Words of Wisdom?

I read something in the paper this morning that made me giggle. It made me think about how we all go through the same steps in our lives, we all struggle with the same things and we all go through the same thought processes even though we might not see it from the outside. It doesn't matter what path you take in life - you'll likely have similar thoughts and similar concerns as everybody else. I don't think we're nearly as unique as we'd like to make ourselves out to be.

It was a quote by Joni Mitchell, a folk singer who gained fame in the 1970s. It went like this:

"My first four albums covered the usual youth problems -- looking for love in all the wrong places -- while the next five are basically about being in your 30s. Things start losing their profundity; in middle-late age, you enter a tragedian period, realizing that the human animal isn’t changing for the better. In a way, I think I entered straight into my tragedian period, as my work is set against the stupid, destructive way we live on this planet. Americans have decided to be stupid and shallow since 1980. Madonna is like Nero: She marks the turning point."

Lately I've been feeling exactly like this. I guess it's a path we will all take at some point - and there is some comfort in knowing that those who have gone before me experienced the same things I am experiencing now. Watching the world change around you and experiencing what you perceive to be the decline of civilization has been something that every generation has gone through.

The best comparison I can give in my world is... people who drive ridiculously expensive cars but don't pay their vet bills. I'm only using the vet bill thing as an example - but it outlines the lack of priority that seems to define the younger generation nowadays. Make someone else responsible for your choices and don't worry about the tab - let someone else pick it up. That seems to be an undercurrent for most of my beliefs today!

I guess the question in my mind is whether or not there truly is a decline or is it just change in general?

Made It!

This post is dedicated entirely to my niece. :)

It took her a few years to get some direction, but she is finally coming into her own as a young woman. I am so incredibly proud of her! It's apparent that what her mom and I have harped on for years, finally sunk in.

She's graduating from nursing school next month. She'll be an RN.

I could not be happier!!! Steve and I would not miss her graduation for all the money in the world; we'll be flying to TX next month to be there in person.

I told her for the last few years, "No babies until you graduate!" She got married last year, so I was concerned she might start down that path too soon, interrupting her studies...

But she listened and I know that no matter how proud I am of her, she will be even more proud of herself for finishing school!! NO ONE can ever take THAT away from you!

I've already told her to go ahead and make me some grandnieces and grandnephews now. :)

She's in the clear. :)

I love you Scooby and I am more proud of you than I will ever be able to put into words. :)

Super Moms!

I really feel the need to say a few things about mommies.

Those who know me know that I am a huge supporter of education for women. I don't believe in having babies until you have positioned yourself such that you can take care of those kids in the event that something changes in your life and you must take care of them yourself. It shouldn't be that big of a deal; you graduate from high school, you go to college and you are self-sufficient sometime in your twenties. It's really not that big of a deal unless you're one of those lazy asses who just wants someone to take care of you, or if you're just too lazy to get yourself an education - which is what happens most of the time, I believe. I see sooooo many young women today make excuses for not going to college, make excuses for not being able to take care of themselves. I've seen them go from home to marriage without ever learning what it means to be self sufficient and to have your own space.

So as I've done before in my Ode to Beautiful Women series...

I wanted to mention a few that I am in total awe of.

G's sister, J, is amazing. She's working on her PhD in psychology; she had her first baby 2 years ago and during that time she moved to NYC, stayed in school, got pregnant with baby #2 in that time frame. A few weeks ago she gave birth to the second child and let me tell you... she is my hero! She had about 5 hours of labor, had the baby with a midwife, took pictures 3 hours later and was home by noon! I wish I was exaggerating but I'm not! And, she flew here to the HD with her hubby for a visit, 10 days after the baby was born!

So she's a very educated, successful woman in a very happy marriage; she's raising amazing, smart kids who are incredibly adjusted - much more so than most situations with SAHMs.

