The stores hype the hell out of their day after thanksgiving sales.  People become animals in search of their 20% off prey. They show up hours early and push and shove for their place in line, crash the doors when they aren’t unlocked fast enough, and today, a 34 year old temporary worker that didn’t get out of the way when the doors were broken down died when a couple thousand stark raving animals trampled him in search of their sale item. A pregnant woman was also taken to the hospital, but her and her baby are OK.

Welcome to the most civilized nation on the planet, huh?

Is the economy so bad that we stop caring about each other because we can get something for $5 off if we can just get in the doors and grab it first before they’re gone? Or is it that human beings have degraded to such an extent that a human life isn’t important as long as it’s some lowly guy that makes $6 an hour at Walmart?

Those people, the ones that killed that poor man, I sincerely hope they understand what they did today. It’s not in me to wish vengeance on anyone, but dang, it’s hard not to at least hope that as many people as trampled him are charged with manslaughter.

When I was a kid, Christmas was about music, and gatherings, and midnight service at church, and a present or two somewhere along the way.  Now that I’m divorced and on my own, I’m much more in that mode than I was when I was married to a man that turned it into a greed fest.  You won’t ever see me participating in the day after thanksgiving sales. I did it once with my daughter and it was just stupid.  I have most of my Christmas shopping done for the six people that I need to shop for this year, and the few things that I have left to pick up will be done after work.

I realize that the stores hype the sales because they need to make money, and I realize that the customers need to save money too, but when there’s a mob situation like there was this morning it might be a good time for the marketers to step back and evaluate the situation. At the very least there should be enough security to protect the lives of the employees and the shoppers.  The mob mentality that these sales generates calls for that. Hopefully lessons were learned from this tragedy. I’ll be watching what they do next year.

Thanks to MiniMe for hosting me for a while.

What should I say for the first post on a new blog?

I guess I’ll start with why I blog.

I blog therefore I am….. um, no.

I blog because Prince Charming reads them and he’s fallen head over heals for me, and someday he’ll find me and come to my door with a glass something and …….. um, no.

I blog so that the world can be impressed with my wit……… um, no. well, maybe, but i doubt it. really

How about so all the kids at work that make fun of bloggers can pick on me too? Nah, they probably all have their own blogs, they spend too much energy making too much fun of people not to be guilty of it themselves.

I blog because sometimes I think I have something to say. Yeah, that’s it. But wait, there’s more:

I blog so that my daughter has a record of my life. So that she can learn from my mistakes, and know who her mother really is.

I blog because i get writers cramp way too easily, so journaling in a paper notebook is out. This is my self therapy, my mental playground, a place where I can figure out and explore my own beliefs and interests, do some creative writing, or just share something that I think is important, or silly enough to share for whatever reason.

I blog because I enjoy writing, and good writing takes a lot of practice. Someday I’m going to be a good writer. I’m still practicing. Bear with me.

I’ve actually been blogging for a few years now. I moved my blog here for a few reasons.
1. I didn’t want my site to be tied to my somewhat unreliable ISP, and it was.
2. The only people that know where my old blog was were people that I know. There’s no risk in that. Moving here means a wider audience, and for me that is a bit terrifying, but also a stretch of my personality that I resolved to take this year. I have major stage fright, even when you can’t see me. I’ll get over that, I hope.
3. My kid is a bit of a geek, and I’m really proud of that, and she set this up for me (all I did was think up and reserve my domain name) so I might as well use it
4. WordPress is cooler and seriously more sophisticated than what I was doing on my own in FrontPage. I’ll enjoy playing with it to see what I can do.

So, Hello to all my friends, family, and cheesehead ex-family members (you know who you are) that have been redirected here from there. Hello to all you wordpressers that stumble across me too.

Enjoy your stay. No Veal will be served, but I hear the Lasagna is good.(see #4) Please tip your waiter. Have a nice evening.