I wonder as I wander...Randomness

Just a bit of random thinking tonight...

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I was just over on Pinterest which  is sort of addictive really.  All those great ideas floating around.  Being the 'saver' sort I love it.  I used to save all these sorts of photos to my computer or rip pages from magazines. Now I save them to Pinterest instead.  It's only been in the last couple of months or so that I've really started accumulating followers.  Some are people I know.  Some come via people I know.   And some?  I'm just not sure.



A couple of times now I have clicked on photos I really liked of an organization idea, or a craft, or a recipe (which I won't pin by the way, I have too many recipes already),  thinking I'd end up at the website that generated the photo.  Nope.  It's an ad vehicle, taking me to a website for the purpose of selling me their product/name/etc.  Tonight I clicked on the loveliest  nursery in pale soft gray and white with touches of deep purple, thinking of my sweet V, and I get a huge red warning: Known Attack Site!

Well that will scare patootles out of you!  Especially if you've had virus in your computers before.  Fortunately for me I have a keen virus screening system now that doesn't even let me visit some sites at all and immediately shuts down others.  In this instance, Pinterest had shut down the connection.  But here's  a warning to all you pinners out there:  Beware!  Don't just follow someone because they started following you.  Be a little cautious and a little wary.

What I don't get is why anyone wants to mess with a perfectly innocent vehicle like Pinterest (or Facebook) or blogger.  Why can't those that call themselves pranksters and/or thieves and such just leave those sort of sites alone?

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And by the way, I've been getting some rather odd comments on this blog.  Some of you I know, no problem.  Some of you I'm familiar with via other blogs we both visit.  Some are foreigners though and while the comment looks real enough, it's the ".com" behind the name or the foreign language in the signature that really makes me wonder just why my blog, which is political comment free, not bound to include personal info or leads that give away my financial history, would be of interest to someone who is obviously not reading the content.  And what in my posts brings them  here?  Are they coming via a search engine?  What key words could possibly tag this blog? 

Aldi?  Frugal?  Maddie?  What?

I mean, I can do conspiratorial theories with the best of them...I've never shared my personal viewpoint about the conspiracy to wipe out agriculture in the U.S and make us dependent on a foreign country for food, nor my welfare conspiracy theory, nor my theory about feminism...Just to name a few.  I have more by the way.  But what in this blog could possibly intrigue anyone without leanings to save money, decorate their home or prepare food?

I mean, I just went through and reviewed my blog post titles...Nothing there to reel anyone in who isn't already interested in the sorts of things that we all are.

Why am I curious about them?  Because invariably these comments are tucked into posts from months ago.  And when I come to visit my blog, they are gone.  Why?  Why does anyone want to infiltrate an area that way and who is out there looking for that comment?  You see...I am a bit suspicious by nature!

So if you're one of those sorts:  I'll be watching you. I'm aware. 

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This afternoon we went grocery shopping.  I did go into Publix after all, as they had the Cabot Vermont Cheese on sale.  I don't know if you've ever tried the Seriously Sharp Cheddar but OMGracious!  it is G.O.O.D. good.  Seriously.  But then I am a fan of extra sharp cheese.  This will almost lock your jaws.  Seriously.

So we picked up the few items I meant to buy  there, including my cheese, go to the cash register and there is a clerk in the usual green Publix smock checking groceries.  Only this gal had taken time to do her makeup nicely.  She had on earrings.  She had a hot pink hairband and a BIG pink flower in her hair.  She wasn't more than normally attractive.  No raving beauty.  But she had Pizazz with a capital "P" and a smile on her face.

I couldn't decide if she was the zany sort or not.  She appeared to be close to my own age but she didn't have that tired worn down look so many of us at my age have.  Nope.  There was this smile on her face.  I watched her as she checked groceries, saw how she spoke to the employee bagging  the items, to the customer ahead of me.  When I got near her I leaned over and whispered ..."I really like your style."  She blushed.  Then she looked up with a wider smile and said, "I just wanted to look nice.  It makes people feel better."  Indeed.  It does.  I did.

Then she told me, "On weekends, I dress up as Sponge Bob or an M&M and go to the mall and walk around the food court."  Now I confess I've labelled her as 'ZANY' at this point.  She went on,  "I didn't want to do it, but God made me feel I should.  So I did.  I walk around the food court and when people approach me, I try to be a witness of the Lord to them."

Slap me okay?  I sit on my tukus in my home, writing a blog and a newsletter hoping  I might reach a few for Christ now and then and here's this gal going off to the food court in a getup that makes her look certifiable, to put a face on her witness.  I was humbled right there in Publix.  Big deal, I paid her a sincere compliment hoping I'd uplift her in her day.  Yep and I had her judged and hung as Zany before the conversation had started good, too.  She was dressing to uplift others every single day of her life, either in an attractive way or in a funny way.  Every single day.  Go on and judge me now.  Believe me, you can't be any harsher than I was.  And yes, I did thank God as I walked out the door, that he'd shown me her witness.  Powerful!

And when the Bible says He will use the foolish to confound the wise?  I don't think she's the foolish nor me the wise one.  I'm pretty sure it's the reverse... Just sayin'.

