No more blindly celebrating holidays

Well, Morgan at "The Token Hippie" reminded me that I wanted to talk about holiday's, and why I stopped "celebrating" them so many years ago.

My earliest memory of giving up on holiday things was about 15 years ago when I read about the origins of the famed christmas tree. I considered it cruel and unjust for a beautiful tree to be cut off from its roots, denied water and sunlight for some unknown amount of time, then to be hauled outside and tossed to the gutter, no thanks. Then I find out that this little item had zip to do with Jesus, when I typed in "origins of the christmas tree" in google, BOY OH BOY did I get an eye opener.

I thought I knew the origins of christmas, valentine's day, mother's day, father's day, easter, st. patrick's day, columbus day, thanksgiving. But those old history books of yore and mindless classroom drivel didn't do justice to the truth one can find on the computer nowadays. Just type in any of those words and find out things you never really wanted to know. I know I didn't, but as Jesus said: once you know the truth, you are no longer innocent of it. No, that's not a quote for those of you that are digging out the Bible, but there is a couple of places where Jesus says something darn close to that, and it's something that I believe.

Which is why I haven't celebrated any holidays in many years. I don't want to piss of Jesus by celebrating holidays that have origins in bloodbaths and murders or celebrations of death. Holidays are commericalized to the point that the only TRUE way to show someone you love them is to buy something you can't afford and they don't need!! How many people do you know that regularly return the gifts you give them? How much time, effort, gas, money, and stress do you spend to give people gifts that they don't like, want, or appreciate? WHY would you do that to yourself anyway? Holidays are designed to profit the stores, malls, and mail-orders, gas companies, credit card companies, and in the longrun, collection agencies that go after you when you can't pay your bills.

So, I get a lot of guff (same as Erik who commented on The Token Hippie) for refusing to "celebrate", to stress myself and spend money I don't have to buy gifts for people I don't necessarily like (family and former co-workers alike). I see on TV often people who gloat over the fact that they return or "re-gift" most of the things they are given. IF those people were on my gift list, they wouldn't be anymore.

I'm not going to slave over a hot stove all day to cook a huge meal for ungrateful slobs who will drop in and complain about the food, watch my TV, snooze on my sofa, drink my booze (when I had any in the house), then wander off before the dishes are done. They usually show up again around December 25th to see if I bought them something useless they can return and get something they really want!! I don't need a diamond to know how much Chris loves me, I certainly don't need candy. I'm not Irish and don't consider it necessary to drink green beer. I don't celebrate ANY U.S. holiday because it's all BS anyway. Already discussed thanksgiving and christmas up there.... what else. Oh, my birthday. Well, Jesus didn't celebrate his birthday, and what I read in the Bible doesn't indicate to me that He was born on the 25th of December, in fact it is my opinion that He was born in the springtime, more around April (thus the Spring Lamb).

I agree with some of The Token Hippie's responders about the difference in paganism, christianity, catholisizm, etc. Every holiday has it roots in some pagan rite or some ritual or another. There are a lot of people who won't agree with me, and hopefully we won't have to hear from too many "you're damned to hell" types, because I truly believe in and follow Jesus every day of my life. Anyone that can show me in the Bible where Jesus celebrated anything besides passover is more than welcome to stop by. I think people who stress themselves and empty their pockets and max out their credit cards are damned too, to a shorter life span because they're too stressed with keeping up with the Jones's and not as concerned about taking time to take a long walk, smell the roses, and thank Jesus for every healthful stress free moment we are given. Of course all that stress and bad eating will only help out the hospitals and doctors and pharmacies!

I'd be interested in how many of you find out things you never knew about holidays and if you've changed your minds on how you'll celebrate things in the future. Please leave out those "tradition" comments, because that's bunk. Tradition talks have come from Chris's parents about thanksgiving. Bahhhh and baloney. Just because it's a celebration of taking over the Indian's land, making them slaves, and in the end killing them for being nice to the whites, we'll just make it a celebration of family and too much food. Tradition be darned, it's all made-up BS from someone who wants to sell something, or wants a day off with pay.

The Good New IS!!!

