Decay of pretty much everything

Society lies around us in ruins and I can't even begin to offer suggestions on how to resurrect it.

KCMO schools are beyond the point of fixing. How do we get them back without sacrificing the generations that are already middle school or above? It's not just KCMO schools. Lots of school districts around the nation are dealing with the same issues. For too long we have ignored the responsibility of parents, coddled students and overpaid administrators while letting unqualified teachers go unchecked. If the school systems in the US were cars they would be deemed totaled and only worth scrap.

The economy. Buy now and pay later is pretty popular. At least until later shows up. I don't know how we got into this situation. I have conflicting views on lots of it. Many people are losing their homes in the mortgage crisis. Foreclosure is up. Why? Is unemployment up that much too? If you want to keep your house, pay the mortgage. Pay it FIRST. Don't keep cable and internet. Don't drive a huge car that eats gas. We've paid ours instead of buying food. There are food banks and it hurts to go to them, but you know what?? sometimes you have to. (keep in mind that if you use them when you are needy, you should give back to them when you have extra) The utility companies will work with you on payments. Whatever it takes, pay the mortgage first. Being homeless sucks! I understand that not everyone got there because of missing payments. There are some victims, but some are self made. Adjustable rate mortgages. We were offered one. yeah, the payments were great up front, but we read the paperwork. All of the paperwork. Knowing that they could go up and that our income might not caused us to only buy what we could afford then. Our income did go up - right up until the point where my husband was unemployed for 2 years. Yeah, I'm glad we didn't go for the ARM. A lot of the heartache with these is caused be greed and poor planning. Don't buy more than you can afford right now, because you may not be able to keep it later.

Excusing everyone for everything is also a part of the destruction of society. A young man was killed in a convenience store. There is some question on if he pulled the gun or not. This kid went into a store with a gun. He is NOT AN ANGEL. I don't think anyone should be murdered in cold blood (not even kids who are robbing anything - store, trailer, twinkies..) but don't excuse this kid's actions. He didn't go in there to have a friendly talk with the clerk. He didn't go in there to buy something and pay for it with $$ he earned through hard work. He went in there to steal and he may or may not have threatened the clerk. Accept that he put himself in a position to be killed. If the clerk shot him in the back as he was running away, then the clerk needs to be held accountable. Still, if you don't want to get shot...DON'T GO INTO A STORE WITH A GUN. Don't rob people. You never know who you will encounter and you may not win in the situation.

Decay of childhood. Todays kids grow up too fast in many ways. yet, many never grow up in important ways at all. I've met a lot of little girls and boys who acted like the adults they see on tv. I can tell you what kind of programming they are allowed to watch if I spend much time with them. At the same time these hyper violet, hyper sexual kids never grow up. They never learn to get/hold a job or take responsibility for anything. They are forever children, looking for someone to take care of them.

Destruction of our world. I'm so sick of trash. I don't care if you smoke on the benches in front of my store. I do care if you throw your butt down and wait for me to pick it up. I'm also sick of idiots in huge cars/trucks/suvs that take up 1 1/2 lanes on the small city streets. We have one world, and it's a trashy disgusting one. But anyone with eyes knows that.

People like to blame the destruction of society on one thing. It can't be one thing, it's everything. It's you, it's me - it's all of us. Every choice we make. Every product we buy. Every conversation we have.

I don't know why I'm pissy and ranting right now. Just am. Don't have any solutions, just want to complain.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

On Tony's Kansas City there is a post that cracks me up. Check it here

It's mean spirited of me, but I now MUST get those bottle caps or at least cards with little cats on them.



HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

It's even meaner if I do it. A middle aged fat chic is scary enough when offering sex, but to have it be a joke. Oh, that's bad. And funny. Very very funny.

Quirkiness

On a blog I read recently a woman listed the things that made her quirky. At least the things she viewed as quirky. I didn't have the same reaction to her list. The things she put on there made me think that she is kinda bitchy and rude. (usually I like that in a person)

Anyways, I decided to make my own list of quirky behaviors. Now people can judge me too. :-)

1. My shoes don't match. They coordinate and came as a pair, but they are different colors. I bought them that way, but didn't even notice that they don't match for about a week. In the past I have worn two different shoes that came as different pairs. Mostly be cause I didn't see their mates and I just don't care that much.

2. I often wear balloons as shoe laces. I hate to tie shoes and they are handy.

3. I play a game where I ask people seemingly random questions. The two guys I am playing with right now (they don't know they are playing) are officer Cutie and baby face Michael. This week's question is "What is the strangest color of socks you've ever worn?" Stephanie is playing with me, she came up with that great question.

