not sure where to put this interesting article so I will put it here.

click here.

Controversial for sure. This makes sense to me though.

Miserable people are happy when they spread their misery.

This happened to me when I was in high school. Thing is, I've always looked younger than I am.
I remember the house and the old lady that said "don't you think you're too old for this?!"
She shut the door on our faces hugging her bowl of candy and turned off her lights.

What a grumpy old lady.
I felt like egging her house.
But I didn't do that.

Instead, I went home and felt self conscious about dressing up for Halloween the next year. It wasn't as fun anymore.
I'm not sure if I even went out again for Halloween.

Not until I was near my 30s did I start to think again - wow, dressing up is fun! And started dressing up for Halloween parties (not trick or treating of course) and going out with friends for Halloween.

So now, its beyond maddening to hear that my nephew who is still in high school is staying home to hand out candy, especially when he had some real fun costumes before. Just because some old lady told him he was too old.

Makes me mad that all the miserable people in the world want to do is make everyone else around them miserable!

Wish I was there to give my two cents about this when the lady told him that, eggs in hand.

Vote day.

So with all our differences aside I was looking for a quote I saw earlier which I thought was nice:

"I don't have to agree with you to like or respect you" - Anthony Bourdain.

Demonizing someone who does not have the same view as you tells you more about how you are than about how the other person is.

So to make light or not of today these were some of the actual options I had on my ballot card tonight:

Rhinoceros Party

Animal Activist Party 

Independent Party 

Communist Party......



....Aside from the usual green, red, blue and orange parties.

I find it so strange how there does not seem to be anyone wanting to unite the country instead of divide it. When it comes down to it, we want to be good to people. Just different views of how this can happen.

Heavy thoughts on a Friday afternoon

1) with the pending Elections coming on I would like to say that, growing up I never had one ounce of interest in Politics. Only until I started working, then moved out of my parents place, became more independent, paid rent, and started paying a mortgage, took home paycheques, and paid income tax.... did I ever before become more interested in Politics and have started to understand the impact it has on society, every day and in all the minute things we do.....
That being said, I have concluded that I feel the voting age should be increased!

2) I am currently watching Un- natural Selection on Netflix. Wowzers. Scary yet fascinating and also the thought of curing genetic diseases is amazing yet a huge ethical question because with any good intention there  is always some weird freak that wants to tamper with human nature in a horrible way.
My heart went out to the boys in the show with the Eye disease and another with SME. People complain about wanting the government to cover things like public transportation (I had that discussion with one lady last week, who blamed the government for her 20% interest rate on her credit card debit - eye roll right there) , yet this show revealed the need for the government to control the Pharmacy companies that want to gouge people in real need of cures to their diseases. How horrible that there is cure but it is exclusive to only a few. That is what the gov should pay for or at least control the ridiculous robbery that the pharmaceutical companies are doing to people in actual need.
This being said, as I have alluded to before,
There's always a difference between "need" and "want".
And there is a HUGE misunderstanding of what responsibility means. To ourselves and to others.
There are so many people out there who feel that other people should be responsible for them for an issue clearly that the person is responsible for. But really there is a difference to that and us being responsible for those other people where things are actually not even in their control, yet we have the ability to help.

Simple gesture of checking in....

You only realize the support you have around you when you go through some crappy stuff or shitty incident.
Thankful for my coworkers.

NOT my monkeys, not my circus

There is that Bell campaign "Lets talk about mental health".

I've always wondered - ok what does that conversation look like then? What do we talk about?

No shit when they say mental health affects everyone.

We can be more understanding, more helpful.....

But just because we are now talking about it,  I am not going to be forced to think that Mental health makes it OK or is an EXCUSE for treating everyone around you like shit.

That is NOT OK.

And I will not accept that.

The Politician

Ever end up watching something in the background because there really isn’t anything else to watch?

For me, lately it’s this show.

It has some good stuff in it. 

Interesting - the microcosm of high school is really a mini reflection of the society outside of it - in some ways. I read some negative reviews on it and I really think they are reading too much into something that is supposed to be lighter or maybe I just don't need to make this another social justice warrior argument. 

Personally I’m not a fan of Gwenyth Paltrow.

Never really liked her as an actress.

I always thought she had the same puppy dog sad eyes  character in every movie she was in. Then her health claims related to some products from Goop are questionable, adds to my flakey judgement of her as an actress... 

But, I have to humble myself and say that I actually liked her in this series. 

K : “I just saw a man get murdered by a bear”

G: “ I really don’t think that is possible.”

K: “ It was horrible...”

G: “It's impossible for a bear to murder a man. I mean, a bear can kill a man. Yes.  But murder? That would imply there was some malicious intent behind it..”

I thought this was hilarious.

It was vaguely entertaining but I do not think I will dive into season 2.

Ah fall, a beautiful yet disappointed-that-the-summer-is-over kind of season.... in a weird mood lately and blaming it on the season. Or the moon or astrology whichever.... 

bestie parents?

Growing up I had an aunt that I hung out with a lot.
She was so giving and generous.
She was much younger than my mom of course so that equals more cooler in my little mind.
I also thought she was so pretty!
She used to babysit my older bro and I and often took us to the CNE after school.
When she lived downtown we would have a few sleep over nights with her as well.
Looking back I cannot believe my little self at grade 6-7? took the subway and buses all the way downtown to stay with her.

Then I would come home and my mom would be my mom. You know, the strict one. The one who would nag me to clean up my room, clean up after myself, to wash the dishes or to do the chores I had to do.
Then of course this would lead to fights - you know, me not listening or doing things wrong or whatever the case (gez, I'm so old I don't even remember what the menial fights we had were all about, even though at the time, they felt like big fights).

I remember saying "I wish I lived with Auntie! I wish she was my mom!"

And my mother answering "Oh you do? Then go ahead, do it, you think she is better for whatever reason, go do it then!"

Of course I never did live with her. Just retreated back to my room all pissed off and hating on her.

I remember during these fights I would often hear "We do this because we love you".
Whether it be asking us to do chores or expecting more from us or correcting us or being strict and not allowing us to do certain things or buy certain things or have things we wanted.
"We do this because we love you."

To which I always thought "If you love me then you won't be getting mad at me, or won't be asking me to do things like chores, or you will allow me to do things that I think are fun, or allow me to have things that I want. That will show me you love me, obviously."

It all never really made any sense.

-----

Skip to now or at least in my 30s. When I realized, I am thankful that I was given the mom I was given and would not have it any other way.
I started to see then that because they were the way they were with me, it helped shape me into who I am today. And I was soooo appreciative. A lot of the "bad" stuff I felt I could see was for the good and some of the bad stuff I felt was also still, something that helped shape me.

Unfortunately now I can see the results of many whose parents wanted to be best friends with their kids or showered their kids with everything they wanted because they didn't want their kids to ever feel "bad" or disciplined. It certainly does not set them up for real life experiences or even self resiliency or even how to deal with responsibility or even knowing how to be compassionate to another or thoughtful or empathetic - because the focus was always their comfort. I was taught that being cool was nothing to aspire toward (hello, so not cool here, yet I'm ok with it), not the main goal in life. Looking more outwardly instead of egocentrically only. And to learn to depend on myself than to expect things from others.

There is so much more I can say about that. But just to end off by saying I'm thankful for my mom, and the fact she just showed she didn't give a crap about who I liked better at that time, who I thought was more fun or nicer, she didn't care about who was "cooler" - because all she cared about was that  her job was to be my mom and make me the person I am today.