Saturday, November 27, 2010

Let The HolyDays Begin

Happy Black Friday (A Day Late and a Dollar Short :)

1. Uh Oh We’re In The Red, Dear
to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Uh oh we’re in the red, dear.
On our credit card it shows
Christmas is almost over,
But the debit line still grows.
Shopping like Santa’s zombies,
Sent our budget down in flames
But all our Christmas spirit
Helped the giant retail chains.
I’m so foggy Christmas eve,
Wondering how we’ll pay
Christmas doesn’t seem so bright
When our finances are tight.
So here’s a plan for next year
Let’s forget the shopping spree
Let’s give a gift of love, so
All our Christmas gifts are free.

2. Listen to the Message
to the tune of Oh, Tennenbaum

Oh shopper dear
Come over here
And listen to our message.
Oh shopper dear come over here
And listen to our message.
The women who toil
In far off lands
So you can wear
Your favorite brands.
Don’t get a break-from dawn `till dusk
It isn’t right — let’s make a fuss.
When buying shirts and pants and stuff
Ask were the workers paid enough.

3. Profits
to the tune of Jingle Bells

You’re eating up our lies
And dashing to the stores
Then all our prices rise
And how the money pours
If we don’t keep you drugged
And watching your TV
You might see the hypocrisy
Then where would business be?

Profits here, profits there,
Profits everywhere
Christmas time is funny,
We smell money in the air
Advertise, glamorize,
Fool you with a flair.
Let’s make sure that Christmas
Is a businesslike affair.

We’ll tell you how to think
And tell you what to try
What to eat and drink
And how to live and die
And if our plan succeeds,
When Christmas-time is nigh
Instead of seeking love and peace
You’ll hunt for gifts to buy
(repeat chorus)

4. Buy And Sell
to the tune of Silver Bells

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Lined with advertising
It’s the big retail season of Christmas.
Children begging for each new thing
Toys for mile after mile
And the mood of the season is clear.
Buy and sell (Buy and sell)
Buy and sell (Buy and sell)
It’s Christmas time for consumers.
Ching-a-ching (ching-a-ching)
Cash registers ring (registers ring)
Must we spend Christmas this way?
Maxing credit, running debits,
Buying things we don’t need
With money we don’t really have.
Children crying, parent sighing
No time for family
And the reason behind it is clear.
(repeat chorus)

5. Learn to Sew!
to the tune of Let it Snow

Oh, the economy’s really frightful
But the shopping is so delightful
When you desperately need some dough
Learn to sew, learn to sew, learn to sew.
Oh, there’s no sign the work is stopping
`cause the orders keep us hopping.
When you’ve got no place else to go,
Learn to sew, learn to sew, learn to sew.
When you finally say good night,
And it’s two a.m. in the morn,
And the foreman wants to hold you tight,
And you wish that he’d never been born.
Oh, the economy’s really frightful
But the shopping is so delightful
When you desperately need some dough
Learn to sew, learn to sew, learn to sew.
Oh, the industry isn’t dying
But the work is really trying
When you’re bank account’s getting low
Learn to sew, learn to sew, learn to sew.

6. O’ Dumpster Are You Full of Food
to the tune of O’ Little Town of Bethlehem

O’ dumpster are you full of food
For us to eat today?
I wonder why, when it’s still good
The stores throw it away?
Could it be that it serves them
To make more than they sell?
And giving it to hungry folks
Won’t pay them very well.
O’ Dumpster when I lift your lid
What treasure waits for me?
A winter coat? A basketball? A five-pound bag of peas?
Though sometimes I get sickened
But it’s not from the food
It’s `cause I know that all their `trash’
Could feed my neighborhood.
O’ dumpster, why have they locked you?
You’re wrapped in chains today.
Did you know it’s against the law
To take what’s thrown away?
But bolt cutters and crowbars
Can liberate your fill!
And make sure that it gets to folks
And not to a landfill!

7. Slaving in a Sweatshop Wonderland
to the tune of Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Door bell rings, are you listening?
On your brow, sweat is glistening.
You’re working tonight; it just isn’t right,
Slaving in a sweatshop wonderland.