Then there is my vet school friend, S. S. got married right after we graduated, and she and her husband bought their hospital about the same time we bought ours. Since then, they've had two children, bought a bigger farm, are building barns and chicken coops, all while running their business. Their kids are amazing - growing up in the country is so much better than any other alternative! Oh, and did I mention she's 29? Yeah, not very old to be so accomplished.

And, the kids of these amazing women are incredibly well adjusted - not bratty, no behavior problems - as opposed to what the staunch SAHM group would like to believe - these women are raising a terrific group of next-generationals. :)

The women in my life - the ones I admire the most - are the ones who are as happy and content as these girls mentioned above and who are raising the next generation of adults who will be educated and progressive.

Because... the reality is that it's education that is going to carry us through the degeneration of this country. The divide will grow and if you don't have some sort of education, you will be left behind.

Economy Comments

I haven't said much about the local economy and I realized that I should detail a bit about what I've seen here in the last 3 years so that some day I can look back on it and know that I survived it.

When I first moved to CA, the high desert was a fairly decent place. It has it's ghettos but overall it was rural and pretty nice. Bought a nice house on the side of a hill, had a job at a very busy vet clinic that saw an incredible increase in business from 2003 to 2006. Apple Valley is less than 3 hours from Vegas, 40 minutes from terrific OC shopping, less than 2 hours from the beach.

Things were hopping here for a few years.

Then, in 2007 (right about the time I was getting a divorce) I started noticing a "slow down" at the clinic where I was working. Nothing major, just some slight changes. I didn't think too much about it and certainly didn't see a "crash" coming when we decided to purchase OUR veterinary hospital.

I started noticing a change in the "type" of people I'd see at the grocery store. In fact, in the course of one year, I was accosted 3 times in the parking lot of the store I normally went to - beggars and gang banging types. We started having strange people come into the clinic - some with resumes, one who told us he just got out of jail and needed to do some community service, etc etc. These weren't "normal" folks; these were what I'd affectionately refer to as "tweakers".

Just last week I had to decline sending medication home for a 22 year old cat because the owner kept calling me and asking for opioids by name. "Can I have some kitty morphine?" I normally would oblige for the sake of the cat, but the owner also told me she just got out of rehab... WTF?

So yes, I have started seeing a dramatic change in the demographics of my area, and that is the part that scares me. It's still gorgeous here, the weather perfect and my house is beautiful. We've had a lot of rain this year so everything is green, robust and healthy.

But the scenery is changing on a bigger front.

When I think back to when I first lived here, the cost of living was pretty cheap compared to "down the hill". Costs went sky-high with the stupid housing bubble, and are now back down to a decent range.

Let's get something straight: housing is NOT going to boom again in this area for many years. It might fluctuate, but the days of getting twice what you paid for your house are gone!

Foreclosures are abounding; businesses are suffering; I've heard recently about some local, very long term businesses folding. It's then that I feel fortunate that we are still in business. We are a part of the 3/50 Project (supporting small businesses) and we fight every day for what we do, for what we believe in and for our own ethics and morals.

That said, let me tell you what I am seeing on the veterinary front: people don't have any money to spend. Period. When they do, they are much more conscientious about it than before. They want cheap. There is a degredation going on in this country like none I have seen before.

What this is doing to my mindset? I refuse to buy "cheap" anymore. I HATE that I don't have a high end grocery store to shop at, that is owned by a local business; I HATE that I have to support "big business" on any level. This country is run by small businesses and raped by the big ones.

If we don't wake up and preserve certain qualities of our life, then those qualities will go away forever.

The middle class is being squeezed like never before; I never thought I'd be a part of this but I am. I am fighting to keep my employees and also fighting to protect my profession so it's not ruined by "low cost bottom feeders" who don't do anything but stab and jab and do shitty surgeries. But right now they are popular and quality medicine is in trouble. People don't seem to care; and I maintain that they will get what they pay for. In the end, it's the animals that suffer, as always.

I am beginning to doubt that it's worth it; people are generally stupid, they overbreed and they are egocentric and *never* do much of anything for the greater good anymore. Nobody stands for anything except themselves.

