I Wonder If

a society that on the one hand treats babies like props and spends hundreds of dollars to purchase a realistic baby doll with all of the cuteness and none of the work, is actually compatible with a culture that on the other hand aborts them and throws them away. In either case, infants are not seen as individual, human souls, but as an abstract. What do you think?

Little Things Make Me Happy

Like perusing old photos for historical fashion research and figuring out the exact year of an old picture with my own analysis. Yay me!

One Person's Kitsch

is another person's treasure, apparently. Have the people who design headbands like this one for babies ever even been to a baptism? Here's a hint: the water is poured on the head. I think boa feathers and birdcage veiling are too much for a baby anyway, but how does an over-the-top concoction on a baby's head say "baptism"? Or is the real purpose of a baptism the opportunity to dress the baby up in fancy attire and take pictures?

Health Issues

Remember when I told you that I hurt my foot? The pain was not bad, but had never completely gone away, so I mentioned it at a check-up at the doctor's last week. After some x-rays were taken, they found a fractured bone in the foot. Oops. So now I'm wearing a boot and I'm going to be getting some sort of electromagnetic treatment to try to encourage the fracture to heal. There will be a re-check in a month.

In this case it was a good thing that the initial doctor that I saw was at the Cleveland Clinic's big health building. I was able to head right downstairs and get x-rays without an extra trip.

On the bad side, we only have a car with a manual transmission, so I can't drive for a month even though the injury is to my left foot. At least the Musician has her learner's permit.

I also need to get a crown on the tooth that broke. I feel like I am falling apart.

New Retro?

Even though the Dancer is thirteen, going on fourteen, I'm glad she still likes the clothes they sell at Justice, and can still wear the upper sizes. Have you looked in the juniors section of many department stores? That stuff is made for eighteen or nineteen year olds, or even the perpetual youths in their twenties. Hundred dollar jeans that make you look hookerlicious? Where would my daughter wear this? And even the stuff that is not inappropriate is much more suited towards much older teens and young adults.

So, I'm looking through the latest Justice catalog with the Dancer, and lo and behold, it seems as though some of the fashions are moving someplace besides the 80s/90s! With metal tables and chairs, mini jukeboxes on the tables, and the back of a vintage turquoise "car" used as props, it seems like there is some inspiration from the 50s. This dress seems like a definite nod to the 50s to me:

Yes, there's also some the A-line dress look of the 60s going on, but the fuller skirt and the enthusiasm of the models definitely says 50s more to me. It's nice to see something different!

Why I Will Never Be a Druggie

I cracked part of a tooth off yesterday. Yikes! Then followed a search for a dentist who even has office hours on Friday, then the blessing of a last minute cancellation to get me in. The actual work went fine, but today I think I am suffering from the pain medication I got yesterday.

I already know that I am violently allergic to codeine. Why the nurses never figured out that my vomiting and nausea after my deliveries might possibly be related to the pain medication I received is totally beyond me, but I finally figured out that my body doesn't like it. Then I was prescribed oxycodone after a tonsillectomy and work on my soft palate and a deviated septum. It made me loopy. I knew I was loopy, but I couldn't get my mind under control to stop being loopy. I hated it. Yesterday, I got vicodine. Today, I've felt tired and nauseous, and my brain isn't functioning properly. It's a mess. I pray I am never in a situation where I am in serious pain on a long-term basis.

Why Mr. BTEG Is Good for Me

Because I can have conservations with him that help me feel better when I read people's opinions about America heading towards a Civil War. Like this one. I absolutely see this historian's points, and I don't think I disagree with his overall view of where our country is heading, which unfortunately is downward. I too see government as the problem, and I'm not even sure that the "47 percent" will listen to anything other than when the next check is due to arrive, while the author holds out hope that reason might win.

In a world of dire predictions, what Mr. BTEG does for me is be his usually optimistic self. Not that he thinks our country is in a good place; he actually thinks our country has been headed in the wrong direction for decades. What he does is provide his own analysis, which while not full of sunshine and rainbows, is also not apocalyptic and full of zombies and wastelands either. That while the future is not bright, and our children will face economic problems that we parents didn't, we may not end up behind the barricades either. I'm still trying to make sure our family is prepared for whatever comes, but Mr. BTEG helps me to worry less in the now.

Back to the Future

In lieu of something more serious, which I'm still mulling over in my mind, I present another one of my Christmas gifts -- an old-school headset for your cell phone. I absolutely love it, although I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet. I imagine it will be very useful if I am forced to spend a lot of time on hold with some stupid company. Much easier to hold under your head and use both hands for something else than a cell phone. Heck, I ought to just have one of my daughters call me just so I can try it out.

The box proclaimed it to be both retro and trendy. I mean, I guess retro is currently trendy, but then the "style" has been to recycle stuff from both the seventies and the eighties for quite a while now, years actually. Behold this preppy folder from 2006, with adorable little whales all over it. Currently, day-glo is back in style. When will they start recycling stuff that has been recycled from the seventies and eighties, tweaking it just the slightest bit again?

Blessed 2013

This year will see the Musician start her senior year of high school, and the Dancer start as a high school freshman. I pray that Mr. BTEG will continue to prosper at his current job; it is the best one he has had in many years. I hope that I can make some of my plans and dreams come true. I hope that all of my friends and blog readers have a blessed 2013.