I Never Expect the Glitter

I never expect the glitter. My sister's daughter was the first girly-girl I ever witnessed. My sister was never girly - not a tomboy, but never pink and glitter. None of my friends were pink and glitter. Most of them were the geeky smart kids.
I really thought the glitter-pink girls were a minority. Maybe, when I was fourteen we were still coming out of the whole 'woman's movement', so girls weren't allowed/encouraged to be pink?

I saw an ad for a Tonka truck thing, and the pitch line was something like, 'Boys are made different'. Imagine saying that in the seventies, when the woman's movement tried to make everyone believe we were all equal in strenghts and weaknesses. They seriously pushed the belief that boys and girls were born the same, and it was what we taught them that made them like dolls or trucks.
I guess it ended when one of the libbers had a boy, and he yanked off his doll's arm and pretended it was a gun. :)

Country Doesn't (Always) Suck

I'm sick of people who say country music sucks. Some of the most musically open-minded people I know will freely rag on country music. I don't like rock-country, but there is a lot of country music I do like.

Locally, starting on December 1st two of our very few radio stations switch to all Christmas music. I don't hate Christmas music, but there are only three songs I really like - in order - Walking in a Winter Wonderland, Christmas in Killarney, and Blue Christmas. I can stand a few others, but those are the only ones I have to hear.
Missing those two stations, I go up and down the FM. We have three commercial-free stations. I love them, but when they're playing something I don't like, or no one has showed up for a shift so it's dead-air, I put on country. Yes. Yes, I do.

I like real country music. The kind of songs that are usually hilarious, or tear-jerking. I don't like music where the artist is obviously using country to crack the Top 40 chart. I don't like a lot of the I'm so proud to be white trash songs, though I wouldn't put 'Friends in Low Places' in that category. Is that because I like it, or because it doesn't fit? Hmm...
I don't like sissy voiced men. Nothing is worse than a high-pitched man singing country. Argh! Go sing Scottish ballads, already!

Anyone who is open-minded musically, but derides country has a problem. Some are musical snobs. Maybe, most. A few I know, say what they think everyone thinks, though I doubt they know if they honestly think it themselves. I have friends who will groan in disapproval at the slightest twang in a voice or steel guitar, before they even hear enough of a song to judge it. What is up with that? How can they hate every aspect of a musical genre?

Autumn

memories of summer lie
scattered
drifting and curling on a breeze
more brilliant, though fragile and threadbare
I love fall. I love the cool air and the colours of the leaves. I love that Orion comes up high enough for me to see him.

I have trouble driving in fall. I don't like driving. I simply do not trust anyone else on the road. I've seen too many stupid things happen, so driving is frightening. I do some stupid things myself.

The leaves are so pretty.
Where is Orion?
That cloud looks like a fluffy, old-fashioned telephone, with someone talking on it.
The moon is huge! Wait, where did it go? Is that it behind those trees?
Look at that sunset!
I shouldn't be trusted on the road. I need someone who enjoys driving. Not just driving. They have to enjoy driving and having someone ramble on about everything that passes by.

Why? No, Really?

My sister gave me a gift yesterday. Who doesn't love getting gifts?

This was a horrible gift. It wasn't a bad shirt, an ugly necklace, some girly thing that I have no use for - I've asked for a jigsaw for years. Do I get one? No. Never.

My sister got me a Boyfriend in a Box. Oh, how I laughed!

Honestly, I tried very hard not to look disgusted. If you don't date often, people think gifts like this are HILARIOUS! I'm past mustering a chuckle. It wasn't so much that it was a insulting, passive-aggressive gift, as it was that he was ugly. They have something like nine possible boyfriends. This guy was the second ugliest. He has that thin, freckly skin and a moustache. He honestly looked like a guy she tried to fix me up with when I was seventeen. Seems like 20 years later she would have caught on, that isn't my taste.

Speaking of taste, I like blonds now. I don't know why. I've never, ever, ever, liked light-haired men. The lightest haired guy I ever dated had light brown hair with a hint of red.
I'm still not taken with blue eyes, which is a bit of a dilemma. Many blond men have blue eyes. Yeah, I have no point there. It just confuses me. I've always liked dark, straight hair, now I'm turning my head to check out curly-headed blonds? How can a change like that occur, almost overnight?