That Red Hat Thing

I refuse to accept the coming of age with grace and dignity. I got to thinking today about this Red Hat Society. Sure, it has positives for gals over the age of 75, perhaps, though what I don't know. But the club is for 50 and over. From their FAQ page: \
""The spirit of the Red Hat Society forbids rules, per se. There are, however, some common-sense guidelines that we must insist upon:
You must be a woman of 50 or over (or you may be a Pink Hatter under 50), and you must attend functions in full regalia, (red hat, purple outfit for women 50 and over, or pink hat and lavender outfit for women under 50).
And, although we try not to concentrate on it too much, we do have some policies and legalese you need to agree to in order to become a member. (Probably no more than any other group out there and unfortunately necessary.) Click here for more information » Ladies are strongly encouraged to follow these color guidelines, and to NOT wear purple/red until they have reached THE BIRTHDAY """

I don't get why someone who is *only* 50 would go for something like this. It's like announcing that you've resigned yourself to being *old* and you just have to entertain yourself by joining an over the hill club with simplistic minded trappings.
It is refreshing that some 50+'rs are thinking a little younger than most. A few examples are Sharon Osbourne, 56, aside from promoting plastic surgery, she thinks and acts young!; Goldie Hawn, 62, OMG! Kirstie Alley,57, looks awesome despite her 100 excess pounds or so, though she is trying.
I guess I just hate to see women "accepting " age by choosing to look matronly and old when they get to a certain age, like 39, for example. It IS possible to look hot, young and modern even when you are over 60.
Anyway. I just ordered a workout program and I'm really excited! I actually feel better now than I did when I was in my 20's due to becoming more health conscious and attitude adjustments. I was thinking it would be interesting to start a research group of women who look and feel better now than they did in their 20's or 30's due to diet, exercise and mental attitude.
Forget the Red Hats, go get a Purple Pilates Circle or some Red Ankle Weights! Go to a modern hair stylist, go buy a Flat Iron and throw away your High Waisted Jeans and Curling Iron, along with your Red Hat!

A Murder In Metamora

Well, Jordan and I have taken 2 trips to Metamora on a whim this week. It was her idea the first time and for some reason I seemed to think it was really far down there, but it isn't at all. I'm really glad we went because it helped me sort of get some new ideas and get a better feel for Moonessence Meadows. I realized I was imagining Cambridge City more or less, an old time version, as the setting for the story and it just wasn't really clicking. Now I can see that Metamora IS Moonessence Meadows! It is perfect with the train nostalgia, the station, the canal, everything. It is the perfect setting. Trenchtown can be downstream just like I have it, and they can get there in a tiny boat or by train. There are several run down, abandoned barns and buildings too, that can serve as a hideout for the weasels. I think I'm going to get past this writers block soon now. The antique show should be in an old building like the Meeting House antiques store, not a ''Golay Center" type place which I was imagining. And I agree with Jordan, there has to be a murder in it. Yes, it is a Nancy Drew type story, but It needs a little more excitement. And there are a few good places for a murder. The water-wheel, the tracks, the locks under the bridge, or in the little brick Cross building! Also I already have a scene where the canal runs along right outside the basement of Toad's cottage, and where his father used to sell Moonshine. The train conductor (see below) on the train mentioned this very thing, the canal being used to transport moonshine years ago!