4. I'm a balloon artist who despises wearing balloon hats. They make my head sweat.

5. I covet light up shoes and hope to find a pair in my size one day.

6. I LOVE really bad vampire shows. True Blood is fantastic in all it's badness.

7. I get 'drunk' off nighttime. It's like some sort of drug that makes me giggly and silly. I also usually come up with my best ideas during this time.

8. I believe that it is absolutely WRONG to scan for radio stations by going down the dial. You can by going up and only up. No sane reason I think this, but it makes my eyes bug out when someone does it the WRONG WAY.

9. I eat hot sauce on practically everything. Having cheese marinated in hot sauce as part of lunch today.

10. I don't care who knows my age. This one shouldn't be quirky or odd in this day and age, but it still is. I meet women every day who don't like to admit how old they are. Why? You are what age you are and you can't change that aspect of your life. I am 41. That's 4 decades and a year. This December I will be 42. Buy me a present. I like presents. Cake is good too.

If the economy sucks so much

why are people still paying $$ to watch the Chiefs play? Why not spend that $$ on fun things like mortgages, utilities and oh, I don't know - clothes and food.

Yeah, things are tough all over, but get real. If you are about to be foreclosed on, don't see a football game. Find something free or at least cheap to occupy your time. Spend time with your kids. If more parents spent time with their kids, a lot fewer kids would spend time with drugs. It's not just football, it's all the $$ wasters we have come to believe are important in this society.

I'm tired of hearing about how everything is going to hell and we have to bail out big business to save the country. I'm tired of hearing everyone say that "time are tough, don't know how we're going to get by". mostly I'm tired of trying to drive down I-70 when the stupid team is getting ready to lose again. Stay home, save money and let me get to my destination in a timely fashion.

Delilah

I hate Delilah. Not the biblical character or the person from that song, but the overly sappy radio personality. I don't hate her personally, I don't know her, but I do hate her show. I wince every time she starts speaking that voice, and following it up with some slow, moving song. I push a button and she vanishes from my car radio.

Sometimes I can't get to the button. The other night was one of those times. She started talking and what she said really scared me. Not the subject, though that does scare me too, but the fact that I agreed with her. She was talking about the soon to tank economy and that the best thing you could do to prepare is to buy seeds. I've had this thought, but to know that I have something so in common with the sugar coated night time dj disturbed me. Now I'm wondering what else we might have in common. Not going to listen to find out though. One thing is plenty and what I don't know won't bother me.

I probably have a lot of things in common with a lot of people I don't like. I'm going to pretend that I didn't just acknowledge that and go on believing myself to be totally different from (fill in name here)

Oh Boy!! Cathy Jolly sent me an invitation

I hate being on mailing lists. Even though I applaud Councilwoman Jolly's efforts to raise awareness and $$, I hate being on mailing lists.

------------------
Please join me for a special event benefiting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation on Thursday, October 2, 2008 fom 5-7pm at Seven – 613 Walnut - benefiting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. A $100 donation is required. More details are below. Please RSVP at vote@cathyjolly.com.
-------------------

donations can never be required. If you require it, then it's a fee. Otherwise I would require people to donate a set amount to get a balloon from me.

serious reflections and such

So many people use their blog to share deep thoughts. Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's just pompous crap. Most days I can't manage a thought deeper than "well...duh!" Which is what I thought when Clay Aiken came out. Jeeze, did anyone NOT know? His fans are shocked??? Please.

1. Does he really have all that many fans?
2. If they are so stupid that they didn't know he was gay, then how do they dress themselves?

Ok, bitchiness I can do, just not deep philosophy.

so if I'm not going to share meaningful thoughts, why blog? 'Cause i want to. Don't need a reason other than that. I like typing out my thoughts and it amuses me. When I cease to be amused, I will cease to blog.

I will share a new philosophy Stephanie and I came up with the other day. Be the stick. The stick is everything and everything can be the stick.

what is the stick? It's a stick stuck in an empty box. Why? Because my daughter had a class assignment that required something artsy and odd. (she did an army man buried in glitter) The teacher didn't say artsy he said visceral. I don't even know what class it was for. Stephanie and I decided that the stick was plenty artsy. Hell, even we don't understand what it means - isn't that the hallmark of art - nobody gets it? Now the stick has morphed from art to philosophy. The stick is being, when you understand the stick, you will understand life.

Now go forth and be the best stick you can be. Or if you're really ambitious, be the once empty box that now contains the stick.

People in my neighborhood

Not the one around my house, but the neighborhood where I work. Westport has an interesting dynamic.

In the early morning there are the homeless, roused from sleep by the cold, heat or sun , they go out on a search for food and cigarettes. I see them looking through trash and grabbing butts off the ground. It makes me sad and I always wonder what happened in their lives to put them where they are now.

