Stinkers, little stinkers-literally and not so

Walking through an airport these days is truly a scent ADVENTURE.

 

I’m not sure when people decided to STOP taking showers before they fly but it’s as obvious as a fart in church.

And I’ll just go ahead and look beyond some of the stench because you have to take into consideration that some people might’ve been stuck on the runway waiting to take off for like FOR-EVER and you know they never let you twist the little buttons above your head for COOL air.  Noooooooooo, that’s for later when they take off.  I’m afraid I’ll get off track here so back to the main idea.

Hmmmm, I’m guessing Denver’s stinky poo people problem has a lot to do with the legalization of pot.  So I’m sorry if you invested your hard earned dollars in the stock market in a portfolio with say… Zest and decided against Taco Bell.  You are probably kicking yourself for that one too.  You know because stoners never care about bathing once they’re high but certainly get the “munchies?”  I was hoping that was obvious too.

Mmm-k, how about wearing your pj bottoms to the airport?  No, not talking about the woman in a cast who can’t wear anything else.  I’m talking about the able bodied college girl who has painted her face into some Vogue make up masterpiece and her hair is meticulously coiffed. Yeah, that is the one.

*Sigh* Ok, I give up.  No wait one last guess.  You’re a big star and you travel like that because all of your Juicy Couture is packed in those designer bags you tossed at the Sky Cap like he was on your pay roll.

That just kind of brings me to the lack of respect for others I saw today at DIA.  Back in the day when dinosaurs were teaching their children manners, we were taught to respect others.  IF you should bump into someone accidentally, this is where you utter a phrase such as “Excuse me” or “I’m sorry.”  

When you were traveling with family, an elder or just a friend you paid attention to them.  You included said traveling family member in conversations.  You interacted with said person.  You didn’t stuff ear buds in your ears and grunt when they spoke to you.

And when has it become OK to groan about a service dog on a flight?  I noticed two women with a service dog signed to each other so the woman who decided to loudly bitch about “Dogs shouldn’t be on planes, they just shouldn’t!” well, yeah she knew they couldn’t hear her which was even tackier than just the comment.

My grown up Christmas wish would be for people to start to treat each other correctly again.  I just think those scarce few who still do aren’t very visible. 

I would love a world where people can appreciate someone going the speed limit in the right hand lane and passing them on the left as they learned in school WITHOUT telling the right lane driver that they are number 1!!!!  I would love a world where people decide to patiently allow an elderly person to pass without the big teenaged exhaustive sighs of disgust, don’t worry junior, you’ll be there too someday.

I would love a world where people just interact face to face a little.  I mean, I get it, we’re wired now.  I have FB, Twitter, SlideShare, Instragram, Yahoo messenger and now a Kindle Fire but I look as these things not as replacements for interaction but like a seasoning or spice.

~Carry on.

And Merry Christmas,

Anne Boswell Taylor

You can't skip chapters and have it make sense!

It always kind of bothers me to see things just destroyed.   

 

You know what I’m talking about, the movie where the mad girlfriend throws plates at someone and they bust against the wall.  Or when Hollywood bashes up a bunch of perfectly good cars or shoots up a wall somewhere, hey, new drywall is NOT cheap.  I get it, but I don’t have to like it.

But it’s for a different reason that I hate to see people rip up photos or old love letters.

You’ve all been there or known someone who experienced a bad and painful breakup.  They take to pawing through old boxes and drawers like a rat terrier puppy building a tunnel to freedom out of the private fenced yard.  And then it happens.  Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrip rip rip rip rip! *Big sigh* Relief.

Or is it really relief?

I’d like to think that I didn’t make it to 33 years now without, uh, ok, ok, 43 years now without a few a-ha moments.  Most of these come to me while I’m out on a walk with the dogs or riding my bike but all of them land in my head during quiet moments of reflection.  If you tear up memories of the past, aren’t you tearing out chapters in the book of your life?  Yes, I think you are.  First of all, we all know that we learn best by experiencing something.  The child who touches the hot stove will not do it again or at least think twice about it.  I think lessons are learned through our pain and staying something attached to it even in distant memory form is important.

I’m not saying you should hoard your memories; just know that keeping them or a few of them is keeping the story of your life together.  Just like learning about history is a way to keep from repeating it.  That’s what I was always told.  I had teachers in my life who emphasized history as perhaps the most important subject of the day, of course they all did.  We learn what didn’t work so well for us and what did.  Where we are today is because of where we have been and what we’ve done.

So when you’re thinking you’ll destroy that photo with an ex, keep it, if you must because that experience made you who are you today.  Ta-da, I said it.  

I’ll even share a bit some of the things that made me who I am.  I’ll explain why too so you’re not just thinking I’m crazy, although it’s not like that’s a new adjective for me.

