Need I say more?
Thank you John Mayer.

I wish I'd had his CD back during my conversation with the lady falling from paradise ... it might have been effective ...

Posted by: Princess Cat at 01:48 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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RSM got me to thinking about that pain that comes from within - those ones we all try our best to overcome, kick dirt on, or ignore - you know the ones ... self-doubt, insecurity, fear of not finding a place to belong ...

There are periods in my life where I feel like I'll never stop facing them. And there are points in my life where I let them dampen my experiences. But then there are also moments where I realize how I have held myself back with these pains and I try to be more aware.

Since moving out East, I've gotten a lot of the "you're not from here, are you?" from locals and transplants from long ago. Sometimes it makes me just a tad bit paranoid, thinking everyone thinks I don't belong.

On my bad days, I get down about it ... I let myself think I am the problem. I sit and wonder if I am just a freak that can't connect.

On my good days, I think to myself Hell no, I'm not from here. Thank God! But the place might not be half bad if people with manners and the ability to care lived here instead of people like you. And then to calm the bitterness, I think of someone else saying to me, "My, you are so beautifully out of place."

I don't think the pains will ever go away, for anyone. Somehow, I think they are the evil check on an out of control ego and arrogance run wild. The pains are normal. I think it is the ones that don't feel the pain that are the ones with the problem. Maybe they are naive, or emotionally insincere, or just plain stupid ... but they just aren't normal in my book.

But when it is an especially doubt-filled day where the pain seems to be the only thing you can feel, don't forget to sing to yourself these wonderful words:

Posted by: Princess Cat at 02:36 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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To anyone that lives in Platte County, MO ...

I implore you to vote in your local elections today.

Please

Posted by: Princess Cat at 02:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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How is it that they very same people that tell you they don't watch the news are the same people that want to tell you what's wrong with the world?

I tried my best to be non-confrontational with this woman, but I deserve a medal for doing it ... this woman was fiercely persistant in her absolute ignorance.

She told me all about how oil companies should be doing business and conducting themselves in a more environmentally manner, but has no idea where U.S. oil is imported from and drives an SUV (because it was cheap).

She stood firmly against Bush and the war in Iraq, using her father's negative experience returning home from Vietnam as her reasoning, but has not sought out a single positive story or made an effort to help a service member returning home.

She advocated coalition action in the world, and then asked what the U.N. was all about.

She railed on the corruption and incompetance of politicians, but couldn't name a single one that represented her.

She informed me on everything she felt was wrong with schools today, but didn't know what school system she lived in.

I tell you what lady, if ignorance is bliss ... you just took a fall from paradise.

Posted by: Princess Cat at 01:09 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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My trip up to the bizzare state of Penn went really well. I say bizzare because they don't seem to have heard of so many seemingly normal and useful things ... such as, radio ... toilet seat covers ... or water balloons. WTF? Personally, I blame the Dutch.

The drive was much shorter than anticipated, both coming and going. That didn't stop me from getting antsy, achey, and overall stir crazy (as my CD collection rather blows and someone has failed to send their XM receiver down to me) but still ... better to feel that way for as little time as possible.

Here are pics of the men I went all that way to see:

Little Man T (4 m/o)

Big Man D, the birthday boy (2 y/o) **

It was a good time with the extended family. No drama. No death. Lots of laughs. Children playing. Plenty of food I had no business eating (and it was YUMMY!). I just may adopt them as my more immediate family for a while.

**Yes, that is a mohawk he's sportin in the pic ... or as he calls it a "ho-hawk." It was even dyed blue the day I arrived.

Posted by: Princess Cat at 04:07 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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That's right, I may not need a man but I'm off to meet one anyway ... sort of.

I'll be gone all weekend celebrating my little cousin's second birthday and meeting his little brother for the first time.

Ya'll be good now, ya hear?

Posted by: Princess Cat at 08:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Or at least that's what the Pussycat Dolls are chanting these days. Not that they are the only ones, they just happened to be the ones I was listening to when this post popped into my head.

I get the idea behind these songs, women are strong. We can do things for ourselves and be happy with our own accomplishments. Honestly, I didn't need a song to remind me of that.

But I still think they are wrong...

I do need a man ... not because he said so or anyone else told me I to, but because I said so. Why's that, you ask? Because I can have my own job, make my own money, buy my own things, make the majority of my own repairs on things, or not get taken for a ride by the mechanic and never once think that if I were with a man that things would be any different. My identity does not lie in some popularly trumped up feminist notion of independence.

I may not need a man, per se, but I am definitely not part of the feminist cadre that claims my world should function equally as well without one. The world I want for myself, my future, is one with a partner - a man. If that means I need a man, and that is just socially uncool, so be it. I will happily be branded an outcast.

If you ask me, these lyrics are breeding bitches, not strong women. Not to mention rationalizing the immaturity that they live in by telling them it is ok to bail and jump in bed with his best friend for a few weeks when he doesn't fall to every whim.

Posted by: Princess Cat at 12:28 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I couldn't tell you what made me pick up the phone today - as opposed to tomorrow, yesterday, or last week - but I finally did.

I called my local USO.

The director is on vacation so I'll have to wait a bit before getting my feet wet as a volunteer, but it is about time I spent my days doing something more useful.

And last week, I got someone who thought he didn't belong to join the local VFW post and see that he could be part of something that helps so many.

There are so many things I could have done or ways I could have helped in the past, but dwelling on them won't help me or anyone else. Instead, I will build a future I want to be a part of starting from each day I am given.

I will make a difference, one day at a time, one encounter at a time.
I will be the change I hope to see in the world.
I am a volunteer.

Posted by: Princess Cat at 04:14 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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First of all, I accept full responsibility for not being better at setting the money aside that I knew would eventually come due, but ...

I'm about to kick my landlord in the shins

He sent an email today asking me to pony up $3079.14. Not the pair of us that live here, me. Oh, but I can do half now and the rest in 3 monthly payments. HA! I don't think so. Has this guy gone certifiably insane?

Let me reiterate here dude: A failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Got it?

For the more than a year - yes I said YEAR ... as in a full 12 flips of the calendar pages and then some - he has failed to bill us for utilities. Utilities which I think are too high, might I add. But lack of upkeep has a way of doing that to your heating and cooling bills. So now that he's gotten around to sending me an email, I'm supposed to pay utilities for July 05 through May 06.

And how long will I have to wait to be billed for the other two summer months that have gone by but you were too lazy to include? Apparently another year at this rate.

On top of that, he's trying to get August rent from me from a year ago. I wrote the check, he lost the check. So now you want me to pay double rent for August of this year to make up for your mistake? I'm not the one that lost the check, sounds like it should be when it is convenient for me to replace the check since you created the inconvenience.

This guy thinks I need to be jumping right on paying him but where was he when my fan needed to be fixed? Too busy, its still broken more than 6 months later. Where was he when we started getting water damage from the heavy rains? Who knows, he didn't answer his email. Where is he on fixing the leaking doors and windows? To cheap, I'm sure. And the rotting seal around the kitchen sink? He'll let it fall through the counter before he does a thing, no doubt.

Once money gets involved, people just suck. UGH

Posted by: Princess Cat at 12:46 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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