Dairy Queen

3:36:12 PM EDT

I still think I am in a dream.  This week doesn't seem real.  Maybe I'll wake up soon.

From the time I was born, I always had many people in my life.  Most of them were my parents friends, or children of my parents friends.  Many of those friends met my parents when my mom was carrying me.

I was born on a farm, as was my younger brother.  Those were happy times.  I remember the house, if only vaguely.  I remember spending time with my grandma and papa...they lived in the small town near our farm.

We moved to *the City* before I started kindergarten.  My mom wanted me to go to school in a bigger city than she had.  During that year, I played with my school friends.  I thought it was cool to live so close to other people.  I could actually walk to my best friend's apartment in a couple minutes, less when I ran!

That year, like the preceding, money was tight.  My mom got a part time job and sent us to day care.  The lady who took care of us was my mother's best friend.  She was a little older than my mom, so her children were a little older than us.  The summer was the best because we got to swim in their pool!

We moved again.  I don't know why, I'll have to ask my mom.  But we ended up five blocks from my mother's best friend's house.  My brother told me yesterday that the reason our parents bought that house was because it was so close to CL.  Makes sense.  I am a bit younger than my mom was at that time...I would have moved closer to my best friend if I had the chance.

My mom started her own day care in that house...sometime during my first grade year.  There were always children running about the house and yard.  I helped out when I wanted to or when mom required me to do so.  I had a big room all to myself with pink walls and red carpet.  I loved it.  My family and my mother's charges spent most of every summer at CL's pool.  It was close, kept us kids occupied and let the two mom's talk.  (I don't think most people understand how lonely a person gets by spending the entire day with little one's and their needs.)

My youngest brother was born the summer after I turned eight.  The house we lived in had only three bedrooms, but a big unfinished basement.  One of my father's friends built houses, so they started in on making a bedroom and bathroom in the basement.  I think that was the only way they could find to make me give up my room.  I loved my pink room, but it was next door to my parent's room and they wanted to put the new baby there.  So they made the new bedroom in the basement for me.  With blue walls.  We all have to grow up sometime.

I wanted a sister.  The doctor said this baby would probably be a boy.  My parents didn't know how to tell me because I was set on a sister.  But the doctor had said it might be the foot up there and one of the toes that they had seen.  My parents told me that and I told everyone else that my baby sister's foot was making the doctor think she was a boy...like I understood any of it!

My younger brother and I stayed with CL and her family as my parents went to the hospital.  I remember being in the kitchen between 10 pm and midnight.  Someone was talking on the phone.  We talked with either my mother or my father.  I don't recall.  Mom says she was awake and talked with us.  Someone was holding someone...since I was eight, I don't think I was being held, maybe DR (CL's husband) was holding my brother (who was almost six).

We spent ten years in that house.  If I wasn't at home or school, I was at CL's house and probably in the pool.  We were over there all the time. 

When my mom left the house to get away from us kids (whom she had been with ALL day), she was either at CL's house or at the mall with CL.  They loved to shop even more than they loved to talk.

We went on vacation together.  Sometimes it was just to the lakes nearby.  Once, at least, we went to a tourist trap together when my youngest brother was in a stroller.  My mom always took lots of pictures of us.  There is a picture of my mom and I near one of the statues from that vacation that looks similar to a picture taken of CL and her daughter near one of the other statues.  We went to Colorado together.  I don't remember how old I was, I just remember seeing animals.

We celebrated holidays together.  Not all of them, but many.  New Year's Eve, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day were all days we had plans for, set in stone.  At CL's house.  The summer holidays were for fireworks (on the fourth), food, family, fun, and fun by/in the pool.  New Year's Eve was the holiday where us kids would be left at home (with a babysitter, till we got older) so they could play cards and talk about us kids.  I remember dropping by there once when I was older.  I felt so out of place that I went home.  The New Year's celebration was always for the parents.  I think we celebrated Christmas with them a couple times.  To this day, I haven't celebrated Christmas with people who weren't my family, except CL's family...but they were family.