Well, anyway, today we decided to take the 30 minute train ride down towards Brookville along the canal and back. The old guy who takes your ticket gave a little speech along the way about how they maintain the cars and tracks, how far the train used to go, how the Canal originated in Cambridge City etc... He was wearing the engineer blue and white stripped overalls, with matching cap of course. It was a pleasant ride and we saw some tiny turtles and 2 that were about the size of a dinner plate. Anyway, the old conductor was standing in the isle, yacking away about all the history of the train etc. He was about in the middle of the car, which was pretty long (It accommodates 92). Most of the passengers were in the middle seats. Jordan and I took the first two seats at the front, facing each other, away from everyone else. So at one point I glanced down at the conductor and noticed there was a big bug launched on top of his cap. It looked like a huge mosquito, but not a galley-nipper. It was alot bigger than a mosquito tho. Sort of a mix between those orange grasshopper type bugs, a huge mosquito and a wasp. I said to Jordan "What is on his cap?" and she looked and said "Oh, god a huge bug." So for the next 10 minutes or so she kept looking around backwards at it to make sure it wasn't flying off. It was just merrily perched up there. Then all of a sudden it took off, and made a bee line, zooming right at Jordan's head like a torpedo! She flew out of her seat and swatted at it with her metallic pink hand bag. I busted out laughing and couldn't quit, it was a hysterical sight! Then it zoomed around and back down to the other end of the car, where it stayed for the remainder of the ride! I laughed all the way home. And every time I picture it now, I can't quit laughing! Of all people to single out, it had to pick her to zoom at!
Also, before the train ride we had lunch at an adorable, tiny cafe. I had a chicken salad croissant and she had a hamburger. It was really good, and they had great iced tea too. We went in for a tea refill before we left.

I'm Married To Barney Fife

Is issuing a "Citizen's Arrest" really legal, and legitimate? Barney did it, Preston seems to think he can do it, and Nehemiah has a few stories.
We were driving home on Easter Sunday from Beech Grove, Indiana after visiting Val because Jim is back for a week or 2. We drank beer and wine and had a nice time. So Jordan was driving P's car and he was in the back seat with his cooler, and I was in the front. We stopped at Gas America in Greenfield to gas up and he got out to pump. Meanwhile, Jordan and I were gawking at the chic at the next pump, who had huge boobs bulging out of a hot pink top with no neckline, and Tammy Faye make up on. She went inside, and so did P for some strange reason, as he always pays at the pump. Pretty soon here she came out again, and P was following. He runs up to the door and ordered Jordan into the back seat, jumps in and we rip out of there, pulling out in front of oncoming traffic, P revving the engine so hard it sort of just bogged out. So back onto I70 WEST we go, chasing the car. P was on the phone to the cashier at the store listing off the type of car, description of the driver and passenger and the plate number. He kept switching lanes and speeding right on their bumper in an extremely obvious, maniacle manner. They became aware we were chasing them and kept switching lanes and driving crazy trying to get away from us. So by the time we got to Post Rd, they pretended they weren't getting off, then at the last second they swerved over and up the ramp. We were right on their bumper and at the top of the ramp they slammed on the brakes, P slammed on them too, pulling up right beside them. She flew out of the car and P was literally out the window to his waist, yelling at her "ARE YOU GOING TO PAY FOR THE ******* GAS YOU JUST PUMPED?!!! YOU DIDN"T PAY, YOU KNOW YOU DIDN"T, IT WAS 36$...... She yelled that she did pay with a credit card, and he yelled NO YOU DIDN"T ARE YOU GOING TO PAY FOR IT? I ALREADY CALLED THE COPS AND THEY ARE GOING TO BE ON YOU, THEY KNOW WHERE YOU ARE AND YOUR DESCRIPTION, THEY ARE GOING TO GET YOU>>>all the while waving and pointing his Blackberry at her.
Can you imagine what that looked like? They of course had no idea who he was, they probably just thought he was some nutty, self- appointed, eye-wittness type character who goes around, enraged, trying to right all the wrongs in the world.
Did I mention that he had been drinking a beer in the back seat before all this transpired? Anyway, they took off, driving crazy and P decided to give it up since Jordan got really upset and told him to stop it. I don't think anything came of it, because we haven't heard a thing, even though the cashier did report it and give the description and plate number. But it was crazy, and this isn't the first time he'd done this sort of thing.
He can sense a drive-off probably 100% of the time. He can tell the set up, the look of the situation, the people, the whole thing. So he had gone inside just to see if she was going to pay when she went in, and she didn't. She went to the bathroom and then left, and he checked the pump on his way out to be sure. They hadn't paid.
When he was just a manager at Speedway, I would find rocks in his pockets. He kept them in there in case he had to chase any drive offs. He would park the Monte Carlo so he could run out and peel out down Highschool Road to chase DO's. He actually pulled 2 guys over once, and they ended up giving him all the money they had, which didn't cover the amount they had pumped, but still...
When he worked at Quality Farm and Fleet, he and a few other employees ended up out in the parking lot chasing a car around, trying to block it in the lot, after the occupants stole a bag of hammers. They finally started throwing the hammers out of the car, as they frantically tried to get out of the lot, and P finally had to let them go before someone got ran over.
He was in the back room of a Speedway when it got robbed one time, and he ran out the door after them and nearly got run over by the get-away car.
Jordan told Nehemiah about it and he then proceeded to tell her all about his days as a Secret Shopper and all of the people he chased and caught stealing.
Everybody wants to be a cop!

