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Celebrities Sneezing?

I had to chuckle today when I was checking my blog stats. Again someone had wandered across my site using the search phrase “Celebrity Sneeze“.  Cardiogirl had commented that she couldn’t understand why people are interested seeing pictures of celebrities sneezing, or eating, or vomiting (OK I added that last one). I didn’t really think about it that way at first, but why are people fascinated by that?

In my opinion, anyone who knowingly becomes a celebrity; meaning someone who starred in a movie, recorded a song, strutted down the runway etc has opened themselves up to the scrutiny of the public eye. By signing their respective contracts, they have ensured that their name and face will be exploited as a trademark. They will be photographed constantly. The most intimate details of their personal lives will be aired for the enjoyment of all. Basically anything they say or do, will ultimately be held against them. Do I think that’s right? No. I think if people could just back off for a second and remember that celebrities are, after all, only human beings, they might relinquish their constant quest for private details. I don’t know if people obsess about celebrities to search for similarities between them or to confirm the differences.

Either way, I firmly believe that because of their social status, celebrities have a responsibility to be role models for younger generations who will be looking up to them for guidance. Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton. All these young ladies have this wonderful opportunity to use their famous faces for good. Do we see pictures of them sitting in the library studying hard to get good grades? Or volunteering at the local homeless shelter? No, we are bombarded of videos of them binge drinking, partying, and drunk driving. I wonder if maybe when they do try to do some good, it gets over shadowed the minute they do something wrong?

Tampaxofdoom posted the video of Britney Spears at the MTV music awards. Granted I had heard a lot about it on the radio but had not seen the video footage. Her performance was less than stellar, but you know what I doubt any single person who was commenting on how lackluster her dancing was, could have done half as well. There were all kinds of snide remarks about her body not being what it used to be. Again, she still looks better than 60% of American women. Why is it that people care so much? I do not understand.

I read an article after seeing that video that said Britney was running around pantyless again that evening. Now, I’d heard snip-its about Britney’s night on the town going commando but hadn’t thought anything about it. There have been times I didn’t do my laundry and there was not a clean pair of granny panties to be found, so I went without. No big deal! I searched around online a little bit, to see if I could find the pictures that were taken of Ms. Spears. I did, and literally got an eyeful. Now here’s where it gets tricky. Although I said that celebrities should understand that they will lack privacy when they sign on the dotted line, nowhere did I say that they shouldn’t be afforded basic human decency. From the angle of several of the photos, you could tell that the photographers had gotten down onto the ground in order to get a better shot of Britney’s vagina. That is DISGUSTING! I could understand 1 picture being accidentally taken and then everyone realizing what they had just seen so they back off and let her pull herself together. Taking multiple photos from every possible angle, trying to push aside the person shielding Britney as she got out of the car, and almost laying on the ground so you can photograph up her skirt is despicable. These people should be branded for being completely unethical and magazine editors should refuse to use their work. These so called photographers aren’t professionals, they are dirty scum bags who are trying to get that $1,000,000 glory shot.

These people who are desperately searching online of pictures of celebrities sneezing, are the same people who fuel a multimillion dollar industry that is hell bent on exploiting every insignificant detail of someone’s lives. I think we need to be ashamed of ourselves. Do we not have feelings anymore? What if Ms. Spears was your wife, daughter, aunt, cousin? Would you want people treating her that way? No, probably not. Perhaps we all just need to back off, mellow out, and remember: celebrities are just people too, just like you and me.

Besides, if you really want to worship someone I think God initially signed up for that job.

Is insomnia contagious?

Ugh, I didn’t sleep well last night. That is NOT normal for me at all. About 9pm last night I was so tired I didn’t even turn on my computer to check out anyone else’s blog. I finished a chapter in my book: Jack & Jill by James Patterson, turned off the bedside light, rolled over and promptly went to sleep.

Things were going well until I had this dream: I was walking down a flight of stairs with a glass full of water. The glass slipped from my hand and shattered into minute little pieces. I stopped suddenly and realized that somehow shards of glass had managed to get in my mouth, and embedded in the grooves of my molars. I spit out all the glass that I could, but needed to use my fingernails to pry the glass from my molars. As I was digging around, I broke my tooth in half. I was in terrible pain, and blood was pouring out of my mouth.

