Security Breach

Here I am...writing to you on Massachusetts soil...at work no less. Ok, I know that you all missed me terribly and are looking for the Florida review and I promise, it is coming...and soon. Before I do that though I have a story about airport security that is worth one entry in itself.

Ryun brought a carry on bag containing his state elevator testing materials, assorted pens and pencils, a stapler, and a staple remover. Logan to Orlando: no problems. Leaving Orlando, Ryun's bag was "xrayed" and apparently they saw something suspicious in it so they had to manually check it. While it was being examined I said to Ryun, "I wonder what is in your bag that they are questioning?" The woman checking his bag said in a very accusatory tone, "A small leatherman perhaps?" A leatherman is a small hand held tool. Ryun had to take his shoes off and was scanned with a wand. It turned out to be the staple remover. Apparently, the FAA bans it because it is a sharp object. Yeah, let me gouge your eye out with a staple remover. Whatever, better safe than sorry I guess. They confiscated it and we boarded. As we were boarding we noticed a sign that said, "Newly allowed carry on items." Don't you worry my beauty conscious readers, according to the sign, it is now legal to bring an eyelash curler on board. Thank God because damn, I was concerned that mine may have straightened while on board. Phew.

Anyway, my point in telling you this? The "heightened security" at Logan missed the illegal staple remover. Pretty scary...Logan is one of the airports that allowed numerous terrorist through that subsequently high jacked two planes, killing thousands. Obviously, Ryun had no intentions of using the staple remover as a weapon but, if he got on with that, it makes you wonder what else could get by. I don't know...you would think that things would be a bit improved, or you would hope anyway.

Ok, so tomorrow be faithful readers I will share the intimate (well maybe not intimate) details of our trip and you will get the official Florida Review! YIPEE!

Valentine's Day, 2002

Ok, so I lied. I just couldn't let Valentine's Day go by without telling my family and friends in a very public way how much they mean to me. So, if you are reading this, you are about to get "smothered" in love, which, from my perspective isn't a bad thing at all. If you are reading this and I hardly know you, in a sense I love you too...you are reading my journal and that just tickles me pink. No sarcasm there, I am serious.

So, I was feeling inspired and wrote a poem. I do that from time to time...get inspired that is. It doesn't always result in poem writing or any form of writing at all actually. For example, I recently was inspired by some unknown force to organize all of my pictures...a mammoth undertaking for someone as camera happy as me. Once in a while, I am even inspired to do something really good...like for a whole week not drink coke. I am a coke addict...the BEVERAGE people...just in case there was any confusion. Giving it up even for a day is a HUGE feat for me, more of an undertaking than even the pictures. But anyway, the poem. I wrote it pretty quickly...sometimes it takes a long time for the words to come, but like I said, I was feeling inspired. So here you go...a 100% authentic Sharon original.

To my family and friends, on Valentine's Day, your love and support mean more than I can say.

Your friendship grows with each passing year, the memories we've made I will always hold dear.

For all of you I wish only the best, love happiness and great success.

Know that I am here, no matter what comes your way, I love you all and Happy Valentine's Day.

I should write for Hallmark don't you think?!?!

In all seriousness, there is nothing more important to me than my family and friends. Each and every one of you have been and continue to be an important and cherished part of my life. So, on Valentines Day, 2002 I thought I should let you know. As times change, and we each go through our own individual lives, it brings me great comfort to know that, no matter what I have family and friends that I can always fall back on. I love you and feel honored to have you in my life.

To end this on a somewhat "silly" note I am going to leave you with the theme song from "The Golden Girls", one of my favorite classic tv shows.

Thank you for being a friend

Traveled down the road and back again

Your heart is true your a pal and a confidant.

And if you through a party

Invited everyone you ever knew

You would see the biggest gift would be from me

And the card attached would say thank you for being a friend. God,, I just love that song!

For the love of God and all that is holy, read this entry!

For those of you in Massachusetts who watch the news, you are most likely aware of the current scandal going on within the Archdiosese of Boston. Cardinal Law has now turned over 80 priests within the Archdiosese that have been accused of molesting children. Apparently, Cardinal Law covered these cases up, allowing the priests to continue serving the churches of Masschusetts, after attending some kind of "rehab" type program.

Is that sick or what? Ok first of all, you would think that a man of God such as Cardinal Law would not allow such a thing. It is beyond me. How could he cover up such a horrible act, 80 times no less?