Isn't it nice to have some good news once in a while? Well, today is pretty much chock full of it! Well, full of something anyway.
First, the cast is history!! On Monday I dropped a container of salsa on the floor in the grocery store and of course it exploded all over my feet and legs. Looked like I'd been jumping up and down in a tomato patch). Anyway, legs, shoe and cast were covered in salsa, and smelly to boot, so when I got home I washed off the chunks and put those foot-coverings away till the smell leaves... so that was Monday, today is Friday, and I'm hoofing along pretty good in two shoes again! The ankle is holding up pretty good, we took a couple mile walk yesterday and I've been on the bicycle a couple times too, so feeling like I'm finally on the mend. The coral calcium and extra protein have apparently done the trick, thanks Dr. H. !!
Other good news? Well, Chris's parents drove to town and were supposed to have landed on us for dinner and an evening of showing us pictures from Teresa and Allens wedding. Well, dog-gone if they were unable to get a room here in town, and since they couldn't stay any closer than 30 miles away... they couldn't get back for dinner or entertainment!! I don't have to see them until tomorrow afternoon on their way out of town the other direction! By then I'll have gone to get my granndaughter Fay and might just miss them, Lord willing!!! Now, don't get me wrong, they aren't horrible people...really. Mostly my problem is that Chris for some reason returns to his childhood days whenever his parents are around. He can't shut up, can't sit down, refuses to shut up and eat his food while its hot... makes me want to put his ass to bed because he can get downright embarrassing!! Then of course I have to deal with their smoking...they can't seem to go out into the street (or around the stupid block somewhere) they have to stand right next to the front door to smoke, and when they're done they rush right in and in comes their stupid smoke, which I hate and it just pisses me off totally!!!
What other good news! Well, how much more can a body take!! Amanda is nearly up to fulltime at her little job at the book store. Fay is hanging out with her Aunt and cousins and having a very good time. Her favorite cousin is Ashley (one of her first words too by the way), and so she's getting some good family time. The useless man has decided he'd better tell unemployment that he's working, so there goes his $400 a week free money.
Oh, and rotton daughter and I had a discussion about a movie called The Butterfly Effect, the one with Ashton Kutcher. In the version I saw, he killed himself in the end in a particularly gruesome manner. Well, she said I had the wrong movie, because in the one she saw the main character changed history by hurting the girl's feelings and therebye eliminating all that bad stuff from her life in the future. Well, thanks to this neat web site (Ruined Endings), I discovered that we were both right, I'd seen the director's cut of the same movie she saw, only she didn't see the same cut as I did. So after she insisted that I'd owe her a cold drink and a "You're Right" message on her answering machine, I told her it was a draw, and blew her a loud raszberry in her answering machine. I rented the other version to watch to see if it's a better ending that way, with everyone getting to live and live happily ever after (supposedly).
Also, we rented Click... it wasn't as good as it was touted to be. There wasn't any blowing up, not too much sheet bingo either, very little bad language, and a sad (almost) ending. I don't know, maybe Adam Sandler should stick to real comedy and stop trying to be serious. Maybe I missed the point. Christopher ruined the ending about 5 minutes into the movie, and I just couldn't enjoy the rest. He does that, but that's not for the Good News day!
I'm still happy I don't have to spend the evening with the inlaws looking at pictures from the wedding! Doing handsprings and cartwheels and toedancing steps!! YAHOO!!

The rest of the smoking story

Well, I seem to have forgotten a few major points in my rant last night, so today I'll slow down and calm down a bit and try to add in some more information.

First, I didn't quit standing in a blizzard, I quit about a week later coughing my lungs out because of YET ANOTHER case of bronchitis. I had either bronchitis or sinus problems almost all the time because of the smoking. I decided that since I couldn't smoke till I was better, I'd just quit-- period, and I did. But I must have quit 500 times before I could really quit for good. An addict isn't usually able to just put something down and stop it cold turkey period. I wasn't, and most of the smokers in my family haven't either. My Aunt, Uncle, Cousin (and his wife), my late parents, late brother, late aunt, me, my daughter and her useless man, and some day my beautiful and intelligent granddaughter too - are (current or former) smokers.
I smoked while pregnant, so did my mother, so did Amanda, so did mom's mother, so we were all born smokers - born addicted. Fay went through withdrawals while Amanda was breast feeding her, and Amanda couldn't understand why, she got mad at me when I told her the truth.

My uncle is practically an invalid, he sits almost all the time in the kitchen chair, smoking. After mom was diagnosed with emphyzema, she was on oxygen 24 hours a day, and would take the hose out of her nose so she could smoke (always that fun added risk of explosion). They left Reno in 1989 to move to lower altitude to try to help her breath better. My mom's sister died from lung related problems. My great uncle died from strokes, but he smoked since he was a teenager. Everyone in my family that smoked is either gone or going because of their addiction. My cousin tells me the damage is already done, so why bother to quit... good question!!

