think that when people get married that they should feel like they are making a life long decision. I was amused when I saw this ad for a wedding ring designer. It says “Remember, you only get married for the first time once. ” Huh? I don’t know if I would want to buy a wedding ring from a company that holds little hope that my marriage will last.

A US Congressman sending shirtless pictures of himself to other consenting adults…bad.

A US Congressman posing shirtless in a magazine…good?

The other night I was tucking my daughter into bed and we were doing our normal routine…cuddles, talking about our day, saying what we were both thankful for, and whatever. After tucking her in she says to me “mommy, if there is a bear in my room I will scream loudly so you can come save me”. At first I thought, “If there is a bear in your room I am running the other way” but I didn’t say that. I just said, “of course I would come save you”. Uh…huh, I mean she is only 4 so she doesn’t know that 1. A bear could never manage to get up the stairs to her room and 2. I am not trained in bear fighting, even if I were in the room with her I wouldn’t know what to do to save her from a bear. I think I see a search for a how to save your child from a bear attack video on youtube in my future. Ok…I have gotten way off track here…

The reason I was so amused by her thinking that I would indeed save her from some wild animal attack is that a few weeks ago we were on vacation in Florida and we went to Gatorland. Yes…Gatorland. At Gatorland there are giant ‘gators, small ‘gators, and every size in between. My family and I all enjoyed the ‘gator wrestling show and at the end the audience members could, for $10.00, get their picture taken sitting on a ‘gator. I did not want to get near any sort of ‘gator but thought it would be cute for my daughter to get her picture taken. I asked her and was not shocked at all when she said no. So, I did what any good mom would do, I pressured her. 

The only way she would agree to do it is if I would be in the picture with her. Let me say something…I hate most animals and if it doesn’t have fur I want no part of it. I don’t like birds, fish, snakes, turtles, ‘gators, bugs…I don’t even like plastic bugs or snakes. But…I told my daughter that she should be brave and not be scared so I guess I had no choice but to be brave…gulp!

So here we are, last in line, ready to go up and get our picture taken with this medium sized ‘gator. I am sweating and my heart is pounding but I try to not look scared. Oh…did I mention that we are supposed to actually sit on the back of this ‘gator and hold it’s head; really it’s mouth, up in the air? There is no way in hell that I am actually touching this thing…I didn’t even sit on it, I straddled over it, and when the ‘gator wrangler told me to hold it’s head up I did what will, I am sure, earn me the Nobel Mother of the Year Prize…I took my 4 year old’s tiny little hands, put them on the alligator, and made her do it.

See…take a look at the picture…you will see my hands on her arms making her hold on to a 200 pound alligator’s mouth because mommy was scared.

All right…time to go watch youtube so I can redeem myself in case a bear ever manages to get into my daughter’s room.

**I had posted this previously but it disappeared somehow. We took this trip in February and my daughter has since turned 5.