Eating Celery sticks and typing on my own damn computer....finally!  Maybe this time it will work for a while.  (It was in the "shop" which means, dad was trying to get it not to crash every 15 minutes!)

Celery is highly under-rated.  It really does seem to fill you up.  It has lots of fiber and absolutely no calories.  I think it's only because the body actually burns up more in the processing of it than it contains.  Is there such a thing as negative calories?

Last night was a Bridal Shower for my step brother's fiance.  The step brother is Joel.  He's 23, an artist, currently working for a land scaping company.  Listens to lots of rap music and drives fancy souped up cars with LOUD stereos.  (Can you picture it?).  The fiance is Alexis.  She is 20, works at a mail-it shop.  She's taking college classes right now, but all I really know is that she want's to get into selling realestate.  She's a very smart, outgoing, pretty girl.  So when I tell you that I wanted to KILL her last night, you might find it odd....

There were 40 people at this shower.  40.  Friends and relatives of both sides (bride and groom) and friends of the bride, and thier mothers.  (Not the bride and groom's mothers, they were there too, but the _friends_ mothers.  good grief.)  Lots of food and chapagne punch, which came in handy.  Let it be said that I have very little patience with inconsideration.  Especially when my moon is on it's way, which it is.  But this party was so disorganized.  And not by the fault of the women who worked hard to organize it.  The bride herself seemed bent on making as much an effort to drag it out indefinately a humanly possible.  You've heard about The Games?  these are silly little things that people do at different kinds of "showers" so that the bride can hand out "prizes", thereby absolving her of any guilt about the sheer magnitude of CRAP that she is given to start her New Life. (No, I'm not cynical!)  Well, our bride to be gathered everyone around to play a game, got about 2 minutes into it, and decided that she needed a break, and to go sit in a quiet place.  She got up and left 39 of us sitting there wondering what the hell was going on.  After a few minutes, most people headed back to the punch, which as I stated earlier was becoming an essential part of the "festivities".  The bride came back into the room about 20 minutes later to hear pleadings from both sides of the family to please choose the winner. Please.  This obviously distressed her because she then needed to step outside for some "fresh air" and chat with her smoking friends who were working their way feverishly through countless packs of cigarettes.

God Bless Grandmothers!!  When Our blushing bride returned again, her grandmother told her that if she didn't start opening gifts soon, the group was going to open them for her.  "Some of us have to leave tonight!", she said.  AMEN SISTAH!!! 

Here is the thing.  This "woman" had obviously never been to a shower.  There are, unfortunately several ettiquettes that go along with hosting such an event.  And even if she delegated most of the organization to someone else, she WAS the hostess.  Her mother needed to be more helpful.  She needed to tell her to read the cards out loud.  Tell us who the gift was from, show the gift. Move on to the next one, with out getting up for a bite to eat.  By the end of the evening (4 hours later...I'm not kidding) it was clear that this was just not the kind of party that the poor bride had in mind when she agreed to a wedding shower.  I felt bad for her, then because I thought that being so young it's very easy to let other people tell you what to do, and not stand up for what you really want.  While we were cleaning up, she said that it had just been so overwhelming. I calmly stated that if she thought THAT was overwhelming, wait til the WEDDING!! HA!  (I know, I'm going straight to hell).  Poor Alexis.  I hope that she finds herself and her own voice soon.  Being a wife is something that can hinder that process if you're not focused, I think.

This is the first of what will hopefully be a very eccletic collection of dreams, ramblings and every day musings.  

For instance, today, I took my 2 year old son to church with his Grandmother and Aunt and Uncle.  Basically, this means that he goes into a room with about 10 other two year olds and plays for an hour, while I sit in church. This was a Christian church.  I think it's called Four Square.  Unfortunately I don't pay much attention to those sorts of things.  Sometimes I feel bad about using these peoples church for my own purpose.  I mean the people that my mother knows there are very good people.  They care about each other and the community.  They pray for everyone's soul to be saved and and they sing and dance and get re-charged for the rest of the week.  I can't bring myself to tell them that I don't really believe in the same things that they do.  Not exactly, anyway.  I wonder if they would be offended, or ask me to leave.  Most likely, they would just pray harder for me to see things the "right" way.  Interesting.  But I do like the music, and I like the energy that's created by so many people being in one place and opening their heart to a joyful experience.  Not many other places cater simply to that feeling.  so if you're wondering why I would "subject" myself sunday School now that I have the choice to choose otherwise, that is it.  I enjoy it.  I just keep quiet about why I'm really there!  And honestly, I truly beilieve that it's pretty much the same reason that the rest of them are there, too.  I just say it with different words and catch phrases.