The delivery drivers start early in the morning too. I hate delivery drivers and their big trucks. Westport roads are narrow and the drivers pretty much think they own them. they will stop in the middle of the street to unload. No pulling over or trying to find a place where they won't block traffic. It's worst on Pennsylvania. Did I mention that I hate them?

As the morning wears on the restaurant workers and janitor people come in. Generally people are pigs, so there's always a lot of crap to pick up. You start seeing the day shift of the Westport patrol around this time too. If you're lucky you'll see Officer Cutie (there are actually several good looking men in the Westport patrol). Eventually the shop owners come in. Most things here open 11 or 12 Wed.- Sun. Californos is an exception. It's open 10 - ? Mon. - Sat. Michael is the first one in at Californo's. Lucky man is almost 30, but looks 18 (barely 18) he may not appreciate it now, but when he's 60 and looks 40 he will.

Sometimes in the morning you will see the gypsy too. The gypsy is a very masculine looking man who wanders around in a black skirt thing. He usually has a long head dress on too. I've never quite figured out how he manages to remain masculine looking in a skirt, but he pulls it off.

Lunchtime brings the busy people who work in offices around here and the annoying "too much time on their hands" women. The workers are in a rush and kinda rude, the women are loud and kinda rude. No parking to be had from 11:30 until about 1pm.

Afternoons move slowly on weekdays. A few shoppers and people just out for fun. It's a relaxed happy atmosphere.

Evenings will bring another rush to Californo's and one to Murray's as well. Sage & Daisy get most of their weekday customers after 5pm. I guess everyone's just getting off work. Evening is also when the street performers start showing up. Nancy seems to have moved from the Plaza to Westport and vies with Randall for the spot by Kelly's. On weekends the hot dog carts start running in the evenings.

Nighttime is when the bar crowd comes out to play. They are not usually too bad until you get close to closing time. I'm gone by then, so they don't bother me.

Other people.

Old man who walks down 39th preaching. He will be silent and then suddenly yell (in an angry voice) God Loves You!! or "Jesus died for your sins! Praise him!!"

Art student with the stacked bike - fun to watch. I don't know how he gets on the thing.

Various pierced people. Some interesting body art out this way.

And I can't forget the people with their dogs. Unlike other areas in the city I have never seen someone bring a dog out that should not be in public. Can't say the same about the Plaza, Zona Rosa or the City Market. People in Westport seem to have more sense when it comes to their dogs.

Those are the people in my neighborhood. The people that I meet when I'm walking down the street - darn, can't remember how that actually goes. Think Sesame street and sing it for me.

The local Cult

IHOP - not the place with the tasty pancakes, but the cult that is centered in Grandview. Generally, I don't care if people join cults - not my place to stop them. I do care that Ihopians spend a lot time making sure that everyone knows how special their religion is.

Why do I call them a cult and not a church? Follow the $$. How does something that has existed for such a short time have so much wealth. I can think of lots of churches that have a hard time paying the bills, but this one (only 7 or 8 years old) can afford lots and lots of property including an entire strip mall.

Also, they use classic brainwashing. hours and hours of prayer while fasting. It's all 'up to the individual' of course, but is it really? Is it an environment where it's okay to say no when everyone else is doing it? Somehow I doubt it.

Want to join a cult? Fine, just don't keep trying to recuit me.

On an interesting note, Ihopians DO NOT like the following questions

1. Can I take your picture? I've never met a real cult member before.
2. What did you do before you gave your brain to IHOP?
3. Do they serve pancakes at services.

It's true - ask them. I did, the results were funny.

It's a garter snake

ha ha ha

get it??

if you don't then I'm pretty sure you don't knit.

Important breaking news

Thanks to Tony who published the information he got from Mary Anne's kansas city blog on about.com I now know about the newest challenge to my diet. Shatto is making ice cream. Their milk is amazing. I can't imagine how wonderful their ice cream will be. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I'm almost drooling on my keyboard while thinking about it.

Last Week

It's been over a week since I updated, and I could claim to be busy. I was sorta busy, but really I was just tired. I took 2 days off from the shop and that was a good thing, I needed it. Dan needs to take a couple of days off too since the Plaza Art Fair is coming up. He needs it, but I doubt he will take it.

I did craft. Mostly I knitted. I made scarves. Scarves shaped like snakes. I started a dragon, but he looked like an anaconda, so that was snake #1. The second snake I made on purpose. It is a green and pink garter snake. (garter stitch - get it??) and the 3rd snake is a coral snake. I saw one done very badly on etsy, so I decided to give it a try and do a better job. I think I did. Of course the person who made the snake I saw will probably hate mine and be happy they did a better job.

