How do you stay sane in an insane world?

This is my question of the day. It seems everywhere I look, the nutters are taking over. We have "birthers" and "deathers" and a whole lot of gun toting "patriots" just dying to water the tree of liberty. Has a portion of our country lost their common sense or did they just never have any? Before anyone starts to jump the gun and accuse me of being anti Second Amendment, you need to know that I have two blue cards, one for my Smith & Wesson and the other for my Beretta, plus I still have a shotgun. I freely admit to having carried openly in situations when working alone in some deserted valley in the wilds of Nevada. Twice in the more than 20 years that I have been a gun owner, I have displayed my weapon as precaution toward unwanted behaviour. On road trips, my beloved .38 is usually in its case under my seat if I have passengers or on the seat next to me if I am alone. I would never dream of taking a weapon to any type of town hall or political gathering where some nut might attempt to take it away and use it.

Then there are the posters accusing our leaders of being terrorists or Nazis. What happened to civilized discourse? Does anyone ever watch the "question period" of the British Parliament? The Prime Minister stands on the floor in front of God and the TV cameras and takes questions from the members. No one screams or holds up nasty signs, there might be some polite nays or laughter should the PM be witty in his response. Serious topics are discussed in a serious manner.

I realize that many people watch and believe Fox News to be a legitimate source of "news" and I agree that the commentators have First Amendment rights. I just have hard time telling the difference between "news" and personal opinion on that network. Yes, I am a Keith Olberman fan but I am fully aware that some of his discourse is his opinion. Rachel Maddow is another story. She backs up her statements with documentation frequently taken from public records and filings. That gal reads all the fine print and checks all the links! She invites the "other side" to appear on her show and present their views and she is polite while they do so, disagreeing in a civil fashion.

Maybe I am just grouchy today. I woke at 3am this morning with my left hand clenched in a ball under my chin. I have been having pain in this hand since last weekend when my "muse" visited and I designed and made four new pieces and restrung two others in two days. Too much for my poor arthritic hands. At some point I realized that I string with my left hand as much as I do with my right. That means holding the hand clamped around the wire for long periods while stringing pearls or stones with small holes. Sometimes my fingers will begin to spasm and I soak them in warm or cold water depending on the pain. Working with pearls, crystals or precious stone spacers (I have emerald, sapphire and ruby spacers from India) is the hardest on my hands. BUT when the work is finished and some wonderful new necklace is bagged, just waiting for my MWDL to put on the clasps, I am fulfilled and happy and maybe sane!

I found some beautiful lavender jade beads last week and combined them with deep purple fresh water pearls and 18kt vermeil beads. Simply stunning! As I was checking out the tables at our local Gem & Bead Mall, I saw a string of color enhanced hot pink jade ovals. The color rang my bell so I bought them and sure enough, they were a color match with a rainbow dichroic glass pendant that I got in Flagstaff three years ago when I just started making jewelry. Combined with small lime green fresh water pearls and ab crystals, the piece is a knockout!

Whenever I am not on the computer checking out jobs, which I do first thing every morning; I am doing prep work for the Art in the Park show in October. Each piece is being cleaned with microfiber cloth and a new facial make up brush, checked against our master inventory and bagged in a new Ziploc bag. To make our set up easier, I am sorting by primary material into boxes. This gets a little tricky since we love to work with pearls and so many of our pieces have pearls. So there are some items with pearls in the gemstone box, some in the glass box and others in the eclectic box. MWDL hopes to have 100 pairs of earrings for her revolving rack and we will probably have a mounted board of pendants. I will need to go back and count the items in each category but we are still pulling jewelry from our show totes and personal collections.

Sooo, whats new on the dating scene? In the past couple of red haired weeks, I have received an increased number of flirts and contacts. I have a better understanding of why people (men & women) get fed up with the sites and just quit. I attempted a conversation on line with a clinical psychologist the other day regarding his insights into the "process" of posting profiles. I presented some of my questions based on my observations: what is the basis/thought process that men use for posting their photos? No, I didn't discuss my observations regarding "fish" photos. I'm talking about just plain unflattering shots or semi naked photos. I still have the shot of the guy who said he is a cross dresser and posed with his back to the camera while wearing a white garter belt, white hose and spike heels. Yes, that's all! I will say that it did appear that he could give a baby a run for the money on smoothness. Also wondered who took the photo? Then there are photos where the guy has cut out a woman standing beside them, leaving her hand on his shoulder. Long distance shots where you can hardly see any details. OK, maybe that makes sense. Photos of him taken "years" ago, why does he thinks his high school or college photo is a turn on when he is now over 50? Photos with guns, maybe I should have MWDL take some photos of me as a pistol packing granny! Why do men pay for a profile and then don't post a photo or any personal information, just saying: send me a message? Whats with the inflation of their personal information; I have found a couple of those, who, when communicating with me seem to forget what they posted!

I asked the psychologist if he was familiar with any studies to which he could refer me? He acknowledged that my questions were interesting and referred me to an article he had written on Human Intelligence. Sorry but it didn't cover posting profiles and photos on Internet dating sites. Maybe he'll come back later with something else.

Let's see, still lots of interest from outside of Nevada and outside the US. I seem to be well received in England and Australia. Damn, there is a guy in Australia that rings my bell, how can I resist a fellow who posts photos of himself feeding baby roos and handling cockatoos. Alas, the distance is just too great.

Another "Hunka, Hunka" type sent me a message of interest. He claims to be 42 but his photo looks 24 or so. He said he was just looking for a new friend and listed a number of interests that I share, such as Native American art and music, dogs, music and so on. He also asked if the age difference bothered me. I thought about it and responded that in some ways the age difference did bother me but that I didn't discriminate in my friends based on age. So if he wanted to be a friend, then I suggested we communicate more to see what else we had in common. Two days later, I received a blast about having a closed mind and being against him because of his age. Wow! I just sent a nice civil reply that it was unfortunate he interpreted my response as a closed mind. I really had to laugh. Aha, another source for sanity: laughter!

The right guy for me may never appear on a dating site, but as I told my son the other day, there is nothing like the human comedy with everyone a player upon a stage or looking for their 15 minutes of Warhol fame. Which reminds me, there was an article on Huffington Post today about researchers who are going thru a zillion boxes of stuff that good ole Andy stored. Recently they found a personalized signed photo of Jackie O skinny dipping which she apparently sent to him. You can see the photo thru a link on the article. Now isn't that just what you have always wanted to see, Jackie O naked?

Anyway, I prefer to conduct my insanity prevention sessions on Tuesday nights so I can sit back with a glass of very nice single malt whiskey (Speyside preferred) and watch Warehouse 13 or perhaps Eureka on Fridays. The Sci Fi channel as therapy!

One last thing: Our good friend, Rochelle Williams of "I'm Not Spoiled" will be at the Harvest Festival the weekend after this. So if you go, please be sure and drop by her booth to say hello and see her wonderful things. Maybe we can do this show next year but just can't afford it right now. Also the Las Vegas Crafters Guild will have a Craft Boutique at the West Sahara Library on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3rd. Check it out and if you don't find something, come and visit us at Art in the Park on Saturday and Sunday. In fact, just come by and say hello. Several members of the Crafters Guild will be showing in Boulder City.

Aha, I am getting a long wet nose down my leg. It must be getting close to treat time. Another way to keep sane; loving greythounds!

Light & Love,

Granny B