Archive for the ‘Stories’ Category

I’ll be honest, I never really watched the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His humor was always kind of lame to me. When the Tonight Show was taken over by Conan O’Brien, I started tuning in 3 to 4 times a week. After seven months, NBC has made quite the devastating decision to return the Tonight Show back over to Jay Leno. Are they crazy!?!?! He thanked his staff who is

He used the last precious moments of his show to remind us all to lend a helping hand to Haiti.

1. Steve Carell (of NBC’’s “The Office”) came out to give him an exit interview and “shredded his employee ID”.
2. Tom Hanks came out and brought Conan a cup of scotch ( actually diet cream soda ) and reminisced about how he was the one who originally dubbed the Conan with the nickname: “Co Co”.
3. Neil Young came out to sing “Long May You Run” while he played guitar and harmonica.
4. Conan then said his closing piece of inspiration to his fans. He could have used this last moment to really slam NBC for their stupidity and unfairness, or anything he wanted. However, this is what he said:

“This massive outpouring of support and passion, from so many people, has been overwhelming for me. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy and outrageous creativity on the internet, the fact that people have traveled long distances to and camped out all night in the pouring rain . . . It’s pouring! . . . It’s been pouring for days! . . and they’re camping out to be in our audience. Really, you, here’s what all of you have done. You’ve made a sad situation joyous and inspirational. So to all the people watching ” he said with tear filled eyes. “I can never ever thank you enough for the kindness to me. I will think about it for the rest of my life, and all I ask is one thing. I am asking this particularly of young people that watch: Please do not be cynical, I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere.


Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard and if you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

I am telling you, amazing things will happen.” (The audience roars.) Conan shouts over the crowd, “I’m telling you, It’s just true.”

5. Will Ferrell came out and jammed with Conan. Will sang and played his cowbell, and Conan played a guitar and very well. They sang “If I leave here tomorrow / Would you still remember me?”
   

Conan said during the show that he had no regrets. I am pretty sure that Conan will be just fine. I can’t say the same for Jay Leno, in fact, I won’t be surprised to see the severe drop in viewers. Who knows anything?

Good Luck Conan! You hosted the best seven month show in the history of late night. Nice work.

On the “Late Night with Jimmie Fallon” Jimmie began his show in NBC studio 6A – Conan’s Old Studio – and sang a tribute to Conan,  “Its So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday”.  The Roots made a tribute to “team CoCo” as well.

Update on this story: December 2009, we think we have found this man, but if it is him, then it turns out that he passed away in 2007. I’ll leave his story up, just because it’s still an interesting story.

This is probably going to be a strange read, because it feels so strange to actually write it. And here is the real kicker: it’s a story about a man that I never knew. And it’s a story that is over 57 years old. You see, I am looking for the man in this photograph.

A picture of my grandfather?

Supposedly, he is my grandfather. My dad didn’t find out that his real last name was Edwards until he was a senior in high school. He needed his birth certificate to apply for a driver’s license. Can you imagine what that would be like? Little explanation was given before my Grandmother, Mary Ellen, passed away. Dad never really even mentioned it as I was growing up. I remember being about twelve the first time I heard about it. He sounded sad, when he told the story as he knew it. I made an effort one day to look up my family ancestry on ancestry.com.
I knew his name: Ralph Edwards.  Am I afraid to actually include his last name in this post? Yes, for two reasons. Number one, there are some weird crazy people out there on the internet, you know. And Number two, I have no idea of any concrete details of the story, except for the one’s in the preceding paragraph. So, there’s your disclaimer: I have no idea really what happened. The saddest part is, I probably will never know. Unless, I’ll get to ask him about it in the afterlife.  It can be quite the flaw to be the optimist, and the truth probably is more bleak than I want to believe.  But, I’d still like to know what the story is. Wouldn’t you?  So here goes, the third hand fragments of the details that may be true, may not be true, or even remembered correctly:

Their wedding photo?

