Holy Crap Batman… Christmas is Sunday!

Are you like me, a person who was being dragged through life by the pages of her calendar…? LIFE, as seen through the image of the rear view mirror? I can’t believe it’s already Christmas, I mean it’s here, Sunday!

What the HELL happened to this year?

Are you one of those people who have had everything prepared for Christmas for weeks now? The tree went up right after Thanksgiving and you are now in the second week of the full-scale war of Christmas decorations you have going on with your neighbors… all the way down to gift wrapping and the preparation for the special toast said during Christmas Dinner?

Thank God I mailed out my Christmas cards on Tuesday. 

Sadly, I actually thought I was early this year until I was standing in line and noticed that today was the last date to get your gifts mailed out in order to arrive in time for the holiday. For a second, I had a moment of angst... until I remember, OH YEAH... too broke to mail anything this year. So that made it very simple for me!

I used to send everything out early December. But those cards and my holiday letter are written later each year. In fact, I think I even mailed out my Christmas cards late last year… oh well, so we have the Sum up the Year Letter, rather than the Holiday letter.

Tomatoes, tomatoes… <------ LOL … you get my drift!

All I know is that I woke up this morning and realized that Christmas isn’t next week... like I thought it was... like I was prepared for! When you add Christmas Eve as another partial holiday that we slide in there in order to see both families… it’s even closer than we think.

You know, I noticed something was fishy when I began writing the wrong dates, dating the months incorrectly as it appeared that the past just whizzed right by... July was really August, so when September sashayed into October, almost claiming Halloween... I knew I was in big trouble. It seemed like just another harmless Labor day, (especially with the crazy weather we have in SoCo recording over 90 on Thanksgiving) I knew we were in trouble. I was wearing white, for heaven’s sake.

And it’s not like we don’t get plenty of notice as we peruse through the aisles of the larger retail stores… Heck, I am shopping for summer in February and Winter when it’s 100 friggen degrees out. But it’s me right? I guess I am the one not paying attention.

So then I ask myself, ‘What am I so focused on?’ Life, work, kids, religion, friends, more work, bills, OMG politics UGH! And don’t forget... I have a job to squeeze in there somewhere! Geez people, get off my case already! And yet ‘Dunno.’ is the only plausible answer I can come up with. It’s not like I have any major accomplishments to say, I was soooo busy with this… and before I knew it, it was July! Nope. To quote Mother Nature, ‘There will be no fooling her this time!’ Or… in this case is it Father Time…?

Just do me a favor during this holiday season. Close your eyes and pretend it is snowing outside. (For some of you this should be really easy!) Imagine the fireplace crackling from the fire and the smell of roasted nuts. (Hopefully NOT the boyfriend’s for SOMETHING stupid he managed to pull off!)

Ahem.. sorry. Got distracted. (hmmm, I am kinda noticing a theme here)

When you have that magical hearth scene, picture the tree all decorated… the smell of pine cones, and the hot chocolate on the stove. Hear the voices of the young and the old in your life.

See them, one by one and in your mind’s eye, and tell them that you love them. 

Go on... sure, you can hug them. Everyone likes a nice big hug… it’s this girl’s answer to Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Speaking of this girl… make sure you picture me in your mind’s eye too. Know that I wish nothing but the best for you and your loved ones. May your holiday be blessed, however you choose to enjoy it. 

I know mine will be just a little more happy, loved, and full of laughter and joy... all because you are in it.

Thanks for walking through the trenches on the bad days, and for sipping champagne on those days we had everything to celebrate for and for the rest of the days in between!
Oh and thanks for not laughing at me when you saw me in my pony tail and sweats. 

And not to sound too corny like a Christmas song but... May your Holiday… be Bright!!!

xoxo Morgana Reeves
Opinion8d1.com

WTF!! New Language Giving Cursing a Pass! FAIL!

You know life can be a bitch. So can interacting via the internet and email. Or by phone, instant messaging. Then there is facebook, blah, blah, blah... and even the secret language of texting. There are so many different ways for us to communicate... by NOT communicating, that I find it all to be rather impersonal and detached.

Without being able to process the tone behind our words, people are often misheard or misunderstood; in fact, how many times have you gotten into an argument over something you said that was twisted around because it went through someone else’s emotional filter?

