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May 26 2012

In letters three foot high…

Update: Apparently, I have a list of 14 qualities of the type of guy I like. Jeez. Forgot about that post. This is what happens when you start reading old blog posts. :)

We’ve all seen those internet quizzes where you answer a bunch of random questions and it spits out a generic type of person you’re destined to be with. Your “type”, if you will. They’re not exactly the most scientific way of figuring out the person you should spend the rest of your life with, but fun nevertheless.

If asked, I would probably say that I’ve never really had a “type”. I say this, but I have always found myself attracted to men with dark brown hair and blue eyes- mainly of the British or Scottish persuasion, to be my cup of tea. Have I ever dated a dark brown haired, blue-eyed Brit? Sadly, no. But if I did have a “type”, then I suppose it would be a man who had common sense, was intelligent enough to keep up with me at Jeopardy, and someone who could make me laugh. I love a good sense of humor in a man. It’s really the most attractive quality in the opposite sex, in my opinion. It’s what makes my blood warm and my pulse quicken. There’s something very sexy about a guy who is smart, but still silly enough that he would make a total ass of himself just to see a girl smile. Someone with a weird, almost sick sense of humor. So yeah, I guess I do have a “type”.

Before I continue, I need to say that I’m married to to the greatest guy ever. He’s so patient and he puts up with me, so he can’t be all that bad. One of the things that first attracted me to my husband was his sense of humor. He loved to have a good time and he knew exactly what to say and do to make me laugh and smile.

I’m famous for telling anyone who asks how the two of us didn’t get on at all when we first met. He thought I was this fast little thing in a short summer dress who REALLY wanted the job and I thought he was a grumpy man with a tendency to throw keys across the radio station when he was in a bad mood. He was the Mr. Darcy to my Elizabeth. Over time though we found something in each other and love bloomed. I discovered that he wasn’t grumpy at all and that he had a way of making me laugh like no-one else ever had. So I snatched him up and made an honest man out of him. To this day, whenever I’m in a bad mood or just being plain mean or grumpy, he can say something to make me laugh and all is well. I’m at my happiest when I’m sitting beside him in the car laughing like an idiot over something crazy he’s said or done.

Take today, for instance. My husband and I decided to get out early and scout around the Savannah historic district for some yard sales. This really is the best time for yard sales because all of the SCAD students are leaving for the summer or graduating and they’re selling practically everything they can so they don’t have to take it back home. You can get some really good deals and steals. All of this has nothing to do with my story though, so I’ll skip to the end.

So we finish with the yard sales and we’re chatting it up in the truck on the way home and we hear “John Deere Green” on the radio. I begin to sing in a silly voice and my husband is giving me this look like I’ve lost my mind. It’s that point that I turn to look at him with the most earnest, sincere look on my face and say, “How come you’ve never climbed a water tower and did that for me?”

He proceeded to explain that:
1) His name isn’t Billy Bob.
2) My name isn’t Charlene.
3) That he isn’t climbing up “some damn water tower to fall to my death just for you, girl!”

That’s when I began to whine a little about how it wasn’t fair that my name wasn’t spray-painted on an overpass, underpass, or hallpass. I wanted a very loud, very colorful act of vandalism to prove that he loves me as much as he says he does.

So he thought about it for a minute, rolled down his window, slowed down at the red light in a very busy, crowded intersection and yelled at the top of his lungs to everyone within hearing distance of three miles, “I love Gennie! I love Gennie! I love this woman!!! I love Gennie! Do you hear me? I love her!!! I LOOOOVVEEE GENNNIIIEEE!!!”

People were craning their necks from their vehicles to find out what the commotion was. Some poor guy on a motorcycle almost fell over in fear. People walking into the Auto Zone and those in the parking lot for the car wash all turned their heads to find out why this crazy man in the truck was yelling and who the hell this Gennie chick was. I could only cover my face and sink way down into the floorboard, praying no-one I knew had seen or heard this very vocal display of love.

After a good minute and a half of this passion-induced screaming, my husband rolled up his window and smiled at me. Our son was in the backseat rolling around thinking this was the best thing he had ever witnessed in his life. That’s when I busted out laughing and decided that Billy Bob and Charlene could keep their damn water tower and green heart. My husband doesn’t roll like that. He does very loud, very colorful acts of drive-by love vandalism.

Oh, I love that man. He’s crazy, but he’s mine and I guess I’m kinda stuck with him for life. I was reminded today why I fell in love with him and why I decided to marry him. He’ll do anything to make me smile, even if it means yelling like a madman at half the city.

Never again will I question how far he’s willing to go to profess his love for me. Honestly, I’m afraid to.

Sep 11 2009

Project 2,996: Remembering John A. Cooper

Before I begin my tribute, I wanted to explain what Project 2,996 is for those of you who’ve never heard of it.

Project 2,996 in an internet memorial project honoring the victims of September 11th. It began in 2006, with over 3,000 bloggers signing up to honor one victim. Now in it’s third year, Project 2,996 is still going strong and remembering those who died and those who heroically gave their lives.