My grandparents, “Ralph” and Mary Ellen , married too quickly and too young (I mean look at the picture! They look like kids right?) The divorce followed just as quickly. In fact, this was the first of three marriages that ended in divorce for my Grandma Mary. I guess she never found her true love. Anyways, this Ralph fellow was in the service (Army, I think? Maybe you can tell by military uniform in picture?), and one day he just went home to Scranton Pennsylvania. – This was the only thing my Grandma Mary would tell my dad about it. The story told by my great grandmother, Dorothy, was that he left because his mother (who would have been my other great grandmother, right?) had a job for him driving a brand new “rig”? My dad’s grandad (my great grandfather who lived in Greenville, PA until he passed away before I was born) would only say that he had liked the boy (meaning Ralph). And great granddad loved his daughter (my Grandma Mary) to pieces. I don’t see how he could have said he liked the boy when he supposedly left my grandma, without some real explanation.

And that’s it, that’s all I know. See what I mean? There has to be more to this story! I can’t imagine that this Ralph would have been a bad, neglectful man. There is nothing uncaring about my dad, he’d give anyone anything if he they needed it. I can’t believe it to be possible for my dad to have come from a man who just didn’t care. Did this Ralph Edwards on my dad’s birth record ever even know of him at all? What happened to him? What does he look like now? Does he have anything of genetic importance we (or his great grandkids) should know that runs in our family? Is he even alive? I wish I knew. And if it turns out to be a to be a terrible story, then maybe my dad wasn’t ever meant to know. I really think he deserves to know though. This a glimmer of curiosity has appeared in his eyes the few times he has spoken of his real father. My aunt (dad’s half sister) dug up the photograph of Ralph and Mary Ellen above. It does look like a wedding photograph. But who knows anything? Maybe it will always be a mystery.

So in conclusion, I must thank you for reading my long, awkward story. Even though once again I admit being painfully optimistic, I do realize it could be a terrible idea to even pursue the truth. He may not want to be found. He may have a family somewhere else. It’s possible that he doesn’t know about my dad. It’s possible he does. But seriously, ask yourself, if you were me. . . would you at least try?  For your dad? If you think you know anything about this man at all, could you find it in your heart to just consider sending me a message? Who is he? Who was he?

moved from: hindsightblind.wordpress.com

Since I was a kid, I have heard wonderful things about the American Girl store in Chicago. Since my little girl came along, I planned to go get one for her too. This year I debated whether she was old enough to care for an American girl doll, knowing how cheap they aren’t. But finally I decided that she would do fine with it. They have a “Just Like You” doll that you can buy to match the features of the little girl getting it. I went to visit the store at their new location. Oh my goodness this place was a little girl’s heaven! This was the perfect gift to be from Santa Claus this year! The dolls were beautiful, the clothes were too! But expensive!

Geez, it was 105$ just for doll! Awww, but the store was hustling and bustling with little girls and their parents and their dolls. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so the Christmas mood was creeping on me. “My little girl is worth this.” I told myself. I picked out a little ballerina outfit, hmmmm 36$ more – but I guess it could be 2 outfits and you get a little (very little) book. Then I saw a Christmas dress on a doll, and it was beautiful! Red velvet . . . and the smallest matching “real girl” size would fit my little doll baby. But, the girls dress felt like it was lined with plastic-ey vinyl material. You know, like the dress up dresses you find at a department store.

So, I passed on that one. Next I saw the pajamas. Well, I found a cute matching set that looked pretty warm with snowflakes on the shirt. Good. Both outfits together were 58$ which seemed like a bargain because you save money by buying them together. And, the little doll’s jammies had little blue slippers to go with it!! Wait a minute though, the girl’s slippers not included in the “deal” they were 22$ more. I was beginning to think we might just get her the doll, the dance outfit and pick out a book for Christmas.

