i just turned 55 a few days ago

i have always looked different. from the time i was a child until now - and oh, by the way, i'm NOT going to stop looking different either. i like myself. it took time, but i do. i don't want to blend. i don't want to be the grrrl next door (nothing wrong with that, it's just NOT me). i stand out. i get stared at. i'm NOT seeking that mind you (no matter what you think, i'm not). my friend philip (my best friend for years and years and years, but we no longer are in touch) and i conducted an experiment in nyc once. you figure i'd get stared at HERE but not there, right? wrong. this was years ago (i think we were about 20 give or take) but here's what we did.

in the day time, we went out. i was in a flannel shirt, jeans and construction boots (ok, they WERE silver) and little makeup. he walked away from me and observed people's reactions to me. he was in the state of disbelief. he swore to me he never noticed how many people stare at me. AND i was very low key. then we went out at night. i got all gussied up. full makeup, jewelry (well i wear my jewelry ALL of the time), clothing..... the reactions were JUST the same. neither of us had an answer.

i remember one year my old boss had a friend of his visit him at work. jim (my old boss) introduced me to his friend. at one point the friend came up to me and asked why i looked like i did since halloween had already passed (yes, this DID happen and yes it DID come from an 'adult').

not everyone is cruel and stupid. GOOD things happen to me as well. once at work this older (yup, older than me) woman came up to me and told me she looked forward to seeing me each and every day. i was a bright spot in her day - she loved seeing what i was wearing. another time in the grocery store another woman said almost the same thing, how everyone else looked alike and was rather drab. she was glad to see someone looking like me shopping in that store! and this stands out in my mind as well. i was standing in a very long line in a movie theater one day (afternoon showing). a group of young boys was in another line (it was obviously a birthday party). the birthday boy broke away and came over to me. he was calling his father and saying something like, 'dad, take a look at this lady'..........i was starting to cringe, when all of a sudden he grabbed my hand and said, 'dad, look at all the cool stuff this lady has on' (i couldn't stop smiling for DAYS afterward).

i take the bad with the good. i know i can be rather imposing. i also know if someone took the time to say hello, i wouldn't cast a spell on them, i'd say hello back!

please take the time to say hello to people who are not exactly like YOU. you may be more than pleasantly surprised!
Teenager guilty of goth murder
By Kim Pilling, PA
A 15-year-old boy was today convicted of kicking and stamping to death a young woman in a park because she was dressed as a Goth. Brendan Harris attacked Sophie Lancaster, 20, as she begged him and four other youths to stop beating her boyfriend, art student Robert Maltby. Preston Crown Court heard the assault was totally unprovoked and the two victims from Bacup, Lancashire, were singled out because they looked different to their attackers. Miss Lancaster, a gap year student, died from serious head injuries two weeks after the attack in Stubbylee Park, Bacup, in the early hours of August 11 last year, while Mr Maltby, also a Goth, survived. A jury of nine men and three women found Harris guilty of murder within hours of retiring. After the verdict trial judge Anthony Russell QC lifted an order banning identification of Harris and Ryan Herbert, 16, who had pleaded guilty to Miss Lancaster's murder. Harris had denied the murder charge but pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Maltby after drinking two litres of cider, a bottle of Stella Artois lager and "quite a lot of" peach schnapps. ........

anybody else read this in the hartford advocate this week?

why am i NOT surprised the school board in MY town, west hartford, had stuff to HIDE?
why am i NOT surprised our taxes are going through the roof and they ARE INDEED EATING CAKE?
is anyone else as disturbed as i am?

Let Them Eat Cake
How much tax money does West Hartford's Board of Education spend on catered meals for itself? They won't tell us.
By Jennifer Abel
The current West Hartford school budget is close to $118 million, about $11,670 per student. According to the CIA World Factbook, this is more than the per capita income of 141 of Earth's 230 nations.
According to the board of education it's still not enough to teach the kids, so they're requesting an extra $7.5 million next year.
There's already grumbling in town about how taxes, once again, are rising higher than inflation. And since the school budget is over 60 percent of the town's total, much of that grumbling's directed toward school spending. It's mostly off-the-record, though, because people who speak against school spending are branded as selfish.
The budget's not presented in a line-item form that lists individual expenses. So when we first heard complaints about the board allegedly having breakfasts and lunches catered to meetings on the taxpayers' dime, we didn't know if this was a big deal or not because we couldn't go to the budget and read "Refreshments: X dollars."
Are we talking "coffee and donuts" or "five-course banquets"? A woman at the Avon Board of Ed. said she usually makes coffee for meetings; Simsbury said they'll provide a meal if they are scheduled back-to-back during the dinner hour. This sounds reasonable; is that what West Hartford's doing?...............

