Stop Whining

On the Today Show yesterday, there was a segment about this minister in Kansas City who started a "no complaints" campaign. The campaign challenges people to make it 21 days without complaining. To those attempting this, the church provides a purple plastic bracelet (you know, the Lance Armstrong kind) bearing the words "A Complaint Free World." With each relapse (i.e. complaint), the contestant has to switch the bracelet to the other wrist and restart the count. According to the Today Show correspondent, this causes wear and tear on the bracelet and may require a replacement.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17362505/

In theory, I think the campaign is a nice idea. But I must confess - I am not up for the challenge. If my complaints fell by the wayside, surely my sense of humor would follow. I mean, without my "observations," what's left?

I shudder to think of all of the new found Pollyannas out there. I mean - sure - perhaps there could be a little less complaining in the world. But if everyone is so goody two shoes, where's the fun?

Did I Miss Something?

No one can doubt that the music off the 'Purple Rain' soundtrack was pretty phenomenal. Prince probably had some of his biggest hits off that album....'Let's Go Crazy,' 'When Doves Cry, ' etc. If not the biggest, then most certainly memorable. Not to mention all the great music from that other band featured in the movie - The Time (oh we oh we oh).

Honestly, I have never sat down and watched the 'Purple Rain' movie all the way through. I got the gist of the movie but I never really cared about watching it - I was OK with just knowing that there was good music.

Well, my favorite channel, VH1-Classic, has been showing the movie recently and I have yet to sit down and watch it all the way through but I did watch some parts yesterday....and from what I did watch, I'm wondering - is this movie supposed to be good? I mean he was very purple...was small back then like he was small when I saw him in London this year. I saw where he almost bitch slapped Appolonia by the train tracks (with that line from the Kanye West song: 'Back when Prince was with Appolonia, and OJ had Isotoners...' going through my head). And I even got to witness the scene at the end, when he's singing 'Purple Rain' and doing his weirdo round and round dance moves while he touches himself in all different places (the move mocked round the world). But none of what I saw could make me stay on the channel and watch more. I just really changed back to the movie when something else I was watching was on a commercial break in hopes of being able to catch a performance of one of the good songs.

The movie has become a cult-classic, I think. So other than the movie coming out with Grammy-worthy music, were there supposed to be Oscar-worthy performances in there?

In the Fog of the 80s....

I am a child of the 80s. What a magical time that was....with Cabbage Patch Kids, Atari, Pac Man, My Little Pony, the Smurfs and Strawberry Shortcake. Of course there was plenty more but those are just some of the biggies.

I also loved the music - I think I love it more so now than I did growing up. It's so nostalgic and brings back a lot of memories of where I was or what I was doing at that time. One of my favorite bands was Tears for Fears. They just put out some cool stuff - 'Shout,' 'Head Over Heels' and my personal favorite, 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World.' I think I used to like them so much because one of the members of Fears for Fears reminded me of Peter Brady!

Curt Smith was the bassist and vocalist for Tears for Fears. By the time they hit it big in the US, he was not the lead vocalist (Roland was) - but he was the lead vocalist for 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World.' It's because of my love for 80s music that I am also infatuated with VH1-Classic. Every morning, Saturday and Sundays included, they play old videos and on the weekends, they even have programming called 'We are the 80s.' I recently saw the video for 'Everybody...' and I had to ask myself, 'Self - what the heck was I thinking?' Sure Curt Smith has a cute face (like Peter Brady) but why didn't I notice that foot-long rat tail he has growing in the back of his head? Why didn't I notice that he didn't exactly have the legs to pull off tight jeans/spandex? Was I so enamored of his cutie pie face that I just didn't think about all the rest of it?

Well, upon much reflection and a lot of 'What was I thinking....' I decided that I could ignore the rat tail and the unshapely legs and take solace in knowing that he looks so much better now (with short cropped hair and a little gray) and just enjoy the music. After all, it was the 80s - where just about everything was acceptable.

Wal-Mart is my Nemesis

As you may recall (but probably don't), many months ago I posted a little tribute to the great Midwestern everything store - Meijer. After Meijer and everyone's darling (and mine), Target, I have no praise left to give to their competitor, Wal-Mart. I loathe my Wal-Mart so much that it actually makes me sick - I have mini panic attacks almost every time I am in there.

