Missing my flowers

About 15 months ago we sold our house on the outskirts of Adell, and moved to a small rental in town.  I just hate living in town.  Every year at this time my yard would come alive with perennial flowers and plants.  The whole yard would begin to turn green, and explode with color.  My favorite plant was the bleeding heart plant my children bought me for mother day several years ago.  Each year it grew a little bigger, and became more beautiful.  The plant grows several long thin branches up from the base.  Each of the branches then gracefully bends downward.  It sort of looks like an umbrella i guess.  Each of the branches is covered with a row of 20 to 30 little pink and white flowers in the shape of hearts. This plant is one of the first to pop up in spring.  First the buds stick out of the ground, then the branches shoot up, the flower buds start forming.  Finally the flowers burst open for every one to enjoy.  Another of my favorites are the multitude of tulips.  They come in all different shapes, sizes and colors.  The bulbs are planted in the fall of the previous year, and they bloom each following spring.  They have even cultivated these lovely flowers to bloom at different times, so that if you plan it right, you can have fresh cut tulips well into summer.  I always made a fresh flower bouquet for my mother on mothers day.  This will be the second year in a row that I have to go buy flowers for her.  It was always a little competition between me and my sister, who could come up with a bigger better display from their yard for mom.  Mine were always better, I just had a huge variety.  Now she beats me hands down, because I have to buy them.  I also like the iris.  These are big and beautiful flowers.  They also come in a variety of colors and sizes.  Mine were mostly white, purple and yellow.  Had I known we would eventually sell that home, I probablly would not have invested so much of my time and money making it so colorful.  I still can enjoy the sight of other peoples yards.  I just love this time of the year.

Deliverance

I watched Deliverance last night, instead of studying for my Health Alterations exam.  I was taking a study break, and ended up watching the entire movie.  A couple of people had told me that it was worth watching, and I had watched parts of it on several different occasions.  When I turned on the TV it was right at the beginning.  The movie was very disturbing, in several ways.  How the heck can the three city men justify killing two people?  I agree that what the others did deserved punishment, but that was not up to them to be judge, jury and executioner on the spot.  The second guy they killed may not even have been the right guy, and he didn't even do anything wrong, except for harassing the two city guys in the woods, and allowing his friend to voilate the chubby guy.  It was interesting to see the thought processes of the city guys once they had committed the murder, how they all decided that burying the guy was the only option.  Then agreeing that they would all lie about the entire event.  I am left wondering how many others were assaulted in the forest by the "bad guys", but even so, punishment should be decided by a judge and jury.  If they had told the truth regarding the first guy, they probably would not have even been charged.  The chubby guy had proof that he was voilated, and the other guy had bruises and cuts to prove he was assaulted.  They also had a third guy as a witness to what happened.  Instead they came up with a alternate plan, which allowed another two people to be killed, and no bodies for the families to get closure.  Wow that was a different movie.  It really makes you think about how bad things can happen anytime, and how easily situations can get out of control.

Cell phone

I am all for having and using cell phones, I would be lost with out mine.  Today I got to school about an hour and a half early, found a quiet spot by an outside window where I could study (read) in peace.  I really needed to read, as I had a test that same day.  So I get settled into my spot and could genuinely focus on the task at hand, reading.  That went great for about 5 minutes.  Along comes another student, apparently also looking for a spot to study.  There was plenty of room for both of us, but the other student obviously did not need her spot to be quiet.  Now I could have just went into the library to study, but that just doesn't seem to work for me, I don't know why.  So this chick sits down in the couch next to me, moves the couch to plug in her laptop, which starts playing music as soon as she plugs it in. She continues to fumble around with the couch, the laptop, and the music.  This distracts me, but I am in a public area, so I figure as soon as she gets settled there will not be a problem.  She no sooner gets settled, she starts munching on some sort of crunchy snack from a crinkly package!  UGH!  I still could have gotten up and moved to the library, but the snack bag was not too large, so I figured she would finish eating, and there would still be some quiet time for study.  The quiet time lasted for about another 5 minutes, not even long enough to finish one chapter that I needed to read.  What finally put me over the edge was the ringing cell phone!  Of course she answered it, and had a lengthy conversation with her significant other.  Now I am forced to find another spot to quietly read!  I am thinking that this University is pretty big, there shouldn't be a problem finding a spot where I can read, where there is not another person already there.  No I am not going to the library, I can't get any work done there.
 

