Photo 3 - Check out the X Ray!

The dog who ingested the plastic

Another Animal Story

My brother-in-law is a veterinarian. He has been stunned of course by the story of Gizmo and the hairball. He sent us these photos of a recent surgery he performed, however, where the dog had ingested a ton of ... plastic!
Warning, these photos are kind of graphic, but it is interesting to see. You see my brother-in-law in action performing the surgery!
This photo literally is of Damian pulling the plastic out of the dog's stomach!

Gizmo's Surgery

Gizmo the Cat had surgery this morning.
Do you want to know what made up the mass?
Hair.
Balinese cat hair, to be precise.
The vet tech calls me and says, "We can't believe it was a hairball. It was most impressive."
Dante and the regular vet, Dr. Barger, want to see the hairball, just to ogle at its sheer size. Dr. Barger and the vet internist who ran the ultrasound along with another vet, Dr. Ross, have spent the past few days researching cancers that arise in Balinese cats.
They of course wouldn't tell us that they thought it might be cancer, but, well, what could grow THAT large and actually displace the intestines?
It's been quite a story among the vets at Acre View Pet Hospital and Holland Referral Veterinary Clinic, where the ultrasound was performed. Dr. Barger is going to keep the X rays in her clinical files to show people, it astounded her that much.
So the whole cat saga has a happy ending. And just when everyone thinks that Dante doesn't care about the cats, let it be known that he was the one who talked me into taking Gizmo to the vet when he noticed the change in her behavior.

Gizmo the Cat

Gizmo the Cat will have surgery on Friday, Dec. 19, in Oklahoma City.
Please pray for her.
She had an ultrasound today, and what they discovered was a mass in her intestinal tract. They haven't ruled out cancer.
I know it may sound strange that I ask for prayers for my cat, but I pray for all living things.
Of course humans are first. Well, some humans. :-)
Gizmo is and has always been a very special member of the family, a talkative and very outspoken Balinese beauty who we reared from a little runt into a beautiful, elegant cat.
She is a cat after my own heart, always speaking her mind in her little kitty lingo. If you ask Gizmo how her day was, she tells you; actually, she tells you that even if you don't want to hear it. The funniest Gizmo story is when she outright attacked a groomer at a Petsmart in Columbus, Ohio. I got the call from Petsmart. "Our groomer had to be taken to the emergency room."
Gizmo had attacked the groomer's hand. I asked, "Did the groomer touch Gizmo's head?"
"Yes."
"Well, that's where she went wrong."
You just don't touch Gizmo's head.

Funny

An obnoxious drunk stumbles into the front door of a bar and orders a drink, the bartender says, "No way buddy you're too drunk."
A few minutes later the drunk comes in through the bathrooms, again he slurs, "Give me a drink." Bartender says, "No, man, I told you last time you're too drunk."
Five minutes later the guy comes in through the back door and orders a drink.
Again the bartender says, "You're too drunk."
The drunk scratches his head and says, "Damn I must be... the last two places said the same thing."

Always finding the humor ...

A poem I wrote for Gizmo the Cat. Ha!

My cat has a mass
Like the one in my knee
I had a surgery
But my cat can't pee
Her intestines are all pushed
Off to the side
It really sucks
When your organs collide

Gizmo's Internal Mass

Our beloved little Balinese Gizmo has an internal mass that we hope isn't cancer.
We'll be taking her to a veterinary hospital in Oklahoma City on Wednesday morning.
Gizmo is the sweetest, smartest cat on the face of the Earth.
Please pray for us and for her.

Remains of the Day

So I admit it.
Inadvertently, I got caught up in the Caylee Anthony story, and I sit in disgust and horrible disappointment as officials in Florida take 7-14 days to let DNA tests prove what gut instinct tells us, that the remains discovered by a meter reader near the Anthony home likely will be those of Baby Caylee.
There are so many of these type of stories anymore in the press, I suppose on some level I should be desensitized to it. Shouldn't we all?
But this is a particular sore spot for me at this juncture in my life.
I want a baby. I've been trying to get pregnant, at least now for a year, and then some here and there before that.
I've taken my temperature more times than I can count, struggling to stay awake each morning hoping that I don't choke on the thermometer if I do fall back asleep.
I've played mother to everyone in my life. I've mothered my friends; I've mothered my nieces and nephews; I mother children of friends; I mother the children across the street; when one of them falls from their bike, it's instinctive for me to rush to their side.
I mother the animals that are in my yard.
It's the Mother Instinct, and mothering is one of those precious "mysteries" in life that is so necessary to life.
My favorite Psalm has long been Psalm 139. You knit me together in my mother's womb...
No life is an accident, and when life is given to you, you should cherish that responsibility.
Besides my own struggle, I've watched so many other people around me struggle to get pregnant, good people who will provide wonderful homes to children.
It's one of life's greatest mysteries, why certain people can procreate. Dante, in trying to assuage me during our struggle, tries to find humor to make me laugh.
"Some animals procreate so easily because they're dumb. Maybe it's the same for people. Maybe it's the dumb people who are able to procreate so easily."
With this Caylee story, I know that there is a special place in hell for child murderers, especially when the person most likely is the very person who gave the child life in the first place.

Bernanke's Words

United States Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that our current economic situation can't be compared to the Great Depression.
Bernanke is a Depression scholar, so it's interesting to hear his insight.
Markets now are more stable and we have more mechanisms in place; and markets have an amazing ability to self-correct.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081201213246.v50zx9ik&show_article=1

Calvin and Hobbes

It may come as no surprise that one of my favorite comics of all time is Calvin and Hobbes. As the holiday season begins, I found one particularly good series of C&H strips that really speaks to what's going on right now in our economy, and really reminds me why I love this boy and his tiger so much.

http://www.lovine.com/hobbes/wonderland.html

The Great Depression

It's nearly Thanksgiving Day 2008.
Thanksgiving always has been my favorite holiday; it's not just because of the food. I adhere to "family and togetherness," rather than the focus on gift-giving that surrounds Christmas. I think it's soul-stealing and menial to focus on how much "stuff" can be stuffed under the tree; I have my Nana, aged 91, and my father, deceased since 1983, to thank for the marks they made on my soul about togetherness and family and the meaning of holidays.
Nana still is going strong this Thanksgiving, and for that, I am thankful. She has shrunk to about 5 feet tall, maybe less, and runs around in her tennis shoes, still able to stretch a dollar bill further than anyone I know.
And it's because she was raised during the Great Depression. Nana quit school in the sixth grade to go to work for her family; she still has her union membership book from all her years in the restaurant industry.
She waited tables nearly all her life. I remember when she would come home from the Youngstown Country Club, with her tips and leftover food that would be our meal that night.
She taught me to count money and save a penny. Never toss a penny aside like it doesn't matter. Every penny matters.
Nana owned homes and owned rental property, not only in Ohio but in New Jersey; she ran a delicatessan in East Orange, N.J., and is one of the savviest business people I know who stuck with the principles she learned in the Catholic church. You never take more than you need, and you always share what you have. Charging interest, by the way, is a sin.
She learned all that she needed to know about money from surviving the Great Depression, and she didn't realize it all those years that she reared me, but I paid close attention and I internalized everything she taught me.
As an adult, I appreciate her lessons more than she'll ever know. She used to have to eat lard bread, and make clothes out of potato sacks. In my childhood, you never went without, not under Nana's watch. In our poorest years as I was growing up, she taught me how to wash clothes on a wash board; to get them really clean, you used a plunger; we survived oftentimes on the barest of necessecities, and I can see its value now, as an adult, and as our country is in the midst of its own economic crisis.
At the University of Oklahoma, we study sophisticated models of economic prediction and theories in order to understand the performance of markets and why certain countries are mired in poverty.
While I appreciate and adore my education, at the end of the day, I follow my intuition and remember everything Nana taught me. There always are sacrifices that have to be made; you can make a meal out of can of beans; and no matter how much you don't have monetarily, you better iron your clothes before you step out of the house.
Not having money is no excuse to look like a slob. And you can always find a thrift store where you can buy a bag of shoes for $1, Nana's own version of a brown bag special.
I was reminded again of Nana's powerful lessons as I read the column I've linked to below in Fortune magazine, which is written by Walter Stoiber, aged 91, who is from Boardman, Ohio, near Youngstown, which is my hometown and where Nana and my mother reared me.
Stoiber talks about the simplicity of the time and how creative kids were forced to be; in my childhood, we had to do the same things. We could make a box into the best playhouse and garbage bags became make-shift sleds in the snow; when you did get a dollar, it went under the mattress or into a savings account. You always gave extra long, hard thought to how it would be spent, or if it would be spent at all, and this was the other lesson from Nana: You will never regret saving your money, although you will regret spending it.
Yesterday, my sister amazed me with her stories of how crafty she's gotten with coupons. She lives in Phoenix and she has managed this month alone to save 30 percent on her grocery bill overall, just by clipping coupons.
A run to the grocery store yesterday (in preparation for Thanksgiving) cost her $36 for what would have been nearly $80 worth of groceries.
That's impressive, but that's what we've been taught all these years, and now, my sister's co-workers are seeking her advice for how to save on groceries.

