Everyday it becomes more apparent that people have forgotten all about common courtesies. The simple words please, excuse me, sorry, and thank you have all but left the English language. Someone call Mr. Webster and tell him to remove those words from his dictionaries! I went to Disney this past weekend when I realized just how much we have forgotten about these courtesies and have not taught our children the effect of these simple words. I was bumped into 6 times in one day at Disney. Out of those six none of them said excuse me or sorry. One was a boy about 10 years old and he was running backwards when he ran into me. Not only did his parents not make him apologize or yell and him for doing this, they laughed really hard at the fact he bulled me over. I can not tell you how many kids I heard saying give me that, now! I never heard a parent correct the kids by telling them please is a better way to ask for something. They even bought them the items that they demanded, and you guessed it, it was not followed by a thank you! I am begging and pleading with you folks, please bring back please, thank you, excuse me, and sorry back into our everyday life. Thank you! With continued hope - Mel.

I am leaving today to go to Orlando for a weekend getaway with my mom and niece. We are going to Epcot and MGM. I have typed a new resume and I will be submitting it to the casting office. I am so excited, I hope I hear back from them, but I won't get my hopes to far up. I am about to hit the open rode and I will post again when I get back on Monday! With continued hope - Mel.

Yet another attack on London today. Not nearly as devastating as the last, but shut the city down none the less. Witnesses are reporting that a gentleman on one of the passenger trains had a backpack on that exploded into a cloud of smoke. The witnesses believe it did not detonate properly and that gentleman with the backpack was very upset by this. The explosions at the other locations had the same problem, lots of smoke and that's it. I hope the investigators in London catch these so called suicide bombers and then make them rote away in a dark hole in a prison for the rest of their lives. It makes you wonder that if this can happen there so close to one another, how easily can something like that happen here on our public transportation. My heart goes to London, I can't even imagine what that feels like to be hit twice in such a short amount of time period. With continued hope - Mel.

Well, I am doing it, I am updating the resume. I went out at lunch today and bought nice linen paper and the resume folders and mailers. I am sending it out to all the wonderful places that I WANT to work at for the jobs I WANT to have. No more settling for me. Don't get me wrong I have a good job that pays ok, but it is a job, not the career I want. Maybe its the fact that I can go nowhere in my job that I am at. So all of you out here in blog world wish me luck because I am going to need it! With continued hope - Mel.

So I just logged on to get my email when I came across an article about a college girls lacrosse team visiting the White House. There was a picture attached and 9 out of the 11 girls in the front row were wearing flip flops! OMG! You are one of the most historical and important places in the good ole' US of A and meeting (like him or not) the President and you say "Huh these brown flip flops really look cute with this outfit, I think I'll wear these."! In the article it says about how all the parents are mortified about the girls wearing the shoes. I realize this is summer, and there is a time and a place for everything. Flip flops were made for the beach or a casual night out or a trip to the mall, NOT for business attire and definitely NOT for meeting the President. I believe it is disrespectful and lacking of common sense. These girls defend the wearing of the flip flops saying they were not the "beach" kind. Who cares they were FLIP FLOPS. Oh, and to all those girls on that lacrosse team, when you graduate from college and you get a job, your boss is not going to appreciate you wearing flip flops to the office. They might just fire you! You can find the article here: http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/3771256With continued hope -Mel.

Here are some of my pics for TV shows, movies at the theater, and movies on DVD. What I am currently enjoying on TV right now is the reality show INXS on CBS, where they are trying to find the next lead singer of INXS. The majority of the singers are really talented vocally and also instrumentally. The only problem is this show is on three days a week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Monday is the actual reality portion of it showing them living in a house together and picking their competition songs. On Tuesday is the performance show and is the can't miss of the week. I am not a huge rock fan, but all the contestants put on great show. I must admit I am loving it even more that American Idol, these people have some real talent. On Wednesday is the vote off. The fans vote on Tuesday night and the lowest three go in front of INXS. They sing an INXS song of the bands choice. After all three have sang, INXS sends one of them packing. No long, drawn out half hour of cheesy jokes to fill the time before they let someone go. I really enjoy this program. Now for movies out at the theaters now. I just saw Wedding Crashers and it was the crude humor that you think it is going to be. It was great. I enjoyed it because who hasn't lied about who they are and what they do? Who hasn't thought about sneaking into a wedding they weren't invited to because it looked like a good time was going on inside? I admit sometimes they went for the childish humor, but I laughed really hard at some parts and that offset the stupid humor. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars. I also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I LOVED it. I am a huge Burton fan and this was very Burton. I almost forgot I was watching Johnny Depp at points. I do feel that some of the scenes in the movie were rushed, maybe because of budget, maybe because they felt kids wouldn't sit that long, who knows, but there were a couple of scenes that needed to be a little bit longer. I didn't miss the musical aspect of the original one bit. The Ompah Loompas still sang, but no one else did. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars! On DVD, I rented Coach Carter. I really enjoyed this movie. I wasn't sure I was going to like because of the been there seen that feel the previews had. Even though this story line has been played out this one seemed to have a fresh air about it. I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars. So those are my pics for must see TV, movies, and DVD's. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did! With continued hope - Mel.

