headphones required

when i go to the gym, i always have my trusty music and headphones. there are 3 reasons for this:
1. i need my tunes to keep me truckin' along
2. people will not talk to me.
3. i don't have to listen to other people talk.

Husband and I go to the gym this evening, and neither of us has our music. at first, it's no great calamity because we're lifting weights. however, when we move to bicycles, it turns out to be cataclysmic. there's some dopey women behind us, all tittering on and on and on about their obnoxious eating/exercising habits.

one women says, panting (and so much she should get the hint and stop talking) "i gave up bread, pasta, wheat, and even my dr. pepper! i was at so and so's house, and she made homeade cinnamon rolls. she got the recipe off the internet. anyhow, did i eat one? no!!"

and she's proud of this? quite frankly, that sounds like a terrible existence. and stupid. but i guess she has something to brag about now. i thought of her as i ate my jimmy john's sub with delicious, bakery-fresh bread and bacon.

home

it's always good to go home. i live in fairly busy little-city and home is a farm in the country, surrounded only by little blips of towns. it's a different world just a short trip away. everything moves at a slower pace and the importance placed on things is always exchanged.

while i was there, i didn't think about checking facebook or myspace or my email. i didn't care about checking out apps for my iTouch. it was all about sitting outside, watching nothing and everything.

it does my heart good and clears my head. entertainment is not youtube, it's watching a country squirrel torment dogs. it's watching my little brother think he can clear the fish pond in one jump. there's no make up, no shoes, and no tivo to catch up on.

we eat where i'm from. and drink. but when we eat, it's never thinking about how many calories is in this, or how much fat is in that. it's about being together and being thankful for what we have. drinking ain't fancy at home; there aren't little umbrellas or top shelf anything. water comes out of the tap, not a bottle. oh we still socialize, but when you're drinking a beer watching a smoker and talking about the stockyards in the 70's and how Salem had the best prices on cattle at auctions, it reminds how much i hate over-crowded bars and too-loud music.

maybe i'm sentimental. but. home does me a world of good.

riddle me this

the government was real quick to approve massive bank mergers. we've gone from several national banks, to just a handful. because of their greed, our country is facing the economic downturn that's blasted to us from every news venue 24/7.

so how is it bank mergers have happened so super fast when the xm/sirius merger took months and months and months of deliberation?