As the news of Steve McNair's death unfolded today, I couldn't believe what I was reading. And I couldn't help but think of all the other celebrity deaths I'd read/heard about over the last few weeks. Too many I was thinking.
Then, I thought of my friend who lost her grandmother this week. And how that is so much more personal, but nothing you would have read about in your local paper or on CNN. I wondered how frustrating it must be for everyone who loses someone in this world to watch all the hoopla on the news about Michael Jackson or Farrah or Steve McNair. What about the other 149,999 people who died today (per WikiAnswers, an average of 150,000 people die in our world each day)? Where are their stories? Or should we even know?
How much should we really know about people when they die? Is it really important for us, the public, to know about a celebrity's will? I soooo do not care! It has nothing to do with any of us. Why does our media push it on us? And why do I keep reading/listening? I'm contributing to the problem I just threw out there for you. I hate that.
I do get that celebrity is a part of our society, and I get that people want to know about them in both life and death. I just hope that as we're reading/watching about the 1.5 million who are trying to claw their way into Michael's memorial next week, we think about the 2 million others who have died since he did.
Frankly, at the end of the day, I'm just tired of all the dying. Celebrities, grandparents, soldiers, sons, daughters...enough already!
This was a weird week. I'm happy to have made it through without going completely crazy.
Monday - woke up so dizzy that I took some Meclizine and went right back to bed for the rest of the day. Totally wasted day. And wow. Meclizine is STRONG. No wonder they tell you not to drive or operate machinery when you take it. (And I was so hoping to operate my jackhammer that day too!). I could barely get off the couch.
Tuesday - much better, although still slightly dizzy. Just said no to the drugs and took myself to work...where I proceeded to feel fuzzy all day and almost completely lost my voice. No idea what that was about, but I was irritated...meetings were a treat, but the fuzziness did seem to dull the annoyance of not having a voice. Checked mail when I got home (hadn't checked since Saturday), and had no mail. Odd, but not completely abnormal. I mean, there's usually fliers and dentists trying to get me to come in for their fabulous services. Sometimes, someone even tries to sell my house...which I don't even own. Mainly weird because I was expecting a check which a friend told me she sent a week before. Didn't really think much more of it...just figured things were moving slow...maybe the postal service had a dizzying first two days of the week too.
Wednesday - voice completely back, no more dizziness, started off on the right foot. Was very excited to go to the Shark Tank and select my seats for next season...after already deciding to upgrade to season tickets with a few friends. I had never done this before so had no idea what to expect. I did not expect to walk out of the doors with NO TICKETS. That's right. None. When I got to the area where I wanted to get to the tickets, there were zero available. I couldn't afford to buy the next level of tickets, so I just stood there. Hoping maybe the Meclizine from two days earlier was having an effect on my brain and I just couldn't see the papers telling me seats were available. No such luck. Wow. I was not happy. I emailed my account rep to see if there was anything she could do. Then I went to Chipotle to drown my sorrows in a tasty chicken burrito.
Thursday - well, when I woke up, I had no idea what was going to happen as the day progressed. First the news that Farrah had finally succumbed to her long battle with cancer, then the shock of losing Michael Jackson. When death slaps you in the face like that, either from celebrities passing, acquaintances or the tragedies in Iran, you have to step back and think about what's really important. And I'll tell you, what became completely unimportant was my whining about being dizzy, losing my voice and not getting Shark tickets. Life is precious, and no matter how it's lost, it makes you think.
I was never a huge Farrah fan. I loved Charlie's Angels. I had the dolls. My friends and I played it at recess. But it was always about Kelly for me (hello, brunette). So I can't say that I was that sad about her passing, but, it was sad how she struggled, and I did feel that she had tried to get her life back together after a few pretty awful years.
On the other hand, I was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan. I own Thriller on vinyl. Maybe the best album of my generation. No question that he was a musical genius who was troubled most of his life. I hadn't listed to MJ's music regularly for years...just phased it out for some reason. However, when I got home Thursday night, I got on iTunes and began making a playlist of the MJ tunes I owned. And then I bought some that I didn't own. I have loved rediscovering his music over the last few days...both through my playlist and all the videos that have been playing all over the music channels. I really forgot how great he was. Now, Michael definitely had some issues...no doubt about that. We'll never really understand all of it. I'm choosing to focus on the good...the music. Genius.
By the way, checked my mail again today - and still nothing!!! I looked in the back of the mail box, and apparently, the post office thought I was on vacation. Um, what??? I reached into the little plastic thing that said vacation and took it out. Good grief.
Friday - FINALLY. End of the week. I wondered if the post office would actually bring me my mail...and hey, they did! A big pile of it. Awesome. I did get the check that I was waiting on, as well as, oh joy, my U2 tickets! Mail is good!!! And what else happened on Friday? My account rep from the Sharks emailed me with the good news that she found me seats!! Can I just say that Friday rocked???
Now it's Saturday, and I need to leave in about 15 minutes to go meet a friend for breakfast at Stacks. Let's hope next week doesn't have so many ups and downs. And let's hope that the next time the post office decides to hold my mail that I'm actually ON VACATION!
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