CHRISTMAS DAY HAS COME AND GONE

The hustle, the bustle, the traffic, the shopping, the menu, the cooking, the hosting, oh sublime.
Did I say sublime? That's the insanity speaking, there is nothing sublime about being in charge of pulling off the holiday cheer and making it look like it is easy and enjoyable. Then---
while all are ready to sit down and eat you are ready to sit down and faint.

Ah but then there is the dessert to be offered , the presents to open, the wrapping paper to throw out and the dishes to do--and do -- and do.

Surprise, here they come-- the drop-ins the drop-outs the ones that show up in and out.
The joking the playing, the smiles and the laughter, one night of happy ever after.

I look at the faces and I think to myself I wouldn't change one little thing. This special day we celebrate of --- this special day of friendship and love.

Do they remember? I never forget as I peek around the corner where my candle is lit, in front of a picture that once was a gift of a sweet baby in his mothers arms. As the noise in the background fades from my ears, my eyes stay focused on where my heart is and I know that I have to silently say, thank you for caring and sharing in this way. Happy Birthday dear Lord we celebrate your day.

HAVE A GOOD ONE EVERYBODY

A CHRISTMAS STORY

Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house,
Little Gremlins were stirring
And moving about.

Little eye-balls a glowing
In the dark it was said
Peeping out of the closet
And from under the bed.

While shivering and shaking
There in their beds,
The children pulled covers
Up over their heads.

Then up on the roof
There arose such a clatter,
But no one would peek
To see what was the matter.

Then a sound like thunder
From the chimney arose
And landed down stairs
With a thud, it was told.

Then braver than brave
Each one they did crawl,
Down the stairway
And into the hall.

Then clumped there together
Round the corner they peeked
To see jolly Santa
With milk and cookies,

And right there in front
Of their Christmas tree
Stood little Gremlins
All dressed in green.

And suddenly it became so clear,
Not Gremlins at all,
But elves you see.

Laughing and talking
And singing their songs
And working fast
To beat Christmas dawn.

So one by one they turned and ran
Back up the stairs
And into their beds.

For Christmas dawn won't come you see,
If you don't go to sleep, on Christmas eve.

REALIZING THAT I AM OLD

There is an old lady that peers at me everytime I walk pass the mirror, so I walk pass the mirror as little as possible.
There are a lot of things that I really like about becoming older but unfortunately my looks are not one of them.
My face is droopy and wrinkled from tears I've shed and the hard times that I've seen. My body is, (if I do say so myself) not bad for an old gal, if you walked behind me you might not know that I was as old as I am, that is (haha) until I turned around. It would kind of be like the guy that sees this really great body in a pair of tight fitting jeans walking in front of him and can't wait to see the face, only to suffer the disappointment of finding out that when the body turns around it's a guy with a beard. Yuk, run the other way fast.

I don't like being called senile just because I'm forgetful, because I've been forgetful all my life. I don't go dancing anymore, makes me a little sad, because I love to dance but I try to remember my place in the world of the young.
I don't like it when younger people think we don't understand because what younger people don't understand is that we've been there too. Everything that you are doing, I've already done. So put that in you pipe and smoke it,opps I've done that too, ahh.

What I do like about becoming older is the reality that I found a new person from within that I like very much. The realization that if you love yourself you will find a kind of inner peace and to realize that you are never to old to try new things is a new found freedom that only comes with age.
The inhibitions of being shy, nervous, embarrassed or feeling foolish seem to disappear with age. Foolish ah, that is where you can use the word senile to your advantage.

I began writing poetry again and reading. I never had time to read a book just for the sake of reading and I love it. There is nothing nicer then having the time to cuddle up in a favorite chair cozy and warm knowing that on the other side of that wall there is ice on the ground while you are falling into another world with a good book. Simple pleasures that some people always take the time to do, I never had time for until I was older.

Age does have some benefits. I don't try to please for the sake of pleasing. I don't make up excuses for not wanting to go somewhere. If I don't want to go and am asked why, I simply say because I don't want to. I only associate with people I care about and I don't hang around with people I don't like just to be accepted or part of the group. I don't have time for phonies and if I have something to say I spit it out. Tactfully when possible, but if necessary, well let me put it this way, if the shoe fits I might make you wear it.
Now don't get me wrong here I don't go around trying to hurt peoples feelings, in fact I will avoid it at all costs but if you ask me for the truth and you keep persisting, you will get it.

Being young certainly has it's benefits, but being old does too. I don't consider reminiscing a bad or sad thing and so this morning I digressed back to a time when I was younger. I took my grandson to school and it was very cold this morning and as I was leaving the parking lot I noticed all of these teenagers running around with frost on the ground in their little shirts and blouses and most of them did'nt even have a light weight jacket on let alone a heavy coat and I thought to myself (self I said), do they want to show there cloths off that badly or are they just stupid. Oh excuse me I forgot it's not the in thing to do here these days only the nerds here wear a big heavy coat and a hat and for Gods sake never under any a circumstances do the scarf around the neck thing, that will make you the nerd of all nerds.

