Perfection

The Obsession of Perfection

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Today I got an text message from a former co-worker wanting to talk. We had kinda lost touch so I scheduled some time this evening. Our talk turned out to be a 3 hour long conversation.

Seems she has been clinically depressed for about a month. She had gotten so obsessed with perfection that she wound up making a big mistake.

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She had been having acne breakouts and wanted her face to be perfect to the point that she tried some prescription medication. The medication burned her skin to the point that it left a bleach spot on her face. This then lead to her not leaving the house, not wanting to be seen out in public, not wanting to be seen by anyone at all. This girl is so beautiful inside and out that it hurt me that she was hurting. Women I'm sure you all know that we are such nurturing souls we cant hear or see our friends go through any type of hurt without it hurting us too. It hurt me because like I said this girl was, and I'm sure still is, beautiful. Of course she does have a beautiful face, but she also has a body to die for and she is a real and genuine person on the inside to boot. Her Dr. as well as I assured her it would all be okay. I also assured her that her life was not at an end because of this imperfection. Also she told me that the Dr. had told her that her face would heal and the bleach spot would no longer be visible in time. Which lead me to the thought of.....

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Why do we do this, why do we become so obsessed with being perfect. No one is perfect, we all know this, but still we try. We see all the models who have professionals do their make up and hair, have you ever seen Oprah without her makeup and hair done! It makes a BIG DIFFERENCE! Then you have the women who have the money and time to have personal trainers and go to the gym everyday and have killer bodies, give me a break! I mean of course I would like a personal trainer, but I have neither the money or time for this. Then you see the super thin models with their HUGE breast implants!! Who can look like this naturally? NO ONE!!!! Sure I will be the first one to admit I want implants and I am on the way to getting them. I have wanted breast implants since the age 18!! That is a dream of mine as well as a goal I have set for myself and I set it a LONG time ago. You can bet that I am damn sure gonna get them. But that is just me. Some people want the perfect face, or the perfect body, or both. But no one really talks about the perfect soul.

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I think we should all look at our assets and build upon them. Have confidence in who you are. Do you know when I was really overweight (220 lbs at 5'2) I hated going out in public. I felt really bad in anything that I wore because I was so big. Then once I went to a concert and saw someone bigger than me but they looked good. This was confusing to me because they weren't the perfect weight, they didn't have the perfect body or face, so what was it that they had?

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It was that they had confidence! They had the confidence to wear what they wanted and because of their confidence they looked good in what they wore. Their spirit from the inside shown through to their outer being. I'm sure you have all experienced this, you see someone, they are not perfect but they have tons of attention from the opposite gender because of their confidence!!

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As well as I'm sure you have seen that man or woman with the perfect body and the perfect face and they are ugly on the inside. I have met a few of those and once I found out their personalities, and who they were on the inside, they were no longer attractive.

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All in all its really who you are on the inside that counts. Maybe you are not a super model but you are a beautiful person and because this beauty shines through you attract many people. So be proud of who you are. Hold your head up high, have confidence in yourself, and people will notice!!

Halloween Censorship?

Your Never Gonna Believe This....

It was brought to my attention that one of my friends John (J.D.) Diego is being harassed by locals in his hometown because of his Halloween decor.

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My reaction to this is REALLY? ARE YOU SERIOUS?

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But someone is serious.

GiGi Bibeault, one of the neighbors found his display so offensive that she called the chief of police office hoping to file a hate crime complaint. Bibeault said she called because of one of the props in J.D.'s yard. The prop is of a Nun with a gas mask on holding crucifix in one hand and holding onto the spine of a skeleton with the other hand.

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"That's offensive to me" said Bibeault.

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Officials have responded by sending a city inspector to J.D's home to inspect the Halloween decorations to see if there are any health, safety or zone violations. The inspector found no violations.

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On the other hand there are neighbors like Caroline Nelson who's children 6-4 and 2yrs old are big fans and go by every night to see the display.

