The Goodness of People

Every morning when I wake up my husband has the news on. I personally don't understand it. I have yet to ever watch the news and hear anything good. The news, in my humble opinion, is chocked full of depressing and horrific stories. Why would anyone want to start their day out this way?

The news media has done their best to try to scare the crap out of our nation. How many "feel good" stories do you hear in an hour on the news? I believe I counted one this morning. If you visit the www.azfamily.com website (our local news station) the links that you are first subjected to are as follows:

• Man arrested after allegedly breaking into Scottsdale church

• 5.1 earthquake in Baja felt in Yuma

• U.S. Marine stationed in Yuma reported missing

• Chandler police investigate gang-related shooting

• PD: Man arrested after assaulting woman at Tempe restaurant

• Napolitano nixes Senate bid

• Rabid javelina attacks dog in Yavapai County

• Over 200 rifles intercepted in latest gun-running ring bust

• Urn containing loved one's ashes stolen during burglary

• Authorities shut down violent 'rip crew' in Southern Arizona

• Man accused of shining laser light at police chopper may go to jail

• Man found with images of child pornography

• Stifle the Desktop Cleanup Wizard

• Flight attendants picket demanding 'big change' from US Airways

• Paradise Valley home goes up in flames

• Lawyer arrested for DUI after hitting 2 pedestrians in Phoenix

• Bill to ban photo-enforcement cameras making its way through committee

• Man arrested for fatal shooting in Phoenix yard

Where are all of the good news stories? I know that we need to be informed but I just feel as if I'm bombarded by stories about how much the human race stinks. How awful we all are. Every time I hear something positive I'm mystified.

SO in order to do my part, I have the following story to share with all of you.

Two Wednesdays ago I drove to pick up my friend for Zumba at the community center. I was chatting with her on the way to get her on my blue tooth. When I arrived at her house, I hung up, stuck the blue tooth in my purse, and off we went to Zumba.

The next morning I couldn't find my blue tooth. I knew it couldn't have gone far because I just had it the night before. When I couldn't find it in my purse I knew I didn't to dig out under the seats in my car. This took me a couple of days. I still couldn't find it. I asked my family if they had seen it laying around the house I emptied out my purse and looked through the car one more time just in case I missed it. I finally realized it was gone. It could be any where. Especially if it fell out of my purse. I could have dropped it in a parking lot somewhere. I just knew it was gone.

A few days later I thought I should probably call the community center. Maybe it had fallen out of my purse during Zumba. I tried to call the community center but they were closed. I'd have to try again tomorrow.

It took me over a week to finally get around to calling the community center again, I had no hope that they would have it. It had been over two weeks since my last Zumba class and really, what were the odds that a Good Samaritan found it and had turned it in? Someone was enjoying my handy dandy blue tooth.

This morning at 7:45 I called the community center while I was thinking about it, so I could rule out that they had it and plan on having to get a new one. A very nice lady answered the phone. I told her my story about losing my blue tooth two weeks ago and she put me on hold to go look in the back. She came back on the phone and told me that she had one. She'd had it for about two weeks and I was welcome to come up after 8:00 and see if it was mine. The clouds parted, the angels began to sing and I told her I would be there in 15 minutes.

Now, there was a chance that the blue tooth she had wasn't mine. Some other poor soul had lost their blue tooth also, but the fact that she had even one was a good sign. Someone, even if it wasn't me, was going to get their blue tooth back. The world has some good people in it after all.

Turns out it was my blue tooth. Thank goodness. I really didn't want to have to replace it. I would love to thank the person who found my blue tooth and turned it in instead of taking home as their own. Since I have no idea who this person is, thank you, to anyone who has ever turned something in to the lost and found instead of keeping it. You are an awesome human being and you deserve a big huge THANK YOU!

I think we all need reminders every once in a while that not all news is bad.

Addictions are a Bitch

I think I might have an addictive personality, and by that I don't mean you can't get enough of me. ;) I'm addicted to television. . . and movies. . . and reading. . . and music. . . the list goes on, but I'm going to stop there. When I find something new that I like, for example a new author, I will read everything I can get my hands on from their book list until I am caught up.