I knew most of CL's family, or at least the ones who lived close enough to come to the pool parties.  Her mom and sister (and her family), DR's dad and brother (and his family).  DR's niece and I played together during these times, since we were so close in age.

I don't remember much, growing up, about CL's son.  He was older.  He was always nice, but not around us a lot.  He has a family of his own now and works with my dad.

My parents met CL and DR at church.  It was a very important part of our lives.  CL led the song service for years.  I think that is the reason I wanted to be a singer for so long.  She was my second mother and I respected her.

Easter was always my favorite holiday as a child.  Except that I had to wear a dress, the day was always perfect.  Easter meant that CL was going to sing a special song.  I loved listening to her sing.

CL used to french braid my hair.  She did so many times, I think mostly for when I was in the pool or when we were going somewhere and a ponytail just wouldn't cut it.  I remember that minutes after she was done I would have a headache.  But it always looked wonderful!

CL and DR were our youth leaders for a while at church.  I don't remember much about that.  They were just more in our lives than before.  That was okay with me.  Then they started going to a different church.  I remember that they sat down with us to let us know what was going on.  There was a problem that they wouldn't explain.  They let us know that they wanted to stay for us, that they truly cared about us and it wasn't us they were leaving.

This was somewhere near my tenth grade year.  So much happened that year.  I know my parents felt the same way that CL and DR did about the problem at the church.  I heard about some of it when my mom and I would be shopping with her friends.  My mom wanted to leave, but didn't want to *follow CL*.  She was sure that everyone who knew her would think that.  My mom was afraid of someone labeling her as a groupie, I guess.  My dad took us kids to different churches to find one we liked.  My younger brother liked the one CL attended, and that was a big deal for him and for my parents.  My mother didn't like it that the one place my younger brother felt right about was the one place she didn't want to be.

We moved again that year.  Five blocks closer to my high school, into a bigger house.  The only person that I remember being there was CL.  That's because I was upset that we moved and she helped me make my bed for that first night in the new house.

My mother and CL started to drift apart.  I didn't notice for the longest time because CL was still a big part of my life due to church activities.  When I did notice, I was sad for my mom and CL.  They were so much apart of each other's lives for so long.  I couldn't imagine anything big enough to separate them.

CL told me sometime after I graduated high school that my younger brother loved me and didn't want me to go away.  My family has never been good about expressing those kinds of things to each other.  I knew she was right because she said it.  She always had known what my family was thinking or going through at any point in time.  She knew.  I believed her.

Then CL was diagnosed with cancer.  I couldn't believe it.  The person who had done so much for me and my family was sick and I couldn't fix it.  It made me sad...and mad.  I didn't know what to do, so I did nothing.  I wish I had been the friend to her that she was to me.  I just didn't know how.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer.  I didn't know what to do about that either.

I was on my own and didn't think much about my family or friends who had always been there for me.

My mom came to see me at work Monday night.  She had a coworker track me down.  She never does that.  If she can't find me, she'll call me later.  She told me that CL died that morning.  That all the pain for CL was over.  That even though I wanted to see her that I wouldn't want to remember her that way.  That CL wouldn't want me to remember her that way.

I cleaned out my car.  I washed and vacuumed it.  I respected her too much to attend this last event as I would any other.

The funeral was Friday.  It's Saturday now.  I have spent this whole week crying.  Crying for a friend, a dear friend, that I hadn't seen in so long.  A friend who was such a big part of my life I don't know what to do now.  My heart has been ripped in two and torn from my chest.  I can't think.  Tomorrow seems so far away and yesterday a dream.

I tried so hard not to cry when I met with the family.  I tried and I failed.  A good friend told me that we hurt as much as we have loved.  That rings true today.

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3:36:36 AM EDT

If you are a *leftie-loonie-liberal*, you refer to the person as *outside the mainstream*.  That one phrase packs a punch, so to speak.

Anyone with a heartbeat who holds views to the right of Bill *the god of campaigning* Clinton, the liberals say you are outside the mainstream.  To them, liberal thinking is the mainstream.  (Who got the highest number of votes in a Presidential Election?  Bush?  Who's that?  Right, the cowboy who stole the election.)