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"They can't wait to see J.D.'s Halloween house. You see the same sort of thing when you go into a Halloween store. They certainly are not scared by it and they do not have nightmares about it. It's over the top, there's no question, but its fun."

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I have to agree with Caroline. That is what its all about, fun! I wish I lived in J.D.'s neighborhood. I would love to go by and admire his work, and take my daughter along as well. I know I love to decorate my apt at Halloween. Right now on my front patio I have purple lights, masks, creepy looking pumpkins, witches brooms and hats, a pitchfork and numerous other things and people are coming by to admire it. I have lots of children in my neighborhood and not one parent has said it was "too scary". No one has complained at all!!! Believe me in my apt complex if someone had complained I would have heard about it. We all get to dress up on Halloween in whatever we choose, why all the controversy about how J.D. has dressed up his house? It's ludicrous, it's absurd, and just down right stupid in my opinion to create such an outcry of how someone decorates for Halloween!!!

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J.D.'s reaction to all of this is that he loves Halloween and when he got his house he wanted to do something for the kids.

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He says "A lot of the props are from movies that I found scary when I was kid and I just wanted to give them a platform. I didn't invent the holiday, its all in fun, I'm doing this for the kids."

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What is this world coming to? Don't these people complaining have anything better to complain about? Apparently not. What a life, with the economy being the way it is, and the only thing they have to complain about is a Halloween display down the street? Geeeezzzzeeee

If only my life were so complicated.....?!?!?!?!

Ghost Adventures - See The Proof By Clicking On Me

Something Wicked This Way Comes

It's Name Is Ghost Adventures

Every year around Halloween the t.v. becomes my friend. The rest of the year it is just a fixture in my home. But Halloween brings all of those creepy, scary movies back and I love it. Another thing I love is all of the Paranormal specials and series that are now coming to life. I am/was a avid watcher of a show on A&E called Paranormal State. In fact is was the only show I watched on t.v. now the series has ended for the season. Sad, very sad. But I had seen previews of a new paranormal show "Ghost Adventures" that was to be aired on the Travel Channel on the October 17th. I couldn't wait. So me and my girlfriend sat down to see if the show was any good. From some investigation, I found that Ghost Adventures in fact, first aired back in 07. But now it is back and just in time for the Halloween holiday season!! My favorite part of the show was the Haunting of Bob Mackey's. It sent shivers up my spine. The investigators of the show Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin have been awarded with the title of proving the most convincing evidence of the supernatural. They have been on various talk shows and news shows. Below is a news paper clipping hope you can read it, it came out a little small.So like I said my girlfriend and I sat down to watch the show. I LOVED IT!! There are always those out there who are skeptics and more power to you. But knowing that these guys have been said to be the first ones ever to have gotten real footage on film was/is amazing to me.

Click the link below to check out the video and see the evidence for yourself!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY_rv1Zpkx8

I hope you enjoyed that little preview and I hope you tune in on the Travel Channel for more of Ghost Adventures on Friday Nights!!

Happy Haunting!!!!

Till Next Time....

It's Pumpkin Carving Time

Carving Pumpkins 101

I just started carving pumpkins about 3 years ago. Man, what fun I missed out on when I was a youngster. Now I am trying to make up for all of those years. Since I am not a regular run of the mill type person, I did not want to carve the traditional smiley face pumpkins. No, that was WAY to boring for me. I wanted something different, something where people would look at my pumpkins and say "WoW" that is cool. Well I searched and searched and finally found a website that had really unusual and very cool pumpkin carving patterns. The site Zombie Pumpkins.com. There is a fee, like most sites, but you can opt to pay 5/10/15 and get over 100 very cool patterns or you can pay 20.00 and get all of the same patterns plus extra special patterns. Last Halloween my favorite pumpkin that I carved was Michael Meyers of my FAVORITE horror movie of all time, Halloween. The pic above is a pic of that carving. Now here is a picture of the pattern provided by Zombie Pumpkins.com

I know the picture of my carving is a bit blurry, but you get the idea, and hey like I said I haven't been doing this for long. I would like to give you a few more examples that the site offers. They have patterns from movies such as

Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street

"SAW"

Pin Head

The Joker Captain Spalding

Also they have really cool Rock~N~Roll Star's

Angus Young of AC/DC

Rob ZombieOzzy Osbourne Gene Simmons of KISS
You may be asking, do they have anything for children or for the young at heart? Why yes they do!!