When I discovered Lisa Kleypas historicals I started searching them out. I have read the entire Hathaway series and am working through the Wallflower series. I somehow wound up reading the series from newest to oldest, but whatever.

Janet Evanovich, found her by accident. Started at one and worked my way up to eight before I was current. They are now making a movie One For the Money due out this summer.

Jennifer Crusie, introduced to me by a friend, Fast Women was my first book and I've read every single book by her that I could get my hands on. Even the ones that weren't so good. Not that there are many.

James Patterson & Maxine Paetro, love the Women's Murder Club books. I was so excited when they announced that there was going to be a television series. Then they announced the cast. Anyone else read these books? Angie Harmon was cast as Lindsay Boxer. Rob Estes was cast as her captain/ex-husband. Who is that??? Lindsay Boxer isn't divorced. Is she? Did I miss that in the books? Claire's husband was in a wheelchair. Was that in the books? I'm seriously asking. I don't remember that. The show was so awful that it didn't survive a whole season, only 13 episodes. They took a great series of books and messed it up so they could put it on TV where it bombed. In my opinion it would have had more viewers if they'd just written it as it was.

Stephanie Bond. She is my new addiction. She writes the Body Mover series. The series starts out as follows:

Okay, so Carlotta Wren’s life hasn’t turned out as she’d planned. She didn’t plan for her parents to skip bail for a white collar crime, leaving her to raise her younger brother. She didn’t plan on having the silver spoon ripped out of her mouth and forgoing college to work retail. She didn’t plan on her blue blood fiancé dumping her like last year’s designer bag. And she didn’t plan for, ten years later, to still be single (with no prospects), working at Neiman Marcus, with no idea where her fugitive parents are. But she’s coping, sort of. Until…

…her lovable brother is arrested and his loan sharks come calling.

…the hunky cop who arrested her brother reopens her parents’ case.

…her brother becomes a body mover, transporting corpses from crime scenes.

…her former fiancé’s wife (a good customer) is murdered, fingering Carlotta.

…her brother’s sexy boss pulls her into the bizarre world of body moving.

Suddenly Carlotta realizes that she has to bag a murderer to keep her own well-dressed body from being next on the list!

I loved the first book and quickly moved on to the second and third installments and have the fourth lined up and the fifth and sixth on hold. Coming close to the end of the series I headed over to her website to find out when the seventh book was coming out. Imagine my surprise to find out that no other books are pending. Her publisher hasn't purchased any additional books for this series, but they are considering a television series. *groan* See the above reference to the WMC as a TV series. ACK! I hope that they do something spectacular with these books if they are going to make it into a series. These are awesome books. If you love Bobbie Faye or Stephanie Plum you're going to love Carlotta Wren.

Have you ever had a favorite book turned into a movie or television series that just sucked? If so, which one and why didn't you like it?

One of my favorite books is The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans. If you've read the book and haven't seen the movie yet, DON'T. One of my other favorite books is The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. If you haven't seen the movie you are missing out. The movie rocks!

Controversy?

Controversy, it's everywhere. If they're not blaring it on the news then they're discussing it on daytime talk shows, they're posting about it on Yahoo! and other media sites. I originally wanted to post a blog per day pertaining to each "controversial" issue and see what all of the blog hoppers thought, but unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time right now. Who does right? The holiday season is just a crazy time of year.

I want to discuss is the Glee photo spread in GQ. Anyone see this? I didn't even know that it existed until the ladies on The Talk went a little nuts over it. And not in a good way. (Please click the link to view these photos) I will say that these photos are racy, but that's as far as I'm willing to push it. One photo in particular I think is even in bad taste, but I wouldn't call any of them pornography. These actors are all over the age of 18. Cory Monteith is 29 years old, Dianna Agron and Lea Michele are both 24 years old and while they do play high school students on television, they're not in real life. They're adults. They're grown-ups, capable of making grown up decisions.

The other side of the coin? They appeared in character.

Sort of. People have a problem with the fact that they appeared "in character" for the shoot. Does anyone else watch this show? Rachael does not dress like this. She does not wear this much make up and she does not wear those totally awesome shoes. She dresses like "a preschooler and a grandmother all at the same time". Same goes for Quinn. She wears a cheerleader uniform. Every day. Her hair is always pulled back in a pony tail and she doesn't wear that much make-up either. Cory Monteith is the only one who appears even slightly in character for this shoot.

