The Funk

I've got the funk. And not in the "let us in we'll tear this mother out" Parliament way.

I don't know what it is. The things that used to bring me joy aren't doing it for me right now. I don't read like I used to. I don't listen to music like I used to. I don't pick up random hobbies for no reason like I used to. I don't even enjoy my job like I used to.

Funk.

And I find it funny that I am blogging about it. Not because I am shy about the Funk...I'll admit to everyone that I have it. I think it's funny because, let's face it, no one really cares about anyone else's problems and here I am blogging about mine.

Which leads me to something else.

I remember when your life was your life. You lived it, made decisions, and kept your thoughts and feelings and secrets to yourself or wrote them in that diary that you kept hidden in the most obvious place in your bedroom. Now we put our lives, our problems and (some people) our secrets out into cyberspace where all can see, read, laugh at or spread them like wildfire.

When did this happen? When did we become such an egocentric society that we actually think that random strangers want to know what we did today? What we ate today? What we watched today? I am baffled.

And yet...I blog. I read other blogs. I am intrigued by the thoughts, ideas and troubles of others. I find myself drawn into their stories and I feel that some of those people are my friends...but we've never met, talked or even casually emailed. I care what happens to them. I worry when they say bad things have happened and I celebrate with them when things go well.

Maybe blogging has made all of us less shy about what we say. Maybe it gives some of us an outlet. Maybe for some of us it gives us a chance to be the person we don't have the strength, courage or gumption to be in real life. Maybe some have a hard time being hear, so they blog. Others may have just been looking for something to fill the time. Whatever the reason...we blog.

I started blogging as a way to voice my opinion on issues...big, small, ridiculous. I didn't (and still don't) care who read it or not. I really was looking for an outlet...something that could help me get everything out without unloading on the same people I unload on all the time. My friends and family are great, but they can only listen to me rant about how messed up I think some things are. Is it great when I can hear what someone else has to say about my latest rant? Sure. But I think it feels even better to get it out there.

Even if I am the only one to read it.

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.

I've Been Away Too Long!

I've been away...far away from blogging land for a long time. And I think it has been good for me. I actually accomplished some things I wanted to. But now I am back (for now) to share back to school humor with you...

We just started back to school. I was dealing with a kid who had quite the "I don't want to be here" attitude, so I asked him if he wanted to be on the four or the five year graduation plan.

His response?

"Uh, which one is faster?"

Really.

Job Opening...

Just a word of warning...you all may want to steer clear of the Greater Cincinnati area on Tuesday...you may melt.

A Month...

I haven't blogged in a month. Over a month, actually...and I don't have a good reason. Honestly, I just hadn't felt like it. Things have been stressful off and on here at Rambling Shan's house and I just haven't had the energey to blog...much less come up with something witty to blog about.

So, to let you know, here is (part of) what is going on...

My dogs are in bad shape. They have each had bad allergies since they were about 3. We know that Gizmo is allergic to dust mites (we had him tested a long time ago), but we don't know about Loki. We have tried everything the vet can offer--medication, special shampoo, special food, restrictive diets (which means none of the treats they love because they can't have wheat, beef, chicken, rice, etc...all the normal stuff), expensive trips to the vet, topical treatments, you name it...we've tried it and nothing is working. Even the special diet--which means (thankfully) it isn't a food allergy...but it also means that we don't know what it is. The vet wants me to bring them back this week so we can determine if they need to see a dog dermatologist...can you believe it? I don't even have a dermatologist!

One problem that bother me more than anything is that they have been on Prednisone off and on for over three years...and that is not good for them at all. It actually stopped controlling their itchiness, so I took them off it about three weeks ago. They are still itchy, but I think they feel better (if that makes sense).

My yoga instructor suggested that I try fish oil supplements, so I am going to try that this week (after talking to the vet, of course) to see if that will help at all...at this point, we are willing to try almost anything because they deserve an itch free life--and it is our job to give it to them.

So, what else am I willing to do? Buy a Dyson vacuum. Why? Because we know that Gizmo is allergic to dust mites and Dyson vacuums are certified by the allergy association...which means they eliminate allergens from the home...and I am willing to try. I also figure that the $550 I spend on a Dyson may actually reduce the amount I have to spend on the vet.

If any of you have any natural remedies that I could try to alleviate some suffering, please let me know. We are at the end of our rope and we would really like to not have to medicate them if at all possible...they don't need to live doped up forever.