Sugar Coating

It's after midnight so I s'pose that means it's officially Turkey Day! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I realize that it's been more than a month since my last post, but in my uber-weak defense, I've had a monsoon of craziness in my life. I won't go into a play-by-play, but suffice to say that planning a wedding, juggling two novels and a novella, drafting proposal packages, and general every day must-dos have seriously bit into my blogging time. The wedding is coming along well. I'm just flying through the checklist. We're doing really well in selecting vendors, too. Our photographer has a great photojournalistic flair, and we have one of the best bakers in the world (literally!) She makes these amazing all-natural confectionary masterpieces and supplies to upscale stores like Whole Foods. She's not like most bakers who make the cake a week or two in advance and chunk it in the freezer. Oh, no! She makes the cake the day before or day of wedding. In our case, the cakes will be baked the evening before and then frosted the afternoon of our wedding before she transports them to The Kyle House. That means super yummy and fresh cake for all of our guests! She's a bit on the pricey side for cake, but hey, you gotta splurge on something right? Check her out at:

http://www.cinderellastoriescakes.com

Now, keeping with the preceeding theme of cakes and confections, I move onto the subject of sugar coating. I was just having a late night nibble of Italian Creme Cake (one of the samples Sandee gave us during our consultation) and I was thinking about the fact that I don't even like walnuts, but cover it in frosting and I'll eat it. So, I'm staring at the frosting left on the spoon and it hits me. That's one of my greatest weaknesses and maybe one our greatest weaknesses as a collective society. Not the late night snacking (which, yeah, is bad and explains the rising rates of obesity, but that's another post for another day,) but our love of sugar coating. It doesn't matter whether it's healthy foods slathered in frosting or really bad, like uber-depressing news camouflaged in pc terms--we just eat that crap up.

Take for instance, a new USDA study that shows that in this "thriving" economy of ours approximately 35 MILLION people are classified as having "low food security." Yeah, digest that bs for a second. Low Food Security. WTF? Let's translate that from PC-speak to plain English. 35 MILLION people inside the United States of America are HUNGRY. STARVING. LIVING HAND TO MOUTH. DON'T KNOW WHERE THEIR NEXT MEAL IS COMING FROM.

If you're like me, you probably had one of those "What the Hell is Wrong With Our Government" moments. We're spending billions of dollars on a war that started out as pointless but is now (unfortunately) the most important war we've ever had the misfortune to enter. Also, a disproportionate number of poor kids are fighting this war b/c they have fewer opportunities and college costs are astronomically high. Add to that the fact that we don't provide nearly enough Veteran's benefits or even (in my opinion) a fair wage to members of the military. I mean, seriously, if we expect someone to give up a year to go live in some horrid stinkhole to dodge bullets and IEDs, I think the very least we can do is fairly compensate them or ensure that their wives/husbands back home won't have to apply for FOOD STAMPS to support their families. What kind of screwed-up BS is that?

I'd like to see our congressmen/women live on military salaries or without health insurance for a year. That might force change. Right now, we have a Congress who pushed through more earmarked bills than ever before and wasted Hecate knows how much money on worthless projects. Also, medical costs are the number one cause of bankruptcy, and we have at least 46.6 million uninsured Americans (I'm one of 'em.) And don't even get me started on the Medicare "Donut." My head might explode....

Did I mention illegal immigration? Yeah, that's a major problem, and we've done nothing to secure our border from the nutters out there who could easily blend in with your typical group of Mexican/Guatamalan/Honduran/Ecuadoran, etc. immigrants. (I say that with some certainty b/c a number of my relatives could easily exchange places with a person of Syrian/Jordanian/Arabian/Iraqi/Persian/Afghan, etc. descent.) And yes, I realize that I am Hispanic and a descendant of an illegal immigrant. I would like to point out though that being a politically enthused Latina and pro-border security aren't mutually exclusive. Plus, I reserve the right to insist that illegal immigration in the 40s/50s wasn't what it is today. My grandfather came here to work, not for Welfare benefits. He worked hard, paid taxes (yes, you can pay taxes if you're not a citizen,) and established a home and super-productive family with my grandmother who came across legally.

Wait. Come on. Come back. I know that this is a rant, and you're eyes are probably glazed over by now, and if you're like me, you're mind has already jumped topics. Something like this I'm sure:

"Did she just say glaze? Mmmm. Glaze is good, sugary, tasty. Thick glaze is frosting, right? Man, frosting makes me happy, especially straight from the can...."

I know what you're thinking. You're prolly like, "Wow! It's like she's in my head." Scary fact: I am.

J/k.

Anywho....in summation, let's be wary of the Man sugar coating the important, yet painful stuff. And later today when you sit down to your yummy Thanksgiving feast, take a moment to think of those who have less than you and be thankful for what you have. I know I will....