Read the story below. It reminds me of Nana, and it reminds me of why we DeRosa kids as adults have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/11/20/guest-post-the-great-depression-as-i-remember/

Obama's Economic Team

This is important news.
President-elect Obama has announced his economic team.
New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner is replacing Henry Paulson as Treasury Secretary; Larry Summers (former treasury secretary) will lead the National Economic Council; Economist Christina Romer will lead the Council of Economic Advisers; Melody Barnes will serve as director of the Domestic Policy Council; and Peter Orszag will be the director of Office of Management & Budget.

What is a recession?

This is the most common question I've heard from people. What is a recession? Then there is the brave soul who asks, "What is a Depression?"
I could give you the technical definition ... if you want to call it technical. A recession is two consecutive quarters of NEGATIVE GDP (gross domestic product). I am always sensitive to insulting anyone's intelligence, so keep in mind that the audience for this here blog ranges greatly. I'm not going to assume that everyone knows what GDP stands for.
A depression is a deepened, protracted recession.
Or, to put it in the terms of a prof at OU: A recession is when your neighbor loses his or her job. A depression is when you lose your job.

Cartoonish Al-Qaeda

Did anybody expect a positive response from Al-Qaeda to United States President-elect Obama?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714961130043621.html

Those Pirates

So a tanker is floating in some of the most dangerous waters in the world with one-quarter of one day's total oil production from one of the most oil-rich regions in the world.
What do we know about oil, friends? We know it's the most sought-after resource, don't we?
How big is our tanker, friends?
Look at the picture at the link here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/18/somalia-oil
Just check it out.

Then, look at this link. Check out the photo of the boats the pirates use. (And pay attention, because that's not sophisticated weaponry).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/nov/18/piracy-somalia-gallery?picture=339805476

Now, call me silly, but if I was sending a tanker with such a sought-after resource into the most dangerous waters in the world, I would anticipate the danger of pirates.
(Hint: These waters are not the most dangerous waters because of the shark population or rogue waves).
I would also laugh at the size of their boat, and I would blow those pirates out of the water. And I would have armed, trained folks on board my tanker to kick the crap out of the pirates.
Bomb those suckers back to Somalia.
In fact, I would look forward to the challenge, but that's Rambo Angie.
I know there were 18 pirates, so perhaps they had several boats. But come on. Seriously.
I'm assuming they weren't all piled onto one boat, for example, although life surprises me sometimes.
And if they were, that puts you as Tanker Master in an even better position. Use your noggin and your resources and CHARGE!

The Life Insurance Lecture

This evening, a friend of mine in Oklahoma went to visit her father's grave. I went along, willing to accompany someone to their parent's grave because I understand the sheer isolation of going to a cemetery by yourself, searching for the grave of your parent, and being sure that you're never going to find it.
It's one of those pesky side effects of grief: knowing that you stood at the grave site just months ago, but swearing you don't remember this particular location.
Marilyn didn't want to go alone. She's an only child, and she'll be coping with the loss of her father for a while.
This whole death thing is a fact of life; funerals are expensive; and I've experienced all this more than I've wanted to this year.
The funerals I've seen this year (five in total) have ranged in price from $6,500-$15,000.
Earlier in the day, I helped my father-in-law (Dante's stepfather, Tony), walk through some details of planning his sister's funeral. His sister, Antoinette, died unexpectedly yesterday (Monday, Nov. 17).
Tony stood by my side in Parma Hospital as we watched my mother die in March; he raced to get Father Breck and made sure that some of the final details were perfectly in place; he went door to door to funeral homes with me. I have a fierce loyalty to the people who have stood by me, and I hate that Tony is left with planning his sister's funeral.
And Antoinette didn't have life insurance.
The mother of my half brothers died months ago, and she was without life insurance. My brothers are left to foot that bill, which was right around $10,000.
I had an angel watching over me about nine years ago in the form of my Aunt Mae, who pulled me aside and said, "Your mom lives on a fixed income. Find out how much life insurance she has, and then see if you need an additional policy."
It just so happens that Aunt Mae owns her own insurance company; although it's for commercial businesses, she understands the implications of not having life insurance. Her own father had died without life insurance; in her situation, she had 10 brothers and sisters who could pitch in and they also were able to sell his house and use the profits for the burial expenses.
I don't mean to be going off on a tangent, but back to my mother, she did have a life insurance policy of $10,000, but after additional research, I found out that she and my father had borrowed against it. So its value was not $10,000 upon death. It was more like $2,000.
I took out an additional policy, and I paid the premiums. It was deducted every month from my checking account, and it covered a nice funeral for her upon her death.
This isn't very well written, but I'm tired and it's been a long day. My point is: If your parents are still living, find out if they have life insurance, and how much those policies are worth; also, make sure that you have life insurance.
You don't want to put that burden on your loved ones.
Also, check out this story below about a woman who was stuck paying for her mother's final arrangements. At the very, very low end, this funeral was $3,300.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/11/14/funerals.in.recession.ap/index.html

It's all about perspective

Depressed over economic news?

What you may be lacking, my friends, is perspective.

When people complain to me about living in the United States especially ... I say, "Well, you're not stuck here." As proof, I offer the fact that we have an attic (Canada) and a basement (Mexico), and you are more than welcome to pack up your belongings and head to either location and at least test the waters of living in another country for a while.

But, I will tell you, my former manager at the Graduate College just moved to Canada. It cost her $10,000 USD.

If you want more details of the frustrations she's faced, I can put you in touch with her.

But until then, I would like to share the story of the 10 worst currencies in the world.

This will give you perspective.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453625,00.html

My Northern Accent

I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone, but an "unscientific" language test that I took on Facebook says that I have a Northern Accent that is from the Great Lakes area, New York State, Western New England.

This may not surprise any of you; it especially won't surprise the people who I know here in Oklahoma. But it does beg the broader question, which Dante asked this weekend: From where do accents come?

If anyone knows, please chime in!

Let Them Eat Cake!

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/14/world-leaders-dine-in-style-as-they-discuss-financial-crisis/

Or not.

See the attention this dinner is getting. When world leaders descended on D.C. this past weekend in a very historic economic summit, some newspapers felt the need to pay attention to what the leaders were eating for dinner.

In my opinion, food is one of the best sides to life. Maybe it's my Italian heritage, but let me tell you, that if you're coming to dinner at my house, you're getting treated very, very nicely. Just ask anyone who's been to my house for dinner.

It's just the same with anyone in my family, and on Dante's side of the family, too.

OK, my point is this: Give the world leaders a nice dinner. I'm a taxpayer. It's not a big deal. Just like it wasn't a big deal (pardon me) that Sarah Palin spent money on her wardrobe. And for the record, it wasn't $150,000. Incidentally, I would like to have a side-by-side comparison for how much other leaders spend on their clothing.

Watch now for how much attention is paid to Michelle Obama's dress for the inauguration. That will cost a nice dime, trust me, but my greater point is that everyone will be watching, so she's got to look good, and that will come at a hefty price.

About Gay Marriage

Proposition 8 passed in California; that means gay couples can't marry there.
The irony is that the black vote and Latino vote that came out for Obama also represents a very conservative vote that tends to vote (in BOTH groups) against gay marriage.

Our anniversary

It's hard to believe that Dante and I have been married 11 years (Nov. 15, 1997).
Thank you to all our family and friends who have supported and loved us through these years.

It's not to say we haven't had rough spots. I'm the first person to tell anyone who asks: You don't get to 11 years of marriage without rough spots, especially with two people who are ambitious and hard-headed.

But we've supported each other and I think the biggest thing we do for each other is make each other laugh. And it's the moments of life that make you strong together.

Happy anniversary, my sweet Dante. I love you. You are my rock.

Math and Me

Next semester, I start my calculus sequence for my degree.
Many people cringe when I tell them this. But I am here to tell you that if I can do math, anyone can do math.
I was a bona fide remedial math student way back when. My teachers would get frustrated with me, and I even had to take a "special" math class when I got to college for my undergraduate at Kent State.
"Wow," teachers and counselors would say, "these math scores are low."
I don't mean to make anyone feel bad, but my father was great at math and he was teaching me math, and then he died. I'm not kidding. He stuck my nose in math workbooks well before I could even think about starting school.
Eventually, I got really, really good at Algebra. When I took the practice GMAT (graduate management assessment test), the woman handed me my scores and said, "I can't figure out how you did so poorly on math in general, but you did so well on the Algebra portions."
HELLO! Algebra has LETTERS. I can understand anything in terms of letters.
But understanding my weakness and knowing that I wanted the degree I wanted, I found a tutor. The tutor's name was Ananya, a lovely 18-year old lady from Bangledesh. She was fantastic at math; moreover, she could teach it.
I studied with Ananya for about a year, I think. The way she taught it, it just bore itself into my brain.
"Can we study at Starbucks?" I would ask.
"No, Angie, no," she would say. "You come to library and you study in quiet."
Her method worked. The thing is, I can understand math if I understand its purpose. I have to know why I'm doing something, and to what practical situation in my life it's going to apply, and then I can do it.
I'm not just going to work through math problems for the sake of working through math problems. But with the foundation I have from working with Ananya, I am very well prepared and I know the logic, which is the key to math.