Secondly, as if that was not bad enough, it sickens me to think that a priest could commit such a horrible, demeaning crime. I know that they are not "superhuman" and of course, like everyone else they sin. But, Christ (if you will pardon the expression) saying "oh shit" or even stealing something is forgivable. Molesting an innocent child or anyone for that matter is not, not forgivable by a long shot. How could Cardinal Law let that go?

Ryun and I were talking about the whole vow of celibacy thing and he said that priests should just be allowed to have sex. Whether or not they decided to change the rules in that regard would not really matter to me, but I do not think that it would solve the problem to be honest. Most, if not all of the children that were molested by these 80 or so priests were boys. So unless these priests just happen to be gay and attracted to these boys, as far as I am concerned the reason behind these molestations is not due to lack of sex. The damn hand works just as well. These priests are sick individuals...just as sick as the asshole of the street who rapes/molests a child. That aside, when they chose to enter the priesthood, they decided to devote their lives to God and live without sex. If they could not live up to that agreement, they should lose the collar. I am not trying to make it sound easy. A life without sex or even just a life partner would be a hard vow to make...but those priests did and for them to use young children as an outlet is just incomprehensible.

This scandal has done nothing in the way of maintaining my faith in God or the church. Don't get me wrong, I believe in God and on occasion attend church. I just have a lot of resentment and a lot of questions. As a god-fearing Christian my whole life (well, maybe not god-fearing but a Christian just the same) it just sickens me to have lost such a powerful trust in the priests, the church, in God himself. When things of this magnitude happen, I find myself asking why God would allow such a thing. I try to convince myself that really, it is the temptation known as the devil that allows it. However, whether it be God, the devil or some other power it is still a difficult thing to swallow.

I was raised a Roman Catholic. As a child, I attended church regularly and, I continued to do so throughout college for the most part. During college, I really began to have a lot of questions. I actually felt guilty for having sex before I was married. I felt bad about drinking under age. When I came home from school and about 8 months later got pregnant, I told my mother that I did not want to go to church anymore once I started to show. I was afraid of being judged by fellow churchgoers, never mind God. I have pretty much gotten past all of that and really try to make decisions based on what I feel and not by how others do or how God will react. I don't attend church regularly anymore but, as most practicing or formerly practicing Catholics know, there is a sense of guilt that comes along with not attending. The catholic church has a wonderful way of instilling guilt. Its a great feeling, really. Yeah right.

Although I have my own reservations about the catholic churches rules and policies, I still feel betrayed in some way by the scandal and the lack of trust and dignity I feel towards the church and all of its counterparts as a result. It is just so shocking and well, rather disappointing to put it mildly.

I don't honestly know if I will ever attend again regularly. I would like to say that I would, but that decision has only been made more difficult in light of recent events. It is really hard to have faith in something/someone that is actually practicing just what they preach against (lying, dishonesty etc.).

Freaking Adelphia

Yay Patriots! As a life long (all 26 years!) New Englander and lover of the sport of football I am so happy that the Pats won! I watched the game at work and it was fun...a total blow of night...ate food, watched the game and basically screwed around all night. It was a good time...and I got paid for it!

Ok, now down to business. Ryun disconnected my piece of shit computer and connected my father's old one. This was supposed to make me happy but guess what? It didn't. For some reason, my computer can not find an IP address. I called Adelphia Powerlink Tech Support and they have insisted that it is my computer and that they can not help me. What a fucking surprise ...Powerlink not taking any responsibility and not offering to help. Sorry, I know I work for the company but what the hell? Can't they ever do anything right? I know it is not the computer itself...it has something to do with the settings which if they would tell me what they were, I would change them. I will be calling tomorrow to rip them a new one demand that they tell me the proper settings. Anyway, my point in sharing this (aside from just to vent) was that until this is fixed I will not have internet access. Sadly, this means no email and no updates for a day or two.

The reason I did not get this resolved today was because I was interrupted by a loud crash and a wailing two year old. The little devil climbed right out of her crib and had a face to face meeting with the hardwood floor. Ouch. She got a slightly bloody nose and a big bump on her chin. So, guess what Mommy did (after I consoled her of course)? Went out a bought her a new bed. A bed...and yes, I did get a bit teary eyed. She's growing up too fast. Can't we just stop time for a little while? I love watching her and her sister grow, learn and explore but its just that they are doing it too fast.