I'm An Alien From Planet Right Brain

I was at work in the break room last week and I was knitting on my gloves and a coworker asked what I was making. I told her and she said she can crochet, but knitting never applealed to her. We discussed that, and how I used to feel the same until I tried it, etc... Then another co-worker, male, said something about it, can't remember, which prompted me to say: "It is a "right brained" activity. It stimulates the right side of your brain, whereas most everyday tasks are left-brained." There was a moment of silence, and I sensed that someone was going to ask the ''college'' question, but they didn't.
It is fun to just blurt out something "off the wall" like that, 'off the wall' to most people that is.

Just mentioning a word or topic that isn't an everyday, mundane routine idea, instantly confuses people. Most of society are Left Brained thinkers. The left side of their brain dominates. Right Brained thinkers have a dominant Right side of the brain, and are often said to "think outside of the box." Anyway, I found some interesting articles about the subject of left brain vs. right brain. I'm still doing reasearch and trying to find more info about it. It is so fascinating, and further explains why all the brainwashing about Drs., medicine, and schools works on most people. The first article tells about Albert Einstein and a few other people who were "Right Brained", and who were mistakenly labeled as LD because of their learning styles.
The second article explains some interesting things about the brain itself and how it works.
A third article discusses learning styles and differences between how right brains and left brains function in day to day tasks.
It is interesting how Jonas Salk had to function in school. He had to study and figure out all the work and lessons in a way that he understood it, NOT how the school taught it. Then he filled in the answers and worksheet to the "teacher's specifications." So it looked like he was learning the way the teachers taught, but he wasn't. He learned to play the school game, so to speak. Anyway this hit home with me, I had and still have a hard time understanding the WAY teachers and text books teach. Especially MATH. I've spent some time lately working with Jordan on her math books, and I keep getting enraged because the books don't explain WHY you do this or that. It just shows examples, but you don't know where a number came from in the first place, which paralyzes my brain. So, I've had to do a bunch of reasearch online and figure out how and why things are, then I have to go back and help her ''show her work'', backwards from how we actually came up with the answer, the way the book wants you to. It has nothing to do with finding the answer for me! So we play the game, because if you don't 'show your work' in the space provided, you get the problem marked wrong, even if you have the correct answer!! All they care about is forcing you to jump through the hoop, instead of being satisfied that you are able to discover the correct answers. And using a calculator is totally acceptable in my opinion also, if you 'know how'' to find an answer to a problem it shouldn't matter how you do it. Finding the answer is all that matters.
The article on Einstein said this same thing about him and math. He labored over trying to show his work, becuase he didn't understand it the way the books taught. He found the answer, or just 'knew' the answer but went bonkers trying to show the process of how to arrive at the answer in the manner the books taught it. He was expelled as a hopeless case, totally Learning Disabled in the teacher's opinion.
I'm not saying I'm a genuis or anything, just because I can totally identify with this exact frustration....
I'm sure that P is a left brain, and dad too. That is why everytime you ask one of them to explain anything to you, or they are trying to ask you something, they ask or tell it in a way that seems backwards to me. P is always doing this! When I proofread his written documents for work sometimes, I find that he spends most of the time trying to explain WHY this is the way it is, before telling what it is that he's talking about! So you feel dizzy like you are meandering along a crazy path and have no idea where it is going, as he never has stated what the main point is yet! It is quite entertaining at times.

