Was life better in the past?

Life is so different now than it was 20-30 years ago. I know this because I spend at least an hour each night going over homework with my 2nd graders. I do not remember my parents ever sitting down with me to help me with home work in the 2nd grade. I don't ever remember my parents sitting down and helping me with homework EVER, for that matter, but certainly I didn't need help in the 2nd grade.

I also remember getting up early in the morning and telling my parents that I was going out to play. I would roam the neighbor hood and not come back until lunch time. I remember doing this as early as age 5. If my kids walk around the block without me knowing it, I freak out. It is way too dangerous to even let them play in the front yard without supervision. You never know when some sicko will drive by and snatch them out of the yard when you aren't looking. Now I'm not saying that couldn't have and didn't happen 20-30 years ago, but I suppose that we lived in a day and age where information wasn't spread around the world as quickly, so you just didn't hear about it as much.

And what about the cost of things. I got a birthday card a few weeks ago from my insurance company and inside it compared the cost of certain things in 1975 with the cost of those things today. It was quite alarming to see how cheap things were back then compared to what they cost today.
I got a 2% raise at the first of this year. Unfortunately, our health insurance premium went up more per month that the raise amounted to. Therefore, my take home pay is less this year than it was last year. It's funny how you can get paid more per hour, but bring home less.

So are things really that different now? Or is it just that 20-30 years ago I was a kid and didn't think or worry about these things, and now that I'm an adult, I can't help but think about them on a daily basis?

Gasp! Not Porn!

The other day my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him I wanted to get the new KY his and hers and I wanted to have sex with him in every position we could manage. His eyes bulged a bit and his mouth flopped open, but then his smiled a great big smile and said, "OK!" So on my Birthday, after working all day, I stopped at Walgreen's before I came home and bought the KY. That was the only item I bought. The lady standing in line in front of me glanced in my direction and saw my item. She then proceeded to frown at me. FROWN. What? Haven't you ever wanted to have fun sex before? The cashier kind of smiled and told me to have a good evening. I informed her that I planned to. And yes we did have a good evening, but I must say that I was a bit disappointed with the KY. I don't think we experienced the great whistle blowing sex advertised in the commercials when we used it. But perhaps we didn't have enough foreplay, so maybe we will try it again. But this brings me to my point. Why are adult people so embarrassed to talk about sex. Why does the word SEX have to be so taboo? I just don't get it. Porn is a multimillion dollar business, yet nobody I know admits to watching it. I love porn. I watch it on a weekly basis, and sometimes it really makes me hot. Sometimes it makes me laugh my ass off. Some of the faces they make are hilarious. And the noises, well you just have to chuckle. When I watch porn, weather it is with my hubby or by myself, I find myself criticizing the women. Mainly their breasts. For some reason, it is more enjoyable to watch women with big breasts than it is to watch women with little breasts. I find myself feeling a bit envious, because they look like they are having so much fun. Some of the porn shows on Cinemax have great story lines. I like Co-Ed Confidential and others. The only kind of porn that turns me off is same sex porn. I really don't get off watching girl on girl action, and I refuse to watch guy on guy action.

So for the discussion part of this post..... What kind of porn turns you on? Or are you too embarrassed to tell?

Dashboard confession?

I was sitting in my SUV at a red light taking a break from the rat race I call my daily commute and I took a moment to look around. To my left there was an acne faced teenager using his rear view mirror to inspect a freshly popped pimple on his face. A man turning in front of me had his finger stuck so far up his nose that I wondered if he was tickling his brain yet. There was a woman behind me making hand gestures while talking to air, or perhaps she was conversing with the voices inside her head, or maybe just the person on the other end of the blue tooth stuck in her ear. All of these sightings struck a funny chord with me and I began to laugh hysterically. What is it about our cars that makes us feel so comfortable that we will let our transgressions go as quickly as the flicked cigarette butt out the window? Is there anything we won't do in our cars? We pick our noses, pick our pimples and pick at the buttons on our radio with the same sticky fingers. We serenade the dome light at the top our lungs, and in the next breath, we curse at the idiots holding up traffic. We loose our virginity in the back seat, and smoke our first joint in the front. We love our cars with passion, and glee, and ride them a hard as we do life itself. What is it about the interior of that reinforced steel and safety glass that makes us feel so safe, so protected from the harsh realities of the world? If we really knew the answer, would we feel the same way? I'm not sure we would. I'm not sure I want to know. But what my inquiring mind does want to know is what transgressions do you let go of when you climb behind the wheel and feel the rumble of the motor through your feet? Yes, my inquiring mind wants to know. At least I think it does.....