Why be Normal?

Unless you haven’t turned on a television, saw the cover of a tabloid magazine or surfed the internet for any period of time, you have heard of the Gosselin family from the TLC show John and Kate Plus 8.

John and Kate Plus 8 just premiered season 5 on Monday despite reports that John Gosselin has left the family, has cheated on Kate Gosselin with a 23 year old and Kate Gosselin has cheated with her bodyguard.

Life was not always so tumultuous for the Gosselin couple.

Here they are when Kate gave birth to their twins Madeline and Kara.

Although, in retrospect, John doesn’t look so happy in this picture either.  Maybe it was taken a second too early and he was smiling ecstatically immediately after this picture was taken. 

Would life be different for John and Kate Gosselin if they stopped having children here?

Obviously, they wouldn’t have their television show on TLC, they wouldn’t have their beloved sextuplets.  But really, would John Gosselin still believe that he was “in prison” and still need to “go out like I couldn’t in my twenties”?

Anyone with children knows that even when you only have one child, you are a slave to their whims, their feedings, their need to be held.  Times six children at once and it is only reasonable that the whole situation could quickly spiral out of control.

Is Kate Gosselin a control freak?

Of course she is.  With eight children (nine when you count John), someone has to step up and take control of the family.   Kate Gosselin might go way over the top, not allowing her children to use markers at a Crayola factory or not wanting them to get dirty, but what she can she is the hours of work it will take to get her entire brood clean and she is trying to avoid it.

I think Kate Gosselin has worked at trying to be less controlling despite the fact that someone has to be the alpha in such a large family and it is clear that John Gosselin is happy to step aside and let her take the reigns. 

Here’s  one of John Gosselin’s now infamous bar photos taken with young women who he met out one night.

Is it really a big deal?

Well, no, not if you don’t have eight children at home and a reality television show.  But does John Gosselin really want his children be able to google him someday and see this?

You can’t have a television show, make millions of dollars, take all kinds of free, beautiful trips and then whine that you are under too much scrutiny and just want to be John, not John and Kate Plus 8.  You are John and Kate Plus 8 and that is the reality of it all.

In the Season 5 premier, both John and Kate aired their frustrations with the paparazzi, public scrutiny and with each other.  Although the Gosselins were trying to clear the air, it might have been a bit too much dirty laundry for a family show.  Either the Gosselins are putting it all out there in an effort to save the show despite their potential divorce, or they are adding drama and scandal to their show in order to boost ratings.

Regardless of how anyone feels about the Gosselin family, I hope that they are able to find the love they once had for each other.  Despite all the scandal, harsh words and hurt feelings, I hope that John and Kate Gosselin can reconcile.   Not for the kids, but for each other.  John and Kate were happier once before their lives spiraled out of control.  The Gosselins will show me that their is hope for any marriage to work if you just work at it hard enough if they are able to reconcile.

They just renewed their vows last year in Hawaii.  Now they just have to stick by them.

Have you ever waited in line for hours, just to buy the newest beanie baby?  Me neither, but I know intelligent people who have because they believed that some day that beanie baby would be worth money.  Yes, some collections may be worth something, someday to someone, but even if you have that “rare, valuable beanie baby” you still need to find a buyer.

Recently I’ve been working with elders in a guardianship capacity and one home in particular is that of an extremely successful hoarder.  In this home I have found some of the oddest collections and I can’t for the life of me figure out why she would save some of the things she did (well, yes, I do know, it’s dementia, but at some point I believe she was relatively sane and these collections have been going on for years.)

I found the piece de resistance when I found the collection of old dentures.  We’re not talking an old pair or two, we’re talking 30 pairs of random dentures, some so old that even the dentures were yellowed.

She also had rock collections, but not your typical pretty and rare rocks.  She has container after container of driveway rocks - hundreds of pounds worth.  I found bird feathers all labeled (many were the rare pidgeon feather) and a collection of 100 pairs or more of eyeglasses.

What leads us to gather, to hoard, to collect?

What starts out as a mild hobby can quickly become out of control if we don’t watch out as in the case of this woman.  Many collectors believe that what they are collecting will have a significant value some day in the future and really, this woman also had some books and antiques that have netted her close to $25,000 in an auction, but the teeth and bird feathers were not part of this.

Here are a few collections for your enjoyment.  Are you a collector of rare, odd, weird things?  Or are you a hoarder that will need your home cleaned out by a back hoe?

A wasp nest collection.   Really now, why would you collect wasp nests and then display them in your home?

Bazooka Gum wrappers.  At least you have the benefit of chewing the gum first, it’s cheap and the collection is easy to stash in a drawer.

A beanie baby collection.  One of the biggest crazes of the 90’s when middle aged women would run to their local beanie baby store and stand in line for the newest one.  Has anyone made money off of these?  If you have, proove me wrong.

