The most misplaced sense of self-importance I've ever seen. The only reason I talk to you is because I have to.
Pride in ancestry is great, but, that was then; if you want respect now, you have to earn it for yourself!
Knowledge is the ignorance of unknown, which is just about everything.
-Andrei Palskoi
In referring to Renate, the first time she laid eyes on her at a Family Day picnic at Gateway:
You can always tell a German; you just can't tell them much.
Facebook post Sat. 5.19.18
Ok, final post of today. We just experienced another "oh my god, we are totally losing our freedoms in America" moment... again.
We are at a park and had a late lunch/early dinner picnic of sorts. After we finished, I came to the car and got a cigarette. There was a police car about three cars behind us whom we had seen pull someone over for some traffic violation. Well apparently him & his partner wanted to get the goods on David & I as well.
According to them, and I quote "We just want to show our boss that we're, you know, doing what we're supposed to be doing and staying busy and staying alert with what's going on". Then some supposed small talk ensued- what we were doing, how our day was, etc. Then they got to what our names were, were we from around here, etc. They asked for our IDs, and even though we were under no obligation whatsoever to even give them our names, let alone our IDs, I opened up the car door & opened my purse to pull out my wallet. I could see one of the two peering over my shoulder to see if he could see anything 'in plain sight' to necessitate 'a reasonable search'. He then repeated the action when I pulled David's wallet out of the center console. Our 'smalltalk' quickly ground to a halt as Snoopy Cop #1 called our names in on a warrant check, and Snoopy Cop #2 continued to barrage David with questions about his military service (?), like David was making it up or something! Unbelievable! They hadn't heard a thing I had said about our picnic, our day, nothing.
Well... since I knew for a fact that there was nothing in the car that was illegal, and since I knew for a fact that neither of us had a warrant out for our arrest, we obliged... simply to get it done and get the hell out of there. Pretty much just to make things easy on ourselves. We could have easily & lawfully said "no", but you do that and you're setting yourself up to be a target real quick. This is not the first time, nor do I doubt it will be the last time, we've had the police request our IDs for nothing more than walking on a sidewalk- dead sober, dead straight.
We don't drive a beater. We have a Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer Edition, always meticulously clean, no squealing brakes, no loud motor, nothing like that at all.
What has happened in America that has made innocent people afraid of the police to the point where we will obligingly give up our freedoms for fear of retaliation? Is being Street Smart equal to looking like a criminal? There were many other people in the park other than David and I & the car who had been pulled over prior. Nobody else was spoken to. After our interaction with the popo, they got in their car and left. Why were we targeted? Are we doppelgangers of some modern day Bonnie and Clyde of whom we are unaware of?
This is a weak analogy, yet I'll make it. I've been accused by people of some CRAZY things of which I have not done. When this has happened, my response is always the same. I've done many really crazy things in reality- why didn't you just pick one of those, instead of making something up? It's the same thing as being looked at as being guilty when you're dead innocent. If I WERE guilty of something, I'd take it. But I'm not.
I'm so glad you asked. It was my uncle. From the ages 4-9, every time I was at his house, he made me dress up in NFL Cheerleader costumes, stuff my training bra with jiggly water balloons, and do routines jumping on a trampoline with pompoms. He'd have his neighbor lady do my makeup & hair, & always liked it when I chewed bubble gum & blew bubbles real lustfully. There must be 1000s of polaroids still scattered around the place! Truthfully though, even though I know now it was not right, I still like to think about it. My uncle REALLY did love me - thats for sure. We had to stop though, cuz I got my period real early (the good part was I didn't have to use water balloons anymore!). I got pregnant - I still can't figure out how- and after I gave birth to my little Willie, the people at the adoption place said that nobody would want him cuz he only had 3 fingers on his left hand but has 2 thumbs and an extra pinky on his right hand. I didn't understand cuz the questionnaire asked how many total fingers and toes and I answered 10 truthfullly. That is the right number, right? So me & Uncle Eddie raised Willie as best as we could. Then one day when I was walking Willie home from school- oh, I suppose he was around 9- when we got home there was a terrible sight. The front door was hanging wide open, and once we crawled through the police tape, there was blood and little girls and boys clothes strewn everywhere! It wasnt mine or Willie's nappies or nothin, so I don't know where it came from. There was a card with a police officer's telephone on it, so I called. Well they say that Uncle Eddie was messing with some of the kids round the neighborhood. I knew they were over sometimes- Uncle Eddie ALWAYS made sure to have a gallon of ice cream in the house for them. But I still don't know where them clothes came from.
So yeah, my Uncle Eddie done hurt me real bad. Why'd he hafta get hisself shot by the policeman for giving them kids ice cream all the time? Now it's just me & Willie.
Thanks for showing concern and asking.
****************
Uhhhh, dipshit! Ya think you can come up with something a bit more original than "Who Hurt You?"? That has to be the most overused phrase/weak comeback on Reddit. Either that or you are in a whole hell of a lot of places on Reddit, ALL THE TIME! I make a comment about the stupidity of a professional cheerleader working for minimum wage and point out how short the lifespan is of cheerleaders/models, and all the sudden I'm getting boo-hooed and screamed at about "who hurt me"?! Do you see many 50 year old models & professional cheerleaders out there? No, you don't. At least with the few brain cells models have they make damn sure to make good bank for the few years they CAN work. Apparently cheerleaders just aren't that smart. Now, go fuck yourself, repeat Reddit offender #129.
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.
~Albert Einstein
There's a saying "be careful what you pray for, you just might get it". If everybody reading this cannot think of one personal experience where that has been the case, you are not paying attention.
Quite often people think of miracles in terms of what happened. e.g. An incurable form of cancer simply vanishing, awakening in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, and upon walking by your baby's room, you can't resist picking her up to cuddle and bringing her in to sleep with you. Minutes later, a crack of lightning from out of nowhere splits the giant oak outside, sending it crashing through your house and in the midst of all the ruins is your baby's crib, in toothpick like splinters, where she had lain sound asleep just moments before. The very same scroungy stray dog your 2year old insisted on feeding and 'petting' every day, to your dismay, being the dog the police followed, sensing he was on the right trail, a year later when your son somehow got outside and wandered away during a blizzard, leading them straight to him, 3 miles away.
People don't often think of, nor appreciate, the many more miracles of the 'what didn't happens', because all too often we don't realize how very close we were to having things turn out different, horrifically different.