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This year, I was assigned the name of John A. Cooper, an accountant manager at SunGard Trading Systems/BRASS. After a little research I found that Mr. Cooper was just 40 years old when he died on 9/11 in the World Trade Center attacks. He grew up in Brooklyn, excelled in sports, and called Bayonne, NJ home at the time of his death. He was a graduate of Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn and was described by co-workers and friends as someone who always had a big smile on his face when you saw him and someone with an amazing sense of humor who never had an unkind word for anyone he met.

School friend Mike Anagnostakis reiterated John’s kind and good nature and says that “he could not help but to bring happiness into peoples lives that he touched.”

Mike also had this to say about John:

Many a spring day, we would forsake the bus ride home from school, in favor of an hours walk home – talking all the way about sports, as young boys would do. I always thought he would become a baseball star – but, you know, he was always a star, a star in life!!

John was also known as a big hockey fan. He held season tickets at Madison Square Garden for the NY Rangers, and it was at one of these games in the early 80′s where he took Cathy DeCicco on their very first date. It was in the rowdiest section of the Garden where Cathy became a fan of hockey herself and the two fell in love. They married in 1993 and had two sons: Jefferey and Adam. Adam, the youngest was just three months old when his father was killed.

On the morning of September 11th, he was visiting a friend at Sandler O’Neill on the 104th floor of One WTC. He, along with so many innocent people, were killed in the worst acts of terrorism this country has ever seen, and hopefully ever will.

Eight years on and it’s still hard to fathom the pure hatred behind the attacks. How can one person or a group of individuals have so much evil in their hearts to kill so many innocent people? To think of all the mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and children and grandparents and grandchildren and best friends and husbands and wives who died for what? What did they die for? Hate and intolerance and evil.

It breaks my heart…it literally shatters it into a million tiny pieces when I think of all the people who died for nothing. Nothing was gained from these attacks. Thousands more have died as a direct result of 9/11. There are those who were lucky enough to survive the WTC attacks, especially our brave firefighters, police officers, and military, have died because of illnesses attributed to Ground Zero. And those still alive today still bare the scars, both physically and mentally.

Our brave men and women have left their families and have given their lives to defend us overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. My own brave nephew was one of those who felt compelled to do his duty to his country after 9/11. He joined the Marines, leaving behind his wife and young children at home in Illinois. He was killed in May of 2004 Iraq. This is just one of the ripple effects of 9/11. We’re all being affected by what happened eight years ago, directly and indirectly.

And at the end of the day, it all amounts to nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing was gained, but so many precious things were lost. Our loved ones. Our faith in humanity. Our ability to trust others. All of these have been fractured by people who were martyrs for nothing.

But you know something? In all of that nothing, it’s important to remember the very important something from 9/11. That something is the bond we all felt as Americans in the days and weeks and months following the attacks. When we looked upon our neighbors and friends and complete strangers and said, “I love you, my friend. Be safe.” When we took a moment to reflect on what was really important in our lives – our loved ones and those we held most dear. When we stopped looking at people as “them” or “the other side” and accepted everyone as “us”. Democrats and Republicans didn’t exist. We were all just Americans, holding on to each other and trying to make sense of the world around us and feeling like if we just loved each other enough and respected each other enough, we could make it through anything.

And we did. And we’ll continue to if we never forget 9/11 and all the people like John Cooper who were once just like us. Living their lives, loving their families, and trying to live the American dream. We can’t forget these people. We can’t forget their names. We can’t forget their faces. We owe it to them to continue paying tribute. We owe it to their families. And we owe it to ourselves. Because if we forget for even just one second what it was like to be united, we’ve lost the battle for nothing. And in that, we lose ourselves.

So please, let’s all take a second to just love one another today. And to make an effort to love each other EVERY day and to start respecting each other. We need to start looking past the political lines that separate us and working towards a common goal of making this country the best it can be. We need to stop, before we degrade each other in disagreement, and work our differences out like rational human beings. And love…the world is begging for more love. It’s starving for it. Can’t we show more of it? Because in the end, we’re all we’ve got, and that truly is something.

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9-11 Victim Memorial: John A Cooper
Voices of September 11th: John A. Cooper, Jr
Hudson Reporter: Bayonne Remembers: Candlelight Ceremony Marks Fourth Anniversary of 9/11
American Memorials: John A. Cooper

Jun 30 2009

Savannah Wildlife Refuge



Savannah Wildlife Refuge, originally uploaded by Dizzy Girl.

Took a trip out to the Savannah Wildlife Refuge day before yesterday and despite the heat and God awful humidity, it was a really lovely time. We sat and listened to the bugs sing and we chatted about everything under the sun. Then we watched the sun go down and drove home. It was a good weekend.

