You know...

You know...

Very few kids in this day and age have anything valuable, interesting, or even intelligent to say. And yet, my Facebook news feed is quite constantly filled with the status posts of my adolescent peers...

Don't get me wrong, occasionally, they crack me up... But more often than not, they make me "smh" (gag).  They're rude. Or disrespectful. Or completely ignorant. Or just plain useless.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the people are useless. They might not even be all that ignorant. And the fact is, only about 1% of them would ever have the guts to be that disrespectful in public, or to straight to someone's face...

They just don't have filters.  What they do have, is 24/7 access to advertising their every opinion, feeling, mood swing, or meal... (I mean seriously, I really don't want to know what you had for dinner, or how it made you feel)

Don't get my wrong, I'm not an advocate for filtering the masses.  But I am an advocate for respect, and intelligence.  Or, like... PROPER GRAMMAR? Even just an attempt?? I mean, I know, we all make typos and mistakes.  I'm no grammarian and I can't spell to save my life.  But if I'm going to type something up that people will se, I take the time to spell check.  I mean for god's sake, google's right there.

Seriously, the internet is the perfect place to share intelligent ideas. You can literally spend an infinite amount of time ruminating on the concept you're trying to get across. It's not so easy in real life.  In real time, conversing with real people, you actually have to be pretty intelligent to... well... sound intelligent. Very often, I think about what I want to say before I speak, and it still doesn't come out as pretty as it could.  But with google and online thesauruses at my finger tips, just look at the pompous crap I can spout? I mean seriously people.  Can our generation at least start striving towards SEEMING intelligent?  Repeat after me: google is my friend.  Google helps me spell.  Google makes me seem smart.

I mean, just fake it till you make it people...

Time

Time is a funny thing... Especially time in the life of a child.

I realized today that I've known several of the kids I'm in high school with since we were all in the 7th grade together.  This only dawned on me today, because they don't register in my brain as the same people I met back when I was an awkward, moody little twelve-year-old.  But they are.  One is my best friend, in fact - although we really didn't know what to make of each other when we first met.  The others are still good friends who I often exchange jokes and friendly gibes with.  But how is it that in the span of four or five years, we four can now be so different?  What would our younger selves say about our changes?  What would our younger selves say about our changed relationships with each other?  It's just something I've spent my time thinking about.  What will the four of us be like in another five years?

The time of childhood is seen by many adults as time to be cherished.  But it's difficult to cherish a time that is spent making so many mistakes.  I guess I see where they're coming from though.  This is a time when you're meant to make mistakes, as there is no other time in your life you can get away with them so easily.  Sometimes it's hard to learn from those mistakes, though.

Besides, when I really think about it, all stages of life should be cherished, shouldn't they?  If you're not appreciative of where you are in life, maybe that's the time to seek a change.  Or to look within to find the change you need.

Just more of the ramblings of Rachel Cline...

Thanks for reading
~Rachel

Odette

This is Odette

I got her this morning.  As I've said before, she's about 7 weeks old, and a rescue puppy. 

Getting her home was an ordeal... On the hour and a half long trip home, she threw up in my mother's hand, peed in my lap, and a pooped in the kennel...  Also, she drooled a lot.  Then she proceeded to whine for the last half of the trip.  Well, I suppose I knew this wasn't going to be easy...  

In the picture above, she's sleeping on a stuffed animal.  Around her are the toys I spent a good amount of money on yesterday.  These toys, she refuses to touch.  I got this stuffed animal she now loves so much for free a year ago... But I suppose I don't blame her, the new toys smell funny - like new clothes you buy from the store and have to wash before you can stand to wear them.  Hopefully the attachment to this toy will make it easier for her to sleep in the kennel tonight... Fingers crossed.  No matter how cute she is, my sisters are not going to love hearing her cry all night...

But I'm complaining too much.  Truly, she is the cutest thing ever.  And ever so sweet and affectionate

In other news... Well, there is no other news.  I've done only puppy related things all day...  

Thanks for reading

~Rachel

Home from the holidays

So for the past three weeks, I've been in Ohio for the holidays.  My family and I stayed with my maternal grandparents.  I always love visiting my Ohio relatives as well as staying in my grandparents' house.
With my father being in the army up until a few years ago, my family has been uprooted and moved several times in my life, but that house in Ohio, and all my loud, Italian relatives have always been a comforting constant.

But man, after three weeks in that small house, with 8 people (my grandparents, my family, and my uncle) as well as holiday visitors, and the two kids who live next door (but seem to live with us half the time), I gotta say, I'm pretty happy to be home.
Don't get me wrong, I've made some more lovely family memories that I'll always treasure, but being cooped up in an overcrowded house, in a too-small bedroom, surrounded by snow and slush, with no where to escape to and seeing the same 20 people day after day... Well, as I said, I'm quite happy to be home.