Patrick Sponge Bob
Scooby Doo

And just plain spooky

So no matter if you are young or old or even if you have ever carved a pumpkin before, you should try it. It's artistic and it's awesome to see the finished product and to know you made it yourself. Please be sure to take pictures so you can show off your work to others and take pride in what you have achieved. Even if you don't do so well you will always learn from your mistakes and plus it's fun to do!! Do it as a family project or ask some friends over and have an adult pumpkin carving party! Just be sure not to drink too much before you begin carving the pumpkins, for alcohol consumption and sharp objects do not go well together.

Also...be sure if you carve your pumpkins ahead of time (which is a good idea, because carving pumpkins is not a fast task) you will need information on preserving your "work of art" such as the use of petroleum jelly, saran wrap, as well as knowing to store in a cool place, soaking in water and fighting that nasty mold. I searched the web the best site I found is Zombie Pumpkins.com it has all this information and much, much, more. So all in all this website has all the information you need to be a Pumpkin Carving Master!

Happy Carving!!

It's Time For Another Tale

Today Seems Like a Good Day For a Rock~N~Roll Tale

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The 80's were great, weren't they? The look, the music, the sex. You must admit, sex was a big part of the 80's. At least in the Heavy Metal music scene, you have to admit most of the lyrics were about sex. Such as "All Night Long", "Cherry Pie", "Lay Your Hands On Me", You Shook Me All Night Long", "Slow and Easy" "Smooth Up In Ya" and those are just a few, the list goes on and on. One of the cool things were that the girls used the guys just as much as the guys used the girls. Ahhh, the good ole' days, ha ha.

So this story is from those days. Two of my favorite bands were coming in concert. One of the bands are still my favorite band of all time Aerosmith. The other band that was warming up for them (will not mention the bands name) were making a name for themselves and were doing pretty good job for at this time they were well known enough that the lead singer had his own bus. They are now known as one of most popular rock bands of all time. I think they would still be together if the lead singer wasn't such a psycho. Now, that is not a fact, just my opinion. Long after the breakup of this band the drummer (not the original drummer) guitarist and bass player started their own band and did very well. Except for the lead singer they chose. This lead singer was an awesome front man, vocalist and lyricist, but had issues as well. So as far as I know, they are no longer together but they put out one hell of an c.d. out.

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So on with the story....

Let's start with the night before the show. Me and my girlfriends were hanging out at a local bar "Sal's" in Nashville. We had heard that the "unnamed band" may come to the club. We were all really excited. Also one of the local bands and our friends Valentine Saloon were playing that night. Well...in strolls a guy who looked like the rhythm guitarist for this "unnamed band". I had been drinking and since I really didn't drink much back then my vision was a little on the blurry side. Anyways this "guy" was seated on the steps all hunched over and looking WAY out of it. Everyone kept asking me..."Is that _ _ _ _"? and all I remember saying was "No, it's just some guy trying to look like him". As the night wore on, I was wrong because this "guy" later got up on stage and played a couple of songs with Valentine Saloon, then he was whisked away into a cab and left the club. Well...I was way bummed that I didn't approach this "guy" and introduce myself and so on.

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Okay, now it is the morning of the show and my girlfriend said that she knew for a fact that the band was staying at the Music City Sheraton. (How she came upon this information is a tale for her to tell. I wasn't there, so I cant say.) So what do we do? Well...what would any good groupie do?