I also tried to find a domain name for my crafts. The crafts part is called "Whatever!" but all decent domains with whatever in the title were taken. Then I went for rainingfrogs.com, rainingpoodles.com, etherbunny.com, interruptingcow.com and they were all taken too. Then I took the word of the day from from 1999 schedule and most of those good ones were taken too. I tried my name spelled backwards (yecats) it was taken too. Finally I settled on ennasus.com I like it. The crafts are Whatever by Ennasus. The dresses will be (something) by Ennasus. What is Ennasus? It's my oldest daughter's name spelled backwards. The website will be up by Friday. Check it out then.

Art Fair Aftermath

The rain kinda sucked, but it cleared up for Sunday. Know what sucked more than the weather? The artists. The entitlement mentality was rampant. They rented a booth, so they owned the whole damned area. My shop was largely untroubled by the transient artists, but Sage & Daisy were. So were lots of other shops. I refer to them as transient artists because we are here all the time and we are artists too. The transients thought nothing of leaning their stuff on windows of open shops. One blocked the front door to Sage & Daisy and got pissy when asked to move her crap. I saw another leave her booth to smoke. She didn't want to smoke at her place, but she thought nothing of leaning against the window to Kevin's jewelry shop. Way classy.

Then there was the bathroom problem. Our shops have a common bathroom for customer use. We each have a key. The art fair promoters put port-a-pottys out for the fair, but many artists preferred to use our john. I can see that. The portable variety are kinda gross. What irked me was the way the EXPECTED to use it. On Friday I was asked for the key about 35 times. One lady (the pissy door blocking artist) asked 7 times all by herself. By the end of the evening a couple of transient artists were trying to go in my shop and get it for themselves. I was annoyed, but I'm fairly nice most of the time, so I got past it. Until Saturday. On Saturday one art fair vendor walked up to me, while I was with a customer at my button table, and said "key" with her hand outstretched. Tommy got it for her, but when she returned I told her no more. It was just too much.

Later Stephanie overheard her say to another artists that they pay so much for their spaces that we should be happy to get the bathroom key for them. I didn't get one dime of the cash she paid to sell her overpriced art. Next year I am making the key free for customers and $1 for everyone else. I pay enough for rent that she should be happy to pay me for use of my bathroom key. I should charge an extra quarter for anyone who wants to use my air freshener I keep under the sink.

Art Fair

The Westport Art Fair is in full swing and there is some cool stuff to see. I wish there were more cool artists though. Too many of them were unfriendly jerks and at least two of them lost a sale because they wouldn't acknowledge my presence in their booth. I guess I looked poor yesterday. Of course I am poor, but they had no way of knowing this. The color lady on the end of Pennsylvania - she got a sale. Her stuff is very cool, she is very nice and (this is important) SHE DOES NOT CHARGE TOO FREAKING MUCH FOR SOMETHING THAT ISN'T EVEN ALL THAT ATTRACTIVE. Seriously folks $500 for stuff glued to a canvas????? yeah - I understand why a lot of artists starve. No common sense.

Dan made the cool dress in this post. He worked on it for 6 hours. You can always tell when Dan makes the dress because of two key points.

1. The bubbles are all even. (I'm a bit more haphazard)
2. It's full length. I get bored and always end up making 'hooker' clothes that are mini skirts with crop tops. Dan has the patience to finish the dress and do a good job.

Stop buy the art fair this weekend and see it in person!

I'm heartless

I have watched the coverage of hurricane Gustov and I am heartless. I don't care about New Orleans and don't want to hear another word about it. I want to hear about Mississippi. Once upon a time we lived in Moss Point Mississippi. A quiet little town near Pascagoula. The house we lived in doesn't exit anymore. The street we lived on doesn't exist anymore, so much of what I knew and loved doesn't exist anymore. We didn't live there during Katrina, we had been gone for years, but I still feel the loss on a personal level. I loved that place and it pisses me off that people focused so much on New Orleans. yes, that was bad - BUT SO WAS EVERYTHING ELSE!! I look at Gustov and it covers the state of Mississippi, some of the worst going over my tiny little Moss Point. Yet all you see in the news is New Orleans this, New Orleans that. There are people in other areas NOT named New Orleans who have yet to rebuild, who can not put their lives together again from Katrina. new Orleans does not = hurricane Katrina. There is more to the story and the funds should be spread a bit more evenly out.

This time don't forget Mississippi, don't forget Alabama, don't forget Florida's panhandle or the parts of Louisiana that are not New Orleans. This time let's remember everyone and try to make sure that everyone gets help.