Don’t you deserve it?

I was driving to the park and ride this morning…the first leg of my morning commute….listening to the radio when a commercial came on. It was for some luxury real estate company that would sell your luxury home and get you more money because “after all, don’t you deserve it?”

I did not count the number of times the phrases “You deserve it” and “Don’t you deserve it?” were used in the commercial, but it was a lot. For the last few hours, that phrase has been floating in my head. Don’t you deserve it?”

And I started thinking about that mentality. “Don’t you deserve it?”

Isn’t that what advertising tries to make us feel? That we DESERVE anything…. or everything… that we want.  Advertisers want us to feel “Yes….I DO deserve it!”  Then we will buy their product or service, whether we really need it or not.  And if we can’t afford it we are depriving ourselves, our spouse, our kids, our pets. We are deprived because we can’t have everything! This causes many people to go into debt. (I know this is not the only reason for debt, but this is the one I am talking about.)

I see it in my kids sometimes though not always. Oh, I don’t think they are in debt, but I don’t know…it’s not my business. But I do know that at times they have purchased things they wanted then had to be bailed out. And yes, we have done it, but not often. And I guess they have all matured…or got better paying jobs…as we don’t hear of them having financial difficulties, though I still think they spend a lot of their money frivolously. I see the same thing in a lot of people I work with. They can’t afford a co-pay to go to the doctor, but they buy the new iPhone every time one comes out. (Not that there is a thing wrong with buying an iPhone...IF you can afford it.)

So, why don’t I feel deprived? I have not bought everything I ever wanted. I got a lot of what I wanted, but for me material items just don’t seem that important. I don’t think they ever have.  I think I deserve to be happy, but I don’t think any THING is going to do that for me.

I guess I need to thank my parents for that. 

Tone it down with the teeth whitening, Hollywood.

 I know that having super white teeth is in vogue now. There are so many products advertised everywhere and everywhere you go lots of people have really white teeth. Some to the extreme, I think. I have seen some people that have teeth that are so white they are almost blue. Adults’ teeth are just not naturally that white.

BUT, I know that white teeth are important to a lot of people. My mother-in-law whitens all the time and she has quit drinking coffee and tea because they would stain her teeth. Not a bad thing at all, I suppose.

How white your teeth are is your choice. And if you want your teeth unnaturally white, that is your choice as well. BUT when you are an actor, acting in a period piece where I KNOW people’s teeth would not be glowing white, it is just a distraction. I won’t name any movies, but Hubby and I were watching something the other night and several characters were dirty, in raggedy clothes with straggly dirty hair and their teeth were glowing white. LOL! I asked Hubby, “Is it just me, or are his teeth a distraction?” He told me it was not just me.

Then, this weekend, I binge watched a mini-series on Netflix. It was good and I really enjoyed it, but once again, it was a period piece. There were characters that were dirty, with dirty hair, raggedy clothes and those glowing white teeth. I know they are actors. I know it is a movie. But the producers did a lot to make the costuming and the staging seem real so the teeth were distracting.

I don’t think people need to go back to stained, yellowed teeth, although I must say my family didn’t whiten our teeth when growing up and we didn’t have stained, yellowed teeth. But we do have good dental hygiene. My mama saw to that.

But filmmakers need to pay attention to what they are doing. One example where this was not the case was a movie called “Mud” starring Matthew McConaughey. He had snaggly teeth in the movie that fit in with his character. I looked it up after watching the movie as I know he has pretty white teeth. For this film, he wore prosthetic teeth. Yes, he wore ugly teeth for the part. And, in this instance, his teeth might not have even been a distraction. But they were going for realistic.

I know Hollywood filmmakers and actors would not care what I think. But I think they should pay more attention to actors’ teeth if they are trying to be realistic.

Oh, and I do use whitening toothpaste sometimes….if it was really cheap with a coupon. But my teeth will never be glowing white.

Rant over.

Happy Monday all!   

A blessed Easter to you all.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day on this Easter Sunday.

May you all feel as blessed as I do today.

I feel so current!

My company does a LOT of fundraising for the March of Dimes. It actually does a lot of charitable activities, but March of Dimes is near and dear to one of our vice presidents as she has a child that was born premature with a lot of issues. So she takes fundraising for March of Dimes very seriously.