How about because he has 4 grandchildren now? How about so he can see them graduate from high school, possibly college. Maybe see his great-grandchildren grow to adulthood? How about not supporting BIG TOBACCO? How about smelling clean air, being able to taste your food? How about NOT having red-faced, out-of-breath coughing attacks in the middle of the night? How about not having to take the elevator because you can't take the stairs anymore? Blame it on your age, weight, genetics... BS, it's those freaking cigs, hon. I love my cousin so much, we are closer in age than any of the rest of us, and we chat regularly, always have to discuss his smoking habit. He reminds me I was a smoker, and I tell him, yes, I was a smoker, and will probably die young because of it, no lack of future health problems just because I quit early.

THE REASON to quit is so that you can live better for at least a little while, not to mention the $5 a pack you won't be spending. Do the math= $5X2 (usually 2 a day) = 10X30 (days in a month) = $300 (minimum) X12 = $3,600 a year. Wow. Now add in all the medication, oxygen, doctor visits, hospital visits, insurance deductables, gas to the pharmacy, hospital, doctor office, co-pays for oxygen tanks, how about those mobility experts that want the taxpayers to pay for your runabout battery operated wheel chair? THANKS!! I appreciate it.

Ok, now I'm finished on this -- at least till someone's freaking smoke blows in through MY car window on the highway, or worse I have to walk through someone's smoke to get into a business. GRRRRRRRRR says Mrs. Angry... I agree babe.

Can you see through the smoke? Hack..Cough

Ok, it's late and I'm still awake because I drank way too much coffee today in anticipation of two weeks on a detox program, with limited caffeine. Well, I'm already down to a cup every other day or so, so what's the difference there?

Anyway... I've discovered that two of my dear blogger friends are smokers, which really chapps my behind in general and makes me want to jump on that soap box and ride baby!!!

As many of you know, or do now anyway, both my parents died from smoking related issues. Ok, my dad was a house-painter for 40 years and inhaled way more than his share of toxic chemicals too, but the cigarettes didn't help at all. He died in 2004 after fighting lung cancer that turned into brain cancer after radiation "treatment", but that's another story.

Mom worked in casino's, inhaling everybody elses's smoke too. She had a lung transplant in 1994 and died in 2002 from complications due to the rejection of the lung. She lived a lot longer after the transplant than she would have without it, but frankly and honestly it was an experiment that went badly, and had she known ahead of time what she was facing with pills and side effects, I imagine she would have opted to pass away with her own blackened and shriveled lung in her chest.

I was born a smoker, and started lighting my own when I was 14, one day I realized my smoking was giving my daughter health problems and started taking it outside, then one night I was freezing my BUTT off standing outside in a blizzard so I could smoke, and I decided that's IT!! I'M DONE!!! I HATE THESE FREAKING things, and I've never smoked since then, and that's been 14 years ago. My daughter and her useless man smoke, but not in their rented house, and not in their cars when their daughter is in it... Fay is allergic to smoke and gets pretty violent reactions every time (recent ear infection case-in-point).

Ok, so there you have it. I hate smoking, I hate how addictive it is, how BAD smokers clothes and breath smells. I wish smokers knew how bad their clothes and breath smells. I wish I could get just one of the people I care about to STOP. Big Tobacco doesn't care about you, they don't want you to quit, they want you to smoke!!! How, then, do you think that they keep raking in all that cashola?? Every time one of you says I can quit anytime, THEY put another addictive drug in those things so you CAN'T quit without physical and psychological pain!

So, smokers, realize you are addicted, put them down, and stop. If I could, you can. I love you and want you to be around to see your granchildren grow, and have them not smell you before you enter the room, not avoid kissing you because your breath smells so bad. Hope you don't have to be on oxygen. Did I tell you when my daughter was 2 years old she learned how to turn on my mom's oxygen tank? Just in case there was an emergency and mom was too distressed to turn it on herself and Amanda was the only one around? Did I also tell you my mom was still smoking then? She only stopped when her doctor told her if you don't quit you will be dropped from the transplant program. For a while it was necessary for my dad (and those of us that still smoked around her) to put water in the ashtrays and drown the butts so mom wouldn't sneak them and smoke them when no one was around. She went on that gum so she'd keep getting nicotine, so at least her breath only smelled mildly awful, but at least she didn't continue smoking. She got someone else's lung who had never smoked. Wonder why they don't transplant a smokers lung? Gee, ya think??