I called Ryun to see how she did with the bed. He said she only got out once. When she did fall asleep she had thrown the blanket and pillow off and just slept on the sheet with her "night-night" (the blanket she brings to bed every night). She must look so small...

Emily stayed up with Daddy to watch the game tonight. How cute. She said she wanted Dad to teach her all about football. He did and she will remember every thing he said. She's good like that.

Ok, so sorry that this last entry for a day or two is not exactly the deepest most exciting thing you will ever read but you got to hear about my kids...and that is more excitement than most people can handle!

One Of Those Days

I am at work where, despite the falling snow, it is quiet. Normally when a storm hits, the cable goes out, making my night at work miserable. Thankfully tonight that is not the case and everyone is happily watching the Patriots playoff game.

Anyway, the past twenty four hours or so have been, well, draining. Ryun and I planned our trip to Disney, sort of. He said he wasn't into "planning" things and would rather just play it by ear. He has never been to Disney and has no concept of the enormity of it and how much we will need to fit in to the short amount of time we will be there. I am not saying a minute by minute, blow by blow plan, just a general idea. Well, reluctantly he agreed to join me but his lack of excitement took the "fun" out of it.

Katie had a rough night sleeping and woke up a few times in the night crying. I hardly slept at all as a result. Ryun however slept soundly, as he could sleep through a bomb blast right on his nightstand. When morning came, I had hoped to be able to sleep in, especially since I had to be up until 3:00am for work. Ryun was "huffy" about getting up so I just said screw it and got up myself. I am very tired as a result as I only got about three hours of sleep in the past twenty four. I have also had a lot on my mind which always makes me feel tired. it would be safe to say that it has been one of those days...

Ouch

It's been a rough couple of days...literally. Yesterday I was on my way downstairs and when I was about halfway down, my slipper came off of my foot. I lost my footing and fell (actually slid) on my butt and back down five or six hardwood stairs. Ouch. I was holding Katie in front of me at the time but because I slid and didn't fall head over heels, she was fine. Later on that afternoon I was transferring laundry and wacked my left hand on the dryer, hard. Today, I haven't incurred any new injuries but as a result of yesterdays accidents, I feel like I have been hit by a truck, and parts of me even look like I have been hit by a truck. My left arm and wrist(which are already painful due to severe carpel tunnel) have nice pattern of bruises as a result of the fall and the laundry incident. My right arm is about the same (though not quite as bad) and the small of my back has a bruise so bad it looks black. Pretty much every bone from my waist up is aching. I spent a good part of the day doing nothing because it hurt too much to move.

On a lighter note and a much happier one we have had some potty training success! We made such a big deal out of the fact that she went potty on the toilet that Katie was even saying, "Yeah bathroom."

A co-worker of mine just called and told me that they have installed mirrors in the hallways at work and have been moving peoples desks around. ARGHH. I am happy with where mine is and I hate moving things around. The mirrors are kind of weird too. I am sure it is so they can keep tabs on where everyone is and what they are doing. All I have to say is thank god I work on weekends when I don't have to worry about such silliness.

Potty Training, Dinner, Shopping, Florida

So, we started potty training with Katie Monday. She was afraid of the cute little potty at first and wouldn't even come with in ten feet of it. Now, she sits on it but so far, nothing has happened. I can't wait to not have to change any more diapers!

Anyway, I went out with my sister Suzanne last night. We were going to go to a movie but decided against it because we were too tired by the time we were done with dinner and shopping. We went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner. I love that restaurant. It is a fun and entertaining place to go with the talking moose and the various different "animals" around. Emily loves it and anytime we mention going out for dinner( which isn't often) she asks if we can go to "Boogaloo Creep".

I love how she says that!

After dinner we went over to KMart. I had a few things to get and wanted to drop of my film to be developed. The film had some cute pictures of Emily and Katie, as well as Joey and Pal (the cats).

Tomorrow night Ryun and I are going to sit down and plan our trip to Florida. We have a couple of tour books to look through for both Disney and Universal so we should be able to plan thoroughly. I don't want to be on a "tight" schedule while we are there...just have a pretty good idea of what we want to do when.

Well, that is it for now...kind of just a "filler" until I think of something else to write.