Gone away are the good jobs
Here today are the sweatshops
They want you to sew
Seven days in a row
Slaving in a sweatshop wonderland.

In Toronto, Woolworth has used sweatshops
And they’ve paid the lowest rates in town.
Ask about a union, they’ll say no ma’am.
Homeworkers do the job for the poorest pay around.

Later on, they’ll conspire
How to raise prices higher
The plans that they’ve made
Won’t make us better paid
Slaving in a sweatshop wonderland.

Door bell rings, are you listening?
On your brow, sweat is glistening.
You’re working tonight; it just isn’t right,
Slaving in a sweatshop wonderland.

8. Way Up on the Top Floor
to the tune of Away in a Manger

Way up on the top floor,
where people can’t reach,
The boss of the bussiness
plans trips to the beach,
He counts up his money
and spits on the poor,
While workers are angry
and bang on his door.

His company’s huge
and it eats up the globe,
It controls the TV
and everything we know,
His power’s not endless,
he’ll run things no more,
We’ve come to his condo
to kick down the door.

Stop shopping his stores,
stop supporting his banks,
Don’t polish his shoes
or build his big tanks.
Come out in the streets,
come out one and all,
Come join revolution
and his empire will fall.

9. Silent Night

Silent night, peaceful night
How can you sleep tonight?
Soldiers occupy lands afar
To feed more oil to polluting cars
When will there ever be peace?
When will there ever be peace?’

Silent Night, peaceful night
We’ll survive through this fight
Build your prisons, banks and walls
We will work to dismantle them all.
We’ll live a life of true worth,
Come, live a life of true worth.

Silent night, peaceful night
Bankers quake at the site
Of wealth distributed to the poor
And debtors who don’t stay docile no more
Once revolution is born
Once revolution is born

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Words A Mom Does Not Like to Hear....

My son returned from his bike ride this afternoon. I heard him from the kitchen talking to my daughter. She asked him how his ride was and he said good, really cool in fact because I got in two wrecks!

Now there is a problem with being an ex biker mom. My first question was not how are you, or are you alright? No my first question was how is the bike. I guess in my mind I knew that if he was sitting there talking he could not be hurt too badly, or he was in shock and I better treat him for it.

The wrecks were both his fault and I hope he learned before he does get hurt. In the first one he was riding on the tail of a little Honda and of course the Honda stopped quickly, boom he hit the car and flew over his bike to land on the back of the car. Thank goodness he survived. The driver came out and started asking him how he was doing in Spanish. My son told him that he did not speak so the guy asked in English is he was o.k. He said he was fine and they went on their way.

The next one the bus just ran him right off the road. Thank goodness no one can go very fast in their cars here, that probably saved his life today.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Flying Fears or Freak Outs

I have got to stop reading, listening and scouring the news for scanner and groping reports. I am going to get in the security line and just keel over from anxiety! I will have myself worked up to an actual frenzy by the time I get to the gate. Like I already have myself worked up to a frenzy. In fact my kids have forbidden me to even speak of the groping I will have to endure.

Come on can't you just look at an old woman with dreadlocks and know she is as harmless as a fly? Really just figure on seven kids and five grandkids and I will even bring pictures and brag a little to convince them.

A client of mine was flying several years ago and all the bobby pins in her hair set off the metal detector. The TSA person began to pat her beehive, she is old, and take out her bobby pins. She informed her that if she messed up her hair she better put it back the way it was. They left off messing with her at that point.

I am still trying to figure out my best strategy to deal with someone touching me all over my body. My kids do not seem to understand my reluctance to be groped by a stranger. I try to explain to them that I have been teaching ethics so long in conjunction with our massage school that I really believe in ethics. I believe there are ethical ways to touch a person and not touch a person.

We are all sacred beings and deserve the respect and reverence due us. So many people say that they are willing to give up a little self respect to feel safe flying. Do they really feel safe flying, because I know I don't!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Britt Coffee Tour

If you ever come to Costa Rica, and you love coffee, and you have a couple of hours and an extra $15.00 you really should take the Britt coffee tour. Today we took our student over so she could do the tour. I really don't drink coffee, nor do I have $15.00 for a tour, so we just checked out the store.