I decided this past weekend to head to the mall, which is not a new idea for me, but this time I went with a purpose. I needed, ok strike that, wanted a new dress for my birthday that is coming up. I went to the Boca Town Center Mall because they have all the main stores under one roof. Nordstrom, Sacks, Bloomies and Macy's, as well as all the wonderful boutique stores. I was there for about 4 hours and I left with 1 skirt and 1 top and neither was the dress I went there to get. I was having the worst lucked finding what I wanted, capped off by rude store employees. I went into Cache and was trying on a dress when I asked the saleswoman if I could have it in another size. She looked at me like I had two heads and then finally said to me, oh that fabric gives when you wear it. That's great, I told her but the fabric was 97% cotton and was going to shrink which would do nothing for the little bit of give the fabric had. She told me that I should just buy the size I had on and then when I wear it to either handwash it or Febreeze the dress. I went back into the fitting room fuming mad. Wouldn't it have been a lot easier to just get the next size up instead of finding ways to tell me how to just live with the size I had on. Well Cache is a commission based store, so I used the best line I could think of, and quoted Pretty Women "You work on commission right? Big Mistake!" On top of the dress I wanted to buy I had three pairs of capris and 2 shirts. My bill would have been around 450$! Instead I left with nothing. Then I went to Macy's. Now I love Macy's, it has some tremendous sales. I had three dresses in my hands that I had got off of the clearance racks and the salesman came up and asked if he could start a fitting room form me. I was thinking yes some good customer service! I had found two more dresses and went to locate the salesman that was helping me so I could try them all on. Well in the course of 15 minutes he went home and the other women working could not locate the dresses he was holding for me. They looked in all three rooms and then said they couldn't find them. When I asked what should I do now, they gave me that same two headed look and said I could just try on the two dresses I had and then look at the rounders to see if I can find them. She said it in such a way, I yet again left another store empty handed. Then came the straw that broke the camels back. I went to Bloomies just knowing that I should have started off here. They always have good sales on their dresses and the woman that usually works in that department is always friendly. She makes sure if their is a flaw in the dress that the seamstress that is on staff fixes it at no charge. As my luck would have it, she has Sundays off and was not working. The woman that was working in that department was all by herself, was new, and spoke very minimal English. She was confused, couldn't find they keys to the fitting room, overcharged a customer and was shaking really badly. I waited for her to figure out how she overcharged the lady and for her to correct the problem. The lady she overcharged spoke some Spanish so the two were able to figure it out. Then I asked her if she found the key to fitting room and could I try the dresses on. She looked at and just said no. I said no she couldn't find the keys or no I couldn't try on the dresses. She said no again and then started repeating no. She kept getting louder, and louder. She must have said no about ten times. I went and located a manger. By the time the manager could get there the lady was yelling a bunch of stuff in Spanish. She grabbed her purse and ran out of the store. The manager was just as confused as I was. After that I was just not in the mood to shop any more and cut my losses by calling it a day!

I just do not understand what has happened to customer service as of late. It has completely disappeared. I guess it is just more thing we have to get used to! With continued hope - Mel

I have been doing a lot of thinking about these dating websites where you go on and find the man or woman of your dreams. They are only a click away. Some give you your "matches" profiles by doing a search of people in your area, and some give you those who are most compatible to you, but in the end it is just one huge popularity contest, no matter which way you choose to be "matched" up. On the compatibility websites such as e-harmony or perfectmatch they give you people who are supposed to mesh well with your personality in a list form. You scroll through the profiles looking at the pictures first to see if you like their appearance, and then you look what kind of job they have and how much money that means they make. Finally if they pass that test, you read what they have to say in their written portion of their profile. Then the emailing and coordination of dates begins. On the search of your area websites such as match and lavalife you start off the same way by scrolling through the photos and such with the disadvantage of knowing if they are right for you or not. Then the emailing and dating begins. This all takes place if and only if the person you started emailing likes your profile when they look at it to decide if they are going to reply or not. I hear a lot of people discussing how they met the man or woman of their dreams on the internet and it was so much better than meeting someone in a bar. Now I have tried all of the websites and I have been to plenty of bars and let me just tell you in my opinion they are the same damn thing. There are really nice guys on these sites and there are guys just looking to get one thing, the same as bars. Everyone describes themselves way better than they actually are in their profiles the same way people do at bars. People are judging you on your looks and occupation, just as they do in bars. Am I telling you not to post on these sites......No, but what I am saying is do not think it is going to be easier or better than the bar scene. Its all just about the same, neither has worked yet for me, but that doesn't mean I am going to stop trying! With continued hope -Mel

