Feel the Love

Today is a wonderful day.

 

It means that people get to be truly happy and celebrate the love they have with their husbands and wives.  It means that all love is seen as love.  Equal love.

 

 

Don't know what I'm talking about? Read here.

 

For those of you who have never met my big brother, Craig, these other photos are of him and my brother in law, Austin.  They were happily married in New York this past April!

 

Tuesday Musings

Today has been an odd say so far.  Started out with me waking up at 6am to get ready for a weekly  networking group that I'm a part of in Charlotte.  Well, I don't think my body has gotten used to 6am yet.  I, in my grand stupidity, did not realize I still had some facewash astringent on my fingers and put in my contact lens.  NO BUENO.  Immediately started burning like crazy, and after a couple seconds when I could actually open my eye I got the contact out.  However, not quick enough.  I can see normal, I could tell that something wasn't right because it kept burning even after I flushed it with tons of water so I called the emergency line at my eye doctor and got them to fit me in first thing.  I went over there and got to see Dr. Oliver at 8:30am.  He told me that it was a chemical burn from the alcohol in the astringent.  He gave me numbing drops and then flushed my eye with tons of saline solution so that all (if any) alcohol was still in my eye it was gone.  Now I've got prescription eye drops to take for the next 5 days.  He said the eyes heal so quickly that it will probably be all healed up by Thursday or Friday.  The good news is that it does not affect my schedule for Lasik surgery.  So, $100 later, the lesson is always remember to thoroughly wash your hands after dealing with any type of alcohol based product!!

Aside from that, I came across this today and thought it was good to share... 

The pink ribbon in the image above reminds me that October is breast cancer awareness month.  I was also prompted at the cash register today when picking up my prescription if I would like to donate to breast cancer research, and I could pick my dollar amount.  I can never say no when prompted with something like that.  Does that make me a sucker or just someone with a philanthropical heart?  A sales rep came into work today and told us about how his wife has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  It was caught in her liver during blood work, and when they did further tests on her body they found it in her lymphnodes, bladder, lungs, liver, and her colon.  They have two children, a daughter in college at NC State and a 15 year old son.  It was so sad to hear him talk about having to explain to his son that not only did his mother have cancer, that she was going to die and that that was okay because she wouldn't be hurting anymore.  I am so thankful that I've never had to go through something like that with someone who is close to me.  I know that we all probably have to experience it at some point, but I'm okay with waiting.

For anyone who just likes good blogs, here is one that you can read with lots of different topics:
http://www.lilblueboo.com/
This is the sister of a girl who is in one of our networking groups.  She has been dealing with her own cancer struggles and I stumbled upon her blog one day and was fascinated.  I literally read it all night.  It is so touching that someone going through such a scary and troubling experience would be able to focus on the positive so much, and still think of ways to help others.  She's very creative and her blog/website is a collection of craft tutorials, recipes, stories, etc with a whole lot of inspiration and sharing of her story mixed in. 


I think that's all for now...I'm getting ready for dinner and watching the Presidential debate/The Voice/Sons of Anarchy!



 

NC Amendment 1

All of this talk about Amendment 1 has been driving me nuts. Not so much the actual Amendment as the comments urging people to be for or against it. The crazy thing is that this Amendment has so many parts, and the only one that anybody pays attention to is that it has something to do with Gay Rights. I see people posting on Facebook, saying to vote for Amendment 1 if you are a Christian, and that the Bible says marriage is between a man and a woman. While this issue is near and dear to my heart, I can distance myself to at least understand where both sides are coming from, or why they are in support for or against it. I just can not believe the extreme comments people are making. Freedom of speech is one thing, but knowing that you have friends with various opinions and being unabashedly offensive is another. Facebook is not like a blog, where you can choose to go to a certain page and read someone's thoughts. It pops up on the mini feed and everyone is subject to it.

Ever since moving to the "Bible Belt" it has never ceased to amaze me how people will pick and choose which issues they want to advocate about from the Bible. They will bash, with every fiber of their being, these issues and people involved with them. Yet, at the same time, they are sinning in their own way. First, let's all be reminded "Thou Shalt Not Judge." I think many people also confuse "witnessing" with passing judgement. So many people discuss the issue of Gay Rights with hate and judgement, ironically sinning while they are discussing how wrong someone else is for the sin of homosexuality. 

So, someone is against homosexuality because the Bible says it is wrong. I understand if they feel that way, but do not preach it and be offensive about it when that same person might go home that night, look at pornography or use contraceptives (of course with their husband/wife, because they would never even think of having premarital sex!! *note my sarcasm*). The Bible tells us that all of these things are wrong, yet people seem so content to let some of these issues slide. Just because you can make up reasons or convince yourself that God understands, or it's not as bad as something else, does not mean that you are right. All sins are the same in the eyes of God.

And aside from religion, let's look at Amendment 1 from a political stand-point. I will make a generalization here and say that most strict, Southern Christians are Republicans. Now, many people recently have been using the comparison of Gay Rights to Women's Rights and the Civil Rights movement. Let's make it more current, and think back to 2008. Remember how during that election Republicans were irate over the fact that there were African Americans voting for Barack Obama JUST because he was a Black man? I think of this Amendment the same way. Voting YES for Amendment 1 just because you are a Christian or are Homophobic is equally as ignorant.

Working in NC, I know people who are on both sides of this issue. I can understand viewpoints from both sides of this issue. However, at least EDUCATE YOURSELF to know exactly what this Amendment is FULLY about before you go to cast your vote.



That's all, have a nice day.