Saturday Night's All Right, All Right, All Right

I slept, blissfully, until sometime mid-morning when I was shaken awake to let the dogs out, because apparently I had slept through the first time they needed to be let out, and was about to sleep through the second time. I was in the middle of a pretty cool dream, which I can't recall now, but needless to say I wasn't too happy with the dog. The worst part is, it's always MY dog that wants to go out. The little dog would sleep through four days if we let him. He got up, but didn't go out. I think I blindly put on a pot of coffee and went back to bed, Nikita still outside, and asked our daughter to let her back in when she barked. Then I started the coffee and went back to bed. Until noon. Yeah, that's right. Noon. And it was awwwwesome.

It's been a pretty lazy day, actually. Thankfully, the bible COMMANDS a day of rest, so I have no qualms about it, thank you very much. We watched the tape of last night's concert for Haiti (please, please, please donate: www.hopeforhaitinow.org) I just sat back thinking the same thing, over and over.

WE

HAVE

SO

MUCH.

I'm not talking about my husband and I. I mean us, yes... but ALL of us. Americans. It's a struggle for us to make all of our payments and still afford little luxuries now and then, but we get our bills paid, our heat and air conditioning are on whenever we want them, we have clean water piped into our house, and electricity to power our household. We have a roof. We have food. We are healthy, and when we're not healthy, even if we don't have insurance, we at least have access to medical care and payment plans to use to get us back on track. We have credit cards. We have pets that we feed and take to the vet when things go wrong. We have furniture. We have gaming systems. We have televisions, plural. We don't have cable, but we have internet. Our computers are slow, but we have two of them. Our vehicles have over 130,000 miles on each of them, but we have two of them. We have beds, pillows and blankets on our beds. We have dress clothes, regular clothes, clothes we use to paint in -- dress shoes, tennis shoes, and shoes we wear to do yardwork. We have carpet on our floors. We have FLOORS. We have cheap vacations, but we have vacations from time to time. We have glasses, or contacts. A mailbox. Cell phones. MP3 players. A washer. Dryer. Vacuum. Dishwasher. Books. Bibles. Pens. Pencils. Paper. Pictures on our walls. WALLS.

WE

HAVE

SO

MUCH.

The devastation in Haiti is a horrendous tragedy, but let's face it -- there is devastation everywhere, everyday, and we ignore it. We hide in our comfortable little world and ignore the fact that people are starving, that they don't have clean water, that a small cut could get infected and lead to their death because they have no antibiotics, that they are naked, that children are wandering around raising other children because they've been orphaned. We complain that we don't have enough money left after our paychecks come in because we've paid all the bills, but we can't go to the movies or out to eat. We throw away more food at a buffet than some children get to eat in a month. And we constantly take for granted, whining about what we don't have or didn't get or have to save up for, that

WE

HAVE

SO

MUCH.

www.hopeforhaitinow.org


*loooooong breath*

I also watched "Shaun of the Dead" for the first time today, but I promise I won't go into a long tirade about zombies. It did allow me to get back into my comfortable little world, though, for a little while. The zombie apocalypse makes me feel a lot better than the real horrors of the world.

I read a chapter of "Under the Tuscan Sun". It's so beautifully crafted and detailed that it takes a lot longer to read. I'm getting ready to read a little more before bedtime, but I'm really enjoying it.

Also, this evening, we used our season tickets at Elkhart Civic Theatre to see "Agatha Christie's Spider's Web" at the Bristol Opera House. I love being a part of ECT. That's where I met my husband so many years ago, and we're still a part of it, doing what we love. Our kids have a great time there, too! Be sure to call and get your tickets for "Alice In Wonderland, Jr." which Steve is directing and choreographing and I'm assistant directing: 574-848-4116. It plays February 12th & 13th at 7pm and 14th at 3pm. See you there!

And, I cannot emphasize enough, DONATE TO HELP HAITI REBUILD!

SJS