Wish Me Luck

I'm asking for your prayers and karma and good thoughts (and your general good will) as I wait to hear if I've been accepted into the 2009 Feaver-MacMinn Seminar.
The name won't mean anything to most of you, but it means the world to me. It's an annual competitive seminar held during Spring semester where I would get to study with agricultural economist Robert Thompson and analyze the world food crisis.
Like I said, it's competitive based on GPA and an essay that you have to write. I will find out by Dec. 10 if I've been accepted.
Thanks for your good wishes!

Is Chesapeake for Sale?

I'm sorry to stoke a fire, but I just saw Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McLendon on the local news, insisting that the company isn't for sale.
The one thing I have learned as a business reporter is that when a CEO insists that the company isn't for sale, it's usually the lead indicator that the company IS for sale.
Also, I have experience in a corporation where all the executives insisted that our company wasn't for sale.
They would take us on retreats at fancy lodges and stuff our bellies full with wonderful, expensive dinners, and insist to us that "You may have heard that we're for sale. But we're not."
Then we were sold.
TWICE.
You can look it up. Matrix Essentials Inc. of Solon, Ohio, was privately owned by the Miller family, and then the patriarch died.
We were sold to Bristol Myers Squibb.
Then Bristol Myers said, "Hey, we're a pharmaceutical company. Why on God's green Earth did we buy a salon products company?"
(I tried telling them that, but I was a lowly newbie who just had the responsibility of getting a magazine published every month).
Matrix didn't fit in their business model. It took officials one year to figure this out. It took me three seconds to figure it out.
Then we were sold to L'Oreal.
Now, something caused McLendon to get his mug on television and beg the press to do a one-sided story. Especially on local news shows, that's not hard. And of course, they did it.
I'm sitting here screaming, "Hello?! Where are the analysts? Did you bother to look through their SEC filings?"
But remember, CEOs are like presidents of countries: They are paid to maintain calm. They lie so easily, and they will insist it's not lying. They have ways of talking around it. It's what they learn in CEO and President School.
"No, no, no," presidents of countries have said, "we're not in financial trouble. Here, have a stimulus check. Go buy yourself something purty."
Sound familiar?
Especially if Chesapeake needs a broader geographic position somewhere in the United States, and it feels it can only get there if it's acquired by a larger firm, then it will sell.
TRUST ME.
Now, I can give you my theories of what may have happened. Maybe some other company was interested in buying Chesapeake, and the sides went through months, maybe even years, of negotiations, and no deal was ever reached.
That would be my guess as to what happened.
Or, there are ongoing talks, and eventually, there will be a purchase agreement.
But I will tell you a Cardinal Rule of Business: A company ALWAYS is for sale.
TRUST ME.
Also, remember that Chesapeake is getting a lot of attention now with the Obama Administration taking over in 2009.
So if you've seen the news that McLendon says, "No, no, no, forget those silly rumors you've heard," then I would take that with a huge, old whopping grain of salt and expect the company could be sold.

All Politics is Local

My little friend Sophia (aged 11 years) of Cleveland, Ohio, was discussing politics with me and making inquiries into the meaning of economics.
Yes, really.
Discussions with Sophia and her older sister Jessie always are enlightening. Jessie and Sophia really are a way for me to keep pace with myself, since Jessie was the flower girl in our wedding when she was 2 years old and Sophia couldn't walk at that time.
It's amazing how quickly they grow!
I asked Sophia, "What do you think of the results of the national election for president? Have you and your classmates discussed it in school?"
(Keep in mind that Sophia and Jessie have a black mother and a white father and are surrounded by multi-culturalism all the time).
She says, "I really can't say much because I didn't know enough about the candidates. But I do know that Obama is against school vouchers, and school vouchers have made it possible for a lot of my friends to attend my school, so I don't think I like him very much."
Too great. I got such a kick out of her response, I had to share it. It proves what has been said all along, that all politics is local.

Go Vote .... Maybe

I have taken a vow of silence this political season (well, vow of silence in Angie terms).

I will not reveal who is getting my vote ... Maybe it's Obama, maybe it's McCain.

I have generally tended to vote conservatively in the past.

But for this election, I am zipping my lip and not telling anyone who gets my vote.

Here is why: I will choose the person who I feel can navigate our country through this pivotal stage in its development. I am not choosing based on gender (for example, I admire Palin, but I would not vote for the McCain-Palin ticket on the basis of getting a female into the vice presidency).

That would be fool-hardy.

It would also be fool-hardy to vote for Obama purely on the basis of race.

In either case, it's a historic moment for our country, moreso than anyone realizes. We are about to embark on a major change for the highest seat in American politics, and that my friends is mesmerizing and wonderful.

If you are the praying kind, I ask that you pray for our country and for the next leader.

No matter what happens, go vote, but please be educated and make the choice that you believe in. (No more Umbilical Cord Partisans, please).

Happy Halloween!

In loving memory of my mother, whose favorite Halloween joke was:

Q: Why didn't the witch have any children?

A: Her husband had a hollow-weenie.

Mom would tell that joke and just laugh and laugh.

It's Economics, Silly

I really try not to go on my rants about how economics is common sense, for the most part.
But this morning as I was driving into work, I found myself yelling at the radio, "DUH!" when the news came across that the economy contracted in the last quarter.
What'd you expect, George? (Borrowing from the infamous Warner Brothers cartoons).
It just so happens I'm knee-deep in studying the Latin American debt crisis of the early 1980s, and there are startling similarities to what we are experiencing now.
But let me also go on my rant about how we have to belt tighten, we have to implement fiscal and monetary policy discipline, and unless we do so, we are going to be in far more trouble.
People, this starts at home. Let me give you an example. Let's look at it this way. I once was making a good, solid salary at a good communications company. I don't believe in disclosing what I made, and I don't care to know what anyone else makes. It's just one of those "Angie Life Rules" by which I abide, but let's just say that I was used to earning that income for roughly 7 years (with the yearly raise, of course). My point in telling you this is that I had a salary, but guess what? Life changes. I went back to school full time and gave up the salaried career. Not easy, let me be the first to tell you.
Yes, I received an assistantship with a stipend, but let's discuss life in percentages (I LOVE percentages). So I roughly now get in my stipend 25 percent of what I earned in my salary. Trust me, it's not a lot. As a matter of fact, I have to follow such a strict budget that I barely have wiggle room. Thank goodness for declining gas prices.
So what had to happen? Could I continue spending at the levels I was spending when I was making that salary?
Of course not. It may seem common sense, but most people (including our government) do not follow this basic law of finance. If you don't cut spending, you're going to be in trouble especially if you're living on credit. What does living on credit essentially mean? That whoever is living on credit is stripping money from future income, and when we calculate for interest, we're going to be in a world of hurt.
It just so happens that we are a nation of consumers who love credit. We have built a house of plastic cards, and it's not sustainable. As the government scrambles to find ways to save those consumers in mortgage crisis, start watching your own financial house and take care of what you can at home.

Gas Prices

We have places in Edmond, Oklahoma City and Norman, Oklahoma, where gas is below $2.00 per gallon. Can you believe it?
At several places on my commute this morning, I saw $1.97 per gallon and even $1.95 per gallon.
I will take it.
Gas costs as a percentage of my total monthly budget was obviously a huge concern, especially on my grad assistant stipend. It's nice to see it decreasing.
But I warn everyone, as we see gas prices decreasing, don't get too comfortable.

Grad School Diaries: The Grades

Some things in life just don't make sense, like the current economic situation; why men are so fascinated (in general) with electronic gadgets; and how a professor can give me a B when I earned "As" on everything in the class.
This is the true story of Angela Mia DeRosa Giancola, aged 33 years and three days, grad student and thinker in general.
So Angie takes a class in Organizational Behavior. Angie, like all the other students, is graded in several ways by the professor. This is an 8-week accelerated class that meets one night a week for FOUR hours. Even before the semester started, we had FIVE books to read.
This is how else we were graded:
1. Papers. Lots of papers. Papers out the wa-zoo. We had to analyze Harvard Business Review cases and write 3-5 page papers (single-spaced, nonetheless); Angie and teammates earned As on each one.
2. Company analysis, 10 pages. With team. Angie and team earned A.
3. Best-self, in which I had the help of several people, THANK YOU ALL, by the way. Tony and Margaret; Sarah; Jeanne; Alison; Diana; Tina Marie; Don; Arnella; Hollee; Rachel; and Mike. So they all contributed to How Angie Can Be Her Best. I pulled it all together, wrote some more stuff backed by RESEARCH, and I got an A. A HIGH "A."
4. Class participation and teamwork. I never missed a class, and I always participated. And I operated in one of the best teams in the class. It was great. We had such great energy and personalities on our team, and it was such a great process.
5. The Test. So in this class, you have FIVE books, 21 articles, and 10 models of organizational behavior. At the end of the class, you have to sit for THREE hours and take an exam. The test is notoriously difficult. As a matter of fact, there exists a Black Market Study Guide among the MBA students to help each other through the exam.
The exam includes questions like,
1. Professor Wickenhooper has theorized that organizations function best when:
a. There is electricity in the office
b. There are dependable, routine paychecks and cash flow is not a problem
c. There are bathrooms, for men and women, and regular bathroom breaks
d. There are vending machines that are regularly maintained and not wheeled out
by strangers in the middle of the day and never replaced.
e. The person in charge knows what he or she is doing
f. A and B
g. B and C
h. C and D
i. None of the above is correct
So there were roughly 30 questions like the one you see above; then short-answer essay; long answer essay; and models that you had to draw.
Without revealing my grade, I did average. I performed average on the exam. Was it an A? No, it was not. But it wasn't going to be. I sat for the exam from 6 p.m. through 9 p.m. after a horribly long day that included a law exam that morning that was 2 hours long.
The professor gave me a B in the class, despite all my other work. Not only did he give me a B for my course grade, but it's a B that's close to an A.
Where does this make sense?
It doesn't.
I will be having a discussion with the professor, needless to say.

