Truth or Fiction: The Power of Love #1

Lucy looked down at the engagement ring on her finger.  It was perfect.  The sparkling princess cut diamond was only a quarter carat but it was plenty big enough for her hand.  The rest of the band illuminated with more small diamonds making the brilliance of the design; breath-taking.

"Is that guy going to buy it?"  Lucy's co-worker, Marilyn, asks, breaking her fantasy about Dylan proposing after a walk along the beach.

"Huh, what?"  Lucy pulls the ring off her finger and places it back in the display box.  For a year, Lucy has been staring at "her" ring.  It caught her eye the first day on the job at Paris Jewelers, and whenever customers look at it, a part of her cringes in fear that someone else might wear her ring.  The problem was Lucy didn't have a man.  Even though she fantasized about Dylan being the man in her life, she knew they were only friends.  Her brain knew, it was her heart that kept her in the grey area and constantly questioning everything.

"You know, it's your fault if you sell it."  Marilyn adds before a small grin slides over her wrinkled face.  "You could go ahead and buy it for yourself, if you want it that bad."

Lucy straightened the display of engagement rings.  "I really don't want to buy my own engagement ring,"  Lucy shrugs at the thought, "it'd be a new low for me if I did that.  Plus, it really won't help get me a man."

Marilyn chuckles to herself.  A widow for ten years, she often reminds Lucy of the pains of marriage, and the freedom and independence she's gained since her husband's death.

Lucy blew her bangs out of her face while avoiding eye contact with Marilyn. It would only be another minute until Marilyn would say something that would sting worse than the thought of buying her own engagement ring already had.  "You could get engaged to yourself and spare yourself the drama."  Eyes remaining downward, Lucy focuses on the ground. The queen bee has stung again.

All her life, Lucy wanted to find someone worthy of her love.  She wanted a marriage someday and now she was in her 30's and not one step closer to being in a relationship.  She had Dylan but he would never be marriage material.  She was lost in another one sided relationship without any hope in a future.

Marilyn's words cut Lucy's last bit of hope she had of receiving the quarter carat ring.  Lucy's world began losing it brilliant color and ideas of romance, along with her own sense of clarity.

Father's Day and a Side Sermon

Happy Father's Day to the amazing dad's out there.  I attempted to buy something for my dad at the store but nothing seemed to really "fit" him.  None of the cards sounded like him, none of the silly shirts looked like something he would wear, and well, I gave up on trying to find the perfect gift and card and instead, gave him some chocolate, cooked him some dinner, and wrote him a poem.

This is a poem for my father

and he's a dad, like no other

He's got a big heart

but be aware when he farts!

It'll make you want to roll the windows down

and wish you lived in another town

Cause he's a big scary guy

He makes all the men in my life, nervous on the fly

making them sweat with fear

everytime he says the word, beware!

Yes this guy is my dad

makes me laugh when I am sad,

makes me scream when I am mad, 

and makes me smile when I'm glad

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

I put together a feast of Chinese food.  General Tso's to be exact.  And for some reason, I thought I was cooking for twenty... or that it was Thanksgiving... or something, because I made WAY too much food.  However, it was delicious and we'll be happy to eat left overs for lunch tomorrow.

This morning at church, we continued to talk about the same theme we've been discussing for a few weeks now.  The topic is righteousness.  The discussion has been amazing and I enjoy learning so much about a God who is so faithful to his creation and the bottom line is God is love.  Anyway, most weeks, I jot down notes.  I do this because I always think I will go back and read them, and they will make sense.  I have yet to have this happen.  So today, I simply listened and before I knew it, I wrote an acronym, summing up the lesson.

Here it is:

As it is with all faith, belief, and religion, what it means to you is open to interpretation.  In my mind, it makes logical sense.  It also makes me appreciate the hymn, Blessed Assurance, even more.  Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine, oh what a foretaste of glory divine...This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long....

It's True. Chivalry is dead.

