Break ins/Christmas

Yeah, the title explains it all. I figured combine 2 blogs into 1. Last night, me, my dad and sister were finishing the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas and that's when we heard someone opening the screen door. And from living at the same house for 20 years, I've grown quite accustomed to the sounds of that door. And less than a minute later, I heard someone trying to break the door down! Nobody realizes how scary that is! Someone was actually trying to break in! My dad called the cops because he was concerned. 10 minutes later the cops show up and they take a statement from my dad. They also say that they have been getting numerous reports about people being seen in the woods behind me and my neighbor's houses, in fact one house up the street I have a neighbor who says he's missing quite a few power tools and he thinks someone broke into his house when no one was home and stole them. And I'm really worried about this. I mean, what if someone breaks into my house even if the doors are locked?


Ah yes, Christmas is once again approaching. It seems as though it gets here quicker and quicker every year. I'm happy because I'm able to buy something for my dad, sister, step-dad, and mom. But the thing I love knowing is that Christmas isn't about the gifts, or the decorations, or the bargain sales at the stores. For all the lovely church going people, here's something for you: you probably know this, but Christmas is about the birth of Christ for God's sake! It's not about how much you can spend, how many gifts you can buy, how much the gifts are worth, none of that matters. The thing that truly matters is being surrounded by family, sharing special moments. In past years, I've felt like "What's the point of celebrating Christmas when everyone is so completely consumed by greed?" I mean, it's hard to try and tell people what the true meaning is, but they just don't listen. And sometimes I hear on the news about how people will get trampled to death just because some parent was buying an expensive game system for their kid that probably deserves a good smack upside the head, do these kids realize we're in a depression? It's like the Great Depression 2010, people are losing their homes, people are losing their jobs, people can barely afford to put food on the table, support a family, or pay bills, but you got these families out there buying their kids expensive crap they don't need. If I were any of those kids' parents and they came to me saying "I want a Wii system" or "I want an ipod Nano", I'd simply tell them "You want that game system or ipod? Go out, get a job and pay for it yourself, because I'm not doing it." Because, I'm a young adult and I may not be a parent, but I know plenty of people who are parents and they would probably say something similar to this. I'm just tired of hearing about the so called Christmas Greed, all I hear kids say nowadays is "I want this" or "I want that". I'm really glad I'm not like this, if I want something, I go out, get a job and pay for it myself. If I do it that way, I'll appreciate it more, that's the magic of hard work.

Christmas Around the World

 I thought this would make an interesting blog. Since Christmas is right around the corner, I decided to see if and how Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world, out of curiosity.

Australia: they celebrate Christmas outside because of the warm weather, they don't have snow, and their Christmases are alot like ours, they decorate with tinsel, and out up trees, only it might be palm trees instead of evergreen trees or whatever tree people usually decorate around here. And here, Christams mass is huge! Everyone goes to Christmas mass here, no choice about the matter like here. Alot of people go to Bondi Beach, one of the bigger beaches in Sydney and enjoy the caroling there. And the day after Christmas, they have something called Boxing Day, which started when employees would box gifts and give them to someone. On this day, they all watch people play a game called Cricket, which is like a British version of baseball, and they also watch the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in Sydney Harbor.

Italy: Here it lasts 3 weeks, starting 8 days before Christmas called Noventa and ending on the Feast of Epiphany, and if it wasn't painfully obvious, alot of people here are Catholic, so that is why Christmas is such a big deal here, and here they don't worry about the greed of Christmas like over here, they celebrate for the true meaning, the birth of Christ! And you know the tradition of setting up the Nativity Scene? That actually started in Italy, and poor kids would dress up as shepherds and go door to door singing carols, like here. And like all traditions, Italy has their own version of 'Santa'. Here 'Santa' is a woman called La Befana, and she is often shown as a fairy queen, a crone or an ugly witch on a broomstick, she flies around looking for the Christ Child and leaves presents at every house in case he's there. She slides down chimneys, fills socks with goodies for the good kids, and charcoal for the bad ones, so La Befana here is Santa's Italian cousin. Buon Natale(Merry Christmas in Italian)

Mexico: Ayos Mio! It's huge here. Christmas here begins on December 12, with the birthday of the Virgin of Guadalupe and ends January 6. Kids wake up to find gifts under a tree and figures of the 3 Kings as well. And here where kids get gifts on December 25, in Mexico kids get gifts on January 6, the Epiphany. They also have the setting of the Nativity Scene, it's very big here. On Christmas Eve, small children dress as shepherds and go to the big Nativity Scene in the middle of town and they sing Ave Maria among real shepherds and to lull the child who plays Jesus to sleep, they sing El Rorro(Babe in Arms). Everyone goes to Midnight Mass and after that, go home to eat traditional Mexican food, tamales, burritos, etc. Feliz Navidad(Merry Christmas in Spanish)

