Thursday Thoughts - and if you want to find me I'll be out in the sandbox

Loving yard art, this is from Hearth & Sole in Ocean City and I adore them

Urging you to check out this book, Fuel Your Best, by my friend Jen - I got one for my niece and one for the shore house kids library. She's a great person and this has a great message for kids and for us!

Monitoring baby bird status out back as the mother has squatted in my begonia and killed it because she doesn't like us to water it

Congratulating all teachers, admin and school staff, kids, and parents for making it through not the easiest of school years

Repurposing election signs to hang solar lanterns from this year to complement the mini shepherd hooks

Recommending this, I get it at Marshalls usually. It's only $7 there and that is much friendlier than Living Proof's price. Living Proof is still my favorite dry shampoo, but this is entirely serviceable most days. This is my fourth bottle.

Swapping desks, bringing the bigger one into my office and moving the smaller one into the back basement room. I need room. I'm finally getting my home office as I want it just in time for my office office to officially reopen. We have no you have to be in a certain number of days thing. I'm aiming for one day a week or one every other at least. 

Hanging out with dogs

Handing dog duty over to MFD as he's been working from the shore this week both on his actual work and on becoming Tan Mom using the sun instead of tanning beds

Arguing with people on the internet again. This time on the our shore town owner’s Facebook page with people who speculated houses are being left in poor condition upon checkout because it’s people using stimulus money. Excuse me what now? 

I told them this was classism. They told me this was not classism even though they were grouping people together by income level and assigning certain behaviors to them. They were sorry I was offended. I said I’m not offended but I’m disappointed you’re blowing smoke at me acting like issues between classes don’t exist and like you are not grouping people together by income level and ascribing behaviors to that group. 

The moderator turned off comments and deleted all of the ones under the person saying she heard the renters were bad this year assuming because they used stimulus money. One person said he doesn't think these people understand the ethics of renting a vacation home. When I tell you I lost my fucking mind, I am not exaggerating. 

Imagine being like this. Just because people make less money does not mean they do not deserve material comforts, joy, or vacations. They do not need to do with their money what you think they should do with their money. We are not here to work until we die and punching down does not put you closer to billionaires.   

Reading Two library books this week. It's been a lot of advanced reader copies from Netgalley on the kindle so library books felt good. Both were recommended in the Show Us Your Books linkup (who recommended After the Fire? and definitely Laura from Alabama + Graffiti on Milk Fed), and Milk Fed was a timely read for Pride month.

Reminding us all that making Juneteenth a federal holiday actually does nothing for Black people. How about we press the government for 1) Passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act for protection and expansion of voting rights 2) teach accurate history in schools and stop fucking wilding out over Critical Race Theory 3) Passing the goddamn Emmett Till Antilynching Act to make lynching a federal hate crime 4) Halting the destabilization of COVID relief efforts 5) reimagining public safety 6) reparations 7) Legalize cannabis 8) Decriminalize drug possession, expunge drug records, end the war on drugs  

What's new with you?

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Brian Wilson by Barenaked Ladies

I spent all of my spare cash on dry shampoo and this is what I have to show for it

I can't even name all the brands of dry shampoo I've tried. If you named one, I could confirm if I have or haven't, though.

I can recall with fondness my first foray into dry shampoo (Tresemme), my first monogamous relationship with dry shampoo (Not Your Mother's Clean Freak), and too many one night stands with dry shampoo to count (Batiste, Suave, Dove, Not Your Mother's Plump for Joy, L'Oreal, Psssst, Garnier Fructis,  Herbal Essences, Drybar, Big Sexy Hair, Alterna, Bumble & Bumble)...the list tumbles down through the years.

Me being me, of course I prefer the more expensive shit. These are my current top two. Basically for the past few years I have been buying a bottle of Living Proof, feeling foolish for spending $22 on it even though I spend more on other beauty shit, then wasting $20 in drugstore brands I end up hating. I both love and hate this cycle - I love trying new things and hate wasting money. Klorane is new to me this year and I like it a lot. Of course I do, because it's $20.

I want to tell you that I will never again waste $5-20 on a hope and a dream, but I don't like to lie. If someone says this is the best! my mind will say let me be the judge of that, for I have more experience with different types of dry shampoo than Jacques Cousteau has with the sea. I have not yet covered all the territory. I have my sights set on trying Aveeno, Amika, John Frieda, and Ouai next.

And of course, any you recommend that I haven't tried. Hint hint.

I'm linking up with Lauren & Bre for their Add it to my list linkup, which they're doing the last Tuesday of every month. 

I smell something burning. Rog, is that your underwear?

Sorry Dee Spencer, it is not Rog's underwear. It's the smell of the weekend getting close.