My biggest problem with this shoot? Where was Mark Salling? Why are he and Cory not half naked for this shoot? I guess it could have something to do with the magazine itself, Gentleman's Quarterly, but come on, a little consideration!

I guess the point I'm trying to make is this: if the ladies on The Talk hadn't told me about this, I would have never known. Sometimes I think the "news media" makes something a bigger deal than it would have been originally if they just left it alone.

What's your opinion? Inquiring minds and all that. :)

I like Kate Gosselin, there I said it

I must be one of the few people in the world who actually likes Kate Gosselin. That's right. I like her. Do I think she can dance? Not so much. Do I think she's a bad mom and a rotten person. Nope.

I think Kate gets a lot of bad press because she's easy to pick on. She's not a sweet person who wants the world to love her. She is what she is and if you don't like it, too bad for you. She married a HUGE loser and had eight children with him. He then cheated on her and left. ASS. She gets grief from the media for stuff that I know I do in my every day life and I know I'm not the only one.

I realize that she signed up for a reality show, which was probably her first mistake, and invited the whole freakin' world to watch her life. We critique the way she lives it, the way she raises her children, deals with her (ex)husband (the ass) and the people that she chooses to be friends with. As a society we have decided that women can't possibly be "just friends" with a man, even one who's married. They must be sleeping together otherwise what's the point? We all know that men can't possibly be faithful to their wives and all women are shameless floozies who will sleep with anyone. Right? Isn't that what we're saying?

Anyway, back to the point. I like Kate Gosselin so I really hope that the article I read on MSN is wrong. I'm assuming it is. At least partially. The media likes to rake this woman over the coals. So I'm asking you, the public. Does anyone have any proof that this article is true?

Why Do People Suck?

Some idiots broke into my Suburban last night and stole the DVD monitors right out of the back of the seats. Why do people suck? Why? Thank God tomorrow is Friday!

Audio Books and their Readers

There should be rules.

1. If you have a lisp, you can't read an audio book
2. If your S's whistle, you can't read an audio book
3. If you can't read the words correctly, you can't read an audio book
4. If you can't read it any better aloud than I can, you can't read an audio book
5. If you think this is a speed reading competition, you can't read an audio book

For those of you interested in checking out audio books, there are good readers and bad readers. A short list of some of the best readers, IMHO are:

1. Anna Fields
2. Dick Hill
3. George Guidall
4. Frank Muller
5. Joyce Bean
6. Susan Ericksen
7. Sandra Burr

There are lots of good readers out there, but some people, even actors who I won't mention here, shouldn't be allowed to read audio books. There should be rules.

Is there anything that you think there should be rules for?

When a hero goes too far

I just finished reading a really good book by a really great author. It was the final book in a trilogy of three sisters. The third sister, we'll call her Miss X, was a troubled young woman who didn't believe in love and had her share of men. She didn't believe in relationships and thought men only wanted her for one thing and made it so with her behavior. Until she met our hero. We'll call him jerkface. Okay fine, we'll call him Mr. X.

Anyway, Miss X and Mr. X meet and fall in love, while she is unsure of his feelings for her and insecure of the relationship in general, he is amazed and dazzled that a girl like her would ever fall in love with a guy like him. Are you seeing the recipe for disaster here?

So Mr. X learns from another party that Miss X has cheated on him, and without asking her about it, without confirming it with another source, he assumes that it must be true because of her history with men. Miss X tries to explain to him that it's not true, but of course, she must be lying. When Miss X learns that she's pregnant by Mr. X, he sends her away, telling her that he doesn't care or believe that it's his baby.

So she leaves. She moves out of the city and decides she's going to make it on her own. And she does. When her son is 4 years old he starts asking about his father and instead of lying to him and telling him that he's dead, she decides it might be time to introduce the two of them. See if Mr. X is willing to have a relationship with his son.

Well Mr X. is pissed off. How dare she keep him from his son all this time. She should have tried harder, after all she knew that he didn't believe her. (Pardon me while I barf on all the righteous indignation.) So Mr. X decides to take something away from her, so she'll have a complete understanding of how devastating what she did was to his ego. Err his life? His time with his son? The relationship that he didn't have with his son?