The Grad College Staff

These are all my co-workers (and me of course) at the Graduate College. Thought I'd share!

Wesley the Owl

There is a great book called Wesley the Owl. It's the true story of a biologist, Stacey O'Brien, who was asked to take care of a four-day old Barn Owl and she ended up keeping him for something like 19 years.
Yes, in her house.
The book is written by Stacey and is a great account of her life with Wesley. It's funny, it's endearing, but I do warn you, there are some parts that are very descriptive about how she gets the mice she has to feed Wesley.
(Let's just put it this way: Barn owls need full mice as meals in order to thrive and get the proper nutrition). Over his lifetime, Wesley eats something like 28,000 mice, and Stacey has to find a way to get those mice, kill them, and feed them to Wesley.
But this is a great book, nonetheless, and I highly recommend it. It's very intoxicating. I can't put it down!

Scorpio Fun Facts

I'm a Scorpio; some people act shocked at this (note the sarcasm there); I think it's fun to look at some of the characteristics of one's horoscope sign, and since it's the Scorpio time of year especially.

Happy Birthday to the other Scorpio who shares a birthday two days away from mine, my dear friend Jeanne Hock!

Jeanne, let me know if you think you meet these qualities! I do match some of these qualities (OK, a lot, quite frankly, especially the stubborn streak).
I can tell you, I won't be the Scorpio who inherits money; but Jeanne, I hope you are! :-)


THE SCORPIO
Beneath a controlled, cool exterior beats the heart of the deeply intense Scorpio. Passionate, penetrating, and determined, this sign will probe until they reach the truth. The Scorpio may not speak volumes or show emotions readily, yet rest assured there's an enormous amount of activity happening beneath the surface. Excellent leaders, Scorpions are always aware. When it comes to resourcefulness, this sign comes out ahead.
Friends and Family
Sincerity and truth are strong components of the Scorpio's friends. It can take some time before really close bonds are formed, but once done, the Scorpio will remain dedicated and loyal. Witty and intellectual, they prefer companions who are humorous and easygoing. Full of surprises, this sign will give you the shirt off their backs if that's what you need, yet once they are crossed, there's no turning back. They feel deeply, and once hurt, it can be impossible to turn things around. Commitment to family is strong and consistent with the Scorpio. They are exceptionally helpful in managing affairs, and they are excellent advocates when needed.
Career and Money
I desire is the key phrase for the Scorpio. They are fantastic at managing, solving, or creating. Once the Scorpio sets their sights on a goal, there's no deterring this sign. Tasks that require a scientific, penetrating approach are always best done by Scorpions as they will delve deeply into the materials they have. Their ability to focus coupled with determination makes for strong management skills. They're not ones to worry about making friends on the job scene; rather, they prefer to see the task accomplished well. Pursuing such careers as scientist, doctor, investigator, navigator, detective, researcher, police officer, business manager, and psychologist all suit the mighty Scorpio. Respect is an essential aspect of working for this sign. They need to respect their coworkers while also feeling a sense of being respected by others. Scorpions are disciplined enough to stick to a budget and unafraid of working as hard and as long as it takes to get themselves in a good financial position. Many are fortunate and inherit money. Whatever the case - and regardless of the balance - they are great managers of their dollars and are not apt to overspend. Money means security and a sense of control, which is important to the Scorpio. Therefore, they're going to hang onto the majority of the cash, making decisions carefully before turning any of it over.
Love and Sex
This is the strongest of the sexualities in the Zodiac. Incredibly passionate, the Scorpio takes intimacy seriously. Partners need to be intelligent and honest. Much of the foreplay for this sign happens long before the bedroom through conversation and observation. Once in love, they are devoted and loyal to the death. But relationships can take some time. The Scorpio needs to build trust and respect for a potential mate slowly and thoroughly.
SCORPIO TIDBITS
Health
Each sign has a part of the anatomy attached to it, making this the area of the body that is most sensitive to stimulation. The anatomical areas for Scorpio are the genitals, bladder, rectum, and the reproductive organs.
Ruling Planet
The ruling planet for Scorpio is Pluto. Traditionally, this planet rules that which is hidden from view. It also represents conception, birth, death, slow growth, generation, regeneration, unpopular causes, anonymity, phobias, and the exposition of secrets.
Colors
The colors of choice for Scorpio are dark red and maroon.
Gemstone
Scorpio's star stone is the opal.
Lucky Numbers
Scorpio's lucky numbers are 2, 7, and 9.
Compatibility
Scorpions are most compatible with Pisces and Cancer.
Opposite Sign
The opposite sign of Scorpio is Taurus.
Likes
Truth, facts, being right, teasing, longtime friends, a grand passion, a worthy adversary
Dislikes
Dishonesty, passive people, revealing secrets HouseNatural sign of the Eighth House. This house focuses on sex, taxes, death and rebirth, a partner's resources, inheritance, and regeneration.
Famous Scorpions
Hillary Clinton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Combs, Julia Roberts
Best travel destination
Zambia, Syria, Norway, Halifax, Liverpool, New Orleans, Washington, D.C.
Strengths
Passionate, stubborn, resourceful, brave, a true friend
Weaknesses
Jealous, distrusting, secretive, violent, caustic

Congrats to Dante

The hubby has been named director of the research staff at the House of Reps. Yay, Dante!

The Tree Adventure

Dante and Daren (always looking for adventure) decided, "Oh, I know. Let's go take one of the seven trees out of the front yard."

So they did. (This is the view of our front yard in Oklahoma from our front door).

Here is a photo. I wanted proof in case there was an accident, which thankfully, there wasn't. Dante stayed on the ground; Daren is in the tree.

Kitty Longstocking

We're dressing up Duchess the Cat for Halloween this year!

Look at her pretty costume! (The container you see in this picture is her catnip. We had to assuage her somehow).

Without people, life isn't possible

I think a lot.
I think quickly, deeply, too much, all the time. My mind is always moving. My mother knew this. My sister knows this. Dante knows this. I know this about myself.
And tonight, I've been thinking a lot about teams. I love working in teams, and during my organizational behavior class this semester, I was part of one of the most wonderful teams of people I could ever imagine.
Five of us - me, Ali, Paul, Ian, and Michael - moved in lockstep. Our interactions were positive, reinforcing, and inspiring. Together, we produced three papers and we studied for one excrutiating exam.
We got each other through a very demanding class. Ian and I had struggled through a very difficult class together last semester, so we knew that if we made it through that class, we could make it through anything.
At home, I'm blessed with a similar "team." Dante is my partner, my co-captain, my inspiration when I think I can't read one more chapter or write one more word. He woke up with me early Thursday morning to study latin ethic philosophies and legal cases.
Daren, my brother-in-law, happened to be staying with us when I was studying for my Latin American Economic Development exam last week. He helped me study.
On the sidelines, I have quiet cheerleaders, people like Arnella and Nancy who call me to ask me how things are going, how did the tests go, how am I doing.
I am quite blessed, and I never, ever want anyone to think I've taken them for granted. Love you guys. Thank you for being part of my team.

It's Done!

Today, Oct. 16, is a very special day for me. I get to take my finals, of course, and that will be a load off my shoulders like you would not believe. But I am also holding in my hands THE BOOK that has consumed my life for the last six months.
It is the Graduate College Annual Report of Fellows. I was responsible for collecting all content, all photos, and ensuring ALL ACCURACY.
And that's not an easy task when you have over 160 fellows with names like Heminigild Mpundu and Karrthik Kirupakaran and Olga Verbovaya. All told, it's a 208-page book.
And that's FULBRIGHT with ONE L, not two. And maybe some fellows have actually graduated, and we need to track the entire process ourselves at the Graduate College because the university doesn't have a central point to collect all the data on where the fellows have gone.
And those who have worked with me in the past, and those who know me in general, know how anal I am about accuracy. OBSESSIVE.
So this is a big day. I am happy. Now, I dare not look at the book for fear of finding one tiny, any tiny, error.

Another Grammar Error

It is colloquial, but not appropriate, to use the phrase, "I will try AND vote during the November presidential election."
I've seen this construction too much lately, and quite frankly, it annoys me. It is inappropriate. One wants to use the infinitive in construction with "try," as in, "I will try TO vote during the November presidential election."

Neat, Life-Affirming Story

This happens to involve one of my co-workers at the University of Oklahoma, Susan Cates.
Susan is a very funny lady. She took a 6-week leave starting last week to have a kidney transplant. But the transplant story is very unusual. Susan's husband wasn't a match for her; and one other lady's brother wasn't a match for her. So they switched!
Check it out.
Thankfully, both patients are doing great.

http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=9178523

It's Finals Week

It's not the pace of life that concerns me. It's the sudden stop at the end.

