Sweet Yet Sour

In December, I wrote a post about my 5 favorite things (the top of list is of course Mike and Anna) and discussed that Oprah was at the top of my least favorite things list.  I think I’ve waited long enough to do a post on the least favorite things list…

5. General American Laziness: It’s been a while since I’ve been out of the country, so this could be “human” laziness, but I’m pretty sure that we Americans in general are lazy.  I think we’re a little too pampered, without entirely realizing how much and how nice we really have it.  For example:

a) Caller id that appears on the t.v. – This is a feature of our DirectTv service and frankly I have to admit it’s nice, but it certainly attributes to my fat ass.  The phone rings while I’m say, watching Biggest Loser, and a caller id box pops up on the screen telling me the name and number of the person/company calling.  Without getting up, I can make the “I’m not even getting up to answer that” decision.

b) People who leave their shopping carts right next to the place where they parked.  Come on people – I know that the distance to the cart return is probably less than the distance from the chip aisle to the chocolate aisle, which I just KNOW you covered in less than 5 seconds.

c) Only when gas reached $4 a gallon did we as a nation start to cut down on our driving.  Lazy much?

d) The drive through line at our local Starbucks is generally 10-12 cars deep, while the parking lot is EMPTY.  Seriously? Could you not park your car, walk in and probably get your Grande Decaf Moccachino faster? And people wonder why we are getting fatter as a nation…

4. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS):  After doing a bunch of reading on this stuff, I’m also thinking that we are getting fatter as a nation because this stuff is in all of our processed food.  I checked out all of the stuff in our pantry that has it and it’s scary, everything from the soda, the Saltines, Rice Krispies, the fruit and grain bars, to the ketchup.  Does anyone else think it’s bad that the thing they use to stuff down the throats of geese to make their livers be foie gras is in all of our foods? Oh and now there’s this study about HFCS and mercury… Neat! More please!

3. Sodium Laureth Sulfate: This chemical is in practically every shampoo, body wash and soap on the market.  It’s a chemical grade degreaser that also helps to make your shampoo nice and frothy.  Several years ago an email floated around about sodium laureth sulfate and how it could give you cancer.  While it seems that has been disproven, there is still talk of it being a skin irritant.  Just to give it a try, several weeks ago I banished all of my shampoo and body wash that had sodium laureth sulfate in them.  The results? I no longer have dry scalp, or the little red bumps on the back of my upper arms that I have always had.  I always though these were the result of how dry it is in Colorado, and perhaps that’s part of it.  But I also can’t deny that my skin and scalp are a lot less itchy and dry this winter since I went sodium laureth sulfate free…

2. People who still deny that Global Warming is occurring:  I have an Aunt like this and I regularly want to smack her.  For far too long the Bush administration denied it and then doctored all scientific research they could get their hands on to make it look like it’s not happening, but it is people, get a grip.  The ice caps are melting, the seas are rising, the temperature is going way up and people and animals are dying.  Get your head out of the pollution cloud!  We’ve had an extremely warm winter here in Colorado, and although I know that sometimes that’s just the way that it is, we have spent almost all of March, our “snowiest month” without any moisture (except some in the mountains) and most of it above 60 degrees.  When I made a comment about how warm it was a few weeks ago my Aunt had the gall to say “it’s always like this in the winter”.  Um yeah, I’m sure the ski industry would say the same.  Seriously?

1. Oprah.  Here’s my problem with the queen of talk shows.  Although I know that she is benevolent and giving, she does it in a way that rubs me the wrong way.  She’s so “This is the way it should be done and this is the way I like it – so you should too”.  As if she is the ultimate authority on how you should live your life, while frankly, sometimes she seems like she could use a little advice herself…  And she has a tendency to get all “you must freak out about this NOW!” that I’m sure sells ads, but also creates panic in all but her most discerning viewers. For example, when Anna was about 3 months old, and I was still severely deprived of sleep, I made the mistake of not napping and instead turning on Oprah.  The show that day was about child molesters and I could only watch about 5 minutes of it before wanting to puke and then never let my daughter out of my sight.  Don’t get me wrong, I will always worry about my daughter being some pervert’s prey, but the way Oprah made it out you shouldn’t even trust your own husband with your kids.  I simply cannot spend my life not trusting everyone – I’d never get out the house.  This is okay for Oprah because she has bodyguards, private jets and no real contact with the public, but for the rest of us, we need to live our lives…