I personally can't wait. I will finish planting my spring and summer bulbs, do a lot of work for Relay For Life of South Philadelphia, make a kick ass yet healthy creamy cauliflower soup, see a lot of friends, and probably have a hangover on Sunday. Ok definitely on the hangover. I'm not as spry as I used to be. Recovery is not swift.


T H U R S D A Y  T H O U G H TS

1. As you can see from the forward, I do not have off tomorrow. In Dream World B, I would have all the bank holidays off. Dream World A is where I win the lottery and have every day off.

Thank you, veterans. I appreciate your courage and your service. We are the land of the free only so long as we are also the home of the brave.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms.  It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. 

~G.K. Chesterton

Along those lines, happy birthday to the USMC. Semper Fidelis. Thank you.

2. My second day hair is brought to you by got2B fat-tastic dry shampoo. Ladies who say you can't go a day without washing your hair, I feel you. I have oily hair and I said that for 20 some years, until my fabulous stylist Kristi Morgan at Sensational Scissors said really, you CAN go a day or more between washings, and your color will last longer. Now I actually think my hair looks best on the second day I don't wash it. Thank you fat-tastic dry shampoo. Find it at Rite Aid. Once a month they run buy 1 get 1 free sales. I always buy two and am happy as a flipping clam.

3. Today is my little nephew's very first birthday. Happy birthday Jax! I love you.

4.Yesterday five Christmas gifts arrived in the mail. I am officially more than halfway finished Christmas shopping. Tick tock, mofos. Lots of awesome online deals out there.

5. I don't understand why so many movies are being made in 3D. I have motion issues, 3D makes me ill. Stop it, Hollywood.

6. Revenge and Modern Family didn't air this week due to the CMAs. I'm thankful this is my complaint for the day.

7. Dunkin Donuts near Track 1 at Suburban Station, please be speedy with your renovations. Where's a girl to get her morning coffee on Fridays without having to tramp through the urine filled underbelly of the station?

8. Brace yourself - I have not made a dish containing mushrooms this week...and I don't plan to. Earth shattering, I know. Is everyone ok? Counselling will be provided for those who need it. The first person to name the type of mushroom in this photo in a comment will receive a $5 Dunkin Donuts gift card in the mail.

9. I'm afraid to go to my sculpting class this afternoon. After class two weeks ago, I couldn't walk downstairs without looking like Forrest Gump with his leg braces on. Nor could I sit on the toilet without bracing myself. TMI? It's my blog. I'm not Bobby Brown but it is  my prerogative.

10. I am lifting this ditty pretty directly from my facebook status this morning. I cannot tell a lie.

I'm confused by the Joe Paterno supporters lamenting over what's being done to him. Most of those statuses say nothing about the victims. What if your kid was the next victim because he didn't do enough? Let's be real - he was the most powerful man in Happy Valley. He could've blown the lid off of this and had it handled another way. For a man who holds so much power, taught conservative family values and is a father himself, he should have done more when he saw nothing was being done by the AD. When there is a far reaching coverup of of this magnitude, EVERYONE must go. When you're the boss, it starts with you. No, he's not going out with his head held high. None of those kids left the showers with theirs up either.

Sandusky is a vile being. Those who stood by and didn't do enough are not in the A+ column. In his FB status, my friend PJ Katz opened with this quote, which is so very relevant to this situation: "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." THAT is why Joe, and hopefully the rest of the people who knew about this, are being removed.

To those who say we don't know everything: No, we don't. But we do have 23 pages of a grand jury report that tell us what happened. We do know after that report came out, 20 more victims came forward. We know that Paterno himself says in hindsight he wishes he did more. What more do we need to know? The unwillingness of anyone who witnessed something to follow through and make sure this predator was dealt with appropriately makes them culpable as well. To do what is required of you legally does not in any way mean you did what was required of you morally, and that's what makes you unable to sleep at night.

To PSU alums and students: Your institution is famous for its football program, but it is certainly not defined by it. You have many things to be proud of that don't have anything to do with a football field. Don't take it personally when the world at large puts your icons on blast. Find solace and strength in your numbers. You still ARE Penn State. Current students, go back to class. Learn, grow, make the world a better place.

To those that still want to argue: imagine the boy in the shower was your child, and someone walked in on him being raped and didn't shout or attempt to intervene physically. And the people in power who knew about it didn't follow up to find that boy, or to make sure it didn't happen to another little boy. How staunch are you now in your support of the coaching and administrative staff who had knowledge of these heinous acts? If you say you still support them, I call bullshit.

I simply can't understand the sympathies expressed for the adults who knew about the abuse instead of the victims who endured it. It sickens me.

Blast off,

SMD