When I think about nerdy, I remember this young guy that used to come into the pizza place I managed he was a kind of a loner I don't think it was by choice he was just considered the local nerd back then. He always wore a heavy coat in the winter and a hat and sometimes even the unforgivable scarf around the neck. He was quiet spoken and very polite and I always tried to treat him special, because I knew he was. Of course in this day and age everyone wants to go to college, the guys in the in crowd as well as my nerdy friend. But while they were partying, he had his head in the books and while most of them were accepted into the local college here, it did my heart good to hear that he had been accepted into Harvard, but he turned it down, his Dad had been sick and he didn't want to put the extra strain or expenses on his family, but he did go on to college here.
You know I'd love to run into him now as a man. I have found in the past that the people who were nerds, or ugly, or were to this or to that for the the in crowd ususally are the ones that turned out looking better and doing well in life and the good looking jock ended up potbellied and bald.

And if anyone very young happens upon this post and has ever shunned what they call a nerd, remember this -- 'Bruce Springsteen' was a nerd in high school. Don't you wish you had his fame and fortune.

THE CHEAT SHEET

It seems that all of the companies that any of us do business with have begun a new thing, in the past it was bad enough when they began to have their phones answered by an automated system that you had to listen to in order to be directed to a human response. It all seemed so impersonal, but we all got used to it.

It usually went something like this, you called, a recording came on and gave you a brief instruction 'for billing press one, for a copy of your bill press two, to speak to a representative stay on the line' and so on. Most of us would opt for speaking to a rep. at least I would, I want to know that my buiness has been taken care of and not left in the hands (haha) of a recording.

But recently they have delevoped an even more complicated system, so that they do not have to deal with their clients at all.
A new 'automated voice response' system that can answer your questions and even if you don't give them the exact information as long as you come within the ballpark area, it can anticipate what the mistake in your sentence was, they can respond by saying something like, I believe you wanted to know about-blah, blah blah-- is that correct. In fact I happened upon one of those sytems yesturday and I have to admit, it kind of shocked me as to how well it could anticipate and respond. However it can also be extremely annoying when you want to discuss some of your business with someone and you can't get through unless you are willing to play, guess what I really want with the automated system and hope it will break or run out of possiblities and maybe, just maybe you will get to hear a human voice, not always though, sometime when all else fails the damn thing hangs up on you.

I'm sure it's a great invention for all of these big companies. The total goal is to save time, save money and eleminate employees with the automated response system.

Well to me it is annoying, impersonal, and an insult to be treated like you are not important enough to talk to when you are a paying client. The Phone company has gotten especially bad about using this new form of automated almost human like anticipating monster. The problem is I have to play word games with it for an hour to get through to a human whos response is almost worse then the automation.
I think they also must have put the billing on some sort of automated system, because every other month our phone plan has been changed without our permission and the bill is then a different amount each month and I have to call, get past the metal brainiac, and try to straighten out the mess . I keep asking why this keeps happening without our permission and no one knows, maybe they need to ask the metal monster.

At last someone has come up with the help we need to bypass all of the bull. He feels as I do, when you are paying for their services you deserve to be heard. At least the common curtesy of speaking to someone human would be nice for a change.

It's called the 'Cheat Sheet'. He has figured out how to bypass the automated system and speak to a human by punching in certain buttons ( or codes) on your phone, each companies code will be different. His name is Paul English, and I think I'm in love.

Here is a little of what his cheat sheet will have on it.

The IVR Cheat Sheet™ by Paul English

See also print and alphabetic versions; more information and other countries.

--- -finance ----------- -----phone steps to find a human
American Express ------ -- 800-528-4800 dial 0 repeatedly

ATT Universal Rewards ---800-950-5114 ###

Capital One Visa -----------800-867-0904 ignore prompts and invalid entry warnings; press #0 four times

It has vertually every place of business you can think of on it. If you want to have a look at his real cheat sheet you can find it here: http://paulenglish.com/ivr/ or you can also find it through the today show web site and get the full story at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633?ta=y

We the customer deserves more, then a cold, impersonal and inadiquet response to our questions. This is not just happening with utility companys it's happening with some banks, brokers, etc. it's spreading everywhere. We made these companys rich and now they don't want to bother with us but they certainly do not mind increasing our charges.

THE ITALIAN STALLION

I love Stallone, from 'Rambo' to 'Rocky', I watched them all faithfully, but I think I really liked him as an actor more when he started playing parts that showed him as a more intelligent person. Movies like 'The Specialist' and 'The Assassin'

Ah but don't get me wrong, I can't wait to see the new Rocky movie. He'd better win. I just hope it's not one of those pathetic over the hill one last fight things where he dies in it. I will be so disappointed.
One last Rocky movie at least with Stallone. I hope he can pull it off he's not getting any younger, but I do think he still keeps his body in shape, he always had a great butt too.
Rocky reminds me of one of my uncles, he used to box, I never saw him box but I do know he was never suppose to box again, he had taken one to many punches to the head. But every once in awhile he'd sneek off and do it anyway. Every time I see a Rocky movie I think of my uncle Nicky, they talk just alike weird huh.

Come on Rocky bring it on and show us your stuff and what ever you do, please don't disappoint me. I've been waiting a long time for one more Rocky movie.