Ok, so I am not married and I don't have any kids, just so you know. I hate summertime. What is it about June and July and the amount of weddings that are performed and the amount af babies that are born. I have now attended three weddings and two baby showers and I am flat broke. You can't go to a wedding without either putting a $100 bill in the card or spending about that much on a gift. I go to these weddings by myself, shell out all this money on a gift and a new dress, for what a crappy meal at some hotel that is cold by the time I get it. It is cold because I am sitting in the back of the room with the other rejects who couldn't get a date. As I look around this table of rejects I can understand why they are sitting there, but not so much why I am at the table. I think I am a cute girl with a lot to offer. I wind up going home, alone, feeling dejected. Oh and then comes the baby showers, which you wouldn't think would be that bad. Usually, it is just ladies and you would think there is no way to feel dejected or rejected here. Wrong! Mothers of your friends want to know why i am not married and why don't I have any children. They remind me that I am not getting any younger and it only gets harder with age to "secure" a man, let alone get pregnant. So I have purchased about a $100 - $150 gift to be told that I am growing up to be an old hag. My kind of party! I think I am going to start coming up with excuses as to why I can't come to such a "blessed" event or I can pull a Carrie in Sex in the City and register for a new pair of shoes, because correct me if I am wrong, a new pair of expensive shoes can cure anything. Its better than ice cream! With continued hope - Mel.

The big news last night on the 11 o'clock news was how a girl almost died on The Tower of Terror ride at MGM Studios in Walt Disney World. This is huge news since the little boy perished on the Mission Space Ride at Epcot a few months back. Here is my thought on this, because everyone is really quick to want to blame Disney. I don't blame them one bit. There have been several deaths at Disney in the many years it has been in operation. Out of those deaths, I believe only one of those was truly Disney's fault. The gentleman who played Pluto in the parade that was crushed by a float right before the parade started, yes that was their fault. The child that died on Mission Space is believed to have a preexisting heart condition that the ride triggered. The parent did not know about and neither did Disney. So, how could this be their fault. The ride received a thorough maintenance check and was given the all clear and the next day was open. Now I have never been on Mission Space, but I can tell you there are a bunch load of warnings before you even get to wait in line for the ride. Once in line they go over these same warning three times before you even get to the ride itself and once more right before entry. I pretty muched decided that anything with that many warnings being given to me that many times, might not be a ride for me. The mom of the boy who died (who was just tall enough to ride) made the decision for them to ride. This was not Disney's fault.

Now on to the news last night of the girl who went into cardiac arrest after riding The Tower of Terror at MGM. She rode the ride and when she got off she felt a little woozey and that is when she passed out and went into cardiac arrest. She was revived and taken to a local hospital where she is in critical condition. It was reported, however glimpsed over, that the girl had been ill all day prior to riding the ride. After the girl passed out, the ride was shut down and a full inspection was completed and the ride was given the all clear. The ride had nothing wrong with it. Again someone had a medical condition that was triggered by the ride. That is what all the warnings are for before you get on a ride. I do have sypathy for these families. I send a thousand prayers to them. I can not imagine how hard this has to be for them.

I think people should read the warnings before they get on a ride, make a conscious decision to ride it. If you know you have neck, back, heart condition, or are pregnant do not ride it. That is what the news story should be on. Not that Disney knowingly injured or killed another guest in their park. Truth is, millions of people enter their parks on a yearly basis, and I am surprised that more people have not been injured on rides. They have a better safety record then flying, driving, or riding a bike. Heck you could get struck by lightning before getting injured on a ride at a theme park. Well I think I spouted off enough on this subject. With continued hope, Mel

So my best friend Liz called me last night to tell me a funny story about Sat. nights field trip to Blue Martini. As I had mentioned yesterday, we became the snobs we are and moved to the VIP area for a table. We do this because Liz's husband is the General Manager and we milk it for all its worth! Well there was a large group in the VIP section and at first there was only three of them. Then they asked it 3 more could be let in. After much debating they decided to let the other three in even though there policy is you have to buy a bottle for every 4 people. So this ment 6 people purchased 1 bottle. Well about 30 minutes later I guess they had invited 3 more people and the VIP bouncer told them the three could not be let in without buying another bottle. Well the main girl of the group started yelling at Liz's husband about purchasing the extra bottle. (This girl complaining about buying the $200 bottle was carrying a $2,500 purse) Well when she realized that she was not going to get her way, she pointed at me and Liz and asked why those two "bitches" get to sit at the table and just have drinks. Liz's husband told her that one of those two "bitches" was his wife and she could do anything that she wanted to! She turned around went back to her table and ordered the other bottle! Too funny! With continued hope - Mel