It's very depressing.

Pure Kindness

I've commented before on how much my husband spoils me.

I've taken some flack over him, especially from my family, because he's got a colorful past. You can look at it as my divorce in 2007 just created chaos for everyone's emotions and so they reacted to that - change is difficult and everyone was wondering where my head was and why I was doing what I was doing. I was a bit alienated by them and had more than one snippy conversation about where my life was going and why on earth would I make so many changes, including getting married, in such a short amount of time? Well, finding the chopped-off mule deer head in my yard a few months ago is the manifestation of why I decided one morning to make that change. (I know not everyone understands this point; I'll have to explain later) It was simply time. I'm known for that; I can tolerate and tolerate and tolerate, probably more than most, until a breaking point. Once I reach that point, I don't look back.

That's what I did with Steve.

Instead of trusting my judgment, I got flack. But it's ok; I know they were just worried about me.

So I wanted to post yet another example of how, 3 years later, he still spoils the hell out of me. Never mind that I haven't done a load of laundry in weeks; I haven't cleaned the house, put gas in my car or picked up my own prescriptions from the pharmacy. I don't have to worry about details like paying the car note. Our spa is always perfect and ready to use every single day. He pretty much takes care of all of those things for me.

And he does it out of love and friendship.

Did I mention he makes me laugh every single day also?

When I was a vet student, I bought an item off of ebay that I totally loved. It was the veterinary symbol - the V with the snake on it - carved out of a single piece of wood. It's about 2 feet long. Well, when we first bought the practice, it was hanging in the lobby and fell off the wall and broke. I was heartbroken because I loved it so much!

It's been sitting at the house since then. Or so I thought.

Yesterday Steve walked into the lobby with something in his hand - it was my vet sign, completely repaired with a new finish on it!

If I hadn't had a client standing right next to me, I would have burst into tears. I was so appreciative of it - I just stood there looking at Steve, in awe that he is so good at surprising me.


Add this surprise to him planning and executing an entire weekend for us down in Orange county, complete with dinner and show - he's a pretty neato guy.

So having someone treat me like I'm worth something and like I matter... that's why I changed my life 3 years ago.

I hope everyone understands. I definitely traded UP. :)

Congrats, Mini Me

So we found out yesterday that one of my Super Techs who has worked with me - literally - since I was a new grad... got accepted to Oregon State School of Veterinary Medicine! She got the email right there at work and let me tell you there was some hootin' and hollerin' goin' on at that point!

Of course she would prefer Western Vet School here in Pomona, CA, but won't hear on that one for another month or so. But that's OK; she's got until April to accept her position in Oregon. So we're golden!

I admit that I feel smug about it. To all of those people who say "Oh yeah I was gonna be a vet" as if they could just walk through those front doors of any veterinary school - IN YOUR FACE! You do not and will never compare to someone like G. And to those who thought G. wouldn't do well with her application - again, IN YOUR FACE! She got into Oregon - who only accepted a total of 56 students - as an out-of-state applicant. Read: coveted position!

Hard to miss with a 4.0 GPA in science and a 1450 on your GRE.

G. is smart. Married, successful and putting off the baby making until she has an education. Just another version of me. Yeah, and she's only in her mid twenties. Like many of my classmates, she'll be a doctor by 30 and can start her family and never, ever have to worry about taking care of herself, her kids or even her husband if it ever came down to it.

Congrats, G. Welcome to the best profession in the world. Class of 2014.

(I'm bragging because I had a small hand in her pursuit of this dream. The mentored becomes the mentor.) :)

VIN

So this is kind of insignificant to most, but it's a HUGE thing to me. I am part of an online community called VIN - Veterinary Information Network. It's a resource for veterinarians that covers everything from basic message boards to online continuing education, classified ads, job searches, etc. It's awesome, and I've been a member since I was a vet student. In fact, our website is set up through the VIN site.

