Vive!

Since I work at a French language and cultural center and I constantly surrounded by Francophones and Franophiles...basically many Frenchys.  I found this article on how the French raise children very interesting and true.  We offer French classes for children as small as 1-2 years old through teen age years.  There are always a bunch of kids here.  Let-me-tell-you.  The difference between the behavior of the children from the French mothers and the children from the American mothers is pretty shocking.  French children are generally quiet, polite and sweet.  And...sadly the American kids are loud and no-so-polite all of the time.  It's a good read and a good reminder.

Daughters

Last Saturday, I attended Glenn's funeral.  (See earlier post).  It was awful.  Beside the fact that such a young man died, (I found out he did commit suicide by jumping to his death).  The worst of the worst was watching his 4 year old daughter deal with the death of her father.  She made funny faces every time people looked at her.  She was just trying in the only way she knew to deal with the pain...by making faces.  Adults can't process such a tragedy....how can a 4 year old deal?  When her family would cry she would jump off the pew and run a picture she had colored over to them.  She was trying to help the adults through their pain....as she was in pain too.  She put a picture of a soccer ball on her dad's coffin.  I bawled.  I kept thinking why was the 4 year old at the funeral?  I think she's too young to go through that.  Too young. 

Glenn's girlfriend made a big scene at the start of the funeral.  His ex wife and daughter were sitting in the front row on the right side of the church.  The first 3 rows on the left side of the church were completely open.  The girlfriend had the funeral director go up to the ex wife and ask her to move to the other rows because the gf wanted to sit in those particular front row seats.  It was embarrassing.  The funeral director said, "his family would like these seats, please move over."  The ex wife said, "we ARE his family.  I'm his ex wife and this is his daughter."  They moved and my heart broke. 

I only hope they all find peace.

JoPa

Joe Paterno died over the weekend at the age of 85.  I watched as seemingly intelligent people posted their condolences on facebook.  Saying he will be missed and was a great man.  I beg to differ.  You are only as great as your worst act.  His actions or in-actions are unforgivable.  What about the young boys who were forever scarred by what happened?  What about them?  They are not "resting in peace" or being honored by people for their legacy.  Everytime I see his face on tv my stomach hurts.  He's not a winner, he's a cowardly loser.  Ok.  Rant over.  End scene.

Darling

Since I worked in radio for 15 years, I am often entertained how ass-backwards that business is all the time.  I also have to laugh at how incestuous radio is...and always has been.  An OLD radio "darling" is back on the air here.  She used to be a part of a big time morning show back in the 90's.  She got a big head and moved to LA because she was too big for this place.  So she blew this popsicle stand  (and everything in its way)...and headed west.  Well in LA she crashed and burned in an ugly way.  Worked at a couple small markets here and there where she crashed and burned there too.  I am not usually this mean about people who crash and burn (we all fail)...but this girl is someone I knew...and there's history there.

I actually hung out with her socially during the hey-days at her former show in the 90s.  Not because we were great friends per se but she was good friends with another girl. I liked her...she was fun to be around....don't get me wrong.  But this radio "diva" would write down the things that we did out partying then use our names on the air but change all the details to be more juicy. Oh joy. Explaining that to my mom was fun.  And,  I always felt like the star of an After School Special when we were out.  "No, I don't DO DRUGS."  Over and over again.  Ha.  Anyway. She’s a hot mess. And working in the same building with her again (a few years back when I was still in radio) she was the same as always, about one step away from imploding. Anyway. She's back on the air here...and I smell burning.  I think her act worked when she was younger….but not now. When she started on the show she was fresh faced and everyone loved watching/listening to her adventures. In fact, I remember being in a meeting back in the day and they described the show with with her former co-hosts as The Dick, The Dork and The Darling. Now, she’s no darling… just coo coo for cocoa puffs. Maybe the only entertaining part of the show will be listening to her cat fight with her current co-hosts, and that is only entertaining for about 10 minutes…and then yawn. I guess time will tell. 

Glenn

A friend from work died a few days ago.  He was a member of our board of directors....and I really liked him.  He was a few years older than me and had more money than anyone else I know.  He had a pent house in downtown overlooking the baseball field.  In fact, I joked with him that the patio at his pent house was bigger than my whole condo.  (It was)  This pent house was not his main home....just where he liked to hang out once in a while.  His main home was in Castle Pines next door to many Denver Broncos.  I was at a party at the Castle Pines mansion this summer.  He showed me his car "museum".  He had a Lamborghini, Mercedes, Porsche SUV and a classic Ford.  OK.  I will stop, my friend Glenn was loaded. 

No one has really told me (nor to people know) the whole story of how a 44 year old man died so young.  I know a few things.  I know he fell to his death off the patio at his pent house downtown.  I have heard he and his girlfriend were fighting before he died.  Lots of talking and rumors flying around.  Some think he jumped.  Some think he fell.  Some think she pushed him.  It's all so fraught.  Part of me really needs to know how he died.  I'm not sure why...but I do.  I think I can process his death that way.  Maybe make sense of it?  I dunno.  I don't think we will ever know the truth.  My heart hurts for his family.  I only mentioned how much money Glenn had to highlight how money doesn't buy happiness.  It sure makes things easier...but not happier.  I really hope he didn't jump.  I think that would suck more than anything.

Butterfly

We went to the Butterfly Pavilion today.  Ava freaking loves butterflies.  Every time she sees a butterfly in a book or outside, she starts saying "butterfly, butterfly, butterfly".  It's really quite sweet.  This place is really cool.  They have a room where the butterflies are flying around you.  One actually landed on Todd and was hitchhiking around on his shirt. 

I found it fascinating the immense amount of change a butterfly goes through in such a short period of time.  They start out as an egg that is laid on a leaf.  In a few weeks that egg turns into a caterpillar.  That caterpillar eats his face off for a couple weeks and then creates a cocoon.  They grow in that cocoon for a few weeks and become a beautiful butterfly.  The sad thing is that these beautiful butterflies only live a few weeks.  It's ironic that they spend a 3/4 of their lives trying to become a butterfly....something beautiful....and then only live a few more weeks.  Anyway.  Just made me think about how important it is to live each day and moment....because you never know how long you really have.