I chose that moment to wake up, thank goodness. I laid quietly in bed with my eyes closed trying desperately to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, my mind was in an industrious mood and decided to obsess about everything I need to do before leaving on my trip. Things I needed to remember to take to work with me in the morning. Things I had not accomplished at work the day before. Things I needed to train the person who is replacing me to handle. Do we notice a common theme here? It was almost like I was trying to make a list in my head, but instead of just checking it twice, I was running through it 300 times and adding items willy-nilly. I do have some tricks to help myself fall asleep, so I settled myself comfortably in bed and tried breathing exercises, relaxation techniques, even counting sheep. None of my regular, fail safe methods worked. I just could not stop my brain from whirring round and round.

I propped myself up in bed a little bit to see what time it was, which is never a good idea. I was surprised to see that it was just after 1am as I did feel very well rested. I knew though that that feeling wouldn’t last so I placed my head back on my pillow and tried again. Suddenly, I heard Hailey crying. I sat up in bed and flipped the light on. “What? What?” I asked her frantically. “I peed in my bed” she answered. I was shocked, no actually I was stunned that she had done that. Hailey has been completely potty trained for almost 2 years now, and has gone a very very long time without wetting her bed at night. I sent her off to the bathroom to strip out of her wet pajamas while I went and stripped her bed. I got her clean night clothes and calmed her down. I wasn’t upset with her, I was and still am, just puzzled about the whole situation. She asked if she could sleep with me and I agreed. I did mention one stipulation though. DO NOT PEE IN MY BED! LOL

I lay down beside her in my bed and held her hand. As I was trying to figure out what happened, my mind drifted back to a conversation that I had had with Jeff on IM Monday night. I was telling him about my business trip next week. He asked me if I’d like him to postpone his trip out here so I could spend the weekend with Hailey instead. I insisted that she was looking forward to spending that weekend with my mother (which she is) and that unless he felt he needed to change his plans, I was excited about seeing him next weekend.

I think perhaps that Hailey is feeling a little bit stressed about me going away. Beth, my friend from work will be watching her Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. It just wasn’t feasible for my mother to stay at my apartment while I was gone to take Hailey to and from school, my step-father cannot be left alone for that long. My mother will pick Hailey up on Friday after school and keep her until I arrive on Monday morning, October 1st, to collect her. I had thought about just pulling Hailey out of school for that week, but I have no good reason for doing so. Also, if she has more than 7 unexcused absences in one school year, I am charged $50 for every day that she misses, by the school board. I have been trying to mentally prepare Hailey for the fact that I will be going away. She’s stayed with Beth before, but never overnight.

Am I doing the wrong thing? I can’t postpone my business trip, but maybe Jeff had the right idea. Should I tell him not to come so I can spend the weekend with Hailey after being gone all week? Am I being selfish? Part of me feels like I have a right to be selfish. I don’t do things like this all the time. In fact, more often than not, I give up opportunities to do things, because I would rather spend time with Hailey. I am not a perfect parent, far from it I’m sure. I am trying though, and I hope that counts for a lot because there are parents out there who don’t even do that much. I just would like a small break from my small child to have a nice, grown-up weekend. Is it normal to beat yourself up this much for wanting 7 days away from your kid?

As Lucy from Peanuts would say “Good GRIEF, Charlie Brown!”

I think that’s about it for now.

Oh, I almost forgot. Today was 80’s theme day at work. WOW there was some big hair floating around work today. I think I actually got high off the fumes radiating from people’s hair-dos. Well, I got a headache anyway. Beth attacked me with some bright blue eye shadow, pink lipstick, pink blush, and a small comb to tease up my hair. I had many an eyebrow raised quizzically in my direction, and a snicker behind my back. I don’t mind though, it was all in good fun!

——-

P.S. This is what my dream encyclopedia has to say about my dream last night.