"So why would you ever go there?" I hear you ask. A few reasons: (1) it is close to my house; (2) it is open late; and (3) it carries the exact kind of Rubbermaid clear plastic "Latchable" bins I like to organize my stuff. So occasionally, I sacrifice my mental health and go into the fire.

Last Friday night, I was on a roll cleaning out my closet. This is often when these housekeeping projects strike me. I once watched about three repeats of Sports Center on ESPN while cleaning out my sock drawer during the wee hours. Anyway, around 10:30 or so, I decided I couldn't finish my closet cleaning endeavor without getting some kind of shelving or bins to better organize my sweaters. So it was off to the dreaded Wal-Mart.

Unlike previous adventures at Wal-Mart, the late hour seemed to cut back on the number of extended families crowding in one aisle. I think you know what I'm talking about. At least in my neighborhood, Wal-Mart seems to be a family outing. If I want to pick up some Pantene Straight and Smooth Conditioner, for instance - it comes at a price - I have to squeeze through the narrow aisles past grandma and grandpa and their twelve grandchildren to retrieve it. And even though the store is always a mess and the aisles are far too crowded to accommodate everyone's shopping carts, on two occasions, I have abandoned my cart to shop for awhile "on foot," only to discover that Wal-Mart employees would rather restore the contents of my cart to their designated shelves than do anything about the overall disasterous condition of the store. Seriously. I have twice lost my cart at Wal-Mart halfway through my shopping experience and have had to start over.

The late hour, however, did not appear to have any effect on the overall number of customers in the store. I was shocked and amazed how crowded Wal-Mart is late on a Friday night. In addition to the constant cart traffic jams (one involving a crazy lady who was clearly talking to herself), I had to cope with the mess of restocking. There were motor operated inventory cart things and giant unwrapped boxes everywhere. I should note that this is not a 24-Hour Wal-Mart. Why they couldn’t wait until a few more customers had cleared is beyond me.

Anyway, here is what was going through my head the entire time I was in there: “I %#*^@*% hate Wal-Mart. I %#*^@*% hate Wal-Mart. I %#*^@*% hate Wal-Mart. I %#*^@*% hate Wal-Mart. I %#*^@*% hate Wal-Mart. I %#*^@*% hate Wal-Mart. I %#*^@*% hate Wal-Mart.” Nothing but expletives would suffice.

Thankfully, unlike with the crazy lady, these thoughts were not out loud.

He's a What?!

I read romance novels. But it's not what you're thinking - with the sappy love stories and Fabio on the cover...I actually draw the line at Fabio. I read historical romances set in England or Scotland - with a timeframe of Regency or Victorian era. I usually don't stray from this criteria. I think I've read over 200 books in the past 1.5 years. It really has gotten me through some down times in my life and I've even started collecting some that have become my favorites.

Usually, the stories go like this - handsome rake has reached the age where he needs to find a wife and create an heir (because all these people are gentry). Handsome rake finds strong willed and proper lady that succumbs to his charms and they fall in love eventhough rake really only wanted to do his "duty" and never give his heart. OR there's the beautiful lady with the scandalous past and the handsome rake with the scandalous past and they decide to freak everyone out by getting together but end up falling in love...blah blah blah - you know how it goes. But I'm a sucker for it...and for beautiful people because I won't lie - I do look at the picture in the book and if they're good looking and the story on the back cover looks interesting, I'll take it! I'm also proud to say that I've become one of the top customers of the Fairfax County Library system - I would be broke if I purchased every book I read - so I use the library system to get my fix.

Anyways - I recently purchased a couple of books and got around to reading them. This one in particular had a back cover summary about how the most handsome man in all of England swoops down to sweep a non-beauty off her feet...and she falls instantly in love with him but has doubts about why he only has eyes for her. As for the hero, he is not what he seems but once he reveals his truth to the lady, she realizes that their love can survive.