Text.. or Not to Text... That is the question. So I asked, are all of our means of communication really good ways of connecting with others? Do we want to connect or are we merely looking for ways to get the point across without having to actually face someone? Have we become that far disconnected?

We are this technological generation, with the emphasis on logic, fighting for the latest versions of a smart phone or TV. We are at the point where the mind is the control box… not human emotions. We do the brain's bidding... not the heart, as it should be. But is a text enough to send the emotional value that goes with a message we might send? I don't know, maybe if we write the text in color? Red for mad, pink for happy, and blue for sad… we will be able to send the note over with its expected emotion... perhaps a step up from the emoticon! WTF!!

By the way, WTF!! which means ‘What the Fuck.’ And in case you don’t know it, Fuck is considered to be a bad word... (altho brilliant I say... after all, a word like 'Fuck' can be used as a noun, verb, and adjective... and all at the same time! So in my book, that can't be all that bad of a word) But if I type it as WTF!! I can say What the FUCK anywhere I please. In fact, anyone can say it… WTF!!?

Earlier I was speaking to a friend. I told her about this video called, ‘What If This Were Your Child?’ It’s an incredibly disturbing, heart-wrenching confessionof a young man… no, a boy … who wants to do harm to himself.

Jonah has been bullied for 6 years now, to the point where he has repeatedlycut on himself. The bullying started in the 2nd grade; the same age as my son as I hear the some of the same sadness echoing in my son's own words about the mean kids at school. Watching this young man in so much pain was heartbreaking. I pray that as a parent, of course I don’t ever hope see this happen to my son, let alone any child... feeling like he has no other choices but...? WTF!!

Anyway… curious about the video? Here is a link.  Sorry… I digress. oops I feel just a little morel left in there.

But we as a community need to put an end to bullying on both ends. Children generally just don't wake up one day and say, Hey.. When I grow up, I want to be a big Dickhead. It's up to each one of us to hold each other up in our communities, in our families... even in our dreams. Communities… what’s that you say?  Sadly, it seems like we no longer need communities and neighbors and even, the human touch. What we NEED is more technology. MORE... WTF!!

Do you know this video was shared by a little less than 6,200 people? The videos that were shared along with this one, “The Difference Between a Bank and a Gun” and “Does Anybody Really Want a Coat this Cheap?” Of course both with courageous messages; but not a child standing in front of your, wiping the tears from his eyes as he tells you how he failed himself. Both netted over 300,000 shares each… with the Bank and the Gun tipping the scales at over 1M shares. WOW. Oops I mean, WTF!!

I get it... you gots to know where your money is.

So are we that numb? Living in that much denial to not be able to see, and share his pain --because he is gay? I mean, maybe had he not openly admitted he was gay… then we could have shared this video with our friends.

But THAT is an abomination… of God. And an abomination is an abomination; therefore, the boy must be an abomination… right? By that justification, does he deserve what he is feeling. WRONG! Altho my son isn’t gay, he isn’t normal… He is autistic. But here I go again, back to topic of bullying and denial and not what this article is about.

I'm SO CONFUSED...

Isn’t that saying that dirty word... ?              

ok, ok... I promise to stick with the topic... WTF!!

I mean is it ok that we continue to throw the F Bomb around, like it was BRB?!! WTF?? I mean huh? Both seem to fit. Just as serious…

Parents, isn't this what you have to put a quarter in the coin jar for? And yet, here we are... making one of the worst abominations of words... utterly casual... When we use WTF!! for just about everything, like we are flipping around pancakes. Would you like Syrup with that? 

Yet it’s so common that even our kids use it, yet, the 'F Word' that us so bad it earned its own initial, 'F?'  Wow.

So let me get this straight. I can’t say Fuck cuz then I would be a potty mouth. But, I can merely change it to WTF!! and then I can say it in the open…  I can write it out, text it, heck any format that will allow it, like facebook, Twitter, IM, LinkedIn... any application that allows it. The biggest offenders being... take a guess people… parents. Noooo, your children. My children. OUR children.

So let’s all be happy parents with loving children and work on can expanding language to include something other than inappropriate and not as defamatory words... Like WTH!!

Cuz you know if you don’t actually say it... it doesn’t count. Yea… Right? Have I got some beachfront property I was dying to talk to you about…