I was recently involved in a lengthy discussion about clients and the changes we are seeing in vet med, and that discussion led to another discussion about getting a group of veterinarians together to brainstorm and vent and discuss issues and try to come up with solutions. Then that led to a conversation about that group getting together soon, and to gather at the VIN location in Davis, CA.

I made it to the first list, so I'm in. It's probably not a big deal, and might lead to absolutely nothing, but being able to participate is a BIG deal to me. I feel like I'm a part of something, like I might be able to contribute and hell, maybe even be involved on the ground floor of something for change in veterinary medicine. There is growing concern that our national voice, the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) is starting to grow a deaf ear to our concerns and even starting to sell out to the big brats like pet insurance. Maybe this will turn into something bigger than we can anticipate!

I'll be heading up there for a short weekend in a few weeks. I'll let you guys know how it goes. :)

Avon Walk in Santa Barbara

OK, so since *none* of my close friends and family opted to do the walk with me, I'll be joining my good friend from up on Morrow Bay on the Avon Breast Cancer walk in September. We'll be walking 40 miles through the town of Santa Barbara! A somewhat smaller version of the 3Day, this should be a little more feasible for me to prepare for - which means hours and hours of walking no matter what. :)

Looking forward to it, and I'll be hitting every single one of you up for a donation once my donation page is up and running. :)

The Nasty Human Element

It's been a tough few weeks at work, I won't even sugarcoat it. It's not the long hours, necessarily, or the long days, even. It's the godforsaken human element associated with my profession. I feel I'm seeing a major decline in the quality of people and it's scary.

Let's see... was it the sweet little beagle missing half her hair, with a bloated abdomen and so skinny that I could palpate her entire pelvis? Was it seeing that or was it having to talk to the idiot owner who only brought her to see me because animal control made him do it? And then he had the nerve to give me attitude? Or the fact that I told him she was sick and needed tests and he said he only brought money for the office call and refused any treatment?

Or was it the next neglect case, a 13 year old Pit Bull mama who just had her last litter of puppies last year (at 12 years old), was a walking skeleton with severe osteoarthritis, who could barely get around, but when I and animal control told him she wasn't sick and she was normal, the owner accused us of being racist?

Or was it the chihuahua who ate a box of rat bait poison - with a punk ass young owner who walked in the door with an attitude and telling us he had NO money and we'd better "fix his dog now"? Then had the nerve to tell us "we made it all about the money" when we asked him to even come up with part of the payment and we'd spot him the rest?

Or last but not least, the sweetheart doggy with a face so swollen we had to put him on oxygen because he could barely breathe past the swelling and then the owner (stupid, stupid owner) telling me he'd been like that for two days?

I've lost my faith in humanity. Human beings are NOT made in the image of some make believe god; we are parasites and we are nasty. We deserve things like Hanta virus, the Plague, AIDS. I don't even have tolerance anymore when people try to give me some lame ass excuse for giving their pets away - I don't care if you lost your house, couldn't handle motherhood or fatherhood (one that is too common and makes me the most angry - too many lameass parents out there that breed too much - it's how I got our most recent rescue at the hospital), lost your job or whatever. You took on a responsibility so deal with it.

Sometimes I justify euthanasia for one reason and one reason only: to get them the hell away from the human slime that owns them. And don't let people with money fool you; they're the worst and the first to dump their animals. They'll drive up in expensive cars and then tell me they can't afford a simple blood test. So I put their animals to sleep just so they won't suffer at the hands of these kinds of people. And these are the people breeding and shitting out kids every year like it's something special to get knocked up. I literally hate them and wouldn't spit on them if I found them laying on the side of the road.

And for the rest of you punks who neglect and abuse animals, who use them only for breeding to make you money or who don't think their souls mean anything to the myth of a god that you worship - go to hell and die in a fiery car crash. Or, better yet, come see me. I have some pink juice for you. It won't hurt a bit; after all, what's good for your neglected pet is certainly good for you.

