Birthday and nightmares

Ah, what a week it's been. Well, let’s start at the beginning as that's the best place to start.
On Sunday I signed up for Gamefly two week free trial. I should have waited as Monday is a holiday and no mail will be delivered but I wanted to make sure that the ball got rolling. I really like the idea of Gamefly, for about what half a game costs a month ($22) I can have 2 games at a time unlimited number a month. This way I don't get stuck with a crappy game, or one that I finish in a week. Well so far I'm mixed on my opinion of them, they games didn't come till yesterday (Thursday) from Pittsburgh. Seems to me it shouldn't take so long to come from a place where I can drive in less than 5 hours.

For the majority of what is about a week now I've been suffering (and that's the word too) from nightmares and insomnia. My sleep schedule is messed up as it is, usually split between a 3-4 hour nap in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the evening, so collapsing in bed was never a problem before, but lately I have had no luck getting deep restful sleep. I don't know what the culprit to my plight is, but I need to find a way to restore balance before I go insane. Someone I knew from long ago said to stop watching the news before bed (she hasn't kept close enough tabs to know my odd sleep schedule or that we don't have TV in our house) and I could see that all the bad news in the world could easily give people nightmares. One reason I'm very glad we have purged that from our household. Another shocking revelation on the TV front came to me yesterday. I found that the school my daughter goes to has been showing TV to the kids at lunch time. That makes me REALLY mad! I guess they show them "Dragontales", a PBS show, but I didn't have any say as to what was selected, how it's presented, and I don't know if they are showing it on or off air, which determines whether they see commercials. And that is a BIG deal. At Christmas time my daughter was excited about things that SHE wanted. A shark tooth necklace, robot bugs, etc, not what commercial society determined she SHOULD want. And I've seen a big difference in how she acts and how some of her friends act. The starkest example is how nuts some of these kids are going over zhu zhu pets. A small stuffed hamster pet that retails for under $10 was going for upwards of $80 on eBay around the holidays because they were scarce and kids were told they NEEDED them by commercial society. Honestly, they look like something out of a happy meal toy to me. Sorry, that's my little rant on commercial society and how it's force fed to our children.

My youngest started swim class today and she LOVES it :) She's also very good at it, must me all the love for bath time. She is performing at the next level up in many aspects and listening to the instructor and showing absolutely no fear. I'm very proud of her.

And finally it was my lovely wife's birthday this week! It's her last year as a twenty something (She posted it herself so I figure I'm safe posting it too). I feel bad that funds are tight this year and I couldn't do all I wanted to show her how special she is to me, but we still will have fun this weekend when I'm off work. It sounds corny and trite, but I'm reminded when it comes to gift giving events that one of the corner stones of Buddhism states that desire is the source of all suffering and cessation of that desire is the path to enlightenment. I never thought I’d be one to subscribe to that (I really like getting presents) but last Christmas was one of the "leanest" Christmas (as far as presents go) I've had and I enjoyed it the most I think because I didn’t want much so I wasn't disappointed when I didn't get it. I'll try to keep that frame of mind when it comes to my birthday in a month, but there a number of things I have my eye on (most of them are work related NEEDS though i.e. new boots) so wish me luck.

~Peace