• My divorce.  Yes, it’s never supposed to happen but it does and because of it I learned how to set better boundaries.
• The blood clots (9 of them) in my lung.  In my early 30s, this taught me that anything can happen to anyone.  Don’t think you’re so invincible there little missy. J
•  My medical release from the police academy following my diagnosis of the NINE pulmonary emboli, or blood clots.  Although devastated at the time, I learned to appreciate the things we’re given.  I got to experience and learn police work for about 9 weeks and that is something I’ll never forget.
• ·Leaving radio!   Radio had been changing and we’d been in total denial. I'd been a reporter/anchor/storm chaser/producer/editor, on-air personality, morning show co-host and webmaster.  It wasn’t the same job anymore and wasn’t the same.  Leaving for a better position in another field taught me to accept things.  It also gave me a lesson in the fact that you can’t live in the past no matter how many people want it to be so.
• Leaving my comfort zone in a home of 12 years in a nice city to move to the country.  I learned that I really don’t need the creature comforts of convenience that I thought I did.  Supermarket across the street?  Nice, but if you plan right you can drive into a town and get it, it will just take longer.  Oh yeah, patience might’ve been in the lesson matrix there somewhere too.

So if you're really adamant about cleaning house at least find something  positive to keep.  
 But in reality, if you’re just a tidy little OCD neat freak and you’re in a frenzy to really get rid of things, by all means, do so.  I said my piece about it.

Carry on friends!

~Anne Boswell Taylor

All Dressed Up and ...well, not so much, anymore!

It donned on me as we were watching an episode of ABC’s comedy, “The Goldbergs,” that our society has really put on the elastic waist pants and for good.

Hannah turns to me and exclaims “Wow, why are they all dressed up?”  I answered, “That’s not dressed up, and that’s how we used to dress.” Except our family never had the matching ugly sweater thing happening. 

Oh, boy, first of all, I think our grandmothers would smirk at how we dressed as teens in the 80s but now it seems as though by comparison, we were pretty fancy.  

I’m disgusted and nostalgic at the same time, y’all.

Ok, so she was referring to Barry Goldberg’s button down shirt and Bev who is the mom wearing a dressy looking sweater and “slacks” for lack of a better decade appropriate term. Fast forward to today’s knock-around-town ensemble of yoga pants with a tunic top and flip flops if you’re in the south and Ugg boots if you’re out here in frozen tundra land, SE Colorado. J

No wonder she thinks the Goldbergs were all dressed up.

I’m currently reading Laura Ingraham’s book, Of Thee I Zing, America’s Cultural Decline from Muffin Tops to Body Shots.

Ingraham lays it all out for us in what is acceptable now and with a tone of disgust, well deserved.  She brings some things to our attention in a funny and witty way but it is really far from humorous, what has happened to our style in this country.

The thing that terrifies me the most is that one day nursing homes will be filled with tattooed up old biddies and their butterfly tramp stamps will have sagged so low they resemble a sick buzzard.  

Used to be people really dressed up to fly, because it was a treat, not an entitlement as it is thought of today.  However in defense of that passel of 20-somethings boarding a plane in Denver, I’m sure you just took too much glaucoma medicine last night at your bachelorette party.  

That moves me to the next observation, one that is a little more common here in Colorado where pot is now legal.  People in large groups in Denver and some in Colorado Springs sort of smell like wet dog, notice that?  I blame the pot.  They can’t drive either, well, ok, let’s blame the pot. 

 I would say that Ms. Ingraham’s book, written a few years ago, has been filled with her observations from a couple of decades.  Yes, it has been a slow cultural decline maybe that’s why we don’t really notice it until some gem of a memory from our past creeps up.  Oh yeah, we DID used to kinda dress up.  Although we just called it dressing for school, church or work.  I will not go so far as our grandparents who got all gussied up for church and were convinced that Jesus did not love you unless you wore panty hose.  Let’s just leave that one alone.

I will say that it is easier to look smart these days.  You just have to take a shower and put on some neat looking clothes and BAM you’re a CEO!!

I won’t wag a finger without saying that we’re probably all to blame but it is a sad day when I have to sit down to rant about this.  I don’t want to live in a sloppy society.  On the flip side, I don’t want to have to dress for dinner either.  My hope is that others’ children have questioned their old-enough-to-remember-the-80s parents while watching this show.  I hope it brings about thoughtful family conversations on bathing, acting like a lady, dressing like you’re not high on those plants you can now legally grow in your basement.  I guess people DO still dress for dinner but it’s probably to hit the drive through at Taco Bell.

~Anne Boswell Taylor

Oh, and you can find Laura Ingraham's web site here, in case you want more of her insight.  She is awesome!

 

#TheGoldbergs, #LauraIngraham #TodaysStyle,