A fellow dlander and dear friend of mine is participating in a year-long service project through the Holy Cross Associates. She�s donating a year of her time to run the Andre House, a Phoenix homeless shelter that provides numerous services to the community. Allow me to direct you to AZ-Amber's diary for her daily musings on how the selfless help she�s providing others is affecting her.

You�ve got the links, so please read more about what she�s doing.

I�m hosting a fundraiser for this group until the end of the month, trying to help them raise money to travel to other service sites. It�s a heckuva lot better than me offering to mail cookies for a bake sale, and it�s easier than you flying to Phoenix to buy said cookies, so take a look through the site linked to the graphic above to help out the Phoenix HCA.

Today�s been a long day thus far. I got to work late because my alarm decided not to ring at its designated hour. Nobody seemed to care, but I do realize that it just means that I have to work later than usual. And since I�m already trying to bank as many hours as possible to make up for taking days off for future holidays, I�m gladly sitting here at 6:42 in the evening.

Speaking of working, I opened a paycheck last night and gasped with horror when I saw how much I�ve paid in taxes this year. Seriously, y�all. It�s like enough to support a third world country for a year. I suppose that�s partially what my taxes go towards anyway, so I�ll just ignore all of the monument-building, NASA-blowing-things-up, and people-mooching-off-the-system that goes on and pretend that my involuntary monetary contributions only go toward things I like.

And making an about-face and speaking about things I don�t particularly like, today I was included in an email blasting the Chicago Tribune for supporting Bush. The email�s author was appalled that a paper in such a democrat-heavy town would betray its readers and do such a thing.

[...]

Huh?

Basically what it boiled down to is that anyone who disagrees with the sender�s beliefs angers her. And as I�ve said in the past several months to everyone who questions anything political that I believe in, remember that about 50% of the U.S. disagrees with everything you believe in.

That also obviously includes voting Republican.

So my response to the email�s author: Quit reading the Trib. Don�t support their advertisers. Quit using the most-awesome and all-encompassing Metromix.

In all truth, she can subscribe to the Sun-Times, support the local business without enough funds to advertise in large papers, and use CitySearch to find addresses to bars, restaurants, and the city�s going-ons.

Did you see what happened when the Crawford, Texas paper announced that it supported Kerry? Advertisers backed out, local subscriptions were cancelled, and the town quit supporting the paper.

People have choices. If you don�t agree with the way a business runs itself, don�t patronize them.

I don�t buy Jamba Juice anymore because the manager at one single store embarrassed my over a $2.50 coupon, and I have an aversion to anyone who doesn�t treat their customers just-so. I know I�m extreme, but I hold to my beliefs. DOWN WITH JAMBA!!!

I�m also down with KFC because of their inhumane animal treatment (unfortunately I�m continuing to support PepsiCo�s Taco Bell since they�re one of the very few vegan eateries around), McDonald�s for their misleading vegetarians on the beef drippings in their french fries, and Burger King for their recent creepy ads featuring people waking up to a plastic king in bed.

In the non-food category, the only people making me mad these days at the folks over at the Salvation Army since they feel that their help shouldn�t apply to any homosexuals in need.

They may help a bunch of people out, but I don�t think that charities should discriminate. It�s their business though, and they can run it how they want to; however, I choose not to support them based on that -- especially since the people at the Red Cross are so friggin� great with helping everyone out.

Soap box, you got anymore?

Nope, that�s everyone I can think of that I�m mad at right now.

My Maw Maw in Houston isn�t doing too well lately. She�s been in and out of the hospital for a while, but she�s been in without break for a couple weeks now. Things aren�t looking good for her, as she has every known sickness to man. Combine that with being old, missing your deceased-for-one-year husband of 64 years, and having to move our of your home of 15 years into a two-bedroom old folk�s apartment, and things really don�t look good.

So instead of partying it up with my beloved Autumn-kitty in a birthday bash to remember, I�m flying into Dallas and immediately driving to Houston to see her for what will possibly be the last time ever.

It sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks.

In an I�ve-already-been-informed-that-I�m-giving-the-eulogy kinda sucks.

Enough on that.

I�m IMing with a friend while working, and I can�t stop saying the word vagina. Vagina, vagina, vagina!

It�s stemming from conversation similar to the entry I wrote on why women have the upper hand (because we have what most men want).

I never knew the reaction people would have to that entry. I had one grown woman tell me that she now only does her husband when she feels like getting it on. �It�s like you said, I have cunt power!�

Oh dear lordy me! I never said �cunt power�!!! But so long as it�s a message that women all around remember and take to heart, they can call it whatever they want.

Oh that night, I�m outta here. I�ll tell my boss that the hour was determined by my vag. I�m sure she�ll love that.