The 3 Day, 2010

Should I do it? Should I commit to raising $2300 again, to walking before work and every Sunday and to start long distance walking again? Boy do I want to... Steve says to just do it... but I know that means spending 3-8 (yes, three to eight) hours walking on Sundays coming this fall.

It sure would be nice if someone would commit to it with me. :)

One of My Highlights

Instead of thinking about the sucky parts of 2009, I wanted to post something happy that happened to me in 2009: the purchase of my wonderful spa last May for my 40th bday. :) I have pics and comments about it on Facebook, but not here, so I figured I'd clue the rest of my fan base into where I spend every single evening, relaxing. I am most definitely a Hot Spring Spa Fan!



First, though, a little education: if anyone tells you they have a saltwater spa, give them a totally blank stare and ask them if they even know what that means. Most of them will tell you they run some form of bromine through their system - that can be achieved by adding the chemicals or with a system that recycles the bromine (known as a bromine generator). Either way, bromine and chlorine are both halogen salts and anyone with even a bit of brain matter should know this. It annoys me to NO end when someone smugly says, "oh I have a saltwater spa!" and they really don't have a clue about the periodic table. Some people will even add a bag of sea salt to their spa and use current to separate the chlorine from the sodium - NaCl! Either way you look at it, you're probably using either bromine salt or chlorine salt, unless you're using one of the newer systems like Baquaspa, which is neither! There are generators out there that generate one of these sanitizers but you still have to maintain water quality, you still have to change the water periodically and you still have to monitor it closely! Anybody who says they have such a great sanitizing system that enables them to go a year without changing their water - EEWW! I do NOT recommend you get into their spa because that means it's filthy on a microscopic level!

Anyway, bromine is easier on your skin than chlorine. In fact, we decided on our spa type and after TONS of research and recommendations, decided on the Brilliance System. I love the way my skin feels after getting out of the spa, how it smells - just everything about it. We decided against a bromine generator because, well, it's just not worth the expense!

SO - if anyone I know is contemplating a spa purchase, talk to me first!

OK so now that the educational part of this series is over, here's the fun part:

It comfortably seats 7 people, and I can stretch out across the whole thing and barely touch the sides! (not the case for my 6'1 hubby) It has a zillion jets that you can adjust 6 different ways, some funky 70s-like lights and well, it's just the best.

Oh, and if you DO get a spa, you MUST get a lift for the cover. I can take the cover off and put it back on with little effort - a must, because those covers are freaking heavy! And the LAST thing you want to do is have to lift it after getting all relaxed!


I couldn't write this post without thanking my loving husband for being In Charge of the Spa. I love it because he's so darned particular and wants his water perfect at all times, so our spa water ROCKS!

It's one of the best purchases we ever made.

Unbelievable View

So just as I'm wondering why in the hell I'm still in this desert, I look out the back over the pool to this unbelievably magnificent view and am reminded of why I'm a desert rat in the first place.

All of these pics were taken off my back patio, by the pool. It looked like the sky was on fire!







I do love the desert even though I also miss the rain and green of the south.


**Note: I was not bitten by any mosquitoes when I took these pictures. :)

Ahh, PVBs! (Post Vacation Blues)

It is just not possible that our vacation could have been any better or gone anymore smoothly.



Ahh, now it's back to real life. It's okay, though... we had such a great time that it totally motivated me to come back and work even harder to keep this lifestyle! We went to Catalina, went whale watching, ate great food, traveled First Class to and from Mexico, ate more terrific food, did 5 scuba dives, parasailed, rode waverunners (several times) had wonderful drinks, hung out on beautiful beaches and wonderful swimming pools. Our timeshare in Laguna Beach was wonderful as always, and our hotel in Mexico was stunning. I just can't say anything bad about any part of this vacation!