Broken:
To dream that you break something, indicates that changes are ahead for you. You want to change the direction that your life is headed. Alternatively, it suggests that you need to take things slower.
Glass:
To see a broken cup in your dream, denotes feelings of powerlessness, guilt and/or low self-esteem. Perhaps you feel unqualified or inadequate in dealing with a situation.
Teeth:
Loosing the teeth may reflect a loss of power as well as a loss of one’s grasp of life circumstances.

Guess that was a pretty bad dream after all. Lots of negative connotations there.

Go go gadget Search Engine

I have been very pleased ever since I switched from Diaryland to WordPress. Some of the features at Diaryland that you needed a Gold Membership (=$) for are offered free here at WordPress. Example: Blog Stats. I can go into my dashboard and see what kind of traffic my site has been getting. It breaks it down into people who followed links from other sites to get here and search engine terms. I’ll admit, I have been having a laugh at some of the phrasing of the search terms that end up on my site and thought it was time to share.

So, tonight I present to you, a week in review of search engine terms:

Search Terms for 7 days ending 2007-09-17
Today
None

Yesterday
things to achieve before 40 (1)
face to face ignorance is bliss blog (1)
animals dont wear underpants (1)
fear of being loved (1)
to say your sorry before you die diary (1)

2007-09-15
why do people entered marriage (2)
“brand new day” (1)
diaryland (1)
what it means to dream that someone tell (1)
still holding on to a relationship with (1)
Getting Married in the Catholic Church a (1)
“i’m going to miss you like a child miss (1)
do you need an annullment even if you we (1)
annulment in a catholic marraige (1)
marriage and church (1)

2007-09-14
2nd date (1)
I apologize for the confusion I caused y (1)
how to understand what you want to achie (1)
cartoon character starts with letter s (1)

2007-09-13
sneeze (1)
“i never cheated on mike” (1)
“Dare To Dream” “don’t ask me why” (1)
dare to dream party themes (1)
celebrities sneezing (1)

2007-09-12
loud sneezes at work (1)

2007-09-11
dare to dream mouvie paris (2)
What do you want to achieve? (1)
listen to dare to dream by olivia newton (1)
cartoon character with letter S (1)
today is brought to you by the letter s (1)
why do I hate compliments? (1)

I notice a theme of people searching with the word dream. Well I’ll tell you I can believe that because I’ve had some doozys myself lately. Wonder what a dream encyclopedia would have to say about my dreams? There seems to be a common [R] rated theme to my dreams lately. I am dreaming about sex like some depraved lunatic. Now, it has been 6 months since the last time I was with a man, but it’s been more than 2 years since I was with Mike, so WHY am I dreaming about sex with Mike?? What is my subconscious trying to tell me? It wasn’t very good toward the middle-end of our relationship, but in the beginning it was ok. In my dreams though, it’s spectacular, mind-blowing sex with Mike. I’ve even been dreaming about sex with Wong-Foo, which bothers me as I’ve been trying to keep him out of my thoughts. Ultimately, I don’t go to bed hoping to have a dream of this calibre, but I sure as heck don’t mind when I do, if you know what I mean

I’m sure this has probably been TMI (too much information) for a lot of you, but darnit, it’s my blog!

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Marriage and Religion.

I wanted to expand on a comment that Cardiogirl left regarding my last entry. The wise lady said this:

Marriage and commitment are different to everyone, however, I agree that most people (here I am referring to Catholics because of the annulment issue) get married with the mind set that this is forever. Though I do think a few people (non-Catholics, again because of the lack of the annulment issue) look at marriage as something that can be undone through divorce. As in, well, if this doesn’t work out I can always get divorced. Just a different mind set.Having said that, I am not trying to imply that you, Webmiss, entered into marriage thinking you could get out of it if it got difficult, just pointing out that religious influences have a lot to do with the initial mindset of the person getting married

I am Catholic. I was raised Catholic, and received religious education through Catechism classes. I have vivid memories of going to church on Sunday’s with my grandmother and brother, and alter-serving at the morning Mass. TheEx on the other hand, grew in a household that started without religion, until his mother became a “born-again” and tried to push encourage her sons to have a relationship with Jesus. Both TheEx and his brother resisted this newfound religious passion, TheEx possibly more so than his brother. He had some very narrow minded ideals about religion, and about people of other ethnic backgrounds. I’m basically sugarcoating the fact that TheEx was/is a racist. You might be wondering what I ever saw in him, but I think TheEx represented a challenge to me. I wrongly assumed that if I loved him enough, and worked at it enough, I could change the kind of person he is. WRONG, wrong, wrong, little Webmiss! I am mentally kicking my own butt right now.