i didn't know about this

and even if i did, i don't know that i could live on $3.00 to $4.00 of food a day. i spend that much on coffee. i'm not being flippant. one just doesn't realize people DO have to live on $4.00 worth of food a day. i will remember that

I'm One Of The Lucky – My Hunger Ends Tuesday
Susan Campbell
Hartford's monthlong Food Stamp Project ends Tuesday, and that can't come too soon for me.For a few days or all month, project participants agree to live on $3 to $4 of food a day, roughly what a food-stamp recipient can expect these days. This is the second year for the Charter Oak Cultural Center exercise. Rabbi Donna Berman, executive director, dreamed it up as a way to make hunger more real to citizens of one of the country's richest states. Yes, people go hungry here. All around the state, clergy urged their congregations to participate, a couple of high school classes signed on, as did the entire staff at End Hunger CT — all without registering formally. "I think," said Berman, "this is bigger than we know." Last year, word spread, and all over the country, people participated, including the governor of Oregon and several members of Congress.This year, the center partnered with regional anti-hunger organizations such as Foodshare Inc., End Hunger CT as well as their recipient charity, Hands On Hartford, the former Center City Churches...........

thanks to the day

for not only realizing they made a horrible error, but for SAYING they did

Connecticut Paper Hits Joe Lieberman -- Sorry for Endorsement?
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK When he ran for re-election in 2006, Sen. Joe Lieberman on Connecticut was defeated in the Democratic primary by a little-known antiwar candidate, Ned Lamont. So he ran as an independent, and won in a three-way race.Since then he has embraced President Bush's stand on Iraq and seems intent on being John McCain's running mate, or at least chief adviser. This was too much for The Day newspaper, which carried an apologetic editorial today noting that it had backed Lieberman then but thought "it was supporting a candidate who demonstrated a history of pragmatic leadership and a willingness to seek bipartisan solutions.We wonder what happened to that senator."Sen. Lieberman's open-ended commitment to military involvement in Iraq comes as no surprise. The senator made it clear when running for re-election that was his position. Sen. Lieberman wants the United States military to remain in Iraq until the war is won, whatever that means. It conflicts with this newspaper's position that the time has come for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces."Despite that difference of opinion, The Day editorially backed the senator because of his experience, his willingness to put principle above politics, as demonstrated by his condemnation of former President Clinton following the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and his even-handed political approach.........

and now for the editorial itself

We Don't Know This Sen. Joe
Sen. Lieberman has been too busy burning bridges to build any.
When The Day endorsed Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman for re-election in November 2006 it was supporting a candidate who demonstrated a history of pragmatic leadership and a willingness to seek bipartisan solutions.
We wonder what happened to that senator.
Sen. Lieberman's open-ended commitment to military involvement in Iraq comes as no surprise. The senator made it clear when running for re-election that was his position. Sen. Lieberman wants the United States military to remain in Iraq until the war is won, whatever that means. It conflicts with this newspaper's position that the time has come for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.
Despite that difference of opinion, The Day editorially backed the senator because of his experience, his willingness to put principle above politics, as demonstrated by his condemnation of former President Clinton following the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and his even-handed political approach.
But while Sen. Lieberman remains experienced, he is no longer even-handedly principled.........

welcome back!

to 6th Motor Transport Battallion. thank you for serving but boy oh boy, we're ALL glad you're home

Marines come home in time for Easter
New Haven(WTNH) _ Twenty-six members of the 6th Motor Transport Battallion returned to New Haven today after spending about seven months in Iraq.
They were given a warm welcome home Saturday. The reservists were escorted back into the Elm City by the Patriot Guard and a sea motorcycles. Flags, friends and former Marine News Channel 8's Gil Simmons were there to say 'thank you.' "How does it feel to be back?""Best feeling in the world, put a lot of hard work in a lot of build up, got the mission accomplished can't tell you how good it feels, proud to be doing this for my country, my family, my unit here," Marine Reservist L. Cpl. Andrew Plante."Just happy to be home my family is here everyone I just want to go home and spent time with them." L. Cpl. Plante says the first thing he wanted to do was take a nap well deserved rest. ........