It's going to take me a few days or maybe weeks to get this blog updated but I wanted to post a couple of pictures just for fun. :) The best part was that Steve and I spent every minute of every day together for over two full weeks and not only did we not get into any fights or stupid arguments, we simply loved being in each other's company the whole time. Having had those issues in another life of mine, it was refreshing and wonderful and reiterated to myself how important my decisions have been for my own happiness.

Pictures to follow soon. :)

The Day of Thanks

I LOVE Thanksgiving. It's always been my favorite holiday! This year Steve and I are going all out and having a semi-cajun meal, including our glorious friend, The Tur-duck-hen. Yum! We're also frying a turkey this year - we'll have enough freaking food to feed an army, but that's a good thing cause we'll load most of it up and take it with us to Laguna Beach.

Our vacation starts the day after Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving Day is our One Year Anniversary. We picked that day to get married because it is our favorite day of the year. We've also decided not to celebrate our anniversary on the actual day; rather, we celebrate it on Thanksgiving, no matter what the date happens to be. It just makes more sense to do it that way, because we purposely married each other on that day, not that date.

As I write this, Steven is on a boat, headed to Catalina Island so he can finish his Open Water Dive Certificate. He'll be a certified scuba diver now, so we can start planning trips in the future. I am SO excited!! I know once that boy dips his toes into the warm water of the caribbean, cold water diving will go out the window for him like it did for me. :)

Now that I can say, "vacation starts in less than a week" I am beginning to feel some stress melt away.

That's a really, really good thing. :)

It's starting...

Not that I want to get on my own soapbox, but I've been spouting off for a while now that I'm sick and tired of defending and standing up for women's rights when the younger generations don't give a shit anyway. They'd rather wait for Prince Charming and have massive families instead of taking just a few years of their life to create a universe for themselves and their families, educating themselves and making it possible to take care of themselves and their children in the event their fairy tale comes crashing down sometime later...

That said, now we have a whole catholic child molesting lobby putting pressure on the government regarding abortion; now we are moving towards one of the most discriminatory decisions against women in decades by not allowing insurance to cover the cost of an abortion even in the case of rape or incest (are we surprised it's the catholics pushing for this?) and now? No, no, you don't need those mammograms in your 40s... it's not "worth" all of the false positives.

If any fool out there thinks these are not direct attacks on women, think again. There seems to be an unwinding of the rights that so many women fought and died for in this country and no one seems to want to stop it. Again, it's that generational problem... too tied up in their own lives to realize they are selling their children's rights down the road.

I think I am hearing some yelling over the mammogram thing. Women are saying, "what the fuck?" and that's a good thing. Let's see if the younger generation starts to wake up or not.

Good luck getting your girls into college much less giving them choices in life. Let's just go back to the mentality that women are only good for sex and breeding and their own personal growth does not matter. They should only be subservient to their husbands (who, incidently, will be providing absolutely everything because women will becomes slaves to the household again) and some make believe god and they will be told, "this is enough for your feeble mind."

I'll still be sipping coffee off my porch somewhere deep in the country, not caring.

Prey

This is what happens when wolves attack monkeys:



They get their legs ripped off, their wrists severed... they get mauled.



I laughed so hard when I found this monkey! I just thought it was the funniest thing; poor little toy, all beat up and destroyed. It used to be Riley's favorite monkey!

But we sent it over the Rainbow Bridge.

'Teve

I had to post this picture just because it was so freaking cute. This is Steve in the Xterra with Charlie, Nate's GF's 3 yr old daughter. Charlie LOVES Steve and it's so adorable when she looks at him and says, "teve!" I think he's her first crush. :) She asked him the other night if she could ride in his car with him, even though we weren't going anywhere. So they sat in the garage in the car, making vroom vroom noises, while she "watched t.v." on the GPS.


Charlie is a really cool little kid. She's one of the very few that I really enjoy being around. :)

A Big Kid

In his ever-persistant pursuit of my happiness and saving me from myself, my wonderful husband never gives up on trying to make me laugh. A boring trip to Bed Bath and Beyond is easily turned into play time, and his 6'1 frame reverts back to just a big kid.