Reality is a foreign concept for most liberal thinking people in the 21st century.  Their reality is that since Bush didn't federalize LA after Katrina proves that he is anti-black.  Huh?  If Bush had federalized LA, the same talking heads would have said Bush was anti-black.

Is this really the kind of thinking we, as citizens of these United States and potenial victims of natural disasters, want to be pervasive in the hearts and minds of our leaders?  I am going to take a leap and say *no*.

When I move to a tropical storm area and diaster strikes, I want to know that the leaders I elected are doing what I pay them to do.  I want them to know how to handle a crisis.  I want them to be able to say *Hey, these are ruff times, but we are going to do all we can to help you get back up on your feet again.* 

*To be continued...*

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3:37:54 PM EDT

...that he has made my list of *stupid people who talk about things they don't know* longer.

(Think Nancy, but a slower speaker and FAR removed from camera ready.)

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3:03:49 PM EDT

Aid, aid, and more aid.

Need aid anyone, let us know and you'll get it.

And if I haven't said so today, Mr. President:

   *Good on you.  God bless you.  God bless America.*

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2:57:06 PM EDT

Can I get an *Amen*?

How can someone say things like: When debate is stifled and dissent is snuffed out, the result is appalling legislation - such as a special interest energy bill that fails to curb skyrocketing gas prices and a prescription drug bill that serves the needs of the HMOs and drugs companies, rather than America's seniors.  and not realize that it is the party to which she belongs that is doing just that.  She has no common sence to believe that and then say that (paraphased) a republican led commission looking into Katrina and the problems thereof is a joke.  Hello?  Anyone home?  Someone doing Something is enough at this point.  If the republicans did NOT show interest in finding out what went wrong this politician would be screaming.  Nothing is good enough for them, every word out of their mouths is proof of that.

She says that this disaster in the Gulf *is not about politics*, yet why must I endure her face and voice on my TV?  If this is not about politics, why the hell does she think she needs to be heard?

...

But she repeats herself.  And don't you know that *now is not the time to be partisan...it's all the Bush Administration's fault.*

Well then, thank you for enlightening me.  I think I'll go bang my head against a wall.

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1:17:07 PM EDT

What is going on here?  Are the Texans after the blacks or something?  Why else would *holier-than-thou* Al go there?  Oh, bashing Bush?  Well, yeah.

So I can die now.  I've heard it all.  The world is going to end...because it's true!

*Thanks Gunny*

 

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10:15:24 AM EDT

I don't like time zones.  They may be functional, but they are too hard of a topic for me to process most days.

Like today.

See, my dear friend from BCT and her family just moved this summer.  Into yet another time zone.  I don't remember how I kept up on the time when she was in Hawaii and me in the central time zone.  After Hawaii, her husband was stationed in TX.  WOOT!!!  No problem then.  And since she's an early bird (military + kids), calling at *zero-dark-thirty* wasn't a problem.

Now, they are in Washington State.  Um, and I just called to check in...as it's been a couple months since we've talked.  It's 9am here, which means it's 7am, on a Sunday.

Ouch.

Yeah, I woke up her husband.  He didn't seem to upset, but I feel horrid!  "We've been here for two and half weeks"...or something like that.

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10:02:26 AM EDT

Villainous Company: Cindy Sheehan Has No Personal "Right" To Petition

Well, it looks as though the moonbats have come out to play.  There must be an inborn reaction that occurs in liberals that causes them to seek out honest people and unleash the filth written by DUmmies.  The thread was hijacked by the stupid left wingers (aka *we don't answer questions, we ask questions which MUST be answered and make accusations* ).  But Cassandra knows her stuff.  It's of no use to mess with her.

**************

Eugene, to a point, I sympathize with your frustration.

But we don't ever *have* to cut and run.

That is a political decision. In Vietnam it is widely acknowledged that we were on the verge of victory when we left. That is the true tragedy of that war - that after 55000 deaths, we than left the South Vietnamese at the mercy of a cruel foe who stepped in and slaughtered them.

Today, Vietnam is one of the worst global human rights abusers. That wave of boat people after Saigon fell was no accident. The Senate just condemned their religious persecution of Christians and Buddhists and protesters recently.

