News and Media

Don’t wait until it’s too late.

You all know that I am huge advocate (meaning that I post about it from time to time on my blog) for mental healthiness. I hate to see people suffer because they are unwilling to let go of their pride and reach out to professionals. What I hate even more is to see people make their loved ones suffer because of their own untreated illness.

What I hate the most, is seeing people and families and friends suffer the effects of mental illness because of ignorance and/or for the fear of being stigmatized.
Here is a tragic story of how PTSD destroyed one of America’s heroes.

The argument could be made that the war destroyed this young man’s life, and I am open to that argument. I really don’t like war and wish it was never necessary to use force. (Although I understand America’s God given responsibility to promote freedom) But, really, this man did not have to take his own life. If he would have been successfully treated, he could have lived a long and happy life.

So, if any of you out there are depressed or anxietal or OCD or whatever else that you know deep down inside is not normal. Don’t wait until it’s too late. With medication and therapy, you can be as normal as me. 🙂 And, don’t let that stop you. As bad off as you think I am, it could be so so much worse.

Is there a haunted Smoky Mountain?

And, here is some wacky news from right down the street.
This tree art was found in Maryville.
About a twenty minute drive from our house.
It is claimed that it was found exactly as seen above, but I don’t know if I’m a believer.
We do have some of the highest rates of meth around these parts.
I wonder if Jeremy participated somehow. (not in the meth – geesh)
He’s pretty creative.
And who knows what he is capable after a few too many of his own brewed beers?

What is that?

Yesterday morning I was reading this crazy news story about a woman that had a bat hanging out under her bra.

She thought the weird vibrating sensation was being caused by a cell phone at first. Seriously. You have to be kidding me. Somebody makes these stories up. How could a woman put a bra on without knowing there was a bat in there?

I was then reminded of something that happened to me just about a month ago.

I had cleaned out my minivan so that I could haul some yard stuff in the back. This included removing the big and ancient middle bench all by myself. (My beloved Quest was engineered before the modern collapsing seats were invented) Removing the middle bench is quite the process and requires a lot of muscle and agility. Not to mention the ability to avoid the showering crumbs of long forgotten food particles and toys.

On my way to our local garden center, I started feeling something in my bra. More precisely in the cleavage. I thought that I may have another stray hair from my thick head of hair. (We’ve already established that I don’t have hair on my chest.) I started to try and feel for it. (I know you women know what I am talking about) As I was driving, I grabbed at my shirt so that I could get a good look down there. Can you even imagine my mixture of surprise and disgust as I caught a vision of the big nasty red and black bug positioned just perfectly to be staring me right back in the face. And, I am not even going to mention the 4 inch long tentacles that almost caught me square in the eye, no joke. I almost swerved off the road.

I stopped the car to get a closer look. I roared in laughter as I realized that the bug (in the same family as the one shown above) was a party favor received by the girls. How relieved I was to retrieve something from my bra that was plastic and dead and completely still compared to what I was preparing myself to have to pry outta there.

Oh the life of a mother. You just can’t make up stories as good as mine. Not unless, of course, you are the idiot that put your bra on before checking for a baby bat. Every woman knows to do that.
P.S. I just read this post about the same story from Say No To Crack. You have to read her reference to second base…funny.

I found a blue man
For almost 6 months,
I have been in the fritz with a company called Allegiant Air.
To make a long story short,
we bought discounted plane tickets from Knoxville to Vegas.
We thought that we would visit my parents in St George in December.
Because LG had to retake his bar prep course, we had to prolong the trip.
would only give us an Allegiant Air credit,
but because they stopped their Vegas/Knoxville service,
this airline credit would do us no good.
I called, I wrote, I faxed…
nothing was working towards getting our money back.


Nothing worked, until I found a blue man.
A blue man is my way of associating this cool photo
with a guy who actually breathes and listens.
In my own weird logic,
my favorite man of today is a blue man.
Because he is an excellent human,
he must have blue blood running through his veins, right?
Who is the man?
The man is Mr. Gallagher, Allegiant Air, CEO.
Here is the e-mail I received over the weekend
because of Mr. Gallaher’s commitment to customer service:
Mrs. Gold:
I am in receipt of your letter dated May 11, 2008, to Mr. Gallagher and I apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiries. As a courtesy I have refunded back to the original form of payment $1171.50. Because we no longer fly into Las Vegas we took this into consideration when refunding. However, the $50.00 per person per segment ($100.00 per person) cancel fee does apply per our Terms and Conditions because you declined the Travel Protection.
Again I apologize for the delay in answering your letters.
Sincerely,
Joe Schrider Manager, Customer Relations
“Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible”
WOW! I was so impressed.
If I could go to Vegas and shake the man’s hand personally I would,
but because Allegiant doesn’t fly there from here any more, I can’t.
I guess this blog post will have to accomplish my deepest compliments.
Thank you, too, Joe Schrider.
Oh, and thanks to that Reader’s Digest article.
It taught me that if all else fails,
write the CEO,
sometimes they can make action happen faster.
And fast, was an understatement.
I just sent the guy a letter in the mail last week.
I am thrilled that I now have enough money
to drive to Utah this summer.
I don’t even plan to leave for a few more months,
and Mr. Gallagher was finally able to put my travel money back in my hand.
Yeah for Mr. Gallagher and Allegiant Air!
I am so glad that I waited to post about this situation until the happy ending.
I can now tell you all to go there and buy some tickets.
Just be sure to also buy that travel insurance,
so you don’t lose $500, like we did.
Oh, and you will have to go somewhere besides Vegas,
they don’t fly there from Knoxville any more.
But, hey, we finally have our $1171.50 back. I cannot complain. I won’t do it.

Walk and Walk and Walk

What do you need to feed your pets (or your kids for that matter) to ensure that they will always come home?

When I was in Kindergarten I walked home the 2 miles from school. I thought I could go and see my friend’s house and be back to catch the bus in time. So, when I got back to the school and discovered EVERYONE to be gone, I did what any reasonable 5 year old would do….I walked home. (I may have even been 4 at the time)

And there are advanatages to being part of a large family…it seemed that even though I arrived 3 hours late, no one even noticed. Talk about empowering…I learned at an early age that I could arrive wherever my feet would take me.