My first thought was - oh, he's probably a spy because apparently spies were quite the thing in the early 1800s. I've read plenty of books with spies so that wouldn't be too surprising for me. So I start reading the book expecting by the first couple of chapters, I will know that he is indeed a spy. But no...in the first four chapters, it was all from the lady's perspective so I really could not confirm what this guy's secret was. It wasn't until 3/5 of the way did you get an inkling that something "not quite right" was going to happen.

The hero's sister pretty much goads the heroine into finding out the secrets he's been hiding and possibly ruin their relationship. But when the sister finds out that the heroine is with child, she kind of does an about face, and tries to get with the heroine's brother in hopes that she can also become pregnant. Why the hubbub with getting pregnant? Well, here is it. The hero is actually a fairy. I'm not saying fairy like he's a homosexual (they were called dandies in those days)....he's a folklore fairy person -but he doesn't have wings and he can't fly but the life span of his people are about 500-600 years (give or take a 100) and they can exist in our world but they have to go to their world every six months (which apparently you get to through a long cave) to 'rejuvenate' or else they will eventually age and die out like the rest of us. He's a FAIRY! He didn't look like a fairy on the cover.

His mission was to procreate because his species were dying out and he needed to create a baby that was part of "his people" in order to carry out the legacy of the fairies. And that is why the sister wanted to get pregnant with the heroine's brother - because she could also help the fairy race. And so of course upon learning the truth that her husband was really a fairy, was already 300 years old and had three wives already with no kids, she didn't know if she could go on with him, even though she was already carrying his child. And she learns that she was targeted by him in particular because of her genealogy...apparently, on her mother's side (who is conveniently deceased in the book) they were of the same fairy/elf clan but the heroine never really knew. So in fact, she is like 1/4-1/2 fairy. But the thing is, for the hero, out of all his wives and in his 300 years of life, he had never felt love or knew what love was and just like that, he became like Foreigner and wanted to know what love is - so instead of going to his realm and rejuvenating, he decided that he was going to sacrifice his life, all in the name of love, and live out the rest of his years with his current wife (whom he loves) and raise their child and let the child decide if he wanted to stay in the human world or go to the fairy world, where everyone was beautiful and happy (FYI).

At the end of the epilogue (I really do like epilogues), I huffed, closed the book, and pretty much wanted to throw it across the room. But instead, I turned out the lights and woke my husband up and told him the nonsense I just read through - he was a FAIRY! Since when do fairies exist in Victorian England? I have been so careful in what I read - England, Scotland, Highlanders, Spies, etc - I try to avoid vampires, time travel, and other countries. I will say this though - I didn't see that coming.

Diary of a Boilermaker

For the past 10 years or so (ever since I graduated from college), Purdue's football team has been decent. Of course, this is in comparison to the "Colletto years," during which I attended Purdue. For those seasons, Purdue's only assured win in a season would be basically against a high school football team in August. Seriously. I am pretty sure Purdue was 11th place in the Big Ten at least once during my stay in West Lafayette.

But I am not sure which is worse. During the Colletto years, I faithfully attended either "Breakfast Club" or a football "Fire Up" at the fraternity with whom my sorority was paired for the season. We would enjoy some tasty beverages and head to our 50 yard line block of seats at Ross-Ade Stadium, causing a ruckus throwing plastic cups while we watched our team get pummelled. In those days, the most excitement from Purdue's offense was the occasional (and I do mean occasional) first down. By half-time, we were spent and headed home to crash.

Since Joe Tiller's tenure as the Purdue football coach, Purdue has been competitive. Purdue has been gloriously mediocre. The team has had moments of greatness, but more memorably, moments of heartbreak. Each year, I try not to get my hopes up, but when Purdue starts off its season 5-0, I can't help myself. Maybe this will be the year. Sadly, no. After losing to Ohio State at home last weekend, Purdue was spanked by the Wolverines at the Big House. Recall - this was the team that was beaten by Appalachian State - at home!! And yet, Purdue - a conference rival - couldn't get the job done. In fact, Purdue's performance was downright embarrassing.

Now, I know I am not the first sports fan to feel like my team is constantly breaking my heart. But I really don't get it. Why must Purdue always get spooked at the Big House? I think Purdue's last win there was in 1967 (or was it 1969? Does it really matter?).

It is tough being a Purdue fan.