I vowed to stop blogging about such personal things like my lack of a love life and the woes of being single, but since I declared this blog free from drama, I've realized I don't have much else to write about.  See, I'm single and I want to change that, and my relationship status and lack-of-one is very important to me, so how could I avoid writing about something important to me?  It was then that it occurred to me that I should be sticking with my voice as a writer instead of forcing a new voice and creating a new blog just to please people.  And you know what, people pleasing hasn't really gotten me anywhere in life so I'm kinda over it.  I'll make happy the people I wanna make happy but I'm done bending over backwards for people who don't appreciate me anyway.  With that rant aside, let's move on to proving that chivalry is dead.

I'm frustrated with life, with love, with men, with dating, and with relationships in general.  Hoping to find a little hope about the possibilities of having my someday come true,  I decided to pick up a book on the Age of Chivalry. I was hoping this book would fill me in on what I'm missing in life and romance. I opened up the book and admired the men and their shining armor. I even found myself a little bit giddy as I thought of movies like First Knight, A Knight's Tale, Robin Hood and all these other movies about men fighting for their damsels in distress.

Honestly, what's not to love about a knight in shining armor, or a man in a suit, or a man in a tie....or a man?!?!

About three sentences into this nonfiction book it occurred to me that chivalry is dead.  I discovered something they like to keep hidden about the famous knights in shining armor.... I slammed down the book and dramatically shouted to my mother in the other room, "It's true.  Chivalry is dead!"  I gasped in horror.

Naturally, my mother had no idea what I was talking about, so I showed her the book I was reading.  Turns out the word chivalry comes from a French word which simply means horses. 

Horses!  Since when does true love have anything to do with horses?  

I looked in to it a little bit more and came up with a theory.

From the Free Dictionary website:

Word History: The Age of Chivalry was also the age of the horse. Bedecked in elaborate armor and other trappings, horses were certainly well dressed, although they might have wished for lighter loads. That the horse should be featured so prominently during the Age of Chivalry is etymologically appropriate, because chivalry goes back to the Latin word caballus, "horse, especially a riding horse or packhorse." Borrowed from French, as were so many other important words having to do with medieval English culture, the English word chivalry is first recorded in works composed around the beginning of the 14th century and is found in several senses, including "a body of armored mounted warriors serving a lord" and "knighthood as a ceremonially conferred rank in the social system." Our modern sense, "the medieval system of knighthood," could not exist until the passage of several centuries had allowed the perspective for such a conceptualization, with this sense being recorded first in 1765.

The Meaning:

The qualities idealized by knighthood, such as bravery, courtesy, honor, and gallantry toward women.

So to break it down, chivalry is dead because it was during the 14th century when men lived with a sense of bravery, honor and nobility.  On top of that, these men rode horses.  Concluding that chivalry is dead because the closest thing to a horse that man rides these days is a Mustang.

Back in the day,  knighthood said a lot about a man.  He was courageous, honorable, and served his duty.  He was romantic and willing to die for a woman, and, if he was a knight, he was most likely wealthy.  After all, those suits weren't cheap!  The better suit for the better man....or at least, wealthier man.

Still, it comes down to the horses.  It is the horses who are the true "gentlemen."  They carry the heavy loads for anyone, they go the distance, they are courageous in battle, and selflessly risk everything.  

And this is the problem with men today!  Men don't want to sacrifice for their damsel in distress, men don't stand up for what is right when it isn't the cool thing to do, and men don't treat women with much respect.  Clearly, we have no gentleman heroically saving damsels in distress because men no longer ride on horses.

I guess I'll stop waiting for my knight in shining armor to come in on a white horse.  Or maybe I'll visit a horse farm.... after all, horses might be the key to happily ever after.

I want bacon.

I am still in denial that I live on a farm.  Oh, yes, I'm willing to admit that this once city girl is living in the country and actually enjoying it, but I can't bring myself to say that I live on a farm.  Even if it is a small farm that consists of 9 chickens, 3 pigs, and 3 cats.  No, they're all just animals that we take care of, and I would probably call them my pets before I call it a farm.

As I was doing my farm chores, walking around outside, I headed towards the area where the pigs are fenced in.  They are smelly pigs.  And they are stupid pigs.