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On a note that is coincidental and ironic and sad all at once.  I wonder who the bright guy was that put Paula Deen's latest magazine on the rack right next to the latest issue of Cooking for Diabetes?

I'm not taking pot shots at Deen nor the diabetes, believe you me.  In our area, and having been in the medical field, I've seen the disease at it's nastiest and worst.  It's nothing to joke about.

It's just that at times I do wonder...  Like when the American Diabetic Association held a bake sale and cake raffle to raise money for research and increase awareness about the disease.  Really? Did they not see the irony in that?  Or the American Heart Association Pork Butt sale?  Honestly?  Worthy causes, I agree.  But couldn't they just have thought about the vehicle they were using for a moment?

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I was talking to a young friend yesterday dealing with a personal issue that involves his feelings about someone.  After chatting with him, I went on about my day, my mind mulling things over.  My two youngest are single and dealing with the minefield called 'dating' these days.  Being on my second marriage and having the advantage of hindsight my heart aches for the mistakes I see them all making, friend and family alike.  Going too fast.  Not taking time to really know one another.  An innocence that is both refreshing and frightening in today's world. 

Don't you just wish you could bottle the sounder reasoning and thinking you have now and give it to your kids like a dose of medicine?  It would be a little bitter, to show them what a hasty and thoughtless decision can do to their life and a little sweet to show what wonderful surprises lie ahead after heartaches, and a little grainy to warn them that some parts of relationships are just plain tough to deal with, and a little bit soothing and a little icky, too. 

And being a reader, I wondered why there isn't a manual out there that tells young men and women what will be expected of them in a marriage?  I know some of what I'd like to say to them:  about the responsibilities of relationship.  About the responsibilities financially and intimately and spiritually.  I'd like to tell them that they think they know one another but they don't.  And twenty years down the road you will turn and see this person and realize that you still don't KNOW them.  That you fall in and out of love all over again all throughout the long passage of years but liking the person you're with is the most important thing of all.  That lust lasts but a season and passion is not necessarily sexual but is lasting.

The trouble is I can't really sort it all out in my own mind.  There's too much that would need to be said.  How could you possibly edit it?  How could you ever print all of it?

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Regrets... I've had a few, but then again...  Not really.  I do have a few regrets in my life.  I regret that my first marriage crashed and burned before it ever really got off the ground and I regret that I spent so many years of my life pouring my heart and soul into a one sided thing that doesn't even deserve the term "relationship" applied to it.  I regret that my children suffered the sorrow of divorced parents.  I regret that I wasn't sure enough of myself to wait until I knew the person was right and was too  fearful that I truly was the ugly, unlovable and horrid thing I'd been led to believe I was.  I regret that I didn't come to Christ earlier on.  I regret that I didn't have the focus and joy while raising my older two that I had by the time Katie came along.  I regret that I didn't teach my children about the depression that runs in our family and that I didn't share my salvation with them.  I regret that I was too private a person to speak out about the most important things in my life. And too unsure of myself.  I regret that it took me so long to learn
 how valuable I am as a person.  I could have taught my children so much more if I'd had that knowledge way back then.

Do you know what I don't regret?  The lack of money or the lack of creature comforts, or the meals we stretched with beans and breadcrumbs and pasta.  I don't regret divorcing my first husband because I did just what I meant to do: show my children what a rock solid, loving relationship could look like.  I don't regret meeting and marrying John who proved such a wonderful parent and partner and confidence builder for us all.  I don't regret teaching my kids to use their imagination in play or to love reading. I don't regret bringing them to the country to live.  I don't regret telling them no, nor for not being their best friend.  I was the parent.  I don't regret showing them the responsibility I felt in that role.  I don't regret telling them I was sorry when I was wrong.  I don't regret telling them "I love you."  I don't regret those things.  But it's a short list isn't it?

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Discussion just now between John and I dealt with advertisers cramming se*uality in the most innocuous things these days. Like potato chips and chocolate covered peppermint patties or shoes.  If that's what it takes to turn you on you are just off, okay?  I'm using *s here because I don't want to have my blog shut down for adult content, but you can read between the *s right? 

I like eating as well as (maybe more than) anyone.  It is not a sen**al experience for me.  I enjoy it.  I like a pretty pair of shoes at a great price.  But it's not the pleasure of a personal physical relationship with someone.
It just isn't the same.  Stop sending me the message that it is.
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We're not talking about the Cheesecake Factory...It started way back when the camera was invented and it was not meant to be a good thing then, nor is it now. Cheesecake shots are, well, unrealistic at best and play on a man's visual nature.

Okay not a diatribe...  It's a protest against all the beefcake photos I keep coming across!  Seriously?!  Since when did taking the same form of poison cure the ailment for both?  Let me just say this: women are treading on dangerous ground when they allow a tool used for years to lure men into the minefield of lustful thoughts to lure them away, too.  It's ruinous to relationships, decreases satisfaction and plays upon weaknesses of nature that are best not left unguarded.

I've stumbled across these on FB posts and in Pinterest and I have to say I always feel acutely embarrassed  and a bit as though I've stumbled upon something that should have been kept private and not shared.  And you know what else?  I'm always astonished by the ones who choose to share.

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Whew!  My mind is quiet at last.  I can't think of another thing to share.


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