SAIL, the song by AWOLNATION, and my personal fantasy

 When I listen to this song, I picture a huge pirate ship made of wood with all those tall masts and black silk sails. It slips effortlessly across the ocean at night. In the breeze, you can see that some of the sails are ripped, and there's buck shot in the rails. The ship has seen some action in its day. It's not what it used to be. (Are any of us?) The crew on board is rowdy, electric, alive. They are not to be trifled with. There are small amounts of hot pink, neon blue, and electric green lights illuminating from the deck. Where are the lights coming from? I don't know and I don't care. All I want to do is jump on board and see where I end up in the morning.

The Importance of Having Breakfast and Good Female Friends

No one should shop for glasses alone!

   I texted my friends to see if they wanted breakfast today, but I got up too early. It is daylight savings and my body didn't know that. What a bunch of crap this is. I took an astronomy course in college - I know how the sun and the Earth work. Remembering to set your clock forward and back twice a year is pain in the rear and it is really unnecessary.
   I enjoy having breakfast with my friends on the weekend. We are generally too busy during the week to get together, and who wants to make their own breakfast on a Sunday? It is the perfect chance to roll out of bed, shuffle to the car, and get over to Cracker Barrel before the church crowd shows up. Good sausage and as much hot coffee as you can stand. And the conversation....our topics range from raising kids to shitty boyfriends, to money and careers, build-it-yourself hot tubs, the economy, murdered beauty queens, etc.  And sometimes I discreetly take pictures of old couples who dress fashionably. They inspire me to keep trying. Perhaps they have gone through as many trials and tribulations in life as we have, and yet they still manage to look snazzy at their age. If I am impressed, I take a picture. 

I hope I look this good when I'm her age.

   My friend Amy helped me pick out some new glasses yesterday. This is significant because I am not skilled at picking out glasses for myself. You can see what I mean if you see my 5th grade pictures. My mom let me pick out my own frames. Bad idea. Lessons learned smack harder when you have photographic evidence. 
    You can learn a lot from your female friends. I'm sure you can learn a lot from your male friends, too, but I don't usually hang out with them as much. Women tend to put more thought into things, and they generally seem more observant about human behavior. I recently read Kris Jenner's autobiography, and she painted a pretty clear image of OJ and Nicole Simpson's ill-fated relationship. I had not realized that OJ had been dating Nicole since she was a teenager. Nicole's parents apparently thought she was too young to date OJ, yet he persued the pretty young waitress. I imagine the lure of fame and fortune was hard to pass up. (I can say this easily since I was a waitress for years.) Nicole should've dumped his ass the first time he beat her up. If you stay with a man like that, then he learns it is okay to hit you. But if you leave him, then he knows that it isn't okay. So many women keep returning to their abusers. Every town I have lived in has a women's shelter. How horrible is this?! (Horrible that we need to have shelters.) Shouldn't we as a society have higher standards? Shouldn't women respect themselves enough to stand on their own if their man turns out to be a piece of crap?
   I get tired of seeing news stories about young girls being abducted. It happens frequently enough that I fear we have become somewhat tolerant of it. I do not have children of my own, but if I did, I swear I would have tracking devices implanted in them. If someone took one of my kids, I'd come after them. With a gun. You don't mess with little innocent people like that. They are the future. They are our legacy. They are everything, really.
   I feel very strongly that all girls should take self-defense classes. This is a minimal-effort precaution. There was a beautiful young local college student brutally murdered in her own apartment a few years ago.  One of her best friends from grade school told me what I am about to write. No one has been convicted for her murder. It is widely acknowledged that local investigators botched the evidence, and one of the suspects had a history of violence against women (including a rape and an attempted murder.) But this wasn't discussed in court. The jury had no clue that this suspect had just gotten out of jail three months prior to the college girl's murder. He lived in the same apartment complex as the girl, and investigators found a condom in her toilet pipes with his DNA in it. He lied about his alibi. His ex-wife even testified about how much he likes violent sex. THIS MAN IS CURRENTLY LIVING AND WALKING FREELY AMONGST US. Our justice system disappoints at times. In this case, it failed miserably. In Nicole Simpson's case, it failed pretty spectacularly as well. But Kris Jenner didn't forget about Nicole. She told her story in her book. The local college girl's friends didn't forget about her, either. In quiet avenues, like small get-togethers for craft night with other women, they tell her story. Sometimes they go to her grave and pour wine on it and reminisce about old times.