You can check the pictures out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dizzygirl

Jun 24 2009

One more thing…

You know, the one thing that really bothered me about the whole Clinton/Lewinsky scandal was this idea that because he had an affair, he was a bad President and that he should’ve be impeached. I never agreed with that sentiment and I tend to roll my eyes when I hear it today. Just because someone has an affair doesn’t mean that they are a bad President or a bad Governor, it means that they are a bad husband and father. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are bad at their job. On the contrary, I believe you can do your job and serve your constituents and still be a piss poor excuse of a man.

What makes these cheating politicians a liability for the state and the people they represent are the blatant lies they tell and the trickle down lies that their staffers feed the media to cover up the affair. Sanford isn’t a bad Governor because he was screwing around on his wife with an Argentinean mistress, he’s a bad Governor because he was MIA for an entire weekend and refused to account for it. He wasn’t representing his state during this time and he was nowhere to be found. Why? Because he didn’t want to be found. And because of that, staffers lied about his whereabouts to the media and to the very people who elected him. I could care less if he’s cheating, but if I were a resident of South Carolina, and I’m close enough to be, I’m be beyond pissed and I would be calling for his resignation.

That’s what makes him a bad politician and that’s why he should resign. Not because he can’t keep it in his pants, because let’s be honest here, if every cheating politician was forced to resign, well, who would represent us? It’s a simple matter of the fact that he can’t be trusted to serve his state and handle his personal matters at the same time. End of story.

Jun 1 2009

Ninety-One Year Old Receives GED: Proves that West Virginians Rule at Life…

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My sister Becky went home to Bluefield, West Virginia last Thursday for her son’s graduation. One of the graduates in the class was a 91 year old woman named Beulah Bailey Wills (who I believe is a distant relation of mine!) who earned her GED after all these years. She had quit school when she was 17 years old during the Depression to help her family and never got around to going back to school. She had to have help getting up to get her diploma and she was aided in her studies, but I thought it was such an inspiration story to those women out there who had to drop out of school and think that life has passed them by and that it’s too late. It’s NEVER too late to go back and earn your GED and this lady is proof. This should be a kick in the butt to everyone out there shuffling their feet and making excuses. No excuses. Just do it. If Beulah can do, you can too!

Here’s the article about Beulah that appeared in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph:

At 91, Beulah Wills realizes ‘awesome’ achievement
By TAMMIE TOLER
Princeton Times

PRINCETON — Beulah Bailey Wills is not a typical high school graduate, but that’s not stopping her from celebrating her graduation as joyfully as any other senior.

At 91, Beulah is about to don her commencement gown and make her way across the graduation stage to accept her General Educational Development diploma, a goal she dreamed of for years.

“I’d like to thank my country, my state and my town for giving me this opportunity,” Beulah told the Princeton City Council Monday night, as it honored the soft-spoken lady who said she only passed the GED tests “with the Lord’s help and a lot of prayers.”

Beulah, a former shoe saleswoman, grocery store clerk, construction company secretary and homemaker, left school at the age of 17, when the Great Depression hit the nation and her McDowell County family hard. Then a junior in high school, Beulah decided her time would be better spent earning money to feed her family rather than refining her education in the classroom.

Though it was an honorable decision at the time, Beulah said she always felt like she missed out on something important because she never held her high school diploma. She often considered returning to class, but she never gave it much serious thought until sometime last year.

It was then that the widow’s world got a bit smaller as her brother-in-law and longtime friend and confidant passed away. Beulah’s daughter, Pat Wilson, said she worried her mother would grieve herself to death of loneliness.

So, Pat checked into the GED training program at the Mercer County Academy of Adult Learning, and enrolled her mom.

From there, Pat and her brother, Princeton attorney Mark Wills, shared transportation duties and homework help chores, along with Pat’s daughter, Kim.

“I’m very proud of my mother. It seemed very strange not taking her to class tonight,” Pat said.

Studying up for the tests was tough for Beulah, who is legally blind in one eye and legally deaf in one ear, but she couldn’t praise her mentors at the Academy of Adult Learning enough for their encouragement along the way.

And, Monday night, she was rather pleased with her city, as well.

“It’s a wonderful place to live and to raise your family,” she told Council, once a day was officially declared in her honor.

Though official confirmation was not available, Pat said her research showed that Beulah was the second most-senior American to complete GED diploma requirements.

While that information was good to know, Beulah said she “never once entered into this expecting any fanfare.”

Beulah, modest amid all the attention, still charmed the Council and her audience Monday.

“I’d like to thank you for not giving up,” Councilman Marshall Lytton said. “You did a fine job there.”

Most Council members who spoke echoed similar sentiments, and Councilman Dewey Large summed them all up succinctly.

“I’d just like to say to Mrs. Beulah Bailey Wills that you’re an awesome lady,” he said.

As far as he could tell, Large said she was “the best thing going” Monday night.

Beulah will take part in the Academy of Adult Learning’s annual graduation ceremony later this spring.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

On that note, I’d like to say “congrats” to my nephew, Erik. We’re proud of you. :)


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Source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph:
Photo Credit: Rebecca Fricke…my lovely sister :) Here’s her Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ditzychic/