China: Yeah, they celebrate it here too!: The people of China decorate their houses with twinkling lights, trees which they call trees of light decorated with paper lanterns, paper chains and paper flowers, they hang up stockings with the hopes that Dun Che Lao Ren(Santa's Chinese cousin) will fill them with presents.
愉快的圣诞节(Merry Christmas in simplified Chinese)

Japan: Yeah, they celebrate it here too!: Like in the US, Christmas in Japan is on the 25th of December, only about 1% of the people here are Christian, the major religions here are Buddhism and Shintoism, and Santa's Japanese cousin takes care of the little kids in Japan, his name is Hotei-Osho, who is a Buddhist monk who leaves presents in the houses for kids, and is said to have eyes in the back of his head. And in Japanese, Merry Christmas is Meri Kurisumasu.

England: Here it's celebrated on the 25th of December, like all other places. Christmas trees here are a big thing, decorating it has been around since the 1850s, it's considered bad luck to have the decorations up after January 6, the Epiphany.The tradition of stockings was actually started here, Santa's British cousin is said to wear a long red or green robe, the stockings are usually pillowcases hanging at th end of beds and he fills them up with goodies on Christmas Eve and on the afternoon of Christmas Day, that's when these little kids open their gifts. And here it's practically required to attend Midnight Mass or mass on Christmas Day.
And that is just some of the places that Christmas is celebrated in, I really didn't expect to hear that China and Japan celebrates this holiday. England I'm not suprised, alot of the traditions we celebrate on Christmas come from here.

Holidays

Ah, Christmas is right around the corner, does it seem like the holidays get here quicker and quicker every year? It certainly seems that way for me. And this year, I have money to go shopping and I have some Muy grande shopping to do. For my dad, I want to get him this old sci-fi B-movie from the 1950s, it's about this town in California that gets overrun by giant ants, it's called Them!. He loves that kind of stuff. For my sister, I want to get her this CD of this country band called Sugarland. Hopefully she likes it. For my mom, I want to get her this book she said she wanted, it's on the mob. She loves learning anything about organized crime. For my step-dad, I want to get him this set of cars, he collects car models and I seen one in Eastgate mall that he'll love.

But what I mainly tire of is seeing/hearing the commercials about these people buying people expensive Caddies as gifts, expensive game systems, expensive iPods, you name it. The greed has totally and completely ruined Christmas, last time I checked, Christmas was about the birth of Christ for God's sake. It's not about the gifts, it's not about how much you can spend, how much the gifts are worth, how many gifts you get, it's about spending time with the ones you love, it's about the birth of Christ, spend time with your family, don't care about the greed of Christmas bargain sales. I see commercials showing people buying their kids these expensive game systems, like PS3, Wii, XBox 360, you name it, expensive music systems, like iPod Nanos, iPod Shuffles, iPhone, etc. Wake up people! Christmas is not about the greed, it's about spending time with your family, it's about the birth of Christ, for crying out loud! In my family, we don't worry about the worth of the gifts, we spend time together by putting up the tree, decorations, etc. But in past years, it's getting to the point where we actually have to decide to do it, because it'll go down again in a few days anyway. Why can't it just be like the old days where Christmas was exciting? Where it wasn't about the greed, where you couldn't sleep the night before because you wondered what Santa brought you? Where's those days? 'Cuz they sure aren't here.

And the day after Thanksgiving, watch going out. That is the most dreaded day of all, that's when people go out and turn into complete kamikazes on the road, they're all in such a rush to get stupid stuff. My dad made the mistake of going out last year on Black Friday, I think that's what they call it, to get a gift for my sister. I also had something to pick up. I told him that I'd be in the entertainment section of the Alexandria Meijer's to pick something up and I had to push and shove my way through because people were crowding the aisles, all I had to get was an old 1950s sci-fi movie called The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. I got it and got out. By the time I got back to the video game dept. where they were, they had just gotten into the aisle. My dad was planning to get my sis The Sims 2 Pets, where you can create a Sim and a pet for them. Boy, we were glad to get out of that store, we got donuts at Dunkin donuts that morning and did it taste good! We got first dibs on donuts before anyone, even before the Alexandria Police we seen pulling into the lot in their massive SUV. Suckers!