I love it when he wears those shorts!!!

Now, get ready... get set....


Juggle!!




Never a dull moment. :)

Creating Your Own World

Being a firm believer in the power of positive thought and intention, I thought I'd post this. I don't get into the cult side of this guy, (Wayne Dyer) but I do believe in this type of thought. This is an excerpt from his website and I found it interesting and appropriate, given my recent decision to increase my writing.

“I’d love to write a book, if I only had the time.” Have you heard someone say this recently, or maybe even said it yourself? Do you really want to write a book or maybe paint or dance or sing or fulfill any creative longing that’s been sitting on the back burner of your life? And is time really the issue? We all have the same number of hours in a day and most of us make decisions about how to spend them. In my movie The Shift, we see a young mother rediscover her love of painting because she gives herself permission to do so. Instead of continuing to assume that her dream is impossible, she asks for the opportunity, the time, she needs and she gets it. Why don’t we do the things we say we want to do? In the vast cornucopia of excuses, not enough time or “I’m too busy,” easily tops the list. But how can a person be too busy to make room for what they love? Thoreau is right in saying that we have nobler faculties we need to pay attention to, in addition to all the other details that occupy our lives. If you fear the part of your soul that’s calling you to a higher place, then you’re probably using the “I’m too busy” excuse. There is time to do what you love when you step back and look at your life from a higher perspective. Make sure that fear, doubt, and unexamined beliefs about yourself and your talents are not the real culprits keeping you from your creative endeavor. Rather than telling yourself you are too busy to pursue an activity you love, use the following affirmation: I intend to take time for myself to live the life that I came here to live.

Namaste,

Wayne

An Odd Comparison

When I first moved out west and learned how conservative it can be, I remember thinking, what the fuck? Isn't this the land of hippies? Isn't everyone 420 tolerant out here?

Little did I know that CA has one of the highest number of gawdy, ridiculously built churches in the freaking country.

I should have just stayed in the south.

A few of my recent FB arguments have revolved around ignorant people. Yes I am being terribly judgmental. But it's hard to keep my mouth shut when someone posts a racial comment and somehow thinks that they are more American than the person they just insulted. Don't get me wrong; I firmly believe in the saying, "I may not like what you have just said but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it".

That does not mean I won't call you out on it if you're being an ignorant racist redneck idiot. Hell, I get accused of being a bitter, pessimistic feminist all of the time, so why should I hold back my opinions? What scares me about these people is that they don't see that they are ignorant racist redneck idiots. At least claim fame to what you are spouting.

I love being a bitter, pessimistic feminist.

And I can call them that because I am a decendent from a long line of ignorant racist redneck idiots. So I can spot 'em when I see 'em. So let me add that to the description, too.

Bitter, pessimistic, feministic, racist, redneck idiot.

(I won't add ignorant because I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my papers and I was free. My doctorate and continued pursuit of education frees me from that description.)

But we are all idiots to some extent.

My point is that we all have our prejudices. But what bothers me, is that people can't seem to accept their differences with others anymore. Everyone wants it their way. Everyone wants it to be within their comfort zone. And a lot of it revolves around religious beliefs. And, as I've stated before, I used to be soooo very tolerant myself, but years of fighting this shitty mindset has me setting my sights on a new direction.

In fact, my most recent argument on FB revolved around someone spouting off that they weren't surprised that the Ft Hood shooter was a muslim. That comment sparked a long argument involving me because I said, "well you know, like it or not, we do have freedom of religion here in the USA." That got me blasted because - and yes this was really stated - muslim idiot fundamentalists are worse than christian idiot fundamentalists.

Huh?

I kept saying, "seriously folks, are we really arguing that one group of religious nutbags is somehow better than another group of religious nutbags?"

And yes, that got me flamed yet again. It was fun though, and enlightening and thought-provoking, in that it made me realize how some people truly see the world.

And it scared the shit out of me.