(First I must tell you what I consider a groupie to be before I go on with this story. To me a groupie is someone who wants to meet the bands that make the music and write the lyrics that touch their souls. A groupie is someone who gets a high, like an adrenaline rush, just from meeting these people. It's hard to explain, it's full on balls to the wall excitement to say the least. Personally, for me, whenever I've met these people, my hero's if you will, are the times that memories are made of, and those memories are the ones that I will never in a hundred years forget.)

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We head to the hotel! We get there, hung over, last nights make up still on, hair not done, and in just jeans and tee shirts. We walk in and guess who is sitting at the bar. Yup...the lead guitarist. This guy was/is a guitar legend and was/is so well known it blew my mind that there he was...just sitting there all alone at the bar. We go to the bar and try to act like we do not notice him. Then we hear him talking to the bartender about how he was supposed to have gone to a club the night before, a club named Sal's. That was our cue! We told him we had been at Sal's and had seen the rhythm guitarist there and how he got up on stage and played a few songs with our friends. So the conversation began. He said he wasn't allowed to go because the manager said he was too intoxicated and they locked him in his hotel room. The conversation goes on and low and behold out of the elevator steps the bassist. I was really hot for the bassist, still am in all honesty. Bassist comes over and joins in on the conversation. Things are going great, we are all talking just like they are regular guys. To us they are not regular guys, they are Rock Stars!! They say they have to get going and get ready to head out to where the show is being held. So we say how cool it was to meet them and such and get our picture taken with the lead guitarist. I wanted a picture with the bassist, but by this time he was talking to someone on their crew, and I didn't want to bother him.

And do you know what? My girlfriend sent that picture into Metal Edge magazine and a few months later people starting coming up to me saying how cool it must be to be in a magazine. I had no idea the picture and letter my girlfriend had written had made it into the magazine, but it did. I still have a copy of that magazine to this day.

left to right.....Lady V, Guitarist, and Me......

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Maybe next time I will tell you about the first time I met these guys....but that is a tale for another time.

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Oh yea, that day at the hotel, guess who was laying out by the pool? Michael Hutchence lead singer for INXS ! Eat your heart out girlsssss...

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Be sure to read the first tale: "Sometimes Fantasy is Better than Reality" Just click the tab "The Tales" on the right side of page

Thanks for coming to my site and checking it out!!

~ My Monday ~

Well, it's been pretty much a typical Monday for me. Today just like every other Monday I got up, checked my email, checked my myspace page, sent out my resume to some companys, got ready for work and dashed out the door with about 5 minutes to spare. I always seem to be running late, no matter how early I get up. You don't think it has anything to do with getting on the internet before I get ready for work do you? Naaaaa, didn't think so, hahaha.

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So I get to work and it's just another day at school. One thing about being a teacher is I do love the children. They make me laugh as well as irritate me at times. But I have to remember that they are children and we (God Forbid) are some type of role models. So I try to be on my best behavior. We have fun and they love me, just as I love them. So it's all good.

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Got off work, checked my phone, and blow me down, I got an text message from this Rocker Boi I went out with about a month ago. What is it with guys and once you go out with them, it's like they disappear and the Rocker Boi's are even worse. The thing is I am old enough to KNOW this. I should after 2 Rocker Boi husbands, numerous Rocker Boi boyfriends. Seems I would have learned my lesson. But Noooooo, I must be glutton for punishment because that is the type of guy that I am attracted to. Not saying I don't go out with other guys. Other guys are quite refreshing, but there is just something to these Rocker Boi's that I just cant get away from, anyways...I get a text from this month ago date RB. Of course he wants something, or so I thought. But, I give him a call and he seems on the up and up. Actually he had called me because he was thinking of me and wanted to do me a favor. That was quite opposite of what I had orignally thought and I was a little bit ashamed of myself for not giving him the benefit of the doubt. He even wants to take me out again this Friday, if his bandmates don't make plans for him on friday night. Of course he wont know anything until next practice which is Thursday night. Whatever....if it happens it happens...if not....his loss. All in all, it was kinda cool to hear from him again. :)