And here's a music video, it's of the song Try Again by Aaliyah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEF_-IcnQC4

Christmas/Weekends

Ah yes, it's that time of year again, time again for the greed of the holidays to make its presence known. Have you ever noticed that only a few years ago, you never seen as many Christmas commercials, but nowadays, you see more Christmas commercials than ever. You see these people buying undeserving people expensive Caddies, expensive jewelry, that's not what Christmas is all about. It's about the birth of Jesus Christ for God's sake. It's right there in the name. In my house, we remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas. In my house, it isn't about the greed or whatever associated with what everyone considers Christmas now. And also a few years ago, you never seen commercials for Christmas until about November, now you're seeing them in September. But with some people they like to get Christmas shopping done early. My mom, my step-dad Greg's sisters Jeanne and Carol are 3 people who I know do their shopping early every year to get it done. They say it's a pain. But I've kind of strayed away from liking Christmas anymore. I used to love it, I used to be able to not sleep on Christmas Eve, wondering what Santa brought me, that's when Christmas was magical.

Nowadays, when it's morning, I usually walk right past what 'Santa' brought me, it just doesn't feel the same as back then. Is that what growing up does to you? Makes you forget that Christmas is a time for magic and miracles? I guess I've forgotten that magic when I keep seeing those stupid commercials advertising more greed and people getting what they don't deserve more than anything. What people need to do is realize the true meaning of Christmas-- the birth of Christ for God's sake, it's right there in the name for cryin' out loud! I do a little Christmas shopping every year and this year, I've got some money I've scrounged up for the past 2 years to do some serious shopping. I have a lot to buy-- for my dad I have to get him this old movie he wants, called Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, it's one of those old 1950s sci-fi B-movies, for my sister I'm getting her a blanket that has her favorite show on it, Invader Zim, she's a sucker for all that stuff from Hot Topic, for my mom, I'm getting her this book about the mob, she loves reading books about the mob, for my step-dad I'm getting him a picture, a hand drawn one of Tahiti at sunset. And I know where I can get it, at this place called In-Light Studio in the Eastgate Mall. You should really see this place, it's awesome, they have a picture of virtually anyone. So you can say I'm up to my eyes in shopping for the holidays.


My weekend was pretty cool though. Last night, I got to see that new Karate Kid movie with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. It was totally awesome, way better than the old 1980's one, but that one is good too, my dad kept talking during the movie though, and there was this little kid who kept bullying Jaden Smith's character Dre Parker, and my dad kept saying that the little Oriental kid who was bullying him should get smacked so hard his eyes become straight. I told him this wasn't right. You see, my dad sometimes jokes about racial stuff like this, and sometimes it's hard to tell if he's joking. If he is, I tell him that it's not right to make racial/ethnic cracks about people. But I watched the movie last night and it was awesome! I love movies like that.


And what's stupid? I bought 2 movies with some birthday money, and I haven't even watched them yet. I bought Bulletproof Monk and Unleashed, one has Chow Yun-fat in it and the other has Jet Li in it, I haven't even watched them yet, but this Friday, if I'm not doing anything particularly interesting, I'm watching them.


And here's a video that's really cool, and I think perfect for any hard worker, it's the song Nothin But a Good Time by Poison, here's the link to the video.
http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--2162500
If you see my stupid email adress thing, sorry. It's off my video playlist thing on Yahoo. But the song is really cool, I guarantee it.

Halloween

This weekend was Halloween, and not suprisingly, the weather it sucked. I was giving out candy over at my step-dad's mom's house in Delhi Township and I wore my Geisha costume and under it I had to wear jeans, a hoodie and gymshoes, I didn't really look like a Geisha. They must have been shipping these kids in from all the neighboring neighborhoods, like Sedamsville, Price Hill, and they came from as far as North College Hill, Western Hills, Fairmount. There were greedy kids as far as the eye could see. They kept reaching into the bowl to grab candy and some kids cried because they couldn't get seconds. Stupid brats! But all the cool costumes seem to be in Ohio rather than Kentucky, I seen costumes like Ninjas, a couple Michael Myers, a couple Freddy Kruegers, princesses, one kid dressed as the killer from Jeepers Creepers, turns out that kids' mom was a friend of my mom's, they work together, her son dressed as that, her daughter dressed as Regan from the Exoricst, some of the other costumes I seen include lions, ladybugs, rockstars, zombies, police officers, you name it, one kid even dressed up as Steven Tyler somehow, he had a brown hair wig all messed up and wore a white jumpsuit that he sometimes wears on stage and he had messy hair, that costume was cool, I gave him extra candy, and apparently you can't give out candy to the kids whose costume you like, because I seen my next door neighbor Vicki and her son Nathan over there, he was dressed as a baseball player, he had a New York Mets player uniform on, he was so adorable! But Halloween ws good, my step-dad decided to ditch candy giving to watch the football game inside, it was so cold outside that me and my mom had to resort to wearing blankets over our legs to keep warm. And across the street, this guy had a blow-up haunted house set up, I heard kids screaming all night. The cool costumes were all over there, I even seen people who didn't even put any effort into it, just going around getting free stuff. I swear, Halloween must be the one holiday when you can actually legally take stuff from strangers.