In my hurry to get married, and in an effort to please my future mother-in-law I got married in her Non-Denominational Christian church. It was a intimate ceremony with mostly family and just good friends, nothing too remarkable about it. Let’s fast forward 4 years. TheEx came home from work one day in tears. I was frightened, I didn’t know what had upset him and he was in no shape to explain it to me at that moment. Once he managed to calm down, he explained that while he was on his lunch break, sitting quietly by himself, he felt that God was talking to him and compelling him to change his life. He told me that he felt that he needed to accept Jesus into his heart. We talked for a long time about what that meant, and what he wanted to do going forward. I explained the basic precepts of Catholicism, and TheEx decided that he would like to take RCIA (Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults; the present program used by many Catholic Churches to prepare adults to receive the sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation) classes. He was about halfway through his instruction when our priest called and asked if he could meet with me.

Fr. Michael sat me down in his office and asked me if TheEx and I were planning on getting remarried after his baptism. I was puzzled and said, no we weren’t. It was then that Fr. Michael clued me into the fact that I had needed permission from the Bishop of our diocese to marry outside my faith, but on top of that because I had not been married in a Catholic church, my marriage to TheEx was not vaild in the eyes of the church, and therefore not in the eyes of God either. I can tell you that I was absolutely crushed to hear this news, and cried for a couple days afterward. TheEx told me not to worry about it, we’d just get remarried after he was baptized. I was comforted by this, and put myself to the task of planning our new wedding, and also trying to get pregnant a second time.

About 6 months after this conversation, TheEx walked out the door and told me he wasn’t coming back. I begged, pleaded, and tried to say everything I possibly could to get him to change his mind. I even went so far as to tell him that Catholics don’t believe in divorce and he was turning his back on everything he had learned in his RCIA classes. It didn’t matter what I said to him, he had made up his mind and was done with me. I had never been so happy as I was in that moment that my mom was watching after Bert for me. I fell apart completely. I cried until I made myself sick, I sat in the middle of my bed with my arms wrapped around myself in just absolute silence. I couldn’t even make myself fall asleep to escape from the misery. At 4am I ended up driving over to my mothers house and sitting in the rocking chair on her front porch until she woke up in the morning and came outside for a cigarette. She listened to me, and hugged me, and gave me a sleeping pill so I could fall blissfully into oblivion.

The next morning, I called Fr. Michael and explained what had happened. He offered to call TheEx to counsel him, and I found out later that TheEx never answered the phone nor returned Father’s phone call. I was curious as to what divorce would actually mean to me spiritually. Fr. Michael delivered the first bit of good news to me about this whole situation, and that was since TheEx and I were never married in the Catholic church, for all intents and purposes (spiritually) the marriage never happened. Not only do I not need an annulment, I am free to marry again in the Catholic church. While divorce was never an option for me in my marriage, I do have to be amazed at the way things all worked out so that I remained whole spiritually.

Ultimately, I think that TheEx and I having very different religious backgrounds was a disadvantage to our marriage. In my future relationships, I think I will be more careful about choosing someone with similar religious background to mine. I think Cardiogirl was on to something with the oppinion that Non-Catholics, but even more so, people without religious affiliation do not have the same attitude about what marriage truly means.

Several months ago I got curious (collective eyeroll right?) and asked TheEx if he had continued his RCIA classes or even just continued going to church. He shrugged it off and said that he just really hadn’t found the time to do so. I have to say, part of me wasn’t surprised to hear that. The other part of me was sad that he had turned his back on something that at one time had seemed so important to him. If God chooses to talk to you, that’s pretty serious don’t you think?

Tomorrow I’m going to try and blog on something that is a little less serious. Perhaps the fact that my future granddaughter might be named…(to be continued)

Protected: One goal, one passion – Love.

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