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When I get home I check my email and I have gotten an email from one of my friends that I met through the internet back in 2003. Man, time flies doesn't it? Anyway...we both love tattoo's. Believe me people, it's an addiction, you can't have just one!!! She sent me a link to this really cool site called Check Out My Ink . I love tattoo's and have been looking for some good ideas and ya know what, I found some!! This site has 100's of pictures to browse through without having to pay or join the site. I knew what I wanted in my mind, but every time I tried to describe it to someone they just couldn't comprehend what I had envisioned. Thankfully Check Out My Ink did have one picture similar to the next tatto that I want to get. I want a full back tattoo so I'm sure it's probably going to be work in progress for a long time. But at least now I can show the artists a picuture to get an idea of what I really want. I mean tattoo's are forever!!

So THANKS!! Lisa for forwarding this site to me.

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All in all it wasn't a bad Monday, I got a text and maybe even a date for Friday night, and I got turned onto a really cool tattoo site!

Hope your Monday went as well or better!!!

Celebrating Life and Death

Life

Today is my Mothers birthday. I am so happy that my Mom is the person she is and that I have her for my Mom. Some people are not so lucky, so yea, I am overjoyed to have a Mother like mine. Though we are thousands of miles away, I always call and send a card. It seems a sin not to remember her on her special day. I mean she brought me into this world and taught me so many life lessons. Growing up, especially in my teenage years, I am sure I wouldn't have said the same thing. In fact while I was a teenager we didn't get along at all. I always knew I was right and she was wrong, she just didn't understand. But you know what? SHE was the one who knew it all and was always right. She in fact understood so much more than I could even hope to comprehend, and probably still does. It wasn't until my 18th year that I realised this, and being only 18 at the time I hated to admit it. But as time went on it wasn't hard at all to admit. To this day I do not understand how she put up with me, and still does, though I'm nothing like I was when I was a teen. She is now my friend and Mother. I love her but most of all, I respect her and all she sacrificed for me and my two brothers. She worked hard everyday so we could have everything we wanted. She worked hard to fill the gap to take the place of my father. My father was very seldom around after they were divorced when I was around 9. Oh yea, Dad would come around every year or so and buy us big expensive presents, as if to make up for lost time. I remember one time my Mom crying, saying she was sorry she couldn't buy us all of those expensive things and I remembered telling her that the presents didn't matter, what mattered is she was there for us EVERY DAY!! She provided for us day in and day out. She made sure we had what we NEEDED, maybe not always what we wanted, but what we needed. That meant more to me than any of the things my dad bought for me. I love my Mother with all my heart, and I am happy that she is still here on this earth and that I am able to tell her so when I call her today and wish her a Happy Birthday.

Death

While checking my myspace page today (My Mothers Birthday) I noticed one of my acquaintances, Dough Stanhope, a very funny comedian, (check out one of his youtube videos at the bottom of my page, he is GREAT!) had posted a bulletin. The bulletin was about his Mother. Doug's mother died today. I thought to myself, isn't it funny while celebrating my Mother's birthday, Doug is celebrating his mother's death. I say celebrating because Doug's Mother had cancer and was in pain. He included her in some of his stand up comic routines. The whole family knew this was going to happen and happen soon. I think they are probably at peace now because "Mother" is at peace now, with no pain. The only thing she probably misses the most besides her family will be her cats. You will have to listen/watch some of Doug's stand up to understand that. hahaha.

So today there are two celebrations going on.....

One for Life....

I Love You Mother and I Am So Glad You Are Still On This Earth For Me To Tell You So!!

One for Death

My Thoughts and Prayers are with you Doug, and Your Family and I'm Glad "Mother" is finally at rest and rid of her pain.