Flapper's Folly

The holidays are coming. Yipee! The older I get the "scroogier" I become. It's just a horrible time to be a woman. Somehow it is upon women's shoulders to provide everyone with loving feelings, wonderful gifts, delicious food, and happy memories. It sucks.

I love some parts of the celebration. I like decorating the house. I have trees in all rooms of the house and every year one of them gets a new theme. This year the one in our bedroom will be French with Eiffel Towers, toile, maribou and fleur di lis. I've got the supplies to start making ornaments and have it all planned, but I don't know when I'll get to it. I like to make candies. I'm the only person in my family who still makes my grandmother's divinity, pralines, and fudge. It's important to me.

I like giving gifts to those I love, but I hate the shopping and I think it's wrong when someone hands you a list and tells you where to get the desired items or requests cash so they can get whatever they want. And I especially resent obligatory gifts. You know, gifts for people you know nothing about and care even less for. What is the spirit of that? And then there are the gifts for family members. Not your immediate family, not the ones you wish you could give more to, but the family you never see, usually not even at Christmas. Thanksgiving rolls around and you get a call telling you what to get their child and they ask what to purchase for your kiddo. If you're lucky you can order it online and have shipped directly to them. This way there is absolutely nothing personal about the transaction. That's just WRONG!

Don't get the idea I'm cheap or uncaring. I don't want to receive any obligatory gifts either. A gift is supposed to represent feeling. Hopefully a warm one. I could go on and on, but not today. I will finish by saying that I will no longer be the enforcer of all this madness. If you don't want to call your sister, don't! If the scout leader, dance instructor, or SS teacher is an ass, I will not suggest a gift be given.

This year I may make candy, enjoy my pretty trees, be with the people I truly love and the rest of it can be damned.

Posted by Rockelle at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This time of year not only finds the mailbox outside full of catalogs and sales fliers, but more retailers than ever seem to be hitting me in email this year. In much the same way I glance through the catalogs before tossing them or dog-earing a page with a possible gift idea, I scan the emails, often saving a special offer for discounts or free shipping from a place I've shopped previously and sometimes checking out the website of a retailer I never knew existed.

Today my inbox turned up a neat one I'd like to share. Not another place offering up musical santas or overpriced nighties or even in some cases musical nighties, this one is like a Container Store that you can easily shop from home. Home Focus features a huge selection of gadgets and organizers of every type. Being a believer that if only everything had a place and was properly organized, the house would clean itself and my life would be tranquil and serene, I can't help but love this site.

Not just the usual array of shelving, boxes, etc. Home Focus features items I've not seen elsewhere. For instance, a keyring with a built-in phone charger I thought was particulary neat. There is an amazing offering of items to manage, organize, and clean your car, yard, pets, every room of the house and more. Check it out.

Online shopping is a great way to do some Christmas shopping while sitting snug and warm in your PJs. A nice way to spend a few hours this weekend, don't you think?

Posted by Rockelle at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today is Veteran's Day, a day on which we honor those who lost their lives in service to this country. You may or may not be aware of it. My day started as usual. Out of bed, check email and briefly scan the headlines while I get my morning caffiene jolt. Neither on Netscape's homepage or MSN's was there any mention of it being Veteran's Day. In fact, nothing I looked at acknowledged the holiday. Perhaps television was a different story, but I don't get my morning news there. Only when I arrived later at the bank, did I realize it was a holiday. Myself and about ten others standing there like goofs trying to figure out why it was closed.

Later my mother called and told me that she and my dad were planning to attend a ceremony this evening at the courthouse in their little town. My dad is a veteran, having served in Japan during the Korean conflict. Conflict, one of many stupid euphemisms for war. They knew it was Veteran's Day. Why didn't I?

Why didn't the internet community, if you can call it that, not recognize this day? Is it that the majority of us are simply too young for it to be important anymore? As World War II veterans die off, will the significance of the day simply fade from our memory? That's sad, you know. It's unforgivable.

I'm not someone driving around in a SUV with flags flying all over it and my head up my ass claiming to be a proud American. I remember Viet Nam. I remember nightly body counts on the news. I remember Nixon. I want to cry as I hear the daily accounts of boys lost in Iraq. But what really scares me more than anything is the passivity of Americans. Not just the redneck types raising their beers saying, "Hell Yeah, I'm a proud American!" but more so the intelligent ones lifting their grande lattes and driving their 60K+ vehicles who are just too busy making and spending money to think about it.

Americans need to start thinking. They need to remember. Remember not only the people who gave their lives for the good and just cause but also those whose lives were sacrificed merely for political aims. I believe that Nixon was a very intelligent person in spite of all his malfeasance. The present Bush is nothing but a smart aleck airhead from Midland serving as a puppet for Nixon's old hawks.

Remember. Not only the ones that died 50 or more years ago, but also the ones that died yesterday and then think about how many more will die. Then think, for God's sake, think.

Posted by Rockelle at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Oops. No entry here for a week. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Last Wednesday the Puter Ho and I celebrated our third anniversary. Actually we waited until the weekend to celebrate with a couple of nights at a bed & breakfast in Granbury. It's such a short trip from Fort Worth that we can go down on Friday night and stay over until Sunday and feel like we've been away.

We actually got married in Granbury at a B&B and the weather on that day was very similar to this weekend's weather. A bit chilly and a misty rain. Good snuggling weather. Granbury is a lovely little town, but I fear it's charm is fading. The place seems to aspire to be Branson. Ewwwwww. It's experienced remarkable growth. The streets seem more crowded than ever with silvery heads. I don't mind senior citizens. If I'm lucky I'll get to be one too. And I can handle a certain amount of hokiness, but sometimes, altogether, it gets to be a bit much.

Still, it makes for a nice little getaway and I got some Christmas shopping done too.

Posted by Rockelle at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)