Flying with children........

      Many people would think "oh great" when seeing a screaming baby getting on the plane before them. Usually with reason because true to form, the baby would scream for the majority of the flight. Soon after I had my second child, I had fly with them by myself often (2 and newborn). Wow, it is very hard. They got bored, hungry, their ears hurt, they had to take turns having to use the bathroom a hundred times and kept pushing the call button. All while, lugging around diaper bags, strollers, and car seats. They, of course did not know about plane etiquette. People were so mean to me, it was shocking. I would be almost in tears trying to keep the kids happy and people would actually yell at me to make my children "shut up". Even women of all ages would yell at me. It was insane. One time my son accidentally locked himself in the bathroom and the flight attendant threatened to give me a ticket if he didn't come out. I said "he's locked in and can't come out - you get him out" It was messy. So now, whenever I see a mother traveling with kids who is struggling, I try to help. Whoever yells at struggling mothers obviously hasn't been in that situation. I hope that if they ever are in a difficult situation, that other people are a lot nicer to them.

Creating child gamblers............

     I take my boys out a lot. We go bowling, roller skating, arcades, the movies, etc. It seems like everywhere we go, they have this quarters game for the kids. They play it by putting a quarter in and it is supposed to go behind the other quarters and this bar comes and pushes all of the quarters towards the front ledge. If your quarter lands in just the right spot, it will push the other quarters over the ledge and they come out of the front as your winnings. They also put random bills in there on top of the quarters from $1 to $50. Of course that is what the kids go for every time. The boys bring their own quarters and will put one in. They usually will get one or two quarters back and they put them right back in the machine. Even if they win $5 in quarters they can't put them back into the machine fast enough, frantically trying to get the bills. This to me is like gambling at a Casino. After they loose all of their quarters they beg for more, one more time, one more time. It makes me wonder: who's idea was this?

I love Sebastian Maniscalco

  Sebastian Maniscalco is one of the funniest comedians ever. You can youtube him and see many of his bits. He is hilarious. I won tickets to see him live in Marco Island Fl and I was instantly a fan. I then found out he grew up in Chicago and is about my age. When I went onto his website I saw that he personally answers every e-mail and so I wrote him. I did get a response and we have written back and forth a few times. I showed my boys some of his skits and now they go around saying them everywhere we go. It is so funny that they have me crying laughing every time. My favorite is when he talks about how Ross and TJ Maxx are always so messy that they look like downtown Beirut and he asks how people are shopping there. He says that when people realize something isn't there size, then they just throw it across the store. Another favorite of the boys and mine is about how people at Subway don't know how it works there. He says "Step one - pick bread. Don't you see that?"

Blondie

    This morning I was watching a HBO special about the band Blondie. It was a mix of current interviews and performances. I think Debbie Harry is amazing. I was listening to the band's stories of how they got together and what they went through to get big. Their lives are so  interesting and I was thinking about what it would have been like to be her in the 70's and 80's. It is hard to imagine the wild ride of the fame, concerts, videos, drugs and parties. It got me on youtube to watch some of her old videos and live performances. They were discovered while playing in a little bar called CBGB's in New York in the early 70's. I did find a black and white video of her singing at CBGB before she was big and she was wearing a white shirt and tie with a plaid skirt and she looked like she was 16. She has such a presence on the stage and it is no wonder why she became as big as she is.