And after 10 hours in a overpacked minivan, with two sisters, a dog and my mother, we are, indeed, finally home.
So now, I can just relax, maybe take a walk to stretch my legs...
Wait, what's that? I have homework? For 4 classes? Due Wednesday?
Oh, and I have to unpack? And make my bed? And vacuum?
And what else? I have to puppy-proof my house?
Oh... Well... That's just lovely...  I think I'd like to be back in that overcrowded house now...

But did you catch that last bit?  I have to puppy-proof my house.  Why's that?  Because some time this week (either tomorrow or this weekend), I am adding a puppy to my family.  I'm psyched for the impending adorableness.

That's it for now though, I really do need to get stuff done...

I hope, like me, you've had a safe return from wherever you might have been for the holidays, and that going back to school doesn't kill you, as it might kill me.

Thanks for reading!
~Rachel

Love

Love is more than a physical attraction
Love takes more than a week to manifest
Love is not lost in a day
I don't know much about love, but I do know that those 3 day long "relationships" kids have today, are not for the sake of love...
So what is the point to them?
Why is having a boyfriend or girlfriend one of the major things on the minds of kids today?
I don't know the answer to this. I'm sure there are many different factors. I do know that if more kids spent their high school career focusing on their education and improving themselves, we'd have fewer broken hearts, and less drama.  We'd probably have fewer suicides and teen pregnancies too.  But I suppose that's not going to happen

If you're a kid reading this, think about it. What do you gain from putting all your time into the week long "relationships" that you have every other week? Isn't there any other way you could be spending your time?

I personally think a relationship should be about more than a physical attraction.  It should be about a connection.  It should be about shared views of the world, and shared life goals.  It should be thought about and considered before it's jumped into.
And love shouldn't be a word that's constantly thrown around.

But I guess that's just me...

Thanks for reading
~ Rachel

Good Hair

Hello world

So, I just finished watching the documentary Good Hair and, combined with the fact that my current favorite book is The Hunger Games, I'm convinced that the world is falling apart...

FIRSTLY did you know that African American women spend 1000 of dollars on weaves?? Many of which are made from human hair from India? Indian women (and men) give up their hair in a religious ceremony, which is then sold by the temple to companies who clean it and sell it to businesses in America. The business has become so lucrative, that women are being scalped while their asleep, or while watching movies in a public theater. Basically, in India, if you're not paying attention, you lose your hair.

And you know that African Americans aren't the only ones who are using weaves and extensions and all to "enhance" their beauty.  I'm positive women of all ethnicities are.  And that's just hair! Besides that, there's plastic surgery, botox, make-up, and all the other beauty enhancing products out there.  SO many people are spending SO much money to make themselves more physically attractive - by the standards of today's society.  To take the weaves as an example, they can cost thousands of dollars - where is an average woman getting this money?  The national health care bill is around because "people can't afford to pay for health care" and houses are being foreclosed on all over the place, but women can afford $1000 hair pieces?  As well as other hair treatments and boat loads of beauty products??  What gives??

Don't get me wrong, I'm a clothes and cosmetics whore, but I buy the stuff that I do because I have the money.  Actually, in this case my parents have the money, because I'm so fortunate as to still be able to mooch off of them for a few more years.  But when the time comes for me to support myself, I plan to make enough money to buy those things, or forgo those luxuries.  I would not make taxpayers pay for my welfare, and forgo paying my rent or feeding my family to be able to afford some Indian woman's hair.

This again comes back to Operation Beautiful, in a way.  The idea of popular beauty, how women are slaves to it and how some people are trying to break away from those ideals.

So, check out Operation Beautiful (Again) and Good Hair (A documentary by Chris Rock)

Thanks for reading!
~Rachel

Operation Beautiful

Hello, I'd like to talk about something today.

That something is...

Operation Beautiful.  What's that you ask?  Well, it's a website, but it's also a book (soon to be two), a mindset - a revolution.  It's a revolt against today's unrealistic beauty ideals.

Operation Beautiful's mission is to end the negative self images that plague girls, women, boys and men today.  Anorexia, belimia and other eating disorders are affecting an alarming number of people today.  Besides that, there are things like depression, which many times seem to stem from negative self images.  If you're a kid like me, you've seen it; or you might even be living it.  STOP THE MADNESS.

How?  The idea is, to leave positive notes in public places for women (or men) to find.  I only found out about this whole thing yesterday, but my friend and I have plans to take trips to the mall, other stores, restaurants, and public parks to leave these notes.

This is a pretty easy thing to do!  Take a stack of post-it notes and write simply, positive things down on it! Stuff like, "You're beautiful, don't forget it" or "You can do anything you put your mind to."  It only takes a minute of your time and who knows how much it can affect a person's life.

If you're liking the sound of this so far, check out the site!
 operationbeautiful.com

Let's stop this craziness.  There's no reason for people to be feeling as down as they do.  Help them to remember: they are loved and they absolutely have a place in the world.

Thanks for reading!
~Rachel