And I also went to Kenwood Mall with my step-dad, mom, sister. We went into this puzzle place out there and my sister was looking for this Ed Hardy tattoo artist puzzle and she couldn't find it, so she asked the lady at the front desk and she asked her if they had any Goth themed puzzles, this lady must have been dumber than a bag of hammers, she clearly said Goth puzzles, so instead she takes us to where they have all these Beatles puzzles, my sister is not a big fan of British 60's and this lady clearly didn't get it. she picked up one that depicted the Beatles Revlover album, my sis didn't like it, so then she oicked up one that showed the Yellow Submarine album, she didn't like it, she even picked up one with John Lennon on it, and if you know my sister, she hates The Beatles. We had to tell her" she's not a fan of the Beatles" So then we just told her we're going somewhere else. Let her think about that one.

Random Thoughts and Stuff, pt.II

Random Thoughts and Stuff, pt.II: I figured just title this blog random thoughts and stuff, make it easier to just put little random things out. I'm not sure if anyone else out there in the blogosphere is an Aerosmith fan, but there is this one song by them called Fallin in Love(Is Hard on the Knees), if you really listen to the lyrics, it's actually a nasty song, this is the opening chorus to the song: this song has cussing in it and everything! What was Steven Tyler thinking? He must have been out of his mind on drugs! I mean it's a good song, but gross lyrics!


You think you're in love Like it's a real sure thing But every time you fall You get your ass in a sling You used to be strong But now it's ooh baby please 'Cause falling in love is so hard on the knees
the chorus
There ain't gonna be no more beggin' you please You know what I want And it ain't one of these You're bad to the bone And your girlfriend agrees That falling in love is so hard on the knees
P.s. if you watch the video, you see Steven flip the finger a few times!


And I'm not sure if anyone has traditions for the holidays, like Halloween or Christmas, but for some reason my family does. every year on Halloween, we watch scary movies. My dad don't like my idea of turning off the lights and watching the Exorcist, which isn't scary. And on Christmas every year, like clockwork, my dad will watch Die Hard(not sure why). But he hasn't been in the christmasy mood lately, neither have I. I mean. I'm growing tired of seeing commercials for people buying these undeserving people Caddies, expensive diamonds, expensive iPods. Christmas, for all who go to church, you'll know what I mean, is about the birth of Jesus Christ. It's nota about the gifts, it's about spending time together with family and loved ones, it's about showing them yoy care, gifts are not needed, but Christmas has become so commericalized anymore. No wonder no one likes Christmas anymore! I used to like it, not anymore!

Birthdays: what a joy!

Birthdays: What a Joy: Why does it seem like as you get older, birthdays get less and less exciting? Does it seem like everyone else's birthday is better than mine and mine ends up being just another day?  When I was younger, I used to be so anxious for birthdays to come because I would bake stuff in the oven and take them in for my classmates, nowadays, it's like "Caitlin, it's your birthday" and I say "Yeah whatever", or "Wow, I didn't even notice, it felt like another day". I guess it's part of growing up, you lose that special magic when it comes to birthdays and Christmas. When I was younger, I used to get up early to see what 'Santa' brought me, and I would have to wait until my parents woke up, but 2 years ago at Christmas, I was actually sick for the first time on the holidays.
My mom was pestering me Christmas Eve because she thought we loved our aunt more than her and it's not true, and it got me so upset that I had an upset stomach because of it. You see, in my family, having divorced parents isn't always easy, because no matter what, my parents will always speak bad about each other behind their backs, and they drag me and my sis into the middle.
But it just seems that as you grow up, Christmas loses that special magic, it's become too commercialized, it's all about who can spend the most on gifts, who can get the most gifts, having the biggest and best decorations on the block, I hate it. Every year at Christmas, I see commercials for people buying their non-deserving loved ones Cadillacs for gifts, expensive iPods, expensive stereo systems, you name it. In fact, last Christmas was just fine with me, I didn't get alot, but I didn't want alot.
My parents and aunt says it's hard to buy for me because they don't know what I like and don't like. It's that way when it comes to birthdays/Christmas. So, if you know me, you know I like music, reading, arts and crafts, etc.