Silence! I Keel You!

If you have never heard of Jeff Dunham, you don't know what you are missing. I saw this guy live Friday and can honestly say I have not laughed that hard in a very long time. It was a much needed release after all the crap that has been going on. So I wanted to share with you a clip of one of his most famous...er...partners (for lack of a better word).

Be warned: don't watch this if you are remotely offended by off color jokes (you know the kind...the ones you laugh at and then stop yourself because you realize you shouldn't be laughing) or if your co-workers are remotely offended by off color jokes.

Life Gets in the Way

I'm not even going to apologize of make excuses about not blogging for months. I don't even think I could begin to tell you every little reason why I bypass my own blog each day. I can tell you that I do miss it, but my life is so busy that I can't even begin to think about a witty, sarcastic or even remotely Shan like thing to say. Instead, I will provide the short list of reasons I have wanted to pull out my hair (and occasionally punch someone in the face).

1. Sunday, September 14th, we had a wind storm of massive proportions. As in hurricane force winds...in KENTUCKY! We had gusts up to 76 miles and hour or something. As a result, 1.2 million people lost their power...or so they said. We found out later that they were counting people who went out multiple times. So, our power flickered on an off like 8 times before it went off for good, so I guess we could has 9 outages. Anyway. Our power went out Sunday around 2:00. We didn't worry because everyone was out. I called our electric company at around 7:00 that night and I was told that it could be 48 hours before everyone's power was restored. Two days? Really? I wasn't happy, but I would deal with it. My mom and dad called at 8:00 and said that their power was back on. They live, quite literally, 500 feet behind us, so TJ and I were hopeful that the power would be on soon. We were wrong. Monday came and went. No power. Tuesday morning, at 3:00, it came back on. We were happy, slept great and woke up Tuesday at 7:00...to no power. We called, and they said they were working on it. We called everyday...for SIX DAYS...and they kept saying they were working on it. That's right. SIX DAYS!!! We had no power, lost all the food in our freezers and fridge, had no hot water...nothing. I stayed with my parents (because I still had to go to work). It became humorous (after a while), and on Saturday morning, my husband ran an extension cord from my parents' house to our house so we could watch TV. Talk about funny. No lights, no clocks...but we had TV.

2. As a result of the power outage, darling Hubby decided to have some fun. he put a huge sign in our front yard with our electric company's name and the letters "WTF?" Now, do i think this was a little over the top? Sure. But it was Thursday, we still had no power, he wanted to have a little fun. So yesterday a letter appears in our local small area paper. Someone wrote a letter to the editor bashing my husband for putting the sign in our yard because she had to explain to her child what WTF meant. She says it was our fault that we had no power because we didn't buy a back-up generator. Excuse me? I pay (good money) for an electric company to keep my power on...why would I even need to buy a generator? Does everyone have one? Is it in some "how to live your life" contract that I didn't get? Yes, I will admit that the sign was a little out there, but my guess is that this woman didn't have to live six days without power. I say the city she lives in under her letter--and I know for a fact that that part of town didn't lose power AT ALL! I hate to tell her, but we have the right to free speech around here, and that's how my husband chose to express himself. I guess I would have gotten creative with the explanation...tell your child WTF stands for "wasn't this fun" or something. The best part was that she ended this attacking rant with "Your house looks great, by the way." As if saying something nice in the end makes it all better.

3. Work. I can't even tell you about work. I can give some advice. Parents: when your child comes home and says how unfair the teacher is, how she never actually teaches, how she hates him/her, etc., please contact the teacher in a rational, calm manner to get both sides of the story before attacking the teacher's integrity, dedication as an educator or ability to do his/her job. In the last week two of my colleagues and myself have gotten the "you aren't doing your job right" emails from parents. And these emails are mean, nasty and very confrontational...and the kicker is that all the information that the parents are e-yelling about is inaccurate. Last week I had a nasty email and a confrontational meeting. The woman found out very quickly that her son was lying to her at home...but she never apologized for the things she said and implied. Parents, I know that it is your job to protect your child's' best interests, but please help us, too...get both sides, talk it out rationally, and don't imply that your child's teacher doesn't know what he/she is doing. Working together is better than setting up an uncomfortable situation.

The best part of these three lovely emails? You guessed it...all three ended with "kind regards,' "Thank you for your precious time" and "respectfully submitted." Once again, ending with something positive makes all the negative go away. Where do people learn that stuff?

4. The state of the world in general. Let's face it, gas prices are ridiculous (and for those of you saying "but it's better," you are right...but I remember when gas was 1.19 a gallon and THAT was considered expensive). Then there is this whole bail out thing. And the presidential election that has turned into a circus of massive proportion. The Republican VP candidate is a woman no one has heard of, Obama was ridiculed for making remarks about lipstick on a pig, McCain wanted to boycott the debates and Biden...well...he seems to have flown under the radar (for now). As I listened to parts of the debate on CNN last night, I couldn't help but wonder...when will we be the UNITED States? We are kidding ourselves if we think we are united now. Everything is bi-partisan. EVERYTHING! It frustrates me. And to add to that, everyone is freaking out about the possible economic chaos that may happen, so everyone is walking around in a bad mood all the time. The price of everything is high. People are depressed. We need someone (or something) to bring us out of this royal funk. Maybe the politicians can end every negative speech with a positive comment. I bet that would make it all better.

5. People on my back. About everything. At work, I work my ass off, but people ask me to do more. At home, I work on stuff for work. I answer emails from parents and students until 11:00 each night, but parents still tell me I'm not doing enough for their kids. Because I do so much work for work, I know I'm not doing enough at home...my laundry is piled up, my floor needs to be cleaned, and my house looks like a hurricane went through it, but I can't get it all done. I try. I really do. I told Hubby today: I can't remember the last time that someone looked at me and told me "you're doing a good job" or "nice work" or "I know you're busy, but keep up the nice work." No. I get "I know you did this much, but can you do this, too?" or "Why is this such a mess?" or "I need you to work harder." It is discouraging. And what makes it worse is when I mention the need for an occasional pat on the back, someone says it just to make me feel better. That's not what I want. I don't want your pity "Hey, you're doing a great job." I want someone to really and truly take note of the fact that I (and others) are working well beyond what we are required to do...at work, at home, in life.

So, that's the short list about why I haven't blogged. I know I'm not the only one stressed or with problems or with a ton of crap going on, but I just can't seem to get a handle one it. Until I do, blogging has just become something else that I can't keep up with.