I just don't understand why some people will stay up all night to shop for Christmas gifts or wait outside all day and night to be first in line when the stores open on Black Friday. I just don't like crowds that much and the thought of possibly being crushed in the hopes of saving a few bucks does not interest me either. The older I get the more I want to enjoy my alone time. I am not a big fan of shopping malls either. Everything is so expensive now and the quality is crap but the prices are high. Maybe I am becoming Scrooge like but I watch so many (mainly women) get crazy at this time of year... they work all day and still feel the need to shop for the perfect gifts, decorate the house, cook for a million guests. I get exhausted just listening to them. This year I am giving the good old gift card that way the person gets to pick what they want... or maybe I will just give the gift everyone likes... cash. Either way I will be less bitchy by not buying into the Christmas hoopla and that's a gift everyone will enjoy!
Hope your day is fun and don't forget to laugh out loud!
xoxo Inge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpnYg2FKe-o

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. For me it is no big deal. I really do not understand the huge importance of this holiday except for grocery stores, gas stations and airlines. For them it is huge for the bottom line. As for me I have to work probably a 12 hour shift. Our restaurant is open and offering a Thanksgiving dinner. Really it is ok. I worked last year at the other restaurant in Chico. If someone works in restaurants or hotels working holidays are pretty much mandatory. What am I thankful for? Having the restraint not to stab anyone with a fork that pisses me off with their whining about having to work Thanksgiving!

Hope your day is fun and don't forget to laugh out loud!

xoxo Inge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a61m0bIqyv0

One of the things I like about post menopause...no more monthly periods! One of the things I don't like about post menopause...memory loss. I have trouble remembering names of people... names of things like... I forgot the word ... crap I can't remember now what I wanted to tell you I forgot! Now that's bad... oh, yeah... I was talking to a server at work and I was asking where the souffle cups were but I could not remember the name. I forget names of people alot too... not people I interact with everyday... people who are on t.v. or political names. It is frustrating even embarrassing at times. There are times I start blogging about something and remember half way through that I already blogged about that.
Hope your pre Thanksgiving days are fun and don't forget to laugh out loud!
xoxo Inge
p.s. Another thing about my personality that has changed since menopause is my temper... I have a shorter fuse... check out this video. I engage in this kind of behavior in my head quite a bit these days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4yjGiD3xOM

Have you noticed how many mega churches are springing up lately? Remember the small neighborhood church where everyone knew each other? I wonder if religion has become yet another big business swallowing up the small neighborhood church much like agri -business is taking the place of the family farm. This particular church is only a few miles from where I live. The huge steeple got my attention when I was driving the other day and you know my fascination with cemeteries... I also like to snoop around churches... mostly missions but I couldn't keep away from this one. I googled the church and found out they broadcast the sermons... I bet you have heard of these people... I recognized their picture from the "Hour of Power" t.v. show when I was flipping channels one Sunday morning. I just figured they were broadcasting from somewhere in the bible belt of the Carolinas. Back in the 70s I saw the compound where Tammy Faye and Jim Baker used to preach. Their property was big too but definitely not as elaborate as the Crystal Cathedral. http://www.crystalcathedral.org/

I arrived at the same time school was getting out so there were alot of parents sitting in their expensive cars waiting for their little ones. I just wonder how many of these people believe all this stuff or are they sending their kids to get a better education than what is available from the public schools. I find religion fascinating. I think ones religious views tell alot about a person. As for me... I would call myself pagan-buddhist... at least this week but next week who knows.

I find this sign amusing. Must people be able to do everything from their cars?

Great words to live by. Too bad alot of us have forgotten what it means.

I wonder what Jesus would think about all this extravagance.

This place is the size of Disneyland!

Religion seems to be a profitable business these days. Maybe taxing them would help us out of this debt crisis. Hope you weekend will be fun and don't forget to laugh out loud!

xoxo Inge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxo81Ok9Urk

Maybe I'm not as "emapthetic" as I thought. I found out today that I got 2 complaints from my staff the other day. One was from my cashier... she brought her mother in yesterday to tell my GM that I made her feel bad because I told her she needed to learn how to count back change the old fashioned way - using her head and not to rely on the computer cash register to tell her how much change she should give. Someone else was upset that I actually expect them to work.
These kids today have been coddled way too much!
Hope your workday is fun and don't forget to laugh out loud!
xoxo Inge

Thank you d. moll for the comment responding to my question about being an empath ... aka field phenomenon. I looked that up and it had alot of scientific quantum mumbo jumbo. I do not have a scientific brain - never have but it did help me a bit. It made me decide to venture over to the spiritual paranormal sites and I found some articles about empathy and empaths. If you are so inclined venture over to this site and see if you could be an empath. http://healing.about.com/cs/empathic/a/uc_empathtraits_2.htm

When I was a massage therapist I had to ground myself over and over when I worked on clients because I would energetically pick up their aches and pains... they would leave feeling great and I would be a mess! There was one client I can clearly remember who I worked on early in my career... that had emotional pain and sadness and when they left they were happy and I had to go home because I was an emotional wreck. I thought I was over this but I can see I'm not and I have to remind myself that someone else's emotional shit is not mine.

Have a fun day and don't forget to laugh out loud!

xoxo Inge

My first copy of Porch Magazine arrived today! Guess how I plan to spend my evening...

There are a few cemeteries within a 20 mile radius of my house. As you know I like to visit cemeteries, especially older ones because of the beautiful statuary. Newer ones are in my opinion boring because the head stones lay flat on the grass so the caretakers can easily mow over the headstones...are they even still called head stones? I did find an interesting cemetery located right on the busy street called Beach... Beach runs straight to the beach, Huntington Beach to be exact and the cemetery Olive and I visited is in the city of Huntington Beach. It is a pet cemetery. When I first arrived I think I felt the pain of loss and sadness the owners must have felt losing their beloved pets. I am beginning to think I am an empath... something I googled recently because I have this ability to pick up other peoples emotions... mostly from people who are living but I am experiencing similar feelings when I visit cemeteries... more on my experiences about being an empath later. I will appreciate any opinions about the subject of empaths to help me better understand the phenomenon and if I actually have this ability.

Remember the good old days when all we used were pencils with erasers? The worst thing that could happen was the lead woud break and we had to sharpen it again. Now we have all this modern technology which frankly pisses me off most of the time. It's the samething with customer service, technology has made it easy to give half assed service. Have a problem with something send them an email... it's the perfect way to avoid confrontation... no more 800 numbers to call a corporate office to complain about service.
My recent adventure in incompetence is with Time Warner Cable. We had cable, internet and phone service installed Oct 5th of this year and have had trouble ever since. They have had no problem sending me my bills but as for helping me get regular phone and internet service they give me the run around. It shuts off every 5 days. Today after going without service for the past 5 days I called their 800 service number to get the corporate phone number to complain and they told me to log onto their website and send corporate an email! I exploded... I understand why some people snap and resort to violence... I do not condone it but I understand it. Luckily, the person I was yelling at kept her composure and made sure someone would come out today and fix the problem once and for all. I am now blogging because Robert discovered the problem was with the original install not being done correctly and starting over to fix it... thank you Robert for getting me up and running so I can blog about how much Time Warner Cable sucks.
I can now enjoy the rest of my day off. Hope your day is fun and don't forget to laugh out loud!
xoxo Inge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSvdcMvPeMk