It seems like everywhere we go there are these big, easy to read signs, “FREE” with little itty bitty small print, “with the purchase of blah blah blah.” Sammy sees the massive “FREE” and doesn’t understand yet that you have to read the entire message. A few months ago I was in a bath and body type store and everywhere you looked, “Free!” “Free!” “Free!” So Sammy helped himself to a few “Free!” items. It was not until we were home and cleaning out pockets for laundry did I find the “Free!” things. I drilled him, “Why did you take these!” His big blue eyes looked at me and said, “It said they were free. And free means no money.” I could not argue – although I explained as much as I could that you need to read the entire sign – all the words. Now when we go to the store Sammy finds all the “Free!” signs and asks me, “Is that really free or are they lying?” Well I have to say they are lying because in fact they are – you might be getting a bonus, but nothing is really “free” and to a six-year-old that is a hard concept to accept.

The other night, while driving home from my mother’s, it was dark but as we drove by the RV sales lot Sammy saw the giant sign that read “FREE!” It was too dark to see anything else written on the sign so it appeared that the only thing the sign read was “FREE!” Sammy says, “Mommy! The RVs are free!” I tried to explain to him that probably was not the case, but no, it said “FREE!” and that was all it said! Life needs to stop being so misleading for little kids who still see only the big colorful things in life and not the small black print at the bottom. Aww Sammy!

A year ago our pal David White passed away from congestive heart failure. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year without David – it’s hard to believe life goes on after one ends… David had a thing for cheese, as I had mentioned in my post Everything is Cheese – an ode to a friend… but cheese just is not the same without David here talking about it. The funny thing is – I had an odd relationship with David – he would talk and talk about deep meaningful psychological stuff and the whole while I am nodding but thinking to myself, “Relax there buddy – you don’t have to look so hard at life for it to make sense.” Although without David looking at life with such intense measure – I would have not learned the helpful information I needed to heal myself. I would not have gained the insight I use in my path towards becoming a psychoanalyst – he was a teacher but I never got the chance to thank him. He drove me nuts! I would talk to him or read one of his posts and be like – yep, there goes David on another one of his insane tangents. Never realizing that one day he would not be there to rant and I would not be reading his blog and complaining about his rants… What we see in life and what we translate it to be are two different things. I remember having a conversation with David about beauty – and what I viewed as ugly or not attractive he saw as beautiful and flawless. How was that possible? I will tell you because he told me – David thought of himself as a beautiful creature. He told me that we hate in others what we hate in ourselves – what a nut job he was! Until I realized it was the truth! David looked at the world with the thought that everything has beauty – you just have to see it. After talking with David and thinking he was crazy – I would go on with life but then I would end up thinking about what he said – relive the conversation over and over giving great thought and consideration to what he was ranting on and on about… I never told him that he got into my head and changed my points of view… The final thing David taught me was the power of friendship and how no matter what the hell is going on in your life – we must stop and just say, “Hi” because you just never know when that friend will be gone. I took advantage of his friendship – I just figured David would always be there. I could e-mail him whenever I wanted – read his blogs to follow what rant he was onto now… no big deal, I didn’t have time to call and it wasn’t all that important… Last year on the morning of March 27th a mutual friend called and dropped the biggest bomb – I will never forget her words, “I just thought you should know that David White passed away last night.”

Friends are important and they should be validated – even if they are nuts! I learned so much from my nutty friend but I was too proud to ever say thanks for all he gave me – so, thank you David White. Thank you for being my friend through all these years and through all the ups and downs. Thank you for all your rants and lessons you needed to spread around. Thank you for being you and not being afraid to be yourself. I am a better person because of you and I just wish I gave you this thank you while you were here…. I am sorry you had to die for me to realize how important you were to me…

Go call a friend – send an e-mail and tell them “hi” just because you can and you should! Cheese just is not the same without you David and we will forever remember you! Rest in peace…

David (love the cheesy hat!), his beloved wife Victoria
and their beautiful daughter Sara…

The whole panties in a bunch over Wikipedia is starting to seriously piss me off. “Anyone can write the information on there!” *gasp* There are so many reasons why Wikipedia is not the worst source of information the internet has to offer. Wikipedia is not the devil trying to mess with the minds of millions! What’s messing with the minds of millions are the narrow minded fools who pick Wiki to be the site to fear. What is there to be afraid of? If you need information and you end up at Wiki, but want to be sure – go look for other resources to validate that information. Or scroll down and find the reference part of the page – because plagiarism is frowned upon there too. Follow the links and find the information you are looking at to be factual. If you watch your six o’clock news and believe every word that comes out of their mouths – you cannot say that Wiki is evil. If you read your morning paper trusting that everything is one hundred percent factual – you cannot say that Wiki is evil. I have to doubt everything I read – second guess it all. I can go and buy a dot com or org and I can call it whatever I want – and then I can post any information about anything I wish. I can say that that Elvis was cremated and Priscilla drank the ashes as tea! I know this because I was a house keeper for her and I know everything about her! You have two choices after reading something like that – one, believe me and walk away, or two, go look for proof that I am indeed telling you the truth. The point is – Wikipedia is no better or worse than the rest of the internet. They have some interesting editors and in the end what ends up on Wiki is up to them. It is really their jobs to go seek out facts and make sure that not just anyone is writing crap on Wiki. You cannot just go to Elvis’ wiki page and write that Priscilla drank Elvis’ ashes – someone will erase it quickly.

There is a lot to Wikipedia and like anything else we must educate ourselves on how it works and what it is all about before we dub it as “evil!” Teachers are going out of their way, failing students who bring in a paper with Wikipedia on their reference page. The silly thing is – when you go in search of information, a lot of the time where that site got its information was from Wikipedia! Wikipedia is the site that typically pops up on the first page of any search engine and is the go to informational site in a rush. Wiki is not the devil – the people running around with their heads stuck in their…. you know what I mean…. are the ones who have made Wikipedia a bad word.