clown car

Last night I gave 4 people from the bar a ride home at bar closing.  All of them were too drunk to dive, and I really really had to work to convince each one of them that getting a ride (instead of driving) was the right choice.  The first lady showed up at the bar at about noon, drank for the entire afternoon, and into the night.  She told me at least three times (in about an hour and a half) that this one would be her last drink, then I should kick her out.  So with each drink she ordered I reminded her that the last one was going to be the last.  Each time she told me that the new one would be the last.  Anyway, she was way over the limit, so I offered her a ride.  She said that she would be fine to dirve.  So finally I told her I would only serve her if she agreed to take the ride.  Seriously, she had been drinking for about 14 hours!  The next bar patrons were a couple that needed to get a ride.  It was about 1 am and they had been trying to leave for about 3 hours.  They could not leave because new people would come in and want to chat, and they were just having a good time.  So I offered them a ride too, I figured that I was already taking 1 why not add two more?  So these two did not want to get a ride either.  The man thought it was a good idea to sleep in the basement of the bar on a cot.  The basement is just gross, cold and filled with spiders.  It took some work to convince both of them that it was not a big deal to just get into my car and sleep at home.  The last guy actually did not need a ride, he just wanted to come along and enjoy the entertainment.  It took me about twenty minutes to get them all into my car, then about another hour to get them all home.  It was quite a ride with all of them squished in the back giving me driving instructions, trying to tell me where each of them lived.  They were debating which one should be dropped off first, and which roads I should take.  The entire nite was quite entertaining, but I did not enjoy getting home at 3:30 in the morning.  I was glad that I was able to get them home safely.

Civic

So I bought my new car last week.  I went with the Honda Civic.  I did the entire deal by myself, and I am pretty proud of that.  When I was married my husband took care of purchasing and maintaining the vehicles.  Since he is no longer a part of my life I am forced to do this on my own.  About two years ago I helped my daughter purchase a used truck.  That has not worked out very well for us.  She loves it, but it spends alot of time in the repair shop.  So when I bought the new car they offered me $100 for my old car.  What the heck is that?  The local gives $150 even if the car is not running (which mine was).  So I kept the old car, and am planning on giving it to my brother.  This is somewhat ironic, as he gave me that car when he bought his new car a few years ago.  When he was working out the trade in deal they had a push pull and drag sale.  He did not like the price they offered him, so he came to me with this great deal.  He took my old beater car in as a trade, and left me his old car.  He still got the same money in the trade, and I got a much nicer car out of the deal. All I had to do was switch the title of my car to his name.  I am sad to leave that little car, but there is no way it would withstand the miles that i now have to put on everyday.  I also cannot afford to have it break down so many miles from home.  I am happy with my new car.  Probably because I have not made a payment on it yet. 

English 102 carseats

I had a conversation with a woman this last weekend who was upset at the fact that she had to put her grandchildren in carseats.  Another woman was stating her case regarding our right and responsibility to vote. The first woman did not see a reason to vote, but still complained about the use of carseats.  This caught my attention.  Why on earth would someone be upset about carseats?  She was mad that the state had made this law, and she had to follow it.  She stated that the busses did not require child safety seats, why should she have to?  The second lady tried to tell the first that if she had voted she would have has a say in the matter (either way).  The first woman refused, and carried on about the carseat law.  The whole conversation was quite amusing, as the second woman tried to simply explain to the first woman.  The first woman did not care about anything else, she just wanted to be able to drive around with her grandkids in the car with out safety seats.  By the way her grand kids range in age from 8 years to 23 months.  The whole time I was thinking what difference does any of this make?  Why would you drive your grandchildren around in a car with out carseats??  This reminds me of a time when my children were in the car with my Mom.  My Mom refuses to wear a seatbelt, because she never had to in the past.  When my kids were with her they questioned her about not wearing it.  She told them that Grandmas did not need seatbelts.  Then my kids questioned me, asking why dont grandmas need to wear belts?  I am alright with my Mom making a choice not to wear her belt, but I was not alright with her lying to my kids.  I asked her to clear this up with my kids.  Then they wanted to know why she chose not to wear it.  Ugh!

Next assignment

In the course of my studies I have taken several classes in race and ethnicity.  I am currently taking a class on gender.  So my sensitivity to this issue may be a little more than an average person.  Anyway I went to a store today, and couldn't help but notice how the store clerks treated the Hmung people differently than they treated me.  There were two separate families in the store, one older woman shopping by herself, and another family with a small child. Both workers were middle age white women.  The worker was eager to help me in any way she could, but was short and annoyed by the other shoppers.  I found this to be quite offensive, as I did not even want to converse with the worker in the first place.  I just wanted to get my things and go.  The other shoppers needed help, and wanted to talk to the worker. They had to repeat themselves several times, and ended up just agreeing to what the worker was saying.  I somewhat understand where the worker may have been coming from, as the older lady was hard to understand, but still.  A second worker at the check out gave the two Hmung families the same treatment as the first worker.  She was very short, and did not even make eye contact!  I spent like $5 at the store, and the older lady spent $80.  This really makes me sad it has probably been going on forever, and I just have not noticed it.  I wonder what these workers think?  These shoppers are not going to just disappear if you treat them poorly, their money is as good as any ones.  I wonder how those employees would feel if they lost their jobs because everyone boycotted the store because of the poor service?