A Social Blight

R.a.n.t. of week 02/24/13

This weekend I was invited to a friends for dinner, along with two other couples and our children. It was the first time I've visited since he moved into the place. The evening was wonderful! After dinner the kids played outside while the rest of us chatted. For a while the girls talked in a group while the guys did likewise. During dessert, all us adults talked together, reminiscing about old times or relating tales of things we've recently done that not all of us have been included in. You couldn't ask for a better evening. For a brief moment, I felt I was living a 'Come Dine With Me' moment. Beyond the dinner, what really impressed me was how gorgeous their home is. The view they have is lovely *, even the drive to their home is impressive. The décor and design of the house was breath-taking. Certainly homier and more comfortable than my own.

Now that I'm done explaining that, you are probably wondering what my rant is this week. Perhaps it's jealousy, right? No. Not on my part, and I'll tell you why. I was also at another house this weekend. The drive to this house was along a main city street. As I walked upstairs, the steps creaked and the view outside was of the house next door. The family had a guest staying because his house was without working plumbing, so the apartment was fairly crowded. What's amazing is they were all seemingly content. How so? Because their house is considerably better than living in a Burmese refuge camp, where many of them are from. Granted, I don't speak the Karen language, but I heard several stories interpreted to me about some of the things they have experienced. I would have a hard tell writing them here without tearing up.

So no, I'm certainly not jealous. Jealousy is a social blight which unnecessarily destroys ones own happiness and joy. And what's the point of being jealous anyway? We all have things someone else will covet. It could be our health, finances, faith, relationships, endurance, talent, the list goes on. Instead of being jealous of others we should be appreciating what we ourselves have. And if you think about it, the more we work on appreciating what we have, the more others are likely to be jealous of us.




* The photo above may or may not be a view from my friends house. I'll let you decide.

Laodicean Tub

R.a.n.t. of week 02/10/13

As those who are fairly close to me know, or if you keep up with me on Twitter or Facebook, I've been trying to lose some weight. Usually this consists of weekly Weight Watcher meetings, food tracking and attending Blast Fitness where I mostly run the track. After my time at the gym is complete, I like to sit in the steam room for a few minutes. Once in a while, I like to treat myself to sitting in the hot tub, as I did last night. Right away you are certainly thinking how miserable and awful it must have been. Au contraire mon frere, it was the one highlight of the evening. But as I sat there I got to thinking of my recent visit to the Wilderness of this past weekend. I've had problems with this place in the past (see bedbugs in a future r.a.n.t.) but I was willing to give this place another fair shake. I'm happy to report, overall the trip was good. Cue the ranting bit.

Why is it there must always be a dozen or so kids in the hot (cough) tub at any given moment? It's bad enough the water was lukewarm at best, but to deal with the rugrats on top of it. Why was the water lukewarm? It seems people like to have the section leading to the outside, open, even in the dead of winter. And it was a popular place indeed. I'm not so sure what the appeal was, but people love it. So I can't really fault the Wilderness for that. What's interesting to note is the lifeguards came within 30 seconds whenever a child younger than six was in the pool with its parent, to shoo them out. What about the other kids? They have an entire water park designed just for them. But no, one little girl wants to do flips in the hot tub. One little boy wants to practice his breast stroke. Another child looked like he was considering a cannonball if not for my stern look. And kids don't know how to simply walk from one end of the tub to the other, they must splash and spray everyone they pass. It half made me wish a 'hot tub time machine' actually existed. No, not for me, for the kids. Nothing would have delighted me more than to transport every single child a week into the past.

Do You Ever Have Déjà Vu?

R.a.n.t. of week 02/02/13

♫...then put your little hand in mine. There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb.♪
I just want to smash my alarm clock sometimes.........

Sorry everyone, this entry seems vaguely familiar for some reason. Oh good grief. I just looked over my past r.a.n.t.'s and noticed I already did an entry on alarm clocks a few weeks back. I have to admit, I was thinking earlier I had written about this topic but couldn't really remember when. It felt like simple déjà vu moment so I shrugged it off. How many times has that happened to you? You are standing somewhere about to perform some task when you get this feeling all over like you've already done it. Or it feels like you are in the exact same situation as you were once before. It's an interesting feeling to say the least. As a science fiction nerd, I could write all sorts of stories describing this. Oh wait, I did. In my series Writers Block. The main hero Erick, is talking to his friend about feeling he experienced a form of déjà vu in the early morning, but as though he was realizing it for the first time. Later in the story he realizes why. As it turns out, during the course of the story he's forced to time travel and accidentally meets up with himself in the early morning. He convinces himself he's having a dream. Suddenly he realizes he's experiencing a true form of déjà vu.

Kind of silly I know, but you try to explain déjà vu. The most annoying thing about this is not knowing exactly what it is. Certainly you must have experienced this before. When did this happen to you?


"Do you ever have déjà vu Mrs. Lancaster?"
"I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen."