What the 2012 Grammys taught me

In case you've been living under a rock for the past couple of days you'd know that a few things happened this weekend.

1. Whitney Houston died on Saturday night (suspected drug related death, ie. Overdose)
2. The 2012 Grammy Awards were on
3. The 2012 Grammy Awards sucked donkeyballs.

The majority of the performances were lack luster and left much to be desired. While it was great to see a stage full of legends it wasn't so great to have it all night and what was with the country overload?

I also learned that the majority of my twitter feed doesn't believe in forgiveness and redemption by their Anti-Chris Brown tweets. While I'm not like one of those girls who were tweeting out "Chris Brown can beat me anytime" I do believe that the guy deserves a second chance. I mean we've given Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, Steven Segal, Jean Claude Van Dame, more than 2 shots why not a guy who was literally a kid when he did what he did. What did he do? He beat the crap out of Rhianna. Now, I'm also not going to go as far as saying that maybe she deserved it and that she had it coming because no matter the circumstances I don't believe a guy should raise his hand to a woman...EVER. He was arrested, he was given a punishment and he completed what he was asked to do. Why can't we forgive him? Why can't we get past that? Why do we insist that we judge him based on his past? Should he no longer have a career because of one action? How would you like to be judged for the rest of your life on the one not so shining moment of your life? Funny thing is that a lot of the people who I see hating on Chris Brown were also people who ran to instantly follow Charlie Sheen when he had his downward spiral and laughed and supported him...Because its cool to follow the guy who pulled a KNIFE on his wife and tried to kill her...and the same guy who has a HISTORY of being abusive towards women. Did anyone boycott him? Did anyone demand that his career suffer? Nope. Not at all. Why?

People are saying that they felt that Chris Brown's apology wasn't heart felt enough, they are saying they felt it was forced and he wasn't sincere. Do YOU know how he felt? Do you know what emotions he was feeling? Do you know if he contacted Rhi via another means and spoke to her and said his sorries? Let me be honest here folks, Chris Brown doesn't owe you or me an apology. He owes it to Rhianna and ONLY to her. While yes, social media makes us think that every thing a celebrity does is our business its NOT. He doesn't owe you shit.

While we are quick to judge Chris Brown for his actions one night we jump up and cry, mourn, and are outraged that people like Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse have died. No, they didn't DIE, they killed themselves. Maybe not intentionally setting out to die but what they did lead to it. Death by their own hands and we insist on honoring and memorializing them. A gorgeous and talented 48 year old woman wanted drugs more than her career. She let her 17 year old daughter take care of her because she was so addicted to drugs and although she will forever be remembered for the music she made she is more known for her battle with drugs. But its okay, we should post videos on Facebook of her performances and tell our children what a wonderful performer she was. We can make her an idol while we shun Chris Brown. And seriously before any idiot spouts off with "But Whitney/Amy only hurt themselves"...NO you are WRONG. Their drug addiction hurt MANY. It hurt their family, it hurt their friends, it hurt themselves. It hurt everyone. Tell me, is it NOT hurtful for a 17 year old girl to have to bury her mother? Why should we idolize a drug addict?

So basically the Grammys taught me that we are not a forgiving bunch of people and we pick and choose what we want to forgive and what we think is acceptable behavior.

For the record #TeamBreezy. I'm happy he performed twice, I'm happy that F.A.M.E won best RnB album. I'm happy that he is making a come back and that not everyone judges him on a mistake he made 3 years ago. I'm happy that some people were able to grant him forgiveness.

This blog post is NOT about Joe Paterno OR The Kardashians!

How is that for a blog title? My blog post isn't about them but it is sort of inspired but ONE of these two. Who do you think it is? I'll let you be the judge and you can totally guess within the first few sentences I'm sure.

So its pretty rare that when we decide to take a trip down the aisle that we really don't mean "forever". How many of you have walked down the aisle and thought, "Yeah this should do for a few years?" Most of us go into it with good intentions right?

Well ladies, I have something to say to y'all about getting a divorce for whatever reason. GIVE THE GUY BACK HIS LAST NAME! Seriously, you are DIVORCING him, you are moving on with your life why do you want to hang on to his last name? Don't give me that bullshit about wanting the same last name as your children...Newsflash, here in Quebec when we get married we don't take our husbands last name, our children do...the kids aren't confused. They know who their mom is and as they grow up they realize why. It's the law here...I'm sure explaining to your kid that you and their daddy don't live together anymore and got a divorce...it won't confuse them. What about the women who aren't married and have children? The last name argument is bullshit.

I have a friend who is divorced. His ex-wife is a major major bitch. Let me sum up the ways that she is a bitch. She cheated on him, got pregnant by someone else while they were married...oh and he was off fighting in the war protecting her rights, oh and then she also started hanging out with all of his friends while they were separated and divorced. Yeah pretty much a major bitch.

They got a divorce and she still uses his last name. It's HER last name now. I get so annoyed with it. She has friend requested me on Facebook no less than 10 times a year and the minute I look at her last name I get all disgusted and want to punch her. Once when we were at the same place at the same time she asked me, "Jenny why don't you accept my friends request or hang out with the group when I'm around." My reply was simple, "I don't like you and think you are a bitch."

They had a fairly peaceful divorce, there was no fighting. It was simply "You are a whore let's get a divorce" and they did it. They signed their agreements regarding custody of the children that were his. But they went their separate ways. Why did she keep his name? There is no real reason other than.... Hell...I don't even know.

So that brings me to my next point. GIVE BACK THE FREAKING RING! What are you going to do it? Wear it like a trophy? Keep it in your jewelry box as a memory of something that ended? Pawn it for some extra cash? I dunno, maybe its the proud woman in me but I don't want it. I don't want the memory of you, I don't want the "trophy" of telling people I failed at marriage, and I certainly don't want something he gave me to get me some extra cash. Basically, I don't need you and I don't need anything FROM you to help me out. I'd rather give back the ring and cut it clean.

I know a few people that have been divorced that actually kept their rings from their ex, gave their new boyfriend the diamond to reset so they could propose. Too me that is cheap and tacky. Sorry. It's not about the size of the diamond but if your hubby to be can't spring for a new diamond for you then thats just wrong. If he can't afford a diamond why not propose with your favorite stone? your birth stone? just a gold band?! I dunno, but I certainly don't want to GIVE my boyfriend a diamond that my EX HUSBAND gave to me so he can propose to me. I feel as if that sort of cheapens me.

So here is my message to Kim Kardashian: GIVE HUMPHRIES BACK HIS RING!!

Weight Watchers...The Post

Okay. Well I had promised Heather, (who is doing a giveaway really soon!) that I would make a post about Weight Watchers so here it is.

A while back I had written this post about joining weight watchers. I joined 5 weeks ago instead of in May. I found it to be pointless to join Weight Watchers and then run off on a vacation. It would be counter productive. So I joined a week after coming back from my vacation.

The way WW works is with points. You get X amount of points for your weight, age, type of job you have, and if you are breast feeding or whatever. I get a whole freaking 22 points. Do you know how hard it is to eat only 22 points worth of food? An average breakfast is 6 points, an average lunch about 8-10 points, and an average dinner is about 12 to 14. If I stick to the average type of meal I'm in the negatives DAILY! The good thing is that WW gives you 35 bonus points a week to use when you need some extra help and if you had a really bad day you can always work out and gain activity points which are redeemable towards food. It's great right?

Well let me give you a run down on my weight loss since joining WW.

Week One: +.8 pounds (yes I gained weight)
Week Two: - .8 pounds(so now I'm back to even)
Week Three: +.8 (Ummmm can you fuck off already!?)
Week Four: -.8 (Okay I'm really fucking annoyed here)
Week Five: -2.0 (total weight lose 1.2 pounds because of that first .8 pound gain...)
Week Six (today): +/- NOTHING.. NO WEIGHT CHANGE

You could imagine my frustration. WW basically has to open a second class for the amount of people that we come with. Our WW group (family only) consists of two kids, my husband, my husbands partner, my husband's partners wife, and myself. Todays weigh in EVERYONE lost a minimum of 2 lbs.

Yes I understand I am smaller than the rest of the group that I attend with, in fact I am one of the smallest people in the entire meeting. I understand that its harder for me to lose weight but c'mon only 1.2 pounds in six weeks!? My husband's partner has lost 8 pounds in two weeks! Of course I'm pissed off, of course I'm frustrated.

I feel like I work out so hard...that I stick to this diet (aka life style change) daily and rarelyuse my extra points (I'd rather do activities and earn points then just take extra points). I bought a Wii and the Wii Fit in order to motivate me to work out more. I kick my ass and bust a sweat nearly every day and the scale isn't moving. My WW leader has no words of encouragement of me other than..."be patient" you fucking be patient. You lost 50lbs I can't even lose 2!!!

Then while talking among my little group we decided maybe I wasn't losing weight because I'm now working out and my fat is converting to muscle which weighs more than fat. It's great and fine and dandy and all that but why is this just happening to ME? Everyone else in our group uses the Wii Fit or does physical activity (my George mows the lawn, walks the dog, and all that other non fun stuff) and he is getting muscle AND losing weight? I'm just so frustrated I feel useless going to these meeting.

I put time and effort in going to the meetings. I am often available via email and telephone for my "support group" (the 6 of us that go together plus 2 parents that just come for encouragement) to help them figure out the points values of foods, I look up recipes and calculate the point values and print them up for the WW meetings so everyone can have access to tasty healthy food! I've become a little mini WW leader and I feel so stupid now seeing as how I am the ONLY one not losing weight and I hate it.

I do work out, I do follow the diet, I do tell George what to cook, I do healthy grocery shopping, I am in control of what I eat, I have cut down on bad snacks, I've made a complete lift style change and I'm not seeing the results of this.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that WW is bad, or horrible. I just think that maybe its not meant for me? I might need something else because I just get discouraged when I see the scale not move or move in the wrong direction even if its only a couple of ounces. I've decided I'm going to give WW another month for me but in the mean time I'm going to actually MEASURE myself. I want to know how many inches across everything I am and then track that because maybe I am losing inches (rather cms) but not pounds? I'm just afraid if I stop WW that so will my husband and then he'll be all depressed when he gains the weight back.

Fuck my life. This sucks and now I'm feeling all negative. :( Thank God for my sushi dinner!

Just Because I'm A Girl....

Before I start my mini rant I'd like to say sorry to everyone for not reading and commenting on blogs. I've had an ear infection (still have it) and its making me feel very strange. I can't take medicine for it because of my disease...antibiotics and I are NOT friends and I'd wind up even more sick so I suffer thru the pain. I promise you (and Google Reader) that I will try to get to every one's blogs before this weekend is over.

A lot of things have been bothering me lately but one that really tickles my freaking pickle is my father's mechanic. Okay, so most of you already know that I'm a spoiled rotten little twerp right? My parents have always footed the bill for any car repairs, oil changes etc. After I got married they stopped doing that so I found another mechanic (one my husband preferred). My parents will still occasionally send me money (send because they live in Texas and I in Montreal) to cover the cost of some bills; especially if they are high. My sister still brings her car to my dad's mechanic.

So why do we go to this mechanic, who will go unnamed? Because my father is LOYAL to the owner's father, its really convenient to my daddy when he comes here for a visit and best of all, after the repairs are done we don't have to pay him straight away. We can take our car and go home and my dad will send money a while later or he'll just pay when he comes to Canada in the winter. That's probably one of the best reasons for going to this specific garage...no wait...thats the ONLY reason you'd go to this garage.

Growing up I was very tom-boyish. I'd help my dad with repairs on all of our cars, I'd mess around with them and I'd learn the various names of things under the hood and their function and purpose. I learned to pick up on certain sounds and if it indicated a problem and if something went wrong with the car I could probably narrow it down to a couple of reasons why. I know what a starter, alternator, transmission, shaft, bushings, bearings, axles, differentials are and what they are meant to do. (But sadly, no I do not know how to change a tire!). So normally when I take my car to the garage I know what the problem could possibly be.

So lets rewind about 4 years ago. I had a 1999 Dodge Durango for a few years. Suddenly the alignment on the car was off. I took it to the mechanic who gave me his professional opinion "It's an SUV it will never have perfect alignment". Ummm then do you care to explain to me why its been driving perfectly straight for a few years?! I already checked the tire pressure and all of that was fine and dandy. I left shaking my head and just saying "okay whatever. If the mechanic thinks its okay its probably in my head." (Very believable because I ALWAYS think my tires look low...ALWAYS!) A few weeks later the problem feels even worse to me. I take it back and I get the same answer from the mechanic. I ask him to take the car for a spin to see if he can FEEL the problem. He does, he says there is no problem. It's an SUV, a few years old, and won't drive straight.... I say fine and go home. Now my mom is in Montreal visiting because my parents just bought a house (and didn't even see it! I saw it, I called them, we did power of attorney and I bought their house...with their money). So I'm taking my mom shopping for some patio furniture for the house and while I'm on the highway I ask her to see my problem. At 120kph I let go of the steering wheel and instead of going straight the car goes straight....towards the barrier on the right hand side of the road. My mom says that OBVIOUSLY there is a problem with the car. We drive to the mechanic and I insist that he put my car on that thingie to make it go in the air. I tell him that the alignment is off, way off and that I am not imagining, I am not crazy, and its not that its an SUV and won't ever have straight alignment. Lo and behold, his employee goes "Um, you might want to see this," to his boss. My mechanic goes over and says "Uh, you need a new bearing. If you would have hit a pothole your tire could have come right off." Oh jeez, THANKS! Because the first 2 times I brought the car here your explanation was it was an SUV. Thanks. You just saved my life dickface.

Now, we leave the car there to get fixed and my boyfriend at the time (now Hubby) came to pick up my mom and I....because apparently we go to the ONLY mechanic in the entire province of Quebec who doesn't have a courtesy car. Luckily for us, we have a spare car (uh, had a spare car, we sold it last year). George took us home and I got the extra car and I went shopping with my mom. Life was fine. While shopping I was explaining to her that I don't like this garage that much because I feel that he thinks because I am a girl that I know fuck all about cars and he can pull a sheet over my eyes. Let's be honest guys, my parents NEVER look at the bill for the garage. They look to the amount that is circled and pay without ever asking questions...EVER!

So, another problem...the Durango again. It's a reoccurring problem. Every summer my air conditioner would be a steam room and every winter my heater was an instacooler. EVERY year. Whatever "fix" the mechanic would give would be a temporary fix. It was seasonal. In the garage every 6 months to undo what he did the last time to make it the right temperature. I asked if we changed the heating core, the answer was yes. I asked if we changed the thermostat the answer was yes. Do you know that the answer was to my heating/cooling problems as per this mechanic? "Your car is old its time to get a new one." Hmmmm if you have that much money that you can just buy a new car every time your car breaks down/ needs repairs/ gets a few years old why are you driving a shit box?

So, now I'm in college and I've been having some problems with my car. It keeps on over heating. I take it the garage they fix the problem. I drive to the US to run an errand for my husband's car and while I'm waiting at the border (to get back into Canada) the temperature gauge SKY ROCKETS! I'm about to shit bricks. Great, my car is gonna die on the other side of the border. I call George and he tells me to roll down my windows and put my cars HEATER on as hot as it goes. The car has to expel the hot air and quick. The problem was solved for a bit. I crossed the border and went straight to the mechanic and was like "Uh, problem still exists, car almost left me at the US border," they look under the hood, fiddle with something and say problem solved. I leave. Three days later I'm driving to class to take an exam and then going to get my hair done as a reward for a successful semester complete. As I'm driving to school my car starts smoking. Yeah... my car is totally smoking. I'm freaking. I roll down the windows, i turn on the heater, I'm melting. I call the garage and tell them I'm on my way but if I'm not there in 10 minutes it means my car BLEW UP or caught on fire! (Now, I've already checked at home to be sure that all my fluids were filled up for the radiator. I know that an empty rad can literally make your engine explode!...from experience....) I get to the mechanic and now I'm fuming just as much as my car is.

Here is the scene:
J (thats me): *pulls up with smoking engine while on the phone with my dad explaining my near death experience*
M (thats the mechanic): Whats the matter Jenny?
J: *crying from anger* Whats the matter? Do you not see the smoke coming from my car!?!? I thought we FIXED this problem TWICE already....FUCKING TWICE!
M: Well whats the problem?
J: *to my dad* Wait up Dad, *to Mechanic* Do you know what you are? You are like a doctor for cars. I'm the cars mom. I come to your hospital and explain to you my cars symptoms and your JOB is to narrow down what the problem is with a series of tests and FIX THE FUCKING PROBLEM. Can you NOT see the symptoms? My car is here for the 3rd time and its SMOKING from UNDER the HOOD! *to my dad* No I will not lower my voice I'm so fucking pissed off daddy, I nearly died and I'm going to miss my hair appointment now!
M: *not saying anything looking at me like I'm an alien with 3 heads and 72 toes.
J: Welllllllllllllllllll?
D (thats my dad): I'll call you back in 15 minutes.
J: Um okay. So Mechanic, whats the deal. Can you fix this or not because I dont like thinking my car is going to catch fire and I'll be burnt and then need surgeries and skin graphs...
*my phone rings* Hello? Yeah dad...Oh okay...Thanks... *hangs up* So my dad said fix the problem. His friend is coming to pick me up for my hair appointment.


So that's the type of shit we have to put up with. Now my sisters car has been at the garage for a WEEK AND A HALF and they still don't know what the problem is. They had the car since July 1st. I went with my sister to drop off the car. We said something is wrong with the alarm, windshield wipers and automatic door locks. We also explained the the bearing the should have been replaced from her car accident still wasn't fixed. I called on Friday, July 3rd to see if the car was ready. I was told that they hadn't even looked at the car yet...they were waiting for a guy from BMW to come see what the problem is. Okay...so the electrical problem couldn't be fixed while waiting..but why not fix the bearing?

I called yesterday, July 8th, to see if the car was ready. Still nope. I'm told the car has been taken apart to find the problem. I get mad. I call my mom. My mom says tell him to put the car together and that I'm gonna take the car to the garage that services my car now. (I go to a mechanic that only works on European cars since I have a Mercedes and George has a Range Rover). The garage calls me back and wants to talk to my sister. I tell the mechanic that shes at work but as we all know I'm responsible for all car related problems for any car my father owns and that the message from the boss (my momma) is put the fucking car together and I'll pick it up today. He got mad (he is soooooo stupid to lose business from my family). He said he wanted my daddy to call him. I call my dad I tell my dad what mom told me to say to the mechanic. My dad calls him. "If the car isn't fixed by noon tomorrow, the car is going to BMW...."

So now I'm waiting...let's see.... Oh, and my parents swore they'd never go back to this garage...ever. This isn't even a QUARTER of the stories I have with this mechanic. You should hear how he fucked up my husbands Porsche and my daddy's Caddy.... how I almost died because they didn't fix the brakes properly....

It's just that I have to go now because my lunch is over and my boss is working today...I think. He said he'd be back in 45 minutes....2 hours ago!


Oh, and I just LOVE how now the mechanic thinks I'm a bitch...Um dude, after 10 years of fucking with my family, I think you more than deserve some bitchiness okay?