Hello everyone. If I've talked to any of you over the phone over the past week, you've all had in common the same shocked expression, "It's finals week already?"
I can barely keep up with myself, so I don't expect anyone to have to keep up with my crazy life. Hence, the quote at the top of this posting.
It IS finals week, for about 2/3 of my classes. I've got one foot in management classes and the other foot in economics classes. The management classes are under an accelerated track program, in which I take the classes on 8-week "mini" semesters. And the exams are weighted VERY heavily (50 percent weight for my law and ethics exam and 40 percent weight for my organizational behavior exam).
So it's finals week for those management classes! Wish me luck!
And whoever is in Oklahoma City, we're going out on Friday night!

The Ultimate Economic Indicator?

At least prostitution in New York isn't suffering! (I hope you pick up on the sarcasm I intend here).
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/10/11/2008-10-11_prostitution_has_not_suffered_dropoff_de.html

The Art of Procrastination

I'll write about it tomorrow....

Where does all the money go?

I have had several conversations with folks about the economic turmoil. As I said during a presentation I gave last week at the Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Blowmolding Conference, "Just because I'm majoring in economics does not mean that I understand the financial crisis."
In fact, I think that most people don't understand the financial crisis (that's part of the problem), and I am not a financial economist, nor do I ever intend to be. I tell people what I follow myself: Watch your own finances; don't get too bogged down by what is going on in the world markets because it will just depress you; watch your own personal debt load and ask yourself, "Do I really need to spend money on this?" when you're about to make a purchase, especially on bigger-ticket items.
The financial crisis is the "bust" of the housing market frenzy. That's how I see it anyway. During the frenzy, I kept saying to myself, "This isn't sustainable." At that point, I only had anecdotal evidence, so my theory wasn't fully supported by solid numbers.
Now, I did suspend my monthly contribution to a mutual fund that I have and I transferred more than 50 percent of its total value into an existing savings account for now. The market is too risky, and I have had that fund for years. Every month, religiously, I put in dollars and I don't want to lose that.
I have a profound respect for the complexity of financial markets, and I can tell you that all that money didn't just disappear. It went somewhere. A producer from MSNBC did an OK job of explaining it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27122758

Let's Clear the Air on a Common Grammar Mistake

My dear friends Anthony and Trina Morella of Las Vegas called me this morning to settle a grammar argument.
The two of them, along with their adorable son Zachary, went to have family portraits taken.
At the bottom of one of the photos, the photographer put, "The Morella's."
Trina, after my own heart, refused to hang the photo in the house because it's not grammatically correct to write, "The Morella's."
Trina is absolutely correct. Under no grammar rule is it correct to make possessive "Morella" in that case.
Anthony says to me, "So why do we see family names written like that all the time?"
I said, "Just because society embraces it does not make it correct."
To get around this, I recommend adding an "s" to make it "Morellas" or writing, "The Morella Family."

Here's the explanation for it, from a grammar web site I sometimes use:

When a family name (a proper noun) is pluralized, we almost always simply add an "s." So we go to visit the Smiths, the Kennedys, the Grays, etc.When a family name ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, however, we form the plural by added -es, as in the Marches, the Joneses, the Maddoxes, the Bushes, the Rodriguezes. Do not form a family name plural by using an apostrophe; that device is reserved for creating possessive forms.

The Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Concert

This was a classic, wonderful experience, especially hearing Krauss do a cappella versions of her best gospel songs and Plant was singing backup for her on those.
But what made it even more memorable was that I was there with my husband and my dear friend Arnella. Arnella and I, arms entwined, sang along with the songs (where possible and where it wasn't burdensome to the other concert-goers).
Fun and memorable indeed.

Grad School Diaries: The Exhaustion

It's been a long week. I don't ever want to complain, but I realized how tired I was when I woke up this morning and I could see the clock perfectly across the room.
The "8:30" was in perfect focus. Was it a miracle? Did I actually have perfect vision?
Then reality hit as I blinked my eyes and I felt the tiny plastic suction cup sensation on my eye.
I had slept in my contact lenses, something I had not done since high school.
Sincerely.
It may seem relatively benign to all of you, but I am more anal about my contact lenses than anything else in my life. Especially since I have this phobia about going blind. Which explains why I won't willingly put myself under a laser, despite reassurances by several doctors that I am a perfect candidate and that never, ever have they lost a single eye to laser surgery.
And since I'm getting older and I have this pesky thing called astigmatism, my contact lenses are really, really uncomfortable if I ever did want to sleep in them.
Which brings me back to my quandary: how did I fall asleep and not even budge? We had company last evening. We had several friends over, plus my brother-in-law, who has been staying with us for a few days.
I didn't remember saying good night to anyone, and Lord knows I maybe had one glass of wine, so I couldn't blame alcohol. I remembered the steak more than the wine, to tell the truth.
Dante and Daren (the brother-in-law) explained to me that I had fallen asleep on the loveseat we have in our kitchen and that I didn't budge. Dante just led me into the bedroom, and covered me up, letting me sleep until I awoke this morning.
Life is strange. Life is even more strange while I'm in school.

Grad School Diaries: The Prison Visit

I went on a field trip today to a medium security prison in El Reno, Oklahoma.

One may not think much of a medium security prison, but it's the federal prison location that has housed the likes of Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, several Gotti family members and many other criminal offenders.

It was eye-opening to say the least, especially the speeches by two inmates who are serving 50 month and 51 month terms for white collar crimes at the federal prison camp located on the same campus.

Our professor wanted us to see the slippery slope of "ethical" decisions and how one even presumably small misstep can lead to big trouble.

Roy Driscoll is serving time for money laundering. He worked for a semi-conductor business in Plano, Texas, and had been salesman of the year for roughly 15 consecutive years, driving the company's business from $300,000 to $7.2 million. But he was under pressure from management when they discovered the company's largest customer had been overbilled in the amount of $1.8 million. It's a longer, more involved story than what I'm typing here, but suffice it to say that they justified not being able to return it to the customer for fear of losing the customer.

Pray tell, how can we explain that we'd been overcharging them to the tune of nearly $2 million?

But they also had to make it disappear from the books because a British company was acquiring their company. They had to clean up the books, and they tasked Roy with getting rid of the $1.8 million. So Roy opened a separate account under a fake business and lived the high life on the money. He talked about the season tickets to the Dallas Cowboys, the Mavericks, and the Stars. He talked about the $400,000 home and how he gave $500,000 to his church.

Now Roy is doing time.

Mr. Banks (his first name not disclosed) fully understands the current mortgage and home-lending mess. The charismatic 55-year-old was trained in the title business by his father. Together under the Banks name, they built up a multi-million dollar business in Dallas.

But Banks was signing off on fraudulent loans, and he was betraying the lenders. He was president of his company, also living the high life.

It all came crashing down. Banks, along with his brother and son, were implicated in the mess and his business closed forever.

He still has the entrepreneurial spirit, he says, so when he is released from prison in 2011, he plans to enter the ministry.

Grad School Diaries

At this particular point in time, I've finished a grueling law exam which will be 50 percent of my total grade for the semester; I've read more than 600 pages on Latin American Economic Development; business law; and organizational behavior.
I've mastered (I think) exchange rate conversions and how to respectfully engage my co-workers and make them feel all warm and fuzzy.
Needless to say, I'm exhausted.
But you don't have time to stop and think about what you've done, because you've just got to move on. And I'm moving on to the bar ... Gin and tonic, anyone?

The Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Show

Friday, Sept. 26, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will be playing in Oklahoma City.
They were displaced by Hurricane Ike. Their Sept. 26 show was supposed to be in Houston, but now they've changed venues and of course, cities.
I was first in line this morning to score three tickets!
Whoo-hoo!
Now, back to studying for my law exam!

The Speaker Is ...

Simone de Beauvoir, who wrote those words in 1952. I always think it's stunning how timeless some things are. That is definitely timeless, in that any modern-day feminist philosopher or writer could have very easily written that today.

Who's the Speaker?

"For a long time, I have hesitated to write a book on woman. The subject is irritating, especially to women; and it is not new. Enough ink has been spilled in the quarreling over feminism, now practically over, and perhaps we should say no more about it. It is still talked about, however, for the voluminous nonsense uttered during the last century seems to have done little to illuminate the problem. After all, is there a problem? And if so, what is it?"

Guess the speaker ... as I was struggling to finish writing an essay, "In the Company of Men," I put my pen down. Now that feminism is at the forefront with McCain's pick of Palin, I am reminded of something a very wise woman once told me, "Gender is an issue if you make it an issue."

Mitch Hedberg Returns!

Deceased comedian Mitch Hedberg's friends got together and have released, "Do you believe in gosh?" which is now for sale on http://www.amazon.com/

Check out the news of the release of Hedberg's CD via the Bob and Tom web site
http://www.bobandtom.com/gen3/index.htm

This is perfect. Just when I thought Hedberg's comic genius was gone, we get one more round!
And if you haven't heard of Mitch Hedberg, you should check him out. I love his style of humor, although it's not for everyone, admittedly. Be warned, he's got a potty mouth.