Teams are created and do different activities to raise money and whatever is raised is matched by the company. Last year over $150,000 was given. That number is not huge, but the cool thing is that half was raised by employees.

There are talent shows, raffles, bake sales, competitions and anything else anyone can think of as a fun activity. A couple of years we had dunking booths where you could by tickets to try and dunk VPs. I don't know if that will happen this year as the area used for it is currently under construction.

One activity that is coming up is the "Knowledge Bowl" which is a trivia competition. Some members of my group have formed a team, on of whom has been bragging about how good she is at trivia, how she is on a team that plays weekly, etc.

I have found that when people brag about how much they know, you often find out that they THINK they know more than they actually do. Actually, that is the case for a lot of bragging, I think.

Anyway, that girl, my boss and another attorney were standing around (near my desk) talking about preparing for the competition and talking about what they DON'T know. My boss, who is an attorney and really smart, was saying he knows nothing about pop-culture. TV or movies. He has two kids that graduated from college in the last couple of years. How do you have college age kids and not have stuff rub off on you?? He is a year older than me with kids a few years younger than mine, so I expected he would know stuff.

The other attorney may be in her 40s...I am not sure, but she has a 15 year old and she doesn't sound like she knows any more than my boss. She only recently found out who Drake is. Really? I don't listen to Drake, but I know who he is. (It does not hurt that he is HOT.)

The other lady.....the bragging one....only learned who Drake is recently....and she is 40! She said she knew little about movies and music. WHAT? How can you participate in trivia contests and not know movies and music?

I hope the team does well. After all it included my boss. But really....they made me feel so HIP today!

It is a good day!

Happy Good Friday to you all.

Torn achilles tendon? That ain't nuthin!

OMG, I have been watching WAY too much Maury lately. But that is a story for another day.

So, I told you about my klutzy fall a while back. I have mostly recovered from that, though my right foot still feels a bit "funny". I don't know how else to describe it. It does not hurt, but I can't walk normally. Not wanting to be a hypochondriac, I have refrained from diagnosing myself using the internet. And since the doctor didn't mention anything when he looked at my MRI results, I figured, it would just eventually get better.

Today, I went to the ortho to get the first of my Euflexxa shots. We are going to try and see if they help my left knee which is the really painful one. I have read about it and it helsp soe people but not all. So I am hopeful, but being realistic.

Since I am paying over $400 for those darn MRIs, I asked for a copy of the results from the doctor today.

Guess what?!

I tore my right achilles tendon in that fall. I asked the doctor why it wasn't mentioned when the results were mentioned in my last visit and was told that since I was not having any pain, there was not need to worry me with it.

What??!!

Shouldn't I have, maybe, rested it more? Had it wrapped? Anything to help it heal? I guess not.

Fortunately, it must be healing as my walking is better/easier, but still.....it just seems like that is something the doctor would tell me.

Oh, well, I will letyou know how the Euflexxa works.

I am just not that interesting.

I guess I have to admit it. Sonya Ann yelled at me to write something, which made me realize that I had not posted in a while. So, I was thinking, "What shall I write about?" And I realized that I am just not that interesting. LOL!

Well, not today, anyway.

I am at work and currently enjoying lunch at my desk, so thought I would post something for Sonya Ann to ready. And anyone else that wants to.

I had a totally quiet weekend and did absolutely nothing but read, watch movies and play on the computer. Hubby was out of town on a camping trip, so I didn't feel a bit guilty. Not that he makes me feel guilty when I am having a lazy weekend, but he is so energetic that sometimes I feel that way.

I was recuperating from going to visit someone in the hospital on Thursday after work. We walked and walked and walked and on Friday I could barely walk because my knee hurt so bad. I took lots of drugs and made it through work, but I was determined to rest it all weekend.

And I did.

I am now in the process of researching weight loss surgery. Anyone had it? Know someone that did?
Care to share experiences?

My ortho told me that I need to lose some weigh....well...duh! But since it hurts to walk, exercise is a little limited. I have cut back on what I eat and pretty much cut out desserts much to Hubby's chagrin, but I need more. I have a friend that had lapband surgery and she loved the results and several years later is still thrilled that she did.

So, that is my latest little project I am working on.