Another gum wrapper collection, but really what is the point of 1/2 wrappers of old wrigley’s and dentyne gum?  Another good collection because it is 1.  free 2.  doesn’t take up a lot of room 3.  Easy to throw away.

Hubcap collections are interesting because they too are free, but rely on the fact that cars lose hubcaps all of the time and the collector finds them on random roadways.  Really, what do you do with a bunch of hubcaps besides decorate your garage?

A rusty old license plate collection.  Can you spell tetanus?

A Pez dispenser collection can be great, if it doesn’t get too out of hand.  The problem with this is once you open it, the dispenser becomes “less valuable” therefore you can’t get the benefit of eating the candy.

A collection in old lady homes everywhere, the spoon collection.  I say, why not?  It doesn’t take up much room and gives you membership to the AARP.

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Photo by:  Bas Driessen

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Really, I am a relatively low maintenance person.  I don’t ask for much.  I like my coffee hot, a little cream and sugar if you got it, and a bagel with cream cheese.  I’m willing to pay Dunkin Donuts several times a week or more for this simple yet satisfying breakfast.  $4.45 to be exact.

Is it really that hard to not burn a bagel?  This is what I was given today and by the time I drove a mile or two away and started eating, it was way too much work to turn around and go back to complain. 

In this economy, you would think that people would aim for a higher standard of service.  Of course, I know it is just a bagel and if I wasn’t so lazy I’d make my own bagel at home.  But, I am willing to pay for the convenience of a nice, warm, toasted bagel as I ride on my way to pick up my nieces and instead I get a hard, burnt, crispy bagel that probably left a dent in the road after I threw it out the window.

I got used to their worsening coffee, “flavor shots” instead of brewing flavored coffee.  Today, the coffee was as expected:  weaker than before, too hot to drink, and sadly flavored with what I think is hazlenut but could be blueberry.  One never knows.

You know, after all of my complaining about Dunkin Donuts, I should just make my own coffee, fill a travel mug and toast my own bagel.  Maybe I will, but tomorrow will be another morning after a night of interrupted sleep and I will likely opt once again for subpar service, a crusty bagel and weak coffee.  I guess you get what you settle for.

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My niece with her bottle of milk, walks around the living room and keeps putting her bottle down on the ground.  Of course, her mother made sure that the bottle was clean, washed, rinsed and sanitized before giving it to my niece.  What my sister forgot about was:

Sprinkles, their new, six week old kitten who was on the prowl for something good.  Here she is waiting patiently for that bottle to fall as my daughter sleeps soundly in the pack and play above her. 

They aren’t used to having a kitten.  Sprinkles is my sister’s first cat since we had one when we lived with our parents which was over 15 years ago. 

Sprinkles the kitten didn’t have to wait long for my niece to let the bottle drop to the floor with some much desired milk still in it.

My niece let it drop and Sprinkles came right out from under her hiding place to get a nice treat.  You’d think her aunt (me) would be smart enough to pick it up and stop the cat, but I thought it was cute and funny that the cat pounced so quickly on the bottle and I took out my camera phone instead.

Of course my niece retrieved this bottle a few minutes later and decided to finish it up.  Sprinkles didn’t eat much.  Oops.

 Farrah Fawcett leaving the hospital after treatments for anal and liver cancer.

 If you are looking for a daily dose of humor, today is not the day.  I have been watching the now very public cancer battle that Farrah Fawcett has been fighting for several years now.

 I am digusted that the media is inferring that Farrah Fawcett is “cashing in” on her cancer battle.

Cashing in?  Does the woman on the left look like she is cashing in?

Farrah Fawcett is fighting a losing battle with anal and liver cancer.  A special will be aired tonight on NBC.  Of course, there is money involved, but does it look like Farrah is going to benefit from any of this money?

Scandal has erupted that the producer of her NBC special was threatened by Ryan O’Neal, Farrah’s long time companion and kicked out of the production.  Craig Nevius is now suing her.  What?

Suing a woman who is dying of cancer because he hasn’t gotten a piece of the pie?  Talk about trying to cash in on another person’s suffering.

If Farrah Fawcett wants to produce a special about her battle with cancer, shedding necessary light on the subject, then I thank her.  If she “cashes in”, great, but again, will she benefit from any of the money?

We don’t get upset when sports stars make millions each season or actors make millions per movie, are we really going to bash Farrah Fawcett for telling her story and making money in the process?

It is my guess that Farrah Fawcett and her partner Ryan O’Neal would trade both of their fortunes for a cancer free Fawcett.  The idea that they are cashing in on her illness takes away from her pain, her battle with the disease and her strength to share what is a difficult, trying time in her life.

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