More Stupidity

I should know better than to have high standards for Joe and Jane Q. Public and the idiot mainstream media that represents them. Or do they represent the idiot mainstream media? That's the philosophy question of the day.
So People magazine wants to know, "What do you think of Palin's glasses?"
Well, gee, I don't know. What do you think of Obama's big, glaring white teeth? Has anyone asked that? What do you think of McCain's white hair? What did anyone think of the birthmark on the head of Gorbachev?
Better yet, what does anyone think of the mole on McCain's ass? Oh, you didn't know he had a mole on his ass?
I almost had a heart attack last week when some writer for the Boston Globe decided that she was going to run a column criticizing Palin's up-do.
Maybe it's the women that are stupid. I see women pay upwards of $60 for up-dos like that for fancy occasions, like weddings and proms.
And maybe it's because the writer can't write an intelligent thing to save her life, so she just chooses to write about Palin's hair.
Yes, that's it.

Destiny's Child

I'm in "defending independent women" mode, celebrating those women who step beyond themselves to find their higher calling. I've believed in this all my life, that humans should have the ability to pursue their utmost potential, male or female, mother, father, or childless.
Of course, this has been motivated by what I've seen surrounding McCain's Palin pick, and by an e-mail that I received today from a friend about a woman here in Oklahoma who has decided that Palin's first calling is as a mother and that's what she should adhere to, not this silly vice presidency thing.
Have you ever heard it said that women are harder on other women than anyone else?
Madeline Albright said, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There's a reason that Albright said this.
I'm ashamed of a certain percentage of my gender.
Shame on any women for looking down on Palin. Shame. I celebrated Hillary's primary race. Even though she lost the race, she didn't lose for us women. She ran as far as she could; if life is a relay, she was able to pass the baton to Palin who can, quite frankly, finish the race.
And I will invoke God in my message, because I have a firm belief that God endows us with gifts that he wants us to use on this Earth. As I see women saying that Palin's place is at home with her children, I say no, it is not, and shame on you all. You wish you had the strength and the fortitude to do what Palin has done.
Palin has been endowed with the gift of might, of speech, and of circumstance. Those things don't happen on accident.
Stand and celebrate, for it is our moment in history.
Palin has liberated herself, she has let her strengths be her guiding light, and if the criticizing women out there were smart, then they would celebrate this special icon for our gender and stop trying to beat her down because they are themselves so insecure and unable.
With this, I share a very special poem that I keep in every one of my journals because I so firmly believe its message.
It is the poem, "Our deepest fear" by Marianne Williamson, and it is important because we are put on this earth to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And that is what Palin is doing; that also is what Obama is doing. But no one would ever, ever criticize Obama for running for president while having children at home.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Another Point

I'm tired and way-glazed over from doing currency conversions and analyzing export and import financials, and stating my cases for my law class, but I have to opine on something.
This weekend, as you may have read, we received news that our dear family friend Louis Petkovski had died.
I have a point to this, I promise, just bear with me.
When I was 7, my dad died. My maternal grandfather had died years before I ever came to be, and my point is, women were left to raise me.
Now, Louis' widow, aged 52, is on her own. Lucky for Mary, Louis was financially astute and made some key investments to ensure she was cared for to a certain extent. But Mary never cultivated a skill in order to make a living by herself.
Now, Louis is gone and she has to face the world.
This is my bandwagon: Every woman needs a way to make a living. Cultivate a skill. Spread your wings. Step out of your comfort zone and take on some new challenges.
You never, ever know what tomorrow will bring.
Having a career or pursuing a higher education doesn't mean that you're neglecting your husband or your children. It means you are buying insurance for yourself against the uncertainties of life. Even if your husband doesn't die before you do, what will you do if he becomes ill and can't work?
OK, I'm done. I've shouted about this for years, only because I saw my own mother struggle so much after my father died. But life keeps proving, too, that there is no assurance.

Quotable Gov. Palin

They can pick on her hairstyle and how she chooses to raise her children, but Gov. Sarah Palin is getting in some great kicks.
In the recent NY Times article, this was part of the story:
She assured them she would not take much time off: she had returned to work the day after giving birth to Piper, the child in tow. “To any critics who say a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time,” she said, “I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave.”
Those people who say those things are afraid. They're afraid to see a woman in charge, and they will use any tactic to push her down.

Classic

That's all there is to say about these photos. My dear friends, Rachel and George Pelosi in Canton, Ohio, sent these photos of their iguanas.

If you remember my blog from a few months ago, Chonny went missing for a LONG time. He showed up on Rachel and George's mailbox.

Chonny is the smaller of the two iguanas in each picture.

He's looking quite vibrant and healthy. Of course, one may think that they're doing something else.

The Meaning of Death

We have experienced two deaths in our extended family.
It may sound strange that I'm identifying her as my extended family, but my father's first wife has died. Rose Gerrardi was 84, a spunky Italian woman who will be buried at her family cemetery in Staten Island, New York, on Wednesday.
My brothers, Nicky, Dominick, and Nino, called me and said, "It's the brothers from the other mother. The other mother has died."
Nicky is 50; Dominick just turned 62; and Nino is 67. They are my half brothers, almost my fathers. My own mother, Betty, raised Nicky partially with me, my sister Lucy and our youngest brother Bill.
We lost our mom in March. To lose Rose in September is like losing another limb. When we were children, we lived in Toms River, New Jersey, and Rose nurtured me and loved me as if I was her own daughter. She taught me how to crochet. When Dante and I were married in 1997, Rose was there, proudly presenting a wonderful crocheted blanket and various other crocheted items like pan holders.
We visited her often over the years in Newark, and she was always the same loving old Italian lady, willing to talk and help.
The second person we've lost is Louis Petkovski. He died this Friday, Sept. 5. At age 53, he has succumbed to liver failure after battling Hepatitis C. Louis Petkovski was an immigrant from Yugoslavia. He and my father forged a tight bond. When Dante and I were married in 1997, it had been a special post-humous request of my father Nicholas that Louis have a special dance with the bride.
Like my father, Louis ran his own business, but always put his family first. No matter the time of the day, he was always there for his family.
RIP, Rose Gerrardi and Louis Petkovski.
We love you.

The Voiceover Guy is Dead!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,414841,00.html

You know him, you just don't know his face.
Accordng to Fox News, Don LaFontaine, the man behind the chilling voice in various movie trailers and commercials, died Monday, his agent said. He was 68.

"She should be home with her baby"

By now, you all likely know that Sen. John McCain has selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
What you may not know is that Gov. Palin is the mother of five children, aged 18 years to 5 months old.
The 5-month-old is a son named Trig who happens to have Down's Syndrome. This fact motivated some people (women especially) to comment that Gov. Palin should stay home with her baby.
Are you kidding me? It is this type of attitude that has hurt ambitious, successful women for years. Not only do ambitious women have to fight to get where they are, but in my experience, they have to face scrutiny and negativeness from their own gender.
For shame, for shame, ladies.
When I see a woman in a position of power, I celebrate. Kickass, I think, because I know how hard she has fought to get there.
But let me promise you this, as a woman myself with my own ambitions, I can promise you that a woman who is in a position of power and is a mother has made the commitment to herself and her children to take care of herself and her children.
If it means going without sleep, she will go without sleep.
Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean that it's not "right," in your view. And of course, in Gov. Palin's case, she has a great support network surrounding her, including a husband who is willing to be home with the baby. She also has a support network of aunts, uncles, and her own parents.
So judge not, lest ye be judged.
Celebrate, for Pete's sake.
A woman has made it onto the Republican ticket. And a woman who has made it there has figured out how to take care of her children and make sure their needs are met.

Beyond Her Looks

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been picked as the vice president to McCain's president.
Up until now, most people didn't know the name "Sarah Palin," and for the masses of men out there, she's not "Sarah, Plain and Tall."
She's "Sarah, Sexy Mother of Five."
I listened to comments from men around me from Friday morning up through today. Our friend in Iraq claimed to his wife, "I'm in love!"
He's in love with Sarah Palin.
I admit, she's very nice looking, and if that gets men excited (and some women, too), then that's OK.
But beyond her looks, she's been picked in a very historic moment for the Republican Party when they had to find a way to take the spotlight off Obama.
Palin is 44; she gave birth to a baby with Down's Syndrome in April, choosing not to abort even though she knew the baby would be born this way; her husband is a member of a union and a part-time oilfield worker (hello, drilling!); her oldest son is headed off to Iraq.
And let's face it, she's a woman and the Republicans want to court the women in the Democratic party who had supported Hillary Clinton.
It's an amazing combination, and a very smart political move on McCain's part.
Now let's hope there aren't too many skeletons, and that McCain properly vetted this seemingly perfect vice presidential candidate.

Reading. Lots and Lots of Reading.

That's what the semester will be for me.
More reading this semester than last semester, let me tell you.
And what is it with idiots? Let me explain.
So I have this Business Ethics class. The prof is spectacular, very engaging, very funny, etc.
Most students in the class bring laptops to take notes, but on that note, the prof asked everyone to please, please, please, don't spend your time in class e-mailing or reading the newspaper online or doing other things on the computer that distract from learning.
It's just a courtesy, and it's a simple thing called respect.
Silly me, I just thought that everyone in the class would respect what the prof was asking for, but there was that one student who had to raise his hand and argue with the prof about e-mailing in class.
"If you don't know that I'm doing it, what does it matter?"
I have a feeling the prof is going to find out.