The store was really cute and had tons of chocolate samples. That is right free samples. We hung out there for quite awhile until the worker lady came out from behind the counter and started hovering. Of course the fact that my granddaughter was eating chocolate covered coffee beans by the handful may have had something to do with it.

We looked over at her and both cheeks were full of candy and both hands were full. Needless to say the next hour we kept her busy walking around trying to keep her from climbing up the walls. Good times!

The weather has been holding at beautiful and we are so looking forward to a weekend at the beach next week. Time to chill.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Summer At Last

It is beautiful today, I mean freakin beautiful. Like the kind of day you just want to hang out at the park or go for a bike ride, or just sit in the sun and meditate. Awesome I think we have survived another super wet ugly rainy season. We will be better, wetter, stronger people for it I am sure.

My awesome baby did not have to take her English exams. So glad they finally realized she speaks English. Maybe they were confused and thought she was speaking Chinese or something. Not sure.

We are thinking about Thanksgiving next week and planning the menu. Roasted chickens and the works. Heading to the beach the next day is the best part of Thanksgiving this year. I have it very carefully timed so that we "have" to take a student to the beach every year on my birthday. Now isn't that convenient. I cannot think of anything I would rather be doing on my birthday, than teaching massage and going to the beach.

I love my life!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Another Granddaughter Gets Older



I still can't understand how my kids and grandkids keep getting older but I don't. Amazing! This little munchkin turned 6 last week. I still remember the day she was born, and it was a doozy.

We had been home from China with her aunt only four days and her Mom was ready to go, one month early even. She only weighed 5 lbs. when she was born and needed a little oxygen.

Now she goes about a hundred miles an hour all day and drops to sleep like the dead. She also loves to tease and run and eat cookies with Grandma!

Aren't those curls the cutest?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Yoga Classes

We have two weeks of yoga now. it feels great and we are actually feeling better and even getting the hang of it. I have not even hurt my toe since hour first day. My daughter is a natural at yoga and I keep telling her it is her thing.

In the meantime we just keep running our four days to burn the calories and try to keep the game fun. The weather is changing into dry season so it has been so nice this week.

We have been teaching the past two weeks and enjoying the heck out of it. I love being in the classroom and working with our awesome students. I am just constantly amazed that we keep getting the coolest people in the world to our massage school, wonderful.

Today was the celebration of my oldest granddaughters birth. I cannot believe that eight years ago I became a grandma! Whoa getting up there for sure. The bummer is the stupid p.o. did not get her gift there in time. I guess it will give her something to look forward to in the next couple of days.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Rain Gone

I am happy to report that the rain in Costa Rica has finally stopped, after only five feet, and the sun is shining. It is a beautiful day in paradise and we are all in much better moods to see the sun once more.

People would wonder how I spent eight years in Missouri with my sun thing, I would say it was not easy at all! Living in the midwest requires kind of a different mind set, like just go into hibernation mode for a few months and like it!

Can't do.

Today we took the kids down the street to the park so they could climb some trees and get the bugs out of their systems. After three days cooped up they were ready to run in circles like the dogs, it calms them down.

My daughter, son and I are doing the px90 so we have been working out hard and heavy. We did the yoga section this morning so now I am trying to get off my butt and go for a run. Man am I sore. I mean like everything is sore.

Hubby says I am too old for the plyometrics work out :)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Flooding

Last week we were celebrating the end of rainy season. This week we are mourning the death of 19 people who died last night in mud slides. Apparently hurricane Tomas is the culprit. We have had almost five inches in the past three days, and it is getting ready to start again.

We were on the way to school and the neighbor stopped us and informed us that schools would be canceled because of the disaster. Costa Rica has declared a National Disaster.

We were just bummed out because we missed our run yesterday, wow small bubble we live in.

In the meantime the U.S. delegate is heading to the Isla where there are continued conflicts over whose land is whose. Apparently the Nicas decided to dredge a little South and increase their holdings a little. Kind of a squatters right problem, which is not at all rare here.

The interesting part is the "pretend police" that keep showing up from Costa Rica. I am just waiting for the U.S to give the word for the 7,000 troops just chilling off the Pacific Coast. After all gotta keep those guys busy.