Freaky Friday

On Tuesday we started a new unit in beauty school, and three new girls started, which means that we all have to go around the room and introduced myself.

When I was a new student I remember someone saying that they were married to a preacher, "just like" one of the instructors. Somewhere in there I attached that description to the wrong instructor, and proceeded to open up more to the other one.

This is so interesting to me because I really have to confront my prejudice or even fearful reaction to people who claim to religious. I know that it comes from my harmful upbringing as a Jehovah's witness. I guess you could call "post traumatic 'spend every minute preparing for Armageddon' stress syndrome". I grew up thinking that if I could just hold out and make it through Armageddon, I could not only avoid death, but would be cured of all the things I was told were ailing me. Not the right message for a slightly obsessive teenager with ADD who was also grappling with gender identity issues.

So, the freaky part of the whole thing was that I had mixed up the names and labels, opening up more to the one who I thought wasn't married to a preacher, while being reserved and withdrawn around the other one. On Tuesday I found out that not only was she not married to a preacher, her husband had been a truck driver and a sailor before that.

In the few days since, l've been opening up very quickly, and have learned a valuable lesson. Don't use labels to determine how you react to, or treat other people.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Global Weirding

I'm going to try to do "Wordless Wednesdays" from now on by posting an image, though I'm not sure how wordless it will be because I'll comment on it. (Maybe I'll think of a new alliterative name with a similar concept.) Today's image is of the giant sinkhole in Guatemala.


It's hard to take in. It looks so perfectly round and bizarre. It will be added to the list of irrational fears that no longer seem so irrational: the ground falling out from under me. My #1, #2, and #3 irrational fears all center around bridges, either collapsing, or somehow becoming unstable, or me having a blowout, or just being blown off in a windy storm.

My completely rational fear: Global Weirding, as promoted by Thomas Friedman. The hots get hotter, the dry(s) get drier, and the wets get wetter. Setting a record for snowfall over the winter doesn't mean things are cooling, that's actually the "wets getting wetter"... I think a month's worth of rainfall fell in Guatemala City over a 30 hour period, and that's a months worth of rain for a tropical country.

Tuneful Tuesday

Today's clip is from Dame Shirley Bassey, whom I adore and love, she is among my top three favorite singers (including Sarah Vaughan and Leontyne Price), and I honestly can't rank them. They are so different, and I find each one of them absolutely necessary in my weekly playlist.

DSB (as she as often referred to on the internet) recently released a new album, "The Performance". It is fantastic to see how great she sounds at 70+ years, and of course, she STILL looks amazing. This clip contains one of her earliest hits, "Kiss Me Honey, Honey", along with a WONDERFUL song from her new CD, "Almost There."

"Almost There" is such a great song of regret over mistakes with the person who you almost had something great with. I've listened to this SOOOO many times over the past few days that my neighbors should probably know the lyrics.