Doing Away With Plastic Trays

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,409783,00.html

University cafeterias apparently are doing away with those plastic trays, for green reasons, largely.
When we were in undergraduate at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, we used these trays as sleds in the winter on memorial hill outside Taylor Hall. You better stash some trays so that more people can fly down memorial hill!

Michelle's Speech

She was passionate and very well-spoken. I am a fan of pundit Juan Williams, an African American journalist and historian, and I watched him turn somewhat emotional over seeing a 44-year-old African American woman in the running for First Lady of the United States.
It is at moments like this that my pride swells for this country.
I knew we could get here, and I am so proud that we are here.
We had the hokey parts, of course, including the story of how Barack asked her to go for ice cream.
But they need to show that they're just like ordinary Americans, and I guess that this makes up for his arugula comment early in the primaries.
As Pundit Charles Krauthammer said, "It had all the hokem elements, and it worked." He opined that the two girls talking to their father who was there via satellite was "cuteness squared."
Michelle also has to make up for the earlier comment that this was the first time in her adulthood that she was proud of her country. Hence, the, "I love this country," comments in her speech.
All that aside, I may not always agree with their positions, but I do celebrate where they are.
"If I stand beside you, it's because I have risen with you."

Pointing Out Hypocrisy

Of course, the DNC conference in Denver was going to give me a lot to write about.
But the only thing I have to say right now is that can you imagine if Republicans opened their convention in this way?
It's amazing to me how in general, liberal Democrats have mocked and chided President Bush for his faith.
But alas, Obama and Biden need to court the conservative Christian vote. So now, it's OK to pray in public and be open about one's religious views.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080825/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_democrats_faith
Watch another side to this: Michelle Obama has invoked use of the phrase, "Ready to roll," which one can point out is a variation of the phrase, "Let's roll," from the heroes who were on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9-11.
Just pointing out a bit of political psychology, that's all. (To put it more bluntly, I am saying that's she's using a psychological tactic to appeal to voters), as in, "No matter what happened with 9-11, we'll take charge."

Obama's Veep

I deleted my poll because Obama has made his choice for veep, and it's Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.
See the story here http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D92NVG7G0&show_article=1

Are We Fat?

OKC Mayor Mick Cornett put the whole city on a diet, but it's not working. It's now August and collectively, we've only lost (roughly) 138,000 pounds. His goal was 1 million pounds.

I will be the first to tell you what the problem is:

A. We're very isolated here; there isn't much to do, so we eat. And drink. 'Nuff said right there.

B. We don't have access to good, fresh foods (fresh fish, really good fruits, etc.). We just don't. I pray for the day that we get a Whole Foods, but that's unlikely to happen because of the strict liquor laws. Although Tulsa did convert a Wild Oats to Whole Foods, so there is a teeny bit of hope.

C. FRIED foods and GOOD food. It's true. Southern comfort food abounds here on the Great Southern Plains, and they are beyond yummy. I didn't know Mexicans could make lasagna, and then I moved here. I hesitated to try it, and when I did, I ate half of the casserole dish of lasagna. And then my co-workers make these breakfast casseroles that are just out of this world.

I've always been a sucker for pies, anyway, and dang, they can make them here better than anything you'd believe. And really, it's rude not to partake in the cuisine of a culture, so we're partaking.

So the collective weight problem is understandable. Really.

Growing Up Youngstown

http://newsok.com/article/3285452/?print=1

The University of Oklahoma football coach, Bob Stoops, and I share a common thread. We're both from Youngstown, Ohio.
The Oklahoman, interestingly enough, ran a story this week on Stoops' roots. I've linked to it above. It's all about Youngstown. (Thanks for sharing this, Arnella!)
As the story points out, on Nov. 1, two kids from Youngstown's south side will be slugging it out as head coaches of two of college football's most storied programs.
Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Stoops and Bo Pellini will face off then.
Stoops now is heading into his 10th season as coach for the Sooners.

It's nice to see Youngstown getting some positive attention, but the truth of the matter is that Youngstown is an economic mess, and that cannot be forgotten. The most successful people are FROM Youngstown, not in Youngstown.
The old soldiers of that city's development and growth are dying. I include among those my grandmother, who at age 90 is still one of the toughest people I know.
She and my mother raised us (basically) in Youngstown. Both women represented the grit, determination and ambition of the city at one time.
We grew up multi-culturally, but we never called it that. We just knew we had neighbors who were as poor as we were and in a pinch, we'd help each other out. Arthur and his family would grow tomatoes; the Pratts who lived behind us would offer popsicles on hot summer days and bread; we had pasta and rice, representing the combination of our ethnic Italian background and our adopted Puerto Rican family.
We lived in a house on Oak Street on the city's East side, just down the street from the house where my mother had been born in 1938. My sister, brother and I walked to Lincoln Elementary School each day and participated in sock hops and other social events.
We didn't want to give up that house, but crime moved in hard and fast. So we left that area and moved out to a more rural place, where I ended up graduating high school.
In today's economy, Youngstown has been on the losing end. It's a shame that a once-vibrant city has to be characterized as that.

Crazy Night Kayaking

There is no better feeling in life than being in a kayak.

So, together with my friends Leann and Kim, I went out on Lake Hefner in OKC last Friday night to take on the lake night life (lots of flying fish and some drunks falling off their boats) and the wavy lake.

The kayak company owner Dave Lindo shot this picture. I had been duped by Lindo, who decided to tell me that my zipper was down as he was shooting the picture.

My zipper wasn't down.

Leann and Kim sure got a kick out of it, though.

How old is your brain?

This is cool.
Usually, when a co-worker forwards an e-mail, I cringe, but this is a cool game of numbers to test your brain.

http://flashfabrica.com/f_learning/brain/brain.html

1. Pay no attention to the writing because it's in Asian script, and you probably can't read it.
2. Press start.
3. Memorize the numbers you are shown.
4. Click on each circle in order of the smallest number to the highest number.
5. When you are done, the screen will show you your brain age.

Editorial on Tubbs Jones

http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1219307576150810.xml&coll=2

Every day, I pass a sign on my way to work that says, "Believe in something better."
This year, we've lost a host of people who embodied that spirit, the most recent being U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
This editorial I've linked to is very nicely written. It's from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
I'm saddened not only for her death, but the loss of leadership that my home state and its city on the lake desperately needed.
There is a saying that diamonds are made under pressure, and Tubbs Jones embodied pristine clarity as a gem representing the Buckeye State, which was no natural wonder given her life experience and the hard work and spirit she put into her job every day.

Tubbs Jones' Death Confirmed

http://blog.cleveland.com/plaindealer/2008/08/hospital_confirms_us_rep_steph.html

The Congresswoman's death has been confirmed.
She was a leader and a force for minorities.
She was only 58.

A Headline You Don't Want to See

"Dog Sex Tapes Lead to Arrests"
Oh, yes, it is what it sounds like. A human being had sex with dogs and then videotaped it.
Who does that? Who sits there and thinks, "Hmmm, Fido is just laying there, and I'm just laying here ... why not?"
I had asked ya'll to guess where this story ran.
NOTE: This story ran recently in The Oklahoman. The offenders were from Tulsa.
OK, so there are some pretty disburbing aspects to this story, of course, but one of the more disturbing sides is that a son of one of the people involved found the tapes.
He and the dogs will be in therapy together.
No wonder pets are starting to need anti-psychotic medications. Now it's all making sense. And the "pet psychiatry" profession is growing, too, it's no wonder.
Had this gone undiscovered, we would have eventually seen the headline, "When good pets go bad..." and be left to ponder, "What happened to Fido?"
Well, it turns out, Fido was being exposed to some stuff that scarred Fido for life and the dog was just defending itself.

As School Begins

It's a bittersweet time for me, starting another semester of school but my mom won't be around to nag me, "How are your classes going?"
And when, upon learning that I was studying economics, she groused, "What the hell for?" But she knew an advanced degree had been my goal, so she supported me.
I remember her waving to me from the parking lot of her apartment building as I drove the car away last September, the car loaded with my things as I was heading back to Oklahoma. She had a grimace on her face and the phone in her hand, prepared to call me as soon as my car disappeared from her sight.
She'd be nagging me about the same things.
"Why are you driving back alone? Can't Dante come and ride with you? You should get a dog. Get a dog to ride with you, at least then you won't be alone."
And then I'd have to scream back, "I'm fine, Mom, fine."
(In case you didn't recall, she was deaf and wore hearing aids. She could technically talk on the phone with proper volume control, but it still was very difficult).
"You've been the victim of a crime?" She'd yell back.
"No, Mom, No. I said I'm fine."
Oye vey. She'd always imagine the worst.
No matter my age, my mother never stopped worrying about me. I was the most independent of her children, taking off at any opportunity to fly in a plane, to hike a mountain, to run after elk in order to get the best photograph.
Unbeknownst to me (discovered as we were cleaning out her things) she'd built up a library of a lot of my writing, including the notes from my Pastor in high school who encouraged me to write, write, write. So of course it was baffling to her that I was going to study economics and not entering some type of writing program.
I have all that now in a room in our house, along with her dancing photos and other memorabilia.
I've built a memorial garden in the backyard of our house in Edmond, and pray for the day when things feel normal again.
And as I look forward to another semester, I close the door on a critical summer of healing. Someone told me that it takes at least three years to regain a sense of normalcy after your mother dies. I think each person is on his or her own pace; trust me, you never view the world the same again. Your world view is permanently altered.
It's the strangest feeling I could ever imagine.
But I wanted to take this moment to say thank you to everyone who has prayed for me and my family, and for all the wonderful support everyone has provided. I've sent out Thank You cards to everyone, I believe, but I wanted to take this last opportunity to say how meaningful it all was.