The reason we keep giving up is that our own free society allows the anti-war Left to agitate so much that it saps the will of the people so that we have no will to finish what we start.

We are a spoiled and complacent people. And the sad truth is that despite all our whining and whinging about honesty in government, if government IS honest with us, if they tell us the truth, we don't back them when they try to do the right thing in the world anymore.

We truly get the government we deserve.

RE: Bush "declaring victory" - that is total BS. The Mission Accomplished statement was not a declaration that the war was over. A "mission" is not an entire war, as anyone in the military knows. It is a specific military term - if a plane goes out to bomb a town, they don't think they've won an entire war.

The press and the Democrats have lied and blown that whole thing out of proportion and the American public bought it hook, line, and sinker because they're ignorant of military jargon. The mission to oust Saddam *had*, indeed, BEEN ACCOMPLISHED, and there was absolutely nothing inappropriate about the President, their Commander-in-Chief, thanking his military for a job well done. We knew what he meant.

And it's pretty damned churlish for the press and a bunch of civilians to carp and snark about it, if you ask me.

If you'd been listening to Bush's speeches, he has said OVER AND OVER that this WOULDN'T BE EASY. That it WOULDN'T BE QUICK. That it WOULD TAKE YEARS TO COMPLETE.

The press has repeated lies like that stupid cakewalk quote, which, by the way, was NOT said by anyone in Bush's cabinet or even his staff BUT BY KEN ADELMAN, A RETIRED GUY FROM THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION WHO WROTE A COLUMN IN THE WASHINGTON POST FOR GOD'S SAKE! WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT HE THINKS???

Yet Bush has been dogged by that quote for years as though he or someone who worked for him said it. And ignorant people who can't even use Google keep repeating it like it was the Holy Gospel.

We did defeat Iraq in a number of days - 3 weeks to be exact. But taking ground and holding are two different things. The reconstruction of Germany and Japan and the post-war South took YEARS, not mere months.

Open a history book. We have become a nation of wimps. We are the world's most powerful and richest nation.

Democracy is the best defense against terrorism and international aggression. Democracies are peaceful neighbors - THEY DON'T START WARS AND THEY DON'T FEED PEOPLE INTO PLASTIC SHREDDERS. THEY DON'T GAS THEIR OWN PEOPLE. Saddam had started two wars already and was funding terrorists left and right, but most people don't bother to learn the facts.

If we don't step up to the plate to champion democratic ideals, a vaccuum is created. Nature (and politics) abhors a vaccum - someone will step in to fill the void, and I guarantee you it will not be someone good. Among the world's greatest armies by combat power:

United States
China
Israel
India
Russia
Korea, South
Korea, North
United Kingdom
Turkey
Pakistan
Iran

Europe doesn't care. They wouldn't even step in to save Bosnia in their own back yard.
Israel has their hands full just keeping the Palestinians from overrunning them.
Russia is in chaos.
South Korea is a poor nation and spends all her time watching N. Korea

That leaves China - that great respecter of human rights.
Or perhaps you'd rather see North Korea?
Turkey?
Pakistan?
India?
Iran?

Is that the world you want to leave to your grandchildren? In a world with nuclear bombs, we can no longer afford to be isolationists.

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8:26:50 AM EDT

I am sure.  There will be another revolution in this country.  The *Anti-Freedom Protest* is condemning this nation to *Death By Islam*.

When will enough be enough?  When will those who KNOW we are being lied to by the *Yellow Stream Media* realize that the time for action has arrived?  We have a WHOLE PARTY of people who are traitors.  Call it immaturity, BDS, BS, whatever...this needs to stop.

It's one thing to disagree.  I can live peacefully with those I disagree with.  It Is Something Else to undermine your country during a time of war wherein the enemies ARE NOT RATIONAL and prone to bloodshed for immoral and unnatural cultish ideas.

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7:22:41 AM EDT

Meanwhile Back In Der Fatherland...

...That German desires to allow Iran to finish Hitler's goal.  And any who agree with that German desire the same thing.

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