Menu for tonight: stream of consciousness

Since I began this blog on September 1, I've had an idea to do a post solely based on what falls out of my noggin.  No judging.  No plan.  No topic.

Well, tonight's the night.  It's raining here in Southern California.  Never happens.  A good backdrop for this exercise.

1. Life is short and continues to feel shorter each month and year I am here.  Ages 1-10 felt like an eternity.  The last 10 years feel like a weekend.
2. Why does it feel like there is always something on the to do list?  That there are few or no hours of just pure relaxation anymore.  I no longer watch pro football.  This is something I used to do every Sunday, waking up with the specific intent of getting coffee and watching two full football games.  In my pajamas. 
3. I feel a sense of hope again with the recent election and sense that the aircraft carrier is slowly starting to pull back around.  I wonder how our smartest could either be that greedy or that distracted to let our country come to the point that we have one week to decide yes or no on $700B.  Sounds like a cliffhanger Hollywood movie that I've seen before.  I worry that even with all the real financial danger there will still be those who take advantage for their own personal gain.  And there will be many who pay no price for hijacking my 401k.
4. I wonder the state of our world when we spend hours updating Facebook and less time socializing in person.  It shows an incredible trust in the world to share all of this information.
5. What would the world be like today if Bush had held back on Iraq?  If we had tapped the overwhelming world empathy for good?  Who would be our new President-elect in the absence of all the overt stumbling?   
6. When I was a kid, I remember looking forward to the musical segments on Saturday Night Live.  A chance to see your favorite musicians and singers perform live.  Now I just fast forward through it all.  Is it because all the new artists are not my cup of tea or because I've lost the spirit of adventure that comes with discovering new music?  
7. Why does Anderson Cooper always look so sterile and detached in all his publicity shots for CNN?It is true for all the TV journalists - can you not be credible unless you are "dead serious"?  Also on CNN - I am amazed that Nancy Grace continues to have a show, taking advantage of family tragedies.  It feels like the worst kind of journalism.     
8. I was thinking the other day about the continuing loss of community.  No more milk man, the garbage man doesn't slow down and may not speak English.  The mailman is a nice guy but is also in a rush.  No one knows you at the grocery store anymore - until they look down and say "thank you, Mr. (name on receipt).  
9. Every time I go to the grocery store or to Blockbuster these days I get a 16" receipt and 6 printed coupons that I don't need.  If I gave them my e-mail address, could they e-mail my receipt? Wouldn't this be a nice way for retailers to "go green"?
10. I saw a sketch on MADTV that was a parody of Obama.  In the parody, the comedian sounded like a mix between Obama and an over-dramatized Captain Kirk from Star Trek.  I wanted to get tape of Obama and William Shatner to compare their cadence side by side.  There must be a web site that will let me do that . . .  

 OK, that felt like a therapy session.  Now I can breathe!  What's your stream telling you?