For example, he called me recently while on his way to a small town in Northern Indiana to do a PP presentation. He first asked this: "Where is that map of Indiana you had out a few weeks ago?" I said I didn't know, as I was running through the house searching for it. He said "You just had it out, it was on the island in the kitchen. Don't you use it all the time? Did you put it back in your car? Is it in the drawer...?", growing impatient. "I don't remember", I said as I frantically searched and racked my brain to think of when it was I had supposedly had it on the counter and why. Finally I said "Why do you need that map?", thinking he may have had some notes or particular markings on it, or directions or a phone number written on it somewhere.
He said "I need to know how far so-and-so town is before you get to Warsaw."
Instead of just asking me what he REALLY wanted to know, he starts with asking me a question that was totally irrelevent to the situation. He begins with the mechanics of sending me on a safari to locate the map, instead of getting to the real point and just letting me decide how I would look it up! haha I'd been online when he called in the first place, so I could have easily just looked it up on Mapquest which is what I ended up doing anyway!

In one of the above articles, Barbara Pytel said: "Breaking things down into little chunks where you can not see the big picture drives right brains nuts." Exactly!!

Anyway it is all about accepting that there is more than one 'right' (no pun intended) way to do things. Everyone is programmed to believe there is only one way to do things, the way the school does it, or the way some 'expert' has developed.
If I can see a way to the answer or end of a situation, I don't understand why one needs to jump through a bunch of bothersome, boring, time-wasting hoops to arrive there, just to prove to someone else that you arrived there in an accepted manner. Like getting a diploma, just to prove to someone you have jumped through all the hoops. Most people are pretty good at jumping through the hoops, but in the end that's about all they can do. It is much more fulfilling and entertaining to figure out a way around the hoop jumping yourself, while at the same time devising a way to accomodate others to make them THINK they are jumping through all the right hoops, since they can't function unless they've jumped through and are assured that you have also!
Does that make any sense? It will to everyone living on Planet Right Brain!

From Titanium To The Tango

I took Marlene to Dr P's on Thursday and discovered some more interesting facts about pharmaceuticals and medical proceedures. Marlene's "blue" flashes of light and specks that have been plaguing her since she used the Restasis eye drops was caused BY the eye drops. Apparently, there is some sort of blue 'dye' in it, which penetrated the surface of her eyes and is now floating around in there, and clogging up her tear ducts so they can't flush it out. It shows that even the seemingly most innocent common medicines contain elements that actually cause major damage to the body. I think it is a conspiracy to keep everyone on SOME kind of medicine, keep them going to Drs. and keep them imprisoned by insurance companies.
Then, we discovered that her ankle is really fractured, not just sprained as the X-rays supposedly showed 6 weeks ago. The injury is 0% healed, as if she just broke it yesterday. Sitting home in that boot for 6 weeks did absolutely nothing for it, and the physical therapy that the Dr. orderd actually made it worse! Dr. P found that when she fell, she threw her hip out and until that is re-aligned by the chiropractor, the ankle won't heal.
So, now, she is in the Dr/Insurance trap. Because the Dr. instructed her to take physical therapy, she has to do it or the Dr. can report it to her insurance company and they can drop her for not complying with the Dr's. orders. So she is going to tell her Dr. that she has had to change Drs., and then tell the Physical Therapy place that she is no longer under that Dr's. care, so she won't be coming back. I hope it works...
Then Dr. P told us about a sister at her hall who has been having terrible knee problems and excruciating pain. The med. Dr. had done all kinds of things to it, and finally told her there was absolutely nothing that could be done now, she had to have knee replacement surgery, to have it replaced with a fake knee made of Titanium. Dr. P begged her not to do it, and told her she could fix the problem. "Just trust me", she said "I KNOW what I'm talking about!" She did an extensive testing of it, and found that it was really a large ball of acid and syph-sych, ABOVE the knee joint, and wasn't the knee at all. The woman let her treat it, and took all of the program and suffered alot of pain while it was coming out and repairing. Wednesday when Dr. P saw her, the woman ran up to her and started *dancing* and jumping around, ecstatic that the pain and problem was GONE and she did not have any surgery!! Isn't that hysterical?
Well, I haven't written anything about Grandma and her recent saga of medical reactions. More on that later. She has been taking EPO or Procrit for ''anemia", and here is an interesting article about this treatment. The article clearly proves that the billions of dollars being made off of these drugs is of paramount concern. Once again, the FDA has goofed up, perhaps even knowingly, and ''discovered'' that the drugs are actually dangerous to your health. Marlene and I were discussing this on Thursday, she said look at how many times the FDA has been wrong and approved some medication only to find out that it is severly dangerous to your health. Alot of times they discover this because a bunch of people end up dieing from them! It has happened so often that in my book if the FDA has approved it, you better not take it because more than likely it is going to poison you.
Dr. P said she would like to do a study of people who have taken Restasis to see how many of them have severe tear duct blockages.
An example I just thought of is a comparison between Gramma and Marlene. Marlene has never taken much medicine, never taken blood pressure meds or cholesterol meds etc... And she is in great health especially for her age. Gramma, on the other hand, has lived on medicine for years and look at the state she is in. I'm sure that MOST of her problems are from all the meds. Tony has never taken these kinds of meds either, and now that he's started taking some he has signs of the effects. He is slowed down, and his appearance has aged quite a bit. I know he's 86, but my point is that the visible signs began soon after he started taking meds regularly.
Dr. P was telling us how unbelieveable the human body is in repairing itself. She told us of a documentary she saw about the eye, and how every morning the very surface of the eyeball ''burns'' off in order to expose a new, fresh viewing film for the day. She wants to get the video of it to show in the office.

