It’s that time of the year again, peeps!

“National Delurking Day!”

Which basically means it’s the day to make sure you come out from the shadows and pipe up in the comments!

It’s a fun bloggity tradition for the lurkers and the non-lurkers alike.

Blog commenting has taken quite a beating with the Social Media surge and this is just a day to ‘get back to basics’.

It’s just nice to see everyone and converse and I so hope you’ll talk to me. I’ll be hanging out and conversing with everyone and I’m excited about it.

I’m looking at it like “open mic night”. A day were we can talk about any and everything in the comments…it’s totally up to you and what you feel like chirping in with.

You can say anything!

Talk about anything!

Like what you’ve done this week that you’ve loved! Link to a great post you’ve read or a video you’ve seen on youtube! Or if you’ve read an interesting book! Or tell us what your favorite word is! Or talk about horrible that movie “Dear John” was! Or your favorite guilty pleasure! Or  THANK GOODNESS it’s Girl Scout Cookie season! Or BOO! on the new Zodiac signs (WTF is an “Ophiuchus” ANYWAY?). Or how much you like pie!

You don’t have to be wordy!

(Although, you totally can if you want! I don’t judge.).

PIPE UP EVEN IF IT’S JUST TO SAY HELLO! (And feel free to snag the logo and participate on your blog! Leave me a link and I will certainly come by and say, ‘Howdy”!)

Let me know you’re there.

Please?

:)

OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE*!

*I love using this saying. It fits right in with my weirdo vernacular.

I’m currently in the ER, blogging on my phone to pass the time and try to distract myself from the throbbing “ouch” signals going off all over my body.

Why?

Because of this:

Fun, no?

I rear ended someone (who then rear ended someone) on the major highway that goes through my town.

I hit so hard that the rear view mirror broke off and both air bags deployed. (Do you know how much the smoke from those things deploying SUCKS?) (I’m very grateful I had them, though.)

I am pretty banged up and HURTIN’, but I’m ok.

The car that has the hated WHEEL as a seat reclining mechanism is TOTALED. (While this SUCKS for us financially, it DOES save me from having to go to Germany to track down Franzor Hanz and kick their asses for thinking that CRANKING A FREAKING WHEEL IS AN ACCEPTABLE WAY TO ADJUST YOUR SEAT.) (Not that I’m bitter or anything.)

I am sure it will be an insurance nightmare.

However, I am trying to look for the good in all of this.

For starters?

No one was seriously hurt.

I begged the woman I hit to go to the hospital because she is 12-weeks pregnant.

(I KNOW, RIGHT?! I HIT A PREGNANT WOMEN WITH MY CAR.)

She said she would.

She was SUPER nice and cute as a button and so lovely.

Her name is Kelszi, and we had a lovely chat in the back of the squad car. I was going home from getting groceries, she was picking up pizzas because her husband is a huge Ducks fan and they were watching a football game at their house.  I mentioned that at least it would be good Internet fodder for my blog and she asked what the name of it was.

“Loralee’s Looney Tunes.”

“OH MY GOSH! THAT’S YOU?!!! I LOVE YOUR BLOG!”

(I KNOW, I KNOW, RIGHT?! I HIT A PREGNANT WOMAN THAT IS A FAN OF MY BLOG AND WANTS HER COMPANY TO WORK WITH MY BRAND WITH MY CAR!!!!!)

(At that point I pretty much determined that I was going to hell.)

(And that I pretty much have the biggest track record of all time for drumming up business IN HUGELY WEIRDO WAYS.)

Turns out that she just started as the social media and blogging person for a local cleaning company (Alpine Cleaning & Restoration. I’ve used them many a time and I love them aside from all this “I HIT THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA PERSON WITH MY CAR” business) and they have told her on several occasions that they really wanted to work with me.

So, she asked if I’d like my carpets cleaned.

Let me repeat that: I JUST HIT HER WITH MY CAR AND GIRLFIREND WANTS TO CLEAN *MY* CARPETS. (I’ve mentioned the people where I live are spectacularly nice, right?)

At that point, I would have given her a freaking kidney, so I was like, “WHATEVER YOU WANT. WHENEVER YOU WANT. OMG, I WILL TOTALLY HELP YOU HOWEVER.)

(And you know, if you want to ‘Like’ their page on Facebook or read the blog she runs for ALPINE CLEANING AND RESTORATION, and give them some Internet love, not only WOULD I LOVE YOU FOR IT, but I would also directly attribute you with saving my soul from burning in hell and having to answer all of Beelzebub’s irritating Social Media questions for all eternity. (I may be a heathen but I am not going to Tweet for Satan. I have standards, dude.)