For some reason, these pigs love to stand in their water troff.  More than standing in it, they like to dump it out so they can have some more mud to play in.  Rain has fallen from the sky, in heavy doses, for the past few days, leaving the pigs plenty of mud to sink in.  Still, they're dumb enough to poor out their water and nearly dehydrate each day.  At least, this is how they act.

Which is why I've found enjoyment in giving them their water.  They run like fools to the hose as soon as it turns on and the water runs through it.  Like thirsty children, they run under the stream of water with their tongues hanging out and mouths wide open, gulping the water as fast as they can.  It is after a minute of this amusement, then do I find the water bucket and fill it up, distancing myself far enough away from the edge of the fence to avoid being splatter by the mud.

I'm never far enough.  But we'll discuss my mud baths another day.

Well, one particular night, after a beautiful rainstorm, I took a walk around the property.  We live on five acres and have a walking path around the exterior of the land.   It's a great 10 minute walk when I want some "fresh" country air or a little bit of exercise.  I noticed the hogs were out of water...again.  I had only filled it up an hour earlier.  This could only mean one thing, they dumped the water instead of drank it.

I started up the water and the pigs did what they always do, run stupidly, splash in the mud, and open up their mouths and drink.  Well, dufus pig #1, drank and inhaled, never moving away from the constant stream of water.  Next thing I know, I have a pig that is practically drowning himself due to his lack of water.  I lifted the hose towards the water troff when all the sudden I hear... 'bbbbuuuuuuurrrrrpp.....buuuuuuurrrrp..."  The low rumble of air being release from the pigs throat caught me off guard.  Amused, I watched as the pig continued to belch like we often do when we get too much water in our system in such a short time.

Because I am so kind and compassionate towards these animals, I couldn't help but say, "that's what you get for being stupid and dumping out your water all the time...sucker!"  I went on to tell the pigs that if they would drink the water instead of dumping the water, they wouldn't be dying of thirst every couple of hours...but alas, the pigs didn't listen because as soon as I filled up the water troff, they dumped it over.

"Stupid smelly pigs."  I mumble as I walk back and turn the water on again, to repeat the same dance as before.

And these pigs are just as stupid at the chickens....

Discovering Technology...

So I just discovered the most amazing app on my tablet.  I'm sure it's been there all along but I had no idea it existed.  And, I'm sure there is something available like it on my laptop as well but I'm not very good with technology.

Basically, now I can just talk into my tablet and it interprets and writes down every word I say.  Now I can blog when I'm driving (even though it only takes me about 20 minutes to get home but I can come up with a pretty nice blog in 20 minutes of talking to myself) and that's pretty awesome.

See, I've been having some time management problems.  I work all day, attempt two side businesses which are failing miserably (aprons and that author stuff), I try to have a social life, attend a zumba class and I'm having a hard time finding the time to blog and work on my second book.

The way this discovery came about was when my brother (who has a birthday today, Happy Birthday Brother B!) showed me a karaoke app on his smartphone.  Since I enjoy karaoke, he handed me the phone and I sang into it, all the while wondering why I couldn't hear any music.  Talk about a horrible sound in my ears as we played it back and somehow the music was finally playing.  I was way off pitch.  Pretty much, it has ruined me from ever singing out loud again.

My brother tells me I should blame it on technical error and it I would have heard the music playing in the background, I would have sounded better... so I tried it while hearing the music, I'm ruined. For-ev-er.

It was at this moment, I became fascinated with the idea that my voice was recorded on a phone simply by singing into it.  So my brother, showed me how I can send texts, emails and everything else by speaking in the phone.

"NOOOOO WAY... let me get my tablet."  I jumped up from the patio chair, ran inside the house and found my charging tablet.  (Let me tell you, that Candy Crush game knows how to kill a battery...and time.)  And there it was, the same microphone button on my tablet as was on his smartphone.

The next day, on my lunch break, I opened my blogger app and gave it a try, and what do you know, now, I can blog on the go.  So how's that for multitasking?!?! 

The only down side to this is the lack of punctuation and the fact that unless I enunciate, sometimes words don't get recorded.  Still, it's a lot faster editing a blog than it is finding extra time to do the whole thing from scratch.

*Most of this was recorded.  See, I told you it was awesome.