And here's an "awwwwwwwwwww"

For some reason I love stories like this:

http://suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-anniv14.html

It gives me hope.

Stupid people... Part 2

http://www.local6.com/news/7075600/detail.html

Stupid people... Part 1

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1722414.html

Ever feel like an antelope?

We have a dog and two cats. And yes, we feed them the leftovers when we're done eating.

Tonight, so that I didn't have to cook, we ordered a family chicken dinner thing. It's a whole chicken cut up into quarters, four sides and four buns. $26 including delivery. I ordered online, got my confirmation for 7:03 PM and a guaranteed 40 minute delivery time which was good cause I was *starving*. I have a bad habit of not eating anything all day except coffee and Certs. Sometimes I'll have toast or a bagel, but not often.

Anyway, at 8:07 I called. "Hey, where's my food, it's been an hour."

"Oh, ma'am. Can you hold on for a moment?" Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold.

"Ma'am? I just talked to the restaurant and they said that it was just going out. However, there will be no charge for your order tonight, since it is so late."

"Oh... all right then. Thank you very much." Hey! Excellent Valentine's Day present for me! No charge on the dinner and everybody eats!

8:43 PM Still no food.

8:55 PM Still no food.

9:00 PM Still no food.

"Hello? Hi, yeah, I'm calling to check where my food is? It's been two hours."

"Oh no! I'm going to put you straight through to customer service."

"Hello, this is customer service, may I have your phone number? What can I do for you?"

"Well, I'm waiting for my food and it's been 2 hours."

"Oh no! I do apologize. There should be no reason for that. Can you hold for a moment?" Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold.

"Hi, Blue. I just talked to the restaurant and they said that it went out 10 minutes ago."

"Thanks, but that's what they said an hour ago."

"I know, and I do apologize. I'm very sorry that your order is so late. I think they mentioned the last time that you called that tonights order would be free of charge?"

"Yes, they did say that."

"Well, what I'm going to do is put a further $26 dollar credit on your account so you can order another Family Pack free of charge. And again, I do apologize."

"Ok... well... thank you very much."

10 minutes...

15 minutes...

20 minutes...

Phone is in the hand....

*DING DONG*

Thank god!!!

I am *SO* hungry at this point that I believe that I ate a quarter chicken, a truckload of fries and a bun in about 15 minutes. Then I turn to look at the roomie. She's sitting in the middle of the couch, plate on her lap, with the dog and both cats planted on the floor directly in front of her, staring intently.

I looked at them and looked at her and said "Do you ever feel like you're an antelope?"

She looked at them and looked at me and said "Oh most definitely. If I don't throw them a flamingo, I'm going to be torn apart."

So, we threw them a flamingo. (leftover chicken)

And all is now tranquil in our household.

Raising kids

From the time my boy was little, he's had his friends. His best friend when he was 8 until he was 11 or 12 was Justin. When he was 12 Cory started hanging around a lot. Eventually it got to the point where Cory would come on Friday after school and stayed until Sunday night. He had a hard home life with his father, so it was "safer" to stay with us. Shortly after Cory came Brandon. Now Brandon and my boy got along sometimes and sometimes fought like cats and dogs - mostly because they're very much alike.

Justin, Cory and Brandon were the core group from 13 to about 18. Justin lived with us for a couple of weeks when he was having tremendous problems with his father and step-mother. Cory lived with us most weekends and for a week or two at a time during the summer. Brandon stayed most weekends and a lot during the summer - mostly to get away from his mother and brother. In addition to that bunch, we had Matt, Mark, another Matt, Lou, Steve, Dylan, John, Paul and one or two others who'd come occasionally.

We have two couches, 3 loveseats, a recliner and 3 beds and some nights we'd still have boys crashed on the floor. We fed them (a lot of pasta, a lot of sloppy joes and a lot of Kraft dinner), we cleaned them up, we fixed their boo-boos - emotional, physical and psychological. When the boys had a problem - whatever it was (school, parents, girlfriends) - they went to my boy's mother to talk it out. She'd listen, she'd sympathize, she'd offer advice and make them feel better about themselves their lives and decisions. Whenever the best friend was feeling particularly bad that she had no purpose in life, I'd remind her of all these boys that she loved and supported and got through their adolescence.

Over the years we've lost a few of the boys. Justin moved out west with his mother; Cory and Alex had a huge fight so we don't see him any more; others are at college or working. But some have stuck around.

Brandon got back at 4pm today from spending a week in Cuba with his grandfather. They smoked, they swam, they partied, they had a great time. At 8pm he was at our door for a visit. The first thing he did when he walked in the door was say "I have a present for you!" to my boy's mother. Then he pulled out this absolutely gorgeous cane (she don't walk so good, so she has a couple of canes for stability). It's a solid piece of ceiba tree with a carved dog for the head. She was in tears. After he went upstairs to talk to the boy she said to me "I can't believe that he brought me something back. I can't believe that he remembered me."

I smiled at her. "Of course he remembered you. You're his second mother and the one that he talks to. He's our number two son."

I guess the point of all this is... my boy is an only child, but we're not parents to only one child. And, all things considered, I think all of our boys are becoming considerate, thoughtful, caring men. And, really, that's about all you can aim for.

Susan Saint James and Dick Ebersol

I just got done watching them on Oprah where they were talking about losing their youngest son in an airplane crash 14 months ago.

To summarize: the plane crashed on takeoff after the pilot tried to correct. 4 people were ejected from the plane and Dick Ebersol and his son Charlie were the only ones left inside the plane. Charlie lifted about 250 pounds of stuff from the galley off of his father and dragged him out of the plane. With flames in the wreckage 3 to 4 feet high, Charlie ran back to find his younger brother, but her couldn't. The plane became totally engulfed in flames. For 2 days Charlie tortured himself that he hadn't gotten his brother out. It turns out that Teddy's seat was ripped from the plane and he was thrown out, killing him instantly. The plane then went over top of him and protected his body from the flames. Charlie couldn't have gotten him out because they had to use a crane to get the plane off of him.

What impressed me the most about the family (Susan and Dick were there with Charlie and another son Willie) was how close and how loving the family is. Charlie said that his first thought after the crash was "Where's my dad. I can't do this without my dad." And after he got his dad out, he had to call his mother and say "Come back to the airport. There's been a crash and I can't find Teddy. You have to help me find Teddy." In the hospital, Willie crawled into the bed with his brother. Susan told the family after the crash "You can be as sad as you want, but we are not going to be angry and bitter." Their daughter took over while everybody was in hospital and arranged Teddy's burial and organized the whole family.

During Oprah, Charlie broke down and cried a few times, and Willie was right there holding his hand and cradling him against his shoulder. Susan Saint James cried a lot and her husband and sons were there to hold on to her as well.

Their attitude was amazing. It's obvious how much they love each other and how much they love Teddy. They love talking about him. They weren't mourning, but celebrating him. They miss him tremendously - he seemed to be the "adored youngest".

Quotes from Susan:

“I have a right and my kids have the right to just be really sad. But we're not mad-sad. I'm not mad … I just want to move forward. I tell my kids, “Having resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other guy dies.”

"I look at it this way...: For Ted, it's like when you go to the movies and there's 10 of you and it's really [crowded], you get ahead in line but you want stuff to eat. So you send one poor schlub in to save all nine seats [and] you give him nine coats. It's really the crap job, you know? You really don't want that job.

Of course, Ted had to have that job. But I look at it like that's his job. He's up there and he's saving us seats."

The thing that I will take away from this program though, aside from making your family the centre of your world, is something that Teddy wrote in an autobiography when he was 13: "The finish line is just the beginning of a whole new race."