Hecatomb In The Hospital

Well, I decided to start a new post since the previous one got so long. I just got an email from a friend with an update on her poor mother's condition. The first email update I got about 2 weeks ago describing the surgery she was about to undergo was enough to give anyone nightmares. It described how she was going to have her esophagus removed and her stomach re-attached ''in her throat". I've since erased that email, but the current update report goes something like this: The surgery went well, and took 6 hours. The Dr.s are pleased. They had to cut out a bunch of scar tissue that was growing on her lungs and aorta from all the chemo and radiation treatments. Oh, and there is a clump of ''Yuk" stuck in her throat/windpipe and lungs that they are trying to get out, and THIS is making her mother quite nervous......and she adds that her mother has become a "little depressed".....
I'll stop now, but are we talking about a "health care" proceedure here, performed by men and women who claim to be experts on the human body, or a Carnage101 class for the new butchers at the local slaughterhouse? Don't misunderstand me, I feel sorry for Paula and her mother and my heart goes out to her family, but it is really astonishing that people are so BRAINWASHED that they agree to allow themselves to be butchered by these people just because they claim to be an expert on the human body. Well, I'd think any expert should know that the stomach won't function properly if it is relocated to the neck. Even I know that, and I didn't go to college.
Jordan once said one of the people she most admires is Hitler. Not for all the horrors he was responsible for, but that he was able to gain complete control over SO many people. It is fascinating to her that one man could accomplish this on such a huge scale. And it is, from a psychological point of view. Now days, medical Dr.s have done just that. First, people were convinced that going to school/college makes you intelligent, and the longer you go the smarter you are. There they are taught that in order to learn anything you have to be taught by someone else who is an EXPERT or a TEACHER, and to wait for one of them to tell you what to do and when, and then they will tell you whether it is acceptable or not.
This idea was elaborated on in the book I read several years ago called "Punished By Rewards", by Alfie Kohn. It gave examples of studies that were done where average citizens were invited to participate in experiments at a place that appeared to be a medical office or educational facility. One of the experiments had the volunteer sit at an official looking control panel with dials and guages and buttons. They were told that the device was hooked up to a person in another room, whom they could see through a glass window. They were told that the machine would emit electrical volts and currents to the individual on the other end. They were then told that no matter what the connected person said or how loud they screamed that the currents weren't hurting them and to continue to raise the level at certain intervals when instructed to. The researchers found that many of the volunteers were willing to keep raising the volts, even when the recipient screamed and yelled and begged them to stop (they were also volunteers, just acting the part). The voltage administers were even more willing to turn up the power if the instructor was wearing a 'white coat' and appeared to be a DR, or was called DR. so and so.
Common sense seems to go out the window when a Dr. is present.
This brings me to the next topic about the studies of the Right Brain/Left Brain theories, which I will put in a new post!