So Jerkface, I mean Mr. X, takes it upon himself to play Miss X for a fool. Let her believe that he still loves her, that they have a chance together so she'll drop her guard and be devastated when he serves her with papers to take their son away from her.

This MIGHT be a forgivable act IF Mr. X realized what a complete stupid jerk head thing this was to do BEFORE he actually served her with papers. Once she's served, in my opinion, this is unforgivable. There is no going back from this, there is no apology that is appropriate, there is no diamond big enough to forgive this. How do you ever trust a man who would do something like this? How do you ever believe that he isn't playing you again? How can ever trust that he's telling you the truth? HOW? HOW? HOW?

What do y'all think? Am I over reacting? That never happens, I never do that, but I might consider it a possibility if you guys say so. Tell me your opinion. Inquiring minds and all that . . .

The Horse Whisperer

I have ranted long and hard about The Horse Whisperer, the movie. Robert Redford's interpretation of this book just plain SUCKS. This is one of the best books ever written, in my humble opinion, and Redford bought the rights and ripped it apart. What makes it worse is Nicholas Evans let him.

I can't tell you how many people I have told, if you saw the movie and never read the book you are missing out. It is now with great pleasure that I share with you, this review, which I totally stole from Recorded Books.com. It's not just me folks:

4 out of 5 Stars Much more enjoyable than the movie!!!(Review of The Horse Whisperer)

This story came alive for me under the skillful reading of the narrator. . . Ive seen the movie and found myself wishing I had not because it made me want to picture the characters as the actors they were depicted by in the movie. The descriptions given of them though, gave them much more dimension and I would have pictured them entirely differently. Folks, if youve seen the movie and liked it. . . the book is even better! And the original ending, while taking me by surprise, is not to be missed. - Reviewer from Southern California

There are lines you just don't cross. Ever!

I am the mother of two children. They are both old enough now to take out into public, most days, and not cause a scene. Having said that, it has not always been the case. At several points in their very young lives both of my children have acted out in public. They have screamed, they have cried and they have tried to get what they want in the only way their young brains knew how. This does not make it okay. I believe as a parent it is your responsibility to make sure that your children behave appropriate in public, your responsibility, no one else.


I recently read this article on a man in Georgia (I think) who slapped another woman's child in order to get her to "shut up" because the mother didn't do an efficient job in his mind. He has been arrested and charged with a felony but I'm not sure there is a punishment to fit this crime. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't deserve the electric chair or anything, but do you think probation is going to correct this behavior?


Tell me friends, what do you think? Inquiring minds and all that . . .

My Rant For the Day

Hello my friends and welcome. My name is Erika and I am not a perfect parent. I have lost my temper, I have yelled at my kids, I have said things that I have had to apologize for later. None of these things make me an unfit mother. None of these things have ever gotten me reported to CPS or the Phoenix Police Department.

The cover of In Touch weekly features Kate Gosselin spanking her daughter once, on the butt, with the palm of her hand. SERIOUSLY? The front page of a magazine? I do not advocate spanking. I don't spank my kids but it's my own personal decision for my own personal reasons just like I'm sure all of you have your own personal reasons for the way you discipline your children. Having said that, spanking is not against the law, so please explain to me why the cover of In Touch magazine made it a point of letting the entire world know that Kate Gosselin was caught spanking her daughter and the police arrived minutes later? The police department went on the record to say that they arrived at the house because too many people were gathered outside watching. Do these people not have anything better to do with their time? Who sits in front of someone else's house watching them sit in their front yard with their children? WHO DOES THIS? Witnesses were reported as saying "The little girl grabbed her botton in pain...she was crying..." Of course she was. She got in trouble for doing something wrong. My kids burst into tears at the idea of being in trouble.

The article also goes on to say that Kate's always distracted by her phone. This accusation is accompanied by 4 photos of Kate on her cell phone or looking at her cell phone in front of her children. Again I say, SERIOUSLY?

All of you perfect parents out there, raise your hands. *crickets chirping* All of you who think you would be perfect parents and don't actually have children, all you can do is assume. People in glass houses . . .

The media needs to quit scrutinizing every move this woman makes. She's only human.

Kay, I'm done. What do you think? Am I way out of line?