Mishmash Musings

I hate flying, so one of my biggest dreams is to be able to buy an RV and cruise across the country in style. I love road trips so much, but it’s not very comfortable sitting in a pickup truck for long stretches of highway, ya know? If we could get an RV and hook it up to the truck, we’d be much better off. Yes, we’d need to carry 5th wheel insurance, but the cost of that would be offset by the amount of money we’d save on hotels/motels and restaurants.

I know this isn’t going to happen anytime soon, as we simply don’t have the money for it now. But I’d give anything to be able to travel that way after retirement!

Every year my local public library has a Book Fair during the first weekend of October. Since that’s coming up in just a few days, I decided to get rid of a bunch of old books by donating them to the fair. I mostly chose books that I’ve had for 10 years or more without opening or stuff that I used to read a lot but don’t need anymore. For example, all my pregnancy books fall into the latter category, as I no longer need to know what to expect in month seven or how to produce more breast milk. Hopefully someone else can find this stuff useful!

I used to buy as many books from the fair as I donated, but now that I have a Kindle, I prefer to go with e-books. There’s just far less clutter that way!

(Photo: Freefoto.com)

I just read that Disney has decided to ignore their own rules and allow one of their Muslim workers to wear a religious headdress while manning the ticket booth after initially prohibiting the woman to do so and asking her to take a job outside the public eye.

I don’t understand this. The thing against religious clothing is a company policy. The woman knew the policy before signing her employment papers. She agreed to it at the time. Then she comes back and bitches and complains about it??? Come ON!

Hopefully other Disney workers will take this as an invitation to wear crosses, yarmulkes, and whatever else they want on a daily basis. What’s the company gonna do, refuse? They’ve backed themselves into a corner on this one.

Facebook gazillionaire Mark Zuckerberg has committed $100 million to a single school district in New Jersey. I don’t really know what spurred on the donation or why he chose that particular school district rather than one he had personal ties with, but whatever. Money is money, I guess, especially when it’s for education. Funny, though, how this MASSIVE donation came a week or so before The Social Network movie, which reportedly paints Zuckerberg in a less than favorable light, opens. A bit of preemptive damage control here??

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Paris Hilton was barred from entering Japan because of her recent arrest in Las Vegas for possession of cocaine. Now there’s a country that takes a hard line against whom they across their borders and that doesn’t have nearly the illegal entry/immigration problems that the U.S. has. Sure, you can argue that the fact Japan is a relatively small archipelago makes its borders easier to defend than the massive United States, and that’s true. But at least make a friggin’ effort, guys. As if you can’t tell, I think Arizona is on the right track!!

(AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

I had trouble sleeping again last night and was up very early this morning — early enough to want to head outside and check out some stars. I have a new app on my iPhone that identifies the stars and constellations for me (just by pointing the phone at the celestial body in question), and I’ve been testing it out whenever possible. This morning I was able to get a nice view of Betelgeuse, as well as a few of the other stars in Orion.

In the evening and at night, I’ve been enjoying views of Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Vega, and several of the other brightest objects in the sky. I’ve always enjoyed looking at stars and planets, and it’s even better now that I have this app to help me identify exactly what I’m looking at!

Every once in a while, I go through a period where I just can’t seem to get much sleep. It’s happening right now, and it sucks. It’s not all-out insomnia, because I am able to eventually drift off for at least a few hours every night and am usually able to take a nap the following day, but it’s still bothersome because it interrupts my regular schedule. Plus, not getting regular sleep really takes a toll on my face, which means I have to pull out my eye cream for dark circles whenever I go through one of these cycles.

I don’t know what causes this problem. I’m very aware of what I eat and drink, and don’t allow myself anything like caffeine after 6pm. I also try to wind down and relax about an hour before going to bed to lessen my chances of lying there restlessly, but neither of these strategies works. This totally sucks, especially since I’ve got a TON of schoolwork on my schedule for the next couple of weeks. I need to be able to rest and focus on my projects!

Wow, I never would have thought the Bears would start this season off at 2-0!! It seems like everyone picked the Cowboys to win today’s game, especially after the Bears needed a “lucky” call to get by the Lions last week. But except for some spotty o-line play (particularly in the first quarter), the team looked fairly good. Cutler had a great day, throwing for 270+ yards and 3 TDs with no picks, while the defense was in patented bend-but-don’t-break mode, giving up 400+ yards to the Cowboys but forcing 3 turnovers as well.

Next week is going to be a significant test, as the Packers come to Soldier Field for a Monday night showdown. Still, I like our chances against them a whole lot more than I did two weeks ago!

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)