The Smokers on the Streets

When you go to the mall or the store, do you ever notice all of the ash trays and cigarette butts laying around? You leave the store or mall and someone is standing right at the exit/entrance just smoking right in front of everyone. I know because I used to be one of those people. An individual so obsessed with trying to get an adequate supply of nicotine just to concentrate. I would smoke everywhere and anywhere. I was so obsessed with something that I knew was harmful and could easily kill me. It was like a sick love affair and I was a hopeless romantic addicted to the sweet smell of death.
On Tuesday of last week, however, I started to notice that my chest and lungs was in serious pain. Before Tuesday I just passed it off as heartburn or something related to that. I went in to get X-rays at the hospital that I work and right away I knew I needed to quit smoking. The X-rays were printed and I ran them to my doctor. According to him, there is a lot of calcification that is present that shouldnt be for someone my age. The minute he told me this my heart sank. I knew that this was a problem that I could have easily prevented. I knew what smoking does and causes and yet I continued to be addicted like a young pup going for the milk over and over again from his mother. As of Tuesday, I have not had a single cigarette and will continue to quit as long as I can. Hopefully I dont go crawly back to my ex-lover.

Our Society

How many people like to experience nature and see the world as it should be? To those individuals nature is a great area to relieve stress and just clear your mind. This weekend I decided that I needed to clear my mind. Just forget about school, work, and all the problems in my life and just hike. I choose to go hiking along a small creek up on the Ortega Highway. I had hopes of completely letting go and not caring about anything in the world.
However, I started to Hike beside this creek and was soon very disappointed. I only walked maybe twenty feet and already there was trash scattered all over the bank. There was electrical wire all along the bank that was just discarded. I saw fish swimming around and inside bottles just laying on the creek floor. The farther I walked on the more disgusted I became with our society.
How can somewhere so pure and innocent be treated so cruelly? My question in the first place is how this much trash ended up up there? Do people just take their trash up to the creek and dump it? There was so much trash I could not believe it. What has our society come to that we through all our trash around. This concern really bothered me and actually ruined my trip up there. By the time I had finished my hike I had developed a headache and was not enjoying myself at all. Maybe this will be a lesson to people to watch where they throw their trash.

The Rainy Streets

How many people were out of the house driving today in the rain and wind? I personally hate driving in the rain but was forced to due to the fact that the school that I attend, CSUSB, is still open on Presidents Day. The short time that I was on the road, I was just waiting for someone to get into an accident. Here I am, driving 58 miles per hour on the freeway with rain pouring and wind howling. Even at this speed I lost control of my car momentarily and that was enough to stay at that speed. What really bothers me about our society is not how I drive in inclament conditions but rather how everyone else on the road is driving.

I know that many of you are saying, "WOW only 58 mph., that is way to slow." Well, Im sorry but I actually value my life and would not like to end up upside down dead. The thing that pisses me off is when drivers think it is ok to do 100 mph on the freeway in these conditions. I have seen numerous accidents happen on the freeway and those were in clament weather. Now imagine the roads are 300x worse and those people still want to drive recklassly. They are not only putting their lives in danger but also mine. I was actually happy to see someone get pulled over today because they were driving wayyyyy to fast.

This should be a lesson that in inclament weather such as today, you need to take extra precausions in order to make your life and those around you safe. Please be responsible. Its our neighborhood too.

Home Owners Association VS None

Have you ever lived in a neighborhood where you were told what you could and could not do with your home. I am refering to neighborhoods where there is a Home Owners Association (HOA). There are things that are both good and bad when it comes to an HOA. During class a fellow Collegue and myself had a row about weither a HOA is a good thing or not. I started to think about what they said and came to the conclusion that an HOA has both good and bad points.

The good thing about an HOA is that it keeps the homes around you looking clean and tidy. You get a sense of cleanleness in your environment and you feel comfortable. You no longer need to be embarrassed about the house next to you. You are all required to follow the same rules and regulations. It is not like the HOA is picking on you, you are simply having to follow the rules of the environment in which you live. The HOA provides responsibility in the neighborhood and also increases the value of your home. All of these reasons seem great if you want to have a HOA in your neighborhood.

The bad things about an HOA include not having the freedom to express yourself in your own home. THe house you buy is a part of you and should be expressed as such. Why should someone else try and limit your personality. Especially if you want to put up a fence and the HOA will not allow you too. This is simply rediculous because whos to say that fence wont make your house appear nicer. The HOA can also be problematic for artistic people because they cannot express themselves.

It is up to the individual to decide if an HOA is right for them.

The life we live......

The houses in Menifee California are all the same. This community is entirely track homes and there are only small variations in designs. The houses are all stucko and are usually two story. There are very few single story homes. They are all two story garages and usually follow the "tree bandaid" of Kunstler. There are a few different types of plants just in front of the house and are connected to lush grass and then concrete sidewalks. This picture caught my eye because although we have a large lake in menifee that is suppose to be used as a social gathering place it is hardly used at all. The lake only has visitors on it during summer hours and only a few people walk around the lake during the day.

Menifee is interesting because no one stops to talk to one another. Everyone is in a hurry to get home and relax after a hard days work. No one sits in there front yard and talks to people walking by. The golfers on the golf course just play there game and leave. There is no happy community in my eyes. I just see a bunch of people wasting there lives just going from work to home from work to home. This is not the way to live and this is not the best community for social gatherings.

I am from white orchids
from graves and soft white snow
I am from a single parent
(struggling just to make ends meet
but always holding on)
I am from a white tree with bells
who's long branches and silver bells
can still be heard

I'm from being teased and glasses
from Shelly and Richard
I'm from the straighten ups
and your no good
From grow up and shut up
I'm from the divorce of a stepparent
who's scares still have left their mark
and finally vindicated

I'm from a new step mother Sharon
a step brother I see as my own
From the place where she first hugged me
standing in the living room
The sign of relief we felt for that exact moment

In my house their now is a loving family
new photographs new memories
all the pain form the passed erased
I am from forgiving and forgetting
moving on just to keep hanging on