We’ve gotten tooooo biggggg

It seems you can’t make a call anywhere today without holding forever with the message of, “We are experiencing high call volume”. YA ….. when are you NOT experiencing high call volume? And WHY haven’t you hired MORE people to meet the demand of your overly large company?

Anymore, we are all just numbers. My kids are their student number (which is assigned to them when they enter school) to identify them throughout the years of their studies. They aren’t a name….they are a number….
And our credit card companies identify us by our credit card #’s. And our utility companies identify us by our account numbers…. We simply aren’t PEOPLE anymore! We are a number.

I’d like to go back to the times of “Doc Hollywood” when people exchanged “Pigs for Parts”….. and they sleep in a blanket that lets them dream about the one they will marry… (and then they suddenly come out of the lake naked towards you).

What happened to those days?? We are ALL TOO BIGGGGG….. and we accept it….and that’s really depressing.

Apple has taken over our children, and APPS and Youtube have absorbed their souls…..

I literally have ONE friend who keeps her family down to the basics! NOT ALL THE TIME… GOD FORBID THE KIDS DON,T HAVE iCRAP…… But they do take the time to camp and hike and play games and enjoy family time.

A few years ago, my life was taken over by dance. I have two girls who are on multiple teams and between training and travel, we all but gave up on any idea that might include “Camping” or better yet…. “VACATION”….. This year, however, their schedules have taken a pleasant turn and we have a good amount of time throughout the week to do things like go to Disneyland if we so desire…. sadly, they are now consumed with homework and projects as they are in their teen years.

Simplicity is lost on our kids generation and it’s a real bummer. Now my kids are glued to screens most of their free time, either checking Instagram, or watching Netflix to catch up on the shows that they don’t really have time to watch when they come out.

My kids seem content with the fact that they are numbers, because they don’t know any different.

When did we get so lost in society? When did we become so paranoid that we can’t let our kids go to the park alone for fear that the BOOGEYMAN will come and take them away?

I wrote a blog recently about my dad and his ability to do most any trade with amazing skill. He even played the accordion, and if you ever seen one of those (if you haven’t then please look it up) it’s an impressive and incredibly complicated instrument. But somehow he had the TIME to learn all these things he did and they are all time consuming trades. But nowadays it seems like it’s more important to run our kids around from sport to sport so they don’t have any down time to let them get into trouble….. My wonder is, what kind of kids are we raising and what can we expect for the future? Children who are content to be numbers and who let machines and large corporations take care of things that we used to do on a more personal level.

I know things change and that’s just the way of the world. My parents would tell me the tales of “When I was YOUR AGE….” and we would roll our eyes as they would lament their days of ol’…….

And I can’t help but giggle that I’m reciting what my parents used to say to me….

Maybe I’m just old, but I would like to uphold the values that I was raised with. And I would like them instilled in my children. Sadly, society and world growth is working against me.

As I continue to sit on hold with my credit card company I can only hope that things would improve in this world, but all signs point to NO.

Yesterday I went shopping in San Clemente where they had a ton of cute boutiques. I loved the personal feel of the smaller shops and the one on one communication with the people working there. As we are having a heatwave, I walked into a furniture store where two women were sitting, or rather sprawled, on chairs trying not to move for fear of melting. We had a good conversation between the three of us. Chatted about where I live in comparison to the beach, talked about my kids, they talked about their families, I got some advice on an appliance I was looking at….and then I walked around the store. When I left, I was a bit sad to say goodbye.

I get a kick out of people. I love chatting with everyone, because everyone has a story. I can tell pretty quickly what kind of person I’m meeting. And it doesn’t take long for me to get a ton of information out of them, because I keep asking questions and they happily answer. But as I “STILL” sit on the phone with the credit card company, I guarantee I won’t ask ONE question about the person who answers. I’ve lost my patience and all they are going to want from me is my credit card number. So after this call, I think my first order of business is to pay off these darned cards and start shopping local. I may not buy as much, but I will be a whole lot richer on more than one level!

8675309 signing off…….