A New Level of Stupidity

I was in our local Wal Mart Super Center over the weekend (yes, I shop at Wal Mart, and for that, friends, I will not apologize); anyway, there was a table set up with the single-serve sizes of Jif peanut butter.
On the table, there was a sign that screamed, "WARNING."
I thought perhaps there had been a product recall.
No.
The sign actually said, in smaller print, "This product contains peanuts. Those who have allergies to peanuts should not consume this product."
Did you know peanut butter contains peanuts? How dare it!
What have we come to as a society?

More on Bigfoot

Oh, this is too much for me.
Unbeknownst to me, SE Oklahoma is a hotbed of Bigfoot activity. I learned this little factoid this morning as we in the Graduate College were standing around because we had no electricity for about two hours.
I'd like to point out that SE Oklahoma also is a hotbed for meth labs. I'm not saying that there's any correlation, but I would just like to point out the facts.
I'd also like to point out, as pointed out to me by several of my Okie friends, that normal, emotionally healthy people don't go to SE Oklahoma on purpose.
So, I had to share this with you, dear readers, because this quote is absolutely priceless. It appeared in today's Oklahoman. (I must admit, I would have loved to be the reporter covering this story).
It takes me back to the days of being the reporting intern at the Beaver County Times in Beaver, Pa., when my editors would make me take the calls of the people reporting squash shaped like Elvis or Jesus and clouds that looked like the Virgin Mary, and ooh, look, this one is crying.
"Uh, isn't that rain?"
And then they would yell at me.
You know what Judge Judy said, "When you encounter crazy, proceed in the opposite direction."
So now there's all this controversy because these two men from Georgia (again, the U.S. state) are holding this press conference today that apparently proves the existence of Bigfoot. These men, too, apparently are using a Las Vegas promoter to help them with the press conference. (A quick aside, for the record, these men also will take you on a tour for the cheap, cheap price of $499 to look for leprechauns, too.)

And of course, this has the Bigfoot Support Network in Oklahoma all upset.
"I'm gonna be very disappointed in these men for bringing this to the public's attention if this is a hoax,” said DW Lee, who founded the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center. "It's gonna make the Bigfoot community look real bad.”
AS IF ...
I don't know what's funnier to me (and Lord knows I was laughing so hard my yummy raspberry Earl Grey tea went out my nose), that there actually is a person who heads up the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center, or that he believes that someone can actually make the Bigfoot community look worse than the participants themselves.
This is what the abuse of prescription drugs has done to brains, my friends. Let this be a warning to you.

Check out the New Feature!

Scroll to the bottom of my blog and see what I've brought to you, my dear readers.
News headlines!
Yes, that's right. It's a new and exciting feature straight from your friend on the Prairie!

The Bigfoot Press Conference

Sometimes, something comes along and absolutely trumps any other poll questions I was going to post, and that is the case with Bigfoot, whose corpse apparently has been discovered by some people in Georgia (the U.S. state whose capital is Atlanta, not to be confused with the country that is at war with Russia).
Does it surprise anyone that the "discovery" was made in a Southern state? As if the South needed more to embarrass the region ...
They are going to hold a press conference Friday in Palo Alto, California.
But of course, this was all over the radio station, with disc jockeys having listeners call in to weigh in on the existence of the hairy 7-foot beast.
One guy swears he had a sighting in Choctaw, Oklahoma. So the disc jockey says, "How much were you drinking?"
I view Bigfoot like I view ghosts: If they exist, I will not believe it until I actually see either with my own eyes. Then, I won't even necessarily believe it unless it's verified by several scientists, and then maybe they'll have me slightly convinced. Just maybe.
Hoaxes have decorated history, some even with the support of scientists.
Do any of you remember the hoax of the Piltdown Man in England? This was the infamous fake skull. Piltdown Man was discovered in a gravel pit in England in 1912 and some anthropologists spent their entire careers examining this thing. Scientists even gave it a scientific name, Eoanthropus dawsoni. The skull was exposed as a forgery in the 1950s.
This is why I love to observe humanity. Truth is stranger than fiction.

The Great Athlete Debate

I've been glued to the television for these Olympics. Something has just drawn me in this time.
And, of course, Michael Phelps' performance has fueled the debate, Who is the greatest athlete of all time? (I'm going to use this on my poll when the last poll expires). But it is interesting to think about.
Is it Tiger Woods? Babe Ruth? Wayne Gretsky? (Dante would probably say it's Gretsky). Michael Jordan? (I'm partial to Jordan, but that's also because I like basketball more than any other sport). Who else belongs on the list for the Great Athlete Debate? Should there even be a Great Athlete Debate by looking at athletes across sports, or should you just select the Greatest Athlete per sport?
And, if you don't consider golf a sport, can Tiger Woods be considered?

Funny Celebrity News

OK, I have to laugh out loud at some of the things in celebrity news lately. I told you, all the flakes fall together.
Ali Lohan got a boob job, apparently. (For those of you who don't know this Special Frosted Flake, she is the sister of the Wreck Known as Lindsay "Now I'm a Lesbian" Lohan).
Ali's best claim to fame is that she is a reality star with her mother, Dina Lohan.
(A goose wakes up to a new day every day, never learns its lessons). Dina Lohan is a goose.
P. Diddy has declared that he could be a Sex Olympian.
And Britney Spears' mother, Lynne Spears, has published a book on what it's like raising stars in a tabloid world.
I know all of you will be running to pick up that book and take Lynne's mothering advice.

Looney Clooney Clears Himself

Do I believe People magazine's story that George Clooney now says he is not advising Obama?
I don't know.
Apparently, he's offering $1 million to anyone who can prove that he is advising Obama.
See the story here
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20218790,00.html
In all fairness, though, I have to post the fact that now Clooney says that he's not advising Obama because I posted that he was advising Obama.
Just remember, all the flakes fall together. It's a rule of nature. I didn't make the rule, I just know it's true.

The Russian-Georgian Conflict

Dear Readers:
I love fresh perspective. I love learning from people of different cultures, and in my work at the University of Oklahoma, I am able to work with people from all over the world. One of those people is Max (Maksym) Kovalov, who is from the Ukraine. Max sent this e-mail about the Russian-Georgian conflict; coming from that part of the world, he has an extremely unique perspective on the situation and I thought you all would benefit from the information Max provides in this writing. This is the e-mail in its entirety; I have not changed anything. Max is working on his Ph.D. in political science.
Sincerely,
Angie

You might have heard about the Russian-Georgian conflict over the last several days.
I wanted to send you an email of awareness that might shed a light on what’s going on from my, possibly biased point of view.

To my (and I am sure to millions of other Russian-speaking families around the world) great concern, the war that was launched by Russia against Georgia has already resulted in thousands of people dead or wounded, the partition of the Georgian territory, and a loss of the international image of Russia.

The cause of the conflict is the small territory of South Osetia. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, dozens of territories in the former Soviet Union proclaimed their independence. So did South Osetia - the region under the Georgian jurisdiction. However, officially, S. Osetia was recognized by almost none of the countries in the world. Today, the area is considered to be a zone of an ethnic conflict by the world community. Over the last several years, the parties have been conducting peaceful negotiations. The negotiations halted on August 8, 2008 when Georgia launched an offensive claiming that the Osetian separatists opened fire on Georgian villages. Russia moved its troops into Osetia and started rapidly moving through the Georgian territory. They also launched the airstrikes on Georgian villages, towns and its capital.

This is the short summary. There is a lot of speculation and very biased information among the Russian, Ukrainian (they support the Georgian side) and Western media. The official Russian position sustains that Georgia is the aggressor and Russia seeks to protect the ethnic Russians living in Osetia. From the western position, Russia launched one of the first post-Cold war attacks as a sign of zero-tolerance of the former Soviet states’ aspirations to join NATO, the EU and other western institutions. In other words, after trade, gas and other Russian policies did not work in regards to Georgia, Russia used Osetia as an excuse to launch an attack. I am not saying that this position is not biased. I am not taking either governments’ sides. But the military aggression of the second (arguably) most powerful military machine in the world on the state with the population of 5 million people is a disgrace.

The war is a special sadness for me because the peaceful citizens – both Russian and Georgia are dying because of the empirial aspirations of one (Russia) and/or of the so-called constitutional order-campaign by another (Georgia). These and other 13 states (including Ukraine) have co-existed for centuries. We share the same language, and to the extend culture and traditions, we trade with each other and share problems.

My email does not have any secret agenda other than to let you know about what’s going on. I am sure there are tens of war-like conflicts that erupt around the world every day and some last for years and decades. It’s very hard to heal the wounds that have an ethnic origin. Unfortunately, we pay attention to the events that are close to our geography, culture, and mind… I hope that this conflict will be over soon and people on both sides will come back to their normal life. At least those who remained alive. If you can call normal doing what you usually do after losing a family member - a father, a son, and a child.

May peace be with all of us.