imjustagoyle

This past Saturday, I lost my best friend; my loyal canine companion of more than 10 years, Duchess.

It happened suddenly – right in front of us at the dinner table. Unfortunately, baby girl witnessed it too. We can only speculate what took her life but we suspect it was cardiomyopathy or perhaps a stroke. She was standing there and suddenly she fell over – her legs went up in the air and she was flailing around trying to get up. Mike bent down to her and calmed her – she lay on her side and let out the most gut wrenching moan. Baby girl was crying and asking “what’s wrong with Duchess?” I rushed baby girl to her room as she had already seen more than a little girl should. She was crying, asking if Duchess was going to be ok. I calmed her down while I hugged her talked to her for a minute. I told her I didn’t know, that Duchess was old and it might be her time. I didn’t want to give baby girl unrealistic expectations and I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked out of her room. I turned on her TV and told her to lie down and watch TV for just a few minutes while I checked on Duchess.

When I saw Mike giving her CPR, my heart broke. I rushed to her but it was too late. She was already gone. Mike tried for several minutes to revive her, but her tongue was hanging out – her heart had stopped. My beautiful, scrunchy-faced, nub-wagging Boxer was gone. The immediate pain I felt was immense – I could hardly breathe. I cradled her on the floor, kissing her face and sobbing.

Until that moment I had no idea how painful losing her would be. She was my first dog. The pain of losing her was almost too much to bear; it felt like I had just lost a person. It still feels that way.

As I sift through the pictures and videos of her now, it eases some of my sadness. Grief still comes in waves, followed by tears I can’t seem to hold back. “They” say it’s normal. I wonder if my life will ever be “normal” again. I know that in time my pain will fade, but I am forever changed by her “chewbacca” whine and silly demeanor. She turned this cat-loving girl into a proud Boxer momma. She was loyal, playful, goofy and stubborn. She also loved my children like they were her own. I couldn’t have asked for a better companion or friend. She was vibrant and youthful, even up until the end of her short 10 1/2 years.

RIP Duchess. I’m going to miss you more than words can express.
My heart is full with your memories.

I’ve never known anyone that was actively enlisted in the military. At least, not in my immediate circle of friends, family or loved ones. It’s hard for me to imagine how difficult it must be to say goodbye to someone you love as they ship off to war or some foreign country of civil unrest. Even harder to imagine is the grief of those that lose their loved ones by the same accord.

Throughout history there have been wars and civil unrest all over the world – yet since the unionization of our country there have been countless men and women willing to defend not only the freedom of our own land but the freedom of others as well. The astounding courage and passion it must take to believe in your country and all of its people that you don’t even know so much that you are willing to risk your own life defending it… That’s honor. That’s more honor than I will ever know or possess in my life.

It’s a “holiday” 1 day a year, but Memorial Day should be every day, really. I see so many homeless men and women who once stood proud and defended their country. It makes me incredibly sad to see that society regards them as nothing more than panhandlers. Young soldiers are coming home from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan with life crippling injuries. They lay in hospitals, hooked to machines – so many will never recover to a normal life. They did this for you. For me. Nothing I’ll ever do could express how grateful I am for that.  I can’t help them all; not alone. I can talk about it here though and encourage you to give and help however you can. Even if your life has never been touched by someone in the military, you owe your existence in this country to people you’ve never met. Do something to thank them.

I see it all the time on Twitter. “Is yall hiring?”

While that may not be “offensive” per se, it certainly indicates poor grammar skills which may not be so attractive to a potential employer scanning Twitter.

If you think that’s bad though, get a load of what I found in just a short period of tweet time yesterday. I did a basic search for “hiring” and came up with some doozies (warning: strong language ahead!). I’m not sure what ANY of these people are thinking. Yes, these are REAL tweets – names have been removed to protect the stupid. I’ve also added my editorial comments for fun educational purposes.

I felt it was important to mention that I’m not being discriminatory – these tweets came from men and women of various ethnicity – including “white”.

“moar job plz. anyone know someone hiring?” – What kind of job?? Define “Moar”.

“KINDA IN A LOUSY MOOD. WUZ STUNNED WIT NEWS 2DAY….BUT FUKK ALL DAT. WHO HIRING??” – What NOT to do in your job search

“Holy fuck NOONE is hiring anymore. Does the economy really suck THAT bad?” – I’m thinking it’s not the economy that’s the problem here…

“wabbly ass!lol I would try to but ion kno.. What they hiring for?.. anything I guess a lot of folks been leavINg” – What language is this?

“NEEDA JOB. WHO HIRING??” – Not me!

“u kno anyone else who’s hiring cause I’m tryin to leave this hell hole” – Probably not the best exit strategy…

“I NEEDA JOB , DEY HIRING ??” – I’m guessing probably not you!

“thats the bes sushi place ever. u fuckers hiring?” – So much wrong, so little time….

“need to find a job everytime i kall a place they say we not hiring damn” – Really? I can’t imagine why.

I could find hundreds of more examples every few minutes. Let this be a lesson to those of you out there who think that employers aren’t looking for you on social networks. What you tweet can (and probably will be) used against you!

From Dictionary.com:

big·ot (bĭg’ət)
n. One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

I’m writing this post because someone in my “circle” of social networks reminded me of how much I hate this personality trait. I’m not going to point fingers or name names, I’m just going to say that if this sounds like you – please for the love of all that’s holy, stop it. Being a bigot makes you seem mean and uneducated.

Don’t kid yourself by thinking “that definition doesn’t apply to me”. Bigotry exists when every story that you tell begins by pointing out race/ethnicity/social status first. Who cares if the person in your story about the fiasco at the bank is Hungarian or Polish or black or white – is that detail necessary? Unless it’s plainly relevant to the story, it’s probably something you can leave out.

Yes, we’re all different but people free of prejudice don’t see others as their race or color first. They seem them as people. Maybe you should try it.

/soapbox