Another weekend under my belt! I had went to Blue Martini on Sat. and had a wonderful time. Even though it was raining out the place was packed. I had my standard mandarin and Red Bull, and Liz decided to order the same. We started off by standing at the bar, but the more packed it got we became the snobs we are and headed for VIP for a nice seat. Since you can still see all the action going on in the bar we don't feel we miss much. Plus we are dancing fools and did manage to make it out to the dance floor. No night would be complete without a bunch of drunk girls singing "I Will Survive" at the top of their lungs! After a nice night we had our "bodyguard" (a really big bouncer) walk us to our car in the parking lot. Fun night.

On Sunday I made the most wonderful summer salad. It was a spinach, artichoke, pasta salad. Yummy! It had penne pasta with spinach, artichoke hearts, ricotta sillata cheese, alamatta olives, Italian parsley, some red wine vinegar, EVOO, and salt and pepper. It is served chilled it was so good. I paired it with homeade crab cakes. It was the best meal I have made in a while! With continued hope, Mel.

Ok, so I know I already posted for today, but I wanted to tell you about this amazing movie I saw last night. I watched Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. I really enjoyed this picture. Not only was Johnny and Kate (yes we are in a 1st name basis) really exceptional in their roles the children in this movie were wonderful! I would recommend this movie to anyone. It was very entertaining. I know some of the factual information in this movie is wrong as far as the timeline, but if you no nothing about the life of J.M. Barrie (wrote Peter Pan) you will not see a downside to this movie. The imagery of the story telling sequences is very reminiscent of the movie Big Fish, with wonderful bright colors and the line between real and fantasy is crossed with ease without feeling awkward or forced. I can not recommend this movie enough. With continued hope - Mel

To start off, I have to give a big WOW to London. I finally got home and was able to watch the news and see that "highlights" (more like lowlights) from the attacks yesterday, and I was amazed to see how calm everyone was. The walked in almost single file lines out of the underground. Those who were hurt waited patiently for there turn to be treated by the medics on the scene. The interviewed people who told what they had saw down there and they were calm and very clear about everything that had just happened to them. It was really nice to see. That had such grace under fire. I wonder if I could have had such grace. I probably would have wound up on the news as the crazy American pushing and shoving while I was running and screaming to try and get out. I would like to think though that I could have the calmness to stop and analyze the situation and help get others to safety without totally loosing it. Who knows, I hope I never have the chance to find out.

I am pretty excited that Hurricane Dennis does not look like a threat of any kind to me here in south Florida. It is such a pain to put up the hurricane shutters and to take them down again. I hope that since this hurricane season has started off with a bang it means it will fizzle soon, and our peak is not that bad. The thing I wonder most about in hurricane season is, why do they always happen in the middle of the night or on a weekend. Just once I would like to get a few days off of work, and be able to sleep at night and not have to worry about the weather outside.

Well that should be it for today, unless I think of something worthwhile to write about. With continued hope - Mel.

So my friend Daniel had started a blog the other day and I thought that it sounded like such a great idea that I would start one too. Just like everything else in my life I put the thought on the back burner and continued on with my day. Then this morning I wake up to the news that terrorists set off bombs in London during the rush hour commute and I started thinking about all the many things I have put on that back burner for a better day, or a day less busy. Then I decided that I would start a new way thinking by not putting anything off by starting a blog. Hey, gotta take things slow make baby steps. I am the queen of putting things off!

I am really saddened today about the news of the terrorist attacks in London. My heart goes out to the families of those who were injured or killed. This insanity has to stop. Why don't the terrorists realize that when they do things like this our resolve to catch them and to get rid of them becomes that much stronger. They have not changed one thing they have wanted to change or one goal except kill innocent people who have very little to do with the decision process. You would think that common sense would say to they terrorists, hey this is not working. Then again I am not a terrorist and that is probably why I do not understand the logic in blowing things up to make my point in the first place. Let us hope that the number of casualties is low resulting from these attacks, although just one casualty is one to many.

Well, this is my first post and hopefully will keep up with this on a daily basis. I am a very opinionated person and need a vehicle to express myself, plus I love to hear the sound of my own voice and even though this is written text, it works just the same to me! With continued hope - Mel