We could always come back for her birthday or something for a matching outfit thing. Yeah, that way she can pick out the one she’d love the best. (It would be so much more fun with her there, but I didn’t wanna ruin the surprise!) So, the last thing to do was find a book. Most of the books were only 9.95$. I picked up one that talked about minding your manners, and I looked at the back of the book and it said 8+ with a circle around it. That meant it was good for 8 year olds and over, but I figured manners are ok for anybody to read about. Then something caught my eye.

It said “Printed in China” above the barcode. I did a double take. I set the book back down. In all fairness, I am not one of those people who are against doing business in other countries, but this seemed different. I hadn’t seen many books that said “Printed in China” in fact, even the Christmas coloring books that I had purchased early that week in a dollar store were “Printed in the U.S.A.” So I looked at the little ballerina outfit box I had in my hands and flipped it over. And there it said, right above the barcode “Made in China”. I looked at it for a moment. Then I turned over the doll. And sort of prayerfully thinking “Please, not the doll too.” But there it was, in black and white: “Made in China”.

This past year we threw away a bag full of toys that had been recalled because lead paint was used on some toys with the same batch numbers as the ones we had purchased last Christmas. Who knows if the ones we had were “leaded”, but who has the time to go to your local health department and get toys tested for safety? Or who has time to package them all up and sent them to the designated addresses so the companies could possibly get you a replacement? Anyways, that is enough about that.

Suddenly, my American Girl doll didn’t look like the perfect present. The #13 “Just Like You” doll and all the others probably cost 2$ to make in a Chinese factory; and maybe 1$ to ship over to America, but the tax breaks would pay them back for the shipping right? And anyway, they stock them up on American Girl store shelves and sell them for one hundred and five dollars. And you know that every parent and grandparent is saying to themselves as they hand over their hard earned money, “It’s a lot, but my little girl is worth it.”

Sure, American Girl dolls and stores with their salons, and hospitals and theaters are so wonderful for little girls. But if you really think about it, it isn’t the popularity of this novelty doll, it isn’t the dresses or the accessories that are so pretty to just about any little girl (even me, and I’m 25 year old little girl). It’s about tradition. It’s about connecting with our daughters and wanting them to have beautiful things and experiences. We want for them to feel special. Even if it means going into debt, this is what we Americans are teaching our kids.

I didn’t buy the doll. I placed her back on the shelf and left the store. It was difficult to leave without a doll, but I told myself, “My little girl is worth it.” I had no idea what I was going to get her for Christmas (and I’m still working on it.) But, I’m not worried; I will find her something great. They say that you get what you pay for. I couldn’t justify buying the 2$ dollar doll for the 100$ name. But if it’s the name brands you like, might I suggest the American Girl Store? Where you can buy an American Girl doll, Made in CHINA.

Have the Merriest of Christmas’s
in 2008

moved from: hindsightblind.wordpress.com – and as I imported I read it and it sounds I don’t like China products or something. Just to clarify, I love China and their culture is so vibrant and interesting. The point of this post, as I recall, was to point out the oxymoron of the dolls name.

I usually don’t care much about the news in Martinsville. Today was different.

My parents owned an ISP. I started doing tech support for that ISP at age 13. That was the beginning of my passion for technology. I learned as much as I could as often as I could (and still do). While most teens are out there dating and driving, I was on the computer. My favorite thing to do was learn HTML, a little bit of programming and new os platforms. Like Windows, unix, even DOS.

The fire was horrible, because my mother and father lost everything. A domino affect happened after this, my parents ended up closing shop. Because it was arson against the house next door that spread to the Rnet building, they fought tooth and toenail for the insurance company about getting the money to get setup again. Before they could get any resolution, RnetInc went into Bankruptcy and my Parents began losing everything that they ever worked for. Since 97, Rnet was everything to my parents. They even mortgaged their house to use the money and invest in projects that Rnet had going on in Laffayette, Chicago, and even St. Louis, MS. They had just signed a million dollar deal. It was the first time in my dad’s life where he really felt successful.

My parents are not bad people. So why did this happen? Dad still works at his full time at his job at the power plant he’s worked at for 25+ years.

– moved from my original blog darkbluesun.blogspot.com