I'm ba-ack!

If a blogger lets a whole year go by without blogging, did the year really happen?

I wish I had some fabulous story about where I was and why I wasn't writing...  Miraculously, I survived the shipwreck and washed ashore in on a isolated beach in Tahiti!  But sorry, I got nuthin'.  I guess LIFE just got in the way (and by LIFE I mean neither the game by Milton Bradley nor the cereal which never goes on sale).  LIFE (with its capital letters) is aging in-laws and a miserable economy, not enough work in the career I love and too much work in the job I don't, an entrance into the teen years, the AARP years and the "dear God why won't they insure me?" years, and a stack of magazines and newspapers whose mere existence mocks me for the time I'm wasting on Facebook.

Welcome to 2013.  If you haven't already guessed, getting back to this blog is on my 2013 "to-do" list.  (And no, I don't mean my New Year's Resolution list because I did not make one - resolutions are made to be broken, To-Do lists are made to be plowed through - and here I am plowing away on January 3rd!)

Having been away so long, I don't want to shock anyone's system with a full-blown blog entry, compete with passionate opinions and calls to arms.  Instead I'll start off slowly with some observations that I can't seem to shake, in spite of the fact that even the mention of them will surely out me as the "oldster" I am.

1.  Remember when TV was free?  Okay, I'm sure my dad, (well, anyone's dad, actually) could've worked up a good head of steam insisting that leaving the TV on when we left the room was a waste of electricity, but let's face it - the electricity that TV was wasting probably cost all of eight cents.  Have you looked at your cable bill lately?  I keep trying to see if switching to satellite will be any cheaper but apparently, if you want to watch the channels YOU want to watch and not just "accept the package", all monthly TV service costs more than buying a new TV every month.  Sure, it includes internet (something that didn't even EXIST when I was a kid - look, they invented something new just so they could add it to my cable bill!) and enough taxes and fees to feed a small African family for a year.  So why am I spending all that money when the shows I want to watch are on a channel my cable company doesn't even carry?

2.  Is it just me, or are people getting angrier?  I heard a lovely, well-dressed young woman SCREAM at an old man in a car that he could "suck her dick" because he was taking too long getting out of his parking place.  Really.  I wish I were making that up.  I'm sure that woman doesn't talk like that to her mother or her boyfriend or her boyfriend's mother, but screaming it at the top of her lungs in the parking lot of a discount store is okay?  She probably forgot about it an hour later.  Which is even sadder than her yelling it in the first place.

3.  I think calories eaten during the holidays from foods made using recipes your grandmother passed down to you should be free.  No calories.  Or a few calories but something really good too - like extra "good" cholesterol or anti-oxidents.  Quick release fat would work too - I'd be okay gaining 5 pounds over the holidays if I knew it would come off in a couple of days.  But holiday fat doesn't seem to realize it's supposed to be temporary.  Like those trailers they put up 20 years ago at all these elementary schools thinking they would surely have built a new building by now.  

4.  Not to get political, but even the things I think will be good (Obamacare, not falling off the fiscal cliff) seem to have really bad repercussions.  Sure, now we all have health care, but they raised all the rates!  Taxes may not have gone up a LOT but they went up - and apparently for EVERYONE!  It's really just bad or worse.  Where is the good part?  Or am I just not rich enough to get any "good" out of anything these days?  Basically, it's really clear that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and we don't seem to be able to do anything about it.  Am I the only one bothered by this?  

5.  I keep reading all these articles listing things I can do to be happier.  So now it's MY fault I'm not happy?  Is there nothing I can blame on people anymore???  Lower my cable bill, my insurance and taxes and maybe I'll be happier!  But no - it's really because I'm not getting enough SLEEP, apparently.  Or I'm not taking enough "me time".  Me and that lady in the parking lot, I guess.

Well, enough ranting for one night.  Anyway, I'm back.  I'll try not to disappear again.  

(As if you 6 subscribers I have even noticed I was gone!)

Mother's Day

I'm finally coming around to where I don't hate Mother's Day...

Of course, that sounds awful, I know, but my mother died over 30 years ago so it's been a long time since I bought someone a bottle of Jean Nate or a box of Russell Stover's. I have a step-mother and a mother-in-law but it's just not the same. They have their own ACTUAL children to make a big fuss.

I also spent 10 years trying to have a baby. Those were probably the hardest Mother's Days of all.

So while I am certainly looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning to a special breakfast or a song and a card (maybe even something chocolate... hint, hint!), I am always a little sad this 2nd Sunday in May. Because probably someone lost their mom this year and misses her terribly and someone else can't seem to make a baby, even though they have taken a vacation or stopped worrying about it or talked to a fertility specialist or looked into adoption. For somebody, Mother's Day is the saddest day in the world. Keep an eye out for them tomorrow. They might need a hug.