You can feed them whatever they want, but whatever you do, never EVER
feed them after midnight.

No, wait...that's Mogwai.

Nevermind.

We used to play Combat with avocados from our tree. The ones that
survived became guacomole. I miss that tree.

In my particular situation, now is not the time to tell him I love him.
He knows I admire him a lot; I'm not entirely sure if he takes me
seriously or not, and I'm not sure if his interest in me goes beyond
just "liking" me.

right on, ely!

Let's see..what irritates me? What DOESN'T irritate me? LOL.

Injustice, infidelity, lying, dishonesty, cheating, lack of
accountability/responsibility, Walmart cashiers who think they have
nothing better to do than chat about their lives to their friends who
come through their checkout line, people who won't let someone in front
of them in the checkout line who only have a few items, people who cut
me off on the interstate, people who throw rocks in my fountains, kids
who play in my yard and ride skateboards and other stuff in my driveway
even though I've told them to stay the hell out of it, prejudice against
people simply for their skin color, people with no sense of
propriety...geez, i could go on all night.

It didn't occur to me that you were speaking to me. This is for two
reasons:

A) I'm NOT old.

and

B) You ever seen legs that hot on an OLD woman?

I didn't. I deleted his message.

Kat, the title of his profile is "Good white man for woman," or
something like that. LOL.

These days it's not likely you'll hear Black people being referred to as
"Negro," even. It's kind of "60s." Usually, at least from what I've
heard, nowadays they prefer Black or African-American..or, don't like
being "labeled" at all, unless there's a reason for making that
distinction.

I know a lot of people who, if told about an incident such as a
shooting, or a fight, or someone cut you off on the interstate or
whatever and you know what the first words out of their mouths usually
are?

"Were they Black?"

Or, "I'll bet they were Black, weren't they?"

Yep, 2007, and we're still dealing with that kind of ignorance and
prejudice.

Thanks, TT. And considering what happened the next day at PH, it's a
miracle I'm even here!

I pay exorbitant fuel taxes for one thing. I'd say that was serving my
country.

My dad was a WWII Navy vet. Served four years in Guam. I have a pic of
him somewhere that, on the back, says, "Still a boot. June 6, 1941." It
was taken at Pearl Harbor.

My older brother (CPO USN-Ret.) served in the Navy (noncomm) for about
25 years. He retired 1995 as an E8. He traveled all over the world
during his years in the Navy.

No, TT, it's not a joke.

Nu, I'm not taking this idiot anywhere! LOL.

(Just for the record, that is not the "clinical" definition of
insanity.)

Having said that, she's asked for your opinion, and you gave it. She's a
grown woman, let her do what she's gonna do and if she later regrets it,
that's something she'll have to deal with.

Aiden, I had no problem whatsoever interpreting what you meant. And I
have no problem with your opinion either.

If the girl was truly sick, and she asked to be let off the bus in order
to throw up, then the driver drove off and left her, then it would be
TOTALLY the driver's and/or monitor's fault for having done that.

If the girl was not sick, then the driver had no business letting her
off the bus at a stop other than her own, unless she had a permission
slip. And even then, hell, those can be forged.

However, if she wasn't sick and didn't just "get left," if she did it in
order to play hooky from school, then she is just as much (if not more)
at fault than the driver/monitor are.

The reason I say "more" is because she knows not to do that in the first
place!

And I'm not saying this as an affront to GEHC and I hope she knows this.
I'd say it no matter who posted. If MY OWN DAUGHTER pulled a stunt like
that, she'd have hell to pay.

That's just how I approach parenting. I don't believe in absolving kids
of their accountability just because they're "kids." By the time they
reach teen age, they're old enough to know better. And sure, they're
going to "do it anyway," but, at least in my household, they'd know
they'd catch hell for it later on, so they'd best have themselves a
grand old time while they're skipping school.

Fanta, don't start on me. I'm not in the mood.

Bowers did not come in here and start any kind of argument. What is with
you some of you that you think people don't have a right to voice their
opinion here, unless it coincides with your own?

Grow up, people. This ain't high school. We're all adults here and have
different perspectives on various issues.

My take on it?

The bus driver/monitor should have never let the kid off the bus in the
first place. Or if she did have to throw up, then let her off, and then
make sure she gets back on again. Or...call her mom to come get her.

The kid? She's not a preschooler who just happened to "wander off" at
the wrong stop. She knows full well what she did was wrong, and she's
responsible for it. If she was sick and the bus left her there, then she
should have called her mother right away.

She is not without blame for this incident; in fact, she is MOSTLY to
blame for it. GEHC says she realizes this and she says she took
appropriate measures to deal with it.

On the flip side, the bus driver/monitor are totally negligent in that
they didn't make sure the kid(s) were back on the bus when they were
supposed to be.

I don't blame GEHC one bit for being upset about that. But I (and I'm
speaking strictly about me and no one else) would have given my daughter
total HELL for misbehaving.

TT, they're men. They have only one thing in mind when writing you. They
couldn't care less about the fact you have a BF or are married, or
getting married, or whatever. You know?

I'm not really sure. There is a guy I think about all the time. ALL the
time. I really admire him. A LOT. Does that mean I'm in love with him?
I'm not even sure I know what "love" is, in its strictest definition.

When you find out the answer to that question, then maybe you can tell
me why most of the men around here look like sheep.

Well, the guy who wrote me lives in Seattle. I live in Nashville, right
the midst of "The South Shall Rise Again" mentality, and these days
"most" people aren't so backwoods like that anymore.

My neighborhood is very diverse and everyone gets along just fine. For
the record, no, I don't like rap music that much. I like Motown. But
didn't we stop calling Black people "Negroes," like, a half-century ago?

geeeeeeeez

OMG!!!

I can't believe people still think this way...or, not so much that they
*think* this way, but that they will actually ADMIT to it..

Here's an email I just got, from another site:

"I'm a nice white male who likes rock and other music, but not black
rap. What kind of music do you like, and do you like rap and negroes?"