As I came out of class tonight, it occurred to me that summer is officially over.
It's dark now by 8:30PM.
This weekend is Labor Day, the official end of the season.
Summer, with it's long hot days, is my favorite season.
The season of tans, bathing suits, beaches, and friends getting together at every opportunity to enjoy each other and the weather.
And it's over.
My Dad called me today to let me know that my Grandma's 12 year furry companion had passed away. He wanted to be sure that I knew, be sure that I called to let her know that I was thinking of her. I did indeed call, my grandmother was very upset. Bridgitte, her dog, was a companion that my grandmother only allowed herself to find a year after my Grandfather passed away. She trained Bridgitte from a puppy.
For a little over 12 years her little dog had been with her throughout her day, watched TV with her, ate with her (everything she ate!), and protected her from every strange sound. The routine of little Bridgitte, aided in her routine. It helped her want to be home instead of in therapy when she fractured her pelvic bone, and also the time that she had a stroke. It helped her get out of bed to get the dog outside to go to the bathroom, feed her on time, and countless other little things.
Sure, it's just a dog. It's not my Grandfather. But I feel her pain with her, and know how different it will be for her not to hear her dog's little steps throughout the house. I worry, because I know that she won't want another dog any time soon. I worry, because by the time that she decides to, she may not feel that she is capable of training it. I worry, because I want my Grandmother to stay as strong as she is now, with as much desire as she has now to keep going.

DON'T YOU JUST WANT TO SOMETIMES
hold back?
You've just recommended a movie to your friends and you even go back to see it with them and they are less than thrilled?
I was so excited to hear there reaction, because it gave me such a good feeling... but instead I was teased for seeing it a second time.
Is this how people become closed off and distant?

CLARITY
A really cool word, it is, that moment when the webs clear from your frazzled, stressed brain and you can actually see something for what it is...
Clearness of thought or style; lucidity
I noticed that my Funk and Wagnall apeared a bit out of date so I consulted www.dictionary.com, a wonderful resource.
Personally, I have too far few minutes of it... and worry that it will be gone when I wake up.
If you find mine, will you send it back?

FREEDOM, WELL ALMOST...

I think I am back into the school mode again, finally, and oddly enough tomorrow is the last day of summer semester.

What a class to start with, Philosophy and Critical Thinking. Oddly, it was supposed to be the "easy" course, the school required one, where the teacher reads the book during the class course... except for of course, MY TEACHER. He is/was the born philosopher, and for him the interesting part of the class is the debate part, and the part were we talk about different philosophers, and write PAPERS on them. OOOOH! AAAHHHHH!

So, I'm thrilled (sort of but not really), however... he did actually awaken the old synapses where I actually had to form THOUGHTS and GOD FORBID! opinions. And I am inspired to continue in my "let's take some college classes and see if I can actually make them into a bachelors degree" process, and I signed up for some more classes.

So, now, everyone (and Roger, you're exempt because I already know how you feel, and thanks for all of your assistance with this last paper, even if you didn't quite agree with my final conclusion!).... how do YOU feel about existentialism?

In short, (if you wanted my opinion), I thought that man needed some sort of value system as a back up. Sartre fights against religion alot, so I made alot of religious reference in my paper... but I think that I am more in tune with the combination of it and virtue ethics. In thinking about this material, I realized that I had been raised Christian, and even if I had abandoned that faith, there was still alot going on in my brain in the background about the "shalt not lie" type of thing... (yes, Roger, another long sentence comma nightmare... but I think that this is just the way my brain actually runs things together... frightening isn't it?)

ADDICTIVE
Burts Bees cuticle cream... beware!
You compulsively feel like whipping it out and lotioning ! your cuticles! of all things!!!
I'm gonna kill the girl that got it for me for my birthday...

INTERESTING FACTOID
Did you know that Georgia is the worst in the nation for people going to the polls to vote? The state is ranked usually in the 49, or 50 slot.
Judging though, by the majority of comments I get and see on other people's blogs... they wouldn't vote anyway, because they don't like any of the choices that are offered.
It's sad to think that we are a free nation, and do have the ability to vote and have some say in the way that our government is run, but people are too jaded to actually do it. They think that the polls are rigged, all politicians are crooks, and that it won't make a difference anyway.

we pause for this blogging moment...
I am doing anything that I possibly can to NOT study for my final on Wednesday OR finish a paper that I also have due on the same day...
I am wondering, with my summer daze going on, how I will make it this fall when I will be taking MORE classes?
MADNESS, I surmise.

NEW LAW: ALL AMERICANS HAVE TO SPEND AT LEAST ONE YEAR IN A CUSTOMER SERVICE RELATED ACTIVITY

Dealing with the public is both challenging and miserable all at the same time. How many of you out there waited tables in college or high school? worked fast food? maybe a retail environment? Oh, come on, raise your hands, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Work is good, any kind, and all experiences are all good, right? (ok, a little Pollyanna here, however, I am a big LEMONADE kind of girl... so work with me!)
Have you ever heard the phrase, "the customer is always right!" The answer class, is "NO! The customer is sometimes living on the other side of reality, the one in which they are a dictator and you are their servant, and THIS IS NOT REALITY!!!" Let me re-iterate, "THIS IS NOT REALITY!"
I know that even more people would go on Prozac if they really had the opportunity to get a full taste of what dealing with the public is like. Anyone can be patient for a while, no really, they can. Try to extend that for a full 8 hour day. Then a few days in a row. Next lets book on into a week, followed by a month or a year.
You too can be yelled at for not returning an item that the customer has obviously used, and had for SIX months, AND scratched up beyond belief..."But I never used it, I swear!"
And when you succumb, you too can be yelled at for giving them significantly less than full credit.
Do you, as a customer, honestly think that when you order something from a store that it is actually the person at the counters fault for it not arriving exactly when they were told it was? Couldn't it potentially be a UPS problem? or a manufacturing issue? a backorder issue? (The people in front of you actually do not MAKE the product, no really, it's true!)
In brief conclusion, I don't care that you have had a bad day, don't take it out on me.
I don't care that you are upset because you waited until the last minute to buy something that you know that you have needed for months and now not only do I not have any more, but it's just too fucking late to get it to you anyway.
I have absolutely no control over what the manufacturer actually sends us. Yes, we may have it on order, but someone from that company has actually got to send it to us before we can sell it to you, the lucky customer.
Your customer service rep is there to give you that personal touch, and information you wouldn't get from a recording device or possibly understand from the description on the box. There is no reason to be rude to a person who is honestly trying to help you. *And if there is, perhaps you should be looking for help with someone else... like a therapist!
(*Maybe customer service helps you most in an early political career, because it teaches you all about repetition, because frequently, people have many of the same questions.)