The Brady bunch....

I am not sure what makes a dysfunctional family but I may know what one example may contain.  I am also not sure of how to trim a seven hundred page manual on it into a blog posting!  I did the laugh there that you would expect if you were me.  I grew up in so much dysfunction I wouldn't know were to start and wont begin to go to far into it.  Possibly another day with another angle.  Many, many good things came from our families very sick and dysfunctional background.  There were six of us kids and we all have done quite well.  Three of us are doing very well and the other three are doing well enough I would venture to say of them.  I also think every family including the Brady's have and need dysfunction on some level or scale.   Dysfunction is everywhere, not just in the family.  It is normal and regretfully sometimes everywhere we go.  And sometimes the level of dysfunction really isn't available in words, horrible is a good start though.  From never being able to figure out a burger with no pickles and extra onions PLEASE to our Government constantly on every level never being able to function without the dysfunction.  I see it everywhere and always have.  Some worse and more detrimental to others than some, some not necessarily bad but all of it dysfunctional and all of it affecting something else mostly adversely.  Function and dysfunction go together like butter and toast I think.  Or as I see it.  My immediate family now is absolutely wonderful and I honestly wouldn't change much.  I was going to say anything there but realized instantly that a few minor tweaks here and there if I were able to could be alright!  There is dysfunction in many areas of my family now.  Some of it is simply male confusion that hinders man and wife communication!  We figure it out, and some of it sticks around to baffle and continue to make me scratch my head and continue to wonder why is that so dysfunctional.  I think I may use different definitions than I have used here but all the same.  None of it is the really bad dysfunction, the healthy good stuff outweighs the bad 95-01.  Growing up it was almost reversed.  But as I said before, thankfully the flowers can still bloom even without all of the nutrients it needs to bloom. Sometimes that incredible adversity in a really dysfunctional family creates wonderful, fully functional future mostly non dysfunctional families!

Valleyfair adventures....

Whew, another awesome year as season pass holders again at Valleyfair.  My wife and I actually found time and sitters for the children last Friday and had a great time at Valleyscare-a Halloween adult only amusement park.  It was like being a kid again 100%.  At the end of the night after every scare attraction and ride as we were walking out we were going by an attraction called Carnevil and we asked if they were closed being the park closed at midnight and it was 11:57.  "Oh no" they said and they welcomed us in.  Last year I went through it alone and it was so so for a little scary.  My wife is scared of the dark almost and hates scary stuff.  I revel in it.  As we headed in right away I noticed it was not the same as the year before.  And as we passed through each point where somehow they would scare the you know what out of you, they all continued to follow us through this dark, freaky maze.  Finally after them some how separating us and hearing my wife scream like hell we were in a real deal horror flick and being reunited we end up in a hallway so to speak.  Well, they shut our only exit and about 20 or so ghoulish creatures  cornered us and uttered horrible things and sent us through some sort of claustrophobia causing inflatable thingy and we were genuinely scared.  They held us for only a minute or so but it seemed like an eternity.  I said I don't scare easy but I was losing it a little.  They were saying, this way and that way and were cackling and laughing at us.  Finally they allowed us to pass through a door we had idea how we couldn't find  and we ran through the rest as much as we could.  All night going through the other attractions I joked and said wouldn't it be messed up if we were really going to experience that crazy, slaughterhouse sort of movie reality in one of these.  My wife was not amused and then this happened.  What an evening.   The guy who doesn't scare was freaking like a little girl inside.  Good stuff I must say.  If you haven't experienced it and like a little thrill ride action mixed in, I HIGHLY recommend going.

Fakebook

The Fakebook Generation essay really summed up a lot of my thinking on social networking.  I ONLY have 75 friends on Facebook.  Would you say I don't have many friends or that I am unpopular?  Maybe if you are one of the many that have hundreds or even a thousand or more friends.  Come on man, no you don't.  I have 75 friends on facebook and half of them are friends of my wife's, friends of friends and that's about it. My real close friends are not even on Facebook!  The rest being some really old school friends that I may have never reconnected with had it not been for Facebook.  I receive friend requests often from either people I do not remember or just someone I might have known briefly or we went to the same school.  Even my sometimes morbid curiosity doesn't allow me to approve their friend requests.  I don't give a you know what about what they are going to post and I imagine they just want to add 1 more friend to their list.  When I have time or a reason to post something, I definitely don't want someone who is just nosey or really not my friend reading or possibly seeing my moments in time that I choose to share.  So on one hand I weigh the it's cool to reconnect and read a little humor, or alot if you are lucky enough to read my crap!  And on the other hand, what a waste of time.  My wife spends alot of time online looking at photos and she has alot of business friends and also alot of parents of children born early and with health problems.  So for her, most of the time she is actually connecting in a way that I think is great.  Sharing stories and experiences and sometimes just an online shoulder to cry on.  I notice at the college just walking by computer labs I see people always on Facebook.  Also in my own class there is always people on Facebook.  Every single time and always the same people.  I am so popular that when I do log in, other than new friends requesting to be my friend that 99% of the time I decline, there is no activity on my page much.  Since beginning school I rarely even check it out anymore.  I find it much more enjoyable to check out the discussion boards for all my classes.  That is real and the interaction is beneficial to me, and fun.  Myspace used to log the last time you logged in and others could see that also.  All in all, I see it as poison to certain people who post way to personal stuff and waste so much time just looking at what others are posting.  And to others who choose Facebook time over real people interaction time.  I know those people and oddly, when I communicate with them it is like talking to the enquirer magazine with all of the crazy, gossipy stories they get from online sources that they take on as reality.  And to others like myself that don't see it as a popularity contest of friends and just check it out from time to time when something more beneficial is not available to do, great.  Good things also can become of it.  Free way to contact friends and family from afar, finding old friends and the like.  I will be curious to what is yet to come as I am sure something new and exciting will surely rival and replace Facebook as they have pretty much done to Myspace.

Back to the vacation times....

Well, I have been lucky enough again to have enjoyed so much vacation time this summer.  We also rent a different cabin on different lakes each summer as a family.  My wife, our two mini me's, my father in law and sister in law and her daughter.  usually by the end of it, we say next year we are doing it alone!  We never do.  It was an adventure as usual.  Four adults, city folks at that trying to hop on a boat and hit the water with but  a clue and a vague memory from previous years mishaps on how this all works.  We finally get it running after grinding gears I was not aware that boat motors have.  Finally, after all of that we get to the middle of the lake and decide to launch the tube and begin pulling the kids as they were very excited to get on with that.  I cannot even put into words well enough what this crazy part of the adventure amounted to.  After bad tying of the pull rope, almost having the young ones bump into the harmless motor, until grandpa decided to gun it.  Did I mention the motor quit and had some mechanical issues right away also?  All in all, the noise and chaos of scared kids and all of us freaking out with kids about ready to jump out of the raft and all of that I am sure entertained other boaters and residents very much.  We have but one adventure left for the years vacations.  It was going to be us returning to Las Vegas for our five year anniversary.  Yes, we got married on a drunken holiday-St. Patrick's day in Vegas.  it was perfect for us.  We flew our close family out to meet us, we drove and had an adventurous time and we all had a great time on that trip as well.  Well, duty calls in another department so to say, so toodles for now.