(And maybe they won’t think I am a vehicular menace to Cache Valley.)

Oy.

I need to go and take some pain killers, so I’ll sign off.

Thank you for all the kind words online from you all. The compassion was needed. (Speaking of…do we follow each other on Twitter? Are we friends on Facebook? If not, let’s remedy that!!)

I am DEEPLY grateful and thankful that no one was seriously hurt.

THAT is what is most important, here.

(Well, ya know…after that whole “I’m getting my carpets cleaned for free” thing.)

;D

*Edited (The edit is longer than the freaking post. Must work on that, Loralee…)

The last few days have been awful for this country.

The shooting in Arizona was horrible.

The blaming, agendas and fighting have been awful.

I doubt it will improve.

Likely all that will happen is that everyone and everything is going to get covered in the mud being flung about.

Including the memory of a 9-year-old girl and her grieving family.

I imagine right now, they don’t care much about mud or who is right or anything except their devastating loss.

Not that that will stop anyone.

I’m beginning to really believe that this is really the only thing that the left and the right will ever agree on.

To the great detriment of us all.

*I woke up to some emails that basically called me out for this. So, I’m editing. (And I’m glad I did, since I realized I published an earlier draft of my post.)

I wrote this after having a very…’heated’….chat with two friends (yes, y’all are STILL my friends)–one a die hard left and one a die hard right and well, it got ugly. Really ugly. And I was (and still am) hugely discouraged.

I do not mind people having opinions AT ALL.

What I mind is that this has turned into an agenda before there was even time to assess what happened. I mind that it is being used for agenda at all. I mind it getting ugly and personal and ad hominem.

I mind that it seems like the victims and their families are getting lost in all this mud flinging.

I have my own opinion on this, and I have voiced them. I have NO problem stating how I feel and after reading my email and thinking about it, it feels disingenuous this morning to not clarify what those opinions are, so I’ll share what I put on Facebook about it. (Mom, I already know you like Sarah Palin. Just so we’re clear. :) )

“While I *cannot stand her* and personally think that Sarah Palin is about as useful as a politician as a used and wadded up snot rag (I would actually probably vote for the snot rag), there is also no way that I am going to attribute her (foolish and trite) lingo and Facebook “target map” as a call for mass slaughter. I personally find most of the talking heads of the conservative and TEA movement to be egocentric and ridiculous but I no more blame them for this than I blame The Catcher in the Rye for Mark David Chapman assassinating John Lennon or those that use the Bible to slaughter in God’s name or use scripture quote to justify their actions. And let’s say that it comes out that the shooter did, indeed, “do it for Beck and Palin”? A VERY sick and twisted mind is filtering the words of the aforementioned bozos. And THAT is what is to blame, period.”

I am not the only liberal that feels this way. Many of my friends have voiced their concern with the blame game and how fast and quick people were to blame and scream and the ugliness of it all. (And if you are one who is vocalizing it, we disagree, but I still love ya.)

What I am not looking forward to is the aftermath of this.

Because it looks like Palin, ‘violent rhetoric’, and the like had zero to do with this shooting.

And if that is the case?

Well, I hope there are apologies. It takes a big person to say “I over reacted. I was wrong.”.  And guess what? You don’t have to be all wrong or all right. You can hate guns, deplore violence and silly gimmicky talk including words like “lock n’ load” and feel that politicians should be accountable for things and still realize that maybe you didn’t wait until any facts were available before tying someone’s name to and holding them directly responsible for mass slaughter. (And if you jumped to that conclusion erroneously, I’m sorry, but you should apologize. It is one thing to say that politicians and a party are too violent in their rhetoric, quite another to blame someone specifically for 6 deaths and numerous injury.)

I just don’t know that that will happen. I think many will feel the accusations were valid and just in the big picture.

And while I wish the right would take a hard look at what has happened here and acknowledge that there may just be good reasons behind all the anger (much as I like guns and am not for huge gun control, I DO have a problem with a totally crazy person getting their hands on one), I’m not sure many will.

And if this unravels how it looks like it is going to, I wish the right would take the high road and rise above and not pick up the mud flung at them and lob it right back.

I just don’t know that that that will happen, either. Because I think many will feel like it would be valid and just.

It all just made me tired and sad.

And I feel horrible for the victims and their families that seem to be getting lost and covered in this ick or used as justification for political agenda without even a moment to just…MOURN.

And I’m just kind of annoyed that I’ve spent 2 days defending Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.

That would wear anyone out.

:D