At the age of 25...

I became the owner of my third cat, wore a tutu in public, auditioned for my first theatrical production in almost six years, moved five times, almsot got my car repossesed, got peed on by third cat on multiple occasions, lived with three men, two lab puppies and my three cats under one roof (was the ONLY female), became an aunt for the second time, worked as a waitress, a role player for a military training site, became unemployed and worked as a receptionist at a law firm, made friends, lost friends, watched my father get laid off, then watched him get diagnosed with parkinsons, had my very first suprise party, had multiple days where I had a closet full of clothing I couldn't wear, had my car broken into for the first time, went to war with Sallie Mae, went to wisconsin for the first time, lost a husband, gained a boyfriend, spent two weeks with my mother watching sappy movies and shopping at trader joes, got peed on by the cat again AND gained almost 40lbs.

I am now 26....your more then welcome to join me for the ride.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Someone, put me on The View...

In light of recent events and my new HDTV Antenna which allows me access to the news I have a mini political rant to go on today.

Obama went on The View for an interview, I actually thought that was pretty human of him, maybe not the best venue for politics, but who are we kidding it's one of the major subjects they discuss on that show everyday so why not have the leader of the free world on. So then Sarah Palin hops on her twitter to bash him for taking time to go on a talk show instead of fixing the world. Read that line over again...her twitter account. When did politicians start dealing with their issues in the same way 11 year old girls do?? I mean seriously. I, a big fat nobody, wouldn’t even hop on my twitter account to discuss politics if I wanted to be taken seriously. There is absolutely no legitimate political argument or view that should be stated in under 140 characters. None. At this rate, the way politics are going we may as well make Lindsay Lohan the leader of the Republican Party and Miley Cyrus the Leader of the Democrats send them into a bar to drink it out and who ever stumbles out best wins the election for their party.

Politicians are more concerned with the dirt and who is on what "side". Last I checked we should all be on the side of the American people. Put the b.s. aside, forget about the party lines and stop with the scandals, just do something before our country is cold and alone and knocking on China's (or some other country's) back door begging for food and shelter.

There are huge issues in this country right in front of us and I can’t even get a straight story about them because the media is too busy telling me about who got married this weekend or what shoes I should wear this fall. There is a television market for that but it's not what I tune into a news show for, it’s what I read perezhilton.com for. I have heard more about Charlie Sheen's car getting broken into then the horrific shooting spree an employee went on in Manchester, CT and what will be done to ensure that it never happens again. I'm not saying exploit stories like that but there has to be a balance. For once I would like to tune in to the radio or turn on the news to hear about how Joe Schmoe took a bad situation and made it right or how Jane Doe changed the world's view on equal rights by doing one simple thing, true everyday heroes who do things because of the passion and drive, not because of what their financial backers are telling them to do. (To clarify if someone has a financial backer other then their mother they do NOT fall into the "real people" category)

The party lines have to be trashed and there has to finally come a time in politics where we all unite under one roof and make decisions regarding what is right and what is wrong, not based on a favor someone did for you last election. If your politician buddy did you a favor to get something passed then take him to dinner, don't screw up my life to help him.

This country needs recalibrating. We need to figure out why the tragedy in Haiti got millions of dollars to rebuild and the everyday people who keep this country moving forward and take time out of their busy days to vote can't pay their rent. Jobs are still hard to come by, and prices just keep going up. Do you realize that minimum wage in New Jersey and minimum wage in Texas are the same?! Do you have any idea the insane difference in cost of living for those two areas? I can survive on $1,160 a month in the state of Texas...in New Jersey for that amount of money I'm lucky if I can find an apartment. The average new car payment is $400.00 a month so if you are paying $600.00 a month in Rent and $400.00 a month to provide yourself with a stable mode of transportation to get to your minimum wage job you can forget about electricity, food, and gasoline. You’re probably better off getting a piece of cardboard, a sharpie marker and finding yourself a street corner.

It's not just everyday people either. I have met military persons who are just starting off their lives who are forced to collect welfare and food stamps, because they can’t survive off of what the government pays them. A lot of these people are married with one sometimes two children. Now you may say to yourself "why are they getting married and having children if they can't afford it?” Well plenty of reasons. There is an un-said push in the military to start families; no one talks about it but its there. I know because I have experienced it first hand. We are also dealing with people who feel the need to do all of their living as quickly as possible because they may not come home from a war. And on top of that the military in this country doesn’t push any type of financial education on their members. If you were 18 and someone handed you a regular paycheck what would you do? In most cases the answer is spend it. Buy a car, buy clothing, and buy video games, all the things you get a job to buy. No one tells you to put something away into a savings account; you just have to figure that out on your own. And that is why Killeen, TX (next to Ft. Hood Army Base) has dozens of homes where you can find barefoot unsupervised children playing in the streets and a brand new Cadillac(with rims of course) in the driveway. And I don't blame these parents, it should be obvious that this isn’t right but if it's what your mom and dad did before you and what their moms and dads did before them then you just don't know any better. It’s a vicious cycle plagued by lack of education and appreciation for what is going on. Why do you think towns around military bases often get horrific names such has Fayette-nam or Harlem Falls?? Well it's not because of their strong Asian-pacific culture or jazz music that's for sure. All this and yet millions of dollars are leaving the pockets of the rich and not so rich to save the world outside of the US. There has to be balance. We need to do as much for ourselves as we do for others or else we are going to burn out and fast.

I say we require our members of the military to take at least one college course per semester while they are active duty. Do you know what I would do for a free education?? DO YOU?! And yet thousands just let it slip through their hands. No one tells them there aren’t a lot of six figure jobs they can do once they get out of the military for good without an education and someone needs to! Otherwise we are threatened with the repetitive cycle, that is in place today, staying forever and I want to see the lives of people bettered, especially if they are willing to lay their lives down for me and my rights.

This mess that is the USA isn’t Obama's fault; he was just the guy who got stuck with the problems that others created. It isn’t going to be the fault of the next president either, or the one after that regardless of political party – I don’t support either. It's the fault of a crappy system that allows greed and corruption to run wild while honesty and justice fall by the wayside. Now I will say that Obama really isn’t doing much to fix the current situation but I don't think he was ever the best candidate for the job. I hate to say this but being that racism is still alive and well in this country I think that he was elected to meet a political quota, so all of the fools in this country who have never stepped out of the pristine borders of their primarily white gated communities can say the words "See, racism doesn’t exist because we have a black president". It's the same as the housewives who say they aren’t racist because they watch Oprah. I recently experienced something that literally left me speechless, and as you can clearly see I generally have no trouble finding words. I heard a little girl maybe 10 or 11 years old refer to her neighbors as "those n*****s down the street". Oh and the N and stars word is exactly what you think it is. I must have looked at this child for a solid 10 minutes with my jaw resting nicely on my feet. But don't worry folks, we have a black president so racism can’t possibly exist in the US, and I hope you can all taste the bitterness that is sarcasm in that.

We have a system that has worked for some, in place in this country, but in my opinion until it works for all it's not working. Something’s got to change we need to move forward and stop fighting each other if we has a nation ever want to be taken seriously by the world again. However until we stop tweeting, spending and arguing our way into the Fallen Empire Hall of Fame nothings going to change. Perhaps this country's ways are similar to an addiction, an addiction to greed to unfairness to disgusting scandals and habits, to other people’s misery and maybe we need to hit rock bottom before we climb back up, but for anyone whose hit rock bottom you know it's going to be an ugly journey. I just wish for one second everyone could see through the eyes of someone else. For one second understand that we, the United States, are the children in a very adult world and we have so much growing up to do.