People read this?

I just read my friend Neil's note on my last entry requesting more "insights", and my old friend Emily just told me through a game of Facebook Scrabulous that she read my blog. I don't know how I didn't realize that people would actually read what I posted on the World Wide Web for all to see. So here's an update...

Nothing in my life is new.

Things are going well at work. I don't have a lot to do right now in the office, but that's okay because I'll be swamped come basketball season. I'm enjoying mixing and mingling with the young movers and shakers here and just trying to make a difference.

The only news in my life right now is that the little green truck died a couple of weeks ago (tear drop). It was a good little ride. I hated the lack of power steering and air conditioning. It only had one speaker that worked, and I could rarely pick up a radio station - any radio station. It was scary to drive in the winter time with the lack of weight over the rear wheels. I could only squeeze two other people in the car with me, and the brakes were shaky. But it served me well for many years.

I was hence forced to cop a new ("pre-owned") whip. I'm now rolling gangster in an '06 Toyota Corolla with tinted windows and factory hub caps. Although I don't have power windows or locks, I do have power steering and air conditioning. Life is good, but car payments suck.

As for my latest deep thought, I'd like to talk a little about perspective. I read yesterday on Google News about Amy Winehouse's diagnosis of emphysema that she got from smoking crack and cigarettes. Later at the store I saw magazine covers featuring a deathly-looking Olson twin (probably due to Uncle Jesse's poor rocker example), a reportedly suicidal Britney Spears, and a inhumanly-toned AC Slater (known to America's Best Dance Crew fans as Mario Lopez). I also watched a Youtube video of California beach-goers duking it out with paparazzi snapping shots of celebrities surfing.

I grew up watching Ms. Spears, the Olson twins, and AC grow up. I envied their lives. They were young and famous. They had fans, money, and an apparent happiness. However, I came to a realization that being famous could really suck.

Britney was the cute, innocent girl next door. Now the media portrays her as the mentally deficient "woman of the night" on the corner. Her every move is captured, exploited, analyzed, criticized, and fed to the ravenous masses. Do I think she's the ideal mother? No. Do I personally know worse? Oh, yeah.

And how could the Olson babies not be screwed up when they got older? They have had nothing of a "normal" life, and yet they're supposed to be able to relate with the public and vice versa.

As for Slater... he's awesome. I have to admit that I still wish I was that guy.

My point is that famous people have their struggles, just like their audiences. A lot of the same problems they have are the same, the only difference is that the problems are magnified by public scrutiny. Winehouse smokes crack, and her dad is pleading with her druggie friends to leave her alone. That's not all that unfamiliar with people I've known. Matthew McConaughey can't even rip the curl without people throwing punches over it. Welcome to my life... (psych).

So, if I can't be Jesse Spano's ex-boyfriend, Zach Morris' best friend, the host of the hottest dance show in the world, and have an indescribable physique then I don't want to be famous. I'd rather have my own problems in my own sphere than to have my own problems in everyone else's. We should be happy with who we are and where we are. I'm not saying we should be content to be stagnant and not shoot for the stars. All I'm saying is that it's okay to be you.

The grass isn't always greener on the other side, just sometimes. Everyone has dead spots in the lawn at one point or another. The joy comes from appreciating whatever green we have.