Back to the Diploma issue. Recently, in light of the discussion between Jordan and I about getting her into Cosmetology with a Homeschool Diploma, we have been more aware of everyday people who probably have a High School Diploma and how dumb they are. One is the person we both know who recently started Cosmetology. She has a Diploma... And then she happened to tell us about another student from the previous semester, who either has a Diploma, or was a vocational student attending High School. Apparently after the lesson on Hair Extensions this student went home to practice, but instead of using the hot glue intended for Hair Extensions she just heated Super Glue in the microwave and applied them with that. Needless to say this resulted in a large bald spot after removing the extensions, because Super Glue won't come out. I think even a small child who has experienced gluing their fingers together with Super Glue would be smart enough to know not to put it in their hair. How do these people even make it to High School? Well, I do know how they make it, actually. The same way all the other masses did.
I came across an updated list of famous/successful Homeschooled persons, so I thought I would list them now. The point behind the fact that they were 'homeschooled', is that they were allowed to learn what they wanted or needed to learn instead of being forced into the dumbed-down mould of an institutionalized setting. Society now recognizes them as notable for their accomplishments, intelligence or genius.
Famous People Who Homeschooled

Educators
Frank Vandiver (President - Texas A&M)
Fred Terman (President - Stanford)
William Samuel Johnson (President Columbia)
John Witherspoon (President of Princeton)

Generals
Stonewall Jackson
Robert E. Lee
Douglas MacArthur
George Patton

Inventors
Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Edison
Cyrus McCormick
Orville Wright & Wilbur Wright

Artists
Claude Monet
Leonardo da Vinci
Jamie Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth
John Singleton Copley

Presidents
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
John Quincy Adams
James Madison
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Abraham Lincoln
Theordore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Scientists
George Washington Carver
Pierre Curie
Albert Einstein
Booker T. Washington
Blaise Pascal

Statesmen
Konrad Adenauer
Winston Churchill
Benjamin Franklin
Patrick Henry
William Penn
Henry Clay

United States Supreme Court Judges
John Jay
John Marshall
John Rutledge

Composers
Irving Berlin
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Anton Bruckner
Felix Mendelssohn
Francis Poulenc

Writers
Hans Christian Anderson
Charles Dickens
Brett Harte
Mark Twain
Sean O'Casey
Phillis Wheatley
Mercy Warren
Pearl S. Buck
Agatha Christie
C.S. Lewis
George Bernard Shaw

Religious leaders
Joan of Arc
Brigham Young
John & Charles Wesley
Jonathan Edwards
John Owen
William Cary
Dwight L. Moody
John Newton

Others
Charles Chaplin - Actor
George Rogers Clark - Explorer
Andrew Carnegie - Industrialist
Noel Coward - Playwright
John Burroughs - Naturalist
Bill Ridell - Newspaperman
Will Rogers - Humorist
Albert Schweitzer - Physician
Tamara McKinney - World Cup Skier
Jim Ryan - World Runner
Ansel Adams - Photographer
Charles Louis Montesquieu - philosopher
John Stuart Mill - Economist
John Paul Jones - father of the American Navy
Florence Nightingale - nurse
Clara Barton - started the Red Cross
Abigail Adams - wife of John Adams
Martha Washington - wife of George W.

Constitutional Convention Delegates
George Washington - 1st President of the U.S.
Madison - 4th President of the U.S.
John Witherspoon - President of Princeton U.
Benjamin Franklin - inventor and statesman
William S. Johnson - President of Columbia
C. George Clymer - U.S. Representative
Charles Pickney III - Governor of S. Carolina
John Francis Mercer - U.S. Representative
George Wythe - Justice of Virginia High Court
William Blount - U.S. Senator
Richard D. Spaight - Governor of N. Carolina
John Rutledge - Chief Justice U.S. Supr Court
William Livingston - Governor of New Jersey
Richard Basset - Governor of Delaware
William Houston - lawyer
William Few - U.S. Senator
George Mason